An "Insider" Look at Survivor: Cook Islands, Episode 7 - The Oddest Person Out

Flica’s Final Words

“I just want to say thank you to everyone. I’ve had a wonderful time. It was the adventure of a lifetime and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I want to wish Ozzy good luck and I’ll be rooting for you, brotha! To my whole tribe, thank you for making this experience what it was. Have fun and I hope to see you later.”

Jessica goes on to say she wasn’t even concerned with why her tribe voted for her. Someone had to go and maybe it was just her turn. Someone had to go and she’s all right with that. She doesn’t hold it against anyone. She hopes they continue to make right decisions throughout this journey. Flica acknowledges that she might not have played the game as hard as she should – although she doesn’t seem to care much about it. She didn’t want to change who she was and she had a lot of fun, and that was what was most important to her.

Flica thinks it’s most important to be an individual and be herself. What she wanted was to have the adventure that she had dreamed of – and she did! She loved fishing and the ocean and the outrigger, and she has wonderful memories. She’s thankful and would do it again in a heartbeat.

When obviously prompted, Flica says that she learned that she can’t really get out and schmooze with people or conform just because she’s around people who are different from her. She thinks she’s more stubborn than she realized, just wanting to be herself.

It’s pretty clear that Flica really didn’t come on Survivor to play the game. She looked perfectly okay with being voted out by her tribe and she loved the adventure.

Flica, The Day After

Flica looks like a cleaned-up version of herself on the game. She’s a cute roller chick! Flica hopes that people realize that being out on the islands is the best way to play the game. She says that way, no matter what, you end up winning. The Cook Islands are a beautiful place to be and she hopes people realize she played the game well just by enjoying herself.

Begin rant. Okay. Right. I’m sorry, Flica, I don’t think people should acknowledge that you “played the game well.” You didn’t. You didn’t really play at all. I think it’s great that you got what you wanted out of the experience, but that does not in any way, shape or form, even if it were dressed up with a monkey in dreadlocks on top, mean that you played the game well. Ahem. Back to our regularly scheduled interview.

Flica goes on to say that she and her tribe were different kinds of people with different goals. She had a hard time not being herself, and “opening up to people in a fake way” was just not something she wanted to do. When she found out that they wouldn’t listen to her no matter what, she stopped trying. Flica believes people were fake from the start. Her tribemates didn’t seem comfortable answering questions about themselves and their personal lives. To her, it seemed like people were wishy-washy, fake, and not comfortable with who they were.

Flica thinks she was too passive to start. She had some anxiety coming into the game because she didn’t really identify with Candice and Parvati, and Adam was a frat boy. And Jonathan was some older writer who says he’s an actor. She was definitely the outsider. Flica was happy when they merged because there were new folks to talk to and get to know and wanted to listen to what she had to say. Flica thinks she played the game pretty well (sigh!). She thinks she just didn’t have enough skill with manipulating people on a day-to-day basis. Flica thinks that the others had more experience with that and she thinks that shows something about their character. She’s glad she doesn’t have that and that she’s “too trusting.” Oh, Flica, people can play a game in a certain way without it meaning they act that way in real life.

Flica says it’s hard being in the game and having no one to trust. She thought she trusted Jonathan, but then she realized he was lying to her. Once they merged, she could trust Ozzy and Cao Boi. Before that, she was alone. Flica thinks the game is interesting because it takes people out of their normal element and puts people in a place where they can’t escape this “craze” where they have to constantly think about what other people are thinking of them. It makes them crazy!

Flica really thinks of the place she was in when she thinks about Survivor. She doesn’t think about the people. She loves what she got to experience on Survivor – new things that sparked her interest. She has a new passion for the ocean and being underwater. She got to snorkel for the first time here. Even the food made her appreciate things more. She’s been a vegetarian for a long time and she got to try new things out here. Flica hopes she left some of her spirit with her tribe. She wants someone from her tribe to win, even if they manipulated her. They were better at that part of the game than her. She just hopes she showed them how to relax, take a breath, and enjoy the experience, too.

Flica seems like a quirky, nice person. But she definitely wasn’t a top Survivor player. She does seem to genuinely have no ill feelings over her eviction and seemed to truly enjoy her experience on Survivor.

Who Voted For Jenny?

This is an interview with Jenny the day after Raro voted Cristina out of the tribe. Jenny says she expected Cristina to vote for her, but someone else voted for her, too. She knows Nate would vote for her – but he wasn’t there. She knows it wasn’t Adam because he spoke so highly of her and how she did at the challenge yesterday. She completely trusts Rebecca and Parvati, so all that was left is Brad. In the back of her mind, Jenny has always wondered if she could trust him. She asked Brad if he voted for her, but he denied it. She gave him the opportunity to come clean. Waking up this morning, she and Rebecca couldn’t sleep because they knew they had a “sly one in the bunch.” It was a shock to her. But Jenny has more people she can trust in this tribe than Brad.

Jenny thinks the twist was interesting. She thought Aitu was not paying attention and too busy eating, so they picked Nate to go with them. If they had been thinking, they would have picked Cristina and forced Raro to scramble about who to vote for. Jenny’s happy Nate got some food because he really needs it. She also trusts him to listen to Aitu and gather information. Jenny still can’t believe Aitu didn’t pick Cristina. She thinks Aitu must have thought taking Nate away would hurt Raro in a challenge, but Jenny thinks that strategy was a mistake. And she’s right.

Reward Challenge: Smash & Grab

This is the reward challenge shown on TV. We see Raro’s bizarre reward choice of bread again, and Aitu’s more sensible choice of potatoes. Aitu rightly sits the visiting Nate out of the challenge and makes the poor choice of not having Brad swim. And Becky does a good job putting the puzzle together. I’m just happy Aitu won this one because Raro didn’t deserve to win after picking bread as one of their reward items.

Interview with Rebecca

Rebecca says her body just didn’t have the energy today to do well in the reward challenge. She couldn’t find the key and come back in enough time, so the loss was her loss for this challenge. She says she was clearly the weakest in this challenge and if her tribe votes her off because of it, she couldn’t argue with them. (What’s with the women trying to talk themselves out of the game this season? How about Brad bearing responsibility for not swimming?) Rebecca wants to prove herself in the immunity challenge. Her mind is really in the game, but her body isn’t as strong as when she arrived. She needs to get her body back in the game somehow.

Rebecca says the tribe missed Nate a lot at the reward challenge. He’s a strong swimmer and still has a lot of strength. He’s been with Rebecca since day one and he’s a good friend. When Nate came back, he told Raro that Aitu isn’t as strong as them and that they have a lot of mini-alliances going on. Nate said it isn’t the same kind of family unit as they have at Raro. So that made the tribe want to hold on more and stay strong and get through this.

Rebecca thinks Aitu does a better job at telling each other what they’re good at and utilizing those skills. She thinks Aitu had their strongest swimmers swimming today, but Raro didn’t do that. Rebecca really feels like she’s been lacking carbohydrates. She hasn’t really had any in over two weeks. She swims a lot, but she just couldn’t do it being so exhausted and dehydrated. She felt dizzy and like she couldn’t even breathe during the challenge.

Rebecca now turns to the mystery vote (made by Brad) against Jenny in the last Tribal Council. She says no one has confessed to the vote and that creates tension in the tribe. They want to trust everyone, but they can’t given that vote. Rebecca rightly thinks that Brad wrote Jenny’s name down. She thinks Brad sees Jenny as a threat.

Poor Adam had to go to exile today. It’s freezing and miserable and he did such a great job in the challenge today. Rebecca feels bad and she’s sure Adam is frustrated with his tribe that he’s sitting on Exile Island because of their performance.

Rebecca goes on some more about her body being in poor shape and how much she really wants to be in this game and prove that to her tribe.

Immunity Challenge: Stairway to Heaven

This is a clip from the show. We get to see Raro win again, largely due to Jenny’s superior puzzle-solving skills. It was clear that she took complete charge of the puzzle and got the job done, earning Raro a come-from-behind win they badly needed. Jenny was a total puzzle goddess in this challenge!

Tribal Council

Let’s see what the Aitutaki had to say about voting their friend Flica out.

Ozzy votes for Flica. “Sorry, girl. It’s what I got to do to stay in the game. I’m sure you’ll understand. I hope you’ll understand.”

Jonathan votes for Flica. “I really admire your spirit and the way that you live your life. And I think with another group of people you would have coalesced and felt more comfortable. I think at this point in the game, you were the oddest person out on our team. I appreciate all the hard work you put into our challenges and all the work you did around the tribe. Good luck.”

Candice votes for Flica. “I know we haven’t been the greatest of friends. This is not a personal vote. This just has to do with what we need to do for our tribe for the future.”

Sundra votes for Flica. “Flica, I don’t even know what to say. I know you were trying to get me out and you were trying to get everybody out. You were just flying with the wind, going wherever you could go, and it’s just too, too hard to trust you. Sorry.”

Flica votes for Jonathan. “I didn’t trust you before and I’m not going to start now.”

Becky votes for Flica. “I’m just really, really tired of dealing with your wishy-washiness, your ongoing paranoia, your desperate lies...”

Yul votes for Flica. “I admire your spunk, your spirit, and your colorful personality, but Survivor is a game and that’s why we’re all here. You need to make a nominal effort to try to play the game. I think you did, ultimately, after Cao Boi left, but I think it was too late. So I wish you the best.”

Aitu, with the lone exception of Ozzy, who smartly went along with the crowd, seemed utterly united in their vote for Flica. We’ll see what happens with the tribes next week.

Teeuwynn is a professional puzzle, game and event designer. You can check out one of Teeuwynn's current projects at: www.angelquest.com. You can reach Teeuwynn at Teeuwynn@gmail.com

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