It's Getting the Best of Me

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It's Getting the Best of Me
Episode Information
Version	United States
Season	Heroes vs. Villains
Episode Number	2/15 (292)
Original Release	February 18, 2010
Viewership (in Millions)	11.97
Ratings/Share (18-49)	3.9/11
Episode Chronology
Previous	"Slay Everyone, Trust No One"
Next	"That Girl Is Like a Virus"
Subpages

It's Getting the Best of Me is the second episode of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

Story

Night 3

A torrential rainstorm drenches the Villains camp, and their poorly constructed shelter only makes things worse. Many of the Villains complain about the conditions, with Randy Bailey in particular being vocal about his suffering in the rain. Rob Mariano is frustrated that his tribe is complaining, but that they don't want to put in the work to make things better.

“	Pouring down rain, like five people wanna - are ready to die. Everybody's crying and I can't take it anymore. The main thing we should be doing is trying to make a fire and making our shelter good. Nobody wants to step up and they want to sit in the rain night after night and it's making me physically sick. It's like again, again, again I'm on the buffoon tribe again. I was on Marquesas, I was on in All-Stars and again now.	”
—Rob Mariano

Day 4

That next morning, the Villains tribe finally decides to get to work rebuilding their shelter so that it can withstand the rain. Rob leads the reconstruction effort, but there is debate over what shelter design would be best, with each member of the tribe trying to put their own opinions in, making things disorganized and chaotic.

“	So here we are on Day 4, on at least design four, probably design five of the shelter. The first one was the best and the strongest and semi-leak proof. And each subsequent shelter gets worse and worse and worse, and now we're doing it again.	”
—Randy Bailey

The Heroes tribe, on the other hand, is working well around camp with people who aren't afraid to work hard around camp. Despite the harmony, Rupert Boneham views Stephenie LaGrossa as a threat and wishes to get Stephenie out of the game. However, Stephenie has noticed Rupert's disdain for her and tries to think of her options.

“	Stephenie -- for my game, it is a very good idea for me to get rid of Steph. She is a sweet girl, but in the game? I think she would side with anyone who would get her a day further.	”
—Rupert Boneham

“	Rupert is starting to get a little annoying, every time I turn around he has an opinion for everything. I'm just sitting back being quiet because I think he's trying to get me out of this game. I honestly think he's trying to play up the good guy role out here, I'm not saying he's not, but I'm just saying it's overkill right now, but it's Day 4, woah.	”
—Stephenie LaGrossa

The Villains continue to struggle with their shelter, and Rob becomes even more frustrated by his tribe's dysfunction, causing him to throw his hands up and walk off into the jungle. A little later, Jerri Manthey discovers Rob somewhere out in the jungle laying down on the ground, apparently having collapsed from exhaustion. Medical is called in to check up on Rob, but his vital signs are fine, and Rob recovers after a bottle of water is given to him, so he walks back to camp where everyone on the tribe is relieved to see that he's okay.

Day 5

Both tribes head to the combined Reward/Immunity Challenge eager to win immunity. As the Heroes strategize right before the challenge begins, they agree to let J.T. Thomas lead the team and have one voice since he had competed on the same challenge in Survivor: Tocantins. The Heroes open a lead once again on the physical portion of the challenge by rolling the puzzle blocks faster. However, the Heroes quickly lose their lead during the puzzle portion of the challenge of assembling those blocks to form a staircase. Rob takes charge of the Villains effort and begins making a lot of progress, causing the Heroes to break down from their original strategy of having only one voice on the puzzle. James Clement becomes very irritated at the many voices calling out directions ineffectively, and he lashes out at his own tribe. With Rob's leadership, the Villains place their last piece in the puzzle and claim victory, and the reward of a tarp. Immediately after the loss, James lashes out against Stephenie in particular for not being helpful in the puzzle by constantly talking without saying anything useful to help them win.

“	James, I don't care who you are, I don't care where we're at, you just don't talk to people like that. The problem is I can't say anything because Rupert already has it out for me. Maybe I threaten his popularity, I don't know, but I'm just trying to say as little as possible.	”
—Stephenie LaGrossa

“	Stephenie has been the only person in Survivor history to lose every person in her tribe to where she's the only one left. You know she's obviously the problem, and there's no other source of kryptonite to suck all of Superman's power but her, and it's like wow, you need to go home.	”
—James Clement

When the Heroes return to camp after their defeat, everyone meets together and J.T. tells everyone he was bothered that their strategy fell apart at the challenge because people stopped listening to him and started shouting out things on their own. Rupert agrees with J.T. and contrasts the Heroes' scatterbrained efforts with Rob's successful approach in the challenge, leading the Villains' effort by being the only one talking. In the shelter, James again expresses his anger and frustration with the people who were talking in the challenge when they needed to be quiet. After his rant, James storms out of the shelter. James's outburst does little to earn him respect from Tom Westman.

“	That panicked scream and anguished cry of James when he got back to the hut, you know, great, you've been a winner your whole life. Doubt it. I'd love to tell him what a winner is and what a loser and how he fits into that equation, but once again I have to hold my tongue and not respond to that, it kills me out here.	”
—Tom Westman

Returning victorious from the challenge, the Villains celebrate winning a tarp and are happy with Rob for leading them to victory, everyone except for Russell Hantz, who increasingly sees Rob as a threat.

“	Boston Rob thinks that he's in charge, I'm starting to think this just ain't working out. I didn't think his personality was that strong but you know what, this is where I'm in charge. I am King Russell from Samoa.	”
—Russell Hantz

Later in the afternoon at the Heroes camp, James talks to J.T., Amanda Kimmel, Cirie Fields, and Candice Woodcock about Stephenie being a curse on the tribe due to her being the last person on her tribe in her previous season, Survivor: Palau. James thinks that her bad luck is carrying on into the Heroes tribe and that they need to get rid of her. J.T. worries about which direction the next vote will take the tribe and what tone it will set for the rest of the game.

“	This vote is a lot different from our first. Everyone was okay with Sugar going home; she was not a part of any solid alliance. Now we're looking at a whole different ball game because after tonight I'm in one alliance in this game. I can either go with James, Rupert, and Amanda, and bring Cirie and Candice along or I can go with Colby, Tom, Stephenie, bringing along Candice and Cirie. One thing I do know is I'm going to piss a few people off.	”
—J.T. Thomas

Tom, Stephenie, and Colby Donaldson talk about their troubled position in the game, and the three realize that they are clearly on the outs with the tribe. Tom comes up with a plan to sway things their way by telling Cirie and Candice that they will be the next ones the dominant alliance of Amanda, James, Rupert, and J.T. will target if Stephenie is sent home.

“	If I can get Cirie and Candice to switch over with our threesome, send Amanda home, then we're controlling this game.	”
—Tom Westman

Day 6

The next day, Stephenie talks to Cirie in the water about voting out Amanda. Stephenie tries to convince Cirie that she will be the next to go if they eliminate Stephenie at the upcoming Tribal Council.

“	So the plan is to get rid of the weakest first, so that would help us if we got rid of Amanda. The problem with that plan is we don't know if J.T. is with us or not so if Tom, Colby, and myself can pull in Cirie and Candice, maybe I am safe and we have five strong and can come out of all of this alright tonight.	”
—Stephenie LaGrossa

Tom approaches Candice in the jungle and gives her the same pitch, but Candice feels that she will be at the bottom of either alliance and is not sure what to do. Cirie and Candice then sit in the jungle together and talk to each other about what to do. Both women agree they need to be partners together in the game since they each have no other true strong alliances. The two debate on who to send home and Cirie states that it doesn't matter to her so long as it isn't her.

At Tribal Council, the result of the Immunity Challenge is talked about and strongly debated, James calls out Stephenie for her voice in particular being useless during the challenge when she needed to stay quiet. Stephenie fights back and argues with James. Colby and Tom both speak out and stand up to James in defense of Stephenie. Tom in particular strongly argues with James about his attitude. In the end, Candice and Cirie decided to stick with the majority alliance and vote out Stephenie in a 6-3 vote. After getting her torch snuffed, Stephenie attempts to call out James, but is shut down when James tells her to keep her mouth shut, a comment that disgusts Tom.

Challenges

Reward/Immunity Challenge: A Crate Idea
In pairs, the castaways would race across a field to retrieve six large crates painted in their tribe's colors. Once all six crates were retrieved, the tribes would have to stack the crates into a staircase with the name of their tribe in alignment along the sides. The first tribe to complete the staircase and get all of their members up the staircase to the top of a platform would win.
Reward: Tribal Immunity and a tarp.
Winner: Villains

Tribal Council

Tribal Council 2: Heroes
Voted Against	Voter
File:S20 stephenie t.jpg Stephenie (6 votes)	File:S20 amanda t.jpgFile:S20 candice t.jpgFile:S20 cirie t.jpg File:S20 james t.jpgFile:S20 jt t.jpgFile:S20 rupert t.jpg Amanda, Candice, Cirie, James, J.T., Rupert
File:S20 amanda t.jpg Amanda (3 votes)	File:S20 colby t.jpgFile:S20 stephenie t.jpgFile:S20 tom t.jpg Colby, Stephenie, Tom
VOTED OUT: File:S20 stephenie bw.jpg Stephenie LaGrossa

Voting Confessionals

Complete confessionals are retrieved from CBS' YouTube account. Furthermore, James did not say anything when he voted.

“	(votes for Stephenie) Maybe you should have tried a bit harder in the first few days to know everybody instead of just a few. You never even came to talk game to me until we were ready to go to Tribal Council the first time. I'm sorry.	”
—Rupert Boneham

“	(votes for Stephenie) I wanted to play this game with you, but the co-members of your alliance didn't give me a shot until they felt threatened and that doesn't make me feel secure. Sorry.	”
—Cirie Fields

“	(votes for Amanda) Amanda, it was a throwaway vote, we don't have the numbers, but I promised Stephenie I wasn't writing her name down. Sticking with the plan, J.T. said we were writing your name down and though he's not, I am, bring a little heat on me in camp, I know, so be it.	”
—Tom Westman

“	(votes for Stephenie) Steph, I'm voting for you because you want me out, so I want you out.	”
—Amanda Kimmel

“	(votes for Stephenie) Stephenie, I'm voting for you tonight because we just didn't have the numbers to go the other way, and we didn't have time to work it out. I'm sorry, I think you're a great girl, I wish you the best of luck.	”
—Candice Woodcock

“	(votes for Stephenie) Sorry, Stephenie, but I have to do what's best for me at this point. You're a great competitor, I hate to see you leave.	”
—J.T. Thomas

“	(votes for Amanda) It's the plan, you're the weakest.	”
—Stephenie LaGrossa

“	(votes for Amanda) Nothing personal against you, I simply think you're the weakest member of our tribe. Trying to keep the tribe strong, best of luck to you.	”
—Colby Donaldson

Final Words

“	I am upset that I'm out of the game. I take comfort in knowing they definitely made the wrong move by getting rid of me. These people don't even genuinely try to know each other, there was a division since Day 1. I definitely wanted to stick around for a lot longer, but a lot of people were really threatened by me. I don't think there's anything else I could have done.	”
—Stephenie LaGrossa

Still in the Running

Sugar 20th File:S20 sugar bw.jpg	Stephenie 19th File:S20 stephenie bw.jpg	Amanda Heroes File:S20 amanda t.jpg	Candice Heroes File:S20 candice t.jpg	Cirie Heroes File:S20 cirie t.jpg	Coach Villains File:S20 coach t.jpg	Colby Heroes File:S20 colby t.jpg	Courtney Villains File:S20 courtney t.jpg	Danielle Villains File:S20 danielle t.jpg	James Heroes File:S20 james t.jpg
Jerri Villains File:S20 jerri t.jpg	J.T. Heroes File:S20 jt t.jpg	Parvati Villains File:S20 parvati t.jpg	Randy Villains File:S20 randy t.jpg	Rob Villains File:S20 rob t.jpg	Rupert Heroes File:S20 rupert t.jpg	Russell Villains File:S20 russell t.jpg	Sandra Villains File:S20 sandra t.jpg	Tom Heroes File:S20 tom t.jpg	Tyson Villains File:S20 tyson t.jpg

Trivia

• In Stephenie LaGrossa's secret scene, she bonds with Candice Woodcock on Day 4 when they try to wash off in a pond. The two women find they have a lot in common, but Stephenie knows Candice is a smart player and Stephenie voices surprise at how strategic everyone is playing the game so early on.
• The Reward/Immunity Challenge was a throwback from Survivor: Tocantins, and would be also reused in Survivor: Caramoan.
• The title of this episode was said by Rob Mariano, expressing his displeasure of his tribe's apparent inactivity.