Exclusive: Marissa Peterson talks 'Survivor: Blood vs. Water' (Part 2)

Survivor: Blood vs. Water eliminated "loved one" Marissa Peterson from the game after she lost the season's third Redemption Island duel during Wednesday night's third episode of the CBS reality series' 27th edition.


Marissa, a 21-year-old student from Chapel Hill, NC who is the niece of returning player Gervase Peterson, lost the duel to newbie player John Cody and his wife Candice Cody, a returning player. She had survived both prior duels.

Gervase is still in the game, however, playing with the returning castaways on the Galang tribe in the hopes of winning Survivor: Blood vs. Water's million dollar prize.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Marissa talked about her Survivor experience and early ouster from the game. Below is the concluding portion of her interview. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: How is your relationship with Gervase now? Are you closer, or maybe somehow more distant now since being on the show together?


Marissa Peterson: It's more closer, but it is kind of hard because we live in separate states. I think we might be one of the only pairs that live in separate states, but we just talk on the phone and text and stuff. But yeah, it's even better.

But definitely a lot of people expect me to put the blame on Gervase, but to be honest, Gervase had nothing to do with our tribe needing to go to Tribal Council in the first place. Gervase had nothing to do with Tadhana losing the challenge, which is what they were acting like it was the equivalent to. So that was just my tribe's decision.

Reality TV World: Had you ever applied for Survivor on your own before this season, or was it something you had just never been interested in before? 

Marissa Peterson: I hadn't! And it's not like I wasn't interested in it. I guess I just assumed like, "Oh, I can't. This is not me. This is Gervase's thing. This is Gervase's show. Survivor is his thing." And I honestly was just thinking like, "Okay, they probably wouldn't pick me."

And then [Survivor casting director] Lynne Spillman in casting asked, "Why haven't you tried out before?" And I was like, "Honestly, I really don't know. I guess I just assumed, I don't know, thousands of people try out. Would I really be that one person that they would want?"


Reality TV World: How did you end up getting cast on the show, how did that happen? Was it something where the producers were initially interested in bringing Gervase back again and then asked him for a list of possibilities for his "loved one" partner and you were just one of the people on his list -- or was it a situation where they were somehow already familiar with you and that played a role in why they were initially interested in him?

Marissa Peterson: The first thing you said. It happened exactly like that, and then [Gervase] proposed me. And then they asked me if I'd be interested, and I was like, "Oh hell yeah!" So then I still had to go through the audition process and they ended up liking me after that whole thing.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised to see the five-guys alliance in your tribe ended up turning on John last week while there were still two girls left, or had you kind of seen that coming?

Marissa Peterson: I saw it coming because it's like, I don't know, I just felt like -- okay, when [Rachel Foulger] came out to Redemption and she told us that votes had been thrown out on John, because John had told Rachel, "Okay, you're going and I tried to save you. I tried to speak up for you. But you're going in."

And as soon as he said that, I feel like [Brad Culpepper] put a target on John's back -- like, "This is somebody going against what I'm saying." So I definitely saw it coming, because you don't speak out against the Culpepper and not feel his wrath."


That's what I felt like happened to me, like, I said I didn't want him on my tribe and look what happened. He didn't want me on his tribe, and he had the power. He had the numbers in that situation to get me out. So, I did see it coming, but I wasn't expecting it so soon, especially since John had two of the [hidden Immunity Idol] clues.

That's what me and Candice were talking about, like, "Do you think he's sharing it with people? What do you think he's doing?" I mean, those immunity clues were also putting a target on his back.

Reality TV World: You clearly voiced some of your thoughts about Brad at one of the Redemption Island duels. Could you recap what your general opinion of him was while you were out there?

Marissa Peterson: Okay, let's see. Ahh, this is like the hardest question. It's like he has been very privileged in his life and hasn't all the time had to interact with people who don't agree with him. And I don't know, they show him saying that comment about [Caleb Bankston], like not being a guy -- not being a guy but being a gay guy.

And I thought that was messed up. I feel like that was offensive and ignorant, and he would say things like that all the time and nobody would say anything about it at all. People would just fake laugh and keep going with it, but I don't know, I just feel like he thinks he can do whatever he does because of the things that he's accomplished in his life.


And I feel like his wife feels the same way, like, "Oh, my husband, he's a breadwinner! He does this. I know he's helping his tribe." But yeah, like, he's still being a douchebag! You can do all those things and still be a fool.

Reality TV World: So, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you're saying you think he has a sense of entitlement?

Marissa Peterson: Most definitely. Most definitely.

Reality TV World: Last night's episode showed Candice basically claiming that Brad is a male chauvinist -- which is pretty unusual given she never actually spent any time with him. And Monica challenged her on that, but Candice basically said that's what you and the other people who had been voted out of the tribe had been telling her. We never actually saw you say that yourself, so could you confirm that's the impression you had of Brad? 

Marissa Peterson: That was definitely part of it. I felt like he did treat the women differently than the dudes. I mean, he even said like, "Oh, all the girls, they're all the same to me. It doesn't matter, one of them is going," basically [saying] they're not individuals, they're all the same and he doesn't care which one of them goes but one needs to go.


But I have said like he personally didn't trust me, but there were plenty of times when I would try to put in my input -- like, "Try doing the fire like this," and he would just put his hand up or just say, "No" -- basically, "Stop talking. No."

"Hey Brad, how about you try to give the fire some more air life?"

"No."

And it would be shut down, like that would be the end of it. So that's where I was coming from. Because I did feel like he was rude to me and made me feel really insignificant.

Above is the concluding portion of Marissa Peterson's exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski