Survivor Redemption Island: The Bushido & the Crispy Rice

It was another week of problems at Zapatera, nuttiness from Phillip and hot girls sunning themselves in beach chairs.  In addition there was the crispy rice battle, not to be confused with the great Rice Krispies battle of 1933 in which Snap, Crackle and Pop prevailed over Belch, Tinkle and Fart for cereal supremacy.

But our episode began with Zapatera returning from Tribal Council (or TC as Jeff calls it on Twitter) and a slightly uncomfortable conversation between Sarita and David.  David let Sarita know that he technically had no problems with her, but he did not trust her.  Now as far as I can tell a lack of trust is a problem especially between people supposedly on the same tribe.  David still appears to be quite bitter over Sarita choosing Stephanie to be the puzzle solver instead of him.  Sarita tried to make nice with David, but he would have none of it.

Stephanie arrived at Redemption Island and I have to think that Matt was not too thrilled with her.  First of all she would not shut up.  How someone could just sit there and babble endlessly about peanut butter is beyond my comprehension.  And how Matt sat there and listened to her constant and slightly incoherent babbling was amazing as well.  I suppose God told him to just sit there with his buff half covering his face and listen intently.  Either that or he was auditioning for a role on America’s Next Train Robber.

Phillip was in fine form in this episode.  He said it was his turn to go to RI and he took Rob with him.  The way Phillip proclaiming it was his turn sounded like a child letting the teacher know it was his turn to be the line leader.  Of course Phillip could not keep his mouth shut prior to leaving and decided to discuss The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.  I had to look this up and according to Wikipedia it’s one of those samurai guidebooks like The Art of War.  Whether Phillip actually read it is as debatable as his status as a federal agent.  Quite simply Phillip is using the strategies of the Five Rings to take down Boston Rob.  Let your opponent strike first, which Rob has certainly done. 

At RI we had a simple memory matching challenge similar to games you would have played as a kid.  It’s always tough to go first so Stephanie played  the odds after winning the coin toss and deferred to let Matt pick first.  But lo and behold Matt had the power of Jesus behind him and made an instant match.  Stephanie was immediately in a 1-0 hole, but amazingly enough she also made a match on her first turn.  It was now all even at 1-1 and the first to five would win.  Stephanie definitely had her chances, but her inability to recall where something was sealed her fate and Matt won 5-3 and remains the only person to win any RI challenge.  Phillip mentioned the Bushido Code and said that Matt is a true samurai warrior.  You can go to Wikipedia and look up Bushido Code as well, but considering that most samurai adhered to Buddhism I would not guess that Matt would not think too highly of the comparison.

But Stephanie was not done yet.  She took her opportunity to completely trash and discredit her tribe and let Phillip & Rob know that things over there were not as they seem.  She even told Ralph that they needed to get rid of Sarita because David was the only one that could do puzzles.  She asked Ralph if he was ready to take on that responsibility and Ralph said that if he had to do it he would.  Now let’s try and recall Ralph numerous attempts to spell at TC and wonder for a second if anyone really thinks Ralph can do any puzzle that does not involve growing hair on your back.

On the way back to camp, Phillip asked Rob what they should reveal to everyone from RI.  Rob played Phillip like a piano by telling everyone at camp that Phillip asked him that question.  Rob said Phillip would definitely be the next to go and if he asked he would tell Phillip that he was going home.  Rob said he would “front side” him.  Is front side really the opposite of blindside?  Wouldn’t front side be the opposite of backside?  I think that see side is the opposite of blindside.  I really do not want to see what happens if Rob actually and literally front sides Phillip.

A little while later it was lunch time or dinner time or just time for a snack or something and rice was served.  Phillip was sitting there chewing his rice in the angriest, most forceful way possible when the girls started talking about how much Rob likes the crispy rice.  Obviously since Rob liked the crispy rice and since Phillip is essentially a first grader he decided that he wanted some too.  However, the girls did not want to give Phillip any crispy rice and Phillip got angry and started whining about how he wanted crispy rice.  Natalie stood firm and said that he had his share and what was left belonged to Rob.  This just angered him more and Grant, being a nice guy, offered Phillip a little crispy rice, but he refused it and walked away.  I just love how the girls were so protective of Rob and refused to allow a big baby (the elder in the tribe who should be respected according to himself) to get his way.  How is it that 18 year old Natalie is substantially more mature than a 52 year old alleged former federal agent?

The immunity challenge was a classic obstacle course with hay, a net crawl, brick walls and balls.  Teams had to collect the bags of balls along the way and then at the end shoot the balls into this tiny little hoop.  The first team with all six in the net would win immunity and reward.  The reward was to travel by helicopter to the top of an active volcano for a feast.  Both tribes did very well and each tribe had taken a big lead, but at the end they both had five balls in the net and the next one in would win.  Grant, with his great athletic abilities, was dominant and scored the winning point for Ometepe.  Zapatera was going back to TC, but this time there was no one left to vote out except one of the previous solid six.

At the reward everyone ate and enjoyed the food and the volcano and it was as incredibly obvious to me as it was to Rob that the hidden immunity idol clue was hidden in a jar of rolled cookies.  Rob was able to successfully fish it out of there with no one else seeing him and later ditched the clue into the volcano.  Oh Rob, you make me laugh.

Zapatera was having quite the debate as to whether to vote out Sarita or David.  For a while they were all swayed one way and then the switched the other and by the end of the discussion it was anyone's guess as to who was heading off to RI to face the mighty Matt.

At TC (and by the way if you are not following Jeff Probst on Twitter you really should.  His insights during the show are very interesting) Jeff had to explain the word "cohesive" to Ralph, but judging on the way he eventually responded to Jeff's question I really don't think he ever understood.  Yeah, this is the guy you want doing puzzles.  David talked about how he was better than Sarita and Sarita pleaded her case as well.  However, in the end it was Sarita that was shocked to learn she had been voted out and sent to RI.  Sarita looked as surprised as I had ever seen someone at TC and lamented the fact that she had not brought her stuff with her.  This brought out the best/worst in David when he then said "Don't get too confident".

But next week we will see the battle between Sarita and Matt for the right to rejoin the game at the merge.  It would actually really suck for Matt if he somehow lost the challenge after five victories and Sarita got back in the game, but that's the way it goes.  Frankly I have no confidence that Sarita can beat Matt and I think that may have been part of the thought process for Zapatera.  Why get rid of David, who would have a decent fighting chance against Matt, when you can send Sarita as your sacrificial goat?  Anyway, I'll be shocked if Sarita beats Matt.

Until next time my friends...