Thomas Krottinger Survivor 48 Interview

I mean, the first thing I have to ask is

I'm not sure if you've checked out any TikToks that have gone viral

but how do you feel knowing that Chapel Rhone doesn't need to watch Survivor anymore

That's so funny. Yeah, Kaylee was like, not stoked I'm watching, I guess

That was funny. When someone sent me that, it made me chuckle

And then Kaylee's creative director is this amazing woman named Misha. And she literally hit me last night being like

I'm finally watching. and I was like, intense night to start, but yeah

That's funny. I mean, let's talk about this intense way to end. Now, look

you got faced with a barrage of advantages coming your way, and

you had one. And polls. And polls, exactly. And you were left with more

than a black eye by the end of it, but you did have one in your pocket as

well, and you said if something freaky-dicky was happening at Tribal Council

you would use your vote steals, so was there a moment in retrospect that you could have picked up on what led you to eventually say

i'm good for tonight okay so i'm old school i'm like an old school hardcore alliance let's go to

the end together oh sorry let's go to the end together okay great um kind of a player and i

worked really hard to have the california girls feel like very much a safe alliance for me like

I knew that Joe and Shaheen probably were one and two above me

And I was the third person on that. So I wasn't going to in no way

shape or form was I going to reveal the fact that I lied about my

advantage unless I absolutely had to. So when we got to the beach and Kyle and Camilla are like the second

I'm not around coming at my throat to the boys and I get back and the

boys tell me everything that happened. I'm like, okay, great. So if I tell them now they're going to freak out

So like maybe we won't go to try bowl. And I was like, this is a pretty stacked team, right

Wrong. The Vula curse is real. And by the time that we're going to try bowl, it's, it's chaotic

Camilla's pretending to be on the bottom. Kyle keeps saying, see the strong

The boys really want Kyle out. It would be, it would be

it would completely shatter my trust with the boys moving forward. like if I play that advantage

I know that it would have cost me my alliance and it would have

kind of crumbled the game that I was building and playing and it was all for what I felt like

with a 1 in 6 shot that Kyle had an idol like if Kyle had an idol

I knew that I was probably going home that was it so I was like

I'm gonna roll the dice and take those odds because if I could

get through that tribal without Kyle having an idol and survive I think it puts me in a really good position long term in the game

So what made you so sure that Kyle or that one in six chances you were saying didn't have an idol

Was it the bag searching? Was it the way that he was sort of behaving? That terrible bag searching. Terrible bag searching

You shouldn't have handed it off to another person, you know, want something done, do it yourself

Yeah, that is very, very true. But, you know, I didn't want to get my hands dirty

Camilla was sitting right there and I was like I don't trust her. That's the other thing

you don't see is that I really was pushing for Camilla. I like

clocked her as like your problem. I mean Kyle's a problem too

But Camilla I was like oof issues. Sorry what was the question

No so did the back shirts really like cement for you? The back shirts was meaningless to me

I had the advantage like squirreled in my underwear. I knew that if Kyle

had an idol it was going to be talk somewhere or was gonna do you know what i mean like if kyle left his idol when it turns out

he kind of he left it in his shoe create like kyle if you're watching this like what uh risky bro

um i just wasn't expecting it to be in there if that makes sense i thought he was going to be very

good at keeping it a secret well let's rewind a little bit because like you said you had all the

pieces at loggy and i want to address some of those pieces i mean let's start with the big one

here if you had lost a challenge in those first three episodes and you went to council because

like we see you were trying to work on something with star and bianca but you knew bianca didn't

have a vote what would you have done in that scenario well oh for like are we talking like day seven like we talking like day yeah day seven like had you gone to or let say there wasn a swap and loggy did go to tribal council at some point

okay so bianca not having a vote that's my number one priority is to protect her um i knew what was

most likely the code for stars beware advantage so if i needed to open it i could give it to her

but if we went to tribal and i'm protecting bianca and she has no vote and i know eva wants star out

and the boys feel comfortable with star i'm gonna leave that thing locked and it's like go be with

the moon do you know what i mean like goodbye i love you but that's in that moment right where

it's like my priority is keeping bianca in because i i need her um so like whatever no swap we go to

tribal, I think it's Star with because she has no vote and we can control it

That's so interesting. So like you had for all intents and purposes figured out what the idol was

You just chose to kind of withhold that information and let Star figure it out by herself

Yeah, well, I mean, we were like me, Shaheen, Bianca, Joe, we're all kind of working on this together

And once we figured it out, there was a discussion of do we open it for Star or do we not open

at first star and there was one moment where i think it was shaheen was like okay let's open it

and i was like baby girl why would we do that why would the person you want to vote out you want to

be like here's your idol please take it like no so i was petitioning to keep it very much closed

yeah talk to me a bit more until we needed it well we obviously see this moment right where

you even suggest something beyond that the first time of like well this is a really nice looking

disc it'd be a shame if it got lost and shahean got a little a little spooked by that we got some

fan reaction from it as well as to like is this you know too far what what was your perspective on

on being so open with that tactic okay well number one i didn't feel like it was like super open it

was me and shahean and shahean was probably like other than bianca the person that i was working

with the closest right because shahean sees the joe eva thing and like in shahean's brain it's him

joe and me right underneath but he sees eva as a threat right so then he looks at me as like

are we doing this and he knows i have bianca but we have a very special relationship so he said

other crazy things to me like that weren't not crazy but like we were plotting eva's demise do

you know what i mean at some points so him showing me that and me being like what if it disappears

didn't feel that crazy based on our relationship um and also i i just like maybe like do you

remember in pearl islands like rupert's like stealing the other people's stuff like yeah

me like saying like i will send this out to sea and like we now control the but like i was like

it doesn't seem that crazy but i guess when you're watching and especially in the new era and with

everybody on the other tribes being like, so here's my social security number

Like all of this stuff, like honesty, I guess it does make it look a little villainous

Well, talk to me about your relationship with Bianca because yeah, the two of you clicked from the beginning

I used to that point about information, sort of asymmetry, right? She comes to you being like

oh, by the way, I lied. I don't have a vote. And you're like, okay, I've been completely open with you

So don't worry about it. So talk to me about that dynamic that you had. Well, okay. The truth is that I feel like Bianca probably knew that I was lying to her, but she trusted me so much that she knew that my lies would never hurt her. Like, if that makes sense. And that is the truth. Like, I would use my advantage to keep her in the game without hesitation. Like, that girl is loyal. Like, she needs more screen time. She is an icon

like she is so funny and whip smart and like i would play the game a hundred times over and pick

her as my number one every time like she is incredible i got lucky i don't know what production

was doing putting us two es on the same tribe that was crazy also it's enough that she

and i were the weakest ones i'm like what i'm like i'm like not a schlub but fine like loggy was

jacked um yeah bianca just she fantastic i can say enough great things that like justice for Bianca if I being honest Absolutely Well let talk about maybe some of those jack people you were referencing let talk about how the California girls came together from the beginning to the end I mean you vocalize this on the show right that

like an all-male alliance is was at the bottom of your list of expectations on Survivor so how did

this end up gelling so naturally in the beginning well Joe and Shaheen are like really special people

They're, like, Joe, my relationship with Joe opened me up to, like, a new side of myself

Like, the way he's a father, the way he talks about being a father. Like, we connected on a level that I wasn't anticipating for, like, a 40-something-year-old, like, hot firefighter dad

I thought, like, whatever. He was just so caring and sweet. Like, he makes me, like, I want to have kids because of him

Like, he, like, changed my perspective on my life. So he's just like very present and right there

And then Shaheen is just like, like a puppy dog, like a ball of energy

Like I don't like, I would never truly like, I didn't, you can't trust him, but you love him, if that makes sense

And so even though I never thought I was going to work with men

and I like actively didn't want to work with men, you also have to look at like, like the other options on my tribe

Like obviously Bianca Queen, Eva, she's talked about how she like plays on the male hockey team

She prefers to work with dudes, which like, hello, dude, but also probably not like the hockey player dude that she would normally want to go for

But we did connect on Bad Hirsts, like so much stuff that Eva and I were always cool

And then I love Star, but she never wanted, she never truly opened up to me

And I think that there was a moment where she was, she started, she like, she started playing hard and going and looking for idols quickly

which created a very natural, like, whoa, what are you doing? so then it was like you have those dynamics and then i have these two lovable men like why wouldn't

i just like pick those girlies up and also night one we were like sleeping on the beach and we were

talking about how we all live in california and i was like yet again what is the production

doing like they're giving me these like sweet little california boys and then this like new

jersey queen like what like i was it was good life was good on loggy and for the record i love star

Like I wanted to work with her, but it was just like the idol thing made things so complicated

And I felt like she came to me last about the idol

So like, what am I supposed to do with that information? But yeah, I could have, there was a way of when I could have figured out working with all of them

But yeah, the men thing is just insane. Well, yeah, talk to me a bit about that because, you know, at the time you went out, you were only a couple of votes away from the merge

I'm sure even when you were on Loggie and there was no signs of you stopping, you were already considering what to do there

did you have any ideas in your head of like would you go california girls and to the end would you

want to cut those loyal boys at a certain point um i i would have taken bianca to the end without

hesitation like i am like a black widow brigade girly where it's like i want all of like i i would

want final four to be me joe shaheen and bianca and like i think there would be an art if we all

got there I think there would be an argument of like who is in the middle of this alliance and made it work if we got all the way to the end so I'd feel good about that um uh but no I

yeah I wasn't gonna I had no plans on cutting those boys or Bianca anytime soon anytime soon

I'm old school bro well you know you end up giving a rather fitting sort of like eulogy to

kyle and camille by talking about like if i were them i look back on this experience you know with

gratitude and indeed even despite the shock of what happened you were sort of verifying the

statement you made before can you elaborate a bit more on like what were some of those big things

that you did learn about yourself those life-changing moments out on the island um it's

interesting because i feel like a lot of people synthesize their survivor experience when it's over

and I feel like I was synthesizing it while playing like when I'd be sleeping like on the

beach at night when it would be like intense before a challenge and the tents are like hot

and gross and like everybody's nervous you know what's going on and I just remember standing in a

tent one day and it was disgusting and I just was like what the am I doing like this is so

insane like I like sweating my balls off in Fiji with these like five strangers I about to go on an obstacle course and like do a puzzle on national television where I could lose and then go home and embarrass myself

And I was just going through those moments and I was like, I'm so much stronger than I thought I was

I have so much less fear than I thought I had. I believe in myself so much more than I did

I have this sense of confidence that I think I project, but don't really have, you know, like imposter syndrome

And so when we were at Tribal and Jeff asked the question of like, how can you crush someone's dream

Like, how can you go into that voting booth and write down someone's name? It just was so obvious to me that he wasn't even like really, he was really talking to Kyle and Camilla and not really talking to us

And I like interjected. I remember being like Jeff and I just like had to express it because I don't know something

compelled me like it's just the game's given me so much it's changed my life um that it felt kind

of like if it was my night I needed to say it and and express the gratitude which is also weird for

me because I'm not this like gratitude person I'm like like kill or be killed win or lose like

like number one hit or like bust do you know what I mean um and so when I was like experiencing this

like profound shift I kind of had to I had to express it get it out well you talk about uh

life-changing I want to you know start with one celebrity end with another and you and I talked

about this a bit offline but you know when you and I were talking out there on the island you

had said how obsessed you were with the idea that Sarah Michelle Gellar was a survivor fan

and I want you to give everyone a bit of an update because there is one about Sarah Michelle Gellar

like this is a loud um uh I got I got the dm from smg like what like insane um yeah that was a crazy

moment and like also knowing that my demise was coming so soon I literally in my head I was like

just in the nick of time baby like just in the nick of time like you're seeing me like do great

like but yeah that's insane like literally yeah we talked about sarah on the island yeah because

i said she can't be my visit my family visit no i'm choosing dorinda yeah but i mean the thing is

is that uh i don't know if you checked in with her she might be so astounded by kyle and canola's acting skills that now she has a new favorite i know i'll get i'll get you the update also for

the record i would like to point out that when they started that grand play i was not at the

shelter i think i was on a walk and um i was watching that and i was like these es are

so lucky i wasn't there because like just like watching that start like they were they are

amazing obviously they're incredible but like that that started off and had i been there like

I think that I would have figured it out but they're amazing

Listen, regardless of when we got the chance to talk, you know

I am always so grateful to do so I mean, I'm sure you have experienced so much acclaim from the community about just

how great of a personality you are like you said, your ability to get your hands dirty

or hand off a bag to get someone else's hands dirty like, you truly embraced

this experience, no matter how long it lasted, with the full sense

of self, and I hope the fact that you know we have received it so well is a reflection of who you are as a person

too and that extends through this conversation you know how much I adore getting the chance to

to talk with you to catch up from you know just just talking about smg as a loved one's visit to

now getting the dm from her what a difference nine months makes casual it's like honestly I

the response has been super overwhelming I feel um uh gratitude obviously but I think the thing

that kind of blows my mind is when I watch the show, I do feel like it's like actually me up there

And like, that was something I was, a goal of mine was going to the game and being myself

and like letting people see me. And I think I did that

And the response has been like overwhelmingly, like incredible. And it's been completely earned

So thank you as always for bringing your full self, not only on the island, but in this conversation, as always

I always relish the time we get to chat and it will not be the last time

So I'm really looking forward to when that comes. And thank you so much again

Thank you. Of course. Have a good one, Thomas. Thanks. Bye, Mike. Bye