by Gina Scarpa

 

Last week on Survivor, Shamar Thomas left the game due to an eye injury but the Gota tribe still had to vote a member out after losing the elimination challenge, putting them two down by the end of the episode. Despite the fact that the tribe was against alliance members Eddie Fox and Reynold Toepfer, they ultimately decided to vote out Laura Alexander, feeling that she was the weakest member. Laura talked to RealityWanted in an exclusive interview about her lifelong dream of playing Survivor and her strategy in the game.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Was trying out for Survivor something that you been wanting to do for several years?

A. Laura: I think that I had been thinking about it for a long time. I started watching the show when I was ten years old but I was too young. I think the original age to apply used to be 21 or 20 and then it got changed to 18. I was waiting for the time when I would be eligible to apply.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You picked up, very quickly, on the fact that Reynold had an idol and you seemed like an observant, strategic player. Can you tell us more about your strategy in the game?

A. Laura: I think, going into the game, I knew what my weaknesses were and what my strengths were. I knew I wasn't going to contribute to the game much in terms of challenges and that could potentially hurt me. The only way to overcome that was to play a very aggressive social and strategic game. When women play aggressive, men can find it threatening. I think people found me to be naive and innocent. I tried to play that up in some regards to take myself out of any aggressive picture. Sherri was also my closest ally and I was able to work well with her. She came off as a little bit more aggressive in terms of strategy. She soaked up some of that attention and then Shamar was also there. I needed him to be on my side because he was annoying and dramatic and stirred up so much drama. It took attention away from me and that helped me get a little further in the game.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: When Hope was voted out, you had approached Reynold and Eddie about blindsiding Shamar. What happened between your conversation and tribal council that resulted in Hope leaving?

A. Laura: When I approached Reynold and Eddie about getting off Shamar, it was really just a tactic just to get my name off of the parchment. I wasn't going to follow through with it. I had heard my name thrown around and I wanted to distract them from our plan to split the vote. It made me nervous that Shamar was telling everyone our plan so I was worried. I thought, "I need to swing Reynold, Eddie, and Hope away from me." That's when I went up to Reynold and ten seconds later, he's all over it and was announcing his big grand plan to vote Shamar out.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: There was definitely attention being thrown on you as the weakest person on your tribe, especially after the last immunity challenge. Did you ever take any offense to being called out or did you, in a way, agree with what your tribe was saying?

A. Laura: Honestly? Absolutely! I was absolutely the weakest person on my tribe. If anything, I think it speaks to their stupidity for not voting me out on day one. Whether Reynold, Allie, Eddie, and Hope were couples or not, I always said to my alliance, "Hey, they look like couples! Let's get them out!" It's about finding a target.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Who is playing the best game on your tribe right now?

A. Laura: Right now I remember, when I was out there, feeling like Michael and Sherri was playing a good game.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: It's interesting that you left instead of Eddie. Was there any talk of Reynold playing the idol and flushing it out in exchange for safety for him and Eddie?

A. Laura: No, I don't think it was that at all. I think our alliance had been promising Reynold every day that we would be voting someone out that night and we never followed through with our plan. Every tribal, we made Reynold look like an idiot. At that point, I think Reynold was not trusting of our alliance. Even when they said, "We're voting out Laura," he didn't believe them.

 

Survivor: Caramoan airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

 

Follow Gina @ginascarpa