Survivor Magician Runs Out of Tricks

On last Thursday's Survivor: Guatemala, Morgan McDevitt was unable to pull a rabbit out of a hat and save herself from a tribal trouncing. The Yaxhas thought that the 21-year-old magician's assistant was more than a tad bit lazy, and decided to keep workhorse Lydia around camp instead. Unfortunately for Morgan, her fellow castaways didn't give her a heads-up on the change of plan, so she was stunned by their betrayal before she disappeared from Guatemala for good.

TVGuide.com: Were you surprised you got voted out so early?
Morgan McDevitt: Oh, my gosh, I was shocked!

TVGuide.com: I saw the look on your face right after you gave that whole speech on unity; it didn't seem happy.
Morgan: I gave this whole speech about honesty and us telling each other what was going on, and that wasn't the case at all.

TVGuide.com: Do you have anything you plan to say to your teammates when you see them at the finale?
Morgan: No. I think that what they did was the nature of the beast. It was all within the game, and I definitely respect them for it. I think it was kind of silly to vote someone off that early for nonphysical reasons. I think they should have kept the tribe's best interest in mind when it came to challenges, and I don't think that was the smartest move to make. But we'll see what happens.

TVGuide.com: It seemed like they picked you because you weren't doing as much around camp.
Morgan: That was Gary's opinion. Brian just wanted to save Lydia, so Brian just heard Gary say that [I was lazy] and he latched onto it and went along with it. I don't think that was the overall consensus, though. I know that Rafe and Amy did not think that I was lazy.

TVGuide.com: So you were pulling your own weight?
Morgan: I definitely was, [but] Lydia was an absolute workhorse. In comparison to her, I did very little, but so did everybody else. The thing that you didn't see was that Brianna and Jamie were very sick around camp, and were doing little to nothing. I was just really shocked to see me, of all people, being accused of being lazy.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of workhorses, were you surprised to see Stephenie on your team?
Morgan: I was shocked. I had a feeling there were going to be two more people added; I just didn't know who it would be or anything like that. She was someone who I had followed and rooted for during [Survivor:] Palau. She's a great competitor, and I felt really privileged at first to have her on my team. But as I find out, she wants to be the woman on the team; she doesn't have room for any other strong females, and that's what I was. To her, I was a threat.

TVGuide.com: Did you consider making an alliance with people to try to get her out?
Morgan: No, I didn't. I had a bad feeling about her — and I had a bad feeling about Gary as well — but I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to be the only one who felt that way, putting a target on my back.

TVGuide.com: Did you make any alliances at all?
Morgan: There was actually a huge, ridiculous alliance formed on the hike [between] Amy, Gary, Stephenie, Brianna, me and Rafe. Then we started having challenges, which became very physical, and Jamie and Brian, who were not in our alliance, became very valuable, because they were so strong. Especially after that last immunity challenge where it was just pure muscle, not just endurance. There's no way that I, weighing 100 lbs., could do anything for that challenge! I was determined, and I didn't give up, but I couldn't make a difference and I felt really, really helpless in that sense. Going home [to the campsite] after that defeat, there was no way we would even consider voting off one of the males. That sounds horrible, but that was just the order of the challenges. Had we lost an endurance challenge or lost maybe the ropes challenge, I wouldn't have been voted off. That's just the way it goes.

TVGuide.com: After watching the show, was there anything that anybody said in private that you were totally taken aback by?
Morgan: I was a little disturbed to see Brian going along with what Gary said. That's the thing, they wanted to make those accusations and not hear my side. They just wanted somebody to vote off besides Lydia, who they warned, "Your head is on the chopping block." I never got that luxury. I never got to stick up for myself and say, "I do this and this and this every day around camp." They didn't show the honesty and respect that I showed them. Amy, for example, was really slacking off on the first challenge, the hike, and I was like, "You have to pick it up, you're keeping us behind!" She always talked about how candid she is, and yet never once came to me [with a heads-up]. Like I said, it's just a game, so you can't hate on them for that.

TVGuide.com: What did you think when you found out Gary was really a professional football player?
Morgan: I thought it was silly he even lied in the first place. It could have been to his advantage to be the quarterback, to be a professional athlete. People would want to align with him for that reason.

TVGuide.com: I heard that you once worked as a magician's assistant. Was there anyone who you wanted to make disappear?
Morgan: [Laughs] After that episode, yeah — Gary and Brian.

TVGuide.com: Did you wish you could make something appear out of a hat, like water or food?
Morgan: How about immunity?

TVGuide.com:  Why did you go on Survivor to begin with? Were you a fan, was it the million dollars?
Morgan: Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan. I just couldn't turn down an opportunity to leave the country and have a great adventure like that. I've never left the country before.

TVGuide.com: Wow, then all of a sudden you're walking 11 miles in a jungle!
Morgan: It was just wonderful. It makes me want to travel so much more. I've grown up a lot more in the past six months because of this experience.

TVGuide.com: When I talked to Jim last week, he said there was no way to convey how difficult walking through that jungle was. Is that true?
Morgan: Physically, I was completely fine; I'm built for endurance. Mentally, it was just the most frustrating thing, because we didn't have machetes. At one point we left the jungle and were on this road, then we had to go back into the jungle and it was so hard. I was like, "No, no, not the jungle again!"