Superfan JD Robinson had his torch snuffed early on Survivor 41, and while he’s obviously not thrilled, he gets it. He said in exit interviews that he did not play the game he expected, and made mistakes that cost him the game.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, JD explains what it felt like to have his Survivor dreams squashed so early.
“I mean, getting voted out was so hard for me because I wanted so badly to contribute to the evolution of the game,” he told EW. “I wanted so badly to play hard, and I wasn’t really in a position where I could be in control, so I really wanted to make the merge so I could change my trajectory, because I knew I was playing bad pre-merge. But as far as how I feel, I think Chelsea from Island of the Idols sums it up pretty good when she’s like, “Imagine preparing for a marathon your whole life and then hurting yourself right before the end of the race and then you can’t even finish it.” That’s a really good analogy, and that’s really how I feel. It sucks, and watching it back sucks.”
And what about that move giving Shan his advantage?
“I’m going to give a little kudos to Shan here,” JD says. “That was not the first time she did that. Almost every Tribal Council, she would freak out. And I thought it was real. I thought, ‘This chic is paranoid.’ And so if that was the first time she freaked out at me, then that would have been a red flag, but it wasn’t the first time. And so in that moment, I’m like, ‘Shan, I’m not coming after you, girl. I’m with you. Trust me.’ Even though originally I did want to play it here, but I had changed my mind. So I thought Genie told her that I wanted to get out Ricard with my extra vote. So that’s why I was like, ‘No, I’m with you. Don’t worry about it.’ Then she asked if I’d give her my extra vote, and I ended up doing it.”
One of the most interesting tidbits from the interview, though, was that JD says he did want to do what everyone at home think they would have done – flip the vote on Ricard with Genie and his extra vote.
“Contrary to what people may believe, I was always trying to flip the game,” he explained. “I did not want to work with Shan and Ricard. I worked with them out of necessity, not out of want, because the other people in my tribe didn’t want to work with me then. And so as soon as we got back from the challenge, I wanted to flip the game. I’ve been in a position where I’m just Shan and Ricard’s puppet. And I don’t like doing that. I had a confessional about that, but so I go to Genie and I’m like, ‘Genie, we’re on the bottom.’ I think it showed a little bit of the conversation. I’m like, ‘We can flip the game and be on top. If you vote with me and I use my extra vote, you can vote out Ricard and then it doesn’t even matter what happens. After that, we are in a position of power and can win this game!’
But Genie was kind of beating around the bush, and I’m like, ‘This chick is not gonna vote with me, so why would I waste my advantage doing this?’ After that, you see me and Shan talk and I’m like, ‘I’m not using my advantage anyway, so I might as well just put all my chips in, go for broke, and try to gain this extra bit of trust from Shan and give her my extra vote. It worked before.’ “
Check out Entertainment Weekly for the rest of JD’s exit interview.
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