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Meet jury member number three, James "JT" Thomas, winner of Tocantins and victim of a smooth move by Parvati at Tribal Council. Read on in this conference call as he explains just what on earth he was thinking when he gifted Russell with a surprise immunity idol, why nobody believed Rupert's warnings, and all the fun he had at Ponderosa with Coach and Courtney. Warning: you may need earplugs when you view that clip.
What made you think that Russell would team up with you guys, especially enough to give him the idol?
You know, we never really was sure. It appeared (on the show) that I was a lot more confident than what I actually was. [laughs] I knew that Russell was not with us, we all did, when we went to Tribal that night. There was a lot of talk before actually we done it, and I feel like that made up a lot of the episode. But we, as a group, we all agreed we would do it, it would be a good idea. And my thought was as soon as I found the idol, Amanda and Candace were turning on me. And as soon as we merged, they would get me up to save themselves very quickly.
So I tried to use the idol to help the tribe, and make everyone trust me more. In doing so, I didn’t really care if Russell came aboard or not. If Russell was really wanting to take us out, he would have voted Parvati out just to prove his loyalty. So I was hoping he would have done that, just get rid of Parvati then we’d get rid of Russell and my idol, it’d be fine. Main thing I wanted to do was get the idol off my back, because everyone was coming after me with it. And another thought was - I needed somebody and I had to take a chance, and he was the only one that I didn’t know, you know? I knew the others wouldn’t work, so I had to take a chance. It was one I’ll have to live with.
Looking back now, do you think you lost focus with Russell?
I think so. I got a little too worried with Parvati, and wanting to get rid of her. Maybe jumped the gun. There was never any big moves in my tribe, other than like, Cirie. There was noone to really talk big strategy with on my tribe, I couldn’t really connect with anyone. I felt like I had to make a move.
It seemed like you and Russell clicked, even though you weren’t on the same tribe. How did that come about? How did you communicate?
Actually, just in challenges. I had never met Russell until after I gave him the idol, other than in challenges. It was completely just a blind guess. Really, I felt a lot of pressure from Candace and Amanda, after I found the idol I felt they were gunning for me, wanting to get rid of me. And I knew that if I kept the idol into the merge, they would be the first to turn on me.
Did you ever think to give someone in your tribe the idol instead?
That crossed my mind, but there’s two people that gonna turn on me. And Colby and Rupert...that’s just the best decision I could come up with at the time. I was hoping to make a move noone was expecting, get the numbers, and then me and Colby and Rupert take it to the cleaners. But it didn’t work out that way.
I felt I was going to be the first targeted after the merge, and I wasn’t going to go just standing there. I wanted to gain an ally, or at least stir things up enough to get a foothold - it just didn’t work out.
What were you and Rupert talking about in terms of Russell? Did he tell you what Sandra said?
Rupert told all of us, but none of us believed Rupert. [laughs] Because all of this game, he’s been telling us stories none of us think are true, and then he comes up with this one. At the time, we were like - she’s just playing you, Rupert. None of us believed him. We should have, he was right this time. But normally that’s not the case and it was just bad timing. Which, Sandra never would talk to us anymore, never would talk to Rupert again. She was afraid that Russell would see her and out her. So she just stayed shut after that, and we never got a chance to follow up on it.
Do you think the whole “Southern guy” thing with Russell clouded your judgment?
No, I don’t think so. I made my decision on Russell before I even knew he was from the South. I made my decision to give him the idol before even I knew he was a southerner. I had no idea what he was or who he was or what he’d done. I did it based on...I was trying to weigh out options and the odds later in the game of me having a standing towards the finals. And I needed something new, I needed a different move. I took a chance and it didn’t work out. I mean, we all on our tribe talked it through, and none of us ever decided that it wasn’t a good idea, you know? We all talked it through and went along with it. And fell for it, sorry to say.
About the Ponderosa video that came out this morning - how did that come about that you, Courtney and Coach formed a band?
You’re talking about The Dragons? [laughs] That happened in a kind of spur of the moment thing. See the clip here.
I think some people may be giving you too much of a hard time over the idol thing. Do you think if it had worked, people would be calling you one of the greatest Survivors ever?
I’m sure if it had worked, it would have been the best move ever. But you know those “what ifs” and everything. I knew when I’d done it, it was going to be a hero or zero move.
Did you miss having someone like Stephen out there, someone to help you strategize a little bit?
Yes! For sure. I really wish I had someone I could have connected with. It would have been great if Stephen had been there with me because we helped each other a lot during our show, looked out for each other - kind of checks and balances, you know? One of us would get paranoid, the other one would settle us down. In this one, I never felt like I had nobody I could trust enough to talk to about those things. Maybe I overplayed it, I don’t know. But my tribe was slow, every move being made over there felt like it was because of the Cirie move or something, and saving Colby. Just because I like Colby...I mean, none of them were playing hard strategy. It was hard to talk to anybody about it.
Other than Stephen, was there anybody else you had hoped to see out there?
No, not really. I think it was a pretty good cast. It turned out to be a really good season, I think. I think everybody was out there that should have been.
What were your thoughts, watching Russell in his first season Samoa?
It was hard to watch it, seeing what kind of snake this guy really was, well after I’d made my decisions up. It was tough, you know, but I thought he was an aggressive player and he done really well to get himself far along in the game, in his season. I respect him in that part, but there’s a lot of things he does in his play that I do differently, by choice. It’s not necessarily anything I’d admire.
Did a lot of it make sense to you afterwards?
Oh, yeah. It all fell into place. Hindsight’s 20/20.
In your last interview, you said starving was the hardest thing to endure. What was the hardest part this time?
It definitely wasn’t starving! There was all you could eat coconuts and bananas most everywhere, so it wasn’t really that bad at all. The hardest thing from this was...I don’t know. It was harder to make it farther in the game, but in all honesty, the strategic play was fun. Really, it wasn’t harder at all. I would have to say Brazil was much harder. The hardest thing that was out here for me was not having someone to relate to, not having anyone to hang out with, I guess. Being real bored was the hardest part of this one, when we were just the Heroes together.
In your Ponderosa video, you said you were going to put your decisions into action. Have you done so, and what does that mean?
One of the things I’d been planning to do, on a farm...like I said, I was bored, I had a lot of time to think about things back here that I want to do, to complete. Things I had been trying to decide on a long time. So yeah, I came back really motivated. It was a good experience, even the way it went down. I had a great time and don’t have any regrets about it - other than not winning! But it was definitely motivating, to get back home and get started on some new things.
Did your mom ever put that tooth on eBay?
No, she didn’t. I still have it, we’re saving it in case I lose some more of it and I have to put it back in. [laughs]
Do you think you played more like a Villain, or a Hero?
I don’t know, it could be looked at a few different ways, I guess. Some people will probably be disappointed in the way I played, so I may not be a hero to some. You know, a Villain or a Hero, I didn’t play based on those names that we were given. I went out there to try to win a game and play the best way that I can and still be there tomorrow. In Brazil, that way was a little different than here. In here, if you wasn’t playing hard and playing hard pretty fast, you’d be gone before you know it. You’d be used and sent home, without ever knowing. I chose to play hard and try to be the one making the decisions on my tribe about who went home, so maybe I could have somebody that I could trust when we made the merge, if we did make it.
Describe the dynamics on your tribe. It didn’t look like they were very cohesive.
There were a lot of chiefs on our tribe. Right there to start with, it was Rupert, Cirie, James and Amanda with a four way, strong alliance. And then I had Tom, Colby and Stephenie - all three are people I like and respect from watching them before, they wanted me in their alliance. I didn’t want to go out of the way after staying in the middle as long as I can, but eventually I was forced to make a decision, I had to go with the sure numbers. But it was tough because the whole time everyone was leaving it up to me on who went home, and the fact that I had the swing vote - it was not where I wanted to be. Because I just didn’t want to make any of the other people mad, but I eventually had to go where the numbers were. It was tough to do that.
If Sandra had picked you to talk to about Russell instead of Rupert, would you have believed her?
Yeah. Oh, for sure. I think I would have at least given it more thought. That was the only thing we said, was that if they (the Villains) have any chance of getting through to any of us, it was going to be through Rupert. So that was the worst case scenario for us, not listening to Rupert because we had counted Rupert’s strategy and game out earlier in the game. So when he come up with that, we were just like “They’re playing you, Rupert.” We didn’t give it much of a shot, but Sandra was scared to come and talk to any more of us because Russell was watching her. Rupert never even talked with her again.
Do you think you were done in more by the Villains or by your own teammates encouraging you to give up that idol?
I think Parvati is definitely the mastermind. She’s the one who found out - whether she got the information from one of the girls on my tribe or not, I don’t know - but she found out who we were voting for, and Russell never even knew she had an idol. Parvati’s sitting back letting Russell bring her idols, and then playing them and keeping some of her own on the side. I think Parvati’s definitely running the show.
When you were voted out, did you think Russell had a chance at winning?
Not really, not at the time. I was surprised, I give him credit for the move, doing it and pulling it off. Caught me off guard, you know, it was great. There was never really any bad blood, you know. It was kind of one of those things that it was pretty impressive there, to start with.
Did Amanda share with you that Parvati told her that she had an idol?
No, Amanda said that she “thinks” Parvati might have an idol. She never clarified, she was keeping her options open.
So you weren’t tipped off that maybe Russell was lying to you.
No, Amanda never confirmed that Parvati had an idol - even after she said that Parvati might, she was like “I don’t know if that’s true.” But she never really confirmed anything, I think she was trying to get in with Parvati and them. When she saw there wasn’t any room, she stuck with us.
Watching last night’s episode, do you feel like Amanda might have overplayed her hand with Parvati?
Yeah, she definitely did. It was like a bad acting gig, there [laughing]. I was like, “Oh, no!” She gave it away. I don’t know if she did it purposely or not, it don’t matter, but Parvati was definitely reading into her pretty easy.
How does it feel to finally be voted out of this game? You’ve never gotten a vote before.
[laughs] I know! It was different, it was really different. But it wasn’t bad at all, it was a really good experience all the way around. Except for not winning, that’s the only bad part. [laughing]
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In your face TYRA! 
