The second person to get eliminated from Survivor: Micronesia was Mary. Love is in the air with her and another Survivor contestant. Here are the highlights of what Mary said in this conference call for Survivor: Micronesia…
What surprised you the most when you saw the show air last night?
Mary Sartain: Basically, all the sabatage going on behind the scenes. I didn’t know the people where, I kinda had an idea that people were talking, but I didn’t know that it was about me.
So you really didn’t expect to be the one to go home at all, did you?
MS: Oh, no. Definitely not.
Who were you expecting to go home?
MS: I was expecting it to be Tracy. It should have been Chet, but my alliance said that we wanted to vote Tracy off.
What was the strategy for trying to vote Tracy off?
MS: The strategy there was that we wanted to eliminate 3 people who had eliminated themselves. That’s Tracy, Chet, and Kathy. Kathy had the Immunity Idol so we couldn’t vote for Kathy. That would have been an easy first out. Chet had soured us in the challenge when he said he was a really great swimmer and he couldn’t swim at all. And Tracy was just kind of tag along with those other two. She really didn’t do a lot of work. She’s a builder and she didn’t help us build out shelters. Basically I saw her more of a physical threat out of those three.
It looked as if Chet was really the one on the bubble there.
MS: Yeah. If it had gone against Chet, then it would have been a tie and I’m sure that he would have gone home that night.
Were you and Mikey B actually aligned?
MS: Yeah. We had an alliance. We basically pulled each other aside from the beginning and said I’ll never write down your name and vice versa, so we had that type of an alliance from the very beginning. It was basically us 7, 7 strong is really what we wanted it to be. The 7 being Jason, Joel, Mikey B, Alexis, Natalie, myself and Erik.
And then it all switched.
MS: Yeah, It all switched in an instant. A little paranoia set in around our tribe. It seemed like Mikey was gaining a little too much control.
What was the most difficult thing for you about being on the island?
MS: The elements, quite frankly. It rained for 3 or 4 days straight. We were always cold, wet. Our clothes were always starting to mold onto our bodies. And then given that we didn’t have a proper shelter, we had to sleep in a cave and we we basically got picked at by rats. We infiltrated a rats home in our cave and they didn’t leave us alone. It was the worst night in Survivor history for us.
You watched the show before. What did you think after you watched Fairplay’s episode last week?
MS: I really didn’t much, honestly. We didn’t know that he was going to leave and quit the game, so when we got back to the next challenge, we thought that his team had eliminated him. We were pretty happy to see him go.
What did you think watching it? Was it weird to see him asking to go?
MS: Yeah, it was weird. It takes a lot to get out there and give it your all. When somebody quits it definitely makes you unhappy. everyone else works so hard to get on Survivor, then someone quits, it kinda makes you a little upset.
Were you surprised by the showmances that are occurring on the other tribes?
MS: I can’t comment on that because I wasn’t on their island, but I will tell you one thing. I’m engaged to Ryan from Pearl Islands. If I had not gotten the boot early on, then we never could have happened or we meet. I met him through another contestant on the show, who had also been booted off early. He introduced us and now we’re engaged.
So if you had stayed, then maybe there would have been a showmance on the other side and Ryan wouldn’t be there.
MS: No. No. No. Not with me. I didn’t find anyone too overly attractive at all on the island, but I’m really glad that it worked out for me.
Do you think there were two people on your side that could have gotten together?
MS: No. There really wasn’t a lot of romance on the island or jungle fever on our side. I rally cant’ say for any time after I’ve been off the show, but during the show, no, there really wasn’t a major pair up of any two people that were cast that could have ended up hooking up or were really attracted to each other. I Joel wanted to win the favor of all the ladies, and I’m sure that Mikey B did too, but I think they were vying for all of our love and our support.
So they just wanted to get the favor…
MS: Oh, yeah. I know Joel was flirting a lot with Alexis and Mikey was flirting a lot with me, but there wasn’t any major hookups when I was there.
Joel seems pretty over the top and extremely opinionated.
MS: He’s a paranoid guy, yeah.
Is that what it is, paranoia?
MS: Pretty much paranoia. For someone to kick out, basically he was thinking that Mikey was getting too much control and was taking over the ladies vote and eventually vote him out, so I think he was paranoid. He over analyzed things and kind of jumped the gun. Mikey B and I wanted nothing more than the fans to go as far as possible, keeping us and the most deserving people in the game. I think that Chet just didn’t show an effort and Kathy, I can’t say that they weren’t really supporting us, but we were doing a lot of the work and some of my tribe mates were just kind of sitting on the sidelines, watching things happen.
The other person who was blindsided as much as you was Mikey B. How do you think his strategy is going to change now that you are gone?
MS: He’s really going to have to watch himself. At this point, people are going to see that Joel is a little crazy and they should be wary, or they are going to continue the massacre and keep on voting out good people.
From watching the show that last couple years, what did you miss the most or was different than watching it? Does is smell different?
MS: It’s a good thing that you couldn’t smell us through your TV, because I’ll tell you, we weren’t a very clean bunch. It was raining a lot. We were, our clothes were disgusting and damp all the time. We never got a chance to dry out. Some people had some mild issues going on. It really wasn’t the best of conditions out there, just because of the rainfall. There was so much rain that we got the first 3 or 4 days. We just couldn’t keep dry.
What we see is all blue water and it’s really nice.
MS: Yeah. Looks can be deceiving. We were in a tropical area during the rainy season. It rained pretty much straight for 3 or 4 days. It was pretty miserable. That’s why we had to clear out that cave area, so we could actually some decent shelter so it wouldn’t pour on us.
How much interaction do you have with the camera men? Do you actually talk to them? Do they hang out with you guys?
MS: I can’t comment on that.
When we see you talking by yourselves in the woods, they are physically asking you questions, right?
MS: We are speaking to the producers, not the camera men. We do actually speak to the producers, so they get a feel for what’s going on and ask us questions about what’s going on, basically.
Since you’re a fan of the show, I was wondering if you were concerned with aligning yourself with a known leader.
MS: That’s why on the show, there was not a lot of me and Mikey escaping into the woods or going here or there. It was more that we see these two as a possible hook up or they’re going to spend some time together. I think we were perceived that way a little more than we actually were. Like I said, our initial contact was “Hey. I won’t vote for you if you won’t vote for me”. Great. Fine, but move on, that sort of thing. From the very beginning we were like that.
I also had alliances in the beginning with Natalie and Alexis and with Jason. Jason remained loyal, so it’s just the way that we were perceived. Joel, mainly, I don’t think it would have been played up so much if it was Mikey having so much control over the tribe, as much as it was Joel getting so jealous of that. That’s why you saw a little bit more of that going on.
What was your overall strategy going into the game?
MS: It’s really hard, because you see a lot of great players have different strategies over the past years. Really, my strategy was just to take an inventory of people’s personalities and align myself with two really strong players who at least, not necessarily physically, but knew the game really well and hopefully go in with an alliance of 5 people, 5 strong people with different things to offer in the game, and basically win over the numbers. Basically strength is in numbers, so that’s what I was looking for.
What did you think when Jeff was reading the votes?
MS: Well, they showed some pretty clever expressions on my face! I really didn’t…I didn’t expect me to have any more than maybe one vote. Like I said, our tribe was so disorganized and un-unified when we were doing those votes. That’s why there were some for Tracy, some for Chet, and then the rest were for me. If I would have voted for Chet, then I probably wouldn’t be talking to you right now. It would have been down to a tie, then almost guaranteed that he would have been the one going home.
How bad was the division between the old people and the young people?
MS: You know what? There really shouldn’t have been any division. From the very beginning, they sort of alienated themselves. I think Kathy was feeing a little uncomfortable and she didn’t really know how to deal with that, so she took Chet and Tracy on and basically, they just kind of alienated themselves. They built their shelter with only capacity for 3. It was kind of from the very beginning that they were like that.
So they divided themselves out. It wasn’t your fault at all?
MS: No. I don’t think so. There was a little friction between Jason and Tracy. Joel wasn’t really happy with Chet or Tracy. He had a lot of friction with them, so it just came about where, if we had gone into that second challenge as a unified team, I think that we would have gotten a lot farther. I know that Joel really had a big thing with Chet, especially after Chet floundered in the challenge, he really had a thing to get Chet out of there. I think we should have just followed the plan of just getting, taking care of some of the weak players early, so we could win challenges. As a team, if we were unified, the fans would definitely be able to take out the favorites one by one.
What’s your impression of Kathy? She comes off as kind of whacky. Is that just TV editing or…?
MS: No. No. She really didn’t have an edit button. I think that’s really how she is. She’s not a harmful person. She doesn’t really mean any ill will. She just doesn’t know how to censor. She doesn’t have an edit button. Comments are flying left and right. You heard some on the show, so that was just a little tidbit of the way that she is.
What’s the craziest thing that she did out there?
MS: She was threatening to give up the Immunity Idol and take herself out of the game. She wanted to give it to Chet because she thought we were all voting for Chet. I believe she either wanted an early exit or just make some drama, stir up some drama in our camp.
Tell us a little bit more about getting engaged.
MS: One of the contestants from the show introduced Ryan and I, actually a couple days after we got back from Micronesia. We hit it off. Survivors are pretty unified. We’ve just got so much in common, both being on the show. We’re really happy. He proposed to me a couple weeks ago at Runyon and we’re planning on getting married in September. We’ve got a lot of projects on the horizon. We’re starting to develop a TV show and also we’re involved in getting a restaraunt started in LA, so we’re pretty busy.
You came into this as a fan. Does that mean that you went onto the Internet and read the message boards or just someone who’s watched the show really carefully?
MS: I watched the show really carefully. I know there’s a lot of stuff on the Internet and I really appreciate teh purity of the show.
Is there anything that we didn’t get to see on the show that you wish had been shown?
MS: Yeah. There wasn’t a whole lot of coverage of myself, but I was doing a lot with the tribe and doing a lot to help out. I was a pretty good provider and the shelters and doing things around camp, so I wish that was shown more. It’s really hard to get to know all of the fans right off the bat when the first episode was the favorites and their camp, since they were going to Tribal Council. I wish that they would have gotten to know us a little bit better, by showing us a little bit more.
Did you notice that Joel himself voted for Tracy? Why do you think that was?
MS: Yes! You know what? That’s pretty much what we were dealing with on the island. Joel was just not consistant. There wasn’t really a method to his madness. Is it intersting? I really don’t know what his strategy is. Maybe he wanted to fool Mikey B, but it doesn’t really matter at that point, so I really don’t know what his strategy was.
I wonder if he’s going to try to play it out as him keeping his word.
MS: I donno. I think he didn’t really have a method to that madness. I think he did it to throw off Mikey B, but Mikey B was already thrown off. You saw his expression in Tribal Council. He was pretty shocked.
Do you think that Mikey b went too far with his voting plans?
MS: Yes. He was a little elaborate. He over stratigizing, thinking if Kathy had gotten the second Immunity Idol, who she was going to give it to. If she gave it to Chet then we were going to vote Tracy, just to make sure that one of them would have gone. It definitely backfired.
If he thought that Mikey B was running the game, why didn’t he plan to get rid of Mikey B?
MS: Because of strength in challenges. Mikey B did really well in the challenge leading up to our Tribal Council. That was pretty much the reason that he wanted to talk him out at the knees first, and take me out. I believe that Joel was thinking that he could take the girls and vote out Joel.
Do you hold any ill will against Mikey B at all?
MS: The last thing that he wanted was for me to go second. I already know that. Of course, everyone’s in it for themselves, but I think that he probably felt like he was blindsided as well.
Why do you think that all of the fans bought into Joel’s plan?
MS: I’m going to say that it wasn’t all Joel’s plan, necessarily, but he was a big part of switching, well, this is my understanding of what’s going on here. Chet, Tracy, and Kathy, it was going to be one of them, and they knew that the 7 of us were going to vote against one of them, so they went to Joel and said that you’ve got our votes. We’re do anything you want. You’ve got our votes.
They went to Joel because he was the biggest. He was a leader. Little did they know that it would hurt them in the end, when they took out a strong player that’s good at challenges.
You said that you think a fan is definitely going to win. Why? Which fan?
MS: We shared a lot on that island. All of us are super fans. We know how to play this game. We know the ins and outs. We’re tough competitive players. I don’t think that the favorites are not going to see it coming form the fans. They’re cocky. They really think that they have an advantage, which they do, but they don’t know who the fans are. A fan could totally blindside a favorite.
I hope that Jason gets an opportunity. I really liked him as a player and he’s a huge fan. If I had to pick one out of the fans, it’d be Jason.
If the older group had come to you instead, would you have switched sides and voted Mikey off?
MS: Absolutely! I wanted to stay in the game as long as possible. I would have definitely had a lot to think about. It was kind of a last minute decision, so not having any time to stratagize, or do anything like that, then I probably would have ended up saving myself, to be quite honest. The second person off, you really don’t get the total experience, so I would have tried to see if we could have swayed that tide a little bit. If it was last minute and it was “hey, are you in or your out?” I would be in.
You said that you were a fan. Is this the first time applying for the show?
MS: No. Actually I applied for Survivor: Fiji and I made it to the finals for Fiji. For a long time I wanted to do the show. This is one of the number one things that I wanted to accomplish in my lifetime.
What did you think about about the twist when you got out there and found out that you would be playing against favorites?
MS: Oh, that was amazing! It was pretty exciting, but yet, knowing that they had all of the experience was definitely a little intimidating, but once we started playing the game, it got real comfortable and I was really happy that they chose us, the super fans, to play against favorites. They obviously thought that we had some competitive edge and could keep up with the favorites.
– Survivor: Micronesia airs on CBS in the U.S. on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
– Survivor: Micronesia airs on the GLOBAL network in Canada on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Sir Linksalot: Survivor: Micronesia
