The island mob boss also reacts to Karla turning on him.
“The social contract is, if you break trust with James you go home.
She did that, but then used her two votes to take out James instead.
James Jones on ‘Survivor 43’.Robert Voets/CBS
What does James make of Karla’s betrayal?
Just how pissed was he moving over immediately to the jury?
What does he think about his biggest adversary in Owen?
James Jones on ‘Survivor’.Robert Voets/CBS
And did he ever consider actually using his Knowledge Is Power?
We spoke with the Godfather himself to get answers… and hopefully not a horse head in our bed.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:What happened?
James Jones on ‘Survivor 43’.CBS
Why are you talking to me now instead of later in the season?
JAMES JONES:I feel like my threat level got super-duper high and I couldn’t manage it.
I get into the merge and I wanna just relax and sit back and boom!
I’m a target.
I talk with Ellie, and I’m like, I’m not getting a good feeling.
I’m a target that vote.
I’m a target the next vote.
And I’m like, “I thought we were good.”
So making it through those three votes kind of just raised everybody’s suspicions.
“He’s working well with everybody.
And I wasn’t trying to do that, but it happens.
You definitely looked surprised when you got voted out.
You also looked kind of pissed.
I mean, yes.
I’ve been watching this game.
I watched multiple seasons and it’s that emotion.
I was playing hard.
I wanted to win.
I wanted to be there.
I feel like I was putting myself in position to win.
I just didn’t do that.
So kudos to them getting me.
It is what it is.
Why do you think Karla turned on you?
So let’s say Karla really wanted me to stay, uses her idol for me.
Now, Karla puts her foot down in the sand “This is where I’m at.”
Karla still has the flexibility to move within the people still in the game being an amicable ally.
The only question now is kind of like, how is that gonna work?
Because I was one of the people that took all the attention.
So now the game is wide open and I know the fans are happy.
I mean, I was upset, but I understand the game.
We all came out here to play super-duper hard.
Even before a challenge, I’m just super relaxed and calm.
And I was playing pretty hard.
I was just excited to be out there.
So yes, I was mad.
I was voted out, but hey, man, everybody should be mad they were voted out.
You really wanna win and play this game.
That’s exactly right.
Why were you two like oil and water out there?
Why wasn’t it working?
I just feel like it was a lot of miscommunication.
What people don’t realize is the Dwight vote, I talked to Sami and Owen.
I tell them both the vote is going against Dwight before that vote.
So when you go to the next episode, you see Owen didn’t wanna hop on board.
It was kind of like, “I told Owen the plan.
You didn’t wanna be on that vote.
I’m not even thinking about you in that sense.
It’s that Jeanine is your ally.
You didn’t want that to happen.
We wanted to vote on Ryan so that if something happened, Ryan went home.
‘Cause Ryan was kind of looked at as expendable piece within the game.
He kept calling you, essentially, Don Corleone out there.
Were you the Godfather on the island?
I definitely wasn’t the Godfather on the island.
If I was the Godfather, I would still be out there.
People see these things happening that are not on the show.
For instance, I gave Sami my Knowledge Is Power going into the Dwight vote at Tribal.
He had my Knowledge Is Power.
Wait, why did you give Sami your Knowledge Is Power?
Because I wanted him to have the trust to see “I’m coming back.”
‘Cause Cody didn’t know that he was in on that vote, if you look at the confessional.
So me and Karla was working on Sami.
We wanted to verify the game was fluid and that’s why we told Owen.
But people were really kind of stuck in the BakaVesi thought process in the beginning of this game.
If I steal Noelle’s vote, but everybody’s against me, they just send me home.
I thought I was good and that’s the game.
Definitely didn’t keep that piece of parchment.
I want to talk about the voice.
You’ve been tweeting about it.
So what was that about?
Yeah, it happens.
And people that know me know that’s kind of how I operate.
But it probably is upsetting to people who aren’t used to being around me.
So it’s a fun little thing, but it’s just my voice.
Some people think it’s soothing, some people think it’s not.
It’s what it kinda is.
So it’s my voice.
What was your long-term plan?
Whom did you want to sit next to at the end?
I just wanted to get to the end.
So my philosophy was, I’ll sit next to anybody.
Because I wanna play the game the best way I see possible.
I was really open to almost any option for the most part.
But you only can really work with options that are presented to you.
But I would love to go in with Karla and Cass.
Me and Cody were super tight out there.
They didn’t really show that.
So I would’ve loved to battle out with Cody at the end.
Me and Jesse became tight out there.
Believe it or not, me and Sami were super tight out there.
Me and Gaber were pretty solid as well.
What’s something that happened out there that you wish had made it to TV?
The first night when we first merged, me and Cody had a really good talk.
So what happened was everybody was asleep behind Ryan’s big little contraption.
I learned about the beads, I learned about the dynamics.
So we were hashing all this stuff out that first night.
That was a really cool moment where we were really bonding.
Because everyone had the same bead test.
Karla got her beads separate.
I feel like that was the one thing about it.
And then with Lindsay and Geo going home, Karla got her beads separate.
We were playing KumbayaSurvivor.
So I’m not super worried.
So they don’t know where the Coco Idol is.
You have to deal with experience out there of getting voted out.
What was it like watching it play back on TV?
I mean, it’s your dream, literally.
Understand you’re not operating at your best.
Just little things can really change how someone perceives you and these conversations are precious.
