by Gina Scarpa

 

Survivor: Palau winner Tom Westman has had a target on his back from the minute he stepped foot on the beach to play Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains. Aligned with Colby and Stephenie, they found themselves in the minority and as a million dollar winner with a good personality and strong physical abilities, some of his tribe members were just waiting to get rid of him. He made a strong case last night for the tribe to vote out James, suffering from a severe knee injury, but his words fell on deaf ears and he was sent packing. Today, Tom spoke to RealityWanted in an exclusive interview about his experiences playing Survivor for a second time.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I'm not surprised that you were brought back as an all star and a hero, but what was your reaction?
A. Tom: My initial reaction was, "No I'm not." I wasn't really interested at first. I was previously asked for the Fans Vs. Favorites and didn't regret not being a part of it. Initially, it was no. As time started going on, my wife was working on me and felt I might regret it. Things at work were stable enough and they knew I was there to stay. My wife pointed out that everything that has come out of the show has been positive. She said, "Why wouldn't you do it?"

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: It's clear you didn't go on Survivor to become a celebrity. What have you been up to between the end of Survivor: Palau and now?
A. Tom: I didn't join the Hollywood migration that all these people have done. I had no aspirations to be a star. We knew this was a fun little moment. It doesn't define me. I came home, I worked for a couple more months in the fire department. In August of 2005, I had 20 years of service and was entitled to a pension. I had the opportunity to try to a new career with Hartford Insurance as a sales rep. It's a whole different life. I've been putting on the corporate act. It's been a nice change, midlife, and Survivor did help with this. That's where you win on Survivor, if you know how to take your moment and parlay it into something real, as opposed to waiting around for someone to call you to be on another reality show.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Did you plan to team up with Stephenie going in, or was that a decision you made when you were already in the game, based on who was there?
A. Tom: There were rumors that she was going to be back on and I knew that it was a given that we would click. I didn't need to talk to her. That was a no brainer. We've stayed close through the years and I have so much respect for her. The intensity that she brings to it, there was no chance that we weren't going to work together.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You also worked with Colby. What drew you to him as somebody to partner up with in this game?
A. Tom: Immediately, on meeting him, you're like, "This guy is as genuine as he came off on the screen." He's solid, reliable, and if he told you something, he was going to stick to it. We hit it off right from the beginning and I'm happy that we did.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Let's say Amanda didn't see you find the idol. Would you still be in the game right now?
A. Tom: No, I would've had to play it that first night anyway so it didn't matter. It almost helped me that she knew, because I was able to use it to repair that relationship and say, "Let's send Candice home. Your alliance now has Tom and Colby in it." It was solid, until Cirie got in there and capably messed that up for me.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was your tribe thinking sending you home instead of James, who is seriously injured right now?
A. Tom: That is such a no brainer, which is why it was so frustrating for them to say that an injured James was stronger than a healthy Tom. This guy is not good at challenges to begin with. JT was telling me that James was the guy that you want across from you.  He said, "He can't swim, he has no balance, and he‘s not that smart." JT always planned to have James out there in the end. The games moves from bulk strength to finesse. They just needed the numbers. If James had both of his legs broken, they would've carried him in the gurney. That is the problem with an all star season, these people know each other. They're just trying to make it to the merge to get to each other.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Cirie said you were a million dollar winner, who was very charismatic and a serious physical threat. You had to know you were going to have a target on your back coming in.
A. Tom: My friend Cirie said all those nasty thing about me? I'm very surprised. I mean, yeah, you know you've got the target. I don't think the money is as much of a factor as those other things. I was a threat because of how I won. People will align with whoever is going to help them make it through one more tribal council. I thought that I wouldn't get voted out before the merge but I thought once the merge came, every week, I'd be fighting for my life. I didn't expect to walk into these premade alliances and be the fifth one out.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What does your tribe need to do to turn things around,? You're losing a lot to those Villains.
A. Tom: We're losing a lot but there's one factor and that's puzzles. I don't know, maybe we are really bad at them but maybe there's one person who can beat us in them. So long as every challenge ends with assembling a puzzle, Rob will assemble them long before everyone on our tribe did. If we had Ussain Bolt on our team, and every challenge ends with a 100 yard dash, then we would win every one. Any chance of getting on the water at the end of these things? Any swimming? We always do retrieve the pieces faster so I think we do gel. I just think that once the puzzle is there, there's one guy who can beat us.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Do you wish that you made it to the jury, so you could have experienced that, since you didn't get to as the winner of Palau?
A. Tom: If I'm not winning the million, I'm almost as happy to go home in Sugar's position. Having been the winner and have people vote on me, I really would've felt ... I didn't wanna be a part of being the jury. I was just as happy to go. The only thing you lose there is the entertainment value for fans and friends when you come home. You wanna be on as many episodes for the fun of it. But if it's not the million, you can cut me loose.

 

Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

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