TVLINE | I’m admittedly a bit confused by everyone’s perception of Mike. What did you think of him, and what was the disconnect between some of the players and Mike?
Well, at the beginning, if you saw Patt, you saw Mike attached to her hip. And then he would go around, try to have conversations with everybody, but he was so… he’s a huge fan, so he understands to keep information close to the chest. He’s playing a real textbook [game], but you can tell when someone’s a big fan playing, and like Thien An said, he was giving nobody nothing. He was doing, “How’s your day?” like, average conversation, like BS-ing, you know what I mean? Small talk. He was never really getting to the steak and potatoes. And that’s why I even pressed the issue when we were on Toka 2.0 because I was the only one keeping him involved. Once Patt got voted out, and especially when we tribe-swapped, like, yeah, he was the bottom of the bottom, and Maggie and Thien An were dogging him. They kept him away from that summit. And then Kristin didn’t want any part of him. We had our little brody thing that you kind of saw. You didn’t see much building, but Mike and I even had baseball signs that we would do at Tribal Councils to be like, “Hey, it’s still on.” So we were doing that a lot.
Well, what I wanna let you brodies know — I actually haven’t told any of the other ones. You’re the first one to get this information. Scoop! — You know, I get a little excited. I’m all about the confrontation sometimes, and after that moment, once Mike switched on us, Dev comes up to me and Carter and is like, “Hey, maybe we should keep Mike in the vote,” so great gameplay move by Dev. The fact that he wasn’t playing with me and instantly flipped the whole thing on its head, because that plan would have taken off without Mike. I really do believe. But yeah, when Mike flipped on me there, and I knew he did because his face completely changed. So for being a “psychology professor” or whatever the heck he said, he blatantly showed emotion and then walked straight down to Kristin. There’s no leaves on the trees. I see you between the sticks just talking to her by the water by yourself. Like, what do you think you’re talking about? And then she instantly comes up and tells me. He gives me the baseball signs before that intense conversation. I let him know how I felt, and I kind of wanted that moment for him to get it off his chest, you know what I mean? Everybody wants that moment in “Survivor,” I guess. If he wants to paint that picture and make me his bully, stand up to your bully, brody, and he stayed with his tail between his legs, sticking to his false story. Good for him if that’s how he wants to play, if he wants to do it all in confessionals like that, but I felt like I gave him that man-to-man moment to stick it to me. Even when he could have, not much would have changed from that point on. Maybe he was being gracious or maybe he thought I was super high-maintenance and it was a mess, you know?
TVLINE | So I guess there wasn’t anything we didn’t see from that conversation you had with him? No, it was just blatant, “Hey, I caught you in the lie. Tell me you’re after me,” you know what I mean? Man to man, come on.
TVLINE | I need to know your thoughts on Maggie. You and her seemed like oil and water out there. So what was your opinion of her, and what was your opinion of her move to give Lewis and Kilby her two extra votes?
Of course, looking back, you always want the extra vote for yourself, but the cookie didn’t crumble that way. I walked out there [to search for the advantage] with the thought that no one was gonna be out there, and there’s Maggie, and she couldn’t get it. And Maggie and I had been building a [rapport] so I figured I’d help her. She almost became a No. 1 for me. I’m such high energy, such a man-child. You could definitely go with that. I take appreciation out of that. Shout out Sabrina Carpenter. I like to have a lot of fun. And Maggie was kind of the mom, so it’s just like, you know, jackass little kid and mom, “do your chores,” you know what I mean? So that’s all it was.
I love Maggie. I think she’s a wonderful person, a hell of a competitor, a passionate player, someone who works with her emotions on her sleeve, loves her family. I think the world of Maggie and maybe she’ll regret that vote, but I can totally understand how I can have that effect on people, especially with all the negatives that we have playing against us, no food, no sleeping. Spending that much time with me, I’d probably need some time. I gotta get away from myself sometimes. So, I completely get it. Besides that fact, I think Maggie and I should have our own separate show. I think she should be the mom. I should be a kid, and I think that sitcom would go crazy.
TVLINE | I’m into it. Let’s just throw the two of you on Exile Island for 30 days and see what happens.
And the thing is, brody, with Maggie and her farm, she might whip me into shape, have me eating from the trough, train me like an animal, you know what I mean? I do well with strong leadership.
TVLINE | What did the grubs taste like, and why the heck did you go back for more?!
It tastes like bread dough, and because, brody, I was passing out! I was so depleted in the challenges. After they would end, I’d feel like passing out or blacking out. In the water there, I’d grabbed onto the hoop so I wouldn’t drown. So when he told us that there was gonna be something to earn the feast, I thought, oh my God, a grueling challenge, something horrible, I’m gonna die here, because I was really at wit’s end on energy because I’m through the roof all the time, brody. And when he said, all you gotta do is eat these measly grubs, give me that mother-trucker, you know what I mean? They could have had a human foot on that plate, dog. It would have went down just as fast. So I was ready to do whatever it takes for food. I put those two in my mouth, bit once, and swallowed. I had them [down in] under two seconds. Check the track record, dog.
TVLINE | I learned in Fiji while I was out there that the country does have a history of cannibalism!
I have heard! People were surprised I didn’t eat my thumb piece, you know?
This story originally appeared on TVLine
