Survivor Castaway Calls Out Tribe's Lack Of Good Vibes: 'We Weren't Surviving, We Were Sur-Sucking!'
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Survivor 46.
When Yanu lost its second immunity challenge in a row, the perfect storm was brewing. Jess and Bhanu realized how dangerous the socially savvy Kenzie could be, while Q and Tiffany also clocked the potential trouble she could bring down the road.
But after a devastating loss at a brutal puzzle challenge, Yanu couldn't ignore Jess' lack of strength during challenges, and the software engineer from San Francisco became the second casualty of Survivor 46. (Click here for our full Episode 2 recap.)
So how close was Kenzie to getting the boot and did Jess think she had any shot at surviving? She spoke to TVLine Thursday to break it all down.
TVLINE | You tried to target Kenzie in last night's episode and it looked like Q was interested in taking her out. When you went to Tribal, did you think a Kenzie vote was a real possibility?
JESS CHONG | No, I knew it was me and I was fine with it because I was on 200-plus hours of no sleep and I felt like nobody respected me. I was like, "If they're gonna give me this fake idol, I might as well go out with a bang and play the stupid fake idol." So whatever people want to read into the whole fake idol ploy, they can read into it, but I believe in showing rather than telling.
TVLINE | Let's talk about the fake idol. Did you know 100% that it was fake?
I was pretty certain that it was fake. Like 99.9999% certain. When I went and talked to Q, Kenzie was walking up to us and I was like, "I'm a goner and I don't care because I cannot bear to be on this island with these people anymore." I was so tired and I was like, "Why am I being so disrespected? I don't understand what I've done." So I was like... goodbye!
TVLINE | Did you consider using your Shot in the Dark?
No. Why would I want a one-in-six chance of being stuck there. And it started pouring that night. I was like, "I have dementia from being out here. I do not want more dementia. Goodbye."
TVLINE | Kenzie pulled you and Bhanu aside for a conversation, but said she "didn't really get much" out of you guys. Why did that conversation raise red flags for you?
First of all, when we went out to those rocks, the camera crew was so pissed because it was so slippery and I was like, "I don't want to go to those rocks" [but] I'll go under there and bear this conversation. But I know you already don't want to work with me. It was so clear from the very beginning. I went to Kenzie and was like, "I'm so glad we're on the same tribe. I'd love to work with you," and then she never talked to me. I could see her talking to everyone else and I was like, "OK, well, I'm gonna perform this discussion with you, but get me away from you! I don't want to talk to you!" I was so sick of talking. Nothing good can come out of this conversation because it's just going to be used against me because I already know how close you are to Tiff and Q. What am I going to do? You were not going to work with me. You made it abundantly clear on the first day. Why would I tell you anything valuable?
TVLINE | Kenzie also said that you and Bhanu weren't strategic players and she called you a "bad Survivor player" — her words not mine! What's your response to that?
So? [Laughs] Who cares? Normalize sucking at Survivor! Also, I don't think I'm a bad Survivor player. I don't think anyone is inherently a bad Survivor player. I studied geography in undergrad and it's all about how where you're born has such a profound impact on how you live and how you die and luck of the draw. I just got stuck... well, maybe I am a bad Survivor player and that's fine. I just didn't have anything to work with. I didn't have the numbers. I was already on the outs. I knew from the first day. I talked to Kenzie and Tiff for like two or three hours on the first day. As soon as Jelinsky and Q lost the Sweat task (or quit it or whatever it was), I went straight to Q because he was helping us build our shelter and I was like, "Thanks so much for helping us with our shelter. I know you hate quitting. I know we have a strong work ethic. We should work together and I hate that Jelinsky quit it and took no responsibility for it and everything he says is so sketchy and so generic. I want to work with you." I was strategic, but any time Kenzie came and talked to me, I was like, "Why would I tell you anything?" You made it clear. You don't want to work with me. You're going to use it as ammo against me. So that's kind of where I was at.
TVLINE | Do you think you would've had more success on another tribe with different personalities?
Yeah, they would have at least had compassion for me and helped me sleep and we would have at least worked together and had fire. I couldn't sleep because we built our shelter next to the water and the tide was very high. I would hear these bats occasionally fighting with each other, and I was like, "Please bats, come and bite me so I can get med-evaced and leave the game honorably because I can't stand to be here anymore!" [Laughs] I already knew how abjectly screwed I was at the very beginning because I just knew that I did not have a social in with them and it wasn't for lack of trying. I tried very hard and I'm a little sad. They didn't show me trying to talk to them. I'm a very gregarious and extroverted person! I'm a little bit crazy when I'm around new people. Maybe that was the problem. I'm doing that now. It's kind of embarrassing, sorry.
TVLINE | Let's talk more about what you were doing that wasn't shown! Can you elaborate on that?
Kenzie was the first person that I talked to when we were allowed to talk to people. I grabbed her hand and I was like, "I'm so happy that we're on the same tribe together." Then during the Sweat task, I talked a lot to Bhanu, Kenzie and Tiff, and I was like, "I don't want to be talking strategy now because we should be optimizing for team morale." I was very obsessed with this idea of team morale and team strength. So anything that I did around camp was in service of having a strong tribe so we could win a challenge, so we could get flint, so we could have white noise from the fire to drown out the stupid-ass ocean next to us. And so I could be warm because it was very, very cold where we built our shelter. It didn't get sun during the day, so it was just constantly damp. We just did not pick the right place for it. I wish they had shown that the first night, Jelinsky went to go look for an idol, and I was like, "The integrity of our tribe has been irreparably damaged. It's a dog-eat-dog world and it's everybody for themselves." That was disappointing that that happened so quickly. It was just not a tribe of good vibes. We were not surviving. We were Sur-sucking. [Laughs] I'm sorry!
TVLINE | Bhanu had a huge outburst during the challenge. How did it feel being on the receiving end of that?
They were all yelling at me. I feel bad for Bhanu because he's taking so much heat for it, [but] every single one of them was yelling at me. It wasn't just Bhanu and I love Bhanu with all my heart because he was the person that was like my emotional support person. He was the person that I could talk to that I just felt psychologically safe to just talk to, outside of the game. And he was the person that really tried to get to know me. Oh my God, I don't wanna cry about it. He was the person that really tried to get to know me as a person when I felt like I wasn't granted that courtesy (or whatever the word is) by other people. He was the person that was going for walks with me — not strategy walks, we were just looking for food because our beach only had coconuts. He was so kind to me. We had a relationship that was like siblings. I love him so, so, so much.
TVLINE | Did you leave with any other friendships or were you just sort of like, "F these people"?
It was so hard because I had such a hard time on that tribe. I was trying so hard to see everybody's humanity and it was not good vibes on the tribe except for very late at night when people were starting to get a little bit delirious and let their guard down. We would play this game where we would say different foods in the alphabet — like A, B, C, D. The way Q said "dill," "pickle" and "egg" would just crack me up so much. There are all these tiny little moments where people's game faces fell away and you could see the person inside, and I had so much love for them when that happened. After I got my torch was snuffed and I said bye to everyone, they didn't show this, I actually was laughing the entire time because I was like, "This is so absurd and I don't care anymore." But I was really searching for ways to humanize them as much as I could because otherwise I would lose my soul. That's how I felt.
TVLINE | Now that you've had time to reflect on the experience, do you have any final words or is there anything you want people to know out there?
Oh my gosh, I've had so much time to reflect on it. My final words are: I feel fine when I don't think about it. When I think about it, I do not feel fine. [Laughs]
TVLINE | Oh no!
I guess to see the audience response to it, to see that some people relate to me or some people can see how I was struggling, that's been really nice because I did not feel like I got that from the people around me out there. I don't want people to think I'm weak. I'm strong. I was like, "Stop this narrative that I'm weak and that I'm a challenge liability!" But whatever. You can rewatch the tapes.