Survivor: Redemption Island (The Return of Boston Rob & Russell Hantz) — Page 7

Philip is crazy in a way that is not fun to watch. He's seriously creepy and offensive. Which means he'll probably be in the final three giving the other two better odds at winning. I wouldn't take him for fear of losing votes for bringing him to the end.

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I imagine the reunion will consist of glorifying Russell and Rob, with ten or so minutes left to devote to the actual season.

Things I don't understand from the episode -

Why no one pointed out that the Ometempe's have hoarded everything of theirs and were total a-holes about it, so why should the Zaps have to do anything for them.

Did the Zaps every find out that Phillip actually STOLE their rice, or was the lost in the whole "You're a racist" nightmare that transpired?

I stopped watching this several years ago because I couldn't figure out why I was spending an hour a week watching a bunch of douchebags and attention-whores act like douchebags and attention-whores. I'm going to try and stick this season out just for a sense of completion (and with the hope of seeing the truly lovely Mike again) but watching this sh*t really makes me feel bad about myself.

Updated On: 4/21/11 at 02:14 PM

I skipped this week -- sounds like it was the right move!

I'm really surprised Rob is still around. Now that the other tribe has been Pagonged (with the exception of those on Redemption Island), it will be interesting to see how they start to turn on each other. I wonder if the girls will realize they have to start doing something other than tanning and hanging out.

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You have to hand it to Rob - he pulled off Russell's dumb girl alliance better than Russell did. He managed Phillip, and he made a strong ally in Grant. He only needs to survive two more votes (he has an idol still) and he's a lock for the finals. If he can get the girls to vote off Grant, he has practically no competition for the immunity idols.

It does make me wonder- how would this have played out differently if the other tribe hadn't thrown that competition to knock out Russell.

I would say, at this point, that was one of the flat out stupidest moves in Survivor history.

Another question I have -- is someone who has been at Redemption Island this whole time really going to get to vote at the end - without having been on the jury at Tribal all along? Won't this be the first time that's happened? It doesn't seem fair to just let the RI person return RIGHT at the end...

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Yeah, Redemption Island should have ended with the merge and the assignment of the jury. Now it's just a wonky poorly executed device attempting to add a pre-tribal council without the tribal council. It's a mess and it interferes strategy in such a way that actually makes the show less suspenseful. When you add too many strategic elements to the game, you move away from cunning gameplay and into the realms of random chaos which is far less interesting for an audience to watch. Might as well be Deal or No Deal or Treasure Hunt. The only stable element to the game now is winning the immunity challenge.

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But they won the first challenge after they booted him. I know a lot of people think that they screwed themselves with throwing that challenge that allowed them to boot Russell, so I'm prepared to agree to disagree with people.

I don't know if Jeff was overselling it because it was a dud or if Jeff has just been doing this so long that he really believes every dumb ass twist and new concept they come up with is that GREATEST. THING. EVER. Maybe a bit of both?

Another problem caused by RI is that it eats up so much time in each episode. I was reading on another site (TWoP, I think) that was showing how many confessionals Matt has gotten, compared to someone like Natalie or Ashley, who are STILL IN THE FREAKING GAME.

I just hate everything about RI. Except that it keeps hot Mike on my tv screen a little longer.

Again, it might be a little of both. There's an argument to be made that by following Rob blindly Grant, Ashley, Natalie, et al got pretty far, so who is to say that that's NOT the game strategy for those people? It just makes for a dull, uneventful season, at least to this point.

I guess I just feel like having a "super player" like Rob - who has played this game FOUR times now - against people who are playing it for the first time is at its core an unlevel playing field. I felt the same about the infernal Russell. But again, they that booted Russell have subsequently seen themselves destroyed in the game, while those that have sworn allegiance to Rob have kept themselves in it, so what do I know?

I honestly thought throwing the challenge to dump Russell wasn't a dumb move. They knew they had to get rid of him before the merge and take advantage of the numbers while they could. Personally, it was the ONLY smart move I've seen thus far other than Rob splitting up Matt and whatserface. Why did they even bother putting the names of the females on the screen this year? It's like the early episodes of Gilligan's Island. There's Boston Rob, Crazy BLACK Man, Hot Jesus...and the rest! Right here on Redemption Isle!

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At least it's not just me who can't keep them straight.

I would argue that the evidence points to getting Russell out being a BAD move. The entire tribe was decimated after he left - in Survivor, it doesn't get worse than that! What worse could have happened to them? With Russell, and not losing that momentum, who knows if they would have survived longer. Just seems to me it couldn't have gotten any worse than it was!

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And can I just say that Matts brother is HOT.

I seriously doubt that Mike's sacrifice of getting to spend time with his mother so the rest of the Ometepe tribe members could spend time with their loved ones will profit him anything.