Survivor’s Eliminated Castaway Reacts to Katurah and Kellie’s Frustrations, Plus Emily’s Major Move
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday’s episode of Survivor.
What’s worse than playing an unnecessary immunity idol? Going home with one in your pocket.
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In Wednesday’s episode of Survivor, emotions ran at an all-time high as Julie struggled to handle her guilt and Jake struggled to stay in the know. Despite Jake’s spiraling paranoia, Emily pitched Bruce on what could’ve been a landmark blindside on an unsuspecting Mama J, making him feel comfortable enough to not play his idol. But in the end, his big blunder wound up costing him the game when he was kicked to the curb by a 4-3-1 vote. (Read a full recap here.)
Below, Bruce reacts to his giant blindside and details his shaky relationships with Katurah and Kellie. He also reflects on his puzzling auction decision, social flubs and more.
TVLINE | What a tough way to go out, but now that the episode aired, how are you feeling about what happened and the move that Emily pulled off?
BRUCE PERREAULT | I’m feeling OK. You have time to process. You have time to understand how this sort of happened. But now we have to quickly process what they’re editing and what they’re showing. Emily made a boss move. She did what needed to be done and she made a lot of people happy.
TVLINE | Emily made you feel comfortable that Julie was going to be the vote, but did anyone else give you that same assurance?
No, but I can go back to my conversation that I had when we voted out Sifu. The conversation was similar, so it’s funny how it actually worked out the same exact way. I had full faith in Emily. Emily and I spoke on a regular basis throughout the days that we were together. We passed information along and she never lied to me. When she told me that Julie was not working with me, she wasn’t lying at all. She was just basically saying, “No, she’s not working with you. She’s with the Reba four.” She brought up the idea of voting out Julie and I was like, “All right. Fine. That works for me.”
TVLINE | Your relationship with Katurah: How aware were you about her feelings toward you?
There was the unspoken feeling of mild tension, but there wasn’t anything as what we’ve seen via the edit. So there wasn’t really anything for me to fall back on or think about because I really didn’t think I was rubbing anybody the wrong way. But come to find out I was. I was the scouring pad just rubbing on someone’s back, just annoying the hell out of them. I didn’t pick up on that. I was just being me. All of my friends are like, “Bruce, that’s you. Why is she so upset with you?” I’m like, “I don’t know.” I’m not gonna pretend I’m someone that I’m not, so I’m bringing to these people who they would meet if they met me at a bar.
TVLINE | How is your relationship with her today?
I have spoken to Katurah. We are very civil to each other. I love the idea that she and I are going to grow our relationship. It’s gonna take some time to be able to do so because some people just don’t get together for whatever reason. You can’t pick your family, but Katurah and I were picked to be a family, in some way, shape or form — this beautiful, crazy, dysfunctional Survivor family. I’m very interested in growing a relationship with her and just to see where her journey takes her. I would love to see her make different accomplishments above and beyond the amazing ones that she’s done so far. But long story short, we have a working relationship at this point in time and we’ll just hopefully grow from there.
TVLINE | You seemed very hurt by the fact that Kellie thought of you as “overbearing.” Did you get a chance to speak to her about this at Ponderosa and how do you feel about it all now?
I was very taken aback in regards to Kellie’s thought process of me and how I was an anchor on her game. Ponderosa wasn’t really the time for us to speak. There was still tension there. There was tension with myself and basically everyone that was there because I was such a focal point of a lot of people’s games, which I didn’t understand. I’m 7’4″. I’m a huge presence. That’s what I think in my own head, but I don’t think that I project that to other people. But after the game, we had a chance to speak. We had some great conversations and Kellie is just a lovely, lovely human being. I look forward to every time I get a chance to speak to her.
TVLINE | You mentioned how you treated Kellie the same way you treat your daughter, and you also seemed open to other people’s criticism and feelings. What did you learn about yourself and did you have any big takeaways now that you’ve seen it all play out on TV?
When I said that I was treating Kellie like she was my daughter, there were a lot of comments that were said out there like, “No, she’s not your daughter, let her be.” But you know what? It wasn’t by way of bossing her around. It was more from the heart of treating her like my child and giving her the respect that she needed. Being very upfront with her and doing the things that needed to be done for me to feel comfortable with her, for her to feel comfortable with me. Was it taken a different way? Maybe it was?
But that helped me with my perspective once I left the game. During the show, I had said I was going to go back and talk to my daughter and my wife and have the conversation. I didn’t have the conversation with them. What I did do was change the way that I approach things. I changed myself. I can’t change other people. If I ask a question that I might not want to know the answer to, then it’s gonna make things worse. So I changed my approach to things and who I am towards my daughter, my wife and my son as well. I’ve not had better conversations with my daughter and my son. She’s in college. She calls me every day. Every day, we’re on the phone talking about something. We talk about everything. That’s a testament to the relationship that I have with her and how straightforward and honest I am with her.
TVLINE | I have to ask: Why didn’t you collect more money ahead of that auction?
[Laughs] Oh my God! Alright. Thank you for asking that question because I gotta clear this stuff up. I hurt myself on a reward challenge. I did not really care, nor did I know what was gonna happen. Everyone’s like, “Oh my God, you should have done this and da, da, da, da, da!” Listen: You’re not there! You have no idea. When they were taking that table off the boat, I thought it was a bunch of plates, like we were going to sit down and eat something. I thought it was a merge feast for everybody because they had the merge, but not everybody eats. I thought they were going to do a little breakfast. I don’t know! Hell, I was hungry! So I’m not running out there. I went in the woods and I’m looking around and it’s funny because when I’m like, “Oh my God, I can’t find it. You find anything?” and I found one. I go back and they have the auction and I lose my vote. It is what it is!
TVLINE | Why couldn’t the former Belos stay strong and try to take out the Rebas, who are clearly dominating the game?
I remember very vividly waking up and the Reba four were all talking on the beach. I just woke up and then they scattered when they saw me like roaches when the lights come on. Belo, there was a conversation that was happening of voting someone off literally after winning an immunity challenge. Why it was happening that early? I don’t know but myself, personally, I had no conversation about it. I was just talking about who I can align with. If there are any future Survivor players out there, just try to get that part of it together. Who are you going to align with? Belo had just been voting out their own people. We were just going nuts for each other, but it really started on Day 2. We were just like, “Alright, we’re going to cannibalize each other.”
TVLINE | All things considered, what was the hardest aspect of this season for you?
The hardest part, well, I would say there would be two. In hindsight, looking at my social game, which I felt was pretty good [at the time], was not good to the demographic of people that I was playing with, if that makes sense. But the other hard part, they didn’t show this but every night I would sleep on the beach and not in the shelter. I’d look up at the stars and have a conversation with my kids, my wife. Not a lot of people know this, but March 8th, my mother had passed away. It was like seven days after the premiere of 44, and then I go out to 45 a month later. Every day I was always looking out. I was always speaking to a star or a cloud or whatever I have just to speak to all four of those people. So that was tough. I had to clear my head the next morning after those conversations.
TVLINE | Besides not playing the idol, what do you think you could have done differently to maybe make some more inroads with others in the game?
My game was perfect. I didn’t need to change anything. [Laughs] Nah, I’m just kidding! It would be reading people a little bit differently. Inherently, I’m a very trusting person. Back to the social aspect of it, I asked a lot of questions about family and friends and things they like and food. We had great conversations, but maybe my follow-up in regards to those conversations could have been stronger.
TVLINE | Any last words or regrets you’d like to reflect on?
I would never call it a regret, but like I said, I would go back and definitely work on that social part of it, in regards to the people that I was with in that moment in time. I would have definitely worked on that. But this experience has been a dream of a lifetime. Two immunity idols, one hidden immunity idol. Kaleb mentioned it very well that 16 out of 17 days, I was safe in this game. There’s something to be said about that and I had a great time doing it.
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