“They Were Scared”: An Interview with Survivor: Exile Island’s Sally

The ninth episode of Survivor: Exile Island had barely ended when people started noticing that Sally’s parents appeared in her video from home, even though she had said they weren’t speaking. Was that a strategy on her part or was she surprised to see it? And what about the immunity idol – why didn’t she get it? You may be surprised at the answer. You’ll have to read on to find out.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Sally, and thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for RealityNewsOnline’s readers. How did you prepare for Survivor and what was your plan coming into the game?

Sally: My plan coming in was just to be myself and I wanted to try to align myself with people of the opposite sex and people of different age groups, which obviously was difficult since we started out separated (in the young girls group).

RNO: When you lost the spear early in the game, did you think you were going to be voted out as punishment, or did you feel pretty secure?

Sally: I never felt secure but I had hoped that my work as a tribemate wasn’t based on losing the spear.

RNO: Were you surprised when Austin and Nick chose to align with Terry and Dan rather than you and Misty?

Sally: I was surprised because they told us they were going to align with us, but I wasn’t because I saw the relationship forming between those guys and Austin and Nick viewed Terry and Dan with a lot of respect; so I could see why they did it.

RNO: How much lobbying did you have to do in order to convince the guys to vote against Ruth-Marie instead of you?

Sally: I didn’t feel like I lobbied at all. I didn’t talk to any of the guys about it. All I really did was work really hard around camp and I performed in the challenges.

RNO: Both Nick and Austin indicated to me in their interviews that they thought your alliance should have been able to make better use of the hidden immunity idol. What are your thoughts on that?

Sally: I would agree with that. It could have been put to better use but I was never in an alliance with them. I never had the expectation that Terry would use that to save me and at that point, it became an individual game.

RNO: You said in your final words that you were okay with Terry keeping the idol for himself – did Terry explain to you his reasoning for keeping it?

Sally: He wanted to keep me around for numbers and just because… I told him that unless we had the numbers then not to give it to me. If he gave it to me without the numbers, he wasn’t guaranteed anything down the road and therefore it made more sense for him to keep it.

RNO: In the game, you mentioned some problems with your family, but then they showed up in your video from home. Was what you said just strategy or did everybody make up?

Sally: Nobody had made up. I was really shocked and pleasantly surprised that my family sent a video. I obviously have a relationship with my sister and I was shocked to see my parents in the video as I hadn’t talked to my mother in months and seeing them appear in that video gave me hope that there was a chance to make amends. Also, they hate appearing in any video so I was shocked to see them participate.

RNO: Did you know before arriving at Tribal Council that all your overtures had been rejected, or did you still have some hope?

Sally: I kind of knew that they were rejected but I had some hope that Terry was going to put his individual immunity necklace around my neck. So instead of giving me the hidden idol, we had talked about him giving me the immunity necklace therefore shaking things up right at the Tribal Council. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

RNO: Why do you think none of the former Casaya members would take a chance and switch sides?

Sally: I think that there were probably a couple that wanted to and thought about it. I think they were afraid of what the ex-tribemates would do/say, or the jury. For some of them, I think it would have been more beneficial to jump but they were just scared. Ultimately, they were scared at what would happen and so they decided to play it safe with the numbers game.

RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Sally: I had an amazing experience and that I was happy that everybody I met and got to meet out there made it worthwhile. I ended up enjoying it being a very individual game for me.

RNO: Thanks again, Sally!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Survivor: Exile Island Episode 9 articles:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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