Ten Years, Four Seasons, 117 days, Sole Survivor

After the customary season update, we see Grant arriving at Redemption, very somber and upset but as he settled in for the night, we get a view into how everyone feels after coming back to camp after their latest vote out.

Probst takes us to Redemption Island for their last tree mail of the season......Everyone seemed really happy that their time on Redemption was finally over. Matt and Mike both are reminiscing of their time in the redemption island purgatory.

As everyone settled into the duel forum and the Redemption Island duellers were brought in.......Probst explains their challenge that day. Each person places their foot on one end of a balancing board........a vase is on the other end.........when their vase falls, they are out. Grant is first out followed by Matt and Mike which leaves Andrea as the duel winner and the player to re-enter the game. So Grant is the fifth juror, Matt, the sixth, Mike the seventh.

As everyone heads back to camp, Andrea is remarking how left out she feels walking back to camp, and thus tries to convince the other two girls(Natalie and Ashley) to switch sides and let them know that there were some at redemption that were planning on either voting for Rob or Phillip, therefore they won’t have much of a chance of winning.

Back at camp, we see Rob and Phillip talking game.........or shall we say, Rob feeding Phillip garbage of how he wants or see’s things going.........meanwhile in a PI Rob states how he can’t wait to vote out Ashley.........37 days of patience might be paying off.........

Immunity back up for grabs..............#1

As everyone enters the forum, Probst goes on to describe the concept of the challenge. Everyone must race across balance beams, grabbing a bag........walk back across the beam to their challenge board and place the numbers in order.......first bag has tiles going from 1-10.........run back to the start, walk across the balance beam, grab the 2nd bag and continue across the beam to the challenge board.........the 2nd bag has numbers going from 11-30.........run back to the beginning once more and grab the 3rd bag and walk across the beam one more time........the 3rd bag contains tiles going from 31-70.........once those tiles are placed in order, for the last time run to the beginning, go across the beam, grab the 4th bag, bring it back and place the tiles going from 71-100 in order on the board. After a close battle, the winner of this challenge was Ashley and maintained her immunity going back into the vote that night.

As they all arrive back in camp, they all start figuring out who’s name will be on that ballot tonight. Rob thinks he has everyone in the bag, but when he goes to the ocean to wash up, Ashley, Natalie and Andrea all get to talking and trying to figure out if they can do things differently. What they might not of known about is Rob’s secret agent Phil was keeping an eye on the girls and as a dutiful agent, reported to Rob that the ladies might be concocting something......So while secret agent Phil is filling Rob in on things, Andrea heads over to the girls to try to get an alliance happening for that vote.

Tribal Council..................



As everyone arrives for tribal and settle down, the jury is welcomed and that gets Probst picking on Rob first. There was talk about paranoia, who is on who’s side, and how can someone be strategic and take over the game from Rob.......
When the votes were in, Probst does his customary, HI idol speech, (and of course Rob steps forward with a speech of his mother always told him better be safe than sorry), Andrea voted for Rob and the rest voted for Andrea. As Andrea heads off to the Jury camp, the rest head back to their camp.

As they all get back to camp, they have a group hug as they are the F4. Phil heads off to get water, and Rob takes that opportunity to reinforce the women that it is Rob with them going to the end.......

Immunity back up for grabs...............#2




The final immunity challenge involves them racing through a huge maze, find 4 stations that include bags of puzzle pieces...........find all 4 bags and bring them to the top platform at which they will find their puzzle stations, complete the word phrase(only you are safe) and win final Immunity for the season. After an extremely close battle with Rob and Ashley, Rob finally wins the final immunity challenge of the season. After an emotional finish, Rob states in a PI of how it was Amber that convinced him to try to do it again........this is all because of her believing in him.

After they all get back to the beach and congrats go out to Rob.........game face back on with Rob. He has to find a way to convince Natalie to vote out Ashley. As Rob tries to placate Ashley by saying that it will be Phil going, ironically, Ashley says in a PI that she is going to trust Rob, although there is a percentage that tells her not to trust him........LOL.

In another one of Rob’s PI’s he states that he feels Ashley may of created some bonds with the Zappa group and that is one reason she needs to get the boot..........how to convince Ashley of it though is the hard part. In a PI with Natalie, it is really obvious how torn she is to vote out Ashley and trust Rob, but common sense in her mind must prevail as she isn’t there to make friends.........if that’s the case.............Ashley SHOULD get the boot..........

Tribal Council #2........................



Probst first brings Ashley into the conversation with the disappointing loss in the challenge........Then he picked on Rob, followed by Natalie and once again, he picks on Ashley right before the vote...........and to Rob’s delight, Jeff got the answer out of her that Ashley truely feels that she could win the game.........the look on Natalie’s face said it all......got her thinking that Rob was definitely right. When all the votes were in, Ashley was sent packing and the last of the tribe is sent back to their beach to spend their last night under the Nicaragua stars..............

The next morning, the three head off to get their last treemail to find a hearty breaky waiting for them. While Phil heads off for a bath, Rob has a “heart to heart” with Natalie trying to tell her how to act at the tribal, meanwhile, he was actually trying to coach her to act a certain way in hopes that it would help him win the money...........meanwhile, Phil comes back to the fire with his pink underwear in hand and with all the theatrics in the world, he throws them into the pit to burn.

Last Tribal.....................

As the three come into the forum and get settled, Probst brings in the jury for the last time. Jeff tells them that the three of them will get a chance to tell the jury why they deserve the vote, then the jury will get a chance to ask the three remaining survivors questions.........then the voting will take place.

Ashley comes up with some drivel about how she is loyal to Rob, her personal skills with dealing with the survivors, and how she will be the youngest survivor winner................Phil resorts to his secret agent nonsense..........then Rob.........starts off with the thankyou speech, then into how many challenges he won, the alliances gained, the strategy that he adopted, hard worker at camp............but all that doesn’t matter, just what the jury feels.........nice sucking up Rob.

Jury’s comments next..................

Andrea: first picks on Phil.........tells him he’s weird, seen different Phillips and wants to know the real Phillip.........of course he won’t answer it........LOL. Then with Natalie, brought up the interesting and almost creepy relationship with Rob. Natalie answered it by saying that they had a good friendship together/her and Ashley but the game isn’t about friendships but about winning money. Then as far as the coattails thing went, Natalie explained from day one, there was an alliance with Rob and she was trying to fulfill it.

Ashley: No questions for Phil, but did comment and thank him as by surviving a 38 day torturous event, she realized that she finally has patience. As far as Natalie, was concerned, she wanted to know why she wasn’t informed by Natalie that she was actually going home, then with Rob, she explained that she did put Rob up on a pedestal but with the game, she never could figure out who Rob actually was and now doesn’t know if she wants to know.

Grant: He basically wanted to know how both Natalie and Rob felt about their alliances as Grant and Rob had one as well and I guess he just wanted to put things into perspective. Grant’s only real comment at the end is that even though Rob thought Grant could kick his ass, Grant regrets not having the chance to find out.........

Ralph: Again, picking on Natalie for riding Rob’s coat tails to the end. With Phil, Ralph really wanted to know if Phil actually liked him..........yes, basically was the answer.

Matt: He called Rob manipulative, deceiving, a liar............where is the fine line between the game and his real life? Rob said the line is drawn the minute he leaves the island and is back in his own life.

Julie: None of them played a respectable game..............then started picking on Natalie..................does she think her parents would be proud of how she played the game and called her a servant of Rob. Then with Phillip, she made the comment that he’s sitting there only because none of the jury members like, respect, or would be with him. Then Phillip’s son was brought into the game as Julie asked Phillip if his son would be proud of him..........(Low blow??). Then Rob was brought into it saying that he’s sitting between the little girl that road his coattails and the guy that none of them like or respect............then her last comment to Rob was to teach his daughters to grow up and be respected and not be treated like he treated Natalie. (again, harsh??)
(at this time, Rob tried to console Natalie by saying not to worry as they’ll all be smiles later)

Mike: His question...........what did they learn about themselves.............Natalie said that she’s never camped, never really had hardships, to really appreciate her family and that she’s tougher than she thought.............Rob.............realized that he needs to stop playing games..............go home to his family and get on with life. Phil actually learned that he could stand on his own as an outcast.

Steve: Basically congratulated Natalie and Rob, but had harsh words for Phillip..........calling him a sorry, shameful man.

Finally........ David, who actually asked the three nothing but actually spoke to the jury members in Rob’s stead, telling them how Rob actually deserves the million without a doubt............he blindsided Matt twice and in the process sent a message that if you aren’t with him, you’re gone........(Sound familiar?)...........Rob controlled the mindset of everyone and one by one, they all were booted out. The self proclaimed best player of the game was voted out on day 8, but Rob truely does deserve to win it all.

One by one, all the jury members were sent to the voting platform to cast their ballots.....................then Probst grabs the ballots and heads back to New York where a studio audience is waiting for the verdict.............


As Jeff read out the ballots, it became obvious(as it should of) that Rob was the survivor winner.





Records broken this season:

Rob: 4th time over 10 years, 117 days in the game,

Matt: 29 days on Redemption Island, competed in 11 duels, won 10 of them



Survivor Reunion:

Just going to point out some quick things that were said and the highlights of the reunion show...........

- Phillip actually seemed “normal” at the reunion show for the most part
- Julie apologized to Natalie and Natalie’s response is that she thinks she is stronger than she initially thought she was
- Rob tried to make amends with Grant.........a no go as far as Grant was concerned.
- Grant got engaged within a short period of time after getting home, and is now married.
- Jeff remarks that as far as he’s concerned, this season, Rob played as close to a perfect game as he’s ever seen
- Russell...........he says never say never about playing the game and requested that Probst keeps his phone number for another season down the road.
- Phillip and Steve make amends from their racial argument during filming
- Phil has been confirmed as being an agent
- Rob won the 100, 000.00 Sprint cash prize
- David and another person from a previous show..........surprise engagement on the reunion.



The new destination for Survivor 23 is the South Pacific and there will be two returning castmembers and of course, Redemption Island will still be in play.........will there be changes in how Redemption is done though?? Who could be the returning castaways?? My guess.............Julie and Mike or Mike and Andrea because of Probst’s questioning of the three of them??