“I Can’t Compete with God Talking to Shambo in Her Dreams” – An Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Samoa’s John

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, John, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline!

John: No problem.

RNO: Considering everything you knew about Russell, why on Earth did you trust him?!

John: Interesting. I would argue that I didn’t trust him. The interesting thing about Survivor is that people see the conversations you’re having and that’s the only method the producers use to tell a story. A lot of these thoughts that John trusts Russell is not from me in confessionals but from me speaking to Russell, which is not accurate. I knew I couldn’t trust him, but the major point of that conversation was me saying, “Russell, I’m not gunning for you,” and me trying to convince him there was a future for John and Russell working together in the game. When I left that conversation and when I left any conversation with Russell, I knew this guy was a snake. I knew he could not be trusted and I said that in confessional, but you have to continue to convince people you’re not gunning for them.

RNO: So then why did you ask him for the promise that you guys would take out a Foa Foan?

John: That was a mistake. You get involved in a conversation with him and it’s funny because he has all these tricks to catch you off guard and he was good at it. What you haven’t seen is that Natalie was his little agent and she was good at setting up meetings with him. She’d say, “Hey, John, do you want to go get some water?” and you’d turn the corner for going to the well and he’s waiting for you. He catches you off guard because he’s prepared himself and he knows what he’s going to talk about but you don’t. You just have to be flexible.

The mistake I did make didn’t happen this week, it happened last week. I already knew I wasn’t going to pick a rock for Laura, so he didn’t need to know. It was a mistake for me to tell him.

RNO: Can you explain a bit more of what you mean?

John: [In the episode] when Laura left, I said if I give you a Galu, next will have to be a Foa Foa. That was a mistake because I didn’t need Russell’s vote to get a Foa Foa member and it’s only going to weaken his position. I should have said the next one to go is going to be Monica to show that I’m there to play the game with him.

RNO: So were you assuming Shambo would flip back to vote with you?

John: It’s being portrayed that Shambo has totally flipped but she has alliances with who she likes. She was on very, very good terms with me. She promised she would vote Mick off and she said, “John, I’m doing this to protect you.” The dream telling her to vote off Dave changed that. I can compete with a lot of people but I can’t compete with god talking to Shambo in her dreams.

RNO: Before watching the show, did you realize how he had systematically gotten rid of everybody he considered a threat to him?

John: I knew Russell was playing a very strategic game. Russell had the same problem with Shambo that I did, which is that her voting was based purely off emotion, not for strategic reasons, and it’s hard working with somebody like that. Russell recognized that from the very beginning so there were lots of clues along the way that Russell was a strategic player. And he’ll be the first to admit it. He’d say, “John, I like you because you’re strategic.” But watching the show now, it’s definitely impressive to see his hand at being able to influence votes against any target of his choosing. The guy’s impressive.

RNO: Going back to the beginning, what was your strategy coming in to Survivor?

John: My strategy was first to build a good dynamic to help you win challenges. I knew anything could happen at any time and the only thing to protect you is not going to Tribal Council. With the exception of getting hurt and medically evacuated, you can’t go home unless you go to Tribal Council. I sort of tried to break the game down into quarters. The next part of my strategy was to start to weaken people and create a perception of certain people being a threat, so post-merge when guys like myself typically go, I wanted to bring people to the merge in a severely weakened position so there would be other targets besides people like me who are smart, physical threats.

The last part of that is the endgame and how to be flexible to eliminate who you want to see go so you change the power dynamic and become more and more powerful as the game goes on. I didn’t want to peak too early. A guy like Russell has a lot more options in how to play the game because I’m a lot more high profile and Russell is older and has a charming southern accent and could draw people to him. I wanted to make sure I didn’t go as a post-merge blindside so I did a lot to weaken Laura and a lot to bring attention to a lot of big threats so I wasn’t a problem after the merge.

RNO: Now that you’ve watched the show, are you surprised at how many times you were shown saying you’re much smarter than the rest of your tribe?

John: (Laughs) No, not at all. I remember it. It was frustration. I would be sitting there going, “How am I not on the other team?” Both teams had a law student. Their law student was an Olympian water polo player who went to [well-known high quality schools] and ours was Monica – I like her, nice girl, but not of the same intellectual level as Jaison. Your lawyer is so much better than mine! You get a doctor and where’s my doctor? Liz was a very smart player too. I could have worked well with Liz from what I’ve seen. Your big leader is Russell, we got Laura, Russell is a lot smarter than Laura.

That was reflective of the way I felt out there. I can remember tons of interviews saying it was just frustration – I want a better team, I want people I can work with. The alliances are going to be stronger the more natural they are. It’s harder to do if you don’t get along with them in real life. I could normally hang out with Mick and Jaison in real life, but because of the teams we were put on, I couldn’t work with a Mick. He was best-served to gun for me and I was best-served to gun for him.

I’m not surprised at how often I said that because I thought that I was. Survivor is an interesting game because people tell you things and you always have to question their motives. It really tells you something when people come to you with their problems and ask what to do. When they can’t solve their own problem, it’s not that they have an ulterior motive, it’s like, “You’re an idiot.” And that would just happen over and over and over.

The conversation with Laura and Dave in the jungle [a few weeks back] and they say the vote is Russell. If Russell plays the idol we’ll flush it out. And it’s like, “Stop! If he plays the idol, one of us is going home. Stop and really start thinking about this!” The capacity to problem solve problems and make decisions effectively wasn’t there.

RNO: Unfortunately, I’m being told we’re out of time, so do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

John: For me it was a really great fun challenging experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was one of the best challenges of my life.

RNO: Thanks again, John!

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