Early Show Transcript
January 1, 2004.
---------------------------------
QUESTION: We know that Lance was your closest ally out there. We also know that Henry's proposed alliance
didn't include him. If you had a second crack at it, would you be able to lie and say "Sure, I'm in,"
or would you have still been honest?
ELISABETH: Very good question, however, a much more complicated answer. There were various factors that
led to my decline of the alliance, one of them of course being Lance. Lance was absolutely my best friend out there,
he wouldn't turn on me and I knew, in my heart, I could not turn on him. If I were to turn on him, I would lose
that one ally I knew I could depend on, which as we know is something very valuable in Survivor behind the backdrop
of so much lying, backstabbing, and manipulating. So, with that said, that was the leading cause towards me declining
Henry's offer. Also, I'm a competitor and also very observant. I had noticed the bond between the four, and Henry,
which wasn't shown, had even informed me of the alliance and the people in the alliance before he offered the alliance
to me. In that sense, I knew right off the bat that I was the fifth wheel. So, basically, I saw that as a challenge.
They were saying, hey, we are the four to be with and are the four to beat. Therefore, I'm a competitor and I just
took that challenge by the horns and went with it. I wasn't going to go with them because it was the safe thing
to do, no, I was not playing to settle for fifth. I was playing to win. I took that as a challenge, and whether
I lost the challenge or not, I knew darn well I should at least die tryin. Either I was going to have to make a
risky power move in the final five, or make a risky power shift in the beginning. In conclusion, I basically said
it once and I'll say it again, go for the gold now and if you miss then, well, no regrets. And I missed, and couldn't
have been happier because win or lose; I put out there what I could and stuck to my guns. Did I get the gold? No,
but sometimes bronze ends up not turning out so bad. So do I regret saying no? Absolutely not, and I would do it
again in a heartbeat.
QUESTION: In retrospect, do you think that you gave the men too little credibility for communicating with
one another i.e. multiple Romeos?
ELISABETH: Absolutely not, not in the slightest. First of all, all five men on the Sato tribe were highly
intelligent, I would have been a fool to deploy any type of strategy revolving around that. I think where you're
coming from, how the plot unfolded, and what actually happened are two very separate and different scenarios. It
said, word for word in the story, I said Romeo and Juliet in the vein that we were friends. I thought, oh, how
cool am I? I managed to incorporate what I had just read in school with what else than Survivor? I thought, you
go Liz. Of course ::sigh:: as all things go in Survivor you must expect the unexpected. I had told Henry the Romeo
and Juliet thing, and mind you, Henry and Henry only, in the perception of the idea of Romeo and Juliet, that two
sides still have the one common strand that ties them together. Well Henry, being the person he is, took that as
what he called a "come on". Now, nothing against Henry, but I've never "come on" to anybody
and Henry sure wouldn't be the first. So, what I had said as friendship was his idea of romance. He told this to
Matt, who in turn led the others to believe that I had indeed told this story to all the men of Sato when in fact
I had only told it to Henry. It was nothing strategic; I can guarantee you that, it was just my way of being the
dork I am. ::laughs:: So, it truly had a huge snowball effect that kept growing till the point that I think even
they, themselves, came to think it was true. That miscommunication and lies on the part of my other tribe members
is ultimately what led to my demise. So, in conclusion, did I give them too little credibility for spreading a
story? No, because there was no story to begin with.
QUESTION: Did you know you were going that night?
ELISABETH: In a perfect world, I would like to tell you now that, yes; it seemed as blatant to me as it
appeared in the story. But, as we all have seen, I am not very good at lying. I was caught off guard, but it was
not in the fact that I necessarily thought I was invincible and would not leave. That is not the reason whatsoever.
I always really expected to lose, because at heart I am a very humble person. Ultimate Survivor? Me? Nah, you know?
But, I did not think I was going that night for one specific reason. That was that Amy had formed an alliance with
me against Henry, in which five minutes before tribal council she told me was still the plan. I said, Amy, I'm
trusting you on this, are we voting for Henry? She nodded, and said yes, that I could trust her. Also, Beth also
had told me prior to tribal council that I was in no danger, that I was safe and she would not vote for me either.
So, in retrospect, no, I didn't see it coming. It's hard to think that you are going to leave when you have multiple
people that you trust tell you that your position in the tribe is safe. But, in the end, I don't hold it against
any of them because, well, that's Survivor. They were playing to win just like me, and win or lose you shake hands
when the game is done. So, I tip my hat to them, they're playing the game I couldn't play.
QUESTION: What exactly was the counter alliance you tried to put together?
ELISABETH: Well, to my recollection I believe there was two of them but the basis of them revolved around
certain individuals. What you saw transpire between myself and Henry, when I had said I did not know Beth nor Amy
that much, quickly turned around thereafter. Beth and Amy, in fact, were two of the people I felt closest to out
of the whole cast, almost a motherly, nurturing relationship. So, what I had planned on doing was poking holes
into the main alliance slowly. Bring out the cracks, and pour some water into them. Of course, after a while the
water would freeze and be forgotten, but then what happens when you break the ice? You bring it back up, it cracks,
and suddenly you have this huge gaping hole in the alliance. The biggest crack that was visible to me was that
of Henry and Amy. So I would say certain things to Amy, and certain things to Henry, and once and a while they
would confront each other. This strategy paid off very well, and almost worked, but David had too much influence
over Amy and Henry and stopped that from happening for the time being. The first alliance I had proposed was between
the women, which worked in ways and didn't work in others. Obviously it didn't hold strong, but I wouldn't say
alliance as much as I would say just a very strong friendship. I figured that would help me move behind Henry in
the voting order. Secondly, I had put together an alliance between Amy, Lance, Hogan, Beth, and myself that worked
up until, I believe, ten minutes before tribal council. David, again, had too much influence over Amy's vote and
she felt she couldn't stray from that. So, with Amy came Beth and then Hogan didn't want to be left in the minority
so he ended up switching as well. Ultimately, that alliance fractured before it could succeed. So, with that said,
I tried hard, very hard, to break that alliance. It almost worked, but sometimes almost isn't enough. Might as
well go out trying though, no regrets.
QUESTION: What did you see in Henry and Lance? Lance seems so boring and Henry's comments toward women seem
stupid. What did you see in those two.
ELISABETH: Well, something you must realize first of the bat is that we don't get to see all the events
transpire as you do. Never had I heard any degrading comments from Henry towards women, I was just as shocked as
most to view to the episode. So, with that said, do I regret aligning myself with Henry? Absolutely not. Henry
held strategic heft within the game in the beginning; he was the brains behind the original alliance and the one
who deflected the attention from himself to myself. So, in that regard, Henry was a wise player. Though he broke
down a bit by now, he still played the game hard. A little too hard? Possibly, but as you can see this problem
arose because Henry did not want to vote me out. So, why not align with someone that would put themselves on the
line for me like that? Isn't the point of the game, to align with people that won't turn on you? Indeed, he had
voted against me in the end, but that was after every other option had run dry. Lance, he was not boring to me
at all. As you can see, again, he was not going to turn on me. Is that not what you want in this game? Is he boring?
Well, I don't believe so. I found our conversations great; he was the only one in the game that talked to me in
the beginning like I was another person and not just "that fifteen year old". I found comfort in him,
and it made me feel at home in one of the most adverse situations. I'm not perfect, I made my mistakes. I will
tell you truthfully, I definitely invested too much trust into some people. But you know what? That's me, love
me or leave me but I'm still going home to my family and friends that love me for who I am and I wasn't going to
disregard that just so I could win a reality show. That was not reality, that was fun; I'm back to reality now.
You don't like them? Fine, but first why don't you have a conversation with them and then pass your judgement.
It's hard to judge the devil ya don't know, because sometimes they turn out to be an angel.
QUESTION: Hey Elisabeth ur awesome i was sad to see you go, my question to you is what kept you Henry and
Matt from voting as a block and possibly pulling in Hogan or David? Was someone against it?
ELISABETH: Thank you so much Will! You're an absolute sweetheart! Matt, he was really just an awesome guy.
However, I don't think he took me for much as was evident as our conversations progressed. I hold nothing against
him; however, it was just a friendship that still lingered yet faded into the background. David, I had approached
him after Henry had informed me of the alliance, and I sensed that he was with them. David and I, we were mutual
enemies, in that regard. We knew each other was on the other side, so we said the heck with it and just had a blast.
So, with that said, why didn't I align with them? Because David was too invested in others and Henry and Matt were
firmly against Lance. Not to say I did not try to form a block, it was just with different individuals. At the
time, I saw that as an option but with less of an opportunity to succeed than, say, one between others who I felt
closer with and weren't as defined in their loyalties.
QUESTION: Why couldn't or wouldn't you turn on Lance and join the alliance of four instead?
ELISABETH: Thanks for the question Matt! I couldn't turn on Lance because I knew he wouldn't turn on me.
Who am I to say, oh, our friendship is over because, you know, there's this new alliance that does not include
you? I'm not like that, he's not like that, and I had never nor will ever do that to someone that has so much trust
in me. Love him or leave him, but at the end of the day, there is no doubt in my mind that he woulda followed me
to heck and back. Also, he is my friend. Friends don't screw friends over, and I wasn't about to start. Lance was
someone I made a final two alliance with, and come heck or high water I would have stuck by that vow because, by
golly, I knew he would as well. I'm not one to lead one-sided friendships. Do unto others as they would do unto
you, you know? I will never, ever regret my decision to stick my neck out on the line for him, ever. I told him
whether it meant I left or not; I would stick by his side. Well, it did, and I couldn't be happier about it. Call
it lousy game plan, call it what you want, but until you go out there and play in such stressful situations in
amazingly adverse conditions, don't pass your judgment upon me as a player. You try it first, then come to me and
tell me how I should play. Until then, just know that there is more than one way to play this game and following
your heart is one of them.
QUESTION: If Sato had won the first immunity challenge, do you think it would have been easier for you to integrate
yourself into the tribe, and gone farther in the game?
ELISABETH: Well, truth be told, I don't believe I ever really had a problem integrating myself into the
tribe. It was the false information and yarns that were spun by certain individuals that ultimately caused my demise
within the Sato tribe. However, with that said, I do think had Sato won the first immunity challenge and we were
leased an extra three days, I believe I would have achieved power through the counter alliance I had attempted
to construct. I would have had the time to expose and widen the gap between Henry and Amy and tear the original
alliance apart. I don't think my planning in the game as it went was unsuccessful, but much rather just required
more time to conceive which would have been possible with an extra three days or more. However, no regrets. I did
what I could and it fell through, coulda woulda shoulda but I didn't so I shoulda. I can theorize all I want about
what could have happened, but it still will not alter the fact that Elisabeth Marie is the first casualty of Okinawa.
Plain and simple.
Back to the Okinawa Transcript Page