by Gina Scarpa

 

It's still hard to believe that Boston Rob is gone on Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains. First, Russell ousts Tyson and then Rob, two very physical players. At the end of last week's episode, I knew that there was no way the villains were going to recover from the chain of events that have been unfolding and I was right. On last night's episode, Coach knew that he had made a mistake by splitting his allegiance between Russell and Rob (damn straight!) and now he's screwed, because Jerri is falling in line with Parvati and Danielle and if Coach doesn't follow suit, he's going to be all alone out there.

 

At the heroes' camp, sneaky little JT goes off looking for the idol on his own. It was his idea in the first place for everyone to look for the idol together and use it at the merge against the villains. The idol was in the creek, just as the clue had promised, and JT finds it, but not before Amanda walks up on him. He tries to play it off by acting like he just committed an act of heroism but when they get back to camp, she and Candice are wary of him - as they should be!

 

The tribes show up at the reward challenge, but the villains are convinced they're going to merge. They brought everything from their camp and Probst delivers my favorite line of the season: "Drop... you... expectations. We are not merging." The looks on their faces were pretty hilarious, considering they had spent the morning taking down everything from their camp and dragging it over to the challenge. When the heroes see that Rob has been voted out, dopey JT decides that there must be an all female alliance going on over there so he mouths, "Hang in there," to Russell. Uh, Russell's fine. This is yet another example of how the fact that nobody saw Russell play in Samoa is benefiting him greatly here.

 

For the reward challenge, the players competed in a duckin bowling competition. They faced off one at a time against each other and whoever knocked down the most pins in each round was given a point. Sandra and Courtney were once again trying to sit out and Coach was happy to oblige, because he really wanted that prize of pizza and soda but that meant they'd have to compete in immunity. Hello??? Does that sound smart to anyone?

 

The villains lost that reward challenge anyway and the heroes continued to fill their bellies, while the villains continued to starve. At their camp, they fought about whose fault it was that they are in a downhill slide. Fingers pointed to Sandra and Courtney, for being weak physical players, and to Coach, for allowing them to sit out of the reward challenge. Who died and put Coach in charge? Oh, that's right. Boston Rob. Moment of silence, please.

 

Sandra and Courtney are now forced to compete in a seriously physical immunity challenge, because the rules of Survivor state that the same player cannot sit out of back to back challenges. Tethered together, two players must race through a mudpit, under and over fences, to retrieve a flag and bring it back to the starting line in order to receive a point. Common sense would have told the villains to tether Courtney and Sandra together and give that point to the heroes first, then work for the other two so that they could win. Nope, that would be too easy. Tell me again why I'm sitting on my couch instead of out there playing this game. Probably because I hate heat, being hungry, sleeping outside, and the woods.

 

Sandra and Russell race together - and lose. Coach races alone - and wins. Courtney and Danielle race together - and lose. The heroes win again and somehow, Courtney has injured herself. Jeez.

 

Once again, an obvious move for the villains would be to vote out a weaker player. They've lost Tyson and Rob in the last two weeks and are in a downhill slide they can't get out of. Danielle targets Courtney but Sandra has put a bug in Russell's ear that Coach is gunning for him. At tribal council, Coach is thrown completely under the bus, when Courtney says that he demoralized the entire tribe, and then is voted out of the game. I won't lie. My heart breaks a little for him. He got a bum deal this season.

 

When the votes are shown in the end, Danielle voted for Coach along with Sandra, Courtney, and Parvati while Russell, Coach, and Jerri voted for Courtney. Have Russell's girls gone rogue?

 

Next week's preview shows JT plotting to give Russell the heroes' hidden immunity idol in order to gain his trust. PLEASE tell me he's not about to pull the absolute dumbest move this game has ever seen.

 

 

Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

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