Category: survivor redemption island

Grant’s elimination in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 13 brought us down to the final four: odds on favorite Boston Rob Mariano, young girl pairing Natalie Tenerelli and Ashley Underwood, and no prayer of getting a vote crazy person Phillip Sheppard. Those girls are the main obstacle to Rob finally winning a million dollars on his sixth attempt, and we have seen him robbed right at the finish line before (The Amazing Race 7 comes to mind). The other twist is that it’s still anybody’s game because Grant Mattos, Matt Elrod (and God), Mike Chiesl, and Andrea Boehlke all have the opportunity to return back to the game. If it’s somebody from the Zapatera tribe (now down to just Mike), many of them have made it clear they intend to make personal decisions and are bitter that they got themselves eliminated.

Since Probst only read three Grant votes, that leaves open the possibility in Grant’s mind that perhaps Rob did not betray him.

When Grant arrives on Redemption Island, Andrea is not happy to see him. Now she’s got three formidable challenge opponents to get past if she wants to earn her way back into the game.

Rob’s gut is telling him Ashley has to go. Still.

Matt has, apparently, decided that God is no longer punishing him, letting him live in a special place for the past month. Don’t tell him God has bigger problems than who wins or does not win Survivor.

It’s time for the final duel, in which one person will remain and reenter the game. They will place their foot on one end of a balancing board. On the other end is a ceramic vase. When the vase falls, they’re out of the game. They’re all still in it at 20 minutes. Then still at 40 minutes, in yet more pain. Shortly after 40 minutes, Grant is the first person eliminated, good news for those watching, if perhaps not the best news. Matt is the next person to fall, finally being eliminated from the game in his eleventh duel. If there’s anything Andrea can win, an endurance competition is probably her best hope. Mike is out, and Zapatera is dead. Andrea returns to the game.

Andrea’s strategy to get back in is to form an alliance with the girls. First, she says the others on the island called the girls Rob’s puppets, then she says multiple people are thinking about voting for Phillip. She admits this is all random stuff she’s making up that may or may not be necessarily a lie. This is just what Ashley was hoping for. Now it’s a question of which way Natalie swings.

For today’s challenge, they’ll race across a balance beam collecting a series of bags containing numbers, which they must place in order from 1-100. Typically I’d look at this as a girl’s challenge to win because if you don’t have balance you may as well not bother, but we know Rob’s got good balance, too. Rob is the first one to complete the first 10. Andrea and Ashley are behind him. Natalie’s in fourth not far behind, while Phillip’s out of it. Ashley and Rob finish their second bag containing 20 pieces at the same time. Rob falls behind on the third bag of 30 pieces, and Ashley is the first back with the fourth and final bag. Rob loses a lot of time on the third bag, and while he and Andrea are about tied for second, the outcome here is obvious. Ashley wins immunity.

Not what he would have wanted for sure, but now Rob’s target shifts to Andrea. Since she proved herself in the recent endurance competition and has spent some time with the Zapatera tribe, she may not be the worst person to get rid of.

Rob’s not at all worried, but he should be. Andrea and Ashley both want him gone. Natalie promises Ashley that her vote is going toward Phillip next time.

When Rob returns from fishing, Phillip gives Rob his full report of how the girls were talking in the woods. Phil has this conversation with Rob openly, while Andrea’s sitting right there. Rob thanks him for his info, and welcomes him to day 37.

Andrea reiterates what she said earlier at tribal council. The other two girls haven’t done anything yet. In turn, Rob points out why they don’t want to be sitting next to her at the end either.

In spite of his earlier joke that he would take the hidden immunity idol home as a souvenir, that’s just not a smart move. With this being the final tribal council in which the idol can be played, Rob does indeed play the idol he’s been sitting on for quite some time. Better safe than sorry.

Votes
Rob (does not count)
Andrea
Andrea
Andrea

Andrea had a logical argument that was ultimately moot whether it worked or not because Rob had an idol in his back pocket. She has been voted out again, talking about how the girls should have done something to prove they were playing the game. Which would have accomplished what? Same result regardless, only at least now they can say they had Rob’s back so he doesn’t try to get even.

When they get back to camp, Rob promises the girls he’s taking them to the end.

Now we head right for the final challenge. They will race through a giant maze, collecting four bags of puzzle pieces. They will use those pieces to solve a word phrase. A maze is anybody’s game, though I think we can count Phillip out as usual. Rob gets the first puzzle bag, and Ashley follows him to get hers. Phillip also has his first bag. Natalie’s a bit lost and in last place. Ashley and Rob continue to follow each other to their next set of pieces, and Phillip continues to run neck and neck with them. Ashley continues to follow Rob around, keeping both of them in first place. Know what would have been smart here, challenge designers? Higher maze walls that you can’t see over. Rob’s got his final bag with Ashley still behind him. Phillip’s got his third bag. Natalie remains lost. As we head into the puzzle, Rob has about a 10 second lead on Ashley. Ashley has two of the four words when Rob suggests working together. They both pretend to not have anything yet, but both are getting close. Rob wins immunity.

The question now remains what it’s been all season: who does Rob want to get rid of?

Getting rid of Phillip would be very simple and require no work at all, but nobody’s going to vote for him, so keeping him around basically brings us down to a final two rather than a final three. Ashley, however, might actually get some votes. Can’t imagine why, but let’s just say she at least has better odds than Phillip.

At the last minute, Rob goes to Natalie to tell her of the plan to get rid of Ashley, who keeps asking Natalie whether Rob has mentioned her being in danger, but she does not reveal that anything is happening.

Votes
Ashley
Phillip
Ashley
Ashley

With 3 votes, Ashley has been voted off the island.

Natalie says she played a great social game and was loyal to her alliance. Phillip thanks Boston Rob (aka the mastermind) for getting him this far.

Andrea tells Phillip he’s weird and wants to know who he really is. His answer is that she’s right. She doesn’t know who he is, but she’s had 39 days. She calls Natalie’s relationship with Rob borderline creepy, and asks why she turned on her best friend. Really? Andrea eventually gives up her fight, not getting an answer she wants from either of them.

Ashley is sick of Phillip, so she’s going to speak, and he’s not going to comment. Of course he will, and she can call him pathetic all she wants, but her telling him he can’t talk is equally pathetic. She’s also not happy with Natalie because she betrayed her friendship. You’ll get over it. Don’t play Survivor if you can’t. Speaking of which, she doesn’t like that Rob deceived a lot of people. Okay, are you done whining yet?

Grant asks Natalie and Rob about their alliance. Rob explains that he agreed to take Natalie to the end if she listened to what he told her, and he got rid of Grant because he thought he was going to kick his ass.

Ralph and Natalie never talked. Can’t blame her. Phillip likes Ralph’s work ethic and thinks he’s funny and a decent man. Well, that was unexpected.

Matt asks Rob where the line’s drawn. Granted, this is the same guy who thinks God cares about Survivor (he doesn’t), so maybe it’s not just a game to him.

Julie doesn’t think any of the three played a respectable game. Oh, and it was respectable to throw a challenge for the sake of getting rid of one of your own for no good reason? She doesn’t want to hear any answers from any of them, merely wanting to lecture them. Phillip tells her he didn’t come out here to get her respect. Just to kick her ass. Well said.

Mike asks whether they learned anything about themselves. Natalie learned that she’s stronger and more capable than she thought she could be. Rob says he needs to stop playing games, and this is the last day he will ever play. Phil learned he could stand on his own.

For a change, Steve congratulates Natalie for making it to the end, rather than ripping into her for being Rob’s carpet. He also congratulates Rob for being a warrior and having lasted 117 days in this game. As for Phil, however, he’s a shameful, sorry man. Hard to say I blame him after that stunt midseason where he brought race into a place it didn’t need to be.

David merely wants to talk to the jury. Rob controlled everything and everyone. A little ruthless but brilliant. Having played the best strategic game ever, Rob should get their vote.

I think we all know who should win this game, though a bitter jury casting a thoroughly questionable vote is never out of the question. The question is whether it will be a clean sweep, which we find out it will not be, as at least one person (Ralph) has sent a vote Phillip’s way.

Votes
Rob
Phillip
Rob
Rob
Rob
Rob

The Survivor: Redemption Island winner is Rob Mariano. Fourth time’s a charm. Well deserved. Jeff says that was as close to a perfect game as he’s seen.

Russell tells Jeff to keep his number. He’s not entirely opposed to coming back, no matter how much he dances around the issue.

Phillip apologizes to Steve for playing the race card. And he really did train to be a federal agent. Whether he made it or not is still anybody’s guess.

The Sprint player of the season with a $100,000 prize came down to two people who dominated the voting with 76% of the vote between them. Boston Rob against Matt. With 40% of the vote, Boston Rob’s total for the season is up to $1.1 million. How the hell did somebody else manage 36%? Kudos for lasting so long in exile, but it’s not like Matt actually did anything in the game, having been voted out twice in the span of three votes.

David hooked up with Carolina Eastwood from Survivor: Tocantins. Now would be as good as time as any to propose to her then, whether they’ve only known each other for a few months or not.

Still a top 20 show even with the move to Wednesdays and up against American Idol (a show that has not aged nearly as well 10 years later), Survivor will be back again in the fall. Redemption Island will return in Survivor: South Pacific, and 16 new contestants will be joined again by 2 returning players.

With the idiot Zapatera tribe dead and hopefully not coming back, it was time for them to start picking off their own in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 12, so the perfect choice was Matt’s girlfriend for a couple days Andrea.

Ashley says she loves blindsides. Perhaps she’ll like it when she’s the next to go. After we hear her say that, she goes to Natalie and talks about them being the final two, which Natalie then reveals to Rob.

Matt says he’s most hurt by Andrea, who arrives on the island and wants to know why he hates her.

While on Redemption Island, Ralph continues to be an asshat. He treats Andrea the same way he treated the rest of Ometepe, and she can sleep on the ground for all he cares.

Matt, Mike, Ralph, and Andrea are the four competing in the duel. So after Andrea stops crying about being betrayed, the challenge is to move a handle through a table maze and then solve a puzzle. Three people will stick around. Ralph is first to advance to the puzzle. Didn’t see that coming, but I’m not expecting him to solve the puzzle any time soon. Mike is behind him. Matt is in third, and Andrea is next. Mike is first to complete the puzzle. God is not yet done punishing Matt by forcing him to stay in the game. Coming in right behind him is Andrea. Ralph is off to join the jury.

Zapatera ate too much (on purpose) during their last days on the island, leaving those who remain wondering how they’re going to make it through the rest of their stay. Somehow, this turns into a Phillip rant against the girls. Again. Rob calls him pathetic and crazy. But not the “n” word crazy, just regular crazy. He’s worried that Phil’s just driving them closer together, rather than putting a wedge between them like Rob wants.

Ashley would like to get rid of Grant. That’s fine because he already decided he wants to get rid of her.

For today’s challenge, they will have to put one hand behind their back and use the other to grab puzzle bags with a series of hooks, then solve the fish puzzle (still using one hand). Ashley gets the lead. Grant is behind her, and Phillip and Rob are behind them. Ashley is the first person to complete the second section of the puzzle. At this point, Probst tells Natalie she may as well just sit down and watch. Ashley wins immunity, edging out Boston Rob. In addition to immunity, she will get room service. She picks Natalie to get this with her.

That shoots everybody’s plans all to hell. What now? Grant’s the target. Rob apologizes, at least to the camera. He’d better hope these girls don’t get smart and get rid of him. Two girls teaming up is a bigger threat to him than Grant being a physical person.

Votes
Natalie
Grant
Grant
Grant

With 3 votes, Grant has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 14, where we will find out who the Survivor: Redemption Island winner is, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

With the producers unlucky enough to not find the amount of quitters NBC packed into The Biggest Loser this season, Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 11 brought us double elimination again. Ralph and Steve were voted out, bringing to an end the pitiful tribe that perhaps could have been dominant if they were less stupid.

Realizing that the jury will consist primarily Zapatera, the three Zapatera guys on Redemption Island hope to be the one to return to the game, thinking they have a slam dunk win should that happen. Unfortunate but probably true that they could win based on bitterness and/or alliances rather than playing the game well.

When they return to camp, Natalie starts crying out of nowhere. Wait. What?

Treemail from Sprint brings them word to come to the duel. The cell phone means videos from home.

Matt, Mike, Ralph, and Steve will participate in the 4-way duel. The winner will be able to spend time with their loved one in person. Each of them has four tiles. In each round, they will toss a ball to break them. The first three to break the tiles stay in the game, and the first to break their tiles wins a visit. Mike breaks his first tile. Matt scores on his second try. Mike scores again. Ralph scores, and so does Steve. Matt scores on his third try. Mike scores for the third time in a row. Ralph scores his second. With 4 in a row, Mike wins the challenge. The other three miss in the fourth round. Matt scores in the next round, and so does Ralph, bringing them to 3 each. Scoring again, Matt stays alive, and so does Ralph. Steve heads to the jury. Mike’s mom Jane comes in. Does he wants to visit her, or does he want to give the visit away to a) the two guys living on the island with him or b) the six contestants who remain in the game? He opts to give the most good to the most people, so the six who kicked him and his tribe out will be the ones getting visits. The most sensible decision he could have made.

Rob’s focus heading into the challenge is to prevent Andrea from winning. They will race to collect a series of puzzle steps, which they must place in order to create a staircase. They can only bring one plank at a time, and if they’re wrong, they’ll have to head back down the stairs. This could become a hell of a workout. Andrea takes the lead. Rob, Grant, and Ashley are behind her. Ashley and Phillip are hopeless. Andrea retains her lead for a while, but she makes a mistake and lets Grant and Rob get ahead of her. Then Rob overtakes Grant, who makes a pair of mistakes to lose the lead. Rob’s got this one as long as he doesn’t collapse on his way up the stairs. Rob crawls his way to the top to win immunity. He’ll live.

With Andrea losing the challenge, the plan is to get rid of her. As always, Phillip’s craziness leads to his name being brought up, though. His story is that his behavior is intentional because that’s his strategy to stay in the game, go to the end… and lose.

Nobody acknowledges that they feel insecure at this moment. Here comes the blindside.

Votes
Andrea
Phillip
Andrea
Andrea
Andrea

The unconvincing ploy to pretend Phillip’s going anywhere proved false, and Andrea has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 13, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The ball kept rolling in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 10, and Julie was voted off the island.

Steve shakes Phillip’s hand in attempt to try to bury the hatchet. Seeing how Phil has behaved, it’s no surprise that he doesn’t care and does not want to be an adult. Rob’s completely comfortable with Phillip being racist. One more reason to bring him to the finals.

Phillip saw in a vision that he’s going to find his shorts. During her bragging, Julie made a mistake. She said she buried the shorts and put a rock on top. That’s as good as any hidden immunity idol clue. After a bit of digging, Phil finds his shorts.

Meanwhile, over on Redemption Island, Matt’s growing increasingly whiny. You would be, too, if God forced you to live on an island with no way out (other than to lose a challenge on purpose). Hopefully today’s challenge involves slapping Matt.

Matt is joined by Mike and Julie for the duel. It is Survivor shuffleboard. Their goal is to land three pucks in the endzone. Mike lands his first puck. Then he lands his second puck. Julie scores after him. Matt scores on his third try. Matt lands his second puck in the fourth round. Then he lands his third puck. So basically God continues to force him to stay in the game. Julie lands one puck but knocks another one out in the process. Mike scores again, and Julie has been eliminated. She plans to join a church when she goes home because maybe next time God will force her to suffer instead with his evil plans of giving people a shot at $1 million.

After watching the duel, Andrea feels guilty. Grant suggests voting her out.

The immunity challenge is a logroll. Chocolate cake and milk will go to the winner. Grant beats Boston Rob. Andrea loses to Ashley. Ralph beats Steve. Phillip takes out Natalie. Grant looked the strongest in that first round, and he beats Ashley. Ralph beats Phillip. In a hard fought final match, Grant beats Ralph to win immunity and cake. He asks Rob to join him for some food. Then he asks Andrea to come along as well in hopes of making her feel comfortable. After he is done picking, they get a box, which will be brought with them unopened to tribal council. Then they have two minutes to eat and hopefully not choke.

When they get back from the challenge, Steve says he’s about ready to drop. His strength is gone, as if it were there initially. That makes him non-threatening, whereas Ralph’s head is still in the game.

Rob approaches Natalie and Ashley to discuss the lack of trust of Andrea. He wants to get rid of Ralph next, but if the twist is to get rid of two people, she’s the second.

Steve tells the girls he will vote for Rob tonight, and they need to get rid of Rob anyway, so they should join him. He is not wrong that they need an end game plan to eliminate the biggest threat. Rob immediately gets wind of this plan. Well, then, perhaps that makes Steve a threat to Rob after all.

Although Steve tries to play up his lack of energy at tribal council, they’re not buying it. He’s still playing the game and won’t be quitting any time soon. He reminds them of Rob turning on Lex (speaking of people who need to be slapped, did he ever during All Stars) after he saved Amber. If you remember the season correctly, Rob did stab a lot of people, but he remained true to Amber, Jenna, and Rupert, while having no allegiance implied or otherwise to Lex (except in Lex’s mind). He merely said he’d take care of him if he could. He could not. Not only that, but Lex and Kathy acted out of their own interests. They were concerned what would happen if they screwed Rob over.

Votes
Rob
Rob
Ralph
Ralph
Ralph
Ralph
Ralph

With 5 votes, Ralph has been voted off the island.

Now let’s get to the twist. They will compete in their next immunity challenge and then immediately vote out one more tribe member. They sure are desperate to eliminate people.

The challenge is a memory game in which Jeff shows them a series of symbols. Everybody gets the first, second, and third ones right. Phillip and Natalie are out on the fouth one. Grant and Andrea are out next. Steve and Ashley are then eliminated, and Rob wins immunity.

Votes
Grant
Steve
Steve
Steve
Steve

With 4 votes, Steve has talked himself out of the game. Thus concludes your regularly scheduled Pagonging. Good riddance to the tribe whose downfall started when they decided to throw a challenge to get rid of Russell. Let this be a lesson to future contestants. Don’t throw challenges unless doing so makes sense.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 12, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Pagonging began in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 9 with the elimination of Mike and then David.

Matt tells God he wants out of this game. It’s simple then. Throw the challenge. This is not a prison. Alas, though, Jesus and/or God and/or the Holy Spirit and/or Matt’s father is and/or are not quitters.

Phil has made a decision (by way of premonition) that he trusts Rob again.

The Zapatera folks have decided to eat all the rice. Apparently, they don’t need to conserve food because they’re not going to be around much longer. Seeing them be morons, Phil steals some of their rice.

With last week’s double elimination, there will be three people at this duel, with all the others as spectators. Each of them will have 150 wooden tiles, which they will use to build a house of cards 8 feet tall. The first two stay alive, while the loser moves to the jury. Mike’s off to a quick lead. Matt is behind him. David’s quite a ways behind. Mike gets stuck about half an inch away but finally wins the challenge. Good thing there’s no rule about it having to last because it doesn’t stay up very long. Matt places second with a much better structure. David has been eliminated.

Ometepe has additional food issues. Maggots have invaded their rice. Eat it. It’s protein. Instead, they decide to dump it out on a blanket and sort the good from the maggotty. They ask if they can put their rice in the other tribe’s container, but Steve says no. Oh just quit already, dumbasses. You’re on the outside. At least make an effort rather than just laying down and dying. In turn, Phil threatens to steal their can. Yeah, but he’s just crazy, though he’s not happy to be called that by the enemy tribe or the rest of the nation. Then he brings out the race card.

For today’s challenge, they must build a multi-stage puzzle wheel. First, they will release a puzzle base (by spinning it and getting dizzy) and solve one puzzle. Then the first six to finish will solve a second puzzle to complete the wheel. Rob, Julie, Ralph, Andrea, Steve, and Grant move to the last round. Rob’s well known for his puzzle solving ability, and he wins immunity.

Aside from eating all the rice, the Zapaterans have a plan. They will vote for Phillip. All they need is just two votes. So they’re only two votes shy then.

Julie decides to bury Phil’s swimsuit, thereby forcing him to wear nothing but his pink underpants from now on. He blames Steve for his loss because Steve called him crazy (joining the club), which his theory says means the “n word”.

After a very lengthy discussion about the shorts at tribal council, Julie happily admits taking them.

Votes
Phil
Phil
Phil
Julie
Julie
Julie
Julie
Julie

With 5 votes, Julie has been voted off the island. I’m comfortable with that. She’s been making dumb decisions for weeks.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 11, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Matt returned to the game in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 8 and was promptly voted out again.

Having been blindsided twice by the same people, Matt feels like a moron. The good news: this is all part of God’s plan. He’s using Matt’s stupidity for his glory.

The idiots on the Zapatera tribe are worried that they have no chance seeing as how aggressively the other tribe is playing. This from a tribe that threw a challenge and has regretted it ever since.

Ralph pulls the girls aside to say he’s voting for them rather than Rob if they make it to the finals. I’m not sure which of them he’s talking to, but it doesn’t really matter since Natalie makes sure Ashley is the one to get Rob’s suspicion.

Rob wants his group to hate the other tribe and be arrogant about it. He won’t do that, but they can.

Phillip shows up at the challenge with a feather on his head, which appeared out of thin air. They will dig to retrieve a club and smash a tile, spit water in a bowl from a water trough after crawling underneath it, and lastly solve a block puzzle. Grant, Rob, Ralph, Mike, David, and Julie move to the second round with the water trough. Grant again finishes first, followed by Mike and then David, narrowly beating Rob. As we all know, David is the best puzzle solver on the tribe, or so he’s told us. Except he places last. Grant wins immunity. Phillip knew this was going to happen. He had a visit in a meditation that a former Ometepe member would get luck from the feather.

The target is going to be a threat, either Mike or David.

Zapatera thinks Phillip is on the bottom. He says he likes being there. Not a tribe to try to take advantage of this, Mike calls him insecure, and David says he’s a lunatic.

Why the heck is there another 35 minutes left to go anyway?

Votes
Phillip
Phillip
Phillip
Phillip
Phillip
Mike
Mike
Mike
Mike
Mike
Mike

With 6 votes, Mike has been voted off the island.

They were banking on somebody quitting or getting injured, but that didn’t happen (I’m sure you could borrow someone from this season’s The Biggest Loser), so that brings us to part two and another elimination.

Phil realizes that he’s in a position now where people may want to keep him around just because nobody will vote for him.

David says this is not a lot of fun because nobody’s willing to play the game. On the contrary, the other tribe is playing, playing their numbers advantage.

At this next challenge, everybody is given the opportunity to feast on cheeseburgers. They will hang from a bar for as long as they can. After 20 minutes, they are allowed to use their legs only. Who feels safe enough to eat rather than play? Phillip and Steve will eat. Not the two I would have expected. Everybody else will play. Rob’s the first one out. After 20 minutes (and 5 burgers) have elapsed, they’re going to have to take their arms away. How long can you stay upside down? Julie drops. Then Grant and Ralph. The remaining four have been up there for 45 minutes. David drops, leaving just the Ometepe girls. Andrea asks to be given immunity, and Natalie and Ashley agree to do so.

Ralph finds some dead fish on the beach. Rob warns them not to eat them, but Zapatera insists it will be a good idea. Rob hopes his tribe will fall in line, but after a while, Grant steps in and grabs some. He wants to prove Rob’s not the boss, but I’m not sure that’s the wisest move. Unless Grant finds some way to make it otherwise, Rob is the boss.

Rob says their choices for this evening are David or Steve. So it shall be. David’s the biggest threat left, and Steve wants to go anyway.

Votes
Rob
Rob
Rob
Rob
David
David
David
David
David
David

With 6 votes, David has been voted off the island. That puts three people on Redemption Island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 10, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

With the Zapatera tribe doing something somewhat unpredictable for the first time in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 7, “the six” turned on Sarita rather than David.

Matt says he’s been hearing some horror stories from Zapatera, but Sarita doesn’t want to bag on the tribe that just got rid of her, instead going on about how great they are.

Both tribes will be attending the duel in full. This marks Matt’s sixth and final duel, which he’s going into with a cut on his foot that he indicates is a big deal. For the duel, they will use their arms to brace themselves while their bare feet are on narrow footholds. After 15 minutes, they drop down to the second foothold. 15 minutes of being tortured by listening to Phillip babble leads into the move to the last foothold. Sarita’s tribe is rooting for her as if they didn’t just turn on her. She falls, and Matt wins again, buying himself a ticket back into the game, which for the record has nothing to do with God’s will.

For Boston Rob, this is not good news. This is a guy who could flip on their tribe at merge. That’s what Rob would do. Speaking of which, we are now merged, and everybody will be heading to a new beach. One more thing: beginning with the next tribal council, Redemption Island starts again.

Murlonio means united from the sea, or so Rob tells his new tribe. That sounds like a good thing to call themselves then.

Matt wants some splainin from his old tribe. He’s the only hope for the Zapatera tribe, which was stupid enough to throw that challenge to get rid of Russell, leading to their own downfall. As far as I’m concerned, they deserve to get Pagonged on the basis of stupidity alone. Don’t lose on purpose and give Boston Rob momentum. That said, Mike makes a pitch to Matt that them, Andrea, and Steve should be the final four. I wouldn’t trust this guy any more than I’d trust the tribe that got rid of me early.

Matt has come up with a pecking order. First, he wants to get rid of Steve and Phillip. Then he wants to get rid of Rob. Huh? I don’t get it. He’s basing this randomness not on it being wise but rather his theory that the game respects big moves. However, he’s not so sure God wants him to do that. Oy.

Rob wants this Christian coalition broken up. He doesn’t like any group that likes the same thing.

For the first time, individual immunity is up for grabs. They will stand on a log while balancing balls on a disc. Phillip’s struggling already. Julie’s the first one out. They add a second ball. Ashley is out next, closely followed by David. A third and final ball is added to the mix. This all just seems like a matter of luck to me. Andrea’s out. Grant follows her. Matt’s the next one out, followed by Matt and then Rob. In spite of his attempt to whistle to his balls to get them to return, Ralph drops. Steve is next. Mike hasn’t budged this whole time, but eventually his feet go numb. Natalie wins immunity.

Ralph is okay with playing the idol. Mike’s plan is to get rid of Rob’s right hand man, Grant.

Rather than join up with the other tribe, Matt has decided to rejoin his old tribe. In the process, he tells Rob the whole story, which Rob views as an excuse to get rid of him. He says he’s not morally capable of flipping. That’s a good person to keep around. Somebody crippled by their ethics is unlikely to turn on you. Granted, they’re also likely to hold a grudge if they make the jury. Andrea takes this as him throwing her under the bus, since in his story, her name came up.

Grant doesn’t want to target Mike. Instead, he’d rather target Steve, who he doesn’t think they’d give the idol up for. Rob would rather get rid of Matt. Again. Unlike the first time they got rid of him, this plan is contingent upon Andrea voting with them.

Mike’s new deal for Matt: final three. In spite of his limited options, how do you seriously trust someone who claims to be willing to screw over 4 other people just for the sake of saving himself this one night?

The merged tribes are not so much a merged tribe as two tribes living on the same beach. Ometepe was pretty comfortable in the rain, seeing as they won the tarp and all. David’s complaint about this is that there should be an asterisk on that victory, since his tribe threw that challenge, which once again is coming back to bite them.

As planned, Ralph gives his hidden immunity idol to Mike.

Votes
Grant
Grant
Grant
Grant
Grant
Steve
Matt
Matt
Matt
Matt
Matt
Matt

With 6 votes, Matt will be heading back to Redemption Island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 9, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Unable to overcome her link to Russell in Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 6 Stephanie was not entirely surprisingly voted out.

David’s the first crack to have formed within the so-called alliance of six, having joined Stephanie to vote out Sarita, who he doesn’t like because she didn’t want him to do the puzzle at a challenge.

Stephanie’s already annoying Matt by talking too much. One way or another, they’ll be apart soon enough.

Phillip will be going to the duel, so Boston Rob wants to go with him as the babysitter. David and Ralph also go. The duel is a memory game to find 5 matching pairs of tiles. Somehow, Matt gets the very first tiles correct. He is not alone. Stephanie, too, gets a match completely at random. Matt takes the 2-1 lead. Stephanie botches the chance to tie. Matt takes the 3-1 lead. Stephanie makes it 3-2. Matt takes the 4-2 lead. Stephanie makes it 4-3. Matt misses the opportunity to win. Then Stephanie completely screws up as well. Matt wins 5-3. I’d rather see Stephanie win because she’s far more interesting, but kudos to Matt for his fifth win in a row.

Before departing, Stephanie tells Ralph that Sarita’s their weakest link, and she tells Rob to watch his back and not trust anybody from her tribe.

Phillip asks whether they want to withhold the information, but Rob says no. So once Rob tells the story, he’s able to tell them that Phil wanted to hide what they knew.

Meanwhile, David has become public enemy number 1, seeing as no more of Russell’s people remain.

Ralph says that it doesn’t take smart to win this game. That would be good news for him then.

Not content with merely being hated by everybody on his tribe, Phillip gets into yet another argument. He really wants the crispy rice. Too bad he ain’t getting it no matter how much of a tantrum he throws.

Both tribes will race through a series of obstacles to collect bags of balls, all six of which will be shot into a basket. Reward is a helicopter ride to a picnic on the edge of an active volcano. The tribes are about even through the hay. Ometepe has the first bag of balls as Sarita struggles. As Phillip stumbles, we’re back roughly even, and David manages to gain the lead on the second bag. Rob continues to have to push Phillip through the course. Zapatera’s still in the lead with their final bag, two brick walls ahead. Ometepe is the first to score. Grant then takes the 2-0 lead. Grant scores again for the 3-1 lead. Then it’s tied at 3. Zapatera retakes the lead and goes up 5-3. 5-4 as Grant scores again. Grant hits his fifth basket. And another. Ometepe wins immunity and reward.

For the time being, Phillip doesn’t hate his tribe any more. Once again, Rob gets the clue. This time he decides to just chuck it into the volcano.

As soon as David took over for Sarita in the challenge, the tribe not only recovered but took over the lead. Will they dangle the carrot of the weakest challenge person going home in front of us? Strangely, Sarita herself says she’s not sure she wants to lose the puzzle maker. I’m not entirely clear where this concept of him being the puzzle guy came from.

This tribe has just been ridiculously stupid when it comes to future planning, refusing to get rid of their weakest players while throwing a challenge on purpose. Granted, now is probably a good time to be thinking about the merge, whereas the past few episodes were just too early.

Probst says their problem is lack of unity. Ralph doesn’t even know the meaning of the word cohesive, literally.

Votes
Sarita
David
David
Sarita
Sarita
Sarita

Well, that was different. With 4 votes, Sarita, who didn’t even pack, has been voted off the island. In her place is someone who nobody trusts, an episode before the merge.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 8, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.