First glimpse this week of the Ometepe tribe is, of course, Phillip in his day-glo underwear. I think Survivor just enjoys torturing me week after week. I loved Rob's comment about him being like your dad and not wanting your friends to come over and see that. The girls making gagging reflexes in the background was also funny. Phillips back in hunter mode, spearing small crabs that are pretty much annihilated when he's lucky enough to hit one.
Back at Zapatera, Stephanie and Krista know they are in trouble. I'm not surprised, but Ralph can't keep the secret of the immunity idol any longer. He shows it to his tribe and seems to relish in their admiration. Ralph is getting a big head, and I think he's headed for a fall. The alliance of six is strong right now, but if they succeed in getting rid of Stephanie and Krista, who does he think the alliance will target first? I'm always amazed at how many rookie mistakes these people make, especially since they claim to be fans of the game. This show is in it's 22nd season, and sometimes they act like they've never watched an episode.
The next scenes show the tribes choosing who will go watch the Redemption Island duel. For Ometepe, Phillip claims one spot and then for some reason, they let Kristina have the other one. I can't believe Rob doesn't insist that someone from his alliance goes as well. The only reason I can think that he doesn't is that he knows Phillip isn't smart enough to lie to him. At Zapatera, Ralph and Sarita elect to go watch with Sarita saying that if she gets to see Russell lose, that would be worth a million dollars.
At Redemption Island, Matt declares Russell is the biggest villain in Survivor history, and that he is fighting to honor God, which pretty much makes this duel a battle of good versus evil. I think Russell wants it more, but Matt seems to be a smart kid who's a physical threat as well. I don't like Russell's odds here. Just like his overconfidence lead to him getting voted out of the tribe last week, it could lead to his final elimination this week.
Jeff runs over the rules of the duel. It's basically dominoes with trip wire booby traps. Line up the blocks and knock them down to release a ball that will break a tile. They are pretty much neck about half way through. Matt finishes first, but when he knocks his over, the dominoes stop half way through, so he has to start over. Russell attempt his; he gets farther, but still comes up short. Matt completes his a second time, and this time he is successful - thus ending Russell's hopes and dreams of winning Survivor and winning his second Redemption Island challenge in a row.
Russell is in tears; I'm not surprised. I think this game is a huge part of his life, and I really think he believed there was no way he would not make it to the end. While I'm not surprised to see him gone, I am a little disappointed that I won't ever get my head-to-head, one-on-one Russell vs. Rob challenge I was hoping to see this season. Of course, just as I'm feeling some sympathy for Russell, he reminds us why he's a villain as he goes off an a tirade about his team being basically peewee leaguers, since they through the challenge and how he had to be quarterback, run the ball, catch the ball, etc. Ralph jumps to his team's defense announcing that he has the idol. He tries to backtrack on it, once he remembers there are members from the other tribe listening, but it's too late. Russell throws out that Sarita is running the tribe and that Matt and Steve are a pair as well. Phillip announces he's glad he came.
But none of it matters for Russell who is gone from this game. In the end, I don't think it was Russell's tribe that beat him near as much as it was Russell defeating himself. I've talked in the other recaps that Russell was trying to play the same game for a third time in a row, so I won't rehash that. That was part of the problem, but I think Russell's real failure was in underestimating the other players on Zapatera. Underestimating isn't the right word; i think it was more of him not having any respect for them, which really comes down to the man's ginormous ego. Russell believed that no one could play him - that no one was smarter than him. It's how he lost the social game and received no votes to win the million dollars in back-to-back Survivor finales. It cost him this game early on, because he refused to believe that any of these other "bitches" could even compete with Russell Hantz. And so ends the Survivor career of one of the most notorious players ever. Love him or hate him, you can not deny his effect on the game of Survivor.
While all of this is going on, Boston Rob decides that Ometepe deserves a beach day. He cooks up a game and leads everyone away from camp on an outing where they will win "Royal Treatment" for the day. Of course, this is all a ruse to get everyone away from camp. Once they hit the beach, Rob complains of stomach problems and heads away to "relieve himself" or in this case, relieve the camp of its hidden immunity idol. Only Boston Rob could pull this off without making everyone suspicious. This is the man who on The Amazing Race convinced half of the teams to bow out of an eating challenge and take a substantial penalty simply because he didn't want to do it himself. Rob could sell water to a mermaid. After a healthy amount of searching, he finds the idol and heads back to the beach where his team is blissfully unaware that they've been had.
Sarita and Ralph return to Zapatera and give everyone the rundown on what happened at the duel. Much celebration is had by all, with the exception of Krista and Stephanie. Neither of them are doing themselves any favors though as they continue to defend Russell rather than try to make amends with their team. While I agree with them on principal, this is Survivor people and pissing off the majority is not going to get you very far in the game.
We next see Phillip and Kristian walking back to camp; Phillip has this elaborate plan about what information they will reveal and what they won't and how they can use it to get farther in the game. The poor man just does not understand how people see him. The camera immediately cuts to Kristina telling the camera he's a big windbag.
Phillip gives an abbreviated rundown of the events to the entire tribe, but then he tells Rob and Grant in private that he knows alliances and who has the idol, but he wants some help for Kristina who is most likely next on the chopping block before he'll tell them. Rob reminds him that he's in his alliance and should be telling him anyway. I love Rob's diary moments. I could watch an entire episode of just those. In this one, he calls Phillip a dumbass and says "Don't you work for me?"
What Phillip doesn't seem to understand is that he's just told Rob and Grant that he's not with them - that if he needs Kristina, he knows he's not solid in Rob's alliance. As he goes off, Grant and Rob start planning to get rid of him - which will be a shame, because in spite the pink underwear, he's really entertaining. You never know what he's going to say. He's like the Charlie Sheen of the Survivor set. Phillip ends up telling them, but if Ometepe loses, he may regret his actions.
Back to Zapatera, they have tree mail and the clue to the next immunity idol. Julie is worried about karma and hopes they win the challenge to regain momentum.
At the challenge, Jeff breaks down the rules. It's obviously sponsored by Sears because I don't think Jeff would have worked the word Craftsman into the dialogue more if he were a smurf using the word Craftsman instead of smurf. The teams must go over a balance beam and then use various tools to uncover other tools, ending the challenge with breaking three tiles with nails and a hammer (Craftsman, of course). They are playing for immunity and a barbecue set and food. When there is food in the reward, everyone seems to try a little harder.
Ralph get Zapatera off to an early lead. Grant almost catches up, but at a log chopping part of the challenge, Ralph schools Rob. Going into the final part of the challenge, Zapatera has a lead and pulls out the win. Okay, I'm seriously getting sick of Ralph's crowing. While I thought he was kind of funny at the beginning of the show, now I just find him annoying. It was another close challenge. I'm not sure what keeps Ometepe from being able to pull them out at the end, but if they don't find a way to do it soon, they are in for a rough time come the merge.
The next scenes are of Zapatera enjoying the bounty of their win. I cannot imagine what it must be like to get real food after a couple of weeks of rice and whatever you can scrounge out of your surroundings. There definitely seems to be a stronger team unity without Russell there.
At Ometepe, let the scrambling begin. Phillip give his post-loss pep talk again, much to the consternation of his tribe. Kristina brings up talk about the idol. I think her hope was to put suspicion off on to one of the other tribe members, but it seems to only have succeeded in making people think she has it. Rob is lobbying hard for Kristina as he sees her as a bigger threat to him than Phillip; he's not wrong. Kristina is a smart girl who seems to be immune to Rob's charms, and Phillip is someone he can easily manipulate. However, the rest of his alliance adamantly wants Phillip gone. The plan is to split the vote, giving Kristian three votes and Phillip two votes so that way if Kristina "has the idol", Phillip goes home. I'm not sure his alliance is going to go for it, and I'm worried Rob may be overplaying his hand in trying to get rid of Kristina first.
When Phillip asks what's going to happen at tribal, Rob tells him that Kristina is going home. In Phillip's diary scene, he declares Rob is not a man of his word and that he's going to have to take his fate in his own hands at tribal council. Sweet! It should be another wild Phillip rant!
Tribal Council - Jeff asks Kristina about being on the hot seat each time they're at Tribal. She talks about being on the wrong side of the numbers. Several members of the tribe basically have a Kristina love-fest until Rob talks that it may be too little too late. At this point, I just kind of want to shake him and tell him to back off. Let Phillip go this week and get Kristina next time. He's seriously going to alienate his alliance the way he's going. Okay, Jeff opens the floor to Phillip and I'm not sure what just happened. Something about earning the second highest honor you can win during peace time for field sanitation. Did Phillip just say he dug latrines? A quick search on the Internet brings up an Army Field Sanitation study guide. After learning that the five "F"s of Field Sanitation are Fingers, Feces, Flies, Food, and Fluids, I decline to do any further research.
It's very obvious that this is coming down to Kristina and Phillip. Kristina gave better interview, so I have a feeling Phillip may be in trouble. They vote; Jeff tallies. With a 4-3 vote, Kristina is voted out of the tribe and sent to Redemption Island. Rob obviously still has control of his alliance as the vote went just as he had wanted. I'm really glad Rob has the idol. If Ometepe keeps losing, it's only a matter of time before Rob becomes a target.
In next week's previews - Phillip's odd way continue to annoy the tribe, which Rob seems to think he can use to his advantage, and over on Zapatera, we start to see the team unity possibly collapsing. It's always hard to tell what's really going on as the editors love to toy with our emotions.
Russell, you will be missed.
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