‘Survivor: Tocantins” Sydney on Her Ousting

It was the third straight week that the Jalapao Tribe lost the Immunity Challenge on “Survivor: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands” and had to face host Jeff Probst at Tribal Council. There was a lot of negotiating behind the scenes as to who would go home: Was it going to be Tamara “Taj” Johnson-George, who had the Immunity Idol, or would it be Sydney Wheeler? When the vote was counted, Taj’s alliances held and 24-year-old Sydney, who lives in San Diego, Calif., was cast out of the Highlands. ET: Were you blindsided by the vote? I was. Sydney Wheeler: I knew it was coming, unfortunately. I had the feeling that something was going on, so I pulled JT aside about an hour before Tribal Council. He told me that it was between Taj and me, and it was leaning toward me because Taj has a little more pull with the other tribe. Going into the merge with the few numbers that we had, we needed someone who had a good relationship with the tribe. In that sense I understood, but you never want to be voted off, so it sucked. ET: How aware were you that Joe was attracted to you? Did you play on that attraction to ensure a place in the tribe? Sydney: About two days into it, Joe, Spencer and I actually had an alliance that they didn’t show on TV. Joe and I got along as friends. He was more like my big brother out there. They tried to play it like we had a romance going, but he was more like my “Survivor” best friend. He was my protector. He was also the middle man between JT, Stephen and me. He was in an all-guy alliance with them, so I tried to make my way into that all-guy alliance with Joe. I wasn’t aware that he actually liked me. We just got along pretty well. ET: Did Joe ever tell you that he had found the Immunity Idol? If so, did he ever offer to let you use it? Sydney: No. I know he found it a couple of hours before I got voted off. The whole time he was telling me that I had nothing to worry about because Taj was next. JT wasn’t actually told until a couple of hours before about the Immunity Idol that Taj had. I think JT thought that Taj was the next to go. Then, the tables turned when he found out that she had the Immunity Idol. She became more of an asset. ET: Did you suspect that Taj had the Immunity Idol? Sydney: No. I was in the dark. She went to JT. I think that is how she got his vote. She knew she would have been voted off that night. ET: What’s it like to watch yourself on TV? Sydney: It is so weird to see yourself on TV. You think you know what you are going to look like and sound like. I didn’t want to be stereotyped as this blonde-haired ditz girl, but I look at myself on TV and that is exactly what I am. I am trying to accept it in a way that is positive — and read the dictionary a little more. It is definitely weird, because you see those little quirks you didn’t know about yourself. ET: What do you think of the cross-tribe alliance between Taj, Stephen, Sierra and Brendan for the merge? Sydney: Honestly, I think it is interesting. When I was out there, I did not think that Taj had a game going on. I thought she was just trying to get by and just not playing a very hard game. Watching it on TV, she is just on fire. She is doing awesome. I hope that they do really well. Of course, I am going to go for my Jalapao. Watching Timbira and Brendan and Sierra, it seems as if they have a pretty good alliance going for them, as well. I don’t know it is going to turn out. I hope it is going to be Jalapao. ET: Was being hungry the hardest part, or was there something harder? Sydney: “Survivor” is real, which people just don’t get watching it for 45 minutes, where we lived three days of it. The hardest thing, honestly, for me was trying to find some normalcy and balance. Also, the people. Dealing with Sandy on a daily basis was insane. I felt she was rubbing off on me a little bit. You see people in a totally different light when they haven’t had anything to eat or drink. I tried not to judge them because they are playing a game out there. It is such a weird dynamic out there. ET: If you had a do-over, would you change anything? Is there something you think you should have done differently that would have produced a different outcome? Sydney: I wouldn’t rely on Joe so much to be the middle man. I relied on his alliance with JT instead of making my own alliance with JT or Taj. Also, getting an alliance with Taj, we could have just as easily voted JT off, as he wanted us voted off. Also, I shot myself in the foot when I voted Spencer off, because I think Spencer would have been true to our alliance. I really believe Spencer would have gone all the way with us. That, and just not trying to be a friend to people and honest and trustworthy. I was out there playing a game. I went out there knowing that I wanted to not be that way, and I still played the game that way. Looking back, it gets under my skin. ET: What was the biggest readjustment to being home? Sydney: I would say food. I lost 11 pounds while I was out there. When I started eating again, my body soaked up all of it 200 percent. I gained all the weight back plus more. Also, sleeping in a bed. We were so used to sleeping on the ground and on fronds, and our backs and our skin being ashy and dry. For me, mentally, it wasn’t so bad. I tried every day to think about my friends and family. Thinking about them helped me get through the game. “Survivor: Tocantins” airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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