Amanda Kimmel found herself in a very unusual position on Thursday's episode of "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains" -- she had a clue to a hidden immunity idol in her hands at the reward challenge, but one of her allies (in Colby) questioned her morality and pushed her into giving it back to Danielle. I will forever call this moment the "Treasure Island Massacre," since Colby's bizarre desire to watch an old pirate movie over participating in "Survivor" single-handedly led to Amanda leaving the game.
On Friday, I talked to the two-time runner-up about that moment and much more.
Matt: So, just put yourself in Colby's situation for a moment -- you're watching "Treasure Island," having a good time, eating your popcorn, and one of your allies starts fighting for an idol. What are you possibly thinking -- are pirates more important than strategy?
Amanda: He looked really annoyed! He turned of the movie, like 'ugh! I can't believe you're making me turn off this really great movie!' Let me tell you -- the movie was bad. Like, not even okay -- the movie was awful. He wasn't even missing a bad movie, so I don't know what his problem was. I could understand if it was 'Avatar' or 'Braveheart' or something like that, but c'mon...'Treasure Island?' Seriously?
Matt: It was one of the silliest things I've seen done all season, and there have been some silly moves. With this in mind, do you regret partnering up with people like Colby late in the game and Rupert early on, who aren't exactly known as strategic masterminds?
Amanda: It was just bad! Yeah, you're totally right. [Colby] was just half-hearted about the game. I got really mad at that reward! He was being really selfish, but it was my [butt] on the line, too, like 'you're not even going to try and look for the clue for me?' Like, this is my game too! What happens to you is going to affect me now. What happens to me is going to affect you. We have to work together. I thought him just nonchalantly caring was just really selfish.
Matt: How sure were you that Candice was going to flip at tribal council?
Amanda: Yeah. It was kind of like a tug-of-war with Candice. Russell would go talk with her and then I'd go talk to her, then he'd go talk to her, then I'd go talk to her. I didn't really know where she stood.
You know, we kind of had a rocky relationship at the beginning of the game, because she wanted to target James and I pretty much had a fit with her. Then we kind of hashed it out at one time.
Then, when it came down to the five of us we really tried to just talk to each other and patch it up and work together...so we had a good relationship at this point in the game.
I was surprised to hear that it was her decision to go to the Villains and not Sandra's. I always thought it was Sandra's idea for both of them to go to the Villains. It was the other way around.
Matt: After the game, what was it like at Ponderosa with Courtney, JT, and Coach?
Amanda: Oh, man, they gave me the best welcome ever! It's not fun to be voted out, but to go to back to Ponderosa with a welcome like that was just so sweet. Courtney's a really good friend of mine and I love her to death, JT's a really good guy, it was nice to meet Coach. It was just really nice to reunite with them. They're really loyal people.
Matt: So is there anything you learned about yourself this time around?
Amanda: I really learned that I just need to be more strict on my decisions. If I decide to do something, to just not waver. A lot of my decisions this time were I want to do something, but someone talks me out of it. I kind of do that in life too, where I do something and someone talks me out of it and I question myself. I kind of saw that on the show, too.
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Were you rooting for Amanda on "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains?" Let me know your thoughts with a comment and stay tuned for more reality TV news.
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Comments
I have always believed that Amanda gets too much cred for her survivor playing skillz. Perhaps its the "halo effect" as super savvy players like Cirie and Parvati (and JT this season) string her along 'cos she is easy going and easy on the eyes or what not. Consider: she is not very strategic, not very smart, and doesn't make big moves (but is generally good at challenges). Did I mention how annoying her moping and self-praise is? If I hear her say "cos I am strategic" one more time ----aaaagh!!!
To tell you the truth I didnt really care for Amanda on the show . Ethier way if she was in the game or not it wouldnt have made a diffrence in my book. I always felt like Amanda was too cute and cuddley for the show , i think thats why Russel decided to vote her out. If she would have been more strict and confident i think she would have made it farther in the game.
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