An "Insider" Look at Survivor: Palau, Episode 5: The Willard and Angie Show

I was dreading this week’s Insider. Normally the final words/day after clips are the worst, but Angie and Willard had become two of my favorites, in no small part due to their interviews here.

Angie’s Final Words: It was interesting, she was happy to not be voted off first. She got the luck of the draw, if Ibrehem hadn’t won immunity, he probably would have gone, but the tribe’s got to do what the tribe’s got to do. Hopefully the tribe can turn things around and go into the merge with a good start.

She was surprised that Koror got to choose immunity, she knew they would stick the knife in and choose Ibrehem. She thinks they saw her as a threat because she kept bouncing their women around, so she knew it would come down to her. No hard feelings.

She’s very proud of her accomplishments, as well she should be. She did better on the challenges than she ever thought she would. She’s happy she came out and did something she’d never done before, and is “totally happy” she didn’t get voted out first. It was nice to live with people that she might not have met in the outside world. None of her friends have ever been athletic or on a team, so it was pretty neat. It was nice to be communal, instead of individual, which is how she usually is.

She’ll walk away with a bigger appreciation of things she takes for granted. That’s become almost a cliché in these things. And she’ll definitely spend more time with her significant other.

Angie, the Day After: She’s doing fine, she knew she would be voted off eventually, and she wasn’t first which was most important. She doesn’t think she was meant to go, but things have a way of switching around. The hardest part was she’s never really been part of a team before, and it was really frustrating when people couldn’t raise themselves up to the level of effort she was giving. You’re relying on someone else to get you through, instead of just yourself, and it was frustrating when they didn’t come through. And you couldn’t yell at them, because you have to have good “tribe dynamics.”

She kept her mouth shut more than she ever would have in real life. It was kind of relaxing for once, not having to be the funny one all the time, since James took that role. The more she was there, the more she expressed her opinion because it was harder to keep it in when people were being more and more stupid.

It was interesting, she wanted to prove a few things to herself. She doesn’t think they were expecting any physicality out of her, thinking she was just this roly-poly tattooed party girl, which she’s not. It was hard, but it wasn’t the hardest thing she’s done in life. She knew where her weakness was going to be – food. When they lost the food challenge, she was like, {dramatic, arms waving in terror} “No, no! We can’t lose the food!!” Watching people eat when she couldn’t have any was rough. Everything else was, “Eh, no big deal, whatever.”

She was most disappointed to be going because the person who messed up, the reason she was there with her torch, was not going home. If one thing had gone differently, she’d still be out there today. But she did everything she had to do, so she can’t be too angry about it. You can’t have all these hurt feelings. C’est la vie.

She did very well in the reward challenge when she was dunking everyone, and as a result everyone thought she was mean. But she did what she was allowed to do, she didn’t kick or punch, and they thought she was mean. She was trying to win, “sorry, guys.” Amen. Not everyone was impressed by the sewing kit, so she took it with her when she left. Everyone got to take something, and that’s what she took. She hopes they don’t need it, because she has it.

She thinks they’ll be missing a voice of reason, and a person who gets a lot of firewood. She hopes she instilled in them the fact that they need firewood. I think they’ll figure it out. They’re strong people, and they were so far into losing that nothing she could have done was going to change the game around. They did play horribly.

She learned that she was tougher than she gave herself credit for. She thought she’d be lagging behind and doubled over in the sand, but she kicked butt! There were two that she did better than anyone else, and she felt pretty good about that.

Would she do it again? If she had to do it with the same tribe, she might not. Heh. With different people, it might be a different story. With her “not thinkin’ and not listenin’ tribe,” maybe not. And not on their “nothin’” island, either, with nothing but coconuts and crabs. Maybe somewhere else. Maybe the Pearl Islands, with all those fish that were so easy to catch.