One thing to say... Boston Rob is a cruel genius. More on that later.
This week marked the final battle at Redemption Island before the winner would rejoin the game as Ometepe and Zapatera merged. The Redemption Island challenge between Matt and Sarita involved standing between two walls with your feet perched on ever narrower blocks. Whoever stood the longest would win. Now this looked like it could have been the worst timed challenge for Matt as he had just cut his foot in the previous episode, but despite his injury he was once again victorious. His victory was witnessed be every member of both tribes. Upon Sarita's departure came those famous words from Jeff Probst, "drop your buffs" (at least I think he did actually say it this time).
So the tribes are merged. They were sent off to a brand new beach on which they would begin their new life as a single tribe. I hope Phillip listened to Rob and brought all his stuff with him to the challenge. Once on the new beach they were treated to food. I'm sure for most of us sitting at home, comfortable on the couch, eating snacks, we sometimes laugh at how excited they get over food. But when you realize that they have been only eating a very small amount of rice each day and are actually starving, any food is a luxury. Ask anyone who has actually played Survivor and they will tell you that it is hard and that they are always hungry.
The next thing they had to do was come up with a new tribe name... Murlonio is their name. A name chosen by Rob. He claimed it was Spanish for something or other, but it in fact means nothing at all. It is the name of one of his wife, Amber's, stuffed toys. The ring leader of her stuffed toys to be exact. Hilarious!
So now Murlonio is off to its first individual immunity challenge. This challenge looked tough. One wrong move and you would be out. They had to balance on a log, then balance first one, then two, then three balls on a plate. The moment you dropped a ball or fell off the log you were out. I was in fact surprised how long most of them lasted. In the end it was down to Mike (former Zapatera) and Natalie (Ometepe). Mike looked rock solid. It was tense to watch because hopefully you like I, don't like the former Zapatera members and would like to see them lose. Natalie was barely hanging on when Mike fell off his log. Natalie, the winner of the first individual immunity. Cheers!
A twist. Redemption Island begins again. Whoever is voted out goes back to Redemption Island to rejoin the game later.
Now the strategy begins. Mike is not dumb. He sees that in order to survive he must make a big move. He hopes that he can get Matt to flip. Ometepe did after all, send him to Redemption Island. He also sees that Matt is tight with Andrea. If he can convince Matt and Andrea to join him and Steve they could be the final four. He makes his case to Matt. Matt sees the benefit. He approaches Andrea. She sees how it could work but also that it could be a dangerous move if it backfires. So we are left wondering will Matt do it or not.
Well, we are not left wondering too long because Matt, being a good and loyal guy decides he will stay with his old team. That could have been the end of it. But no. Matt had to go and tell Rob of Mike's offer to him. Why on Earth would you tell Rob that you were thinking off betraying your old tribe and that you thought it was a good idea, even if you had decided not to turn on them.
So Rob did the best, most cruel and brilliant thing ever. He decided that Matt should be sent back to Redemption Island. Ahhh... I love it!
Anyone that doesn't think this was the right move just needs to see how even after telling Rob that he would stay with Ometepe, Matt was still flip flopping in his own mind. Even Andrea could see that Matt was being wishy washy.
And so, we come to tribal council. A lot of cool things happened. It seemed that the old Zapatera people thought that Mike would be the target. Ralphy boy decided to play his hidden immunity idol to save Mike. The funny thing is that there were no votes for Mike. So that is one less hidden immunity idol to worry about.
Then the votes are read. Grant gets five votes. Steve gets one vote. Then Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt and the eighth person voted out of Survivor Redemption Island is... Matt.
Oh, how I love this game. I'm sure that Matt is a nice guy. And I know it is awful to laugh at someone else's misfortune. But that was was one of the best moves ever. It makes complete strategic sense, especially if you are Rob. Matt could easily flip. He almost did. He likely would in the future. So he had to go. I feel a little bad for him, but he has performed well at Redemption Island and maybe he can keep it up and be back in the game once more.
But until then, I will say it again... Boston Rob is a cruel genius!
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