Although he would still have to face a tiebreaking re-vote, Tyson Apostol appeared assured of surviving Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains' Villains tribe's second Tribal Council via a 3-3-3 vote-splitting strategy that Rob "Boston Rob" Mariano devised to flush out the hidden Immunity Idol Russell Hantz was holding.

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But, convinced that Russell wouldn't give the idol to his ally Parvati Shallow, Tyson decided to deviate from Rob's plan and attempt to avoid a revote and give Parvati a fourth vote by casting his own vote -- which was supposed to be for Russell -- for her instead.  And unfortunately for Tyson, Russell did give his idol to Parvati after all, resulting in her votes being nullified and the shocked former Survivor: Tocantins castaway being voted off via a 4-3-2 vote during last night's Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains broadcast instead.

On Thursday, Tyson talked to Reality TV World about his Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains experience -- including when he decided to change his vote, what he was thinking when he did it, how he wasn't expecting a 3-3-3 vote to have happened even without his vote change, and whether he believes Russell's surprise move could have been a game-changing repercussions.

Reality TV World: Hi Tyson, thanks for taking the time for this today.

Tyson Apostol: No problem, I didn't have a choice.

Reality TV World: (laughs)

Tyson Apostol: At first I was kind about it and then I was an asshole, sorry about that.  It was pretty funny though, right?

Reality TV World: I wouldn't expect anything else (laughs)

Tyson Apostol: Yeah. (laughs)  A charming asshole.

Reality TV World: After you guys got back to the Loser Lodge, did James and yourself spend some time debating who has the dumber Tribal Council move?

Tyson Apostol: (laughs) You know they actually took James away to Medical so I don't know, we didn't have a lot of time together.

I think I won on the dumber Tribal move though.

Reality TV World: I don't know, being voted out with two Immunity Idols in your pocket is pretty high up there too.

Tyson Apostol: Oh, that's true.  Yeah, that's pretty good too.

Reality TV World: It seemed like the only possible way the 3-3 split plan wouldn't have ended with you still in the game would have been if one of the other five people had turned and voted for you.  Did you decide to dump it because you really saw that as a greater possibility than Russell being willing to give Parvati the idol or was something else going on?

Tyson Apostol: Well, I wanted Parvati gone more than Russell.  And so in my mind I thought, they -- everybody knew we were doing the 3-3 split, Russell, Parvati, everybody knew that. 

And so I thought Parvati and Danielle are going to be smart enough to vote for Russell and send him home, but I know he has the idol and I know that if we got Parvati out he would have nowhere to turn but to me.  So my plan was to keep him in the game as an option.

I had actually told Russell, I said, "We're splitting the votes 3-3, I don't have a choice, you know I'm trying t keep on good sides with everybody." 

I was like "Not my choice, this is what the masses are doing, a 3-3 split on you.  You have to play your idol or vote Parvati.  That's the only way you're going to save yourself."

Reality TV World: So you actually laid that out for him?

Tyson Apostol: I laid that out for him that clear.

Reality TV World: And instead he turned around and [gave it to Parvati] and played it so it voted you off.

Tyson Apostol: Well, I knew that those three were going to vote for me, and I switched my vote seconds before I wrote it down.  Like nobody knew I was going to do that.  Nobody had an idea, there wasn't a single person on the cast or the crew that knew I was going to do that.  I just did it.

Reality TV World: But what I'm saying is when you did it you must have obviously believed Russell wasn't going to be giving Parvati the idol, correct?

Tyson Apostol: Exactly, yeah.  I mean it's a stupid move to give somebody the idol, for the most part, especially when [you're also in danger].

I think Russell was done.  I think he had quit the game, pretty much.  I think he knew that the odds were against him and whether he went this week or next week he knew he was a goner.  And I think that's why when I did leave, you could see that those three could not believe that they were still in the game.

I really think that his final move was to give Parvati the idol and kind of bow out gracefully before he gets voted out. 

Reality TV World: So did that conversation with Russell in which he had told you he was voting for Parvati play any role in what actually happened then?

Tyson Apostol: No, that didn't play any role at all.  What he had said was, "I can't vote Parvati."  And I said, "Okay, then you're going to have to play the idol."

And that's basically how it went.

Reality TV World: Right after you were voted off, you said that Russell's move probably earned him a "a little bit of respect and a little bit of power."  Do you really think that was a potentially game-changing move given he's still outnumbered or was that just your initial shock about what had happened talking?

Tyson Apostol: Well I think so with some people.  I think with Coach, because he did pay some tribute to Coach and that goes a long way with him.  So I think definitely with Coach it probably earned him a little bit. 

And then it was kind of showing that maybe he was loyal to his alliances once he made them -- which you know, you can't believe anything anybody does in the game.  But it does show a certain amount of loyalty.  That's what I meant when I said that.

Reality TV World: What do you think about Sandra?  She talks about being willing to write anyone's name down, but she seemed to the one that pushed the most to shoot down your plan to vote Parvati off at the first Tribal Council, and when I talked to Randy he suggested it was because she wants to keep another former winner in the game.   Do you think she might have something going on with Parvati?

Tyson Apostol: You know, she could.  I think that Sandra was not -- I mean she didn't hide the fact at all that she was going to go with the numbers where ever they were.  And so as long as you could convince her that you had the numbers, she was on your side.

So I think that she genuinely just disliked Randy, and I think there were a lot of people that did, and so I think that's kind of why everybody got rid of Randy instead of Parvati.

Reality TV World: What about Courtney?  Randy had also said he was convinced there was an alliance between Parvati, Danielle and Courtney, but obviously Courtney voted with your group on last night's show so that didn't seem to be the case. 

Tyson Apostol: Yeah, and Sandra voted with us too.  I mean there's alliances forming all the time, you can point your finger at any two people and they'll have an alliance of some sort for the most part, unless they're absolute enemies.  And that's the way it's always going to be. 

So for me to say that Sandra and Parvati and Courtney weren't talking is probably false, they probably were talking.  But you know, I was talking with everybody too. 

You talk with everybody and then from there you choose who your alliances are, and then based on whose going to get you further, who you think the smartest people to align with are, etc.

And so I think that maybe early on -- as early as when Randy was gone -- maybe Parvati, Sandra and Courtney did have something going on.

Reality TV World: Do you think Rob would have been a vote target for more than just Russell, Parvati and Danielle if he hadn't had immunity?

Tyson Apostol: Oh yes.  He would have definitely gotten those three votes and I know Jerri wanted him out of the game but I had convinced her that we needed to get rid of the Russell/Parvati alliance before we got rid of Rob.

So I was kind of the glue that held all six together.  Because Coach and Jerri were kind of like "in betweeners."  They were both talking with Russell and they were both talking with me. 

But I convinced them well enough that they should come with me for the time being and then we could go against Rob in the future if we needed to. 

Reality TV World: Why do you think Rob decided it was more important to get rid of Randy instead of Parvati?

Tyson Apostol: I think Randy you know is kind of interesting because he's kind of a pessimist.  You know, to put it lightly.

Reality TV World: (laughs)

Tyson Apostol: (laughs)  And so for the morale around camp and stuff it was hard to keep him.  I tried to protect him and I tried to keep him because I knew he had no friends anywhere.  But if everybody else just dislikes him as a person, you can't go against that. 

There were too many people that I think just disliked him as a person and on personal grounds alone that wanted him gone.  So all I could do was say, "Okay, we'll take him out."

I wasn't too heartbroken on it because he really wasn't that strong in the challenges [and] he didn't help out around camp that much.  It was kind of like, "Well, I'd rather Parvati be gone but having Randy gone isn't the worst thing that could happen."

Reality TV World:  But Parvati was still going to be the clear next choice all along, it didn't have much to do with Russell and the idol that made that happen, right?

Tyson Apostol: Yeah, correct.  And I think Russell was putting a bigger target on his back as he was searching for the idol, which we all knew he had, and as he was just rubbing everyone the wrong way. 

Like Russell has the uncanny ability to just rub everybody the wrong way all the time.  And I didn't -- I mean for me, I'm a relatively easy-going guy and so he never bothered me, I always got along fine with him and whatever.  I mean I knew he was slimy and he was sneaky but it didn't bother me.

But I do know that a lot of people were quite bothered with him in general.

Reality TV World: Everyone talks about Parvati and Russell but no one mentions ever Danielle.  What's the deal with that, was her alliance with him just not as obvious until last night's episode or does nobody consider her a threat of any kind?

Tyson Apostol: Yeah, she's not a threat of any kind I don't think.  I don't think she's a thinker or a gameplayer.  I think that's what it boils down to.
About The Author: Steven Rogers

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