Survivor: Ghost Island interview: Jenna Bowman on a fake immunity idol and being outside the numbers

Jenna Bowman entered Survivor: Ghost Island and had a plan to scheme and manipulate her way to the million dollar prize in the end. However, the end of her journey this season is a further reminder that sometimes, the game can play you before you have a chance to really get going. After ended up on the wrong side of the numbers after the tribe swap Jenna was never really able to recover and spent most of the season playing defense in order to survive from one week to the next. Her time ran out on Wednesday night’s episode after yet another twist put her and fellow former original Malolo member Donathan in a vulnerable position.

Jenna speak to us about her performance this season, how she believed she found a hidden immunity idol at one point only for it to be a fake, and also some of what she could have done to change the tide.

CarterMatt – Was there ever a real chance Donathan was going to play his idol on your?

Jenna – That, to me, was completely up in the air. He brought up the idea to me, I said yes of course. I didn’t necessarily agree with the strategy behind it, but I told him yes.

That was my plan B, though. I think I was with the Navitis and we were voting him out. My job was just to play up at Tribal that I was going home so that he didn’t end up playing the idol on himself, and if he did play it on me to save me, that would have been even better.

Were the other players in the five-person group afraid of the idol?

When I was pitching my case to the Naviti people about why they should save me, I told them that I think he might have an idol without confirming it for them. I told them that I think we should get him out, to just say that you’re voting me out and there’s nothing I can do about it.

In the conversations that he had about the three Naviti, I don’t know if he told them about having the idol or not. If he did I think they saw me as the risk-free vote so that’s why it ended up going on me.

The Malolo tribe this season just seemed to have one very-bad day after the next. How much did bad luck played a role in the game?

Literally the whole 29 days I was there. It’s so hard watching it! It was hard because I was there to play the game. Being on the bottom and never having the numbers just takes away the confidence and takes away opportunity from you. Being on the bottom the whole time, always having the numbers against us, going to Ghost Island, not getting to play the game – It’s really disheartening. It didn’t feel like we ever had a clean break and when we did with Des, Laurel screwed it up. Every time it was a lose-lose-lose situation. It was Naviti strong the whole time, and it was just a hard game to play since I didn’t get to play the way that I would have liked.

So what was the way that you would’ve liked to play this season?

Number one, I would’ve been on Naviti — I would’ve started there. I was cast as a likable villain stereotype. That’s the personality I have. I like manipulating and I like being in control, and early on in the game that was my plan. I started off early on in Malolo with a pretty decent alliance. Me and Stephanie Johnson were calling shots there and it was an exciting time for those first two votes. Then, after that it was just me constantly sucking up and trying to make it to the next vote. My vote was just about trying to stay alive. There was no real creative to it that was essential to the storyline; it was just trying to stay alive, relying on relationships and stuff like that so that I could make it for one more vote.

I just got off the phone with Michael and he told me a little bit about a fake immunity idol that you had found on Yanuya that was planted there by Wendell, and we didn’t get a chance to see that on the show. Can you speak to that whole experience?

They showed Michael a lot looking for idols, and obviously he found them. I was also always looking for idols — I just ended up finding a fake one instead.

Wendell is an amazing designer. This fake idol was immaculate. It was beautiful. I was under the impression that I had one, so I wasn’t looking for a real idol for a certain period of time just because I had it in my back pocket. Thanks to Michael being a close ally I shared it with him, and because of him having the knowledge of past seasons as a super-fan, he knew that it wasn’t an old relic. He was able to figure out that it was a fake. He ended up saving me.

Around what point in the game was that conversation?

I found the idol on Yanuya and I talked to him right after the merge. We ended up getting rid of it pretty soon after the Chris Noble vote.

We had this weird split up of tribes this week after the merge. If everyone was all in one tribe do you think that Michael would’ve gone home over you?

Strategically speaking, if he lost immunity he would be the one to go, but on Survivor any random thing can stir things up. You saw just how much chaos he caused by saying he had an idol. His Tribal was crazy. One random threat of bad gossip can cause trouble immediately. But yea, if it was a larger Tribal he would’ve been the one to go.

Some of the people in your group of five, including Sebastian, Angela, and Chelsea, are not people we’ve heard much of since the merge. What sort of campaigns did you try with them, or were they even receptive at all?

What was so difficult about it was that going into it, I had the three least-strategic people from Naviti. They’re all on the bottom basically, and I thought I could do something with it. Even in the smaller numbers though, I think that made them even more scared. They didn’t have their leaders so their only move was that they needed to stay together. None of them were risk-takers.

At first I thought ‘okay, this is awesome,’ but I quickly learned it was the exact opposite. When it comes to campaigning, I had a relationship with Sebastian so when he told me that he was going to keep me, I sadly believed it.

Was it just a sentiment of the kids being afraid to cause trouble before going home to their parents?

That is a perfect explanation (laughs). It’s crazy. On this past episode you see how many people approach Dom and Wendell for their permission on things. It’s crazy how much control they have over the Naviti.

Was there one specific move that you wish you had made this season, but didn’t?

One thing that I definitely could’ve pushed harder was when Desiree was willing to flip. That was one of the first big moments that we had where Naviti was willing to crack. Finally, we had something and we had the numbers. Having Laurel go and tell Dom was heartbreaking. I still do feel like we could’ve somehow rallied it in — I just didn’t try enough. I went with the easy vote of Des because everyone was campaigning against her, but I think we still could have used Desiree and Laurel and just wrangled them both back in saying that we still could’ve blindsided somebody. That was a big play that, even though it got rocky, we still could’ve done.

What was the one part of the show that was different than what you expected? Did it defy any of your expectations?

Not really. There were so many things to balance while you are out there, from the food to the relationships to the strategic play. I was shocked that the living situation didn’t get to more people, and how easy it was to adopt to not eating, not sleeping, not showering, and losing all your luxuries. It really doesn’t play a role and didn’t cause anyone to panic. It’s strange. You almost need to put people even more out of their comfort zone.

Would you be interested in playing again?

Yes, absolutely, and hopefully I would play it much differently.

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