The entire course of the season may have shifted due to a potty break.
Genie became the latest victim who trusted Shan only to be sent packing at a Tribal Council.
How does she feel about her ouster?
Genie Chen on ‘Survivor 41’.Robert Voets/CBS
And how does she feel about her own game?
Was she too trusting?
The time for answers is now!
Genie Chen on ‘Survivor 41’.Robert Voets/CBS
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So were you surprised by the vote or not?
And the only reason why we were even wanting to work with him was because of Shan.
So she was like the common denominator for pretty much every single person that got booted.
How could I think I’m so special that it wouldn’t happen to me?"
Shan said before the vote last night that it was a question of keeping the strategist or the loyalist.
Iargued in my recapthat in cases like that you keep the loyalist.
What do you think?
So I did not know that happened.
I was honest with everybody.
Were you too trusting?
Was that your biggest problem?
Oh, that’s an understatement.
How did it make you feel watching that last night?
Like a spare tire?"
But I actually laughed.
It was kind of a hilarious comment, and it wasn’t so hurtful to my person.
It wasn’t a personal attack.
It was just interesting to see that he was able to compartmentalize me as an item.
You know what I was doing at the time when they did this?
I was out there getting fish for all of us.
I brought like three tiny little fish, and we each had one.
We were like, “Okay, we’re going to have some protein before we go in.”
What do you remember about what happened?
You should have seen them.
I wish they showed it.
Oh, my God.
I was so petty.
It was like seven days with literally one handful of coconut and two earthworms that we all fought over.
So I was deliriously emotional and would say things.
First of all, I walked into camp and tripped over that stump, you know?
And I just screamed, “F—!”
I couldn’t hold my emotions in.
I was like, “You guys deal with the f—ing fire.
I’m not doing it tonight!”
Because before that night I had been doing the fire every single night I had gathered all the wood.
I was the only one gathering wood.
I was the only one waking up every one or two hours to feed the fire.
And then I said, “Hey, you guys do your food.
I do my own food.”
‘Cause I was cutting coconuts for people.
I was the one finding food.
I found sea urchins.
It was the most terrible thing we ever ate, but I was finding food.
So I was like, “You do your food, I’ll do mine.
And I’m just gonna, you know, be there for the challenges.”
And then Ricard said something, snarky.
He goes, “Well, that’s not really team-focused.”
And I turned around and said, “Why?
Cause I won’t f—ing make papaya salad for you anymore?”
I’m like, “Wow, I’m saying some pretty terrible, petty things.”
And I just couldn’t help it.
It was just so raw.
I just couldn’t hide anything at all.
Did you know about Brad’s advantage?
Shan made it seem during that scene like you didn’t.
I did not know about that nighttime trek to get the steal-a-vote.
I remember asking Brad, “Hey, can I just look at the item?”
Because we were there when we found the idol, but I didn’t actually look at everything.
So he gave it to me.
And then I remember when I unrolled it, there was another thing that said steal-a-vote.
And I was like, “What is this?
We didn’t find this together.”
And he did tell a lie to me and said “Well, it’s part of the idol.
It’s a very powerful thing.”
I was like, “That sounds fishy.
This story doesn’t seem to line up.”
But I was still thinking that at least he was in my alliance.
We were together, you know?
That was completely false.
It was a very sloppy moment.
Everybody saw, even Brad.
So I knew he had that, and Shan even told me what it was specifically.
So I knew he had some advantage.
Shan told me it was an extra vote.
And even when I was saying things like, “Should you just write Ricard?
That’s my only shot.
I would do my shot in the dark.”
Obviously it was yes, because he didn’t offer that, right?
Then Shan told me, “I’m going to get that extra vote.”
‘Cause that wasn’t shown either, right?
So she told me that was her plan.
She was like, “I got his extra vote.”
And I was like, “Well, there goes that plan.
I can’t work with him.
Everything he was useful for, he’d given up.
You pause for a bathroom break for 10 minutes and maybe this entire season plays out completely differently.
It’s like, really?!
There’s always so much that doesn’t make it on air.
What’s something we didn’t see that you wish could have made it into an episode?
Actually, my favorite day was the worst day, when I got voted out.
That was the worst night.
But that same day I got voted out, I went fishing to go get us food.
And this was when they were stealing the idol and playing a fake idol in and everything.
I was getting food for us and felt like Ozzy.
But no, they didn’t.
What they show is Sydney getting likeninefish.
I’m like, “Aw, man, really?”
But I get it.
Maybe Sydney looks way better getting fish than I do.
But still, they could have showed me a little bit with a fish, you know?
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
