When Pigs Can't Fly with Sydney Wheeler of Survivor Tocantins by Troy Rogers
As the Timbira and Jalapao tribes head into the merge this week on Survivor Tocantins, some survivors may have their tribal lives extended longer than they would have if they were still scheming solo. The simmering tension boiling underneath the tribal surface was heightened last week when 24 year old North Carolina model, Sydney Wheeler, became the most recent survivor to have her torch extinguished from Survivor Tocantins when her Jalapao tribe mates were divided over who would be leaving the game in Brazil. After an awkward but difficult Tocantins ceramic pig-toss reward challenge and a Survivor sling-shot immunity throwdown that saw J.T. get stymied, the voting numbers weren't on Sydney's side when three of her Jalapao tribe members - J.T., Stephen, and Taj - solidified their Tocantins trio to send Sydney Wheeler packing from Brazil.
The next morning, we climbed out of our own rainforest (actually just really big fake plants around the office) to hop on the phone with the now ex-Survivor Tocantins player, Sydney Wheeler, to get the scoop on her favorite challenge, why ceramic pigs hurt so much, how she feels she was portrayed on TV, and what she thinks about Coach from the Timbira tribe.
THE DEADBOLT: Even though Joe said he had your back, were you surprised that he didn’t give you a heads up that they were thinking about voting you off?
SYDNEY WHEELER: Yeah. That’s a good question. He definitely tried to, I think, a little bit in his own way without blatantly telling me. But yeah, I wish maybe he had a little bit more. But I think it was one of those things where he knew I knew that it was kind of my time to go. It was either me or him. And he was going to stay loyal to our alliance, but he wasn’t going to tell me straight up. There’s always that very last second where J.T. could’ve voted for Taj and she would’ve pulled out her immunity idol. So there’s always that last chance that I think everybody waits for. I mean even, last night I was still sitting on the edge of my seat hoping it wasn’t going to be me when I knew the outcome.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you feel with the way you were portrayed on TV? The edits kind of steered you towards what Sandy was saying about you.
SYDNEY: Yeah. I think it was funny, because they played up my only strategy, which was flirting, and if you know me - my personality is very friendly, open to people - I’m very touchy, like I don’t hold back. So for them to play it up as flirting, I can understand. It’s probably better than my strategic way of making an alliance with the alpha dog, like Joe and Spencer, and then against them. So I had other strategic qualities, but maybe they just weren’t interesting.
THE DEADBOLT: What was your favorite challenge?
SYDNEY: Oh, that’s a good one. I’d say I really liked the one where we got to wrestle in the water. That one was so much fun because we were all just pumping with adrenaline. Out there, all you wanted to do was strangle them at that point because they’re your enemy. So it was just really fun to just take Sierra and smash her into the water. She’s kind of like my rival. you know? She’s a model from California, a blonde model, and it’s really strange to me that they cast two blonde models. But she was kind of like my rival and it was fun to smash her [laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: With the ceramic pig toss challenge, it looked like they hurt. Were they heavy or were they sharp? What was it about them that hurt?
SYDNEY: Well, yeah. Good question, again. Those pigs sucked! I mean, first of all, J.T. was chucking them at me at like 40 m.p.h., and they’re ceramic and they’re heavy pigs. They’re pigs - they have ears, noses, little stubby legs and a tail. So these appendages that were coming off of them were sharper than you would think and they broke really easily, and they were just very awkward things. And when you have them coming at you super fast, and you have to catch them, that’s your job to catch it, you’re going to dive for it if you have to. It hurts. I mean, I still have a scar from the cut I got from them. They definitely hurt. Then you have frigging Jeff [Probst] blaring in your ear, ‘Oh, Sydney dropped the pig.’ It like never goes your way.
THE DEADBOLT: What did you think of Coach?
SYDNEY: That’s a good question. Coach? Well, I can only judge him from the way they are portraying him, so I hate to be judging. But everyone seems to hate Coach, except for Jeff Probst, so maybe there’s something special about him. But, I don’t know, I think he is pretty selfish. I think he’s full of himself and I always think he could be a good guy, too. I think he understands where other people are coming from, or he tries to.
As the Timbira and Jalapao tribes head into the merge this week on Survivor Tocantins, some survivors may have their tribal lives extended longer than they would have if they were still scheming solo. The simmering tension boiling underneath the tribal surface was heightened last week when 24 year old North Carolina model, Sydney Wheeler, became the most recent survivor to have her torch extinguished from Survivor Tocantins when her Jalapao tribe mates were divided over who would be leaving the game in Brazil. After an awkward but difficult Tocantins ceramic pig-toss reward challenge and a Survivor sling-shot immunity throwdown that saw J.T. get stymied, the voting numbers weren't on Sydney's side when three of her Jalapao tribe members - J.T., Stephen, and Taj - solidified their Tocantins trio to send Sydney Wheeler packing from Brazil.
SYDNEY: Yeah. I think it was funny, because they played up my only strategy, which was flirting, and if you know me - my personality is very friendly, open to people - I’m very touchy, like I don’t hold back. So for them to play it up as flirting, I can understand. It’s probably better than my strategic way of making an alliance with the alpha dog, like Joe and Spencer, and then against them. So I had other strategic qualities, but maybe they just weren’t interesting.
SYDNEY: Well, yeah. Good question, again. Those pigs sucked! I mean, first of all, J.T. was chucking them at me at like 40 m.p.h., and they’re ceramic and they’re heavy pigs. They’re pigs - they have ears, noses, little stubby legs and a tail. So these appendages that were coming off of them were sharper than you would think and they broke really easily, and they were just very awkward things. And when you have them coming at you super fast, and you have to catch them, that’s your job to catch it, you’re going to dive for it if you have to. It hurts. I mean, I still have a scar from the cut I got from them. They definitely hurt. Then you have frigging Jeff [Probst] blaring in your ear, ‘Oh, Sydney dropped the pig.’ It like never goes your way.