‘Survivor 51’: Kristin Flickinger Reveals Foiled Hail Mary That Would’ve Saved Her & Kilby

Advantage after advantage was played in Survivor 51 Episode 8 until only one vote decided which pair was voted out. Kristin Flickinger, one of the fallen players, calls it “Advantage-geddon 2.0,” referencing Cirie Fields‘ infamous elimination where advantages protected everyone but her in Survivor: Game Changers, sending her home without a single vote to her name.

The November 11 episode reprised the Double Duo elimination introduced in Survivor 50. Everyone had to pair up, and they would be eliminated as a pair. By choosing to work together, the players were sealing their fates to each other’s.

Lewis Kelly and Sharonda Cox won immunity. In the end, the only pairs really on the chopping block were Devin Way and Jelly Loblack, who were shielded by Jelly’s immunity idol, Carter Krull and Cristian Chavez, and Kristin and Danny “Kilby” Kilby. Cristian played his Shot in the Dark and it worked, saving himself and Carter. Kristin played her Shot in the Dark for her and Kilby, but it didn’t work. The singular vote for them is what sent them to the jury.

While Kilby tells TV Insider that he was planning to vote for Mike Pinsky and Maggie Nestor, he had to switch his votes when Cristian didn’t follow through on their plan to give Kilby his extra vote from the journey (he gave it to Eric Macksoud instead).

Kristin tells us she had a plan to use her tethered idol by getting Lewis and Sharonda to give their immunity necklaces to her and Kilby, and she’d protect them with the idol that she could only play on Sharonda. Sadly, the smart plan didn’t have time to pan out. Kristin explains it all in our exit interview.

Kristin, taken out by an advantage avalanche, how are you feeling today?

Kristin Flickinger: Oh, Advantage-geddon 2.0. There were so many overlapping things happening and still half a vote. Half a vote took me out. Epic way to go out.

Epic way to go out, but when did you realize in tribal council that there could be a vote for you?

I thought it was around this amount. I was doing calculations and it’s funny when people are like, “Oh, yeah, I calculated and it was this percentage chance.” But legitimately, that is what was happening. It was counting votes.

Cristian and I were leaning in. I knew that he was probably playing a [Shot in the Dark]. I didn’t think that Jelly had an idol. I thought that what Dev originally got was a progressive advantage and that we were probably at the idol phase at this point, so I was calculating all the things that I thought were in play. And when I played that Shot in the Dark, I was going to hold it because I wanted Jelly to think that we were playing together. I wanted to play with her and she wanted me to vote a certain way.

I didn’t want to reveal that I had surrendered my vote, so if nothing else had played, I would not have actually revealed my scroll. I would’ve kept it in my pocket. So, yes, I thought that there was a vote coming for me. Maybe two, probably one, maybe zero. I was about right, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

In your calculus, did you ever consider that you might be taken out by one vote? Who would?

No, and it’s a half a vote. I got a half a vote. Let’s be real. Yeah, I didn’t think that it was that intense. And in fact, I had a whole scheme that I had hatched right before we had to go to tribal council that I didn’t push on because I didn’t think this was going to happen.

The scheme was, OK, Sharonda’s my number one. We’ve got some artillery. I’ve got the tethered idol, which I couldn’t play on her because she had the [immunity] necklace. She had the necklace, which she’d never give that up unless she gave it to me and I played the tethered idol and everyone was safe. And so I didn’t have time to talk to her before we left. I had time to signal to Lewis across camp, and I was like, “Your necklace? Me?” And he went to ask somebody about it and then we had to go to tribal.

And at Tribal, you can see me leaning in really low and I’m talking to Sharonda and we’re whispering behind Maggie where I’m asking, “Girl, do you know what the mechanic is? Can you give me your necklace?” And Maggie heard us and Maggie perked up and said, “Don’t give her your necklace. Don’t you give that up.” And she was like, “I would never give it up.” And then Jeff got involved and it became this whole thing where I was like, “Nope, I’m not doing anything. Nothing to see here. I’m not a threat.” So, I moved away from that plan and moved into, I guess I’ll just solve it with a Shot in the Dark. And you see how that went.

God, that’s such a good plan.

It was a good plan.

It would’ve worked.

It was a great plan. Yep. Just didn’t have time to execute it.

That’s so sad to hear. It would’ve worked.

Right? Right? It would’ve been so good. I mean, it would’ve worked unless Lewis was like, “I don’t actually know you, and how do we know that you won’t take it and then vote us out?” Which would’ve been an incredible play, but wasn’t my play style. And I think Sharonda did know that.

I think she knew that my play style, after I had given it to her, it wasn’t like I was then going to take it back and then be like, “And I vote you out.” Not at that point. An idol is really nice to have, but it can’t tell you when people are coming for you. And that was more valuable to me. I’d only been to one tribal council pre-merge, so everyone else had been building, building, building by attrition, by taking people out and then they understood who they could trust. I had to build by addition. I had not been able to test my relationships, so handing that idol to her was critically important because I wasn’t sure I still had a number one or anyone at all. And I mean, talk to Brady [Booker] and he’ll tell you he didn’t have a number one at all, and that was a major problem for him, so I was trying to seal that up.

If Sharonda had been able to give you her necklace, that would’ve been such a perfect save.

Perfect. Would’ve been perfect. If we had paired up and then gone from there, we would’ve been taken care of as well because I could play it on her, right?

Did you think about pairing up?

[Sighs] Yes. The way the pairing up happened was I was a skyrocketing threat. Maggie was freaked out. She thought I had multiple idols. She was telling everybody. Everywhere I went, people were like, “Do you have an idol? Everyone thinks you have an idol.” I was like, “I actually don’t.”

It’s kind of true.

It was kind of true. I didn’t have it in my pocket, which was another thing. I wanted it out of my pocket. There were so many bag searches going. I didn’t want people to find that when people already thought I had an idol. I didn’t want people finding the note and telling Sharonda. And yes, you can bury all those things, sure, regardless.

At the moment that the Double Duos happened, I was like, “I need to reduce my threat level so I will just say, ‘Hey, y’all, I know that I don’t have a good physical weaponry on me right now. I’m hurting and I can’t really do physical stuff, but I’m really good at puzzles if anyone wants to pair up with me.'” And Kilby, bless his soul, says, “I’ll pair up with you, Kristin.” And I was like, “No.”

Because although he wasn’t top of the list in terms of voting out, he was a big threat. I was a big threat. And together I was like, “We are just too chalk a pick to take out.”

Yeah, but what’s so sad about it, too, is that you didn’t end up being the target in this episode.

Yeah, we were a secondary, just-in-case vote.

It’s great TV, but…

Great TV. It’s great. And that’s the thing. I’m a fan first, so as this is happening, I’m watching it get closer to me. I’m watching Shots in the Dark and I’m watching idols and it’s just like, “This is incredible, and oh my God, there’s no… We’re going home.”

When did you know it was you?

I knew that it was me when I saw the color of Cristian’s Shot in the Dark, the ribbon. It was different from mine. I knew that if one of us hit, one of us would not, so I knew it was coming.

I noticed those colors were different, but are the not safe and safe ribbons always different colors?

I’ve paid attention [to this detail] for years and it seems that they’re different colors. I don’t know if that’s the case, but in the seasons where one plays and the other doesn’t, they’ve been different colors. …[The colors] have changed up over seasons. Maybe it means nothing. Maybe it means nothing at all, but for me, I was like, “Oh.”

I could see why you would think that. You’ve been applying for Survivor for 25 years. You finally get on it for 51. Do you feel like you got enough of a Survivor experience? Other than winning, of course, is there anything you really wish you got to do?

Play more. That’s it. I was like, “Get on Survivor, play, and win Survivor,” were my bucket list. I didn’t have the whole [wish list of] this, this, this, this, and that’s why I was willing to give away an idol.

Did I have enough of an experience? I had a 25-year Survivor journey before I even played. Honestly, I’ve been doing this a really long time. It has given me so much. It’s been there with me when I was in a bad car accident and needed a reason to get physically back on the horse. The reason was Survivor. After breakups, it was there for me. This has been something that has been with me through every part of my life, so even if I never played, I would’ve had an incredible Survivor journey, but now I got to play.

I got to watch myself with my new friends on my favorite show, and I’ve got to have an incredible experience of a community giving me so much love, so did I have enough? I don’t know that I will ever have enough Survivor experience, but I am so grateful for every second I’ve had, and I don’t take one bit of it for granted.

You waited so long and fought so hard to get onto the show in the first place. Now, do you want to keep applying and come back? I feel like you’ve paid your dues to Survivor and you can give yourself a break, but I also feel like you love it so much, you’re a fierce competitor. I feel like you want to come back.

What is this break of which you speak? Who would want this? Honest to God, when I left, I said, “I will stay here. And if at any point you all want me to come back as cast, as crew, as anything, I would be here in a second.” I would still be out there. It is a magical, magical thing to play Survivor. And my experience of the crew, it’s just magic. I would go out in a heartbeat.

And you played on a broken foot. Was your foot legitimately broken, sprained? What was the injury?

Legitimately broken. It was a three millimeter spiral pseudo Jones fracture for those who want to know what it was. It was a real thing. I’ve been recovering. So, I had 12 weeks of physical therapy, tons of x-rays. I went through all the treatment. The only question I had was, am I cleared to go back? And the answer now is yes, I’m cleared to go back, so let’s go.

Jeff said previously that there was someone this season that made him think they could maybe host the show. Do you have any idea of who he was talking about?

That is a question for Jeff, my friend. He’s got to answer that question. I don’t think Jeff’s going anywhere for quite a while.

Oh, I don’t think so. He’s got a lot of gas in the tank, but…

And he loves it. And he is Survivor and he just exudes Survivor, so that’s a Jeff question.

Do you think that you could host Survivor?

That is well above my pay grade at this point. Listen, I would go back and function in any capacity that the show asked me to come back in. I love living in a world where that’s even a dream, so let’s live in that world together. But honestly, that’s a Jeff question.

It happens when hosts have been hosting a show for a long time. It’s a natural question. If and when the day comes that they’re not hosting it anymore, who would replace them? So, when you were watching this season, whose confessional about you surprised you the most? Because there were a lot of confessionals about you.

I yelled at the screen at Thien A last night. I was like, “Thien An?! OK. I thought we were doing something.” Last couple episodes ago, she said, “I love Kristin,” and now it’s, “Let’s take her out.” So, that was a little surprising. I think there were a couple Sharonda times when I yelled “Sharonda!” at the screen, but overall, I knew where people stood as it related to me. I will say Rob [Antonson] telling us that he had an idol, I didn’t believe it. Rob actually voting for himself, did not believe that until I saw it.

It’s pretty unbelievable.

Yep. And that’s enough about that. [Laughs]

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