Robert Voets/CBS Getting to the end ofSurvivoris a massive accomplishment. But all the work can go down the drain faster than you can say Club Condo if you can't seal the deal with the jury at the final Tribal Council. It's where games are won and lost, and where legends are forged and cautionary tales are etched into the annals ofSurvivorlore. With that in mind, how do the final 5 ofKamilla Karthigesu, Kyle Fraser,Joe Hunter,Eva Erickson, and Mitch Guerra plan to approach the jury that will determine which one of them walks away with a million dollars on the May 21 season finale ofSurvivor 48?See what the final five toldEntertainment Weeklyout in Fiji right before filming began in terms of how they wanted to handle the jury. And also learn what the rest of the cast who never made it that far would have said if they had the chance. Robert Voets/CBS I want to be very thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. To me, relationships are the most important thing. So just want to be very sincere and be like, "Hey, getting to play this game with each of you has been incredible and something I will always to be thankful for. I apologize as if at any point you felt I was being malicious or ruthless to any of you y'all. It truly was incredibly challenging having to put all of y'all on the jury. But this has been a dream of mine forever. And at the end of the day, I'm here to compete as hard as I could. So I hope regardless of the outcome tonight, I just want each of you to know that I'm super thankful for each of you." Robert Voets/CBS One big thing for addressing the jury is I think I want to establish with them that I think that they should select who they want to win based on who outwit, outlast and outplayed. I think that in a previous season, they selected based on personality and what someone was going to do with the money. And I think that I need to make sure that the jury understands that they should be picking based ongameplay. So I think I would kind of make an emphasis on that and really be playing up the moves that I hopefully made and things I did in the game as my résumé. And if they did ask me about what I do with the money, I would just straight up tell them that it shouldn't matter. Robert Voets/CBS So here's my plan with the jury. First off, I've done some game film on this. So really starting back at season 40 when the dynamic of the game changed, all I did was watch the juries and each Tribal Council individually, and then I watched them back-to-back. And when you do that without watching the season, you forget some of the things that happened. So you get almost a real reaction as if you were a juror. And what these contestants are saying, and here's what my plan is with that, is I want to throughout the season not take it personal when someone writes my name down — take the emotion out of it and really look at what makes each person tick that's out there. And then try to use that to my advantage at these Tribal Councils by connecting with each one of them while being authentic. And specifically, when we get to the end, I want to use my intellect in the game and take the emotion out of it by not attacking them, but get them to buy into the fact that, "Hey, you're a great player also and you're there and I had a part in putting you there, and you're so great. Nobody else could do that." So, in a weird way, give them these compliments, fill their cup up to think, "You know what? He's right, Iama badass and only he could beat me. Why not give him a vote?" So almost in a weird way, turn this instead of me against you into "Hey, you're Michael Jordan, you had a bad game, you had a bad moment. I just took advantage of it. So wouldn't you want to see me win as the best option you got right now?" Robert Voets/CBS I'm hoping that at this point I have a good understanding of what each jury member needs. Do these people need their ego stroked, or will they will respect good gameplay and respect me being harsh? I think at the end of the day, you always hear that people are just like, "If you did this, own it. Own it and we'll be okay with it." So I want to be able to own whatever I do. Some people I might need to own it and also pat their ego a bit, but I do want to own whatever I do. At the end of the day, if my strategy was something stupid that hurt a lot of people, I'm still going to own it and be like, "Yes, this was my strategy. I'm sorry it hurt you." But I think a problem with a lot of people who make it the final three is they just don't own the thing and they try to cover it up and make excuses, but that's not what the jury really is looking for. Robert Voets/CBS In a perfect world, I would get this stereotypical question of "Were you playing me? Were you who you said you were this entire time?" And I'll have to say, "No, I'm actually a lawyer." But even when I'm giving you this hypothetical question, it's more so like, "Are you this evil person who's been just tricking people this entire time?" And I want to tell people no. Usually that response to no backfires. Usually the jury's looking for the, "Yeah, I was a villain and I played hard and I tricked all of you." But I want to be able to tell the jury I connected with each one of you, not just personally, I'm not coming at you from a social perspective, but I met you where your game was at. I played the type of game that you wanted to play. And I think that's what's beautiful about this. People want to play the game the way that they want to play it. So if I play this game the wayIwant to, then I can look every jury member in the face and say that, "Hey, I playedwithyou. I played the fun game that you wanted to play. I met you where you're at because that's who I am. I love people and that's what got me here. You can think it's slimy, you can think whatever you want, but you authentically got me." And I think that's going to come across. I'm not saying I'm not going to lie or anything like that, I'm going to play as hard as hell. But I think that for me is going to look like really, really, really getting in with people so when they get voted out, it's going to hurt and I'm going to need to account for that. Robert Voets/CBS You have to be authentic. You have to own the exact thing that you did and why you did it. Because the people that really win, especially if it's a contentious Tribal, are the people that really own their game. They are authentically themselves and they really drive at what motivated them, what was going on, why they made the moves they made, even when they made moves that were stupid, admitting they made mistakes. I think that is where I really take the cake is I have no problem learning from my mistakes, admitting that I made them, and moving right through them. I attack them. You have to attack people's perceptions of you and explain to them what the hell's going on. Robert Voets/CBS The way that I want to talk to the final jury is just with brutal honesty. I'm not going to try to spice things up or dull things down because there's no point in trying to deceive people who just want an honest answer. I feel like more than anything, it's not even what I say — whether or not what I'm saying is something that they believe because it's true. Robert Voets/CBS If I'm in the final three, I already won because guys like me, we don't get to the final three. So if I did get to the final three, I'm already going to have a résumé that speaks for itself, let's be honest. And so all I have to do is just rely on that résumé and point out to the fact that guys like me do not make it to the final three. Why then am I standing here? It's pretty much going to be a pretty simple pitch regarding that. Robert Voets/CBS I don't think I'm trying to overanalyze what I'm going to say at the jury. If anything, I want the genuineness and the authenticity of who I am to come across. I want every single person on that jury to feel like they got to know me, they like me, and they trust me, and that's why they want to give me a million dollars. Robert Voets/CBS Well, so here's the thing. I feel like my gift and my curse is that I have this weird thing where people feel closer to me than I feel to them. So I feel like jury management might be an issue for me because I feel like I could look like someone who's just backstabbed everybody that was close to me. So if we get to final Tribal, I'm going to have to be really cognizant of that. And also, you can't belittle a jury. So I need to acknowledge everything that I did and own it and hope that they can just see past it and know that I was playing a game and that none of it was personal. Robert Voets/CBS My whole thing and my whole everything is just being me, being my authentic self. If I'm going to talk mess or talk s--- about you, just know after I talk s---, I'm going to come back and tell you, "Hey, I just said this about you." So nothing is thrown off. And I feel like when people are sitting on the jury, they're still a little upset. They have so much built up in them, they want to get everything out, but they can't. And so my thing, I want to be sure that whatever I say to the jury doesn't ruffle any feathers, but it is still my authentic self. So if somebody in the jury wasn't working their ass off, I'll still tell them they weren't working their ass off. And maybe me telling them that might cost me the million dollars, but I got to keep it real. I don't want to kiss nobody ass while I'm sitting here. I'm not going to beg for the million dollars. I'm not going to ask nobody to just hand it to me. I'm going to say what I need to say. And if they still feel at the end of the day after I said what I said, I still deserve that million dollars, then I'll take it with my hands open wide. But my whole thing is not to sugarcoat. I don't want to kiss nobody ass for the money. I just want to get it the natural me way. Robert Voets/CBS I think it was Maya Angelou who said something along the lines of: People don't remember what you did, but they remember how you made them feel. And I think that's exactly how I want to playSurvivor. For me, the way that I approach this game is all about relationships. It's all about connection. These people are going to be the ones who are going to dictate if you're going to win a million dollars or not. So for me, I have to make them feel like they were also a part of my journey and if they vote for me, then that's also a representation of our journey together. So I'm trying to do that already before the game starts — just smiling, being a very good social person. I never want to piss anyone off by being annoying, by being rude, condescending. I want to be a really happy-go-lucky person that makes people feel good. I think if I can make them feel good, they're going to feel good voting for me. Robert Voets/CBS I've thought about this a lot because I've been manifesting that I am in those final three seats. I want to just be genuinely me. I want to talk about what I assume will be my social game, which is what got me to the end, also my strategic brain, but really just own everything that I did. I can't stand when people go up there and don't own the way that they acted. So if I piss someone off, if I lie to someone, I will address that on the jury. I'm not going to hide it or pretend I didn't do it, and I'll just say, "It was gameplay. That's me. That's how I operated." So I guess the philosophy would be just utter transparency and complete ownership of the way that I played the game. And I have to say, I felt likeKenzieknocked it out of the park at final Tribal. I was equally devastated thatCharlielost and equally ecstatic that Kenzie won. I loved them both so much and I felt like she just went in there and held the bull by its horns and just owned it and was herself in every answer. And I feel like that got her the win. So I'm going to try to do that too. Iwilldo that too. Robert Voets/CBS I think the way I want to approach the game and the jury is I want to be someone who people feel comfortable coming to. And I'm used to that in my daily life as the manager of Luigi's. If there's an argument between the kitchen staff and the drivers, they'll come to me and we'll figure out a solution together, the three of us. Or if someone upfront is fighting with the customer because the order was wrong and they don't want to do a refund, the three of us will do the same thing. We'll come together, we'll find a solution. So I think that's the approach I want to take, and I want people to feel comfortable coming to me and hopefully giving me information — that's the most valuable asset to me, in my opinion in this game. I want to just harp on that to the jury. Obviously, thank them all for the experience. I think this is a really, really, really good cast. Just from looking at people and hanging around with them, not talking with them yet, obviously, but I do think that that's the best way for me to approach it. Robert Voets/CBS Well, I figured by the time you get to that point, they know you and you know them. They know your personal life. They know your friends and family. I am thinking there's a lot of time to get to know each other. And I have a lot of friends. I'm in my fifties, my mom's older. I'd like to take care of her. She's on food stamps and struggling to buy food. I would love to be able to help her. I have friends that just got diagnosed with cancer at home so I'd love to help my sick friends at home. So there's more than me winning money. It's me helping the people in my tribe. Robert Voets/CBS I've been thinking about it, because they always come out with these new difficult questions. Everybody's trying to one up one another. I think I'm going to take the approach of humanizing them. I feel like a lot of the times when the final three are there, they forget that at the root, these people are not just players. — they're players who have regular lives. So if I can humanize myself outside of the game, even though I had to show upinthis game, this is who I am outside of this game. And being apologetic along the way, maybe acknowledging some of the things that I did that were vicious and just being like, "I know I did that and I know this is how I showed up," and owning that. That's a biggie. I feel like a lot of people when they go through this game and they make really what some would call terrible human decisions, they don't go to the jury and acknowledge that they did that to someone and take ownership. I'd much rather take ownership for every single thing than I did, and you have respect for me, rather than walking away and never acknowledging that I actually hurt somebody who also has very valid reasons for wanting to win this show. Robert Voets/CBS I'm going to approach them with respect and with the context of this game because I'm going to approach them with very key moments that individually I've shared each one of them. I would've had a conversation, I would've known something about their life or their family or their wishes. And I'm going to use that as a bridge to say, "A part of me sitting here is because of you and you sharing your story with me." And that's going to show that we built that social connection and that we built not even just friendship in the game, but even outside of this game that's supersedes all of this. That's going to be the foundation of my conversation with them. And I'll be very explicit to say, "Yeah, thank you for sharing with me about that trip you took to Asia with your family," or "Thank you for sharing about that tragedy," and maybe not giving all details to kind of preserve some of that privacy for them. But I do want them to know that I'm listening, that I am engaged, and this is more than a game. This is really a relationship. This is a family that now I'm being blessed to have the opportunity to enter, and I want to show them that I'm listening and that's the reason why I'm sitting here convincing them to vote for me. Robert Voets/CBS Survivor, when you peel back every layer, is actually a really simple game. It is getting to the end. So not getting voted out, sitting next to two people you can beat. That's the magic of it. So you've got to really think about who are you playing against and who are you talking against at final Tribal. I also, I anticipate that my game will be an adaptable one. I am just as comfortable teaching children in New Orleans as I am advising VPs at the very large company that I work for. I expect that I will be able to talk to who is in front of me on the jury, and it will depend on who they are. And if you get a jury with a bunch of people who are emotional and pissed and proud, you got to talk to that. And you've got to find ways to acknowledge the feelings that they have that are so real. You've got to find a way to make the people who are getting voted out feel like they want to root for you. And there's going to be some compelling people here. I am so confident that the people who I'm playing against are going to be so compelling in their personal lives, so you've got to find a way to make yourself compelling too. Sign up forEntertainment Weekly's free daily newsletterto get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
