‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ interview: Dale Wentworth on tribe swaps, gameplay, alliances
Before tonight’s “Survivor: San Juan del Sur” episode airs, we wanted to give you a minute or two in order to look back and reflect on what happened last week courtesy of a guy we really enjoyed watching this season in Dale Wentworth. He was the ultimate underdog, and in many ways, we thought that he had a real shot at going far had he made it to the merge and found himself a better position.
Unfortunately, he was done in mostly by being on a tribe with no real allies, and also people like Baylor, who had some problems with him already. We spoke with Dale a little bit about these disadvantages last week, and also the frustration of being a “Survivor” fan surrounded by people who were by and large neophytes to the show.
CarterMatt – What was it that made you have a harder time out there? Was it coming from such a different walk of life, being older, or just not being to relate to the others?
Dale Wentworth – All of the above! (Laughs.) It was very tough, because other than John, and he was 15 years younger than me, everyone else [on Coyopa] was 25-30 years [old]. I could probably deal with that, but then you toss in there East Coast / West Coast, and that I am coming from a town that is outside a town of 6,000 people, while all these other people are from New York or Miami or all that.
I did have some good alliances going. I got along wish Josh, I had something good with Wes. Rocker and I got on pretty good. There was more [happening behind the scenes] than what was shown. I was pretty comfortable in my position before the tribe swap.
That brings me into what I was going to ask next. How screwed over were you by that?
When I got to beach [after the swap], Kelley came up to me and asked how I was with Missy and Baylor. I said ‘no, I’m done.’ I then asked her about Jon and Keith. She said ‘they [both] hate me.’ We talked about it; do you want to go five, or do you want to go six? As soon as the tribe swap happened, that was our [undoing]. The only thing left was who goes five or who goes six, unless we win immunity.
In reality, there was no benefit to our tribe winning an immunity challenge. It was their benefit to lose, because they didn’t want to take Kelley and I past the merge.
So do you think that they threw it?
I don’t know if they threw it … but they may not have put their best effort forward. The [quicker] that they can get Kelley and I out, the more solid their alliance is. With me gone, [they could have] Jon and Jaclyn, Missy and Baylor, and Wes and Keith going into the merge. That’s six votes. That’s a huge block! If Kelley and I had made it [to the merge], we would have went against them.
This is something that I talked a little bit about with Kelley, but how frustrating was it for you to have to play with so many people who seemingly did not know much about the game? Did it make you a bigger target?
It was like the island of the misfit castaways! The perfect example was Val. Survivor lesson 101: You never let anyone know you have an immunity idol because it puts a target on your back. The last Blood vs. Water, they were burning idol clues because they didn’t want the target on their back.
We vote Val out, and then 24 hours later Rocker does the exact same thing! He tells the same people that he has an idol, and what do they do? They vote him out! I was like ‘come on dude,’ it’s called a ‘hidden idol’ for a reason.
I’m sure you thought about this, and I certainly have [since your exit] and cannot think of much. Is there anything that you wish that you had done to save yourself?
Short of finding a real idol, there was nothing left. That was a fail Mary with the fake immunity idol. That’s why I picked it up the first day.
Even when I made the vote, the only thing I could have done was vote for Keith, because I knew they were going to split the vote. [But even if I did], the results would have been tied and the vote would’ve been the same. So I voted for Missy to get it over with quick, do you know what I mean?