Survivor: Blood vs. Water ousted "loved one" Katie Collins from the game after she lost the season's eleventh Redemption Island duel during Wednesday night's penultimate episode of the CBS reality series' 27th edition.  

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Katie, a 25-year-old who works in hedge fund support from New York, NY, lost the duel to returning castaways Tina Wesson, a 52-year-old motivational speaker from Robbinsville, NC -- who is Katie's mother -- and Laura Morett, a 43-year-old construction company co-owner from Salem, OR.

Later in the episode, the merged Kasama tribe voted Kat Edorsson's boyfriend and former Big Brother winner Hayden Moss out of their tribe on Night 35 at the season's fourteenth Tribal Council session.

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

Reality TV World: Being a jury member, what criteria did you think was important when deciding which Final 3 castaway should win the game? What did you base your vote on?

Katie Collins: I know there's several different ways of going about it. It could be, "Pick a number between one and 10," or, "I don't know who I'm going to vote for, so state your case." On Ponderosa, you have a lot of time to think about criteria, like, "Okay, what if these people go to the Final 3?" Obviously my mom is numero uno; She'd always get my vote.

But as a jury member, my vote is going towards who I think played the best game and taking the emotion side out of it. Because we have to hurt each other, we have to say things, we have to make decisions, but who I deem the best and smartest gameplayer, that's my criteria. There's certain sub-criteria under that as well, but that's the general view of it, yeah.

Reality TV World: Earlier this season, we saw your mom saying she was hoping there might be something going on between yourself and Vytas Baskauskas. Did you ever have any romantic interest in him, or where did that come from? Is that mom just being a mom? (Laughs)

Katie Collins: (Laughs) I think what it was, I mean everyone in the game had a significant other. And with me and Vytas being the only single ones, it sort of made sense. It's like when you're a little girl and you have two Barbies and you're like, "Now kiss!" (Laughs) It's like, okay, that would work!

And so, I think that it was talked about and maybe, you know, my mom does want me to settle down, and of course we know the grandbabies speech. But me and Vytas stayed because I knew I wanted to work with Vytas and [his brother Aras Baskauskas] and me and my mom wanted to have an alliance with them.

But I wasn't trying to be obvious and be too chummy with Vytas on the show because I didn't want people to think that we were going to be a force. So I really didn't -- I mean, we kind of played it cool.

There were probably times of flirtation, but you know, I think that we just think of each other as castmates and really good friends, and we really haven't talked about a relationship. Obviously he's on the West Coast and I'm on the East Coast. But I don't know.

I think that we both probably had like a little "school girl crush" in the beginning, and then the game just puts you through the ringer emotionally. I didn't want to tack on anything else in your emotional stride. (Laughs)

But I think a lot of people are curious about that -- about me and Vytas and what could've happened and all that, but we're just friends and I really admire [him] and I'm glad that we can be friends. But I don't think it's going anywhere further. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: When I talked to Vytas, he admitted he had kind of intentionally tried to present himself as potential son-in-law material to Tina because he got a sense she was coming from there and he thought it might get him further in the game. Did that surprise you or what's your reaction to hearing that?

Katie Collins: Surprised? No. I feel like in the beginning of the game, Vytas was sort of key because he had that guy alliance with [Brad Culpepper] and all those dudes, and I know that he was kind of looking out for me.

They'd be trying not to throw my name out there, so when we did the tribe swap, I kind of wanted to reciprocate that. So I was like, you know, "You're safe. You're safe with me and you're safe with my mom, and we'll just kind of plow through..."

And it was smart of him to be chummy with both of us, knowing that we're a couple. He's like, "Okay, I'm finding safety in that. If it means sort of, 'Oh Tina, your daughter's a real lovely girl. I really enjoyed getting to know her.'"

I mean, that's a smart gameplay. I think of course in my mom's head, she's like, "Oh my God! He may love my daughter!" (Laughs) She's not thinking in that direction, but I think I'm not surprised by that necessarily. I think that's super, super smart. But my mom probably bought it. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: How big a role do you think Hayden's campaigning played in Ciera Eastin's decision to force a tiebreaker and how much of it do you think was basically Gervase Peterson and Monica Culpepper's careless mistakes in which they repeatedly kept making references to Ciera being No. 4?

Katie Collins: Right. Maybe I could even argue 50/50, because I mean, Hayden went down swinging. In Tribal, he was just like, "Open your eyes! You know these people, you're last. You're No. 4 and you're not No. 1, seriously."

I think that she, going into Tribal, sort of understood that. And [Tyson Apostol] made a good point in saying when someone actually is No. 4 or No. 5 or whatever, you always address them as first. It's like, "Okay, the alliance is you, me, so and so, so and so."

And I think that's when Tyson got kind of mad at Gervase. He's like, "Don't ever refer to the underdog as last in the alliance. Don't list the hierarchy." So I think she picked up on those little cues and Ciera, it probably dawned on her that she was going to be next and she needed to make a move. And Hayden had some great points too, so it probably all-around was a lot of different driving forces for her.

Reality TV World: We didn't see you do a lot of talking during that Tribal when you ended up drawing rocks. Were you campaigning hard with Ciera as much as Hayden was but it just got edited out? Was that something intentional you guys had discussed ahead of time?

Katie Collins: Well, we knew going into that Tribal that they were gunning for Hayden, so I didn't really want to say anything that was going to cause any tension to myself, (laughs) you know? So I was just trying to get far in the game, far enough to hopefully have my mom get back in.

That was my prerogative and I tried not to stir the pot, and Hayden, knowing that he was next to go, had -- like Ciera said -- nothing to lose. You're kind of like just, "Okay, here's all my ammo," and you just kind of let it go. But it turning into drawing rocks at least made me think about the future game and what would be the best decision to break up the alliance of three with Tyson, Gervase and Monica.

It was really a rollercoaster of a Tribal Council, because yeah, I was going in like, "Okay, no one's saying my name. I'm kind of safe tonight." It's like I didn't want to stir the pot at all.

I was like, "Okay, Hayden can go home. I love him but he's next and then possibly I can do some things after this Tribal." But then the tables turned and wow. I mean, it turned out to be a great Tribal Council -- not on my side, but it was a good one.

Reality TV World: Right before you guys had to draw rocks, Jeff Probst told you guys that you could still avoid drawing rocks if you could all agree on a single name, and Ciera seemed to tell Tyson and Gervase that all she wanted them to do was make her their No. 3 in the alliance instead of Monica. So did it surprise you at all that Tyson actually decided to take the chance of drawing a rock instead of just telling Gervase, "Let's just give Ciera what she wants and let's vote out Monica?"

Katie Collins: Yeah, I was a little taken aback in knowing that Tyson knew he was safe at Tribal. We didn't know this, but he did have an idol in his pocket and I think he -- I didn't know he would be up for that challenge.

I would think he'd be like, "Okay, let's play it safe here." It really did surprise me, and I know that he was scared -- really, really scared -- because that was really the potential for him going home.

But he had options and he chose to go into this head-to-head battle with us and it was all kind of a group effort. We all stuck through it and Jeff's like, "Okay, well, there's consequences of being this stubborn."

Also at Tribal, we don't have a lot of time to talk, so you don't really know if someone is going to change their vote. I mean, we didn't really get a lot of time to discuss these things, so you're just kind of going off your intuition as well. 

Reality TV World: Do you think Gervase actually thinks he could beat Tyson in a jury vote or do you basically think he knows he has no chance and he's just talking some trash? Also, do you personally think Gervase could beat Tyson in the end?

Katie Collins: I think Gervase thinks that he actually has a chance. If they're in the Final 3 together, I think Gervase thinks that he has a chance to beat Tyson. I personally don't think that he does. Gervase liked to think that he had an incremental part of Tyson's moves and that Tyson made the moves but it was all because of Gervase's strategy.

And I think that there were spurts where Gervase would be like, "Tyson wouldn't be in Tyson's position if it wasn't for Gervase and I'm playing the game the best." That's sort of like his cocky nature. (Laughs) I honestly think that Gervase doesn't have a chance against Tyson, no, I don't.

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


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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