Yahoo Lifestyle Parvati Shallow Teases Spiritual 'Deal or No Deal Island' Season 2 Ending: 'The Most Mind-Blowing Experience I've Ever Had' (Exclusive)
Tonight's episode of Deal or No Deal Island Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger, with Courtney "C.K." Kim going rogue, taking time away from taking on the Banker at the Temple to call out the scheming going on behind the scenes. It capped off a madcap first half of Season 2 of the NBC reality series, a month-and-a-half of big characters, record-breaking games of Deal or No Deal, and back-to-back game-changing blindsides.
But if there's one player who knows how to thrive in the chaos, it's Parvati Shallow. The Survivor legend and Traitors star has been able to remain out of the fray, never once being vulnerable of getting eliminated. But that hasn't kept her out of the scheming, including the emergence of a "family" alliance helmed by her and fellow Survivor winner David Genat. And it's earned her a rival in another reality TV alum with Big Brother legend Dr. Will Kirby.
Parvati spoke with Parade about how she was guided onto Deal or No Deal Island, the alliances and rivalries she's built so far, and why the ending of this season is the "most mind-blowing experience" she's ever had.
Related: Everything to Know About Deal or No Deal Island Season 2
So you made your return to reality TV last year on The Traitors, becoming a breakout character. And we know you also returned to Survivor to film a season of Australian Survivor at the end of last year. So what made you decide that Deal or No Deal Island would be your island before the island?
Oh, man. Well, Sharon Vong is my reality show guru mentor. I don't know what you would call her. She's like the Wizard of Oz for me for reality TV shows. So Sharon is the one who convinced me to do Triators, and then also called me for Deal, and was like, "Would you do it? You'd be so great." And Rob had just done it, and I'd watched Rob play, and I thought it looked really fun. And I'm used to going out and playing reality games that are grueling and very stressful. And I said, "Why not do a show that's fun? That has a really fun host, Joe Manganiello, is a blast. And you get fed, you get to live this life of luxury and potentially win multiple millions of dollars without starving to death." And Sharon pushed me over the edge. I said, "Alright!"
Well, you were not the only Survivor winner out there. Talk to me about clocking David immediately. It seemed like you went from an alliance of mutually assured destruction, hiding each other's identity, to become ride-or-die allies.
I love a ride-or-die! I haven't been able to get one in a while that's a good one. But if you go back and watch me on Cook Islands, Nate was my ride-or-die over there. And then in Micronesia, I had Amanda and Cirie. And then Natalie, I love her. I even have Russell as a ride-or-die. When you get a good strategic game player who you vibe with out there, to me, that's magic. So when I found that in David. I didn't know that it would be that way at first. I was just like, "I need this guy on my side, not against me. He could blow up my spot; I could blow up his. But let's just see." And then, as the game played out, I was like, "Oh, I can really trust Him." And he's good. He plays like me, but he's like a guy. So I was like, "Oh my god, this is wild". It's sort of like my male foil out there on the island. It was really strange, because we got each other. Our brains work in very similar ways in the game. So it was just like, "Oh yeah, I get him. He gets me. Let's ride this to the end."
You two serve as the nucleus to build the "family" alliance with Dickson and eventually Maria-Grace. Talk to me about how that developed. And were you aware it was as visible of an alliance as the others were clocking?
The best alliances happen organically. The Black Widow Brigade, I didn't plan that ahead of time. It happened because it was a mixture of the incredible contestants, the cast that was in the game. So we have this special moment with David and I on the swing. Dickson comes and sits between us, and we're just having a real conversation about family. And Dickson shares this sort of sad story about his parents. When he was a baby, he was essentially given up for adoption to this other couple. So David and I are like, "Alright, we will be your mom and dad out here. No prob." And then I'm thinking, "Well, this is a fun game to play, the family inside this game."
So I just wanted to max out on fun, and playing this roleplay of the family felt silly and campy and fun. But it was also strategic, because I had David and I already working together. Dickon already knew who I was. He was kind of running around, making one on one alliances with everybody, so I just I knew that about him. But I was like, "Let's play up the family." We weren't trying to hide it. Everyone knew about our alliance out there on the island, and I played it up. Every time we were at dinner, I was like, "Hey sweetie, make sure you eat your vegetables before you get your dessert." It was silly and it was annoying everyone. And I was like, "I'm gonna double down on this." It was fun for me. And then with M.G., what you didn't see was I told MG to play the banker. I said, "MG, Will is going to target you if he plays." Because I knew how threatened Will was by David. It was very clear that M.G. and David were very close. They were hanging out a lot on the island. M.G. was seen as David's ride or die. So I was like, "Will is going to take you out. I think you should play." And she was like, 'Nah.'"
Well, while you got along swimmingly with one reality TV alum in David, it was quite the opposite with Dr. Will. It doesn't help when he starts off his game by calling out that you played Survivor in front of everyone. While a few people had approached you saying they knew that information, this is the first time everybody knew. What was your reaction to that, and how did having your history out there affect the way you approached your game?
I knew the information was going to come out at some point. I was prepared for people to know who I was. I just wanted it to be a little later in the game when it blew up. But once Will outed me. I was like, "Okay, I'm dealing with this." I already had a few strategic relationships, so I wasn't that worried about it. The way I played DONDI was I just showed up and surrendered to what was happening in the moment without trying to fight it. I accepted reality, and then I worked with it. So when Will came in, I was like, "Okay, this is a new element to the game. Let's see what's going to happen." I already had some chess pieces in place. Now here's this wildcard, and Will is an extreme wildcard. What's going to happen? He's chaos. Can I work with him? Can I not?
When he outed me, I don't think he meant to do that. I think he thought that everyone knew who I was. The way he said it, it was just very casual at dinner. And then he was still trying to work with me at that point, so I don't think he was trying to blow me up. But then later on, he said that he was. Revisionist history happens a lot in these games. But I was like, "Okay, I'm still I'm not going to be mad at him about leaking that info. I am still going to see if there's a way to work with him." And then I quickly realized, I just don't think that we're going to vibe. And in these games, that's really critical. You need to be with someone who you have some influence over. And that will actually take in the information that you're sharing, and then you guys can have a conversation about it and make a plan together. Will is not that kind of guy. Will wants to run the show. He wants to be the boss and be in charge, and if his plan doesn't work out, he throws a fit. And I cannot work with that kind of guy.
What was your reaction to him immediately taking the deal at the Temple, only to walk it back on a technicality? We could see you trying to assuage David as all of that is happening. How were you able to react while simultaneously regulating his reaction?
Look, I am really used to surviving amidst chaos. I grew up in chaos, and I've refined my skill of thriving inside of chaos. I think that's why I do well in these games. So when Will is playing Deal or No Deal, he slams his hand on the button for the first deal. And I'm like, "Wait a minute. All you've been saying since you got here is that you want to bankrupt the banker. And now you take the first deal. You're full of it." So I was reflecting that back to Will. But also I wanted other people to hear that Will is saying stuff that doesn't match up with his actions, so you can't really trust him. So I wanted to blast that loudly in front of everyone. David's getting so irritated, because I think if you have real-life personal experience with people who have narcissistic tendencies, or this type of personality that tends to suck all of the air out of the room, it's really hard to deal with that in any contrived scenario. These games where it's like, "What are you? Why are you here?" really grates on my nerves, and I think David also has experience with that kind of personality in his life.
So, for me, I've done my best to distance myself from those types of people in real life so I don't have to deal with them. But in these reality shows, they're like fire for a show. People love to watch them on TV and watch the effect that they have on other people. And it's insane. So I know how to deal with it. I don't love dealing with it, but I know how to deal with it, and I know how to calm people down. I'm very good at regulating. That's why I take on the mom role. That's why I was mom. So we have mom and dad. I'm like, "Okay, dad. Time to just take a breather. Step back, don't let him get to you." Mike, you gotta make your fun where you can. And I had a great time stepping into that role. I know I interviewed Joe Mangianello for my podcast yesterday, and Joe was saying that to me. He said, "Your superpower is that you can see what people need in the moment, and feed them exactly what they need so that they're okay." And that is what I was doing out there, especially for David. I felt like I got him pretty well.
Well, let's get into this most recent episode, and maybe an example where that wasn't the case. After M.G.'s boot, you talk with Phillip about him being part of a plan against him. You tell him that Will was the type of person that would bully him in his adolescence. Phillip, in turn, took a lot of offense to that, saying you were "weaponizing childhood trauma." How do you react to that?
Phillip was so confusing to me. Because Phillip would say all of these very sensitive things. Talk about being a good person, talk about honor and integrity, treating people with respect and kindness. And he made that sort of his cross to bear his Hill to die on. Phillip and I had many, many, many conversations about Will and how he was not the kind of person that Phillip wanted to elevate in terms of platform or in terms of the game. So I aligned with that. I was like, "Yeah, I agree." I loved Phillip; he's such a sweetie.
But there was also this other side of Phillip that he didn't show me. And when he was working with Will. I was like, "Oh, wait a minute. You're saying all of these things about being a good person and respecting people and like not treating them like shit, basically. But you're working with the person who is really disrespecting people and bullying them." That didn't line up for me. So I had a really hard time seeing that, because the way I saw Phillip was he's this good guy. He wants to treat people with respect. So how could that kind of person who really pledges this good guy kind of thing be working with Will underground? I I had a really hard time seeing that clearly. So when Phillip was saying that I weaponized his childhood trauma, I think in looking back and watching that play out now, I can see it as, "Oh, Phillip needed to be the good guy." Because he was working with Will, he still needed to find a way to be the good guy. So he had to make me the bad guy. It does not track for me.
You talk about feeding the fun. Let's talk about feeding the fire when you help encourage C.K. to not only go into the Temple, but call out everything that happened the previous round. Give me your reaction on everything that was going down.
C.K. is a dream come true. She is wild. I was I had a great relationship with C.K. We lived in the dome together, so we got very close. It's not really being shown, but she and I had a really solid, pretty close relationship. So when she came and talked to me, I could give her that support, because I had already built up that street cred with her from our dome nights together. But C.K. could not turn her brain off. She was one of those. She's a strategic gamer, she's a poker player, I think an investment banker in her real life. And she just is non-stop thinking, strategizing. I love those kinds of people. Iit's like a treasure box to play with those kinds of people, because I'm like, "Oh, the way she thinks is fast. She'll change her mind. She'll switch on a dime. She'll throw herself out there." She was really brave and ballsy and willing to play the Banker. Any chance she got, she would put herself out there. She was running over to me and Phillip in the middle of a challenge, trying to get in our heads. I was like, "Oh my God!" She really is dynamite in this game. And when she was like, "I'm ready to blow this up," I'm like, "Get it, girl!" All she needed was a little support. She needed a hype man, a cheerleader, and I was there for her.
That's the mom energy you were talking about! "I'm going to support you and learn from your mistakes."
I would never tell her not to blow up the alliance that's trying to take me out. Yeah, sister!
We're halfway through the season. What's the biggest thing fans will be surprised by with the second half of Deal or No Deal Island Season 2?
It gets hotter and hotter. From here, you think there's drama. Now it gets really intense and wild. And the end of the game was a spiritual experience. It was the most mind-blowing experience of anything I've ever witnessed in my entire life. The end of this game, I've never seen anything like it in my history of television, ever competing on a show, watching a show or anything, I've never seen anything like what you will witness at the end of this season.
Luckily you have some iced tea to cool down as things are getting hotter!
Iced tea is not even featuring! We did a dance. We sang songs. Where's the iced tea?! We got a full iced tea routine going on. Joe and I did a dance because he's in Magic Mike. I think it was the running challenge in the jungle, Joe and I did an iced tea dance, and they didn't show it.
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