|
Secrets of Survivor Gabon with Ex-Nobaggers Sugar, Matty, and Susie
by Troy Rogers
 After 39 days in Gabon, Africa, the field of tribe mates on Survivor Gabon was narrowed down the final four, which consisted of Matty Whitmore, Jessica "Sugar" Kipe, Susie Smith, and the 57 year old Bob Crowley. Although Bob went on to win the million dollar prize as the ultimate survivor at the live Survivor Gabon finale after competing in the final three with Sugar and Susie, there's no doubt that the remaining four survivors tried to give Bob a run for his money. Since Sugar held power for most of the season, with Matty forming alliances with key players, and Susie winning the final, most important immunity challenge of the game, the last two episodes and the finale gave fans their own money's worth of Survivor Gabon entertainment value.
The morning after the live finale, we hopped on the line with Sugar, Matty, and Susie for an exclusive chat about how they played the game, how they feel about Bob's victory, why Kenny was so persuasive, and what they thought of the name "Nobag".
THE DEADBOLT: Sugar, how did you feel about what Corinne said on the final night?
JESSICA "SUGAR" KIPE: The dad thing?
THE DEADBOLT: Yes.
 SUGAR: Well, I heard it two months ago so I kind of had some time to get over it. But I think I showed my expression with my fingers [laughs]. It was pretty shocking to see somebody like that. But she’ll lose somebody some day and she’ll understand. You think that hopefully somebody will see themselves and realize how the rest of the world sees them and maybe change things about themselves. But she kind of feels like everything she does is gold. Like she said, she liked it when the audience booed her. You know what I mean? Whoever heard that before, it can’t possibly be true.
THE DEADBOLT: Susie, how do you feel about the people that think you just floated through and didn’t actually do anything?
SUSIE SMITH: Well, you now, everybody has their opinion. And sometimes I did ride coattails and I did float through and I did play under the radar and I jumped when I had to jump. I don’t allow what other people say to - I don’t take offense to it. I had good perspective. I was pretty grounded and I knew that this was a game and I expected everyone to basically react to what I did. But, really, a lot of people let their emotions play the game and I didn’t. I just thought I’m not going to care what people think, because it was just my husband and son that I wanted to care what it was like. Everyone else, and I love everybody - I mean, I really have a lot of respect for Sugar, Bob, Matty and everyone, even Corinne, believe it or not, and Randy. I have a lot of respect for all of us because we all played. So I will not take into consideration what everybody thought of me. What the hell? It was just a game.
THE DEADBOLT: Matty, what did you think about Crystal freaking out at you a couple of weeks ago?
MATTY WHITMORE: You know, Crystal is a very dominating player in this game, socially, and she should’ve been mad at Kenny. But Kenny and Crystal were aligned since day one and they were a tight unit and there was really no way of separating the two. You know what? That’s a tough game and everybody played their best, like Susie said. Everybody out there, even Corinne and Randy have gold in them, and if you just find the gold and the good life seems to be a little more enjoyable and pleasant. You don’t really have to harp on the negative things.
THE DEADBOLT: Was your proposal to your girlfriend a spur of the moment thing, or were you thinking of it the whole time you were there?
 MATTY: Actually, when I got out there it wasn’t in my mind until about five days into it, because five days in Gabon feels like a lifetime. And you learn a lot in five days, believe it or not. After five days I realized that I wasn’t going to let another moment pass without letting Jamie know the way I felt and I started making her a little ring and everyone knows that I talked about Jamie the entire time, ad nauseam. And I was probably a little annoying about it, but it was the driving force. And in the game of Survivor I didn’t have enough juice myself to keep charging forward so I had use Jamie as a beacon to move me to that point, and I needed that.
THE DEADBOLT: What do you guys think of the name Nobag?
SUGAR: That wasn’t my idea, I wanted Kotang.
MATTY: Yeah, we were going for a Kotang or something. But Nobag is fine. It’s Gabon backwards, right? Everybody knows that.
SUSIE: What I didn’t like about Kotang, I know this is going to sound crazy, but it started with a "K" and I was like, ‘No, it’s Kota. I don’t want to go back there.’ I wanted it to be Tofang or something different. So when Kenny came up with Gabon backwards I was like, ‘Okay, I’m game.’ I didn’t care, as long as it didn’t focus on Kota in the beginning. That was my big thing.
SUGAR: [laughs] I thought it was the worst name anybody could’ve possibly come up with in the history of bad names, but I painted it anyways because everybody was going for it. I mean, it was the least important thing of all, the name of our stupid tribe, because we were still two tribes anyways.
MATTY: The person who came up with the name was Kenny and everybody just kind of went along with it because they thought Gabon backwards was suited for the tribe. So, Nobag it is.
SUGAR: We should’ve been the Gaboners.
MATTY: [laughs] That’s a good one.
THE DEADBOLT: Sugar, when you were casting your final vote, did you know that Bob was going to win the whole thing?
 SUGAR: Uh, huh. We pretty much knew that Bob was - I thought it was going to be more of a landslide. I was really shocked last night with Susie. I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Susie, you might win.’ I knew that our little group was voting for you, but it could’ve gone either way. I knew the stinky onions were all going to vote for Bobby.
THE DEADBOLT: Susie, when it came down to Matty and Bob and the fire challenge, you looked really unimpressed. What were you thinking at that point?
SUSIE: Well, that was the only time in the game for some - I just feel silly. But it was the first time I really felt bad because I trusted Sugar, thinking she was going to vote for Bob. And then at that moment we knew, because I had talked to Matty earlier and said, ‘Are you sure Sugar is going to vote for Bob?’ And he was like, ‘I’m positive,' and she was going to. And then after I told her about the whole thing, 'If you end up voting for Matty, it’s going to be a tie and they’re going to do the fire thing,' I was like, ‘Oh, man,’ because I remember saying something to Matty like, ‘God, you know, are you sure you can build a fire? Because if there’s a tie...’ I was just in shock and was like, ‘Oh, my God. I can’t believe that happened.’ But, you know what? It was fine. It was meant to be that way.
THE DEADBOLT: Matty, how much grief are you getting at home for being beaten by a 57 year old man?
MATTY: You know what? I’m really not looking forward to going home because I haven’t received the grief yet. But when I go home, I’m sure I’m going to get some grief. Bob may be a 57 year old man, but he’s a powerhouse, and that guy is so deserving of the million dollars. And the reason I didn’t necessarily vote for Bob was because, in my opinion, Susie suffered more than Bob did in this game. Bob did receive every single reward the game had to offer and did live more of a cush life out in Africa. So, in my opinion, Susie suffered more and she played under the radar, which is really hard to do when you’re out in Africa and put with these groups of people. I liked her style of play and that’s why I voted for Susie. But Bob’s the man and I’m happy that he won, too, you know? The last three people and I would’ve enjoyed to see any one of them win.
THE DEADBOLT: Can anyone explain to me how Kenny was so persuasive?
 SUGAR: Well he’s like Smeagol / Gollum. He was unassuming and meek, ‘Oh, no, you guys eat. I don’t need anything.’ So I mean he was very good at playing the meager little, you know, ‘Oh, I’m just a little nerd.’ And then he’s spinning lies based on stupid things like, ‘He grabbed the piece of paper from me.’
MATTY: Kenny was honestly the most unassuming player out there. He was about 85 pounds, sweet to everybody, and everybody felt sorry for him because they thought he was a 22 year old kid suffering, and he was so good at playing the weak little meager guy. But he is definitely not that guy. He is sharp, he’s smart, he’s a shifty little dude.
SUSIE: For me, I played the mom, so I looked at him like he was my son. And if you see my son, they’re like the same size - they’re skinny, they’re little and I just couldn’t fathom that my son was going to lie to me, ever. I looked at Kenny that way, like he was my little boy, and if he told me something I believed him.
SUGAR: [laughs] Hey, I remember you lying to your son and hugging him right before we blindsided him.
THE DEADBOLT: Everyone I’ve talked to has said it was freezing cold at night, was it really that cold?
MATTY: At three in the morning, four in the morning, it was very uncomfortably cold. It was terrible. And at three or four in the morning, when it got to its most bone chilling temperature, it was tough.
SUGAR: When all you’ve got are jean cut-offs or a leopard print mini-dress, yeah, it’s really cold.
MATTY: In the dirt, no blankets.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, okay, but did no one research Gabon before you went?
 SUGAR: No, this was the dry season and it wasn’t the hottest part of the year. I did a lot of research, actually, on Gabon.
THE DEADBOLT: Believe it or not, when I was talking to Randy, he’s the only one who ever mentioned any research.
SUSIE: You know what? For me, I never thought it was cold. But I’m from Iowa so I’m used to it.
MATTY: You know, I gotta say, we had it good because Gabon never showed us rain once. To be able to spend that time out there without any rain probably made our lives a heck of a lot easier.
THE DEADBOLT: Last season a lot of people went out with injuries and you guys got lucky.
SUGAR: Well, the Grim Reaper was trying to get Randy [when he cracked his head] the first day and then his feet swelled up to the size of elephant feet, like when he forgot salt. I mean, he was falling apart. He had some inner ear infection. Yeah, there was all kinds of shit going on with Randy.
|
