Survivor China: Interview with Jaime - "Shoot, we have the wrong one!"

[hepcat]

If you watched last night’s Survivor, you may have been surprised to see Jaime Dugan, the 22-year-old student from Columbia, SC, guilelessly pull out what viewers knew to be a false immunity idol. Did she really think she was safe this week, or did the heavy hand of editing play a part in this tale? There are many answers in her interview, including a definitive answer on whether you can steal a hidden immunity idol in the first place – something the powers that be didn’t see fit to explain to the viewers.



Hey Jaime, how are you doing?

I’m wonderful.

So tell me, how did you come to be on the show?

Actually, I sent in an application and a three-minute video last October.

So you went the regular route of applying for the show.

Yeah, I did. It was a pretty exciting experience. Going out to L.A. for the finals was pretty cool.

What did you do to prepare for being on the show?

When I knew I was a finalist, I started doing a boot camp twice a week. I got a personal trainer, and I started putting on weight, muscle weight, and just eating more. I was on a strict diet to gain weight, because I knew I was going to lose it so fast out there. I was running two miles a day and trying to prepare myself mentally as well.

I understand from CBS's lie detector game that you played football when you were growing up?

I played softball for thirteen years.

Softball – I guess I got that question wrong on the lie detector.

Yeah, I was definitely very athletic when I was growing up. My dad had me playing football when I was five – never on a team, but I’ve been playing ball since I was really little, and that really helps.

Now, as far as the game: do you think throwing the challenge the week you got rid of Aaron paid off in any way?

Honestly, we tried to see if Aaron would come to our side and vote with us. We were trying to convince him that we liked him and that we thought we could make it to the merge and stick together. But whenever we asked him about alliances, he wouldn’t tell us anything about Fei Long, and when I asked him straight up, “Will you vote off Jean-Robert first?”, he wouldn’t give me an answer. So I knew that since [Jean-Robert] was like the least member of Fei Long, that was just a bad sign right there.

What tipped the scales in favor of Aaron to vote off over James?

James was very open about everything at Fei Long. He told us about the alliances, he told us that Todd was in charge and that we had to get out Todd. He told us that he had a strong alliance with Denise and that he could try to get Denise on our side. He was a lot more willing to share information about Fei Long so we were able to open up to him more

That’s interesting, because they didn’t show us any of that interaction.

They didn’t, I know! I was pretty surprised because we didn’t know James had that side to him, and it was nice to see.

The flip side of my original question about throwing the challenge is do you think it came back to bite you in any way?

It did a little, but I think either way, if we got to the merge, and we were down players, they were going to take out Zhan Hu first. I don’t think they voted me out because I threw the challenge, I think they voted me out because they saw me as a threat and we were down numbers, so we really couldn’t do much about it.

At the time, why didn’t you tell Erik about the plan to throw the challenge?

Erik knew about the plan to throw the challenge because previously we had talked about it when Sherea and Frosti were switching. When we found out they were switching, we all brought it up because we thought it might save them. We decided, after talking – Peih-Gee, Erik and I – that we liked James, we thought we could trust James, we were going to keep James around and get rid of Aaron. So initially, we were going to win the first challenge and throw the second. But when we arrived at the challenge and the boys were swimming out, we overheard James and Todd speaking. Peih-Gee and I both saw them interacting with each other and we realized that James couldn’t be with us. If he was willing to make contact with the other members right in front of our faces, then he definitely was not with us. So we realized we were going to have to throw the challenge, but we couldn’t give Erik the heads-up because he had already swum out to do his portion of the challenge.

After you and Peih-Gee threw the challenge, James seemed so angry. Did he come home back to camp and throw things around?

No, he actually knew before Tribal Council that we threw the challenge. We let him in on the secret, explained to him why we had to get rid of Aaron, told him that we wanted him on our side. We said to him, “Hey look, we threw the challenge on purpose, but we want to keep you around. We want to get rid of Aaron. Are you with us?” And he said he was with us. He put on a show at Tribal Council. Erik and I were worried that Aaron might have a hidden immunity idol, we didn’t tell James that, but we knew we had to blindside Aaron just in case.

Let’s talk about the hidden immunity idol. When you approached Todd about it, did you have the sense that he was humoring you?

When I talked to Todd, I knew Todd knew I had the clues because Leslie had told me she told Todd. So he knew if anyone on our island had the idol, it would have been me. By that time, Erik and I knew the idol was fake. Erik and I had compared the idol to the one that was still hanging at Fei Long, and the idol we had matched the one at Fei Long. We were like, “Shoot, we have the wrong one!” So that’s when we knew that James had both of them, we didn’t have one at all, and we were left with a fake immunity idol. So we decided, “Well, maybe we can use this to our advantage, and pretend that we have the real one to Todd so he’ll convince everyone not to vote for me.”

Oh, I see.

So I was trying to tell Todd – I was insinuating that I had the idol, and that I was thinking about playing it. That way hopefully he would tell the others, “Hey guys, Jaime has the immunity idol from over there; let’s not vote for her, let’s vote for someone else instead so she doesn’t pull it out and vote off whoever she wants.”

They certainly didn’t present it to the viewers like that.

Not at all! I’m so surprised that they didn’t show it because I was so crushed as soon as I realized it was fake. As soon as Erik and I realized it, we were pretty upset. So I was surprised they didn’t show that.

When did you realize you didn’t have the right idol?

It was daylight, the rest of the tribe had been down at the waterhole swimming, and Erik and I saw the opportunity to get it out of the bag and compare it to the one that was still hanging. It was way before we went to Tribal Council.

I’m still confused about how it would work. If you had grabbed the correct immunity idol from James’ bag, could you have used it?

I found James’ immunity idols but I was not allowed to steal them because he had him in his bag. If it’s in his bag, it’s considered his personal possessions, so I couldn’t take them. If he had dropped one on the floor I could have stolen it.

So the only one that you could have had anything to do with was the one that you found on the ground, which turned out to be a fake one.

Yes. When I found his I wanted to take them, but I was told that was against Survivor’s rules.

So that’s part of why viewers were confused. It looked like you grabbed one but maybe couldn’t see it was different in the dark and just happened to take one that wasn’t an immunity idol. At least, I was confused.

No, we just found that one on the ground and we were allowed to take it because it wasn’t in anyone’s possession. But as far as James’ two were concerned, since he kept them in his bag the whole time, they were his possessions and we weren’t allowed to take them.

So if you knew it was fake at that point, why did you “use” it at Tribal Council?

You know, I admit there was a little hope left that it was real, but really I was 100% positive it wasn’t. I did it because I wanted everyone to know there were idols out there. I didn’t know that Todd had already told the whole tribe there were these idols. I figured there were a few people that knew about them, but I wanted to call out James because I knew he was voting against me. That when people knew, “Hey, there’s these idols” they would know they had to watch out because James had two of them. I also wanted to…(laughing guiltily) I wanted to scare Jean-Robert because he knew that we were voting for him, so I knew if pulled out this idol that would pretty much scare him. It was a last-minute, “Why not?”

I have to say, talking to you today things make much more sense. When you watched the episode last night were you upset at anything? Because they pretty much presented it as if you were just stupid.

Yeah, I’m a little upset with the editing because they were able to use all my interviews before I found out it was fake. Also, I made that comment, “I’m not as dumb as I look” -- well, that was because I was answering the question, “Why do you think they’re voting you out?” And I said, “I think they figured me out, but I’m not as dumb as I look.” So it didn’t have anything to do with the immunity idol. It was kind of hard to see that because I knew what I said, and I knew what I was talking about when I said it. So for them to twist it like they did was a little frustrating, but you know, it makes good TV. I knew I was going out, so why not have a good laugh?

There’s layers upon layers here that viewers missed out on.

Definitely!

Well, let’s move on to the other players left in the game. Can you give us your thoughts about the following people?

Courtney: Courtney is hysterical. She’s very witty, she says whatever is on her mind and she doesn’t care if it hurts anybody’s feelings. I think she’s having a tough time out there, she’s not a very physically active person and I think it’s been very hard on her body.

Denise: Denise is a mother of three, and you can actually see her mothering come out at times. She’s very caring, and she has a big heart. She was a lot of fun.

Jean-Robert: Jean-Robert is absolutely hilarious. He’s just not used to being outdoors, he’s used to being at a poker table. He was wearing Louis Vuitton shoes, and he didn’t know one thing about the wildlife. It was so funny to see how he was acting in a place he was so unfamiliar with.

Frosti: Frosti is a great kid. He’s so physically fit and he’s amazing. He would flip out there, and jump…I’ve never seen anybody be able to do the things he did. It was really hard for me because I really felt very close to Frosti, he was like a brother out there to me, so when he went against me that was hard to deal with. But I still think he had to do that at point in time or he wouldn’t have made it.

Amanda: I didn’t get much from Amanda. She was very quiet when I was around. She didn’t say much around me, so I don’t an impression of her. When I was kidnapped, she was always with Aaron. At the merge, she was always with Todd. I kind of felt she was just friends with them and I really didn’t get to know her well.

James: James is a character. He’s so strong – I’ve never met anyone in my life who could do the things he could do. I call him the human Hercules. He was just amazing out there. But he was having a hard time out there. He was hungry, he was irritable, he was grumpy. I think he was irritable with his tribe, and he definitely tricked me. I thought he was with us and he definitely had me going.

Todd: Todd is so good at the game. He definitely knows what he’s doing out there. He’s a great person and fun to be around, so I can definitely see why everyone is just falling into his lap.

Peih-Gee: Peih-Gee is great. She’s really smart, she’s fun to be around. She’s one of those crazy people just running around having a good time. She’s really into being out there. She was so happy to be in the wild and in China she had a blast.

Erik: He was my best friend out there and I trusted him more than anybody. He’s just an amazing person. He didn’t lie to anyone out there. He stayed trustworthy and he kept his word. I had a blast with Erik.

Rumor has it that you and Erik are an item?

Oh, no. We didn’t date on the show. I know they made it look that way. We were best friends out there. You don’t really think about relationships when you’re out there. Now we’re really close and he’s an amazing person, so we’ll have to see what happens in the future.

Who do you think is calling the shots in the new tribe?

I definitely think Todd is the power player. He has so many alliances that I think he’s in a very good position.

What was your happiest moment on Survivor?

My happiest moment was when Erik used to sing us to sleep at night. We were pretty bored out there some days, so would pick songs for him to sing to us and he would sing us to sleep.

What was your lowest point?

Day four, when it was still raining, and we hadn’t had food yet. I got kidnapped for my birthday, so I was not a happy camper.

Who is the craftiest person out there this season?

I’d say it’s definitely Todd, or maybe Peih-Gee.

Who is getting played and doesn’t know it?

I think Jean-Robert is.

Do you know, when I asked Sherea this question she named Erik as being played by you.

Really? Oh, that’s so funny. I guess now she knows that we really weren’t. We stuck together until I got voted off.

What do you think Erik or Peih-Gee can do to remain in the game at this point?

You know, I think they really have to get Denise on their side and keep working on James. That’s their only hope.

Is there anything you would like the viewers to know about you or your time on the show?

Just know that I feel blessed to have the experience of being on Survivor. To me, the friendships I made out there are worth more than a million dollars would ever be worth.

Thanks to Jaime and CBS for the revealing interview.

[Google]

 

[MK202]

Another great interview that shows us the power of editing

[waywyrd]

Editing strikes again.

Well, at least we know for certain that the II can't be stolen. And Jaime wasn't as dingy as they made her out to be at Tribal.

Thanks for another great interview, hep!

[Bearcata]

Nice to know if the HII is in your bag it cannot be stolen, but that begs the question if you hide it elsewhere and someone sees you do it and then gets it, that's OK.

I liked this interview because Jaime had very clear, precise answers and told us a lot. I also liked her descriptions of her others. I do wish she would have described some of the team that has already been voted off, such as Sherea and David.

[Allie]

Originally Posted by Bearcata

Nice to know if the HII is in your bag it cannot be stolen, but that begs the question if you hide it elsewhere and someone sees you do it and then gets it, that's OK.

I liked this interview because Jaime had very clear, precise answers and told us a lot. I also liked her descriptions of her others. I do wish she would have described some of the team that has already been voted off, such as Sherea and David.

Her moves make much more sense now.

I think if you hide the idol in an area not considered your personal property, then it is fair game. (IE, in your bedding or wrapped in your clothes, no touchie. Behind a rock or under the bed but ON the floor, fair game)

[Brooks]

Great interview!

Makes me wonder WHO told Jamie she couldn't steal the idol out of James bag. Didn't sound like one of the other contestants.

[JR.]

Originally Posted by waywyrd

Editing strikes again.

I'm calling BS on her story. If she was really "100% positive" it was fake she wouldn't have been so smug and sure of herself with that "Oh Jeff" before he read the votes. She got what she deserved. She looked like a big dummy on national TV, and this is her lame attempt at damage control.

[JLuvs]

Excellent interview. It changes how I feel about the last couple of episodes.

[Rabid Dingo]

Originally Posted by JR.

I'm calling BS on her story. If she was really "100% positive" it was fake she wouldn't have been so smug and sure of herself with that "Oh Jeff" before he read the votes. She got what she deserved. She looked like a big dummy on national TV, and this is her lame attempt at damage control.

ITA on that one! Jaime needs to really work on her PR skills because she has just made herself look even worse than when she was on the show. Why couldn't she just swallow her selfish pride and admit that she was outplayed by her own stupidity?

[Jamin]

I completely agree. Jaime is trying to cover it in the interviews but there's no way you act the way she did at the vote if you are 100% sure it's a fake. She got outsmarted,period. She would have looked better if she had just said she wasn't thinking clearly due to exhaustion and/or hunger. THAT would be easily believable IMO.