'Survivor 47's Terran "TK" Foster Says Kyle Turned Tiyana Against Him

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.

The first thing Terran "TK" Foster said when he hopped off the boat and entered Survivor 47 is that he didn't see any genuine competition around him. Indeed, the athlete marketing manager fashioned himself the quarterback of his tribe, comfortably in the pocket as a physical asset and defended by an offensive line of allies. Little did he realize, though, his ego and attitude were weakening that line. And so, when TK brought his arm back, ready to lob the first of many touchdown passes this season, he was brought down, sacked in his blind spot by his own teammates.

In retrospect, TK's desire to set himself apart from his tribe showed in the opening minutes of the game. The game was simple: Throw rock or scissors to determine who among the three combatants would go on a journey to earn supplies for the camp. TK threw paper. And so he was sent off by default, competing against Aysha Welch in a Day 1 key hunt. Despite the slow start, TK was able to mount a come-from-behind victory, coming back to camp with a smile as beaming as the fires they would soon light with their flint. Making up for lost time, TK fell in quickly with the men of his tribe. Though, when he caught Gabe Ortis mid-idol hunt, his trust almost immediately eroded. So he changed the play, bringing in Tiyana Hallums alongside him and Kyle Ostwald to form a solid trio.

While TK was confident his physical and strategic game would carry him, he had no idea his social game nullified all of that. His cocksure attitude began to get on the nerves of the rest of his tribe, who were noticing a men's alliance brewing. When Tuku lost immunity, TK saw red on the blue mat. He launched into a monologue about how he does not associate with losing, implying that everyone needs to be on the same page as him. That quickly turned Tiyana's smile into a frown, as she debated if she truly wanted to work with him given his behavior. TK went into Tribal Council confident about his hold on the tribe, ready to ground Sue Smey's game. But he learned quickly not to sleep on the woman whose nap he incidentally ruined earlier that day. Gabe's secret trio came together and successfully flipped Tiyana to prevent a rock draw, landing a TKO on TK.

Now out of the game, TK talks with Parade.com about his true plan going into Tribal Council, how a slip-up from Kyle may have turned Tiyana against him, and his response to the comments made about his ego in last night's episode.

Related: Read our Survivor 47 pre-game interview with Terran "TK" Foster

How are you doing right now? You made it clear that losing is not in your vocabulary. So what was it like to watch back a big loss last night?
Yeah, it was tough. I mean, honestly, Mike, as you can see, I hate losing. But I think with this one, it's a little bit different. Because I came into this with the mindset that there's a really big chance I don't win this one. So I think I understood that from the jump. Something Jeff also tells us prior to us being on the show, is like, "Hey guys, come in with the mindset that you've already lost. Just play the game free, and just enjoy it and do it." And I think one thing I wanted to do when I came into this game was I wanted to be myself, my authentic self. I knew I was an extreme competitor. I thought that I had some competitors on my tribe as well. Tiyana was a D1 athlete, Caroline played competitive water polo. So I have people who've been in that space. So it was just one of those moments where I think I just let a little bit too much of my competitiveness show. But who knows, man? Hindsight is always 20/20.

Well let's give some hindsight to your boot. It was a topsy-turvy Tribal Council, between Sue calling you out, Gabe getting spotlighted and playing his idol, and your blindside. Talk me through your reactions over the course of the evening.
I think the one thing that wasn't shown on the show was what my actual plan was. So a lot of people have to realize I had no idea Gabe and Sue were a thing, right? That happened the first day when I'm getting tribe supplies. And, Mike, I can't stress this enough. We'd never seen Gabe talk to Sue,ever when we were on that island. I've never seen them talk. So it was the weirdest thing in the world to me that they were together. So I'm under the impression that Sue and Caroline are a pair. They've told us they were a pair. Sue literally said, "I will never write Caroline's name down to us." So we already knew they were a pair, which is the most dangerous thing in the game of Survivor.

So in my mind, I have Tiyana, I have Kyle, and so-and-so I thought I had Gabe. So my whole plan behind this was, we all knew Gabe had an idol. We all knew he would play his idol. The whole goal was to get him to play his idol. So I tried my best to instill some type of fear in Gabe that I could be like, "Hey, people are saying they're not really getting a lot of good vibes from you. Hey, man, they're saying you got an idol. Everybody knows about it. I don't know, man, maybe you might want to think about playing it." And I'm trying to get him to just be scared shitless that he's like, "I have to play this idol, because I don't have a choice. I can't hold on to this thing for long. "So the goal is to have him play it.

And again, I didn't know that Gabe and Sue had their thing. So when talking to Caroline, I really wanted to see if it was possible to say, "Hey Caroline, if you could just vote Gabe, just in case he doesn't play his idol, because we all know how he's playing, that would be helpful." [So] I was telling them, "We're going to vote Gabe." But to my team, I'm saying we're voting Sue. So the goal was to get Gabe to play his idol, Sue to go home, and then also to have Caroline put votes on Gabe–because I knew that they had got caught couple times talking–to add distrust to those two so that they wouldn't trust each other. And then potentially I could swoop in and be like, "Caroline, now, you see. You can't trust Gabe. Maybe you come over here with us." And then I would have had a strong four that really had to be solidified with me. And I could have got Gabe out of that equation and Sue out of the equation with no harm, no foul. But it just didn't work out that way, because Sue and Gabe were already a thing that I just did not know about in retrospect.

Looking back, was there a conversation or interaction that you realize you should have flagged as an indicator you would be going? I know you apologized to Tiyana, but she made it clear that she was not happy with the comments you made on the mat.
There's a lot that doesn't make it in editing. That whole conversation between Kyle, Tiyana, and I didn't happen where Kyle's like, "Oh, let me just go get Tiyana. She seems like she's mad at you about that thing." Tiyana actually wasn't as mad about what I said on the tarp. That wasn't necessarily what sparked her to go against me. What actually happened was Tiyana, myself, and Kyle were in the ocean having a conversation about what we were going to do next. Mike, I'll give you some insight at some point. Gabe is a big reason why we lost that challenge. And I let Tiyana and Kyle know, "Listen, I'm really going to go at Gabe about this. Like, 'Hey, man, you really dropped the ball on this.' To just get himready to play his idol. So I'm really going to go at him about this. So I just want to let you guys know that's what I'm doing. It's intentional." And Tiyana's like, "Okay, perfect. I'm gonna go off and talk to the girls." I said, "Cool, perfect."

She goes. Gabe comes down. I do exactly what I said. I'm like, "Gabe, you really dropped the ball on this, man. What are you doing here? You're looking for idols. You're not communicating. What are we doing?" He's like, "Man, I apologize. "And I'm like, "It's all good, bro. It's part of the game. But I just want to let you know. Come on, we got to pick it up." Kyle goes to Tiyana. I have no idea what's going through Kyle's head at this point. He goes to Tiana and says, "TK just apologized to Gabe." So now Tiyana's like, "Wait, he apologized to Gabe about what he said, but he didn't apologize to me.?So is there really a guy's thing? And is the guys thing stronger than what we have? Okay, maybe I can't trust TK."

And then when Kyle comes back and tells me, "Oh, Tiyana's upset because you apologized to Gabe," I'm like, "Kyle, what are you talking about? I never apologized to Gabe! What do you say? I literally just went at Gabe in front of you and told you the whole plan. I never apologized to Gabe." And he's like, "Oh, man, I really dropped the ball on that one." And I'm like, "Yeah, you did. We need to go get Tiyana so I could try to smooth this over. Because right now Tiyana's probably up there saying, 'This guy just told me we're locked in at three. But he's apologizing to the guy, but he's not saying anything to me.'"

So that was why Tiyana was brought down to the step, and I had let Tiana know, "Hey, I never apologized to Gabe. That was not something that ever happened. I actually did exactly what we discussed. But again, I just want to stress to you, I never called you a loser. I never called anybody on this tribe a loser. I just said that I don't think anybody should be smiling when we're losing an Immunity Challenge and somebody's dream's going to end today and we don't get the supplies so that we can all eat and we can all be healthy and happy when we're on this island. There should be some frustration. I would love to see some passion from people. But Tiyana, I love you, and I love Kyle, and you guys are my three. Anything that I say you should never think it's immediately at you. You're on my team, so I don't know where it's coming from." So there's a lot that they don't show. And again, that's where a lot of those conversations were happening.

Interesting! Talk to me more about Gabe at the challenge. Was it the case of him literally dropping the ball on that snake maze at the end?
Yeah. So I think we all noticed, and they said this multiple times, that challenge specifically is so, so big on communication. I mean, communication is the most important thing that you have in that challenge. And what happened was, we keep getting towards the end every time, Mike. We're making it 70% through every time, and we fall at the same point every time. So I started realizing, "Hey, there's a way that we can get around this hole. We've been trying it one way. I think there's another way we can do it." And I'm explaining to them exactly how we need to add the tension on. And Gabe literally looks at me and says, "One voice. Nobody else needs to be talking but me. One voice. Everybody listen to me. We're doing it off of what I'm saying." And I'm like, "Okay, that's kind of crazy to say in a challenge that we all need to be working together."

So to me, that really frustrated me, and we're doing it, and he keeps falling to the same spot. And again, we all have different vantage points right of of these obstacles. So I'm on the right, so I can see how much space we have on either side. He's in front of it; he can't. So I'm trying to explain to Gabe, "This is what we need to do." He's like, "One voice. I'm the voice. We're listening to me. I'm in the middle. Everybody listen to me." So that's what really built up the frustration for me. And then to see nobody on my tribe checked him about it. Nobody's like, "Hey, Gabe, listen to TK." Kyle actually does say it during the challenge. After we fall three more times, he's like, "Hey, Gabe, maybe we should listen to TK; I think he has a good idea." And Gabe like, "No, no, no, we just need to keep going." And he doesn't listen and we end up losing. So that's the frustrating part for me. If we had just lost that because they were better than us, that's a different type of feeling. When a team's just better than you, you can take that loss a lot easier. But when you guys are self-inflicting wounds when you're playing sports, that's the biggest frustration in the world, because we're beating ourselves. 

Last night you got to see a lot of responses from your tribe members about your ego, specifically from Sue when you were talking loudly next to her while she was trying to nap. Were you aware of your perception out there while you were playing?
I think, at the end of the day, when you're a man in this game and you're confident...I'm a fairly big guy in the context of Survivor. I wouldn't say in real life. I mean, I work with NFL players; I'm not big at all compared to these guys. But in the context of Survivor I'm a pretty big guy. So I think that it's already a little bit intimidating for some people. But also to come in with the confidence that I have, I'm not going to dim my light to make anybody else more comfortable. I'm going to be myself in the hopes that you would be yourself, and we can be ourselves and all get to know each other and be happy and go lucky and it's fine. But I think a lot of the time, some of the jokes that I would make with my friends, or some of the things that I would say with my friends that are sarcastic, people like Sue don't pick up on sarcasm. Sue's just not really on that. She takes everything literally.

And then Tiyana just didn't know me. We rarely talked. So a lot of the conversation, there's a lot that they don't show of what Sue says to Tiyana about me. So a lot of what Tiyana's mindset about who I was was based off of what Sue was saying. So Tiyana never really talked to me. We talked a couple times. But a lot of times, even when we were a three, she went through Kyle, and that's how we all connected. And I was okay with it, because at the end of the day I don't want to blow up Tiyana's spot. Because I know she's playing both sides with the girls too, and she's giving us information with the girls are saying. So I don't want people to know all three of us are together. So I'm fine with just saying, "You talk to Kyle. Let people just think it's just me and Kyle who talk. I don't want people to know."

Essentially all of our communication, Kyle was the intermediary. It would go through Kyle, and then Kyle would come tell me, "Tiyana thinks this, Tiyana thinks that." I don't even know if you realize, Mike, there's a scene in the show when we're on that step where I literally tell Tiyana, "Can we stop going through these circles to say things about me? Come to me directly and talk to me, because we are a three." And it's easy to just give me a look and say, "Hey, let's go get the water bottles and have a conversation." It would make it a lot easier. But I think everybody decided to take the route of assumption instead of figuring out who people actually are. And I think it's a lot harder for, I guess, somebody who comes across like me to get that same type of opinion.

We see from the opening that you want to step up for your tribe, wanting to go get supplies and return the hero. You even said this past episode that you saw yourself as the leader of the tribe. You and I spoke in the preseason about there's a danger that can come with being so out in front. What was the thinking behind you putting yourself in the spotlight so much?
I think I even said this in the interview with you, Mike, I said, "Listen, I'm going to try to do everything that I can. Every journey I can go on, I'm going to go on it." I want to be the guy was providing. That's just who I am. But I think a lot of it, too, has to do with the tribe that I was put on. I mean, I think that all of us are strong, and that inherently decreases my value. So if I'm on Gata, or if I'm on Lavo, I'm still in the game. There's no way they can get rid of me; I'm invaluable at that point. But with my tribe, we all are strong. So in my mindset, I'm thinking, "I have to add value here. If it's just, 'Oh, this guy's strong,' that's not going to be enough."

So if it comes down to getting things for the tribe, Kyle and I went out hunting for crabs every single day for for the tribe. I'm out there burning calories to get one little leg off of this crab, and everybody else is eating. Andit's just little things like that where I'm trying my best to just show everybody, "Hey, I'm here for the team. It should be a team." I think I was operating as, "Hey guys, we're a team, we're a tribe, let's work together." When I should have been operating as, "I need to worry about myself and do things this way." So I think that's where I kind of dropped the ball, because my team mentality came into play, and I should have been operating alone.

Well, speaking of other tribes, you got the opportunity for some cross-tribe mingling when you went on the journey with Aysha. In the preseason you told me you were eyeing working with her, even naming your alliance. What was it like talking with her and facing off against her?
Oh, the moment Aysha and I got on that island, I was like, "Aysha I gotta let you know I've been planning this for a while. You and I are gonna be 'Locked In.' We're gonna be good." She was all for it. I was all for it. We actually realized right then and there, we have a million things in common. It's actually crazy how much stuff we have in common. Her mom actually has the same kidney disease that I have. So that was crazy. We're both in the same it's something that's called D9; it's a fraternity and sororities organization. We're both a part of that as well, which there's not a lot of people who are. So there's just a lot of things that we had in common. It was almost scary how much we had in common.

So we kind of locked in right away. It was just like, "Oh my God, you're awesome. I'm awesome. Let's work together if we get the opportunity. "Even after I won the challenge, I went up to I gave her a big hug. And I'm like, "Aysha, if we have an opportunity to work together, who cares about this challenge? Let's take advantage of this moment and what we're building, and let's just use this to our advantage when we come together. Because nobody's going to know anything about anything. They're going to think we hate each other. I beat you. You lost. You had to go home mad. I went home happy."

Yeah, you get to use that story of "she tried to box me out."
Exactly. So you're already kind of causing like, "Oh, that wasn't a good experience for him over there." But realistically, it was an amazing experience. And we both kind of got to get to know each other a little bit. And I think that would have helped me tremendously had I made it a little further in. Bbut I was already making plans outside of my tribe, because I realized fairly quickly that that wasn't who my vibes were with.

Next, check out our interview with Jon Lovett, who was voted off in the Survivor 47 premiere.