16 new contestants form the Survivor: Redemption Island cast alongside Boston Rob and Russell Hantz. Will Rob win the million in his sixth attempt? (Admittedly, he should have won Survivor: All Stars, although win or lose he still won, and he should have won The Amazing Race 7.) Will Russell win a single vote?
Phillip says he’s a former federal agent. Yeah, the producers ain’t buying it either. Matt says his faith is everything, and his entire life revolves around it. Oh God geez. Surely they will make it so he clashes with someone. I just hope he doesn’t think God cares about who wins this game. Mike believes that his time in Iraq trained him to win something like this. While he may have the survival aspect down, the key is how to avoid the person sleeping next to you stabbing you in the back.
After everyone lands, they are introduced to Rob and Russell. Rob is greeted with applause, but Russell is greeted less warmly, albeit with the knowledge that he’s a contender.
They draw for buffs. Rob is on the Ometepe tribe, and Russell is on Zapatera, so now the tribes will be:
Ometepe (orange): Andrea, Matt, Francesca, Kristina, Grant, Phillip, Natalie, Ashley, Rob
Zapatera (purple): Mike, Ralph, Krista, David, Stephanie, Sarita, Julie, Steve, Russell
Lastly, it’s time to announce the redemption island twist. When they are voted out, they will live alone on redemption island, not leaving the game unless they lose the duel. At some point, the last man standing will reenter the game.
Probst tosses them some maps and warns them it will be raining a lot out there in Nicaragua.
Ralph has done all this stuff. If they listen to him, he’ll build them a decent shack, and probably an outhouse. Over on his tribe, Boston Rob takes control of the construction, which he has experience in before he became a reality TV star for a living.
Phillip is already starting to rub some of the girls the wrong way. At first, I thought it was just Francesca, a lawyer, always a bad sign regardless of the fact of how much she keeps rambling, but since someone else agrees with her, I’ll consider it as a problem.’
Kristina begins her hunt for the hidden immunity idol, surprised nobody else is doing the same. Her searching through their belongings is not lost on Boston Rob, who lets her know. He then talks to Phillip, commenting on how many girls there are there, and how they need to be watched. Hearing this, Phillip goes to Kristina, telling her this and that he will stick to the girls. Easier said than done.
Is Stephanie lucky girl #3 for Russell? That’s the plan, or so it seems. The others quickly see this. Someone comments how Russell’s not a threat. I have bad news for you then. He’s managed to eliminate more people than you can shake a stick at.
After realizing it probably won’t be as simple as just looking in their bags, Kristina later goes searching and finds the hidden immunity idol. She believes this will help her eliminate Rob. Good luck with that. Her alliance to help her achieve that: Francesca and Phillip. Great, two people who neither seem stable nor like each other.
The first immunity challenge is to push four blocks along tracks to build a base of a temple, run up the steps and use an axe to chop a series of ropes, run up another set of steps, and race to complete a block puzzle. Zapatera starts off the pushing with a bit of a lead. They extend this on the second block and then significantly more on the next block, when they lap Ometepe. Ralph starts rope chopping, while Ometepe continues to struggle. They’d better pray the other team struggles on the puzzle, or at least that Rob’s good enough to catch them up. Zapatera’s lead shrinks quite a bit, but not enough for the others to make up for their poor start. Zapatera wins immunity and fire.
As weak as this tribe is, they would be dog dumb to get rid of Boston Rob. Nonetheless, Kristina wants to do just that. She tells Francesca she has the idol, and she wants them two plus their buddy Phillip to vote for Rob, while the rest of the tribe votes her out and she burns the idol. Francesca warns her this is a stupid plan, and they should get rid of Natalie instead.
Rob wanted to vote Francesca out because her big mouth started yapping right away, telling Probst from minute one she didn’t trust Rob. After thinking about it, he doesn’t trust Kristina, who was digging for the idol right away. As a precaution, he’d like to split the vote between the two, just in case Kristina has the idol. Just to be clear, don’t switch your vote, unlike the idiot last season.
Phil wants an answer. Who does Kristina have lined up to vote with them? Nobody. She thinks the idol will do all the voting for them, so she shows it to him.
At tribal council, Phillip says that Francesca and Kristina asked him to vote for Rob. Well, there goes their whole plan up in smoke, not that it was a good one to begin with. Oh, and by the way, Kristina has an immunity idol. Awesome. Kristina acknowledges that she considered voting for Rob but wouldn’t do it, not yet. Rob has a proposal then: give him the immunity idol, and she can stay. She can’t do that. Good luck to you.
Kristina has decided not to play the idol. She should be safe, barely, for now, unfortunately.
Votes
Kristina
Kristina
Francesca
Phillip
Francesca
Phillip
Kristina
Francesca
Francesca
With 4 votes, Francesca has been voted off the island. So many mistakes in her brief three day stay.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 2, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.