An “Insider” Look at Survivor: Micronesia, Episode 7 – “It Scared the Crap Out of Me”

Kathy, The Day After

Kathy starts off by saying, “I felt like I didn’t fit in.” She says everyone else seemed to have their act together on day one. Everyone was young and hot and people prejudged each other before they even spoke. Kathy says she’s guilty of prejudging too – especially of the young, hot girls. “I felt judged immediately. Like maybe I was this older, wacky person who won’t fit in.”

Kathy goes on to say that the show has changed her a lot. Kathy talked to Ami on Exile Island. Ami said her first experience on the show made her free. Kathy told Ami that she never thought of herself as having anything, but now she’s going to go home and hug her kid and get more things. She realizes that the little family she has – her husband and daughter – are way more important than one million dollars. “You could give me seven million and I wouldn’t take it.” Kathy goes on about all the little things people have in their lives – blankets, sweaters, etc. – and that you don’t have that on Survivor. You aren’t even dry on the show. “I felt like an animal out there.” Kathy had no dignity or sense of safety. “It scared the crap out of me.”

“It was hard to admit I couldn’t do it.” Kathy wanted to think she was super-human, but the show beat her down and she couldn’t do it. She’s in awe of everyone who’s played the game. Childbirth was easy compared to the show. She’d rather whip out eight more kids than do this again. She can’t believe she made it 19 days.

Oh, Kathy, I have to say the “prejudging” the tribe did of you was spot on. What really gets me about Kathy is that she goes on and on about how it’s raining and you don’t have anything when you’re on Survivor, yet she has supposedly watched every episode of the show. Yes, I know experiencing something is different than watching on TV. It looks miserable, exhausting, cold, hot, wet, hungry, and plain sucky out there. And I’m sure it’s worse than that. But that is just my point. I watch the show and I know that. Kathy should not have been as surprised as she was about how rotten the experience was out there.

Tracy’s Final Words

Tracy starts by saying the game takes you places mentally and physically you never thought you could go. She’s pleased and thankful to have gotten this opportunity. Tracy says she did everything she could to stay. She managed to get some of the big guys to believe in her. She thought she was going home almost every single time, and managed to hang in there for a while. It was a great feeling to take down Mikey B and Joel because they gave her and the other “little guys” a hard time.

Tracy thinks it was tougher on them going against the Favorites, and Ozzy’s an amazing competitor. If the Malakal don’t take him down quick, they are going to lose to him. Once the tribes merge, Ozzy and Amanda will join back up with Parvati and James and they’ll be the final four.

Tracy’s comments are succinct and astute. I think she’s on the money with her analysis, and she’s right that she had her back to the wall from the start in this game.

Tracy, The Day After

Tracy starts out by saying that one of the most fascinating things for her on Survivor is seeing this big melting pot of people coming together to fight for the money. She likens the experience to an onion… everyone on the show exposes layer after layer of themselves – even if they don’t want to do so.

Tracy says that she thinks it’s interesting her tribemates saw her as a threat. She started out in a minority of three on her original tribe, and struggled from then on. Tracy would play entirely differently if she had the chance to do it again. “You’re not going to die.” She was afraid at the beginning, and she would now play without fear.

She goes on to say that she and Jason clashed from the beginning. She says he jumped into the game and played “with the island,” and that pissed her off. She had so much more life experience than this kid, and he was really jumping in and playing the game the way she thought she would. His behavior was what she wanted for herself, and his ability to embrace the game that way made Tracy jealous.

Tracy says the thing she really wasn’t able to deal with on the show was having no control. She’s a builder and she’s used to having a lot of control. All people care about on the show is what you can do for them and the tribe. “It was hard.” She knew there would be bugs and rats, but she didn’t know they would be attacking her body.

“Age and physical agility mean nothing in the game of Survivor.” It’s your mental state and what you brought with you that counts. You need to make the other people believe in you, and you have to make yourself believe in you first. Tracy finishes by saying, “It was an amazing experience. I’d do it again tomorrow.”

It sounds like Tracy has her head on straight about the game. She acknowledges how hard it is and that she made some mistakes while she was playing. I find her attitude refreshing, as too often Survivors say they would do nothing differently no matter how early they were booted in the game.