“I Was In Shock” – An Interview with Survivor Winner Sandra

While we didn’t get to see much of it until the very end, Survivor: Pearl Islands winner Sandra came into the game with a plan that took her all the way to the end. In this interview with RealityNewsOnline, she talks about that plan, why she varied from it to vote out Trish, what she thinks of her “dumped fish” lie being compared to Jon’s “dead grandma” lie, and much more!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello and congratulations, Sandra! Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions from RealityNewsOnline. You indicated that your game plan was to be the person others could come to for a vote, as long as it wasn't you. Did you plan this ahead of time or decide it once the game had begun, and if that's the case, why didn't you go along with Trish and Jon to get rid of Rupert rather than warning him?

Sandra: I had planned this all along, I mentioned this to Jeff [Probst] and Mark Burnett when I was interviewing for the show about being the person anyone could come to for a vote. I almost made the mistake of voting off Rupert. Had Christa not come up when she did and noticed me quiet, I might have gone through with getting rid of Rupert because Trish was so convincing. When I told Christa what had happened we both realized that Trish was making everything up, because Rupert was a threat to her and Jon.

RNO: How did you prepare for Survivor – did you watch previous series, read up on strategy, work out at the gym, etc.?

Sandra: I've watched all the Survivor series. I did not read up on strategy. I went to the gym only about five or six times, I always kept finding excuses why not to go. Plus I don’t enjoy going to the gym. I took some pool aerobic classes, but I don’t know why I became so fearful of the ocean, but I do enjoy pools.

RNO: The gold chain you kept with you when you jumped overboard turned out to be a good investment – you can buy quite a few of them now. Did you deliberately keep the chain to bargain with, or was it just a spur-of-the-moment decision?

Sandra: When Jeff asked for valuables, I must have forgotten I had the chain on. Thank God ‘cause it was a perfect bargaining tool. My daughters also have the same chain, so there's two more at home, that's why it was no biggy.

RNO: Why did you vote off Tijuana after working so hard and so successfully to convince her that Burton and Jon had targeted her?

Sandra: Tijuana all of the sudden became too comfortable and outspoken once she had this so called tight alliance with Jon, Lill, Burton and Darrah. Once Burton's immunity was taken she decided to let him know he was getting voted off. Later in the day she told Christa that she knew she had hidden a lighter and that she had seconds to come up with it or she was actually the one going home. Then Jon swore on grandma that Christa and I were final four with himself and Burton. Tijuana didn't offer us anything but to stay in the game three more days, Jon's offer at the time was better. Tijuana also mentioned an alliance of Darrah, Lill, and herself before leaving the Morgan tribe forever, so we decided it was best to just separate them and hopefully have Darrah join us and Lill could stay with the guys and it would be even 3-3. Then convince Lill to do an all women alliance.

RNO: Did you have any major fights with people other than Jon?

Sandra: I had a fight with Burton the first time he got voted off, because he didn't realize that I was behind him when he was talking to Jon and Jon didn't make an effort to let Burton know I was behind him, and Burton was saying how they were gonna get rid of me. So I just blew up and when Jon came to me later on about getting rid of Burton, he said, "Sandra you heard what Burton had to say, so its either you or him," and all I said was [wanting to know] how you spell it, “Berton” or “Burton”...

RNO: You were the first to send Jon's friend back a step on the plank. Did you back off from doing it again because of the reaction of the others, and did it ever enter your mind that Jon might have made the whole thing up?

Sandra: I didn't believe Jon and also didn't feel sympathy, but when they all jumped on me about being cold then I held back.

RNO: There are some people who have said that your lie about the fish, letting Christa take the heat, and then your idea of hiding the tribe's tools later when you thought you were going were worse than Jon's lie about his grandmother. What do you have to say in response to that?

Sandra: I never expected Christa to take the blame for the fish; that was a surprise. And seeing the episode that followed where she went with Burton and asked if I could get voted off before her was a little shocking so I feel I don't need to apologize. Besides, Christa didn't go home because of the fish, it was because she proved how strong she was in the sandbag challenge and she was a physical threat to those remaining. I did get to hide some of the tribe’s things, I was like if they’re gonna vote me off then I'm gonna make their lives miserable. That is in no way worse then Jon's grandma lie.

RNO: Who would you have taken to the finals if you were wearing immunity, and why?

Sandra: Jon, because he's the scum of the earth and I felt that I had a better chance of winning against him rather than Lill. WHO KNOWS!

RNO: Did you honestly think that Lill would win in the Final 2 because she was nice, or was that all a ploy?

Sandra: I believed others liked her better than me, I never had any indication to think otherwise; that's why I only made plans for the $100,000 and I was in shock. How ironic that in a previous episode Jeff asked me who would I hate to go up against and I said lill ‘cause everybody loves her or likes her, something like that.

RNO: Why didn't you use the Outcast factor more in final arguments?

Sandra: It didn't come to mind, looking at it now, I should have.

RNO: It has been said by some that there was an awful lot of luck on your side – you made some mistakes that didn't end up hurting you and then Lill brought you along instead of Jon, just to name a couple things. What do you have to say about the role of luck in winning?

Sandra: Luck, I feel, was 95% responsible for me winning, because so many thing happened that I did out of anger and nothing ever came back to bite me, so I wouldn't have changed a thing looking back on it now.

RNO: What did the editing not show us about Sandra that you would like viewers to know?

Sandra: I think the editing was great, no complaints, I just wish they had showed why some folks were voted off, the reasons behind their evictions.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com. Thanks to the other writers of RNO for question suggestions.

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