After being voted out on Wednesday (May 2) night’s “Survivor: One World,” Kat Edorsson said that she hoped she might get to return to the CBS series someday to prove that she’s not the most naive player in the game’s history.
The 22-year-old wasn’t referring to not knowing what her appendix was or for occasionally misusing the world “touche.”
For the most part, she was talking about the string of bad decisions that led from her ignoring Troyzan’s advice to take control of her own strategic destiny to a big mistakes in picking players to join her on the visit-from-home Reward to a complete Tribal Council blindside when she expected Sabrina to be heading home.
In her “Survivor” exit interview, Kat certainly seems to have given some consideration to her downfall, suggesting failings that went well beyond just choosing her Reward partners based on who she wanted to get drunk with.
Check out the interview and you can decide for yourself if she seems introspective enough to deserve another shot…
HitFix: Watching Wednesday’s episode was there anything that surprised you and that you hadn’t figured out previously about your elimination?
Kat Edorsson: One thing that really surprised me was when Chelsea said that I didn’t deserve to be in the Final Three. That was something I never would have expected Chelsea to say, no matter how angry she was at me. That was something that was very shocking and I was really upset up about it.
HitFix: And why do you think she said it?
Kat: I think that the women were a little bit upset with the decisions that I made. Mind you, my million dollar mistake was the family visit. If I could, I would take it back, but I can’t. Ultimately the decision I made was to take Alicia and Kim. I should have never picked Alicia. I should have probably picked Chelsea and Sabrina. And then you’ll probably ask me why I would choose Chelsea and Sabrina instead of Christina and Tarzan. And I would say to you, don’t get me wrong and I sympathize with the fact that everybody wanted to see their family and I understand that it would have been so much better and it would have looked less selfish of me if I would have taken Christina and Tarzan, but ultimately they did anything that we asked, so in the game, it wouldn’t have benefitted to go strategize with those two people. It would have been more beneficial for me to take Kim, who I would always strategize with and clearly said I was her Final Three, and take Chelsea and Sabrina so they weren’t so worked up when they got back to camp.
HitFix: When you look back on it, do you really think it was just as simple as “If you had made the right choices after that Reward, you would have been in the game still”?
Kat: You know, if I would have kept just deciding to be a weak player, then most likely I don’t think that I would been someone that they would vote for a million dollars, so I ultimatley I think it’d be a good choice to take me to the Final Three. But during the entire game, I don’t know if you noticed, but I was funny and I was sweet and everybody had so much love for me and I really, really wanted to win. I wanted to win so badly. Like Troy knew that he was going home, so he fought. I didn’t know I was going home for the Immunity Challenge, so even if I did know, I still would have held on just as long as I did, even if I I didn’t my head was on the chopping block, I tried to win, because that was the best I could do that day and I wanted to kick Kim’s ass. I wanted to be the best player. Ultimately, strategically, when you’re at the end of the game, you shouldn’t play your hardest. It’s just not strategically wise.
HitFix: One of the things Chelsea listed as a reason for voting you out was your social game. When you looked at the guys who were on the Jury when you were voted out, how many votes do you think you were going to be able to get from them? How close did you feel to those guys?
Kat: I was very close to all those boys. I probably would have got the majority of all the votes. If I was listening to someone’s interview and someone would say, “Do you think you’d get all the votes?” I’d be kinda like, “Ew. Why would she say that?” But no, seriously, if Troy was that confident in me and everybody was so… The only person who I don’t think would follow Troy when it came down to do voting would be Mike, who seemed like he didn’t really care for Troy. But Mike and I, he loved me. Me and him had the closest relationship in the tribe. So I think that I had a really shot of winning and I think that Troy’s “Do it” was my mark of sin and so I don’t think I was gonna go that far after that anyways.
HitFix: What was going through your mind at that final Tribal Council. You went in and you were confident and then suddenly all of the conversation started being about you. What was going through your head?
Kat: I kinda felt like my mom was sitting there telling me how bad I was doing in school and yelling at me for my grades. I was like, “Why are you yelling at me?” I was like, “What is this?” It was like, “Come on guys. Let’s hurry up and go ahead and let’s eliminate Sabrina. Let’s go and let’s go home.” I had no idea. I was so shocked. All you see is when my name is capitalized in letters and all you see is my eyes shoot to Kim and then my eyes shoot to Sabrina and shoot to Alicia. And I was just destroyed. I’ve never been so low in my entire life. The fact that I had to watch that last night put me back in that place and for me to smile today, shows my integrity at the game and I understand that it is just a game.
HitFix: Well saying that, with all of this time to think about it, what are your feelings now about Kim and Chelsea and their voting you out?
Kat: It’s been a long time. I can’t tell you that I felt the same way the day after, when I got to Ponderosa, but as of right now, I feel very blessed. I feel like I played a really good game. If I was going to go out, I wanted to go out the way I did. I went out as a strong competitor. I was really goofy and I was funny and I don’t have hate for anybody in this game. If Nina and I were having tea right right now, I would be completely fine. I’d shake that woman’s hand and say, “You’re an incredible woman” and I’d walk away. I have no hate for anybody in this entire game. I feel very blessed for what I did do.
HitFix: Coming into the game did you expect your youth to be as much of a negative as it was for some people?
Kat: I didn’t expect that at all, but if you have to point the finger at something, you might as well point it at what I don’t have as much as everybody else does. I don’t have the experience. Kim had 27 years to figure out who she is as an individual. I can’t say that that’s an excuse. I never give myself excuses. But if you have to point your finger at something, it’s going to be “Which is our weakest point?” which is, “Sometimes Kat can be a little bit immature.” And you’ve seen it. I was crawling on the floor last night! Sometimes I can be a little bit childish, but it’s only because I’d rather have people laugh at me than not laugh at all.
HitFix: But as you have watched this season, what has been your reaction to watching yourself, to watching yourself in those moments of immaturity or youth?
Kat: I can’t say that I was answering anyone’s phone calls last, that’s for sure. It really does hurt, that’s for sure. Watching it, it’s not very easy to have to live through your mistakes. And I did, so… I don’t know. I had a really big pie last night. I ate a lot last night.
HitFix: You said at the end of the episode that you want to come back and play again, to kinda reprove yourself. Would you want to do that now? Or would you want to wait a few years?
Kat: If someone asked me right now, I wouldn’t even hesitate. I personally prefer to be dirty. I prefer to be on that island. It’s really funny, because Parvati, she played just me in her first time playing. And then she came back and kicked ass, because she understands the nature of the game. And you know, that’s all I want to do. That’s all I want to do. I just wanna kick some girls’ ass. You know? So I would in a heartbeat. If someone asked me right now, I would be on a plane in a second.
HitFix: OK, but how much have you learned in this short time that would allow you to play the game differently or better now than you did a few months ago?
Kat: Well, ultimately I didn’t understand that to play “Survivor,” that literally your mind has to be stimulated in a certain way as well to play this game. You have to be very level-headed. I was so emotional. You have to trust somebody. And don’t get me wrong, I fell into the right alliance in my situation. I really did make a huge alliance and that was a big move for me, but strategically, my mind wasn’t very focused, like focused on the goal. What is the goal here? Why do I have to keep all my options open? I didn’t see it that way. There were a lot of things that I didn’t see. Now I see. My eyes are completely open. I was making decisions and cutting people off and doing certain things and, like that family reward challenge, not taking my friends, but take what’s strategically the right decision and not being a hard-ass at the end of challenges when you shouldn’t be. There are just things that you need to learn when playing the game that you wouldn’t understand unless you actually played the game.
HitFix: Beyond just that Reward Challenge and the people you took with you, give me another moment or two that you were able to watch this season and go, “OK. I made the wrong move there. Instead, I would rather have done…”
Kat: My worst episode was Episode Two, when I decided to be a leader. I have a lot of heart, so I thought that I was able to be the best at all the competitions. I was so wrong. I was so wrong. It’s really hard. It’s not just working with a team. I’m working with a tribe of women. Women! Someone tell you’re like the only man… You see Tarzan. He’s going insane. It’s a whole bunch of women and you have to learn to be… What I learned from the game is that my voice shouldn’t be as loud as the crowd and that was my biggest mistake. In all of the saying that I made, I was talking without thinking. That was a really big mistake. When I was jumping off the balance beam in the second episode, it was ridiculous. I’d have to reflect and look at it, but there were a lot of different times when I could have talked to Sabrina, talked to Chelsea. I shouldn’t have cried so much when Troy was actually telling me what was going to happen and I didn’t believe him. Those are things that I really made mistakes on. I could have really changed the game, but I didn’t. And you know what? I can’t say that I regret it, because I was loyal to Kim and Kim did protect me last night. She did try, but she had to go with the majority. There are things that I did reflect on and I feel like I’ve changed. I can see now.
HitFix: You mentioned the crawling on your hands and knees at the start of the Reward there. What was up with that?
Kat: [Laughter.] Rob is my best friend in the entire world. I don’t have anybody that’s closer to me than Rob and… I don’t know. I honestly think in my past life that I was a lion. I growl at people and I roar and I get on the floor and I start running around. That’s just me. That’s just me being me and I wouldn’t change it for the world. If go on the show again, you’ll see some crawling and you’ll see some rolling in the mud. I don’t know what you’ll see, but it’ll be exciting, because I’m no one but myself. I’m 100 percent Kat.
Previous “Survivor: One World” Exit Interviews: