“I Knew I Lost Survivor When My Ball Hit the Ground” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Tocantins’ Runner-Up, Stephen

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Stephen, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline.

Stephen: I read the site every week – your guys’ recaps and analysis. I’m nervous – this is the one I’m most nervous for, this is the source for behind the scenes talk.

RNO: Thanks! Getting to the tough question right from the start, why do you think you lost the battle of words in front of the jury?

Stephen: I knew I lost going into that. I knew I lost Survivor when my ball hit the ground. There was no question I could beat J.T. I knew that the first week. Timbera had this weird obsession with him. They were like, “You’re the perfect human being, the only flaw is you’re friends with Stephen.” With that Debbie question, that obviously turned the emotional tenor of the final Tribal Council. There was no way I was winning. I hoped to get a few votes. But I didn’t want to go in and say, “I’m the master strategist.” It would have seemed delusional and it wouldn’t have been accurate. It was hard to go against him for that reason.

If I had been there against Taj or Erinn, I could have really laid it out. I went into the final four with final two alliances with everybody and with J.T. having a huge target on his back that was the best position I could have been in.

I actually approached Taj early and I approached Erinn. In fact, I was the one who got Brendan to pick Joe to go to Exile. Brendan and I had developed a signal to send if he should pick Joe. I gave him that signal because we knew Erinn was on the outs and we wanted to create those bonds early on. I wanted to create as many Jalapao-Timbira bonds because we knew were in trouble. I talked to Joe, and Erinn and I were really close. It’s weird, Erinn and I are never on screen together but she was one of my strongest allies in the game.

My strategy going in was to target the outliers and I did that. It was unbelievable to me that nobody had spoken to Taj. The same was true with Erinn in Timbira. They were just mean to her. They just told her that they were voting for her in case the target had the idol, as if she should just accept getting votes. She was an easy target for us to pick up.

RNO: Debbie told me that upon watching the show, she realized that she and others didn’t give you enough credit for being a major part of the game play. Was there any way you could have made that more obvious and maybe earned some jury votes?

Stephen: That’s my fault, that’s on me. I went in wanting to play the goofy sidekick and I didn’t want to play the manipulator. I really played up the goofy city boy who couldn’t do anything in the wild, which was helped because I was the goofy city boy who couldn’t do anything in the wild. But I was considered as J.T.’s sidekick. It kept me out of the spotlight, but I overplayed it and nobody really believed I was the strategy guy. I think people would have thought I was crazy if I had said I’m the real one behind the scenes. We worked really well together, too.

I was so humbled by J.T.’s decision to take me because it seemed I had a shot at getting a few votes. So I was really humbled by his loyalty over the sure bet against Erinn. I just didn’t like taking credit for strategic moves we had talked about together. I knew I wouldn’t win, so why go in and piss everybody off?

RNO: Do you think there was anything you could have said differently to the jury to totally switch things around?

Stephen: I look back and think I could have talked about the final four people were my allies. All the others preferred J.T. They would have taken J.T. to the final two. I was guiding the votes to get rid of those who were tighter with him and I brought my team to the finals. If I had wanted to be a jerk, I could have pointed out that I got him to take me.

RNO: I actually agree with that – you played on his emotions and he shouldn’t have made that decision to take you.

Stephen: That’s a testament to what a great guy he is. I wasn’t going to win anyway, so why take that generous move and make it into something that was my doing?

RNO: Going into the final Tribal Council, I and many other viewers thought you would have the upper hand in terms of explaining yourself, but your nerves seemed to get to you.

Stephen: I was definitely really, really nervous. I actually was not – I was going totally crazy by the end of the game, more in the final four and three. In the final two I had resigned myself to losing. At the same time, that final Tribal Council was very difficult. You sit there with people you know you have betrayed personally and strategically, you feel guilty and close to these people and then they spend five hours tearing you to shreds. That’s hard to take. “You’re so horrible. J.T., you’re the perfect human being.”

I agree that my final jury speech was bad and I didn’t represent myself or my game well. I was resigned and wasn’t fighting – that shows and was a mistake.