Survivor: David vs. Goliath interview: Carl Boudreaux on blindside, idol nullifier
So what does Carl have to say about his blindside, his mistakes, and also getting really drunk at the reward? We have all of that and more for you in our latest exit interview below.
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CarterMatt – Are you embracing the new Survivor nickname of the Godfather?
Carl – Who wouldn’t be, man? Everybody wants to be known as the Godfather.
Did you have any sense at all that Gabby and Christian were going to flip on you?
I had no clue at all. It was a total blindside on me, Nick, and Davie. I had no clue that Gabby and Christian were going to flip.
Why did you tell Kara about the plan to vote out Alison at the reward? Was that something you planned before the game?
That was something I planned. Me and Kara started talking way back when we joined up on the Vuku tribe and I had some trust in Kara. It turned out to bite me, but we would often sit and talk and discuss a lot of different things. The problem was that I had already sat and talked with her about getting Alec out, and that didn’t sit too well with her, but if you go back and look at it, that was a unanimous vote to get Alec out. I did something right, even if the TV side didn’t show that! I got into somebody’s head if they voted into the plan that I had.
Who were you the closest to among the Goliaths?
Angelina was the Goliath that I was closest to. We just had an automatic connection after we merged, but we just couldn’t use it at the time. I didn’t want the Davids to see me joining the Goliaths and she didn’t want the Goliaths to see her joining the Davids. We just said it in the background until the time was right for us to work together.
With that in mind, after the vote-off of Dan where Kara and Alec voted against Angelina, it was almost serendipity — you guys could work together!
Absolutely. When they did that vote and they put those two votes towards Angelina — which, by the way, I saw right through — I knew right then and there that I could bring her over and she could work with me. I was already working with Davie and Nick. I took that [task] on as soon as that took place.
Who did you want to go to the end of the game with? It seems like you had a contingent of four with you, Angelina, Davie, and Nick.
Me, Davie, and Nick had a pact to go to the final three with each other. It was going to be ‘may the best man win’ and we were going to be okay with whoever won.
From your end, what do you consider to be your biggest Survivor moment? Was it when you played the idol nullifier to get rid of Dan?
That one there would be one of the top ones! It’s Survivor history, and there’s nothing else I could have done to have me be remembered as a Survivor player than that. Every fan is going to remember that twist, which was put into the game and played the correct way. I’m sure there were many people who had no clue that I would play it correctly.
It’s a difficult thing to do, because you have to know who has an idol and then, from there, know that they are going to play the idol in order to nullify it. What were the conversations you had leading up to that vote where you 100% knew that you were going to play it?
Well, we spoke a lot as a collective David group and when it came down to that vote, we knew that Nick wanted to play the steal-a-vote. We also knew that Gabby really didn’t want me to play the nullifier. She wanted me to save it. I thought about it, but I thought that if Nick plays his steal-a-vote, everything would have to line up perfect for it not to be one of us. If you go back and look at those votes, it was six votes on Dan, three votes on Christian, and two votes on Angelina. If I don’t play my nullifier and block Dan’s idol, Christian is going home and I didn’t want that to happen. We were scrapping and trying to get the numbers.
One of the things that I think was so impressive about the David tribe for at least a little while after the merge is that there were so many contingency plans that were in place to ensure that nothing bad happened. How much time did you spend thinking all of those through at camp? Was it the sort of thing where you all checked in on each other every couple of hours?
We really stayed real close to one another. It was easy for us to talk because the Goliaths were comfortable — they would all go out on the beach and try to get a suntan as a big group. They had no worries in the world. As they would go off, we would sit by the camp and talk about things. That was a good thing — we all shared what we had with one another and we didn’t keep anything a secret. We were always fighting from behind, and that was the only way for us to scrap, which was to believe in one another and share with one another what we had. It was the only way for us to make it to the next Tribal. That part of it was pretty awesome, that we were able to stay as close to one another as we did.
Let’s go back then to when you actually find the idol nullifier. Did you know at that point that you had something historic and were really thinking a lot about what it could do?
I sat there when I first found it and I dwelled on it. Have reading it, I realized that this was going to take a lot of work and it wasn’t going to be easy. I kept thinking out loud and trying to figure out what ways and approaches I could take with it. I didn’t tell anybody for the longest time, but when Nick found the steal-a-vote advantage, that’s when I finally told Nick about the nullifier. I knew that I had a little bit of trust in Nick, so I went ahead and let him know and we figured out how to make sure things worked in our favor.
I absolutely enjoyed Exile. It was a chance to really collect myself before going back into the game.
What is the one thing that you wish you had done that you didn’t, for whatever reason?
Having Davie and Nick talk to Christian and Gabby about the Alison vote out rather than me explaining it to them. Gabby and I started clashing a little bit because I’m a straightforward guy and Gabby kind of took that the wrong way, so maybe if Nick or Davie had spoke with her about that vote-out, maybe things would have worked out a little bit better.
Do you think about going back and playing again?
Oh, absolutely! If you know which strings to pull, pull them. I’ll go back in a heartbeat.
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