After their elimination from Survivor, castaways participate in a conference call to discuss themselves and their experiences on the show. In the premiere episode of Survivor: Gabon, two castaways were voted out. Here, we have the highlights of the call for the second person voted out, Gillian Larson. Gillian is a retired nurse from Temecula, California (originally from South Africa) who made it onto Survivor on her fifteenth try.
Asked about her basic strategy, Gillian was to sit back and assess how she would fit into her tribe and how to use her age to her advantage. With her tribe (which described as “strange”), it meant not staying under the radar so that she wouldn’t seem “useless”. Knowing that she was not a good runner, she tried to help out in camp and keep everyone positive – which, in hindsight, she saw was not the best idea.
Regarding Michelle, Gillian thought she was very negative, and with the first two bootees being very negative and very positive, neither strategy obviously worked.
Gillian tried to swing votes to get someone else to go during the second Tribal Council, however Randy and Matty were non-committal and it was just her, Dan and Susie, but it was obvious that she was going, so she told Dan and Susie not to make themselves targets.
She did have a good relationship with Randy, however he needed to play the game and she understood that. She noted that GC was not a leader and regardless, the tribe did not want to be led.
Asked if she would do anything differently, she would not have picked Crystal (who she knew was an Olympian) first. Her strategy was for Crystal to be the strength on land and Gillian the strength in the water. When she saw Bob, she knew that she would have to be one of the two first tribemembers, which was a blessing (since she couldn’t be picked last) and a curse (because her tribe sucked). She didn’t know why Michelle was picked last, except that perhaps she gave off a negative vibe.
Gillian had been a fan of the show since the first season, with her favourite players being Cirie, Terry, Yul and Earl.
She was then asked what Fang needed to do to turn things around, and Gillian noted that they needed to stop being negative and work as a team.
Finally, when asked about who had a good chance of winning, she hoped it would be Marcus, but she really had no idea.
Kevin Wong writes for Reality Dish, Prime Time Pulse and Inside Fights. His favourite reality shows are Survivor, The Amazing Race, and The Mole. Although he does admit that Wipeout is some seriously entertaining crap.
