Survivor China: Interview with Peih-Gee - "I kind of have a big mouth sometimes."

[hepcat]

Joining the jury as its sixth member is Peih-Gee Law, who just couldn’t eek out one more immunity challenge win that she needed to last another week. Peih-Gee was a strong presence throughout the season, earning the reputation of being a bit of a schemer in the outdoors. In this interview, she reflects upon her experience and gives us some insight into what the jury might be thinking about as we go into the finale weekend.

I know you were a fan of the show. Would you say Survivor lived up to your expectations?

Oh, beyond anything! Being immersed in it is so crazy; it just wraps itself around your head. It’s so interesting, with the complexities of different people, different strategies in the challenges – really fun stuff.

When you found out you were going to China, what was your reaction?

I’ll be honest. Initially, I was like, “Hmm, I’ve been to China. I wish it was somewhere I haven’t been before.” (laughing) Once I actually got there, and then my grandfather had passed away right before the game started, just being out there, I was really glad I got to connect with my heritage. It made it really special for me. Plus, it did help me win some challenges, so…(laughs)

You’re very small, physically, but you did really well in the challenges, even the physical ones. What do you attribute that to?

A couple of things. Just the fact that I really gave it my all in all the different challenges. To a certain extent, size really does help – I mean, you saw in all the strength-related challenges that James was just killing us. But after a while, I think everybody gets so weak and tired that –it doesn’t necessarily level the playing field, but having that willpower to keep going really makes a bit difference at that point when you’re so tired. Like, somebody like Erik, who was obviously very physically fit – but he was so tired that he was having trouble even moving in that last challenge. And then it did help that after the merge, the challenges didn’t necessarily favor having brute strength or big size.

Do you feel like you were the last one to find out about the hidden immunity idols?

(laughing) I think I probably was the last one to find out the idols. Oh no, wait – I found out about them before Jean-Robert did. Erik told me right after Jaime got voted off – that there were two idols, and that James probably had both of them. He said he was going to go talk to Jean-Robert about it. I knew about them, and the scene where I saw them in the roof, that was me seeing the idols. Seeing where they were hidden. I was like, “Oh look, they’re right here.” It kind of reminded me – because we were wondering how we were going to use that information to help us, and I knew I was on the chopping block, and it made me think, “Maybe I can go try to convince them to vote off James and blindside him because he has the idols.” And of course, they already had that plan in action. But I mean, hey – I thought it was a good idea, and apparently everyone else already thought so.

The fact that they were hidden in the roof – you couldn’t just take one at that point?

No, ‘cause I tried. (laughing)

Well, I ask because they keep some of the rules a mystery to the viewers, and I was wondering if you would have been able to do that.

(regretfully) Yeah, no. I wanted to but I think once a person discovers them, they are theirs until they give them away.


Do you feel like you did everything you could to stay in the game?

I really think so. If I could do it over, I might have gone and told James to use the idol. But it was just really hard because at that point everybody was looking at me so suspiciously, and everybody was already so nervous about blindsiding him, that I think if I even approached within ten feet of him, Todd would have gone super Survivor crazy and decided to switch the vote to me instead. So, I guess I would have tried to whine less and be more friendly. (laughs)

The other thing I wanted to ask you is about Denise. The other alliance had already cannibalized its own members (Jean-Robert, James). So why would Denise stay loyal to that alliance when it seemed pretty clear that she would be the first one picked off when the time came?

I think she knew that, and I knew that too, which is why I offered her an alliance. It wasn’t going to just benefit me – I mean, obviously it would have. But I really thought that, and I almost knew for sure that she was going to be number four. Jaime told me that she had overheard Todd, Amanda and Courtney talking about being the final three a long time ago. I told Denise this, but I don’t know if she just didn’t believe me or she was just scared to go against them. It was like, maybe there’s a guaranteed four or maybe take a risk and risk being out of fifth, only possibly making to third. I don’t really know, I don’t know what was going on in her mind. Maybe she just wanted to stick with the people she was more familiar with.

When I talked to Erik, he admitted that he was comfortable letting you do the dirty work of the alliance.

(laughs)

Do you think you should have resisted that role?

You know, I don’t think I could have resisted if a million dollars depended on it. (laughing) As you can see, I kind of have a big mouth sometimes. Going into the game, I told myself I would do anything possible to stay in it, and I just couldn’t let somebody else do the work for me just because I never knew what was going on. I couldn’t leave my fate in the hands of somebody else. I did that once, with Jean-Robert, when he got voted off, because it was right after we merged and it was a really weird time. Everybody was looking at me so suspiciously because they were thinking, “She’s scheming so much, she’s doing so much of it.” So that time Erik said he would go talk to Jean-Robert, and I thought, “Okay, I’ll sit back and try to let Erik do some of it.” And then of course we ended up voting for the person who wasn’t voted off, which was kind of a bad move. So after that, I was like, “I’m just going to try to see what’s going on for myself from now on.”

Now in the early days of the show, you seemed a likely pick to get booted early because you were getting into arguments about shelter-building, that sort of thing. Did you feel like you were in danger at that point?

No, honestly, not at all. From day two I was actually in a really good alliance with Jaime, Erik and Frosti. They didn’t show it. I’m sure I probably got on some people’s nerves, but at point, I really didn’t want to sleep in the mud, I wanted to get stuff done, and if I was going to come off looking bossy or bitchy I didn’t care as long as I didn’t have to sleep on the ground. (laughing) So I got off on the wrong foot, but after I could see Dave going crazier and more dictator-like, it made me realize how people were distancing themselves from that and I learned to calm down and be cool. I really did bond very well with everybody else on the tribe after that.

That’s interesting, because it really shows how editing skews our view of things as a TV viewer. Is there anything you saw on the televised show that you thought came across differently from the actual experience?

Uh, just a couple of different things, but it might have been more things that I didn’t know about. For a long time, James kept telling me that he was on my side, and that he was going to vote with us and get Denise over. Even when that didn’t work out after the merge, he kept telling me, “I’m going to try to keep you in as long as I can.” I thought we got along really well, so I was surprised at how they made it look like James hated me or that we didn’t get along.

I don’t know. James is funny. We’re both those kinds of people where we kind of like to fight with each other, and afterwards, we’re cool, you know? (dryly) But I guess when you see it on TV it’s more dramatic.

(both laughing)

You only see the fight part, not the “we’re cool” afterwards.

Yeah, and some of the things – I was really surprised at how everybody was so mad when I threw that challenge. I mean, here it was strategically an opportunity that was handed to you, and Aaron pretty much made it clear that wasn’t going to align with us. He was really fake about it; he wouldn’t give us any information about the other alliances and things like that.

Oh, and can I add? I know that everybody was really pissed at us for laughing after the challenge. (laughing) But you know, honestly, I was laughing because Jaime was making crazy faces at me, but mostly just because I’m a really bad liar. So having us sit there, and James is going off and telling us how much we suck, and I’m trying to be like, (feebly) “Oh, I just couldn’t do it, I don’t know!” I have this awful habit of giggling when I lie, and people can just see right through it. It just looked bad, and I know it looked bad on television. But – (sweetly) I wasn’t laughing at you, James and Aaron. I’m sorry. (laughs)

On message boards you see phrases like “Peih-Gee had all the odds stacked against her.” Do you see yourself as an underdog?

(vehemently) Oh! After the merge, for sure. The day that we merged, I knew that my name was coming up constantly with who they were going to take out, unlike somebody like Courtney or Amanda – not once has their name ever come up. So it was just really tough to have to keep going against that. In a way, I’m almost glad because that’s what made me have to constantly try so hard and fight so hard for everything, and if I didn’t feel that sense of being on the verge of being voted off, I might have been a little more complacent. But now I can look back and say, “Okay, I really did try everything that I could.”

Did you think you had a chance of staying when you went to tribal council?

Um, no. Right before we went into council everybody came and told me they were going to vote me out. They were really cool about it; you know, they said, “We respect your game play, but none of us want to take a chance of going against you in the final three because we’re pretty sure you have your former tribemates’ votes. But the thing is, before that, I was talking to Amanda, and she was being really nice and we were getting along really well, I thought there was maybe a chance that I could get her to consider it, which was more than I had ever gotten from Todd and Courtney

You got to experience something that few Westerners ever do, namely, visit the Shaolin temple.

Oh, it was amazing!

When Denise didn’t reciprocate, there were bad feelings; does that color your memories of that reward?

No, not at all. Looking back, after watching that episode, I could see that Denise really, really appreciated it. I’m really glad that I took her. She did appreciate it and that’s why I’m glad I did. I think she’s just one of those people who is just kind of living right in that exact moment. So at that exact moment that I took her she was really happy and grateful for it, but when her time came up to win a challenge her immediate thought was, “OK, I have to take the people that I want to align with.” Or the second time, her immediate thought was, “OK, well Peih-Gee just won immunity, I don’t want her to eat, and get strong, and possibly beat me coming up.” And I think that’s been a lot of her theme this season, is just being in the immediate surroundings of whatever situation she’s in.

So were you satisfied with her explanation of why she didn’t pay you back?

No… but that’s probably because I was still a little upset (both laugh). You know, it’s kind of awful, I wish I’d kept it in a little more, on TV, where all your flaws are super-magnified… but I guess I’m just not one of those people—like, I remember in last night’s episode, Amanda was like, “Well, I was about to flip out on Todd, and it took everything I could to hold it in.” Apparently she’s a lot better at the holding it in than I am. But you know what, honestly, I’m one of those people that, I’ll get it off of my chest so we can talk about it and resolve it, and then it’s not there like hidden between us. I’m not going around venting to everybody behind your back. So that was one of the things—like I shouldn’t have gotten so upset about it. I mean, I’m cool with Denise now, for sure.

Oh, that’s good. When you invited her, wasn’t it for strategic reasons as well?

Sure. There were a lot of reasons why I picked her; there was definitely strategy involved. But there was also the fact that Denise had taken the time to talk to me after the merge, when a lot of other people weren’t. I knew she was really into the martial arts; I also knew she had been really sick, she wasn’t eating, she was having issues—she wasn’t eating very well. It definitely all came into play. And afterward, when she didn’t pick me to go on the reward, I was definitely upset and I knew that she took them for strategic reasons, but sometimes it’s really hard not to take it personally when it’s people you’re living with and you’re really hungry.

And what about—speaking of hungry—when they came back, and everybody was complaining about the food, and that you guys ate too much rice; how did you feel about that?

Oh, my gosh, I did feel kind of bad for eating the rice! (both laugh) This always happens when people go away on reward challenges, the people who are left behind are like, “Eff this, we’re going to town on the damn rice!” It was tough to hear them complain, though, because I’m like “C’mon you guys, you got food, you got to eat at least, and you got energy to fuel you for the next challenge, and you got to eat it on the Great Wall!” I wouldn’t have cared if it was sawdust, it was an amazing experience. Hearing them complaining about it] was kind of hard to take.

You know, if you think about it, anyone can go to the Great Wall, but you can’t just buy a ticket to visit the Shaolin temple.

I’m forever grateful for that.

It’s pretty amazing. Anyway, I would love it if you could give us your insider’s perspective on the other players in the game, so can I read you their names and you tell me what you think of them?

OK.

Let’s start with Denise.

Denise? Gosh. Denise is a great person, she’s really nice. And she’s been very sincere. I think she’s probably been the most sincere person in this game. She’s always been very honest in what she said to me, but I just don’t see Denise winning. I don’t see this jury saying, “Well, we like you, and we kind of feel sorry for you, so we’re going to give you a million dollars.” She had a couple of chances to really make some big moves that people would have respected, but I think she kind of missed out on those.

Courtney.

I like Courtney actually. She’s really funny, and she’s really actually loveable when you get past the bitchery comments. (laughs) But Courtney is another person who I’ll throw myself off a bridge if she wins, because it’s really hard to see someone who has really acted like she didn’t care about Survivor, and that she kind of hated everything about it—I just don’t see that happening, but then again, it’s been a great game in that it got her this far, too.

When you were out there, were you concerned about her health? Because on TV she just looks to be getting so tiny.

I was concerned for everybody’s health! (laughs) But Courtney’s not anorexic like everybody thinks she is. She’s just naturally skinny, and to be honest, I think she held up a lot better with the minimal food that we had, than somebody like James or Erik, who have so much muscle that they need a lot more food.

That’s true.

So she actually I think fared better than they did.

How about Todd?

Todd has been (laughing) playing a crazy game. He’s been throwing out crazy strategies left and right. But I think he’s actually been doing a pretty good job of making friends with a lot of people, even though on the show, it looks like he’s really devious and backstabbing. People still like him. He’s still charismatic, that’s why Denise still goes over to him and tells him everything that’s going on. We’ll see if people will hold it against him or not.

Well what about Amanda? As far as Todd versus Amanda, who’s the one really calling the shots there?

This was the hardest part for me. Before that last day, I hadn’t spent any time with Amanda. Amanda is like the definition of an under-the-radar player. From watching this game I was actually really surprised to see how involved she was with a lot of the strategic decisions, because I never ever got a whiff of that when I was out there until I spent one day talking to her. And she was telling me all the different strategies she had done, and I was like, “Is she just blowing a lot of smoke towards me? Or is it really true?” Because I hadn’t seen a ton of it, but I did get to spend a little time with her.

Interesting—what about Eric?

Eric is possibly the nicest guy I’ve ever met in my entire life. But I just don’t think he made a lot of big plays in this game. At times he kind of went with the flow. And it got him pretty far. They voted out Jaime before they voted off Eric. But he was also very under-the-radar, and it worked for him.

Well whose game did you respect the most?

I probably respect Todd the most, to be honest. Just because he definitely had a lot of strategy and made some big moves, and then he wasn’t afraid to show them, and let people know about them. And that can backfire on you in Survivor, because it can piss people off, but then it can also get you more respect, too.

What about Jean-Robert—I don’t remember you having much interaction with him.

I only had a few days with Jean-Robert. Jean-Robert is funny. Because Jean-Robert likes to talk about Jean-Robert. I really didn’t spend that much time with him. Sorry, no dirt!

Were there any friendships that formed that we didn't see? We’re all just trying to guess how the vote will go, of course.

You mean, friendships between me and the people left in the game?

Any friendships that we don’t know about.

Well, I was really close to Frosti. They didn’t show any of that. Frosti calls me mom. I’m good friends with Jaime and Erik, obviously. I’m actually really good friends with Todd. We talk a lot now and even out in the game, we talked a lot about strategy and different things, but they didn’t show a lot of that. I guess they showed the juicy stuff. (chuckling)

Oh yeah, that’s how it usually goes. So is there anything you took home as a keepsake?

(excitedly) Yeah, actually! There was this little shell I was eating off of, and I had made two little chopsticks out of the sticks that were holding the tiles in place, so I took those home as a souvenir.

Oh, how funny, I can picture you with that eating shell right now. They showed it a lot on last night’s episode.

(laughing) That shell was really comforting.

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

I’m working on a jewelry line right now, so look out for that coming out. I also want to say that I read the sites, I’ve definitely been on Fans of Reality TV. Yeah, I read all the blogs. I just wanted to thank everybody. I know it’s a big toss-up, because just from reading I can see that half the people kind of hate me and half the people are really rooting for me.

Hey, you know you’ve made waves if you’ve got both fans and haters.

You know what? When I auditioned, that’s what I told them – that I was going to be one of those people that you’ll either love or hate, but either way, it will be interesting.

[Google]

 

[xDC3x]

I LOVED every single one of her responses.

GO PG!!!

Oh, and she perfectly summed up my thoughts with this...

"Denise? Gosh. Denise is a great person, she’s really nice. And she’s been very sincere. I think she’s probably been the most sincere person in this game. She’s always been very honest in what she said to me, but I just don’t see Denise winning. I don’t see this jury saying, “Well, we like you, and we kind of feel sorry for you, so we’re going to give you a million dollars.” She had a couple of chances to really make some big moves that people would have respected, but I think she kind of missed out on those."

[echo226]

That's a great interview, hepcat. Thanks for sharing it.

Very interesting. It sounds like she voted for and is rooting for Eric to win, and most people think she'll vote for Amanda.

It's also interesting to learn that they twist the events to tell a different story than what's actually happening. Either that or her perspective is totally skewed.

Thanks again.

[Brooks]

Hi PG!

Great interview, hepcat.

[PWS]

Originally Posted by echo226

That's a great interview, hepcat. Thanks for sharing it.

Very interesting. It sounds like she voted for and is rooting for Eric to win, and most people think she'll vote for Amanda.

It's also interesting to learn that they twist the events to tell a different story than what's actually happening. Either that or her perspective is totally skewed.

Thanks again.

You mean Todd, right? Who knew she was such pals with him! Of course we were left with that memory of him calling her names after finding out she was trying to get him voted out, and apparently not shown other things. Maybe this is one reason Denise took Todd and not Amanda, so as not to leave them alone to bond more.
Great interview, hep! And very interesting responses. She sure managed to avoid telling us about other friendships tho...only the ones with her. Maybe she's been told not to give out hints? Because she was pretty up front with all her other responses.

[meezy]

PG wasn't much of a favourite for me till the end. She at the very least was willing and capable of actually finishing tasks and living up to the title of the show as opposed to denise "I may look like I can eat anything and everything but can't" or courtney "just a step up from being too weak to breathe".

[hepcat]

Hey, I want to apologize because I was transcribing madly in the middle of the night and I forgot to thank those of you who contributed questions. I appreciate it. She really lit up about the keepsake question, and that never would have occurred to me. Thanks to CrossingGuard, bbnbama, xDC3x, Mariner, smartaleckstef, and Brooks.

[waywyrd]

That was a great interview, hep! I always enjoy reading their perspectives, versus what the editors give us.

Come back and say hi sometime, PG!

[weary]

Hepcat, can you explain the timing to me? When does the show actually take place versus when it is aired, and how much did Peih-Gee know when you talked to her about episodes that haven't aired yet?

[Nik]

Did she just unintentionally reveal the F3? She mentioned the jury not voting for Denise just because she's nice, she mentioned wanting to throw herself off a bridge if Courtney wins, and she mentioned Todd being charismatic and says, "We’ll see if people will hold it against him or not." Um, wouldn't they have to get to F3 first for that to even be possible? I think she accidentally let that slip and that means Amanda gets voted out at F4. UGH!!!