Survivor: Redemption Island

[sahyder1]

The promos for this week's episode are talking about two tribal councils. How will they fit both in along with two immunity challenges and presumably one Redemption Island duel into one episode?

[The Quasi Juice]

Why does it matter that Mike mentioned the idol? Ometepe already knows that Ralph has it.

Oh right, forgot about that. Rob or anyone never mentioned this during the episode, which is kind of odd.

[sahyder1]

Why does it matter that Mike mentioned the idol? Ometepe already knows that Ralph has it.

Oh right, forgot about that. Rob or anyone never mentioned this during the episode, which is kind of odd.

It probably was edited out for time reasons. Probst said they just have so much footage for this season and that is why starting this season they won't do the extended intro song.

As for Ralph, there is a unaired scene on CBS.com that suggests Ralph is going to try and go after Rob because he is "bossy".

Edited April 11, 2011 by sahyder1

[GoGo Yubari]

Just hit the final three of Thailand. Jesus, this is painful to watch. sahyder, unless you're feeling super-completist you can skip this season easy.

Brian played a perfect game, though. Seriously, I cannot think of a single mistake he made given the people he was working with. He brought the most unlikable person to the final two (literally one of the... maybe three players more insufferable than him), and had three complete and total sheep wrapped around his little finger in Ted, Helen, and Jan. And even without the really bogus "oh, we're not actually merged" swerve, they probably would have flipped Shii-Ann over and skated past the merge.

EDIT: Wait okay this final jury is hilarious. I stand corrected on my spoiler cut.

[sahyder1]

Just hit the final three of Thailand. Jesus, this is painful to watch. sahyder, unless you're feeling super-completist you can skip this season easy.

That's the season with Shi-Ann (sic?) right? Hated her in all-stars.

[GoGo Yubari]

It is. She does not even scratch the surface in terms of the fucking unbearable people in Thailand, compared to basically all of the Chuy Gang tribe after a certain point she was a saint.

(Of course, I haven't seen All-Stars beyond maybe... three episodes when it first aired.)

[The Quasi Juice]

It is. She does not even scratch the surface in terms of the fucking unbearable people in Thailand, compared to basically all of the Chuy Gang tribe after a certain point she was a saint.

(Of course, I haven't seen All-Stars beyond maybe... three episodes when it first aired.)

Be prepared for a whole lot of bitterness . Before that comes Survivor: Amazon though, which is pretty fun.

[Blehschmidt]

God damn, Phil is crazy as hell!

[GoGo Yubari]

Crazy like a fucking fox. He is going to run deep unless the non-Rob members mobilize themselves.

[RPS]

I love Phillip... he's like a crazier version of Coach. But he seems far more self aware of the character he is portraying and aware of what's going on in the game.

EDIT: And hands down, Rob is getting the best edit I think I've ever seen in 22 years of Survivor. Seriously. He's portrayed as a cerebral mastermind.

Edited April 14, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[GoGo Yubari]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqZVP7xcL8

Seriously, I've watched this so many times now and it has yet to get old. Especially Boston Rob and Grant chiming in with the name, which was clearly rehearsed at Philip's request.

[The Quasi Juice]

I love Phillip... he's like a crazier version of Coach. But he seems far more self aware of the character he is portraying and aware of what's going on in the game.

EDIT: And hands down, Rob is getting the best edit I think I've ever seen in 22 years of Survivor. Seriously. He's portrayed as a cerebral mastermind.

Russell got more air time and they made it look like everything was his plan too. Like Tyson changing his vote in HvV. Although I still agree, Rob's edit is the best, because he's clearly the mastermind and is portrayed as such but he's not hogging air time like Russell.

I LOVE this season. It's already one of my favorites. Philip is way better than Coach ever has been. With Coach it seems fake 90% of the time, Philip actually IS crazy, but at the same time he understands the game. I'm actually quite impressed how he has performed the last 3/4 episodes. He's an amazing asset. He'll make it to the end I'm sure, which is wonderful.

Edited April 14, 2011 by The Quasi Juice

[sahyder1]

I love Phillip... he's like a crazier version of Coach. But he seems far more self aware of the character he is portraying and aware of what's going on in the game.

EDIT: And hands down, Rob is getting the best edit I think I've ever seen in 22 years of Survivor. Seriously. He's portrayed as a cerebral mastermind.

Russell got more air time and they made it look like everything was his plan too. Like Tyson changing his vote in HvV. Although I still agree, Rob's edit is the best, because he's clearly the mastermind and is portrayed as such but he's not hogging air time like Russell.

I LOVE this season. It's already one of my favorites. Philip is way better than Coach ever has been. With Coach it seems fake 90% of the time, Philip actually IS crazy, but at the same time he understands the game. I'm actually quite impressed how he has performed the last 3/4 episodes. He's an amazing asset. He'll make it to the end I'm sure, which is wonderful.

Agreed. With Coach his whole "honor" thing was an act.

[Pleatherface]

I'm a little disappointed in David. "Hey, the flagpole is moved. There could be an idol under it. Let's dig.. Hmm.. No idol. Okay, so Mike's gone. Probst is repeatedly telling us to dig deep.... Hmmm.."

DUDE! Check where the flag was.

I'm not a big believer in producer shenanigans, but if I can tell for certain an object has been tampered with, I'm not stopping at looking at that object, I'm digging a tunnel 3 miles wide around it.

Love that David actually gets more likeable when he realizes he's going home. And couldn't help but notice when Probst was describing the challenge, the second he said the word puzzle David perked up. He really fought for that one, and I can see him doing well in certain puzzle challenges, I noticed him actually looking at the pattern though and taking his time, which was probably a mistake when Grant and Mike are just shoving pieces together as quickly as they can. Could have been a very good cereberal player, but now even if he wins redemption island (Which I'd bet good money that he could.) he's toast. The Rahb mafia comments, could have been offensive considering Rob's heritage, but I think they were actually pretty dead on, and David's jovial tone helped. Dude needs to smile more.

Phillip playing for second place isn't shameful to me, I mean if I was ever lucky enough to get cast, I'd play for second or third myself, it's a good strategy, but being an asshole to the tribe low in numbers just for the sake of being an ass makes me worry that he's not entirely acting. The more of sane Phillip I see the less I like him.

Ralph continues to be entertaining. His banter with Jeff in previous episodes, his mocking of Phillip, and the fact that he put Ashley's name on the block from a simple grasping at straws comment about ftc votes makes him enjoyable. Which means if he's not gone next week, it's only because The Rahbfather takes care of whoever comes back from redemption island. His survival after that depends entirely upon whether or not he can win i.i. and if Rob wants to put a bullet in the back of Grant's head before the final 6.

I also love Ralph's votes. "Ressel, Krasta, Stiffinie, Philite, Davey." I was disappointed he didn't go for "Rohb" Say what you will about him being dumb, he knows what makes good tv and he's playing it up. God bless him.

Steve and Julie are lame ducks. Julie has potential but if she was going to make a move she'd have made it before now. These two are just waiting to be picked up by any Ometepe member looking to shake things up pre-final 6, which is unlikely since the numbers required to flip at this point just aren't there, unless several people decide to take out Rob, and with them all convinced they're in his final 3 why would they risk it just yet?

For this same reason, I don't hold out hope for the redemption island winner lasting beyond his return episode. Matt is a twice scorned strategic moron whose burned any possible bridge he has beyond winning every immunity challenge he can until the numbers are so low someone needs him... He's Fabio 2.0 without the stealth mastermind streak. Unfortunately he's also Probst's dream contestant a buff good looking young dude that has proved his challenge dominance over weaker women and a fat dude, he's the living embodiment of out play, so chances are even if he loses this redemption island, he's getting a huge fuck-off chunk of the reunion.

Mike is smart, likeable, well disciplined, and a physical threat that speaks well. He's a less calm Yul that got the rotten luck of not having a suitable Penner flip or a handy challenge monster buddy, with the jury made up of a good deal of Zaps, there's no way in hell you'd want him anywhere near final four, and I honestly wouldn't allow him there even if the jury was filled with only people Mike has wronged by punching their infants.

Dave as stated is doomed if he reenters the game, unless someone takes pity on him and pulls him into an alliance, and if this is the case, he's certainly not making it much further than Rob.

Andrea and Grant are in the same boat, they're both threats to Rob for different reasons, and they're both waiting for their moment to strike, unfortunately they probably wont get that moment, since I'm betting Rob takes one of them out before final 6, just to be certain. It's too late for them to flip to zap, and none of Ashley, Natalie, or Phillip have a reason to think they'll need to take out Rob.

Ashley is interesting in that I believe Rob had intended to take her along with Natalie just as a dumb girl alliance of his own, and I think she's fallen from third place thanks to a lethal combination of Phillip's Craziness Being Attractive, Rob's Paranoia, Ralph's One Social Move, and Natalie throwing her under the bus.

Natalie is honestly the biggest threat to Rob, and one I'm not sure he sees. Natalie is young, has played a mostly quiet game, has been in on all of Rob's decisions from the get go, and has proven to be suitable and endurance and balance challenges. Most importantly noone there will believe she controlled everything with Rob around. I believe she can easily beat Rob for the million. Whether he's aware of this or not, I have no idea.

Rob has mismanaged the jury thus far, and may continue to do so. He's controlled his tribe but he's alienated the other, and will get MAYBE David and Mike's votes for respect of the game, but I'm shakey on Mike. Who knows maybe they'll give him his due, but I believe that his paranoia and general (well-deserved) cockiness may ensure he cashes yet another check for not a million dollars.

The Redemption Island concept itself? I doubt will be back, since Rob has shown how stupid it is with his Charlie Brown Kicking the Football treatment of Matt. Redemption Island is only useful if you're down in the numbers or want to change your position, otherwise there's no reason to allow anyone back in the game. And the idea that someone as bad at this game as Matt can be voted out twice and still have the chance to come back and win the whole shebang is insulting as a fan. If I want an underdog story I'll watch the Cook Islands season, I don't need to see Jesus and The Producers piggy back someone into FTC because they couldn't get there themselves.

The Ghost Tribe? Better idea.

Thus far, I like the season. There's been moments that make me roll my eyes and groan, but things are good overall.

[Blehschmidt]

Ghost Tribe?

Sounds interesting, what is this about?

[Pleatherface]

Potential Spoilers if you haven't watched Pearl Islands. Sorry. Editted to remove, and make relevant to this season... Ummmm... Umm..

Oh, yeah!

As much as I would have just as eagerly thrown the challenge to get rid of Russell if I thought he had a shot at finding an idol and had already grabbed a pair of henchgirls? In hindsight it was a mistake to vote him out, and not because they lost momentum or any of that nonsense.

Voting out Stephenie and Krista would have accomplished the same thing, it would have killed Russell's threat to their tribe unless he flipped, and anyone that knows Russell knows he's not flipping just so he can share someone else's glory.

The Zaps ended up desperately needing Russell's experience and the ability to do exactly what Russell does. Make cracks in alliances.

If you replaced Russell's name with Steve in the boot order and kept everything else the same? Russell, David, Mike, Ralph, Julie, and Ralph's idol that noone on ometepe knows about could work something out.

But that's the advantage to being an arm chair survivor player I guess.. *shrugs*

Zap needed a sneaky persuasive bastard that could sell them. David had no interest in doing so, Mike is too rational, and Ralph? Well, that was straight up sad.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Pleatherface

[Blehschmidt]

Gotcha, I remember that, just didn't remember it being called the ghost tribe.

[RPS]

The ill-fated Outcast Tribe. One of the most depised twists in Survivor history. Without spoiling much: it didn't turn out very well.

[bill_da_bill]

The dominance of Ometepe is interesting to watch, but I can see why they squeezed two tribal councils into that episode. What happened outside of the immunity challenges was just very predictable and I never had the question of whether something would happen to shake up Ometepe.

The way I saw it the only thing that Zapatera could hope for was Phillip flipping, which they killed by ostracizing him. Or Mike/David going on an immunity challenge run, which they didn't. So those two eliminations were very predictable and there was no need to make two episodes out of that. Good call by the producers.

Now that we're seeing that Phillip isn't actually as crazy as it might seem I kinda like him. He actually is playing the game, and is going to play the crazy man schtick to the final 3 at least it seems.

I still think Rob needs to do everything he can to have Phillip next to him at the end. Because Phillip is the only person I can people voting for Rob over, other than maybe Ashley. I just get the impression people don't care much for Ashley.

Edited April 15, 2011 by bill_da_bill

[The Quasi Juice]

The dominance of Ometepe is interesting to watch, but I can see why they squeezed two tribal councils into that episode. What happened outside of the immunity challenges was just very predictable and I never had the question of whether something would happen to shake up Ometepe.

The way I saw it the only thing that Zapatera could hope for was Phillip flipping, which they killed by ostracizing him. Or Mike/David going on an immunity challenge run, which they didn't. So those two eliminations were very predictable and there was no need to make two episodes out of that. Good call by the producers.

I loved when Philip got like 5 (?) votes during the second tribal council and he just looked at his nails, no worries at all. He understands the game. He knew nobody would flip and that the producers were just playing a trick to make it seem like a blindside was coming.

Still, Zapatera should have tried to talk with Philip. At least TRY, but they didn't make a move and when they tried to make him feel like an outcast in his own alliance he embraced it (which was genius), and then Zapa got pissed off and started to badmouth him.