by Gina Scarpa

 

Last night, on Survivor: Redemption Island, Matt tried to get his bearings after being totally blindsided at tribal council. The only person more shocked than Matt was Francesca, who was expecting to see Phillip. Meanwhile, at Ometepe, Boston Rob is feelin' pretty good about flushing out Kristina's idol and ousting Matt but he knows that in the morning, he'll have to do some damage control with Andrea.

 

The tribes get some mail from the Survivor gods, letting them know that two of them will be randomly chosen (by drawing rocks) to go and watch the duel at Redemption Island. David and Steve from Zapatera and Ashley and Andrea from Ometepe are the lucky few who get to go on a field trip for a few hours.

 

The duel at Redemption Island was, for the most part, lame. You might be expecting some epic battle, one that tests many facets of your being. Hell, even the MTV challenges get more intense than this. For their first duel, Survivor decides to go with... making a long stick using many little sticks and ropes to retrieve three keys to unlock a gate. That's it. The only thing that made it worth watching was that Francesca had a huge lead, but Matt came back to win it. He lives to see another day - and Andrea couldn't be happier!

The worst part of Francesca's loss is that Probst made her throw her buff into the fire. So much for a souvenir.

 

Steve and David return to Zapatera, telling Russell that Francesca won and acting like they just pulled the wool over his eyes. I'm not sure what this really accomplishes, strategy-wise. The Zapatera alliance of six toss around the idea of throwing the challenge so they can get rid of Russell now instead of risking that they won't be able to stop him later. Sounds stupid but let's see what happens...

 

The immunity/reward challenge is one we've seen before. Cut Survivor some slack. After 22 seasons, it's hard to come up with new things! At least it's one that's a lot of fun to watch - strap your teammates to a wheel and dunk them underwater so that they can grab a mouthful and spit it into a tube. When the tube fills up, it will release a ball and one player from each tribe gets to work on a slide puzzle which becomes a track for the ball. The first person to finish wins immunity and comfort items (chairs, pillows, blankets, and a tarp) for their tribe.

 

Let it be known that Zapatera should win the Survivor Emmy for "Worst Performance By A Tribe Pretending Not To Be Throwing A Challenge". By the time it got to the puzzle, David just stood there pretending to be dumbfounded by it while Boston Rob made quick work of it. Ometepe, oblivious to what just happened, relished in their victory.

 

Back at Zapatera, Russell and Stephanie come up with a plan that could make their fellow tribe members' heads spin: get one member of the alliance of six to flip and blindside Ralph. Stephanie gets a hold of Julie, who seems up for the idea of teaming up with Russell. However, even if they pull that off, they'll still be in the minority so it's actually really not that advantageous for her to flip.

 

At tribal council, Stephanie flipped out on her tribe, defending Russell to the high heavens while they attacked him for his sneaky ways... which really aren't all that sneaky if you've seen him play twice before. She definitely drank the Kool-Aid. The votes are read and it's a three way tie between Russell, Stephanie, and Ralph - meaning Julie didn't flip. When they revote, Russell has his torch snuffed for the first time in three seasons.

 

I'll be the first to admit that I'd be uncomfortable playing the game with Russell if I wasn't in his alliance. However, is it really wise to throw challenges so early in the season and get rid of one of the most successful, seasoned players of all time?

 

Survivor: Redemption Island airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

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