Coach: The Man Behind the Man?

Tyson definitely took home fool of the week honors! I can't even begin to understand what he was thinking! If Russell was serious about voting for Parvati, Tyson's vote would not have been needed. He could have voted for Russell, and let Russell's vote oust Parvati. Tyson was clueless and it ended the game for him.

The real story here though is Russell. Is he really that smart? Or, did her get a phenomenal edit? I vote for the latter.

Greatest "Survivor"Ever?
Russell is a good player and I think the producers would very much like to shed the idea that the best "Survivor" player was the first winner of the show. After all, it's been 10 years since "Survivor" debuted and that's a long time for Richard to hold the top spot. So, along comes Russell, a player who thinks outside the box. Producers reward him with an edit that suggests he's a one man army. But is Russell really that good or is it mostly in his mind and the minds of the producers?

He might have anticipated a split of the votes by Rob, but how would he have know who was voting for who unless he had some inside information. Rob could have divided the votes any which way and it would have been impossible to know just who was voting for Parvati and who was voting for Russ.

So how did he figure it out? How did he know to go to Tyson and tell him of his plan to flip flop and vote out Parvati. It was perfect in every way but a little too perfect. We see about 15 seconds of a conversation followed by a Tyson confessional saying he thinks it's a great opportunity to change up his vote. Really? I did not think Tyson was quite that gullible.

The Man Behind the Man?
I think the key ingredient to Russ's sudden vote intuition is Coach who mentioned that he's part of two alliances, and his "sense of loyalty" may have lead him to disclose Rob's plan to Russ. At that point, Russ probably took over and after a few shrewd questions, managed to narrow down the votes. Coach's biggest problem is he thinks he's smarter than anyone out there but he's not a match for Russ.

Hard to prove this theory unless there's a secret scene but I don't really care how smart someone is, they would not know the breakdown of the votes on their own. Sure, the alliances are pretty plain, but Russell was not even counting on Coach's vote who he supposedly swore allegiance to a few days before. Russell knew the split was 6-3.

There is another interesting question though regarding Rob. I know Rob has played the game before, but how did he even consider that Russ would hand his idol to Parvati? To me, that move defied explanation. Sacrificing himself for a person who's already won a million dollars is not even an option in my book. Unless… he really is nursing a tremendous crush on her.

It's pretty obvious that Russell "likes" Parvati. His teammates must have known that Russell was definitely crushing on her, so maybe it was that knowledge that Rob drew on. Or, maybe it was Coach feeding bits of information back to his "other" alliance. I can see Coach justifying it in his mind that he treated both alliances the same by sharing equally.

Theories, all of them, but I think they are much more likely than just random luck or superior wisdom.

I will hand it to Russell for selecting Tyson, regardless of how he got the information. He certainly chose the best person to target with his lie. Tyson ended his game by giving kudos to Russell. Unfortunately for Russell, Tyson won't be on the jury though.

Superman in a Fat Suit!
One last thing to address for this episode. Colby. What's up with Colby? He volunteers to sit out of challenges, he does poorly in the ones that he participates in. He fell behind Candice, JT, James, Rupert and maybe even Amanda. James called him, "Superman in a fat suit" which is saying that Colby may look the same but he's not acting the same way. He's got no drive and desire to win.

Last week I thought James should go home but this week, I really think that Colby should have gone home. He's conceded the game, and more than James, he's dead weight. Makes a person wonder!