Smackdown! It’s a slap fight on ‘Survivor’

Amanda literally got into a brawl to try to save herself on "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains," but she ended up getting her torch snuffed for the very first time in three seasons of playing "Survivor." Having set the record for being the first person ever to play the game for 100 days, Amanda is now on the jury.

And yes, "Survivor" has now come down to slap fights.

On a reward at Robert Louis Stevenson's Samoan home, of all places, Amanda searched frantically with her eyes for a hidden immunity idol clue. Since Parvati played both hidden immunity idols in last week's shocking Tribal Council, Amanda knew a new idol would be back in play.

While the three reward winners — Amanda, Colby and Danielle — watched "Treasure Island" and lounged on a small bed, Danielle discovered the clue in their bowl of popcorn and dropped it quietly to the floor to hide it. 

When Amanda spotted the clue, the fight was on: Amanda grabbed for it and ran, and Danielle jumped up and confronted her. The two fought for the clue, looking like two kids on the playground fighting over a toy.

Perhaps because they were in front of the TV, Colby noticed what was going on, and Danielle demanded Amanda return the clue to her because she found it first. Colby agreed, and Amanda reluctantly handed it back, either because she didn't want to cause more drama and make herself more of a target, or because Colby has a very effective middle-school vice-principal voice.

Amazingly, after all that work, Danielle didn't even find the idol. And guess who did? Russell! Again! Yes, Danielle shared the clue with him and they went searching, and Russell found it in less time than it takes for Courtney to start making sarcastic comments when she arrived at Tribal Council.

Another day, another idol for Russell, and once again, he played it. He thought Sandra would flip and vote for him at Tribal Council along with the Heroes, telling Jeff Probst, "Hope I'm doing the right thing and playing it for myself this time."

Despite talk about Sandra flipping to vote with the Heroes and Candice flipping to vote with the Villains — which all ended up causing lots of drama — only Candice flipped, joining the Villains and voting off one of her own Heroes. Thus Russell got mad that he "wasted one," as Parvati whispered to him about the idol.

At camp, Sandra wanted to get rid of Russell by conspiring with the Heroes, who may become actually heroic if they manage to snuff out Russell's torch. Rupert said, "The guy is a piece of garbage." But Candice was wooed over to the Villains' side by Russell, who was insecure about Sandra flipping and wanted more of a buffer for the already-dominant Villains' alliance.

The episode also featured some redemption for the two people who met during the second season of "Survivor" in Australia: Colby and Jerri, who each won challenges. Colby's amazing final slide of a shuffleboard disc won the reward challenge for his team, while Jerri built a 10-foot stack of cards, barely beating Russell for individual immunity.

Jerri had never before won individual immunity, and Colby's performance has pretty much sucked this season. Finally, some actual redemption during this season of "Return. Revenge. Redemption."

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