Survivor Retrospective: Heroes vs. Villains

Rating: 9/10

Often regarded as Survivor's greatest season, Heroes vs. Villains set new benchmarks for cast quality, wall-to-wall entertainment and ruthless strategy. Yet its most ruthless strategist was repudiated at Final Tribal in favor of a kinder, gentler mastermind, bringing Survivor full circle after twenty seasons.

For once the predetermined gimmick worked as intended, with the good & evil dichotomy between the tribes accentuated by the personalities of the castaways as well as the edit. While a few felt they'd been unfairly villainized, most castaways embraced their stereotypes. The tribes were allowed to compete with each other unadulterated until ten remained. This gave ample time for alliances to develop and crack, disagreements to fester, rivalries to marinate and drama to deepen. 

The Villains won four of the first five immunities. Boston Rob spearheaded a lopsided puzzle advantage and managed to get fire by rubbing two sticks together. While Rob would have been celebrated as indispensable most seasons, his Heroes vs. Villains eminence attracted the wrong sort of attention: that of Russell Hantz. The two alphas fought bitterly for control of the tribe, with Rob's group appearing to earn the upper hand over Russell, Parvati and Danielle. Rob's group of six decided to split the vote between Russell and Parvati to mitigate immunity idols. Russell then bamboozled Tyson into believing he was going to flip on Parvati to save his own skin. Tyson preferred Russell to Parvati, sensing a possible eventual betrayal of the Robfather. So Tyson wrote down Parvati when his alliance expected him to write down Russell, changing the votes from three for Russell and three for Parvati to two for Russell and four for Parvati. Meanwhile, Russell, Parvati and Danielle wrote down Tyson, giving him three votes. Russell then delivered the coup de grace, handing Parvati his idol before votes were read. Parvati's four votes were extinguished by the idol, burying Tyson in a grave he'd helped dig himself.

Russell's faction still trailed Rob's by a 5-3 margin, but they were able to swing Jerri. Her closest ally, Coach, found himself stuck between now-opposing allegiances to Jerri and Rob and punted his vote to avoid betrayal. Rob was ousted 4-3-1. Russell had won his greatest battle, but that didn't help him win the war.

Rob's ally Sandra was next in line to the slaughterhouse, but she cleverly planted a rumor that Coach was trying to eliminate Russell. Danielle also pushed hard to cancel Coach. Russell became infatuated with the misguided Hero notion that an all-female Villain alliance was picking the men off. Looking to strengthen that notion and assuage his own paranoia, Russell took the bait and arranged for Coach's exit.

The Dragonslayer's death fortified the Villain female alliance theory, inspiring J.T. to propose one of the most infamous schemes in Survivor history: giving Russell an immunity idol to save himself so that he could later ally with the Heroes. The gambit was hilariously misguided due to Russell's overt villainy, but J.T.'s earnest note put it over the top. Russell happily pocketed the idol, then laughed about it with companions the Heroes thought were his enemies. They voted out Courtney and concocted a group lie to maintain the false narrative of the Villain female alliance.

The Heroes had to vote players out too. They did so with fewer shenanigans. Disconnected, annoying Sugar went first. Then they went after the threats: Stephenie, Cirie and Tom Westman. James got injured again and was put out to pasture. Both tribes had five players left when they merged.

But the Heroes had no idols and the Villains had three: the idol J.T. gave Russell, an idol Russell had found earlier and an idol Parvati and Danielle had recently found and kept secret. Believing the Heroes would target Parvati, Russell gave her one of his idols for protection. Parvati rekindled talks with old pal Amanda and again defeated her, sniffing out a bluff that the Heroes were targeting Parvati. Sandra tried to warn the Heroes of the Villainous conspiracy, but they wouldn't listen to her nor her conduit Rupert. Realizing her alarms were falling on deaf ears, Sandra reluctantly voted for J.T. with the Villains to maintain a false sense of unity. The Heroes voted for Jerri. Parvati, knowing Amanda was bluffing about her peril, gave away both her idols to Sandra and Jerri. The latter's votes were nullified, J.T. was sent to the Jury and the Villains took a pivotal lead.

Sandra redoubled her efforts to oust Russell, but traitorous Candice flipped and dug a knife into her tribe's back just like she did on Cook Islands, voting with the Villains. Sandra again stuck with the Villains to maintain false unity. They ousted Amanda shortly after she became the first castaway to play 100 days of Survivor, a record Parvati would soon match and extend. Russell unnecessarily used an idol, receiving no votes.

Candice's treason got her nowhere, as the Villain females agreed she couldn't be trusted. With Rupert pretending to lodge an idol in his pocket, the Villains arranged a split between him and Candice. Rupert and Colby sniffed out the split and voted for Candice, who got to play one more time for unknown reasons.

Russell then turned savagely on Danielle, correctly fearing her bond with Parvati was stronger than his. Danielle broke down at Tribal Council and revealed the plan had been to go to Final Tribal with Russell and Parvati, convincing Jerri to turn on her. The two remaining Heroes happily joined and the Panama runner-up was eliminated in seventh place. 

Parvati was disgusted, but knew she needed to eliminate Rupert and Colby to have a chance with the Hero-laden Jury. Like Sandra, she swallowed her pride and anger to advance further. Parvati and Sandra joined Russell and Jerri to knock the last Heroes out. Russell then won the final immunity challenge. Believing Sandra was a goat and Jerri had the best chance to beat him, Russell knocked one of Survivor's first villains out in fourth place, her strongest showing.

But Russell was delusional. He thought every juror valued strategy as highly as he did. For Russell, relationships didn't matter on Survivor; every castaway was just a chess piece. Just as he'd assumed in Samoa, Russell thought everyone viewed the game like he did. This was his fatal flaw. In back-to-back seasons, Russell proved he could and would do anything to get to Final Tribal. If the goal of the game was simply to outlast, Russell would be the GOAT. But the beauty of Survivor is that you have to woo your adversaries to win. Russell was never able to evaluate himself through the eyes of his adversaries. He lost his first game 7-2 to the undistinguished goat he hand-selected to accompany him to Final Tribal. He received zero votes at his second, three fewer than Parvati and six less than Sandra. In the end, Russell was the true goat, not the true GOAT. He was the one you most wanted to bring to the end, because by that point he'd have ostracized everyone on the Jury.

Like its champion, Heroes vs. Villains was a little better on paper. No season had more entertaining antics, more brilliant moves, more dramatic Tribal Councils or more intelligent castaways (at least until Winners At War). But the players themselves didn't match their reputations. Stephenie never got a chance to show her tenacity or her abs. Cirie was ousted before sinking her claws in. Tom descended over the hill. Clever Tyson was too clever for his own good. James was truculent, not heroic. Boston Rob got outplayed. J.T. pulled one of the biggest boners in franchise history. Rupert was a hobbled shell. "Challenge beast" Colby performed pathetically all season. The final four of Jerri, Russell, Parvati and Sandra was talented but unlikable. Sandra's win came by default, not because of spectacular game play. Many phenomenal players from the show's first twenty seasons graced the screen, but Survivor's true GOATs had yet to play.