On Tuesday night estate agent Jenny Guzon-Bae had her torch blindedsided out of Cook Islands when Raro eliminated her in a double bottle blitz.
Rebecca got voted off first and disappeared into oblivion - literally - she didn't give any sort of comment once she was gone and she's been nowhere to be found since. There was no mention of her for an interview so I haven't been able to catch up with her at all.
I did manage to chat to Jenny for us though and she made up for everthing Rebbeca would have said 'cos she
seriously wanted to win. Here's what she had to outwit, outplay, outvent:
Tashi: When you got voted out you were very angry and said that if you’d known it was coming you’d have done more to try to save yourself. Why didn’t you do more to ensure you had the numbers on your side from before the tribal council already?
Jenny: Well that’s the misconception because we did talk amongst ourselves but they didn’t show it. We got into groups to assess the situation because when we lost and we got that bottle we knew that it could not have been good news. As much as we wanted it to mean a merge we knew it was going to come down to voting someone else off again. And I did, I thought I’d secured my spot at least with Candice as part of that alliance.
I thought I had a pretty strong alliance with her, Nate, Parvati and Adam and prior to that Rebecca but I knew Rebecca's goose was cooked because of some of her performances in the other challenges. So I had to go along with voting out Rebecca.
Then when it came to the bottle vote we discussed it and decided it would be Jonathan. So when that bottle opened and said “Vote off another,” I’ll be honest, I thought, “Okay, we knew it, I’m still okay because we know it’s going to Jonathan,” - but then Jeff Probst said: “I know you’re a bit disappointed thinking it was going to be a merge and now you have to vote someone else off, who you gonna vote for because you knows if you’re gonna merge?”
Right when he said that I knew he’d put the thought in everyone’s head thinking, “Oh gosh, Raro’s been losing and we thought had all the manpower,” and I’m thinking, “If they think Jonathan can give them the manpower they think they need, it’s gonna be me.”
At that moment I just froze and I wanted so much to say something but I didn’t speak out or interrupt or say anything and that’s my biggest regret. I just wish Jeff had opened the floor so we could say something but we just went straight to the vote. When we did I just knew from their body language - Adam and Candice stopped looking me.
Tashi: There were rumblings amongst them that you wouldn’t have stuck with alliance.
Jenny: I’ll be honest, as much as I loved Adam - we got along really well - but as soon as Candice stepped foot on our camp I knew that they were lovebirds and I couldn’t compete with that and I didn’t want to compete with that.
It really frustrated me that they were trying to get far in the game based on a personal relationship they were building. They’re both great people now that the game’s said and done but during the game if it had come down to do it it wouldn’t have mattered to me - maybe I would have voted Candice before Adam first to give it an edge but I didn’t like that kind of gameplay. We saw it with Rob and Amber and kudos to them but I went to win and I wasn’t going to use a personal thing like that to do it.
Tashi: So from their perspective they did the right thing voting you out?
Jenny: Oh yeah, they knew I was onto them. I said Adam: “I’m kind of questioning your faith to the alliance with Candice here.” It wasn’t just me - Nate and Parvati felt the same way.
Tashi: Why did Poverty not stick with you and Nate then?
Jenny: I think she also felt that Raro was losing to the Aitu four – Joanthan brought in fifteen fish that day, he just went crazy. Even though I’d go out and fish I’d come back with maybe one so I understand why she made that choice.
Tashi: Don’t you think you should have mutinied to Aitu when you had the chance?
Jenny: No. I really thought I was a lot more secure and I didn’t have any connection with anyone on the other side even though Yul and Becky from my Puka trib were there. When I was with Puka I felt like an outsider - nothing about our Asian race made me feel I was secure in that.
I didn’t feel that if we were to merge and we were all still there would I be in any sort of alliance with Yul or Becky - maybe with Cao Bui if he’d stuck around. When I first saw the tribe I thought “Okay maybe I can get along with these youger ones,” and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to connect with Cao Bui but he, ironically, I think it’s because we were older whereas the others were climbing the corporate ladder, three of them are single and they were wanting to better themselves as individuals whereas I’ve been there, done that, I’m married, I have a child and everything I do I do thinking about how it’s going to impact on my family. I even thought about lying about my age but then I thought I’d just be me. When Jeff proposed the mutiny it didn’t even cross my mind to switch.
Tashi: Why did you enter the show?
Jenny: I didn’t apply to be on the show - they found me on Realtor.com where you can find real estate agents. They told me they were they were looking for real estates because they tend to do well at the game with their people and negotiating skills. They came across my bio, phoned me up and asked if I wanted to do it.
I was a fan of the show - at the time I was watching Aras and Terry on Exile Island. It was very bizarre because I thought the phonecall was a joke. It really fell into my lap – if there was any show I wanted to do it’s Survivor because I’m very competitive. Either Survivor or Amazing Rae so Survivor was perfect.
It would have been crazy for me to say no. I don’t regret doing it, I just regret that I didn’t get as far as I wanted to. I really wanted to win - I didn’t do it because I was a starving artist or an actor who wanted 15 minutes of fame - I really wanted to win because of my competitive nature.
Tashi: Aras and Terry - who’s side where you on?
Jenny: I was more like Danielle - she was a girl and she tried so hard to compete against these two powerful forces. I mean all of them they were so great to watch - in the end having these two powerful men, one older and one younger and it was just great to watch. I’ve actually met Aras and he’s such a great guy.
Tashi: If you’d stayed and made the final three as you’d wanted to - who would the other two have been with you?
Jenny: My perfect scenario … see I wouldn’t have wanted to vote Jonathan off because he’s a perfect villain. I think it’s a reason he’s still there - the members we did vote off were the likable members and when it comes down to it you want to be up against someone who’s stepped on people’s toes.
If it really was my perfect final three I’d have Jonathan there and then someone like .. maybe Rebecca - someone who you’re not sure like “how’d you get there?”. So one person you question and the other the villain and then hopefully I’d be the person who’s seen as having done enough but with no issues. I’m a very outspoken person but you didn’t really see that.
A lot of my friends said: “Why didn’t you do or say this??” And I was like: “But you don’t understand, when you’re there, as much as you want to cuss someone to their face you can’t.” If you’re too outspoken you’re going to be gone.
I wish they’d shown that I did play a more pivatol role than was exhibited but maybe I was too quiet. I tried to play my role at all times and do it as best I could. Like I knew I couldn’t retrieve food but I always cut it up and cooked and kept the camp clean and some nights I was so exhausted but I never let them know because you can’t.
Tashi: What would your next step have been if you’d stayed?
Jenny: I would have tried to get Nate and Poverty to vote off Candice then Adam.
Tashi: Have you often gone back over everything plotting what you would have done?
Jenny: Yes I did plot everything out - I kept hearing in interviews people saying I didn’t plot enough but I did. I kept thinking about ideal scenarios and backup plans if they failed but I didn’t get far enough to really see them through because I got screwed over by a bottle vote. I didn’t get to plead my case - had I had the chance I would have said: “Hey you know what, listen - it’s got to be Jonathan tomorrow - how can you trust this guy? He’d be the first person to betray us.”
Ends