"Ralph
approached me before the challenge and basically said if I do
everything I can to keep him around until the jury, that I'll
get his vote. Honestly, I think it's a ploy to keep him around.
I think..."
"What
is up with the Ometepe tribe? We have a ton of protein, a ton of
fish, and Rob is not letting his people eat. He's so
controlling. It's one thing to control the game, control the
votes, control the strategy, but it's crazy he's not letting
them eat. It's almost like a cult. I guess you can look at it
another way, hats off to his leadership, they're going for that.
Poor Grant. That boy's lost 25-30 pounds, he could use some
protein. He was looking at that fish, drooling, and Rob won't
let him have it."
"We
had all discussed as the Ometepe tribe that we would always
have 2 people talking, that if somebody came up to 1 of us, we
would have 2 people go up and talk about it. Basically, Ralph
came up to Ashley and said something like that she was gonna
be the one he voted for in the end if he made the jury, and he
wanted her to win the million dollars. I think I came up and
he was a little bit startled. The way he is he's so blunt and
doesn't think twice about what he's saying. I asked Ashley and
she was like, 'No, he doesn't need to know, he's [Ralph] just
trying to save himself,' or something. I just feel like we had
discussed that if anything was said we could go straight to
our whole tribe and tell everybody what was said. I told Rob
because it was important."
"I
believe I've achieved everything I've come out here to achieve.
I didn't want to change my character, I didn't want to
compromise on that, and I haven't, and yeah, it came back and
really bit me on the butt, and it hurt, really deep. But I've
worked hard, and I haven't quit, and I'm never gonna quit, just
because it's not my plan. God put me here and I have to be
faithful and trust in him and not myself."
Ralph
"I
could've been eating cheeseburgers today, but fortunately I
decided to do the challenge, and then I won immunity, which
feels awesome."David discusses his performance in the hanging challenge.
"The
challenge today was hard. I knew I
wasn't gonna be able to hang the same
way as them and hang longer, just
because of the weight difference. I had
to come up with something in my mind in
a pretty quick moment there. The only
thing I could think of was not relying
on muscle but strictly on skeletal
hanging. The one leg approach I had
started with when we were using the arms
was about as comfortable as you could be
in that situation. I thought I could
support myself fairly well. I didn't
think I'd be able to support myself that
long on the one leg. I could have kept
going, but my foot slipped. I didn't
notice it was slipping until it was too
late. By the time I had noticed, I
couldn't reach up to hold onto it
anymore. It was not a matter of anything
failing at that point in time; I had no
friction between my legs. It was done. I
hit the water before I realized I had
fallen."(cut)
"I had no problem whatsoever with Steve sitting out. It was not a challenge that was cut out for him. He would have been out in 30 seconds. I don't hold it against him at all. If I was a big guy I would have done the same thing. If I was Ralph I would have done it, too. There was no reason for Ralph to be in there. He wasn't gonna win it."
(cut)
"I knew going into the challenge that if I don't win there's a good chance it's gonna be me. For one reason, because I'm clearly the brains behind the operation at this point, and I did well in the last challenge. I didn't really have a choice today. It was either win, or, unless they're not doing something in line with the history of what they've done, then I'm through. Bottom line. They voted Mike out because he was the best competitor we had, and chances are they're gonna do the same thing tonight."
(cut)
"If I go to Redemption Island tonight, I've kind of accepted it. I'm not out of the game yet, it's just the next stage."
(cut)
"I think I have as good of a shot as anybody to win out there, so I'm not real worried about it. But I'd much rather not have to deal with that, but part of me is kind of looking forward to going there, in a way. It's time to relax, to spend an evening with Mike or Matt, different perspective on things, won't have the animosity that's going on here. Won't have to listen to Phillip. Probably have more than enough rice and nobody that will complain about how much I have to eat tonight."
(cut)
"I won't have to depend on anybody else to do or not do things. I don't have to clean up anybody else's messes. I don't have to explain to anybody else the rationale for things. I just have to go out and win a simple task. I'm not gonna be hanging upside down with a couple of 90 pound girls."
Proud of
Ometepe Girls
Although
he did not perform well in the
challenge, Rob is proud of the girls in
his tribe for hanging on longer than
David.
"My
performance at the challenge today was
pathetic. I could not get comfortable
from the getgo. I could not find a
position that was comfortable for me.
Look at the inside of my arm. It's all
torn up. I don't know what it was."
(cut)
"Not only am I proud of the girls
on our team for holding out and getting
us a win, that when it came down to the
three of them to fight it out,
especially Ashley and Natalie, took the
bullet and gave immunity to Andrea. We
didn't have to sit there and it didn't
cause any discomfort within our own
tribe, which was nice. If it was me up
there we'd probably still be
there."
(cut)
"The biggest thing to happen today,
either it was a genius play on David's
part or it was a dead giveaway. That's
what I'm still trying to figure out.
Either it was genius of him to stay up
there as long as he did, if they do have
an idol, just so we'll put the vote on
him, because he's such a competitor.
Either that or it was a dead giveaway
and he was fighting for his life. In
that case, we need to get him out of
here, because anybody that competes that
hard, I don't want competing against
me."
I Won
Immunity
Grant
is excited to have won immunity for
himself and his tribe.
"We
just got back from the challenge, and
the Ometepe tribe brought home an
individual immunity idol. We're feeling
pretty good about that. The Zapatera
tribe is struggling a little bit,
scrambling around trying to put things
together, trying to get in people's ears
about to tell them who to vote for, tell
me if it's me so I know, this and that.
We're not telling 'em anything. We're
gonna let them squander around this
afternoon and basically just guess
what's gonna happen tonight."
(cut)
"This is a huge win for us as a
group, huge win for us personally. I
didn't consider myself to be a strong
puzzle person coming into this game, but
apparently I beat one of the stronger
puzzle people today, so I feel good
about that."
(cut)
"This is exciting. Things are
falling into place we wanted them to
fall into place way back when we were in
our own tribe, our own camp. It looks
like we're going to be going far. The
original alliance Boston Rob and I made
together is going to be coming to
fruition, if we keep going the way we're
going, and it looks like we're gonna go
that route, so it's exciting."
"Sometimes
at Tribal Council, I'm saying the right things.
Like last night, Phillip said a feather came
floating out of the air right down in front of
him. That was something his grandfather sent him.
His grandfather is more likely to have passed away
a few years ago. I don't believe that bullcrap. I
said, Phillip, on your day tomorrow, you might be
walking on the beach and end up with a mouthful of
feathers. They took it like I was gonna cram
feathers down his mouth. No, I meant the whole
bird would fall out of the air to him, and he'd
just eat the whole thing, feathers and all."
"I
do not have any regrets about sitting out. I knew
that we were gonna prevail, and the only thing
required is that 1 former Ometepe member win.
That's our goal in any of those challenges. I've
reached a point of my life personally, regardless
of the game of Survivor, that I am going to use my
God-given talents where I best deem them necessary
to prevail in any situation in life. The fact that
I'm playing the game of Survivor, the best
preservation I could do for myself and for my
tribe, as I said, is to reserve my energies and my
strength and not (?) myself in any way to prove a
point on a losing cause. And on the next event,
hear whimpering and complaining. I don't want to
hear that. I'd rather say, hey, this is where I'm
at, explain it to my tribe members, and then be
prepared for the next challenge."
"So
this morning, Matt and I headed over to treemail
and turns out my luxury item was there. Really
really nice to have, a piece of home. A photograph
of my grandfather that sits on my desk. I look at
it every morning. He's been an inspiration in my
life since I was a little child. He was a
navigator on a B-17 that was shot down during
World War II. The B-17's name was the Judy E. (?)
He ended up surviving, but spent 2 years in a
German POW camp (didn't hear the name). Ended up
writing a book about his experiences, and part of
that book ended up being in the movie The Great
Escape, with Steve McQueen. It was basically an
escape movie and life inside a German POW camp and
where 80 American service members tunneled out and
were able to escape from the Germans. He's been my
inspiration in my life. His strength, I take with
me today. He was my reason for deciding to serve
in the military. I was in the marine corps for 5
years. He was a great man. I wish he was still
around, I wish I could share the details of this
experience with him."
"I
knew it would be a tough challenge today, with the
hanging, and that's not my forte, with all the
little girls, trying to hang on to 240 pounds
hanging from the bar. I guess I wasn't expecting
no answer for the hamburgers, to start off. I kind
of had it set to where I was gonna hang in there
until what he usually does, offer something up
after 5 minutes or so and then it keeps getting
better and better. I knew I needed food, wanted
food, and was gonna give it up for food. I had no
plans to hang in there until the end. I did have a
plan to stay in there for a while, but when it
came down to a yes/no answer for food, to make us
stronger for the future, or try to wrestle as much
time as I could with smaller people, it wasn't
even a second guess. It was the best decision I
feel I could have made for myself, going with the
hamburgers and sitting and relaxing and
eating."
<day
22; most of Ometepe is in
the shelter, while Mike
and Julie are sitting
nearby>