'Survivor: Redemption Island' votes off Mike Chiesl and David Murphy

Survivor: Redemption Island's Murlonio tribe voted out castaways Mike Chiesl and David Murphy out of their tribe, sending them to Redemption Island during Wednesday night's broadcast of the ninth episode of the CBS reality series' 22nd edition.


As the game's newest Tribal Council victims, Mike, a 31-year-old former U.S. Marine from Del Mar, CA, and David, a 31-year-old defense attorney from West Hollywood, CA, will now join Matt Elrod, a 22-year-old pre-med student from Nashville, TN, on Redemption Island where they will await the game's next duel -- and begin attempting to earn a chance to rejoin the game's other remaining castaways and resume competing for Survivor: Redemption Island's million dollar prize.

"The last few days have been really frustrating. It seems like every time the wheels start to spin and I start to be able to play the game, then a brace gets put on it by somebody else," David said upon arriving at Redemption Island.

Survivor: Redemption Island's ninth episode began on Night 21 with Matt -- who had just won his right to re-enter the game by beating Sarita White in the duel after spending 15 days on Redemption Island and winning six consecutive duels, but was subsequently voted out again at the season's eighth Tribal Council -- returning to Redemption Island.

Matt was voted out for the second time by Murlonio after his original Ometepe tribe -- which consisted of Andrea Boehlke, a 21-year-old student from Random Lake, WI; Grant Mattos, a 29-year-old yoga instructor and former NFL football player from West Hollywood, CA; Phillip Sheppard, a 52-year-old technology executive and former federal agent from Santa Monica, CA; Natalie Tenerelli, a 19-year-old professional dancer from Acton, CA; Ashley Underwood, a 25-year-old nurse and former Miss Maine USA from Benton, ME, and returning castaway Rob Mariano, a 35-year-old from Canton, MA who now resides in Pensacola, FL -- voted him out in the season's second episode.


Matt said he felt so naive that he allowed his Ometepe tribemates, who were forced to merge with the original Zapatera tribe members -- Mike; Ralph Kiser, a 44-year-old farmer from Lebanon, VA; David; Julie Wolfe, a 50-year-old firefighter from Oceanside, CA; and Steve Wright, a 51-year-old former NFL player from Huntington, CA -- during the season's ninth episode, to blindside him a second time.

Matt thought his former Ometepe tribe had accepted him into their alliance once again, when in reality, Ometepe just found him a threat and lacked trust in his strategic decisions and loyalty to the tribe.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm reaping the benefits of my shame... I feel like a moron. It's like it's the biggest practical joke in the world being played right now," he lamented after his Redemption Island arrival.

Matt seemingly lost much of his confidence as a player in the game and prayed as he spent time in his shelter on Redemption Island alone again. Although discouraged and frustrated, Matt said he would stay on the island as long as God wanted him there and accepted his position in the game because he believed it to be God's will.

On Day 22, David labeled Rob's move to vote out Matt "genius and mob style" following the Tribal Council session the previous night, while Mike also agreed it was a smart move even though he felt bad for Matt. Mike then told Rob, the former Survivor: Marquesas, Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains castaway, how brilliant he thought the plan was, but Julie had a different opinion on the entire subject.


"For them to send Matt back to Redemption was just cold-blooded. I mean, it's a game, but do you not have any feeling at all for a human being? So, with people like that playing the game, there's no breaking that barrier. That's how we feel right now. There's no breaking their loyal shield," Julie said.

Ralph then attempted to talk to Ashley about possibly developing some type of alliance. Ralph asked her if he was on the chopping block and once she responded that she wasn't able to talk about anything with him, Ralph suggested that if they made it to the final three together, he would vote for her instead of Rob.

Ashley told him there was no way that was going to happen and Ralph was angered that no one from the Ometepe tribe was willing to talk or make any moves to include Zapatera.

"How can we play a game, when we don't even know where to start?" Ralph said.

Rob then gathered his alliance on the beach and told them they would only decide who would be voted out of the game at the last minute. He also explained that he was going to implement a "buddy system," in which no one was allowed to go off and talk to anyone privately on their own unless the rest of the group was present. Rob felt good his alliance would make it to the final six if everyone continued to follow the rules, because they got closer together.  


"I want my group to hate Zapatera. It's us versus them and we're better than them, and we're going to be arrogant about it and we're going to show it. I'm not, but I want them to, because I want their votes at the end of the day," Rob said.

Natalie took Rob aside and asked him if Ashley had a conversation with him about the incident that occurred with Ralph. Rob, clueless of the situation, was then filled in on what happened and Natalie told him about Ralph's offer to vote for Ashley in the final three.

As a result, Rob appreciated Natalie's honesty but then put a target on Ralph and moved Ashley down to the bottom of their alliance. He knew Ralph wanted Ashley to make the case to keep him around.

"You're not going to vote for me Ralph and you're not going to vote for Ashley, because she ain't going to be there now and it's your fault, Ashley. You could have made it to the end, but you decided not to tell me anything. You have to tell me everything. It's my game. I'm in charge," Rob explained.

Later that day, the Murlonio tribe arrived for the Immunity Challenge and met Survivor host Jeff Probst, who questioned Phillip about a feather headpiece he was wearing, and Phillip responded that he thought it was a sign of good luck for his former Ometepe tribe. He then explained the rules to what would be their ninth Immunity Challenge, but second individual Immunity Challenge.


Each castaway learned they would be required to dig to retrieve a club and then use it to smash a tile. The first six castaways to smash their tiles would move onto the next round where they must submerge their head in a water trough, take in a mouth full of water, and then crawl under the trough to spit the water into a bowl which filled up a tube. The first three tribe members to fill up the tube would move onto the final round where they were instructed to solve a block puzzle. The first person to get the puzzle correct would win individual immunity.

Grant, Rob, Ralph, Mike, David and Julie were the first to break their tiles in the first round and moved on to the second round. Grant, Mike and David were the first castaways to fill their water tubes in the second round and moved on to the final puzzle round. Lastly, Grant and Mike took the lead in solving the puzzle, but Grant completed his puzzle first and ended up winning the challenge, ensuring his safety from elimination at the subsequent Tribal Council.  

After the challenge was over, Murlonio returned to camp and Mike knew his Zapatera tribe was in trouble.

"Today's Immunity Challenge was so close, so close. It was like well, prepare yourself for Tribal Council. It's going to be one of the five of us tonight, unless we can pull off a miracle, a Hail Mary," Mike said. "I think we're all preparing to potentially go to Redemption Island. We've tossed around the idea of trying to see if we could woo some of the Ometepe tribe, but Rob's got them on such lockdown. He's like a prison guard."

Mike and David suggested crashing Rob's "little party" with his alliance as they were celebrating their victory, but then Mike noticed the the poles holding the tribe's flag looked like they might have been moved by the show's producers while they were away at the challenge. He suspected there could be a new hidden Immunity Idol buried underneath it, so he and David started digging to find out.


However, Rob took notice of their actions and commanded his alliance to check out the situation with him. David and Mike -- who saw them running over -- quickly covered up the hole and decided to "screw with them." Phillip arrived at the flag first and began to dig, but Mike told him they were simply looking for rocks.

Rob then brought over two shovels and he and Phillip kept digging but found nothing. David and Mike, who found the incident funny because they were obviously wrong in their assumptions, watched Rob and Phillip with smiles on their faces.

"I think Rob thinks to some degree that we may have found it before they were able to get back with the shovels." Mike said.

Rob gave up on the digging and admitted, "I still can't shake this Idol paranoia. Idols are what killed me last time around and I'm still struggling with them." Rob thought another Idol could have been in play.

Taking into consideration that the former Zapatera tribe members may have found a hidden Immunity Idol, Rob met with his alliance to determine who they should vote for and after Phillip suggested Ralph, Rob narrowed the field to David and Mike because they were the biggest threats. He believed David was smart at challenges and a strategically good player, but he wanted to choose the person who would give Matt a run for his money on Redemption Island. 

"This is one of those times in Survivor where you have to gamble," Rob said.


That night, Survivor: Redemption Island's Murlonio castaways arrived for their second Tribal Council as a merged tribe and the season's ninth overall Tribal Council.

Mike admitted the former Zapatera tribe was in trouble because they were down numbers in comparison to the former Ometepe tribe. David and Julie told Jeff that Phillip was at the bottom of his alliance, but that he was not aware of it. However, Phillip said he couldn't care less.

"I enjoy being on the bottom if that's where I am," Phillip said.

While Phillip said he felt like family, Julie came through with a blow and said Matt felt the same way. Ralph and Phillip then had qualms with each other regarding Phillip's feather, but Mike added that Phillip's feather was only a sign that he did not know himself.

Phillip, who stuck up for himself and began to name his accomplishments, was interrupted by David who called him a "lunatic." Phillip then came at David and told him he was just "a guy at the bottom of a cesspool struggling to get out of it." After David confessed the former Zapatera tribe of five members had no idea who was next to go, everyone voted.

Jeff then revealed the votes and five former Zapatera members voted for Phillip, while the six former Ometepe members voted for Mike. Mike's torch was then extinguished and he was exiled to Redemption Island, where he would attempt to survive with Matt while awaiting the season's eighth duel.


After Tribal Council when Murlonio arrived back at camp, Rob was feeling really good about his relationship with Phillip and felt he could really be trusted as a loyal ally. Rob called him a "loyal soldier" and let him know Phillip wasn't at the bottom of the alliance, but rather the top with Rob.

Rob was pleased with Phillip's response to former Zapatera's comments about him being at the bottom of the pack. Rob then noted Phillip would be rewarded for his good behavior, while he also knew Natalie would be in the bottom three alongside them. 

The next day, Phillip knew most people still thought he was crazy, but he said it as all part of his master plan to convince Rob of his loyalty and then execute the motions to remove Rob from the game when the right time presented itself.

Over at Zapatera's part of camp, Ralph wanted to make big moves and told David he wanted to talk to the former Ometepe tribe members about Rob because he knew if nothing was done, Rob would end up winning. David was skeptical about Ralph's decision to open up to the Ometepe tribe and said he "only had one shot" to make something big happen.

"Time is ticking. We're getting close on time. We've got to make some moves," Ralph said.

Ralph walked over to talk to Phillip and Andrea, but Phillip didn't want to hear anything he had to say. Ralph asked them if they basically would just like to hand the million dollars over to Rob and reminded them they were playing a game.  However, since Ralph was shut down, he had to go report the bad news to David.


Afterward, Ralph and David were both angry because no one was willing to talk strategy or move within their positions in the game.

"When nobody is willing to play the game, it's not a whole lot of fun," David complained.

The Murlonio tribe then met Jeff for their next Immunity Challenge and Jeff explained the rules to what would be their tenth Immunity Challenge, but third individual Immunity Challenge.

The Murlonio tribe learned they would be required to hang from a bar for as long as they can. After twenty minutes, they would be forced to only use their legs to hold them to the bar. Once a castaway fell into the water below, he or she would be eliminated from the challenge. The last person left hanging would win immunity and would be safe from elimination at the subsequent Tribal Council session. Jeff told the castaways another person would be sent to Redemption Island and join Matt and Mike.

However, the castaways were given the option to not compete in the challenge and receive a feast of cheeseburgers and fries instead. Jeff gave the castaways black and white stones and told the players to reveal their decisions in which a white stone would represent eating cheeseburgers and the black stone would symbolize competing in the challenge. Phillip and Steve were the only two tribe members who opted to eat rather than play for immunity.

It came down to Natalie, Ashley, Andrea, and David who were obviously wincing in pain and were struggling to hold on. David was the next to drop out leaving the three girls from the former Ometepe tribe, and they jointly decided to allow Andrea to take the win. Natalie and Ashley then dropped out of the challenge and Andrea won individual immunity.


On Day 24, Rob and his alliance once again were happy with their place in the competition.

"I don't want the Zapatera people to have immunity. I don't want them to have any kind of momentum. I don't want them to feel like they have any power," Rob said.

Ralph then discovered the fishing net they had left in the water had trapped several fish but realized they were dead since they'd been trapped in the net as the tide had gone out. Ralph and Rob then disagreed over whether or not the fish had already spoiled and it was was safe to eat them. Rob told his alliance not to eat the fish, but Julie though Rob had different intentions for his call.

"I think that Rob just doesn't want his people to take anything from us. Now, if Rob were to catch that fish, that would have been a different story. They would have been feasting," Julie explained.

The former Zapatera tribe chose to eat the fish, however. Grant had a tough time watching, but Rob assured him he made the right decision and to stay strong.

"I'm running my tribe like the army. I'm the general. They're soldiers and they're all doing as they're told," Rob said.


Julie then offered Grant some fish and decided to try it. Rob yelled at Grant to move away from the fish and David was shocked by how much power Rob had over his loyal alliance. David described them as a "cult" and that Rob "instilled fear in them" to make them do whatever he desires. 

Afterward, Steve was complained how tired and weak he was. While he napped, Rob knew he needed to decide between voting out Steve to relieve his suffering or David. Rob said he could tell Steve wanted to go home and it might end up as a jury vote on his behalf, but at the same time, he thought of getting rid of David -- who they still believed was a strategic threat.

That night, Murlonio arrived for their Survivor: Redemption Island's third Tribal Council as a merged tribe and the season's tenth overall Tribal Council.

Phillip sparked a discussion deliberating names and descriptions amongst his alliance, and once he was finished, Ralph decided to chew Phillip out for eating cheeseburgers instead of participating in the challenge. Phillip said his tribe would be understanding and that's all that mattered.

The former Ometepe tribe then told Jeff Zapatera was attempting to crack their strong alliance, but Phillip assured everyone it would never happen because of their effective "buddy system." Julie tried to convince Rob's alliance that Rob had utter control over them, but regardless, the former Zapatera tribe and David knew they once again would receive the short end of the stick.

The four former Zapatera members voted for Rob, while the six former Ometepe members voted for David. David's torch was then extinguished and he was exiled to Redemption Island, where he would attempt to survive with Matt and Mike while awaiting the season's eighth duel.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski