Survivor: Kaoh Rong -- Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty's new Gondol tribe voted out former Brains castaway Peter Baggenstos during the latest broadcast on CBS.
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After Gondol lost the Immunity Challenge, its members voted out Peter, a 34-year-old ER doctor from Minneapolis, MN, on Night 16 at the game's sixth Tribal Council session. Due to Caleb Reynolds' medical evacuation, Peter became the seventh person to leave the game but only the sixth person voted out.
Peter wasn't the most popular guy on the island. In fact, he admitted he was surprised watching the season back, seeing how much his tribemates disliked him and trash-talked him behind his back.
In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Peter talked about his Survivor experience. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.
Reality TV World: It appears Scot Pollard is the leader of the tribe right now. He commanded Aubry Bracco, Julia Sokolowski and Tai Trang to go with the "original plan," which was clearly to vote you out, and everyone listened to him. Were you getting that vibe while you were out there? Are you just realizing that watching the show back now?
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Peter Baggenstos: Out there, there was no one really taking a leadership role. Everyone was just waiting for other people to make a move. If he was a leader, he would've saw that I would've voted anyone he wanted out. Like, I was his vote. So, I don't know why he didn't use that and voted me out. I would've been definitely loyal to him throughout the game if he would've just saved my butt in that episode.
Reality TV World: Was it clear to you or anyone else that Scot and Tai were pretty much tied at the hip? The viewers knows it's because of Tai's idol, but from your perspective during the game, that must've seemed a little odd.
Peter Baggenstos: Ah, no! I knew they were [close], you know, they had talked like everyone else. I didn't know they shared that idol with each other.
Reality TV World: Was there any talk of idols out there? Were people at least off looking for one or did you assume anyone in particular had one?
Peter Baggenstos: I was out there looking for them everywhere. I was determined but I just got frustrated. [Joseph "Joe" Del Campo] made a comment that there were no idols, and I believed that. [Anna Khait] before she left, I vaguely remember her saying, "Tai has an idol," but he didn't elaborate! And then she just disappeared. So, from my perspective, felt like there was no frickin' idol.
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Reality TV World: Did you have any idea your tribemates disliked you and talked that much trash about you behind your back? They thought you were very arrogant and had this feeling of superiority.
Peter Baggenstos: (Laughs) No, I didn't! I had no idea that -- I'm thinking, like, "What did I say that was arrogant?" Did I say, like, I was the best? I don't know. It's just that sense of energy they got from me. So, I didn't know they held me with such disdain, because even when I interact with them now, we're all cordial and friendly.
So, maybe they still think that, but it's also that stress in that social environment that you pick on one component of someone's personality and you mushroom cloud it.
Reality TV World: What were you thinking then was the reason behind Elisabeth "Liz" Markham going home then? Because it seemed like your tribe didn't like you two and therefore made a personal decision.
Peter Baggenstos: Well, here is the reasoning. Liz was actually a hindrance at camp. She had a lot of food allergies. Well, actually, her allergy was to shellfish, which was the only food we had out there. So, she changed up camp life for us. We had to use different pots for Liz and get different food for Liz. She just made it a hindrance for the other four people. They just had enough of it.
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Reality TV World: Were you worried at the time you were working together that your tribe was viewing you as a power couple?
Peter Baggenstos: Oh yeah! I mean, at the end, we tried to not hang out as much. But once that scarlet letter is stamped, you're screwed.
Reality TV World: Would you say your edit on Survivor was accurate or the show made you look a little worse than you were really acting out there?
Peter Baggenstos: You know, I think it's such a thin film of arrogance, because if anyone challenged me, I would laugh and say, "You're right! I have no idea what I'm talking about."
They didn't see that self-deprecating, two-sided component of my personality. If you look at a histogram, they've got the 99 percentile of my outlandish statements but they forgot, you know, the 98% below that -- or the 97% -- where I'm, like, a normal person. (Laughs)
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Reality TV World: So do you have any regrets then in terms of your behavior or gameplay in general?
Peter Baggenstos: I regret my certainty the first few days I was out there when I knew, or I felt like that sense of control. It's so addictive. When you win a challenge, you've got this false sense of comfort, and you shouldn't feed on it. And I did. So that's what I do regret.
Reality TV World: If Tribal Council had worked out in your favor, what did you envision for the merge? Because obviously it seemed like you had resentment towards Joe and Aubry for taking out your alliance, so would you have tried to stretch yourself out and make new alliances or would you have stuck with the Brains?
Peter Baggenstos: Good question. I think at the end going from Tribal after Joe and I came back together, I would've went with the Brains just based on the logic and numbers game. Emotionally, I wanted to scramble. So I still would've been unpredictable.
Reality TV World: Sounds like you'd pull a "Chaos Kass." (Laughs)
Peter Baggenstos: Yeah, I don't know what I would've done!
Reality TV World: How were you cast on Survivor? How did you end up on the show?
Peter Baggenstos: The old fashioned way! I sent a video in and went from there. It was my first time [applying].
Click here to read the first half of Peter's exclusive Survivor interview with Reality TV World.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski