The ousted player also reveals that there was more Vesi and Baka challenge assisting that we did not see.
On the plus side, at least Dwight made the merge.
On the minus side, he came up just short in his bid to make the jury.
Dwight Moore on ‘Survivor 43’.Robert Voets/CBS
Or so it seemed.
We spoke to Dwight, who tels us Jeanine was not actually asking for the idol back.
it’s possible for you to either watch the interview above or read it below.
Dwight Moore on ‘Survivor 43’.Robert Voets/CBS
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, Dwight.
Why are you here talking to me right now?
DWIGHT MOORE:I genuinely just got completely blindsided.
Dwight Moore and the Vesi tribe on ‘Survivor 43’.Robert Voets/CBS
So the blindside wasn’t me getting votes.
That was expected going in.
The blindside was how many.
Dwight Moore on ‘Survivor 43’.Robert Voets/CBS
I was like, “Oh, that’s seven.
That’s not four, that’s not five.
That’s interesting.”
So I was confused.
I’m confused too.
Why was it that Cody was targeting you?
He called me a strategist a lot, even on Vesi to my face.
Hey, better than being called a salesperson.
Yeah, salesperson gets you booed immediately.
Strategist at least you stay for a few days.
But I knew he was calling me that.
It was kind of frustrating, to be honest.
We actually didn’t talk game until day five and I talked game with everybody else on day one.
But Cody didn’t talk game with me or Noelle or Justine the first few days.
So the divisions were kind of clear pretty early on.
Maybe I should have tried to get him out at 13, or even earlier.
What about the Jesse angle?
He’s trying to put you in the pineapple zone, whatever that is.
He’s comparing you to his wife, yet he clearly at every turn chose Cody over you.
And the bridge between that was Jesse and I.
So when I lost my vote, of course they got power, those three.
I risked my vote because I knew I was never going home since Jesse had my back.
I gotta keep working with him.
So we wrote Nneka, and then from there we established it again.
These people on Coco and Baka are complete wild cards.
We hit the merge, and Baka implodes within two seconds.
I’m like, okay, this is very volatile.
And Coco, they had their own drama as well.
It’s like, okay, you know what?
I can work with Vesi.
I know them at this point.
They’ve been honest with me.
We were all honest about the journeys to each other.
You said Coco had their own drama.
What was their drama?
So it was like, okay, there’s a split within Coco.
And then the Baka chaos that happened at the merge meal thing.
That was just a whole disaster.
Alright, we’ve got to get into the Tribal Council.
First off, did you have Jeanine’s idol with you at Tribal?
Lord, I wish I played it.
Did it ever put in your head to play it?
Of course it did.
I was thinking, “Should I try and get the idol played?”
It’s just a whole disaster.
If it was my idol that I found, I’d be like, “Cool, whatever.
I don’t even want one vote.”
But it becomes a problem when it’s someone else’s.
What did you mean by that?
I genuinely don’t think I said that during Tribal.
I think it was spliced in from somewhere else.
And so to give more context, I knew Coco was all voting for me the whole day.
That was pretty clear.
So I was like, “Okay, I’m catching five.”
Because it was very obvious that he flipped on me.
So then I’m talking to Owen, “We need to undo the split.
Could you put a vote on James instead?
Because Baka’s voting Ryan and Vesi’s voting James.”
We didn’t get to finish the conversation because we got sent to Tribal.
So during Tribal, I try and talk to Jeanine.
I’m like, “Okay, switch over to James,” so that’s chaos in itself.
I think you’re fine.
I think you’re fine."
Because, of course, I can’t have all the conversations myself.
They had conversations as well on my behalf.
I had their back before they had mine."
But did you notice her doing that?
And if so, what was your reaction?
She was actually just patting my leg just to see to it I was okay.
We talked about that.
If I recall, once you start voting, idols and advantages stay where they are.
They’re locked in place.
You’re kind of in limbo in the game.
you might’t change anything about the game state.
So she was just trying to check that I was doing great.
She was like, “You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine.”
Once I saw two votes for Dwight, I was like, “Okay, it’s fine.
Okay, four.”
And then I was like, “It could be me.”
And they’re just like, “No, no, no, you’re fine.”
You see Noelle and she’s like, “Dwight, you’re fine.”
So yeah, they were just trying to cover me on that one.
She wasn’t actually reaching for the Idol.
That’s interesting, because I thought she wanted you to give her the idol.
Just being a friend at that moment.
How did that begin?
Baka and Vesi started even before that.
We still lost the challenge.
If you have a steal a vote and it’s two to two, you could’t lose.
So that saved my game for the pre-merge.
So Baka and Vesi, for me, was the optimal strategy.
And then in parallel, Baka came to the same conclusion.
Elie and Jeanine were like, “We need to work with Vesi because it gives us numbers.”
It’s funny, the Baca-Vesi alliance was set in stone separately at the same time.
Because, first of all, I’m not letting Coco hit the merge with six people again.
And two, they helped us on the turtle, so we owe them.
We’re gonna help them on this puzzle.
And then at that point, we’re not helping them with challenges anymore.
And if that can give me five allies hitting the merge, so be it.
Now, I didn’t know that they would implode the moment we hit the merge.
But in a world where they don’t, it works out a lot better.
What’s something that happened out there that never made it to TV that you wish we had seen?
I actually got to the camp first [out] of the four of us.
I had camp to myself.
I was thinking about it, and I actually passed on Knowledge is Power.
And two, Knowledge is Power by definition hurts people who have advantages.
So why would I want a target from the non-advantaged peopleandadvantaged people.
I don’t want to give my allies a reason to target me.
So Knowledge is Power, I just saw it as a major flaw.
I didn’t want it at all
And James is telling everyone about it!
That’s the one thing you cannot tell.
If I found the little note in secret, cool.
But like I said, I found the note with Owen, Sami, and James.
I only trusted Owen out of the three.
So it’s like, “I’m not gonna grab this.
That’s just asking to go home.”
And lo and behold, I went home, but for different reasons.
