‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’ interview: Monica Culpepper on sticking with Tyson and Gervase, Kat strategy
Monica Culpepper had a good run on “Survivor: Blood vs. Water,” since she made it all the way to the end of the game (and even received a vote to win) after dominating many challenges after the merge, and making a number of key decisions as the swing vote.
But there were a number of little topics that we discussed with her today in a brief conference call with reporters, including her move to get rid of Kat early (one her better moves of the season, from our vantage point), her realizing that sticking with Tyson and Gervase was the right move, and having to deal with hate on the internet.
CarterMatt – First of all, how has this overall experience been for you wrapping up this season?
It’s been awesome, and it’s been awesome out here in L.A.. The ‘One World’ finale was in New York, so it’s been awesome to come out here to CBS and Hollywood and have the finale here.
I want to go back to one of your earlier moves in the game, which was deciding to get rid of Kat the moment that she was starting to bring up your name, almost like a ‘if you’re not with me, you’re against me’ sort of thing. What went into that move for you?
The minute that you catch wind that somebody has brought your name up, it’s like I said: ‘Do unto others as they would do unto you. But with ‘Survivor,’ you got to do unto others before they do unto you.’ They gotta go before you.
I also knew that Kat from ‘One World,’ she was in the driver’s seat for the whole game. She had made a final four or five alliance from the second that she hit the pavement. This group, not so much. She had an older group of Survivors that she was playing with. Don’t get me wrong: I adore Kat, she and Hayden have been out to the house for eight days, they’ve come twice and we had a great time … I knew that she wasn’t in the alliance that we were in, and I knew that Kat would have been very threatening if we had made the merge. Hayden was going to be there, and she was going to play Hayden’s game and Hayden won ‘Big Brother.’ There were a lot of reasons why Kat needed to go before me.
Over the past few tribal councils, how much was it in your head that going to end with Ciera or Tina was a mistake, given that they had loved ones on the jury fighting for them?
You hit the nail on the head. That was definitely on my mind, and there was one other piece to that puzzle in that these people could also lobby the jury. It’s a part of a flaw in ‘Survivor,’ since these people are hanging out at Ponderosa lobbying each other as to who is going to win. The second thing that is the other piece to that puzzle is that when Hayden and Ciera were coming at me with the stuff about the ‘lap dog,’ I was like ‘well, who’s the lap dog here? I think you’re my lap dog.’ The climate out there was such that it would have been one of my dumbest moves of the game. I’m guaranteed final three with Tyson and Gervase. I’m a very honest person with a lot of integrity, and I wanted to play an honest game. There is merit in not breaking promises to people, not having a lot of blood on my hands, and then making it to the end.
And, I felt like if I had made that move with Ciera and [Hayden], I’m not #3 with them, I’m #4. Laura Morett was fierce at Redemption Island, and she could come back and be #3 with them. I could have made the biggest move in the game in separating Tyson and Gervase, I’ve won lots of competitions, and [had I made the move] I would’ve been out fifth. I was in it to win it, get to the final three and figure out what to do. Even if I had made the move it wouldn’t have been like ‘look at Monica, with her big crazy move’; it would have been ‘look at Hayden. He was so persuasive that he got Monica to flip.’ I really felt that way. He was Mr. Congeniality out there. It was a no-brainer [to stay with Tyson and Gervase].
There has been a lot of hate on Twitter, but I told myself ‘what are you doing Monica, don’t listen to all this.’ It was just Hayden fans mad that he didn’t go further … My best bet was to go with Tyson and Gervase. It was not illogical by any means.
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Photo: CBS