The 'Survivor 45' contestants chat with EW about gameplay elements they didn't want to see in the current season.
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00:00 I'd like some happy twists.
00:01 I'm like, "Hey, well done, you made it.
00:03 We're gonna give you a tarp."
00:04 I'd love that.
00:05 (gentle music)
00:08 - You know the twist I'm not the biggest fan of
00:11 is the idle nullifier.
00:12 And idle is so close to immunity, you know what I mean?
00:15 And there's already so many challenges
00:17 with knowing when to play it and who to play it on
00:19 and playing it correctly.
00:21 I mean, I get it.
00:21 You can have this old idle nullifier
00:23 and it takes even more information for that to be useful.
00:25 And I get that as well.
00:26 But I just feel like at the end of the day,
00:28 we give so much credit to immunity.
00:31 And I just feel like that's the thing.
00:33 Nothing would make me more mad than having earned an idle
00:36 and then having someone use it against me.
00:37 I'd be so pissed.
00:39 - Something I hope that they don't put in our season
00:41 is the knowledge is power.
00:43 I go back and forth whether I like it or not,
00:45 but right now I'm feeling like I don't like it
00:48 as I'm like on the verge of being on the show.
00:51 It's a little different when you're watching it
00:53 and when you're about to go play it.
00:55 - I do not wanna see "Exile Island."
00:57 When people watch the show,
00:58 I don't think they understand
00:59 how much of a disadvantage that is.
01:01 The idea of being away from your tribe for over a night,
01:04 like that literally creates the vacuum of people being like,
01:08 you know what, we're still alive.
01:09 He's not here, but we're doing okay.
01:11 Like, you don't want that.
01:12 You want people to be like,
01:14 I don't know what the hell we're gonna do without Jake here.
01:16 That's what you want.
01:17 And "Exile Island" throws a wrench in that.
01:20 - The birdcage thing, I just hope ends now,
01:23 but it probably won't.
01:24 What I really don't wanna see on my season
01:27 is instead of a merge, a tribe swap before the merge.
01:31 It's just like, oh my God,
01:32 it gives me anxiety thinking about it
01:33 when it's like drop your buffs.
01:34 Just kidding, get another buff
01:36 and you're all on different tribes
01:37 because God forbid I pull the color
01:39 that has that like random ass island
01:42 where you have to build a whole new shelter again.
01:44 Like, that's my nightmare.
01:45 - The knowledge is power advantage
01:47 is so already been gamified to where I feel like,
01:50 you know, the production here really wants it to work.
01:52 So they're gonna try to twist it around
01:54 in a way that's gonna make it play out in the game.
01:56 The times they threw it in,
01:57 it got kind of diffused quickly
01:58 and I can diffuse it quickly.
02:00 I just don't know how we're gonna game around the tweak
02:02 to whatever that is.
02:03 - I'm just gonna go to one that already exists.
02:05 Now we have to complete "Bird Flint."
02:07 Knowing how detrimental fire is in a survival situation
02:12 just from military alone.
02:15 I mean, and we have MREs where you can crack,
02:17 you know, something and it heats up
02:19 and everything like that.
02:20 But just knowing that how important that is.
02:26 I mean, that's your water, that's your bug safety.
02:29 You know, those two things are very, very like,
02:32 imperative for morale.
02:33 - Fake idols, producer-made fake idols.
02:36 Like, it's fine if another player has, you know,
02:38 bested me and has gone the idol
02:41 and has created a fake idol.
02:42 But I think, I think I wanna know
02:45 that that's the only other alternative as a player.
02:47 But you know, who knows?
02:49 - There are a couple challenges
02:50 that I hope are not brought back.
02:52 The survivor smoothie, "Last Gasp."
02:55 That's like, I don't wanna see that one again.
02:58 Not for me.
02:59 All the like, fake idols
03:01 that production's been putting out there,
03:03 I don't wanna see those either.
03:04 Like, let, you know, if people wanna make them, that's fine.
03:07 But I don't wanna see them put into the game.
03:09 - A twist that I do not wanna see on my season
03:11 is a beware advantage, which I know is a really big ask.
03:14 But it's like, when you finally get out there,
03:16 you're looking through the bushes and you find something,
03:18 you want that satisfaction of it being yours
03:21 and yours to use.
03:22 And so I think a beware advantage
03:24 would be a little bit of a bummer if I ran into it.
03:26 When I think about the strategy,
03:27 my mind says to lead somebody else to it,
03:29 have them take it, read it.
03:31 And then, you know, that way the pressure is off of me,
03:34 but the knowledge is still in my pocket.
03:36 - The hourglass, I feel like I have PTSD
03:38 and I didn't even experience that.
03:40 So I really, I would really like to avoid
03:42 like winning a challenge and being like,
03:44 "Oopsies, nevermind, you actually lost."
03:46 That would be like worst nightmare status for me, for sure.
03:50 I guess unless I'm on the other side of it, who knows?
03:52 - I don't wanna see tribe swaps.
03:55 I know it's gonna happen.
03:56 Like I just have a feeling chilling down my spine, my bone.
04:00 You're gonna get so comfortable.
04:01 You're gonna have an alliance.
04:02 You're gonna be all this.
04:03 And then Jeff's gonna be like, "You know what?
04:05 We're gonna swap guys."
04:07 And then everybody's gonna be like, "No!"
04:09 So I definitely don't wanna see that,
04:12 but I think it's coming.
04:13 I think it's gonna come, yeah.
04:14 - Dude, throw everything at me,
04:17 like the food.
04:18 I can get cranky if I haven't eaten.
04:22 Other people that know me know that like if I haven't eaten,
04:25 Dee hasn't eaten, she might get a little cranky.
04:27 I might get a little quiet.
04:29 But again, we're coming into "Survivor."
04:31 I've prepared for this.
04:32 Like I've not eaten for a while to see how I felt.
04:35 And like mentally I'm prepared.
04:37 That's the only thing that I'd say like,
04:39 "Don't leave us without food."
04:40 But anything else, I came into this game
04:44 knowing that I expect to fail.
04:46 I expect to be betrayed.
04:48 I expect to be feeling sad, emotional.
04:51 The only thing that I don't expect is being voted out.
04:53 So I put myself in every single situation.
04:55 I want the season to be like the craziest,
04:58 most dangerous season.
04:59 Like that will excite me.
05:01 Like I wanna jump off like the highest,
05:04 even though it [beep] scares me.
05:05 Like the water scares me and like jumping off heights.
05:08 But I want there to be like that one crazy ass challenge.
05:11 So yeah, I'm just getting excited talking about it.
05:15 - Merge feasts are supposed to be guaranteed.
05:18 If you survive to the merge, you deserve to eat.
05:23 Like I just, I cannot, 'cause then, you know,
05:26 even with all the twists and all the changes,
05:29 you have people who make the merge
05:31 after all of that has happened and they're still there
05:34 and they never got to have their merge feast.
05:36 What, how [beep] up is that?
05:38 Yeah, that's just one thing I hope they don't do.
05:40 I hope we get like a clear, you made the merge,
05:43 you made the merge and you know, there's the spread,
05:45 there's the food and now like re-attack.
05:48 - I really do embrace the twist to a large degree,
05:50 but I wouldn't wanna be like sent off to exile island.
05:53 Like my survivor skills are poor, to be honest.
05:56 My survival skills, not survivor skills,
05:58 but I think I would struggle in exile island.
06:00 I'd be very lonely and sad and I might even have a cry.
06:03 And my hope is that I can stay with, you know,
06:06 the group of very, you know, well-trained teammates
06:09 that I'm gonna have in a couple of days.
06:11 - I'd like some happy twists.
06:12 I'm like, hey, well done, you made it.
06:14 We're gonna give you a tarp.
06:15 I'd love that.
06:16 What else can they do to us?
06:18 We will find out.
06:20 I don't know.
06:21 - I like twists.
06:22 I feel like players who can play a very fluid game
06:26 are able to take advantage of whatever twists happen
06:28 because they can like turn on a dime.
06:30 That said, I think the twist that I don't like,
06:32 I remember like a couple of seasons ago,
06:34 like the tribes split into two and then each of them
06:36 voted one person off within themselves.
06:38 And I know for a player like me,
06:40 that's really tough to get through.
06:41 And what you saw last time when that happened,
06:43 like the players who look like me,
06:44 like the bigger threats, the physical threats,
06:46 they're just booted off.
06:47 So that's something I'm a little bit scared of.
06:48 I'd love to be protected with some sort of idol
06:51 or advantage if that ever happens.
06:53 But yeah, that's a twist I'm nervous about.
06:55 - I have this set up in my mind right now.
06:57 I don't know why I'm fixated on it, but I'm fixated on it.
07:00 I'm convinced they're gonna take away the machete.
07:02 You know, they took away the rice.
07:03 They took away the flint.
07:05 I got it in my mind that we're gonna get out there
07:07 and not even get a machete.
07:08 And I'm terrified of that because I don't like,
07:11 you know, I'm irritated.
07:12 I'm an irritable person.
07:13 Bugs, very irritated, very scared of bugs.
07:16 And I hate the idea of not having the machete
07:17 to at least make some type of rudimentary shelter
07:20 and having to sleep on the ground amongst the bugs
07:23 until I win some challenge to earn my machete,
07:26 as Jeff, I'm sure would put it.
07:28 So I hope that twist or that change does not come,
07:30 but I have this weird sinking feeling
07:33 like that could be a reality for some reason.
07:35 Hopefully I'm wrong.
07:36 - I don't want exile island.
07:38 I got the ability to come to Ponderosa
07:40 after I left my season.
07:41 There's a hut I was in for three days.
07:43 And then, you know, I spent my days down here
07:46 with my glasses and my hat on
07:47 'cause I had a concussion
07:48 just to keep the sunlight out of my eyes.
07:50 There's something different, I believe,
07:52 to having the ability for people to be comfortable
07:57 and then be able to speak about their experience.
08:00 If you're in exile island, you're not comfortable.
08:01 You're like, you're still out there
08:04 trying to fend for yourself and find food and, you know,
08:07 shelter and it's gonna rain on you and all that other stuff.
08:10 Like if you have the ability to sit down with your peers,
08:13 your cast mates, you feel freer, I think,
08:16 to be able to speak about your experience in the game
08:19 and kind of your thought process
08:20 about what happened and, you know,
08:24 who's coming in next and like all that other stuff
08:26 that goes along with it.
08:27 And then sitting down, having a dinner with other people.
08:30 Ponderosa's here for that.
08:33 You get to sit down, have dinner, laugh, BS,
08:36 and wait for the next person to come in.
08:38 (whooshing)
08:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]