After rolling through Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains' first 32 days with close Villains tribe allies Parvati Shallow and Russell Hantz, Survivor's final Tribal Council once again appeared to be within sight for returning Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island runner-up Danielle DiLorenzo.

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However everything changed on Day 33 when Russell decided Danielle and Parvati's growing relationship had become "a problem" and Danielle needing to be voted out of the game, which he did -- with the voting assistance of additional Villains ally Jerri Manthey and ecstatic remaining Heroes outcasts Colby Donaldson and Rupert Boneham -- at the night's Tribal Council session.

On Friday, Danielle and fellow bootee Candice Woodcock -- who was previously booted at the first Tribal Council featured on Thursday night's special double-elimination episode --  talked to Reality TV World about their Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains experiences. 

Below is Danielle's portion of the shared interview in which she reveals whether she had been expecting Russell to turn on her at some point, how she had been planning to deal with his betrayal, and discusses whether she really thought Parvati, Russell and herself had all been controlling the game equally.

Click here to read Candice's interview.

Reality TV World: After everything that had happened at camp that afternoon, did you really go into Tribal Council thinking everything was okay and you weren't in danger?

Danielle DiLorenzo:  No, of course you never think everything's okay, especially if the whole day everyone's talking that Russell wants to vote you off. 

So clearly I knew, you know.  I wasn't completely sure that was I okay, but I thought that it -- had the breakdown not have happened, I would have been fine.  So basically, of course, I went into Tribal Council a little worried but I did feel sort of safe, because I knew Parvati and [Sandra Diaz-Twine] had my back, for sure.  And, I dunno.

Reality TV World: What was the situation with your Tribal Council tears?  Were they real or were they part of a strategy to try and gain sympathy, and in either case do you think they ended up backfiring and helping convince Jerri that you weren't strong enough to make it the rest of the way?

Danielle DiLorenzo: No, it's not that I'm not strong enough, it's like I'm human and all of it just kind of got to me.  That day was just so crazy with Russell and I was just so taken back by the fact that he was trying to turn me against Parvati because Parvati and I had such a tight alliance and we had sort of a solid friendship. 

I was hurt was by the fact that he was doing that, and I know he's playing the game but I'm human so shoot me if I cry and have a breakdown.  I don't know, I just felt like that day was just like crazy for me.  I was just running around and trying to defend myself the whole time to Russell.

I was just trying to convince him that "we're solid" and at that point I knew I had to get him off.  I figured we'd wait until the next Tribal -- and I'd already spoke to Parvati and Sandra about it, that "he needs to go." 

"Like there's no doubt in my mind, I want him gone.  We just have to get through this Tribal Council and he's gone next."

But obviously that didn't happen.

Reality TV World: Even though you had seen everything Russell had done to everyone else out there for the first month, you really seemed completely shocked when he decided to turn on you.  Had you believed that it was going to be the three of you going to the end up until that point?

Danielle DiLorenzo: Yeah, I did.  I mean I started to think that he was threatened by me.  He was definitely threatened by me after I got the [hidden Immunity Idol] clue from [Amanda Kimmel] and he started to see how strong I was and that he couldn't control me anymore.  And I think he was threatened by me and Parvati's alliance and he thought that we were going to get together and get him voted off -- which we were.

Like he said, he doesn't want to play against strong women and I'm a strong woman.  And I bit my lip with him throughout the entire game, because I allied with him on Day 1 and my whole strategy to begin with was to find a couple of people and work with them and ally with them and stick with them at least until the merge.  And that's exactly what I did

I knew I couldn't trust Russell, I knew what he was doing, I knew what he was about.  But at that point, I knew I had to get rid of him, I just wanted to wait for the right time.

Reality TV World: You seemed to take offense to Rupert's [Tribal Council] comment that Russell and Parvati appeared to be the ones that were making all the decisions and that you weren't a big part of that process.  Now that you know what else was going on out there, do you still feel that way?

Danielle DiLorenzo: Well you know editing is a beautiful thing, they don't always show everything that happened -- all the interviews and all the talks that me and Parvati and Russell have.

Reality TV World: Does that mean you still feel the same way then?

Danielle DiLorenzo: Do I feel what?

Reality TV World: You still feel that same way -- you still feel it was an equal, three-way thing, then?

Danielle DiLorenzo: Um... I'm not going to answer that.

Reality TV World: One of the reasons I'm asking is because everyone I've talked to this season has said that unlike Russell and Parvati, they never really considered you a threat while you were out there.  Why do you think that is if it's just the editing presenting it that way?

Danielle DiLorenzo: Well because I played under the radar, and I knew that Russell wanted to -- you know I was playing the game for a million dollars and I knew that if I got to the end of the game with him, that he wasn't going to gain the respect from everybody.

And let him take the heat for everything and, you know, get to the end with him and have a better shot.

Reality TV World: There's been a lot of speculation and rumors that Parvati somehow knew something about Russell or maybe had some kind of interaction with him before Heroes vs. Villains was filmed [even though his Samoa season hadn't aired yet]  Given you were their ally, are you aware of anything like that?

Candice Woodcock: Can't answer that.

Danielle DiLorenzo: We can't answer that.

Reality TV World: Okay, everyone else [I've asked this season] has, but that's fine.

Candice Woodcock: Well, we're not.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: When contacted after the interview, a CBS spokesperson stated the network had not told Candice and Danielle they could not answer such questions.  "It's not that they can't answer, it's that they didn't want to answer," he said.]
About The Author: Steven Rogers

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