Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) interviews the final four players of Survivor 47 island, followed by This Week In Survivor History with Jordan Kalish (@JordanKalish) where Rob plays against an RHAP patron.[00:00:00] Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Cesternino back after our Survivor finale here with the Survivor Final Four Exit Press. And today we're going to talk with our brand new winner of Survivor, Rachel Lamont. And then we'll talk to our runner-up, Sam. We'll talk to our third place finisher, Sue. And then the fourth place finisher, Teenie, from this season 47 of Survivor.
[00:00:29] Had a lot of fun breaking it all down last night with Adam Klein. Really fun podcast for you to check out if you missed that one. Great recap of Rachel, her game, the season as a whole. Adam has some thoughts on a bunch of the different players. So check that out. That is up currently.
[00:00:47] And then today at 3.30 p.m. Eastern Time, I'm going to talk with Steven Vischbach for one last Survivor Know-It-All for Survivor 47. Find out what Steven was thinking about everything and answering your questions as well.
[00:00:59] Speaking of your questions, I'm going to be taking the patron questions live on Friday at 3 p.m. And we've been having such great patron calls. There have been two hours, three hours of me taking calls from the patrons. You can call in live or listen to that as a patron at robiswebsite.com slash patron.
[00:01:17] All right. We have our brand new Survivor winner here with us on the line. Let's go ahead and patch her in.
[00:01:24] Hey, Rachel, Rob, Cicerino, first off, congratulations on what an incredible job by you here.
[00:01:31] What a run. And so first off, just wow.
[00:01:37] Thank you. Big. I mean, I was a Survivor Academy.
[00:01:43] Like, I think there were entire episodes, if you go back, where I was the only person who submitted questions to Survivor Academy.
[00:01:48] OK, I will go back. Let's go. We'll go check it. We'll put you on the poster. We'll bring it back. OK.
[00:01:53] All right. So, Rachel, so many different things to talk through. Sam gave you a run for your money, seemingly in that final travel council.
[00:02:05] What was going through your mind as Jeff was getting ready to go and bring back the votes?
[00:02:11] Let me tell you, basically, when I won that final five immunity, I thought I had the game.
[00:02:16] You know, once I knew I could get Genevieve out, I was very confident at my chances at the end.
[00:02:20] And when Jeff went to read those votes at final tribal, I was like, I think I just lost the game at final tribal.
[00:02:26] Like it was Sam was so, so good. And I knew he was going to be like formidable.
[00:02:33] And we were going to bicker like simply the siblings that we are.
[00:02:36] But it was just I had such a pit of doubt. I was so scared. I really, really was. He did so well.
[00:02:44] I thought that the way you broke down the final four fire making was interesting.
[00:02:51] You seem like you were very locked in on your choices. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to make that decision?
[00:02:58] Yeah, I mean, I knew from the jump that I was not giving up my immunity. I did not think I needed it.
[00:03:04] I you know, it was like, what is another challenge? I have plenty of these and on my resume.
[00:03:09] Right. That said, I was obviously backing Teenie and truly I really wanted a final three of women.
[00:03:17] I really just like we hadn't had that since Samuel Del Sur. Like I was just ready for it.
[00:03:22] And in the moment, I truly believed Teenie would actually potentially get more votes than Sam because I thought that we wouldn't be competing for the same necessarily the same votes like Sam and I would be.
[00:03:31] And so I I didn't care, though, like I felt like I could be both of them. And I really just personally wanted Teenie there.
[00:03:39] And obviously it all worked out perfectly. I love Sam and he was so good at final tribal and it made it so exciting.
[00:03:45] But I was not expecting him to win in this spectacular fashion that was just so dramatic.
[00:03:53] I mean, you know, sometimes we're like, is it edited to be more dramatic? It was that dramatic in real life.
[00:03:57] Like the jury jumped off the bench. I was like, oh, my gosh, like, did I just make a huge mistake?
[00:04:03] Like it was it was a lot. Yeah. Not how I expected to go similar to a lot of it.
[00:04:09] Rachel, you were with Sam the whole way. Did you know that he had never practiced making the fire?
[00:04:16] Here's the problem. Andy also acted like he'd never made the fire.
[00:04:18] So there was a lot of sandbagging going on and I did not trust him, obviously.
[00:04:24] And so at first I did not believe him. I still felt I knew I was a better fire maker.
[00:04:29] I'd watch him try to make fire and got it. And so I wasn't worried if I had had to go into fire.
[00:04:34] I was going to get against Sam and I believe I would have beat him.
[00:04:37] But when that day when he was kind of parading around, you're like, you're so annoyed.
[00:04:41] And it was definitely feeling like he was trying to bluff until I went back and saw that he was on the brink of tears and had not gotten anything.
[00:04:49] And that was the point where I was like, I truly believe.
[00:04:52] And I asked him because he he read his letter. He started crying.
[00:04:54] I was like, why didn't you practice fire? You've been a fan of the show since you were a kid.
[00:04:57] And he's like, I just thought I'd win the immunities. Like, I didn't think I'd need to.
[00:05:00] And I honestly, I wanted to kind of lob that at him at Final Travel.
[00:05:05] But I just felt like I was like, I don't know. You never know what's going to like hit the jury, like kind of icky.
[00:05:10] So, Rachel, a lot has been made about, you know, that you didn't play the game that you thought you were going to play.
[00:05:16] You had to play a different game. What was the game that you thought you were going to come out and play on Survivor 47?
[00:05:21] No, I just thought that I would have more of an ability to kind of like anticipate other people's behavior.
[00:05:29] I think I ended up with such a blind spot of like, to me, it made no sense for Andy to flip on us with two people that I believed he could not be against four people that he had a much better shot at for Operation Italy.
[00:05:43] It just didn't like I felt like I would get into my own my own logic of how I would think about the game and not consider that like Andy is just a very different player than I am.
[00:05:53] And he is not thinking different. He's built different. He's just going to swing, you know, and maybe I should have seen that.
[00:05:59] Maybe it's totally a blind spot for me, but it just I thought that I would be better at knowing when people are lying to me and able to like suss out like what makes sense for other people's games.
[00:06:12] Rachel, going back to Operation Italy, had you not won immunity in that round that do you think that you would have gone home or do you feel like that you would have had something else up your sleeve?
[00:06:22] I would have played the block of vote if I was if I was not immune.
[00:06:27] Like it was just I was wanting to play for Caroline and she told me no.
[00:06:32] And Sue, you know, I didn't know about the idol, but Sue was offering play.
[00:06:34] She told her no. And like we were really trying to play Kate Andy, but I felt weird that day a little bit.
[00:06:40] I did trust Andy. I didn't think it was in his best interest, but I think that I felt like the block of vote was such a kind of a nothing advantage,
[00:06:48] particularly if you actually think you have a group of five that like can control that.
[00:06:53] I don't think I would have hesitated to quote unquote waste it.
[00:06:56] OK, I had a theory about you and your game from earlier in the season, and I would love to know if you've given this any thought.
[00:07:03] I had thought that one of the reasons why people were so on the lookout for you was after you got caught stealing the rice that do you think that had any sort of impression of the way people thought about you from getting your spot blown up by Jeff in a public way?
[00:07:22] On the one hand, I don't think that that any person would say that that was like a direct one to one correlation.
[00:07:28] But I think that drawing that kind of attention on yourself that early was like day five that early in the game and showing that you have any kind of like out of the box thinking is just not good for you, even if it's completely subconscious.
[00:07:43] I have asked and I feel like people were like, no, it never really mattered.
[00:07:46] But I think just having all I mean, Jeff essentially threw me under the bus, like in front of everybody on day five.
[00:07:53] You know, it was definitely not I did not want that kind of attention.
[00:07:56] I wanted to be more under the radar.
[00:07:58] And so I don't think it was like, I know, I think the puzzle stuff was probably the other thing I said that you are too good at the puzzles.
[00:08:08] Yeah, I mean, I love puzzles and I always wanted to I mean, I've played had survivor puzzles for years and I love them.
[00:08:15] But for me, I was so nervous about being a petite Asian woman that I did not.
[00:08:20] I wanted to show that I had value on my tribe.
[00:08:23] And when Anika, I did not volunteer for that.
[00:08:24] Anika on that very first sweater savvy thing was like, we we should do this, Rachel.
[00:08:29] And I was like, OK, fine.
[00:08:31] You know, and once we did it once, so easy to keep doing it.
[00:08:34] And we were so good at it.
[00:08:35] It was so fun.
[00:08:35] And so it was just hard to not keep doing it.
[00:08:38] And it's like I wanted to win.
[00:08:39] I didn't want to go to freaking tribal.
[00:08:41] So, yeah, I it's a it's a double edged sword.
[00:08:45] So you talked about I heard, you know, in on fire and you've talked about it before that you're a poker player also.
[00:08:53] But I thought that didn't come up much on the show.
[00:08:54] Was that something that helped you?
[00:08:56] I'm not that good of a poker player, so I don't think it really helped me.
[00:09:00] But I think that I think that being able to kind of like sit around a table and bluff a little bit like that, you know, that is a skill.
[00:09:08] And I I am a much better liar than I thought I was like, you know, coming into the game.
[00:09:13] And I did feel like, you know, I remember on fire.
[00:09:17] I was like, I saw my one outer path to the end and that I do feel like poker is a game of odds.
[00:09:25] And I feel like Survivor can also be sort of a game of odds.
[00:09:27] And I found the path in front of me and I executed it on on fire.
[00:09:33] Rachel also gives a great interview on that show and talked about being an alternate for Survivor 46.
[00:09:40] But I've been curious to know from you that did that experience, did it help you in any way in the game?
[00:09:47] Did you come in with less nerves having been to Fiji already?
[00:09:51] I think probably a little bit less nerve.
[00:09:54] I think just the pregame is so odd where you sit around in silence for hours and hours every day.
[00:10:00] And just having an idea of what that's like already is an advantage in the sense that I was just kind of scoping everybody out.
[00:10:07] I wasn't worried about I had an idea of every day what we're going to do today.
[00:10:10] And I think that is an advantage for my mindset going into the game.
[00:10:15] Outside of that, I don't really think there's any tangible advantage.
[00:10:20] Okay, well, you had a move that really blew everybody's minds when you played the shot in the dark instead of playing your idol.
[00:10:29] And I think a lot of folks thought that you might have trumpeted that at the final tribal council.
[00:10:35] Was that something that did come up?
[00:10:38] What's so funny about that is I knew it was very clever in the moment,
[00:10:42] but I just didn't feel like that was something that was so great that I should take that to final tribal and try to sell it as a move.
[00:10:49] To me, it just I understand looking back on it now.
[00:10:51] I have the like space to see that it was very creative and innovative and like something that really hadn't happened before.
[00:10:57] But it did not even occur to me to bring it up at final tribal.
[00:11:01] I truly like I was so scared of voting for Gabe and going back to camp having voted for Gabe and probably being the only one.
[00:11:09] And that was the thing that got me to be like, I can play my shot in the dark and avoid voting for him.
[00:11:14] And then I was like, and then if people freak out, I will be able to play my idol.
[00:11:19] And so it was such an in the moment.
[00:11:22] I was like rifling through my bag at tribal.
[00:11:24] I didn't even know where my shot in the dark was because it occurred to me in the moment to do it.
[00:11:27] So it just it was because it wasn't something I had planned ahead of time.
[00:11:32] I feel like it wasn't something that I felt like I could just like, Lord, but that's a mistake on my part.
[00:11:37] I should have brought it up.
[00:11:37] You had another really badass moment when you went out onto the barge and had to go and finish the puzzle before the rope ran out.
[00:11:48] What was that like going through that experience in the moment?
[00:11:52] I just was like, how is this a journey?
[00:11:55] Like, this isn't what a journey is.
[00:11:56] We've seen so many of these journeys.
[00:11:58] And I was very relieved and I was so scared it was going to be that one puzzle that no one could solve on 45.
[00:12:03] And so I was relieved to see it was a puzzle that I knew how to do.
[00:12:06] But it was so intimidating to get on that barge completely alone and just looking at this rope, being like, what is this thing?
[00:12:14] And then when you're moving around, like, it's like, again, it's a puzzle that anybody can solve with enough time.
[00:12:20] But it's like, do I have enough time?
[00:12:22] And there is no like counter.
[00:12:24] There's not even a metric.
[00:12:25] Like with an hourglass, you can see the time running out.
[00:12:28] I feel like obviously I could hear it running out.
[00:12:30] But it's not as tangible as this thing in front of you.
[00:12:33] And it was just the most intimidating thing.
[00:12:37] But it's so exhilarating.
[00:12:38] When I pulled that box out and the table just like flew off the barge, it was crazy.
[00:12:42] I went back to travel being like, are they going to even believe me when I tell them this story?
[00:12:46] Did they?
[00:12:48] I think so.
[00:12:48] I mean, Sam didn't believe that I had lost.
[00:12:51] But I don't think anyone questioned it.
[00:12:52] But it was because like, how would he even make that up?
[00:12:55] Like the table flew into the ocean?
[00:12:56] Who's making that up as a story?
[00:12:58] Bye.
[00:12:58] Yeah.
[00:12:59] Bye.
[00:12:59] Yeah.
[00:13:00] It was another great moment that you had when you and Genevieve were really sizing each other up.
[00:13:06] This island isn't big enough for the both of us moment.
[00:13:09] What was it like having a competitor in Genevieve that you were the Harry Potter and Voldemort together
[00:13:17] all throughout this post-merge where both of you were targeting each other?
[00:13:21] And for a while, neither of you could get the other one out.
[00:13:25] Yeah.
[00:13:26] I mean, we from the merge, like from the jump, we clocked each other.
[00:13:30] And I just kept seeing her move through these conversations and just never give anything up,
[00:13:36] stand there quietly and just take everything in.
[00:13:39] And I was like, this chick is good.
[00:13:41] Like she doesn't give anything away.
[00:13:42] And she just comes away with all of the information.
[00:13:45] And it was just so apparent.
[00:13:47] She was so close with Sam.
[00:13:49] You know, when we hit the merge, Sierra was like, I don't like how close they are.
[00:13:52] And I was like, yeah, they've gotten really close already.
[00:13:53] And so it was just immediately clear that if I couldn't trust Sam, he was now Genevieve's number one.
[00:14:00] And I, it was just, I was never going to work with them.
[00:14:02] And she felt the same way.
[00:14:03] And we, you know, we just had this kind of like opposite sides of the battlefield.
[00:14:08] We never tried to BS each other.
[00:14:09] We just looked across and said like, I'm coming for you.
[00:14:12] Like eventually, you know, and it was the rivalry of my dreams.
[00:14:16] I mean, like, I just keep saying like, when is the last time that two women were in contention for the win?
[00:14:21] Like Micronesia?
[00:14:22] Like it's been forever.
[00:14:24] And so it's just the fact that it was two women that we feel like we have a lot in common.
[00:14:29] And yet we're, you know, very similar, but a little bit different.
[00:14:32] Like I, we would just go to battle at these challenges.
[00:14:36] It was the two of us always battling for the win and then come back to camp.
[00:14:40] She'd braid my hair.
[00:14:41] It was just, oh, I just adore her.
[00:14:44] Respect.
[00:14:45] Mad respect.
[00:14:46] Amazing player.
[00:14:47] And then Rachel, you talked about this being your biggest move on, on fire that the idol play at the final six.
[00:14:55] And the idea to sort of have this eulogy where all the other players were going to talk about how great you were before you ended up playing the idol.
[00:15:03] Can you tell us, how did you come up with this idea?
[00:15:07] So the Kyle vote, the Kyle boot was a little bit more straightforward than we were shown on our TVs.
[00:15:14] And it was more straightforward?
[00:15:16] I mean, well, you know, there was that tension of is it Genevieve, is it Kyle?
[00:15:20] And in real life, we basically all were like, it's you, Kyle, like at tribal.
[00:15:25] And we kind of all jury managed him out the door, you know, saying similar things like we can't like this is our opportunity.
[00:15:31] You're winning all the challenges.
[00:15:32] We have to vote you out.
[00:15:33] And that is what gave me the idea for doing it myself when I knew I would be safe.
[00:15:38] And so getting like Andy in a spot where I was kind of blackmailed him with suing my jury votes and and getting him to admit that he was voting for me allowed me to be like, but why?
[00:15:52] And then he's going on about it.
[00:15:53] And now everybody else is kind of joining in that camp.
[00:15:56] We get to tribal just like, how was your day, Rachel?
[00:15:58] I was like, well, all these people just telling me that they're voting me out today because they can't beat me.
[00:16:02] And their hand is now forced into repeating all the things that they said.
[00:16:06] And I just felt like if I couldn't get Genevieve out, which was my objective with the idol, I had to play it in a way that showed that I had a lot of intentionality.
[00:16:14] And it wasn't just this like random idol play and like getting everybody in the game to sell my game to the jury for me.
[00:16:22] It felt like the most outlandish way to do that.
[00:16:26] OK, well, Rachel, I know you got to run.
[00:16:29] You got a lot of interviews to do, but thank you for making some time.
[00:16:31] I hope we get the chance to talk some more about all this.
[00:16:34] We better, Rob.
[00:16:35] We better.
[00:16:36] We better.
[00:16:36] That's right.
[00:16:37] OK, thank you so much, Rachel.
[00:16:38] All the best to you.
[00:16:39] And have a great holiday.
[00:16:42] Bye.
[00:16:42] You too.
[00:16:43] All right, everybody.
[00:16:43] There you go.
[00:16:44] There's your newest survivor winner, Rachel.
[00:16:49] And she did a great job on the exit interview.
[00:16:52] Comfort, a lot of things.
[00:16:52] When you go through the list of the moves and the moments that she has, it's a very impressive list.
[00:16:59] So really great job by her.
[00:17:01] Really proud of Rachel and everything that she was able to accomplish this season.
[00:17:06] And, you know, a person who's a real student of the game came in and ended up doing her thing in incredible fashion.
[00:17:13] So congratulations again.
[00:17:15] All right.
[00:17:16] We still got exit interviews with Sam and Sue and Tini.
[00:17:19] We're going to take a break.
[00:17:20] And when we come back, we've got Sam.
[00:17:23] And we're going to get into everything with Sam Fallon right after this.
[00:17:28] All right.
[00:17:29] And we're back.
[00:17:30] And we're ready to talk to the guy who was the runner up from season 47.
[00:17:35] Let's bring in Sam.
[00:17:37] Hey, Sam.
[00:17:38] Good morning.
[00:17:39] Rob Cestradino.
[00:17:40] And what a thrill.
[00:17:41] I know it didn't work out last night.
[00:17:43] But that moment in the fire making, it was like 28 to three in the Super Bowl.
[00:17:49] That comeback.
[00:17:51] Yeah.
[00:17:52] It was an out of body experience.
[00:17:54] That was wild.
[00:17:57] Crazier watching it back.
[00:17:58] Like, even that it may be felt in the moment.
[00:18:01] Because, you know, the wind, obviously such a huge factor that I didn't realize in the moment how big of a factor it was.
[00:18:09] I just heard Jeff sort of saying, wow, wind's moving Tini's flame.
[00:18:14] And I watched back last night.
[00:18:15] I'm like, thank goodness I chose the spot that I did for that fire making contest.
[00:18:20] Do you know how many Jets field goals have doinked off the uprights this season?
[00:18:23] Okay.
[00:18:23] It's a factor.
[00:18:25] The wind always.
[00:18:26] You don't have to.
[00:18:27] You don't have to tell me about doinking field goals, man.
[00:18:29] My Chicago roots are very pained by that one.
[00:18:33] Okay.
[00:18:34] All right.
[00:18:34] Now, I have to ask you a tough question.
[00:18:37] Okay.
[00:18:39] So, Sam.
[00:18:41] What were you doing getting ready for Survivor and not ever picking up a flint?
[00:18:46] Yeah.
[00:18:47] I don't know.
[00:18:48] I don't know.
[00:18:49] Like, it's the best way I can say.
[00:18:50] I don't know.
[00:18:51] I swam.
[00:18:52] I, you know, did balance.
[00:18:54] Did a lot of yoga.
[00:18:54] Did a lot of things.
[00:18:55] Tried to get comfortable with things.
[00:18:58] I guess it's a level of overconfidence or hubris in me that I felt like, yeah, in the moment I'll be able to figure it out.
[00:19:05] You give me a flint and still give me all day to practice.
[00:19:07] I'll be able to get it down.
[00:19:08] Um, throughout that day, I think you sort of see the panic setting in my brain of thinking I'll be okay.
[00:19:16] This will be fine.
[00:19:18] Realizing I was not fine, that I was not getting fired, that team very much knew what they were doing.
[00:19:23] Uh, and yeah, panic and fear really set in.
[00:19:27] Yeah.
[00:19:27] Okay.
[00:19:28] But nevertheless, you got it done.
[00:19:30] You got to the final tribal and, you know, uh, really, you know, uh, very feisty final tribal council, a performance.
[00:19:38] Um, when Jeff goes to go get the votes before he reads them, how are you feeling?
[00:19:44] Okay.
[00:19:45] Uh, very nervous.
[00:19:47] Felt like it was going to be tight.
[00:19:48] Um, so I was surprised by the final vote count.
[00:19:51] I think I thought I had three and at least three up to five.
[00:19:58] I kind of thought it might be four and I knew I didn't have Sue.
[00:20:02] So I was kind of doing jury math, looking at the jury being like, where are five votes coming from?
[00:20:06] Um, and I knew I kind of had to, you know, hit my one outer and, and flip everybody that was on the fence to get there.
[00:20:12] But I, I felt like it was tight.
[00:20:15] That tribal was as contentious as I think it came across on the screen.
[00:20:19] So it was, uh, yeah.
[00:20:20] So you thought you could have had three and you got one.
[00:20:24] So who were the two that you thought you were going to have?
[00:20:28] Sierra and Gabe.
[00:20:29] Yeah.
[00:20:30] Um, I both look conflicted when they went to the jury booth.
[00:20:34] Yeah.
[00:20:35] Sierra was somebody who like, obviously just from a personal standpoint and like playing the game side by side, I felt like I would have her support at final.
[00:20:43] Um, Gabe, I think.
[00:20:45] I just think Gabe and I communicate in a lot of like similar ways.
[00:20:48] I think he really respected, uh, fire the way that I fought at the end.
[00:20:52] Uh, I just, we, Gabe and I had a great relationship in the game too.
[00:20:56] So I feel like he would have appreciated having such a big threat level throughout the entire game that you're not really able to get down.
[00:21:03] And how aggressively I played in order to, uh, keep myself safe and continue lowering that threat level as much as possible.
[00:21:10] So when you look back at this whole game, what could you have done differently once you get to the merge and then Sierra gets blindsided?
[00:21:18] What, what, is there a, some, a different path you could have gone?
[00:21:22] You know, no, maybe like, I really don't know.
[00:21:26] It makes it a difficult part to sit here and not have like a mistake, not have something that I feel like I should have done that or should have gone this way or that way.
[00:21:34] I mean, win a challenge, uh, at the end by the right item at the auction, you know, all these things could have, could have affected the game, but that is the game.
[00:21:43] Uh, I was very happy with how I sort of set up my end game after operation Italy, which was kind of the whole purpose of it for me was to put myself in this position where nobody is going to want to go to the end with Genevieve.
[00:21:56] Genevieve being my ally was the best thing that happened to me in the game because it gave me one person that made me less threatening when nobody wanted to, to play with me.
[00:22:04] Um, and if Rachel goes home at six, if that idol isn't out there, I think I'm well positioned to have Genevieve go at five.
[00:22:11] And I met four with three people.
[00:22:13] I felt like I could have beaten at the end.
[00:22:14] That was sort of how I saw it playing out.
[00:22:16] And at that point I didn't really care who I was with.
[00:22:19] Um, and so I felt good, but yeah, didn't know about the idol.
[00:22:23] So those there's information out there that you can't plan for.
[00:22:26] Sure.
[00:22:26] And I know we don't see everything from the final tribal council, but it was a little surprising that operation Italy, it was such a big deal.
[00:22:33] It seemed like that we didn't see it come up.
[00:22:35] How big of a discussion was operation Italy at the final tribal?
[00:22:38] It did come up.
[00:22:39] We did talk about it.
[00:22:40] I felt like it was a big part of my final tribal pitch as well.
[00:22:44] Um, explaining sort of the, the layers of operation Italy and why each one of them were better and better for me.
[00:22:51] Um, both with the planning of it, with trying to, uh, get Genevieve on board with that plan early on with targeting Andy on the reward as somebody who I thought would, would be down to make this big move.
[00:23:02] And be capable of making this big move.
[00:23:04] Um, and then how it positioned me in the game to have those threats that are bigger than me with Genevieve.
[00:23:10] Who's the obvious one.
[00:23:11] Uh, Andy then becomes sort of this for me, break glass in case of emergency option, where if I felt like I was about to go.
[00:23:21] Throw it all at the wall, expose operation Italy, make Andy to be this mastermind that flipped that they're all underestimating is going to win the game.
[00:23:28] Scare them enough to take Andy out instead of me.
[00:23:30] Uh, and then the fake idol having that information also gives me the power to sort of control.
[00:23:36] Whether or not it's out there.
[00:23:38] Right.
[00:23:38] And so at my, my convenience, Genevieve can stay in the game.
[00:23:42] Genevieve can leave the game based on the information that I tell people.
[00:23:45] And I think it set me up to be insulated in the end game, but also have the fate of Andy and Genevieve in my hands in a way, which, uh, I thought positioned me really well.
[00:23:54] How surprised were you when Rachel took out the idol and that it was Andy's name that got written down?
[00:24:00] Yeah, I wasn't at all. Um, because Sue and I had talked that day and I knew full stop. Sue was voting for Andy.
[00:24:09] I like Sue and I would talk and she's just, I'm so pissed at Andy. He took out my sweet Caroline. Like he's got to go. And I'm like, yeah, honestly, Sue nice. Like he does have.
[00:24:20] And so, uh, when Rachel played the idol, pulled it up, I actually leaned over to Sue and say, and this gets cut from the show. I say, are we doing Andy on the revote?
[00:24:31] Because my thought was that Rachel voted for me and I knew Rachel was going to block my vote. Uh, and that Sue had voted for Andy anyways. So I was immediately in let's.
[00:24:43] Make sure I've got my ducks in a row. Make sure team is still with me and Genevieve that we're taking out Andy on the revote. And Sue leaned back over and says, I took care of you. Don't worry. I took care of you.
[00:24:52] So I was like, Oh, okay, we're good. And so, um, yeah, Sue got it done.
[00:24:57] Another big moment between you and Rachel happens at the Saul vote where you kind of get out of Rachel that, okay, it's going, it's not going to be you tonight. It's going to be Saul.
[00:25:07] And then you go to Saul and then you tell Saul about the planet to Rachel said, please do not say anything about Saul. Did this moment come up at the final tribal council and how did it change your game?
[00:25:19] Well, it did not come up at all. Um, but it was something that I feel like was a conscious decision I made to pivot my game in the moment. You know, there was one option, which was sit there, be okay with it, not being you try and lay low.
[00:25:33] Um, and then the other one was to really sort of take the game into my own hands. And regardless of whether it impacted that vote or not, I was really just trying to cause chaos, you know, create some dissension and doubt within this majority alliance, show people actionable, you know, through my actions that I was willing to work with them so that people like Tini and Genevieve moving forward, I can look at them and say, I was down to ride with Lavo.
[00:25:59] And here's an example of it where I was trying to look out for Saul. Um, the biggest thing for me was Rachel says to me, it's Saul, but don't vote for him. Don't vote for him. You're not supposed to know.
[00:26:12] To me, I'm like, uh, how included in the plan am I really, if I'm not even allowed to vote with the plan? Uh, I had spent some time working Saul that day. Actually, uh, I showed Saul my idol and told him it was a real idol. I told Saul, make the vote Kyle and not me. I will give you the idol when we get back to from tribal council. And he's like, why don't you play it? I say, well, Saul, I'd much rather have you as an ally and the idol in the game between the two of us than just survive tomorrow and go home.
[00:26:40] You know, right after he's like, okay, that makes sense. So I'd spent all of this capital trying to build Saul up as my guy. I'm trying to get in with Lavo and make Tini and Saul like my new people.
[00:26:51] And Rachel comes to me and tells me Saul's going home. Well, now all of this stuff that I've just done to work with Saul is no good if Saul's out of the game. And so then I had this very quick sort of calculation of the best way to gain trust with Lavo or trust with Saul is to save Saul. And so it was a split second decision that I sort of made, but went full tilt into.
[00:27:15] Yeah. Exciting episode for sure. Okay. So go back to Operation Italy. You win, you get the chance to pick who gets to come with you. You end up picking Andy and you end up picking Genevieve. How premeditated were those picks? And you also had said in that episode that you owed Andy. Why did you feel like you owed Andy after he betrayed you on the Sierra vote?
[00:27:42] Yeah. So why did I owe Andy? I was conscious of the fact that I was not the ally or friend to Andy that I think he relied on me to be. And so there was a level of personal guilt associated with that.
[00:27:56] I very much played into the narrative that I thought was the plan at the merge of like, hey, we're going to make Andy look like he's on the bottom. This is great. People are going to think Gada is divided.
[00:28:06] And I just didn't check in on him enough. I allowed him to feel a little discarded. So that was something that I knew was a personal thing between Andy and I, where I wanted to be able to give him that moment.
[00:28:22] We had talked at Gada about loved ones, letters and stuff too, and how much it meant to him. I knew I'm as big of a fan of a show as Andy is and how cool that moment was going to be for him.
[00:28:33] So I felt like I owed him that. But the choices were very premeditated. Genevieve and I had talked that morning and I had said to Genevieve, I think our best chance to survive is a 3-2-2.
[00:28:47] We got to do a fake idol. We need to pull a third with us. What do we think? And she says, I can get Teenie.
[00:28:53] I didn't think Genevieve could get Teenie. I thought Teenie's animosity towards me or just like feelings towards me at that time were strong enough that Teenie was always going to be kind of down, but not actually actionable and do it.
[00:29:06] And I knew I had a relationship with Andy where I'm like, this is a guy who will want to make a big move.
[00:29:10] I know he's capable because we did it at Gada together for seven days in the Anika vote. I know how his brain works.
[00:29:16] And I just think we could really like, that's our best bet. And I think I have the best relationship with him and he could feel the most on the outs of the five.
[00:29:24] So then when I win, it's my chance to sort of be like, all right, well, I get to pick and I pick that it's Andy and not Teenie,
[00:29:31] which I think contributes to Teenie's feelings after that reward challenge because Teenie very much felt like they were the third between me, Genevieve, Teenie, and I made it me, Genevieve, Andy in that moment.
[00:29:45] Okay. How many of the fruits have you tried since you got home?
[00:29:49] All of them. I've, you know, I keep going places.
[00:29:52] Any faves? And then you said the watermelon was a little overrated.
[00:29:57] Watermelon's overrated. I like dragon fruit a lot.
[00:30:00] Dragon fruit fantastic. And pomegranate. Yeah. Pomegranate's very good. So these are all new things to me, Rob, but we're, you know, we're, we're learning as we go.
[00:30:10] Yeah. Okay. Wow. Come out for the adventure. Get all the fruits on Survivor.
[00:30:14] Never know what you can learn about yourself on Survivor.
[00:30:16] Okay. Sam, let me ask you about, you know, that the word on the street is that they're having some kind of Survivor Pro Bowl one of these days.
[00:30:26] Yeah.
[00:30:26] Yeah. Would you throw your hat in the ring for something like that?
[00:30:29] I would absolutely throw my hat in the ring for something like that.
[00:30:33] What do you mean by Survivor Pro Bowl, Rob?
[00:30:35] Yeah. Like, you know, like some kind of like all of the all-stars from the different, you know, things.
[00:30:42] Oh, okay. I see what you mean.
[00:30:44] Yeah. Survivor was an absolute dream.
[00:30:48] Magical, fulfilling, and you're not supposed to get to do it once.
[00:30:52] And you're definitely not supposed to get to do it twice.
[00:30:54] But it would be, it would be my highest honor to get elected to the Pro Bowl.
[00:31:00] I don't know how that voting works.
[00:31:01] Yeah. Nobody does.
[00:31:03] All right. Well, Sam, really fun to get to watch you play and you took it all the way down to the wire.
[00:31:10] So job well done.
[00:31:11] And hope we can get the chance to chat some more in the future. Okay.
[00:31:15] Thanks so much, Rob. I appreciate you.
[00:31:16] Take care, Sam. Bye.
[00:31:17] All right, everybody. There you have it. There's Sam Fallon.
[00:31:20] And Sam, a fun guy to talk to, did a great job in the season.
[00:31:24] He had me go in there for a little bit.
[00:31:26] I really thought that there was a chance just because I thought that Rachel's edit, especially in the first half of the season, I thought was a little understated.
[00:31:34] I thought that Sam had a little bit more focus on him earlier on in the season.
[00:31:38] I thought that maybe we could have been headed towards an upset back and forth.
[00:31:44] But no, Sam did a great job.
[00:31:47] Ultimately, like we talked about with Adam last night.
[00:31:49] What are you going to do?
[00:31:50] Rachel was immune from, I think, the final eight on, you know, that.
[00:31:55] And he thought he was working with her at that point in time.
[00:31:57] So, you know, there was that scene where it's him and Rachel and Kyle.
[00:32:02] And, you know, they're talking about like, hey, let's let's let's keep working together.
[00:32:06] And Rachel's like, nah.
[00:32:07] So Sam is got as far, literally as far as he could have gotten once Rachel ends up going on her run.
[00:32:16] And ultimately, you just got to win out in a challenge.
[00:32:18] And ultimately, Sam, one of some rewards, wasn't able to do it in the immunity challenge, but still really good sport.
[00:32:24] About everything.
[00:32:25] So best of luck to Sam.
[00:32:27] All right.
[00:32:28] We've got our third member of my beloved fraternity, the third placers of Survivor.
[00:32:36] We're going to talk to our newest member.
[00:32:39] Sue Smay is on the line.
[00:32:40] And let's go ahead and patch in Sue.
[00:32:43] Hey, Sue.
[00:32:44] What's going on?
[00:32:44] Rob.
[00:32:45] How are you?
[00:32:46] I'm doing good.
[00:32:47] How are you doing?
[00:32:48] I was just commenting on this beautiful background.
[00:32:51] Wow.
[00:32:51] Thank you.
[00:32:53] It's one of my many Christmas trees I have in my house.
[00:32:55] How many Christmas trees do you have?
[00:32:57] Right now, I think I have five up.
[00:32:59] Five?
[00:33:00] Yeah.
[00:33:01] Wow.
[00:33:02] It's small.
[00:33:02] I have a tree there.
[00:33:03] And then in the other corner, I have another smaller tree and in my dining room.
[00:33:08] And yeah, I love Christmas.
[00:33:10] Okay.
[00:33:11] All right.
[00:33:11] Well, Sue, let me ask you about everything that was going on here in Survivor 47.
[00:33:16] First off, congratulations to you getting to the end.
[00:33:19] Thank you.
[00:33:20] No small feat.
[00:33:21] How did you feel going into the final tribal council?
[00:33:25] I was really excited because I really thought like I had a bam.
[00:33:31] Like I was going to go in there and tell them, you know, remind them that, you know, I went
[00:33:38] in the woods and found my own idol.
[00:33:40] You know, and it was a tough idol in a tough situation with the red paint to begin with.
[00:33:45] And then, you know, I won a challenge.
[00:33:47] And then there were two other challenges that I came in second to Kyle.
[00:33:51] I beat all their asses except for Kyle.
[00:33:53] So I felt like once I reminded them of that and then told them that I'm not in my 40s,
[00:34:00] I'm 59, that they would be like, oh, my God, she's a beast and she's older and have tons
[00:34:08] of respect for the game.
[00:34:10] I played the physical game.
[00:34:11] I played as well as, you know, the mental game of, you know, there are certain targets
[00:34:16] that I always wanted out.
[00:34:17] And, you know, I rallied to get them out.
[00:34:19] And even with the final with Andy, you know, Rachel was adamant about getting Sam out.
[00:34:24] And I'm like, I'm getting revenge for sweet Caroline.
[00:34:27] I want Andy out.
[00:34:29] So, you know, so I stuck to my guns the whole time and I was loyal.
[00:34:32] And I really thought that I could get them.
[00:34:35] But I think they were so focused on Sam and Rachel's game that I didn't have a shot.
[00:34:40] Okay.
[00:34:41] That's interesting.
[00:34:42] Okay.
[00:34:42] So from what we saw on television, it really seems like Andy tells Rachel about his game
[00:34:48] and that's Rachel's decision.
[00:34:49] So you had more to do with that.
[00:34:51] Oh, 100%.
[00:34:53] Rachel wanted Sam.
[00:34:55] She was more threatened by Sam.
[00:34:57] And, you know, she had asked, had a few conversations with me about wanting to get Sam out.
[00:35:03] And I was just like, I'll never tell anybody how to play the game, but I'll tell you how
[00:35:07] I'm playing my game.
[00:35:08] I'm writing Andy's name down no matter what.
[00:35:10] The very end, I came close to saying, okay, I'll flip.
[00:35:14] But I don't know.
[00:35:15] I would rather go with someone that I knew he was on the opposite end of me.
[00:35:19] I knew where Sam was.
[00:35:21] Yeah.
[00:35:21] Where with Andy, you never knew what you were getting from him.
[00:35:26] And that was a danger in itself.
[00:35:27] He'd lied to me three times.
[00:35:29] I'm like, I'm done with you.
[00:35:30] And then after Caroline, bitter.
[00:35:33] Yeah.
[00:35:33] Okay.
[00:35:35] Understandably so.
[00:35:36] You had a very close relationship.
[00:35:38] So talk to me a little bit about, you know, you came to the game and you told people that
[00:35:43] you were 45 and hid your real age from the other players that I don't know if we ever
[00:35:49] got in the show, the reasons why you wanted to play the game that way.
[00:35:54] Can you talk a little bit about that?
[00:35:55] Yeah.
[00:35:56] I feel like younger people, if you tell them you're in your forties, they're not really
[00:36:03] analyzing it.
[00:36:04] They're more like, okay, she's old.
[00:36:05] But if I told them I was 50, that's the reaction I get from people.
[00:36:09] Yeah.
[00:36:11] What do you mean?
[00:36:12] You don't get that.
[00:36:13] No.
[00:36:14] Well, here, it's about you.
[00:36:15] I'm sorry.
[00:36:16] Don't mean to interrupt.
[00:36:17] No, I don't mind talking about you.
[00:36:18] You're great.
[00:36:20] So I felt like if I really told them, they'd have a preconceived notion that I'm already
[00:36:25] in the grave.
[00:36:26] You know what I mean?
[00:36:27] And like, I don't want any to take any chance of them being like, not being able to
[00:36:33] see anything I'm doing because all they see is my age as like someone who's basically
[00:36:37] got one foot in the grave.
[00:36:38] So I felt, I didn't think they would really analyze that she either like had a rough life
[00:36:44] or like not even think about it.
[00:36:46] You know, I mean, obviously I looked older than that, but I just figured they wouldn't
[00:36:49] think about it.
[00:36:49] And I thought it was more important for me to not really give them all that information.
[00:36:54] Okay.
[00:36:55] From what I understand, you were in charge of the fire, right?
[00:36:58] You were the great fire maker.
[00:37:01] And so I kind of thought you were maybe going to go into the final four fire making and maybe
[00:37:06] take on Sam.
[00:37:08] Were you open to that idea?
[00:37:10] So I had discussed it.
[00:37:12] So I did the fire because I was obsessed with keeping it going.
[00:37:16] And we always, we never really had to start it because once we started it, we just were
[00:37:20] smart enough to know, put big logs on and keep the embers.
[00:37:23] So I never really practiced fire.
[00:37:26] And when I, um, we had that opportunity, um, Sam had taken my Flint as well.
[00:37:33] So I had gone for a little walk and I came back.
[00:37:35] I'm like, you know what?
[00:37:36] Maybe I'll consider, it might be really bad-ass if I'm like, you know what, Rachel, will
[00:37:40] you put me in?
[00:37:41] And so I wanted to practice making fire, but my Flint was gone and I didn't have a Flint
[00:37:47] to even try.
[00:37:48] So at that point, I figured it's a sign from the heavens that just enjoy that.
[00:37:53] Like I'm walking into at least third place, you know, so I didn't have an opportunity
[00:37:56] to really even try.
[00:37:58] Yeah.
[00:37:58] Could you have asked Rachel though?
[00:38:00] Hey, like this could be a big moment for me.
[00:38:02] Let me have, let me have this.
[00:38:04] I could ask her.
[00:38:05] I don't know if I'd have to, I think I'd have to prove to her that I could knock him
[00:38:11] out for her to take that chance because she was very threatened by him.
[00:38:14] She really, really wanted him out.
[00:38:16] So Teenie had said she'd been practicing fire for like a year or something.
[00:38:21] And I was just like, you know, I feel like I can do it, but I never really practiced it.
[00:38:25] Okay.
[00:38:26] So, so, so you had a very close relationship with Gabe and a very close relationship with
[00:38:30] Caroline that we saw on the show.
[00:38:32] Were you surprised that you didn't get a vote from either of them at the final travel council?
[00:38:38] I was, again, I have to take a step back and see that they are analyzing this game.
[00:38:45] And I feel like when they go back to Ponderosa, they're all talking and they're all just seeing
[00:38:51] who played what and how did this happen?
[00:38:54] None of them knew too much of really, I didn't feel they felt my influence was enough to be a
[00:39:00] game changer and write my name down.
[00:39:02] I really was hoping I would have gotten one or two votes, but I think they analyzed it differently
[00:39:07] and look at the game play differently, I guess.
[00:39:10] So yeah, it was disappointing, but Rachel's a beast, you know, like kudos to Rachel.
[00:39:15] For sure.
[00:39:15] Okay.
[00:39:16] Let's talk a little bit about Kyle.
[00:39:18] Okay.
[00:39:18] And you and Kyle had such an interesting relationship on the show.
[00:39:24] And we know, uh, everything about, uh, from Tweedledee and Tweedled, um, how are you feeling
[00:39:31] about Kyle after the show?
[00:39:33] I love Kyle.
[00:39:35] Kyle.
[00:39:35] No, I love Kyle.
[00:39:37] The Christmas spirit is real.
[00:39:39] The Christmas spirit was always real.
[00:39:41] I always loved Kyle.
[00:39:43] Kyle's a great guy, but Kyle was my competition.
[00:39:45] Like he, he's the only person that took away two necklaces from me.
[00:39:50] Yeah.
[00:39:50] Like, and he was a kind, a good guy.
[00:39:53] Like you don't want to sit next to someone like Kyle at the final, right?
[00:39:57] Like Kyle was a competition beast.
[00:39:59] Great guy had a rough childhood.
[00:40:02] Like he had a story, you know, I'm smart enough to know.
[00:40:05] I don't want to sit next to him.
[00:40:06] Did Kyle get a Christmas card?
[00:40:08] No.
[00:40:09] Okay.
[00:40:10] I didn't have time to send any Christmas cards out.
[00:40:12] So sorry, everyone.
[00:40:14] Next time I was going to ask you if Andy got a Christmas card.
[00:40:17] Nobody got a Christmas card.
[00:40:18] Was Andy on the naughty list or the nice list?
[00:40:21] Naughty.
[00:40:22] Very naughty.
[00:40:23] Very, very naughty.
[00:40:24] You know, Andy played a great game.
[00:40:26] He, he played a great game and I have so much respect for his, I don't have respect
[00:40:32] for his game.
[00:40:32] I hated it.
[00:40:33] Like, to be honest with you, like he was a liar.
[00:40:36] He's just, he was so kind and be like, Sue, you'd love my mom.
[00:40:41] And I really want to work with you.
[00:40:43] And then he backstabbed three times.
[00:40:44] I was done, done.
[00:40:45] He made me crazy.
[00:40:47] He made me nuts.
[00:40:48] Okay.
[00:40:48] Sue, now so many people were obsessed with talking about what's going on.
[00:40:55] Why does Sue have the dirt?
[00:40:58] What is it?
[00:40:59] Is Sue contouring?
[00:41:00] I watched your video about how to get snatched cheeks.
[00:41:03] My wife told me, stop saying snatched cheeks.
[00:41:08] I know.
[00:41:08] I didn't know what that meant until I, I know it's, it was so embarrassing.
[00:41:15] Right.
[00:41:16] Like I was humiliated watching the show and a little bit surprised that nobody really
[00:41:23] told me how dirty my face was.
[00:41:25] I've had conversations with Caroline and Rachel and there were times that they'd be like, Sue,
[00:41:30] you've got a little dirt, you know, I'd wipe and they'd say, don't keep going.
[00:41:33] And I'd wipe and it didn't leave.
[00:41:35] So I'd be like, oh, forget it.
[00:41:36] It's no big deal.
[00:41:36] Like I didn't know how bad I was.
[00:41:38] Was that from looking for idols or from working on the fire?
[00:41:42] Fire.
[00:41:42] Like, well, I was, I'm an outdoors person and I love getting dirty, climbing trees, doing
[00:41:49] whatever I have to do.
[00:41:50] So for me, it was no big deal to just be digging deep down into something and have it all over
[00:41:56] my hair or my face or whatever.
[00:41:57] There's no mirror.
[00:41:58] There's no soap.
[00:41:59] You know, you, you, you splash your face when I would wake up in the morning between Andy
[00:42:04] stepping over me and the dirt from his clothes falling onto my face every day.
[00:42:09] And then, you know, you're sleeping and maybe you have a shirt for a pillow and you, I wake
[00:42:13] up, I knew I, you splash your face, but you don't scrub it.
[00:42:16] And I didn't know I needed to scrub it and so it doesn't come off.
[00:42:19] So my hands were always dirty wherever it was.
[00:42:22] I would spend the nights sleeping and I had rocks like this big and I would put them close
[00:42:28] to the flame so they'd get very hot and I would rotate them into my body and put them
[00:42:33] like on my thighs or whatever to, to stay warm.
[00:42:36] I had, you know, burn blisters, you know, like I literally saw the bandage.
[00:42:40] Yeah.
[00:42:40] Yeah.
[00:42:40] I had, was obsessed with staying warm at night because that's the one thing I run cold.
[00:42:46] And that was my only fear coming into survivor was being too cold.
[00:42:51] So yeah, I wasn't, I was a dirty mess.
[00:42:53] And what I want to say though, and this is for people too, who maybe you get a lot of
[00:42:59] hate and you feel embarrassed or whatever.
[00:43:01] If you can make fun of yourself, life is so good.
[00:43:04] Like I made my contour video and I had a blast with it.
[00:43:08] It was maybe a little bit for the haters, a little bit more for, you know, being funny
[00:43:12] or whatever.
[00:43:13] But if I can, it sort of shuts everybody down, right?
[00:43:15] Like when you can make fun of yourself, what are they going to say now?
[00:43:19] Yeah.
[00:43:20] That's the right attitude.
[00:43:21] And I'm glad that you don't let them bother you.
[00:43:26] And look, that's, that's the only way to get through something like this.
[00:43:30] So, all right.
[00:43:31] I want to talk about when it was the final five.
[00:43:35] And so there was a decision.
[00:43:36] Does Genevieve have the fake idol or not?
[00:43:39] Is Genevieve's idol real?
[00:43:41] And it seemed like that you, you went back and forth on believing it was a real or fake.
[00:43:46] How did you decide that it wasn't real?
[00:43:47] Well, I pictured if that were me and her head was on the chopping block, the last two tribals
[00:43:54] and she didn't use it.
[00:43:55] And I felt like if she would have used it to travel before you, I think you even saw her
[00:44:01] face, how scared she was.
[00:44:03] Even when I think with the game, with one of the votes that she was terrified that it
[00:44:07] was her.
[00:44:08] If she had an idol, she 100% would have played it.
[00:44:12] So my gut was telling me she didn't have an idol and we were going to shoot for her.
[00:44:16] Yeah.
[00:44:17] Okay.
[00:44:17] Yeah.
[00:44:17] That's good logic.
[00:44:18] Yeah.
[00:44:18] Nobody's that brave.
[00:44:20] No, I'm not even that brave.
[00:44:22] You know, like every morning I woke up dangling my idol saying, I'm playing this tonight.
[00:44:26] And then, you know, you feel the vibe and you see what's going on and you're like, okay,
[00:44:30] you know what?
[00:44:31] I'm going to keep it tucked in my bra one more day.
[00:44:33] And, but if I knew my name was out there and I knew people were gunning for me, I'd be
[00:44:38] playing that damn thing immediately.
[00:44:40] Yeah.
[00:44:40] So could you tell us about your experience with the red paint idol?
[00:44:44] Because it was such a fun moment on the show that then everybody we see where Tiana and
[00:44:50] Caroline walk up on you.
[00:44:52] How hard was it to hide all of the red paint?
[00:44:55] This, I can't even describe when this big platter pot crashed.
[00:45:02] It wasn't like a small little thing.
[00:45:04] It was like this big and splattered all over.
[00:45:09] And it was like just soaking into the pathway sand.
[00:45:12] Yeah.
[00:45:12] So, you know, between scooping it up and running as far as I could to dump it, I knew time,
[00:45:17] you know, people are like, oh, why don't you go jump in the ocean?
[00:45:20] I'm like, I didn't have enough time to even get rid of all of the paint.
[00:45:24] And when they finally walked up, you know, I have the machete in one hand.
[00:45:27] I had no idea it was on my body.
[00:45:29] Obviously, I didn't have no idea the dirt was on my face or the paint.
[00:45:33] But when they asked me that, the whole story was, you want to hear the whole story?
[00:45:37] Yes, please.
[00:45:38] So I originally, I just, I needed to get my head together and I just said, I'll tell
[00:45:43] you what happened afterwards.
[00:45:44] So I told them that I have a very, very low tolerance to blood and it makes me pass out.
[00:45:53] So I said, I was walking through the woods with the machete and I stepped in one of the
[00:45:57] holes and I fell and I bit the back of my tongue.
[00:46:00] Yeah.
[00:46:00] And then I could taste the blood and it made me dizzy.
[00:46:03] So I figured I started laying down and then I was laying down, it pulled in my mouth and
[00:46:09] it made me gag.
[00:46:10] So I rolled over and I'm dry heaving and that's how my hair got stuck in it.
[00:46:14] I gave him this whole stupid story.
[00:46:16] What a chain reaction.
[00:46:16] Yeah.
[00:46:17] I had no choice because I couldn't say I cut myself because they'd want to see it.
[00:46:21] Right?
[00:46:21] Like you, you have to just.
[00:46:25] It's not bad.
[00:46:26] They go with it.
[00:46:27] You know, I didn't think they believed me, but like, I think they were just like not
[00:46:33] expecting me to be able to do anything.
[00:46:34] And I don't know.
[00:46:35] Yeah.
[00:46:36] I don't know.
[00:46:36] Like it was crazy.
[00:46:37] Sue, anything else you want to make sure that people know about your game?
[00:46:41] I think more than anything, I played my, maybe I played my game a little old school.
[00:46:47] I guess that's what people are saying.
[00:46:48] But like, I felt like being true to my alliances, I walk away with a good feeling and I did.
[00:46:56] I loved my alliances and I, they know I had them a hundred percent.
[00:47:01] Everybody knew that's why they all blindsided me because they knew I wasn't writing these
[00:47:05] people's names down.
[00:47:06] And I walk away with that knowing I feel so good that I played the game I wanted to play.
[00:47:11] I didn't play, you know, I'm going to go to him and lie to him and deceive him.
[00:47:14] And, you know, I lied to the people that weren't part of my alliance and I feel like they sort
[00:47:19] of knew it, but I don't know.
[00:47:20] I liked being that person, you know, it's who I am.
[00:47:23] And I just kept saying, just be who you are and whatever happens, happens.
[00:47:28] And it got me far enough to final three.
[00:47:30] So I don't know, life, life, a lot of bad things happen in life and a lot of chaos and
[00:47:34] craziness.
[00:47:35] And it's all about how you can turn it around to be some sort of positive or deal with it in
[00:47:41] a good way.
[00:47:42] And I didn't hate Kyle.
[00:47:43] I don't hate Kyle.
[00:47:44] That was a whole thing to try to just get everybody else to think the same way.
[00:47:48] Okay.
[00:47:48] I love Kyle too.
[00:47:49] All right.
[00:47:50] Well, Sue, you are so fun to talk to and that Merry Christmas to you and yours.
[00:47:57] I have my holiday sweater on today, getting ready for only a couple of days away, Sue.
[00:48:03] So I know I can't wait.
[00:48:05] Yeah.
[00:48:05] Thank you so much and all the best outside survivor.
[00:48:08] Okay.
[00:48:08] Thank you.
[00:48:08] Thank you.
[00:48:09] Nice talking to you.
[00:48:10] Bye.
[00:48:10] Bye bye.
[00:48:11] All right, everybody.
[00:48:12] There you have it.
[00:48:12] Sue Smay.
[00:48:13] Sue was super fun to talk to.
[00:48:15] I feel like that we didn't get to see as much of Sue's fun personality on the show.
[00:48:21] I feel like that she was like a little bit more earnest and serious.
[00:48:24] So very fun to talk to Sue and catch up with her.
[00:48:28] Just the newest member of our third places here on survivor.
[00:48:32] We're going to take one more break.
[00:48:33] When we come back, Teenie is going to be here to talk about their game coming in fourth place.
[00:48:39] We come back right after this.
[00:48:43] All right.
[00:48:44] We're back.
[00:48:45] One more exit interview to bring you today.
[00:48:47] And that is with Teenie who is here on the line.
[00:48:50] Let's go ahead and patch Teenie in.
[00:48:52] Hey, Teenie.
[00:48:53] What's going on?
[00:48:53] Rob's a stream.
[00:48:54] First question.
[00:48:55] Okay.
[00:48:56] How are you doing this morning?
[00:48:58] And I'm not talking about the game.
[00:48:59] I'm saying that no partying last night.
[00:49:03] Believe it or not, Rob, I actually did not touch alcohol last night.
[00:49:07] Wow.
[00:49:08] Very contrary to Survivor Teenie.
[00:49:11] But I knew I had to be up bright and early.
[00:49:14] That's very responsible.
[00:49:17] It is.
[00:49:18] It is.
[00:49:18] I'm learning.
[00:49:18] I'm learning and I'm growing.
[00:49:19] I really am.
[00:49:21] So, yeah.
[00:49:22] All right.
[00:49:23] So, that was an epic exit out of the game in the fire making.
[00:49:29] And you were right there.
[00:49:31] Ultimately, then Sam has this comeback.
[00:49:33] And really, it was like the powers that be.
[00:49:37] The wind came up and took your flame away.
[00:49:41] Teenie, do you feel at all as though that this may have been the better way to go out
[00:49:48] than to go up against the buzzsaw that was Rachel in the final three?
[00:49:53] You know me so well.
[00:49:55] Yes, absolutely.
[00:49:56] I could not be more at peace with this being my exit from Survivor.
[00:50:01] One, for it to have been this legendary, historic, epic fire making challenge where I truly couldn't
[00:50:08] have done really anything more.
[00:50:09] Um, but two, um, I was, I was very stressed out.
[00:50:13] I knew that I would spend day 26 completely in my head trying to write some sort of speech
[00:50:18] that would hold a candle to everything that Rachel had done in the game.
[00:50:22] And I'm glad instead that I got to go back, be with all of my friends on the jury and be
[00:50:28] able to vote for her to win.
[00:50:30] So I truly could not be just more at peace.
[00:50:33] Like I know I said out there, like it's going to haunt me forever.
[00:50:35] It happily does not haunt me forever.
[00:50:37] And I'm really, I feel like it's really representative of my journey on the season and I'm, I'm, I'm
[00:50:41] really happy.
[00:50:41] Yeah.
[00:50:42] And it really did seem like you made a big impression on Jeff.
[00:50:46] I listen for as long as I watched the show, I always felt like when I meet this guy, he's
[00:50:52] going to know who I am and he's just going to get me.
[00:50:55] And it, it really, really felt like, um, he did, he just understood who I was and he was
[00:51:01] so receptive to all the ways that I was vulnerable and opened up.
[00:51:05] And it was, it was really cool.
[00:51:07] Obviously I've been such a huge fan my whole life and I love Jeff and it felt good to feel
[00:51:12] like I was, uh, making him proud out there.
[00:51:14] Okay.
[00:51:15] So you had such a interesting journey throughout this 26 day game of survivor and, you know,
[00:51:23] the times you were feeling good and then, uh, had the rug pulled out, uh, from under you.
[00:51:28] How, how was that for you as somebody who has aspired to be there for so long and then
[00:51:34] to have your experience be one that was filled with all these twists and turns?
[00:51:40] It, it's funny because watching it back is so different from how I felt when I was there,
[00:51:45] when I got out of the game, I just had this calmness about me and I was super just happy
[00:51:50] with how the experience went.
[00:51:51] And I didn't view it as, as tumultuous of a, of a game for me as it, as it really was.
[00:51:59] Um, and I think that's truly a testament to how much of a fan of the game and the show that
[00:52:04] I am where out there, even when I was being fooled in really elaborate, crazy ways, and
[00:52:09] I was falling into traps and things weren't going my way.
[00:52:12] It was never lost on me.
[00:52:14] I'm still playing survivor.
[00:52:15] I'm getting fooled by the likes of Genevieve and Andy, who are like new era survivor legends
[00:52:20] And so I still was always able to be like grateful in those moments, but it also was
[00:52:27] extremely complicated.
[00:52:29] Um, it it's, you know, you don't go out there and expect for your name to be in a conversation
[00:52:33] of like the most unlucky or like the most unaware, the like worst survivor player ever.
[00:52:38] And obviously I'm like fielding that discourse now, but I I've taken so much from it into my
[00:52:43] real life and I've learned so much for it.
[00:52:45] And it's, it's, it's hilarious in ways it's humbling in ways.
[00:52:48] And all of it was truly so authentically me for the good and for the bad in ways that I
[00:52:54] know I'll be able to look back on forever and feel compassion for myself, pride in
[00:52:58] myself.
[00:52:58] And that I'll be able to grow from.
[00:53:00] I thought that you had a very self-aware moment when you talked about with Sam at the
[00:53:05] final four tribal council about the reasons why you had an issue with it.
[00:53:11] And I thought it was, uh, I said on the podcast last night, that was amazing that you were
[00:53:14] like somebody that went and you watched the season, you came back and we're like, actually,
[00:53:18] you know, I've had some time to think about this, that I just thought that that was really
[00:53:21] amazingly self-aware in the matter of like being out there on the show to have that kind
[00:53:28] of like revelation about, uh, the issue with Sam.
[00:53:32] Thank you.
[00:53:32] Yeah.
[00:53:33] I wish it would have clicked maybe before I, uh, lashed out and did an impersonation and
[00:53:37] did all that, but it was, it was impersonation was kind of good as somebody who does impressions.
[00:53:44] Thank you.
[00:53:45] Um, yeah, no, I, I vividly remember like allowing myself to get a little bit introspective one
[00:53:52] day when I was just sitting by myself and kind of realizing there are really no actual tangible
[00:53:57] reasons why this, I should dislike this man or have feelings about this man that are negative.
[00:54:03] And I just pushed myself to be super honest, uh, with me.
[00:54:09] And it, it only resulted in what you heard last night, which was that he really like,
[00:54:14] I'm honestly grateful to him because I think when you feel jealousy in, in any way, it's,
[00:54:20] it's because there's something within you that you want to change or that you something that's,
[00:54:23] that's not right.
[00:54:24] And I feel like he pushed me to, to explore myself more.
[00:54:28] And, um, and yeah, it's, I'm, I'm obviously very happy that I was able to be able to speak
[00:54:34] to that at the end of the game because, you know, it's, it's, it's something that's super
[00:54:38] important to me.
[00:54:39] I think it really shows a big snapshot of like what I was going through at that time.
[00:54:44] And, um, and obviously all love to Sam, like it truly was just inner, inner feelings
[00:54:49] that I had.
[00:54:49] And one day you have to explain the moving the desks in the classroom, uh, to me so I
[00:54:54] can, uh, follow exactly, uh, why he gets to move the desks.
[00:54:59] He's a, cause.
[00:55:00] Okay.
[00:55:00] So like the lore of that is that like, the joke is that like when you're in the class
[00:55:04] and the rear edge of the desk, the teachers pick on like the strong guys to do it.
[00:55:08] And I was like, I want to be the, I want to be the one who's moving the desks.
[00:55:11] You know what I mean?
[00:55:11] I literally, this time I move, you're more than welcome.
[00:55:14] You come help me move anything you want.
[00:55:16] Okay.
[00:55:17] Thank you.
[00:55:17] But I have to say, I literally got texts from like multiple friends of mine from high
[00:55:21] school.
[00:55:22] Like we were the ones moving the desks.
[00:55:23] Like they like, we're like in Ms.
[00:55:25] Coyote's class in third grade, it was me.
[00:55:27] And I'm like, no, that's literally what I'm referring to.
[00:55:29] So yeah.
[00:55:29] Yeah.
[00:55:30] Okay.
[00:55:30] So now, all right.
[00:55:32] You saw Sam differently.
[00:55:33] Did you consider giving Sam a vote?
[00:55:36] Was that, was that possible when you got to the final travel council?
[00:55:39] Oh, for sure.
[00:55:40] Oh, for sure.
[00:55:41] For a few different reasons.
[00:55:42] Um, one, because some part of me felt like, okay, had I won that fire making challenge,
[00:55:46] I would have been Sam in a way where Rachel was obviously this undeniable force in the
[00:55:51] game that every, anyone sitting next to her had an uphill battle for.
[00:55:54] And so I had compassion for him in that sense, where if it wasn't him sitting there, it would
[00:55:58] have been me having to, you know, really pitch my case against her.
[00:56:02] Um, so there was that aspect, but there was also just like, he did play an incredible game.
[00:56:06] Like he was the only one sitting in the final three who had his hands in operation Italy,
[00:56:10] which was the craziest move of like, probably like the new era.
[00:56:13] One of the best moves of all time.
[00:56:14] You know, he was, he was scrappy.
[00:56:16] He was this underdog.
[00:56:17] Like he had a really compelling story and a great performance.
[00:56:19] And I do remember sitting there and, and looking at Genevieve and I said, I'm torn.
[00:56:24] And she goes, go with your gut.
[00:56:25] And I said, at this point, I can't trust my gut because of everything else that happened
[00:56:29] in the season.
[00:56:30] She goes, then go with the facts.
[00:56:31] And, um, the facts truly were that like Rachel, Rachel, she did that.
[00:56:36] So that's where it came down.
[00:56:37] How is the relationship with Genevieve?
[00:56:40] Because that was another very up and down relationship over the course of the game.
[00:56:45] And so, uh, we saw even like, uh, coming down to, you know, could you believe that her
[00:56:51] idol was fake when she told you it was?
[00:56:53] So how are you and Genevieve doing following the game?
[00:56:56] Oh, we are so close.
[00:56:58] Like, honestly, take, take, take the game out of it.
[00:57:01] And it's fine.
[00:57:02] Like take the, like the, the, the fact that in the real world, we don't have to lie and
[00:57:07] betray each other.
[00:57:07] Like that that's where we shine.
[00:57:09] Um, because we always had like a great chemistry as friends.
[00:57:13] Like I love her so much.
[00:57:14] And I think the game was just a complicated thing for us to navigate, especially because
[00:57:18] we cared about each other so much.
[00:57:20] But yeah, we are very close.
[00:57:21] I went to Winnipeg over the summer and visited her.
[00:57:24] So it was funny.
[00:57:25] Um, it's so funny.
[00:57:26] Cause like, obviously both of the people in our life are like, how are you guys still
[00:57:29] friends after this?
[00:57:30] But I have nothing but love for her.
[00:57:32] And she is such an important, special part of my survivor experience and my life outside
[00:57:36] of it too.
[00:57:36] You had your hands on the three-way shared advantage with Andy and Caroline.
[00:57:43] Any thought after the fact of potentially maybe not just burning it once you got to the merge?
[00:57:50] No, uh, that was a hundred percent always going to happen.
[00:57:53] And no regrets about that.
[00:57:54] I think all of us, it just felt like a foregone conclusion.
[00:57:57] Like we saw the word amulet and we were like, oh, like, okay, like we, we gotta, we just
[00:58:02] gotta get rid of this.
[00:58:03] And it was just the natural course of things and no regrets about that.
[00:58:06] Happy it was played on me.
[00:58:08] Um, but yeah, that, that's, that's the only route that we were going to take when we
[00:58:11] seen the history of the amulets.
[00:58:13] None of us wanted to risk being the one who was going to get, you know, got by the other,
[00:58:16] um, because of that.
[00:58:17] So yeah.
[00:58:18] Do you feel like that there was, um, a particular point in the game where, uh, some, a decision
[00:58:25] was made that ended up taking your game in a different direction than it could have gone?
[00:58:30] The solve vote.
[00:58:31] Yeah.
[00:58:32] The solve vote was nothing was the same after that.
[00:58:36] Nothing was the same after that for me mentally within the game.
[00:58:39] Uh, I really, really had a desire and plan to play the game with Saul.
[00:58:47] Like I wanted to play the game with Saul.
[00:58:49] And I feel like if I was able to, things would have gone a lot differently.
[00:58:52] And when he was taken out, it just sort of shifted everything for me.
[00:58:57] Um, and I don't know that I was ever able to get myself back on a dominant route.
[00:59:03] And that's where I think the wheels started to fall off.
[00:59:06] And I think if that hadn't happened, um, it would have just been so different.
[00:59:10] Yeah.
[00:59:10] That's so interesting.
[00:59:11] Okay.
[00:59:11] So Saul could have been like a support system for you.
[00:59:14] And then, then you were able to do a little bit more, uh, like, uh, playing the game.
[00:59:19] Uh, once you have that solid foundation in the ally.
[00:59:22] Yeah.
[00:59:23] I think it's like, after he left, I just felt like I really had, I was alone in like a strategic
[00:59:29] sense.
[00:59:29] I was alone in an emotional sense.
[00:59:31] And I just think that me and him had actually a lot of potential to like run the table.
[00:59:36] Uh, but you know, when he got Genevieve out there, things don't go the way you think they're
[00:59:41] going to go always.
[00:59:42] Okay.
[00:59:42] What are some other things that we didn't get to see about your game in Survivor 47?
[00:59:49] Um, I think it just is the, the depth and the breadth of the relationships that I had
[00:59:54] with everybody.
[00:59:55] Um, it, I'm really, really proud of the social game that I played.
[01:00:00] I knew that would be the one aspect of things that like I would excel at.
[01:00:04] And, um, you know, every single person out there, I had such a like unique, special bond
[01:00:10] with that really insulated me and really made my name never, ever, ever come up as a potential
[01:00:16] option.
[01:00:16] And I think in some ways, uh, in some ways the edit lends to the fact that people were
[01:00:22] just kind of dragging me to the end to sit next to me.
[01:00:24] And I wish maybe it was established more that no, I was just a part of people's plan in like
[01:00:28] a organic way.
[01:00:29] That was because of the relationships that I had.
[01:00:32] Um, but overall I, I don't really have complaints.
[01:00:35] Like I think the edit was representative of the story for the good and the bad.
[01:00:39] And, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm proud of it and I've learned a lot from it and there's a lot
[01:00:43] to take away from it.
[01:00:44] Teenie, it was a big moment when your bag went on fire, uh, during the episode where
[01:00:49] Kyle went home.
[01:00:50] What did you lose when the bag burned?
[01:00:54] So luckily, uh, the only thing that got really roughed up was my jacket.
[01:00:59] Um, my jacket is like completely burned in half.
[01:01:03] Um, if it had been like my challenge shorts or like any, any other item of clothing, it
[01:01:08] would have been like a detrimental loss, but the jacket was like the most harmless thing.
[01:01:13] Uh, so the universe was looking out for me in some way.
[01:01:16] And also Rachel, this was unseen, but Rachel took the, uh, the fishing line and she actually
[01:01:21] sewed my bag up.
[01:01:22] Oh, so it literally looks actually so bad-ass.
[01:01:26] Um, there's like just a fishing line, like scar on my bag now.
[01:01:30] So, uh, that was a really cool moment and a really nice thing for her to do.
[01:01:33] Yeah.
[01:01:33] So most of the, I'll tell you what I lost when my bag went on fire in the Amazon, but
[01:01:37] we don't have time for that today.
[01:01:38] I'm surprised you got a vote from Kyle when he went home.
[01:01:42] No, uh, I knew that was happening.
[01:01:44] He was on a crusade that round to take me out.
[01:01:46] It picked up absolutely zero traction to the point where it was just completely neglected
[01:01:51] in the storyline.
[01:01:52] But yeah, at that tribal council, I literally looked at him and I go, I know you're voting
[01:01:56] for me, dude.
[01:01:56] And like, Hey, I I'm voting for you.
[01:01:59] Uh, so I wasn't surprised.
[01:02:00] Was I mad?
[01:02:01] Yeah.
[01:02:01] Because if he hadn't voted for me, I would have had no votes against me the entire game,
[01:02:04] which is what I wanted.
[01:02:05] Okay.
[01:02:06] Okay.
[01:02:06] Well, teeny look that maybe the survivor journey didn't go exactly like you drew it up, but
[01:02:15] it seems like you had a great time with the whole experience.
[01:02:17] And I love that you are taking the best out of everything that the survivor experience gave
[01:02:23] to you.
[01:02:24] So, uh, really happy for you with that.
[01:02:26] Anything else you want to tell people?
[01:02:28] I just want to thank you, Rob, because you've been such a big part of my life for like 10
[01:02:33] years.
[01:02:33] I've listened to you for so long and your podcast has meant so much to me and all of this is
[01:02:38] so surreal and I'm so grateful.
[01:02:39] So thank you.
[01:02:40] Teenie, I wasn't ready for that.
[01:02:42] All right.
[01:02:43] Well, Teenie, hope you're doing great and all the best to you and your mom who I got
[01:02:48] to meet, who is wonderful.
[01:02:50] And all right.
[01:02:51] Okay.
[01:02:52] Teenie, keep in touch.
[01:02:53] Okay.
[01:02:54] Thank you, Rob.
[01:02:54] Thank you.
[01:02:55] Bye.
[01:02:55] All right, everybody.
[01:02:56] There you have it.
[01:02:57] There's Teenie.
[01:02:57] I wasn't ready for a very sweet ending to that interview with Teenie.
[01:03:02] So thank you so much to Teenie and thank you so much for listening to the final four exit
[01:03:10] interviews.
[01:03:10] We've still got more survivor to do.
[01:03:12] We've still got the survivor know-it-alls coming up here with Steven on Thursday afternoon
[01:03:17] and I've still got a club condo coming up on Monday.
[01:03:21] So let's see what goes on in the survivor world over the next couple of days.
[01:03:25] Sometimes we get a season where we get a little bit more fun outside of the finale, some stuff
[01:03:31] on social media, people fighting with buildings and statues.
[01:03:34] And so maybe we'll see.
[01:03:36] We'll see what if the survivor 47 brings anything in that department.
[01:03:41] If so, we'll be there for club condo.
[01:03:44] Thank you so much for all your support and listening to the podcast all season long.
[01:03:49] It's been another fun one to go through here with you, especially I always love to do these exit
[01:03:55] interviews.
[01:03:55] It never gets old for me to get to talk to the people that were just on TV last night.
[01:04:00] And then we talked to them here on the podcast.
[01:04:02] I mean, how cool is that?
[01:04:03] Thank you for coming with us on another journey here this year.
[01:04:07] Make sure you are locked in for everything else we have going on here.
[01:04:11] Go to robhutselwebsite.com slash subscribe so you don't miss any of the fun.
[01:04:15] We've got a lot of stuff coming up with traders and dealer no deal island.
[01:04:19] So stay tuned, everybody.
[01:04:20] Take care of a good one.
[01:04:21] Bye.
[01:04:22] Bye.
[01:04:22] Bye.