‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ interview: Jaclyn Schultz on second place, jury votes, much more
While she was not always the player on the surface, Jaclyn Shultz was involved in many of “Survivor: San Juan del Sur’s” most important moves. She also got enough votes to officially be considered the runner-up for this season.
So why would Jaclyn prefer to go out and play this game again, if this meant that she didn’t have to watch herself on TV? This is one of the many subjects we discussed early this morning in an extended one-on-one interview.
CarterMatt – So how does it feel to have finished in second place?
Jaclyn Schultz – I’m just so happy. Natalie totally deserved to win; we all knew she did. It’s almost more of a relief that it’s over. We all went out last night, and had a good time. So it’s good.
Was it nice to just finally be able to have the news out there, so you don’t have to keep it a secret any longer?
Yes! Oh my gosh, I’ve been keeping it inside for so long, so to finally talk about it is awesome.
Before the game started, you and Jon obviously talked about [the game]. Did you ever think you would be the swing vote as much as you were?
No, never. Jon and I never thought would be playing together. We thought one of us would be voted out before the merge, but we think it helps so much that we were friends with everyone. We would never shut out an alliance; we would always listen to one side. There was never a definite line drawn in the sand. We would always give people the opportunity to talk with us. That’s what kept us in the middle the whole time.
That’s a great position to be, since it can dictate what is better for our whole game.
During those early weeks things were rough, since Nadiya and Val were both vent home. How did you manage to keep yourself safe when you guys were in danger?
I would whisper to Jon on the other tribe ‘I think I’m going home tonight.’ He was off celebrating the win, and I’m like ‘bye.’ It was really hard. We had a good girl alliance going on; that didn’t work out. I freakin’ love Nadiya and Val, but it totally fell through. I felt so helpless right before the tribe swap.
My only hope was that Alec would come over to me, and I went over to Alec … I was trying to get in with him, saying that ‘I went to Exile with your brother. He’s totally down. It’s going to be us four, he and Jon are running on the other tribe. You gotta be in with us, think long-term.’ Then, we walk into the arena and Drew’s gone, and I’m like ‘oh, crap.’ (Laughs.)
What was the experience of being at Exile Island with Drew Christy like?
You know, he’s a great guy! He really is. His edit was a little rough, and he did say things … But he was all around a good guy, and he was totally fine on Exile. We worked together really well.
What was the feeling like when John Rocker was voted out? Relief?
Oh my gosh, I was so happy. Finally, these guys are breaking up their bro-alliance over here, and we’re doing something. Hopefully they see past their bromance. It was a relief; I was really happy.
Then the tribal swap comes, and you’re in a little bit of a better position. You had a history with Baylor, but then Jon had a history with Missy. What was the reason to go with them over Dale and Kelley?
That was hard. When we decide to officially be with Missy and Baylor, I literally called out Baylor, [saying] ‘you flipped on me. Can I trust you?’ … I [told Jon] we didn’t work together from day one, but I’m just going to go with this whole [Jon] and Missy thing. It worked out pretty well for the most part, at least up until the blindside with Natalie and everything.
Kelley and Dale were such strong ‘Survivor’ students of the game, so there was no way in hell we were going to go with them. I was like ‘okay, they’re out telling us all of the stuff about Survivor. Why would we go any further with them?’. They’re smart!
When we talked to Dale earlier this season, he insinuated that maybe you guys threw the challenge. Regardless of if that happened, was it a smart move to have Dale gone at that point, since he would have flipped at the merge?
Dale was really hard to work with from day one. It wasn’t the burping and farting and all that. That didn’t bother me at all. It was more that whenever something was going on, like right before tribal, or in the challenges with any of the strategy, it was never any of the women that were talked to. It was really frustrating.
So when Jon came over and he wanted to talk to Jon all of a sudden, I was completely turned off. I’m like ‘let’s get this guy out of here. He is super smart at Survivor, he is probably good at random challenges.’
Let’s talk about the Jeremy move. What was your first thought when Jon brought up that idea of getting him out?
I think I said it: This is a big deal! Jeremy’s such a great guy, and he was one of the three, Josh, Reed, and Jeremy, were really great to me the whole time on the show. They were always hanging out with me, and I was like ‘oh my gosh, we’re voting out Jeremy.’ He’s such a strong player, but he was a good move. He is a student of the game, as well.
Is there a combination of players you think you could have won against, say, if it were you, Missy, and Baylor?
It’s so hard to say; I don’t even want to think about it! With Natalie [over Keith] I knew, I’m taking the lesser of two evils. There’s no way my case is strong enough to win; my only case is my personal story and that I was in the middle the whole game. But everyone saw Jon as such a dominant player in our relationship that it was hard for me at that point [to say] I was making all the moves solely. That was hard.
Is there anything that you could have done, or wish you would have done recently?
If I were to go back and do Blood vs. Water, I would have made more of a point to play individually rather than as a couple, to make more moves on my own, just so in the case the other person was voted out … We saw last night that Keith would have won anyway, but if I had known that Natalie was playing so hard, I would have voted her out.
Finally, what has this whole experience been like watching the season back with Jon?
It’s been so hard, and I’ve said this before: I would rather do it again, all 40 days, then have to go back and watch it, and go through all of the opinions and hurtful things people have been saying. Like talking about gameplay is totally different, but then people take personal digs like ‘you are going to be terrible parents,’ and ‘no wonder you can’t bear children.’ It’s so hard to read that stuff!
So yeah, I would rather do it again than deal with some of the hate, but lately I’ve been getting all love, and that’s nice.
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