One of the BEST merge episodes ever. Boston Rob makes my life. Dude is genius. In one fell swoop, he flushes an idol, keeps his numbers, gets rid of a threat and comes up with possibly the best team name and one of my favourite quotes ever. Plus, he's still got an immunity idol that no one knows about. Rob is King.
OK, so everyone knew the merge was coming when they all got to go to watch the duel between Matt & Sarita. Sounds like an easy win for Matt, but Sarita actually did pretty well. It was one of those stand-on-a-little-peg-between-two-walls challenges and sadly, God gave Matty a boo-boo on his foot, so he was already in trouble. Sarita looked like she had no problem (girls generally do well with these challenges with their littler feet and ability to take prolonged pain better than guys!) But... it was God's will that Matt would prevail. (His words... and by "His" I mean Matt's, not God's.) Anyway. Matt got to re-join the game, Sarita went home, positive as ever, but "bummed." (I liked how she came in & gave everyone who just backstabbed her the day before a joyful little wave. Seriously? She's too nice for this game.)
OH, and the best part of the duel was when they moved down to the final, smallest peg, my BF Jeff says, "Phillip, do you have anything to say to Matt?" Heh. Of course he does! Phil then starts in on the Bushido Code of the Samurai or some damn thing.... cue fabulous editing... time lapse of clouds rolling by... Phil is still talking.... 22 minutes later! Matt: Uh, thanks Phillip.... Heh heh.
The teams merge & have the usual nice little picnic & have to come up with a new name. Rob says, "MURLONIO. It means, from the sea, united." Everyone LOVES it. Then Rob tells us that, no, Murlonio means nothing. It's a private joke between him & Ambah. You see, Ambah has a bunch of stuffed animals & the "ringleader" of said stuffies is named Murlonio. Ha!
The other funny part of the merge was that when they built the shelter & didn't get it quite done, team Rob all got to sleep under the nice dry cozy tarp, while team Steel Wool had to sleep under the leaky, cold, wet palm fronds. Later when they brought it up at Tribal, annoying Ashley says, "Uuuuuh, we won that tarp, so it's only fair that we get to sleep under it." "You only won it because we didn't try," says David, admitting to the throw. Heh heh. Seems kind of whiny to cry about throwing the challenge now, doesn't it? Coulda had a tarp, but nooooooooooo, had to get rid of Russell. Wah. And Philip had to chime in, "That's the difference right there between the tribes. OUR tribe would NEVER quit." And then something else crazy about how their team is like the sea... looks all nice and lovely til the tide goes out & the stench of parasites (whaaaaaaat?) is left behind.... ???? Hee. Stuff it, lawyer boy! (Note: the rejected other choice for team name Murloonio, meaning, From the sea, with parasites. Yes. Surely.)
So then it's all about Matt. Here's the thing with Matt. He's too honest. Kinda like how Sarita is too nice. The game isn't "Outnice, outhonest, and outhonour your god" ... It's "Outwit, outlast, outplay." Matt struggles with this. And bless him for it, he's lovely. Matt would be a great neighbour or friend and darn it, he still could win this thing anyway. But on this episode, he makes 3 crucial mistakes:
1. He forms Bible Camp on the Beach. Well, not really, but he, Andrea and Mike bond openly over reading the Bible. Sounds innocent enough, but not when you do it right in front of Boston Rob. Rob jokes to Natalie that he'd like to join in the 'convo' but doesn't have anything to add except an "Amen!" Hee. Then he tells us that he doesn't have anything against religion, but as soon as people have something in common, he's going to shut it down. Rob is wise and knows that these things can bond people & no one's bonding unless he tells them to. Then, my favourite quote of the night, "Any time a group of individuals likes the same thing, I don't like it. If they're liking it together - I don't care if it's romantic comedies or Oreo Cookies - I want that broken up." (OK, it's not as funny as Murlonio, but I still loved it.)
2. Matt TELLS ROB that he was thinking of flipping, but has decided not to. Now, anyone else might think, hey, this kid's great. He could have flipped, but he's not going to, and he's so honest for telling me. How great. Nope. Not Rob. Rob thinks, "How dare he tell me that he's thinking of leaving my alliance to vote me out?" And he's kind of right. Matty should have shut the hell up - one of my #1 rules for any Survivor contestant - know when NOT to open your mouth. To Rob, this says if Matt considered flipping once, he'll consider it again... he knows he's lower on the totem pole, and he's got loads of allies who love the Bible together. It's an easy choice if you're Rob. Amen, brother!
3. When considering his options, Matt confides in his pal Andrea. He tells Andrea that "the game respects big moves" and the time might be now to jump over and get rid of Rob. But here's the thing... Andrea has had time to get over Matt. She saw him hug Krista & was the jilted woman, remember? And then instead of discussing it with her first, Matty goes ahead & blabs to Rob about his plan (see point #2) and drops Andrea's name in there too, essentially throwing her under the bus with Rob. So where he might have had a pretty good ally, he screwed it up & she voted against him.
Natalie, of all people, (Who? I know. She's the young spa girl with darker hair if you have trouble following) wins individual immunity. It was an awesome challenge where you had to balance up to 3 balls on a wooden disc. I love challenges like that where no one really has an advantage. Mike was a close 2nd - he barely budged and I was shocked when he dropped out. I think it had more to do with his feet - they had to stand on a log & he said something about his feet going numb... Anyway, it was close.
So Mike figures it'll be him going home because he's the biggest threat & comes up with this awesome plan where Steel Wool gives him his immunity idol and they all vote for Grant. Brilliant, right? Nope. Because Rob had no intention of even voting for anyone on their team. He was planning on Matt all along. So here's where the fell swoop comes in. He forces the other tribe to play their idol unnecessarily, he gets rid of his main threat, Matt, AND at the end of the day, he still is in control of the numbers. It was super risky because Matt could still have flipped & voted for Grant, but he didn't. And so back he goes to Redemption Island, with a "Duuuuuuude, I can't believe those guys!" (Ok, the Dude part was added by me.) He's not out yet, though. And here's where it could come back & bite Rob in the ass - if Matt keeps winning at RI (and why the heck wouldn't he?), he could STILL come back and be a force to be reckoned with. Rob eventually has to backstab his own people and Matt will be the golden boy who never had the chance to backstab anyone... Right? Matt will donate his money to the hungry (I'm totally making that up) while Rob has a millionaire wife at home. Do the math.
Next week, Phillip finds his spirit guide, making us wonder how much he studied Ben Wade's book, "Samurai Codes & Made-up Native American Culture for Dummies."
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