Survivor: Ghost Island interview: Brendan Shapiro on tribe swap woes, Michael’s idol play
In our Survivor: Ghost Island exit interview we talk with Brendan on what he could’ve done differently to stick around in the game, plus also what he felt about Tribal Council and life on the original Malolo tribe.
CarterMatt – How hard was it watching yourself get voted off?
Brendan Shapiro – It was hard. It was like watching a trainwreck that you know is going to happen and you know you’re involved in it and can’t get off the track.
I feel like this is the second straight week I’ve spoken to someone who really didn’t do all that much wrong. Was there anything different you could have done?
I’ve been asked the question ‘if you could do something different, what would it be,’ and I think from a strategic standpoint I kind of played the game the way I had to play it. We got dealt a bad hand once or twice, but on the new Malolo tribe we just tried to make the best of it.
We took most of the necessary steps. We knew we had to find an idol and we went and did that. Then, we had to play it right and we almost got it right.
Earlier that day, I had this inkling that they were going to go for one of the guys. The edit shows [the dominant alliance] saying ‘the Malolos will never know that we are going for one of the guys,’ but they were being too obvious about the fact that they were targeting Stephanie. I told Michael while we were out there ‘hey man, I think they’re coming for me’ and Michael said ‘maybe me, I’m not sure.’ He wasn’t convinced that they would go for a guy that early. Maybe an hour later I had a conversation with Kellyn and I told her a true story — the next day was my birthday and I was just really hoping that I could still be on the beach on my birthday. I saw a tear come to her eye — she’s one of the most compassionate people you will ever meet. She took her hand and she turned away really fast. I don’t think she knew that I caught her, but I did. I went and told Michael ‘hey man, they’re coming for me and I know it. Here’s how I know it.’
We got to Tribal Council and I guess if there is anything that I could have done differently, it was doing a better job telling Michael that it was coming to me. They didn’t show it, but Jeff asked me at Tribal Council if I thought I was in trouble. Rather than giving the generic answer I said ‘Naviti is making it look like they are going to vote for Stephanie but it’s misdirection. They are going to come for me.’ I laid it out there but unfortunately, it didn’t work.
Are you surprised then they still voted for you? If I was in that old Naviti group I would’ve wanted to vote for someone else after that.
My hope was that I would have, at minimum, scared them off of me by announcing their intentions. I think when it comes down to it they believed that Michael was going to play the idol for anyone other than himself because most people wouldn’t. Let’s be honest — most people would just take the safe route and ensure themselves three more days. He didn’t do that. He didn’t play in a selfish way and he did what he thought was best for the four of us. He wanted to change the whole landscape of the game, which was really what we had to do. We had to change the balance on our beach. If he had guessed right Bradley would’ve been gone and we would have been sitting there four-four. The whole game changes.
What did you think of the plan to pretend as though James’ idol could save two different people?
I gotta give Michael credit. We had come up with a plan to try and throw a lot of smoke out there. We wanted to create a plan where we could get Kellyn or Sebastian to flip, but we kind of figured that it wasn’t going to work. Beyond that, the plan was to stand up and discuss playing the idol. The whole idea that it was good on two people was 100% Michael. The first time I heard about that part was at Tribal Council. It was all going according to plan until he stood up and said the idol was good on two people. Then I was thinking ‘that’s a good one.’
While you were out there, did you know about what Kellyn went through on Ghost Island and the choice she was presented?
She came back and told us the whole story about what happened, because of course we were going to ask. Watching it back last night was the first time I knew whether or not she told us the full story; she told us the truth, 100%. She basically told it as it was shown on TV.
The way she told the story back then, we believed her. We believed that she declined the opportunity to play the game of chance. I may be misremembering it, but I think there may have been some way that she could have shown us that she didn’t play the game of chance. Regardless, we believed her and it turned out to be truth.
Had Kellyn lost her vote at Ghost Island, do you think that everyone would’ve went to rocks on a 4-4 split?
First of all, I will say this — one of the disappointments of the past couple of days was this: We had five and they had four — if we lose an immunity challenge, somebody was going to go to Ghost Island and they would be gone for the vote, given that we had that for the first three votes. Chances are, it was going to be one of them [sent over] and then the vote would be four-four. We could then start talking about rock draws and all of that.
If it was one of us [sent over], now we’re down three to five. Crazy as that sounds, that’s a better scenario since we have a one-in-three chance of guessing right as to who was getting the votes. Not having anyone immune at Tribal Council was a bad thing for us.
Regarding whether we were ready to go to rocks, us four from [the original Malolo] were absolutely ready to do it. My feeling was that somebody of the four remaining people [eligible to vote] would not have the stomach to go to rocks and would have flipped. That’s my belief.
I’m calling the other group Bradley’s alliance. What was he doing out in the game to make you think he was in charge?
I perceived at the time, as did the rest of the Malolo four, that Bradley was kind of the ringleader. We weren’t just throwing it out there that Bradley was the ringleader; we actually thought he was the ringleader.
In retrospect watching it back, Kellyn probably had a bigger role than any of us realized. She is kind of flying under the radar where he was out in front. He likes to be in charge so he made a show of being in charge. There was everything from how they interacted with us to when we ate and how much we ate. At that point in the game, being in the minority, I just decided to let him lead the way and not try to butt heads. He certainly created the perception that he was leading things.
I want to classify you as someone who got screwed over by the tribe swap, but with that in mind I have to know this: Had that not happened, would you be talking to me today?
No chance. This could go a lot of different ways. If the tribe swap didn’t happen I was in a great spot in the original Malolos. I was in good with Laurel, Donathan, and James. Stephanie, Jenna, Libby, Michael and I were in an alliance but I was in good with that other half, as well. I was the person bridging both alliances and I don’t think either knew it.
Hours before going to the tribe swap I was in an interview and I was saying ‘we’re 0-2 right now, but I feel good about where I am in this tribe.’
Then, there’s another way to look at this: What if I had been swapped over to the Naviti tribe? It’s the complete opposite scenario! Rather than locking things down as Bradley and Kellyn did, our people [from the original Malolo] weren’t over there five minutes before they were getting recruited to take down the Navitis. They thought they had died and went to Heaven! I wish that swap had gone a different way, but that’s Survivor.
About the experience
What was the best part about playing Survivor?
The coolest thing about the experience was that I had anticipated what it would be like for 16 years and I had been actively applying. I had forever to think about how it would go and what it would feel like and how exciting it would be. It measured up to all of my expectations. That was really cool.
I was devastated that I missed out on what I consider to be major parts of the experience, like trying to play for individual immunity, doing the merge feast, being on the jury or trying to work the jury [at the end]. Not being a part of those things were really disappointing to me, but at least the twelve days that I played were everything I expected.
What was the hardest part of it that you didn’t expect?
I knew there was an element of luck to the game, so that was expected. I knew you have to be lucky to win the game — you have to be good, but you also have to be lucky. If you’re not both, it’s not going to happen.
What I mishandled was a decision I made before the game as to how I was going to go in. I saw Jeremy Collins interviewed and he had said that he trained his metabolism so that he would be able to work off of less calories and not suffer as much out there. I had thought that I needed to bulk up and have larger fat [reserves] to work down, but I could also take the Jeremy Collins approach and train myself to slow my metabolism. I went that route and it did not work for me. I came in too lean and my metabolism was still ramped up. I played for twelve days and I lost thirteen pounds. That’s a pretty big rate, man. I was on fumes by the end.
Any interest in playing again? I feel like I know the answer to this.
Oh hell yeah, man (laughs). Without question.
Related – Read our take on last night’s Survivor episode
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