00:00I think I really underestimated how upset Sage was at the Juwan vote.
00:06I, you know, you've been backstabbing and voting people out, you know, for days now.
00:10And some people, they get betrayed and they get over it.
00:14And so I was kind of expecting that, especially since Sage and Christina and Steven had all expressed a desire to get Savannah out at other points in the game and had even voted for her at other points in the game.
00:25And so I didn't think I was like, you guys literally just did this last tribal council at the Juwan vote.
00:32Let's just like run it back. And I didn't think it was going to be that hard.
00:35And I like really made a miscalculation there.
00:41And I also think what I just like what I really should have kind of double clicked into is the decoy vote that like supposedly Savannah and Rizzo and Soph,
00:52where they were going to vote like, and me in theory, we were all going to vote Christina.
00:56But if you think about it, Christina is not necessarily the smartest strategic player to get out at this stage.
01:03And so the fact that like Rizzo and Savannah, who are like quite strategic players, were like, yeah, sure.
01:13Let's go.
01:13Christina, like quite cavalier about it.
01:15That should have given me a clue that no, they were not going to just pick off Christina.
01:20They were going to pick somebody who was like really instrumental in their game.
01:23Yeah.
01:24And like you said, did you kind of suspect that they pulled you into the group, but that eventually Rizzo and Savannah would say,
01:30listen, we got to get Sophie out.
01:31Even if she's with us, she's too big of a threat.
01:33We can't keep her till four.
01:35Exactly.
01:35I did think that like I would, I kind of kept them at a little bit of a distance where like,
01:39I feel like they will flip at some point.
01:41I thought they were with, like, I thought I had them for at least one more, but I did think that blue Sophie might join me and actually be green Sophie.
01:55Because I was kind of thinking that she might want a big resume move to, you know,
02:02show the jury that she's not just like riding the coattails of Rizzo and Savannah,
02:06but like, she's really playing her own game.
02:09And so I really thought that she would be down to vote one of them out.
02:14And I just misjudged that as well.
02:16I really thought like, yeah, I thought I would be able to maybe get her over to my dark side, but no.
02:23So was the Jawan vote kind of where you feel like you went left and should have gone right in terms of sticking with the Sage group
02:28rather than voting with the Savannah group?
02:31Actually, no.
02:32So I, like in that vote, I, the only thing I regret is maybe I should have voted Sage instead of Jawan,
02:40because I think had I gotten Sage out, I don't think Jawan would have taken it as personally because he and I weren't as close.
02:47Whereas I think the fact that Sage and I were much closer, I really hurt her in voting out Jawan.
02:52And she really was the, we saw like the spearhead in getting me out this round.
02:55Um, but I think had I voted with Sage and Jawan and Steven and Christina, I would have been the bottom of that five.
03:05And I honestly think I would have still gone home at seven.
03:08I agree.
03:08Because they've all tried to get me out before.
03:10So I actually think it was safer to try to be in this alliance of four and sure, maybe they won't take me to fire,
03:19but like at least I'm not the bottom of a five, which just, I was, yeah, I was kind of feeling like, I don't know, a used car that nobody wanted.
03:29You kind of needed both sides to keep going at war with each other and you just slip through and then you win this immunity, you win that immunity.
03:35And then, oh, what do you know?
03:36You made it to the end.
03:37I couldn't have them become friends last minute and gang up on me, but yeah.
03:42What was it like kind of playing with the dynamic of it's this side versus that side?
03:46Like, I feel like we don't see that as much in the new era, but even it feels like very much.
03:49And I guess it was the yellow red war that was kind of still going on.
03:53But what was it like as a player to do, to have that dynamic of it's kind of this side versus that?
03:57It honestly, it, it was kind of, I feel like, cause yeah, you're right.
04:04We don't typically see that because typically you have like a little bit more of all three tribes in the new era.
04:09And this, you know, we decimated Calais.
04:11And so it really became just two kind of warring factions.
04:15I think it made for a really interesting post-merge because while at the surface,
04:21it seemed like yellow versus red because of all these tribe swaps,
04:26there were all of these little, yeah, little relationships and like the camera couldn't show all of them.
04:32And so I feel like we were able to, yeah, have a lot of people who were friends or made alliances
04:40or had little side deals that wouldn't have happened in like kind of the normal three.
04:47So I actually think it was like really fun to have this, almost like this guise of it's yellow versus red.
04:52But in reality, there's a ton going on behind the scenes.
04:55What about winning the first immunity?
04:57Is that a regret of yours?
04:58Because you really showcased like you're here to play and you're athletic.
05:01And then obviously you follow that up with another immunity a few episodes later.
05:04Is that a regret of yours?
05:05Or do you feel like you kind of had to win that?
05:07I feel like I had to win that.
05:08I feel like had I not, I would have gone home that night.
05:11Like, I think that was when, um,
05:13I know like the red team, Uli was like, if I had not gotten an immunity, I, that was going
05:19to be me.
05:20Like, I think Nate even says like Sophie was going to be the vote and they had the majority
05:23and I feel like they would have taken me out.
05:26Um, the other thing is, look, Eric, I love competitions.
05:31I love to win.
05:33I don't think I know how to like not try.
05:36Or on Survivor after all.
05:37I mean, like, yeah, and I will tell you this winning individual immunity was one of the
05:45highlights of my life as an adult.
05:48Like I was an athlete, I was a college athlete, but like as a normal working adult, you do
05:53not get to compete for actual stakes anymore.
05:56And it was the most fun.
05:59And I know there are people to whom Survivor is really about the strategy, but I love, oh
06:05my God, I love the competition.
06:06And so I miss it and I don't regret any of them.
06:09And wearing that damn shark tooth necklace was such a highlight for me.
06:15And you got to do it twice.
06:15A lot of people can't do it once.
06:18You got to do it twice.
06:19Yeah, I got to do it twice.
06:20Truly double check off your bucket.
06:22Um, you know, there's been so much talk about, you know, we see with Christina and Savannah,
06:26they don't get along and there's been stuff on social media about Savannah.
06:29What was your feelings about the whole mean girl or bully attachment that has been kind
06:33of labeled on her?
06:34And how do you feel about that personally?
06:36Yeah.
06:36Personally, I don't find Savannah a mean girl at all, nor do I think like her game is a
06:41mean girl.
06:42I think she's playing.
06:44Yeah.
06:45She's playing like a very like blunt.
06:48blunt to the point does not mince words.
06:53And look, I am a little bit of a similar player in certain ways in that sometimes you just got
07:00to be brutally honest.
07:01Um, I think like Savannah is an incredible competitor and I feel like I know shade to
07:10Christina, but I feel like survivor is a game where you got to bare your teeth and Savannah
07:18is burying her teeth for a million dollars.
07:20Hell yeah.
07:21Show up and fight back.
07:22That's kind of how I felt watching that interaction where Savannah was like, who are you voting
07:27for?
07:27And Christina really didn't like it.
07:29I just think that survivor is a game for a million dollars.
07:33Play however you want to play.
07:35I don't feel like Savannah was a bully.
07:37She was there to fight.
07:39And so was I.
07:40And sure.
07:41I don't think you would say that Savannah was giving like care bear, but like, I loved
07:49competing with her and some of my favorite survivor players have had similar strategies
07:57and I respect it.
07:59I think it's just, I, yeah, I feel badly that the mean girl aesthetic has been a good
08:05thing that has been, yeah, has been attached to Savannah because I think really maybe what's
08:10going on here is that, yeah, she's just not mincing any words and people are confusing
08:17that with being like overtly mean in a contrived game.
08:21A hundred percent.
08:22A hundred percent.
08:23You know, we were robbed of not seeing you enough in the pre-mercades and I'm sure you
08:26feel the same and I'm sure you've heard this from the fans, but also maybe the fans in
08:29your family.
08:30How did you feel just emotionally as those episodes were progressing?
08:34How did, how do you just feel overall about that?
08:37Yeah.
08:37It's funny because it honestly felt a lot like gaslighting in that I was there.
08:43I lived those days.
08:44I was at those challenges.
08:46I was a part of this game for those, you know, 13 or so days before the merge, but like very
08:53little of that is shown.
08:54And so it almost feels a little bit like you're being erased and, you know, you see things
09:00online and people being like, there's another Sophie, what's going on?
09:03And it really makes you question, like, was I actually a part of 49?
09:07Like, did I play the game?
09:09Because the other thing is we don't have any like photo evidence of this time.
09:14Like you don't have your phone.
09:15And so you like think you remember what happened, but like you don't actually know because you
09:21didn't really have any record of it.
09:23And so you're just kind of relying on the edit to confirm what you believe.
09:27And when it doesn't, it's like extremely upsetting.
09:30And so I was super bummed to not get airtime early on.
09:35Part of it, of course, is logistics.
09:37When your team is winning and you're not going to tribal, that's a big part of the episode
09:41that you're just like not a part of.
09:43Um, but I will say like, yeah, that was tough.
09:47Uh, I am so happy that I've gotten to have my little moment in the sun and like my emergence
09:56and coming out party, um, in the like immunity challenge.
10:00And, you know, I feel like it was fun to have people want more of me than get sick of me.
10:06So I will maybe take that as a positive, like net positive in the end, but like distressing
10:12while it's happening.
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