Hopefully by this point in time you’ve watched this week’s Survivor, because there’s no way I can describe it without giving everything away. Thankfully, we were spared the crazy that is Phillip this week. He seems to have settled into his role as Rob’s new lap dog — well, until next week if one is to believe the previews — so this drama-filled episode spent more time on certain tribe members really playing the game.
This was a really well put together episode that was able to focus equally on both tribes and the Redemption Island duel. I prefer episodes that give the tribes two challenges for reward and immunity, but with the inclusion of the Redemption Island duel I’m guessing it will be a while before the tribes have to worry about two challenges. At first I was disappointed this week that both challenges were completely recycled but the Redemption Island challenge was nerve wracking to watch and the immunity/reward challenge had its own little twist courtesy of the Zapatera tribe.
As much as I enjoyed Francesca during her three days of dealing with Phillip, I’m more happy that Matt won the duel if only to see the look on Rob’s face when he was told the news. Two members from each tribe were selected by lottery to witness the duel and Ashely and Andrea got to represent Ometepe. Andrea certainly felt a little rush seeing Matt win and relished getting to tell Rob the news that Matt is prepared to come back and get his revenge.
Over on Zapatera, Steve and Dave got to witness the duel but came back and told Russell a different story — Francesca beat Matt. Steve, Dave and Mike have been wanting Russell out of the game since he first stepped off the helicopter but with two wins under their belt it seemed almost impossible to squash the little gnat. With their alliance of six, however, they hatched a plan to throw the immunity challenge to vote him out. Russell has made absolutely no secret of the fact that he’s looking for the hidden immunity idol, and with Stephanie and Krista as his accomplices, they created a fake immunity idol to scare the others.
In another recycled challenge (the water wheel with tribe members strapped to it), Zapatera did a pretty terrible job of hiding the fact that they were throwing the competition. The final part of the challenge was a puzzle and master puzzle solver Dave — who actually helped Zapatera win the first challenge despite the editing that made Russell look like the leader — made a scene by moving pieces around a few times but stepped away from the puzzle to try to think it out. Meanwhile, Rob – no slouch in puzzles himself – was whipping through his puzzle and finally let Dave off the hook by solving it and giving Ometepe their first win. It isn’t clear if they suspect Zapatera threw the challenge, but as history is known to repeat, this win for Ometepe could be the boost in confidence they need to continue winning. It’s happened before and Julie was probably rightly concerned that throwing this challenge could be bad for them in the long run. Ometepe’s win and the thought of Matt coming back for revenge lit a fire under Rob’s ass to find the clue for the hidden immunity idol, and thanks to Phillip’s poor construction skills with a beach chair he did find it the clue but now needs to find the idol before someone else does.
What the loss did do was give Zapatera the opportunity to squash the bloated, razor-burned leech taking up space in their camp. Russell and Stephanie knew they needed a fourth vote and they both went to work on Julie who said she really didn’t have a problem with Russell. Not much was said this week to throw Tribal in chaos, but when the votes came back it was clear that there were two tribes within the one tribe. Thinking Stephanie had an idol, the alliance of six split the vote 3-3 while Russell’s alliance of three voted for Ralph. I can’t remember a three-way tie, at least not in recent history, but with the three vote-getters ineligible to vote again that only left Krista to vote for Ralph while the other five forged ahead with their plan and got rid of Russell! It will be interesting to see how Stephanie carries out her threat of a coming storm considering it’s only her and Krista now against a strong alliance of six.
The next Redemption Island duel will be a good one as Russell will have to face Matt to stay in the game. Both of them are out for revenge now but I hope Matt wins. The only way I’d want Russell to stay is to face a voted out Rob so we get the promised epic showdown between them to see who is the true Survivor … because so far that showdown has been more hype than reality.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Mar 03, 2011 @ 07:32 EST5EDT
I’ve been waiting for this review. I guess the title is a bit spoiler-y as well. You might want to hide stuff a little more for those who didn’t watch yet. Luckily I already did.
All I can say is this: halfway through the episode it was clear to me that Russell would go to Redemption Island and then it dawned on me how the production company designed this season: Rob and Russell have to stay on as long as they can. The only way to do that is to get them back into the game like we did on Pearl Islands. The cast now knows Russell and most likely they will vote him off early no matter what and even if he finds all the idols he’s a goner pretty fast.
This is why I assume that the person on Redemption Island will not join the group until fater the merge and I would go so far as to assume that it’ll be until the last six remaining candidates. Maybe even less. It’s all designed to keep the token heroes on as long as they can and if this works out then they’ll bring more former castmembers back next season again with redemption island. I’d guess Rupert next.
Now about your review: I agree that if you throw a challenge you might throw the whole game for you – and while Julie’s right I again have to underline that this is Russell we are speaking of. Do you really think it would be wise to keep him around even a second longer to have more time to scheme against you? What he did in the two seasons he was on was talk people into flipping. The longer he has the more his chances go up. And he did his same old schtick again with the young girls. And that sentence if they could “flip that old lady?” – Priceless. I was in stitches because it so clearly showed that he didn’t care about some of the players. They are only there to be used. And again – Russell CAN come back into the game. Not only do you have to get rid of him but also of his female alliance partners. I sincerely hope that the next thing they’ll do is get rid of the girls on that tribe in case they lose because they are a loaded gun running around. I’m glad they didn’t fall for their shady arguments. “You have to go strong into the merge”. Sure you do. But The other tribe was 2 down. What moment if not THIS EXACT ONE was the setup to get rid of Russell? They did win two times in a row. They threw the challenge to get rid of him. He’s a snake. He’s poison. And don’t you think that the tribe might come out stronge just because he’s not there to occupy their minds so much? The tribe was essentially split already – why would it be worse to get rid of him? Even more so, he’d would get rid of every single one of THEM (!) in a heartbeat should the tribe actually lose a challenge. He’d be the one who’d do anything and _everything_ to get rid of the strong players and only keep the girls who are for him and make it to the merge with five people HE can trust.
I personally found Probst’s comments at the end of tribal ridiculous. They had a strategy to get rid of Russell. They did so. The votes were cast in a way so that Russell would get out no matter what, in case their team of 3 had the idol (even split 3 – 3 – 3 because the Hick didn’t disclose that he already has the idol that had to be done). It was smart. There was a plan and they followed it. And Probst pretends as if this was their downfall. Ridiculous.
*POST AUTHOR*
I wrestled with the title but it’s all about getting eyeballs to our posts. That was the best I could do short of putting Russell’s name in the title. And technically, it’s not really a spoiler if the show has already aired and the information is out there for all to know about.
I’m not sure of your review of my review – I never liked Russell and hated that he was back in the game, so I’m delighted they voted him off. I’m just sorry he really hasn’t gone home yet! They absolutely did the right thing by voting him out the first chance they got. The only slightly negative thought I had about that was that we’ve seen in the past when a tribe throws a competition to get rid of someone, they inadvertently give the opposing tribe, who have usually lost a bunch of challenges in a row by that point, a little wind beneath their wings and suddenly the team that had been winning finds themselves losing challenge after challenge. That was Julie’s concern and I believe that was what Probst was referencing as well. I know the producers want an epic showdown between Rob and Russell, and that will make for great television and I have no problem with that as long as it happens on Redemption Island and Rob is the winner. But with the fear that Russell could come back and completely ruin the rest of the game, I’m pulling for Matt to win next week. In a perfect world, Matt will win the next duel, Stephanie will be the next eliminated tribe member and Matt will easily take her out. At that point, Krista either aligns with the rest of her tribe or she’s the next one to go (either way, unless one of the six really does something stupid they’ll more than likely take out Krista). They just have to not lose their momentum after throwing the last challenge. Honestly, that’s the only concern anyone had about them doing that, but they clearly would have won that challenge, and as you said, letting Russell stay in the game longer would only give him more power. He probably could have swayed Julie to his side at some point, and as you also said, he doesn’t care about anyone – not even those he is using – because they are all just rungs on a ladder to him. So, Ding Dong the Troll is gone … for the moment.
I think we agree.
By the way it’s so great to finally discuss this show after last season was such a dud. I felt bad for not commenting but there was just nothing I wanted to talk about – the season was just too boring to me or better: I didn’t think that it needed a real discussion everything was so straightforward :-)
I’m really glad to see Russell go. He just makes everything about him. He was entertaining for one season, but I’ve had more than my fill. Now I just want Matt to squash him once and for all.
Andrea’s reaction to the whole Matt thing was pretty understated. I guess she’s playing it smart, sinking into the shadows and waiting for her moment to strike back.
*POST AUTHOR*
Agreed on Russell! And Andrea is being a lot more subtle than Stephanie already was a Tribal. She’s the next gnat that needs to be squashed!