“I Did Not Choose My Emotions Over Strategy”: An Interview with Survivor: Cook Islands’ Candice

RNO: At least since the mutiny, what we saw indicated that you and your allies were lazy. What do you have to say about how you were portrayed?

Candice: Even before the mutiny, they were saying me Sundra and Becky were lazy. I think we may not have gone out and done as much fishing as Ozzy or Jonathan did, but we weren’t lazy. I’d like to point out that Jonathan had 30 pounds of fat energy to burn – I don’t mean that in a mean way, but I didn’t have that much to go off. Keep in mind I was being sent to Exile with no food. I wasn’t eating. My energy level was going down as everyone else’s was staying the same. But no, I don’t think I worked as hard as J out there – I don’t think anyone did, with the exception of maybe Ozzy. But I don’t believe we were lazy.

RNO: Were you really that desperate to get rid of Jonathan first, or was that game play in the hopes of getting a few more days?

Candice: I just wanted anything for a few more days for another chance to make a case for myself. I was sent to Exile and I came back and had one afternoon to try to fight for my life out there. I didn’t have much time. I tried the rational approach first. After they shut all those options down, I thought if I’m going down, I’m going down swinging. Maybe I can drag Jonathan down before me.

RNO: Considering what everybody seemed to think of Jonathan, why did you keep him around while voting off Brad, Rebecca, and Jenny.

Candice: I was with Jonathan from day one and we always had a good relationship and were pretty honest with each other in terms of the game. A lot of people felt like Jonathan couldn’t go back to the other team, I couldn’t go back – they’d never take us. So we were easy to keep around, because there was no chance of us flipping back. That’s why we kept him around. And I wanted to go to the end with Adam and Jonathan because I thought I’d have the best chance against them. Jonathan’s gotten a bad rap, but he’s a good guy.

RNO: Obviously you and your allies were upset at Jonathan for backstabbing you, but why was there so much anger in a game that is frequently about backstabbing?

Candice: I was hurt. I knew that really hurt my chances of going further in the game. And Jonathan and I were together from day one. I did kind of badmouth him to [Raro], but that was for a reason. I didn’t want to come over there and look like a solid twosome, that’s threatening. We already were in a dangerous spot so I wanted to distance myself from him, and it didn’t mater how close we really were. I thought strategically we needed to look like we were not that stuck on each other.

I did kind of give it to Jonathan at the end, and that was when I thought if I’m going down, I’m going down swinging. I knew it was a game and he did what he did to save himself. I would have done the same thing if my back was against the wall. He made the best decision with the information he had. I can’t say I made all the right decisions either. At the time, I was hurt and I thought he was the next best person to try to get people to vote for instead of myself. I thought if I can stir things up to deflect votes from me, I was going to do it.

RNO: By the time Tribal Council came around, did you think you had a chance at getting the vote switched to Jonathan?

Candice: No, I was pretty sure I was going. I thought there was an outside chance that lightning could strike, but I was pretty certain I as going home.

RNO: Why did you, Adam, and Parvati seem so certain Yul didn’t have the idol?

Candice: Yul from the beginning tried to be as honest as possible and a couple times he shied away from doing things that we wanted as a group to do strategically because he thought it wasn’t ethically right or he didn’t want to have lied to someone. So that made me think when Jonathan went around and asked about the idol, and Yul said no, I believed him. He seemed at that point to be very stuck on this whole being completely honest. So that was one part of it. The other was he only had two clues when he went out there and I thought he was only out there for one night – I didn’t remember he was out there for two nights. We did consider voting for Becky instead of Yul, but Jonathan insisted we couldn’t vote for Yul. So that made us think Jonathan had something going on with Yul and we felt threatened, so that made us want to vote for Yul. If Jonathan had just outright told us, it would have been a different story, but all the suggestions not to vote for Yul made us suspicious – it had the oppostie effect of what was intended.

RNO: How did you keep smiling through everything you went through?

Candice: I thought this is an experience I’d wanted ever since I was way too young to be on the show. This was a great experience for me. So few people get this opportunity, I’m very lucky to be out here, I’m having the time of my life. It’s tough but I know I’ll look back on this later and I’ll remember it forever. I just thought, why be out here and act like grumpy or mean? I wanted to really enjoy the experience. Even though it was tough, I still wanted to stay positive through to the end.

RNO: If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?

Candice: That’s a tough question. I think I did the best I could with the information I had at the time. Sitting here watching on TV and hearing people’s explanations later and getting more explanation on what you didn’t know about, of course there are things I would have done differently. Had I known Yul had the idol, I maybe wouldn’t have flipped and I definitely wouldn’t have voted against him. But all those things are things that I didn’t know and couldn’t have known at the time. I think I did what I could.

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

Candice: I had the time of my life out there. It was great and I’m grateful for all the people I met there, we’re good friends and I think we’ll stay that way for a while. It’s a great learning experience to be able to relive things and watch yourself and have the mirror put up to your life. If you reflect on it, it’s a great opportunity to learn things about yourself and how you function with people, although it is a game.

RNO: Thanks, Candice!

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