I liked Matt (ok, as eye candy, since I didn't know much about him), and I kept trying to come up with a way to be outraged that they voted him off just for being sportsmanlike, but then the reasons he got voted off stacked up in my mind: He seemed to be a genuinely nice guy (dangerous), he was interacting already with the other team (super dangerous), and he "paired off" with a pretty girl (code red! - your team captain wrote the book on that!). He was doing all the things that make a great endgame player, and that was his downfall...it's nowhere near endgame.

These past two episodes have pretty much screamed who was getting voted off in the first 5 minutes of the episode, and the need to stop it. Me no likey.

Despite the hair, Matt is no Fabio. And I tire easily of those who think God is really invested in their game play on a reality show.

This is why eye candy is not required to speak.;)

And yeah, the God thing...I actually admire those who do have the guts to be out-loud-and-proud Christians, but I don't like it when they either are or are edited as Jesus-Freak stereotypes.

No, I thought he looked more like Tarzan!

And I like your dream for next week's epiosode. I would be rather happy to see that happen!

I was relatively disappointed with this episode. There really wasn't anything exciting happening. Well, the look on Andrea's face when she realized what was happening to Matt - that was pretty entertaining. But other than that, it was kinda blah. Even Phillip and his craziness didn't deliver.

I still don't much care for Russell. I thought it was because I'm tired of him, but I don't have the same aversion to Rob. Honestly, I think I like Rob more now than I did just two weeks ago. Crazy, I know.

It'll be interesting to see the duel between Matt and Francesca. I seriously hope she wins.

First duel tonight!

My money's on Matt.

The Talker called at 8 and we talked til 9 so I'm going to have to avoid this thread til I can watch it. Arg! Men! ;)

Tribal council result:
:D:D
That's all I have to say about that.

I read the first half of this post and thought "Did I click on the wrong thread?":p


There for a minute, I thought Russell had pulled it off again, winning the TC vote with a perceived minority. I can't tell whether Julie was smart or not...Stephanie did have a point when she said that Russell knows how to get to the end and probably could have gotten her there at #4 (instead of at the bottom of a six person alliance). And Russell may play dirty, but he's shown that he's capable of sticking to alliances. Now, she's just put a target on her back if Russell makes it back.


My money is on Russell this next duel. Matt beat Fran, but neither one did all that well, really. If that were an Immunity challenge with multiple competitors, someone would have won before Matt got his first key.

:D:D and raise you one :D

I wondered if that will be the case every week. There may come a point when they don't get to know anymore. In the meantime though, those who see it can decide what to tell, like they did with Russell. (Though I really didn't see the point in that lie.)

True, but I thought it was a good move. Julie strikes me as thinking well (like she did with her hesitation on throwing the challenge, which I think she was right about) and she had no reason to trust Russell. Other than Stephanie and maybe Krista, the tribe needed Russell gone.

I'd bet on Matt, for one simple and probably misguided reason: in the finale last season, Propst talked to Boston Rob some. Russell was sitting right behind them with a scowl on his face the whole time, and Propst never talked to him. It gave me the strong feeling he hadn't done well this season. So, based on not much more than that (well, that and Matt's million dollar quote last night), my money is on Matt. And I could be all wrong.

I hope Russell is sent home by Matt, and that we have seen the end of one Russell Hantz.

And, I hope Russell goes home and finally gets his teeth fixed. How mean is that? :)

I'm also wondering if, at some point, when close to the merge, a tribe would consider sending a really strong player who they are confident could beat other people sent there, so that they still have an alliance advantage when that person is brought back. It's risky, but I could see them attempting it.

I can get behind this logic.

While Survivor does try to throw people for loops. I can't see them faking Russell being pissed off at the previous reunion. That's just taking the cover too far.

I thought for sure The Talker would end up calling tonight at 8 again. So relieved he didn't :)

ETA: Loving every aspect of this episode. I am really liking the idea of Redemption Island and how it is playing out.

Quote of the week "I haven't even thought about sex in two weeks. All I can think about is food."

That cracked me up.

I am really enjoying this Survivor edition. Boston Rob is playing his team like a drum. I am a little bummed and surprised Russell is out, he is such a whackjob. But he is (ummm, was) a big weenie.

A big, super-arrogant weanie. I just hope he sticks to his promise never to play Survivor again; I didn't want to see him this go-around. He never had a chance of winning.

Meanwhile, Phillip will more than compensate for the whackjob factor, while Ralph is the icing on Phillip's whackjob cupcake.


And I was right, AF! :p

You know, the second season that Russell was on, the first season was airing while they were filming the second. The players from the second season hadn't seen how bad he was. By the third time, everybody had seen his first go around and knew what a jerk he truly was. He would never stand a chance on Survivor again. I'm so glad MC was right about this outcome! I also liked the description that he was sobbing and then got his Russell back, or something to that effect. I laughed out loud several times during this episode.

I think Rob was right in the strategy. She was too shrewd and a much bigger threat. If the duel is less physical and more mental, I think she could win against Matt too. What was up with Rob doing half the challenge though? It seemed like he did every other task in that challenge and I think it hurt them. They do seem to be following him like sheep. Will any of them be smart enough to break out from that and get rid of him when he least suspects it?

Things in particular that I like about this season: combined reward/immunity challenge, the duels, the concept that someone will come back from redemption island. I feel like we are getting to know the tribes better, earlier because of having one challenge. I like that they can talk during the duel and that the people present can say what they want. Phillip acting like the information that they got was so golden was pretty humorous to me.

I'm okay with you being right. I like Matt and hope he does come back and win it. He shouldn't have much trouble taking Kristina out next challenge. I was holding my breath when his dominoes didn't work the first time. It seemed like if he would have pushed the first one a little harder, they might have made it. Neither one seemed to do more than tap their first tile, and I think that was a mistake.

I'm pretty over Phillip's crazy. I want them to muzzle him and make him keep his freakin' pants on. It's one thing to have to look at the 20 year old girls' blurred out butts from their bikinis falling off from weightloss...it's quite another to look at a grown man's blurred out butt in pink panties.

I really thought Ralph was pulling a Larry the Cable Guy (who actually has a master's degree and is a pretty smart guy), but he proved that theory wrong. He went from saying he wasn't telling anyone about the idol, to telling his whole alliance (which is too big at this point for that kind of info), to announcing it to the other team, just to one-up Russell. Fail.

I can't wait to see what those two girls that had teamed up with Russell have cooked up. If they can come back from a 2-7(?) minority, I will be totally impressed.

I know the 2nd time Russell played that the teams had not seen his season, but I always wanted to yell at them, "Hey! He's on the Villains team! Don't you think there might be a reason???"

Place your bets:

Who is going home for good tonight, and who is going up against Matt in next week's duel?

Yeah, I said it...I don't think Kristina has a chance against Matt (and also think MC was onto something with the million dollar quote-spotting), which I guess answers my first question.

A writer at Reality News Online has a really interesting theory about Matt's edit. Under his theory, the reason we see so much of Matt talking about his faith is because Matt's edit is turning into the "Jesus edit." Here's what he says:

Matt’s edit has always confused me. Prior to the season, he was depicted as a Fabio clone, little more than a fun-loving dullard. When the season began, however, he was transformed into a hyper-religious man on a mission from God. With the exception of Jake Blues, that doesn’t really mesh with me, but it does with others. Meh, live and let live, as it were.

Still, Matt’s story arc is finally starting to come together. He doesn’t have a winner’s edit as of yet (so far Rob has the closest thing to it), but what he does have is a “Jesus” edit. For those who don’t understand my reference (or worse, think that I’m being condescending to Christians), allow me to explain.

The crux of the story of Jesus is his resurrection. It’s why Easter even exists. That Christ was crucified and resurrected in three days (thereby cleansing the sins of mankind) is the central tenet of the Christian faith, regardless of denomination.

That is exactly what Matt is going through right now. His faith is tied in with his fate in this game. He believes that Jesus came back to life after three days. In the game, Matt comes back to “life” every three days by winning his duels. The fact that Matt is very religious (along with the whole “good vs. evil” them of his duel with Russell) only adds to the motif.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re being told that Matt is going to run the table at Redemption Island and return to the game. I still think it will happen at the merge (which means he has up to six more duels to win), but until I’m shown any evidence to the contrary, that’s what I’m going with.

Makes me go "hmmmmm."

^^^Whether he wins or not, I kinda like the quirkyness of it and hope it happens. Pretty unconventional evangelism, but whatever.

Duel for Jesus!

I'm so used to watching this on the DVR that I keep trying to fast forward through the commercials.

Why did Stephanie point out at TC that everyone was in pairs except David, but previously decide that there was no room for scrambling?? I know her and Krista didn't like David, but that doesn't really matter in Survivor...if she could have pointed out to him that everyone else was in pairs, and they should become a trio, he's smart enough to figure out that 3 is better than 2. He probably also would have been smart enough and "in" enough to figure out which pair they needed to bring in with them so they had the numbers to pick the other pairs off. OR, their other option was to turn the target to David. If they hadn't given up and actually got talking, they would have found out that the pairs don't trust David (maybe because he HASN'T paired off??). Either way, they both deserve to be voted off for strategic stupidity.


Other team...it seemed Phillip actually made some strategic progress this episode, but previews show him blowing it next episode. And I still can't stand the pink panties.

Rob missed an opportunity to tell Matt "We knew you'd win challenges here and would end up back in the game. Keep it up here buddy!"

I think Matt would have seen that for what it is: a lie, and too little, too late. I don't know why Rob didn't just tell him the truth - that he felt he was playing too hard.

I feel like Stephanie had it right that MOST people on both teams aren't thinking past the current 2 person, odd man out pecking order. The two sunbathing girls (I don't even know their names) obviously haven't thought past what happens when Philip and Andrea are gone. And none of them have even TALKED about getting rid of Rob. Big mistake, and I think Rob's trying to keep Philip around to keep the target off himself would backfire.

Agree with all of this, except that I don't know that keeping Phillip around will backfire on Rob. But it baffles me why they all trust him.

The reasons I think it could backfire are that 1) he's such a wildcard...you can't predict what he'll do and 2) if he pushes too hard to keep him around, the girls might figure out that he's up to something and/or be so annoyed with Rob for wanting to keep him around that they vote Rob out (or at least break alliance with him). Either way, amazingly enough there doesn't seem to be target on Rob's back so it's unnecessary, though he has no way of knowing it for sure.

It's Wednesday, people!

So, after Krista loses to Matt tonight, will he face Stephanie next week, or will that team actually pull It together and bring home a W?

Meanwhile, while I've only seen the previews after the episode last Wednesday so this might already be obvious if they've hinted at it in other previews, tonight would actually be an opportune time for a swap & Redemption recovery, since the pecking orders on both sides seem somewhat defined.

I haven't seen anything in the previews that telegraphs a swap.

This episode was pretty meh.

The only really amusing part to me was when Andrea got all pissy about Matt "bonding" with Krista. She's leaving the game, and he spent as much time with her as he did with you (and more one on one with her)....WTF is the problem? Ah, Showmance drama. Although Krista did MUCH better in the challenge than I expected, and actually could have probably done well in the game had she not hooked up with Russell.

The rest of the episode was a complete strategic vacuum.

Are you kidding me? What about the heaping helping of crazy served at the Ometepe picnic, when Phillip revealed to us that he, Rob and Grant are in a three-way alliance that Phillip calls "Stealth-R-Us"? Where Phillip is "the Specialist," Rob is "the Mentalist" and Grant is "the Assassin"? I mean, that's some serious amusement.

As for Andrea, yeah there's some jealousy going on there, but I think there was also some realization that if (when?) Matt makes it back into the game, he could be hard to beat.

Not complete, I don't think. David showed he was paying attention to Krista at the last tribal council, and he and Stephanie tried to get people thinking. I would have loved to have seen that work.

I had forgotten about Stealth-R-Us...you know how your brain takes new info and "files" it: Important! Remember this!/Interesting factoid, but probably not useful/Wrong Info, toss next shredding session...guess which category Stealth-R-Us fell into in my brain?

I did appreciate seeing less pink panties from Mr. Jury Fodder, however.



I did see LOGIC from David, but not strategy. Maybe he doesn't realize that he's probably next to go and was not helping his case fighting for a lost cause. That team showed their cards on the trust vs. challenge wins when they threw the challenge to get rid of Russell. David needs to realize that the team he's one would rather go in with less numbers, but tighter alliance than risk someone who might flip.

See, I see it a little differently. I don't think that was behind Russell's ouster. I think they thought (with good reason) that Russell simply couldn't be allowed to go too far into the game, and it was safe to throw a challenge and ditch him while they had a numbers advantage. I think that they thought that removing Russell from the mix would make them a stronger, more cohesive tribe. And they might have been right if Stephanie and Krista had accepted it and moved on instead of promising payback.

I don't think David realized that Stephanie would flip (or really already has). And I do think he knows, after Krista's good-bye speech, that he may be odd man out in his Alliance. They only needed two of the other four to join them, and Steve, Mike and Julie all looked like possibiities. I think where David failed was in pushing Serita's ouster to them as a group. They've gotten rid of Stephanie, so they have no choice to but to start eating their own if they lose again, and I think David's right that they likely will lose again.

Merge is coming! Merge is coming!

If Matt wins next week against Sarita, he's back with the merged tribe. The redemption thing has turned out to be an interesting twist.

I think Matt is going to win. They showed the whole foot injury thing to give us doubts which, in Survivor style, means he wins anyway.

I wish they didn't show so much in the previews (like that the merge was happening next week).

They are also editing things to make us think that Rob will be the target which makes me think he will not be, at least not yet.

Exactly.

They usually preview the merge -- and I had to laugh when they did. So much for Zapatera keeping Dave around for tribal strength they'll never need again. (I was hoping Dave would pull it off.)

So that makes it 5-6 Zapatera-Ometepe. Phillip and his delusions will bolt, making it it 6-5 for a Zapatera alliance. But Matt will return, making for a 6-6 situation. It will be interesting to see what Dave and Andrea do.

Will Matt stay loyal to the tribe that voted him out? I'm not sure about that.

I was with the people who said they were disappointed that the active players got to know what happened on Redemption, but it's kinda balanced out by the fact that the ousted player gets to be a Blabby McBlabbypants. I wonder if in future editions people will take that into consideration when deciding who to vote out (and who to send to watch the duel)...also, I wonder if the freedom to speak will stay around in future editions. It seems like too much power to give someone that is now out of the game.


I knew Sarita was going because they edited TOO hard for David in the beginning. They finally showed some strategic thinking, but it may be too little, too late. I think the decision to throw that challenge bit them in the ass, hard. Russell was good a challenges, and Krista proved she could be as well. They got rid of the wrong people to win challenges too soon.

At least up to a few weeks ago, the Insider clips at CBS indicated that he still considers himself part of Ometepe. Add to that that it's the people from Zapatera who have been running their mouths, I'm not sure he would see value in aligning with what may appear to him to be a somewhat dysfunctional and non-strategic Zapatera. And I would think Rob would be working to get him, for the sake of numbers if nothing else.

And I could be totally wrong.