Survivor's First Juror Explains Tricky Relationship With Venus And Avoiding The Perils Of A 'Sinking Ship'
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Survivor 46.
One of Survivor 46's most socially savvy players has exited the game.
In Wednesday's double elimination episode (read our recap here), Soda found herself in a majority when the merged tribe was split into two for the immunity challenge and tribal council. What could've been an easy vote to pick off another Siga turned into the season's biggest blindside yet, as Tevin masterminded a plan to make sure Soda landed in the season's first jury seat. Why he then voted for Venus remains a mystery for another day.
Below, Soda talks to TVLine about how her ouster felt in the moment, being authentically herself in a twisted game and her very complicated relationship with Venus.
TVLINE | You seemed so blindsided after Jeff read the votes. Tell me a little bit about how it felt in the moment?
SODA THOMPSON | I remember it all like it was yesterday. I was shocked, sad that it was over. I was super grateful just to be in the space. Something like that really brings you to the present moment, right? I'm somebody who just likes to feel everything, so I was like, "I'm just gonna let it all just happen. I'll let it all hang out!" So sadness, just shock, disbelief, gratitude. Love for everybody who was a part of the journey. And yeah, just like a lot of thankfulness. It was a lot.
TVLINE | We've got to talk about Venus. What was the deal between you two? It seemed like a constant struggle out there.
The reason people are confused is because they didn't show a lot of our relationship from the foundation. Day 1, we were tight. We were number ones with each other. We would talk all the time and had a good rapport. People did not receive her the same way that I initially received her. I was pretty much the only person who would give her the time of day. After Tevin made that princess comment, she was just like, "Oh, no. This is it. I'm on the bottom." After that, she would run away for minutes at a time, 30 minutes, 40 minutes at a time, and it just kind of snowballed and made people more suspicious of her.
By Day 2, it was like, "Oh, this is not gonna go well. Tevin's like, "I don't want to work with her." I tried to connect her and Tevin together. I was like, "Tevin, I feel really good about Venus." He's like, "I don't know." Hunter is like, "I don't know because Tevin's like, 'I don't know.'" Even Randen was like, "Stay away from Parvati," on more than one occasion. So I would run the middleman between Venus and Randen. I would run the middleman between Venus and Tevin, trying to help her because she was like, "Well, nobody likes me. I'm in the bottom. I don't understand why." Around Day 2 or 3, that started to fall apart. She started confronting me more about why I wasn't talking to her and [how] "Hunter gets to go off in the woods and he's not sussed out, but everybody doesn't like me and da, da, da." And I'm like, "Listen, you have to understand your behavior and what's happening. Make changes to your behavior."
So ever since I started pulling away from her, we weren't fighting necessarily, she would just approach me and be like, "Soda's this, Soda's that, this is your fault, you ran over my toe," and I'm just like, "Your feelings are valid, I totally hear you, we keep winning, we don't necessarily need to talk strategy," trying to be Switzerland because I've got Tevin and Hunter looking at me crazy because I was once really close to Venus and they don't trust her so much. So I'm going down with the sinking ship even though I'm trying not to, if that makes sense.
TVLINE | Wow. Yeah, that's a lot.
I know!
TVLINE | Venus tried to float Tevin's name to Maria. Did she approach you about a possible Tevin vote or did you hear any rumblings about that?
That's a good question. I don't think so. I don't know. I think she was just like, "Charlie." We were all really selling the "Nami strong" Charlie-thing as our smokescreen, from what I can remember. She wouldn't... she knew, I've said to her face, like "Tevin's my No. 1" after Day 3 or 4 because again, the ship started to sink. So yeah, I think that the consensus was Charlie.
TVLINE | So why did Liz want you out so badly?
I don't know! We talked a lot in the early days on Nami. We have similar backgrounds, similar upbringing. She would say things that I knew were almost purposefully painting a target on my back. I wouldn't worry about it because she wasn't talking strategy with me. There was a moment around the fire where everybody was sleeping and she was like, "Oh, Soda, you know you're gonna win this game. I'm not gonna win this game. I'm rich. I don't need the money. I want to help you get to the end because you're gonna win," like, out loud, by the fire! I said, "Oh, she wants me gone, gone!" I would try to talk strategy with her, Day 1, Day 2. She didn't give me anything really. She was very calm, very still. You kind of didn't know what she was doing at first, from my perspective.
TVLINE | Why was she out there telling everyone about her money and all her businesses? What was up with that?!
I don't know. I have no idea!
TVLINE | I'll save that one for her then.
Ask her! I'm sure she's got a reason behind it.
TVLINE | Looking back, was there anything you could've done to prevent this vote?
No. I mean, I could have dialed down who I am, but what fun is that? Part of playing Survivor is knowing who you are and how you're received, and I was fully aware of that. In any given group of people, that will have a different effect, right? So I was like, "Let me just see what happens and let me get the chance to adapt." The problem is I didn't have a lot of chances to adapt with anybody other than Nami becuase I was in Nami for so long. I didn't necessarily have a chance to play with a bigger group and we didn't have a chance to draw tribal lines to see, "OK, how is Soda when she's on the voting block? How are we after we're on the voting block? How is Nami feeling after we have to cut one of our own? How are we now connecting to one another after that?" My personality didn't get the full chance to be tested out there because I was going to be myself unapologetically no matter what, and I said if being me shoots me in the foot, I'll do it. It is what it is. I wasn't going to go out there and try to be somebody else, so I don't think there was anything I could have done. I have no regrets at all.
TVLINE | Tim said something very similar. He wishes Siga lost more early on so that they could have gone to Tribal, feel each other out, stuff like that.
It's very valid. It's a very underestimated part of the game! I think some people in the early stages are like, "We need to win, we need to win!" but winning is a third of playing the game.
TVLINE | The new era seems to have flipped that early part of the game on its head a bit.
Yes, very much so.
TVLINE | If you ever play a second time, what would you change?
I would honestly still just be authentic, but I would try to listen more. I didn't want to be a necessarily a leader in this tribe. I was someone who just cheered everybody on and pulled my weight in challenges. I'd probably listen more and make other people seem more threatening than I am, if that's at all possible.