‘Survivor: Cagayan’ exit interview: Alexis Maxwell sizes up mistakes in the game
Alexis Maxwell really wanted to do everything she could to be a good “Survivor” player. She constantly tried to strategize and convince people on her new Aparri tribe to work with her. Unfortunately, she fell victim to the same thing as many other players before her: Making her case a little too much. She was also the victim of circumstance, at least in that she was on a tribe with Morgan (who had no real allies left on the Beauty tribe), and a guy in Jeremiah who really didn’t seem to have much of a strategy at all.
We got a chance to ask Alexis about a few of her biggest mistakes in the game, and her assessment on some of the other players in her tribe, in a conference call with reporters today. Unfortunately, Lindsey Ogle was not on the call, but judging from some comments that she made to Zap2It, we can tell you pretty reasonably that she doesn’t regret her decision to quit, and that she did it out of fear that she was going to do something to Trish that she didn’t want her daughter to see on TV. (We analyzed this move further in our review for this episode.)
Now, let’s move on to our chat with Alexis.
CarterMatt – As someone who, as you said, is a huge fan of the show, was it frustrating to go out mostly because you seemed to try too hard?
Alexis Maxwell – Well they didn’t show a lot of it, but I made a lot more mistakes than that! I was so disappointed, and I just wanted to do better because as a fan, I felt like I was playing for all the fans who would kill to be on the show. I just thought it was a missed opportunity and I blew it a little bit, that I didn’t make it further than that.
Since you bring it up, what other mistakes did you feel like you made in the game?
I was very upfront about about my connection with Jefra and LJ, and that was pretty dumb of me, especially when I would talk about Jefra as though me and her were glued together. I was thinking that it was going to be helpful for me since it would consider me to be two numbers rather than one, since I could pull in Jefra, but they’re smart! They’re thinking why I just couldn’t go to Jefra then, if we are so close [to each other]. I thought I was helping myself, but really I was hurting myself. I really should’ve known better.
So what was your reaction when you found out watching the show that Jeremiah was telling the truth about the idol clue?
I was certain that he was lying to me! There was no doubt in my mind at that moment that he was being a horrible liar. I feel kind of bad about it, but either way even if I knew he was telling the truth, that was the only move I had to make so I would have played it the same way, and try to make the Brains and everyone else see that he is the one who has connections to all of the other people. Either way, it didn’t really work for me.
One thing I was curious about what how Sarah managed to avoid the target. Was it when Tony started yelling ‘top five’ and she said she was completely done with the other tribe when she started to not become a target?
When I first approached the Brians, my first selling point was that it was the most dangerous to take Sarah to the merge because she has so many options. I think the major turning point was when Cliff and Lindsey weren’t there anymore. It lost numbers, and it showed that the Brawn was split, and she made it look, which was a good move on her part, like she was connected to Cliff and Lindsey, and not like she was connected with the other Brawn members. It helped her position, and then it hurt my position because my two allies were still there. If LJ had gone home, I don’t think I would’ve.
I want to close with a question about the Brains. Who did you think was the ringleader there, or were they sharing the same mind?
It was Kass and Tasha. They were very blatant about how close they were, and they would just talk, the two of them together. Spencer was kind of their third wheel, which wasn’t a bad place to be. You don’t want to be the person who’s calling the shots. He was definitely not in control of their threesome, but he was obviously safe so he was fine.
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As always, we’ll have more “Survivor” news as it happens, including our attempt to try and rank the remaining players going into the merge coming up this weekend. You will be able to see that along with our other “Survivor” coverage at this link. Also, be sure to sign up now get even further updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.