‘Survivor 50’ debrief: Q Burdette exposes Coach’s ‘lie,’ calls out Ozzy’s ‘sellout vibes’
Welcome to Reality Derby, Gold Derby’s deep dive into all things reality TV, hosted by senior editors Marcus James Dixon and Denton Davidson. Watch the latest episode above.
Survivor 50 contestant Q Burdette doesn’t hold back when asked about his thoughts on Coach Wade and Ozzy Lusth, the two people he battled with in the first episode over a key that would unlock their tribe’s supplies. Viewers witnessed Ozzy and Q make an agreement, only for Coach to swoop in and steal the key for himself.
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“I’ve seen Coach when it comes to dealing with honor and integrity, and let’s go back to that moment,” Q tells Gold Derby after being voted out in Episode 3. “Just let me be clear: I do not have a problem with what Coach did [by stealing the key]. What I have a problem with is him trying to act naive as to the point where he did not know or agree to the gentleman’s agreement. He did.”
Q continues on, “Look, I don’t have a reason to lie. I don’t have a dog in a fight. But Coach knew what was going on. And had Coach knocked that key off, he expected for us to also honor what we said. If we would have tried to steal it from him, he would be saying, ‘Oh man, you guys ain’t keep your word.’ I know for 1000 perfect fact. To come back and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know, I didn’t agree’ — that’s a lie.”
Switching over to Ozzy, Q is surprised that his Exile Island camp-mate wrote Q’s name down at tribal council in Episode 3. “I mean, it really gave me sellout vibes,” he confesses. “But it’s Survivor. He’s gonna do what’s best for his game and what’s best to preserve him for another day, especially when you have an idol in your pocket.” He adds, “We haven’t talked about it. We haven’t discussed it. So, I really don’t know what he was thinking in that moment, but I understand either way. Only one person can win at the end.”
This episode will go down in history as the one where Jeff Probst rapped for the first time, which at first confused Q and the other castaways. “When you’re out there and you’re hearing it live and we’re snapping and it’s not to the beat, you’re like, ‘What is going on? What are we doing?'” he recalls thinking. “But then, when you’re watching it and you’re hearing it on beat, I thought it was pretty good.”
Q was convinced that Angelina Keeley was heading home, but she fell into a much larger group with Emily Flippen, Christian Hubicki, Mike White, and Ozzy, leaving Q and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick simply outnumbered. Q sums it up: “It’s three people from one tribe who’ve been to every tribal council and voted together, three people who have a past relationship from a previous season, two people who play video games together, and two people who know each other from nightlife in L.A. That just leaves me and Stephenie in the middle.”
While Q’s plan was to create the strongest tribe possible in order to “not show up at tribal the next day,” that didn’t seem to matter in the “new era of Survivor,” thanks to all of “these pre-existing relationships.” He notes, “I was pretty shocked to see me [eliminated]. I’m someone that can help the tribe potentially win. I stayed there with the fire all night, most nights, and I’m the one that’s bringing back the most wood, and I’m doing all the right things around camp. I’m not causing any trouble, and so I’m thinking, ‘OK, they’re definitely not sending me out, right? Wrong!'”
At one point, Q tried to convince Mike to write his name down so that fewer votes would go on Stephenie, which he now explains was “the right move”: “If Emily and Ozzy don’t flip, and they vote with Stephenie, and [Mike, Angelina, and Christian] vote for me like I was trying to get them to do, on a re-vote scenario, we have three votes, and they only have two. But if they vote for Stephenie, now it’s gonna be two against two. Now Emily Flippen has to make a decision to go against Christian twice. She might just switch her vote the next time, and now Stephenie goes, I’m coming back to camp with nobody. So, I needed them to vote for me, but I also needed Emily and Ozzy to stay true.”
With only 20 people left in the game, Q is “rooting for” Stephenie and Tiffany Ervin, his Survivor 46 ally, to win it all. “I’m rooting for people that I genuinely care for and I was working with. But even Cirie, who has played five or six times now, I think maybe it will be a good story for her to come in and win 50. Those three are on my radar.”
This exit interview has been edited for length and clarity.
