‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’ interview: Rachel Foulger on twist, Tyson, and alliances (exclusive)
Last night’s “Survivor: Blood vs. Water” episode was a double dose of drama, and it left us without both a controversial game player in Colton Cumbie and Rachel Foulger who really was the unfortunate victim of a twist that barely gave her much of a shot to last long. When you’re there with a physical threat like Tyson Apostol, it makes sense to try to get him to go to Redemption Island; however, this still cost us someone who seemed likable in a small amount of screen time she had, and could have made it far under different circumstances.
In the end, Rachel was in good spirits when we talked with her today, and also opened up a little about that scary injury that Tyson had on the show last night.
CarterMatt – I guess it’s a weird feeling for you to have: The twist obviously got you on the show with Tyson, but what does it feel like to have it take you out?
Rachel Foulger – It really is [weird]. Even if Tyson was on the show, if they didn’t have that d**n twist or that switch, I still could have made it pretty far. I had an alliance with the guys, I was stronger than a lot of the girls on my tribe, and I was feeling really good about it … until we found out the day Marissa went into that duel that Gervase could switch with her. That’s when I knew that I was probably going to have a target on my back.
And it’s almost weird in a way. Do you think that had Tyson injured himself just a challenge earlier, he would have suddenly not been such a big threat?
That’s what is going to be interesting to see for everybody: Is it going to help his game or hurt his game since he’s not such a big physical threat? He hurt his shoulder just a couple of hours too late. (Laughs.)
Based on what we saw on the show, you were pretty close with John, but was there anyone else that you had a tight alliance with?
I was close with all of them on a certain level, but I was a little closer with John because we would actually talk and strategize about the game with him.
What was it like at home watching Tyson get hurt in the immunity challenge? Was it cringe-worthy?
It was. I knew that it had happened on the show, but I didn’t want to watch it. It was really hard to watch, for sure.
If you had made it further, what do you think your strategy would have been? Would you have worked somewhat with [your alliance of] guys, while also working with Tyson if he was still there?
I believe that if I’d made it to the merge I would have played with Tyson, and my whole strategy from the beginning was to just stick with John and the guys because they were kind of the ones that were running the show. I thought that I was definitely going to outlast Ciera and Katie, because I was stronger in the challenges. Then after the merge, I definitely would have worked with Tyson.
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In case you missed it, click here if you do want to read our full post-show chat with Colton Cumbie about if he really quit the game in “Survivor: One World,” and how he felt about Jeff Probst’s treatment of him.
Photo: CBS