‘Survivor’ postgame: Stephanie talks a bit more trash

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She may have been the one person I kind of wanted to defeat the unstoppable Matt on Redemption Island. But the ‘golden boy’ won his fifth duel, and Long Beach waitress Stephanie Valencia was sent home on Wednesday night’s ‘Survivor.’

While preparing for my morning-after interview with her, I mainly wondered what didn’t Stephanie Valencia say while on the show. As I expected, it wasn’t much, which is why she braces herself when watching the episodes air.

‘It’s kind of torturous the day of, you don’t know what they’re going to show,’ she said. ‘There’s so many things I see myself say that I don’t remember saying ... but my family and friends, they know me.’

She did remember her parting, caustic words to Ralph, which she said were edited out. She told him to stop kowtowing to Sarita. ‘She would kind of tell him what to do around camp,’ Stephanie said, ‘and he’d always go do it.’

Stephanie seemed more perplexed than surprised over Sarita being voted out but said she was ‘very, very happy.’ After all of Zapatera’s talk about loyalty and trust over strength, she doesn’t know why they didn’t change course earlier. As far as her own course in the game, she said she knew she wanted to team up with Russell but elaborated on her first thoughts about some other people. ‘When I first saw our tribe, I was like, ‘Cool, we got the country guy,’ he’ll be good,’ Stephanie said, talking about Ralph. ‘I thought Steve was huge, he looked like some Disney villain ... and Julie looked strong, but I worried we had the two older people. And then when I saw Russell, I thought, ‘Holy ...’ [But] yes, I already wanted to make an alliance with Russell. People don’t like him, they wouldn’t vote for him and give him money, so of course I’d want him in the top three with me.

Like Russell and Krista before her, Stephanie spoke of early alliance attempts with Dave, whom she said they thought they had. It was while trying to court Julie that David backed out, and, obviously, Julie didn’t go their way, either.

And, just like Krista when I asked her whom she’d put money on to win this season, Stephanie said anyone from Ometepe and none from Zapatera. I asked her what she’d do if Matt’s injury we were shown in the sneak peek for next week’s episode did hurt him in the duel and little ol’ Sarita made it back into the game.

‘I’d die, I’d stop watching the show,’ she said, laughing. ‘I don’t have high hopes for her’ she gives up all the time in challenges, I guess thinking she has the rest of the tribe to rely on. It’s awful. Maybe she’ll have the strength to pull it out on her own, but I’m certainly not rooting for her.’

Stephanie said she’s grateful for the ‘Survivor’ fans, especially when it can go either way -- however you’re edited -- and shared some pop-culture favorites to let them in a bit more: ‘I’m a huge music fan. Huge [Eric] Clapton fan. I heart Radiohead and grew up with the Beatles. Maná was my first concert.’ She also said she kept in touch with Krista, David and Francesca.

‘Krista I heart to death, and Dave and I live in the same area,’ he in West Hollywood, Stephanie said. ‘We had ka-razy fights that they didn’t even show; it was up and down the whole time. He said he was on my side, and now I can see that.’

Of course, there’s the reunion show, and Stephanie said she’s looking forward to it, despite how things might have looked.

‘Things I’ve said, I was in game mode,’ she said. ‘I want to get to know these people outside of the game, and I hope they are different. I think everyone’s in the same boat that way, so we should be able to get along. I don’t know, though, bringing up stuff, it might get crazy.’

Note: If you guys ever have any questions you’re dying to ask the person eliminated from the show, tweet me @anthonyw_ent once they’ve put their buffs into the urn. I interview them Thursday mornings.

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‘Survivor’ recap: Sense and sensibility

‘Survivor’ postgame: Krista on her faith and playing with Russell

‘Survivor’ recap: Family portrait

Complete ‘Survivor’ coverage on Show Tracker

— Anthony Williams
twitter.com / anthonyw_ent