“The Traitors” star Jeremy Collins says “Survivor” history with Boston Rob doomed him

Jeremy Collins was onto Danielle Reyes. He had her pegged as a Traitor and was starting to float her name around the castle. He was right, of course, but the fact they he correctly saw through the lies is what ended up getting the Survivor champion “murdered” on this week’s episode of The Traitors.

Jeremy was shortlisted for murder along with Nikki Garcia and Ciara Miller at the start of the episode, meaning the three had to cram themselves into coffins and then wait to find out which one would literally get the nail in the coffin. Even with his last-ditch plea to work with the Traitors if they spared him, Jeremy was eliminated.

What dos Jeremy make of being murdered by two fellow Survivor alums in Boston Rob Mariano and Carolyn Wiger? How did he realize Danielle was a Traitor? And what would he have done had h escaped the evening with his reality television life still intact? We asked the Traitors’ third victim all that and more.

Related: The Traitors chaos erupts as a Traitors civil war breaks out

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, how long did you actually have to lie down in that coffin?

JEREMY COLLINS: Longer than I wanted to, but I will say that it was cold that night. It was freezing, and in the coffin was warmer than outside, so it wasn't bad. But no one wants to lay in a coffin, you know what I mean? It sucked.

Did they actually hammer a nail into your coffin while you were in it, 'cause that seems dangerous?

They did! They gave me the heads up and said, “If you feel funny in there, just knock on it and we'll get it open really quickly.” I'm pretty good. As firefighters, we have to do a lot of that crawling into confined spaces and stuff, so I was all right.

Boston Rob and Carolyn, your fellow Survivors, they take out Tony and you back-to-back. What is going on here?

Man, I don't know. I was bummed. Listen, it's my fault. I put it on me. I opened my mouth to too many people. But I was trying to gain some trust with my people, and after looking back afterwards, I'm looking at it and saying: Boston Rob, I know his game. This is what he does. He's over everything. I get it.

Carolyn, I thought she was going to have my back more. I sat her down one time and we had a really good conversation, heart to heart. I was like, “Don't let anyone block your shine. Don't worry about anybody else. You just be you and don't worry about anything else.” And we had a really good moment. I thought I was good. I thought I had a lot of allies throughout the castle.

Related: The Traitors star Tony Vlachos doubles down on Boston Rob as 'such a sellout'

 Tony called Boston Rob a sellout. Do you agree or disagree?

I don't think Rob's a sellout, but this is Rob. You know what I mean? This is who he is. This is how he plays. He's for himself and that's it. Listen, I've wanted to play with Rob on Winners at War. He took out Natalie and I was like, “It's fine, we're good. I want to work with you. I want you to be my meat shield.” That's what I was looking for. And we couldn't get on the same page.

And then we took out Ethan, and he really didn't trust me. And I'm like, “Yo, it wasn't a shot at you. It was to get Ethan out of there so we could work together.” And he never wanted to work with me going into Traitors. I didn't think that we were going to be on the same page because we left it like that. But when he was on, I was like, “All right, well good, we can play together now. Let's go.” And I don't know, we just were never on the same page, me and him.

It's interesting because his whole thing was got to protect the Traitors so targets you when you start to realize Danielle is a Traitor, but then he immediately flips and takes out a Traitor himself the very next day.

I think I was one episode off. If I could just get through that killing, I think I would've been in a better spot to move on.

You were on to Danielle as a Traitor pretty much from the jump. What tipped you off?

So I said to Derrick, “If Danielle asked you for Shield, she's a Traitor.” Because nobody was after Danielle. She should not be worried about anything. Even when I got the Shield from Wes, I almost said, “I don't think I need it. Give it to someone that needs it.” But then I'm not going to do that. I took it. So I said, “If she asks for a Shield, Derrick, she's a Traitor.”

And she would cry. And it was just a not believable cry, you know what I mean? And I'm a guy that, when a female cries, it kind of opens up my heart. I tend to believe it more. And I did not believe it at all. It was just doing too much. It was overacting and stuff. And I said, “Oh, she's got to be one.”

Related: Britney Spears' ex-husband Sam Asghari is on The Traitors, but costars had 'no idea' who he was

When you laid down in that coffin, did you know it was you?

I did not know it was me. I had a feeling that I might be able to get out of this. It happened so fast. I will say, I thought that once Ciara said whatever she said with like, “We're going to find you, blah, blah,” I said, “Oh, she's a Traitor. She's not even trying to hide it. She's a Traitor.” And I thought me and Nikki kind of gave a similar answer. So it could have been me and Nikki. I was just like, “It could be me. It's a 50-50 shot.” I had no clue.

In your final plea to stay safe, you directly addressed the Traitors and said, “You all know I’m trying to find you all, but if you keep me, I’ll work with you.” Is that true? And, if so, what would that have entailed exactly? Or was that just some BS you were spewing?

Listen, I was throwing a Hail Mary. I was just swinging for the fences. I was trying to get to stay in the game immediately. I said, “Oh my God, if I get out of this now, I have to go and tell everybody, 'Listen, I'm not a Traitor. I'm not helping 'em out.'” I knew it was going to be a tough road for me because of what I said. But I'm telling you, Dalton, as soon as we left, as I left, I went: You know what I should have said? I should have said, “I'm not talking to the Traitors. I'm talking to all the Faithful. I'm a Faithful, I only throw out one name and I'm in here. So if I'm gone, that person's a Traitor.” And then I'm going back and thinking: Well, what if she wasn't a Traitor? And then they take me out. So I don't know, man. I'm all over the place. Yo, that game is hard, man. Traitors is really hard.

Related: Traitors star Wells says wife Sarah Hyland 'wasn't super proud' of early exit

Yeah, talk about not being able to trust anyone. You're used to it on the island, but this is a whole other level. So you were teary after being eliminated as you talked about wanting to provide for your family, but look, I play fantasy football against you. I know how competitive you are. How much of your pain in that moment was simply a competitor who just lost a big game?

So this is what these reality shows do to me. They know what gets me, and it's my family. So they started talking to me about my family, and that always gets me. But I was more frustrated in myself and I am like, “What did I do wrong? Did I mess up? Where did I talk too much? Where did I not talk enough?” So it was all in my head. I was really disappointed in myself. And I thought I could have gone really far in the game. I never think I'm going to win, but I always think I'm going to make a good push towards the end. And then once you get to the end, anything can happen. It’s like fantasy football.

What's some stuff that happened out there about your game that didn't make it to TV?

I will say the car rides are the biggest thing because they say, “Alright, group up, get into cars.” And it's huge to see who's grouping up with who and jumping into cars with each other. Derrick is my guy. And there was a car ride where I was talking to Tony and I said, “I'll jump in with you.” And Derrick came over right after and he's like, “Hey, you want to get in the car?” And I said, “Oh, I'm already with Tony.” And I should have said, “You know what? I'm good with Tony. I don't need to talk to Tony. Let me go with Derrick.”

Related: Bob the Drag Queen explains targeting Real Housewives stars on The Traitors: 'I know you're mad at me'

Whom else did you want to work with besides Derrick if you'd stayed in the game?

I wanted Derrick. I wanted Nikki. I thought me and Robyn were good. I thought I got a good read on Robyn. I knew she wasn't a Traitor, and she was just kind of easy to read. She's just out in the open. Dolores was kind of easy to read. I wanted to work with everybody, but I couldn't even get my alliance going. With so many people, you’ve got to just play with everybody until you can kind of figure it out towards the end when it gets weaned down.

Anything surprise you watching the show back on TV?

I was surprised that Dylan jumped on Bob the Drag Queen so fast. After Dorinda was gone, I watched Bob come in, and he didn't even look up at the board to see who was murdered. Didn't even look. And he was just like, “Oh, what? And I looked at him, I was like, “Yo, he didn't even look. How does he even know? He's a Traitor.”

And then I talked to him for five minutes. I have a twin brother who is gay, and I was like “Bob’s just like my twin brother. That's just who he is. He's not a Traitor.” I wish I talked to Dylan more. I think if me and Dylan got on the same page, we could have done some things. So seeing a lot of things that Dylan is doing, I like that. But the castle's big and there's a lot of stuff that you don't see.

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