Survivor 48's [Spoiler] Reveals The One Game Element That 'Came Back To Bite Me'
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Survivor 48.
If Survivor taught us anything this week, it's that you never stop fighting — even if you're playing from the bottom after a calamitous tribe swap.
The bottom is exactly where Kamilla and Kyle found themselves after being swapped over to the Vula tribe alongside three former Lagis: Shauhin, Thomas and Joe. Not only did Kamilla and Kyle put on Oscar-worthy performances when downplaying their relationship, but the duo was also armed with Kyle's immunity idol and Kamilla's extra vote. Thanks to a successful idol play, Kyle's three votes were null and void, and California Girl Thomas became the unlucky soul sent packing. (Read our full recap here.)
Below, Thomas talks to TVLine about Kamilla and Kyle's masterclass performance, how going on a journey eventually caught up with him and just how terrible Vula beach actually was.
TVLINE | Thomas, how are you feeling after watching all of that back?
THOMAS KROTTINGER | Oh, dude, I feel amazing. Are you kidding me? I feel like I'm the happiest fourth boot in the history of this show. I got to go play the best game in the entire world. I had so much fun doing it. I'm a lucky SOB. I'm kind of unlucky in some ways, but overall lucky!
TVLINE | How convinced were the California Girls that Kyle and Kamilla were not working together?
So, let's get into it. When you watch the episode, you see the beginning of that whole play that they perfectly constructed start when I am not present. So I missed the first act of that performance and I think had I been around for that first act, which felt a little shakier... As they as they moved along, it was like... no notes. But I was watching that first act and I was like, "They're so lucky I wasn't there. I would have figured this out instantly." Whatever, but hindsight's 20/20. No, it was super convincing. They're really smart. I feel like Kamilla seeded that story by telling Star she was on the bottom when they were sitting out of the water challenge. And Kyle was so Civa strong, which I think he understood was going to push buttons for the boys intensely. I didn't care about that.
You'll notice we go "1-2-3, who are we gonna vote for?" I say Kamilla, and the boys say Kyle. So I personally feel like I saw it and I knew that we were getting bamboozled a little bit. Kyle really sold it with the boys saying like, "I'm just gonna be Civa all the way, David's No. 1," all this stuff, and I was like, "He's lying to us." But I wasn't going to risk my relationship with the boys in this moment when, in theory, we had the numbers. It felt like pushing my alliance with the boys over the edge wasn't gonna happen. I wasn't gonna do that.
TVLINE | Can you tell me a little more about why you wanted to vote Kamilla out instead of Kyle?
Have you seen the show? That girl is genius! I wanted Kamilla over Kyle cause like, bitch cannot be trusted! The second she told me her favorite players were Phillip and Q, I was like, "We have a chaos agent on our hands and her name is Kamilla!" Even if Kyle was this Civa-strong, "David's my No. 1 man," I can work with that. Kamilla being like, "I'm willing to burn everything down and run around," that is something that I can't predict or control. So in my brain, I was like, "It's so obvious we have to vote out Kamilla, and it feels like they're leading us to vote out Kyle."
TVLINE | So you're impressed by their gameplay?
I'm so impressed! Literally my first night at [Ponderosa], I was laying in my bed, unable to sleep, and I just was like, "Wow, I got got, and I'm glad I got got by those two." Really glad that it was them. I have so much respect. I hugged Kyle at the end. I made him give me a hug and turned to Kamilla and said, "Good game." I respect them hardcore.
TVLINE | You went out with an advantage in your pocket. Did you ever consider using it at that Tribal or no?
Listen, in theory, we had the numbers, right? I'm in an alliance with these two men who want to be number ones with each other over me if Eva wasn't around. I had been lying to them for seven days about not having an advantage, not thinking that these other people would be like Boy Scouts and come back and be like, "So here's literally everything that happened," because I thought we were playing Survivor. When Kyle and Kamilla came for my neck night one on Vula beach, that was the moment where I could have told them about my advantage, but it would have broken our trust. And then we go to Tribal the next day and why wouldn't they consider flipping on me if I don't trust them.
But then we do go to Tribal. I have made the decision not to tell them, and in my brain it's a 1-in-6 shot that Kyle has an idol, plays it for himself and I go home. So it was like a reverse Shot in the Dark, right? They were coming for me so hard that they weren't gonna tell me about the advantages that they did or didn't have. I couldn't trust Kamilla saying that she only has her regular vote, that she didn't get something. I couldn't trust Kyle saying he didn't have [an idol]. All of that information is unreliable. So in my brain, I have a majority alliance. I'm looking down the road with these boys and I had like a 16.67% shot of Kyle having an idol. And guess what? He did.
TVLINE | We watched you guys decide to go through Kyle's bag. Why wasn't it searched more thoroughly? You didn't want to dump everything out all over the ground and really rifle through?
You know, ask my girl Shauhin, OK? He was head searcher! [Laughs]
TVLINE | Oh, I will ask him!
Yeah, get in there with him. It's a great question. I think that there is an element of... Kamilla was sitting there and I didn't trust her. So even though it was happening, I wanted to — sorry, Shauhin, if you ever see this — I wanted that to be on Shauhin's head as the person doing a lot of the searching. I wanted to just be the accomplice.
TVLINE | You did hand it over!
Yeah. Yeah, I did. I was like, "Oh, Kyle's bag? You mean this? Here you go!" [Laughs] If they were considering voting me or Shauhin at Tribal, that felt like more of a reason to go after Shauhin than me. And then if I got it and I was like, "Wait one second!" and ripped it all apart... Would I go back and handle the search myself now? Yes!
TVLINE | We heard Kyle and Kamilla discussing who to vote for and it seemed like the fact that you merely went on a journey was enough to skew their votes toward you. What are your thoughts on the whole journey element in play there?
I've been thinking about the journey for many months at this point. When it was time for that first journey, everybody was so spooked by Star having potentially opening the Beware advantage, having power, that energy. Shauhin was stressed about Joe and Eva's relationship. Bianca was looking at me being like, "I'm so glad you have the boys, but I feel like I'm just me." Literally every single person on my tribe wanted me to go on the journey. It felt like I was the only person that everybody could feel comfortable with going. And even though I told myself I would never go on the journey, it felt like I needed to do it in that moment for the tribe, pre-swap, if that makes sense. It came back to bite me with the beautiful tribe swap, but in terms of the Lagi dynamic, it didn't hurt me. I could maneuver it. It was once the swap [happened] and then Star talking to Kamilla on the sit out bench, once that all happened, that's when it came back to get me.
TVLINE | Tell me a little bit about Star! I don't feel like I know her well at this point, but it seems she had a hard time connecting with people out there.
It's so crazy because Star has this big beautiful personality. There's no filter. Star is Star and she's a beautiful person. It's interesting because I feel like so much of her story on the show is the idol, isolating herself, things like that, and yes, that happened. I think she hit the beach and went for the idol hard, and it was very noticeable. She would go to get firewood for an hour and come back with a stick. She didn't do herself any favors, but the truth is that we all really loved Star. It was just the idol stuff that made people not know what to do, and then once she had it — and I was the last person other than Eva to hear — I was like, "Well, that doesn't make me feel great." But there's so much to Star that you're not seeing on the show. She is truly so funny. She cracks me up every time I'm with her. Love Star.
TVLINE | What's something that we didn't see in the episode that you want people to know?
I'm actually glad you're bringing this up because I've been meaning to talk about this. I cannot overstate how terrible Vula beach and that shelter was. You do not understand. They built... it was like a dead palm frond hanging off like a piece of bamboo. They built a shelter in the middle of a wind tunnel so at night, you literally were shivering. It was abysmal. No one spent any time making this a place where you have to live because they were just running around voting each other out, losing their minds, which, I get it. But also, coming from Lagi where like I had hammocks and fishing gear and a tool kit and a beautiful shelter and a tarp, and then to hit that beach Day 8? It was like hell on earth. It was terrible. They didn't show that. That was a night where Joe and I were sleeping on the bamboo and it was so cold and I had every single piece of clothing on my body, and I was like, "Can I do this? I'm gonna die. This is terrible." And then Joe just turned over to me and he held me and he was like, "We got this. We can do this." And then I was like, "I'll die for you."
TVLINE | Any final words on your Survivor experience?
It's the best thing ever. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I highly recommend!