‘Survivor 50’: Charlie Reveals Who Really Masterminded His Blindside

The battle between Charlie Davis and Rizo Velovic came to a head in the March 25 episode of Survivor when the post-swap Cila tribe had to head to tribal council for the first time. At the immunity challenge, Jeff Probst announced that only one team would be safe from the vote, and the two losing tribes would be heading to tribal council. Warning: Spoilers for Survivor 50, Episode 5, ahead!

Charlie came into the swap with three of his former tribe members: Jonathan Young, Dee Valladares, and Kamilla Karthigesu. Rizo was a lone soldier and the seemingly obvious target due to the fact that he came from Season 49, which none of the other players had seen yet.

However, with the Billie Eilish boomerang idol in his pocket (which was gifted to him by Genevieve Mushaluk), Rizo wrangled Dee, Kamilla, and Cirie Fields to vote with him and blindside Charlie. And while Rizo did spearhead the situation, Charlie points out that Dee and Kamilla’s decision to flip on him is really what did him in.

“I was pretty sure Rizo was going to play the Shot in the Dark, but as soon as he did not play it, I think I actually said, ‘I’m cooked,'” Charlie tells TV Insider. “I looked around and was just like … oh no. I just knew immediately, and especially when I saw my first name come out, I was like … I’m done. I’m out. I went to Dee, like, ‘You did this? Was this you?’ So I mean, obviously, props to Rizo for surviving, but from my perspective, I felt like it could not have happened at all if Dee and Kamilla didn’t flip.”

In fact, Charlie reveals that Dee was the person he had “the most loyalty” to in the game at that point. “[It was] partly because we had a friendship outside of the game, but obviously that was not reciprocated, as we saw,” he explains. “I was also tight with Kamilla and Jonathan. I was tight with Kamilla and Dee from our first tribe and then sort of got a stronger bond with Jonathan on the new swap tribe. I thought I was good with all of them. Obviously, that was not true. So that sort of went into why I was feeling like I had some room to play with a little more emotion and all that we saw.”

Scroll down for our full interview with Charlie, including his real feelings about Rizo, which Taylor Swift song would sum up his season, and more.

You were gunning for Rizo, we knew that in the episodes leading up to this. But did you know that he was kind of doing the same thing? Were you aware you were the other option on this vote?

Charlie Davis: I knew Rizo was coming for me because he had said some comment to Rick [Devens], which Rick said back to me. I knew Rizo was gunning for me, but I was just totally blind to the fact that he had gotten any sort of traction with Dee and Kamilla. I still felt safe in my numbers. There was a specific comment where I was talking, I think with Jonathan, and I was like, “Listen, I know Rizo is targeting me. He’s probably going to write my name down. If he has an idol, I’m probably going home.” Because we weren’t doing a split vote or anything. So I was like, “If he plays the Shot in the Dark and it hits, or whatever, or he has an idol and sends me home, I’ll take that chance.” But I didn’t expect he had enough votes to get me out.

Going into that tribal, did you think every vote was going to be on Rizo?

Yeah, I did. Because I thought the four from Kalo was going to stick together. And then Devens did vote for Rizo, and I thought Cirie and Devens were going to vote together. We saw on TV that they were close. So there were a bunch of reasons why I thought it was unexpected. I didn’t expect Cirie to split off from Devens, I didn’t expect Dee and Kamilla to flip on me and flip on Jonathan. So there were a lot of factors that went into that blindside. And they pulled it off, for sure.

Did you have to do a lot of scrambling on the beach before the vote to make sure people were on your side? What were the conversations like?

There was the usual scrambling, but from my perspective, we had control over the numbers, so I wasn’t trying to over-engineer or anything. They did a good job of hiding the fact that they were targeting me, for sure. There were definitely conversations, but it was kind of just the consensus arriving to Rizo and making sure we were all on the same page.

Would you say Dee and Kamilla are closer than we’re kind of seeing?

I think they’ve shown that they are close. They showed Dee, Tiffany [Ervin], and Kamilla were really tight on Kalo and they had an open alliance. I think that’s part of the reason Dee made some comment being like, “He’s playing the dumbest game.” I think Dee and I were just playing very differently. She was playing, in my opinion, a very cards-on-the-table game. She was very open with that alliance on Kalo. I think she created some, not enemies, they didn’t hate each other, but she was drawing people to target her. She definitely did that on Kalo. I was more of the mind like, we’re still early in the game, let’s not take any crazy big shots. Let’s not turn on each other unnecessarily. Let’s sort of get to the merge and assess the situation there. I think Kamilla even talked about it, like, after the [Season] 48 “honor and integrity” theme, she was just ready to backstab people. So both of them were much more gung-ho, like, let’s get names out there, let’s do all that. I was more like, hey, I want to work with you, but there’s no reason why we need to be creating these super strong divisions. I think that was sort of the dichotomy between me, Dee, and Kamilla. But I definitely thought I was working with them still.

You obviously didn’t get to see Rizo’s season before you played. I’m assuming you did now. So what are your feelings about him voting for Savannah [Louie] to win now?

I learned that almost immediately because Savannah was at Ponderosa. Honestly, I just laughed. I really thought it was so comical. I was like oh, this is going to look so silly to the viewers, who probably barely even understand that I never got to see 49, but they’ll have just watched it before 50. So I knew if they choose to tell this story on 50, it’s going to seem so out of nowhere to them. Honestly, as soon as I figured it out, it’s just funny. And to be clear, even on the beach, I was not like, “Rizo is a terrible human, a terrible person!” I was leaning into that emotion and that betrayal, but I also talked in confessionals about how there are positive things about Rizo, too, and how that was sort of complex.

This was your first time getting voted out of Survivor. You had a moment where you kind of put your head in your hands in your exit interview. What was going through your head there?

It sinks in quick. It’s just a lot. You’re trying to figure out what happened. I had basically gathered enough information to know that Dee and Kamilla had flipped on me, but it’s just a lot of disappointment. You put so much time into the casting process, then the pregame press, and then actually playing the game itself, so it all kind of comes crashing down. It’s disappointing to go out so early and I was fortunate to get really far in 46, so I was definitely bummed. I wanted to win. I wanted to win the season. I did not want to lose. So, definitely disappointed, but also a lot of gratitude in that moment. There’s a lot of production members there when you do your final words and I remember having a nice moment with all of them. The other thing is you’re really tired. It’s just emotionally draining, you’re obviously physically drained, and it’s just a lot, so that was what went into the head in the hands moment.

What Taylor Swift song sums up your experience on 50?

Maybe “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.” There you go. That’s probably a good one. Also a great song. I just think when you lose Survivor, no matter what, where you lose, or how you lose, it’s a lot of “here’s what I would have done, should have done, could have done” until the end of your days.

She got her masters back when you were in Fiji!

I’ve talked to different press people after the fact and I think they were told they couldn’t tell me. Such a bummer. It would have been funny to get that news after not having my phone for a couple of days. But it was great. It was great to come back to that once I did get my phone back.

You played two seasons pretty close together. Would you come back if you were asked to return for another season in the future?

I’d for sure be down. I mean, going on Survivor is a big life commitment and interruption, so you always have to be like, OK, where am I at in my life? Can I make this work? I obviously really want to make it work. So you always have to consider that. But I’ll always answer the phone when they call and I’ll definitely more than hear them out. It’s just such an honor to be part of a franchise and to play twice and to play in such a legendary, monumental season. We’ll see. Maybe they’ll bring me, Rizo, and Maria [Gonzalez] back for a rival season.

Survivor, Season 50, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS