Exclusive: 'Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance' castoff Stephen Fishbach talks (Part 2)

Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance's merged Orkun tribe snuffed Stephen Fishbach's torch during Season 31's special double episode last week on CBS.


Fishbach, who had first appeared on Survivor: Tocantins, became the eleventh castaway voted out of the game and the season's fifth jury member on Night 29 of the game. He received four votes even though he had used his advantage in the game.

Ciera Eastin, who previously competed on Survivor: Blood vs. Water, got eliminated from the game three days earlier when Jeremy Collins shockingly used a hidden Immunity Idol to save Fishbach, who was the group's main target at the time.

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

Reality TV World: Do you regret picking Jeremy and Tasha Fox to join you on your Reward? Instead of building up new bonds or throwing people in your tribe off, you chose to take your two closest allies and people were ripping you up back at camp over that, especially Spencer Bledsoe who read a lot into it.


Stephen Fishbach: Yeah, I mean, it's easy in retrospect to say obviously I wish I had taken Spencer because he somewhat based his vote on it. (Laughs) But I talked to him about it and he said "not at all." That was just something he said at the time, like he was already planning to take me out, you know?

He even thought apparently that that Reward Challenge was going to be an Immunity and he thought it was going to be a lead in to Tribal Council and he had already had a plan in place to vote me out. So, I don't think -- I mean, obviously it's hard for me to defend the choice when I went home the next day, but I had to take Jeremy, right? There's no question that I had to take Jeremy.

Reality TV World: That's true, yes. So Tasha was the questionable decision.

Stephen Fishbach: So Tasha, yeah, you know, I thought that Tasha and I needed to repair our relationship and build some trust where there hadn't been trust. It made sense to me. She was that person on the outside that I was trying to rebuild and repair things with.

I knew [Keith Nale], could he be my ally because I take him on a Reward? Absolutely not. Is [Kelley Wentworth]? No. Is [Abi-Maria Gomes]? No. [Kimmi Kappenberg], I 100% had confidence in Kimmi. So that wasn't in my mind at all. So, it's just a question of, like, Tasha versus Spencer. I don't know; I just picked Tasha.


Reality TV World: It seemed like you guys wanted Wentworth gone for a while, especially around the time she played her idol to save herself, so how did the target switch to Ciera before she went home? How did Ciera suddenly become the bigger threat?

Stephen Fishbach: So everyone wanted to take Ciera out all the time, except me. I was the one pushing for Wentworth, and the reason had been that I thought Ciera would work with me down the line, because she and I had been together very early in the game. And Wentworth seemed like she would never work with me. She was tighter with [Joe Anglim].

So I kept on pushing -- every time Ciera's name came up, I would make a long, passionate argument of why it needed to be Wentworth instead. And then after that Reward that they went on -- the culture Reward after the basketball challenge -- everyone came up to me and was like, "Ciera kept throwing your name out. She wants you gone."

And it's just like, I had been trying to save her for so long, it was like, forget that! If you're working against me all the time while I'm trying to save you, like, forget it. You're done. And then the other thing was Ciera had told me that she wanted Spencer out. And I just couldn't -- that scared me because Spencer was my ally.

Reality TV World: When Ciera got the boot, a lot of votes were cast for you that didn't count. What was it like going back to camp after all that? Viewers didn't see much of the reaction and fallout from Tribal Council. Were you scrambling trying to figure out which castaways turned on you or did you just play it cool as to not create chaos and aggravate people?


Stephen Fishbach: Yeah, that's a really good question. Of course I was flabbergasted that Tasha had voted for me, that Spencer had voted for me.

Reality TV World: Did Tasha and Spencer admit that to your face?

Stephen Fishbach: Yeah. And I had been really sick, right? So I kind of had this big blank spot over the past few days where I had no idea what was happening. They created this whole plan, and then Tasha was telling me that Jeremy had told her to vote for me, but then Jeremy did NOT vote for me. In fact, he played his idol.

And Spencer was saying that everyone was saying I was out to get him, and the whole thing didn't make sense to me. The plan I had thought was happening was Spencer or Ciera, and I was running around trying to save Spencer. And so the fact that Spencer of all people voted against me and the fact that Tasha voted against me, it was just so shocking to me.

I was totally blindsided by all of it and yeah. I really wanted to work on repairing those relationships. I tried hard to do so and I thought I had. And it kind of hit me like -- or it made me realize how questionable -- I mean, I think I played a good game. I think I played a fine game. I don't think I played a great game. And that really brought that home.


Reality TV World: Were you as close with Kimmi as other people in your tribe perceived? Spencer, for example, saw your close relationship with Kimmi as a big problem.

Stephen Fishbach: Yeah, this didn't really make it on air, but Kimmi and I were very, very close. Very close. And, you know, I knew it was dangerous because any two -- any pair -- is going to be a big threat.

I do think that's part of why I went home. That's one of the reasons, you know? I was making big moves, I had an advantage... but at the time, it was hard because I thought the strategic benefits of keeping or staying super close with Kimmi outweighed the danger of letting her drift away.

Reality TV World: Why don't you think people were viewing Keith out there as a bigger threat? He seems to be a pretty likable guy and he's come close to beating Joe in almost every Individual Immunity Challenge. Do you think he's sneaking up on people right now?

Stephen Fishbach: I think Keith is underrated! And I was even telling that to Jeremy while I was out there. He was like, "Nah, Keith is going to do whatever we tell him. Keith is solid. Keith is with us."


And I was like, "Don't be so sure. Keith has got his own game. He knows what's up." So I think if Keith can sort of play that role of, "Anybody but me. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it," that works out great for him and it makes him a very, very dangerous competitor.

Reality TV World: When I talked to Kelly Wiglesworth earlier this season, she said she thought you were working with her and proud of the fact no one knew you were also working with Joe -- like you two would be the most unexpected and surprising allies. We didn't see any of that though. We just saw you wanting Joe gone every week. So could you talk about that a little bit?

Stephen Fishbach: Yeah, Wigles, Kimmi, Joe and I and Keith had a secret alliance. We never acted on it, but we thought it was so cool that no one would see this secret alliance between Fishbach and Joe because we had been against each other the whole time. I think the problem was, there was just too much suspicion, and it was hard to trust each other.

I'm so glad Wigles mentioned that, yeah. You know, the thing is, we were going to take out [Andrew Savage]. That was our move, like our next move, because Savage was trying to intimidate people and thought he had them in his pocket. So when Savage was blindsided, what is this alliance for?

And then, I had a conversation with Wigles where she was like, "Okay, we're going to try to take our eight to the end -- the eight being everyone BUT the witches [Ciera, Abi and Wentworth] -- and then we'll fight it out from there."

And I had a separate conversation with Tasha when she was like, "Yeah, we'll stick with the eight and then you, me and Jeremy will be in the finals together." And that was a terrible idea! I didn't want to be in the finals with Jeremy! And so it became really clear that if I stuck with the order as it was, I was just going to be someone's sidekick, you know?


I was just sort of going to coast to the end as a goat again. And, you know, I could've done that! I could've gotten the third-place check, but I thought, "This is my second chance and I want to play hard. I'd rather play hard and go out ninth place or tenth than not do anything and make it to third."

Reality TV World: So it sounds like you're pretty satisfied with your second chance. If you were to play again, what would you do differently? I'm sure you went home and thoroughly analyzed your gameplay. (Laughs)

Stephen Fishbach: Well, I wouldn't play again, so that's the beginning. But yeah, I think that well certainly next time I go out, nobody will think, you know -- I wouldn't play again -- but next time, nobody would think I'm a strategic threat.

Reality TV World: And you'd stay away from advantages?! (Laughs)

Stephen Fishbach: Yeah! Or I'd just work harder on building bonds. My first time out, I had really great bonds with everybody. And this time, I avoided those bonds because A) it was such a deep emotional impact for me, and then B) because I think that it creates more bitterness, right, if you're more emotionally connected to people. It's a hard thing to settle.

How do you not be [John Cochran] -- or not be [Dawn Meehan], right? The person whom everyone felt so betrayed by -- but also have the leverage to maneuver with people. So it's a crazy, tough game. But I don't think I'll be playing it again.


Click here to read the first half of Stephen Fishbach's exclusive Survivor interview with Reality TV World.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski