Episode Report Card Sara M: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Li'l Russell Island
By Sara M | Season 22 | Episode 3 | Aired on 03.02.2011
Stephanie is really good at subtlety and underselling a performance, so she prances around camp clutching her bag and making sure everyone sees it. Steve notices and comments on Stephanie's tight grip on her bag. Li'l Russell encourages Steve is keep watching Stephanie and how something very important must be in her bag for sure. Steve interviews that he knows Li'l Russell and "his little harem" had the first clue, and he's pretty sure they have the idol, too, and that it's in Stephanie's bag. Showing off his superb social game, Li'l Russell comments to him that "when Russell orders it, [the girls] do it." "I know. I don't know how you do it, brother," Steve says, expertly feeding into Li'l Russell's ego. He interviews that Li'l Russell is bad for everyone in their tribe and has to be voted out ASAP.
After the break, it's Day 8 at Camp Zapato and we're going to see even more of Li'l Russell than we ever wanted to. Yes, we get a close up of his armpits, which are full of tiny little red bumps and sores. He shows them off to Stephanie and Krista, who say they're starting to "clear up" while Mike sits nearby and is totally grossed out. He interviews that Li'l Russell shaved his armpits before the game started and now he has a "pus-filled rash all over the place." Wow, how stupid can you be? Hasn't Li'l Russell played this game like 80 times already? Why on earth would he shave his armpits? And then do it in such a haphazard way that almost every single hair became ingrown? Was he drunk? Even Ralph knew better than to shave his body hair before the show, and Li'l Russell thinks Ralph is beyond dumb. Mike says Li'l Russell is like a black hole in their camp. Steve, of course, agrees, and calls yet another anti-Li'l Russell meeting of his alliance to talk about how much Li'l Russell sucks. Ralph and Mike agree that he does. Steve suggests that they think about throwing the next challenge, saying it's risky because numbers are important, but he doesn't consider Li'l Russell to be a number since he does nothing around camp and chances are pretty good that he won't be loyal to their alliance if he makes it to the merge anyway. Very good point.
Steve brings this idea to the other three members of their alliance, and they all seem to feel the same way: they don't want to throw a challenge, both for game play and pride purposes, but if there's anyone in this game it's worth that risk to get rid of as soon as possible, it's Li'l Russell. Julie, whose 50-year-old body is better than mine even though I work out four to six hours a week, is the only hold out. She interviews that she's a competitor and thus isn't used to losing on purpose. She thinks it might be better to "deal" with Li'l Russell than risk giving the other tribe momentum. As they head out to the challenge, the alliance decides to figure out whether or not they're going to throw it at the challenge, and use thumb signals to tell each other the plan.