by Gina Scarpa

 

After 30 days of feeling like he was running the show, Phillip Sheppard got a harsh dose of reality on last night's episode of Survivor. His alliance, Stealth-R-Us, has numbers to spare but when Malcolm, Eddie, and Reynold pulled off having immunity at the same time, it sent people scrambling at the last possible minute. While Phillip's group stuck to their plan of splitting votes between Malcolm and Eddie, the minority alliance of three successfully sent Phillip to the jury. We talked to the special agent and notorious player today in an exclusive interview to talk more about his experience playing Survivor for a second time.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: After making it so far on Redemption Island, you must have been excited to get a second chance to play, and be called a "favorite" no less. What was it like to get that call?

A. Phillip: I wasn't told that it was going to be a fan vs. favorite season until I walked around a group of bushes and saw this incredible, beautifully painted helicopter that said fans vs. favorites. It was the most amazing feeling.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You talked a lot about Boston Rob, who is one of the best players to learn from. What do you feel was the best piece of strategic advice you got from working with him?
A. Phillip: I tried to talk about that a little bit in this season - in terms of him having a strategy and adhering to it, get an alliance, get an alliance within an alliance, eject members from the alliance if they become a threat. I tried to be more likeable this time but I think it was more difficult because people remembered how I came off in prior seasons.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You were portrayed as being a bit of a dictator with the Stealth R Us alliance this season. Did other people have a say in what was going on or were you running the show?

A. Phillip: That is the beauty of Stealth-R-Us. From a television audience viewing perspective, appearances are reality when, in fact, something else could be going on such as several people actually running the show.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Looking back on it, do you feel like voting Michael out last week was a mistake or did you not feel he would've been loyal to you anyway?

A. Phillip: Michael was not loyal to me in any way and he proved that in the prior vote when he listened to Corinne rather than me.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Did Malcolm, Reynold, and Eddie do the right thing by getting rid of you or should they have looked at someone like Andrea or Dawn instead?

A. Phillip: If you listen to the reasoning that Malcolm gave and I quote, "I came out to have fun playing Survivor and Philip is taking the fun out of the game with Stealth-R-Us." The fact of the matter is the fun that is being taken out of the game by me is the removal of his potential alliance members but to use two idols at the halfway point would appear premature unless you truly believe that I am running Stealth-R-Us. Questions is: which is it? In my way of thinking, Malcolm is the biggest threat in the game to the remaining Stealth-R-Us members and therefore, it was stupid to give up two idols at the half way point if you are playing to win a million dollars.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Erik voted for you last night and it's really hard to see where his loyalties lie. What do you make of him as a player?

A. Phillip: I think Erik is not a very good Survivor player.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Are you still bitter about being blindsided or are you able to put it aside?

A. Phillip: I'm not bitter. Survivor is a game to me like a pick-up game of basketball. When it is over, it is over, and who knows we may get together and play again someday.

 

 

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

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

 

Follow Gina @ginascarpa