On this week’s episode of Survivor: China, Fei Long helped James find the immunity idol so that Zhan Hu could throw the elimination challenge and James could get rid of one of them. Unfortunately, thanks to a tough eating challenge, things didn’t go according to plan. Fei Long ended up winning immunity and had to decide to vote someone off. Todd’s alliance made a plan to get rid of Sherea while she and Courtney lobbied to get rid of Jean Robert. Though Todd wavered for a minute before tribal council, his alliance stayed true to each other, and got rid of Sherea, who was an original Zhan Hu member. Today, Sherea talked to BuddyTV about whether or not she ignored Peih-Gee at the reward challenge and whose side she was really on.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV and I’m talking to Sherea from Survivor: China.
Good morning.
Can you tell me if you were a fan of Survivor in the past? Have you watched if before?
Yes, actually that’s the greatest part about it, that I’ve been a fan since the first season.
Yeah, there’s some people who go on the show who have not really seen it, and then there’s people like Todd who are obsessed with it. Does it help you to have watched the show over the years?
You know, it did help me to watch the show. But watching it and being out there are two different things, you never know what you’re really getting into. They show the good stuff on TV, but it actually is really hard and it’s very real.
How did you feel on the Zhan Hu tribe in the beginning?
In the beginning of the Zhan Hu tribe, I was very excited about the people that I had on my team. I was like, “Yeah, I have the young people on my team.” A couple of them, anyway. And I had Jaime and people like that, that I had spotted ahead of time. So I was really happy about my team, at first.
Were you fine with getting rid of Chicken and Dave early on?
From the first day, I wanted to get rid of Dave, so yes, I was very happy with getting rid of both of them.
Yeah, you two didn’t exactly hit it off.
No, we did not. Actually, I tried to bite my tongue for a few days with Dave, and then it just got to a point where I had to say what was on my mind.
When the tribes got switched up and you ended up going over to Fei Long, what was going through your mind?
Well, what was going through my mind was: it was good and bad. I realized that if I stay over here in Zhan Hu then I’m probably gonna be the next one voted off. But if I go over to Fei Long, I’m gonna have a second chance, even though it was like starting all over again. So I was excited because I wanted to get to know the other members of the tribe, but I was like, “This is a lose-lose situation.”
Were you happy that they picked you as a strong player?
I was very happy, because when I first heard through the grapevine when we were in challenges that they were scared of me because I was strong, I was like, “Huh? Me?” It’s just not how I went into the game, thinking I was gonna be a strong player, physically.
Back in your real life at home, were you an athlete growing up, were you always a strong competitor?
I’ve always had that competitive spirit. I’ve played sports off and on, so I haven’t been an athlete all throughout high school and college like that, but I’ve done different things. When people see me, they still don’t expect me to be athletically inclined.
Can you tell me what happened at the reward challenge, because I’m wondering if you were actually ignoring PG, or were you just in game mode?
Well, actually what happened was, when I walked in I kind of went to the wrong stick and I went to my old Zhan Hu stick, so we switched. And I wasn’t ignoring her, I was trying to give her eye contact, but I realized through the door that the Fei Long people could see me so I didn’t want to give up too much information.
When she did tell you that they threw the mission to get rid of Aaron, if you could have said something to her, what would you have said?
Thank you. (laughter) Because it saved me three more days. But we had actually kind of talked about it really quickly before I left and headed over to Fei Long, but like I said, it saved me three more days, so I was good with it.
They got so paranoid back at camp thinking Frosti was ignoring them, but you’re saying that it was just strategy so that they didn’t realize there was still a bond between you guys?
Well actually, I didn’t realize at that time that Frosti would’ve probably flipped with the Fei Long tribe. With me, I would still make eye contact with the other tribe at every challenge we went to. But I didn’t realize that Frosti wasn’t doing that.
At Fei Long, did you feel like you were actually forming a bond with Courtney, or was that just strategy to try to have somebody on your side?
No, I actually did form a bond with Courtney, and Todd as well. I thought I had kind of formed a bond with Amanda, but I realized that bond was never there. But I definitely formed a bond with Todd and Courtney.
When we talked to Aaron last week, he thinks that Todd is the strongest player in the game. What do you think about that?
I definitely think that Todd is the strongest player, strategically, in the game. He knows that game inside and out, he’s been a fan since it’s been on. So I definitely think that he is a smart thinker, and the whole way through, he’s been doing an excellent job so far. So I think that he’s doing good.
Did you know about the immunity idol at camp?
I did not know about the immunity idol at camp, and what’s crazy is … we were all sitting right there while they were taking the immunity idol down. We were sitting around the fire, and so they used the singles on top of the thing for the fire that they burned really well. And so if you noticed while Frosti hiked up there, we’re thinking that they’re taking the shingles down when actually they’re taking the immunity idol down. But we were really sitting right there with them,
And you guys just had no clue what was going on.
No idea.
Did you really think that Fei Long would vote out one of their own like Jean-Robert before you, or did you think you had a fighting chance?
For a second I did, because if you noticed last night, Todd all of the sudden says, “We should vote out Jean-Robert and not Sherea”. So because of my talking and I was like, “No, I’m not gonna vote for Frosti.” I wanted to convince them that I would stay with them, but at the same time I wanted them to know that they had a threat on their own team. So I did think for a second that I had a fighting chance over there and it wouldn’t be me, because they kept saying “It’ll be Frosti first, it’ll be Frosti first.”
Jean-Robert had this strategy to go into the game and be intentionally disliked and then liked, but I think he’s just disliked. So it doesn’t seem like…the plan’s not really working, is it?
I definitely agree. I guess he thought that they liked him, but really, they didn’t. They needed him for the numbers when it was time for the merge. He was a big guy, they needed him for the challenges. But in essence, no one really cared for Jean-Robert.
Do you think that at the merge, Fei Long is gonna be able to retain their numbers and wipe out Zhan Hu?
I think that they will be able to retain their numbers, especially if Todd, Courtney and Amanda stick together the way that they’ve been doing so far.
We look forward to seeing you at the live finale, and we just wanted to wish you good luck, we loved talking to you.
Thank you.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
