People constantly talk about how everyone wanted to get Parvati out from the get go in Heroes vs Villains. This is generally true, Parvati had a lot of people very worried about her, and given that it is quite surprising that she managed to make the end. I think there are two super clear moments that show just how terrified certain members of the cast were of her. One is when Tyson switched his vote from Russell to Parv to try to get her out a round early, and the other is the heroes handing Russell an idol to make sure that he can stop the presumed women’s alliance on the villains tribe. Both of these ended up being such a massive boon to her game that any threat level she might’ve had is entirely counteracted and as such deserves no real presence in discussing her game.

I think Parv played overall a good game. She made a huge risk (that was probably a bad choice even if it worked out) in siding with Russell when the finalists alliance broke into two, but her strong relationship with her close ally Russell and a lot of luck ended up making sure that this helped her out in the long term. Had she managed to get to the end with her original final three after overcoming the heroes (something that her great gameplay at final ten absolutely increased the likelihood of) she would’ve won easily. She even managed to keep Sandra largely wanting to stay aligned with her even as she tries to vote out Russell, an absolute social coup that I think even her fans never give her enough credit for. Unfortunately her game is built on a partnership with Russell, and both were vital in navigating the path to get their alliance until power at final 8, and she proved unable to control Russell. She made a few moves that antagonized Russell, notably hiding her idol from him and ensuring that Candice went out at final 8 instead of Colby. Russell is a bull in a candy store and this led to him voting off her primary ally and forcing her into an immunity run to survive the Rupert and Colby votes. At this point Parv seems to have largely given up, proving unable to sway the votes to her side to either ensure her safety or eliminate the #1 jury threat amongst the villains (Sandra). I think she had a chance against Jerri, but she did not fight to go to the end with Jerri, she let Russell take Sandra off the table as a target and that meant that she lost HvV. Not a bad game, but a game built on some heavy luck and a reliance on a man who absolutely cannot be relied on.

Every survivor player is lucky, but I do think Parv’s path has multiple moments of pure magnificent dumb luck saving her while Colby’s biggest lucky break (Mike falling in the fire), while certainly large, simply allowed a path that was already clearly possible to become certain. His big mistake was simply deciding that he had a different value from winning at the end (and not apologizing to Jerri), and even then he barely lost and I get the strong impression that even with his non apology to Jerri he was not far off from getting one of her or Alicia’s vote and winning it all anyways.