The ousted player also explains taking the blame for the Sifu vote and going for those amulets.
J Mayadid not have a single vote cast against her at Tribal Council this week onSurvivor 45.
And yet she was also voted out unanimously.
J Maya on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
What does the player make of being directly called out by Kaleb at Tribal Council?
Does she regret going for the amulet and taking the blame for the Sifu vote?
And what happened to turn the tide against her during that live Tribal?
J Maya on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
We asked J Maya all that and more.
you’ve got the option to watch the entire interview above or read it below.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, let’s start here.
J Maya on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
What’s going through your mind when Kaleb calls you out by name at Tribal Council?
Maybe going into Tribal Council, I thought that there was going to be a little bit more subterfuge.
I’d only been to one Tribal previously and we’d spoken a lot in subtext at that one.
The Reba tribe on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
And it was like “Great, this is what’s going to happen.
And so the first thing I say is, “That’s very interesting Kaleb.”
And I’m already thinking of my rebuttal.
Kellie Nalbandian, Austin Li Coon, and J Maya on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
I grew up doing debate.
That was where I felt most comfortable was in a debate room.
But a part of me was enthralled.
Janani ‘J Maya’ Krishnan-Jha of ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
I was like, “This is why we all didSurvivor,for a Tribal like this.”
When Kaleb’s safe scroll first came up, did you know you were in trouble?
And I remember thinking “Five in six chance, this goes fine.
One in six chance, you’re going home tonight.”
And I don’t know what it is.
Sometimes you call it like a gut feeling.
I had a feeling about that Shot in the Dark, but I dismissed it as irrationality.
And it’s always a sign to trust your gut feeling.
So did you ever think, “Let me just put my vote on Emily just in case?”
And it’s one of those game time decisions that haunts you after you leave the game.
Do you go and scramble to make someone else the name that’s being thrown out?
And so that was what I was trying to do.
I was just, at the end of the day, a little too scared to rock the boat.
And I think that’s a good kind of summation of where my gameplay goes south.
You were pitching Emily before the revote.
Why her, and did you feel in the moment people were on board with that?
Well, I will say that in that moment, my brain is a little discombobulated.
I don’t know if I’m really clearly thinking every single thing out at that point.
It is a Hail Mary.
I felt like maybe that was a safer pitch.
Let’s roll it back a few episodes.
Oh, a hundred percent.
I think it’s important to clarify, I never told Sifu that I voted for him.
But I never was planning to proactively tell him unless we’d gone to Tribal Council.
I truthfully, totally, totally understand that.
We do the whole pinky swear alliance making situation.
I forget the name of the alliance.
It has to do with music, obviously.
And I take this as a sign that Sifu does not want to work with me.
And that I think goes again back to the decision with the decoy vote at the swap.
I know that it’s going to be between me and him.
hey let it be him.”
This was a very odd advantage in that it basically incentivizes you all to vote each other out.
I was terrified of being caught in my lie at Reba beach when I came back.
And we had spent a lot of effort trying to perfect this lie of sweat vs. strategy.
And to my knowledge, they really do believe me.
And I do want to go back to what you said and correct it for just half a second.
I would say that things are a little bit in the middle.
So I think I was less aware than I should have been about that developing.
I thought maybe that would be an issue a little bit later into the merge.
Obviously, it becomes an issue the second that we come back to the beach.
So that is definitely a big regret of mine.
I stay vegetarian the whole time.
In my head I was like, “This sandwich is the thing I can eat.
I can’t really eat much back at camp, but I can eat this!”
So that was a really hard decision for me.
I was really, really tempted to take the sandwich.
How difficult is it to get voted out that close to the jury?
I think there was alotthat was difficult to stomach about that Tribal Council.
Being close to the jury is one of the things.
What would’ve happened if I’d stayed in the game longer?"
Immediately when I came home, I was like, “Oh my God!”
Everything happens for a reason.
Okay, I’ll give it a shot.
First of all, I would say someone was on a roll that night.
It was sadly not me, but I did roll with it and things got dicey.
