Redemption Island Episode 5: The Old Switcheroo

It's a rainy night in Nicaragua, so everyone at the Ometepe camp takes off their wet clothes. A good idea when it's Natalie. Bad idea when it's Phillip. Rob wants to keep Phillip, as that keeps the target off his back. I don't fancy his chances of getting Phillip through another tribal council without a revolt.

Steve wants to bring Krista and Stephanie into the family at Zapatera. They choose the next duel observers by a random selection between the four who haven't gone yet, and it picks...Krista and Stephanie! Stephanie sees this as a good opportunity to tell the other side there are two girls ready to flip.

Let it go, girl

Matt's next challenge is to take on Kristina in building a puzzle cube. Kristina puts all her energy into it, and the duel becomes very competitive. Rob is watching, so Matt asks him why he voted him out for no reason. Rob deflects the question. Matt wins, and a heartbroken Kristina has to part with her buff and walk away. Stephanie tells Rob and Grant without any subtlety she wants to join their tribe. Rob says it's good news, if true.

Rob's Angels, looking mighty fine

Phillip compares Natalie and Ashley to crabs - he is unable to make any social connection with them. Andrea is frustrated with the other girls too, as they only want to talk about girlie stuff. Phillip and Andrea get a conversation going and Phillip finally makes some progress. He proposes that if Matt comes back, the three of them could have a good alliance. Phillip is trying to de-throne the dictator, Rob. Now we're talking!

The Russellettes want a mutiny

Stephanie and Krista plan on just continuing the winning streak, and then flipping at the merge. Wanting to win challenges is really the only time that all eight of them are on the same page. Krista starts getting serious. "When I put my headband on, it's game time". Julie senses overconfidence, and is worried that throwing the challenge could still come back to haunt them.

Bossy Steph in action!

It's a blindfolded maze challenge, where the teams retrieve puzzle bags. Sarita picks Stephanie as the caller for Zapatera. Which is great, because she is a loudmouth, but the caller is also puzzle solver...so David is pissed he wasn't picked. Stephanie yells at her tribe, which is what she's been doing the last few days anyway, and Ralph struggles with her instructions. Rob gets a decent lead to start his puzzle. It's no surprise - all he had to do was make sure his team followed his every word. They've been doing that anyway. On another note, isn't this the third puzzle in five challenges? Do I sense a bias towards Boston Rob here? Anyway, Stephanie actually overtakes Rob, who has a brief scare with a missing tile, but the veteran takes it in the end. Ometepe's first real win!

Phillip enjoys the reward most of all. It's cakes and coffee! Phillip starts dancing as he is hyper from all the sugar. It was hilarious. He even asked for a massage in exchange for his donuts. Ashley wasn't exactly eager to take him up on that. Grant takes the clue out of the coffee and gives it to Rob. Rob manages to switch the second, more descriptive clue, with the useless first clue. Grant, you just got totally hoodwinked, son.

Phillip hopped up on sugar is truly a sight to behold

David is pissed about the challenge and the arrogance he showed in his pre-show interviews is finally starting to seep out. He yells at Sarita about how calm he is under pressure (way to prove her point, son) and claims he is the one and only almighty puzzle God.

Julie thinks Krista is a lost cause, whereas Stephanie still might be salvageable. Krista claims that nobody on Zapatera is playing the game. Sarita and Mike defend that claim, and Mike gets a little douchey about it. He calls Krista out and rightfully so - was I the only one disappointed at the lack of scrambling from the girls? They seemed to know who was on the outs - David and Julie - but it's no use talking about hypothetical alliances of four after the moment has passed. At least Stephanie seemed to be making some more subtle efforts to save herself, pointing out she was better at challenges and had better relations with Julie. Krista and Stephanie waste their vote on Steve and sit back holding hands, anticipating which one will get the axe. It turns out to be Krista. She's slightly scared to be going to Redemption Island, but intends to hang on in there.

STAR OF THE WEEK: PHILLIP SHEPPARD

Which is funny, because this wasn't even his best episode. But he's been a solid source of entertainment and I didn't want to give Rob two in a row, so why not? I guess I could say I chose him because this was the first time we saw any strategy talk from him or any clue that he understands the game..but really, it's mainly because of the sugar dance.