“Row, row, row your boat, Swiftly to jury, Went from power to the bottom, Eviction for SB” Forensic scientist Sarah Beth Steagall came into the house claiming she was a voice actress. But despite her choice in fabricated career, she had difficulty having her voice be heard early on. While she made an incredibly close connection with Kyland Young early on, it wasn’t as easy on her Kings team. When her quartet gained power at Christian Birkenberger’s HoH, she made a push to go after Hannah Chaddha, feeling she was a stealth threat for the endgame. Unfortunately, she lost the battle of arguments to her teammate Xavier Prather, who was part of the secret “Cookout” alliance with Hannah. And over the course of the next month, she would also lose the war. Since the moment she went after Hannah, Sarah Beth was on the Cookout’s radar, especially Tiffany Mitchell’s But on Day 44, her balance skills made her HoH, with the possibility of throwing the entire game off-balance for the Cookout. But Kyland was able to get in her ear, pushing that she backdoor Derek Xiao as a competition threat. She complied, eager to get revenge on the person who nominated her a couple of weeks prior. Unfortunately, her big move came back to bite her in a big way when Derek X.’s allies took a clean sweep of competitions the next week. Tiffany won and gleefully nominated SB next to Kyland. Though she lost her HoH reign, it was to Claire Rehfuss, who kept the nominations the same. And Hannah edged out a veto win to guarantee she stood on the block. It was a rough week for Sarah Beth, leaving her more emotionally distraught than an audience during a viewing of Dear Evan Hansen. And like the titular character, she soon found herself “waving through a window” (or door) to her fellow houseguests on the way out. Now on the way to the jury house, Sarah Beth talks with Parade.com about the reaction to her various goodbye messages, how she looks back on her decision to backdoor Derek X., and what her plan would have been had she stayed in the house. From the beginning of the game, you felt distant from the rest of your Kings team. How much did that play into your strategy? This played a lot into how I played the game. Within the first two weeks, I was really trying to make a lot of strong connections outside of the Kings. I definitely always planned to be more loyal to those connections than I did to my team, because I knew when it came down to it, I was probably the person they were most willing to lose if we were ever targeted. That did directly lead to me being in the Jackpot, making a Final 2 with Kyland, and trying to get in tight with the Jokers. You used your HoH reign to backdoor Derek X., who you saw as the biggest threat to your game. What compelled you to make that decision, and how do you look back on it in hindsight? Obviously, I had the power during my HoH reign, so I had a lot to consider in even considering trying to backdoor Derek X. I was thinking of a lot of different possibilities. That’s when I realized what my original nominations should be, and what gives me the best opportunity to backdoor Derek X.; I realized there were very few people he could sit beside that would send him home. That really hammered in for me how much of a threat he was, not just in competitions, but socially. Of course, I already felt at that point people were targeting Kyland and me. I knew any time we weren’t in power, we were probably going to be sitting in the nomination chairs beside each other. At the time, I didn’t know about the secret alliance, of course. So, from my perspective, it did seem much more dangerous for me to be nominated next to Kyland with Derek X. in the house, because Derek X. had a lot of influence over the players he was close to. It would have been infinitely better for his game to send me home instead of Kyland. Speaking of that “secret alliance,” let’s talk about your goodbye messages. Obviously, Kyland makes mention of it as to why you’re talking to me. But we also have Hannah saying you threw people under the bus when your back was against the wall, and Azah saying she had to get rid of you for a mission “close to her heart.” What is your reaction to all that? The message from Chaddha didn’t surprise me. That was the narrative that was being built around me in the house to get me evicted this week. It was fair and a little unfair, and I see why she thought that. The messages from Azah and Kyland together did surprise me. I didn’t realize there was a secret alliance in the house. But putting that information together, I do think I have a good sense of what’s going on. And I understand why that would be very important to both of them. It makes a lot of sense to me, and I support it. Even if it is disappointing to think, even if I had stayed in the game and made it to the Final 2, I likely would not have won this season. Obviously, I really wanted to win! Also, in a way, it makes me feel relieved because I was rooting for Kyland, and I still think he does have a chance to win this season. If there are still people working with him and supporting him, it means his odds are way better than I thought when I was initially evicted. That makes me happy. In your final hours in the house, you said you would be loyal to the Jackpot alliance and gun for Hannah if you stayed. Would that be the case if you weren’t evicted? I don’t even remember saying I would gun for Chaddha. (Laughs.) I think I was just saying whatever I would to stay in the house. But I do think at that point in my game, I would have had to find other people to be loyal to. I do think I would have continued to be loyal to the Jackpot for as long as it was beneficial to me. But you guys know what type of player I was. If at any point it wasn’t good for me anymore, I definitely would have done whatever was best for my game at that moment. So a lot of things Tiffany was saying to me when I was pitching to her were absolutely correct. She ultimately decided not to trust me, and she was probably right. (Laughs.) Let’s finish with some rapid-fire thoughts about your fellow houseguests. Starting with Alyssa. Goofy and confident.Azah. Charming and regal.Claire. Silly and smart.Derek F. (Laughs.) Extra and sweet.Hannah. Sharp and observant.Kyland. Disloyal, awful! (Laughs.) No, I’m lying. Sweet and level-headed.Tiffany. Serious and bold.And finally, Xavier. Calm. (Pause.) Kind. Next, check out our interview with Derek Xiao, who was evicted in Week 7.
