Immunity idols rain down on ‘Survivors’

On day 25, the evenly matched Heroes and Villains tribes finally merged on "Survivor," but Parvati's move at Tribal Council is really what shifted the game — and surprised the heck out of all of us.

Parvati, the winner of "Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites," played not one but two hidden immunity idols — and used neither for herself. And she did that after essentially quitting the immunity challenge and exposing the fact that she probably had a hidden immunity idol to the other tribe. These seem like they could have been colossally dumb moves, but they had a significant impact.

That shocking move surprised a lot of people in the new tribe, which is called Yin-Yang.

JT was the most surprised because the Villains’ votes against him all counted, and he was voted out. While he realized that he'd been played by Russell, to whom he gave a hidden immunity idol last week, JT said to him, "Well done." He admitted in his exit confessional that "I feel like a total idiot right now." Check.

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Despite the fact that it was his sexist assumption that the women were in control of the Villains that led him to try to help Russell, he added, "Don't ever trust women, ever, ever." How about just never trust your sexist assumptions again, JT? He guessed wrong and trusted the wrong guy, and he got played.

Earlier, JT spent the entire episode setting himself up for a big fall, saying cocky things about how there's a chance he could go home, but "do I believe it? Not a chance in the world."

Other people were surprised by Parvati's move, too. Russell was caught off guard because he'd given her one of those idols to save herself at Tribal Council, assuming she'd be the Heroes' target. He didn't know that she had another one, and she didn't tell him. As the preview for next week shows, Russell is not happy about this because he likes feeling in control. Either he's going to self-destruct, get revenge or he's going to become a new kind of Russell.

Villain Sandra was surprised because Parvati gave her one of the two hidden immunity idols. The look on her face seemed like one she'd make if Parvati had pulled out a fully cooked pizza from her backpack and handed that to Sandra while riding circles around the Tribal Council fire on a unicycle.

Earlier, Sandra tried to surprise her original tribe by telling Hero Rupert about Russell's lack of trustworthiness, but it seemed that Rupert was the only one buying her story. The rest of the Heroes seemed ready to trust Russell. Dumb.

Jerri was surprised at Tribal Council because she, too, received an idol from Parvati — and without it, she could have gone home because the Heroes all voted for her. As Candice explained while casting her vote, the Heroes reasoned that if the Villains had a hidden immunity idol, Jerri was the person that the tribe was least likely to give it to. But of course, Parvati's move saved Jerri.

Rupert and the other Heroes were surprised by pretty much everything, especially that their ally Russell wasn't much of an ally after all, since he, too, voted for JT, their now fallen leader.

And Amanda was probably surprised because earlier, she and Parvati had talked, and Parvati had revealed that she had a hidden idol.

Amanda had told Parvati to play it — but told us that was just to flush it out, not necessarily to help her friend. Little did Amanda know that her ally from Micronesia had more than one idol in her pocket, and that Parvati wasn't fully trusting Amanda, just as Amanda wasn't trusting Parvati.

So former winner JT is out, and King Russell has learned Queen Parvati isn't just a weakling who needs his help. This is getting good.

Andy Dehnart is a writer, TV critic and editor of reality blurred. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.