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Final Tribal Exit Strategies with Taj and Erinn of Survivor Tocantins
by Troy Rogers
 In
the early stages of gameplay on Survivor Tocantins,
Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George and Erinn Lobdell
faced a number of challenges to stay in the game
and compete for the title of sole Survivor. For
Taj, a former member of the '90s R&B pop group
SWV and wife of former NFL great Eddie George,
her quest to claim the million dollar prize as
a Survivor also came with a separate strategy
to keep her Tocantins tribe mates from learning
her real life back story. For Erinn, an outspoken
hairstylist and make-up artist from Wisconsin,
her time in the Brazilian Highlands on Survivor
Tocantins was an ongoing battle to find alliances
despite not connecting with her tribe members
until after the merge. When Taj formed a near
unbreakable alliance with her Jalapao tribe mates,
J.T. and Stephen, and Erinn found her Survivor
groove as a powerful swing player in the collective
Forza tribe, both solidified themselves as formidable
competitors on Survivor Tocantins.  Although
Taj and Erinn outlasted all of the other women
to make it into the round of final four, J.T.
and Stephen eventually turned on Taj to send
her packing from the game before J.T. won the
final challenge, stuck to his word, and took
Stephen into the final Tribal Council instead
of Erinn.
The morning after J.T. Thomas was voted the winner of Survivor Tocantins in a unanimous decision by his tribe mates, we caught up with both Taj and Erinn on a conference call to learn more about their individual strategies, what they would have done differently, whether they had any worries about Exile Island, and if either Taj or Erinn had their votes set in Survivor stone before they went to the final Survivor Tocantins Tribal.
THE DEADBOLT: If J.T. hadn’t accidently spotted the hidden immunity idol in your bag, were you and Stephen planning on adding him to your alliance anyway?
 TAMARA
TAJ JOHNSON-GEORGE: Oh, yeah! Actually,
when I had placed it in the bag, I went to the
bathroom and it just so happened that by the
time I came back from the bathroom he had come
out of the water and looked in the bag. But
when I came back, we had planned to sit him
down and tell him all about it. I told Stephen
earlier that day that I wanted to tell him [J.T.]
about it, because in my mind I was thinking
I needed to solidify J.T.’s vote before Joe
came back from Exile.
I knew once Joe came back, he would have talked to Erinn and she would’ve told him all about my singing career, which they had no idea about. And I didn’t want them to have any more reason to think, "She doesn’t need this money, we need to get rid of her now." So I had to solidify his trust with the idol. And it worked to my advantage at that point because by the time Joe came back to tell everybody, I was in this group. I had already told them everything about me and I told them that we would go to the final three with this idol and they were all onboard.
THE DEADBOLT: What surprised you the most when you watched it on TV?
TAJ: Nothing really surprised me, because I knew what happened, but it was touching to see that they felt bad for doing what they did. Although, they did it! [laughs]
THE DEADBOLT: Normally, in the past when a tribe member wins the family reward, they’re the one that gets voted off that same night. Did that cross your mind at all when you were on Exile?
 TAJ:
Luckily for me, it didn’t, and the reason it
didn’t is because I had never really watched
Survivor before. So I was brand new in everything
I was doing, hence the mistakes that I made.
Like giving Stephen the idol to hold for me
and just little stupid things that I had done,
I didn’t realize that I was shooting myself
in the foot and didn’t know it. But no, I had
no idea about that.
But when you’re in that situation, I don’t think I would’ve done it any differently, because after thirty days in the jungle with no food, no water, no communication from people you love, as a human being you really need that. And I couldn’t deny anybody that, because if it was anybody else standing in my position and did not let me see my husband, they would’ve come back to camp and died [laughs].
ERINN LOBDELL: I think it’s really important to note that even though that does happen often, the thing that was great about the family visit in our season is that even though Taj won the family visit, she didn’t have to alienate anyone else by taking it away from them. And she ultimately made a sacrifice that let everyone see their loved ones and it really put her in a good spot, because even though she got to see Eddie, they got their alone time, she still spent two days without him on Exile by herself.
THE DEADBOLT: When you called out Coach about going to Exile, did you have any idea how close that got you to being voted off?
 ERINN:
You know, I think that it was definitely not
the best move on my part. I do think that I
would’ve done things a little differently looking
back. Everything that I said, I meant, and I
would’ve said it a hundred times over. I do
wish I hadn’t said it so publically because
of the way that J.T. and Stephen reacted to
it. I also know that before they had a conversation
with Coach there was another conversation with
me where I apologized to them. We all talked
about it and they said, ‘We’re still going to
go talk to Coach about it and tell him we’re
pissed.’ We had things going on and I knew I
wasn’t in real danger of going home, but I was
also surprised to see how much it upset J.T..
I knew the way the votes were going to go before
it happened, so it wasn’t a big shock.
THE DEADBOLT: When J.T and Stephen were pleading their cases, what effect did that have on your vote?
TAJ: For me, I knew when I went into that Tribal Council I was voting for J.T.
ERINN: I actually went in and I was going to vote for Stephen. I felt like he was one of the only people in this game that never had it out for me, and I had definitely walked into that Tribal Council with the intent to write his name down. But my question to him was, ‘Should I just vote for J.T.?’ And he really couldn’t give me a reason not to, so that definitely changed my mind.
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