‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’ interview: Candice Cody on idol strategy, feelings on Brad Culpepper

Last night on “Survivor: Blood vs. Water,” we lost one of the first two people to be technically “voted out” of the game in Candice Cody. She was a woman who made it pretty far the first two times that she played, but this time around, she did not even really have much of a chance. Did she last for a few weeks anyway? Sure, but in the end she was outlasted at Redemption Island by not only her husband John, but her longtime adversary in Brad Culpepper (which is ironic, given that she has never played with him).

Due to some time and travel restraints on CBS / Candice’s end today, our interview is a little shorter than usual and was done via conference call. Our lengthy exclusive chats will return next week.

CarterMatt – Let’s just start with the obvious: How bummed were you that you never got to play the actual game?

Candice Cody – I was very bummed. I love playing ‘Survivor.’ It’s such a challenging game, physically and emotionally, so it’s tough for me to have never set foot on a tribe beach. But, I’m proud of myself lasting 11 days and having to fight for my life every time at Redemption Island. I did my best and was hoping to come back in as the winner of Redemption Island, but it’s a game and it is what it is.

So while you were there, what were you thinking upon giving your immunity clues to John? Obviously he was the one to give them to since he’s your husband, and you couldn’t really talk and prepare for this sort of thing beforehand. But how worried were you about these clues turning him into a target?

The idol is such a touchy subject. Ideally you find the clue secretly and no one knows about it. So it was really difficult to have to give a clue in public. It definitely crossed my mind that it would be a huge target on John’s back, so I thought who I could give it to and not put a target on his back, and obviously I’m not going to give it to anyone on his tribe to use it against him, and I don’t really know what’s going on at his tribe.

Then I thought about giving it to someone on the other tribe, and again, I don’t know what’s going on, and that person could use the idol against John in the future. In a bad situation you have to make the best choice out of bad choices. In my mind John knows this is a bad situation, and he would know that there is no one else that I could give it to besides him. I was thinking ‘he’s going to find it, and he will use it to make a big power play.’ That’s the only move you can do. You can [get people together] and say ‘okay guys, here’s the clue, and let’s use it together,’ but you can’t trust that people are going to believe you. It’s a game for a million dollars. If someone says they are going to use it for me, are you going to trust them? If they are going to use it for me, then let me hold it.

To me, I thought that they only play for him to do would be to find the idol and just play it, burn it, and make a power play in the game.

One last quick thing here: Did your relationship or opinion about Brad, or just ‘Culpepper’ as Jeff seems to call him, change at all after he went to Redemption Island?

Brad is not a bad guy. He’s just a very loud, boisterous guy that doesn’t leave a lot of room for anyone else to have an opinion. With some of the loved ones, they were trying to be careful in the game and not be too loud, and they didn’t really stand up to him. On Redemption Island, you have nothing to lose at that point, and after John got voted out, I just thought that one of us was going to have to keep our nose clean. Nobody has any bad feelings about John, so I just decided I was going to take one for the team and call [Brad] out. (Laughs.)

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Were you sad to see Candice go before she really had an opportunity to play? If you want to read some more “Survivor” scoop, be sure to click here to see our review of last night’s new episode.

Photo: CBS