Episode Report Card Sara M: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Jesus Hates Matt
By Sara M | Season 22 | Episode 8 | Aired on 04.06.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.To the surprise of no one, Matt beats Sarita in the Redemption Island challenge and wins a place back in the game on the newly-merged tribe. To the surprise of probably everyone, though, Probst informs us that he loves the Redemption Island concept too much to end it now, and so people voted out will still be sent to it and one of them will return to the game at some point. Both tribes want and need Matt's vote, and while he's tempted to flip to Zapato with Andrea and get his revenge on Rob for betraying him, he ultimately decides to follow what he believes his God is telling him to do and stay loyal to the tribe that voted him out. Which is led by a guy who has screwed countless contestants over in the past with absolutely no remorse and is playing the game to entertain the viewers at home more than he is to secure a win for himself at the end. And has the majority of votes without Matt's support. Oh, and then Matt tells Rob about how he considered turning against him but ultimately decided to stick with Onomatopoeia. Guess what Rob does next?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!After voting Sarita out instead of the increasingly unlikable David, Zapato return to camp and talk about how nice Sarita was about her blindside. David decides to make nice with Ralph for voting for him because Ralph is a man and David isn't threatened by his intelligence, unlike Sarita. He says he has no hard feelings against Ralph for his vote and he totally understands why he cast it. Julie, who doesn't seem to realize that this game has a thing called a merge, says they need to win challenges to even the tribe numbers out, which is why they felt the need to get rid of Sarita over David. Has Julie ever had anything new or interesting to add? Maybe she can talk about bad karma again.
Sarita arrives on Redemption Island and says hello to Matt, who interviews that he's happy to see her because he thinks she'll be easy to beat tomorrow. He asks her what's been going on with her tribe, saying he's heard "horror stories" about them, but Sarita decides not to screw over the tribe that just screwed her and says a bunch of nice things about everyone except David, who we don't hear her say anything about at all. She recommends that Matt align with Mike, saying he's her favorite player, and Matt interviews that he's pretty sure the merge is coming next and that Sarita's information will come in handy soon. Because even though he was planning on going back with the tribe that voted him out so long ago (idiot), he's now starting to consider joining up with Zapato instead.
I miss the opening credits.
The next morning, treemail arrives at Onomatopoeia telling them to bring the entire tribe to the next duel. It's obvious, even to the many stupid people on that tribe, that the merge is going to happen there. Rob recommends that they pack up everything in case they don't return to their camp, but Phillip chooses to believe that both tribes will play on Onomatopoeia's beach and thus, nothing needs to be packed. Because Phillip just likes being contrary, I guess. Or he hates packing. And yet, in an interview, he claims that he's "learned a lot" by playing with Rob and he's planning to stick with the tribe that clearly hates him when the merge happens. Over at Zapato, David, the expert, if untested, puzzle-solver figures out that there will be a merge today. Mike interviews that his tribe's plan is to try to lure some Onomatopoeia members into their alliance, which makes sense since it's pretty much the only thing Zapato can really do to save themselves at this point. Mike concludes that he's looking forward to going up against a master of this game like Rob.