Richard Hatch, “Survivor”‘s very first winner and its very first villain, was both the best and the worst thing to ever happen to this show. He set the standard for how to play the game: having a clear strategy, lying and keeping your plans to yourself. But he also guaranteed that it would be hard, for the rest of the run of the show, to find new and organic ways to be evil, because everyone was so aware of how it was supposed to be done.

I blame Hatch, and Jonny Fairplay, and stupid crazy Coach, for what we’re stuck with this year – Russell, who apparently has set out to be the meanest, baddest “Survivor” EVER. He might be the meanest, but his intention, as he put it, to show how easy it is to win the game by turning everyone against each other, is tiresome because it’s going to be hard to watch the game without focusing on his shenanigans.

His tribe, Foa Foa, already followed his lead in voting off Marisa, a girl who told him she didn’t trust him. A villain is only effective if his victims don’t rise up and vote him out, and if Foa Foa keeps this joker around, when some of them already have issues with him, then they deserve everything that’s coming to them.

We’re here in Samoa, Home of untouched shores, beautiful water and many wrestlers. And now, Jeff Probst’s dimples. I have long been a critic of Probst’s meddling in tribe affairs and outright disdain for players whose appeal he doesn’t get (ie: Anyone who’s not a fake warrior, a he-man or a hot girl). But I hear he actually tosses someone out of a challenge next week, so that might be fun.

So far, I like the other Russell, the leader of the other tribe, Galu; Betsey, the cop, and Nick, the Foa Foa leader, because he’s pretty and sort of smart. The jury is out on everybody else. I just want them to get rid of Evil Russell, because his plotting is gonna eat my game, and there’s too much deliciousness to be had to focus on him the whole season.