Surviving the Early Show: Jonathan’s Interview

Jonathan was unfortunately voted out Thursday night, so it’s time for the Early Show interviewer to talk to him on Friday morning. We are introduced to the segment by revisiting some of the nastier things Adam said about him at Tribal Council – that he’s not a good person, he has no integrity, etc.

The host runs with that, asking him what it was like to be at Tribal Council with so much venom. Jonathan says Adam was saying it because he was playing an emotional game instead of a rational one. He said whatever he had to say to get the vote to go away from him – and to his credit, it did.

Following up, the host asks if playing a rational game means flip-flopping. She says he flopped more than a fish in a frying pan and took it to an art form. Jeez, shut up, lady. He didn’t really flip that much, they were just high-profile. But Jonathan thanks her and says he would have done it again. He believes he was voted out because the Aitu four realized that if he stayed in the game, he would have done anything to try to keep moving forward. And they saw him as a threat – maybe a distraction, maybe an annoyance too.

The host says it seems like the only person who really liked him out there was his wife. He says she felt so bad they didn’t win the reward challenge. But he lost and ended up at Exile Island.

That brings us to the secret scene – of Jonathan on Exile Island. He says he has a target on his back and the people at camp may be deciding he has to go. But if they’re deciding that without him around, they’d probably decide that with him around. (This may be his thought at the moment, but later, in his interview with me, he said the opposite – that things would have been much different if he hadn’t been sent to Exile Island. And I agree with his latter thoughts on the matter.)

He says he’d like to win immunity. But if his alliance is strong, immunity will not be necessary.

Going back to the studio, the host notes he said he had a target on his back. And when he got back to camp, it really seemed like things had changed. He says yes – being gone for two days meant Adam and Parvati were able to whack him with the stinky stick. He doesn’t know exactly what they said, but the idea that there were six good people and one bad one and that he didn’t deserve to be there was “specious on the face of it.”

Does he take any responsibility at all for his actions out there? Isn’t there some loyalty involved? He says he was loyal and the idiot host interrupts him and snidely asks, “To who? To Jonathan?” Shut up and let him talk! He says he was loyal to Candice when he stepped off the mat after she did. They were in an alliance and he knew that Becky and Yul were an unbreakable twosome. Further, he and Candice believed that Adam had the immunity idol. I knew in an endgame situation, I had to be aligned with the idol. I had no intention of mutinying, but Candice – his ally – stepped off. He “knew” Adam had the idol, which he now calls a stupid mistake (for the Survivor-impaired, the host “helpfully” chimes in that Yul has it). And Jonathan saw the numbers shifting. He did it to be with Candice – he wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t, but he takes full responsibility for doing it. The host chuckles that of course Candice was in the studio last week.

The host notes that Yul said he was going to take Jonathan to the final four and he turned on Jonathan. Jonathan says Yul said that to everybody. And Jonathan says he would have said the same thing. Yul said what he needed to say in order to cement his position in the game. He told everybody he wanted to take them to the final two, but we’ll see if he gets there or not. Jonathan continues that people say and do whatever they need to stay in the game. (And yet Yul is viewed as wholesome and good, while Jonathan is vile and evil.)

Jonathan continues that he did something that took him out of the game early. He was surprised he was able to stick around as long as he did after the mutiny. But that was the most fun part of the game for him. And he had a good time and loved the whole game.

Amusingly, the next segment is about the right thing to say when your mother is getting on your nerves. OK, what about when the host of this show is doing that? Ah well. We’re done with her. But we’re not done with Jonathan. Shortly after his time on The Early Show, he talked to me. And I didn’t interrupt or cut him off. So you’ll want to click over to that interview right now!

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