Heroes? Villains? Wowza!

As I'm sure you've heard, the new season of Survivor, which premiered a few hours ago, features a heroes vs. villains theme. They have selected twenty past Survivors and dubbed half of them heroes and half of them villains. Here's the list:

Heroes:
JT Thomas - Survivor: Tocantins
Rupert Boneham - Survivor: Pearl Islands, Survivor: All Stars
James Clement - Survivor China, Survivor: Micronesia
Tom Westman - Survivor: Palau
Colby Donaldson - Survivor: Australian Outback, Survivor: All Stars
Stephenie LaGrossa - Survivor: Palau, Survivor: Guatemala
Sugar Kiper - Survivor: Gabon
Amanda Kimmel - Survivor: China, Survivor: Micronesia
Candice Woodcock - Survivor: Cook Islands
Cirie Fields - Survivor: Panama, Survivor: Micronesia

Villains:
Coach Ben Wade - Survivor: Tocantins
Tyson Apostol - Survivor: Tocantins
Randy Bailey - Survivor: Gabon
Rob Mariano - Survivor Marquesas, Survivor: All Stars
Russell Hantz - Survivor: Samoa
Jerri Manthey - Survivor: Australian Outback, Survivor: All Stars
Courtney Yates - Survivor: China
Danielle DiLorenzo - Survivor: Exile Island
Parvati Shallow - Survivor: Cook Islands, Survivor: Micronesia
Sandra Diaz-Twine - Survivor: Pearl Islands

If you missed the first episode, you missed a lot. Go find it on Hulu or at the CBS website or ask your friend to show you his DVRed copy. Cuz this was a great beginning to what could be an excellent season.

During the first challenge Stephenie (remember her? the last member of the doomed Ulong tribe from Survivor: Palau?) dislocates her shoulder and Rupert (arrgh! the pirate!) breaks his toe. Stephenie, the tough chick that she is, had them relocate it and she's fine. Rupert's toe was taped to the one next to it and he's determined to keep going. Now, there's not much you can do for a broken toe, but that doesn't mean that sucker won't be aching. I think Rupert's going to have a hard time lasting 39 days. Also in the first challenge, Sandra (Ms. I'll-vote-for-anyone-as-long-as-it's-not-me) proves she belongs on the villains tribe by playing dirty and unhooking Sugar's top thinking that will make her focus more on her modesty than winning. Best moment of the whole show was Sugar racing for a point for her team topless and turning around and flipping two birds at Sandra. And all that was before the first commercial break!

Later, we're treated to a possible showmance in the works between the original Survivor villainess Jerri and the crazy "dragonslayer" Coach. Seriously? Coach and Jerri? Fan fiction couldn't have come up with that pairing. Coach is also totally man-crushing on Boston Rob, who has already managed to reference his wife twice. (I think a drinking game could be based around the number of times Rob mentions Amber. And maybe add in every time Rupert's insecure nerdiness comes out. And every time Jerri cackles... I could go on and on....) Back to the man-crush.... Rob almost gets Coach to climb a tree 50 fifty in the air to retrieve some palm fronds. Palm fronds? Come on. I mean, if there were coconuts, maybe, but risking one's life for palm fronds? Coach, surprisingly, chickens out.

You have to give Boston Rob credit though. He made fire without flint. Aside from BB using his glasses in the original Survivor, has anyone ever done that? I seem to remember there was maybe one other time. But still - give the boy from Boston some credit - that was an amazing feat.

Russell is up to same game plan again - making alliances with everyone. (Although we didn't see him burning any socks this time.) Not surprisingly Danielle (who? why is she here?) falls for it. Also, not surprisingly Parvati sees right through him. I have to think Parvati is someone who could again go far. She's smart and knows how this game works.

All of these Survivors were playing the game from day one. James and JT seal an alliance with a handshake. And then JT and Tom hook up since as winners, they figure they have to go against each other at the Final 2 for either of them to have a chance of winning. Of course, Tom and Stephenie are allied too. Will the four of them create one strong alliance? Cirie and Amanda are more cautious with each other, clearly leaving their options open. Interestingly, Tom and Cirie both recognize the other as a major threat and float the idea of voting each other out. But in the end, it's the sweet sad Sugar who gets the boot. She was the weakest link, no question about it, but at least she had her moment at the Reward Challenge.

I can't wait til next week!