Survivor 51's [Spoiler] Breaks Down That Awkward Conversation With Mike: 'I Gave Him That Moment To Stick It To Me'

The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's "Survivor"!

"Survivor 51" hosted an old-school merge Wednesday, but despite the milestone event, one player still had a rough go, brody. 

After the remaining 13 players chowed down on some live grubs to earn their merge feast, outlier Mike won safety in the season's first individual immunity challenge, taking him off the table for the night's elimination. From there, it was sheer mania at camp, as plan after plan after plan was presented and then nixed, as paranoia and trust issues reigned supreme. The indecision and chaos continued at Tribal Council, which almost immediately turned "live." Once the dust settled, it was Season 51's resident brody Brady who found his torch snuffed by Mr. Jeffrey Probst. And then there were 12. (Read our full recap here.)

Below, Brady talks to TVLine about that explosive live Tribal Council, his relationships with Mike and Maggie, and — of course— an update on his severed thumb!

TVLINE | First up, brody: What's the update on the thumb?
BRADY BOOKER | Alright, daddy, check it out, dog. Am I an axolotl? Am I amphibious, brody? Iguana? It just grew back, dog, and I'll make sure to post the picture because, gosh, I lopped off the corner, dog, and it all grew back. I couldn't believe it.

TVLINE | What happened to the severed bits after production showed it to Jeff?
So the severed chunk, we could almost call it, Doc pulled out a Ziploc, put the shell in the thing, zipped it up, threw it in his pocket. Had a little bit of a cheeky smile on him. And he really showed it to Jeff. Jeff actually got to see it. I think that's awesome. I'm pretty sure they kept it in a freezer or cooler for me, still in the shell. When they asked me if I wanted it, I'm like, hell yeah, of course! And you can't just bring flesh across international waters, I guess? You know, I'm learning a lot, brody. So, those guys threw it in a little bit of resin, put it on a string with some beads, and I got my own brody idol "Survivor" relic, one of its kind, man.

TVLINE | Incredible. Hell of a souvenir!
Yeah, definitely one of a kind, huh? I've chopped a million pieces of wood in my life, dog. Since I was a tyke, Pops was giving me the axe. "You're gonna know how to chop wood," and I guess I saved the best chop for national television to just make it count. First time I ever cut myself was for you, brody!

TVLINE | When you were voted out, we didn't hear you say anything, which I was surprised by. What was going on in that head of yours?
Going into Tribal, I thought I was gonna get some votes, of course, after the way the stuff with Mike went down, but no one really told me like, "Hey, it's you." It was talked [about] the whole episode, and that's something I didn't realize. But in Tribal, I was fiddling around with my Shot in the Dark. I thought that maybe I might have to play it, but I thought that there still may be some numbers to where they needed my vote, and if I'm gonna go down on that ship, dog... not that [the Shot's] a cop-out because I think it's a great opportunity for people who are going 10-1 and stuff like. When you know it's you, it's a great opportunity to maybe get that luck. But I wanted to have a dog in the fight. I wanted to swing the sword on the boat as it's going down, brody. So, yeah. I kept the Shot in the Dark, stayed in on the votes, tried to trust the people that I think would keep me in the game, and the cards just didn't fall that way, brody.

TVLINE | Besides Eric, whose names were you expecting to see at Tribal?
The Kristin vote picked up quick. That got a lot of steam just because Kristin is the most prepared player for "Survivor" I've ever seen. I was even a bigger old-school fan as maybe you can tell by my passion throughout the game, and she'd have been a dog in any era. The way that she can handle stress, operate under it, deal with relationships... I almost think she's too nice with that big heart of hers. I wish she was a little bit more selfish. But yeah, I knew that was the white whale, Moby Dick, Captain Ahab. People were talking about her from before, and with Mike not being out there... and that's the thing too. I never realized how much Mike was really against me. Sure, he talked about my being a hawk, and I can totally understand that. But, you know, I was on that Toka 2.0 beach. I was the only one giving Mike information. I was the only one letting him know he was in trouble with the girls getting down on him and Kristin not even believing in him. I was just trying to keep him solid with us because if you don't have us, brody, what am I working for you for? I should have just let you die off, you know what I mean? But, unfortunately, he took it a different way. Totally understandable. I can be taken all different ways. I've seen throughout this, I'm definitely a love or hate personality, which, I live in the world of reactions, dog. So as long as you're one or the other, don't be in the middle on me, you know?

So, yeah, when it all came to fruition, I was definitely surprised at how passionate I think some people felt. It showed that Devin and Jelly never really were working with me. They had their alliance at the beginning that they prioritized. I thought Dev was my open No. 1 at the beginning when in reality, they just believed I was the dumb jock. Jelly wanted me out from Episode 1, so for her to have that vendetta towards the end, I mean, good for her, sociology professor, because we had some good conversations. Like, brody, don't waste your time with me! I probably wouldn't even recognize that you wanted me out that bad even if you didn't talk to me as much. But that's just the game of "Survivor" and sometimes I probably played with my heart on my sleeve a little too much. I ended up trusting at the end, not trying to scheme a little bit more. But, yeah, just getting "Survivor"-ed, brody. It's part of the game, and I can totally understand people's feelings. Do I agree with them? Absolutely not. I know what my intentions were, but yeah, that's the game. Mike Jordan said, if you don't want to play like me, brody, don't play like me.

TVLINE | I'm admittedly a bit confused by everyone's perception of Mike. What did you think of him, and what was the disconnect between some of the players and Mike?
Well, at the beginning, if you saw Patt, you saw Mike attached to her hip. And then he would go around, try to have conversations with everybody, but he was so... he's a huge fan, so he understands to keep information close to the chest. He's playing a real textbook [game], but you can tell when someone's a big fan playing, and like Thien An said, he was giving nobody nothing. He was doing, "How's your day?" like, average conversation, like BS-ing, you know what I mean? Small talk. He was never really getting to the steak and potatoes. And that's why I even pressed the issue when we were on Toka 2.0 because I was the only one keeping him involved. Once Patt got voted out, and especially when we tribe-swapped, like, yeah, he was the bottom of the bottom, and Maggie and Thien An were dogging him. They kept him away from that summit. And then Kristin didn't want any part of him. We had our little brody thing that you kind of saw. You didn't see much building, but Mike and I even had baseball signs that we would do at Tribal Councils to be like, "Hey, it's still on." So we were doing that a lot.

Well, what I wanna let you brodies know — I actually haven't told any of the other ones. You're the first one to get this information. Scoop! — You know, I get a little excited. I'm all about the confrontation sometimes, and after that moment, once Mike switched on us, Dev comes up to me and Carter and is like, "Hey, maybe we should keep Mike in the vote," so great gameplay move by Dev. The fact that he wasn't playing with me and instantly flipped the whole thing on its head, because that plan would have taken off without Mike. I really do believe. But yeah, when Mike flipped on me there, and I knew he did because his face completely changed. So for being a "psychology professor" or whatever the heck he said, he blatantly showed emotion and then walked straight down to Kristin. There's no leaves on the trees. I see you between the sticks just talking to her by the water by yourself. Like, what do you think you're talking about? And then she instantly comes up and tells me. He gives me the baseball signs before that intense conversation. I let him know how I felt, and I kind of wanted that moment for him to get it off his chest, you know what I mean? Everybody wants that moment in "Survivor," I guess. If he wants to paint that picture and make me his bully, stand up to your bully, brody, and he stayed with his tail between his legs, sticking to his false story. Good for him if that's how he wants to play, if he wants to do it all in confessionals like that, but I felt like I gave him that man-to-man moment to stick it to me. Even when he could have, not much would have changed from that point on. Maybe he was being gracious or maybe he thought I was super high-maintenance and it was a mess, you know?

TVLINE | So I guess there wasn't anything we didn't see from that conversation you had with him? No, it was just blatant, "Hey, I caught you in the lie. Tell me you're after me," you know what I mean? Man to man, come on.

TVLINE | I need to know your thoughts on Maggie. You and her seemed like oil and water out there. So what was your opinion of her, and what was your opinion of her move to give Lewis and Kilby her two extra votes?
Of course, looking back, you always want the extra vote for yourself, but the cookie didn't crumble that way. I walked out there [to search for the advantage] with the thought that no one was gonna be out there, and there's Maggie, and she couldn't get it. And Maggie and I had been building a [rapport] so I figured I'd help her. She almost became a No. 1 for me. I'm such high energy, such a man-child. You could definitely go with that. I take appreciation out of that. Shout out Sabrina Carpenter. I like to have a lot of fun. And Maggie was kind of the mom, so it's just like, you know, jackass little kid and mom, "do your chores," you know what I mean? So that's all it was. 

I love Maggie. I think she's a wonderful person, a hell of a competitor, a passionate player, someone who works with her emotions on her sleeve, loves her family. I think the world of Maggie and maybe she'll regret that vote, but I can totally understand how I can have that effect on people, especially with all the negatives that we have playing against us, no food, no sleeping. Spending that much time with me, I'd probably need some time. I gotta get away from myself sometimes. So, I completely get it. Besides that fact, I think Maggie and I should have our own separate show. I think she should be the mom. I should be a kid, and I think that sitcom would go crazy.

TVLINE | I'm into it. Let's just throw the two of you on Exile Island for 30 days and see what happens.
And the thing is, brody, with Maggie and her farm, she might whip me into shape, have me eating from the trough, train me like an animal, you know what I mean? I do well with strong leadership.

TVLINE | What did the grubs taste like, and why the heck did you go back for more?!
It tastes like bread dough, and because, brody, I was passing out! I was so depleted in the challenges. After they would end, I'd feel like passing out or blacking out. In the water there, I'd grabbed onto the hoop so I wouldn't drown. So when he told us that there was gonna be something to earn the feast, I thought, oh my God, a grueling challenge, something horrible, I'm gonna die here, because I was really at wit's end on energy because I'm through the roof all the time, brody. And when he said, all you gotta do is eat these measly grubs, give me that mother-trucker, you know what I mean? They could have had a human foot on that plate, dog. It would have went down just as fast. So I was ready to do whatever it takes for food. I put those two in my mouth, bit once, and swallowed. I had them [down in] under two seconds. Check the track record, dog.

TVLINE | I learned in Fiji while I was out there that the country does have a history of cannibalism!
I have heard! People were surprised I didn't eat my thumb piece, you know?