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Boot number eight is ER doctor Jill Behm, who had way more to say in her interview than was ever shown on tv. Read on as she explains her partnership with Marty, what she did wrong, and what she really thinks of Jane...
You seemed to be more subtle with your gameplay. Do you think you should have mixed it up and been more vocal, or did you have a choice?
Sure, I had a choice. I've been fielding a lot of criticism about my gameplay and me possibly playing second fiddle to Marty, which I don't think was the case. We were kind of a 50/50 partnership. What other options did I have? I mean, who would you have hooked up with, or what changes would you have made in my game? I freely admit I made mistakes. I mean, I absolutely should not have given him, in essence, the immunity idol. And we should have kept Jane and Holly closer on Espada, made them feel a little less like outsiders.
But as far as my alliance with Marty and my partnership, I have no regrets about that at all. Up until the tribe switch, even Marty and I were in a completely tight alliance. We just pulled Danny in to give us numbers, and out of seven players left we had a four majority. So we could have withstood three straight losses and still been strong. Then we would have sacrificed Dan.
Up to that point, I would say that my playing was fine, couldn't be better. We had some exceedingly bad luck in the tribe switch in that not only we got put on with lesser numbers. The other Espadas had four La Flors to deal with and we had only three Espadas, and five, and we got put with Jane who didn't like us. Had we gone over with Danny or Yve, things could've been better and they wouldn't have known Marty had the idol because we wouldn't have to tell them at that point. I’m sorry, what was the question? [laughs]
When you knew that Jane flipped, why didn't you guys try to get her back somehow?
We didn't exactly know that she had flipped. As we saw in the episode last night, Marty tried to talk to her and say, "Did you write my name down?" She was sort of evasive, so she wasn't like, "Yes, I flipped." He was just not getting a good feeling from her and she was not open to us. We felt closer to Sash, who we were sort of courting and almost had him to where he would've come with us. You notice when he voted last night, he said "I hope this isn't going to cost me a million dollars." Meaning, he almost decided to go with Marty and I. We really tried hard to talk and worm our way in, but he decided to stay with his original alliance. So, we did everything we could, we tried. But there was no way out for us in that situation, I don’t think.
Looking back now, how do you feel about Marty letting everyone know that he had the idol?
Okay, well, a couple of things about that: this goes back to way early in the game, as soon as we got the idol. You have to picture that this was not like where one person gets a clue and pulls it out of their pocket and has days to figure it out. Ours was found in the middle of camp, remember? And we stuck it up on a tree with a knife and everybody was looking at it. I don't think the camera catches the sense of panic that was going on in camp, people were running around, digging around trees, and running all over camp.
So I looked at this thing and I saw the skulls and thought immediately it was tree mail. Immediately, I was like "Oh my gosh, this is so easy. Someone is going to find this before us. This is so easy, anybody can solve this." So I wanted Marty to go get it because I knew whoever found it was not going to be able to keep it a secret, because everyone was running around camp and they were going to be seen digging in the right spot once everybody did figure it out. So I figured by giving it to Marty I would have access, he would use it for furthering our cause. I wouldn't be in possession of it, so it wouldn't be a target for me. So that's why I did what I did.
Initally, when he found it, Jimmy Johnson tricked him into admitting he had it. At that point, we were like, "J.J. knows about this and he's going to spill the beans to everybody and that's going to be really bad for us." So, what he did was - and this is where people are like "Oh, Marty is controlling you." - I told him, "Listen, we have to tell everyone. That way it takes way Jimmy's power and nobody is going to target you. It'll all be fine." That took some talking to him, but he did.
You noticed that the reaction on Jimmy T's face after he said that was, "Oh, your strength in the tribe is 100%," and so on. So, we didn't have a choice. We had to tell everyone that we had the idol because he kind of forced our hand. However, that kind of bit us in the butt when we went over to La Flor because Jane told them we had it and they all knew we had it. So we didn't have a lot of wiggle room there and I'm not sure I would've played it any different other than to keep the idol for myself, obviously. That was a huge game wrecking mistake on my part.
Once you went to La Flor, what did you think your chances were? Did you think you’d be able to get into an alliance with them?
We really tried. I mean, we knew, any fool could look at that and see the numbers, 5 to 3. We weren’t privy to what had gone on in La Flor so we didn’t know Kelly B was on the outs, (or) we would have tried to get in something with her. But Marty was trying to make inroads with Sash, I’m sorry, I mean with Fabs, and I was talking to Sash, trying to see if we could crack that nut anywhere we could. They were just a super cohesive group. As you can see, we were unsuccessful and it was very difficult to do. Even more so when one person you were semi-counting on was Jane, we kinda thought she would stay with us but realized she wouldn’t be loyal at all. So then we were really stuck.
If you had been in Marty’s shoes and had that conversation with Sash about the idol, what would you have done?
Well actually Marty and I did have that conversation, because like I said, it was pretty much an equal partnership and he came to me and said they want me to give them the idol, and what should I do, and we talked about it. There’s really no good move for Marty to make. If he plays the idol, it basically forces them to vote for him, and it just guarantees they’re gonna vote for you next time no matter what. Right? So it buys you one more week. If he gives the idol to Sash, it buys him another week - maybe, maybe not, maybe they would have voted him out - but it buys him another week and possibly some good will. Sash said he’d give the idol back, which he may or may not do, but if you play it, it’s gone for sure and it might make him out to be a little more loyal. Because at this point, we didn’t know how tight Jane was with all them. I guess in retrospect it would have been nice to play it, just like here, put this idol right here in your bottom kind of thing. [laughs] It would give you some satisfaction, but the end outcome is going to be no different. So I don’t see why everyone is do down on Marty for doing what he did, I guess.
What do you think of Fabio’s game so far? Do you think the playing dumb thing might help him?
Uh, sure! I don’t think anyone’s talked about putting Fabio’s name down. And actually, Fabio has had a tremendous bit of luck because Fabio wrote Brenda’s name down in that first alliance with Shannon. Brenda, up until she saw the episode on tv recently, thought that it was Kelly B that did it, that’s why she took her out. So Fabs got away with that. And I don’t think he’s playing the game, I think that’s just Fabs, you know? I don’t think he’s sitting there trying to be under the radar, he really liked Marty and they were starting to bond, so I don’t think he’s playing much of a game. I think he’s just one of those players who’s like an idiot savant, just kind of being dragged along. Where he shuffles out in all of that will be kind of interesting to see. But I don’t think Fabs is sitting there strategizing like Brenda and Sash and Marty and I, for sure.
What is the biggest thing you’ve taken from the game?
A keen appreciation for the smallest luxury that I have in the United States, whether that’s turning on a faucet and having hot water come out or a bar of soap or a salt shaker. I mean, when you’re deprived of that in that extreme situation, I hope I never, ever lose that. When I came back, I was so deeply grateful for that, I just never want to lose sight of that and take that stuff for granted again.
Did you ever think about distancing yourself from Marty once you were in the minority?
Not really, because where would I go? There was no point to losing...I mean, I only had one person I could count on there. I’m just not sure where I would have gone.
Tell us something about Marty that we haven’t seen.
Something you don’t know about Marty...he was born and raised in Argentina, and he’s fluent in Spanish, I don’t know that they’ve showed that.
What do you think was Jane’s big issue with you and Marty?
Well...I don’t know. Obviously, there was nothing shown on camera. We never voted for her, we never brought her name up. The only thing we did was vote out people that she chose to be in an alliance with, you know? I kinda helped her out with some medical issues. So I don’t know where she gets her anger from, but I would just look at her personality at this point - she’s deceiving Marty, she’s sneaking off from the tribe and eating food. So I think you’re starting to see more about her personality than ours. So I would take what she says and put it in that context, it might make it a little clearer.
What did you think when you watched Jane eating that fish off by herself? Did you know about it?
No, I had no idea. You know what? I’ve seen people blogging about it and whatever, that she caught the fish and she can do what she wants with it, but don’t forget. When she’s off fishing, Brenda was up stoking the fire, we’re off gathering firewood, Kelly Purple and I are gathering crabs, Marty’s filling Jane’s water bottle, so the rest of the tribe is giving back to Jane and Jane is holding back on the tribe. So I think what she’s doing is really reprehensible and just...again, it reflects Jane’s character.
How fun was that ball throwing challenge? It looked like a lot of fun.
I liked it! That was just water polo 101. It was pretty cool. It was even cooler when we would rock it out, you know? But it was not cool when we didn’t win. It was so frustrating for me, you know? I was pretty good at challenges. Any time there was individual stuff to do, I won it or did the best, but anytime I was on a team, it was like my teammates sucked and you’re stuck with this team, whether it was Espada or La Flor. What do you do? These people are losing challenges and I’m the one getting sent home. So that’s super frustrating. But the challenge itself was real fun.
Going back to the early days, what was it like having Jimmy Johnson around camp?
Jimmy is cool. We were, I suppose, a little starstruck at first. But after a while, it was just like, you’re one of the guys. And things started to stink very quickly there, as far as our conditions. So the suffering set in. And once that happened, he was just the guy who could catch fish. Because he knew everything about fishing, from the tiniest little line to throwing that net that Jimmy T couldn’t throw, he had the technique down, he could do that. And he was a gentleman, he sort of led the tribe in that direction, and when - they didn’t show this, it’s unfortunate - but when the guys built our shelter, they finished off the women’s side first, and they let us sleep on it, and then they finished off the men’s the next day. It was a very thoughtful, very considerate tribe, when someone was say, off camera or occupied, they would set aside the food for them, which the young tribe never ever did at all. So he kind of led that, he’s a true Southern gentleman and I really enjoyed my time with him.
So why’d he get voted off, then?
He said he had had enough.
Do you think Dan has a shot at winning? He seems to slide through every week...
Sure does. I mean, why not? You see that every season where somebody is completely underestimated and all of a sudden they pop up in the finals, they haven’t backstabbed anybody, everyone hates him the least. So, yeah, sure. It’s sort of a strategy by default, I don’t think anyone goes into the game and says “I’m going to be incompetent,” but sometimes it works out that way. [laughs]
Did you know how the votes were going to fall at last night’s Tribal?
Yes, we knew exactly how the votes were going to fall. Well, sort of. Marty came to me and said this is what they’re doing, and we talked about it, and Sash came over and said “I tried turning Brenda and maybe get her committed to you guys, and she’s just not going for it.” So I definitely knew I was going home.
Have you been recognized by any of the patients in your ER?
Oh gosh, yes. [laughs] Erie is kind of a small town, 300,000 people. And it’s Midwest, so we don’t get anybody famous here, ever. I can’t even go out in public. And I have patients, I’m trying to do a history and physical before a colonoscopy and he’s like, alright, let’s get done with that. Then he pushes this plasterboard of internet stuff and this little collage he’s made on it and we’re taking a picture of him in his hospital gown. It’s a little distracting, you know? But it’s cool it’s cool.
How has your family reacted to the whole experience?
Well they’re used to me being kind of over the top, just with the stuff I’ve done. I’ll buy a bike, and a couple years later, it’s a national championship. They’re kind of used to me being an achiever, so this really doesn’t surprise my husband at all. He’s getting some benefits, like a local gym called and said “Hey, can we use you in advertising? We’ll give you a free membership.” My husband was like “Can I have one, too?” [laughs] So there’s that part of it that he thinks is kind of cool. And then the kids at school, I think on one hand they enjoy it, but I have one who’s in middle school, where you don’t like to be recognized for anything. So they get asked questions in school and the teachers actually ask more than anyone else! The middle schooler is just mortified. But we’ve been family fans of Survivor, we’d sit down on Thursday nights, and Heroes versus Villains, we all watched together. Now I’m on, so it’s kind of cool. I think they’re proud.
*Thanks to hepcat for the interview!
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