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Survivor

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: April 22, 2010

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Survivor, “Going Down in Flames” (Season 20, Episode 10) [Watch on Amazon Prime.]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: I’m going to come clean on this one: I didn’t think I was going to like Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. As with many all-star seasons of my favorite reality shows, I had quibbled mightily with the casting; doubly so on HvV, which had the added wrinkle of dubious judgments on the players’ character. Why was Parvati’s cutthroat game-play deemed villainous while Cirie’s identical game made her a hero? Courtney’s snarkiness made her a villain, but Candace’s bitchery was heroic? Boston Rob stabbed a friend in the back and was a villain, while Tom emotionally abused Ian in Palau and was a hero? Why were nine of the twenty players returning for the third time?

Of course, I got past my casting objections pretty quickly, as Heroes vs. Villains proved to be one of Survivor‘s best, most complex seasons. The survivors’ past relationships and reputations added so many layers to the strategy, something that’s certainly present in “Going Down in Flames,” the merge episode. Parvati, a villain, had been targeted all game for her serpentine reputation, while her ally Russell (whose original season was still airing while this season was being filmed) was reputation-free despite being the most dastardly troll ever to play the game. Ignorant of all that J.T., a hero (albeit a hero who was suspiciously mistrustful of women), was willing to assume that Russell was being beseiged by an alliance of villainous women, and went so far as to sneak him an immunity idol to keep him safe from those awful girls. This, of course, was a monstrously stupid thing to do.

“Going Down in Flames” is an hour’s worth of watching J.T.’s game flash before his eyes. Russell has no intention of allying with him, and the villains are planning to vote him out. But the heroes and villains are 5-5 in voting numbers, so there are machinations to be had. In rapid succession, we see:

Russell promise to vote for Parvati along with the other heroes (a lie).
Sandra tell Rupert that Russell is a liar and that he and Parvati are running the show (the truth).
Rupert relay this information to his fellow heroes, who treat him like a paranoid ogre. J.T. condescendingly tells Rupert that Sandra is obviously lying (she’s not) and Russell is telling them the obvious truth (he’s not).
The heroes placate Rupert by agreeing to test Russell, telling him to vote for Parvati while they all vote for someone else, either Danielle, Sandra, or Jerri. (The heroes’ one good idea.)
Parvati allows Danielle to win the immunity challenge, meaning that’s one villain the heroes can’t vote for.
Parvati doesn’t tell Russell she found an idol previously, allowing him to gift her with the idol he got from J.T. so she can keep herself safe from their votes (which, remember, won’t be coming from the heroes).
Parvati then sees right through Amanda’s piss-poor attempts to convince Parvati to play her idol to “save herself” at tribal (the heroes want Parvati to burn her idol while they’re busy voting out someone else).

And so we come to tribal council. Danielle is safe. The heroes think/hope Russell is voting for Parvati. The heroes will be voting 5-strong for Jerri. Parvati, armed only with her read of Amanda, really, makes the gutsiest move I’ve ever seen on Survivor. She knows she’s the heroes’ #1 target, but she also knows Amanda was trying to fake her out, so she uses both idols in her bag, giving one to Sandra and one to Jerri. The look on the smug heroes’ faces when that second idol goes to Jerri, thus sealing their fate, is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. She even gets a dig in about the heroes’ bitching about the villains eating too many bananas! I’m smiling just watching it again.

Parvati probably should have won Heroes vs. Villains. Sandra did win, and I’m mostly happy with that, because Sandra is the best, and her and Courtney’s Bitches Alliance deserved to triumph on a karmic level. But Parvati’s big move changed the course of the whole season and deservedly stands as the biggest move on a show that loves its big moves.

[You can watch “Going Down in Flames” on Amazon Prime.]

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.

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