Winning by Default

A little humility can go a long way on Survivor, a lesson Russell H. learned the hard way in last night's season finale as his arrogance and cocksure attitude cost him the million-dollar prize. That's not to say his bravado was unwarranted. He did find two hidden immunity idols without a single clue and a third with only a picture of a moss-covered rock. He controlled nearly every tribal council vote from the outset. And he strategized harder than any other player out there (for which the viewers voted him the Sprint Player of the Season, netting a cool $100,000 to add to his already generous oil company earnings).

It cannot be denied that Russell deserved to be in the final three, but a win was not to be. Convinced that Brett would poll the most votes—so many of his former Galu tribemates were on the jury—Russell got rid of him in favor of keeping the "feckless" (Shambo's word, and it certainly fits) Mick and coattail rider Natalie, the season's winner. Notice how I've just now gotten around to saying Natalie won? That says something about just how deserving I think she is. Sure, she was sweet and cute and let other people make the tough decisions so that she could keep sitting pretty. In this game, winning that million dollars should take more than that. It's easy to give the prize to the nice person, which, in addition to winning three immunity challenges in a row, is what made Brett such a threat. Natalie admitted that she saw strong women being taken out one by one, and so sat back and took a less aggressive approach; essentially, doing nothing is what won her the game. Russell offered her $100,000 just to have her allow Jeff Probst to say the words "Russell, you are the sole Survivor." She politely declined. Something tells me we'll be seeing more of Russell on the show's 10th anniversary edition, Heroes vs. Villains, premiering February 11. He may get that title yet.