Russell is an extreme case, the problem with having him in the game is basically that he is a bully. Ultimately he hates everyone, even those closest to him. He's unremittant, even after losing twice he kept insisting the problem wasn't his game but the game itself. Hateful, nasty, vile, he trashes everyone around him.

He's smart enough to keep most of that to himself and reveal it only in confessionals, but in all this time the only people who have earned from him any respect are those he viewed as most like himself. He'll knock you out of the game for that, because he has to be the biggest baddest bully on the block, but you have confirmed his mean, bleak worldview and he respects you for that.

So if you are in the game with him you have two choices, put up with him knowing he cannot win or get rid of him as soon as you can so you can play the game without the annoyance.

This Redemption Island twist, however, creates another prospect, because you cannot absolutely get rid of him even though you can sideline him out of the tribe. I don't think highly of the RI twist but, as I joked in the voting thread this week, it makes it possible to turn someone like Russell into a punching bag.

Send him to RI. If he gets back in the game, send him back to RI. If he gets back in the game again, send him back to RI again. Repeat as many times as needed. If for no other reason than turning the bully into a punching bag might earn you some mite of his respect.

And, perversely enough, RI is really his only chance of winning the game. If he can get to the end of the game having spent the majority of the time on RI he won't have made as many enemies on the jury as perhaps the others who make it to Final. So, really, you're doing him a favor turning him into a punching bag, it's a good thing.

Practically saints them Zapsixers, by gum.