Living and playing in small tribes can make or break a player. For Evvie Jagoda, it was somehow both. The then-PhD student navigated the Survivor classroom very well in the premerge, making key relationships with everyone on their tribe to put them in the power position. But when the merge hit, the Yase baby turtles soon found themselves on their backs. Evvie was able to delay the inevitable with a big play and a clutch immunity win. But splitting the tribe in two only magnified the target on their back, ended the evolutionary journey of Evvie the Survivor player. By the end of the first week of Survivor 41, Evvie seemed to have everyone on Yase in their pocket. They were part of a dominant women’s alliance with Tiffany Seely and Liana Wallace, but also had a tight bond with the men in Xander Hastings and David Voce. Seeing the tribe as a possible sinking ship challenge-wise, they also used an opportunity to forge a cross-tribal connection with Deshawn Radden, even revealing information about Xander’s idol. With Yase not going to Tribal Council for the rest of the premerge, Evvie believed they had rock-solid relationships to take the game by storm. But the surface of those relationships was about as sturdy as eggshells, and it was only a matter of time before they broke. After a series of unfortunate events (and hourglass smashing), Evvie was left in “merge-atory” as one of only five people who could be voted for. A majority of former Luvu and Ua members (plus Liana, who left Yase behind in favor of new bonds) targeted Evvie, feeling they were the only option left. Feeling the heat for the first time, Evvie concocted a plan with Tiffany and Xander to have Liana steal a fake idol from him, allowing him to play his idol on Evvie. And though he ended up not doing so, Sydney Segal using her Shot in the Dark allowed Evvie to survive narrowly. This, unfortunately, was the inciting incident to have Evvie be targeted the rest of the game. Though they won a much-needed immunity next round, their closest ally Tiffany was easily picked off. Another rock draw put Xander and Evvie together as they attempted to draw on Deshawn to go after Liana. And though Deshawn told Evvie he would never write their name down again, it’s a promise he had already broken in his mind. Deshawn stuck with his alliance, and Xander chose not to use his idol on Evvie, meaning their nine lives had quickly come to an end. Now out of the game, Evvie talks with Parade.com about going from a power player to an underdog, the roller coaster of their various relationships, and providing queer representation to Survivor fans. In last night’s Tribal Council, were you surprised by Deshawn not voting with you? I honestly was somewhat surprised. Deshawn and I had this relationship that was building the whole game. Even before the Tribal Council Tiffany went home, he was like, “Listen, Evvie. Starting tomorrow, I want us to work together again. Let’s do it.” And then when the fireworks happened between him and Shan, it was so perfect. He wants to flip on Shan; he knows now I have no allies left in the game. If you’re considering going to war with the other major power players in the game, why would you not want to keep around a major threat who’s on your side? That felt like it made sense. But I do think it really hurt me that Danny was there also. If Deshawn was on his own, he was maybe more likely to flip. But Danny was just so clear. Like, “No, we need to get Evvie; she’s a big threat.” I think that hurt that dynamic. What about Xander not using his idol or extra vote? Unfortunately, I think Xander was always a little overconfident in his relationship with Danny. The reality is Xander had much more power this day than me. He’s the one with the advantages. So I had to let him be in the driver’s seat, because our relationship was still tenuous after everything that happened. So like, I’m not going to try to be forceful at this moment where I really need him. He felt we were good with Danny; I felt like we were good with Deshawn. And neither of us were right, When you saw how the rock draw shook out, and Xander won immunity, did you feel DOA immediately? Something that they didn’t show is that, earlier in the day, before the split Tribal Council, Shan and Liana also had a conversation with me where they were like, “I don’t know if we trust Deshawn. I don’t know if we want to go to the end with them. We want to work with you.” Shan’s been coming for me since the merge and did not bring out my name that day. I felt like I pulled that off. So when we got to the beach I knew I was very much in trouble with how that group of five was. But I was trying to get them to fire at each other. I did try to get Liana to throw a vote on Deshawn, which I think she was considering. I mean, you’ll have to ask her one day. But then there was that conversation between Liana and Xander. Getting them to work together was always rough. But I was hoping three different things that could happen. Xander could play an advantage. Danny and/or Deshawn could vote with me. Or Liana could throw a vote on Deshawn. Then it would be 2-2-1. And I think that if she had voted for Deshawn, they definitely would have flipped on her in the revote because that would have been such a big betrayal. But let me just say, in the game, I didn’t know how explicitly the Black alliance was formed on something much deeper than the game. The best thing about this season is the cast. And one of the best things about the cast is its diversity. So as a fan of the show, I’m so proud that they were able to like do that. And so it makes sense that, especially the day after the Tiffany Tribal Council, when there’s not a lot of time, that they weren’t going to quickly flip on something really important to them. You dictated all of the votes at Yase. Then suddenly, the merge hits, and you become public enemy number one. How much did that surprise you? I mean, one of my biggest problems was I thought Survivor operated under linear time. (Laughs.) But honestly, I think what was cool about the season is that I feel Shan, Deshawn, and I have very different personalities and approaches. But I feel like the three of us were all playing the same game on our tribes. We were the ones in the middle, getting a lot of information, very social players. And I feel like, at the merge, the three of us saw each other. And we all wondered, “How are these factions going to work out?” Through the luck of the draw, that I was so exposed in that group of five. That vote just really put me in a bad spot. If it was a normal vote, I don’t think the divisions would have gotten down that way. With Yase, I know they showed Tiffany and Liana being the closest. But I really think I was always closer with both Liana and Tiffany in the game. And I think you saw that from the fact that they instantly started fighting with each other at the merge, whereas they were both very reluctant to get rid of me. If I hadn’t been that Yase that was in that spot, I don’t think I was going to be that much of a glaring threat. Going to the game, I was planning to play a much more under-the-radar game. But with Yase as it was, I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t go hard at the beginning of that game, I would have been the first or second person out. If I had let Tiffany go with that first vote, I was obviously the next person up. I did what I had to do to stay in the game. And who thought this funky little queer person was going to be the social player and biggest threat. So I’m proud of myself for how I’ve done. Let’s talk about some of your relationships. We see you and Liana form a tight connection from the first day. Talk to me about that bond, and how tough it was for that trust to fall apart postmerge. I just want to say I love Liana. We FaceTimed last night; she’s wonderful. We really did just click right away. We have very similar values and just get along really well. So right at the start, we really were in sync. But as you saw in the merge episode, there was a dynamic where she always wanted to go hard, and I wanted to make a chiller, more long-term move. As time went on, I realized Tiffany and I saw the game much more similar. We had a much more shared vision of what actually makes sense for us. After the Voce vote, Liana was really upset. But I was thrilled. That was honestly what I had wanted to happen. So as time went on, there was a whole week of Liana being upset about that vote and being more and more frustrated on a personal level with Xander. While Tiffany and I are pretending to be with Xander so that he wouldn’t use the idol if we had to go to Tribal, she’s just feeling more and more frustrated by that situation. So I understand why she went to Shan. Shan’s a powerful person. She wants to play their own game. And I also totally get that she and Shan bonded in a way that I could never bond with her. I totally understand why that all happen. It just sucked that it came at the expense of my game. But like I said in the episode, it was game. It wasn’t personal. I’m happy for her that she’s still there. I just wish I was there too! That’s surprising you said you wanted the Voce vote to happen, considering the plan up to that point had been to boot Xander. Talk to me about that. With the Voce vote, I just want to say I actually loved that move for me. That was something I had actually floated the day before Tiff got paranoid. As you can see, I had this really good relationship with Xander that I felt would go far in the game. Whereas Voce’s a neurosurgeon, he’s not going to fall for that. Voce was getting really paranoid and running around. So I had floated that to them the night before. And both Tiffany and Liana were like, “No, we’ve got to get Sandra. He’s got the advantages.” And I thought either option was okay. But then the next day, when Tiffany really wanted to vote Voce, I thought, “This is perfect. I don’t want to leave a blindsided paranoid neurosurgeon in the game. I would rather bring Xander.” Xander knew about the Voce vote, and he was fine with it. And I was able to keep that strong relationship with Xander up until he found out about what I told Deshawn. Let’s talk about the Xander side of things. You go from close allies to you stringing him along to him offering to save you at the merge to him turning on you and Tiffany to you two ultimately trying to work together in this episode. Give me all your thoughts on that up-and-down dynamic. My strategy going into the game was always to try to keep as many options open as possible. So even though I thought of Xander as a fake alliance at Yase, I thought I should make it a really good fake alliance to leave that as an option. So when it came time for the merge, I thought it was great. Xander’s still here as a shield; he’s totally on my side; he has all these advantages like this. This is ideal. I really think we had this very close relationship that was definitely damaged when Deshawn revealed I told him about the idol. But I also think primarily Xander is a game player. On the beach, after that vote, I was like, “I just want to apologize again.” And he was like, “I don’t really care.” I think he was playing up being mad at me harshly. Clearly, his strategy after the merge is that it’s better for him to be perceived as an individual. He knew he could slip into the majority as a free agent. So it was very much in line with that for him to be like, “I’m so mad at Evvie. She totally betrayed me, blah blah blah.” Even though I think that was probably at most 50% of his actual feeling about it. Similarly, I can be like, “Xander was going to let me die. He didn’t play his idol for me. I don’t owe this guy anything.” I think we were both like the scrappy underdogs left in the game, and, on a personal level, I don’t blame him for anything. He’s a great guy. I want to stay on that initial conversation you had with Deshawn, where you decide to start forging cross tribal connections by telling him about Xander’s idol. Talk me through your thinking on that. I really did think Xander was going home that day. Because like I had floated Voce’s name out, and they already said no. So I was like, “Okay, it’s gonna be Xander.” Also, even if we did somehow keep Xander, there was no way we were going to win all the challenges. Up to that point, we had not even come in second place. We were dead last in every challenge. If you had told me that day, “Oh, you’re never gonna lose a challenge again,” I would never have ever believed it. So it definitely seemed like a problem that wasn’t going to come back and bite me. Honestly, I think Deshawn and I were planning on working together, and I don’t think that that would have gone down the way it did if it wasn’t that artificial situation where we had to come at each other. Frankly, good on Deshawn for saying it at Tribal. But I think it would have been a lot more effective if he had told Xander before Tribal before the plan was in motion. Not that I look at the internet, obviously. (Laughs.) But I saw people saying, “Why didn’t you preempt Xander about what you said?” I was so focused on getting Xander to give Tiffany the idol and making sure that plan was in place. I wasn’t going to risk it by being like, “Oh, by the way, I betrayed you a million days ago.” Let’s wait until the plan is already locked in place. The one other thing is that Deshawn told me he and Danny were looking for idols. And I know how dangerous picking up this thing is. I know that Xander lost his vote for the entire freaking premerge! So I actually didn’t want Deshawn to be in that situation because I wanted Deshawn to be there with me at the merge. So I also partially told him because it’s this terrible thing to pick up. I don’t know if it had a factor, but I think it was weird that Luvu didn’t find the idol for as long as they did. So maybe it did put him off looking for a little bit. In your final words, you said, “Any queer kids out there, be yourself. You’re amazing. Love yourself.” What was it like serving as representation for the queer community this season, and how has it been receiving feedback from fans the past couple of months? One of the main reasons I wanted to do the show was because so many people look like me and are like me, and they’re never on the show. I just really thought that I could do well on the show and be a good representative for that. There’s so much messaging that being queer is either bad or saying, “You’ll be okay.” But for me, it’s like, “No, eff that! It’s so much more than okay; it’s the best thing ever.” For me, truly one of the greatest joys of my life was realizing that I’m queer and coming into that and letting myself be myself. That just fills me up and fuels me in such an intense way that it permeates everything I do. To go out there and just be there would have been awesome. But being there and being the one that everyone likes and is like talking to you, and making strategic moves, and like freaking winning an Immunity Challenge, like it’s more than I could have ever dreamed of. The messages I’ve received get me so emotional. I get things from the nicest, kindest fans, from people that it really did touch. And that’s all I could absolutely ever ask for. Especially when kids are watching with their families, and I hear their families are discussing gender. They’ve never ever talked about that before. That’s absolutely freaking everything. So I just want to thank everyone that sent me a message. I read them, and it means so much to me. Next, check out our exit interview with Naseer Muttalif, who was also voted out in Survivor 41 Episode 9.
