Exclusive: 'Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water' castoff Jon Misch talks (Part 2)

Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water's merged Huyopa tribe eliminated Jon Misch during Wednesday night's episode of the CBS reality competition's 29th season.
 
Jon, a 26-year-old financial assistant from Waterford, MI, was voted out of his Huyopa tribe on Night 35 at the season's twelfth Tribal Council session.


Jon was blindsided by his alliance of five members after Natalie Anderson devised a plan to use Keith Nale against him and vote him out. Jon's girlfriend at the time Jaclyn Schultz -- who is now his fiancee -- is still in the game.

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Jon talked about his Survivor experience. Below is a portion of his interview. Click here to read the first part, and please check back with us soon for more.

Reality TV World: Did you feel you had a better chance to win the jury vote than Jaclyn?

Jon Misch: Right. Yeah. She and I talked about who has the opportunity to win, and for that person, that's what we're going to focus on. We're going to focus on trying to get that person to win it.


Reality TV World: That's consistent with what Alec Christy told me last week. He said everyone wanted to take Jaclyn to the end because they thought she'd be easy to beat in a jury vote. It kind of sounds like you both got that same sense while you were out there.

Jon Misch: It's not so much that we thought Jaclyn was going to be easy, because Jaclyn's play was really, like, we were completely involved in everything together. So I was more her shield, but we weren't sure if they were going to see that had she been the one who went to the Final 3.

So, we kind of got the feeling out there, like, that's what people were thinking. And that's partially what kind of made us feel like, "Jon's the guy that we should be trying to get to the Final 3." Because I've got the case for the jury.

So, yeah, I kept on talking about how selfless it was -- they didn't show any of this -- but how selfless it was of Jaclyn to just say, "Jon's going to be the one to go to the Final 3. We're playing together so that Jon can get there." And I thanked her all the time, but they never showed it. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: So the scene in which they showed you being frustrated that Jaclyn was talking about Natalie Anderson telling you to play the idol and things like that were consistent with what you're saying now?


Jon Misch: Totally, you know, I'm glad you asked that. Because I haven't actually talked about that. That was shown a little differently than how it happened. Going into that Tribal, I had a conversation with [Missy Payne] and Jaclyn, and I told them, "If we trust Alec and [Reed Kelly] tonight, I'm going home."

And [Jaclyn] was like, "What?!" And Missy was like, "No, trust me. We can trust them. They're good." And going into Tribal, I didn't feel good about it. And then when [Keith Nale] said, "Stick to the plan, Reed." And then Jaclyn looked at me and said, "You need to play your idol." But at that point, I had decided, "Okay, we're going to trust them."

And then [Keith] said that and Jaclyn looked at me and said, "You need to play your idol." And that was when we decided that I was going to play it. When Natalie said it, that was actually -- Jaclyn was the first person to say it.

Reality TV World: So then why was Jaclyn back at camp giving credit to Natalie after?

Jon Misch: Because, like was shown, Natalie said, "Dude, you need to play your idol." And I was shocked because she was one of the people that were really pushing, "Look, we need to trust Reed and Alec," obviously because she was trying to blindside me.


But I was shocked that she was onboard. I was like, "Really?! You're onboard with this too?!" But Jaclyn was actually the first person to say it. And then when we got back to camp, [Jaclyn] was giving it all to Natalie, which made me really confused. What they showed was me saying, "You got to give me the credit. You got to give me the credit."

And they didn't show me correcting myself 30 seconds later and saying, "Jaclyn, I said that wrong. I just meant you're giving the credit to Natalie when you were the one that told me to play it, and before Tribal, I was the one saying I wasn't comfortable."

So, that argument there was me trying to say, "Don't give it to Natalie." Not, "Don't take credit yourself." I was saying, "Give the credit to me," which sounded terrible. But I was trying to say, "Just don't give it to Natalie because you had more to do with it than she did."

Reality TV World: A lot of viewers feel Natalie is going to be pretty tough to beat if she makes it to the Final 3. Do you agree with that? She seems to have played a strong game and was obviously forced to play it most of the time without her loved one. Did you have an appreciation for her gameplay while you were out there or is that something you've only come to realize now watching the season unfold on TV?

Jon Misch: No, when I was voted out, once I realized that it was Natalie that coordinated that, I instantly respected her gameplay. Up until that point, I didn't think -- I was like, "You know, Natalie kind of is along for the ride."


I felt like she was in a good alliance with [Jeremy Collins] in the beginning and got lucky -- well, didn't really get "lucky" but was good enough in challenges that they won those two after the tribe swap so she was into the merge. And then she's still part of this alliance, but she wasn't making any moves.

Once I found out that she was coordinating my blindside for so long, I realized how much she was really playing the game and how good of plays she was doing. It wasn't actually until a few weeks after we were done shooting that Jaclyn and I were talking about how [Nadiya Anderson] was the first person voted out, so Natalie didn't really play Blood vs. Water herself.

But she did have to deal with all the couples and being in alliances. So Jaclyn and I, being together, was a huge -- like we were a power swing and that happened with all the swing votes that were shown.

So she did have to play Blood vs. Water in that aspect, but she didn't have that couple to be working with the entire time. But yeah, I respect her game a lot. I think she played it very well, and if she does make it to the Final 3, she'd be hard to beat.

Click here to read the first portion of Jon's exclusive interview with Reality TV Word. Check back with us soon for the last part.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski