RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 Flashback: Rick Devens Survivor 38 Post Game Retrospective

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

This week, we're flashing back to Rick Devens Survivor 38 Retrospective.

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Winners, find fabulous for less. Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob Sister Nino. back with you for the finale of our Survivor 50 flashback series where we have gone over these last few weeks since they announced the cast of Survivor 50 and we have brought you from the RHAP vault some great interviews with the players from the olden days from the 39 day era of Survivor we're going to play on Survivor 50 today we wrap things up with my post-game deep dive that I did with Rick Devons back on May 26th, 2019. It is hard to really express to people who were not there in the real time of what a phenomenon Rick Devons was in the real time, that he was really just, you know, the person who, you know, especially the, you know, casual TV audience of the show.

They really resonated with. He was a big character. He was funny. He was doing all sorts of stuff with playing fake idols and finding new idols. And so he really was, you know, a big, bombastic character who I think that the audience really expected to win the show. Many of us did based off of how much screen time he got towards the end of the edge of extinction. Ultimately, we all know how it played out. And it's going to be very fun to see Rick Devin's

return. But it was a real coup to get Rick Devin's so close to the end of the edge of extinction and to talk about his whole game here back on May 26th, 2019. Hope you enjoy this series and this one last Survivor 50 flashback with Rick Devin's from 2019. All right, everybody. Let's bring in our here today. We're very excited to talk to a man that we hardly got to hear from in Survivor, The Edge of Extinction. So we'll finally get to hear what he's thinking about so many different things. He is this season's Cia Award winner. He is America's Newscaster. Please welcome Rick Devin's. Purple Rick. I'm excited to finally be able to tell the story you didn't see out there. Yes. Okay, Rick, it's been a couple of days since the finale craziness has all died down.

What's it been like to sort of get back to your post-survivor life? After enjoying a beautiful day on Venice Beach with my in-laws and then dinner with David Wright and his girlfriend Leah and not their DVD shelves. it was back to Georgia and a hard turn back to reality to back to back days of jury duty I don't know if Gavin put in a recommendation and said this guy's actually really good on the jury but yeah

back to back days of jury duty all right how was the whirlwind of the finale it was it was a lot of fun it was so good to see everybody again like I've seen little groups of my fellow castaways here and there since the show, but that's the first time

we've all been together. It was a ton of fun. It was awesome meeting former survivors like yourself. Thank you. I mean, I loved every second of it, except for watching my demise for the first time. That was really tough.

But that was followed up by the huge shock of SIA, and that really was a Band-Aid for everything. Well, was it hard? I mean, you had known that you were going to go out at that final four fire making challenge. It was difficult to watch that back? It really was. I was just like, I remembered it being so

close and just standing there afterwards and just staring at my flame that didn't flicker out. You know, it had life. And seeing it for the first time was really, yeah, it really was rough. It was like, because to me, that was the difference. I mean, that one, 30 seconds.

of fire making was the difference between the million and fourth place. I watched your Ponderosa video and it really did seem as though the jury welcomed you back. I've not seen a reception for a player like the one that you got at the Ponderosa.

Yeah, they were so awesome. I mean, it was almost everybody and they were letting me know that they wanted me to win. I think I was the horse that they were going for at that point in the game. So they were almost a little frustrated with me.

But they really took the sting out of it that night. I think it was Victoria who said, you know, can we clap for him at tribal? And that was just amazing. That was like the sea of money at the time. It was like I was so low and it turned everything around. And then everyone was so great when I got to Ponderosa. Even for that one day, Ponderosa was just a really good place to be for sure. Rick, it seems like that this cast,

gets along pretty well. It looked like a little touch and go on social media at times during the season, but it did feel like that in terms of what I got to see firsthand at the finale, that it feels like that this is somewhat of a close cast. I think it really is. I personally love everybody on the cast. Like even the people you saw me have little runs in like Wardog is one of my favorite people.

And he's absolutely the castaway that my son was rude. for other than myself through no coaching from beck and i i mean jack was a huge war dog fan so i do think we've been a pretty good cast there have been touch and go moments here and there uh but when we were in that green room leading up to the show i mean it was a lot of fun everyone was interacting with everyone everyone was getting pictures with everyone uh all the different families wanted to meet and and i can just speak personally that every single castaway was so great with my family. So it was a lot of fun. When you watch the show, it gets, the vibe changes a little bit. It's a little more intense. But yeah, I would say that we are a close cast. And that probably

has a lot to do with Edge of Extinction. Maybe it has a lot to do with the fact that we haven't had exit interviews along the way. You know, no one knows what anyone really thinks at this point. Oh, that's interesting. But I really do think it's a good group of people. Yeah. What has surprised you about the reaction to you or the season? The reaction to me has been a bit surprising along the way. I thought, like, I'm a pretty, like, I'm pretty nice out there. Everything I've said is pretty nice. You know, I had an emotional reaction to Wardog, but I wasn't a huge jerk about it.

I did say that I was a big thread and other people weren't along the way, but that was my perception in the game. I mean, that's really what we felt at the time. So the fact that I got as much backlash as I did was surprising. I understand that I did get a lot of air time. And I wouldn't give it back if I had the choice. I'll take the backlash in the airtime. So maybe it's valid.

But I also got a lot of love. Like for every negative comment, there was someone there saying, hey, come on, man. He's got kids. So, and I definitely did put on a show along the way. So if people didn't like that, if you're averse to me or my personality, like I can see why that you got a lot of it. Yeah. The thing about negative feedback is that a lot of times the negative feedback comes directly to you where the positive feedback is not always delivered with that kind of accuracy.

I think that that's fair. I think, but it was pretty fun by the end of the season. I mean, I could just avoid certain social media outlets and focus it on others, and it's all love. And certainly locally, it's all, everyone's been really proud of the way I played. And I think towards the end, I mean, you know, I don't want to say there aren't haters aren't there because there are definitely haters. But some of the haters towards the end were finally just going, you know what, he's working really hard. And he's having as much fun as he can, like as much as I can't stand the guy. Like, all right.

Like, I'd like to think that that's how I would play if I was out there, work as hard as I can and have as much fun as I can. But yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. If you didn't like me to begin with, then I know you had plenty of me by the end. But I certainly appreciated all the people that did enjoy the ride with me because I had a lot of fun. You know what I think is very interesting about your particular adventure,

is that you were somebody who was in the public eye and then you left and it seems like that there were no spoilers that came out about, hey, our local anchor just came back and he's real skinny and he's been gone for a while. And it seemed like that there was no leaks on that front. How did you manage your survivor absence with you being somebody who's on TV all the time. Well, that was definitely really important to me. I think it was important to all of us just because that, man, the crew, and you've heard it a million times on Rob has a podcast, but it is amazing the work that goes in, and you just want to respect everything they put into it. And then, of course, the bosses at my station that had to know are the only ones that knew, and they were great about

keeping that secret. And then I think my wonderful wife, Beck and Evans and I came up with a pretty good cover story, which was that a friend of mine from college that I became an Eagle Scout with was putting together a documentary that he was selling to Netflix about hiking the Appalachian Trail. So I was going to be gone for seven weeks, hiking part of the trail, no cell phones, no anything. So when I came back, I was just like, yeah, I'm skinny and I'm this. But then I got back and I was like, people said, you know, did you see any bears? And I was being as vague as possible. No, no bears. And my co-worker, Danielle Polinar, comes in she'd submit like a day on the Appalachian Trail and saw like three bears and blew up my whole

story. Yeah. But I was just real. People were like, man, something must have happened out there. He doesn't want to talk about the Appalachian Trail at all. Yeah. I would just move away from it real quick. Okay.

Rick, how did you ultimately get into being a survivor contestant? I've been a big fan. I always thought I was a super fan. until I got out on the island and these people were reciting every season me and I was like, oh, I'm a really big fan. But I've watched since the very first episode. So in college, I think I applied for the first time

with this crazy, zany video. And then when I got married a few years, you know, well, several years later, after I'd been in Macon, I applied again, and the video was real elaborate. Then I applied a third time with an elaborate video. And then finally, I applied a fourth time, fourth time with a video that I literally made during my commercial break during the morning

newscast. And that's the one I heard back from. So it's been a long time coming. And I'd almost given up like it was a real spur of the moment. Things even send the last one in. And I'm glad I did. Okay. Let's talk about your survivor adventure of and I guess start in the beginning. And when you guys were there, and I would imagine, you know, from first one out, you guys were traveling as a group, all of the new players, I don't know, I know you're not a war dog when it comes to math, but you can count that there was, what, 14 people. Were you expecting returning players to be joining you to? Yeah.

And there were actually a few rogues in there. There were two extras. Like alternates. That we didn't know what was going on. Yeah, I guess at this point. I guess they're alternates. But at the time, we just assumed they were playing. But still, we were going, that's only 16.

You know, so there was always a feeling, I think, amongst all of us. I suspected there'd be returning players. And definitely the vibe once the game began was that no one was real surprised about it. So it was just a matter of who those returning players were going to be and how they were going to factor into the game. and the name edge of extinction when you first got to hear it did that mean anything to you you know what it's so funny because the first thing i thought of was isn't that the movie the drastic park movie right now edge of extinction and and because one had just come out when we had left that suburb but uh but then jeff like goes through all of their stories and kind

all the four returning stories and kind of sells it like they were right on the edge of winning and then they went extinct and then all the craziness goes of getting back to camp and then to my recollection I think there was maybe one conversation where somebody was like you know there's probably something more to this edge of extinction thing what do you think that means do you think like people come back or anything everyone's like no no no no I think it's just and we didn't even talk about it again like it was just okay that's it. I mean, when Ream left, she was gone. When Keith left, she was gone, Chris and me.

So looking back, I'm surprised at how little we discussed it. Because all we had time was time to discuss the most inane things. So you guys are on that boat. And I went back and I watched that scene. And basically, they're sort of just like, okay, hey, welcome to Survivor. And it didn't seem like that there was a lot of talk between, Jeff and you guys on the show, from what I understand from Josh Wiggler, that was when you were able to tell everybody that, you know, this is very embarrassing, but I too am also named War Dog. Was, thank you. Thank you, Josh Wiggler, for sharing that story with the world, because I was very proud of that.

Yeah. Was that something that went over big with the group? it did seem to but Josh didn't share that I follow that up with like the dumbest possible thing you could say which is like hey I want to be like a two name player

and the only thing I can think of is Russell Hans who's not even really a two name player I say like Russell Hans so literally the first thing they hear me say is like oh this funny war dog thing followed right up by hey me Russell Hans

I want to be like like him it's like that's that's smart what did you say i want to be a two-name player like russell hans can i get into this because i had a lot of questions about the devons nickname yeah i think so so this is the way that it worked is all through finals week it was a big joke that i was the anchor man and so we were all joking about like having a tagline out there or having a you know a sign off and i was always saying like it'd be my the dream is to be a two last name player to be someone that jeff calls you by your last name. And the joke that I got was you should be a two-name player like Ron Burgundy, like Rick Devons. So I go into this opening thinking, okay, that's a great idea. And I just

blunder it horribly by saying Russell Hans. And it's just awful. So then I never have a chance to discuss it with Jeff again. But at Tribal, he's just like, hey, listen, I'm not going to call you Rick Devin's, I'll call you Devin's. And that was him being kind to me. And I was just like, okay. Like, I'll take it. I'm so happy to take that. But I'd already introduce myself to everyone as Rick. So that's why the whole rest of the game, it's Rick Devin's and Rick.

And it turned out to Rick Devin's, which I laughed every time, just thinking about finals week. It became a part of your signature on the show to do your news anchor Stinger. how much of that was something that you thought about before you came out there. That was not my idea. Okay.

One time, I forget what the first time was, but one of the producers just said, hey, can you give us like a news update about what just happened? Yeah. And it might have been the Julia vote. And I said, okay. And I said,

dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. So I hit the music. And I gave them this. news update and from them I guess they just loved it and from then on every interview I did they asked for a news update I mean there must be 50 of them on the on the cutting room floor and the the camera guys would start getting you to it like like maybe you can like hold a stick up as a microphone so I think it was just something that really entertained them and uh distracted them yeah you did it in challenges and try and tribal councils and uh all over the place you know what

That's actually true. The very first news update was during night three, the super rainy night. My castmates asked me to do one. Yeah. And then I did a news update. So that's why the producer is asked. And that's why Aurora in the challenge asked me for a news update. Okay.

So you are part of this infamous Manu tribe, which is a complete disaster. Can we look back real quickly? I'm sorry, Rob, to interrupt. but at we call it must watch monoe yes David Wright Kelly Wentworth we got Wardhog Windy Keith Ream Ream me do Lauren I mean like this tribe would you look back at it

I think it's got to be in just in terms of like TV value it's a pretty it's a pretty all-timer yeah it's an all-time for for sure in terms of competition for sure for sure Also an all-timer. Yeah. So you're part of this group, and it seems like that from the jump that you are well situated with David Wright and Kelly Wentworth, what thoughts did you have about those two specific players when you were coming into the game, not having played with them, just from watching

them on TV? I had not had a chance to, like, go back and rewatch a bunch of them. seasons, because I spent all my time getting ready for the game with my kids. So I'd literally never rewatched a season of Survivor before I went out there. So I remember David very freshly as just being like very neurotic, but like kind of coming around at the end. And I remembered Kelly as just being like really tough. And I remembered her for idols.

I remembered the big idol play at the end. But I didn't want to work with either of them. When I saw him on the boat, I was very anti-returnee at first, just like everybody else. And my immediate alliances were with Chris right off the bat, like two seconds onto the island. Chris and I were like, we need to stick together and we should probably get rid of these returnees. And then Wardog and I kind of grew into one along the way. And that's just day one. But then over time, like David and I just hit it off.

like he was just the one I wanted to be around the most. And the way we saw the game was very similar. We were both gunning for Kelly hard right out of the gate. So why Kelly? Because I wanted a returning out. And then I didn't want David out. Like at first I just wanted either of them out. And then as we came along, it's like I really liked David and wanted to keep David.

I'd gotten really close with Wardog and Chris already. I felt totally good with Keith and Wendy and Ream. And Lorne and I were very close, in my opinion, right off the bat. But Kelly always kind of kept me at a distance, like super friendly, but we didn't talk game at all, ever. And it never was like we were after each other. We were always in the same group, but we never really talked game. So I thought we need to get one of these returnees out. and I'll be able to trust David more if Kelly's gone.

So it just worked out. And Chris and I both were down with getting out of a returning. Were you surprised that David wasn't more excited to try to work with Kelly Wentworth? I definitely expected that they would work together right away. Yeah, I thought the returnees would work together pretty hard. But in camp, like, it was. pretty clear that they were keeping a distance from each other. Like, they weren't especially close.

And then I talked with David, obviously, a lot. And they just, I kept an eye out for if they're tricking us because they have so much more experience. And it just never seemed like it did. So I guess I am surprised they never got together because, you know, I didn't know until afterwards about what Kelly said about, that she wasn't excited about David on your podcast. That's a, that really was that big of a deal?

I never heard about it from David out there. Okay. I can say that. He never mentioned, he did mention your podcast. He never mentioned, Kelly not being excited about him on your podcast. He and Wardog talked about your podcast so much.

I could end Gavin. I couldn't wait to get back. And how good it is, right? Oh my gosh. Yeah, man. Okay, good. It wasn't like, like negative feedback. No, even Wardog, all positive.

Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about, about where things went wrong for Ream. I know she was moving the laundry around and going back and watching that first episode, you know, you're talking with Lauren about how, you know, you have a expression in the South. You would say, bless her heart for what she's doing out there.

Oh, my. So Ream and I sat close to each other on the flight out there. And my first impression of Ream was literally as flight attendants would walk by her. she would practically be like is there anything i can help you guys with and and that's ream like she's so nice and so helpful uh when you first get to know her and and that's how she was like everything she did was out of the goodness of her heart but there was just so much of it and all of us are terrified that we're going to be the first ones out so she was such i mean you can see now looking back that she's always going to be a presence wherever she's

is. So she's this big presence that's doing things that are just a little bit annoying that all of us, you know, if it annoys me a little bit and I see that it annoys you a little bit, there's no doubt in those first three days. I'd try to amplify it. Yeah. Because I want the target on Ream as much as I love her because I'm so scared. And that's kind of just what it was. Like, and that's what made that tribal so painful. Is it really, we really were trying to let her know that there was nothing negative she did it was just these little things that we took a certain way and um yeah i was really glad to get time on edge of extinction with ream to kind of let her get to know me so that she knew where i was coming from because she's amazing and i there is no way edge of extinction

would have turned out the way it did if ream hadn't been the first out if she hadn't gone out there and stayed a lot of people would have gone home but i know when i was out there i'm like there's no way i'm going home before ream she was out here alone in the rain and you know and she's like a mom of all these great kids it's like i'm saying at least till ream stays and i think a lot of people had that mind says she's she's unbelievable so after you guys lost that first challenge then it looks like there's a moment where ream is is coming to you as a like uh like dude let's let's vote out wentworth and uh that's a conversation that keith is in on and then he goes back and says, okay, well, this is what Ream is trying to do.

Were you worried about that there being sort of blowback on you, that you're being seen as somebody that Ream is talking to about getting rid of Kelly? I wasn't really. We were pretty open at that point. And the Ream vote kind of really brought David and I together because Ream and Wendy and originally Keith saw, I think saw David and I is like the votes that they could maybe get. like they really came to us they felt like the outcast and they felt like i think Lauren and Chris and Wardog and Kelly were like the cool kids and that David and I they they wanted us to be

outcast also you know like you guys come with us and so David and I got kind of put in that middle role but we were always real open with the Kelly Wardong that that majority like as soon as they would talk to me I was going back and taking information to them because I wanted to to make sure I was in those numbers. And then you saw that Keith ended up doing the same thing, where you just saw where the numbers were going, and Ream became the easy vote under those circumstances, which was real unfortunate because looking back,

it's like, man, now that we know what we know about Ream, if Dave and I had gotten with her and Wendy, that might have been the most loyal alliance of all time, you know? Yeah. But we just didn't know at the time what Ream was, but boy, did she show us. but yeah i felt comfortable because i was i was very open in sharing my information with that majority alliance we were we were pretty tied as a big group at that point yeah i'm glad you mentioned

wendy because i'm really curious uh about if you had any second thoughts on how you and david played the uh pre-merge part of the game where you guys are you know uh flirting with this idea of voting out kelly and bringing wendy on when she is a big target and you're both talking about you know how this this is really great that we have wendy and she can and she can work with us and uh david especially is talking about what a great smoke screen she is but you guys never take the shot at kelly in uh these couple of opportunities that you have in the pre-merge and i would love to hear more about whether or not that that was a mistake to not take the shot on kelly it's just to preface it all it's all for me there

there are not, there's only one mistake I made that cost me the million dollars, which was given back to half the idol. So, so that makes it real easy and looking back and saying, no, I made all the right moves because that was the one mistake. That being said, theoretically,

definitely I think there would have been better gameplay that would keep me from going out forth. That, yeah, I mean, a huge, yeah, it's almost like you have two different games that were,

exactly. Clearly I made mistakes because I got voted out forth. And in any other season, I'd be a footnote. I certainly want to get a Rob interview, which I'm so happy I do. My main motivation for winning the extinction challenge. You definitely be on the VFAC show next season, though. Thank you. Thank you.

You don't want to do a hierarchy like that, I thought. The voicemail should be your number. As the one who went out forth, I want to do the voicemail show. I want to bring glory back. I love the voicemail show, but I feel like that the main interiors. view is like, I need a lot of stories. Yeah, that, you know, I need some like a game experience to work off of. Word. Okay. That makes sense to me. That makes sense to me. Well, thank you.

Yeah, I think the biggest, David and I, I think, would do a lot of things differently. We might have done something right off, now that I know what Ream is, we'd have done something right off the bat. But I think the main mistake we made was with Chris, knowing what we know now. but even then it's hard to call it a mistake because the reason we made the Chris vote was because we knew that swap was coming. And we knew that what the Chris vote came down to is if we kept Chris.

Well, could we start with Keith? Because I feel like that. Yeah, please. I'm getting all this can bobulated. Two votes in a row where there's this conversation of, at first it's, is it going to be Keith or is it going to be Kelly? And then the vote after that is it going to be Chris or is it going to be Kelly?

So the Keith vote, I mean, it looks like that you guys have the numbers and then maybe Chris is the person who ends up flipping away and deciding that he has cold feet and he wasn't going to do it. But how close did that come to you guys voting out Kelly at the second vote instead of Keith? The Keith votes are real interesting one because we had that Kelly vote locked in. We had the numbers for it pre-challenge. And that was going to be the vote to get her out.

As soon as we brought Keith over, we were good because Wendy was in on it. David was in on it. I was in that Chris was in on it. That's enough. And then we went to the challenge. And, you know, there was that swimming portion at the beginning. And when we got back, it was just like kind of a talk about Keith. Like what are we going to do about Keith in these challenges?

And then I saw how other people were treating Keith. They were treating them like this little brother that they were looking after. And in my mind, I was like, that's the relationship I have with Keith. He pulled me away one night and said, hey, listen, I really miss my family. You know, I really kind of need support in this game. And I said, hey, man, I'll be your support, you be mine. So I thought I kind of had him under my wing, right? And then I see the other people are like that.

So I go to Wardog and I say, Ward dog, did Keith have this conversation? with you where he said that he's missing his family, he needs support. At that point, we realized that Keith had had that conversation with basically all of us. So he kind of got caught a little bit playing the game. Plus, he got,

you know, he had a rough challenge. So because of those two things, none of us felt like we had Keith, his votes locked in anymore. And so we just did it to preserve ourselves. So that's how, that's why we didn't go after Kelly that vote.

It was strictly like we need to win something type of vibe. In terms of watching the episode, it felt like that in the Chris vote, it seemed like it was more real because then Chris was on board and there was the conversation that David had with Chris about how we want to take the shot on Kelly. And then we see Chris talking with Wardog about it. And then basically Ward Dog goes to Kelly. and then the whole thing ends up getting pinned on Chris. But it does seem as though you guys with now seven people have the votes to take Kelly out here.

But again, you guys don't take the shot. So why vote out Chris here instead of Kelly where that was such a goal in the early part of the game for you and David? This turned out to be a huge blunder. And just the way it turned out. I mean, if the swap had gone differently, it could have been differently. But so I was very close with Chris. I think at that point, I was his maybe closest alliance in the game. But our whole strategy behind our alliance was let's not let anybody know about it.

Let's hardly ever touch base to the point that I started doubting our alliance. And I got a lot closer with David. So Chris and I had openly been talking about getting rid of Kelly. David and I are openly talking about getting rid of Kelly. I think Chris and David are openly talking about getting rid of Kelly. And I think I'd even talked a little bit with Wardog about the possibility of it, but not in practice. So then Wardog comes to me, and it's the conversation you saw in the show where he says, hey, we have to get rid of Chris. He's coming after Kelly.

And that's why the first thing I say is, have you gone to Kelly about this? Like, is my plan blown up yet or can we still do this? So, so that vote came down to basically, and Wardog wanted me to keep David out of it. And I ended up telling Wardog, listen, I'm too close to David. Like, that'd be a big thing. I want David in on this, which is actually what I think got me voted out the next vote, is that I showed how close I was to David by insisting he be in on the Chris vote.

So then David and I went and talked And basically it came down to David's in my vote And the way we looked at it Well, the way I looked at it is we really wanted to get rid of Kelly Because she was so strong But we were almost sure that a swap was coming after this vote And we thought if we get rid of Kelly Then that gives us me

David, Chris and Wendy As people we can trust but we're alienating Wardog and Lauren. So if we get stuck in a swap with them, we're in a lot of trouble. Whereas if we get rid of Chris, then we're only alienating Wendy. And my secret goes out the door with Chris.

No one ever knows we were an alliance. No one ever knows I betrayed him. So because we were so sure there was a swap, and we're like, if Chris isn't with us, he's going to destroy us and challenges, we just decided to get rid of Chris so that we'd have more people happy with us for a swap and then

we'd be less at a disadvantage in challenges but then that swap happened and it's like oh my gosh is that results oriented yeah so it didn't work out for you but now sort of you know knowing so much about the game from now having played so much I always like to do these for you know

what is the takeaway here Do you feel like that your reasoning was still sound for what you did? Or did you feel like that there is a bigger survivor lesson you learned that you should have gone the other way? I feel like the reasoning there was really sound. Because if I'm put in a tribe, if the swap comes in any other way other than us like crazily being put on the exact same tribe, then you want as many people on your original tribe to want to work with you as possible. and we would have more people that wanted to work with us. Also, if I'm put in a tribe after the swap with Kelly,

then we're both helping physically pretty much the same, but Kelly's a bigger threat because she's a returning, get rid of Kelsey. If I'm put in a tribe with Chris, he's helping that tribe a lot more. So you're probably going to get rid of me. But, you know, it just is what it is. If Chris had been in, if the swap had worked out in the exact same way, except Chris had been in the second Monu instead of Kelly,

David and I would have been in no danger at all. So it would have definitely been the wrong move to get rid of Chris. There's a million ways it could have gone, but I feel like our logic was really sound. But I definitely look at that as a point in the game where if we could have kept Chris, we could have made things a lot easier on ourselves as possible. And in Chris, yeah, the perfect patsy to,

take the fall for this idea getting out that it was going to be a vote against Kelly. It looked like it came from him. Exactly. If he goes, no one ever knows we were after Kelly. No one ever knows I was close with Chris. No one ever knows I betrayed Chris. It's like take all your secrets we thought out of the game. Yeah.

So this isn't so much game related, but in watching this back, the stuff with Wendy with the chickens is still hilarious. Well, what were you thinking when, you know, she's talking to you about, you know, will you help me with this plan to let the chickens be free? I love Wendy. Like, you don't need cable out there on the island when you have Wendy. I called her in the first episode, a whirling dervish. And I think a lot of people took it the wrong way. But, like, that's really how I see her.

She was always moving. Like, as we're getting ready to make a plan to put up palm fronds on the roof, she's already doing it. And she's just this ball of energy. So she and I were on the same page with the chickens. Neither of us wanted the chicken reward. But I was fine with it if that's what the group wanted. And I could never kill the chicken. But I said, like, if you guys kill it, I'll eat it, no problem.

I'm not going to put a thing. So when she came to me wanting to break free the chickens, this is something that I very much wanted to happen. But I was not going to be a part of ever. So, and it just struck me in that moment as totally absurd that anyone would be willing to give up a shot at a million dollars for these chickens. And I knew my wife Becca would never forgive me for doing that. But at the same time, it's like, you can't help but laugh because this is just why you love Wendy. Like she has totally forgotten about the million dollars at this point.

and the only thing in the world she cares about is these chickens. Yeah, I thought I'd lost my mind. Rick, you are headed into this very fateful swap for you. And then it ends up with basically your entire tribe minus Wendy all going over to go start a new camp on Lesu. And it's going to be more of the same for your group over on Lesu. How hard was that to go and have to start? over at a new beach we just couldn't believe it man like we were already one of the worst tribes ever and then we're the exact same group they call us lesu and and we have to go build our

drive again it was just the hits keep coming we lose our chickens the only reward we've won in the game we got one chicken and lose the other three um it was demoralizing and i think looking back and now i've watched some some past seasons when i get back since i've been back. I think you really hit that lull right around 10 days to two weeks. And that's kind of right where we were. And we just went back and basically said, we're not building a camp. Like we don't have the energy. We're only going to be here maybe a week or 10 days. Like, we're not doing anything. So I ended up building, starting to build, and everyone built a wind break just to keep the wind from blowing off the beach on us. And that's all we had. We had no

floor. So then it starts to rain on us, I think, night two. And we're just like laying on palm fronds in the mud up against this wind. I mean, it was, I think probably for everyone on Les Sue, that was the most demoralizing time in the game. Poor Lauren is getting really sick at that time. She can't even eat her rice. We're all super worried about her. I mean, I know that I use that as one of my excuses to vote for her instead of me in that. final four but that was a legit concern like we were all as close I think in that moment

as we looked and we were all worried about Lauren and certainly I you know I tried to use that to my advantage to stay in but that was a crappy time man we had nothing but the rice and I think the first day we found like two papayas and it was just rough so

that's going to ultimately culminate in this tribal council which everybody there is going to describe it as as, you know, a very emotional tribal council. Kumbaya, yeah. Kumbaya. And I have to say, as a viewer, I was like, I don't get it.

I don't really understand. Well, what's the big deal here? David Wright talks about it as being, you know, what, you know, the most dramatic tribal council he's ever been at. And it didn't make sense at the time. But, you know, hearing about some of the hardship for this group and what a tough decision it must have been. It does make more sense now. Yeah. And I think, you know, that group had been together and voted together since the very

beginning, that entire group. And we'd really, I mean, I'll just speak for myself. I really cared for everyone in that group so much. Their stories got me through those long nights. Wardog, I mean, he was my dude for life. David's one of my best friends. And Kelly and Lauren and had both been so great. So it was really hard going out that night. I thought that there was a good chance it would be me. And I didn't feel like there was any negativity towards me. I can't believe they didn't show it just to juxtapose Angelina asking for Natalie's jacket.

But after I was voted out, like after the votes recount, like I leaned forward to Lauren and Kelly. Because I had intentionally left my sweater in camp. And I said, hey, guys, I left my sweater for you in camp. just in case you're cold because they had less clothing out there than I did and I felt bad about it that's something I hugely regretted when I found about that I found out about Edge of Extinction yeah and I literally I'm out there freezing in the rain the first night without my sweater but yeah so I felt so close to them and I felt so loved on my way out it was it was a really bizarre experience Rob it's not

something I've expected from Survivor I have no doubt but there is something unexpected that's coming around the corner and that's going to be this signpost which is going to ask you about what do you want to do next can you just describe what that reaction was like for you so it is a rainy night it's a nasty cold rainy night so after I'm voted out and I and I you know I'm nice on my way out I always wanted to say like don't be me you know be nice on your way out so I'm like I've checked everything off my list. My game's basically over.

Okay, good for you, Rick. So I'm dreaming of cheeseburgers and a hot shower. Dreaming. And I get there. Yeah, give it to me again. Dreaming. But it turns out I got played. Yeah.

Because I see this sign and so my first thing is my heart drops a little bit. Like, wait, what? But then, of course, I'm ecstatic that, oh, the game's still done. So I grabbed the torch. and basically as soon as I grab the torch I can't find the boat because I'm blinded by the fire so I'm just walking towards what I hope is the boat I realize in my head like oh no

I'm probably going to run into these people that I voted out and that's that's going to really suck so I'm already kind of bracing myself for that possibility or for the possibility that I'm going somewhere totally by myself and it's going to be a long night So ultimately, you're going to end up being reunited with Riem and Keith and Chris, three people that you were voted out.

And what was the reception for you like? So you've gone out, Rob, you're like, you're at, you're, you're real low. And you're thinking about all the things that went wrong, all the people you disappointed. Like, it's a real low point. especially I felt I felt like my game was going so well up to the swap and I'm just like how did I get here and then there are three people literally they see before I can see them they see my face in my torchlight and they are laughing and hooting and hollering they are so happy to see me vote at all and rightfully so because I ended their dream so I got up and I mean they made it real clear that they weren't

sad about it. It was fine. And I was trying to kind of have fun with it. Like, okay. Like, I get why they're mad. I'd brace myself for that. And then they kept going. And I kind of said, well, do you guys want to know, do you guys want to know what's going on in the game? Because you have to be nice. And it was done. They had pretty much gotten it out of their system at that point. And they wanted to hear it was in the game. And Chris, who I'd betrayed more than anybody, had a little piece of tarp that he let me lay on. And I mean, literally, Like within five minutes, they were treating me fine. They were over it.

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Based on what we saw at the edge of extinction at this point in time, it seemed as though that it was almost like a tag team wrestling where there was you and Chris and there was Riem and Keith. Was that actually what it was like? Or was this just what it looked like on the show? No, well, it was nice because more than anything, we were all together. Like most times we were all together. And I was really glad to get to make my peace with Ream and Keith and get to know each of them outside of the game.

And for them to understand, like, how much I appreciate them as people. And I think vice versa. But you do all that in the first day. and you're out there a long time. So Chris and I definitely started to gravitate towards each other. I think Chris and Ream wanted some space from each other. Keith and Ream were very close as that, as that almost child parent relationship.

So yeah, there was a lot of Chris and I together, and Chris and Ream were just always at it. And I, Ream once called me Chris's lawyer, and that's probably fair, that I should have just shut up. and stayed out of it, but I'd, what are you, Chris's lawyer? Exactly. And I'd be like, Ream, Ream, he's just saying.

Objection, Your Honor. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, I got involved in things. Oh, and here's one thing you didn't see at Edge of Extinction. We, Aubrey and Chris and I went through Keith's bag to find out what his advantage was. and Ream was ticked off. Oh, you don't say.

Oh, my God. And of course, later, I have to act like, I'm mad at Aubrey for going through my bad, but of course I'm like, not at all. Yeah. Yeah. Like, if you go after Ream, she'll come at you hard, but if you go after someone Ream loves,

like she is the mama bear. And I feel like if people went after me, she'd protect me now. That's what's so great about Ream. Can I, will you give me more Ream? Yeah, what do you want? What do you want? I can't believe you went through Keith's bag.

Keith is, you know, and then just say good things about Keith. Dude, you know what? I would have never, ever gone through somebody else's bag. Because you know what? That that is, that, do I have stupid idiot written all across my forehead? Screw you, Rick. Screw you, Chris's lawyer. going through this kid's bag while he's out here on the edge.

What is this? This isn't the TSA. This isn't airport security. You don't need to go through his bag. Rick. So good. I'm glad you enjoy. So good.

And I can enjoy it because I know how much Riem enjoys it. Good, good. But I'm very happy that she was such a good sport. That was very happy to learn that at the finale. Yeah, she's the best. Rick, so on the edge, can you just take us through like, what is it? What do you do all day on the edge of extinction? So when I was on the edge, we didn't even have, you know, we didn't even get to go to tribal councils.

Right. So, so you're counting down the days and you're thinking like today might be a tribal, maybe someone will show up tonight. but that's literally like all we had to look forward to. And then we got those maps here and there. Yeah. So without getting into those, basically your day, I would wake up when the sun came out,

and I'd sleep in the sand right by the fire. There's no shelter. There's nothing to build a shelter with. There's no coconuts really to open. And I would go sit by the mass and watch the sunrise. And then I would collect a big thing of wood. And then I would walk around. It's like, who wants to go get the rice?

And mostly everyone would want to go get the rice because there's nothing better to do. So you climb up this huge hill. I mean, it takes about at least an hour round trip. But a lot of times, once you're up that big hill, you just stay up there for a while and go in the view. Yeah. And literally, I mean, you're just napping.

Albury was amazing at finding the big clams and the big conch shells. Chris did some fishing. I did some fishing unsuccessfully. You would just go out and float. or nap. I mean, literally, you just do nothing. It was just a great time to rest and recoup for like the first three days. And then there were three more.

Yeah. This is really boring. Like when those maps and riddles came, it was a great. I was like, oh my gosh, thank goodness, something to do. Is the worst part about it that it's just so boring? Yeah. Yeah. It's just really boring.

There's nothing. I mean, mentally, well, it wears on you emotionally because you miss your family. But it doesn't wear on you mentally. the way like the game does. It's not like you're sitting there running numbers the whole time driving yourself crazy. You're just kind of bored going, man, is it, you know, is it worth it that my wife's looking after the kids

while I just sit here on the beach all that? You know, but there's not much to it other than that. And I know while I was out there, I ate as well on the edge of extinction as I did in the game. Definitely, probably better. But there were fewer people out there. I don't know if they were still splitting the same amount of rice. Like, my understanding is they weren't eating as well late in the game on the edge.

But I was fine in terms of, like, that part of the game. It just was really boring. Yeah. But a great, like, I loved getting to know Chris better. Like, we became very close on the edge of extinction. So at this point, you are going to get these maps. You're the person that is able to figure out if you fold the map, there's just a whole thing where you can go get, get something by one of these trees and that shows you how detached i felt from the game

like what i'm just like hey guys an advantage this is exactly how you do it yeah i would never have done that in the game you guys talk about okay well let's all go up there together and let's make lunch first and uh that's when keith uh just takes off and i'm not doing this for chris i'm not doing this for for for rick uh i'm doing it for my family and And he goes on and eventually. And he said, I'm darn sure not doing this for it. Which I'm still like, what? I thought we were good, man.

No, no. He goes up and makes a beeline for it. And then you guys have to go chase him down to go find these advantages. And Chris is going to find a thing that he's going to practice. And you are going to find the ability to send an advantage to somebody that's still in the game that's going to go to the tribal council. and you picked Aubrey and I was curious about why Aubrey

so my main focus at that point was to help David and I made it I made it seem like all of us on the edge we're deciding together but I knew that I got to make the final decision but it turns out we all

did agree on Aubrey the only considerations were Wendy I knew on the tribe but I didn't think an extra vote would help her at all, I thought if she's going to be voted out, she's going to be voted out by everyone. Yeah. So the extra vote does nothing. So I thought, I know Aubrey and David know have known each other outside the game. I assumed Aubrey was probably in a pretty good spot to stay in the game. So if I give this to Aubrey, she's the most likely to still be in the game

to help me and David when I get back in with this vote. And yeah, That was pretty much the whole consideration. So, Aubrey is going to show up very soon thereafter. Really good choice by me. I really read the room. Yeah. Already showing up on the right side of the vote. What was your reaction to that of like, hey, did you get that extra vote that I send you?

Yeah, we couldn't believe it. We were just like, Aubrey. And, you know, of course, because we had made it the decision as a group, all of us are like, Oh, what about the vote? What about the vote? Which I'm sure she loved to hear. Because she was all right. She was in a fog.

You could tell that she was still totally wondering what the heck happened when she got to the edge. So we were pretty easy on her. She was the first one there that wasn't from Manu. So everyone loved her. We were so happy to see her and felt so bad for her. And she was very dazed and then kind of angry. So we weren't giving her too hard a time about the vote. And she didn't tell us about.

her immunity idol um so yeah but later when i saw that she gave a vote to aurora i was texting her during the season going what yeah she never told me about that uh quid pro quo here Aubrey yeah so ultimately you guys are going to get joined by uh big wendy as well what was that reunion like everyone well it was one of those like we're sad that Wendy's out, but we're all, we all love Wendy. We're all very happy to see her just to see her. The first thing we ask is, did you free the chickens?

Which she says, yes, I freed the chickens. It tells us all about freeing the chickens in the middle of the storm, which was just hilarious. And we just kind of tell her like, batten down the hatches, you may be here a while. And she seemed game for it. Like she seemed totally game for the edge of extinction.

Yeah. She had never had trouble. Of all the people on original Manu, Wendy could sleep through a storm and could deal with being outside. But, yeah, everyone was happy to see her and sad to see her out of the game. We all had good feelings about Wendy. She'd worked with just about all of us, including Aubrey. Well, ooh, maybe not Aubrey, I guess. Were you surprised when you found out that Keith and Wendy ended up raising the sale?

Yes, I was. I was because, again, Wendy, I just. it didn't seem to bother her being out there. So I just thought she'd just kind of keep going. And then Keith is such a super fan that I did not, because in my mind it was quitting, like that's the way I had framed it. Like I didn't see him quitting.

Now, seeing their postgame interviews, I see that they saw it as a different thing. So it's different. But yeah, I was real surprised. We were all very confused when they didn't show up to that tribal with everyone. else and we didn't know till the next tribal that they had quit like something was lost in translation so we were like did they lose a challenge or did they that we had no idea what was going on

but when we found out they quit we were all i think pretty surprised yeah okay or that they left sorry i don't want to i'm not those two i really love those two so i'm not trying to join sides on that so when they decided to leave the game so you're going to have your opportunity to get back into the game in this uh edge of extinction challenge had you been able to use chris's practice stuff at all oh my gosh rob i'm such an idiot so yes chris was very generous with letting us use his practice stuff and i saw it and what it is is it's you know it's the bamboo links with the notches in it and these little strings that have little knots in the end and there's no directions or anything so everyone is like obviously this is

so you tie them together and make a long stick. And I'm just looking at it going, what? Like, why would you need to practice that? That doesn't make any sense to me. It's time, right? So I had it in my head that we were going to be building like almost like blinds for a window. And I'm in my interviews like,

these guys don't even know what the challenge is. I've outsmarted all of them. And I was obviously totally wrong. But I still don't see why we need to practice tying a stick together. I didn't practice and I did okay Yeah So were you aware

I know you said that you guys went through Keith's bag Were you aware that Keith had a punishment That he was going to dole out? Yes, yes And I was so mad When I didn't get that Punishment because I had read the map closest Like I was the only one that basically had it figured out

I just misread where it was and then, you know, infamously, Ream and Keith came across it in the ocean. And she did not give it to him, FYI. No, we got that on the red carpet from Ream. Okay, good, good. So, yeah, he carried that bag around with him forever, knowing that we were going to look through it.

And one time he forgot it and we looked in it and saw what it was. And I instantly became so happy that I didn't find it because obviously anyone would play it on Chris. As soon as I knew what it was, I knew he was going to play it on Chris. I knew that I would have had the choice of betraying Chris by playing it on him or being an idiot and not playing it on him. And I don't know what I would have done because I was so mixed up emotionally with Chris. So I was really happy Keith had it.

But as soon as we, Aubrey and Chris and I looked in his bag and found out what it was, we basically looked at Chris and said, oh, that's not good for you. Rick, how were you feeling about the challenge when you first saw it? I felt really good about it. I certainly didn't look at it and go, oh, man, I'm going to beat all of them. But I looked at it and said, there's no reason I can't win this challenge. I felt like I had done really solid

and all the group challenges, even though the team had won. So I felt, I was feeling confident. And yeah, when I looked at it, I really thought I could do it. Yeah. How many immunity challenges did you end up winning? Four.

Four. Four immunity, plus the end of extinction. Right? Yeah. Yep. So five individual challenges. I mean, that's really amazing. But who's counting?

Did you think that you would do so well in the challenges coming into this thing? No, no, not at all. I mean, I hoped I'd win a challenge. I think everyone hopes you'd win a challenge. And I thought I'd be fine in like the group challenges. Like I have a unique skill set. Like I'm not one of those. Like I don't go to the workout a bunch.

But I do work out. Like I play basketball all the time. And I think a lot of guys you see on Survivor that have great muscles but don't use them for things, I'm like the opposite. I don't have great muscles. But the muscles I have, I use to do a lot of different things. Yeah. And I think that that just really worked out.

And I never saw myself as great at puzzles, but I really was able to, uh, yeah, I mean, I just did well at the puzzles. That's ideal for Survivor. I think that you, that you want to be able to. to be somewhat athletic and maybe not have the imposing physique, as opposed to people who have the imposing physique, I'm not naming anybody from your season, but might not be as good in the challenges.

Yeah, I mean, obviously you're talking about Joe, but he did his best at challenges. Yeah. And that was my strategy. I mean, at the very beginning, the pregame interviews, I said, you know, I want to get in with some of these young strong guys and just slip on by. because of who I am, and that's what I thought David Wright was.

Mm-hmm. Was that young, strong guy that I was going to hide behind. Yeah. I love that guy. Yeah. Well, you mentioned that in the show that you said you wanted to play with the big guys and maybe that's who David Wright turned out to be. As a B-Mole Eclipse Visa Infinite Cardholder, you don't just earn points.

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Can you just describe what that felt like? That was a really emotional moment Like the first thing I thought was like, you know, my son, Jack is going to see this. I specifically Jack because my daughter was so young then. But, and then just everyone else that I was with on the edge, it's like they were so heartbroken because they thought their adventure was over and yet they were genuinely happy for me.

It was just a really emotional thing. And, and then like the. realization that I'm back in the game that this came on and then it's like a whole new thing that's imposing. Okay. So this is now a very wild time in the game because we're going to get to the merge.

Yes. I'm sorry. Can I add in two quick stories? Sure. One, when Jeff brought us in to do the edge of extinction challenge and everyone's watching he says, does anyone here think that this is unfair? And I'm the only one who raised my

hand. And then I felt bad about it. Unfair in what way? Unfair that you guys were coming back into the game. Yeah. Yeah. I'm the only one who raised my hand inside. I think it's a little unfair.

So I felt justified what I won my way back in. It's like, okay, well, you guys are obviously okay with this. But a more important story. So Ron Clark has heard to the Great Vine during this that I'm a morning news anchor in Georgia. Yes. So he is not telling anyone who he is. And he's very nervous that I'm going to know who he is right away. So I don't know who he is.

I should have, but I don't. So Aubrey comes to the edge of extinction, and she's so high on Ron. Like Ron's the nicest guy you're going to love Ron. So as soon as I win my way back in from Edge of Extinction, I go right up to Ron and say, hey, Ron, I've heard such good things. And then we're shut down. We can't talk for the whole ride back to our island. And Ron is freaking out.

Yeah. thinking that I know his secret and I'm about to blab it to everybody right at the merge and then of course we get back into camp and like two seconds in I'm like oh yeah Aubrey says you're so great and that you dance and sing

and he knows he's safe but he was terrified that's funny yeah that is wild that nobody did seem to know who Ron was considering that he's

a pretty well-renowned figure it really is I think of any teachers were out there, they definitely would have known. I think most of us were more Joey fans than Chandler fans, which is why it just didn't pop into our mind. Not Joey Amazing? I'm a Joey Amazing fan too. Even though our one vote in the game together, he tried to get rid of me.

Okay, so this is when, okay, so we have this merge. And, you know, in watching this stuff back, I feel like that these first couple of votes after the merge are all really wild. and exciting in terms of just there's so much gameplay happening on these first couple of votes after the merge. And so we end up with that you come back and this was, you know, a point of contention of, you know, what is your desire of where do you want to go after you get back from the merge? So when I come back into the game, my assumption is that these Lesu that really didn't want to get rid of me in the first place are going to be ecstatic to have me back in with them as a number. You know, I left my sweater. I love them. We all love each other. So I think that they want me back. I also come in kind of with the freedom of going as much as I love them, they did vote me off. So I can be a free agent if I want to. But obviously, David's my closest ally in the game.

He wants to stick with those Lesu. So that's the plan. So even though I'm approached by common, I'm saying, hey, listen, you know, I'm doing whatever. I'm planning on sticking with Lesu. And then Ron and Eric and Julie come to me all together and say, listen, you know, they say, listen, we're parents just like you. Ron says we're Georgia. and they say basically your your Lissue particularly Lauren and Kelly are trying to get rid of you right away and there's no reason that they would tell you know they had the numbers so there's no reason that they

would tell me this if they didn't want to save me and there's really they definitely I didn't get the vibe that they were the type of people that would bring their kids into it just to kind of mess with me so I believe this right away and they you know I don't really know what's true I saw that I saw on the show, but they, they sell it as like, they're really being kind of harsh about it. Like, they don't care at all. Like, they really want you gone. So this, this hurts my feelings, for sure. Like, I thought we were tighter than that.

You saw on the show, like, I am a little bit of an emotional guy. I have feelings. Uh, I'm a modern man. So I'm right away going on. You're not worried about Eric's friends making fun of you. Right. Exactly. Maybe a little bit. Uh, but, uh, so I go to David and kind of tell him this. And he's like, yeah, that, I mean, that totally checks out with him.

So David and I go from our plan A, which was, hey, maybe we can get Joe and Aurora to come over with the lessew and be, you know, be with us, which is what I had talked to Joe about once. And I think David had, we start going, okay, we need to get in with this comma. And that's a little tricky because comma set, basically comma doesn't need our votes for what they want to do. as you can see they did that like really clever split where they had us all shooting against each other so they say you know we're not going to tell you who to vote for because we don't know that we can trust you yet they're afraid we're going to go running back to whoever

so I say okay well I'm so I'm guessing who they're going to vote for I say okay well we'll vote for Kelly and they say okay go ahead and obviously they had Joe in mind so they got rid of Joe but they had us target Kelly which was very smart on their part. And that's how, and that's, and that was my perspective of the Joe list.

And after that, like, you know, when we got back to camp, Kelly and Lauren were so visibly upset that Joe was gone and I was still here. And I just really took that to heart. And that was the end of it for me. So it looked like on the episode it was Julie who seemed the most sympathetic to your plight

in terms of that you, had gone to the edge of extinction and that there was some talk to send you back. Do you feel like, was that strategy on her part, do you feel? Or do you think that she genuinely felt like that that was a not such a great thing to do to you? I think it was both. I think it was both. I think that definitely emotionally, she did not want that to happen to me.

I mean, she's such a kind person. But I think strategically, she was definitely trying to set up possibilities for her and Ron and Eric down the road. I think all three of those very specifically wanted to be the comma people that talked to me. And I think that they even made that known to the younger comma, like, hey, we'll handle Rick and David. And that might be what led, or not what led, but that might have fed into that them turning on Eric and Ron and Julie earlier is the fact. that those were the ones definitely handling me. Those were my handlers within comma.

So there was definitely strategy involved, but I definitely feel like even Vic, who is the strategic person, not get emotions involved at all, said at tribal, like, that's kind of messed up. And within Survivor, it's totally acceptable, but I appreciated that

they found it kind of messed up and kept me around. Okay. So they ultimately vote out, Joe, that it looked like at one point it was going to be Kelly and then switching it around to Joe. And so this next vote afterwards, this vote against Eric ends up setting so much stuff into motion. This was such an interesting episode for you

because I think that you have to feel like that you are pretty secure about your position here, that you have now flipped sides and now you and David or seemingly you and David are going, going to move forward with comma, but there's a disconnect between you and David Wright at this point in time about which way to go. And I think it's interesting that for whatever reason, David Wright feels like, hey, this is not the right decision to go.

And this is when you guys are having all of those great conversations about who is, who is drunk. my way is better for me you're not getting numbers bro I think you're dreaming I think you're getting played I told my wife that guy said I don't think I've ever talked like that

any other time in my life and she said oh no you do that a lot oh my fault yeah and so now hindsight being what it is and of course you know you go really far into the game so everything works out.

But do you have any more clarity about this? This was a question that we got from one of our listeners of, who was drunk during that vote? Was it you or was it David Wright? David and I were talking about this just two weeks ago at Chris's wedding, actually, in Greenville. I don't know that we agree on who was drunk yet because this was the same vote that I had my outburst with war dog are we going to get to that or should i throw that in here i mean it's all part of this uh one vote where so yeah what i do you want to hear that clip do you want to go you want to go

go back to that yeah how about i start with that and then work to david okay so uh this is when you are talking with war dog about uh what to do on the vote and then we hear this i have old les who good together. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm dying to get back with the old lesu. Look,

now that I know that I can trust you guys, I really want to get back with you all. Except that I don't want to get back with you guys at all. Why would I work with you guys? Well, I mean,

you guys stab me in the back over and over again. I don't want to work with Kelly at all. She's trying to vote me out twice. Like, man, you got you come here for ninth or eighth. Then that's fine. okay so let's talk regrets yeah I definitely should not have been emotional about the conversation

like it was the wrong way to play it even though I also enjoy watching it in hindsight I should have just said yeah absolutely ward off yeah absolutely and then gone and worked with David and done whatever you know I or we wanted but I absolutely stand by not going back to old Lassou. That would have been insanity to go back to this group of five people who I know I'm at the bottom up. I mean, they've proved that twice. So I don't know what my best case scenario could have been there. And this is what I was trying to describe to David.

This is where we came to term. So he wanted to kind of stick with that Lassue group. And then who were we bringing in Aurora? Mm-hmm. That would have been the idea. the original LaSue and Aurora. So their best case scenario, that's 3-3, or when that comma breaks down,

we try to bring people over, but we already kind of see Kelly and Lauren getting closer with, you know, the Julius and the Gavin. And also I think that part of it was, I think there's 12 people left in the game and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that War Dog's plan was that we bring in Aurora and then go to rocks.

Right, right. So they want me to go to rocks. with the people that tried to vote me off for a second time where I can look at comma and I just kept telling David like this comma group is so big clearly they're going to turn against each other and we'll be there to pick up the pieces

that was my idea that this comma group by the time they get rid of Kelly and Lauren and Wardog are going to be so ready to turn on each other that David and I can pick our side I just did not realize that they were going to turn on each other immediately that night I couldn't believe how quickly comma wanted to turn on each other.

Yeah. And that threw everything up into the air. And even that night at Tribal, David had agreed to vote with me going into Tribal. And we were going to vote with the comma folk. And during Tribal, we read the vibe and knew it was going to be Eric. And he kind of looked at me and said, you got to vote Eric. You have to vote Eric. And I said, no, I'm not going to because I had promised Eric. And I was on, you know, I was all messed up emotionally from Edge of Extinction.

I wasn't going to turn on him. Yeah. And there's so much going on at this point in the game right now. So you've come back with this idol. You had to give half of it to somebody. You give it to David Wright. And now you and David Wright aren't on the same page. And you're asking for your half of the idol.

And he says, you know, I think I'm going to hold on to it right now. I mean, did you want to strangle him? How did you not start like, hey, I gave you that to you. Now you got even back to me. That was the deal. Luckily, I had already had one emotional outburst with War Dogg. So I felt like I'd hit my limit for the day. What do you mean you're not going to even get back to me?

It was a little annoying. Like, I definitely, it would have been nice if he just handed it to me. But I saw where he was coming from. And there was never really any doubt in my mind that we were going to be together to work things out. I just knew he trusted me way more than he trusted anybody else. and that he had reason to is another thing. So I had no doubt that if and when I needed that half of the idol, it would be there for me and vice versa.

Yeah. I mean, just to fast flash forward to, you know, you're going to be on the receiving or the opposite side of this with Chris, with not giving it back to him. I just don't know how Chris doesn't strangle you where you don't give him the other half of the idol that he gave you. yeah i mean the way to do it i guess would be to say hey remember what david and i did where he gave me the half at tribal yeah you know i'll do that for you tonight i'll give you the half tonight and then just

like chuck it into the forest at the tribal yeah either chuck it in the fort or do what tie did and just like sit there awkwardly yeah hope that chris doesn't literally kill me before security can get out there uh but again like i just if i could go back i probably would because i know how Greg Kriss's structure is, but I could not do that. Yeah, I guess you have to, but that's a really tough move. It is. And, and again, I know how many people are upset that he got the idol coming in that late. Yeah.

And I always have to remind people like, that's a worthless idol if I don't give him that halfback. You know, it's not like he just had an idol. He, but that time on extinction with me. Yeah. And the fact, you know, yeah. It would be really, really hard not to give that to him. I mean, just to stay in this flash forward, I think that what you'd have to do is probably,

it was just vote him out at six, like go with the people that want to take Chris out and then vote him out without him ever getting to reconstitute that idol. Yeah, which Vic told me to do. And Vic said, like, wait, is that five or six? Six. Six is when Vic went. Yeah.

Yeah, she told me. She said, you know, this is your chance to get rid of Chris. And basically, if I don't, I'll regret it. And I even said, I said, you know, listen, there's no way I can vote against Chris. And she came up with a way where I wouldn't have to vote against him. But in my, you know, that's just semantics. It'd still be me betraying him. So I didn't do it.

But Vic, you know, strategic mastermind, she told me what to do. She was right. Yeah. And I knew she was right in that context. I just really underestimated the chance that Chris had to, within the jury's eyes. Okay. I really misplayed that. So this is also going to be the pilots and passengers tribal council where Eric gets voted out where David first puts that out there.

And I was thinking about this when I was watching these episodes that did pilots and passengers, did that really, did David Wright intercept people with. with that pilots and passengers stuff where it doesn't work out for David Wright, but ultimately does it end up working against Gavin at the final tribal council where was Gavin seen more as the

passenger in the eyes of the jury after this had been drilled pilots and passengers so much into the minds of the jury? I don't think that there's any doubt that yeah, that pilots and passengers talk going forward, really

played a perception on how everyone viewed everyone in the game because nobody wanted to be a passenger. I mean, you heard how derisively it was said, like how you think about passengers. You know, you're such a passenger. You're such a passenger, Rick. Right, exactly. Like, no one wants to be that. So then it's like, well, I have to show him I'm a pilot. But then if you're, you know, if you show you're a pilot, you're getting taken out. I mean, the whole, the whole game, if you just look at it, is, you just look at it. just threats. I mean, there's a lot of

strategy happening, but if you just look at like the boot order and you just take out immunity, like when they could have gotten rid of me, it's like there's nothing scientific about it. It's literally the biggest threats were taken out in perfect. It's like, what's complicated about that? You just looked around

and said, oh, that's the biggest threat. Guys, we can all agree on that, right? Yeah. And I do think that that was... So I think that's a hard story to sell the final tribal. Yeah. It's like I was in this group that got rid of everybody. Yeah, what if you're like, well, yeah, I didn't fly the plane. I charted the plane.

What does it matter who was flying in? Right, exactly. I got us here. And it's like, yeah, yeah, but you guys were passengers too, and I'm the one that gave you pretzels and Coke. Doesn't that count for anything? Yeah. You got to really pick apart the metaphor.

He was just occupying the bathroom when you really needed to go. So ultimately, Eric is going to get voting. voted out. You vote the wrong way here that what you don't realize seemingly is that war dog puts a war dog seed into Julia and Gavin's mind and then they end up making this flip to take out Eric and now you put your lot in with comma and now comma has split in half. Yes. And I should say

I think I made it sound earlier like I wasn't surprised by the Eric vote because David was trying to flip me over during the vote, I was still surprised they were able to get the numbers. Like, I was surprised. I wanted to stay loyal to Eric, but that was a really impressive job, in my opinion, by Wardong getting those numbers. And David definitely read the room correctly and flipped over, although I think he heard us by flipping over, because we never got that trust back with Ron and Julie. Yeah. Because he was on the other side of the Eric vote. Yeah. And then we have this episode. And look for a season that people feel like, okay, well, the strategy wasn't always there when you talk about the edge of extinction as a season overall. But these first votes at the merge are, you know, it's a really heavy stuff, especially when we're going to get to and then this live tribal council where Julia ends up going home. Yeah. That was a weird day leading up.

to that tribal. Right, because it was just one day. Yeah, it came really quickly. And then Gavin won the immunity necklace. Yeah. And it was so clear in camp that everyone wanted to be on a date. The power structure that day was Julia, Victoria, Gavin, Aurora. Yes.

Is that it? Was that it? The four there? Oh, well, yeah, it depends. I feel like I'm missing somebody. Yeah, you would know better than me. Yeah, I think that power structure was the four. and then Julie and Ron were kind of a two-sum.

David and I were a two-sum. And then there was the Lesu three. Yeah. So all day, everyone's trying to get in on the good side of that four. And they are really giving David and I the cold shoulder. Like we keep saying, we'll work with you. And they say, yeah, yeah, we'll get back to you with who to vote on. Because Gavin really wanted David, right?

I think so. I think so. And David and I are saying, listen, you've got to break up this lesu three. they're the only ones with numbers to rival you guys. Why wouldn't you break up them? Yeah. We're just two. So all day we're trying to get them to work with us,

and they're kind of playing out the clock to the point where we're going, obviously they're not working with us. They're working with the others. So then. But which other? Julie, with Lesoth. Yeah, yeah. So we think those four are working with the Lesoth three.

And then right before tribal, Julie comes running all the way along the outside of the beach to get secretly to David and I and she is freaking out and she is so scared that they're going to vote off Ron and we say okay well what do you want us to do

and she says I want to vote off Julie tonight and so David and I say okay you know we're in on it we'll vote off Julie with you but we never have a or we'll vote off Julia with Julie yeah but we never have a chance to tell Ron about this before tribal

so David and I decide we're definitely playing our eyes and we're definitely playing it on David unless something changes because both of us felt strongly they were going to get rid of David. Yeah. But meanwhile, then comma has gotten back together and it's seemingly they are going to vote off Kelly. Is that correct?

I still don't even know. Yeah. Because I think what's so fascinating about this tribal council is that you do really great work to destabilize this but I do wonder would it have been better for you if the comma plan again you get you get you get the fourth place so better better to you is very but maybe you don't have to find as many idols along the way but yeah if kelly had gone home if kelly had gone home would that have changed the whole dynamic especially it would have been better for david who is going to end up going out right after this but if kelly had gone home if the

than if the comma plan had stayed together? It's quite possible. I mean, I think that that probably is what would have happened. Kelly would have gone home, which makes me just wonder, like, why wouldn't Gavin or somebody come and throw me a bone and just kind of put that in our ear? I think that they still thought David and Kelly

might have something under the table. But basically, like, I got to tribal, and I saw how uncomfortable the Lesseau three were and Julian Ron were and knew that all of us were on the outside of it. And that's when I realized we could flip things around. Because I think that what happened was that the comma people that voted against Eric, specifically Julia and Gavin and Aurora and Victoria, I just think that they had too much going on where that they didn't want to spook Kelly.

But I think then also then they didn't do enough to not spook Julie. And the whole thing just turned into a mess. Right. None of us were comforted enough. Yeah. And that was real clear in tribal. And the more that, you know, Julia and Aurora kind of talked, I could see people trying to process it and just not feeling good about it. And so that's when I kind of blew things up. And as I was blowing it up, I could see War Dog, who even though strategically we had blown up, but we were always really tight and good friends, I could. see him really excited to jump in on this. And that's kind of when we just kind of took it. And I leaned over to David and said, hey, you need to talk to Kelly and Lauren because they're not going to want to talk to me. And that's when I went over to talk to Julia or to Julie and Ron, because I'd been close

with them and was the only one who hadn't betrayed them on the Eric vote. And then Wardog did a great job of convincing them to get on it. And it just went crazy. Oh, and then the idol. I can talk about our idol play. Yes. So Kelly was still real up in the air about what she was going to do. And so I forget how it came up.

But I basically told Kelly that we had an idol and we were going to play it tonight. So that she should to urge her to hop on board to us because that takes one more option for them to vote out with. and she got on board, and basically, after I had told her that we were going to play the idol, we had to play the idol. So even though we didn't feel real uncomfortable, David did want me to still play it. I felt like it was definitely going to be Julia after everything blew up. But we had used it as a negotiating thing, so we basically had to play it at that point. This is also the tribal council that was famous for this. This morning, in the water, I spotted this huge school photos.

but eventually a shark came through and ate a bunch of them. And tonight, with the reconstituted comma, it's likely that one of the lessew is a minnow. Did that really happen? Yeah. I was, well, I was taking a poop, but yeah. Devons, now we have a new analogy, thanks to David. Where are you?

You a minnow or a shark? I might be the poop. Yeah. And then I would go on to read on Reddit many times. Evans is the poop. I'm the poop. Went from the Kool-Aid man to the poop. I think that's a downgrade.

We had a lot of fun with that and with this. It's such a passenger, Rick. I got to say, I had never seen that frustrated Julia in the game, and I've not seen her since. She is so cool as a cucumber, and she's very much. the doctor, Julia, that she's becoming. Yes. So I was, when she threw that at me, it was like, oh, slap, man.

I did not see it coming. Well, you weren't the only one that got it. And I was throwing fire at her too. Yeah, like when she said that to War Dogg, I'm like, Julia, that's rude. You know, I mean, I had it coming. She's, she's all good. Yeah. But that was, that was a really wild scene that took place with ultimately Julia getting voted out.

And it was even more, I mean, we were there for a long time going back and forth. It was, uh, and, and you hear things like Ron saying, how about Victoria? Right in front of Victoria? It was, it was amazing. It was a lot of fun to be there. Okay. So here's something that I really want to, uh, get into with you because I was so convinced that I knew where the game was going after this Julia tribal council.

And I felt like, okay, Lesu is back together. They're on the same page that they figured it out. War Dog is so happy with Rick Devons. And now David and Kelly are back on the same page. Away we go. Goodbye, comma. And we end up with the next episode starts with, hey, there's a new six.

And it's the Lesu three plus what, Gavin, Julian Ron. Is that right? Yes, I think so. How did that happen? How did we go from everybody vote out Julia to you and David are still not back with Lesu? I have, well, it was kind of funny because I don't think I ever intended to get back with Lesu. And I don't think Lesu ever intended to get back with me, even though after that tribal, there was kind of, I mean, they made that deal with Gavin and Ron and Julie that night, as you could see. and then the next morning

I do remember meeting with Lauren and Kelly around the well and it was so funny because it was a conversation where it was so clear that they knew I was lying and I so clearly knew that they were lying

but we all just kind of ran through it of like yeah maybe we can you know maybe we're back now but it just wasn't going to happen so I thought Ron and Julie would obviously want to come with me because I'd been with them every vote,

no problem where these others had turned on them a couple different times. So I thought if we can get David and I and Ron and Julie and Victoria, then that's a real solid five. If we pretend like we're going to rocks, there's no way that some of those folks are going to go to rocks for each other. So I thought that was our way forward. But Victoria is not a go-to-rock's play. And I say this in a very positive way.

She's not going to rocks for you. She's too smart for that. Exactly, exactly. So she saw plenty of room over on that side, and Ron and Julie weren't going to. I think that they never really trusted David again after he voted Eric out. So he'd try to say loyalty is my brand, but they just wouldn't go for it, even though I think he would have been a great partner for him. And I wasn't about to leave David.

So even though that night, we knew it was one of us, and I assumed it was David. we went into that tribal saying we're just going to stand by each other and give it the best we got yeah uh and you guys are going for war dog here why war dog got about anybody um we felt like war dog well david and war dog kind of had a little bit of a rivalry going they'd kind of i think turned on each other a little bit after i'd been voted out in lessew war dog said David Wright is his nemesis. Yeah, exactly. And I think that happened after I'd been voted out.

And they'd both kind of, it's like they saw what each other were doing. But we're just kind of unable to get to each other. Like every time Wardog wanted David out, the others would convince him to come after me. So David wanted Wardog out for the same reasons. And I think Wardog was the easiest one we thought to convince like Ron and Julie to go after. We thought he would be easier for them to focus on getting out than Kelly or Lauren at that point. Okay.

So David Wright ends up going out in this first part of this double boot. Is there anything else that we're missing about the David Wright vote? I don't think so. He and I knew. We definitely saw it coming. We were frustrated that we'd played the idol too early. And we were frustrated we couldn't get anyone to come on to our side. but yeah

I mean I just I just can't say enough about David he was he was so loyal to me to the game and I really don't think we would have turned on each other it would have been real crazy if we'd gotten to the end together well I was sad to see him go that you could vote him out at four or five that that was the deal you guys made right but we saw what a softie I am

when it comes down to it I couldn't do it to Chris I'm sure I couldn't do it today but yeah okay so the next vote is going to be the Kelly Went worth vote. And we see Wardog have these 30 second conversations. That was it. That was all you talked to. Wardog about this was 30 seconds. He wants to vote

out Kelly and you were on board? No. Wardog had had, first of all, when I got back from the David thing, like Wardog and I had a chance that night, just the two of us, to kind of talk. And I basically said, you know, because we, again, had always been really close. Like, we talked

sports together. And I just, I think War Dog is hilarious. I can listen to his, like I was constantly listening to the Wardog podcast out there, basically. So I told him, I was like, listen, man, at some point you're going to need votes against, you know, Kelly and Lauren, and you know I'm down for it if you're here. And I think he had certainly reasons to believe that Gavin and Julie were getting real close with Lauren and Kelly. So I think he saw them making plans to get him out. and basically if he was right about that and you'll have to ask them

then he had to get Kelly out when he did or he wouldn't have been able to get her out at all so I was all for getting rid of Kelly so I remember waking up that morning and literally I was all alone in camp every single other person was on the beach and I thought I'm totally screwed in this game and then Wardog

and I go to get tree mail and he says hey how about we get rid of Kelly and that's why I said magic to my ears Yeah, or music to my ears. Either one. You know, I said a lot of bull crap out there. Yeah. And then like two minutes later, I found the idol in my bat, or not the idol, but the advantage in my back. The advantage.

So, yeah, that morning got a lot better. Which is going to ultimately lead to you having immunity on that vote, where you ended up getting the balls into the, what would you call that in? Or the paddle. Yeah. But I stand by. I think I would have won that no matter what advantage or no. But Aurora says she was right on my tail, so it's a debate. Okay.

So did you, you had immunity. So you were saved no matter what, but were you feeling confident that that vote was going to go through for Kelly Wentworth? Yes. Once I was off the table, once they couldn't get rid of me, I felt like we would have the numbers to get rid of Kelly. because everyone, I mean, she was the last returning in the game. She was just a big target. We didn't know she had the idol. At that point, I definitely assumed she didn't because I was like,

she definitely had to have played it by now. If she had it, there were so many tense moments. So I was pretty confident that we had her that night. Yeah. If she had played the idol that night, I would have been gobsmacked. Yeah, were you shocked me if I thought of that she did have the idol? Oh, I couldn't believe it. I mean, her, Aubrey, and Lauren.

I just couldn't believe it. Yeah. Aubrey, because I didn't find out until way after the game was over. Kelly, because, and Kelly and Lauren, same reason. There were so many times that I thought they were legitimately at risk that I definitely would have played it. But I'm a lot looser with I. I'll play to go find another one is my thing. Yeah.

Like, let's go look for another. But, yeah, so I was real surprised to find out that she had one. All right. So Kelly is out. David and Kelly go back to back out in the game. Oh, can I throw in a real quick Kelly story? I lost my wedding ring during one of the challenges early in the game. My silicon, like the one I wore out there.

Right. So I had no wedding ring. I was trying to do this twine. And Kelly and I, at this point, after the merge, like we are not on the same wavelength, tribe-wise. Like, she knows I'm not working with her. She has no reason really to do super nice things for me. And she makes me this leather wedding band that I still have that lasted me

the whole game that my wife so appreciated that I had out there because she's crazy enough to think people would be interested. So that's my I love Kelly Wentworth. Shout out there. Yeah. Kelly and David, their stories were so intertwined in the season. Do you feel like if they could have got, gotten on the same page at any point,

what would that have done to the entire game? That would have been real interesting. If those two could have really gotten on the same page, I think that they could have gotten Lauren and I on board with that. Maybe not Wardog. I don't think he would have wanted to run with both of them. But those two are such great players. I think they could have been, yeah,

I think they could have been kind of a wrecking crew. if right away they had gotten on the same page. Although if they'd done it right away, we would have voted them out. Right. If they'd done it, you know, after the Keith's vote, if that had really solidified us, it could have been, it could have been interesting.

Even if Les Sue five had come back together at the very beginning of the merge and watched comma fall apart. Who knows? Yeah. But yeah, those two together, I mean, that's scary. That's real scary. Okay.

So after Kelly is gone, This is where it looks like that now you and Wardog are talking about things. And we have the conversation with you and Wardog and Ron talking about how, you know, it's the threats versus the goats. And I know that there was definitely pushback about, you know, who the ultimate threats are. But if that could have stuck together, would that have been a better scenario for you moving forward? Yeah, I think so. And I mean, you know, it's so funny that people are like, oh, Devons is so arrogant thinking he's a threat when he got voted out and came back in. But our perception in the game is what we knew of the jury. And we knew that the jury liked me and thought I was playing a good game. Like we knew that they were respecting big games. And so our perception was that Wardog and Ron and I were the big threats at that moment. And that perception is true based on talking to the jury now. So I think it was integral that we stick together.

If we had been able to get them to vote someone other than Wardog off, that first vote, we might have been able to change the tenor of the game. Because, again, it goes back to just Joe, you know, Eric, Julia, David, Kelly. I mean, there was nothing scientific about what's happening. It's the biggest threat is going to get out. So that was what I was trying to implore to them that morning. And Wardog was definitely on board. But I guess Ron just felt like he was close enough to the others.

And he was closer to them than Wardog and I were, I think. Those younger commas of Vic and Gavin strategically. We were all close personally. But yeah, I mean, it was so obvious that the group that was not perceived at threats was just going to keep doing what they'd been doing the last several votes, which is get rid of the biggest threat that I thought we had to come together to even have a chance.

Because I didn't think anyone was going to go on a challenge an immunity idol run. Certainly not me. I hadn't found a single idol at that point. Yeah, not even yet. Which is wild because we're pretty far into the season and you haven't found an idol yet. But you are going to go and win

the immunity for the second vote in a row. And that's when we hear, this. Lechizery! Shout out to Tony Cornyzer. Shout out to Tony Coronizer. You know, I had not mentioned this, but our R.HAP T-shirt designer, Brian Malloy, actually made up a a lechizery shirt at that point in time in the season in RHAP store.com.

Did you know about this? No, I did. Okay. Yes, at RHAP store.com He did make up a RHAP Bell Le Cheezery shirt and I'd like to send one to you and to Becca

for inspiring Brian Malloy's design. Outstanding. We will wear those with five. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. So, yeah, it's the bell is made out of cheese in Le Cheezerie. Wow. Cia's gift was good.

but this rock might be better this is this is the greatest thing we've ever received yeah i asked you when i saw you at the finale did tony cornheiser make a big deal that you got one of his uh catchphrases out there he he didn't make as big a deal out of it as he should have because he doesn't watch the show yes if i'd said it in a golf tournament that like three people watched he would have led his show with it uh but he left it to his emailers to celebrate the survivor lechise well it was a a victory for all of a coronizer nation yeah exactly

all the littles which is what we call oh man I'm this so nerdy next time I'm gonna I'm gonna yell wiggle room yes yes and we would celebrate that well go to a golf tournament also if you yell out wiggle room right when somebody is making a T-Divins wins immunity

surviving no weirdos yeah Wanda yeah any of those perfect all good okay so war dog goes out and now you are really you know no options at this point but uh ron clark gives you an advantage menu yes right after that thing so i'm so annoyed with ron because he stabbed me in the back again um and then he hands me this menu and i have such weird emotions about it because the first thing you think is like this is a legitimate thing like it's on paper and it's written in ink um so this is real and then after you have just a little bit of time to think about it you're going this makes no sense at all why would he ever give this

to me like he i know he doesn't feel this comfortable in the game so it just kind of eats at you and eats at you and i remember the first thing i did was i went to the producers and i said i'd like to order the uh the idol yeah and they're like what i was like off the menu i want to order the idle. They're like, no, that's not how it works, Rick. That's, that is the thing. I was like, oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. So were you 50% that maybe it was a real thing or had you sort of convinced yourself that this is Fagasy? By the time that tribal came around, I was 90% sure that it was fake. But with that 10% of not being sure, it's, like Ron is literally the only person even pretending to work with me.

And I want Aurora. If I could get anyone out in the game right now, it's Aurora because I feel like I have to win challenges to get to the end. And she's by far what I see as my biggest challenge threat. So I'm like, okay, if Ron's lying to me, then fine, I play my thing. And in my thought, Aurora goes out anyway. That's what I want. And I make this big, well, we'll get to that.

But if Ron's not lying to me, then, okay, the thing works and that's awesome. And I'm getting Aurora out and I'm staying true to Ron so we can move forward together. But I was 90% sure it was fake, which is why I came up with my whole speech. Yeah. So also at this point in the game, Aurora ends up going through your bag. But this was free you finding the idol. But I almost feel like that that was like a good thing for you. where I know that they put the votes on you

but there was definitely like they had enough suspicion to think that you know they need to have a backup plan right it definitely I think I started spending so much time looking for the idol at that point because I had nothing to lose that I was just 24-7 out there looking for it so yeah and of course I had to make a big stink out of them looking through my bag even though I'd look through Keith's bag

just to try to get the target on someone else. And at that point, I felt like the easiest people I could hopefully get the target on would be Aurora because she has two immunity challenge wins, just like I do. So it's like, oh, well, maybe I can get them to turn against her. But I knew that wasn't realistic because if everyone is sitting around while someone's going through your bag, then everyone's going through your bag. It's not, you know, that hard to figure out. So can you talk a little bit about how you were able to climb to the top of the shelter while everybody was sleeping because that, you know, I know that there were people that got on you about finding the idols, but this was like not a cheapie at all to be able to wake up in the middle of the night. You're like a cat burglar where that, you know, it's not like that you, you know, are just stumbling across this thing. You had to wake up when nobody else knew and then like climb to the top of the shelter that everybody sleeps in, this creaky, rickety, you know, bamboo structure and then end up pulling down this idol.

Yeah, it's legit. And I put a lot of time like, how can I get this without people seeing me? Because camp is never empty. And I mean, you see later in the show. you know, that Lauren has a different strategy for getting it and gets caught. Like, we see her getting it. So really, the only way I could think of doing it was I need to climb up in the middle of the night. So I literally, I mean, I take off my glasses, I cover up my belt, anything shiny, and I go ninja mode.

And I just, and it literally is the middle of the night. And I walk out of camp one way, like I'm going to use the bathroom just in case someone's up. Then I go all the way around in the woods and come back in a different way. and just very quietly shimmy up because that branch is what's holding up our whole structure like the bamboo is connected so if it shakes the whole structure shakes

and then of course I get my belt stuck like an idiot and I'm trying to get unstuck and every noise I make seems like in my head the loudest noise in the world but when I finally got it I just like shimmied off and then walked out of camp

and then sprinted to the other side of the island and just started celebrating. And nobody looked at you or rolled over. Nobody, I think, I didn't see anybody moving. And nobody has ever claimed to have any idea that that happens. It's amazing. I think I got away, Scott Free. Yeah.

And I also went back and hit it up there, Scott Free. My fake I hit up there without anyone saying. But I skimp, I did the same thing climbing the tree, but I did it in the daytime when it was just Aurora, Julie and I left during a reward. Okay. So we're going to ultimately get to this tribal council where you're going to play the advantage menu and then come back around and make this speech in front of everybody. And this speech was, you would rehearse this of what you were going to say?

Yes. This is something I'd rehearsed all day because I don't. thought again I did not know Ron was going home they did not leave me in on that I know a lot of people think I tried to steal credit at tribal but it's literally I was just so surprised and my adrenaline was running so I thought that Aurora was going to end up going home when I played my real idol but I wanted to start that Ron versus Rick war I wanted to throw the first punch in front of the jury and in front of the other folks at camp so that hopefully when we went back You know, they'd be like, wow, Ron's such a villain. You know, I got to team up with Rick. So then I do that whole thing, and it plays out exactly how I want. The jury loves it at this point. And I know, except I know how boring it is being a juror on edge of extinction.

So I'm really trying to entertain these folks as much as possible now that I know I can't get rid of the threat label no matter what. And then they, I realize that they're voting him out behind. my back and I'm like oh so excited so excited this is the best thing ever and then Ron turns around and says I love you Devons and it all just kind of hits me like oh my gosh I went way too hard on this guy and I feel so bad that's why I say I love you Ron because I do love Ron and what he did was not bad at all like I actually wasn't offended or upset at all that he would play this idol uh i think it's really clever the way he cut off the bottom of it but uh it was too late at that point i mean that should have been sailed uh and and of course julie the next day and i are right

already i went up to her and was like hey that was a little harsh uh so we're back together again working on the same side yeah so yeah that was just a wild tribal council where then uh you you uh ended up you played your idol but then uh ron ends up going home uh even though you were one of the votes for uh aurora that i saw in the ponderosa you tell ron like uh ron i really i didn't know like you were going home that night i really did it i felt so bad for it because because the ron you see in his confessionals that villain ron you know we never saw him we only saw really nice, fun, sweet Ron. Yeah. I get that. He was playing a hard game. Yeah, I did feel bad about it.

Now, also, uh, in this round was the family visit. And, uh, a lot of people wanted to know, were you actually trying to win the family reward or were you just, uh, trying to make the most of talking to Becca while you guys were playing in the challenge? We were definitely not trying to win the family reward. We had discussed before ever going out there that Becca, if you come out for the family reward, we're going to throw it. If we had had a chance when she came out, I might have said, hey, there's really no reason to throw it. They want to get rid of anyway. But no, yeah, so we had decided to throw it. And I actually told her after it was over and we knew we didn't win. I said, hey, if they don't pick us for this, I'm going back to

camp and I'm going to find an idol. And that's exactly what happened. okay so now ron is gone and i did not mean to hit her in the face with the water i blame her for where she held the bucket that was her fault if i'd been gone a week i might have tried to hit her in the face of the bucket but i was gone for long enough and i was not trying to hit my beautiful wife in the face with water right okay so now ron is gone and this is where we're going to have the vote that goes against Aurora and now you were going to end up finding another idol this round but then you also are going to win immunity and so there is some talk about what are you guys going to do now that Julie is back on your side were you ever considering actually playing

the hidden immunity idol on Julie? I was not. I went to Julie and I said listen I've got this idol. I'm not even going to tell you if it's real or fake. And I told her everything I was going to do, everything I was going to say. And I said, but listen, I'm not really going to play it on. Like I let her know it's not going to happen. But just to, you know, go all in with me and it's the best shot we got. And I really thought that it was.

You know, I didn't accept that I wasn't the reason for that vote until about two weeks. ago. Yeah. You thought you were even better. After to talk to you, everybody, I'm like, okay, I finally accept that you guys really did decide this before I went in there. Did you know Julie was going to go and try to round up more votes like Lauren? I did.

I knew that she was going to try. But they just seemed so solid. And I thought they were silly not to keep Aurora because, I mean, Aurora got ditched on that reward and got sent back to camp with us and would not give an int like would not even consider teaming up with us even after being left from the reward plus she's like the best chance of them knocking me off in these challenges it seems like because we keep getting kind of top two in them um so i thought why would they get rid of aurora uh plus they were being urged otherwise and what i did it tribal was a little more clever than what they ended up showing. And it explains why Aurora

said reverse psychology. It made it look like I said, we're going to vote for any of you. But what we actually did is I said, I have immunity. I'm going to play immunity for Julia. And then Julie, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Julie, she'll kill me. I'm going to play the idol for Julie. And we're not voting for Aurora. I said, we're voting for one of you three. So basically making them gamble their own game, not Aurora's game. So I thought, you know, I was really pressuring them and then tricking them by voting Aurora. But yeah, now I accept that they'd already decided that. But, you know, the fact that Aurora turns around and gives me credit and Julie turned right around and said thank you.

And in my mind, I was doing all this to save Julie. It's like, yeah, I thought I had done something. Yeah. And, you know, it's the kind of thing where at home we're seeing a little bit more, but it's very hard for the jury to be able to make that distinction. So it ends up playing in your favor a lot. Absolutely. Especially if they're already, you know, in the back of their minds wanting me to get credit for things,

then I'm sure, you know, it's even easier for them to give me credit for those big moves. and that was, in hindsight, like maybe that is a point in the game where someone wants to start stepping up and saying, hey, you know, we're making moves too. But I felt, I think maybe they all just wanted to get rid of me first and then worry about all that.

I don't know. Yeah. I know. We talked about it a lot at the time where we had said that, you know, that, you know, they got to call your bluff there on that you have that idol and no way you're playing it on, Julie. Right, right.

But no, like, I mean, if anything, they kind of played into it a little bit because they did, you know, they did say it could be fake, you know, it might not be real. But they also said, yeah, it makes you think, yeah, it could be real. And it's like, okay. Yeah, that's exactly what I want. That's the whole point. Yeah. And I had nothing to lose there.

It's like, okay, either way, I have it for next week. And it actually worked out even better because they were so convinced it was fake going into the next tribal that they were surprised all over again, which, you know, again, the jury enjoyed. Okay. The jury loves it when they get surprised. So we're going to get to now the action from the finale. And now here comes somebody back from the edge of extinction. Did you have any thoughts about who you were really hoping to see or really hoping not to see? I was really hoping to see Chris or David.

Okay. Chris or David is who I really wanted to see come back. On a personal level, I would have loved to see Aurora come right back because even though she wanted to get rid of me so bad, like we'd become really close in a weird way. And I think if she had come right back, maybe we would have worked together.

But I don't know. But I was kind of like part of my heart was for Aurora. that day in a weird way. And Eric. Eric was probably the other person. Those four, but Chris was one of my top two for sure. Because I thought he got out so long ago that he has no chance of winning, but he's like one of my great buds out here. He might just come in here and help me finish these guys off. And it looks like that that's where this thing is going when Chris comes back, right? Yeah, that's exactly. I mean, he comes in and gives his little speech of like, oh, I don't want to do this. Oh, you know, I'm just here.

And literally we go down to the beach and I say, I hope you're here to play. Like, I've got plans. And he basically says, yeah, I've got plans too. And it's on. Like, I mean, we're ready to roll. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah.

So it ends up where that Julie ends up winning that immunity challenge with the help of Chris. And you were visibly annoyed about this. Oh, man. I was so, first of all, I stunk at that challenge so bad. Like, I could only get pieces together looking at Julie's podcast. for some reason and she killed it and she didn't need chris's help but i was definitely like yeah it became very clear that he was playing both sides of the fence that he had other stuff going on um and and i and i was and i was annoyed with it yeah uh what were you hoping to have

happen that either he would win the reward and julie would lose well i was hoping that i would win And I think I had a better chance of it If he wasn't helping Julie for sure So if anything, just like keep your mouth shut And let me do this But yeah I saw him as my ally at that point I just wanted him working as hard as I was out there

Especially since I'm holding part of his Idol it's like dude If you want this back You're going to have to contribute If you want me to make sure that you stay safe By giving this back you're going to have to make sure I stay safe. Either we need to win these immunities or we need to find idols.

Okay. So you're left back at camp, and this is where you're having that conversation with, was it Victoria and Gavin is there with you? Yes, yes. To take us in the back in time real quick, Victoria is someone that I always really enjoyed in the game. Like, she's so funny and we're both obsessed with our pets. But I didn't have much of a sense of her game.

And one day, I had been practicing fire making for like the whole last week of the game. And I would sneak off to do it. And one day I grabbed the machete and I sneak off. And she thinks I'm going and looking for an idol. And she's hustling to make sure I don't find anything. And we sit together. And she's just keeping an eye on me, making sure I'm not being sneaky. And I kind of tell her, I'm like, Victoria, what's your game going to be if you get to the end?

Like, what are you going to tell people? Because I didn't think she had much. And she's kind of, she doesn't tell me everything, obviously, but she kind of goes through things. And what she tells me and the way she presents it really opened my eyes. And I went, wow, like Vic and Final Tribal is dangerous. So then Chris comes back in and he kind of confirms that the jury thinks the same thing, that Vic has really been playing a lot harder than we were giving her.

credit for. And so that night, Vic is saying, listen, you got to get rid of Chris. The jury loves Chris. This is your one definite chance to get rid of Chris. And I'm saying, you know, I'm pretending like I'm

thinking I might, but I, in my mind, I'm always getting rid of Vic because I know Vic is a big threat. I think she's a bigger threat than Chris at that point. And I'm, you know, I'm going to be loyal to Chris for sure. at that point.

There's no way I'm going to turn on him. But when Chris comes and tells me that Lauren's going to play the idol on him, I tell him he's crazy. I'm like, dude, you might need to use my fake. Yeah. You might need to try something. He said, no, she has an idol, which shocked me. Yeah.

And then he says, and she's going to play it on me. I got, you know, Kelly told me some things. I'm going to get her to play it on me. And I was like, there's no way, man. There's no way you're going to be able to do that. So good for him because even him telling me what he was going to do, I just did not see it coming. This was a confusing vote in terms of how this final six vote shook out.

But from what I understand, it was just you and Chris, you were the only two votes on Victoria. Right. We manipulated the others into voting only for us who we knew would be safe. And we decided we'd get rid of Vick. This is the point in the game where it's like, I knew I'd been on the wrong side of so many votes. And I couldn't get in strategically. I was so frustrated by not being able to be in strategically that when Chris came back, it was such a, like I almost played a stupider game than I should have just because I had someone to play with and to finally take control

of this vote and the next vote. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, it was fun. But Vic was such a champ on the way out too. I mean, I can't, I can't even express like how crazy I would have gone without Vic out there to look at every time I wanted to make kind of like a snide comment because I know that she'd be thinking the same thing. Yeah. So, all right, Victoria is out and now we're down to the final five and this is going to be another immunity win for you. Right, yeah. And then, so congratulations on immunity number four. And now this is the last night that you could play your idol and so you have the opportunity to do something with it and you land on that you want to protect Gavin with this I mean yeah can you talk a little bit

about that decision yeah um so obviously I didn't need to use it on myself uh I didn't need to use it on Chris because he had his own right um idle and uh I wasn't going to use it on or I knew that I wanted something out of it. I was definitely going to play it because, you know, I don't need a souvenir from Survivor. It's like the last tribal that you can make a splash before fire making.

Obviously, I wanted to make as big a possible splash as, you know, as humanly possible. Especially I wanted the visual of two people playing fakes and then me playing a real one. So once I decided I'm definitely playing. it. It was like, what can I get out of it? The only thing that can help me at all is a promise to not go into firemaking. I know Julie's lied to me. I know Lauren's lied to me. Gavin hasn't

technically lied to me. I also really like Gavin. I feel like I can, I mean, at this point in the game, I believed I could beat all of them so it didn't matter in the final three. So I was just, okay, I'll get Gavin to make this promise. And he and I still laugh that the old office line of like, I've made a lot of empty promises in my day. But we both knew it was a lie as he was saying it. But why not? I couldn't think of anything else I could get out of it.

I want to go back to something that you said earlier about how that you didn't know that how Chris was going to be perceived with the jury. So were you thinking about sort of like if you, if you had a similar deal with Chris about that he would take you to the end, potentially, if he won the final four and that he would have been somebody who was easy to beat in the final tribal council? If I got to Chris in the final three, I thought, I thought Chris would be a very easy opponent to beat in the final three.

Yeah. I thought the, you know, because everyone when they're in the game before they go to the edge, says, you know, these edge players haven't been here, the whole post merge, you know? If one comes in, we need to vote them right back out. This is our game. You know, they're not playing like we're playing. So that's all I've heard from being in the game.

Clearly, once you get to the edge, your perspective changes for obvious reasons. But yeah, so I'm thinking, specifically because it was Chris, and he'd been gone so long, I thought there's no, that I was not concerned about him in the final three. I really

misread that. If it had been someone that had gone out as recently as a Kelly, I would have been very concerned. You know, she, I mean, she did a lot of stuff in the game. Yeah. And at this point, you know, Chris hadn't beat me at firemaking or any of that stuff. Right. Right. Which was huge, I think.

Just to skip ahead a little bit, were you surprised that Chris was the winner when you ultimately got to the Final Tribal Council? I was not surprised then, but I was totally shocked when I got to Ponderosa and found out that he was the favorite. I felt going into final that it was pretty clear

that Chris was the favorite. And I couldn't believe it. I was really shocked when I heard that. I had totally misread that to my detriment. So I want to talk about those fake idols that were around in that final five when you ended up not only finding another idol at this point, and that is idol find number three? Yeah, find number three, yep. Okay. And then I had one hand it, you know, one that I got back when I came in.

Right. So you end up planting two fake idols. can you we this was like a blind side that you had these fake idols can you talk about the genesis of those fake idols yeah so david had put the idea in my head real early uh to make fake idols and at the time that he and i had talked about it the only idol we'd seen was our half and half idols it's just like beautiful jade circle so when david left the game i said i'm going to use david's idea and i tried to making this beautiful emerald looking circle with our paint. I mixed up new pain. I cut off the top of a coffee container. I used an actual, I carved an actual Chinese symbol in that I saw off

the tea. And it looked horrible. I mean, so bad. And I was just like, oh, man, I'm in a lot of trouble here. Then I found my first idol. And it was so much less impressive than the one that David and I had that I said, oh, I can make a fake one of these. So I think it was the reward. the helicopter reward that Aurora and Julie and I were left behind on, that after Aurora made it clear that she was not going to be persuaded, I just kind of snuck off and I made two different fakes. And I held on to one. And then I immediately went and hid the other one up above the shelter

where I had found my original. And my plan originally wasn't to have someone else find it. That was like my emergency plan. that if I got to a tribal where I needed something and I had nothing. I didn't have the necklace and I didn't have an idol. I was going to, in front of people, like right before tribal, climb the tree and grab it down and then go to tribal and pull out the note and be like, I found this earlier.

I didn't have a chance where there was no one in camp so I had to buy a rent. You know, that's what I was going to sell. Yeah. But then when the time came that I didn't need it, it was just another distraction that I could put out there while I searched for the real thing. And what was that like going into that final five tribal council where you knew these real idols were getting played and these fake idols were going to be getting played? Well, I was super excited about it. And I know some people think it's kind of mean-spirited, but there was a lot of strategy behind that.

You want to make a big splash in front of everyone. It's your last chance. It's also like my only thing that the others could use against me really to argue against me is that I didn't have control of the game. and that I was out of the loop a lot. So by getting people to play my fakes, it shows that I'm in control and they're out of the loop. Now, in terms of just laughing about it,

I was just having a lot of fun that day. I knew I was safe. I had a friend to play with again and Chris, which was fun. I'd been on the bottom for so long that to feel like I had some control felt really great. So I understand that that might be hard for some people to watch back,

but like there was nothing malicious. I was just having a ton of fun about it. And then the same thing when I got to tribal. Like when they played those, I was just looking at the jury knowing how much they were going to enjoy it. And then

the second, you know, the first one gets played and it's fake, which I think kind of makes you doubtful of the second one, but almost makes you more confident in the second one, especially since you had a clue and it was in a tree. But then it's fake too. Yeah, I was having it. And I remember during that

one, Vic made eye contact with me from the jury and said, is it, like mouthed? Is it fake? And I just said, uh-huh. So before anyone else knew, Vic knew what was up and just died. Yeah. Yeah, that was a, again, it depends on what side you're on of it, but I was having fun and I certainly didn't, wasn't trying to hurt anybody. Yeah. So I hope no one took it the wrong way. I know Julie and I have talked about it a bunch and her kids still give her credit for finding an idol. so she's good she's happy yeah that's good um so this is also the round where you end up uh giving the other half of the idol back to chris after he survived the final six i mean was there any hesitation about giving it back to him i know that it's been talked a lot since the finale but uh was there even an inkling of uh you know uh maybe i shouldn't give it back to

Chris? Yeah, there was. Like, I did think strategically this is a bad move. I held on to it until at least I knew I was safe. Like, because I was using it to make him help me search for an idol. But as soon as I found my idol and knew I was safe, as much as I had thought about it and known that strategically, it probably would have been a good move.

The reason I gave it right back to him is because I was always going to give it right back to him. I could not knowing what I'd known then have done anything different no matter how, you know, how big a mistake it turned out to be. And I do think it was a million dollar mistake. I believe that. But yeah, I definitely don't think I would have done anything differently at the time. I didn't really consider anything different. So now on to the final four after Lauren gets voted out, who went out like a champ, by the way. Right.

She totally could have turned on me and said, you did this in front of my family, you villain. And she was such a good sport about it. And I really appreciated it. Yeah. So now we get to the final four. And now this time Chris is going to win the immunity.

And you guys have talked about going to the end together. And now you are sitting there with Chris. And you have to not be feeling good about this that Chris is now asking you, like well why tell me why I should take you to the end yeah it became clear pretty quickly I really thought getting back to camp that there might be a chance that he would take me to the end just because we had played this loyalty thing and again like my pitch to him was and it was so wrong it was like Chris you do not have a chance to win right like don't torpedo my game just to get second to Gavin or Julie, you know, when we're so close.

And the whole day I thought his decision was basically whether to put me into firemaking against Julie or Gavin, which again, I felt confident or to put them against themselves. Like I considered him putting himself in, but because I didn't think that he believed he had a chance and because I felt like he's got nothing to lose so that wouldn't be as impressive as it seems like with a dom if a dom had done it um i didn't really believe he'd put himself in even though i considered it um now when you get to tribal and you see him do it the visual it still comes across is very impactful even though he doesn't have a lot to lose i mean

you know you're playing for fourth or first versus fourth or third i guess but um yeah so I wasn't floored by it when he took the necklace off, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Yeah. There was a line at that Final Four Tribal Council that I thought was hysterical and it got a really big laugh in the room. This is when Julie is talking about how that she would like the opportunity to make fire. And Gavin is talking about the opportunity that he would like the opportunity to make fire. and then you say, Well, this is great, yeah.

I felt like, oh, this is really coming together. Perfect. Let's watch. Yeah. That was just a, you know, really another classic quick Devin's moment in the season. But yeah, Chris had other plans. He wanted you to go in and make the fire against him.

But you, on the show, it might have seemed like that, okay, well, you were not an expert firemaker that you did feel very strongly about your ability to make the fire, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, I'd practice fire a ton before going on Survivor. I don't go from the Rob Sestronino rulebook on that one. Yeah. I'm a big fire practicer.

And then when I've gotten out there, like, once I realized that I was the threat and people weren't going to work for me. Like every day, it was just like, what can I do today to further my game? And after I'd made my fake idols, the only thing I could do was practice fire. And I would make several fires a day. I mean, just I would say, guys, I'm going off to make fire. And that's all I would do is make fire as fast as I could. So by the time the challenge came along, I'd made, you know, over a dozen fires that week for

sure and made at least four or five that day. So I was real confident against everyone except Chris, who I knew was a great fire maker. And I knew had been practicing fire. Well, I didn't know, but I assumed had been practicing fire all he wanted on edge of extinction. Because like me being on the bottom, being on the edge, there are no consequences for going off and making fire. What else is there to do?

Right. Exactly. And no one's going to get mad at you about it. Whereas if Gavin or Julie or, you know, Lauren had gone. gone off. That would have been like, hmm, you know, more incentive to either put them in or, you know, it just affects your game if you're in the game. Yeah. Was the wind a factor at all? I know that that you guys had to move to the voting booth to do your fire. Did the, how windy it was, change anything for you? No, I think the fact that we were in the voting booth, it was like

ideal conditions. It was crazy windy that night. So if we hadn't been in the booth, it would have been a nightmare. But in the booth, it was like super ideal conditions, which between that and Chris just being really, really good at firemaking, they said it was by far the quickest fire they've ever had in a firemaic, which made me feel kind of good because mine's right there. I really think 30 more seconds and I'm burning the robe, which is a big difference, but not in the scheme of things.

Rick, ultimately you go out here at the final four, what was your reaction to getting so close? You know, at first I was real upset with Chris. I wasn't really okay with Chris until I got back to Ponderosa and found out that he did have a shot. And then you can't be mad at him. It's like, then he did exactly what he's supposed to do. But in that moment, man, I was just devastated.

I knew it was my game to lose. Like, it was so clear by the jury's reaction. that literally if I'd won that challenge or not been in that challenge, that's it. It's over. Not to mention I feel very comfortable about a final tribal because tribal's like my thing.

So I was just devastated. I was super bummed, but I was also really proud of the game I'd played. You know, I hadn't had Reddit react to it yet, so I still felt pretty good. I didn't know at that point that playing with idols and immunity wins was disrespectful. So, and then when they gave me the clapping on the way out, which I guess was Vicks idea,

but everyone got in on like that really made me emotional. That was really exactly what I mean. That was like the sea of money at the time. You know, I was super down and they lifted me up. Yeah. Just getting that respect from your fellow castmates was really cool. So you got to turn it around real quick. and then get to the final tribal council,

you know, 24 hours after being out of the game. But you ended up being one of the more vocal advocates for Gavin. You were a vote for Gavin. And, you know, Chris was somebody who you and he were the only two people that had it in common where you ended up being out of the game and then coming back in. Can you just talk through your vote for Gavin a little bit? Yeah, I think at the end of that tribal, first of all three of them would have been really good winners. I actually thought about Julie too.

I think Julie was just to get this out of the way. Like talking in Ponderosa, the talk was all kind of about Gavin and Chris. So going into tribal, we all had Gavin and Chris on her mind. I think Julie performed well enough at the end of tribal. I'm going, man, she had two immunity wins. She made all her arguments But at that point It almost felt like a Nader vote

Like you knew other people weren't going that way So between Chris and Gavin I just I looked at it whereas like Chris and I had similar games But I felt like I did what Chris did Except even more so Like longer and more thing

You know what I mean Whereas I looked at Gavin and Julie And I'm like they did something I couldn't do They stayed in the game the whole time And then I just looked at how long, the reason I believed Chris didn't have a chance when I went back to Ponderosa was just because of how few games he played post-merge, which I thought was the hardest part of the game was post-merge. And I just knew what my time on edge of extinction was like. And for me, my time being in the game post merge was so much harder and so much more stressful than my time on edge of extinction that I just had to respect that Gavin was in there that whole time and managing to navigate this stuff and not get a single vote against him. And some people are going to tell you like I didn't vote against him because I didn't see he as a threat and that's fine.

I did see him as a threat. I saw him as someone who was very liked socially and someone who was very good in challenges. And I actually think, I'd be interesting to hear their perspective on this, because I mean this respectfully to both of them. I think Vic and Gavin played basically the same game. But that Vic the whole time, we knew, oh, that's wild Vic. Like, we really like her, but we know she'll cut us any time that Vic. Whereas Gavin, it's like, oh, that Gavin, we love Gavin. He's so sweet.

He really loves us. And then when he cuts you, you're like, how dare he? I can't believe he would ever do that to me. Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah. Again, that's how she presented herself and how she did. So more power. I just feel like there were some people who never really got over the fact that Gavin might have voted him out.

And Chris did not have to do that. Yeah. You know, that's a really interesting observation where I wonder if that stems from the fact of like, oh, well, Gavin is nice. And that's why, you know, he has a good social game. And he's nice to everybody where. Victoria, I think that people felt like that she's my friend, but maybe nice isn't the word that they would use to describe Victoria. Right. Nice Gavin, wild Vic. Yeah, exactly. And you love them both. But absolutely, there's a whole mindset. Like, if Gavin stabs me in the back, I'm definitely like, hey, you know, you're supposed to be the good old boy. That's what you were. Whereas Vic, it's like, oh, you told me you were going to do that, you dog. Yeah. You got me.

Yeah. Okay. Which is so impressive that she's able to do that. Like even thinking about it now, I'm like, how could I feel that way about anybody? So good on her for being able to put that out there and being able to see that. And even like a year later kind of realized that that was the case. Rick, thank you for taking us through all of this. I know I really appreciate it. I'm sure that the listeners do too.

I have some questions for you from the patrons of Rob as a podcast. Okay. Super. Okay. All right. Let's bounce around a little bit. Matt Wilcott says in some exit interviews, Lauren mentioned that there was animosity between you two while you were on the island. Is that true? And where did that friction come from? I think that there was some animosity between Lauren and I on the island. I mean, you see the eye rolls. You see my frustration with Lesu. I think we were just out there a long. time together. I mean, we were out there from the beginning. We were actually really close for the first beginning of it. And then we just spent too much time out there together. And we never had that edge of extinction or that ponderosa time to really talk and heal over it. I've reached out to her a couple times, you know, during the season and she's reached, we've been back and it's been

great. I love seeing her at the reunion. She was so great to my family. So it is, it's a bummer that we had that negatively, but I think that we can, I don't think it's anything we can't get past. I I think she's amazing. So, yeah, it's just us being out there and being hungry for a long time, I think. Okay. Alex G. wants to know. Did you ever fear that any of your idols were fake? I probably should have.

But I didn't because I just didn't see anyone going off on their own long enough to do that. I was basically the one that was scrambling at that point in the game. I was out all the time and a lot of people would follow me for parts of those times. I know Aurora is frustrated because she did follow me a lot but I didn't see anybody

who had enough time on their own to kind of sneak off and be mischievous like that. That would have been fun for me to play a fake. That would have been to take my own medicine. Renee Lucas wants to know even though you were a highly featured character what didn't get shown

that you wish did? I would fall a lot and always try to land really gracefully. I would always try to land in a pose, including right on Chris's lap. On the edge of extinction, Aubrey, well, we'll bring Bryce Isaiah in for that one. On the edge of extinction, Chris and I got married. Aubrey performed the ceremony. He since had that annulled and married the love of his life. I'm not bitter about that at all.

there was just a lot of fun we had around camp. The Manu tribe, as dysfunctional as we were, like that night three that it rained on us, I mean, we were cracking up the whole night. And I think we had a lot of fun that wasn't shown this season. Yeah. Okay. I mean, they did, believe me,

I'm the last person to be upset about the edit, though. I think they didn't make me. This was from Edward Morris. who he was the one that had the was David ultimately the drunk one earlier but he also wanted to know what did you write in your letter to yourself were you just bad you didn't get your letter from yourself

it would have been the most worthless thing in the entire world because at the beginning in the game I was so annoyed that they were having letters to ourselves I like my whole letter was like this is dumb you're just here for a million dollars focus what's wrong with you I would have just been berating myself out there, which is funny because looking back,

I'm like, oh, I was so, you know, I was so ignorant writing that letter. Like, there's so much to be found out here. But it would have been so worthless to me. Whereas my family letter was like the most uplifting thing ever. That probably would have had a bigger impact on those edge folks. Okay. Drew Bingham wants to know, what's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? I'm going on.

Oh, yeah. I'm going classic fruit punch. Fruit punch. Oh, yeah. Very nice of when I can get to ask somebody that question and it's relevant. And Kool-Aid, I can't believe you haven't reached out yet. I'm so insulted. Yes. I might go to Hawaiian Punch and see if they have any interest.

You're going to shop around. Absolutely. You're a free agent. You're jumping ship. Exactly. I thought they would want me. I thought that they would love me and clearly they don't. Okay.

They may not have somebody in their marketing department watching Survivor. Well, they need to talk to the indelight people. Yeah. Maybe to see you have any contacts at Kool-Aid. I'll text her. I'll text her. We're pretty close. I'll ask her at the barbecue this weekend.

Vegan barbecue better be. Okay. All right. Absolutely. All right. Elizabeth wants to know Did you ever consider using the move that you previewed

with Josh Wiggler on First One Out as a possible strategy for when you knew you were on the chopping block running up to somebody lingering awkwardly and then when someone else saw you there pretending to trip as you ran away you were on the chopping blocks

so long I kept waiting for you to execute that I you know what it crossed my mind but I always ended up finding idols instead. So I never got that desperate. And my emergency move I told you about about like climbing up in the tree in front of everyone

and pulling down the idol and then showing the clue later, that was my equivalent in the game. That was my desperation move that I was going to do. But it never came to having to run up to butt somebody in trip. Okay. Maybe for 14th chances. Okay.

Edward Morris also wants to know, who is your favorite toy story character? You were spotted wearing a Toy Story t-shirt. Yeah, I'm big time Team Rex. Team Rex, okay. Yeah, I like to think of myself as a bit of a Rex. Yes, those short arms are not good for finding idols, though.

That's true. That's true. He would have some issues with the idol finding. But, you know, we love him for other reasons. Okay. This is a question from William who says, I'm a huge Rick fan. So this isn't a criticism at all, but it's someone who is out there

and who also has an obvious familiarity with the television production. Why does Rick think the show ended up featuring him so prominently relative to the other players on the season? Why did we get so much Rick Devons? Oh, boy. Well, I think some of it you can't even avoid. I mean, if they have to show me finding idols and they have to show me winning challenges, like I just did do more of those than others. I had a few funny lines

that I thought were funny and I guess they thought were funny I don't know man I the other people on my cast were also delightful and I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff out there every time they contacted me and asked specifically about what they should edit

I told him more Rick so it might be partially my fault because I was texting Jeff and Matt every day because they wouldn't leave me alone about it Rick we don't know what to do with this scene and I'm just like, put in one of my lines from earlier, you know? So I guess that's my bad. William, you know what?

Thank you for trying not to blame me, but I think that is my fault. Okay. Rick, what's next for you now that all this survivor craziness is in the past? Well, I don't know if I'm fired yet because I haven't been to work because of jury duty. Right. So I still haven't been to work since I told, national television that I was available. Right. And then

also, do people not believe you when you say like, oh, I'm on jury duty? Like, oh, okay, sure. Yeah, we know, uh, we know where you really are, Rick. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Everyone's like, what what job did Jeff give you after he said that? And I'm like, uh,

I haven't actually got any job offers. Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know, man. I really love it down here in making and, and we're really enjoying ourselves and we'll see what happens I'm going to start a podcast Oh good Yeah it's going to be about the last chapters of books

Like how authors really address Going into the last chapter of a book And we're going to see if we can use any of that information To kind of talk to the Game of Thrones people That's perfect How you can do that last section a little A little more thoroughly Okay

How has this affected your career in terms of like on air. Does it come up a lot? They talk about let's, you know, talk to our resident survivor or is the survivor stuff, you know, not at all part of the newscast? It's been part of the newscast just as previews for the show, but it'll probably fade out of the newscast pretty quickly. It's hard to like transition.

It's like, you know, oh, yeah, that robbery reminds me of this time that Aurora was going through my bag. so if you know anything call crime stoppers yes so it hasn't functioned into much on the local news level but it's been fun definitely i'm getting a lot more love as survivor rick than i ever got as morning anchor rick yes which has been great yes um and uh we'll see i always my my the reason i always enjoy morning news is because you can have more fun so if this turned into something where i can have even more fun then that's that's kind of what i'm going for okay Now, is your station, are you guys a CBS affiliate?

We are not a CBS affiliate. And I'm not real sure how that would work. I don't know if I wouldn't be allowed to do the show as I was a CBS affiliate. Like, I kind of think the reason I was able to do it is because I'm a Fox ABC affiliate. Okay. Yeah, I don't know if they really, like if they really want you. I think they figure out a way to have you. Well, that works for me.

Okay. But yeah, our CBS affiliate down here was pretty cool about it. I mean, even though I'm the competition, they still covered everything. Okay. Rick, well, this was a real treat for me. You were such as so nice to talk to at the finale and then also today. So I really appreciate you making all this time for me. Well, I certainly have been looking forward to being on here.

And for all of the people out there that defended me, me because I was just trying to be nice. Thank you. Oh. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I had so much fun out there, Rob. I hope that that translated, that I really enjoyed the people I played with and that I

just really had fun the whole time. Yeah. Well, I think that it definitely did come through and this was, you know, a real, real treat for me to get to go through everything with you.

Outstanding. Anytime R-Hap calls, I'll be at the ready. Yeah. Now, were you offered the chance to go out to Vegas? It looks like that Wardog and Chris were partying. Yes, I was invited out to Vegas. I believe Aurora and Julia were also out there, and I think I'm missing somebody. Yeah. Iran was out there. So, yeah, it was a party, but Rebecca and I, Going to L.A. was enough of a vacation, and we were exhausted after a week of L.A., so the thought of a weekend in Vegas for two parents, like, that probably would have killed us, Rob.

You saw me the night of the finale. I was worn out. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah. All right. Well, Rick, thank you so much, and I really appreciate you spending so much time with us, and I hope to do this again soon. Absolutely, man. Anytime you need me. Thanks so much. Thank you.