Survivor's Kamilla Karthigesu Talks 'Stressful' Fire-Making Moment, Why She Cheered On Opponent Eva
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's season finale of Survivor 48.
Only one person can claim the title of Sole Survivor, but unfortunately for Kamilla Karthigesu, she fell just one spot shy of sitting in a highly coveted final Tribal Council seat.
In the season finale of Survivor 48 (read our recap here), Kamilla did find herself in the Final 4 after destroying her fellow competitors in an immunity challenge that secured her safety at the Final 5 Tribal. But after Mitch was eliminated and her secret alliance partner Kyle won the following challenge, Kamilla was forced to face off against Eva in a fated fire-making challenge, where luck was just not on her side. After failing to spark a flame, she became the eighth and final member of the jury.
Below, Kamilla talks to TVLine about her two big immunity wins, overcoming her family's expectations and how playing Survivor built up her confidence and changed her life.
TVLINE | Did you, in fact, have vodka, tequila and beer once you got to Ponderosa?
KAMILLA KARTHIGESU | Oh my God. So Mitch got me a margarita, and that margarita was way too strong, so I could not! I could not. Also, it was way too late at night for me to be drinking four drinks. I had them the next day though.
TVLINE | Your family thought you'd be voted out first. What was their reaction to your performance this season?
They were so impressed. So proud of me. It was amazing to watch them watch, and I think this meant so much to them. It brought them so much life. It's just been amazing to share the experience with them all too.
TVLINE | How did it feel to secure not one, but two individual immunities?
I know! And the timing was great too because there's the underdog story. There's the story of Kamilla growing from old Kamilla to new Kamilla, and the immunity wins started to line up with that. It was perfect. It was incredible. And the come from behind in that challenge too was just insane.
TVLINE | Were you ever concerned that Kyle might change his mind mid-merge and go with the majority alliance instead?
So after the merge, I didn't think me and Kyle were close. I thought Kyle and David were number ones, and I was just like, "I need to go find Chrissy and go link up with Chrissy." I thought me, Chrissy, David and Kyle had a four from Civa. I thought that was working. And then clearly that wasn't a thing, but it was only after David started getting scared of me, Shauhin, Kyle... that's sort of what pushed me and Kyle really close together. Before that, we were just like, "Oh yeah, you know, we're in the same big alliance," but we weren't number ones. David pushed us together. From that point forward, with all the information he was feeding me, I'm like, there's no way that guy flips on me.
TVLINE | Do you regret telling Kyle that you were planning on throwing him into Fire? Did you more or less give him permission to do the same to you?
I don't think Kyle needed permission from me. Kyle is a smart man. He would have had a conversation that might have been hard for him. I just made it less hard for him. I think that would have actually taken an emotional toll on him. His decision at the end of the day would have stayed the same. He would have taken Joe and made me do Fire regardless. There's no way that man is letting me sit next to him at the end.
TVLINE | So you go to Fire and you lose out to Eva. What went wrong there and how were you feeling in that moment?
That was a very stressful moment. I think a lot of things went wrong. Obviously the flame not catching is one of them. But as I was sitting there striking my flint over and over and over, part of me was telling myself, "We've seen comebacks in Final 4 fire-making all the time," where someone has this massive fire, the person next to them has nothing. Strike flint, bam, big fire. I told myself that could happen to me. At the same time, all I could hear was Joe and Kyle encouraging Eva. No support for me. I hear the jury whispering, but I can't make out the whispers, and my brain is telling me they're all saying, "Oh my God, this girl is so bad at making fire. I can't believe she came out here and didn't practice making fire." It was just the worst. Mentally, it was pretty rough in the moment.
TVLINE | We even heard you cheering on Eva and boosting her confidence during the fire challenge. Why is that?
Eva had an episode earlier when she was not able to make fire back at camp. I wasn't there for it, but what I was told was that was significantly worse than what was aired. It was way harder for her than the episode that she went through in Episode 5. Also, once we got to the Final 4 Tribal Council, she saw the supplies and she started getting into that headspace again. So we did take some time to talk her down through it. That also kind of put me in a weird place where I'm like, "Nobody's supporting me." I guess I'm the one that no one wants in the end, and I think that kind of got in my head a bit, but once you see her like really struggle in those moments, once I saw that she was getting close to there, I didn't want that to happen for her. That is really hard, not just for us to watch, but I can't even imagine what it's like for her in the moment. I just didn't want her head to get anywhere close to that again.
TVLINE | Survivor 50 is letting fans decide whether the fire-making challenge stays or goes. As someone who's competed in it and lost, what's your take?
Should it be in Survivor? In most cases, I don't really like it, but in my case, for my season, if there's no Final 4 fire-making, then I just go home. Obviously, if I had known there was no Final 4 fire-making, I would've played the game differently, but yeah, I voted for no, no fire.
TVLINE | Me too. Not a fan! Now, I'm wondering what happened at final Tribal Council that wasn't aired on TV, because I was almost expecting you and Kyle to go a little deeper into your secret connection. Yes, the Shauhin vote was well explained, but you guys did so much more out there!
I mean, there was a lot cut. Final Tribal Council is very long! Obviously, they didn't show all of the jury members asking questions. I think Kyle did a great job at explaining our secret duo and how that gave him information throughout the game. That me being around for him always let him know who the minority wanted to target, who did they think were the big threats, and things like that. That was very helpful for his game and just the game awareness of knowing like, Shauhin was the one to get out because Shauhin was the one that everyone perceived as a threat. I think everyone did a great job at final Tribal Council, honestly.
TVLINE | Jeff asked the jury what would've happened if you had made the Final 3 and it sounds like you would've won the whole shebang. Does that make losing feel any better or is it worse knowing that?
It honestly felt better for me because the reason I wanted me and Kyle, one of us in Final 3 was, it was kind of like an ego thing where I'm like, "Oh, if Kyle wins, we played a similar game. If Kyle's game is a winning game, that means my game is a winning game." Then to have it validated by the jury was amazing because I came from a spot in this game, I think a lot of people come into Survivor being like, "Oh, I'm gonna win!" And so when they lose, it's very disappointing. I came into Survivor thinking I was going to be horrible, and so going out at four, I was so proud of it. I was very happy. No complaints. And then to hear that they would have all voted for me even though I didn't actually win? That is an even bigger compliment.
TVLINE | Tell me a little bit about your trepidation regarding the Simmotion challenge. Why the hesitation there?
I was really hoping that our Final 4 challenge was going to be the one that Ben Katzman won in 46. The split attention one, in my brain, that's like the ADHD puzzle where it's just like, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. And I thought I would have been great at it because my brain cannot focus on one thing. Ever. It just can't. The attention is always split, and I thought I would have been great at that, especially seeing how everyone else was just really bad at puzzles. I thought that would have been my easy way. I saw Simmotion. I'm like, "Oh, this is actually anyone's game." So that sucked.
TVLINE | You had such a big swing of confidence out there, and you're not alone! We all have that little voice inside us trying to tear us down. Now that you've had time to reflect and have had some distance from the game, what is the Kamilla of today like? How has the game changed your life?
Kamilla today fights for myself. I had mega imposter syndrome at work. I've been put up for promotions, passed for promotions, didn't really think too much about it. But when I came back, I was fighting hard. I ended up getting my promotion because I fought for it so hard because I'm like, "No, I actually deserve this. I don't care what you guys say. I believe I deserve it." It has actually changed my life for the better.
TVLINE | Would you ever play again, and if so, what would you do differently?
I would 100% play again. What would I do differently? I don't know if there's much I would do differently. I mean, it's just... approach it the same way, be open to changing, be open to adapting. If I can't play the game the way I wanted to when I come in, pivot. That's what I did, and it worked out for me. Just have that open mind if I get to play another time.
TVLINE | We're getting closer and closer to this big Season 50 cast reveal. Who do you want to see on that list?
Either Coach or Phillip Sheppard. I know they've played multiple times and people are like, "I only want one-time players." For the most part, I only want one-time players. They are the only two people who played multiple times that I would want to see on my TV again. They're great on TV. I can't speak about gameplay, but I just enjoy watching them.