‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong’ exclusive: Peter Baggenstos on Joe, Aubry, edit, and more

Last night, “Survivor: Kaoh Rong” brought us a heck of a crazy tribal council, one that ended with ER doctor Peter Baggenstos being eliminated from the game after Aubry chose to cross off Julia’s name on the parchment and put his instead. It ended the run of a guy who appeared very confident throughout the game, but also was targeted on a number of different occasions. At every tribal council he attended, his name was written down at least once.

In speaking with Peter today, we got a further sense as to what the edit did to some of his confessionals, why Tai wasn’t his biggest fan, and also why he’d be more than happy returning to the game at some point in the future.

CarterMatt – I know comparing people’s jobs to ‘Survivor’ is a tad cliche, but I feel like for you it is interesting that you have this disparity between being an ER doctor, something I imagine is very fast-paced and frenetic, to something like ‘Survivor’ where you have so much downtime. Was that adjustment especially difficult for you?

Peter Baggenstos – Yeah, it’s like going to church on Christmas — it’s just so long and there’s nothing to do. You’re with these people and there’s so much downtime, so you’re like ‘what’s happening?’ [often]. Especially on the Brians tribe. Debbie and Joe, they weren’t so interested in playing the game as they were just making a nice hut to rest in. When you’re out there to play ‘Survivor’ and they’re more interested in getting better bamboo, you’re frustrated. You’re like ‘wait a second, what’s going on?’.

What was it about Liz that appealed to you as an ally almost right away?

She’s wired like me. As a physician, you’re structured to have a plan and then you play that plan out. You make the plan and you go down the trajectory. She’s a math person, and she understands that to go to step D, you have to go through step C. We saw each other eye to eye as people who had a plan, and that was different from the other people, who were a little more emotional in their movements. That’s eventually what I turned into at the end, but right at the start I felt comfortable with her because she at least was predictable.

What did you think about the edit? It showed you often as being really confident, but were there other scenes out there that didn’t make it to air?

I would be super-overconfident and then laugh at myself, and I don’t think that they captured that self-effacing, self-deprecating component of my outlandish statements. I was in the moment, and [the interviewer would say things like] ‘who is in control of the game,’ and ‘start the sentence [as though] you’re in control of the game,’ and I would say things like ‘well Bob, if I was in control of the game’ or ‘I’m in control of the game and here’s why,’ but then at the same time, and honestly I tried to do run-on sentences so they couldn’t edit things out but mental fatigue and whatnot [got in the way], they didn’t show the side where I said ‘the reality is, I have no idea what’s going on and I’m completely clueless.’

When you start the game out with a scarlet letter on your arm saying ‘you’re overconfident’ or ‘you’re arrogant,’ and that’s a component of me, [it can be trouble], but at the same time I’m also self-deprecating and funny. So it was funny to see that one part of my personality so [prevalent] out there, like a poop streak on somebody’s underwear.

There are so many ‘Survivor’ references I could make in response to that, so let’s just go ahead and move on. When the tribe swap happened, I imagine that you must have been feeling pretty good.

I was elated, because after Liz left I felt like I was treated like a second-class citizen. I went to this weird self-reflection after Liz was voted out, because I realized that they were keeping me around not as a human or a person to be treated with dignity, but rather as a person who is being used for their self-preservation in winning challenges, because I was great at winning challenge. I was pissed.

When I had an opportunity at the swap, my first goal was to talk to everyone else. Unfortunately right when we arrived on the beach, Anna went straight to Joe, my adversary, and they were like daughter and father for the first three hours. So right off the bat, to see the seed planted that I was arrogant and that I’m ‘no good’ and I’m untrustworthy. I couldn’t shake that, and I was frustrated because my new opportunity was squandered because Anna pre-judged me. If she had just walked up to me and said ‘what’s the plan,’ I would have said ‘anything you want, honey.’

Did you try to tell Anna that you were on the bottom of the Brains and could be worked with, or did it even matter?

By the time I got to Anna later in the day, the way she was interacting with me I could tell was just for the sake of having conversation. The people who weren’t from [the Brains tribe], anytime I would have a conversation with them they would use that information to bring to Aubry and Joe so that Aubry and Joe would want to get me out more. Even if I would try, it would just roll back to them five minutes later.

What was your relationship like with Tai? At least on the show, everybody seems to like him.

I liked Tai too. Tai said he didn’t like me, and there’s a reason why that wasn’t shown. After we won the first challenge, and it’s important that people understand this, the Brains tribe leaves first with [their immunity idol] that Jeff gave us, and then the Beauty tribe leaves with their idol. Apparently on the way out Tai either said something to the Brawn tribe that made them feel bad, or he was cheering or over-exuberant.

So for that second challenge, Tai stepped out on that mat and was apologizing to the Brawn tribe, so I peep up and was like ‘why would you even say that to the Brawn tribe? They just lost someone, why would you cheer in front of them,’ and then Jeff interviewed me and I pointed at Tai and said ‘that guy is playing an individual game this early, and on top of that, he’s spitting in the faces of the Brawn. That’s terrible.’ So Tai didn’t like me for calling him out and reprimanding him. He was probably like ‘this dude on the Brains tribe, who is he to say that?’.

While you were out there, did you have a chance to look for the immunity idol? I know when I spoke with Liz, she said she felt like Neal had it.

I didn’t assume Neal had it. After Liz was voted out I spent five or six hours [looking for it]. I was out there all the time looking for that thing. That’s all I had.

Did you look after the swap?

No I didn’t, because no one trusted me. If I left the group, it was a total way to put my nail in the coffin. You couldn’t just leave at that point.

You’ve had a long time to think about this, so is there any thing that you would change about your game?

I could’ve gotten closer to Joe and Aubry, I could’ve acted more sincere, but if I didn’t make a move, what am I? I tried to make a move and it just blew up in my face. I’m still debating what move I had because I tried to talk with everyone else, and nobody was giving me confirmation. If Scot had just said ‘yes, that’s a great plan,’ I would’ve went with that. I freaking campaigned like Obama out there. (Note: Cheers to Peter for having fun with being an Obama lookalike now.)

At the tribal council you said you couldn’t really tell what everyone was saying around you, so how crazy was it watching that back?

At every tribal council after Liz went I figured it was going to be me, and Joe and I came back together and we had a plan, but right before the vote Scot looked at me and was like ‘vote for Joe.’ I was like ‘dude, I’ve been trying for three days to do that and you said no, so I went back to Joe and now I’m voting with Joe. Sorry.’ I looked at him and said ‘why didn’t you tell me this an hour ago?’

So had you made it to the merge, would you have wanted to flip on the Brians and taken them out?

Yeah, that’s contingent on making it out. Had I went with Scot and everyone else and made it to the merge, the Brains would’ve been donezo. If the Brains would have went with me, I would have actually been loyal for a few votes and then it would have evolved. Having a group of five in there, I’m a numbers guy and in taking out the emotion, you gotta go with the numbers.

Finally, would you want to play again? I know the conditions were really rough this time.

Ah, they weren’t that bad. I mean I got surgery after this, but hell yeah, I’d still do it again.

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