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.

Survivor: Samoa is just an episode old, and already we have someone to watch out for–or, maybe, you could blame it on CBS promoting the hell out of Russell Hantz, better known as “small Russell”, better known as “evil incarnate” to everyone else.

I mean, who in his right mind would finish off an entire tribe’s water supply to make them cranky and easier to manipulate?

Sure, the preview clips made this multi-millionaire look like the worst person to ever grace the show’s 19 seasons.  As much as the show is about going through a handful of other castaways also aiming for the million dollar prize, it’s also about surviving the elements–because really, the million dollars won’t make much sense if you’re not feeling well.  But after last night’s episode, I suddenly saw the point of what he’s trying to do.

Everybody at Foa Foa woke up the following morning seemingly off a nasty hangover.  “Dude, where’s the water?  Where’s my socks?”  Russell, with that smug smile, looked like it hasn’t affected him, and his tribemates have noticed his so-called tranquility.  A trick on his sleeve, yes, for him to be able to manipulate everyone without them knowing it, pretty much like that fake Katrina story, or the way he had the tribe votes Marisa off on the back of a misinterpreted threat.  Suddenly he’s got credence.  Gravitas, well, that’s not the right term.

So sure, it works.  He’s doing what many others have done, only with a villainous streak that I thought I’d only see in cartoons.  So yes, perhaps he’s evil incarnate.  But we all know someone who’s doing the nasty stuff outright won’t last long in the game.  I still think he’s lucky if he makes it to the merge: that’d mean everybody around him really is as stupid as he thinks, and nobody’s put two and two together and stood up against his shenanigans.  And somebody will, soon–Betsy, go on and work that intuition.

Russell also said he’s trying to prove something.  It’s easy, he says, to win this game.  I think he’s trying to prove that most of those who join Survivor are pretty dumb in the first place.  Yeah, so he doesn’t care whether he wins or not–”I should be the first one voted off,” he mused–as long as he proves his point.  But one, you’re delusional enough to go out and prove your point.  Two, you should know that being outright won’t work most, if not all, of the time, which is the point of secret alliances and secret immunity idols.  This?  A massive ego stroking session.  You may prove a point, but you’ll end up looking worse than Kanye West.

But maybe he doesn’t care.  And us, we’ll just see this go on and on and on until something else happens.

Elizabeth Kim said living with bugs on Survivor wasn’t as hard as living with some of the people.

Of all the things she faced during the taping of “Survivor: Samoa” – the bugs, the weather and other ordeals – New Yorker Elizabeth Kim was most surprised by her fellow competitors’ views on race.

“In this era, it surprised me very much that people can be racists,” Kim told the Daily News. “Being a woman of color, and living in New York, where everyone is so progressive, that experience heightened the awareness that other parts of the country are not necessarily as progressive as New York.”

Kim, an urban planner for the City of New York, said it was “just shocking” that some competitors had such negative racial views.

She is one of 20 castaways in the 19th installment of “Survivor,” set to launch Thursday at 8 p.m. As in seasons past, the participants were left to fend for themselves, this time for 39 days in Samoa. One contestant was kicked off every three days.

Kim, 33, said she got involved with “Survivor” after an e-mail from a friend of a friend saying producers were seeking a New Yorker, specifically a young, urban, female professional.

“I didn’t think of it as a TV show. It was more like the ultimate competition,” she said. “The fact it was a real-time live game, interacting with other humans – that was the part that got me.”

One reason she was attracted to “Survivor” was the way in which it puts people together and demands they interact in order to succeed.

Not for a moment was she worried about living outdoors or surviving in the wild, she said.

“The elements of Mother Nature can be a bitch,” she said. “I’m fairly outdoorsy, I’m very active and competitive. It just spoke to those characteristics I’m drawn toward. Especially when I heard what the location would be.”

Living in the elements and with the bugs wasn’t as much of an issue as the people, Kim said.

“I learned I can be patient,” she said. “I learned that I have little tolerance for other people’s impatience and short tempers. It’s such a stark contrast to the way I’m hard-wired.”

One benefit of her experience, perhaps prompted by being away from home, was that she starting paying more attention to loved ones back home.

Keeping the show’s outcome a secret, she admitted, was difficult.

“It was hard, very, very hard not to be able to share this experience with others I worked with every day,” she says. “I think they might have guessed, but they were nice enough not to ask.”

Kim is securely back in New York now, and says she’d be hard-pressed to do “Survivor” again, if asked.

“I’m not sure. I love the game aspect, the challenges, I would totally do that all over again, minus the people,” she said, noting the paradox that you need people to survive in the game.

“I couldn’t survive on a deserted island all by myself, and that made it much more interesting,” she said. “Yet, at the same time it made it much more daunting, much more aggravating and much more annoying.”