“Putting My Trust in Other People Led to My Demise” – An Interview with Survivor: Micronesia’s Jason

As you’ll see, I warned Jason that I had some tough questions for him, and he responded to all of them. I know readers wanted to hear about these topics, so here you have it!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Jason, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! You seem like a nice guy, but I have to tell you that I have a number of uncomfortable questions for you, and people want to know. We’ll start with the obvious question – why didn’t you use the immunity idol?

Jason: At this point in the game, my whole game was keep it Fans vs. Favorites. Fans to the end, I was hoping. At that point in the game, I thought it was in Natalie’s best interest to keep me around. If she thinks Parvati is going to take her to the finals, she’s out of her mind. The alliance of Cirie, Amanda, and Parvati is way too strong. They’re going to eliminate the rest of the Fans – there will not be a Fan there.

The Favorites had their chance the first time around, they shouldn’t have a second chance. So my hope was she was being honest with me, and we’d have Erik, Alexis, Natalie, and myself against three Favorites. It would be a sure thing for the four of us to the final four. I looked at the reasoning and I couldn’t see a better option for her.

I didn’t want to play the idol and not have them vote for me and have them say, “Why didn’t you trust us?” It was just a mistake. I thought the Fans, especially Natalie, would have been smarter. I’m really hoping it comes back to bit her in the butt and she does not make the final three.

RNO: Moving from the real immunity idol to the fake one, why did you believe it was real, when Eliza saw it and immediately knew it was just a stick with a face on it?

Jason: You go to Exile Island, follow the clues, and find something. You’re hoping it’s something. In the episode, you see me look at it and I’m kind of like meh, I guess this is it. I went with it and I thought Survivor was going to do something that wasn’t as obvious.

In hindsight, of course, duh, it was a stick. To all the viewers out there, it’s easy for them to say it’s a stick, but they’re not out there, they didn’t go and find it.

After I got back to camp and hid the idol, I didn’t have to think about it for ten days because we kept winning challenges – out of sight, out of mind. I wish I would have taken it out and showed somebody. Maybe we could have used it to our advantage somehow – ousting Ozzy or something. It was an honest mistake.

You would think me being a huge fan of the show, I should obviously know it was a fake idol. But in the game, you’re tired, you’re not thinking clearly all the time. I got no shame in that, though. It turned out to be one of the most hilarious moments on Survivor. As long as the fans are laughing and smiling, I did something right.

RNO: How could you believe everybody when they promised they’d keep you around, knowing that would mean one of them would have to go instead?

Jason: They guaranteed it. Isn’t that all some people have in this world? Or so Natalie said in that episode.

It was totally out of left field for me, because that is so not my personality to step down and lose. I knew I could have won the challenge – I would have stayed up there five more hours. But I thought, let’s go in a new direction, maybe they had something more in mind.

It obviously worked and I didn’t go home. It played a role in one of the greatest Survivor episodes ever.

RNO: But if they were truly planning to keep you around, wouldn’t it have been logical for Parvati to be the one stepping down so you could have immunity?

Jason: But then Ozzy might have been a little more worried or skeptical about his position in the tribe. I don’t think it could have played out the same way if Parvati had stepped down and I’d won the challenge.

RNO: Going back to the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Jason: To come in and be an easygoing, likable guy. But from the very beginning, just some of the people out there got on my nerves. Chet and Kathy did not have their hearts in the game. That really irritated me that there would be two people on the show that would not go 100% all the time. Eventually, they quit the game.

My whole strategy was thrown off when Mikey and Mary were thrown off. It was tough from there on out.