Archive for October, 2009
I was very glad to be able to interview Russell Swan this morning. The 42 year old environmental protection attorney from Philadelphia seemed moments from death after collapsing during a reward challenge on last night’s Survivor: Samoa. He collapsed twice and lay motionless after his heart beat rocketed and plummeted, the result of extreme dehydration, exhaustion and malnutrition. Russell has reported that he’s now in great health and thankful for everything he has.
Russell always seemed to put a tremendous amount of pressure on himself to be the tribal chief, and didn’t always make the right decisions. How useful would a tarp be for Galu right now compared to blankets? Still, he was a hard worker around camp and a big part of the reason Galu won so many Immunity Challenges. I liked Russell as a guy and I was sorry to see him face such a bitter end. If Russell’s near death was Survivor’s scariest moment then his return to life was one of its happiest.
Earlier today I had a chance to ask Russell about his near miss with being a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback alongside Colby, Tina and Elisabeth. I found out about his greatest victory as a lawyer working with the Environmental Protection Agency, and how it was possible to become so dehydrated while surrounded by water.
Q: At one time you were a semi-finalist to appear on Survivor: The Australian Outback. Who would you have aligned with from that cast? Which season would you have rather done?
I would have to say Jeff and Colby. We seem to have the most in common in terms of game play. I am glad I did Samoa as opposed to Australia. It almost killed me, but it was a phenomenal experience.
Q: A lot of viewers may be confused. You seemed to be surrounded by water and practically drowning in rain. How did you become dehydrated?
You can still get sick from water that runs off of things. Remember, it’s all about bacteria, and water is the perfect substrate for it. So, just because it’s rain, if it’s touched something else, you should boil it.
Q: Did this near death experience lead you to make any changes in your life? If so, what?
It has lead me to appreciate everything I already have, (love of my wife, love my daughter, etc.) and not focus so much on the things I do not have.
Q: Prior to the game you told Reality Blurred that you planned to change your dialect, using short sentences and a ‘dumb’ voice to make people think you weren’t a mental threat. Did that work out in practice?
No, because after I got elected chief, all bets were off. In other words, my whole strategy had to change.
Q: You seemed to put a lot more responsibility on yourself as tribal chief than Mick did at Foa Foa. Did you ever consider playing the title off as honorary and allowing someone else to lead around camp?
I thought about it, but my tribe seemed to have strong people/personalities than what I saw on Foa Foa. I don’t know how Mick got a pass, but I will tell you I would not have gotten a pass on Galu if I was the same weak leader that Mick was. He was useless. I guess his being useless did help keep him in the game.
Q: As an environmental protection lawyer I really admire your service. Are there any particularly sweet victories you can share with us?
I had a case where a child was poisoned by lead paint. Ulitmately, we were able to get a nice penalty from the respondent, and ordered him to remediate his properties. No more children will be exposed or poisoned by that property anymore.
When you’ve seen guys fall in the fire, suffer terrible collisions, break out in red spots and get carried away in helicopters it’s hard to be shocked by an evacuation. But there was one genuinely chilling moment on Survivor: Samoa.
When Russell stared up at the sky without blinking and the heart rate monitor went crazy he looked like he was dead. He wasn’t moving a muscle. I completely believe Jeff Probst when he says he’s never been so scared in 19 seasons of Survivor. 
As much as contestants always try to impress on viewers how tough this game really is I’m not sure they totally grasp their own mortality. Some things are just hard to fully appreciate until you’re confronted with the reality of them. These contestants are pushing their bodies to the very limit. I’m relieved for Russell and his family that nothing worse happened.
That said, it was a terrible episode. Other than a guy almost dying nothing happened this week. Everyone sat around complaining for an hour and no one even got voted off. Things got so slow the editors even let Natalie talk. Call me Sue Sylvester but I want more.
If it were up to me the two tribes would have shared the hot pizza reward. But first they would have voted on one person to sit in the rain and watch. Can you imagine Natalie’s reaction shots? That would have been great television.
What an apt reference to Captain Planet on Jaison’s part. For those of you still too short to have gone on this ride, Captain Planet was a wholesome 1990s TBS cartoon about five kids from different continents who banded together to fight pollution. Four of the kids had the power to control one of the elements but the fifth got stuck with the namby pamby power of ‘Heart.’
Like every kid I mocked the girl with Heart because, well, how were you going to Heart someone to death? I wanted to throw tornados or splash tsunamis. Jaison made a great point, though. In the real world which is the cooler super power – being able to throw rocks or having the heart to fix your problems? Heart girl FTW!
The advertising for this week’s episode was embarrassing. Obviously the fact that there was a near fatality this week is going to be a major marketing point. So in order to get audiences excited the producers showed Russell’s collapse and evacuation. There’s just one problem with that. If everyone has already seen who gets removed from the game and why there’s really no suspense left. Is there? It kind of freed viewers up to watch the Yankees game.
Really, if I were the Steinbrenner family and I thought I could get away with it I’d run that ad on every network I could. We already know from the preview that next week Russell forms an alliance with Laura from Galu, revealing that Galu wins the Reward Challenge and kidnaps him. I say this with love: Since when did the show that drew higher ratings than the Super Bowl start groveling on its knees for people to pay attention to them? In television – as with dating – groveling just never gets you what you’re after.
Okay. I know a lot of fans hate Russell Hantz. But you’ve got to give the guy some credit. When he said he just hated to see Russell Swan go out like that he sounded totally sincere. I almost believed him and I know better. This is the guy dumping the canteens.
If you talk to the contestants they all thought Russell was a great guy until they saw the episodes. Russell is the kind of guy who could steal your wallet while he was giving you a hug, then help you look for the guy that did it. He’s not the best player in this game because he’s pulling tricks. He’s the best player because he’s everyone’s best friend out there.
Somewhere Charlie Brown is snickering. He may have spent decades trying to kick the football, only to end up on his butt every time, but at least he didn’t get clotheslined by a clothesline. That just looked funny. One second Erik was running at top speed through the woods. The next his feet were lifting off the ground and he seemed to be flying. He probably barely felt the wrenching strangulation of a rope slamming into his throat before he had crashed to the ground in a pile of leaves.
I’m sure that hurt, and I hate to be mean. But I hope Erik takes some consolation in the fact that win or lose he’ll always have a hilarious YouTube video to show for his momentary pain. I loved it.
I also loved this week’s host-less reward challenge, which posed the castaways with a really interesting dilemma. Without Jeff Probst there to enforce the rules, why follow them? Even though they were starving, Russell Hantz, Mick and Natalie handed over the chickens with refreshing good sportsmanship. But if they had grabbed the chickens by the scruff of the neck and walked off with them no one would have stopped them.
Love him or hate him, if Ben had still been in the game you know The Outlaw wouldn’t have played by any of those “sissy rules.” He would have gotten those chickens back to Foa Foa even if it meant he had to kick Russell Swan in his other leg.
In a lot of ways last night was like a second premiere for Survivor: Samoa. After three weeks of having to refer to Dave as “that guy who looks like Kevin Spacey” we finally sat down properly with the Galu tribe.
From what we can tell, while Foa Foa was burning the laundry and fighting about race, Galu was on “snooze patrol.” Rocket scientist John is, of course, the charter member and honorary captain of the Snooze Patrol. But Yasmin, Kelly and Brett all seemed happy to join him for an afternoon snore. I think Monica and Laura were too hyped up from sniffing the fresh towels to nod off. How has this tribe been winning? I’m surprised they found the challenge beach without a GPS.
Speaking of which, what was up with Monica in the challenge? So far, she has always competed with the heart of a terrier. She’s petite but don’t tell her that. She’ll wrestle people to the ground like she thinks she’s a Green Bay Packer. This week she was huffing and puffing before she was a third of the way across that rope. Was she having a panic attack trying to walk across the trembling rope? Or did that comfort reward last week come with a trunk full of Lucky Strikes?
On a final note, I’m already excited for next week’s episode. The gross food challenge is a Survivor classic, so catchy in its simplicity that it spawned one of the worst reality shows ever made. When it comes to finding foods that will give you nightmares, Fear Factor wins undigested. Err…. Contested. But Survivor: Africa’s blood drinking challenge did make my best friend toss her fafaru. So after next week’s seafood smoothies Jamba Juice blender-istas may be left wondering what happened to the morning drive time rush.
Do you like the new Galu? Do you think “riding Russell like a horse” (or a jackass) is a good plan for Natalie? And am I the only one looking forward to the backlash when it rains for 48 hours straight next week and Galu are left standing around with their towels and no tarp?
Am I the only one who was a bit alarmed with what Russell said on Survivor: Samoa last night? No, not the one from Foa Foa. I was referring to the one from Galu.
When they lost the immunity challenge, forcing them to Tribal Council for the first time, there was this tribe-wide discussion about who should be eliminated. Most were going for Yasmin, thinking she hasn’t helped much with keeping the tribe’s wheels rolling, rather choosing to spend her time, in Kelly’s words, to “act like a princess.” And then there was Russell, steady in his belief that Monica should go, because she didn’t deliver in the challenge.
Sure, he does have a point. It was that one thing that cost Galu immunity, a crucial thing for a tribe that’s won the past three immunities, needed if they are to play a strong hand once the merge happens. While Yasmin’s consistently stepped up–something she’s more than willing to back up–Monica’s been so-so for the past few days.
But I saw Russell advocating for Monica’s elimination as more about revenge than clear thinking. She may have done wrong before, but last night’s flub was just one thing. He was looking for someone to blame everything on–hey, he’s the leader, he sees everything and knows everything, right?
Seems he didn’t feel secure with his position in the tribe, really. Seems he felt he’d be the one to go. Was it because of what he did last week, when he chose pillows over hunting gear? He hasn’t really made the best decisions, but he’s lucky that Galu’s got its gears working, never mind that it’s forgetting what they’re in the game for. He didn’t need to assert his authority. That thing he told Erik–”they better listen to me or there’ll be some serious ass-kicking”–that alarmed me.
I think it’s obvious that he isn’t as powerful as his being tribal chief suggests. A couple of observations from the bits I saw from Galu before last night: one, Shambo’s in a strong position because of her working hard for the tribe, as well as her people skills. Two, Erik’s in a strong position, having played a game that’s not too subtle and not too blatant–and I haven’t factored in the immunity necklace he found. The rest of the tribe still seem flimsy to me. Russell is staying steady, but now that Galu had to kick someone out, I think he feels he has to angle to hold his fort and stay where he is.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but his decision to send Yasmin to Foa Foa two weeks ago is probably a move to earn her favors–the same reason why he’s defended her from elimination. He could’ve done it to someone else, I think. Now she’s out, I think he’ll be more desperate to hold more leverage in the tribe, and I won’t be surprised if he resorts to more drastic measures. I think he’s willing to do that. I think he’s painting a bigger target on his back if he pushes with it.
After lasting just three episodes 28 year old Ben Browning, the mixologist originally from Kirksville, Missouri, may be the most controversial Survivor contestant of all time. Or perhaps controversy would have required Ben to have a lot of fans defending him. So far I have yet to find one.
Ben became the first contestant ever ejected from a challenge after taking out Russell Swan’s leg from behind, later remarking he didn’t know he was playing by Jeff Probst’s “sissy rules.” The self-proclaimed ‘outlaw’ used derogatory language towards women on several occasions and called Yasmin “ghetto trash” on the verge of becoming a prostitute. But remember, he doesn’t start arguments. He just ‘reacts.’ Whether or not he will be missed, Ben will be remembered.
In our interview, I asked Ben whether he had ever felt like someone had discriminated against him, how he would respond to Jeff Probst’s recent blog claim of ‘owning him’ in Q&A, and whether he can truly say that no woman has ever rejected him.
While Ben was brief and not always to the point, he did reveal one bit of interesting information that’s bound to leave some readers regretting their lunch decisions. The nature of his real victory over Marisa.
Q: Last night Jaison suggested perhaps you were naïve, that you didn’t understand discrimination. Have you ever felt like someone discriminated against you – or looked at you with less respect – because of your background?
Jaison is overly sensitive. I’ve been discriminated against. Everyone has. I completely understand it. But it was interpreted incorrectly.
Q: Did you invite a lot of people over for the broadcasts knowing the stuff that was going to come up? If so, what was the mood like in the room during the controversial moments?
Everyone of my friends have laughed and said it was refreshing to see someone be REAL.
Q: Do you feel as though your experience with Survivor – overall – has had a positive or negative impact on your life? In what way?
Another chapter in my crazy life. Definitely a positive experience.
Q: Going back, in your CBS.com bio you say you’ve never been rejected by a woman. Do you stand by that?
Can you find one that’s rejected me?
Q: You seemed really bothered by Marisa. Did we see the whole story there? Why were you upset with her?
She was really annoying. They didn’t show all the moronic things she said and did. I let her have it because she sucked. Pre-game started she was trying to give me eyes. I was in no way interested and that’s what originally started her campaign against me. Obviously I won that one.
Q: Jeff Probst said in his blog on Entertainment Weekly last week, “Ben and I went at it quite a bit [during the Episode 2 Tribal Council]. He may be able to beat me up, but in a game of Q and A, he’s all mine.” Is that your recollection?
Jeff’s job is Q&A and he’s good at that. Does he own me in that game? No way. I turned the tables on Probst and he was amused.
Q: After Jeff’s warning during the Schmergenbrawl challenge, did you expect to get thrown out of the challenge when you took out Russell Swan’s ankle? If you knew you were going to get thrown out, why do it?
It was all creative editing. And there was never any rule that said you couldn’t trip.
