Jenny and Rebecca Sound Off on Survivor's Double Whammy!

On last week's Survivor: Cook Islands (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET on CBS), Jeff Probst threw in another big twist: The tribe that lost the immunity challenge had to send one person home, and also got a message in a bottle to be opened only after the vote. The Raro tribe lost — again (do we sense a theme?) — and sent New York native Rebecca Borman packing, then hoped that their note said the teams were merging. Unfortunately, they were wrong, and they had to vote off another tribe member, on the spot and with no discussion. Real-estate agent Jenny Guzon-Bae was taken completely by surprise when she discovered she was the next to have her torch snuffed. TVGuide.com asked both Rebecca and Jenny what they thought of that most unexpected wrinkle.

TVGuide.com: Did Thursday's big twist surprise you as much as it did me?
Jenny Guzon-Bae: Yeah, it sure did, because that was my fate.
Rebecca Borman: When I saw that it was a double elimination, I knew that unfortunately it was going to be Jenny, because I had a feeling the two of us were on the chopping block going forward. I could tell there had been an inner alliance made, once the original white tribe got back together, so I thought we both were in jeopardy. I wasn't surprised, it was just unfortunate.

TVGuide.com: Personally, I'm shocked that Jonathan is still there.
Jenny: I think we both are. Thinking back on it, why did we keep him that long? But he was really producing. He was kissing butt big time. In our eyes, there is no way he would go back to Aitu because they don't want him over there since he mutinied. Where is his trust? He messed that up. He's going to have to kiss butt on this side — look at him, he's working hard and fishing like crazy and bringing us food, and the guys are just loving it because they can kick up their feet and not work as hard and just enjoy Jonathan doing everything, being at their beck and call.
Rebecca: I think the men were like, "Let's just use Jonathan because he has no place to go," but Jenny and I, we said, "We've got to get rid of him." Because as soon as he came to the tribe we could tell he was definitely a manipulator, and a really good one at that.

TVGuide.com: Jenny, were you surprised that Nate voted for Jonathan instead of voting with the rest of the tribe against you?
Jenny: No, I'm not. Nate had my back, and I'm glad that he stuck to any alliance I had with him. I recognized his writing when I saw the vote, so I wasn't angry. I was pretty mad, but it wasn't anger towards Nate. [As for] Pavarti and Adam, I was really, really mad.

TVGuide.com: Did you have an alliance with Yul and Becky from your original Puka tribe?
Jenny: None whatsoever.

TVGuide.com: I was thinking maybe that was why your Raro alliance turned on you.
Jenny: I think they were worried that I may go back to Yul and Becky and join back up with the Asians. I had no connection with them before, I had a better connection with Cao Boi than I did with the other three on the Puka tribe. They are all nice people, but their lives are in different areas than mine. I'm a working mom, so first and foremost for me is being a mother.

TVGuide.com: Why did you want to go on Survivor in the first place?
Rebecca: I've been a fan since Season 1, so I knew that I had a really good chance of winning it, that I had the personality for it. On a good day when I am strong, I am really strong. Unfortunately, my body at 35 said, "Honey, you're strong, but we need food to stay that way." It let me know that in that nice little challenge with the swim collapse, which I'll be forever remembered for.

TVGuide.com: Well, you did flash everyone.
Rebecca: [Laughs] I remember collapsing, but they kind of edited the part out when I fell to the sand and just looked into the stars. They went from me coming out of the water looking kind of like Bo Derek — but on crack....
Jenny: And me going, "Honey, pull your top down!"
Rebecca: I could not hear them yelling because at that point I was just ready to pass out.

TVGuide.com: Brad said you'd been practicing swimming.
Rebecca: Yeah, believe it or not. That's why I was the first one out and really confident. I knew I wasn't going to have a chance against Ozzy. I'm a swimmer, but not a fish, and Ozzy controls the ocean on this show. I was comfortable, and mentally, I thought my body was in the same place as my mind, but clearly at that point of the game it was not. I needed a piece of bread or something. We won no rewards, I had no food.... The protein was just not enough for my body type. I'm not a small girl, and I have a lot of muscle.

TVGuide.com: Rebecca, did you get any tips from former Survivor: The Australian Outback contestant Elisabeth Hasselbeck before you went? I know you do her makeup on The View.
Rebecca: I didn't. I couldn't talk about the fact that I was going to be on the show at all. I had to lie to everyone over at ABC because of the whole conflict -of-interest thing. I didn't tell Elisabeth even secretly, because I didn't want to put her in an uncomfortable position. When she found out, she was literally floored.

TVGuide.com: Jenny, I was surprised to find out that you had a son who is 12.
Rebecca: We were shocked, too. Jenny looks like she's 20!

TVGuide.com: Was it tough for you being without him?
Jenny: It was very hard. I thought of [my family] every day, every moment, and knowing that they were supporting me was the strength that they had out there. The biggest disappointment was that barrel challenge. I cried when I found out we were going to have letters from home, and I cried even more when we lost.

TVGuide.com: Did you have bruises all over you from that?
Jenny: Yeah, that was pretty brutal. Plus, when they shoved the buoys into the barrel, they scraped up against our skin. So we had scrapes and bruises.

TVGuide.com: What would you have done differently if you could?
Rebecca: I would have conditioned my body better. I would have stopped eating food a lot sooner and trained a lot harder. Mentally I was fine out there, but physically, I didn't train as hard as I needed to.
Jenny: Before I went out there, I worked with a personal trainer to build up strength and endurance, and I packed on 15 pounds. That strategy really worked — even up to Day 25 without real food, I felt strong. What I would have done differently is, I would have spoken out at tribal council and tried to defend myself. At that point, I didn't think I was on the chopping block at all. Jeff [Probst] instilled a bit of paranoia in our group, saying, "Hey, we may never merge," so you think, if we're not winning with this tribe we have, we've got to figure out a way to make it stronger. Had I known that was the mentality, I would have said to Jeff, "Hey, can I say something just in case it is me?"

TVGuide.com: Do you have any resentment toward the other tribe members?
Jenny: You'll see our faces in jury.
Rebecca: Absolutely. I second that.

Reality-TV fans, find an update on Dancing with the Stars' champ Emmitt Smith in the Nov. 27 issue of TV Guide.

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