Sandra Diaz-Twine was announced the winner of Survivor Heroes vs Villains this week (on South African television).
Russell Hantz made it to the final three for the second consecutive time, but didn’t win again, much to his disgust.
Parvati Shallow came second. Before this season I had never been a fan of hers, but she turned my opinion around this time; I thought she was probably the best player of the season.
Going in to the start of the season my three favourite players were Colby, Stephenie and James.
I was very disappointed in James, I used to consider him quite a good guy. But this time around he was arrogant, testosterone-driven, irritating pr**k. Maybe it has been all the extra fame, or the extra steroids.
I was disappointed that Stephenie Lagrossa was voted off so early. I think she is a very strong competitor and could have gone far. Her early exit was mainly due to Rupert’s paranoia of her strength as a player, and due to James taking offence to her “talking back to him”.
Sugar (Jessica Kiper) spent her first Survivor season crying, and she continued that in her short three days on the island.
The same for Randy; he was bitter and moaner last time around and nothing had changed since.
Cirie and Tom followed Randy.
“Boston” Rob Mariano devised, what I thought was a brilliant plan, to get rid of Parvati and Russell, but Tyson messed it up and was voted out. In his own words he was “a victim of his own stupidity”.
Rob played well, I thought his instinct for the game was brilliant. He knew how to read people and always seemed to have a grasp for what was going on behind the scenes, probably the best strategist in the game. He just missed out on the Jury. He probably would have gone to the end if Tyson hadn’t been fooled by Russell into changing his vote at the last second.
The Jury
Benjamin “Coach” Wade. What can you say about this cork? Absolutely delusional and confused. He titled himself “The Dragon Slayer” and compared himself to King Arthur, a Tai Chi Warrior and Jesus. His self-righteousness and deceit was irritating. He also called himself a Christian man which surely embarrassed all real Christians around the world and made them cringe.
I’m not sure why Courtney was there – she’s just an irritation who seemed more interested in attaining a modelling contract.
J.T played a completely different game to the way he played when he won Survivor. And it backfired. He also received the award for the ‘Dumbest Move in Survivor’ by giving his immunity idol to Russell on the Villains tribe.
Amanda became the first player to last 100 days in Survivor and this season was the first time she had ever been voted out.
Candice seemed to be doing ok, not ruffling any feathers, just cruising along on the Hero bandwagon until she flipped like a pancake and voted Amanda off. Colby then had a good plan for him and Rupert to not vote for a villain, but give their votes to Candice. This bought the boys a few more days on the Island.
Danielle DiLorenzo stuck close to Parvati like a wax strip (if you watched the show, you’ll understand that one) and the tactic served her well, until Russell got paranoid (again) and voted her out.
Rupert and Colby both played vastly different games to the two each they had previously been involved in. They were a lot quieter, not as dominating in the challenges (I suppose age will do that) and seemed a little bit more under the radar. They tried their hardest towards the end to strategise, but ultimately not trusting Sandra proved to be their downfall.
Jerri Manthey seemed to hang on to the coattails of the men, first Coach then Russell. Not a bad strategy and she did better than she’d done in previous versions of the game. I thought she played her best game yet, and probably got some redemption and improved her reputation.
The Top 3 came down to three players who have never been voted out of Survivor: Russell, Parvati and Sandra.
Paravati Shallow broke the record for most days played in Survivor: 114.
I couldn’t stand Russell, I thought he was despicable. But instead of me criticizing him, I’ll just mention some of the things the other Survivors said. He was called delusional (by Colby), a spoilt two-year-old child (by Parvati) and a disgusting human being who lied after swearing on his kids’ lives (by Rupert).
His temper tantrums were childish and his ungracious behaviour when losing both seasons was shocking and embarrassing (“let’s award Sandra for her failures”).
And that just leaves the winner, Sandra. She wasn’t as anonymous as the first time she won. She had some decent strategic ideas, and ultimately made enough friends on the jury to win.
