We need to start with your jury vote. Because a lot of fans, including myself, were pretty stunned to see you vote for Gabler over Cassidy. What was your reasoning?We have a society that we built on Survivor. We tried not to make big moves, because those were targets. So who made a move, period? And so for me, it was Gabler. Who can make a move when we were all afraid to make a move? He had that Elie vote, and then unfortunately, he took Jesse out on fire. And that was it. For me, that was it, actually. (Laughs.) Selling Elie out at the merge feast and taking Jesse out at the fire were very, very big moves for me.Before leaving the game, you had told Cassidy you would sway the journey against her favor if she voted you out. Did that actually end up happening?No. I knew going after leaving that Immunity Challenge that this was it and my game is tanked. I’m at the bottom. I’m gonna do whatever it takes for me to even try to stay. So I kind of pulled a Daenerys Targaryen move. And I was like, “I’m just gonna light this place on fire. And hopefully that saved me.” And so with Cass, I feel like people are gonna say that it’s me. But it’s really not. Because I don’t have that power to sway the jury. We literally all deliberated. We got around a table and we were like, “So who did what? Let’s talk about it. Whose move is whose? Where’s the credit for these moves?” That’s what it came down to. And let’s hope that at final Tribal Council, they can open it up. And we saw some people open up whether they did make any moves or not. And Gabler was able to talk it out and say, “This is the stuff that I did.” And that’s that’s really what it came down to at that time. We did not know at that final Tribal Council what was going to happen.One of your other gambits happened at Tribal Council. When Jesse showed his idol, you pulled him aside to try to get him to play the idol on you. How much did you believe he would actually do that?As you saw on my vote, I had written Cass down, then crossed it out and wrote Jesse. Because in a way, I was like, “Listen, if I could go back down there and say I voted Cass and tell him, ‘Hey, bro, I voted the way you wanted me to vote. We’re good.’” But then at the same time, I was like, “Actually, wouldn’t it be even better if I wrote his name down? And then he wrote it for me, and then I got his ass out?” So for me, that was the move. But it was really hard to read with Jesse. Before, he alluded to maybe having an idol out at the beach. And then he was like, “No, I’m just kidding.” And I was like, “Bro, if you have something planned for me, that’s it. That’s all I need.” But when it came down to that Tribal Council, I was like, “Let me just do that vote just in case he plays it for me.” And then that would be the biggest move of the season! (Laughs.) But it didn’t work. But that’s okay.There were talks of you as a big threat, something you wore as a badge of honor. If you made it to the end, do you think you would have easily won?I mean, it really depends on who I was sitting with. I low-key was like, “I’ll take Jese with me.” Because for me, I really wanted it to be a fight, right. Like, I would have gone to the end with anyone. I think we got we all got a little selfish in who we wanted to take to the end. You can kinda see that fight with Jesse just like sniping us out. But I honestly I told Jesse, I was like, “I’ll go with you to the end, bro. For me, it would be a badge of honor to duke it out with you.” So who knows how it would have ended? I would have gone with anyone. I could have had a chance. Clearly you saw me, I’m a good talker. (Laughs.) I can convince a lot of people to do a lot of things. If you don’t want to take that shot, we’re gonna take that shot. (Laughs.)I mean, that’s why you became this threat in the first place! But by the end of your game, you were in rough shape, injured and without allies or an idol. How did that feel for you considering how far you had fallen?I have to reference that Daenerys moment again. I knew, and I said it in my confessional, I’m the bottom. But if I can somehow convince these people that Jesse’s the biggest threat. Honestly, you know, what baffles me the most? I talked to Owen, Gabler, and Cassidy. And I was like, “Y’all really think you could beat Jesse?” And they all said yes. And I was like, “What?! In what world?!” (Laughs.) And so for me, it was really like, “I’m just gonna cause chaos.” Because at this point, my body has given out. Clearly my social game has given out, at least with this final five. (Laughs.) So I’m gonna do whatever it takes to either create chaos, or maybe convince them somehow. It was hard, though, because you didn’t know about Jesse’s idol. I think everyone didn’t know about it. And so that kind of turn, obviously, it made things go a little crazy, a little sour. Speaking of your idol, I’d love some clarification on it. Because it seemed like you got the beads for it without anyone being the wiser. You even tell Gabler that Lindsay went out with an idol, which he seems to believe. But then all of a sudden we find out you told Cassidy about your idol. How did that happen?So for me, it was the Noelle vote. I don’t remember what season I was watching. But everyone was telling everyone about their idols. And I was like, “I would never do that. If I ever got on the show, why would you ever tell anyone about your idol?” So for me, it was just easy to keep it a secret. But then obviously, the way that the beads played out, it was really difficult. And I think it was in the Noelle vote that we were afraid of Knowledge is Power. That is the biggest curse ever, period. I think I told Cass, “Just in case, if for some reason, they bring it back as a third time.” Because I already helped wash it out twice. You never know. We never know what can happen. So that’s when I told her about it. And I was like, “Let’s try to do something.” But then, clearly, you saw that I instantly regretted it. But it’s hard. It’s hard to know who knows what is really hard. Especially because you can kind of see Elie talk about it with Ryan about the way that they found the beads. So I knew that eventually would catch up with me. I wasn’t dumb. I knew at that point that people knew. But I knew Cass at least had a guarantee because I told her about it.Another sudden shift we see is you deciding to target Cassidy after Sami lies that she told him about your idol. Was this something you had been planning before this moment?No, no, no. I think it was the moment that I had confirmed with her that I had an idol. My wife told me before going out of the game, “Cut someone before they cut you.” And that was my mentality. So in a way, that kind of was the Lindsay vote and the Geo vote. And I was like, “Let me try to do it again with Cass.” It clearly didn’t work out. For me, my whole thing was, if people have information about me, I may as well try to get them before they get me out. That was my entire mentality. And what was surprising was that I was so true when it came to the “telenovela” tears. It was factual aside from me coming for her, of course. (Laughs.) I stayed loyal to her the entire time up to that point. That was real.You talked about surprising yourself in so many ways, namely in the challenges. But we also get that moment in the first episode where you immediately become the middle of multiple alliances. Was that something that surprised you, and did you use any particular strategy to play the center?Listen, there’s just something that happens when you play Survivor. I don’t know what it is. But I grew as a person. There’s just like this confidence that you build. Once you can make a move, you’re like, “I got this.” You got it in you. And I never knew that could happen to me, honestly. But once I found those beads, and I said, “I’m taking this advantage, and I’m getting an idol,” that changed my entire outlook and my entire confidence in the entire game. I was like, “I could be a badass, and I can do this. Anything I need to happen, it can happen.“In the preseason, you spoke about being super intersectional, and I know representation has been a large focus of your time on social media about this season. How do you look back on your game through that lens, and being able to hopefully represent all the communities you’re a part of?Listen, this is the reason that I applied. I didn’t see anyone that looked like me. I didn’t see plus size women be super athletic. I didn’t see queer women get far. And so for me, I was like, “I am coming in, and I’m representing.” I grew up in the hood, I was low income. I’m a queer Chicana. And if I get voted out first, I get voted out first. But there was just something that kept pushing me to say, “You got this. Your communities are behind you. Your ancestors are behind you. Do what you got to do to stay in the game.” And I think that I definitely made an impact. I don’t know what the stats are. I might be I’m either the first or the second lesbian to ever make it to the finale in Survivor history. And then just to be able to represent the Latinx or Chicana community, this is everything I came for. I came to show you all that I am a badass, and people like us can succeed in this game. You could kind of see it in Jesse. We’re very similar if you really look at it. We’re both low income. We’re both Latinx. We grew up in very tough neighborhoods. And look at the way that we played the game. This is why we need more people like us to apply and to play Survivor, because we can do whatever we want to do.Next, check out our interview with Survivor 43 fourth-place finisher Jesse Lopez.
