['Survivor: Redemption Island' - 'Seems Like a No Brainer']

Could "Boston Rob" Mariano pull off one of the most impressive victories in the history of 'Survivor'? Going into the finale, he looked poised to do just that. Of course, he still had to whittle down his Final Four, contend with whoever returned from Redemption Island and then convince the jury to not be bitter and reward his game play.

From Redemption, he faced the possibility of going up against Matt, who'd spent 29 days there, surviving every single duel up to this point. Mike was well-liked and had dominated even Matt since going there, while Andrea and Grant were members of his own alliance.

Still in the game was Ashley, who was actively looking to prevent Rob from even getting to that final Tribal Council. She faced an uphill battle trying to convince Natalie, who was loyal to a fault, and the always unpredictable Phillip. But, if the right person came back into the game, she could flip the game and send Rob packing.

Probably everyone was surprised when the final challenge at Redemption Island knocked out first Grant and then both Matt and Mike. Just like that, Andrea was back.

In a way it completely negated the accomplishments of Mike and Matt in notching up their impressive runs of victories on Redemption Island. In fact, the only thing Matt really accomplished really with his astonishing streak of ten victories out of eleven battles on Redemption was a spot on the Jury.

Andrea came back into the game and tried to make a move to get Rob out, but his hold on the surviving members of the Ometepe tribe was too strong. When Ashley won the goofy count-to-100 challenge, this was the time for the girls to unite and flip the game on its head.

It was also the time for me to wonder what the hell the producers of 'Survivor' were thinking. This is the best you can do for a Top Five Immunity Challenge? The balance beam was thick enough that only Phillip struggled and, in a puzzle-heavy season, this one was just counting? It's as if the real challenges were given to Redemption Island, where they ultimately didn't matter.

Back at camp, I was certain Natalie would be the tough one for Andrea to flip, but ultimately no one turned, confirming Rob's strange mental control over the tribe. He could have taken the Immunity Idol home as a souvenir after all, as he didn't need it.

Later, Natalie admitted the reason she and Ashley didn't flip at this point was because Rob had already admitted to them he had the Idol, so they knew it would only hurt their social game with him to throw pointless votes his way.

It didn't help that Andrea insulted Ashley and Natalie at that Tribal Council, saying that neither of them had any game or strategy thus far. They might not have voted her way, but 'Survivor' can get emotional, so you have to be careful how you word things to people you want to help you.

With Andrea eliminated right after her return, the complete and utter uselessness of Redemption Island was realized. Matt came back and was blindsided out again immediately. Andrea was back and out. All it did was take separate Reward Challenges away from the game, and cause producers to give more difficult and interesting challenges to Redemption people over the ones left in the game. They got puzzles.

Speaking of which ... surprise! The final Immunity Challenge involved collecting puzzle pieces and assembling a word puzzle, but when I saw it was a giant maze, I was certain they would at least blindfold the contestants. Make them work that much harder, maybe? But no.

Natalie performed as if she was blindfolded, Rob seemed to have little trouble, and Ashley simply followed him around. She wouldn't have been able to do that if they'd been blindfolded.

To make it interesting they could have had each station making sounds in succession to help the contestants find their way to them. This is supposed to be the hardest challenge yet as it's the one that guarantees you a spot in the Final Tribal Council, but it didn't seem as tough as most we've seen in prior seasons.

Rob is great at puzzles, so while Ashley made it interesting, she came up just short in the end. Rob stuck to his original plan of taking Natalie and Phillip with him to the Final Tribal Council, and Ashley was done.

When Phillip burned his pink underwear back at camp, I thought he was taking off his brilliant mask of craziness to start revealing to all of us just how genius his strategy was in getting Rob to take him into the finale by playing the villain.

He started talking about it a little bit during the Jury questioning, but couldn't stop himself from being belligerent and annoying, dooming his chances. If he'd been calm and cool in explaining how he'd duped them all when he saw that Rob was going to run this tribe with an iron fist he might have won some votes.

A lot of Jurists were still emotionally hurt, but inevitably it didn't matter. There was only one real choice, even if Ralph missed it. Natalie said her strategy was to do everything Rob said. Phillip said his strategy was to climb under Rob's wing. They both basically said Rob deserved to win.

Then David came out and said the same thing. I loved that he didn't even bother talking to the Final Three, instead arguing as a lawyer to the Jury why Rob was the only real choice for victor. All of his points were exactly right. These players all helped Rob be the only deserving winner and David wanted to make sure they at least ended their collectively terrible game by voting the right way.



You can argue that Rob won because of his experience and because Ometepe wasn't savvy enough to get rid of him at any point throughout the game. But that's not his fault. He dealt the hand that was given him and went on to win. Who's to say Russell might not have made his third straight finale if he'd been dealt Ometepe instead of Zapatera. Well, probably not but he'd have at least probably had a chance to go further.

Jeff Probst revealed that in the upcoming Season 23, two more people would be returning to the game for a second chance. Could it be someone like Matt, who really didn't get a chance to play 'Survivor' this time around, or even Mike? Maybe they'll reach farther back and grab some more all-stars. Or send Russell out yet again.

Hopefully, Redemption Island will prove to mean something in the next season. If not, it should probably just be retired as it's distracting from the main game. It could work in a normal 'Survivor' situation, but that wasn't this season. This one was so controlled by Rob that allegiances never shifted, which meant there was very little drama and no potential for upsets throughout the season.

This was the Rob Mariano show, and while it was an impressive display by the four-time castaway, I'm looking forward to a more traditional season of 'Survivor' with lots of unexpected twists and turns. Hopefully, 'Survivor: South Pacific' will deliver.

[Follow Jason on Twitter.]