Exclusive: 'Survivor: Cagayan -- Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty' castoff Trish Hegarty talks (Part 2)

Survivor: Cagayan -- Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty's post-merge Solarrion tribe voted out Trish Hegarty during the penultimate broadcast of the CBS reality series' 28th edition.
 
Trish, a 48-year-old pilates instructor from Needham, MA, was voted out of her Solarrion tribe at the season's thirteenth Tribal Council session, which marked the seventh time Solarrion had attended Tribal together. Trish's alliance members Tony Vlachos and Yung "Woo" Hwang both turned on her and voted her out with the help of Kassandra "Kass" McQuillen and Spencer Bledsoe.


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

Reality TV World: If you were in a Final 3 with Tony, are you confident you'd finish with more votes than him?

Trish Hegarty: I didn't know that for sure, but I was kind of hoping for that, you know what I mean? I didn't know. Because this is the thing with Survivor, it's that, if the jury votes emotionally -- because he's screwed everybody -- I would've gotten a million dollars.

But if the jury voted thinking like Spencer thinks, like, "Hey, he played one hell of a game and even though he screwed us, we respect him and he deserves the million dollars," then of course he would've won.


Reality TV World: You mentioned you believe Tony played the best game in Survivor history. So I guess I'm trying to understand how you think you'd beat him in the jury. But it sounds like you're counting on the jury being bitter, which is the same theory Kass has had.

Trish Hegarty: Well yeah, I mean, you watch the show right?

Reality TV World: Yes.

Trish Hegarty: Did you see the expressions on [Sarah Lacina] and [LJ McKanas] and [Jefra Bland]'s face every time Tony spoke?

Reality TV World: Sure, yes, I did.


Trish Hegarty: Yeah, they weren't happy with him and I was watching that, and I was like, "Hmm." And they liked me! And they knew my story, because I have a story behind my 48 years, and a lot of it's sad.

I think they probably would've been thinking to themselves -- I was banking on their empathy and their respect for the fact that I didn't screw them, but that wasn't a guarantee. Kass was a guarantee. Tony wasn't.

Reality TV World: And Woo was...?

Trish Hegarty: Um, probably 50/50.

Reality TV World: So you were expecting to go with Woo and Tony, but you'd prefer to go with Kass and Tony.


Trish Hegarty: Exactly. But after I got in a fight with Kass, honestly, she was making my skin -- I had tolerated her for so long that every time she moved, my skin crawled. So I was like, "I don't even care if I go to the end with her." I just didn't want to spend another three days with her.

Reality TV World: I was going to ask you about that. Could you explain your relationship with Kass a little? Had there been a lot of tension between you guys before what viewers saw last night and that dynamic just wasn't shown?

Trish Hegarty: I never liked Kass. I never liked Kass from the second I met her, but Tony and I wanted to bring her to the end. So, Tony's not the best people person and I'm a very good people person, so Tony begged me and begged me and begged me to maintain a relationship with -- because she was starting to fight with him, so I was still trying to keep her going with us because she was so unpredictable.

So I was sort of like, I would give myself the Academy Award for acting as though I ever liked her at all. I was just trying to keep her in line because she was such a loose cannon. She was so untrustworthy that you just didn't know what she was going to pull next, so I had to be nice to her.

Reality TV World: So was last night's fight really just about the fact you found out Kass was trying to convince Woo to vote you off or was it all that pent-up frustration just kind of boiling over finally?


Trish Hegarty: Oh my gosh, she was such a nightmare. I mean, behind the scenes, she was just -- she would say stuff like, "You're not even a threat," and, "you're a goat," and, "I'm skinnier than you."

She got Spencer going about college, she was just nasty. She just loves seeing people at their worst. She said it herself on-camera, "My favorite thing is to get people at their worst and see them vulnerable," and I just did not like that at all. I like to see people at their best. I'm a good-hearted person.

There was just nothing about her that her and I shared in common. It was just built-up, built-up, built-up -- and I woke up that morning and I heard her saying really nasty things about me, like, "She's useless, she's lazy," like, all this stuff that just wasn't true.

And then she'd be telling Tony, "You would never beat [her] in the end," and, "We've got to get rid of her." I heard her saying it all! I heard it point blank, and I asked her about it...

Reality TV World: Kass said that to Tony, not just Woo?


Trish Hegarty: Yeah, she told Tony that he couldn't beat me too. I heard her say it at the fire when I woke up that morning.

Reality TV World: Other than you, we didn't see Tony telling anyone his lie about the special idol being used at the Final 4. Was that something he made obvious, like he was going around bragging to everyone about that?

Trish Hegarty: No, he didn't tell anybody about that. He didn't want anybody to know what it was. I was making jokes, like, "What, is this thing going to microwave my food? Is it going to jet me up to space?" Because he was like, "My special idol!!" You would've thought the thing could've turned into a person. It was so special, the way he was talking about it. It's actually hilarious looking back now.

Reality TV World: What did you think about Spencer during the game? It seemed like everyone was certain if they made it to the end with Spencer, no one could beat him.

Trish Hegarty: Yeah, everyone knew that they couldn't beat Spencer. What I can say about Spencer too, is that he was a wonderful human being out there. He was a gentleman, he was easy to get along with, he was very nice, very well spoken -- can't say enough about Spencer, really nice guy.

Reality TV World: When I talked to Latasha "Tasha" Fox last week, she referred to yourself and Woo as Tony's "loyal minions" and didn't seem to have a lot of respect for your gameplay -- especially your willingness to stick with Tony even after he kept betraying people in your alliance without telling you first. What are your thoughts on that? And why were you still willing to stick with Tony when he seemed to be going off and making big moves without consulting you?


Trish Hegarty: Well, because Tasha was very two-faced out there, and I saw that in her. So if I bailed on Tony, who was I going to go to? Tasha and Spencer? I mean, what was my choice?

And Tasha kept talking about "big moves," and please don't get me wrong here, Tasha won three immunities and she did a great job winning immunity, but she didn't play the game outside of that, she really didn't. She didn't really scramble that much. She didn't really do much! She didn't really help around camp, she wasn't really helpful, I mean, she was a challenge beast, period.

Reality TV World: Tony called you anorexic last night. Was that just a joke or did that offend you at all?

Trish Hegarty: I was on Survivor. I hadn't eaten in 36 days. I mean, anorexics are people who are around food and choose not to eat. I was on an island where there was no food to eat. There's a big difference.

Reality TV World: So it sounds like you definitely weren't offended by it.

Trish Hegarty: No.


Reality TV World: How much weight did you lose out there, just out of curiosity?

Trish Hegarty: Ten pounds, just 10 pounds. There was 10 pounds of solid muscle and that's all I have, so it made me look all that much worse, you know?

Reality TV World: What was your reaction when Kass flipped you the finger as you were walking out of Tribal Council? Were you aware of that?

Trish Hegarty: I wasn't aware of it until after. I was laughing. It was just so classless. It's a perfect example of who she was. Now I'm somebody that if I'm going to give you the finger, I'm going to give it right to your face -- put it right up in the middle of your nose, between the middle of your eyes so you can see it. I'm not going to do it behind someone's back. I think it just goes to show you exactly who she was.

Reality TV World: Did you enjoy playing Survivor? Because based on your final words, you seemed like you might not have enjoyed it that much and maybe weren't really cut out for it.

Trish Hegarty: They asked me if I thought I was too nice to play the game, and at the end of the day, unlike Kass, I didn't like Tribal Council. I didn't like writing people's names down because I got to know these people and I really liked them, you know?


I really liked [Jeremiah Wood] and I really liked Sarah and I really liked Spencer and Tony and Woo and Jefra. I really liked all them and it was hard to get to know somebody and know their story. Everyone had a story and then to feel like you were a part of their dream not coming true, I didn't feel comfortable with that, you know? So yeah, maybe at the end of the day, I was not cutthroat enough for it, you know?

Reality TV World: How were you cast on Survivor? How did you end up on the show?

Trish Hegarty: I tried for 10 years. I put in seven, I think it was seven, different tapes in 10 years and then they finally saw me and liked me and took me.

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






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski