Survivor 47: Kamilla Karthigesu Post-Finale Elimination Interview (2024)

I got to start with the end here, Camilla, because it really seemed like in the Final Tribal Council, from our perspective, you know, you talked about it

We'll talk about this. The goal of like, at least one of us has to get to the end, Kyle, and then one of us will win to represent this duo

It seems like for the longest time, you were just sitting there with the ball on the jury, waiting to pass it to him for that alley-oop, for that slam dunk

Was that the case in real time? What was sort of your sense as Final Tribal was going along and you're like, come on, drop the button

shaheen bomb it's waiting yeah yeah yeah exactly um because i didn't tell anyone anything i wanted

those three sitting at the end to claim their game and when i say claim i wanted someone to

claim one of kyle's moves so that i could be like hey kyle i want your perspective i have i was

sitting there the whole time i knew that there was someone who's going to maybe ask a question or i was going to ask a question about what's something we didn't see you know tell us about

And then at that moment, that would have been like another easy way for Kyle to to drop on everyone

The Shaheen move. And so I it was so hard. I was just like, come on, guys, let's get to it. Let's get to it

I don't care about these questions. Let's get to it. Well, I'm intrigued because obviously it's safe to say you were pretty locked in vote for Kyle

But from the the brief time you spent with the jury, did you have a feeling that things were wide open or that they were skewing one particular way before you all sat down

um my read on the jury was that they were pretty uh salty

and so I had a feeling it might have it may be leaning towards Kyle although all of us had

agreed like hey if Joe or Eva came out there with some like mind-blowing thing like they

they intentionally wanted to to play this honesty and integrity thing um on the outside but deep

down they knew that they were gonna have to cut people off or something like that like if they owned that maybe they could like sway us but yeah what was your reaction when we find out at this

after show that like if you had made it to final three you know you would have run in a route was

that something that you were expecting especially when you're going through your sort of phase on

day 25 of like well kyle we're gonna split votes at the end so sorry this is where our journey ends

I did have a conversation at Final Five with Mitch and with Kyle to explain to Mitch why I couldn't take him

And I told Mitch he wins sitting next to Joe and Eva. I told him I win sitting next to Joe and Eva

I told him Kyle wins sitting next to Joe and Eva. We cannot sit next to each other. And so that was what I had thought about going in there

And so I did kind of have a feeling where if it were me instead of Kyle, I would be home with a million dollars

Um, the jury did tell me like when I first got to meet them, they they all told me they're

like, Oh my God, we wanted to vote for you. And now we have to think of another person. And I thought they were just being nice

And then when Jeff asked everyone, like, all I could think was, Oh my God, he only does

this with one person each season. I was really that close. They weren just being nice Well what were your expectations now especially knowing what you know if you and Kyle were sitting in the end and for whatever reason he takes you to the final three would that vote splitting actually happen

Or do you think one would earn the lion's share of the votes over the other? I think one of us would probably

like we would have to fight for it. I don't know if Kyle, I don't know

I like to assume that he would fight for it. I know I would fight for it

I would throw him under the bus. I'd probably lie and claim some of his moves as my own. Because none of them would know what was real and what's not

And it's for a million dollars. I mean, I would throw him under the bus. I know Joe and Eva were trying to be, like, respectful about claiming each other's games and stuff like that

about, like, each other. But I would not have been respectful at all. There we go

It's part of, like, the Camilla testament, right? It's, like, bus throwing, lying

It's got to come through. It started on day one. Got to go through day 26, right? Yeah. well let's talk about what ended up getting you to fire making again you surprised yourself i think

in so many ways one of them being you admit you know getting sort of uh caught up in the emotional

undercurrent of the season being like i cannot believe that i am saying this but like i am okay

if kyle ends up getting to the final three sort of like on our behalf how did you end up coming

to that conclusion and when did you over the course of all the time you spent with him yeah

I think you know me and Kyle didn't even know we were number ones until David started policing

all of us um yeah because I had thought Kyle and David were close until David you know turned

around and was just like no you guys can't talk to each other that's when I was just okay fine whatever that sort of pushed us closer together um and I think it was as like obviously we go

through the David vote the star vote around the Mary vote is when we start thinking like

we need to come up with something to get Shaheen out um and I guess there's that once we actually

pull off the Shaheen vote I'm like dude one of us has to sit there and win and part of this is

like an ego thing for me because I'm like if Kyle wins that kind of means like if I were to sit there

I would win too and now it's you know we we see it all for what is everyone said that um I didn't

know people were gonna say that I just wanted that as my little like oh I would have won kind

of moment and that's sort of why like part of it was like yes I did want one of us to sit there and

even if it wasn't because I would have took part of me would have been like Kyle's win is my win

too so we see you know quite a few times in this post-merge you know despite you being

on the outside of like this core you had some debates as to like okay do we make the move on

joan even now do we do it next round what ultimately made you decide to sort of proceed

forward with them to four was it i could beat them in the end was there another factor at play

um yeah there was another factor at play it was uh the people who i would have to make the move with

didn't want to make the move with me um something you all didn't see was that when star was still around

We could not trust her because me and Kyle started doing this thing where I was like I going to leak information to Star You tell me if it comes around on the other end Everything we told Star ended up in Joe and Eva ears

And we're like, she genuinely believes that she's working with Joe and Eva. She's not going to make this move against them

We did not have Star as a number. We also didn't want to make the move with Mary because we figured like Mary never had like a proper alliance

throughout the entire game. She was on the bottom and she will cling to anyone who wants her

So we make the move with Mary once. Joe and Eva are just like, all right, Camilla, Mitch, we don't like you

We're working with Mary. And Mary would flip on us. And now Mary gets our spot

So it was really just, like, the people we were playing with and my perception of them and how they would play after that vote

was what made us not be able to, like, make those moves

One of the things we talked about out there before you started playing was, like, you said you wanted to subliminally force a fluid season

And this was a pretty solid season, I would say, in multiple ways

How much did you have to adjust your gameplay and your intentions once you start kind of feeling out that post-merge situation and you're like, oh, this is not voting blocks

This is very much a singular alliance than everyone kind of on the outside looking in

It was the most frustrating thing in the world. I'm not a patient person

I consider myself like a top 10% impatient person. I had to exercise so much patience

Never had this experience where I had to be so patient, just sit on my hands and have to deal with this honesty

and integrity garbage. But it was so frustrating, so suffocating. And I completely, like the game that I came in wanting to play

threw that out the window. I was not going to be able to do that. I just had to work with the honest people, see what they wanted

How could I get in their good graces so that eventually I could make a move, the Shaheen move

Well, surprises came in many ways, in other ways, I should say, including this wild come from behind challenge win at the final five

Talk me through your headspace as that's going on, as you're twisting through this muddy net

Was there any idea in your head of like, yeah, but there's the puzzle. I think you could pull this out

That was part of it. So in other challenges, you see that the challenge is over and I'm still on the obstacle course

And part of me was like, oh, that's what's going to happen again. Also, I wanted to clarify that that challenge, I was I'm pretty sure I was way further behind, like mentally

Like I spent so much time in that mud net, way too much time in that mud net

But then there was like, you know, it feels bad when a challenge ends and you didn't even get your hands on that final stage

You know, I never got to toss the rings. I never got to do the snake maze

I'm like, there is no way I am going to not get the chance to do one of these puzzles

And so I just kept going. I kept going. I kept going. And every time I'd hear Jeff saying, still not a single piece in, I'm just like, keep

pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. You can get there. And then I got there and then the pieces went in

Well let go one day further unfortunately to the fact that there was a lot of talks about old Camilla and new Camilla What was sort of the Camilla that we settled on during final four fire making where as the minutes mount

you start to realize again, listen, a comeback as possible, but it becomes more and more fleeting

The possibility of you being able to beat Eva and sit in the final three

Yeah, I did not give up. I kept going. Cause I'm like, I have seen so many fire making challenges where someone has like this

massive fire and all the other person needs is like this tiny spark and then there's just happens

to build right underneath the line i'm like that could happen for me so there was a bit of new

camilla there but there was still a bit of old camilla because as i was attempting to make a fire

all i could hear were joe and kyle encouraging eva and then i could hear whispers on the jury but i

couldn't make them out and my brain was telling me that those whispers were all damn she sucks

How did she not learn how to how she not practice fire before coming out here? How she's so bad at fire is just all this negativity

Every single tribal council, I make eye contact the jury. That was the one time where I did not look over at the jury at all because I was positive

that they were all so disappointed in me. Well, let's move on to how you walked off the island, because, again, you really found

I think, this new sense of self. You know, when we were talking beforehand, you're like, yeah, you know, I've gotten

everywhere where I have been in life because of this idea of failure. And you walked out with so

many successes, you know, albeit not the win, but never having a vote cast against you, never being

voted out. So what is sort of like the new, new Camilla now that we're, you know, almost a year

removed from your time on the island? How much did you bring from your 25 days in Fiji into the many

days moving forward? I'm definitely a lot more confident, especially at work. There is like

mega imposter syndrome, especially being like a woman in tech where it's just like, you know

you see all these guys who are so confident. I don't know if maybe I'm overconfident now

Maybe. I don't know. We'll see. That might be an issue. But I've definitely changed. And my

co-workers have picked up on it, too. They're just like something something's different. And then they realize that survivor has happened

You have every right to be confident considering, you know, what you were able to pull off multiple times over the course of the season

The fact that again, you got immediate validation hours after the final travel council of being

like, yeah, if you had gotten that spark to happen, you would be a million dollars richer. So listen, it's

it's an emotional victory, but it's a victory nonetheless. And so I I'm so grateful that, you know

not only do I get the chance to talk with you as always, but that you were really able to showcase who you were out there

And I think proved to so many people, especially yourself, like all the amazing stuff that you were and are capable of

Yeah. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, of course. Well, I wish you and yours nothing but the best

I cannot wait to see what the new, new Camilla has to offer

both in the world of Survivor and the world in general. And always amazing talking with you. Thank you so much again

Thank you, Mike. This has been a blast. It's always a great time talking to you

Likewise. You have a good one. Thanks so much again, Camilla. Bye. Bye