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It may not have been Prayer Warrior style, but I saw Russell sitting down with Brett and having a conversation that was 180 degrees opposite of how he is being portrayed now. He sat with Dave and offered an olive branch, even offered to move him up a notch. I agree it doesn't match anything Natalie got to do, but I don't think it was as non-existent as everyone here believes.

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No matter what you read here, I'll tell you that Russell isn't dumb at all, and he is a nice guy...its just a hard conclusion to come to based on what you see.

Sshaaz, you've made some credible points in this thread, but in some ways you are providing evidence for the opposition's argument. If he has the capacity to be a nice guy, why didn't he employ that strategy effectively when it counted, in the latter part of the game? He may have extended an olive branch to Dave and to Brett, but then he turned around and reneged on his promises, once again. Why make those promises to the low man on the totem pole if they were empty and unnecessary? If your argument is that he was trying to score points with a jury member by being "social", it was a weak effort much too late. For that very reason, I think Russell is a good strategist, but would never call him a great strategist. His ego was too big to be great.

Think of it this way, let's say Russell played the same, balls-to-the-wall aggressive strategy in the first half of the game, and then injected a little humility in the later stages of the game when the jury members were watching, especially after Foa Foa began to get control of the numbers. For example, let's say his overall attitude around camp was to declare how lucky he was, or how blessed he was to have such loyal tribe mates, or how amazing it was that the underdogs managed to squeak by and survive in the face of a huge deficit in the numbers. Let's say for the sake of argument that he kept his mouth shut about finding idols, and never wore one around his neck, and generally held back with the gloating. Let's say he made it very clear to Dave, Brett and Monica that he was not going to entertain the thought of keeping them around because they were too dangerous in front of an all-Galu jury, and then proceeded to get them firewood and make them dinner while asking about their families. Let's say he never made up the story about being a firefighter and just said he owned a barge business.

If he followed that strategy, and tapped into his inner nice guy, he would be cashing a check about now instead of griping about the bitch who stole his money. He was as self-centered as most of the jury members, and it cost him the game.