By Andy Dehnart, TODAY.com contributor
The merge has arrived on "Survivor: Redemption Island," and with it, the show kicked back into high gear. After winning six consecutive challenges, Matt re-entered the game, joining the merged tribe. Then thanks to his own stupidity, the tribe voted him out immediately.
Matt had two solid options: align with the folks from his original tribe -- the one that voted him out -- or join a new group and go after the members of his original tribe. He decided to "honor my God," he said, by staying with his original alliance. But he told Rob, the very person who orchestrated his ouster, that he was planning on turning against them.
Rob was appalled by Matt's "audacity" and "stupidity" and said, "It just confirmed he can't be trusted. ... He can still be a good Christian guy -- on Redemption Island."
Yes, Redemption Island is back for round two. Although Matt rejoined the game, the post-merge losers will be sent there to duel one another, with whoever is still standing eventually re-joining the game. Will that be Matt again? As long as he doesn't have to use his brain, maybe.
On his way back to Redemption Island, Matt swore, "What the hell, guys?" But then he got back on message: "I put my trust in God, and today God's will was contradictory to what I wanted."
At least he was able to cop to his own bad decisions rather than blame God for sending a stupid representative to play the game on his behalf. "Apparently, I'm just not very good at this game of 'Survivor,' " Matt said. Very apparently.
He is, however, good at challenges. He beat Sarita at the duel, which was a recycled challenge that involves standing on very small pieces of wood, even though his foot was cut right where it had to rest against that wood. So he may stick around to see what God has in store for him next.
In the pre-Tribal Council scrambling, Mike wrote Matt a note to try to get him to flip, saying, "Vote for Grant and I'll take you to the final three." Matt, the dummy, was impressed: "Top three, huh. That's not bad." But he did not write down Grant's name, and it didn't matter anyway because Rob convinced the tribe to vote against Matt.
And the folks of Ometepe still has the post-merge advantage, never mind that they are sleeping under the tarp they won, as they reminded their tribemates, the Zapatera losers.
Keep reading at realityblurred.com for more on the merged tribe and the "Christian coalition."
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