Survivor's Latest Player Out Clears Up 'Confusing' Tribal Council Move
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Survivor 48.
In the new era of Survivor, even the most prepared player can be taken out by sheer luck.
That's exactly what happened to Vula's Justin when a series of unfortunate events came crashing down on him. After his tribe lost the immunity challenge for the third time in a row, he was sent on a journey and forced to risk his vote, a vote he wound up losing. Then, with the target set on Mary, a Shot in the Dark play earned her safety from the vote, leading to an unprecedented Tribal Council that only got weirder and wilder as it went on. When the final say landed in Cedrek's hands, he decided to keep his ally Sai over the pizzeria manager from Winthrop, Mass. (Read a full recap of the chaos here.)
Below, Justin details how everything went down, explains what wasn't shown on TV and clarifies why Kevin was eliminated last week, despite the guys' strong bond.
TVLINE | That was such a crazy Tribal Council with so many moving parts. How did it feel going down like that?
JUSTIN PIOPPI | I was running the math in my head and it was like a 2 or 3% chance that everything could have gone wrong. The game kind of got me and there was a combination of factors that I didn't really have much control over. But I think that my social bonds, especially with Cedrek, kept me in the game for those first three rounds of voting. I don't think I would have made it that far had I not had that relationship with him and spent that time with him just building this relationship together.
TVLINE | There was a 5-out-of-6 chance that Mary's Shot in the Dark could've read "NOT SAFE," and in that case, she goes home. Have you been able to wrap your head around the luck of it all?
It's insane and that's why I quit gambling. [Laughs] But it's just a sign of things... between being chosen for the journey, having to play said journey, not having a choice in terms of doing that. I've read a lot about "don't take people's votes away, don't force them to do this." This is Survivor 48. It's not 41. I knew that this was part of the game. I still chose to sign up and go out there and play the game, so it was definitely a possibility. I just think if you're well prepared and you're a good enough player, you can kind of navigate this. And just with the risk of telling Cedrek and blowing up that relationship, I was like, "This isn't worth it," because we've aligned ourselves in such a way that if Mary doesn't go home, Sai is going to go home. So the two of us are still going to wake up here together tomorrow. It doesn't matter who we're with. We can figure it out at that point.
TVLINE | Let's play a little Survivor what-if: Say Mary goes in Episode 2 and this week's Tribal was between Cedrek, Sai, Kevin and yourself. What happens in that scenario?
So, this is something that I want to clear up because it does seem like a confusing move. But Kevin and I would get water every morning after we woke up, and then we would fill our canteens just before we went to bed. But that was our time to talk about strategy, to reassure each other, to fill each other in on other conversations that we had. We had a very good working relationship. The issue was he was in incredible pain. It was a freak incident. Nothing that he could have prevented. He was physically prepared for the game. I think he took precaution. It just happened in a way where he had this injury, and I give him credit, Nick. I can't believe he even stayed in, not only to just compete, but just to be in the game itself.
When we got back from that second challenge, I go to Kevin, "Let's go fill our bottles and figure out what we want to do tonight," and he was in so much pain he could not move. That's when I grabbed Cedrek and in my head I'm thinking, "If we vote Mary tonight and Kevin, who would never quit, but if he gets a medical intervention, if he gets pulled from the game, we go from five to three overnight. Sai has an idol. Cedrek and I would vote against each other and she's gonna decide our fate. Granted, we're trying to flush that idol. We don't know if that was going to happen. I still can't believe she used her idol, to be honest with you. I'm sure she was just playing it safe. This is on the heels of 46 where everyone went home with an advantage or an idol in his or her pocket. But that was my plan. Let's take away Mary's No. 1 ally. Let's remove that variable in the sense that we may or may not have Kevin here tomorrow morning. And let's keep that conflict between the two girls who will never work with each other in terms of voting, and Cedrek and I can be in the middle.
TVLINE | Ultimately, Cedrek had all the power to choose between keeping you or Sai — but you chose to lie about your journey fate. Do you regret not coming clean to Cedrek about losing your vote?
I did the math, Nick, especially on the boat ride home, and everything happening between getting chosen for a journey, losing the vote and then Mary's Shot in the Dark hitting... it's like a 2 or 3% chance, which is nuts. But I know this is a game [where] you have to take risks, and I'm not the biggest risk taker. I'm not risk-averse by any means, but I like to take calculated risks. And I'm like, "This is not a risk I'm willing to take in the sense that I don't think it really benefits me. I don't think it benefits our relationship." I don't want to do something that would jeopardize the plan that's already in place. And Cedrek is the type of guy who is very headstrong in the sense that he doesn't want to see a plan change, especially at the last minute.
So, I had time for one conversation. We had about 10 minutes, I think, from when I got back to camp to leaving for Tribal Council. I'm like, "Let me just shore him up and just hope that this is gonna play out." Like I said, there's a 97 or 98% chance of me waking up there tomorrow and us being together and him not even knowing about it. Why jeopardize that over the slimmest of margins, especially in a game where so much luck is involved, so much chance is involved, who you're aligned with, who you're paired up with. Let's just try and keep one stable member together. I just feel like the track record isn't great if you tell somebody you lost your vote. You lose your agency.
TVLINE | You seemed to have a "Do what you gotta do" attitude with Cedrek as he was weighing his decision. Did you fight back at all against Sai's argument? What didn't we see there?
There was a lot that wasn't shown and I just think the editing team was up late because of us. [Laughs] It was a late night for all involved. We were told that this was the longest Tribal Council ever. And you know you're in for a long one when there's a commercial break halfway through. So this was just hours and hours of deliberation, of discussion, of voting.
What isn't really shown are some of the powerful conversations that took place. Some of my arguments weren't really shown, which is upsetting in a sense. But I think that's why Cedrek was so apt on keeping me those first couple of times. He voted for Sai twice and then still wanted to vote her out. That was a result of me talking with him and strategizing with him saying, "Listen, if I go tonight, it's gonna be you soon. I hope you know that. We should navigate this together and we'll figure this out." He's a really good dude and he was just in a very tough situation. It was something that I didn't necessarily want to comment on. And I'll just kind of leave it at that, to be honest with you.
TVLINE | Some viewers and readers have very strong opinions about Sai in these last couple episodes. What's something that people should know about her that isn't coming across on TV?
I'm sad that this didn't get shown out, and I just think it's because she's playing so hard. I don't think that that's the best play style, especially in an accelerated game. But in my head, I'm like, "Let me kind of pair myself with her." She really liked me. I really liked her as a person. She's obviously a strong personality. She's very headstrong. She plays hard. She plays fast. She plays kind of crazy at times.
But I'm thinking to myself, "She'll get votes at every Tribal Council." If we were to swap, if we were to merge, if we were to get all on one beach and the Civa/Lagi war comes together, they're gonna need some troops. I'm ready to enlist. There's really no one else around me. And if it gets to the point where I'm like, "Hey, listen, Sai's kind of running the show. What do you think? You think we can get a consensus vote?" and kind of earn some good rapport on that end. Do we want her on the jury? Do we want her leading those discussions, especially as a first or second early jury member. That was my plan to keep her around, in that sense. And I think pegging myself to somebody who was always going to be a giant shield wasn't the worst move.