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Survivor’s Michelle: “Jericho threatened me”

There’s no love lost between the former friends.
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Michelle and Jericho may have had a strong alliance, things can flip at any moment on Survivor**.

And that’s exactly what happened.

In tonight’s episode, Michelle turned on him and made a deal with Pete. Of course, this didn’t go down to well with Jericho.

The duo came to blows over her plotting ways and Jericho threatened to vote her out. But fiery Michelle refused to play by Jericho’s rules. Uh-oh!

With the votes tied Michelle had to battle it out with Jericho in the fire challenge. Unfortch, her fire was more fizzle than sizzle and a devastated Michelle was sent packing.

Now, she’s dishing the dirt to NW on what REALLY went down with Jericho…

Michelle, we are shocked that you were eliminated! We totally thought you had the game in the bag.

Oh, well so did I!

Drama went down between Michelle and Jericho.

You and Jericho seemed like such good friends. Tell us what happened.

Basically, Jerry and I got on for 52 days and we had a little tiff before the tribal council so Jerry basically said to me this afternoon, ‘You are not to talk to anyone, you are going to make me feel paranoid. I want you stay here with me, that way I know that you’re sticking with me. I don’t want you having anymore conversations. Otherwise I will write your name down tonight we will go to fire and I will beat you.’ For 52 days I have never argued with Jericho but for 52 days I have never ever bit my tongue either and I basically said, ‘Get stuffed! I will do as I like and I will not be told who I can and cannot talk to!’

Do you regret your decision now?

That might have been a moment where it might have been good to bite my tongue and roll my eyes and not have that conversation, but at the same time that strategy hasn’t worked for me in the past and I just went with what I knew.

How did the elimination go down?

Tara’s big move that night was to flip and get me out with Jerry. So it was me and Pete voting Jericho. And Jericho was the only one that I was doubting whether I could actually beat, and I wanted to see him removed from the game. Unfortunately, they got me removed from the game and it went to fire. As soon as it went to fire I just went, ‘I’m having burgers tonight’ (Laughs). And I did.

When it got down to the final four, did you feel that you had to be more aggressive?

Oh, I stuck with the strategy that worked for me for 52 days. So, if someone told me, ‘You’re not doing this or can’t do this or you have to sit down.’ I mean, no, I would do as I please, I will not be told what to do or dictated. So I just went with what I knew, but in hindsight I probably should have reassured [Jericho] more.

Could things have gone differently for Michelle?

Do you think things could have been different for you and Jericho?

Look, I feel that if that conversation had happened an hour before tribal council we would have come back 10 minutes later and said, ‘Let’s forget about that, that was silly. I am with you tonight, you don’t have to worry about it.’ And look, the votes might have gone a different way but I think everyone sitting on the jury has that moment where they go, ‘If that moment had of been different, I wouldn’t have been on the jury and I could have won the whole thing.’

I think that everyone has that one moment, so you never know. Since then I have had conversations with three of them and I have kind of found out that no one was actually taking me to the end. So, my only way of winning was to win the final immunity challenge and that’s another what if.

But you were so close!

I think it was a bit annoying that I was so close but so far. But that’s the game really. Hats off to the winner because it’s hard but then it’s definitely a mind game more than anything else.

But everyone had you pegged as the biggest threat.

When we got to the top ten a lot of people were saying you can beat people, you dominate the tribal council and I went, ‘Oh this is not a good thing’. But look, I needed to save myself a few times [on tribal council] and then I tried to dumb it down a little bit at tribal council and then I just flipped back to my old self but it’s a compliment in a way.

Michelle was viewed as a threat by the others.

Do you think your blow up with Jericho will affect how you vote in Tribal Jury?

No way, for me I want to vote for the person who has played the best game over the last 55 days and if that person screws me over or did the wrong thing by me then they got me and, good on them, they got me out. I want to vote for the person that is the best player in my mind and what I consider the best survivor player.

How does it feel knowing people that didn’t make any big moves in the game got further than you?

I mean Tara would say things to me like, ‘Every time I went to tribal council I didn’t know what was going on’ or ‘I didn’t make a big move till day 45 I just sat back and chilled back then’. And, you look at it and go I fought for my life! But, at the end of the day they are saying this to someone that is on the final jury so you’ve got to be careful of any slip of the tongue.

What is Jury Villa like? We can’t image it’s boring with Luke and Locky around!

I was actually feeling guilty in Jury Villa of how much fun I was having. It was just amazing! And, you know, for 52 days all we had was rice and beans and coconut. It got to the point on some days where I was going, ‘I’m not even going to eat this meal anymore ’cause I just can’t put the same three things in my mouth. It’s just horrible! And then I had this smorgasbord of whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. It didn’t take long to gain that weight back, I tell you that! (Laughs)

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