The ousted player also opens up about a Ponderosa experience that turned “ugly.”
At least all that is what wethoughthappened.
What does Omar have to say about his epic blindside?
Omar Zaheer on season 42 of ‘Survivor’.Robert Voets/CBS
Did he underestimate Maryanne?
What really caused in his ouster?
The 31-year-old veterinarian reveals all!
Omar Zaheer on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, what happened.
Why are you here talking to me right now?
OMAR ZAHEER:Oh, you know, flew too close to the sun.
Omar Zaheer on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
And I’m gonna drop some good tea here.
And that’s why I gave him the idol back.
Cause I was like, “Here you go.
Hai Giang and Omar Zaheer on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
But you don’t know that I’m gonna slam this on you later!”
I think I just became too focused on that.
And what happened was Jonathan caught me in a lie about how I told Lindsay about it.
And so he’s like, “Let’s go talk.”
So we went to the water well to get away from it.
And so that was our secret and he’s like, “Don’t tell the girls.”
And I was like, “I won’t.”
And I didn’t for a very long time.
[Laughs]And when I told Lindsay, the whole house came tumbling down.
And I was like, it’s the last time to use it.
But the advantage was non-transferable.
And my whole game was not to be very pushy.
So I didn’t push it far enough because I didn’t sense enough danger.
I was actually unaware that that was even my perception.
Like, what’s so special about me?
So maybe that they would not take out me over them.
And I think that I underestimated myself in that way.
And with Lindsay, my first alliances in the game were definitely Maryanne and Jonathan, kind of separately.
Did you underestimate Maryanne?
I distinctly remember, she’s the jot down that’s going to cut you before the end.
And she wasn’t gaining a lot of traction with the people in the main alliance.
And I think that was really smart.
Much of what she was doing was while I was in confessional.
So I didn’t know what she was doing exactly.
It’s all fair.
So, in that sense, I also used that to my advantage at times.
And things had been going my way so much that I was trying not to be paranoid player.
Is the plan the same?"
And then all of a sudden they’re not doing that, it raises a red flag.
But you know, in the moment, you talk yourself out of being that paranoid player.
But maybe I should have been more paranoid.
I knew I was going when I saw the second Romeo vote.
Even the first one, I was like, “Oh, what’s going on?”
Because he wasn’t supposed to get any votes.
And then now he has two?
I was like, “This is not going the way it should.”
And it’s so funny because I worked so hard to protect Maryanne her idol and her extra vote.
And then what took me out of the game was her extra vote, which is kind of funny.
I never thought I would feel that.
I think a lot of people knew about that vote or what was happening.
I think the bigger thing is how I slipped up with the nullifier.
So I had to figure out what to do.
And my first inclination was to pull Jonathan aside mistake!
because he’s the only one who knew about the nullifier.
And Lindsay was much more loyal to Mike than I was.
And so she didn’t trust Drea anymore.
And so she really wanted to push for Drea.
That was really the undoing.
It wasn’t necessarily voting Drea or Mike out at that point.
I think where I lost trust was with Jonathan.
And then he told Mike about the nullifier.
So then Mike didn’t trust me anymore.
But the other two, it was something different.
And without those two, it wouldn’t have happened, I don’t think.
Do you blame Drea for calling you out on her way out?
No, I mean, I kind of anticipated something like that.
So I was actually kind of happy that it was so tame.
[Laughs]In the moment, I was like a little bit relieved.
So if you’re gonna do something, you have to be able to accept the consequences.
Let’s talk about another big move of yours.
Which leads me to ask, when did Mike find out and what washisreaction?
It was Drea’s lie.
Because Mike did not wanna vote out Rocksroy unless Drea had green lighted it before.
And the plan to vote out Rocksroy actually happened before the immunity challenge.
I spoke with her about blindsiding him, and we fist bumped on it.
And I just maybe like pushed it along a little bit.
And also, there’s a lot of Ponderosa politics that are at play.
You said you made some people mad.
Did you feel that at all when you got to Ponderosa?
Were there some people that had some words for you?
I would say that my Ponderosa experience was very uncomfortable.
It got kind of taken a bit too far, I would say.
But that’s the game too.
I always love to know stuff that didn’t make it to air.
You gave me a great one with the idol nullifier.
There are a couple things.
I really wish they had showed my friendship with Maryanne because that was really early on.
We’re just very similar people.
So we had a great time and I wanted her to succeed and wanted me to succeed.
I’m proud of her in that sense.
So that was nice.
And it was really good for me.
I hope he would be proud and I think he would be of how I ended up finishing.
