‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’ exclusive: Peih-Gee Law on being voted out, Abi-Maria, game regrets

Peih-Gee Law was someone we were really excited to see play on “Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance.” She campaigned really hard to get on the show, and she’s from one of our favorite seasons in “Survivor: China.”

So what happened to her? That was something that, going into this particular exit interview, we were still curious to figure out. We wanted to uncover why she was sent home over Jeff Varner or Abi-Maria Gomes, and if what we saw last night was really a case of Tasha Fox and Andrew Savage playing well, or more of Abi-Maria and Peih-Gee’s tension getting to such a level that it was easy for the Bayon outsiders on the new Angkor tribe to snag a position of power. Check out some of her responses below!

CarterMatt – So what was this experience like watching these first three episodes back?

Peih-Gee Law – It was fun. I had a great time. I was a little bummed that much of my storyline had to do with the craziness that had to do with Abi-Maria, but going back for the second time is way different than your first time. Way more strategy, less emphasis on the living and survival part. I had a blast; I’m so grateful that I had a chance to go back again.

I still don’t have a great sense of exactly what happened to cause you to get voted out. I thought you were in a good spot! Why do you think it was you? Did Varner just want to avoid a tie vote?

I actually was in a good spot when we got back from the challenge if I had just let things go … It looked like Jeff Varner was on the chopping block because of his outburst. It kind of made everybody wary of him and didn’t trust him a bit. It was supposed to be him, and we decided to vote him out. But then he came up to me and was like ‘you know Abi-Maria is gunning for you,’ which I heard later that he was lying, but it turned out to be true anyway. That spurred me to go talk with Abi-Maria a little bit more, and she goes ‘you know what? I’m voting however Tasha tells me to vote. You’ve been against me from day one, blah-blah-blah.’ Then I was like ‘Abi-Maria is never going to vote with me again, and if I vote out Varner tonight, that means that I’ll have lost two numbers and not just one.’ Suddenly it just didn’t make sense for me to vote out Varner anymore, because as much as I didn’t trust him in this moment, I felt like I can still work with him in the future.

After that I tried to get everyone to vote out Abi instead, just trying to think more long-term. Of course, you didn’t see how that got flipped around on me. Tasha’s not an idiot, she knows that Abi is one of her numbers. She didn’t want to vote out Abi because at that point they were kind of allies, and when Jeff heard that my name came up as a possibility instead of his, he just jumped on it.

How much credit should we be giving Tasha and Savage for getting themselves into a position, or should we instead just be looking at how Abi-Maria just didn’t seem to like you very much out there?

They should definitely get credit for exploiting cracks that were already there and creating suspicion. I have to say that Tasha did a really good job of baby-sitting Abi-Maria. She braided her hair, stroking her and petting her like a little puppy. Abi-Maria just wants someone to love her out there. She did a really good job of getting Abi on her side.

I didn’t really spend a lot of time talking to Savage. Before Jeff’s meltdown at the challenge, his whole argument was ‘if you protect us, we’ll protect you when the merge comes in. You can be like #10 on our tribe.’ It was just not a good sales pitch, especially since we’ll be even numbers again if we vote [him and Tasha] out at the next two [tribal councils].

I think that credit goes all around, it was just a clusterf**k (laughs) in general! They exploited some cracks, Jeff shot himself in the foot, and then I shot myself in the foot. I have to give equal credit to everyone. (Laughs.)

So was it a big deal to what Jeff said at the challenge? Were you particularly upset?

I wasn’t upset, but I was bewildered and suspicious about why he called me out. I thought we were tight together, I thought we were in an alliance, and I was like ‘why are you suddenly calling me out in front of everyone saying that I’m making deals with Savage,’ which wasn’t true yet, but I felt ‘I might as well go do it then since you’re not on my side anymore.’

When the tribe swap first happened, what did you think? Were you happy with the tribe?

My first thought looking around at us is ‘thank god I have some of my closest allies here.’ Varner and Woo were two of the people I was closest with from my original tribe, and that was like ‘phew.’ But then, I was like ‘wait a minute. I have Abi-Maria here, who has been like my nemesis. That’s bad. But we’re in the majority, that’s good, but then we’re going to go to the shi**y camp, and that’s bad.’ So it was like a whole rollercoaster of emotions, one right after the another.

Was there a talk or a search for an immunity idol at that camp? Is that something that came up?

People looked for the immunity idol constantly, like on a daily basis. I feel like we’ve gone far enough in ‘Survivor’ now that everyone knows that they’re out there! You spend time looking for the clue or the actual idol. I just don’t think they spend time focusing on it anymore [on the show] because it just happens constantly. Everybody took their turn looking for the idol. You go and get wood or water or whatever.

‘China’ was one of my favorite seasons; how much did you feel the game was different for you out there? Was it the speed of the game, or almost everything about the process?

The game of ‘Survivor’ has evolved so much from when I played eight years ago. It’s like the speed of modern life compared to like the 1800s or something. (Laughs.) Back in my day, now I sound like an old person, we were like ‘we’re going to vote this person out,’ everyone agreed on it, and that was that. Then, you can go relax, work on the camp, get firewood, and it was fine. This time, it’s like ‘we’re going to vote this person out.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ Then like five minutes later they’re like ‘actually, we should change to this person,’ and then somebody else will come up with plan A, B, C, or D. You can’t take any time to relax at all. Everybody’s trying to constantly come up with strategies, and it’s exhausting! But, you can see that some of the people who were scheming too much kind of got punished for it. So hopefully we’ve reached a point where people from now on will kind of calm down a little bit.

Are there any specific moves you wish you did differently?

I wish I had voted out Abi in the first vote when I had an opportunity to, but to be honest, I still think I made the right decision because one side offered me an alliance and the other side did not. You should always go with the side that offers you an alliance. In hindsight, I should have just let them vote Jeff out, and I could have bought myself three more days. You never know what can happen in three days. [As for even] more hindsight, I should have flipped first to Savage and Tasha and talked to them about voting out Abi, and that probably would have saved me also.

Those are my regrets, but it is what it is and you can’t change the past. You have to just move on!

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If you missed it, our review of last night’s “Survivor” episode is over at the link here! Also, you can sign up here to score some other TV news on everything we cover, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)