‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ interview: Baylor Wilson speaks out

Throughout most of the season, we really felt like Baylor Wilson was really poised to be a potential winner of “Survivor: San Juan del Sur.” There was something about the edit that suggested she had a pretty good grasp at the game, and it looked like she had a solid road paved for her to make it to the finale.

Then, she was blindsided by Natalie at the last second, and that led to Keith going out in third, and the former “Amazing Race” star ended up coming out on top. Even though being eliminated so close to the end has to be a hard pill to swallow, Baylor was open and shared quite a bit about her time on the show, and even her hopes for a music career moving forward.

CarterMatt – How does it feel to be finally able to talk about everything that happened?

Baylor Wilson – Honestly, I feel fresh, I feel like I can tell everyone everything. There is no more hiding behind walls. It feels good.

Are you happy getting to final five, especially when you consider how many times you were targeted in the early going?

I feel good. Final five is a big deal, especially for somebody who is A) the youngest, and B) the person who got her name written down the most. Then, C) not going into this game knowing things about every single season or gameplay moves.

I was talking to your mom earlier, and she was telling me about a plan where you and Jaclyn would have been voted out, and then tried to campaign for her and Jon on the jury. Was that a plan you were cool with?

There were so many different options that we had, especially when I decided to go with her alliance and vote Josh out. I was comfortable, and they, with they being my mom, Jon, and Natalie, decided that they wanted to go to the final three, and then take me and Jaclyn along for the ride and then vote us out.

I was never okay with that plan. I truly wanted to go to the final three with my mom. That was the dream that I had, but then as I went into the game strategically, I learned that this wasn’t the smartest idea. I think at the end of the day Natalie made a good decision [blindsiding me]. It was tough on me, but it gave my mom a [chance] in the final three without me.

I want to go back to Josh, since you two did have a bond earlier in the game. While I like Josh, I feel like he could have campaigned a little better for you at the merge. Instead of telling you why you should go with him, he instead said that you ‘owed’ him? Had he spoken to you differently, would you have considered sticking with him?

Yeah, absolutely. I had a tough time with that decision, and when he came up to me, and put himself in the victim seat to make me feel bad, ‘owing’ him and all that, I immediately had a bad taste in my mouth. Anyone who says ‘you owe me for this,’ that’s never going to work out in your favorite. If you are trying to play this game, he could have said ‘Baylor, I want to go with you to the final three,’ or ‘let’s do this together,’ and it could have played out differently.

Unfortunately, he said what he said and I didn’t like it.

I feel like there were a couple of times when we saw you thinking strategically in this game, but the editors did not always focus on it. Do you feel like the show didn’t give you enough credit?

Oh, yeah. From the very beginning me and Josh were an alliance, and we were the strongest alliance on our tribe, and we were making the moves, although I didn’t talk to the guys as much. He was the messenger … It was frustrating not being seen as a strategic player as much as I was.

And then, going into that big alliance, it was such an enormous shadow behind the other big players. So yeah, it was tough, but at the same time I understand all the editing and I get it.

How big of a turning point for you was it getting John Rocker out of the game?

That was such a necessary thing for me to survive ‘Survivor.’ He was very scary to me, and after the whole Natalie-and-him fight thing, I was honestly scared to sleep in the same tribe with him. He’s a huge dude, and I heard about his past. We can’t be defined by our past, but at the same time, your actions are your actions and they can be repeated.

I was very relieved to be a part of that blindside and get him out of there.

After Jeremy was voted off, did you get a sense of how upset Natalie was, and how she wanted to take revenge on Jon?

Yeah, after the Jeremy vote, Natalie was pissed off, mostly because our alliance did not tell her it was happening. We knew that she wanted to keep him, and I think they would have gone really far together and he would’ve ended up winning honestly. He’s very smart. That’s why we ended up voting him off.

Natalie is a very reactionary person, but she doesn’t show it. She just acts sometimes. After the Nadiya vote, she had a fire lit under her butt. Then, she had another one after Jeremy was voted off.

Why do you think Natalie and Jaclyn voted you off over Missy? Was it because you were more of a challenge threat?

Basically, I think that Natalie needed to make another big move, and she used the idol that we found against me. I think that she knew that I was a very capable physical player, and you never know what the challenges are going to be.

What was it like watching this whole experience play out on TV?

Honestly I think watching it was more difficult than playing in a weird way. It was tough to see how hard I really had it out there. The difficulties that I faced, not only emotionally dealing with so many terrible dudes, but also physically, it brought back the feeling of sitting there and being starving, thinking about a cheeseburger in a whole different way and being so thankful. Watching it was tough, but it also allowed me to heal every week. The band-aid was ripped off every week, and it was all in the past.

Finally, let’s turn to your life moving forward. You’re in Nashville, and Chase Rice obviously is someone who has done pretty well for himself after making it far on the show. Are you hoping to be the next Chase Rice?

Chase and I know each other, [but] we’re not [close] friends. I do hope to write a song with him at some point, but I don’t want to be the next Chase Rice. I just want to be the first Baylor Wilson. I just want to graduate, throw my hat off, get on a tour bus, and go play music. I just love doing that, and songwriting is my dream and my passion. I’m excited to get back to Nashville and do that.

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