This season of Survivor has seen nothing but women get eliminated so far. After Michelle, Gillian, and Paloma all got eliminated, Jacquie Berg of the newly remixed Fang tribe became the fourth player to be voted out of Gabon. Here were her thoughts on her Survivor experience in this conference call interview that took place:
Were you a fan of Survivor before joining this season?
Jacquie Berg: Yes, I love Survivor, the whole idea behind it, that it tests your physical and mental capacities – I think it’s awesome.
What was your strategy going in?
JB: Having as many genuine alliances as possible, having multiple alliances, and not letting everyone know about them.
Do you have any favorite past survivors?
JB: I would have to say Earl. I thought he played a cool game and I thought he was very genuine and naive and he found a tight alliance and got to stick with it until the end.
Did you do any kind of preparation before you left for Africa?
JB: Tons and tons of stuff. I was training for a triathlon. I did bikram yoga to get used to the heat. I went to some meditation coaching to keep myself grounded out there when things got tough. And I learned how to filet a fish – I never touched raw meat before I went on the show so I got over the fear.
What is the toughest part about playing this game?
JB: Yeah, just being around people that you can’t trust. All day long. It messes with your mind so that was really hard. You couldn’t have any normal conversation, you couldn’t vent to anybody.
When the tribes were switched up on last night’s episode, what was going through your mind? What were you most worried about?
JB: Oh my gosh, I don’t know if you could tell but I was praying that Fang didn’t choose me because obviously, they were going to have the majority former Fang members and on the other mat, the majority Kota. I had pretended to like, not to even hear Crystal. Like, “Please don’t pick me, please don’t pick me,” and sure enough, she did. I mean, that was my worst fear, being in the minority. Who were you aligning yourself with in this game? Originally, Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus but I also had an alliance with Sugar and Ace. Sugar actually told me that she had the immunity idol so I knew that if she had joined our team, we would have come out on top.
Did you know anything about the “onion alliance” until you watched the episode? Did you know that you were on the outside of the Charlie/Marcus alliance?
JB: Oh yeah ‘cause me and Corinne were really tight and we knew they were really right. I confronted Marcus on it, as well. I was happy with that because it gave me flexibility in the final four, because I didn’t feel like I had to stay true to anybody.
It seemed like the Fang members were targeting Ace and Sugar so are you annoyed that you had to take the fall for them?
JB: Yeah, completely! I was kind of probably looking way too far in the game. I knew that I needed Ace and Sugar both so I was like, “Well, if I go up now or if I go up next, I felt like I had to have them with me.” I mean, it just sucks. It was all luck, honestly. I just felt like I got gypped.
Do you think it’s smart for tribes to vote out strong physical players before the merge?
JB: Oh no, it was horrible – horrible of Fang. Every single decision that they made sucked. I honestly could not believe… I mean, it was smart of them ‘cause I was gonna go with other people but they’re just digging their grave. They weren’t thinking strategically. They have one opinion there, which was Crystal, and she was influencing all their votes. As you can tell, she’s surrounding herself with weak people.
Can you explain again Fang’s reason for not eliminating Kelly?
JB: Yeah. One of the biggest things when we were ranked, it was obvious that none of us liked Kelly. So they were fearful of Ace, me and Sugar having an alliance, and also after a merge I’m going back to former Kota, because I have the alliance with Markus, Charlie, and Corinne. So they were thinking way too far ahead. They weren’t thinking how they’re going to win the next challenge, they just knew Kelly would be genuine.
After all of the work you did in the water challenge and G.C.’s past performance, are you amazed that he’s still around?
JB: Yeah. You know, it’s funny, and Crystal. I can’t imagine that they’re still in the game. Just because I felt like they were horrible in challenges, like they would just stand around and do nothing and basically give up. And not only did that hurt them in the challenge, but it’s just their whole energy level just dropped. We had one weakling and they have three weaklings.
So the elements and the weather didn’t really give you any problems?
JB: You know what? No. I’m the kind of person who likes to rise to the occasion and I had a blast out there. I was soft but I actually didn’t feel starving. I didn’t have any bug bites. I was happy.
It was weird that in an American show with everyone speaking English there were subtitles. Do you find that embarrassing at all?
JB: [laughs] Exactly. See, she [Kelly] talks in computer lingo, like LOL and BRB. It was so annoying and we would teach her vocab all of the time. Half the time she didn’t make sense. So when you have that type of person on a show, it’s hard to not constantly roll your eyes at somebody. So I thought if I would’ve had just one more day before that tribal, I think her true colors would’ve shown just like it did at Kota and she would’ve easily got the boot over me.
In your opinion, what should get somebody voted off? Too weak, too strong, too obnoxious?
JB: Personally, I think the person that should get voted off is the one that’s not strategizing and isn’t thinking about the game is not in the game. Kelly didn’t care, she stayed there purely by luck. She has no strategy to anything and I had the whole game figured out and it was a lot of luck that I lost the game.
Who, do you think, is playing this game the best right now?
JB: Um… let’s see… I mean, I’d have to say Sugar but she’s just been getting lucky being on Exile Island. I was thinking that I would’ve loved to have gone there.
And if you could’ve stayed in the game, is there anyone that you know you would’ve taken to final two in the end?
JB: Probably Sugar and Marcus.
What’s life like been for you since you’ve been home and since Survivor started airing? What’s that been like for you?
JB: It’s been awesome, I’ve been crazy busy. Out there, it’s really kind of boring at times, like there’s not much to do so when I got back, I’ve been working non-stop, trying to catch up on things. I had a lot of time to reflect out there so instead of getting into the rat race of corporate America, I started my own company. It’s actually a charity called Second Family, so I’ve been working non-stop on that.
