SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “I Deserve All of This,” the ninth episode of “Survivor” Season 50.
It’s safe to say that “Survivor” player Christian Hubicki won’t be watching “The Tonight Show” anytime soon. Christian, who first competed in Season 37, “Survivor: David vs. Goliath,” became the 13th person voted out of the 50th season — in part, due to Jimmy Fallon.
Wednesday’s episode featured two big twists. First, Jeff Probst competed alongside the group of castaways. It was part of a side bet: four of the competitors — Ozzy, Joe, Tiff and Jonathan — had to outlast Probst; if all four did, the tribe would get a large bag of rice. After seven-and-a-half minutes, Probst dropped and all four of them continued to battle it out.
During this challenge, he revealed that this was born during a conversation he had with Fallon. To keep with the theme of “In the Hands of the Fans,” Fallon polled his audience, asking if the host should compete — and they voted yes.
But that’s not all Fallon had up his sleeve. After Joe won the immunity challenge, he had to send one person on a journey. Instead of blindly picking, he asked who was interested; those who were played rock, paper, scissors. Christian won and was sent away on a boat.
He arrived at a floating dock in the middle of the sea, where he received a note from Fallon himself. If he completed the puzzle, he could place an extra vote, right then, in the urn. But he couldn’t complete the puzzle. He didn’t have to lie about what happened, but instead, was instructed to take the note back to camp and read it aloud there. When back on land, he revealed that for the first time in “Survivor” history, he would be writing his own name down at tribal council.
Although there were a few votes thrown at Ozzy and Devens, it was ultimately Christian who was sent home. Variety, who was on set during the emotional day in Fiji, spoke exclusively with Christian about what happened during the puzzle, his thoughts on 50 and how he feels about Mike White after voting him out.
How are you feeling, looking back at the journey of 50 today?
The overall experience of the show is it was glorious. It was a fantastic experience. There are so many ways that the show can go, and you basically agree to the gamut of them. You could be out first. You know, you could trip on a coconut and get medevaced. There are worse things that could happen than Jimmy Fallon intruding upon your life in the game and being forced to adapt to that. I’m so grateful. It was such a wonderful time. And even the Jimmy Fallon thing, it’s kind of hilarious. If it didn’t happen to me, I think I’d find it very funny. Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people. And it just so happens, the other people was me.
Before we get into this episode, how did you feel about how Devens handled the fake idol?
I did not know he was going to pull it out at that point. I thought we had the votes, but at the same time, there was a lot of chatter. People were getting up and talking to people before he played it at that Tribal Council, so I understood why he did. I’m sitting there kind of wincing, thinking, I hope this was the right time. Also, it created such a political furor. In my mind, it would have been a close vote, but Coach and Chrissy would have gone. That is my perspective. I could be wrong. I’m not sure any of us will ever actually know who would have gone at that point. But it went from that to now, everybody better get on board. The live tribal happens, and everyone has told everyone lies as to how the vote was going to go down. The wires are crossing, the cover stories are blowing up. You’ve got to make a new cover story. It’s wild. It’s crazy. It was memorable. I will never forget that series of minutes.
OK, diving into this week. You raised your hand for the journey, so I assume you wanted to go on it. Getting onto the boat, were you excited?
When I got on the boat, I was thinking this is a good thing. Whatever happens, whatever this is, I control it. If there’s an advantage there, no one has it but me. Even if I don’t have it, no one has it. It’s not in someone else’s hands. So whether I won or lost was less important. And I’m thinking, what’s the worst that happens on a journey? When you go there, you lose your vote if you lose a challenge. I thought, that’s not good, but it’s not potentially fatal. So I’m making a calculation. Do I want Ozzy to get this advantage? The other thing I was thinking about is that this is “Survivor 50.” This could be “Survivor” trivia! If this is “Survivor” trivia, I’ve got this. That would be perfect. It was very much not. So I was thinking: This is OK. What’s the worst that could happen?
And then… the worst that could happen happened.
Then I literally got the worst possible thing that could happen. And we had the hint! Jeff mentions at the challenge that this is Jimmy Fallon’s idea. But far be it from me to understand the depths of Jimmy Fallon’s plans for me.
So you get the puzzle. How difficult was it, and how tough was the pressure, with the weights dropping into the water?
I panicked because of the timing. That kind of puzzle, you have to grind out — try the combinations, grind it out, grind it out. You have to stay on your toes. I would get stuck on a piece, but I really should have pivoted to other pieces. I really needed to concentrate. The weights were going in, and I’m realizing time’s ticking away. You start to get in your own head. So I panicked. Now, in the cold light of day, I think it was doable. But under the gun of that pressure, it really just got to me.
How was camp when you got back and read the letter aloud? Did you immediately feel like you were done?
The downside of going on the journey was being away from camp, and that’s something I should have factored in more. Journeys were not really a thing in my season. Now, knowing, I would just not go on a journey on principle. There was a point where Emily Flippen took me aside after I read the note. She goes, “Christian, don’t go on journeys. Let other people go on journeys. Don’t go on journeys. Why are you going on journeys?” I’m like, “I didn’t know!” But Emily said, “Don’t worry, I have a plan. I think I can marshal the votes onto Ozzy.” I had floated this idea earlier in the episode, to mixed effects, but Emily is sharp. She’s very perceptive, and she has different relationships than I do. So this could work. But I felt a little powerless — I couldn’t vote and I couldn’t push too hard in the position I was in, so I was just talking to people.
In this process, I missed some warning signs — some warning signs I told myself to look out for that this was not going right. I thought, what options do I have? I can’t play my shot in the dark. The fake idol at tribal is gone. I have to rely upon Emily pulling this out. If I knew things were going sideways, I would have to pull out something else crazier.
So at tribal, you thought you had a chance.
I was optimistic… I genuinely was blindsided. I didn’t know I was going home. I thought that Emily might have marshaled the votes, but things went sideways, as they do on “Survivor.”
You were very emotional in your goodbye. Being on set, I got to see the unedited, raw version, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. How emotional was it for you to be sent home?
I always try to be a good sportsman, because these people are playing every bit as hard as I hope to play, so good for them. I wish them all well, irrespective of whether I worked with them or not. That’s just the nature of the game.
Obviously, I wanted to win this for my son, to show that you can fight for what you feel that you deserve, and it can work out. It’s OK to be self-sacrificing and give to others, but this can be your thing. And so what does it mean now? The truth came in saying, “Look son, sometimes we think that there’s this one thing we will win or get in our lives that will make us happy and make all our dreams come true. But all that can happen, even if you don’t win. Your dreams can still come true. You can’t control everything that happens in your life. You can control how you march forward to get what you feel will make you happy.”
You came in with a few allies this season — one being Mike White, whom you blindsided. He said he hasn’t spoken to you since the show ended and heard you were bragging about getting him out. How do you view your relationship with him now?
I’m hopeful that Mike and I can talk again. I sent him a message as soon as I got home, because I knew that Mike would be hurt by this. That was the thing I hated the most about the move. In terms of me bragging about it, the only way I’m bragging about anything is that it was a complicated plan. The thing that I didn’t like most about that vote was that it would hurt him. I like him, and I always have. I always found him such an interesting person. Anytime I get a chance to talk to him, he has such an insightful way of just pivoting a conversation with such few words, recontextualizing. I always respected that.
The only reason I made that move is that I felt that if I didn’t, I was marching into the merge a dead man, especially with the “David vs. Goliath” three. I was the target of those three. It would have been seen as me protecting them for multiple votes, after telling people I’m not going to work with Angelina. Now I’m a liar and also a target. Once Mike really started to push to save Angelina, and I felt was trying to keep me from seeing the truth — which was how screwed I would be at the merge — I thought, Mike is not really trying to help me out here. He’s not trying to say this about Emily to help me. He’s trying to help Angelina. And once that switch flipped, I thought, Mike is the glue between Angelina and Ozzy. So if I get rid of Mike, these two are on the outs. Now we have three people, and Ozzy and Angelina probably won’t get together. I could be on the right side of the votes for the next however many votes there are. That’s all that was about.
And I told Mike this. I sent him a message as soon as I got back, because I knew he’d be hurt and probably confused, and I hope that at some point he sees that, and I’m hopeful someday that we can talk again. When I voted him out, I said, “I’m not sure, Mike, if you’ll ever understand how much respect I’m writing into this vote. I hope that someday you’ll understand and we can talk.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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