‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’ exclusive: Vytas Baskauskas on early target, yoga moves, and more

We will make no secret of the large amount of crow we are eating over the first exit from “Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance.” After claiming that Vince was going to win last time, we picked Vytas this time … which really just shows that we’re terrible at predictions. Still, we had specific reasons for picking the “Blood vs. Water” graduate to take it home this time, namely that he was a smart, strategic, and athletic player, and while he was a threat to win, we really did not think that anyone was going to want to get rid of him right away because he’d be of use in some of the challenges.

So much for that idea. Vytas was sent home over Abi-Maria Gomes, and we got a chance to figure out some of what was going on in the game during our exit interview with him on Thursday morning.

CarterMatt – This is a broad way to start, but what happened?

Vytas Baskauskas – My whole strategy was to go in there and lay low. Don’t outplay yourself in the beginning. Being that this is Second Chance, I had a feeling that people were going to go in there and play really hard, and I thought some people would shoot themselves in the foot right out of the gate. I didn’t think I would be a victim of that; I didn’t think that people were going to be gunning after me. So when we hit the beach and 30 minutes in I’m hearing ‘Shirin’s targeting you, Shirin is trying to rally some people [against] you’ [it changed things]. She had a couple of relationships with people before hitting the beach, and those people just formed a little group. Meanwhile I was over with the old-school people, Terry Deitz and Kelly Wiglesworth; I wanted to play with people who weren’t over-strategizing.

It was tough, because I know I was getting gunned for, but at the same time Abi was kind of annoying everybody, so I just thought that I could pin everything onto Abi … She was annoying everybody. But people were playing out of fear, they want to get out big threats early, which I [understand] because it’s a smart move, whether or not it’s me. But that early on to get someone out like me, I think the tribe, Ta Keo, is going to struggle in immunity challenges and I worry for them.

It’s a tricky thing. In a confessional during the episode you talked about how, during your first season, you were good at endearing yourself to some of the women, and you did a really great job with that in ‘Blood vs. Water,’ especially after the tribe swap. In some ways, did that work against you? You look at other people in your alliance like Terry or Kelly, and you are known more for being a strategic threat.

I think maybe that’s true. I’m a strategic player, but I’m one that wants to play an old-school game. If you want to play a new-school game, that’s just a whole lot more work. An old-school game, you can just get the numbers and stick with each other and ride it as far as we can. Any strategy that you want to [use], typically the easier path is the one you want to go on. I didn’t have enough foresight to think that people wouldn’t want to be on that road with me. I thought Varner would want to be on that road, I though Peih-Gee wanted to be on that road, and Shirin did a really good job of pulling them over to her newfangled ways.

It sounds like you are giving Shirin the majority of the credit for getting you out of the game.

Yeah … she was the one who was uniting everyone saying ‘we got to get out Vytas.’ People bought it! People bought into it. She wanted to get me out and she did.

I think it comes from more than me being a threat, though. I think we’re all human, and we all have our own trauma. I think she had some stuff from the men the first time that she played, the men who were in power positions, and I think that she had some stuff from her childhood with men in authority positions. I think she wanted to come onto the beach, see which guy was the strongest, and get the guy with the most power out of there.

On the show last night, how much responsibility, if any, should we put on you teaching people yoga?

I don’t think much. That was actually before the challenge, day 3, and Shirin asked ‘hey Vytas, can you show me some yoga? My back hurts; show me some yoga poses,’ and I said ‘I’d love to.’ I’m not going to say ‘no, I’m not going to show you yoga.’ It just came off as like pretty creepy. I went from like cool yoga teacher to creepy yoga teacher in like thirty seconds last night. (Laughs.)

Let’s play the conspiracy angle here. Do you think Shirin may have been setting you up?

It’s possible. It’s funny, because we had sent one Twitter message before the season had started. I had sent her a message saying ‘hey, looking forward to playing with you out there,’ and she replied saying ‘yeah, it’s going to be great, I can’t wait for you to teach me some yoga. I really need yoga in my life.’ And this happened even before we were out there, so there was some continuity when she asked me [out there] … She even came to one of my classes a year ago after her first season [filmed] at the yoga studio. I think it’s [just authentic]: I’m a yoga teacher! I love helping people with yoga and making people feel good. Then, I was wearing skimpy underwear and I didn’t think it was going to come off as creepy and it did. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at it. It’s just a TV show, it’s not that big a deal.

You seem to be a pretty good sport about it, and judging from what you said earlier, it wasn’t a complete blindslide.

It was a little bit of a blindside in that I wasn’t sure I was going home. When I went home in ‘Blood vs. Water,’ I knew I was going because it was right after Aras went home and I blew up tribal council, knowing that I was leaving that night.

This time I thought I had some people with me. I was close to Spencer before the game, we played chess, he spent a night on my couch several months ago. I thought we were together and that we were buddies, but he didn’t honor that in the game and that is what it is. Then there was Varner, who I thought [we had on our side]. I thought at worst it would be six to four; honestly, I thought more people would vote Abi because she grated on a lot of people and a lot of people had mentioned that to me. I knew my name was going to be written down at least two times. I knew Shirin and Kelley Wentworth weren’t vibing with me and didn’t want to spend any time with me.

Watching the show last night, how shocked were you that Kelley got that idol and nobody noticed?

It was cool! It’s great for her. I think it’s a really great twist and I’m excited to see how it unfolds.

Do you think things could have been different for you on the Bayon tribe? Could you have helped Stephen with that [branch]?

Even though I’m a yoga guy, ultimately I’m a nerd. I think Stephen would’ve had another nerd to bond with on Bayon and we’d have fun together. But still, two nerds there makes a minority. I don’t know if I would have done any better over there, who knows? Maybe I was doomed no matter what the tribe divisions were, maybe I could have won it based on the hand I was dealt. It’s tough to second-guess every decision.

Have you had time to talk with Aras about all this?

Yeah, we’ve talked about it a bunch, but we both have one-year old sons so most of our time is spent talking about watching our kids grow up together. We both love ‘Survivor’; last night we had a good time watching it together and he’s been very supportive.

The last thing I have for you is about something you’ve already brought up: Everybody did a little pre-gaming, and it is such a different season in that everyone knew who was going to be a part of it. Was it so much harder going out there and trying to rely on some friendships and connections that you built?

It was so different. There’s never been a cast that was announced a month before doing the show, and with the fact that we were going out there, pre-gaming stuff happened. Then, because you’ve got a bunch of players who were all voted in, we all had our ego boosted up by the game we played the first time. Nobody won, but we all did well enough to be asked back. We were all popular in ‘Survivor’ lore. You take 20 people who are all popular and had good experiences and want to play again, we all made it far. I mean, a couple of people didn’t make the merge, but we were all confident in our gameplay. We think we’re good players, and I was one of the ones who had to go.

There’s little choices here and there that make you wonder if there is something I could have done differently, if I should have aligned with this person or that person. People were out there right out of the gate playing as hard as they could, trying to live up their reputation. Or, with some people like Kelley Wentworth, create a new reputation. She is one of the people who really didn’t get far, that didn’t have that positive of an experience. She wanted to come out there and make a name for herself.

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Thanks to Vytas for the lengthy chat, and you can click here to read our review of the “Survivor” premiere! Also, you can sign up now in the event you want some other TV news sent over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)