Survivor 51's First Boot Says She'll 'Always Respect' The Move That Sent Her Packing

The following contains spoilers for the Season 51 premiere of "Survivor" — you've been warned!

The Open Era has claimed its very first victim. 

In Wednesday's premiere of "Survivor 51," the 21 new castaways landed on the same beach together before eventually splitting up into just two tribes. Exile Island returned to the game, Jeff Probst announced that the coin flip would be back (read our full recap for all the details), and the tribes went head-to-head in the game's first brutal immunity challenge. After the Toka tribe lost out, Jenna found herself in danger after struggling to open up to her team. Then, she went on the offense, taking a small throwaway comment Aaliyah said about Brady (that he was aggressive in the challenge) and using it to shift the target elsewhere. Brady, then riled up, made it his mission to get Aaliyah out of the game, and at Tribal Council, the former "WWE NXT" wrestler got his way. 

Below, TVLine talks to the first boot of "Survivor 51" about Jenna's last-ditch effort, what it feels like being the first player out, what surprised her the most about the Open Era, and so much more.

TVLINE | Someone had to be first, and unfortunately it was you. How are you feeling now after watching that all back?
AALIYAH PUGLIA | I feel immense gratitude, to be completely honest with you. And I try to think back to that moment when I first got to Ponderosa and all my time spent there and how much I learned about failure, and just facing failure head-on in that way in such a public way, right? In a "Survivor" way. [It] just made me so much more fearless in my life. You go off to something, you're always like, "Oh, I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm just not going to do it at all, or I'm going to do it halfway." I feel like instead of this failure getting me down in life, it lit such a fire under me where now I'm like, I don't even care. I'm just going to throw anything at the wall. I failed on a public scale, so what now? So that was my attitude at Ponderosa and my attitude when I got back home. So obviously seeing it fresh, you get those glimmers of those emotions back, but you got to think like, I got voted out first, and what? It's not the end of the world. It did not kill me. If I knew going into "Survivor," I was going to be the first one out, I would do it again, so I can't be mad.

TVLINE | At Tribal Council, you were shocked when Patt said your name had been floating around.
It was shocking, her saying my name out there publicly, because I knew my name was whispered privately. So for her to kind of just throw it out, I'm like, "Oh, OK, Patt." Then it stirred up a live Tribal, which gave me at least that one last fighting chance to plead a case and try to turn the tides, but ultimately your girl got snuffed.

TVLINE | Jenna was in the hot seat too, but she told Brady that you had called him aggressive during the challenge. What was your reaction to seeing that?
Yeah, and it's so crazy because in that pool, you see, I wasn't like, [loudly] "Yo, Brady was so aggressive at the challenge, right?" No, it was like, [calmly] "Hey, Brady was kind of aggressive about the challenge. Just a thought, right? But I don't want him to go anywhere." But it was shocking to me. Inadvertently, I didn't do well at the challenge. P*ssed some people off. And that's also OK, right? I failed at the challenge, it's OK. But yeah, to see that the initial sparking conversation, this is the fire? This is the seed that was planted on me?

TVLINE | Was there anything from that conversation in the water between the four of women that we didn't see on TV?
I feel like everyone played so coy. Honestly, I wish we would have talked more strategy in that conversation because Jelly and I left that conversation like, "Man, you know, maybe Jenna shouldn't go, right? Maybe we throw another name out." So it's kind of crazy that there were two adverse reactions to that conversation. In one breath, me and Jelly were like, "Hey, I think Jenna actually did pretty decent in the puzzle despite the loss. Maybe we throw another name." But then Patt tells her she's hot on the block, and, "Well, Aaliyah said something kind of interesting. Let me just throw that out there and see what happens." So two polar opposite reactions. But you know, if you're out there, you fight and you do what you can to turn the tides in your favor, and that's what [Jenna] did, and I'll always respect that.

TVLINE | Jelly was shown saying that she didn't want a woman voted out. Was anything done to maybe try to turn the vote toward a male tribemate?
Look, Jelly fought hard for me more than they showed. At camp she fought hard for me, at Tribal she fought hard for me, her and Dev. At the time, I was in self-preservation mode, right? So I'm just like, anybody but me, and I'm just trying to turn it on Jenna because at that point, that's the only name I know that's really like the high speed. But I don't know if there was any other strong name that could have caught wind, like maybe a Kilby, maybe a Mike, but who knows if it ever could have. Ultimately, it didn't turn that way. If it did, it would have been shown as something that's significant.

TVLINE | You mentioned challenge performance as a factor to why your name was brought up, but was there anything else, from your perspective, that may have contributed to your exit?
Honestly, had [Jenna] not have made that comment, despite the challenge performance, I don't think my name would have been out there. Truly, I don't.

TVLINE | You connected quickly with Devin and Jelly, but who else did you think you had in your corner?
I would say Kilby, up to a certain point. I would say even Maggie. We had a lot of deep conversations, especially about faith, and same with Thien An, as well. So I was like, man, we could do a Christian girl alliance. We had a really deep conversation about my scars, which I was sad wasn't shown, but everyone has to be shown in two hours and ultimately I had one episode. So with my scars, I got into a really bad boating accident and I got ejected out the boat and the propeller blade slashed my right arm all the way to the bone. [It was] an accident that I wasn't prepared for and was out of my control. And instead of wallowing in that moment, I picked myself up so fast. I was never afraid or ashamed of my scars, and that was a big thing I wanted to portray on the show.

And adversely, it kind of showed up again on "Survivor" in a different way, where it's like, I failed and I wasn't expecting to fail. In pregame, I was talking hot and I'm still that way. Those traits have not changed for me. Ponderosa is a different game that doesn't get shown and honestly doesn't get enough credit for people who have to thug it out, pre-jury, in that place, because it's tough and it takes a very strong mental attitude to not go crazy. To not be down on yourself, to not think over mistakes every single day. People don't get credit for that fight alone, and choosing to have a great attitude and positivity and gratitude every single day you're there.

TVLINE | This was the first episode of the show's Open Era, but what surprised you the most about this season and your "Survivor" experience?
Oh my, I feel like my mouth was open like on 80% of the scenes. Everything, I mean, down to when they just dropped us there on that beach. I was like, "Are we sleeping here tonight?" What wasn't shown is that we started to build a shelter. We were trying to find the water well. We were like, what is happening here? They really, truly dropped us off, to Thien An's confessional, with no direction. It was just like a free for all, like gallivanting on the sand, figuring out what is going on. So that was super shocking, because you don't see a start like that.

And obviously when it comes to the Open Era, how many possibilities does that open for people out the gate? How many connections does that open for people that otherwise couldn't make those connections out the gate? So that was super shocking. I mean, the coin flip thing. OK, so if it doesn't land, [the prize money] keeps on going up. That's... wow. They didn't show [it], but when everyone was clapping about the coin flip, I was just like, I didn't even clap. And Jeff was like, "Aaliyah, no excitement?" I'm like, "Jeff, this is just blowing my mind. I'm just so in shock in this moment. Genuinely, I can't even work up excitement." I'm just trying to wrap my head around: So it could be $2 million? What? But I'm like, Aaliyah, we've got to do a challenge. I can't even. So many things [were] in my mind in that moment.