Survivor - Redemption Island

While I think Rob gets through next week fine, his actions took him from "no chance" of anybody gunning for him to "a good chance". He created an enemy when he didn't have to. And since this is redemption island, the strong physical threat he eliminated will have a chance to return and be an enemy too. Just splitting the vote between Phillip and Kristina would have avoided all that. The idol would have been flushed the same way. Phillip would have not blamed Rob or anyone after he struggled in the challenge. Everybody else would been happily following Rob. And Kristina would have been the next vote out if the lost the immunity challenge. The potential power couple would still be there, but they would have been "for" Rob. Now Phillip is a single vote that can't get anybody with him. I doubt anyone would even trust Phillip enough to tell him their plan. Andrea will probably be actively working against Rob. The others went along with Rob b/c he was the unquestioned leader, but that leadership has been damaged. They just saw him turn on his own group when he didn't have to. Everyone of them has to be wondering when is he going to turn on me? Now that was always a possibility or rather an inevitability, but whenever it was going to be, that timeline was just moved up in everyone's mind.

 

While I agree that finding the idol was probably just luck, I'm not sure how dumb Ralph is. He certainly acts like an idiot, but he's the one who seemed to be keeping an eye on Russell while everyone was just celebrating a win. Ralph also actively made Russell either come clean or lie. I don't know if he's thought it out, but right now would probably be the best time challenge Russell from a numbers perspective. The tribe is at full capacity and most everybody knows Russell is a snake. Its not difficult to rally people into killing a snake.

 

Agreed Raffy. And, I for one am really looking forward to this week's show. Raplh vs. Russell looks to be worth the price of admission. Go Ralph!

 

If you're from the south and speak with any kind of accent people just assume you're an idiot. Ralph knows this and will use it to his advantage. Of all people Russell should know it's probably just an act. I'm not saying Ralph is a rocket scientist but I doubt he's stupid.

 

I have a feeling Rob's tribe's going to win this week. I usually don't believe the promos but they're really pushing it like that.

I honestly wouldn't mind a week where they focused more on Russel's camp

 

Rob > Russell at least that's pretty clear

 

Giving up numbers is pretty stupid, even if they were afraid of Russell. Perhaps they'll throw the next two challenges as well to push out his allies. Rob's tribe definitely just become the favorites last night.

 

I think that throwing challenges is almost always a bad strategy. People underestimate how the momentum can switch and the impact that winning can have on a team's hope and resilience.

 

Oh it was incredibly dumb on Zapatera's part to throw a challenge so early. You give Rob any momentum and he'll run away with the damn thing. This week's redemption island challenge is going to be INTERESTING

 

While I agree throwing challenges isn't usually a great strategy,

Spoiler

in this particular case I think they did the right thing. Getting Russell out was a priority for the sake of tribe morale, not to mention just getting rid of a threat. Besides, it's not like he's all that great at challenges, and that tribe is still very strong (Mike, Grant, Steve, Ralph...there's still a lotta testosterone). Hell, you can throw that female fire fighter into it for that matter. She looks like she's got as much testosterone as some of the guys...LOL! I like the way she played Rusell and his girls too. That was frickin' awesome. She had me fooled.

I tell ya, I think there's some big time players on that tribe.

 

That tribe is stacked I was pissed in the beginning when Rob got the weak tribe....but they need to lose some challenges because Russell's two girls are as good as Rob's if they make it to the merge

 

They had Rob's tribe reeling and they threw it away. Challenges are hard enough to win when you don't give them away. They knew Ralph had the immunity idol so the chance of Russell hurting them between now and the time they legitimately lost a challenge was slim. It's not like there are idols littered everywhere. It was foolish and really not much more than a paranoid move. I agree it's in their best interest to eliminate Russell early but the situation was nowhere near that desperate. Now they have no choice but to vote out Russell's allies next.

 

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/surviv...k7eBgp0G8u0nQJU8mF&vs=Secret Scenes&play=true

 

I disagree about the priority. IMO losing momentum and giving the other tribe hope is a far more eminent danger than any individual when you have a 6 to 3 advantage.

And I agree that the fire fighter chick played it perfectly. And about her testosterone level too. LOL

 

Maybe if there was actually a chance Russell could stop them. Otherwise it was pointless. She could have been blatant about her intentions, there was really nothing he could have done. He wasn't going to flip anybody to his side. He was doomed when he didn't find the immunity idol. If he can get back in the game before his allies get knocked off he could be alright. But I don't know how they can survive at this point. The funny thing is the old woman would probably make it further aligning with Russell. It worked for Jerri who would made it to the end of heroes vs. villains if anyone would have realized that all the losers on the jury were going to give Amanda 'I hate you the least' votes.

Personally I wouldn't go into Survivor so afraid of one player that I started throwing challenges after only a couple of days or so. I think they need to grow some balls.

 

That chick is my hope for $160 in my pool ;p

 

I'm thinking they get put in right at or soon after the merge. Might throw a tribes plans outta wack with a big swing vote. My guess anyways.

 

I agree, sending him to the same tribe would be pointless unless they secretly sent him back with an immunity idol or something.

I think someone will go back in soon. The merge is still a ways off, they can't reasonably expect one person to win that many consecutive challenges to get back in the game. If they wait that long you can't say they're really giving people voted off early a fair shot.

 

I think of it as the earlier you get voted off, the harder it should be to get back on the island. I am very curious what they decide to do there's a lot of different opinions about how RI should effect the game.

 

If they wait until the merge to bring somebody back there's little chance Russell or Matt will still be around at that point. Just too many individual challenges to win. They gave the impression that everybody got at least a shot at redemption. Francesca virtually would have had zero shot at winning enough consecutive challenges to make it on redemption island to the merge. 'Harder' and almost impossible are different things. Of course it's still a better shot than none.

I think if they only want to put one person back in the game at a later point they should have considered letting two to three people stay on redemption island at once. They could periodically eliminate survivors along the way and then have a final showdown between the last two to four to see who goes back into the game.

 

If you bring back too many people, that's a lot more episodes covering less time (it's still 39 days) It could very well end up like that, but nobody really know for sure which is kind of a neat thing. I'm hoping it's not for a while because then Russell should be good as gone.

I'm waiting to see what they do, I'll probably end up doing that for something similar for my survivor :P

 

The show is better with Russell. How much would Superman suck if he knocked off Lex Luther in the first ten minutes. There is a reason Russell has been in three of the past four seasons.

 

I agree with this.

But it's Rob vs Russell and Rob's my favorite player so I'm "against" Russell. And I definitely think Rob is a better player overall. I don't think skewing the game for either of them is fair IMO though. It might happen, but even in Rob's case I wouldn't like it.

 

Other than Rob's tribe just blowing *** again it was a great episode.

Russell out for good and Kristina sent to RI? NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE


oh and Rob found an idol? Perfect.

 

Rob's tribe has to be the biggest group of morons I've ever seen. He'll breeze through to at least the merge. The teaser made it look like Stephanie might find a way to cause some friction between the six challenge throwers in next week's episode. I'm rooting for her to make it deep. The game is better with Russell in it but you just can't help but like Matt. I think he's going to make it back into the game. Look out Rob when that happens.

 

I'm rooting for Matt to make it back in the game, but I think the odds are against him winning so many individual challenges in a row. Obviously, I don't know how many he has to win, but I'm guessing it will be after the merge at the earliest.

 

I think Matt might come back and if the numbers work right might even be working with Rob again. Of course he's going to be gunning for him....but Rob has the idol. If Rob can string a few individual challenges in a row and works his magic he has a good chance at winning the whole thing.

 

If Rob's tribe keeps losing I could see someone coming back earlier.

 

I think it will be sooner than the merge. They bring one back before the merge and one at some point after. Redemption Island is a waste of time if the only ones with any real shot are those eliminated later in the game. The odds are stacked against Matt continuing to win these challenges until the merge. Nobody would have much of a chance. You can make the argument that it should be harder for people eliminated early in the game but I'm not buying that personally. Matt was blindsided because Rob feared him and his alliance. Russell was eliminated out of fear as well. Not because they were sorry players.

 

I can't remember the exact words, but my impression was that only one person would get to return.

 

LOL. C'mon Muscle...you still can't see the logic behind getting Russell out? I still say they did the right thing. Look, I seriously doubt that winning challenges, especially any challenge that requires strength and/or any real athletic ability is going to be a problem for that group. That said, if one of Russell little biotches decides to sabotage a challenge, well then...all bets are off.

I also wanna say that I think Russell has some real issues. I mean, I just don't think that dude is playing with a full deck. BUT...he will do down as one of the not only most evil players to ever play the game, but also one of the best. If he could've just realized his own short comings and developed some kind of a social game, he could've won at least once, maybe twice.

JMHO...

 

All the challenges won't be physical. They are not unbeatable. They play scared, I can't get behind that or see the logic in it. I find it hilarious that they thought they could get rid of Russell and then start holding hands and singing Kumbaya to the merge. That is clearly not going to happen. I don't respect them because they didn't bother to try to overcome their fear and beat Russell honestly. I thought Ralph might have been smarter than we thought but I'm pretty sure he's really an idiot now. Russell brags a lot but he has enough sense to keep his mouth shut about idols.

Russell became entirely too proud. He bought his own hype though he was a hell of a player. He's right to decide to never come back. With his reputation he'll never get a fair shot at playing the game again. Just more tribes so scared of him they lose on purpose to vote him out.

 

Well, I suppose there's more than one way to look at something. But, for me Russell got what he deserved. It was poetic justice IMO. It will be interesting to see how/if it impacts the tribe the rest of the way, but I just cannot see any advantage for them to have kept him around. JMHO, it's all good neighbor.

 

Russell was foolish to not realize he wouldn't make it this season. Nobody could in the same circumstances.

They should look no further than the heroes vs. villains season to see how important keeping your numbers up is. The heroes tribe was mostly unified and in love with each other, much like zapatera thinks they're going to be. The villains tribe was very split. But they started winning challenges. I probably don't have to tell you which tribe the final three came out of. They're not going to get challenges out of the hardware store every week. It will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward. I realize they still have the numbers but they clearly are taking it for granted.

 

Any week Ometepe wins is a good week for me Whohoo go Rob!!!

When they found the hidden clue and he went back and gave Grant the crappy clue and then played it off all nervous was hilarious.

 

If Rob gets two idols he's basically a lock for the final.

Too bad Stephanie and Krista didn't at least attempt to get in with the 'Brady Bunch' alliance in Zapatera. Maybe they would have realized what was going on between Dave and the other girl [can't remember her name]. They would have at least had a small sliver of hope of dividing the group and surviving. Overall last night was a pretty boring episode. I agree though that nobody from the brady bunch is going to make the final. Rob is going to eat their lunch after the merge.

 

As long as Matt's there anyone who gets voted off is pretty much gone anyways.

 

I don't believe there's two idols. Rob's idol hasn't been identified by anyone other than Rob so as far as they know it's still hidden. The clue they gave was to Rob's idol that he already has. Him hiding the good clue along with his idol, then giving grant his old crappy clue was probably the highlight of the episode (other than the challenge) for me.