‘Survivor: Cagayan’ interview: LJ McKanas on Tony, having to ‘play boring,’ hopes to return

“Survivor: Cagayan” has done a great job this season of making us feel very wrong about where contestants are going to finish, and we’re fine with that when things are this surprising and entertaining. Unfortunately, it does mean from time to time that we are going to lose good players.

To us, LJ McKanas had everything going for him as someone who could end up winning the game. He was athletic, but also soft-spoken and strategic in a way that would not anger anyone. He had friends, and despite being labeled a “beauty,” he never gave into those stereotypes. Who knows? Maybe we would be talking to him after the finale had Tony Vlachos not come along and ruined things for him.

The one thing that we got from LJ’s interview almost right away? The guy really wants to go back and play again, and after hearing him speak about the game, we could totally sign off on that.

CarterMatt – So let’s start the interview off with this, just to try to figure out more of what happened last night. How long were you willing to work with Tony? Would it have been just to the ‘top 5,’ or was he someone you would have went to the end with?

LJ McKanas – I’m a pretty smart player and aware, and I know he is playing a strong game for better or worse. I think he was the only one who was actually playing.

It wouldn’t make any sense for me to make the decision to take him any further than the original plan of six. Whether I would’ve taken a shot at Tony this soon in the game, I ran numbers every day and I ran personalities, loyalties, and trust; I just don’t think that this would’ve been the most opportune time to make a move on Tony. But he was the biggest threat that I had in the game, and I couldn’t have possibly taken him further than six. He made a move much sooner than I [did], but I did have intentions of making a move.

There’s understandably a lot of talk about Tony right now, but Woo also flipped. What is your take on him out there? I know he wasn’t really a part of the main Solana alliance at the time of the merge.

Yeah. I know that Tony understood Woo’s position. He was vulnerable when we took out Cliff, and Woo was playing the game of ‘as long as it’s not me,’ and I’m sure that Tony ensured that bond with him [by saying] ‘top 3, top 3, we’ve been here since the beginning.’ I understand that, and being that Woo is just a coattail kind of guy … I feel like he was even less than under the radar, because he was just out there having a good time in the woods like we were on recess.

Tony was the alpha male, and he was going to [convince] him into making any decisions that he did. So watching in hindsight I am by no means surprised that Woo had made those decisions. I know that they saw me as a threat, and they were playing an individual game; anything that was not going to be Woo was going to be ‘whatever Tony wants.’

Now are you the kind of guy who still plays through moves in your head now, like do you regret playing the idol early or just not remembering one [more] color tile [in the immunity challenge]?

Ever since the day I got home, I’ve been in touch with casting on a weekly and daily basis saying that this eating me up. I am out of this game, and I can’t say that I have full regrets on any decision that I made because you can’t possibly account for somebody that is so volatile as Tony. It eats me up that I had to play such a ‘boring’ game because Tony had such a big personality. I had to tone down the fact that I could literally kick anybody’s a** in those challenges and in puzzles and stuff. I was so excited for that. I had to tone it down because I [didn’t want to to bring attention to me], and [wanted to] let Tony spiral out. I purchased his loyalty and let him be the face of the army, and he was getting votes, and it caused him to spiral out of control.

I don’t think that I would do anything different even though it did send my a** back home, and it is difficult and frustrating. It eats me up every day. I’ll take a shower or clean the stalls of the horses and say ‘should I have done this? What am I going to do the next time?’. I already have a whole game in my head if I am given the opportunity to do this again … The only thing that frustrates me is that I had to play a boring game because I couldn’t be up in the limelight. I would have been home a long time sooner.

You just mentioned it, so I guess if CBS called you up tomorrow and wanted you to go right back out, you would.

Hell yeah! I’m already there. I’m 100% there. I already have the game played out. If they said to be there in two weeks, I wouldn’t even have to pack anything. I’d come out a week early. I’m so ready and I’m such a competitive person. I don’t want to disclose anything about a future game, but I played such a honest and loyal game because everyone allowed me to that I now have an opportunity to play a whole different game. I’m on edge, ready to do this again! (Laughs.)

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Are you bummed that LJ is gone, and what do you think about his responses? Share your thoughts below.