Survivor Redemption Island returned tonight and brought with it just a mere two remaining members of Zapatera: Steve and Ralph. Tonight we should be finding out which of them goes and which lives on to be the last of their tribe. Then again, could this finally be the week where Ometepe loses their patience with Phillip? We should be so lucky!

Speaking of Phillip, guess who came to him in a vision again? That’s right! Ronald McDonald His grandfather and he told him where he could find his pink shorts. You know what I think? Julie gave him to much dang information when she said it was under a rock in the sand. Just as well though. Sure enough, Phillip finds his shorts and balance is restored to the order.

Over at Redemption Island, Matt is having a breakdown and Survivor is happy to share all those moments with us. Matt tears up as he talks about how he’s over this game. Sounds like he’s ready go get eliminated tonight in the Arena.

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Another week, another Zapatera elimination. As Survivor 2011 pushes on to its eleventh week we can’t help but expect to see the final two Zapa members pushed forward to the chopping block. The only real question is whether it’ll be Steve or Ralph to go this week. Even if one gets the Immunity, the other will go.

We’ll also get our first look at Ponderosa as David heads there to become the first member of the jury. Last week David was eliminated from the Redemption Island arena when he lost to Mike and Matt. Since CBS hasn’t posted their usual episode preview video I’ll go ahead and share the Ponderosa preview video featuring David’s journey to the jury’s new home. You can tell he’s let down but he takes it in stride and looks ready to enjoy the new luxuries at hand.

Let’s hear your predictions for whether Steve or Ralph will be the next to go.

While we still wait to find out if Boston Rob was successful on his umpteenth visit to Survivor we do know what he’ll be doing after the mid-May Survivor Redemption Island finale.

Rob Mariano is teaming with up with Dennis Anderson to travel the world using various, often unconventional modes of transportation as part of a new show for the History Channel:

In Around the World in 80 Ways, Mariano and Anderson will challenge each other to circumnavigate the globe using 80 different methods of transportation with the caveat that each cannot repeat any way twice.

“I think The Amazing Race gave me a foundation for traveling,” Mariano tells PEOPLE. “However, the approach that we are taking in Around the World in 80 Ways is completely different from anything I’ve done before in that this show will be a celebration of transportation throughout history.”

This sounds like a very entertaining idea, but it definitely reminds of Big Brother‘s Jeff Schroeder’s own “around the world” adventure last year. I guess Boston Rob had the right connections to make it in to an actual show.

Will you tune in to watch Rob ride an ostrich as he navigates the globe?

Source: People

First stop tonight on Survivor 2011 is, of course, a check in on Redemption Island where Matt is joined by Mike and Dave. The three castaways are trying to figure out how an arena duel will work with three people instead of two. Dave points out it’d be a “tri-al” rather than a duel. Yuk-yuk.

Back at the Murlonio tribe Steve has one hope to make it through the next Tribal Council: Phillip’s insanity. Steve hopes Ometepe will break from their trend of only voting against Zapatera if they get annoyed enough by the feathered one. I dunno though. If they could put up with him this long then I’m guessing they’re reserved to holding out just a few more days until Zap is all gone.

Phillip may prove me wrong tonight when he decides he’s in charge of how much rice Zapatera is allowed to eat. First stop: stealing their rice. Second stop: telling them how much they’re allowed to have. I’m sure that will go over well, right? This guy is as big an a-hole as he is simply insane.

Back at Redemption Island, all the Survivor castaways are treated to a trip to the arena where Matt, Mike, and David are about to face off. Sure enough, all three are competing at the same time. The three men have to build a house of cards to the top of a very high pole. Mike is the first to reach the top, but he’s having trouble with the last piece. Finally Mike gets it to hold to secure the first spot while Matt stays alive by coming in second place. David has been eliminated from the game.

Get ready for gross. Back at camp Andrea discovers there is some filth and bugs in their rice and has to be dumped out. Phillip is very upset that Steve won’t let them combine their rice piles. Keep in mind Phillip was planning to steal Steve’s rice, but now finds it ridiculous that Steve doesn’t want to just give him the rice.

At the Survivor Immunity Challenge, the castaways have to build a puzzle wheel and be one of the first six to get through to the second round. Rob is first, followed by Julie, Ralph, Andrea, Steve, and Grant. The second round requires a large puzzle to be constructed around the first puzzle. In the end it is very, very close but Rob just barely beats out Steve for the Immunity this week.

Best moment of the night: Julie decides to bury Phillip’s shorts in the jungle, leaving him with only his pink underwear. It’s hilarious.

Things boil over at Survivor Tribal Council, again, and it’s mostly thanks to Phillip, again. Short of it: Phillip thinks Steve is calling him the N-word when he calls him “crazy.” Phillip, you’re crazy and when I saw that I don’t mean any other word than crazy.

Jeff brings out the vote jar where we learn that Julie is eliminated when once again Ometepe stands firm and votes against Zapatera. In a parting jab, Julie lets Phillip know he’ll never find his shorts.

There are just two former Zapatera castaways left in the main game of Survivor. Even if either Ralph or Steve win the Immunity next week the other will be sent home. Ometepe should continue to dominate all the way down the line.

Poor Zapatera. This has just not been their game of Survivor ever since they sabotaged themselves to eliminate Russell. I hope they still think it was worth it. After a pair of loses last week they’re doing to just a handful of their original tribe members and I’m not sure it’ll improve anytime soon.

What’s definitely not getting better quickly is Phillip’s mindset. From the preview video below we get a glimpse of Phillip going after Steve. Phillip tells Steve it’s racist for a white man to tell a black man he’s crazy. Of course Phillip then closes his argument by telling Steve, wait for it, he’s crazy.

CBS also notes that there will be a little tension amongst the merged tribe members on Survivor Redemption Island as a rationing scheme gets castaways riled up. I wonder if Boston Rob’s alliance could have anything to do with that…

Here’s a little Survivor bonus for your Thursday. If you want to catch up with some other Survivor 2011 fans and talk about the season then check out Real Networks’ hosted weekly event usually featuring a past Survivor castaway:

Join Spicy and Chelsia every week as they welcome a new Survivor guest and discuss the latest episode of Survivor: Redemption Island on their live show Redemption Recap! Submit your questions to liveshows@real.com.

You can join up for Superpass with a nice free trial to test it out and see how the weekly events go. Today’s online show is at 2PM/11AM ET/PT. If you get in there and join the Survivor party, let us know how it goes!

Survivor Redemption Island starts off tonight with a reminder of just how naive Matt was in trusting his teammates and just going with the flow, which happened to take him right back to Redemption Island. Let’s see who joins him there tonight.

The tribes may have merged, but that doesn’t mean they have to act like a team. Rob details his plan to keep the two tribes separate by having two areas for sleep and even different eating shifts. Rob is doing everything he can to mess with their heads, but will it work?

As the teams prepare for the next Immunity Challenge, Natalie revealed to Rob that Ralph and Ashley had a side conversation about votes at the end of the game. The kicker is Natalie’s decision to not mention this to Rob who finds out anyway and now has an axe to grind.

The Immunity Challenge features a three-tier battle where each round narrows the competition. The early leader is, once again, Grant though Mike isn’t far behind. The final round features Grant, Mike, and David just by a hair. The last challenge is a rehash from the first episode where a pyramid of Tetris-like blocks have to be reassembled. Again no surprise here when Grant is crowned with this week’s immunity.

Back at camp, Mike knows his former tribe members are in danger and they’re going to need to peel away some of Rob’s tightly knit group for votes. Doesn’t look like that’s not gonna happen though. Ometepe brainstorms and decides either David or Mike should be the one to go and face off against Matt.

At Tribal Council the votes are revealed to target the feathered one, that’d be Phillip of course, but just like last week the voting tide turns and Zapatera loses another member when Mike is sent to Redemption Island by just one vote.

Mixing up the order of things, we get another round of an Immunity Challenge tonight where the castaways have to hang for as long as they can. The last to fall wins Immunity. Simple enough. Let’s make it complicated. The castaways have the option to either play for Immunity or eat cheeseburgers. Seriously. Only Steve and Phillip opt for the burgers.

Boston Rob is the first to drop and has to watch Phillip and Steve enjoy their meal. Everyone else survives long enough to just use their legs and it looks very hard. Julie is the first to go in the second round. This won’t last long. Grant and Ralph drop next leaving David as the only male against three ladies. In the end it’s Andrea who takes home the Immunity.

At the second Tribal Council of the night no Immunity Idol is played, but Rob may be wishing he had when the first four votes are against him. David falls with six votes to Rob’s four.

We’ve now got two guys heading Matt’s way on Redemption Island for some dueling. Next week’s Survivor should be intense! The preview video shows Phillip playing the race card on Steve. Grrr-reat!

The tribes have merged and formed a new tribe, Murlonio, on Survivor 2011 Redemption Island making way for a whole new round of drama and betrayal.

CBS’ preview video for episode nine hints that there could be some tension between Boston Rob and Grant, the two players who dominated the first half of the season as they worked together. I’m hoping those two stick together and power through the challenges for at least a little while longer.

Oh and then there’s Philip. Phillip and his magical feather. I guess we should be commending Phillip for winning the season’s biggest challenge yet: escaping his straight jacket. This man is nuts, but makes for hilarious clips. I’m just glad I didn’t have to put up with him for weeks on end.

Check out the Survivor 2011 episode 9 preview below and then share your thoughts on who will be the next to face off against Matt on Redemption Island.

Ahh yeah. It’s Tribal Merge time on Survivor Redemption Island tonight. We’ve known it’s been coming, but now we get to see how it all rolls out.

The tribes both learn that everyone needs to be at the next duel and that sets off the flags that they’re about to have a much bigger family by the end of the day. Heading in to the final Redemption Island duel we learn that Matt has cut his foot and wouldn’t you know it, this competition requires you to stand on tiny little footholds. Yep, this is going to be tough for the golden boy.

Matt and Sarita have to balance themselves for fifteen minutes a level and it looks uncomfortable. It’s pretty hilarious though when Jeff asks Phillip to wax philosophically and he manages to fill nearly the full fifteen minutes. Both make it to the third round and this looks very painful. They’ll remain here until one of them drops.

Just when it looks like Matt won’t last another minute it’s Sarita who drops to the ground. Matt has survived every Redemption Island duel he has faced. Kudos to his perseverance.

Immediately after Sarita is dismissed, Jeff breaks out the new colors and another shocker: Redemption Island isn’t over yet. The next person voted out will come right back to the arena and the process starts anew!

So the tribe merges, gets together for a feast, and Rob breaks out another gag when he convinces everyone to call themselves Murlonio. Murlonio is the name of Rob’s wife’s stuffed animal, but no one else knows that.

At the next Immunity Challenge Jeff reveals the individual immunity after taking away the tribal immunity idol. Whoever earns this immunity is one heck of a Jedi! The castaways have to balance themselves on a log with a plate holding ball. At regular intervals an additional ball will be added to the plate. If a ball drops, then you’re out.

It comes down to Mike and Natalie. Mike has been holding it together like he’s a statue, but apparently youth takes it all this week when Natalie emerges the winner of the first individual immunity idol!

The build up to Tribal Council is tense as no one is quite sure who they can trust following the merge. Will tribal members turn on their own team and form new alignments or can old promises hold another week? Matt is back in the crosshairs and it looks like he just might find himself back in the arena next week.

Jeff collects the vote bucket and starts to roll out the results. Grant takes an early lead with 5 votes, but after a stray vote against Steve it’s Matt who picks up steam and sure enough, he’s voted out once again. Sorry dude, that sucks!

It’s time for the much awaited tribal merger this week on Survivor Redemption Island! That also means it’s the last round of Redemption Island, which could have been renamed “Matt’s Island” considering the way he dominated every duel all season. Of course if we are to believe the episode preview vid below then Matt may finally be in trouble after injuring his foot ahead of his last battle.

Now that the tribes will be merging, what’s Ometepe’s plan for Boston Rob? Will they turn on him with their new Zapatera team members? I’d be very surprised considering his current status in his tribe, but I guess it’s gotta happen sometime.

Random side note. I just happened to see Boston Rob this weekend, but not in Boston. Figured he couldn’t talk about the show midseason (I was right), but I really wish I had at least gone over and gotten a picture taken cause as the saying goes, “pics or it didn’t happen.” So without pics, you’ll just have to believe me. (And yes, it was definitely him as I sneakily got the desk attendant to confirm it was him by asking if my friend “Rob Mariano” had checked in…)

Anyway, get ready for phase two of Survivor Redemption Island this week!