There’s one other big thing Jesse lied about in the game, and he shares it here.
He made the move of theSurvivor 43season.
Which is why the other players had to move him over to the jury.
Jesse Lopez on ‘Survivor 43’.Robert Voets/CBS
The AlliGabler ate Jesse up at fire, sending the distraught fan favorite to the jury in fourth place.
What happened after Jesse walked off that Tribal Council set?
What was his reunion with Cody like?
Jesse Lopez on ‘Survivor 43’.CBS
And why did he vote for Gabler to win the game?
And he revealed one last surprise about his game.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY First off, let’s get into your vote.
Cody Assenmacher and Jesse Lopez on ‘Survivor 43’.CBS
JESSE LOPEZ:I think, for me, it was coming out of the final 4 fire-making challenge.
I only have less than 24 hours to process the wholeSurvivorexperience.
The whole game, I’m focused on me and my game and getting to the end.
Jesse Lopez on ‘Survivor 43’.CBS
And so I had to just make a checklist in my head of who to vote for.
And Gabler threw out Elie, and that was true.
Gabler spearheaded that vote.
And I think another really important factor in my vote for Gabler was with the Cody vote.
All I told Gabler was that “I think we need to take a shot at Cody.
And I had played my whole game taking these risks, and so I really respected that.
Now is the part of the interview when I bring up your most painfulSurvivormemory.
I think it was a lot of disappointment.
I think as you saw, I put my heart into that game.
I was hardly sleeping.
And I don’t think I did.
I didn’t win the game, but I feel I set a good example.
What happened after you walked off that Tribal Council set?
I think the processing happened pretty quickly, honestly.
For me, I was down in that moment.
I was down at Tribal.
I want to go out of here with my head held high.”
I’m trying to show them that even if you lose, there’s a good way to lose.
And so I wanted to go out with positive energy.
And when I get back to Ponderosa, the reaction was incredible, man.
There was a lot of love for me, which was really amazing considering how brutal I was.
I think by the end of the night I was very happy with how it turned out.
I mean, Cody punched me in the face.
And he was just happy that I hadn’t taken him out sooner.
So I think it smoothed over pretty easily there.
Have you ever been that nervous in your entire life than when you played Cody’s idol for Owen?
Dude, my heart was in my throat.
I don’t think I’ve ever had that much adrenaline rushing through my body right then.
I wanted to give him a handshake.
And so it led to an awkward pause.
She is very persuasive.
I wanted to steer them away from voting me out, even as convincing as Karla can be.
Well, let’s say you hadn’t had that idol.
What do you think happens?
I would’ve had to rely on my relationships there.
And I think I had strong relationships, but I don’t underestimate anybody out there.
And then I’d look over and I’d see Karla doing the exact same thing.
So I was terrified of Karla.
I felt like she was really the only person who might be able to outwit me, really.
It seems like at first you wanted to take Cassidy out at five.
Then I guess you changed your mind to Karla.
At least that’s the way the edit makes it seem.
I was very torn on taking out Karla.
And that for me, I was like, “All right, we’re done.
We’re done having this conversation.
I’m not even going to consider Cassidy at this point.
It’s over.”
I love that you brought up the challenges and you didn’t make me do it.
It seemed to be the one thing you weren’t good at.
What was going on there?
[Laughs]I don’t know, man.
I’m a dad of two kids and I play Fortnite with them a lot.
I don’t know.
I’m just not good at it, I guess.
So much of my game got shown and so many of my relationships got shown.
And I think that sort of relationship between me and Karla didn’t necessarily come through.
So I would’ve loved to have seen those very intimate conversations that we had.
Were you a villain?
I’m going to leave that to the people to decide, man.
Well, you’ve seen this show enough.
Were you a villain?
I am a gangster in a dad bod.
When’s the last time you entered the Pineapple Zone?
I’m going to be honest with you: The Pineapple Zone was totally made up.
I was just reaching for any sort of strategy out there.
I wanted to create this sort of area where me and Dwight could be honest.
So that’s where that comes from.
It’s not a real thing.
But it is not real.
Dude, you totally messed up.
You should have called it theDangily-Doodly Zone.
That is exactly what I should have done.
I think the word to describe it is really bittersweet.
Or you think that you’re playing a good game at least.
I thought like, “Man, I’m playing pretty good out here.”
But I also know where it’s heading and where it’s leading.
And so there’s some emotion to it.
It’s like, “Wow, I played this really excellent game.
I just couldn’t quite stick the landing.”
And so it’s been a bittersweet experience for sure.
But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Are you ready to go do this again when they ask you?
Because you know they’re going to ask you.
I will have to play a very different game, but absolutely 100 percent.
