Follow Zap2it:
'Survivor: Redemption Island': Is Boston Rob Mariano finally crowned soul survivor?
Twitter
Google
After Let's see how we got there. Highlights on the way to the final vote included:
- There was a final four-way duel at Redemption Island. This one involved balancing a vase with your foot, teeter-totter-style. Grant was out first, followed by Matt (bummer) and Mike, so Andrea won and was allowed to reenter the game.
- The first Immunity Challenge is a balance beam/ordering tiles challenge. Ashley wins, much to Rob's chagrin.
- Rob seemed to think it was a foregone conclusion his people would vote Andrea out, but Ashley and Natalie were not wholly on board, which Phillip noticed. He took Rob off and Andrea took her chance to work the girls on getting Rob out.
- At Tribal, Rob played his Hidden Idol just to be safe, but the girls didn't go with Andrea anyway, so it didn't matter.
- The final Immunity Challenge was a maze and a fairly tricky word puzzle. Rob and Ashley were neck-and-neck, while Phillip and Natalie fell out contention pretty quickly. Rob won, even though it looked like Ashley should've had it first.
- Rob was pretty overcome at winning the last immunity, which - did anybody think he wouldn't win the money at this point?
- Rob convinced Natalie to turn on her friend and they voted out Ashley.
- Hey, no Fallen Idols filler segment! Woot woot.
- The final Tribal Council, even with Phillip there to be his crazypants self, was pretty boring. Phillip came right out and said Boston Rob was the mastermind and Phillip's strategy was to be the drone. *headsmack*
- Rob cited his family as his motivation, which is nice, but also said that he wanted to bring something home to make a better life for them. Um, the Mariano household has plenty of money with all the reality TV they've done (plus Rob has a new deal with History). Let's not act like they need it the same way as, say, Julie did, whose house was being foreclosed on.
- Phillip was even more alienating than normal, while Natalie really had nothing good to say. This was Boston Rob's money to lose and he did not screw it up, especially since Phillip and Natalie didn't help themselves one iota.
- David even got up and told the jury to vote for Rob. David was also the only jury member not to be a total a**hole. I hate bitter juries. It's so ugly.
- David and Ralph were the only votes we saw cast. David's was obviously for Rob, Ralph's was for Phillip, which - Ralph is a moron. Notice how his exit interview never got posted last week? It's because it was too terrible to post. Not even in a funny way. Just terrible.
- The votes went Rob, Phillip, Rob, Rob, Rob and Rob. Obviously we knew how Ralph voted, but I'm surprised Rob didn't join Earl and J.T. as the only unanimous winners. How you could vote for Phillip or Natalie is beyond me.
Plus, the Redemption Island twist didn't add that much. Both people who came back into the game were immediately sent packing again, so it was a bit anticlimactic. The one nice thing about it? It took enough time out of the finale episode that we didn't have to sit through the stupid Fallen Contestants montage, which is pretty much the worst thing about the finale episode.
What do you think, "Survivor" fans?
Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest news and buzz
Photo/Video credit: CBS
Related pics
Zap2it Elite Sheet Must Reads from the Web's In-Crowd
Our Partners
I agree with Jeff Probst that Rob's game was "textbook". Natalie and Phillip's opening statements a tribal actually made Rob's case for him. Way to go Rob. One of my all time favorite players!
f*** u jury rob doesnt deserve to win. idiots
Glad he won, he played it perfect and the fact he played before, 3 times should have gotten him booted right away and the fact it didn't happen an even bigger reason he deserved to win.
Haha, I meant to type "almost unanimous" and just typed "unanimous" instead. Obviously that was a Freudian slip on my part. : )
I have fixed the post.
While I am glad Rob won, how stupid his tribe mates were to keep him...
Didn't they know that he plays the game by lying with such a straight face (not that there is anything wrong with that on Survivor)...
I was surprised they hadn't thought to get rid of him quickly, like the other tribe did with Russell.
I would have been disappointed if he didn't win - he deserved it.
I think this entire season was set up for Rob to win. Have you ever seen SO many puzzle challenges?? Not sure I will watch this show anymore:-(
Soul survivor??? I'm sure the author meant sole survivor.
rob definitely deserved to win. he controlled his tribe for the entire game, just like leading sheep. i thought the girls would have have voted him off when andrea came back but, in the reunion show, they knew that rob was gonna play the immunity idol so so much for that plan.
Happy Rob won, but this was one of the most boring seasons in recent memory. When tribes stick together and don't turn on each other it doesn't make for very exciting television. I'm kind of bummed that they're doing the same "bring two former contestants back" thing again since that's what seemed to make this season so predictable and uneventful.
Congrats to Rob,Amber and the kids. This Family is the fist married MILLION DOLLAR HUSBAND AND WIFE. How cool is this, Both winning a million.. won't come again for a long long time. Two very special winners.