Survivor: Redemption Island (Page 9) StuckInTheSixties: I mean, it'll be over. We'll know how the game went down, and who won. What else is there to speculate about? StuckInTheSixties: (laughs) Oh, I see. Hell, I'd backstab you in General Chat if I could get a million dollars out of it!   Sables: comeon Sits you are a very detail minded man, I am sure you can come up with something...the regulars as the cast.....would be a great laugh! I will help with ideas   ~LoisLane~: Phill looks like the guy who played the President in the show 24 haha. Im all ready with my  should be a good one! Sables: arrrggggh I recorded it but it only recorded two hours  so I have to watch the last hour with everyone else staying up for this one Sables: well that was as we predicted, he did deserve to win and he played the game very well, he must have trouble going to the bathroom with those horseshoes stuck up his butt lol And well Phreaky Phil is really a special agent.... more to him than we figured. I think that something very detremental must have happened to him over the years great show! did they say they were going to do the Redemption Island again, I fell asleep the last fifteen min or so ~LoisLane~: Yes he is the Man isnt he. That was pretty good. I for one small second thought that Phill might have been in there haha. Now Rob can hang up his "Buffs" and call it a day. I do however think its not fair that he won the 100 000 also. Yes I know they pick it before they know who the winner BUT if its the same person that won survivor, then I think the money should go to the runner up for the 100 000. I wonder who the "two" people will be on the next Survivor????  motherfingsuperwoman: This season was LAME! Oh yeah Rob was so great...blah blah blah, 10 years of practice, he better be great!! lol It was like the little girls on his tribe weren't even there for the money. They just played right along with him. haha Natalie, thinking she didn't anything worth a darn in the game. Redemption Island was a waste of time. Bringing back old players vs new players is lame. StuckInTheSixties: To each his own. I've loved the game from the very beginning, love it now, and loved this season. That said, here's my last gigantic ... this time REALLY gigantic overblown Survivor: Redemption Island essay. I've been chipping away at this for exactly a week (Hey! There was three hours of material to wade through, not to mention that this was supposed to be the last week before Judgment Day!) StuckInTheSixties: Jeff Probst, in his spoken introduction to the finale said: “This time around, Boston Rob, a notorious double-dealer, tried something new: loyalty. He made an alliance of six Ometepe members, and stayed with them until the end.” At hearing that, I scoffed a little. But upon reflection, I realize that it’s true. Rob wavered at various times, wondering if it would be better to vote off one of the members of his alliance in lieu of someone else. He can’t be faulted for this. Treachery is a part of this game. It’s essentially a NECESSARY part of this game. The game succeeds or fails upon deciding when it’s advantageous to remain loyal, and when to betray. In past games, Rob was more short-sighted, and more willing to drop the hammer on someone close at an earlier point in the game. This time he waited until he absolutely had to turn on his alliance members simply because there was no one else left. And when he had to cross that Rubicon and begin cannibalizing his clan, even though he was steely in his commitment of focusing on the final prize, he found himself a little sad, particularly when he was forced to execute Grant because Ashley was wearing an Immunity Necklace. Contrast this to his nemesis, Russell, who never once EVER showed the slightest compassion for any of the players he betrayed in past games. Survivor: Redemption Island featured those two as returning “villains.” Russell proved himself worthy of that description, during the game, and especially afterwards, in New York, when questioned by Jeff during the finale. He solidified what was, for me, an impression that in Russell’s mind, he was entitled to a Survivor victory, and felt it was stolen from him, not just in this game, but in the two he failed in previously. Rob, on the other hand, acknowledged in asides with the viewers during the game, that in the past seasons, he’d failed because of errors he’d made, and he was determined to learn from those errors, and not repeat them. Rob never voiced the opinion that he’d had victories stolen from him as Russell has done. In past games, I was never a fan of Boston Rob. He was, as Jeff put it, a “double-dealer.” But in this game, I warmed to him pretty quickly. And there was a moment when I completely climbed on board the Boston Rob Bandwagon. It was when he was enjoying a reward, a short day trip to a Nicaraguan volcano. He had already found the Hidden Immunity Idol, thus the little clues that were being slipped in with food and otherwise given to the tribe were meaningless. Even so, Rob was adept at finding those clues, thus keeping others from doing so. And in this case, as he sat on the edge of a dramatic, lava-filled, smoking volcano, knowing that the clue was meaningless, he giggled as he brashly and flippantly tossed the unread clue over his shoulder into the volcano. It cracked me up! It really wasn’t all that arrogant of a gesture because as he well knew, the clue was meaningless, of no value to him whatsoever. And it was funny as hell when he threw it into a volcano, no less. I became a Boston Rob fan then and there. I also found myself focusing on Rob during Tribal Councils, and afterwards. I noticed that after those votes, others would often show expressions of smug satisfaction when the vote was read. Ashley, in particular, loved to say: “… and then there were [fill in the number].” continued ... StuckInTheSixties: And afterwards, back in camp, they would congratulate themselves for blindsiding someone. But I noticed that Rob didn’t seem to participate in that revelry all that much. In Tribal Council, when one of his victims would enter with the rest of the jury, his expression seemed to be full of melancholy. He was obviously determined to win, but didn’t seem to be enjoying the executions. It was the same after votes were read. He looked a little saddened by the necessity of killing off one of his own. Upon return to camp after the execution of Grant, while the other three celebrated in the success of the vote, Rob wasn’t cheerful in the least, and in contrast, seemed blue and low-spirited at the necessity of killing off what had been a good friend. I also noted that throughout the entire game Rob was very strict in not taking part in the backbiting that occurs sometimes in Tribal Councils. He carefully avoided taking any comments personally, and making any snide comments or getting into arguments. This was, of course, strategically advantageous, but people are people, and it must be awfully hard to avoid being drawn into those kinds of petty arguments that explode in Tribal Council. Not once did Rob go down that path. During asides to viewers, Rob was often extremely cocky. But when interacting with other players in Tribal Council, not once did he resort to any pettiness, bickering, name-calling, or anything like that. The person that Rob presented to his competitors was confident, but humble - authoritative, but patient. It was impossible for most of the players to not like him. It was the same around camp. Contrast Rob with Crazy Phillip. Phillip managed to provoke hostility from just about EVERYONE in camp at one time or another, but Rob remained above it all throughout the entire game. Obviously, when the final votes were read, it was shown that this tactic worked to his favor. With the exception of Hillbilly Ralph’s aberrant vote for Phillip, the decision was unanimous. There is an aspect of the game that is an obvious part of a winning strategy, the ability to betray your competitors, yet somehow do so without causing them to hate your guts. Again, it was in this seemingly contradictory task that Russell has always been such a failure. After two straight games of Russell-style game play, and then continuing to play the same style in his third outing, Zapatera wanted no part of him, and were even willing to throw a challenge to dispose of him. Rob, on the other hand, showed one way to accomplish this contradictory task. He remained civil and diplomatic to his competitors from day one even when he was necessarily scheming behind their backs and betraying them. Rob never succumbed to pettiness. Let’s look now at these stats for Matt … ~ Two times blindsided ~ Seven combined days in the main Survivor game ~ Ten straight Duels that he survived ~ Twenty-nine days on Redemption Island … and one final Duel he didn’t survive. The lesson one should take from this is that God doesn’t give a rat’s ass who wins or loses Survivor Island. I loved that last Duel. The show producers are so creative with these competitions, sometimes inventing something that is extremely complex, and other times, like this one, a game that is so simple: Keep the teeter-totter balanced with one foot – don’t let the vase on the other end fall off. The various close-calls and recoveries were dramatic and entertaining. Beautiful in design in that a willowy young girl and the hardened Iraq War USMC veteran were equals, with Andrea ultimately winning a contest that went well over an hour. continued ... StuckInTheSixties: When she returned to the tribe, Andrea was wise to immediately begin working the social game hard, cornering Natalie and Ashley and dwelling on how advantageous it would be to avoid going up against Rob in the final vote, trying to persuade the other girls that the Zapatera people were calling them Rob’s “puppets,” and that they said they was going to vote for Phillip. She admitted, in an aside with viewers, that she was lying, and ultimately, it was a futile gesture, but it was really the only play she had other than to win Immunity, and therefore, she was smart to do it. Rob was very confident that Natalie would remain loyal to the end, and his confidence was justified. It’s not surprising that he harbored suspicion toward Ashley, worrying that she’d find a way to break that bond he had with Natalie, and Ashley did make a few tries to do so. As good as Rob played his game, he remained ignorant to the end, as did Ashley, that Natalie had manufactured that lie about Ashley earlier in the game (see the account of that on page 7-8 of this thread). In all likelihood, that treacherous little lie was a critical factor in taking Natalie to the end, solidify Rob’s trust in her, and strengthening the notion in Rob’s mind that Ashley wasn’t to be trusted. I really think it was one of the more important moments in the game. I was puzzled, and disappointed that Natalie’s lie wasn’t brought up by Jeff Probst during the finale. I would have loved to see the reaction of those three with the reality of that publically laid out in front of them. I was impressed with the determination Ashley showed in challenges there toward the end of Survivor Redemption Island. Her two straight victories were well timed, and while they didn’t ultimately derail Rob’s quest to win the game, they certainly set his plans back. Her first Immunity Challenge victory caused the premature elimination of Grant in her place. Her second victory caused the demise of Andrea. It’s been demonstrated many times in Survivor that the best time to be winning Challenges is in the latter stages of the game, and Ashley’s determination was awesome and obviously distressing for Rob. It led to a humorous and telling situation when the players returned to camp after one Challenge. With no attempt to be surreptitious, Rob simply told Crazy Phillip, out loud, in front of all three of the Bikini Girls, that they needed to talk in private. As they walked away, Rob said over his shoulder, “Sorry, Andrea, you’re next.” To her credit, she was completely good natured about it, giggling, “It’s alright. I’ll be here.” Rob and Phillip were quickly followed by Natalie and Ashley, and the obvious plan was cemented into place: Andrea would be voted out. I got nervous when Rob began flirting with the idea of not playing his Hidden Immunity Idol at the upcoming Tribal Council, and keeping it as a souvenir. Confidence is one thing, foolishness is another. As it turned out he actually could have kept it, but to not play that idol would have been incredibly reckless. I think Rob was just elated that the game, nearing completion, was still under his control, and he could see the light at the end of the tunnel. He’s a very smart guy, and even a dummy wouldn’t have been so foolish as to not play that Hidden Immunity Idol. Ashley cornered Natalie, and extracted a “promise,” with that word actually used, that after Andrea’s departure, they both would vote for Phillip at the final Tribal Council. Natalie had a great poker face as she looked Ashley in the eyes and said: “Yes, I promise … love you.” continued ... |
Good way to end his 10 yr run