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Crossing Tribal Lines with Debbie Beebee of Survivor Tocantins
by Troy Rogers
 In
the most recent episode of Survivor Tocantins,
it didn't take long for the alliances to be challenged
after Sierra Reed had her torch extinguished the
week before. But just as the remaining survivors
were about to get down to tribal business for
another week, Survivor host Jeff Probst served
up a food auction that saw each player get some
much needed fuel and a visit from their family
members, aside from Coach who got a visit from
his "assistant Coach". When the auction came to
a close, the Forza tribe banded together to give
Taj a much needed visit with her husband, and
football great, Eddie George, on Exile Island
before taking a break with their loved ones back
at camp.
But when the family members departed and the Tocantins game resumed, middle school principal Debbie Beebee scrambled to get a Survivor foothold in the alliance between Stephen and J.T. by throwing Coach under the tribal bus while also making a play that Erin should go home, too. When the Forza tribe went to Survivor Tocantins Tribal Council, Stephen and J.T. saw through Debbie's last ditch efforts to keep herself alive and rallied to send Debbie packing to the jury with former tribe mates Brendan, Tyson, and Sierra.
The morning after Debbie Beebee became the fourth member of the Survivor Tocantins jury, we crossed tribal conference call lines to chat with Debbie about whether she was serious about offering to settle for third place, why she didn't quit while she was ahead with Stephen and J.T., what she thought of Coach and Tyson, and whether she'll ever eat another plate of beans and rice.
THE DEADBOLT: How much of a boost was it to see your husband?
 DEBBIE
BEEBEE: You know what? It was awesome. I
mean, obviously we travel in this experience,
too, before the game even starts, so at that
point it had been almost forty days since we’d
seen anybody in our families. I didn’t know
if my husband was coming or my mother or a friend,
and just seeing somebody from home was just
amazing.
THE DEADBOLT: Would you really have been satisfied with third place?
DEBBIE: [laughs] I’ve been asked that all day. Honestly, at that point when I said that to them, I really meant it, honestly, because I knew my head was on the chopping block after Tyson was gone. So to me third place would’ve been a big win for me and I really was sincere at the moment. Now I’m not going to lie to you and tell you if I was sitting there with that immunity necklace on, would I’ve done it? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. But I really believed myself at the moment and I don’t know if I would’ve done it or not. So I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I would have, because I don’t know.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, hindsight is 20/20, right? It just seemed like if you would’ve stopped talking at a certain point, you probably would’ve been fine.
 DEBBIE:
You think?
THE DEADBOLT: Sure. Did you have any idea that saying those things to J.T. and Stephen would get you eliminated?
DEBBIE: You know, absolutely not. But J.T., Stephen and I sent a lot of time talking together, so of course they’re going to show - and of course it happened - the different scenes. But we all talked all of the time about different strategies. I mean, I even talked to Sierra about an all girl alliance at one point. I mean, we had to keep our options open and I really meant it, because at that point I knew - because Jeff even alluded to it at tribal the week before - that I was a threat and how did I feel at being a threat. And I know Stephen and J.T. were really beginning to believe that I was not only a physical threat but a social threat. So I wanted them to know that I really wanted to be in the group with them.
THE DEADBOLT: Since you were so close to Coach during the game, what is your overall impression of him?
DEBBIE: My overall impression of Coach
is he is definitely a character. Honestly, watching
the show I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I would see him
talking the dragon slayer and dragon bowels
and I didn’t know that stuff was going on, because
they were private interviews. They take you
very far away so you can absolutely not hear
what anyone says. But I’ll tell you, he’s sticking
true to his word in the sense of he stayed true
to the alliance with me. I felt pretty crappy
last night when he said Debbie he trusted 100%.
 But
at one point I even approached him about taking
J.T. and Stephen out, because it was obvious
they were running the game, and he said, ‘Absolutely
not. I gave them my word.’ And I knew if Coach
wasn’t going to turn, there was no way to move
that around. So he’s a different guy. He’s a
character. He believes he’s playing this game
with integrity, 100%, and he believes he’s not
lying. But I actually saw the deal with Sierra,
where I was like, ‘Whoa, Sierra and I didn’t
bring it up, you and I did.’ So anyway, yeah,
he’s very unique.
THE DEADBOLT: What did your husband
think of Tyson’s antics?
DEBBIE: [laughs] I don’t think he enjoyed
those episodes too much, let’s put it that way.
THE DEADBOLT: What about the kids at your school?
DEBBIE: They think Tyson is hilarious. And honestly, Tyson is one of my very dear friends and he got me through a lot of that. Honestly, I was devastated the night he was voted out because he just kept me laughing. We kept each other laughing and I felt very safe with him.
THE DEADBOLT: Now that you’re back home, how often do you eat beans?
 DEBBIE:
Never, nor rice. And I’ll tell you, it just
doesn’t get any better with river water and
no salt or seasoning. I could never top it,
so I’ll never eat it again.
THE DEADBOLT: What was your favorite challenge?
DEBBIE: I could tell you it’s the one I won, but, honestly, I’m a little embarrassed that’s the one I won because I thought it was kind of hokey where we just slid those disks. It wasn’t a lot of skill and we were freezing. I’ve never been more miserable in my life than that day. It was probably 45 degrees and wet. But I loved the pole challenge and I wish I had taken my shoes off, because Tyson had his shoes off and I think I could’ve stayed up there because I’m 5’2, and by that point I don’t know how much I weighed. But I think I could’ve hung on a lot longer if I had my shoes off.
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