Recap: Survivor 22 - Redemption Island

After 22 seasons, you'd think Survivor would get old. Nope.

Not to me, anyway.

And NEVER when Boston Rob.. Russell or BOTH land on the sand.

There's also THE TWIST this year and if you're a fan of Survivor then you know just how this is going to be a game changer.

This season, instead of heading to the Ponderossa after your flame is snuffed you're shipped to Redemption Island where you will stay alone until someone else gets voted off. Both torched contestants will duel with the winner brought back in the game. Game over for the loser. 

After the first episode, I'm not gong to get into a detail of all the contestants.. would take too long and most of them weren't even featured so I'll only hit the highlights and BELIEVE ME this was THE most JAW DROPPING first episode in Survivor history.

So the key players in Episode 1:

Rob will always be a key player regardless of the episode or season.

He's the shiznit when it comes to Survivor and it just boggled my mind that there were people on his tribe that thought they were going to hood-wink him... on THE FIRST DAY!!

Come on.. like SERIOUSLY?? He is arguably the best player in history for a reason and that reason isn't because he doesn't know how to play this game.

There's no doubt that Russell is the ultimate in Survivor villains.. he plays people like a fiddle and does things that are so morally corrupt without conscience that you can't help but give him his due.

He's played the same game twice before .. hook up with the young, pretty girl and cause havoc and chaos to get to the end.

His strategy worked for him twice and I really didn't think his tribe would fall for it a third time. Seems like it did.. he made an alliance with the young Stephanie (I believe that's who it was) .. but I don't think the guys on his tribe are going to follow as blindly. But Russell's tribe won immunity so that's all I'm going to say about him in this post.

Poor Kristina.

What a freakin' idiot. Did she really think that she was going to master mind Rob being booted off without the numbers? With just an immunity idol? With just Francesca and Philip, the guy you don't really trust?

Have you ever watched a season of Survivor that Rob was on? 

Come on girl.. there's a time and a place for bold moves and the first tribal council is NOT the time to try an oust an icon before you know the other personalities your playing with.

Francesca's confidence may have been an asset to her.. as would her experience as an attorney if she hadn't been stupid and saddled up with Kristina. 

I will say that she wasn't down on trying to vote off Boston Rob because she understood that you needed to keep the tribe strong to win challenges. The more challenges you win as a tribe, the less you have to worry about tribal council.

Unfortunately for Francesca, her alliance put her on Rob's radar and when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. As the first person on Redemption Island, she could be back..

Please Phillip .. I'm BEGGING you .. toss the peach/coral banana hammock! Normal people don't want to see you walking around the beach wearing nothing but a banana hammock.. especially when the crotch area sags.

Anyway.. you're either going to like him or think that he's a complete moron but there's one thing you have to at least understand. If you want Phillip on your side, you have to be up front and honest with him. Keep him in the loop.. treat him like he's important enough to confide in and you'll have his loyalty. Try to change up on him and he's going to call you out. Big Time.

Not so sure Phillip realizes what Survivor is all about.. and given the opportunity, he may just learn but he definitely drew a line in the sand.

Ok.. so what happened  last night..

Boston Rob catches Kristina hunting around for the hidden immunity idol clue and he let's her know that he knows what she's doing. That spooks her a little bit but she happens to find it without the clue. Now she thinks she got some power going on so she clues in Francesca. 

They're happy.. almost giddy.. and devise a plan to get rid of Rob because the rest of the tribe is in his shadow and they don't like that.

They talk to Phillip.. Phillip the former secret agent man who's trained in reading people. He wants to know all the nitty gritty details and Kristina isn't willing to share. She got the power.. she's flexing her muscles.. she's running her little show. Against her better judgement, she winds up telling Phillip about the immunity idol just to get him off her back.

As for Rob, he keeps it simple. He tells his team about Kristina's search for the idol. He doesn't know if she has it or not but all they have to do is split their votes for Kristina and Francesca. The idol will be played and the alliance will be gone. 

Francesca doesn't think that voting Rob is the best thing for the tribe so she talks to Kristina about voting for someone weaker (Natalie) and Kristian agrees. 

But.. but.. BUT!! They never talk to Phillip. He still thinks that Rob is being voted out. So when Jeff Probst starts grilling the tribe, Rob tells him that he knows he has a target on his back and you know, what can you do about it.

Francesca, for WHATEVER BLOODY REASON, makes this little comment about Rob not having to worry about going home and Phillip FREAKS! This isn't the plan that he thought he was involved in and he pipes right up and calls out Kristina and Francesca about voting out Rob and THEN busts out about Kristina having the immunity idol. 

Rob, who's not going to let ANY opportunity pass him buy, asks to see the immunity idol. Kristina actually HANDS IT to him and he tells her that if she wanted to redeem herself then she should give him the idol. 

Talk about bold moves in episode one. You could literally see her wheels spinning and I think she wasjusthisclose to handing it over but she didn't. And I think the reason why she didn't play it was to kind of like snub her nose at Rob.

At any rate, Francesca was voted off... she was going to be voted off anyway but I think SHE believes it was because of Phillip so if she makes it passed the Redemption Island duel, we'll see what the dynamic is.