Survivor Recap: Will Grant Survive?

Sunday, May 15th, Survivor Redemption Island 2 hour finale!!

On this weeks episode the remaining survivors gathered for the Redemption Island dual. Once again the challenge involved a knife maze and breaking a tile to retrieve puzzle pieces. Mike was first to complete the challenge, Matt was second, Andrea was third and Ralph became the newest jury member. The only remaining Zapatera member still in this game is Mike! if he makes his way back in to the game next week and ends up in the finals he’s a shoe in for the win with all of his ex tribe mates on the jury.

Back at camp Rob is very concerned about Ashley and how close she and Natalie have become. He’s committed to Ashly that he will bring her to the end. He’s also promised Grant and Phillip that he is in a final three alliance with them. Phillip feels that he has made himself the villain for the sole purpose of being taken to the end. If that’s the case he’s sure doing a swell acting job of being a jerk.

Phillip harrasses the girls when they talk about eating. Natalie and Ashley and Phillip have a screaming fight because Phillip tells the girls that they only need to consume 1700 calories per day and the men must consume 3000 to maintain their strength. Phillip once again shows his jealousy of Rob stating that the girls won’t fight with Rob but they’ll fight with Phillip. (Cuz you are an ass Phillip!). I seriously would not have had the strength to keep from voting that man off a long long time ago.

Phillip tells Natalie that they are going to have to vote off Ashley as she is scheming to vote off Grant and then Rob next. Natalie explains to Rob how hard it is to be Ashleys best friend and give her allegiance to Rob. The tribe members agree to vote off Ashley at the next tribal council.

The Challenge:

The challenge consists of connecting fish hooks together to retrieve a bag with (once again) puzzle pieces!! Surprise, more puzzle pieces. The puzzle pieces consist of numerous pieces and sections of a hanging fish skeleton. To make this challenge a tad different the contestants must complete it with one hand behind their backs.
First out of the gate, Grant is in the lead with Rob and Phillip and Ashley close behind. Natalie is struggling to even get the bag untied. Section two Grant, Phillip, Rob and Ashley are going strong. Ashley starts gaining ground and passes Rob and then passes Phillip. Grant struggles with his last bag and Ashley is flying through the puzzle. Jeff tells Natalie to sit down and watch at this point she is so far behind she’ll never catch up. Ashley finishes first and wins immunity! This challenge also comes with a reward. The reward is “Survivor Room service”. Ashley is given a menu and can pick one other survivor to join her for the room service reward. As expected she picks Natalie.

Back at camp two waiters arrive with the menu items selected for the girls. The girls spread a blanket away from the others and consume tons of food, pizza, chocolate, nachos, cheescake, strawberries, basically all the food they have been craving and missing. They eat themselves sick.

Rob is thinking about plan B. He decides that Ashley’s plan is the best. He has given Natalie assurance that he won’t vote her out however he has misgivings about voting out Grant. Grant is such a great competitor and has played so well in Survivor that he is a serious threat. Rob genuinely likes Grant and feels like he’s made a great friend but he didn’t come on survivor to make friends. On one side he wants to vote out Natalie to split Natalie and Ashley up but on the other he thinks voting Grant out maybe the better option. Phillip and Natalie and Rob decide to vote out Grant. Rob tells Grant that he and Phillip and Grant are voting out Natalie.

Tribal Council:

Sounded to me like Jeff was trying to sway the vote as he pummeled the contestants with questions about how close Natalie and Ashley are and why that is so threatening to the other players. (Rob’s already thought of this Jeff, lol). Everyone appears uncomfortable and nervous with the exception of Ashley (because she had immunity) and Phillip. (apparently he really believes Rob.)

No surprises at tribal as Grant is voted off (except for me actually!) I was disappointed and bummed that Rob decided to vote off Grant because he’s my second favorite in the game and I love looking at him!!! Grant takes it in stride as usual and trots off to Redemption Island. Watch out Matt and Mike and Andrea, if ANYONE can win a competition at redemption island it’s Grant!

Next Sunday is our finale. My hope is that Grant will rejoin the game as the sole survivor from redemption. We’ll see what happens!!