“They Didn’t Want to Send Me Home” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Gabon’s Paloma

As I was watching this week’s episode of Survivor, I wondered why the tribe seemed to be deciding between only Paloma and Ace, not even considering Sugar. Paloma has that answer! Indeed, she has a lot of answers, including how she planned to overcome her size disadvantage and what her overall strategy was. Read on to find out all about it!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Paloma, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! What was your strategy coming into the game?

Paloma: My strategy going into the game was to basically lay low, hang out, be an asset to the team around camp, and do my best at challenges. I’m really good at puzzles, so I knew I could do that part of challenges. [I planned to ] basically be nice to everybody. I wasn’t a physical threat. I didn’t want to be a threat to anybody. Just hang out and let everybody take each other out and slowly move myself up into the game.

RNO: How did your strategy change once you got into the game and starting getting to know your tribemates?

Paloma: I think everybody’s strategy changes, not just mine. Once you’re in the game, the elements are completely different from what you expected. It’s pretty crazy once you get in the game, you don’t really think about strategy so much. My tribemates were a lot different than I thought they would be. It took a lot of adapting. I realized once I got into the game that staying low-key was probably not the best thing.

RNO: You already discussed this a little bit, but specifically what did you plan to do to overcome your smaller stature in a game where physical strength can be so important?

Paloma: Right away, as soon as I was put into my tribe, I knew I was screwed when it came to the physical aspect of the game. All my tribemates were pretty much triathlon athletes. I knew if I wanted to make it far, I had to play up my intellectual side. I had to let them know that I might not be physical but I wasn’t annoying like some of my tribemates and I could do very well in the mental aspects of the game. My tribe was so physical and had so much strength, it was really hard to make them understand that the game wasn’t all about the physical aspect of it – they also needed other types of people on their tribe.

RNO: We saw you talking to Corinne. Who else did you talk to in your attempt to make it through Tribal Council?

Paloma: I talked to Bob. Kelly and I obviously had a lot of conversations and she was my biggest ally in the game. I believe I did talk to Charlie as well.

RNO: You seemed to give the core alliance something to think about – why do you think they ended up keeping Ace instead of you?

Paloma: I feel I know the reason. They wanted to keep Ace around because he was probably the best physical player on the tribe. He was the strongest and most athletic. And they wanted to keep Ace happy as long as they could without creating any drama. As much as they wanted to get rid of him because he was annoying, they needed him.

They basically got rid of me to keep Ace under control. They knew if they would have voted Sugar or anybody else, he would not have trusted them and it would have created drama and they might not have done so well in coming challenges.

RNO: Well, that answers the question I was going to ask about why Sugar was not targeted (something I wondered about in my recap. So by the time Tribal Council arrived, did you know you were leaving?

Paloma: Yeah, I one hundred percent knew I was leaving when I went into Tribal Council. I wanted Ace or Sugar to go. I realized that it wasn’t going to happen – it was clear during the day that that wasn’t going to happen. I took the rest of the day hanging out with the people I liked and absorbing the experience. I knew I was going – Kelly had conversations with some of the tribe and they told her they were sending me home. They didn’t want to send me home, which was the worst part. So it was very hard spending that day with them. They were sad – it was a weird situation. It’s kind of funny how it seemed like I didn’t know, but I did know. I just smile a lot, I guess. It seems [in watching Tribal Council] like I don’t think I’m going home, but I do know I’m going home.

RNO: In hindsight, do you think you could have done anything differently to change the outcome of the vote?

Paloma: I think at that point, the only thing I could have done was maybe pushed the idea more to vote for Sugar for the heck of it to see if she had the idol. Nobody really liked sugar at that time. Kota didn’t vote for people because they didn’t like them, they voted for them out of strategy. If they had voted based on who they didn’t like, Ace would have for sure been the first to go. I could have pushed the idea of voting for Sugar, blindside her since she thinks they’re voting me off. That way if she does have the idol, we can get rid of it.

RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn’t know about while you were there? Was it that Sugar found the idol?

Paloma: I wasn’t surprised that Sugar had the idol. That was a little surprise, but not that surprising. I think conversations that were had – the conversation I had with Corinne. I had no idea she had an alliance with Charlie, Marcus, and Jacquie. It was surprising to see her talking Charlie right after. It was kind of interesting because I had no idea about that – which is a good thing on their part.

RNO: What did you do on the show that we didn’t get to see on TV?

Paloma: I did a lot of fishing. I spent a lot of time trying to fish – it was actually really funny. I made a fishhook out of a bobby pin and we got string I think from Bob’s belt, and a stick. I spent hours upon hours. As soon as we got the fishing gear, I went out and pent hours and hours. Of course when I take a break, Ace goes out in the fist five minutes and catches a fish. It was not my time to shine while I was on the show. I also collected wood a lot. I didn’t do yoga, that’s for sure.

RNO: Why didn’t you do yoga?

Paloma: First of all, I’ve never participated in it before – not that I would mind. But at the point Ace started doing yoga, you couldn’t have paid me enough money to listen to him voluntarily. Let’s do yoga and listen to Ace for 20 minutes – I just couldn’t do it, no way.

RNO: As a final question following up on your final words – if Ace wins, will you really stop watching Survivor?

Paloma: (Laughs) Probably not. I’d be very disappointed in the system. Very disappointed. But I love Survivor. I think the game is genius. All the people involved in it – all the elements play into it. I’m so proud to be a part of it. Ace would be the last person in the world I’d want to win, but I’d probably watch it. Maybe not.

RNO: Thanks again, Paloma!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Gabon articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

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

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