‘Survivor 50’: Genevieve Details Tribal Council ‘Dog Pile’ You Didn’t See

Genevieve Mushaluk found two idols pre-merge in Survivor 50, but she never got to use them for herself. The Season 47 fan-favorite found two Billie Eilish Boomerang Idols and sent them to Ozzy Lusth and Rizo Velovic. Christian Hubicki received the third, and he ended up on the same swapped tribe as Genevieve, Joe Hunter, and his allies, Rick Devens and Aubry Bracco.

Aubry was Genevieve’s No. 1 nemesis in the game, and she tells TV Insider that the second she saw her new temporary tribe in Episode 6, she knew she was going home. A “dog pile” during tribal council sealed her fate even more. The Canadian lawyer says that tribal was “pretty unpleasant” for her, specifically, even if it did look “benign” onscreen.

“There was a lot said for people who already knew that I was going home,” Genevieve reveals, adding, “Things were already a certain degree of tense that I think people were comfortable letting it rip. The blood moon is not my favorite phase of the lunar cycle, let’s say.”

Here, Genevieve discusses her Aubry rivalry and why they never became friends after filming, and shares her thoughts on the usefulness of the Boomerang Idol and more.

You found two idols that you couldn’t use to protect yourself. How did you feel about that in the game, and how do you feel about it now?

Genevieve Mushaluk: You know what? It’s funny, Kelli, because I had someone after the episode where I found the second one text me and say, “Congratulations on finding two idols.” And I genuinely don’t feel like someone who found two idols. It was such a bummer to have to give them away. And as someone who had no friends on the cast going into this season, there was really not much there.

I had to get a little creative, particularly with the first one. When I read the note, I was like, “I’m never getting this idol back, so what value can I extract out of this?” And so then it pivoted to, “OK, well, everybody thinks I’m standoffish and sketchy, and they can’t trust me. I’ll use this as a trust-building exercise, and maybe it’ll come back, but probably not based on this mechanic.”

It changed how I had to approach that, but I would’ve really loved two regular idols. Just a Billie
Eilish, a regular, down-the-middle idol would’ve been great. But you got the boomerang. You get what you get. You don’t get upset. That’s Survivor.

Do you have any regrets about who you sent the idols to?

No, because I don’t know how it could have turned out with anybody [else]. It could have been worse. Hindsight’s 20-20. Part of the thing that helps me sleep at night is not dissecting that stuff too much. All the would’ve, could’ve, should’ves [in] Survivor and in life. It’s just so difficult to do that. You’ll just beat yourself up. So I just try to be grateful for anything that did go my way and not get too pressed about the stuff that didn’t.

And the decisions you made were laying the foundation for future moves, of course.

Moves I won’t get to make, Kelli! [Laughs]

Future moves. Yeah, no. But had you been able to stay in the game, it was smart not to tell Rizo, I think, that you gave it to him.

Yes. Well, once I had told people about the first one, it really did yield the results I was hoping for.

I got embraced, and I think questioned a little less by my alliance, and it showed them, OK, she’s all in. And then for the second one, I didn’t really need it. I had reached the point of diminishing returns. The people who I was with, I was with, the people who I wasn’t, I was like, “That’s not going to move the needle for them. And why would I ever expose information to people I’m not working with? ” So yeah, it was sort of a no-brainer to keep the second one a secret and a surprise. And that would’ve been cool, a surprise idol that would be like, “Ha ha. Gotcha.”

Yeah. It would’ve.

Because it’s like the theme of my two exits is in both of them now, I know I’m going home. I haven’t had the misfortune of being blindsided, but I have had the misfortune of being a dead man walking. I don’t know which demise is worse, but if I had an idol, I would’ve played it, that’s for sure.

Well, maybe you’ll have to play again.

No, you know what? I’m so ready to be a fan again. It’s a lot. It’s very stressful to be on TV. It’s taken five years off my life. It’s nice being a fan now. I love the show. I love watching the show.

Don’t think you’d come back again?

Oh, girl, no. No. Honestly, no. There are producers who I feel very comfortable with at this point, and so you do confessionals before the game starts. And in my day zero confessional, I was like, “I’m going to really soak it in this time. Even if I go home on day three, I want to soak it all in. Last time I played, I was so anxious. I don’t have a lot of memories. So I’m going to soak it all in, and this’ll be the final time, and I’ll make up for things I maybe missed last time.”

The producer was like, “Really? You wouldn’t come back?” And I was like, “No, I really wouldn’t.” She’s like, “Well, tell me that in three years when you’re sitting on this beach.” And I was like, “No, no, no. Trust me, you don’t understand how hard this is for a girl with anxiety. It’s not fun.” But thank you for suggesting you would even want to see me again on your TV, Kelli. That is so nice.

I would. Most of this cast I would want to see again. The “Blood Moon” exit interviews, I think, everyone would want to see them come back. I know Colby is probably not likely, but Kamilla feels like she’s got another one in the tank.

I would love to see Kamilla play again. She has so much to offer to the game. She’s really, really capable. And Colby, as much as he is old school, was extremely adaptable as an alliance mate, and he was very open to different strategies and ideas, and I didn’t necessarily foresee that with him. So it was genuinely really enjoyable to work with him.

You said in the episode that you felt like your self-esteem took a hit before tribal. Could you explain what you meant?

Oh, it was just an awful day. It was an awful, awful day. Everything was going wrong. I felt so
desperate to stay and at the same time so conscious of the fact that I was going home. And it’s just a really heartbreaking feeling when you’re like, “I want it so bad, and there’s no amount of effort that I can put in that is going to make that happen.” But then you’re like, “But I still have to try.” And so it’s a really morbid exercise, I would say.

How did it feel to watch the episode and see Christian Hubicki’s reaction to your pitch? He was impressed by it. He, unfortunately, was like, “It’s not moving me to save her, but she’s so good at this that now I really need to get her out.”

Well, the right pitch to Christian would’ve been, “Don’t you want your idol back? This is your chance. You may be the only person who could have their idol back. Don’t you want it back?” But I didn’t know he had given it to Aubry. And I do think the challenge with those swap tribals is you don’t have days. It’s not a swap tribe, it’s a swap tribal. You have hours on the beach. And so if there are people who are entrenched in certain relationships, you don’t have time to meaningfully pitch them on why taking a risk or making a change is worth it for them. When you’re in that situation, as soon as I saw the rocks, I was like, “It’s me. ” In theory, it’s me or Joe, but it’s me. That’s what I would do if I were them. It’s me.

Especially when you saw Aubry, too, because you two have been nemeses this whole season.

Smirking at me with the rock? Yeah, I knew it kind of confirmed a nail in the coffin. [Laughs]

You said in tribal that you and Aubry would never see eye to eye, but as people, do you get along? Are you friends now?

No, I would say it’s not like the rivalry I had with Rachel [LaMont, Season 47 winner], which was competitive, but there’s a good personal relationship. I think we’re just oil and water and very different people. Rachel basically is a staple in my life now. Mark, my husband, refers to Rachel as “my wife’s wife” because she’s such a staple that’s hard to replicate. I don’t think I’ll ever have that again, no.

Can you give a sense of what the origin of your and Aubry’s disagreement was? Was there more we didn’t see?

Yeah, I thought we got along at first until I found out that she was targeting me, and we could never really have an open conversation about that. And I think part of it is people acknowledging what’s happening and trying to break out of that. But if you can’t have that open conversation, then every conversation is fake at best or fake and tense at worst, and that’s kind of what it’s skewed for. So I would say probably the parts that you saw were the most positive parts of it. It was really uncomfortable. I would not recommend it.

Did you expect a vote from Joe?

No. Interestingly, Joe was in a tough spot. If my Shot in the Dark hits, and he doesn’t vote for Devens, on a revote, he will go home. If my Shot in the Dark doesn’t hit any votes for Devens, he will have to go back to camp with everybody knowing he’s made an enemy in Devens. So he’s also playing with a bit of a one-in-six odds there. If I were him, I would’ve thrown a vote just to be safe because I wouldn’t want a one-in-six chance, and I’d deal with the damage control after, but I understand why he would not want to deal with that, given his history with Devens.

It seemed like going into it, you knew that your fate was sealed, but did anything happen in tribal council that cemented that further for you?

I knew it, and the tribal was, honestly, Kelli, pretty unpleasant because it was quite a dog pile. By the end of it, I was like, “Oof, OK. OK.” It was not a fun one. Watching it back, it looks pretty benign, but it took me back to the feelings, and it was pretty unpleasant. There was a lot said for people who already knew that I was going home. And then also from a strategy perspective, it’s not really smart to lay into someone because on the off chance they have something and they come back, then you have to deal with that. But at that point, things were already a certain degree of tense that I think people were comfortable letting it rip. The blood moon is not my favorite phase of the lunar cycle, let’s say.

Who was laying into you?

Well, not Joe. It was just a continuation of tension. So yeah, it was not fun. It was not fun. But honestly, everyone is so stressed, and emotions are big, big in Survivor. You have highs, you have lows, and so people manage that differently. I totally appreciate that.

That’s a very diplomatic response.

You know what’s up, girl. You know what’s up.

Is there anything that happened in this season, either in this episode or episodes prior, that didn’t make the edit that you really wish had?

There was a lot more strategy that could have been shown from all parties, not even just my game. But I think from my game specifically, showing some of the discussions we had on both my original tribe and the swap tribe about wanting to throw challenges and how we would’ve split votes or what we would’ve done, because there was a lot there. Those types of conversations are just generally good to show a viewer because it also lends some insight into what is happening on a tribe, even if it doesn’t go to tribal, so that later votes, when people do go together, you understand a little more of the table setting as they get
there. That would’ve been useful to show.

As the season has been coming out, there’s been lots of discussion about how women haven’t been as heavily featured in the first five episodes. How do you feel about that, and what have discussions been like among the cast for you?

Oh, I love the scenes with the women more than the scenes with the men, to be honest. I feel like we’re getting so much slapstick stuff and it ain’t from the girls. The girls are great. There’s so much nuanced strategic gameplay. I was there. I saw a lot of it happening, and so I wish you got to see more of it because I could pick so many conversations, but Chrissy [Hofbeck] and I on the swap beach had so many great strategic conversations. You didn’t get to see a single one of those. And that’s just selfish examples of things that I experienced because that’s all I can speak to directly. I promise you the ladies were playing.

Can you explain your decision to give your coat to Aubry?

It’s cold out there at night, Kelli. It’s so cold, and it’s not cold at Ponderosa. So it was just a really
pragmatic thing to do. I knew I had felt this one-sided tension. I could just feel how much I was disliked the whole game. And I wanted to leave it for pragmatic reasons, but also, it’s like no bad blood. I think it’s really easy for me to compartmentalize what happens in the game, so long as the outside-the-game behavior is different and you have this conversation. So I get the tensions of Fiji, and it’s kind of this weird place. I don’t know, maybe there’s a different gravitational pull or something. Everybody’s just a little crazy on those islands in Fiji. I don’t know. But yeah, I knew they needed it more than me.

You gave it to Aubry specifically, though.

Yes. Well, she’s the only girl there, and Joe would’ve ripped it at the scenes. He’s pretty jacked. But I think it was just the right thing to do.

Did you want it to feel like an olive branch, a bygones kind of thing?

I didn’t think that deeply of it. It was more like, this is over. At the time, I said it was never personal on my part, which wasn’t shown, but yeah, I guess that’s a good way to articulate it. Yeah.

Well, Genevieve, I hope that in a bit from now, you realize, “I’ve got to go back,” because you’re fun to watch.

You want me to be tortured a third time, Kelli? That’s what you want from me? [Laughs]

Maybe you’ll feel less anxious next time! Maybe come back in 10 years, and things will be different if Survivor‘s still running in 10 years. Never say never.

Survivor 100, OK.

Survivor 50, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS