Jonathan Young’s time on Survivor 42 was known for two things, maybe even more so than any other competitor in modern Survivor history: Challenge performance and camp life. The beach services company owner did impressively in the competitive aspects, sometimes single-handedly winning challenges for his group. And he fashioned himself the provider for the season, hoping to keep his tribe fed in a season with barely any food to speak of. Unfortunately, when it mattered most, those key tenets of Jonathan failed him. After losing the final Immunity Challenge, he was thrown into fire-making. And despite having lit multiple fires throughout the season, his got beat by close ally Mike Turner, causing his own flame to be snuffed. Jonathan knew his size preceded him when he walked into Survivor. So he used that to his advantage, offering himself up as a provider who was there to serve and help others last another day in one of the toughest seasons yet. Additionally, he would provide his service in the challenges, where he ended up putting in some of the most impressive individual contributions across the show’s 22-year history. His prowess helped lead the Taku tribe from having the least amount of people left in the game to making up four of the final six players. And he used that safety to make bonds with several players, most notably fellow athlete Lindsay Dolashewich and a brain to his brawn in Omar Zaheer. And at the merge, he was able to find a like-minded “big guy” in Mike, who became his closest friend over the following days. Despite his size, Jonathan avoided elimination in the early stages of the merge, part of a controlling majority. But when he won his first individual Immunity Challenge, he wanted to make good on his promise from the preseason and cause chaos. He tried to blindside Drea Wheeler and her idol, but the way he went about it bristled with Lindsay, who felt he was commanding and demeaning her and other players. So one of his closest allies became one of his greatest rivals, as she kept targeting Jonathan for both personal and physical reasons. Luckily for Jonathan, despite that target, he made it all the way to the Final Four. But just when he needed immunity the most, he lost it, quite literally dropping the ball to give immunity to Romeo Escobar. Romeo put Jonathan and Mike against each other in fire-making, hoping the former would prevail. But the camp’s best fire maker paled in comparison to a man who spent decades of his life around it. Jonathan became the final jury member, ready for whatever might come on the next beach. After the finale, Jonathan spoke with Parade.com about balancing being a tribe asset with an individual threat, his up-and-down relationship with Lindsay, and how he responds to criticisms about the way he handled the other contestants. Let’s start with where things ended with your jury vote for Mike. I forget if you raised your hand when Jeff asked who was undecided going into the final Tribal Council. Were you? I raised my hand. I wasn’t sure if I was going to vote for Mike, honestly. Because I want to give everybody a fair chance. I want to give him a shot to convince me. If there’s something I’m missing, I’m willing to change my opinion completely. So then I would imagine he did just that to earn your vote. Yeah. The things that I knew about Mike, they seem to stand out enough for him to get my vote. You said from the beginning that, as a bigger guy, you wanted to lay low and rely on your social game in the beginning. How tough was that to do with small tribes from the get-go? I knew that I was going to have a massive target on my back. Every step that I took, I knew people would know that I was taking a step. So I went into the game being very cautious and careful with all of my moves. I wanted to let them know, “Hey, I love everybody. I genuinely do.” If you can use the truth to get you further in the game., that’s way better than telling a lot. So I used that to my advantage. And the bonds that I made, they’re legit. I genuinely love everybody on my tribe, and that helped. Though it didn’t end this way, you and Lindsay seemed to be tight from the beginning on Taku. Was that actually the case? So with Lindsay, one of the things that I said about her was she’s like a female version of me. She’s tough as nails. She’s strong. She could get it done. And that’s what made Lindsay and I vibe. We had a lot in common. Now, on the opposite side of that is Omar. From the outside, it seemed like the two of you could not be more different. Yet you two seemed to really get on for a good portion of the game. How did that happen? Though we were different, the flip side of that coin is “opposites attract.” Omar and I were very opposite. We had a bromance for a minute, and that was legit. Having Omar on the tribe helped a lot because where I lacked, he had that spot filled. So it worked out great for both of us. You put in some incredibly impressive challenge performances in the premerge to help Taku’s winning streak. But how tough was it to negotiate trying to not draw eyes on you as a physical threat when you have someone like Tori literally referring to you as “goliath”? I knew that I was going to be in trouble when the merge happened. I knew that I definitely had to do something differently. And once the merge happened, I tried to dumb down everything that I did. If I won, I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, look how close Lindsay was. Oh my gosh, Tori just won immunity. She’s definitely a huge target. We gotta get her out.” I had to do anything I could do to get it off of me. Talk to me about being the provider. Did you ever debate changing your tactics of doing so much around camp as the game progressed? I knew that people needed food. And I knew that there weren’t many people that could provide like I could. I have been spearfishing for years. I’ve lived on the beach for 19 years. So I knew it would help me greatly. But after Day 17 or 18, I started pulling back. I knew that it wasn’t helping that much. Even when the merge happened, I knew that I could still use that as an advantage. The problem with this strategy is you give and give, but I’m not taking anything. I’m not getting much back. I’m not getting any food for me. If I spear ten fish, and there are ten people that I have to feed, I’m only getting one fish. Let’s talk about that. A couple of weeks back, we saw you get frustrated with the others, saying you felt you weren’t getting the appreciation you wanted from being the provider. Did you get into more conflicts like the one we saw with Drea? No. I started noticing a vibe on the tribe itself. It was getting to the point where everybody was used to Jonathan the fisherman. He’ll just get the food. It wasn’t just Drea, and even with that, we worked it all out. But it seemed like the whole tribe just thought, “Jonathan is going to get the food. That’s Jonathan’s job.” And once it’s not recognized, you can’t really use it as much. I can’t use it in my game as much. It’s just, “That’s how it is. Jonathan is made for that.” Going back to Mike, how did you two end up connecting so quickly at the merge? I saw Mike in the premerge. And you know, you can’t talk to him. But I saw Mike, and I would watch how he communicated with Jeff. I was like, “Huh, there seems to be something there. I like Mike.” We got to talk, and I liked Mike even more! The further we got in the game, and we both stayed in the game, we held tight together. And then we got tighter. The further we got in the game, the tighter we got. To be honest, I couldn’t have left by anybody else’s hand but Mike’s. That felt good to leave by my main man Mike’s hands. So that being said, if you had won the final Immunity Challenge, would you have taken him to the end? No, I can’t say I would have taken Mike with me. Because I thought Mike would have been loved at the final tribal. So I would have put him to fire for sure. What do you think your chances would have been if you made it to Day 26? I thought that I had a good shot because of how I played. There haven’t been really many big guys that have made it that far. Actually, I can’t think of a guy that has made it that far being that big. I didn’t think that it by any means would be a detriment. I thought it’d be looked at as, “Well, he’s still here.” They tried four times to vote me out. And it didn’t work out. And I thought, “Wow, I’m getting further in this game. I’ve won two immunities. And when I was with my tribe, I pulled my tribe through a lot of challenges.” So I thought I had a good shot, honestly. Let’s go to the split Tribal Council. You win your first individual Immunity Challenge and decide to try to blindside Drea with her idol. What made you decide to go for her then? Here’s the thing. Drea was such a strategic player. She had a lot going on, and I knew that. I don’t know if everybody else knew it like I did. But I knew that Drea was hardcore, and she was very smart. And I talked to her and hung out with Drea a lot on the island. So if there was a time, I was like, “Now’s the time.” That was the first necklace time I got to wear the necklace. And that being the case, I’m like, “I gotta make a move.” Because me trying to make a move without the necklace would be a little bit reckless. Otherwise, a bigger guy that normally would get booted at the merge wouldn’t have as much of a say, if that makes sense. So you’ve got to be very careful with what you say and how you say it. That being said, that really seemed to be the beginning of the end for you and Lindsay. She said you were demeaning and condescending to her, and she didn’t want to be involved with your strategy. How do you react to what she said about you? I hate that she felt that way. I think Lindsay is a great competitor. I think she’s a beast. And I said that so many times in the shows. Every time I got the chance, I’d be like, “Lindsay is a beast. She’s tough as nails.” And the reason she had to go is because of how good she was." So, yeah, I hate that she felt that way. How do you personally look back on the way you talked with some of the contestants like Lindsay and Maryanne, considering what they said about you? Are there things I would do differently? Absolutely. Do I think that everybody on the show was a great competitor? 100%. But everybody played the game the best that they could. That Tribal Council was also a big moment. You have Drea and Maryanne talk about wanting to play their idols to make sure another Black person doesn’t go to the jury. You have a big reaction, feeling that they were accusing you and the others of being racist. What was the aftermath of all that once the dust settled? As soon as that Tribal was over, I went and talked to Drea. Drea and I were fine. I call Drea on the phone. I love Drea; Drea loves me. Everything is good between Drea and me. Everything that happens in the game can relate to real-world things. And we actually jumped back in the game pretty quickly. So yeah, everything worked out great. At the final Tribal Council, you push against Maryanne’s claim that she was the one who came up with the Omar vote, saying you and Mike had approached her with the idea. Talk me through your side of that blindside. So before the Drea vote, I am starting to sense that Lindsay and Omer are working together in a way that I’m not involved. I go to Omar, and then I go to Lindsay, and I see if their stories are lining up about this idol nullified. They’re not. So I use this idol nullifier that Omar has. And I go to Mike and say, “Listen, we have got to get Omar out because he’s planning on using his idol nullifier against you. Get your idol back.” Mike goes and gets his idol back. I’ve won Mike’s trust. Lindsay and Omer are working in cahoots. Then Mike and I go to Maryanne and talk about how Omar needs to go and is not being honest. Maryanne comes up with an idea that we bring Romeo in. So we all work together to make the grand mastermind fall down. We finally get the man himself out. It felt pretty good. You said Survivor was what you wanted to do since you were 14. Though you weren’t able to win, how do you reflect on everything you did over those 25 days? I wrote down before I went on Survivor, “I want to leave on empty. I want to leave nothing in the tank. I want to give it my all.” And I gotta tell you, Mike, I left it on the island. When Jeff was getting ready to snuff my torch, I said, “Mr. Jeff, I fought the good fight.” And that’s how I felt. I left it all on the island. And that’s what I wanted to do. Next, check out our interview with Survivor 42 third-placer Romeo Escobar.
