‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’ interview: Tina Wesson and Ciera Eastin
We’ve got a double-dose of “Survivor” for you in this interview piece, at least in that we had the opportunity just now to talk to two players in Ciera Eastin and Tina Wesson who were both pretty essential in the show’s endgame. Had either one of them made it to the end against Tyson Apostol, they could’ve given him a run for his money. They each found a unique way to survive out there, whether it be via Redemption Island or by playing a very smart strategy of constantly making moves and persuading people to go along with them.
We’ll start the chat below with Ciera, and then transition into Tina shortly after that.
CarterMatt.com – So Ciera, let’s start with you. What has the reaction been like on your end to some of your time in the game this season? I know we’ve seen a lot of support, and people who want to see you play again.
The support has been awesome. I’ve had to learn that not everyone is going to love you and there’s going to be some hate. But most of the support has been amazing. Locally, on Twitter; it’s been so much fun to see the out pouring of support for my family. You have to realize that in the end, only one person can win, so it is what it is. But, I gave it my all.
I know you’ve been asked this in some different forms, but in going back to the final seven, is that where you regret not making a move against Tyson? Is that something that you still think about?
Yeah I’ve been asked this a lot, and when wondering whether or not I should have made a move against Tyson earlier, the answer is yes. But, there’s also so much more that are going into these decisions that you are making and the relationships that you have. In that moment, Hayden and Caleb came to me and say ‘let’s get rid of Tyson,’ there was a lot that wasn’t shown. A little while after that they also said ‘never mind, we’re going to change the vote,’ and it was so up in the air. There wasn’t really a plan that I felt confident in. I heard that they were saying my name, as well.
At that moment, all I know is that if I had voted for Tyson, I would have been the one to go home that night. So I can’t really say that I would have done that differently, but I can’t really say that I played a perfect game because I wasn’t at the end, but there was a lot that I learned and I took from a lot of these returning players, like Tina and Monica and Tyson. I learned so much.
Drawing rocks was a huge part of the game, but who was the real instigator for that? Did Gervase cause you to do it, or were you more convinced by Hayden or something that you were thinking about before entering the game?
As you saw earlier before tribal council, there was talk of Gervase maybe flipping on Tyson and saying ‘you need to make a move,’ and me and Gerv sat down with Hayden. If you remember at that moment, I was ready to make a move against Tyson if Gervase was. So going into that tribal council, it was still in my mind that maybe we might be doing that and I wanted to see how that panned out. So it was a mix of me going in there thinking that I’m #4 right now, and I had a shot of being #3 and sticking around. Maybe Gervase would want to vote out Tyson and maybe Hayden would be persuasive. Hayden laid it on thick; when he is backed into a corner, he swings. I think it was just a culmination of Gervase not saying the right things and making me feel like #4, Hayden saying the right things, and me already going in and knowing that someone needed to make a move against Tyson.
So the second that I wrote down the name Monica, I drew my line and there was no turning back at that point. I knew that they were either going to join me and vote out Monica, or we were going to rocks because there was no turning back for me.
Tina, in going back to Redemption Island, do you think that Laura underestimated you when she kept you in the game, only for you to then beat her?
There were a lot of things that surprised me in this game, and that was one of them because that’s not something that we talked about before the challenge. And, after the challenge was over I told her not to help me because I told her I wanted to live and die by my own sword.
Then, we come down to the end and when she asked me to give it to her, it was hard! It was hard because we both want it so bad, and I felt like Laura was a challenge beast and she deserved it. But, at the same time, I’m sitting out there starving and [playing the game] … and there was no way that I could give it to her.
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Photo: CBS