Survivor 50 castaway Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick has opened up about the MrBeast twist and revealed who convinced her not to flip the coin.
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Survivor's merged Manulevu tribe voted out Stephenie after Rick Devens saved himself with a "mind-blowing" and unprecendented coin flip -- which was a twist created and executed by MrBeast -- at Tribal Council during Wednesday night's Season 50 episode.
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Survivor host Jeff Probst explained of the MrBeast coin-flip twist, "Tonight, one of you is going to flip this coin, and if it lands on what you call, you are safe tonight at Tribal Council. In addition, you will get an Immunity Idol, and the prize money for Survivor 50 will double to $2 million."
He added, "If, however, it does not land on what you call, the prize money remains at $1 million and we will not vote anybody out -- because the person who flipped the coin will go home."
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Devens enthusiastically volunteered to do the coin flip, and he appeared to be the only castaway truly willing to take the risk on Survivor's latest episode.
But according to Stephenie, that wasn't really the case.
"I actually went over and spoke to [Jonathan Young] and my trusted advisor [Cirie Fields] and said, 'Should I, you know, flip the coin? Do you guys think I should flip the coin?'" Stephenie recalled in her post-elimination interview with Entertainment Weekly.
"And Cirie was like, 'Do you want to?' And I was like, 'I don't know. Should I?' And she goes, 'I don't think so. I think you're fine.'"
Stephenie proceeded to ask her ally, Jonathan, for his thoughts.
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"I said, 'Jonathan, what do you think?' And Jonathan's like, 'No, I mean, let Devens do it. It's a fifty-fifty chance.' Really? Like, that was a ballsy move, and I really kind of wanted to, but then I would've had to fight Devens for it," Stephenie explained.
"We probably would've had to have a wrestling match at Tribal or an arm wrestling match."
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Stephenie said the backup target would've been Aubry Bracco.
"So, in my mind, even though the edit didn't really look like that, because a lot of people are like, 'Why didn't you flip the coin?' I'm like, 'I wanted to!' But, you know, you're taking a big risk," Stephenie said.
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"So there were a lot of conversations. There was a lot of live Tribal before that, after that, during that, there was a lot going on they didn't show. So I definitely thought it was going to be Devens, and if it wasn't Devens, the next plan was Aubry, as it's been for the past three weeks."
Stephenie admitted that Cirie is "very good at the emotional manipulation" aspect of the game.
"She knows what she's doing, and I'm buying it hook, line, and sinker," Stephenie confessed, "because I'm giving her my 1000% loyalty. I'm hopeful she's giving it back to me."
Stephenie said Cirie -- whom she had aligned with during pre-game conversations -- kept comparing them to sisters during the game.
"What you're not seeing is she's saying to me, 'You're like family to me, you're like a sister to me," Stephenie claimed.
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Stephenie added how Cirie was "made for these games" and she's definitely "cut out for this."
Stephenie, a three-time Survivor castaway whose best finish was second place on Survivor: Guatemala, was voted out through an 8-2 vote on Night 19 of the game at Tribal Council instead of Aubry, a three-time Survivor castaway whose best finish was second on Survivor: Kaoh Rong -- Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty.
Stephenie had stolen Devens' vote with her "Steal a Vote" advantage and voted for Aubry twice.
"That Steal-a-Vote sucked because I had to play it before they even go vote. So it's like almost not fair because now they can all be like, 'Oh, she's going to use it. Let's just all flip the vote to her,'" Stephenie said.
"There's a lot going on. MrBeast did not help. I considered flipping the coin, but no one was going to let me flip that coin. Definitely Devens was not going to let me flip that coin because only one person can, you have to fight over it or we had to go to rocks. I should've forced everybody to go to rocks."
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Stephenie explained that if there was no MrBeast twist and a regular Tribal Council session had played out, "it was supposed to be Devens" going home.
"But we had a backup plan. If it wasn't Devens, it was going to be Aubry," Stephenie shared.
"And Devens knew he was in trouble, and that's why he did his whole spiel, and then, of course, followed by a pitch. That's why Aubry actually leans over and says, 'I don't really want Devens to do it,' because if he becomes safe, she knew she was the next target."