Survivor's [Spoiler] Explains Why 'The Revolution Was Not Televised!'
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of Survivor 48.
We were promised a revolution. That revolution did not come to fruition.
In Wednesday's Survivor, Kamilla was hoping to join Mary, Mitch and Star in order to force a tie against the Strong Four of Eva, Joe, Shauhin and Kyle. However, after Kyle won the reward challenge and Joe won his third immunity, it was clear that the power was squarely in the hands of the "stronger" castaways. But a plan for the underdogs to gun for Joe failed to blossom, and when the results were tallied, Star was sent packing by a vote of 5-3. (Read our recap here.)
Below, Star talks to TVLine about her relationship with Mitch, not playing her Shot in the Dark, the raps we didn't get to hear and so much more.
TVLINE | First off, why didn't you play your Shot in the Dark?
STAR TOOMEY | I didn't play my Shot in the Dark because I really thought the numbers were on my side, and I knew that they were trying to flush it out, so then the next day they could vote me out easy peasy, lemon squeezy. So I'm like, "No, you're not gonna play me. You're not gonna make me feel like you're writing my name down, so I play my Shot in the Dark and then I don't get sent home, and then the next day I get sent home for playing my Shot in the Dark." If I only have this last thing left in me, this one thing that can save me, I have to save it for the next day. I thought it was gonna be four [votes] for Star, five for Mary. Sometimes being overly confident is gonna end your game.
TVLINE | What's your take on why they went for you over Mary?
That's a good question. Honestly, they've been trying to get me out since Day 1. Unfortunately, I don't know why. I haven't been checking for none of them. The only person that can say I've been checking for them is Shauhin because that name had been in my mouth with a coconut ever since I started! But I don't know. Original Lagi, man. They are vicious! They don't let anyone in their little group and they close the door to anybody who wants to sign up and apply for their Lagi team. They're cold. I really thought that at least original Lagi would have my back. I knew Mitch was gonna write my name down. I wrote his name down. In Survivor history, you write my name, I write your name. But yeah, they did me dirty.
TVLINE | Speaking of Mitch, there was a glimpse of an idea of you, Mitch, Mary and Kamilla teaming up to force a tie, but Mitch said he didn't trust you! What was up with that?
I think Mitch just felt that way because I commented on his snoring, but respectfully, it was too loud. I could not sleep. I'm an easy sleeper. If I hear noise though, I'm waking up, and the thing is, I couldn't even close my eyes because he would go to sleep first. I just got upset that night. So the next day I'm like, "Mitch, why do you sleep before everybody else? I can hear you snoring from here." Can you at least have common courtesy to wait until everyone goes to sleep and then you go to sleep? I just couldn't take it any more and I think when I made that comment, it just rubbed him the wrong way. At that point he was like, "You know what, Star? I got something for you!" And he did.
TVLINE | There's a pretty strong majority alliance this season in Kyle, Shauhin, Joe and Eva. Even before David was voted out, was there any conversation of breaking up these strong players earlier?
If you look at the conversation before Chrissy gets voted out when we're at that split Tribal Council, Chrissy was like, "We have to get these strong people out, Star, because if not, they're just gonna pick us apart one by one." Chrissy was fighting for everyone to wake up and say, "Hey. You're not gonna walk all over me because you have these muscles." Maybe if we all would have listened a little harder. You're in the game, sometimes you're like, "What's wrong with this person, chill," but she was speaking facts and no one was listening. Then you look at the next episode and I'm speaking facts and no one is listening, and it just continues on and on. The revolution was not televised!
TVLINE | It wasn't, unfortunately! Now, some viewers were surprised that you gave up your idol to Eva so easily. Can you walk me through your decision there?
In a game like Survivor, you have to move, you have to shake, you have to maneuver. So after the episode with Eva when she comes out and talks about her autism, we're all sitting there on the beach and David's like, "It's all right, Eva, we're not gonna let that affect you. We have your back. I'm with you. We all love you." Everyone's showing her love and everyone's coming to her as a community. And at that point, they're talking about honest and loyal, honest and loyal, loyal and honest, and I'm like, "Oh man, can you shut up with that honest and loyal stuff?"
At this point, now I have to maneuver my game. So I'm like, "Hey y'all, I wanna be honest and loyal. I have this beware advantage. We can all use it if we can figure it out. Let's go find out what it is." So I felt like in that moment, it was me coming out like, "Hey guys. I wanna work with y'all. Let's work together. Here's my olive branch." And of course, you see me give the Beware Advantage to Eva, but in that sense we're all trying to figure it out together. Once she opens it, I'm like, "You opened it." If I never opened that Beware Advantage, it would have haunted me for the rest of my life. I would have been pissed. That's worse than losing a million dollars. So in that moment, I thought it was the best for my game. I thought maybe that could change our relationship. Maybe we could grow a little bit and work together instead of working apart, and I guess it didn't work out that way.
TVLINE | Speaking of Eva, her relationship with Joe was very public. Why didn't anyone try to split them up at any point?
The only people that were really fighting and really like, "Y'all, please listen," were Chrissy and Charity. Once I gave my idol up, the next day you see me and Charity talking and Charity's like, "You have to get your idol back, Star." And I'm like, "OK, girl, I want it back too, but can you get it? Why do I gotta get it, because if I get it, they're gonna be mad at me." I'm like, "Charity, you're trying to set me up!" I'm gonna go back to this girl and say, "Hey girl, can you give me back that idol I just gave you a couple of days ago? I gotta get it back, it's mine." It wasn't gonna be good for my game, but I'm watching everything happen and Chrissy's like, "Yo, we have to break this. They're too tight." Everyone knows a situation like that — real talk, real talk — a situation like that? They're getting voted out that day. Old Survivor, they're going. You're getting voted out. Previous seasons, you're getting voted out. Nobody wanted to vote them out.
TVLINE | You were dropping mad bars on last night's episode! Were there any other raps that were left on the cutting room floor? Did you write your first album out there?
Yeah, a little bit! Little pieces. One that I wish they would have showed, I was like... it was one between Mitch and Sai, it was during the split Tribal Council when it was like:
"Who's going home? Is it Mitch or Sai?
Mitch is gonna stay, or is it Sai today?
Is it Mitch today? Is it Sai today?
Who knows who's going home, but I'm here to stay!"
I was spitting bars! [Laughs] Yeah, that was the fire, but the whole episode, that whole scene, the music, the beat behind it. Chef's kiss!
TVLINE | There were some scenes early on where it looked like you had some serious bandages on your legs. What was going on there?
The first challenge, when we have to climb up and then go down that bouncy thing and then we have to go through that sand thing, I don't know if people noticed, but I got pulled through the sand. And literally, as soon as I stand up, all the skin on my knees was gone. And all I can see is pink. It's bad and in a game like Survivor where you're sleeping outside, you're struggling outside, you're in between water and no water, sand, you're not taking proper showers, you're taking ocean baths... so they were like, "We don't want it to get infected because if it gets infected, this is gonna end your game." And I'm like, "Please wrap it up. Do whatever you gotta do." So every time you see me with my bandages, I'm just making sure that I'm protecting myself so it's not getting infected, but I can literally see the pink meat all the way till it was green. Crazy work, man. But I'm glad that we had some great medics there for me. They gave me the proper cleaning stuff that I needed so I could continue the game because that would have ended my game. There was a time where I couldn't even walk because it was so sore and the skin was so fresh.
TVLINE | In the early episodes, we didn't really see a lot of Star! Was there anything from those early days you wish people saw or knew?
Some of the comments are like, "I don't know why she keeps going back to Joe. I don't know why she keeps talking to Joe," because you see a different shift where we're not really talking or it seems like we have no relationship. But when we first got on the island, Joe tells me, "Hey, I wanna work with you. Have you found anything?" I'm like, "No, man, I ain't looking." And he's like, "Well, I'm looking, and if I find something, I'll tell you. If you find something, you tell me." So, of course he said he wanted to work with me. That was the first person that approached me, so when I find this Beware Advantage, I go to him first. He didn't help me, but you know, I get it. But then he tells me to get Shauhin, so that's how the chaos starts. So you get this person and then it's like telephone, you tell this person and now all of a sudden, the whole message is misconstrued.