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Now it’s time for Russell to have a little therapy session with Denise. This sucks, this isn’t right, I can’t expect less than the best, you know how this goes. Russell tells Denise a story about how when he was eight, he was jumped by two kids and beaten up, and for a long time he would be scared at school because those two kids would tease him.

Anyway, one day Russell punched one of them in the face and the other kid started crying immediately, and Russell realized that he wasn’t going to live in fear any more, and from that day he wasn’t going to cower in the face of anything. I’m not sure what the point of the story was in the context of Survivor, but I did like the part where Russell punched the little turd in the face and he went blubbing.

Russell and Denise go on to talk about the individual immunity part of the game, and how the physical game matters a lot less than the social game – in other words, Denise suggests that Russell votes for Malcolm. Russell had always assumed there was an alliance between Denise and Malcolm, but interviews about the hypothetical notion that he is actually in a pivotal position.

Malcolm, who has the filthiest ears you’ll ever see, talks about how they are all paranoid about the dynamics where they all have to say “the person who isn’t here is going tonight”, and they all know that the other two people have to say it.

Denise is as pragmatic as you’d expect, saying Malcolm and Russell are both good guys and if it’s her going home tonight it was her that screwed up and they played the game better than her.

Tribal council! Probst sighting! No snake this week, but there is a centipede. Dramatic Tribal Council music, too.

Probst says to Denise “Crazy, right!” and Denise says “Crazy, that doesn’t even hardly explain it. Absolutely nuts.” I think they are actually talking about the weather, which is blowing hard, rather than Matsing, which is also blowing hard.

Probst asks Malcolm about what it was like at camp, because of the whole three-person dynamics that Malcolm talked about earlier. Malcolm says there is no telling what will happen, and that you’re not playing if you’re not saying something different to everyone else. Denise agrees.

Probst goes to Russell and paraphrases his attitude as “I do my best, I should win.” Russell says that he thought about that all day, and eventually came to the conclusion that there is “nothing wrong with me expecting excellence for myself every time.” Which is true, but it sounds like something you would say at a corporate retreat.

Also, Russell came to the conclusion that what he thought in the first place was awesome? Quelle surprise! And I think that’s Russell’s problem with Survivor. Every time something goes wrong, he goes into corporate retreat mode and comes out with some hollow slogan that no one else believes like “dig deep” and “we have to decide that we are unbeatable.”

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