‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’ exclusive: Kass McQuillen on Tasha’s actions, Spencer, uphill battle

We don’t know how you can be anything other than sad to see Kass McQuillen leave “Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance” on Wednesday night, provided of course that you are watching the show with entertainment in mind first and foremost. She had an amazing run in “Cagayan,” and for some time seemed as though she was in a really great spot here. However, the merge came, and with that came some drama as she and Tasha went toe-to-toe in a series of arguments.

Anytime there’s a merge episode, we know that there is a lot left on the cutting-room floor, and the same can definitely be said here. We talked with Chaos Kass below about some of what we didn’t see in the episode, her real relationship with Spencer, and whether or not she’s interested in giving this another go.

CarterMatt – I know there are a lot of people probably asking about whether or not you should’ve kept Spencer last week, but what I’m more interested in is this: Do you think you would have been in danger if you had went to the merge with Woo instead?

Kass McQuillen – Yes, definitely. This was all about someone who had a vendetta and really wanted to get me out of the game, presumably before the jury started, but ha-ha. There was no reason for anyone to be targeting me. I was just laying low and going along with what other people wanted to do. That was a part of the ‘keeping Spencer’ thing. My alliance members wanted Woo out, well we wanted Savage out and Abi didn’t want to do that, so Woo was the next best thing. The merge coming early hurt me because Savage would’ve been next on Ta Keo, and then we would’ve been in a really good spot coming into a merge. Unfortunately we merged early, Savage was made at me, Tasha’s been mad at me apparently for two years (laughs), so it was an uphill battle.

When someone has the reputation that I have going into the game, even though for 18 days I corrected that and was extremely well-liked by everyone, one person wanting to bring that out and bring that up and beat people over the head with it is powerful. Unfortunately someone decided to seek revenge rather than try to win their second chance. That’s fine with me; if you want to get me out and end up screwing yourself over, that’s on you. I don’t think there’s anything I could’ve done. Tasha was coming after me no matter what. She was insecure, she was afraid of me, but I would’ve gone to the end with her because I know she can’t win this game. Her personality is so hypocritical and angry and sanctimonious. You can see it in her physical presence where she just bristles and eyerolls. It’s very animated; she cannot contain her animosity towards people. She’s a great person to go to the end with, so that’s why it was funny that she could target me.

Were there these problems over on Bayon in the early going between you two, and were we not seeing it because the show was focusing on other things like [Ta Keo] or Stephen struggling with a branch?

When we were on on Bayon originally, we made up, we spent time together [the first two nights], we talked out ‘Cagayan’ like I did with Spencer, which you didn’t see. My thing was, ‘let’s move on.’ It’s a new game, it’s our second chance, let’s not carry ‘Cagayan’ into this because most people don’t care about ‘Cagayan.’ It was shocking to me, and perhaps one of my biggest mistakes was underestimating that someone would be so clouded by the past that they would do this. But I was just assuming that everyone was there trying to win the game from their own merit, and play a new game. That was a mistake of mine.

A lot of things happened that day, where Tasha really came at me on many levels. That’s why you saw me there at the camp saying ‘Tasha is doing this.’ It wasn’t me going over to blow it up; she had already starting speaking, and I just decided to defend myself. By then Ciera, Abi, and myself were being completely ostracized and the [other] people had basically all teamed up and basically said ‘nobody talk to these three,’ and eventually Joe came over and said it was me. There was nothing worse on ‘Survivor’ than sitting there for hours, being berated by someone who hates you, knowing that you’re going home that night. I’d rather be blindsided, and if Tasha was really playing the game she really should have executed a great blindside rather than trying to make things personal. I would have respected that much more than the way it went about [happening].

So what exactly is your relationship with Spencer? You two are super-fun to watch, and I know you’re probably heard this comparison before, but I feel like you two are almost like professional wrestlers who go into the ring and battle each other, but then after it’s over you go out and have a beer.

Spencer may hate to hear this, but we’re very much alike. We’re both logical people, we both love ‘Survivor,’ and we both want to win so bad. There’s nothing personal with animosity between Spencer and I. I think I confound him, and I think I forget sometimes with Spencer that I could be his mother. I’m like 20 years older than him, and it’s hard sometimes because he’s so articulate and well-spoken and intelligent, but it’s hard to remember that he is just a kid compared to me. I was in the military when he was born (laughs), so it’s this bizarre relationship we have. He has this mature air about him, but he doesn’t have the life experience. I think he’s equally confused, because we’re on this level together intellectually, but to him I’m the old lady and that is something weird to be to a 20-something-year-old guy. It’s fascinating; I’m sure the psychologist out there would love to throw us into a room together and see what happens.

But I think Spencer’s a great guy. He is a really nice person in real life and he was nice to me out there. Everybody’s just playing a game.

You mentioned Savage being next to go on the new Ta Keo tribe before the merge. Had that not happened, do you think that your tribe would have thrown the challenge to get rid of him?

It would depend. Savage was behaving pretty poorly after the Woo blindside … He can’t roll with the punches. If it’s not going his way, he’s going to throw a tantrum, which is hilarious because he is a 50-something-year-old man. He was being a turd at camp after that and everyone knew it.

Would we throw a challenge? I don’t think we would need to throw a challenge, because we had a lot of people who suck at challenges on our tribe. And I don’t believe in throwing challenges. It bugs me. If you have me on tribe it’s like throwing a challenge anyway (laughs).

Oh Kass, you’ve won immunity before!

I know, and this time I certainly held my own in all the challenges. I don’t know if we would have thrown it, but he was certainly next to go. Bayon, they could have thrown it because from my understanding Joe was next to go over there. So it would’ve been interesting and fascinating to let us go to a normal merge [at 12], and see two tribes that were both trying to throw it. That would’ve been a great episode.

I want to talk about the Chaos Kass persona, because I’m sure you heard going into this that so many people thought you were going to be the first one out. Did that nickname, fun as it is to have a nickname, make life so much harder for you?

Yeah. Obviously pre-game everybody wanted me out first and nobody was going to align with me, so I definitely had probably the biggest uphill battle out of everyone out there if I wanted to win, and I feel like I definitely succeeded there for 18 days. Day 19, it all fell apart.

I had a Chief in the military tell me once that it only takes one ‘ah, s–t’ to wipe away five ‘attaboys,’ and that’s what happened to me. 18 days and being Kassanova and all of the names people were calling me out there, and then somebody tried to draw out the chaotic side and even though I don’t believe it came out, I just think I was defending myself and not trying to be malicious or anything, that’s what people perceived. Once people have this seed in their head that you are this person who will do whatever, and you get to the merge episode and you’re all together and paranoia is at a high, all anyone needs to do is remind [people] of who you were in your first season. It erases everything that you’ve done. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

A couple of quick things before we wrap things up. Was there anyone you wanted to play with that you didn’t get to? I would’ve loved to see you and Varner on a tribe together.

Oh my god, I love Varner. If Varner and I had gotten together, it would’ve been like ‘The Real Housewives of Cambodia.’ It would’ve been wonderful. Being a superfan of the show and having watched from the beginning, shoot I applied for season 2! Kimmi and I are the same age, we’re like five days apart. By the way Happy Birthday Kimmi, since I think her birthday is coming up since mine is. To think that Kimmi and I are the same age, I could’ve been Kimmi in ‘Australia,’ and then I’d probably be married to Colby right now. (Note: this may be our favorite line from any exit interview all season.)

To be out there with people I look up to, it was so fun. And Varner, what a great guy, and what a great character for the show. I love people who play hard and leave it all out there on the island.

Finally, any interest in going through this again?

I think I’m full-circle right now. Ironically, it is three years to the week that I applied and got a callback and started this journey that got me to Cagayan and then Cambodia, but I don’t think I could ever win. Why go back if you don’t think you can win? As glamorous as Ponderosa appears with that shower toilet, I have better things to do than sit in a Southeast Asian country eating cheeseburgers at Ponderosa.

I never say never because I think that’s a bad thing to do, but I feel like at this point like my arc is over within the ‘Survivor’ world, and I really love new players and new-player seasons, and I hate all the pre-gaming that goes on in returning player seasons. That definitely happened here. That’s playing out. I just think they should stick to new players and new twists.

Well I think you could win this game, but I appreciate getting to chat with you about all of this today. The game’s going to be a lot less fun without you there.

Well you can can still watch my facial expressions and my middle finger flying around! I don’t know if you watch Ponderosa but it’s going to be fun.

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Since she mentioned it, we’re throwing in Kass’ Ponderosa video at the bottom of this article. Enjoy.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKocesO_gtY