SURVIVOR REDEMPTION ISLAND EPISODE 6 WRAPUP AND COMMENTARY: STEPHANIE THE LAST OF THE EVIL ALLIANCE TO GO

Boring wrapup first and than the commentary that you all waited breathlessly for follows.

Things start off at Redemption Island with Krista walking into camp and greeting Matt. Krista is looking forward to meeting Matt and they start cuddling under the shelter as the rain falls. They talk about religion as Krista lays down the challenge that she will give him a run for his money when they go at it.

The next day at Zapatera, Steve talks about seeing his name on the parchment. He asked Stephanie outright and she tells him it was to keep the strongest people around. Steve tells her its a poor move and they start arguing a bit.

Over at Ometepe, Natalie and Ashley have a spa day as they clip each other's armpit hairs as the others are working. Phillip notices this and starts to get annoyed. He asks the girls to check on the fire every half an hour or so. They brush him off however as no one pays any attention to him now. He talks about booting Ashley and Natalie if they go to TC.

Redemption Island tree mail arrives as Krista and Matt find the Bible in it. Her and Matt start to pray together and seem to be getting along. Soon the challenge is on as Probst brings in Andrea and Natalie and Julie and Mike to watch. Krista and Matt are instructed on what to do. They will use a grabbling hook to grab three bags. Once they get all three bags, they will use a ball to work through a maze. First person to complete the activities win and stay in the game and the loser leaves for good. As always making a long challenge short, Matt wins again in a tough, closer than it appeared duel. She begins to cry adnd gives her Bible to Matt.

Back at Zapatera, Sarita complains of a tooth ache and she is in pain. Julie thinks she is a drama queen and the word is out on how she is not fit for the game. Julie and Mike start talking about she is annoying them while David starts talking about having Stephanie unseating Sarita in the group. He tells her to start sucking up to the others in order to get in good.

At Ometepe, Phillips is on the prowl again as the storm clouds start arriving in. He gets annoyed again about how the girls are not helping him gather wood. Phillip finally goes off on the girls and Ashley gets annoyed and confronts him about it. He calls Ashley and Natalie lazy and the fight gets nasty as he calls them beauty queens. Rob decides to try and squash it right away and tries to bring everyone back together.

Meanwhile Stephanie starts getting into the game at Zapatera by talking to Steve and she apologizes for voting for him at the last council. He appreciates it and is willing to hear her out. She goes on to tell him that she wants Sarita out.

Soon its challenge time as the tribe waltz in. Both tribes are instructed that two members of each tribe have to launch balls on the beach where the others have to try and catch them. First tribe to grab five balls win immunity. There is also reward which is the tribe being flown for a mountaintop picnic. Launching the balls for Zapatera is Stephanie and David and for Ometepe its Phillip and Natalie. Making a long challenge short, Ometepe destroys Zapatera and wins immunity again.

After the challenge, we see Ometepe arrive at their feast. Of course Rob sees the hidden immunity idol clue and no one else is paying attention. He decides to let someone else grab it which Grant does. Phillip discovers them looking at it and calls them on it. They tell him about it and Phillip thinks he is in a three man alliance with them. He notes he is bothered that the two tried to hide it from him and he is going to strike later.

Back at Zapatera, the talk starts on who is going home. It will come down to either Sarita or Stephanie as David begins to speak up for the latter. Stephanie goes to Julie and pleads her case as Sarita starts to walk into where they are chatting. It appears as though Stephanie is gaining ground as David takes the idea to the rest of the group. Once they arrive at TC, Probst brings up the thrown challenge to get rid of Russell and David admits they let Ometepe off the mat and gave them confidence. Ralph talks about how he would have done better with the shooting. We than hear Sarita and Stephanie talk about their merits in challenges. Davis and Probst agree that Sarita sat out so she cant be the goat. We get the votes cast and find out that the person voted out is Stephanie by a count of 5-2.

Now for the all important commentary:

-As far as the vote goes, it was the right move and Zapatera has impressed me in doing the right thing all along going back to booting Russell, Krista, and now Stephanie. They have completely eliminated the Evil Alliance and also eliminated the threat of either of the girls jumping to Ometepe as they promised to do at the one duel. Yes Sarita has been pretty much useless in the challenges and around camp but she is not a threat to anyone and the trust factor she carries is something that cant be taken too lightly. Stephanie was fighting an uphill battle the whole way and even though she was fighting until the end, she was destined to go.
-One person who put a big X on themselves was David who totally misread the whole situation. He let his personal feelings for Sarita cloud his better judgement and now he has put himself out there as someone who went against the previously formidable Core Six. No doubt the rest of the tribe took notes and will likely toss around the idea of kicking him out next. David has great potential in the game (dont you just picture Rob Cesternino when he speaks????) but he might have ruined it for good with that move there.
-You can debate until the cows come home about whether or not it was wise to throw the challenge to get rid of Russell. Even though I dont usually endorse this move, the presence of Russell was such a distraction that it wouldnt have allowed the tribe to move forward with him still in the game. The paranoia that he brought to camp would have overwhelmed them and so things could have been a lot worse than they are now. Surely Russell would have divided the group by now so the bonds that Steve and Mike have for example likely would not have been so solid. Yes they have lost some challenges since but thats classic Monday Morning QB.
-Regarding Sarita, I have been very disappointed in her. She is incredibly wimpy and whiny despite her good looks. But she is the classic case of if she can get to the merge, she will go quite far in that no one has any reason to vote her off at that point.
-The immunity challenge was just all right. Again they as a whole have been lame for a few seasons now. Mike looked terrible in getting his butt reamed by Grant. Grant is one of the more physical players the game has ever seen. Sucks he lost his shirt though. Some cold nights out there.
-Was a very quiet episode for Boston's finest. He is still completely in control and dominating. By the way he couldnt have said it any better when he and Grant got caught with the hidden immunity idol clue. A rare slip up by Rob there but no worse for wear. Phillip can go tell everyone whatever he wants. No one knows that Rob already has the idol.
-By the way Probst identified to the others that Grant was a former NFL player. Why didnt he say the same regarding Steve? I wonder if Steve desired not to have that info revealed. Either way it made the whole Stephanie voting for him because he is not a strong enough player laughable. As they show his muscles bulging out of his 50-year old plus body while hauling firewood.
-Phillip was entertaining for the first two episodes but enough is enough. I cant even believe we are still forced to look at him. Could you imagine if he beat Matt on Redemption Island?
-Speaking of Redemption Island, it was a typical victory for Matt. No one in their right mind would have believed Krista had a shot to beat him. My only question now is when does Matt get returned to the game? Hasnt he earned that right already? There comes a point where it gets unfair to keep having him do challenges. Eventually the law of averages will take effect and pick Matt off so it would make sense for Probst and Burnett to get him back into the game quickly.
-Thought it was interesting that Krista was also religious like Matt. I find it interesting in the sense that she decided to align with the most evil player in Survivor history in Russell. Wouldnt that be a conflict of values there? Hmmmm.
-Andrea looked like a woman scorned there didnt she? Matt is quite the player it appears.
-Even though Phillip is annoying as hell, he had a point with ranting against Ashley and Natalie. The two of them are even more useless than Sarita. Watching them pluck each other's armpit hairs was beyond gross. Yup I cant look at them with any sort of sex appeal after that. If either one of them wins than Survivor should cease operations right now.
-I still dont like the Redemption Island concept. Not interesting at all to me from the start.

Thats all I got. Check back for more tomorrow. In the meantime lets hear what you have to say.