Best Intentions Knock Jupiter from Pirate Master's Orbit

In a meteoric fall from grace, Elicia "Jupiter" Mendoza,a 30-year-old bartender from California, went from being Pirate Master's loyal sailor to a cast-aside cook. With her kitchen skills earning her extra gold from the powerful "Triad," Jupiter had a good gig going, but when she publicly alerted Captain Azmyth — a man she vowed never to betray — to dissension in the ranks, he took her warning as a threat and cut her loose. (It's always the messenger that gets the shaft!) TVGuide.com chatted with Jupiter about her lightning-fast demise and why she considers herself a modern-day pirate. (The five remaining episodes of Pirate Master are being streamed at CBS.com.)

TV Guide.com: What were you thinking by exposing the crew's plan for a mutiny?!
Elicia "Jupiter" Mendoza: In the beginning, Azmyth and I formed a bond and I'm not really one to go back on my word. I told him that I wouldn't mutiny against him. I didn't think there was going be that much repercussion from it. I was thinking more with my heart than with my mind.

TV Guide.com: Afterwards, did you have any inkling that you had essentially taken yourself out of the game?
Jupiter: Yeah, I didn't really prepare myself for it very well. I thought I was actually going to be OK, that maybe there would have been some sort of earned respect from me bringing up the situation. I also didn't bid on the pardon because I thought that I would be safe. It ended up backfiring on me. It was just an unfortunate matter.

TV Guide.com: How are things between you and Azmyth now?
Jupiter: Azmyth is my friend. We try to host a pirate party every week and we invite other pirates from the show, like Sean and Laurel. Just recently we had one with Kendra and Nessa. We're good now, but at the time it was really disappointing.

TV Guide.com: The "ghosts" of eliminated players came back to challenge the crew. How do you think the game would have played out if they had succeeded?
Jupiter: I'm pretty sure the Triad, as they call themselves, would have gotten the black spots. I don't know who would have been cut adrift at that time, but it definitely would have made a better game.

TV Guide.com: In almost every episode there has been talk of mutiny. What keeps the crew from following through? Was it you, the lone holdout?
Jupiter: I actually questioned that myself. If I had a black spot, why didn't they mutiny at that time? That's what I don't quite get, but I'm sure there was a reason. If Jay or Ben decided to go against a mutiny, then it wouldn't have worked anyway and it would have been a wasted ballot, as Louie said. 

TV Guide.com: How did you end up on the show?
Jupiter: My friend Courtney [Marit] from Survivor: Panama called me up and told me that she had the best show for me because I already kind of live my life in a pirate way. I consider myself a modern-day pirate — if not a wench.

TV Guide.com: Meaning...?
Jupiter: I do my own kind of piracy. I bartend events that are more underground so they're not usually documented. I've been a part of a group that goes to the Burning Man [festival] and we sail a space pirate ship that we build out in the middle of the desert.

TV Guide.com: So this show was tailor-made for you.
Jupiter: Oh, it was so made for me!

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