“I feel like I was made forSurvivor.
I’ve kind of figured out how to hack things.
I feel like this is my environment.
Elie Scott on ‘Survivor’ 43.Robert Voets/CBS
Elie played a little too aggressively in trying to chart a post-merge game.
Did Elie get too overconfident?
Does she blame Gabler for her ouster?
Elie Scott on ‘Survivor’ 43.Robert Voets/CBS
you might watch the entire interview above or read it below.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why are you here talking to me now?
It was a mess.
Elie Scott and Jeanine Zheng on ‘Survivor’ 43.Robert Voets/CBS
I don’t even need to be scheming.
I’m just gonna take it easy.”
And then, every day, I would end up wanting to just play way too hard.
Jeanine Zheng and Elie Scott on ‘Survivor’ 43.Robert Voets/CBS
And so I think that’s mostly it being sneaky when I probably didn’t even need to be.
How much did it bum you out to be that close and not get that merge buff?
So I’ll be honest: You walk away, and I wasn’t even really thinking about it.
And all of a sudden, I hear people cheering.
At first, I thought they were all cheering because they voted me out.
I was like, “Oh that’s not great.”
But then I realized, “Oh, they’re getting their buffs.”
And that was like a little dagger to the heart.
But I honestly feel like it was my time.
I mean, we saw my demise happen over like four episodes, maybe five episodes.
I think what we saw was that there was a twofold issue with that day for me.
One being Gaber throwing my name out at the merge meal.
So I think things got messy for me, regardless.
Part of what wasn’t shown was how those names came to be.
But the James and Cassidy idea of splitting the vote was actually Cody’s idea.
And I was like, “Okay, let’s run with it.”
But I was just an overexcited player.
Well, let’s talk about that because you make Cody the decoy vote.
So is she giving him a heads up, because no one wants to be the decoy vote?
How did you handle that?
I mean, I probably didn’t handle it well, but I did talk to him about it.
I obviously talked to everybody about everything.
I’m not a secret keeper, apparently.
I had talked to Cassidy first, and she either she said Cody or I said Cody.
I watched it last night and I still don’t even remember.
But I was super comfortable with that.
But we talked about his idol.
I’m like, “If you feel uncomfortable, you’re free to play it.”
That might have also pissed him off.
Like, “Why is she trying to get me to play an idol?”
It was all really sketchy, Dalton.
I have literally no excuse.
Especially on that last day.
Like, that’s a really bad look.
And I was fully aware of that.
And so I had literally no shot.
I’m even better than this, than I thought!
Because as viewers, we see that and we’re like “Uh-oh.”
I remember talking about that, and part of why I wanted to playSurvivorwas personal growth.
I loveSurvivorso much because of what you see people go through and triumph over.
That’s why I was eager in my first episode to throw out a name because I was anxious.
And so it comes across as overconfident, but I am typically very underconfident.
I’m pretty insecure when it comes to my abilities.
By the time of the merge, I was pretty aware that it was a mess.
We’ll use this when we need it."
When I saw it, my jaw dropped.
I’m like, what a freaking idiot.
Why would you ever say that?
But it is what it is.
I am still like fully obsessed withSurvivorand everything that has to offer.
It was life changing for me, and so it was really good experience.
Let’s go back to the Gabler thing.
What sort of damage control did you do after he told everyone you went through his bag?
I just tried to be honest with people and I don’t think that anybody believed me.
I tried to explain to people what happened.
I think most of them were just like, “Oh, okay honey.
When did it start to go bad between you and Gabler?
Because we saw early on you guys seemed to be bonding over heavy metal and punk rock.
I mean, maybe then.
[Laughs]And honestly, I never should have lied about my taste in music.
I am fully aware that the Dead Kennedys are not heavy metal.
I just want to be clear on that.
Because I think there’s been a lot of controversy over it in the Twitteverse.
But day four, honestly, we had a big rainstorm after Morriah’s vote out.
That was the beginning of Morriah’s revenge.
And the next day, it just was like a flipped switch.
I genuinely like him even after all of that.
We have a really good relationship.
He’s a very genuine person.
He’s really pulling his weight.”
All of a sudden, there was a big drop off.
Did you have any idea that Sami was going behind your back and telling Gabler everything all season?
Dalton, do youthinkthat I had any idea?
[Laughs]I mean, it’s possible for you to see the look in my eyes.
I’m like, “Sami, can you believe this?
Sami, listen to this.”
I was just so all-in on our relationship.
It didn’t show that at all in the season how close we were.
We were very good friends, just buddies about everything.
Aside from Jeanine, I spent the most time with Sami just hanging out and having fun.
And so I had absolutely no idea.
I thought that he was in on everything and down for all of it.
I was like, “What the hell?”
And so then you see the aftermath of that.
I went and talked to Owen and Sami about it and Sami again had a really good expedition.
He’s like, “Listen, Gabler already knew.
So I had to tell him.”
And I was like, “Ugh, wow.
Oh my gosh, this is an innocent 22-year-old.
I forgive you, just help me fix the problem.”
And he legitimately went and they didn’t show this either and pretended to help me fix the problem.
She did not do that."
“[Laughs]And so no, I had zero idea even up until Tribal Council.
I was like, I know if one person has my back, it’s Sami.
Well, did Jeanine have your back?
I waved her off.
I’m thinking I’m on the bottom of our five-person alliance.
I was blindly trusting, and so I mouthed to Jeanine, “I think we’re good.”
And she’s like, “Okay, we’re good.”
And so it’s really not Jeanine’s fault.
You know, pull a Natalie.
So you waved her off.
It’s horrible to admit, but it’s true.
Why do you think James never bought what you were selling with the Cody vote?
I’m like, this person has this really great energy that I would wanna follow.
It means that people are probably following him.
I think that I came off pretty social.
And I felt the same way about him.
Like when it came to challenges, we fought really, really hard for each other.
We would really support each other before and after challenges.
We took good care of each other.
We made little dresses and danced and we just had a ton of fun.
Why do women keep getting voted out of this game?
[Laughs]I do think that it’s part of the new era ofSurvivorof not having swaps.
And so I think that might be part of it.
I don’t know.
I know that I’m complicit in that.
If they bring you back again, how are you going to play differently?
I will say my big fault is not playing like Michele Fitzgerald.
And so I would wanna play a much more subtle game.
I was wanting to talk it out, fight it out.
And so I would wanna play a much more subtle game until the end.
