Sierra Dawn Thomas’ immunity idol advantage came back to bite her in the butt on the May 10 episode of Survivor. In a last-ditch attempt to keep herself in the game, she tried to earn Sarah’s trust by telling her about the idol. Then, Sierra dug herself into a deeper hole by promising to will the advantage to Sarah if she was sent home. In the end, Sarah betrayed Sierra, and teamed up with Michaela to re-join the Cirie/Andrea alliance and vote Sierra out.
“I think I let my emotions get the best of me,” Sierra told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “I feel like I’ve been cheated on by my boyfriend! My stomach turned. She played me, she played me good. I had no idea — I truly thought it was Brad who voted for me. The look when my name was read…I looked at him, and he didn’t give me much of anything. He was just…blank face. I look at Sarah and she’s on the brink of tears, shaking her head. Once again, she was playing me — as I was leaving! I thought Brad had sent me home and in that moment I forgot the whole game and relationship I had formed with Brad, so I willed the idol to Sarah.”
Do you think things would’ve been different if you didn’t tell Sarah about the advantage and promise to will it to her?
Absolutely. Andrea would’ve gone home. I am still so confident. Michaela was going to go Andrea — she felt betrayed by Andrea. I really, truly feel like we could’ve gotten enough numbers to go Andrea.
Had you told anyone else about the legacy advantage before Sarah?
No, and I didn’t have any intention to tell anybody. We had been sitting there talking for an hour, just being emotional and crying with each other. For some reason, I decided to tell her, and I had zero intentions of telling anyone. I don’t even know how it came out of my mouth still. I was in a vulnerable position. Watching it back makes me sick. I feel embarrassed, ridiculous.
The other alliance wanted to split up you and Brad for a while — at first, you were the target, then last night, it was Brad. What was the dynamic of your alliance?
I think we both had our moments. There was a lot of the time during the early half of the game, I was in charge, and I feel like he backed me up on that, which isn’t always a great thing. It obviously puts a target on you back. But between the both of us, I feel like we wee being really smart about who we had to get rid of and talked to each other and listened to each other. We both had our moments of taking the reigns.
As a viewer, it’s pretty obvious Cirie is a HUGE threat. Why did you guys always want Andrea over her?
I think Cirie did a great job at putting a target on other people’s backs. Watching it, you see how good she was at manipulating. She’s playing a great game. She was letting Andrea take the lead and kind of stood behind her. We were just seeing Andrea has a huge, physical threat, where Cirie’s not doing amazing in the challenges. Cirie was kind of just taking the backseat.
Before the game, a lot of people criticized you and said you weren’t a ‘game changer.’ Do you think you proved them wrong?
I hope so! I feel like I was in the same boat they were — I questioned myself until the moment I got out there. I’m my worst critic. I was like, ‘I’m going to play with these people, I don’t deserve to be out there.’ That is what solely lit the fire underneath me and made me play as hard as I did. Because I heard all of that. I heard, ‘She doesn’t deserve to be there,’ and I made a promise to myself to play the hardest, best game I possibly could. I feel like, aside from my secret advantage debacle, I did that.
I feel like there’s a lot maybe you didn’t see about how in charge I was. I was in charge of the Malcolm vote, the Caleb vote. Those were 100 percent me. I really had a voice. It kind of looked like me and Brad, but a lot of the time, I was in charge. I feel like they showed a lot, though — just seeing my name brought up so much shows that I was playing really, really hard.
‘Survivor: Game Changers’ — PICS
How was playing this time different from the last time you played?
My strategy. I played harder. I wanted to get to the end and I wanted to have reasons why I deserved to be the sole survivor. I wanted to stand up in front of these people I admire and can’t believe I’m playing with and tell them why they should vote for me. I learned the first time I played that the social part is important, and I still had that, but I knew I had to do a lot more than just be a friend. I had to have reasons in the end for people to vote for me.
Who’s the biggest threat left?
I’m going with Andrea. She’s running things. She’s killing the challenges. That girl is dangerous — she’s good.
Would you play again?
The competitor in me says, ‘Yesterday. Absolutely yes.’ I’ll go right now. I would love to see who I would be a third time around. I feel like I’m doing really well at learning my mistakes and knowing my strengths. If given the opportunity, I would.
HollywoodLifers, what do you think about Sierra getting eliminated?