Survivor 49's Latest Boot Breaks Down 'Confusing' Post-Tribal Handshake, 'Tricky' Relationship With Ally That Blindsided Her

The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Survivor 49!

The first former Uli castaway has left the game and her fate was sealed by one of her supposed allies.

After another tribe swap shook up the game, divvying the two tribes back into three, Sage's worst nightmare once again came to fruition: She was swapped onto the same tribe as Shannon, the wellness specialist from Boston. While Sage was hoping to rid herself of Shannon's positive vibes and perceived shady gameplay, it turned out that if Sage wanted Shannon gone, she'd have to do it herself. So after Kele failed to complete a table maze in the immunity challenge, the tribe went back to Tribal Council, where she was able to convince Jawan and Steven to vote out the happy-go-lucky Shannon, once and for all. (Read our recap here.) 

Below, Shannon details her complicated relationship with Sage and that "confusing" handshake moment, plus tells TVLine all about her Jawan vote, staying true to herself and so much more.

TVLINE | First of all, how surprised were you that everyone wrote your name down?
SHANNON FAIRWEATHER | In the moment, I was completely shooketh. I was absolutely shocked. Fully. I didn't even know where my Shot in the Dark was in my bag. I was feeling as solid as a rock in that moment, and I think that just speaks to what great players they are.

TVLINE | What was your perception of your relationship with Sage out there? 
I loved Sage and Sage felt like, I don't know how much you know about me, but I'm a deeper thinker and feeler, and Sage felt like someone that I could connect to on that level and in ways that I couldn't with anybody else. There were even things pregame that I just felt this special connection to Sage. To me, it felt like we were put in some difficult situations together. It felt like strategically, it made sense for me to connect with that Uli 4 early on, but I did my best to maintain my relationship with Sage because I loved her so much and I wanted to work with her. I just think I had to strategically adapt so many times that in the situations where I was forming other alliances that didn't include Sage, she caught on to that.

TVLINE | Sage felt at certain points of the game that you weren't being authentic. Did you have any inclination of her feelings towards you?
It's tricky because part of the reason why I felt so close to Sage out there was because we had this unique kind of relationship and still do. It's obviously different in so many great ways. Sage is one of my best friends from the cast now, but in the game, it felt like we could be honest with each other in a way that was almost sisterly, where she spent every day of my game with me. So it was funny, because although she obviously formed a certain distaste for me throughout the game, I loved her so much. I think now, certain moments that I felt were just like sisters, I now see like, "Oh no, she was actually pissed at me." That was real.

My perspective on it now is obviously different than in the game. A big reason why I trusted Sage so much, it felt like I almost had our relationship in a good space because when we did get to that first tribe swap, me and her had a conversation of, "Let's say what we need to say to get through this," but I totally see how our emotional connection kind of drifted because I started strategizing with other people, and I totally see how she took things the the way that she did. So, I have a lot of compassion for it. I love Sage and I think in the lens of "Survivor" where there's so much paranoia and fear, anything anyone does can be seen as performative or as strategic, and so I don't take any of the things that she said or the way that she talked about me in the game personally.

TVLINE | When you were hugging people on your way out, Sage offered you a handshake. How did you feel about that? Was that confusing for you at all?
It was so confusing. I was doing my best to stay true to what's important to me, which is kindness, which is forgiveness, which is humility, which is love. I knew that if I was gonna go out — because the whole game, I was confident, obviously, in certain ways — but there's a part of you that's aware that you're playing "Survivor." You're aware of what could happen. I remember my final interview, they said, "Well, it seems like you're feeling pretty in control," and I was like, "Listen, if I say I'm feeling in control, that's gonna be my last interview," and it was my last interview.

In that moment, although it's a game, your mind, your heart and your body is hurt, right? It's shocked and the adrenaline and all of it. I'm doing my best to leave as peacefully and kindly as possible, so then her offering the handshake to me was just a computing moment, like, "What is happening?" Because I was just trying to leave peacefully, so she's not hugging me, handshake, all right. It was hard to fully respond to the moment and compute and digest what was happening because obviously I loved and trust her so much. So now my mind's like, "Is she mad?" So it was a confusing moment for sure.

TVLINE | OK, last Sage question, promise. What was your take on all of her wild facial reactions?
I think Sage's facial expressions are iconic and hilarious and as a fan, I'm almost so happy to be part of such an interesting dynamic with Sage. I think Sage is just very true to who she is, just like I'm very true to who I am, which is why we kind of created this fun yin-yang dynamic and still do. So I love Sage and I love her faces. It was obviously hard to see because behind the annoyance is a certain [agitation] with me, and so it's hard to feel that, but we've talked so much since then that we're really good now. The game is really hard and when you're out there, the pressure and the tension and the anxiety and the cortisol, it's a lot. So you can take one small emotion and you add the intensity... It can lead to really intense moments and uncomfortable dynamics. So, I love Sage. I love her faces. That's how I feel about it.

TVLINE | Let's change gears. You wrote down Jawan's name. Savannah is seriously irked by the guy. What's the deal there?
Jawan's probably one of the kindest people I've ever met in my life. Jawan's heart is actually bigger than his physical body. I think strategically, getting his footing was a little difficult early in the game. My vote against Jawan was nothing personal because me and Jawan actually created an alliance on Day 1, minute one. He came up to me with an idea for an alliance and I obviously said yes, but throughout the first beginning days of the game, he was idol hunting. It was hard to feel like I could fully trust him.

Where I was at in the game, I had also just created the Family Alliance, which didn't get shown as the "Family Alliance." I wanted to bring in Rizo, Kristina, Steven, Alex and then Blue Sophi. So my mindset was that going into merge, I want to honor this alliance to some degree and have options to work with, while also still holding on to my Uli 4 because it was always my goal to get back to Rizo and Savannah and Nate. And so getting Jawan out, it felt like it would kind of cool down the Uli/Hina war, plus give me and Sage, who I did want to work with — I wanted to work with a lot of people, which obviously got tricky — but it would have given me and Sage more options to work with Hina and reconnect me with Uli. And I knew that I could tell them something that would help them understand why I voted out Jawan because a lot of things happened when Jawan came over that they didn't show.

TVLINE | Can you elaborate on that a bit?
So Jawan came over and was just highlighting how close Blue Sophi, Rizo and Savannah and Nate were getting. So there's a small part of me that felt like, "OK, I expected them to get closer, but maybe I'm not as Uli 4 with them, as I originally thought." So maintaining that opportunity to work with Hina through Steven was really important. And so that's where my mindset was with that strategy. And then I could tell them, "Well, Jawan came over and said that you guys were getting really close over there." So I wasn't nervous about repairing and reconnecting with Uli because we were super tight. Me and Savannah were super, super tight early in the game. So I felt like reconnecting would be relatively easy and then I would still have the opportunity to work with Hina as well, versus if I voted out Steven, then Kristina, Alex, all of them, would have been like, "What?"

TVLINE | Any regrets from your time out there or maybe something you would've done differently?
I have no regrets at all. I went out there to emotionally connect with people. There was kind of this concept of like, "Is it sincere or is it strategy?" And my strategy was to be sincere, was to really care about people 1) because I kind of knew I was gonna have to lean more on my social skills than my strategic skills, and so it was really important to me to go out there and care about people. I knew that those relationships would hopefully give me opportunities in the game. But 2) it also just made playing the game so much more fun, where I got to have such beautiful conversations with Rizo or Nate or Savannah or Kristina about their families and their jobs and their dynamics. When you're out there, you're only competing in challenges so often, talking strategy so often. So for me, I would never say I wish I connected with these people less. I would never say I wish I asked them less questions about their faith or their family or their jobs. I would never take that away.

When that first tribe swap [happened], it wasn't gonna work for me to be like, "Oh, Shannon's just at the bottom, she's weak, let's just bring her along." They weren't gonna buy that. I think Sage kind of knew I was working with the Uli 4. I wanted to give it my all. I wanted to play super hard and if it worked great. If it didn't, that's OK too. I feel like I was true to myself, I was true to my heart, but I also gave it my all strategically as well. I wanted to play hard and I did.