Linnea Capobianco Suspects Carter Helped Maggie’s Plan to Target Her (Exclusive)

A rare deadlock tie led to Linnea Capobianco‘s elimination in Survivor 51 Episode 5, which aired on October 21 on CBS. She tells TV Insider that the edit this season didn’t show the full depths of what she believed to be a strong alliance with Danny Kilby, who, along with Lewis Kelly, carried out a plan to cause a rock draw that would vote Linnea out. The target was an instruction from Maggie Nestor from Savu. Linnea says she wanted to work with Maggie post-merge and that she still doesn’t understand why she targeted her, but she suspects that Carter Krull gave Maggie the idea.

After Savu won the immunity/reward challenge, Maggie was selected at random to go on a journey. This trip took her to a tribe of her choosing and gave her the power to give an extra vote to someone on that tribe. She chose Dina. To stack the cards in Lewis and Kilby’s favor and take control of their tribal council, Maggie gave the duo her preexisting extra vote on top of the one provided by her journey advantage on one condition: vote for Linnea. They agreed, and the scheme to cause a tie worked.

When they reached a deadlock, Kilby, Sharonda Cox, Cristian Chavez, and Eric Macksoud were forced to reach a unanimous agreement about voting out either Lewis or Linnea. If they couldn’t unanimously agree, Lewis and Linnea would be safe and the four remaining players would draw rocks, with the odd-rock out being sent home. Kilby refused to vote for Lewis, so it was Linnea or rocks. They chose Linnea, but tears were shed over it.

Maggie said in the episode that she’s believed Linnea to be a threat from the very beginning. Here, Linnea explains why she suspects that Carter’s mutiny was involved in Maggie targeting her. Plus, she reveals what it was like at Ponderosa with her number-one ally in the game, Alexis Levine, who was also voted out in Episode 5 in the tribal council right before hers, and makes the case for a return to two tribes instead of three.

Robert Voets/CBS

These deadlock ties obviously are rare in Survivor. Take me through the range of emotions you experienced about your elimination from the moment it was happening to now.

Linnea Capobianco: When I saw my name for the second time, I realized Kilby had flipped and I was sad about that. And then when I saw it for a third time, I thought one of my alliance members had flipped, but then I quickly realized with the help of Cristian whispering in my ear, they both have extra votes. And then it just kept going.

I was in another dimension. I forgot my torch at the end of it all. I thought I was good at math, Kelli. I was in the math club in middle school, but the numbers kept coming. The names kept coming.

Did you struggle to accept what happened? How did it impact your relationships with your Savu members?

After the game?

Yeah.

It’s all good. I wish they went to rocks. They’re a little softer than I expected, but I love them. My number-one [ally], Alexis, would’ve gone to rocks. I was way more hurt by Kilby.

They didn’t show our relationship as much on the show as it was there. One of the reasons I tried to convince him and say, “our bond is real, I’m still willing to work with you,” is because the bond really was real. We had a relationship since day one that wasn’t shown. And so it hurt really, really bad. Anyone that’s been blindsided in any capacity on Survivor would say the same thing. It is an emotional roller coaster.

We’re a few months out from coming home and I’m still riding the roller coaster. I have days where I’m like, “oh, I’m just grateful.” Then I have days where I’m still devastated. This hurts really bad.

Robert Voets/CBS

Did you and Alexis talk about the coincidence that rocks came up in the episode that got both of you out? It didn’t happen in Alexis’s tribal, but she tried to make it happen.

We didn’t bond over the rocks, but we did bond over going out in the same day. We were number one since the beginning, and we went out in a blaze of glory together. Reuniting right after both of our tribals was hilarious. Heartbreaking, but hilarious.

Tell me about that first meeting in Ponderosa when you saw her there.

Look, Alexis got screwed. I mean, the tribe swap [was] diabolical. She was with the helicopter alliance. What was she to do? And then I got mega-screwed in an entirely different way.

Everyone knew Alexis was likely to go home, so I was not surprised to see her, but she was very surprised to see me. And so we were both flabbergasted like, “Oh my gosh,” scream, hug, laugh, cry, the whole thing.

You wanted Lewis out already, but did his blood idol lie make him seem like more of a threat?

No. If anything, it made it more clear to me that he didn’t have anything because we realized the blood ring was not real, and therefore I felt even more confident.

I went through his bag. I was the only one that went through his bag, and we all knew that the blood ring was fake. And therefore I felt like I was in even a better position to survive that tribal. I went in really confident to that tribal because I had done the work. I went through his bag. I knew he didn’t have anything. And at most, Kilby had one extra vote, so I felt really safe.

Robert Voets/CBS

Maggie was the orchestrator of this elimination for you. She said she was given no directions about what to do when she got to your camp, but did anyone believe that? What did you suspect was going on?

Maggie! I don’t understand. I would’ve liked to work with her post-merge. It likely came from Carter, who mutinied on the island and was very upset by his alliance being epically destroyed. Ana [Sani] went home, Rob [Antonson] quit, and he had to mutiny because he was so unsafe after his evil three [alliance] was destroyed. I understand that he was likely throwing my name out and saying I was leading stuff on our previous tribe. Maybe that got to Maggie, and she brought it to Dina.

When she got to Dina that day, though, when she said, “I don’t have any directions for what I’m doing here,” did you believe that?

Oh, of course not. I knew she likely had something and was going to give it to someone, but Kilby, who I had a relationship with, showed me that he had an extra vote.

And what was your solo chat with Maggie like? We saw a small snippet of you talking to her, but we didn’t see the conversation. What was your gut telling you after you talked to her?

My gut was telling me that she was friendly. She was nice. I would like to work with her after the merge. She had a nice relationship with Kristin [Flickinger], who I said I liked, so I thought we were OK.

Did she give you any information that felt valuable?

No.

Robert Voets/CBS

So, you had literally no inkling at all that she was coming for you?

Not at all. I knew she likely had something, and then I knew she gave it to Kilby. I had no idea she had two things [extra votes].

And so you thought Kilby was going to vote with you?

I thought Kilby was going to vote with me. We had a really strong relationship. However, I thought, “Worst-case scenario, Kilby doesn’t go with me, I’m still OK.”

Did you think he was going to use the extra vote in that tribal?

No, not at all.

What made you think that? Did he say he was going to save it?

Well, he showed it to me and Eric, that’s who he was closest with out of the Savu alliance, so I felt the relationship with Eric was real, the relationship with me was real. I thought the three of us were really going to work together after the merge. Never got to make it there.

Who did you think Lewis was going to vote for?

I wasn’t sure. He tried to do the fake blood ring with Sharonda. He told me that Cristian was really secretly smart and a threat, so I wasn’t sure.

Robert Voets/CBS

Going into Tribal, you had no expectations at all that you’d get even a single vote?

Correct. I knew it was a possibility for all of us, but I thought we were all also safe.

During the live tribal, when your fate was being debated after the deadlock, when did you feel that it was over for you?

When Cristian and Eric were crying, and Sharonda had her head in her hands, I was like, “Oh, this is not looking good for me right now. No one is standing up 10-toes down. I want to go to rocks,” except for Kilby, who was obviously in a little better place than them.

What was it like in that moment to watch Kilby and Lewis be a really strong team and give that ultimatum? As you said, Kilby was an ally of yours, or at least you thought.

Yeah, he was an ally of mine. I mean, it’s not surprising when you have two incredible advantages that you want to use them. I totally get it.

Let me tell you the difference between two tribes and three tribes on Survivor with my season in particular. With two larger tribes, it’s the social game that leads the chaos. It’s who trusts who, who’s lying to who, who is doing the manipulation, whereas with three smaller tribes, it’s the twists and advantages that lead the chaos.

And I love Survivor chaos in general, but when you get put on a smaller tribe, even if you’re in the majority and then twists are thrown last minute, advantages are thrown last minute, some of the social game goes out the window and the power lies in who has these crazy advantages, which happened to be Kilby and Lewis.

As a Survivor fan in general, do you prefer two or three tribes given what you just said?

Two. Oh my gosh. I mean, obviously, for my situation, it would’ve been better, but it’s just more fun to watch. The votes are less predictable, and, therefore, you rely less on the advantages and twists to make it exciting, and you rely more on these crazy giant social dynamics, so many different types of relationships, giant five-versus-four vote outs. It’s a little bit juicier in terms of social game, but all Survivor is fun.

I got screwed by twists, so yeah, I’m mad about twists right now.

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