Let me preface this writeup by saying that Russell played a terrible game in Heroes vs. Villains. I'll give it to the people who say that he played a great strategic game in Samoa. You have your case, and I accept it. But Russell played an awful game the second-time around, and he got lucky in several ways that led him to make the finals.
First thing he got lucky with was the timing of filming. Heroes vs. Villains was filmed after Samoa was filmed but before it aired, so nobody, not even Russell had watched Samoa yet. This was a huge advantage going in, because everybody knew everyone else's cards before the game even started. If they had seen Samoa before playing Heroes vs. Villains, Russell would have been the first one voted out, no doubt in my mind. But as it stands he was a complete enigma. All they knew was that he was a Villain, and there are several reasons people could be considered Villains in Survivor, some of them worse than others. Todd is considered a villain because he is sneaky. Sandra is considered a villain because she is sassy. Judd is considered a villain because he's a loud, foul-mouthed bully. Shane is considered a villain because he is bats***. And Boston Rob is considered a villain because he has mastered the art of the backstab. Obviously some of those reasons are just pains in the ass, and others are big strategic threats. But nobody knew how to classify Russell, so he could have easily gone in and changed his image and played a different game. Problem was, despite the jury completely trashing him, he was under the impression that he had won Samoa, and figured that his game was flawless, so he played a game similar to the one he played the first time that pissed everyone off so much. He quickly made an alliance with a few young girls, and easily passed through the first few days because there was an old man on his tribe that was an easy first boot. But then everyone began to get pissed off by him. He was intentionally alienating himself from the tribe by doing things such as not participating in group activities and looking for the immunity idol when the rest of the tribe agreed to leave it out of play. This made him an easy target at the Villains' second tribal council in episode 6, in which Rob had a foolproof plan to oust either Russell or Parvati and get the next one the next time.
Only problem is Tyson is worse than a fool, and that's the second thing Russell got lucky about. According to Tyson, he had already been planning on switching his vote to just get rid of Parvati and take the risk that Russell was going to play the idol on himself. He said that his conversation with Russell was completely insignificant in his decision, and is pissed off, as am I, that the editors gave Russell all the credit and fueled his ego and his fans' enthusiasm for him. According to Tyson, Russell was positive that he was going home when he played his idol on Parvati (hence his quote before handing her the idol), and the only reason he played it on her was because he knew that even if he made it through this tribal council and Parvati was voted out, he would be next, so he decided to leave the game with some dignity and look like a tragic hero. But when that didn't work out and his alliance made it through that tribal council completely intact, he decided to just go back to being the complete ass hat he was in Samoa.
Then he made his one move that I really give him credit for, and that was getting Jerri to flop. She had unsettled beef with Rob from All-Stars, and was an easy pick to try to get him out, and my hat is off to him for getting Rob out when he did. Then he goes back to getting lucky.
--
darkx 3DS FC: 5241-2144-5671 (add me and pm me urs!)
http://i40.tinypic.com/mabj1t.gif