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Survivor South Pacific delivered a good episode last night, though one more notable for its baffling behavior by contestants than for strategy or game play. The exit of Papa Bear was no surprise, to him or to us. At our first duel of the season, Semhar and Christine faced off, and Christine won, allowing her to seek the revenge she wants. As she explained, “I think Coach just had it out for me from the beginning, and he was going to do whatever it took to get me out, and he succeeded.” Gee, where have we heard something like that before? Wasn’t there someone who, right at the beginning , seconds into the game, said she had it out for Coach and would do whatever she could to get him out? Who was that? The duel once again included spectators from each tribe, which is something that’s kind of annoying; let the whole tribe go or don’t bother. Both tribes sent their returnees, and Ozzy and Coach had a fun moment when they rolled their eyes at each other while Semhar prepped by doing some s...

The Savaii tribe’s comeback in the immunity challenge during Wednesday’s episode of Survivor South Pacific happened because the tribe figured out the puzzle part of the challenge before the challenge even began. First, some background: After Probst gives his brief introduction of a challenge, the cameras stop and he, challenge producer John Kirhoffer, and a CBS standards and practices representative walk through the challenge with each tribe separately; the CBS rep makes sure Probst says the same thing to each tribe so neither has an advantage. They can ask questions and have a lot of time to strategize, since they stand off to the side while the other tribe gets the tour. (I’ve reported more in-depth about the challenge process, from conception to rehearsal to final run , if you’re interested.) EW’s Dalton Ross asked Probst about Savaii’s comeback, and Probst acknowledged that “The pre-challenge walk through is critical because if you are aware you can pick up clues to how the chall...

At long last, our great national Russell Hantz nightmare is over. He’s infested three of the last four seasons of Survivor, and spoiled two of them (which he denies even though there’s clear evidence ), but he finally got voted out for the first time. Well, he’s almost out: Like a cockroach that keeps running after it’s been smashed, he’s still alive, and will face off in a duel next week to see if he can stick around longer. With his generally miserable track record in challenges, that’s unlikely, but we’ll see next week when he battles Matt in a duel. And how tense was that Tribal Council? I was nearly gnawing a pillow and shrieking louder than Stephanie during the first vote read, and not just because Ralph spelled Russell’s name “Ressell.” (Also, like 50 percent of the Internet, a lot of his fellow tribemates dropped the second L on his name; I wish there was a funny metaphor there.) When the votes were evenly split, it seemed obvious that the plan to vote Russell out was in full...

Probably the biggest, most unexpected development on Survivor Redemption Island came at the end of the episode during the preview—or seconds earlier on Twitter , if you were watching the show by reading Jeff Probst type what was about to happen three seconds later. The news was that tribes would merge next week after the final Redemption Island duel, which seems early but is about right on time. At this week’s duel, Matt won again, beating Stephanie in a game of memory because higher powers, who are apparently playing the game for him, wanted him to stick around (“I told God that I’m going to stay out here as long as he wants me to be out here,” Matt told us), so if he wins next week’s final duel, the sixth, he will have swept them. That’s an impressive feat, but he’ll face an even bigger one: Finding his way back into a game that he was voted out of. I’m not sure what I think about the duels ending at the merge. Is it a pretty fair point for Matt—er, the winner of next week’s duel—t...

The preview for Survivor Nicaragua showed the merged tribe staring at something in horror. What was it? An injury? A flood? A dead body? Fabio lying down with his shorts exposing his business? Kelly appearing from nowhere again? Dan actually exerting some effort? Actually, there’s no need to guess, as fun as that may be, because CBS’ episode listing reveals that exactly what it is, though there aren’t details on what happened or the consequence of it. Don’t read this if you want to be surprised (duh): “The tribe suffers a devastating blow when they find the camp in ashes after a fire, and the loyalty of an alliance is put to the test as Libertad heads to tribal council, on Survivor: Nicaragua.” Update, 10:55 p.m. ET : CBS aired this preview before The Amazing Race tonight, and perhaps at other times, and it shows footage of the tribe’s stuff burning. I don’t mind them previewing this, because it’s not of huge consequence, but why pretend it’s a secret and then reveal the secret? It o...