Exclusive: Shirin Oskooi talks 'Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance' (Part 2)

Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance's Ta Keo tribe snuffed Shirin Oskooi's torch Wednesday night on CBS, making her the second boot from Season 31.


Shirin, who previously competed on Survivor: Worlds Apart, received five votes at the second Tribal Council of the season, during which her closest ally Spencer Bledsoe racked in four votes. On Night 6, the tribe unanimously decided to split the vote.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Shirin talked about her experience on the show. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: Before Tribal, the episode showed you trying to win Yung "Woo" Hwang over by making some deals. Did you approach every person on the beach and do the same -- or only a select few?

Shirin Oskooi: I had already spoken with Kelly Wiglesworth enough in those first six days to know she wasn't going to be willing to talk strategy with me at all or with really anybody outside of her pre-game alliances. And I had also talked to [Terry Deitz] because Terry was the one who most acutely felt that [Jeff Varner] turned on him in that first vote.


And Terry and I actually had good rapport in the first three days. He and I made like a mini-deal with each other that we wouldn't vote for each other at the first Tribal, which is part of the reason why we targeted [Vytas Baskauskas] instead of Terry -- because Terry and I had this deal that we wouldn't vote for each other.

And so I thought, with this trust I had established with Terry and the fact that Varner ruined that -- or I thought ruined that trust -- with him, I thought I could swing Terry over to vote out Varner. And that ended up backfiring.

And then that's why, as a last resort, I went to Woo. Because it was very clear at that point that there was this old-school alliance happening and they were coming for the new-school players, and Woo voting with them was enabling that to happen.

And that was the first strategic conversation I had with Woo, but I had spoken with Woo a bunch socially before then. So, I knew a lot about his life and his girlfriend and he currently lives where I grew up. So that was something that we had discussed a lot.

But the other thing that was very clear after my conversation with Woo was that he also was just never willing to work with me. He always had something against me.


When I kind of look back on our first few days together, the clues were there. He was very sensitive about my educational background and my million dollar comment that I had made at my finale for the previous season. And I think that he just kind of had some kind of a complex with me.

Reality TV World: I think some fans were surprised how close you and Spencer managed to get after only six days in the game. He cried about having to write your name down because you were the only person he truly cared to work with. How did you bond so quickly? Was it over your love of Survivor or was there more to it than that?

Shirin Oskooi: It's funny because clearly people see Spencer and me as totally different people and our fanbases couldn't be more different. He and I are very, very similar. We have similar world views. I really respect his intelligence; He respects mine. We both do love the game. We're both loyal, really good people.

And it was just something that naturally developed. We met once before the game started, and so we had already established a little bit of a friendship, but when we were out there together, it was just very clear that we're very similar and we very much appreciate each other. That's kind of how it happened!

Reality TV World: Were you aware at the time people were started to view you and Spencer as a power couple? It seemed like history was sort of repeating itself because in Worlds Apart, you and Max Dawson were also inseparable and that became an issue for you.


Shirin Oskooi: Yeah, no, people didn't see Spencer and me as a power couple. They saw me, Kelley Wentworth, Spencer and [Abi-Maria Gomes] as the four new-school people all working together. People were actually more worried about the fact that, for the first couple days, I was Abi's handler in a way.

And so people thought that, you know, they couldn't control me at all but Abi was somebody that can be controlled. So if I were out of the way, they could control Abi basically. I was also seen as sort of the leader of that new-school group.

And I knew that, but I also knew that -- for whatever reason -- the old-school people were incredibly threatened by Spencer. So I knew that they had been targeting him before him, which was happening before I then tried to counter attack, which backfired.

Reality TV World: When I talked to Vytas, he admitted he felt really betrayed by Spencer because they were good friends and he really trusted him. Looking back, do you think it was a mistake to take out Vytas first? It seems like he might've been a number for you.

Shirin Oskooi: No, because Vytas was never willing to work with me at all. When I tried talking strategy with him, he just kept telling me, "I'm just here to have fun! I'm just here to have fun." And he only wanted to work with, I guess the old-school people, the people he had pre-game alliances with.


So if we had voted out Abi, I definitely would've been the second voted out. So, I did what I could with the hand that was dealt to me. Like I said, my biggest mistake -- my only real mistake -- was actually going after Varner. If I had just chilled out and let the game come to me and let whatever transpire, transpire, I'd still be there.

Reality TV World: If you could envision a perfect scenario for Spencer to be in as a result of the three-tribe swap coming up, what would it be? Which people in the cast do you think would be great for him to work with? Because I'm sure you're rooting for him to win.

Shirin Oskooi: I think actually there's a lot of people remaining. I think a lot of people on Bayon are probably willing to work with him. Obviously he's still in good with Kelley. And so, I think that as long as he's on a tribe that is not majority old-school led by Varner -- basically if he can just avoid being on the same tribe as Varner, Spencer should be fine.

To read the first half of Shirin's exclusive Survivor interview with Reality TV World, click here.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski