'Survivor 47's Sol Yi Reveals He Almost Played Sam's Fake Idol

Survivor 47 is here! Every week, Parade.com's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off of the island.

Sol Yi's fate on Survivor 47 seemed to rely solely on one person: Genevieve Mushaluk. After losing his closest ally, the 43-year-old was feeling solitary, not helped by the fact that a conflict was brewing between him and Rome Cooney. But the Canadian was able to put their rivalry on ice for a moment, though Sol got some much-needed revenge at the merge. As the game turned individual, he started to cultivate a secret group of "angels," starting with providing solace to Rachel LaMont in a game-saving advantage. But just when things looked bright for Sol, things suddenly went dark like a solar eclipse. Genevieve once again put together a plan behind the scenes, this time to take Sol out rather than spare him. When Sol found out, he spent the afternoon and evening trying to rally the troops. But the soldiers failed to show up to the frontlines, eliminating him unanimously.

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Jeff Probst has said the theme of Survivor 47's gameplay is "ever-shifting power." And Sol got an early dose of that in the first week of the game. Not only was his number one Aysha Welch booted, but he was left out by the majority. Everything on paper seemed prime for Sol to go, compounded by Rome tailing him while he searched for idols, and even issuing a threat (or ultimatum, depending on who you ask) to not play his Shot in the Dark. But, true to that theme, Sol went from easy target to pivotal swing vote, as Genevieve and Kishan Patel both brought him in on major blindsides. While he was able to vote alongside Rome to take out Kishan, the truce was short-lived. When the merge hit, the two men quickly took aim at each other. And in this heads-up match, it was the poker player who won the proverbial pot, helping lead a near-unanimous vote against Rome.

Once the communal target Rome had left, Sol and his Lavo allies were looked at as appealing swing votes. He was brought into the escalating war between Tuku and Gata. And he helped compound that tension when he found an advantage and anonymously played it on Rachel, sparing her and forcing the tightest bloc in the game to turn on each other. It was all part of the next stage of his plan: Gather "Sol's Secret Angels" and work behind the scenes to ascend to the Final Three. He had no idea, however, that his previous savior would spurn him.

Genevieve was looking to capitalize on some long-term Lavo revenge, and gathered together the numbers to blindside Sol. The vote became far from a blindside, though, when Sam Phalen leaked the plan to him. The usually-burpy Sol was no longer gassed up, and went to work trying to cobble together the votes to save him. The havoc traveled across multiple locations, from running around the beach to harried whispers at Tribal Council. Unfortunately, the "Sol Power" grid suffered an outage on Day 16, taking him out.

Now out of the game, Sol talks with Parade.com about his perspective on the chaos leading to his boot, his various relationships both in and outside of Lavo, and his reaction to the fan enthusiasm towards him.

Related: Read our Survivor 47 pre-game interview with Sol Yi

We have to start, of course, with all of the havoc in the afternoon and evening leading into your boot. You talk in your final words about not being able to mobilize the troops. How were you feeling going into Tribal Council, and how confident were you in the vote once you sat down post-whisper session?
I was never completely confident. I was pretty much at like, "This is a 50/50 thing here." Sam told me that the vote was on me very, very late in the day, and we start scrambling like crazy. And we're doing the math; we're simply just doing the numbers. And I'm like, "Rachel, Andy–not knowing that they're on the other side–I should be good here. But why am I even in this situation anyways right now?" And so, yeah, I was never comfortable. I almost played my Shot in the Dark. But I knew that if I did, and if they are with me, then I'm going home. So it was a crazy, crazy night. We didn't have that much time either at camp, because Tribal Council was coming right up. And the producers, they gave us, I felt, extra time because it was so chaotic before they left. So, yeah, at the end, I was never that comfortable. But I felt good enough to keep the Shot in the Dark in my pocket.

To your point, you really hit the beach running when you found out it was you. Is there a conversation you either regret having or not having that could have nudged things in you favor? Or was the die–like the one in your pocket–always cast?
I'm trying to think. I learned a lot about this game and what I could have done, but I don't have many regrets. It's all learning things, right? However, there's one thing that I wish I would have done that's been irking at me, especially right now. Sam had a fake idol, and Sam told me it was fake. So when Sam tells me the vote is me, we just take off, and start trying to get the numbers. Normally, in my everyday life, if something happens, I pause, I think, and I'm like, "What can I do here?" as opposed to just taking off? And one of the things I could have done is taken that fake immunity idol from Sam, who I think would have given it to me, because we're kind of working together at this time. And at the very end, I could have said, "Guys, I'm voting for so and so. Yyou can vote for me, because I know you're all going to." Maybe they believe me, I don't know. But that's one thing I wish I would have done.

So, from our perspective, the primary reason you're talking with me today is because of Genevieve, who seemed to capitalize on some deep-seated pettiness about everything that happened on Lavo. Talk to me about your relationship, and your reaction to finding out she plotted your demise.
It didn't surprise me. Because Genevieve and I, we were on opposite ends on Lavo. And we kind of had a "come to Jesus" [moment] together, where we're talking and we make amends. But our relationship in the game, it never truly felt like, "Okay, this is my ride or die." We're talking about it. We're saying the right things. But from a gut perspective, it's like, "I'm not sure." So it really didn't surprise me. It was so early, though. We have a long way to go, and that's such a big move. So it was surprising. That's why I didn't think anything was going to happen at this point in the game. Not to be like, "Yo, I'm a huge threat," or anything like that. But if you do take me out now,  you have a huge target on your back now. So it was surprising.

On the other end of that Lavo extreme is the person who was crying while you were being voted out in Teeny. You two have had such an interesting relationship, from them keeping you out of the loop on the Aysha vote to you voting out their closest ally in Kishan. So talk to me about what forged such a close dynamic.
I was drawn to tTeny as soon as I saw her, literally on the plane. She came over yesterday to watch the show with me, her and her mom did. And the comment was made, we're like "Ying and Yang," instead of yin and yang. We just connect so well. And she voted for my number one. She didn't tell me about the Amulet Idol. But for me, because I loved Teny so much. I was just like, "Okay, no problem. I'm still gonna work with you." But yeah, Teeny is just an amazing person.

So we need to talk about Rome. He says on the show that you guys have a "crazy toxic brother-like relationship." There were clearly moments where the two of you butted heads, including his boot episode. In my interview with him, he had said that we didn't get to see moments where you were negative to him, including making him feel undervalued in challenges. What's your perspective on that?
Yeah. I mean, Rome made the game very, very tough on me. You hear in the episode where I say he's either the worst player or he's one of the best players. And he potentially could be one of the best players, because he can make life incredibly hard if he's going after you. And that's what he did. I'm a big poker player, and when you play against other poker players who do crazy moves all the time, you can never really figure them out. And they take all your money, because it's so you just never can read them yet. On the other side of that, I could read Rome like a book. So it's this very polarizing way to think about Rome. And yeah, it was tough to play with the guy. 

During the Kishan vote, we hear you say at Tribal Council that you have no idea what to do. So were you just going along with Rome and Genevieve when you see them voting for Kishan? Or were you in on the plan with them?
Everything that you see for me at Tribal Council is an act. The whole thing, of me going like, "I don't know what to do. I don't know who the vote is. "The vote is going to be Kishan. So what they don't show, one of the things, is that Kishan fooled the hell out of me on the Aysha vote. I remember, we're walking together, we're just talking, and he's like, "This is going to be great, we're going to work together, blah, blah, blah." And then when it's over, I'm like, "Wow, this dude just played me." So the next day, Genevieve and I have a moment, and I kind of bring up the idea of, "Should we consider getting out Kishan. We could pull in Rome." And she goes, "Rome will never work with you." And so it was thrown out there.

And then a few days later, we lose, and then you see Genevieve coming to me, and I'm like, "Hell no, I'm not doing that," because I want him gone. I'd rather keep Kishan. The value of keeping Kishan is nothing compared to the value of Rome just being out of here. But he also has the Steal-a-Vote. So I'm so worried about that, because all Genevieve has to do is go, "Hey, we have control. Let's do this." And right before Tribal Council, I see the moment when Genevieve goes to Rome and says, "Hey, you're the vote tonight." I see them talking. And in fact, you see on the episode, I look at Keyshawn, and I nod my head. I'm like, "Look at them talking." And he doesn't think anything of it. I know exactly what's going on. So I bolt over there, and I sat down. I'm like, "Yo, you guys ready to do this?" And Rome goes, "Do what?" He's kind of testing me. And I go, "Dude, you're the vote tonight!" And he gives me this shocked face. And I'm looking at Genevieve. I'm like, "Oh, damn, did you guys just not have this conversation?" And then, of course, amazing Genevieve is like, "Yes, you are the vote, Rome." So, yeah, I knew what was going on. That was the plan the whole time.

Let's talk about some of your cross-tribal relationships. When you find the anonymous advantage, we see you contemplate a few different names. But how open-and-shut was it for you to play it on Rachel, considering what we find out later about you wanting to cultivate a relationship with her?
So it was pretty easy for me. It was more about, "Do I tell anybody?" I knew I wanted to save Rachel, because Rachel and I had built a bond that they don't show that much. But we had a really good connection out there. We really wanted to work together. They don't show it, but it was pretty easy. It was more about who I'm going to tell.

So how much did your relationship change once you told her it was you who saved her?
So it look like I tell Rachel right away. It's actually about a day and a half before I actually tell her. Because when she does come back, she's hugging everybody, "Yay, welcome back, Rachel." And she hugs me, and she goes, "It was you, wasn't it?" But she says that in front of everybody. And I'm like, "No. I wish it were me, Rachel! But no, I'm so glad that you're here," and give her a hug. And so where it messed up for me is when Rachel announces that, "Hey, someone from the jury gave me this." In my mind, that wasn't going to happen. She's just going to say, "Hey, I got this, bye." And now we can make up the story that she found it at the Lavo beach. So [there's] this other element of, "Oh, if they find out it's me, I'm screwed because I didn't tell anybody." So it kind of hurt my game a little bit that she did that.

And I thought that the relationship was great, I probably could have done a better job of solidifying that. But the one thing on the Sierra vote is that I didn't want to tell Rachel it was Sierra. Because there's an opportunity for Rachel to tell Sierra, and it caused chaos, just like her telling Sam the vote is me. Look what happened. And so I was worried that that was going to happen. So I did need to let her know, "Hey, the vote is not on you." And I really didn't get that opportunity, because I'm trying so much to keep it a secret, our relationship. So her announcing it to everyone kind of backfired for me.

You talk in that moment about forming "Sol's Secret Angels." Who was part of this group that you were hoping to move forward with?
So Andy was in that group. Andy, when we having that discussion on the beach after I wrote his name down, I said to him, "Dude, this could be the best thing to happen to your game. Everyone thinks that you hate me. I want to work with you. Let's trick everyone and think that you and I are on opposite ends, but we're going to share secrets and everything. We'll work together." And he's like, "Boom." I mean, that's when we give the high five, and are like, "Let's do this." And then obviously we have Rachel, which, that didn't work out very nicely. Sue and I had a strong connection that I don't think anyone [saw].

Yeah, fellow forty-somethings gotta stick together!
Yeah, you got to keep it real with the 40s. So Andy, Rachel and Sue, those were the SSA agents that I terminated them after their first week on the job.

Talk to me more about that Sue relationship. Because in the scramble before your boot, you're more than happy to go along with voting her out if it spares you.
Sue, just watching her, she's so lethal. Once you're gone, don't get on Sue's list. But Sue and I connected right away because Sue has an uncle with Parkinson's disease. I'm incredibly passionate about Parkinson's disease. We've talked about building centers, they're called Rocksteady Boxing Centers, for people with Parkinson's disease. I mean, I've been working with PD for 13 years. I see it every single day of my life. So it's incredible. I'm incredibly passionate about it, and so is she, because her family member has had it. So right away, we're tearing up together, talking about our relationship with this disease. And that, what I felt like, solidified a bond. And the other thing too is like, we're just both cool people that are drawn to each other. I remember seeing her at the hotel, and we made eye contact, and we both just smiled really, really big. But then I saw the other side of Sue, and like I said, you don't want to be on that one.

Finally, I know you weren't able to mobilize the troops on the island, but there have been so many "Sol-diers" online who have fallen in love with you on the show. What's been your reaction to the fan response?
It means a lot. I mean, you're just playing a game. You're just being yourself, and you get this love that's just completely unexpected. It just makes me feel so good. I'm trying to say something super creative. It's very, very warm. It's very, very loving. I have a lot of self-talk, and a lot of it is good. And because of all this, it's even better now. So it's a blessing. It's such a blessing.

Next, check out our interview with Sierra Wright, who was voted off in Survivor 47 Episode 8.