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Posts: 11812
03/14/12 02:15 PM
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03/14/12 02:27 PM
Episode 8: Matt/Andrea have a bit of a “falling out”, I guess similar to what happened on the show. Andrea says that she didn’t want to go against Matt and that she will continue to look out for him and protect him in the game. Both tribes receive treemail to go to the duel. Ashley defeats Dan, winning her third duel in a row and getting to return to the game. Ashley vows that she is playing to win for herself and has no loyalty to the Ometepe tribe. The two tribes merge into one: Matt, Andrea, Kristina, Francesca, Grant, and Ashley from old Ometepe and Mike, Crystal, Ralph, Sarita, Stephanie, and Krista from old Zapatera. It appears to be 6-6 and if old tribes stay tight, there will be a tie. Ometepe is also worried that Ashley will defect to Zapatera to get revenge on her tribe, so in order to avoid that, Kristina/Francesca cook up the female alliance plot yet again (this is the third time it’s been tried this season), and promise Stephanie and Krista safety if they flip and take out Mike. They promise that they’ll get rid of the Ometepe guys, also, before any of the girls go. Sarita and Crystal are not really a part of this yet. Stephanie and Krista definitely consider this, feeling that they would be the first to go out of Zapatera since the other 4 have become closer (Crystal began to associate more with the others begin around Ep 6)... Meanwhile, the other Zapateras feel out Ashley about voting with them against Grant, who is perceived as the biggest physical threat. Grant ends up winning the individual IC though, which puts a damper on things. After the challenge, Ashley says that she would vote out Kristina since Grant won immunity and it seems as if she is with the Zapateras to take out Kristina. Steph/Krista decide that they would rather take out Mike, though, so they end up betraying their tribe while Ashley also betrays Ometepe. In other words, 3 people flip, and it ends up being 7-5 for Mike going vs Kristina. Early on in the episode, we would have a scene where Stephanie has confessionals talking about how much of a threat Mike can be in the game because he is likable, can win individual challenges, etc. Remember there is no post-merge RI in my world so Mike becomes first jury member.
03/14/12 02:32 PM
Episode 9: Ashley realizes that she made a premature flip and now could have sealed her fate out the game because Kristina/Francesca and the rest of Ometepe are not pleased with her, but Zapatera is equally displeased with Stephanie/Krista for their own flip. All 3 of these players end up putting a lot of negative attention onto themselves because of their betrayals. Ashley wins Immunity this time, which means that Grant is open for elimination and most of the women decide to get rid of him for the threat he poses. Kristina concurs that since Ashley has immunity she will stay true to her word with Steph/Krista and take out one of the Ometepe guys. Matt wants to vote off Stephanie because they say they can’t trust her and since she flipped on Zapatera already, she would just as easily flip on Ometepe, but the girls say they’re not voting for Stephanie, they’re voting for Crystal because she’s the next biggest threat on Zapatera (and to hide the possibility of a women’s alliance). At TC, Matt/Grant both vote for Crystal, Ralph/Sarita/Crystal vote for Stephanie, and Kristina/Francesca/Andrea/Stephanie/Krista/Ashley all end up voting out Grant. (Ashley apologizes for flipping and tries to get back in with the women, and since she has Immunity as well, they kindof take her back in for now).
[Just a side note here: Grant would probably end up going down as the worst character in any of my fanfics – UTR pretty much every episode with maybe 2 MORs thrown in there and possibly one very weak CP3 or 4 episode when he was a key part of a vote. I just find him to be incredibly boring and I struggle to see how I could make him interesting. He doesn’t have an exciting personality and is far from a dynamic player. Like the real show, throughout pretty much this whole season, he would just be “there” – maybe getting a narrative confessional or two – until he is voted off.]
Then there is a surprise when Jeff announces that this is a double TC and they’re competing for Immunity again. Someone wins Immunity (let’s randomly say Andrea since she would do well at a quiz challenge). This is when things start to get crazy... Matt speaks up that he has no idea what’s going on and why didn’t people from Ometepe tell him what was going on? Andrea defends that they know he’s playing honestly and if he was told Grant was going, he would have spilled it to Grant and Matt acknowledges that this is true. Matt asks if he is going next, then, because it seems like all the guys are going home. Kristina et al are reluctant to admit that this is true but it certainly seems to be the writing on the wall. Ralph then speaks up to defend Matt, applauding him for how he is playing the game and saying that Stephanie should be the one going home for her betrayal, untrustworthiness, and general attitude around camp. Matt announces that he is voting for Stephanie as well, making an emotional and heartfelt plea to keep the Ometepe tribe together, that he would forgive their actions, and for him/Andrea/Kristina/Francesca/Ashley to stay united and vote out Stephanie. (Stephanie is, overall, seen as the more dangerous and outspoken of the pair between Stephanie/Krista). Because nobody has had any time to discuss anything, 4 fairly clear votes against Stephanie (Matt, Ralph, Sarita, Crystal) seem to be tipping the scales in that direction and people have to openly discuss their votes. Kristina whispers to Francesca to see if she wants to vote for Stephanie, and when it seems like everyone is jumping on that bandwagon, Krista makes a shocking announcement. She says that Stephanie has fought hard since the beginning and deserves to stay in the game and fight on and that she would leave the game so Stephanie is not voted off. She says that Stephanie has been like a sister and that between the two of them, she feels Stephanie has a better chance of going further and getting to the end. No vote is necessary, and Krista makes the ultimate sacrifice for Stephanie to stay.
[Another note: in one of the earlier episodes, maybe 6 or 7, there would be some kind of foreshadowing of this where Krista would have some hard day and question her will/desire/ability to get to the end of the game, and she would say some kind of comment like “If it was me or you that went further in this game, I would want it to be you.” It wouldn’t just come out of nowhere].
Posts: 248
03/14/12 04:07 PM
03/14/12 04:20 PM
EPISODE 10: This is a very Stephanie-centric episode, focusing on her quest to stay in the game and not waste the new lease on life that Krista has given her. A lot of the dynamics and strategy is told from her perspective, although she does realize that she can’t stir up too much or else she will just go home next. She does speak to Matt a lot about his position in the game, and he openly reveals that Kristina/Francesca are probably the two calling the shots. She tells him that if him/Andrea want to go far that K/F have to go and Matt simply says that he’s not going to betray Ometepe. Stephanie asks him “Even if you’re the next to go?” And Matt says yeah. Stephanie gets upset with Matt’s stance here, saying that she feels like he’s not even playing the game. She tries to make amends with the rest of Zapatera and they say that, if Ometepe is united, the only chance they have is to try to swing Ashley back over. They realize that they have to set aside differences in order to get to the end because otherwise K/F have too much power. Sarita is the one who talks to Ashley, telling her that now is the time to break up K/F and the Final Five could be Ashley, Sarita, Ralph, Crystal, and Stephanie. Ashley sees herself as the person stuck in between both tribes at this point but says she’s going to make the choice that gets her further into the game. At the Immunity Challenge, Kristina pulls out a victory but doesn’t know that she’s really in danger. This puts Francesca in the hot seat back at camp, and the former Zapatera decides that if they can’t get Kristina, they will vote out Francesca instead, which will still weaken Kristina’s position. The Kristina crew decides between staying loyal to Ometepe or keeping the women together and voting out physical threat Matt, and this is yet another question that is left up in the air going into Tribal Council. In the end, Francesca sees no need to play her hidden Immunity Idol but is blindsided when Ashley makes another jump to Zapatera. The other 4 votes go to Stephanie. Think of this like Leann’s boot (I think Ami had Immunity so the sidekick went home?), and a little like Brenda’s boot also where she had been in control for a long time and things finally turn against her once it gets stirred up with the whole tribe.
03/14/12 04:34 PM
EPISODE 11: Kristina is absolutely furious at Francesca going home. Immediately after TC, she gets into it with Ashley, saying that she has protected Ashley after the merge and now got a knife in her back. Different from her previous stone-cold self, Kristina has a tearful breakdown and this is where a different side of her comes out. We do see some emotion as she is now near the bottom of the totem pole and realizes that the rug got pulled out from under her. Brewing on her feelings over night, the next morning, she decides that she is going to be next to go and that she isn’t going to let them get away with voting Francesca out. Kristina pulls some Sandra/Russell-like sabotage moves of hiding things around camp and dumping out food as revenge for voting out Francesca. The Reward Challenge then ends up being the family challenge where Kristina sees her husband and is reminded of her children/home life. Later on, she feels regretful/ashamed of her actions and publicly apologizes to the tribe at Tribal Council. So we see a lot of different sides to Kristina in this episode. She does make a final play to stay, but in terms of the strategy, nothing really changes much. Kristina makes an acute observation that, of everyone in the game, 3 people have been relatively untargeted and out of the drama: Sarita, Crystal, and Ralph, and says that if everyone else keeps trying to take each other out, these 3 will be the Final Three, so she makes pleas again to Ashley and Stephanie to come back on her side and to vote for Sarita, Ralph, or Crystal. She says that she doesn’t care which one; it’s up to them. All of her desperate attempts fail and Kristina is voted out of the game, unanimously this time.
03/14/12 04:44 PM
EPISODE 12: Kristina’s words do have an impact here as Matt, Andrea, Stephanie, and Ashley separately consider whether or not Sarita, Ralph, and Crystal could have a Final 3 alliance or not. The common thinking is that those 3 are not even that close and no, they don’t have a F3 alliance. Perhaps this is not smart thinking. Sarita is perceptive of this, believing that Kristina mentioning their names is not good for business. Somehow people find out about Francesca having had an idol and a new idol being rehidden since she didn’t use it. Fears of the other 4 joining up causes Ralph/Sarita to look for it and Sarita to find an idol. Their fears are not unwarranted. The idea of M/A/S/A aligning as a four is brought up by Matt and Andrea, but Stephanie and Ashley decide that it would be stupid to go to the Finals with Matt and Andrea because they’re close and everyone on the jury likes and respects them. Matt ends up being targeted ahead of Andrea for the extra physical threat and it ends up being a 5-2 vote (Matt and Andrea vote out Sarita, as they feel that she is sneaky – similar to how she was viewed early on in the game). Sarita plays the idol as a “just incase” move so that she doesn’t go out with an idol like Francesca did.
ETA: There is also discussion in this one among Ralph, Sarita, Crystal if Matt deserves to stay more and they should just get rid of Stephanie. This is a positive send-off for Matt and it's clear that people like him and feel bad about voting him off but it is his time to go and he accepts that.
03/14/12 04:55 PM
EPISODE 13: The episode before the finale is rarely a very exciting one. With Matt going, Andrea feels like she is next on the chopping block and tries to turn the head onto Ashley or Crystal who are both viewed as physical threats. Unsurprisingly, this TC comes down to a battle between Andrea for being a jury threat who is well-liked by everyone and hasn’t made any enemies, and Ashley/Crystal. The TC focuses a lot on different types of threats that are posed and why certain people should or should not be kept around for the finals. Crystal’s returning player status is brought up again and Sarita reiterates what she said in Episode 1: that taking Crystal to the F3 could be a good way to help your chances because people don’t want to vote for someone who’s already played two times. Getting back to the Andrea vs Ashley/Crystal, Ralph comments that winning Immunity can get you into the final three, but it can’t win you votes the way friendships can and everyone on the jury likes Andrea. This is perhaps one of the things that seals her fate as Andrea follows on Matt’s heels and is voted out at the F6.
That leaves us with a Final 5 of Crystal, Ralph, Sarita, Stephanie and our Redemption Island returnee Ashley.
Who will succeed? Who will fail? Who will walk away with the million dollar prize?
03/14/12 04:56 PM
03/14/12 05:09 PM
Posts: 6317
03/14/12 05:20 PM
03/14/12 05:39 PM
ElisabethHasselback42 wrote:I enjoyed this. I'm sure most people will be hoping for Sarita to win, but I hope it's Ralph just because.
03/14/12 08:24 PM
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03/15/12 02:01 AM
03/15/12 03:36 AM
03/15/12 07:13 AM
Posts: 1044
03/15/12 12:00 PM
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Posts: 146
03/15/12 02:25 PM
03/16/12 08:47 AM
03/16/12 12:32 PM
Mr X819 wrote:Thanks for updating this! Glad to see you had the time to almost finish it off.As for the story itself, the end of the pre-merge seemed okay. It was nice to see Ometepe keep going to Tribal Council, but the votes seemed a little obvious (though I do feel bad that Dan didn't make the merge. He's one of the only consistently morally good characters in your stories). Those first couple of post-merge episodes look pretty amazing and I'm sure would be great to read; I feel like Sucks would be so happy that UTR Grant would go and Krista falls on her sword to keep Stephanie. And the Francesca blindside would probably be that pivotal blindside that happens, like Marty in your Nicaragua or Tina in your Belize. However, the unfortunate part is after those big blindsides usually comes duller falling action. I'm sure the Kristina, Matt, and Andrea boots wouldn't be the most interesting things. But I am intrigued by this Final Five. Like previously posted, I'm not sure who to root for because I don't really know what people have done strategically other than Sarita flipping to save Ralph in Episode 1 and Ashley flipping to Zapatera twice. Again, I think that with full-length episodes, it would be much easier to root for someone. But in this case, I'm going to predict a Sarita win.Also, the Wiki has been updated! There's obviously some info missing, but check it out!Redemption Island Fanfic Wiki
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