History was made on Survivor Wednesday night with a Survivor “first,” as we witnessed one of the most chaotic and unpredictable Tribal Councils in the show’s history. It followed a huge twist that sent two competing tribes to Tribal Council – the same tribal council – where one person was voted off in dramatic fashion.
There is always someone on the receiving end of any twist the Survivor producers introduce, and this wasn’t an easy one to swallow given how things went down at Tribal. Caution, as spoilers from this week’s episode are to follow! Turn back now! If you want to get caught up, be sure to check out the Episode 3 Recap here.
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Fan-favorite and three-time player Malcolm Freberg was the victim, in what was a crushing Tribal Council featuring an unprecedented amount of whispering and huddling up. It was made worse because Malcolm was seemingly in a great position in the game. He was just beginning to bond with JT before all the hell broke loose.
A challenge beast and a great social player, Malcolm fought uphill battles in his previous season, but he was clearly not ready to go home this time. His supposed ally JT was playing both sides of the Tribal Council, but he never intended for Malcolm to go home…JT had instead thought that Brad and company would vote out Sandra. When Tai successfully played his Immunity Idol on Sierra, nullifying six total votes, all Malcolm could do was put his head in his hands when he saw his name written down. With that, a blindside to end all blindsides sent Malcolm home well before jury, as the fourth person voted out of Survivor: Game Changers.
I had the chance to speak with Malcolm earlier today, the day after his final episode aired. You can listen to the full audio of the interview and podcast below, but here were some highlights from the interview.
MALCOLM INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
On – what else? – that crazy Tribal Council last night:
Malcolm: I mean, do you have a few hours? I’m still trying to sort it out myself and it’s months later. I can tell you what I think happened, but much of this is speculation. When it comes down to it, me and Aubry had talked through every single scenario beforehand and thought we had covered absolutely everything that could have gone wrong, and NOBODY in their right mind ever thought that JT would tell them who we’re voting for. To this day, I still can’t explain what was going through his head with that. I don’t think he knew about their Idol, I think he was just trying to stick close to Brad, I really think JT wanted to vote out Sandra…it’s just so confusing (laughs).
On whether or not he thinks JT knew it was Malcolm who would go home:
I don’t think he expected that, but my understanding was that it just backfired on him. In the game, we were shown as being close, but we were a bromance to the 10th level. Once we were on the same tribe, we were like BFFs immediately. And the others on my tribe sort of encouraged it, because that meant we could be close to JT. What JT did though, I just can’t explain his actions, but when he realized that it might be me at Tribal, I think he started freaking out, like I saw him cry a little on the way out of Tribal, which I appreciated (laughs). But he never in a million years thought they’d flip it on him and vote me. He just didn’t think it through.
On deciding to come back to play Survivor for a third time:
I have a split opinion inside my head on this. Like I said in all my pre-game interviews, I’m like the most competitive human being on Earth. Like it ruins friendships how I get even over like a friendly game of Uno. So to lose twice, there is obviously that urge to go back. But on the other hand, when you do think about it, I had a pretty good run. I don’t really care about quote-unquote “my Survivor Legacy,” but it was just this short chapter in my life, and maybe that is all it needs to be. But when I got the call for this season, the timing just worked out as far as major real life events. Everything sort of just fell into place so I was like, yeah, let’s go win a million dollars.
On if his Survivor story is finished and if he’d consider playing a fourth time:
So you know how I just sort of hinted like oh, I’m hesitant to come back and play again? Not anymore. The fourth time? I’m going. I didn’t really even get to play this time. Yeah, this is not how the story ends. If I get a fourth chance, I’m re-writing the ending.
For much more from Malcolm, including my full interview, please listen to the latest episode of the FilmSurvivor Podcast below or by clicking here.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter – @tomsantilli – and on Facebook, for all of the latest Survivor coverage, interviews, and movie reviews.
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Photo Credit: Jeffrey Neira/CBS Entertainment
