Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X castaway Jessica "Figgy" Figueroa was voted out of the game during Wednesday night's Episode 6 broadcast on CBS.
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In addition to Figgy, her tribe was comprised of Taylor Stocker, a 24-year-old ski instructor from Post Falls, ID; Adam Klein, a 25-year-old homeless shelter manager from San Francisco, CA; Jessica Lewis, a 37-year-old assistant district attorney from Voorheesville, NY; and Ken McNickle, a 33-year-old model from Denver, CO.
In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Figgy talked about her Survivor experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.
Reality TV World: Is it safe to say you were blindsided? How convinced were you heading into Tribal Council that Ken was going home?
Figgy: I was 30% convinced that I would be safe. I had this huge gut feeling that it was going to be me, just because of how -- I could sense it sitting next to everybody. Even before, when it started raining when we were walking to Tribal, like, I could just sense it.
The rain was like God telling me I'm going to get voted out. Once the rain starts coming and nobody's talking to me, I'm like, "It's going to be f-cking me." And then when we get there, everybody is just looking straight, nobody is looking in my direction.
And it's not because Jeff Probst is sitting there; We all look at each other at Tribal Council. I mean, come on, side conversations happen -- but not at this one. It was completely, "Let's just stare at Jeff. Let's not even look at Figgy. I don't want to make eye contact with her."
It's because they were going to take me out. So, I felt like it was coming. Taylor obviously didn't, "It's fine, dude, don't worry about it!" And I was like, "No, it's going to be me."
Reality TV World: Jeff Probst did an interview after the episode in which he said you were getting too arrogant and seemed to assume you'd ride to the end as queen and king with Taylor, which was your mistake. Do you think that played a role in why Adam flipped on you? If not, what do you think his reasoning was?
Figgy: I don't think so, first of all, I don't agree with that statement at all obviously. (Laughs) but I definitely think it was a couple of things.
No. 1, Adam was in the power position, so he could either flip and go with Ken and Jessica -- add those two numbers in his back pocket while also making [Michaela Bradshaw] and [Zeke Smith] happy.
So, no matter what, you have millennials that want me out and then you have some that want me to stay. So it's like, what do you do? Do you make this power move and have more people in your back pocket not really knowing how things are going on the other tribe?
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Like look at how Zeke is pairing up with [Chris Hammons] and [David Wright], or Michaela is actually getting along with [Sunday Burquest] and [Bret LaBelle] -- what numbers are going to come from this?
Or does [Adam] stay with me and, you know, me and Taylor and [Justin "Jay" Starrett] and [Michelle Schubert] and then in the long run be like, "Okay, Jay and Tay are a huge target and a power couple. I need to take them out..."? Both ways, I see why he did it pretty much, but who knows if it will benefit him in the long run.
Reality TV World: Yeah, I was going to ask you if you thought Adam made the right move in voting you out or a mistake when looking at the game from his perspective.
Figgy: Yeah, it could've been too soon, honestly. It's going to be really interesting because Adam has always been on the bottom, so for him to make a move like that when no matter what -- like, I did trust him 100% at that point, and he knew that.
And that's why when that Tribal Council happened and he immediately put his head down, it was because we 100% had this trust in each other. But that's what the game is all about. The game is all about making strong moves like that, and I do commend Adam for doing that.
It f-cking sucks and I hate this conversation that we're having, you know, I'd rather not be doing this, I'd rather be, come December, be like, "Oh yeah, I'm just going on trips!" and blah, blah, blah.
But that's what the game is all about, is I retrusted somebody and he made a f-cking move. And I do commend him for it. I'm still kind of bitter about it, salty... but yeah, we'll see if it works out in his favor.
It could've been too soon because he could've used us to get a target off his back in the long run, or maybe not, so it's going to be interesting to see his gameplay from here. Because, like I said, Adam has always been on the bottom.
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Figgy: 100 percent, 100 percent. I kind of love saying this: I was [Rob "Boston Rob" Mariano] and Taylor was [Amber Brkich]. Maybe we weren't as strong of a power couple as them by any means, I'm not saying that, but I'm saying that I called the shots. I was the thinker, the strategist, the doer.
Taylor, all I would say to him was, "Go bat your blue eyes and go hang out with [Jessica Lewis]," and he would do it. He would go flip his hair, eat coconuts, make a stupid f-cking surfboard out of bamboo or something and go ride it down a hill. Like that's what Taylor did.
I was the strategist and I was the thinker. So, "Why keep somebody that you know is playing the game, even though she still has this little budding romance? Why keep her in here when she has somebody 100 percent?..."
"She's also actually thinking and playing this game, but we're just not really seeing it as much, or keep the person who is stupid and I can obviously boss around because Figgy's doing it, so obviously [Taylor] is going to listen to me."
So obviously the result of that was to take Figgy out and it was probably for everybody's best interest at that point in the game.
Reality TV World: Do you think your romance with Taylor ultimately cost you the game? Like do you think Adam would have continued working with you guys had you not been a power couple with feelings attached? Adam probably felt there was no way out of being No. 3 in your alliance.
Figgy: I definitely think that for sure. When you word it like that, I think if Taylor and I had been more quiet about things or anything like that, if we just would've been a tight alliance, I think Adam would have retrusted us, possibly.
But Adam is such a fan of the game. None of us knew this about him. He's a die-hard fan of Survivor, so he knows what the f-ck he's doing. So, if he's going to take somebody out and flip and make a big power move like that, it's good for his game.
So I think that I just picked the wrong person to line up with in the whole situation, for that matter. But I think Adam, you know, was just making a power move.
Reality TV World: You argued at Tribal Council that despite being in a showmance with Taylor, you both were playing the game as strategically as possible with every move you made. Does that mean you'd actually be willing to betray or vote out Taylor if it meant you getting ahead?
Figgy: So, I love this question. The thing is, it's like, Taylor said in one of the behind-the-scenes clips that "it would've hurt Figgy to write my name down." And it would. It would kill me to have written his name down at that time.
But the thing is, if it came down to it, no matter what, if people were like, "It's either you or Figgy," Taylor would be like, "You can write my name down." That's the person Taylor is. He'll say in interviews time and time again that he was not there for the million dollars!
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Somebody that says that in a game of a million dollars can go and I will find you. We'll find our way back to each other; We'll be Jack and Rose from Titanic and I'll f-cking find ya. But right now, like, if it came down to it, he definitely would've been like, "I know people are writing my name down; You can write my name down. It's fine.
That's the type of person Taylor is. On the other hand, he would never write my name down and he would write his name down. He would write his own name down before writing my name down.
Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of our exclusive Survivor interview with Figgy.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski