by Gina Scarpa
 
If there’s one thing a castaway on Survivor: Samoa should know by now, it’s not to cross Russell H. of the Foa Foa tribe.  Anyone who has gone up against him has only received a plane ticket home in return and, on last night’s episode, he took out another one of his enemies.  When his tribe lost yet another challenge, it seemed time for a change that would help the tides turn as the merge approached.  A logical choice to eliminate seemed to be Jaison, who mentally checked out of the game yet it was Liz who found her torch snuffed at the end of the evening.  Today, she spoke to RealityWanted in an exclusive interview about her experiences on the show.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: How did you become a part of the Survivor: Samoa cast?
A. Liz: I had a friend of a friend who told me about the opportunity.  I immediately looked into it because I’ve always been intrigued by the game, the physical, the mental, and the social aspects.  It’s like one big obstacle course.  I immediately got my head into the game.
 
Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What preparation did you do, before heading into the game?
A. Liz: I hired a trainer.  I swam twice a week and I ran.  I also watched prior seasons of Survivor since I hadn’t really watched it since the first season.
 
Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You were skeptical of Russell from very early on in the game.  What is your take on him, after seeing the episodes so far?
A. Liz: I felt very vindicated for calling him out on the beach.  He flipped out when I called him out for lying.  I never trusted him.  When he was telling us that story about Katrina, I kept thinking that he was up to no good.  I kept him at arm’s length the whole time.  Fortunately, in the beginning, it kept me out of his dumbass girl alliance.  In the end, even though I made it a point not to ruffle any feathers, I couldn’t keep it in anymore.  I ended up on his hit list.  We saw in every episode, whenever he’s confronted by a strong woman, he gets rid of them.  He’s a male, chauvinistic pig.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Why does everybody listen to him?
A. Liz: I think it’s the fact that he has the idol.  With Mick and Jaison, he got them early on because he showed them the idol.  I was working on Mick and Jaison to form a yuppie alliance.  You saw the people on my tribe.  Ben?  No.  Betsy?  No.  The two that I was hoping to get were Mick and Jaison but what I didn’t know was how early Russell had gotten to them.  It was really, really tough.
 
Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Russell S., from Galu, seemed like a much more vocal leader than Mick was for Foa Foa.  What was your opinion of the way Mick ran things?
A. Liz: Mick was not a leader.  He was not a motivational leader. If anything, he was just one of us.  He was trying to keep his head down and play the game.  We overestimated his abilities.  He was not the kind of inspirational leader that Russell Swan was.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: The merge is right around the corner and, if you had stayed in the game, who would you have aligned yourself with?
A. Liz: I would’ve flipped.  There’s no doubt about it.  I had no one left.  I can’t get to them because of the idol.  I would’ve tried to work on Shambo, however dim she is.  I would’ve tried to work on some of the men or even the women.  Anybody who I could see myself potentitally trusting, I would’ve worked with.
 
Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Why do you think your tribe wanted to see you go instead of somebody like Jaison, who seems like he mentally checked out a while ago?
A. Liz: I was eliminated because I was a serious threat, pure and simple.  Russell, at the end of the day, Jaison is a man and I’m a woman.  I’m a woman who called him out and he didn’t like being called out even though I did it as nice as I could.  He didn’t like that at all.  Again, the numbers being what they were, I tried to talk to Mick.  He couldn’t even look at me.  I was like, “Oh man… forget it.”  I didn’t even bother wasting my time with Natalie.  There was nothing I could do there.  Jaison – I couldn’t convince him.  It was demoralizing to watch the challenge and see that he wasn’t performing.  He gave up!  You can’t give up.  I deserved to stay but I see this all the time in corporate America: merit only gets you so far. 
 
Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You said in your exit interview last night that getting rid of you was a smart move by your tribe.  What made you feel that way?
A. Liz: Because I would’ve flipped and because I would’ve gotten far in the game.  I was ready to play the individual, post-merge portion of the game and I was looking forward to those challenges.  If I had done the puzzle from last night’s challenge alone, I would’ve done it.  Women do very well in the individual challenges and I have no doubt that I would’ve made it very far. 
 
Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What is Foa Foa going to have to do in order to survive the merge, especially since Galu has the numbers to go all the way to the end?
A. Liz: They have to flip and I hope this plays out because I really want someone from Foa Foa to make the finals.  They need to work on Shambo because she had a safe base with us.  We welcomed here with open arms.  They have to get the numbers up.  Unlesss something dramatic happens, we don’t stand a chance.
 

Survivor: Samoa airs Thursdays at 8pm ET on CBS.
 
(Image courtesy of CBS)

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