Survivor: Cagayan -- Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty's sixth episode concluded with the new merged Solarrion tribe voting out Sarah Lacina.
Sarah, a 29-year-old police officer from Cedar Rapids, IA, was voted out of her Solarrion tribe -- named after the former Aparri and Solana tribes -- at the season's seventh Tribal Council session during last week's broadcast of the CBS reality series' 28th edition.
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Sarah was voted out of the game after Kassandra "Kass" McQuillen flipped on her alliance of six to ultimately giving the opposing alliance the numbers. Kass jumped ship on Sarah's group because of tension that was building between the two women over who had control over the game.
In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Sarah talked about her blindside and Survivor experience. Below is the concluding portion of Sarah's interview. Click here to read the first half.
Reality TV World: You were shown saying you were sure Tony Vlachos didn't have a hidden Immunity Idol, which was obviously incorrect. Why were you so confident about that?
Sarah Lacina: Yeah, yeah, I was definitely wrong about that. [Lindsey Ogle] had made a comment in one of her exit interviews that she didn't think Tony was smart in that he couldn't count to 20 with his shoes on, and I would almost say that that was the perception out there -- that Tony's kind of this meathead and what not.
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But, no. Tony is definitely a lot smarter than he led on, and so, that's why I was so sure. Because I was around the guy for 11 or 12 days before I got turned on to the other tribe, and I thought that, you know, Tony and I were also closer than it appears.
Yes, he did lie to me about things, but we were tight. So I thought that he would tell me, because once Tony gets on to something, he just runs with it. So I figured if he found an idol, at some point, he would let me know that.
Reality TV World: You and Kass clearly weren't getting along, so did you just misread her and never suspect that she might consider flipping on you, or what had you been thinking there going into Tribal Council?
Sarah Lacina: Well, I just, you know, do I think she wanted to flip because we didn't get along with each other? Probably. But I didn't think she would because it's idiotic to do that! You're not going to win the game if you flip, and so, there was no logic behind it and I didn't think she was stupid enough that her dislike for me, she would let get in the way of her winning a million dollars. But apparently, I was wrong.
Reality TV World: So are you still super confident that you're great at reading people, or has what happened on Survivor made you a little less certain about that?
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Sarah Lacina: You know, I think obviously there were times I was wrong and there were times I was spot-on. Obviously they're going to show my flaws and they're going to show my strong points, but no. I never had an issue at work or anything, and again, I do that -- I interview and interrogate people on a daily basis and I'm successful at my job. So, no, I wouldn't say that I second guess myself at all.
Reality TV World: Do you think Kass had gone into Tribal definitely planning to vote for you, or do you think she only made that decision after Tony revealed he had an idol and things seemed to be kind of blowing up?
Sarah Lacina: Yeah, I don't know that she knew for sure because their whole tribe didn't even know. [Trish Hegarty] was the only one that talked to her, so they were even blindsided that it worked out. Because if you watch their faces, they're sweating it too. If you knew Kass was going to flip for sure, 100%, why would you play your idol? So they didn't even know.
And I think the more that Kass likes to have attention on her -- and you even heard her say, "Well, I've been replaced," and what not, I think as Tribal went on, she wasn't getting attention there, and she like, wasn't going to have it. So, you know, I don't know. Maybe she had her mind made up. I don't think you ever know what she's thinking.
Reality TV World: How had you seen the rest of the season playing out if Kass hadn't flipped on you? Like had you planned on staying loyal to your new alliance until the Final 6, or had you been hoping to convince them to vote Kass off as soon as possible? What had you been envisioning?
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Sarah Lacina: [Spencer Bledsoe], [Jeremiah Wood], and I had made like a Final 3 pact with each other, and we had discussed wanting to get rid of Kass before -- we need to whittle the other team down a little bit before we could take out Kass.
So it wasn't that she was just disruptive with me; She was disruptive with the rest of the members of the tribe. And maybe you'll see that -- maybe you won't. But definitely, you know, she was going to be a target at some point. And I really wanted to work with Trish, Tony and [Yung "Woo" Hwang], but I knew we had to get through that vote before I could even think about going somewhere different.
Reality TV World: The show made it look like you put a lot of stock in Tony's "Final 5" chant after his new tribe won their Immunity Challenge and you positioned that as what made you realize you needed a new alliance. But Tony's chant seemed like a pretty innocent thing given the situation, so was that accurate? Did you expect him to be chanting "Final 6" instead or something?
Sarah Lacina: I mean, clearly there's -- I mean, when we have six and they have five, I don't know why you would be bragging about having five when we have the numbers. So it seemed silly for me, or to me, that he would chant that.
And I had made some comments about how the three Brains, myself and then Woo, Trish and Tony should all work together at the merge. And then Kass is like, "Well now your theory is out the window." It just goes back to her nagging at everything, and so it's like, "Okay, fine. I'll just stick with this six instead of trying to constantly battle against her."
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Reality TV World: What was your reaction when Tony pulled his idol out? Did you think things were going to go wrong at that point, or were you still confident your alliance was going to come out ahead?
Sarah Lacina: Yeah, I didn't know where that was going to go. He pulled it out; I was definitely shocked. I was like, "Shoot. I put all my stock into the fact that Tony needs to go." And luckily, we had a "Plan B" in order to where we could counter that without, you know, exposing whom we were going to vote for. But I definitely didn't think he had it.
Reality TV World: What was your reaction when Tony ended up giving his idol to LJ McKanas before the votes got announced and then LJ in turn pulled his idol out and gave it to Tony? Were you surprised LJ had an idol himself and that Tony would be willing to give up his own? It was a crazy series of events.
Sarah Lacina: Yeah, you know, Tony says, "I think I can read these people," so he's like, "I'm going to play this for LJ." Well, you're clearly wrong because that's not what we did. And then LJ was like, "Well, I'm going to cover Tony just in case they didn't switch the vote."
So the second they played it for each other and they're sitting there patting each other on the back and what not, I just exploded inside knowing we just all voted for [Jefra Bland]. We flushed two idols and they're going to get rid of somebody.
So, I mean, I was just ecstatic, but I had to keep my mouth shut. And [Jeff Probst] couldn't read the votes fast enough, because I'm like, "Just get down to it! I can't wait to see!" And then sure enough, it was my name, and then that was a shock all in itself.
Reality TV World: So were you surprised LJ also had an idol? And what did you think of his move to play it? Do you think it made sense, that it was smart?
Sarah Lacina: If I were LJ, I would not have played that for Tony, because LJ's covered. And in the event that they do lose a member, LJ's going to need his idol. So I definitely wouldn't have played it if I were LJ.
Above is the concluding portion of Sarah's exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski