Survivor: Libby Vincek explains her Tribal Council vote

One contestant described her as “Parvati 2.0,” but Libby Vincek was unable to save herself from elimination on the latest episode of Survivor: Ghost Island. When Michael used his hidden immunity idol to save himself, Libby was vulnerable. And this came after Libby learned that Naviti planned to split their votes on her and Michael.

Why did she still stick to the plan to vote out Michael after learning Naviti’s true intentions? What did she make of Morgan’s comments on her way out a few weeks back? What does she wish she could go back and change? And what about what we didn’t see on TV? We asked the 24-year-old social media strategist about all that, and that gnarly food challenge. (Libby is out of the country, so this interview was conducted over email.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We saw Donathan tell you that Naviti was going to split the votes on you and Michael. What happened after that to make you still feel comfortable with voting against Michael and not trying to take out a Naviti?
LIBBY VINCEK: I was so flustered at that point, and there were so many different opinions, especially amongst all of us Malolo, that the split vote was the only option that I felt like I had. I heard that Naviti was splitting votes between me and Michael, and it broke my heart to have to vote against him. He didn’t tell us that he had the idol, and because of that we didn’t have the numbers to go confidently with his plan.

Let’s backtrack a few weeks. You clearly made a big bond with Morgan, but then had to go with the group and vote her out. How difficult was that, and then how did you feel — on both a personal and game level — about what she said as she left in terms of “don’t trust the blonde”?
That was the first hard decision I had to make in the game. I had to weigh my options of either being at the bottom of a brand-new alliance or making a big move with my original alliance. On a personal level, Morgan is an amazing person and I know we could have worked really well together. But like I said during the last Tribal Council, I stick by my decision, because if Survivor was totally personal, it wouldn’t be successful. Sometimes you have to step away for a minute and remember it’s still a game.

Obviously you are spending 24 hours a day out there, so only a tiny fraction of what you do actually makes it to screen for an episode. What is something you did or were a part of that we DIDN’T see that you wish had made it to air?
I think it’s really difficult to get a true grasp of the complexities of the relationships in a one-hour episode. Obviously there were relationships that I believed were stronger than they turned out to be. I worked hard to keep the bonds between some people in my tribe, which apparently weren’t as strong as I thought. If I could say one thing I wish was more evident, it would be how passionate I was to play the game and how hard I worked to earn the position I ended up in.

If you could go back and change one thing in terms of something you did or the way you played that might have changed your outcome, what would it be?
I think one of my biggest hurdles was that many of the other players thought that being nice was a ploy, when it’s actually just my personality. I think some people thought that was a tactic, so they put themselves on guard when they shouldn’t have felt like they had to. That’s a difficult challenge to overcome when you’re trying to develop real relationships.

Make sure to read our episode recap and Q&A with host Jeff Prosbt. And for more Survivor scoop, follow Dalton on Twitter @DaltonRoss.