Mike Turner’sSurvivor game was all about defying expectations. Knowing he had a tough look, the retired firefighter hoped to show his softer, more social side. And indeed, his connections proved to be his strongest suit, getting him in tight with several people. Unfortunately, he also subverted expectations in another way when it came to attempting to play his game with integrity and honesty. While people were happy to hear it in the game, they were not so much on Day 26 when they heard him claim that, despite him having been behind some of their blindsided. So Mike’s game went down in flames (the day after he built a huge one), as he finished in second place overall. Mike came into the game as the oldest cast member, hoping that keeping his head down and working hard would help him initially. But he was constantly on the move, finding the first idol of the season. Unfortunately, a new twist for this season meant he couldn’t vote, one of the many events that led to the disaster of his closest ally Jenny Kim leaving. Bewildered and angry, Mike swore revenge on Daniel Strunk and Chanelle Howell for turning on him, while simultaneously forming a new bond with Hai Giang. It would be the first of many relationships he would make, especially when the tribes came together. Particularly, he formed a tight connection with Jonathan Young, sympathizing as a fellow big guy who wanted to be seen for more than just his strength. What both helped and undid Mike’s game, though, was how those relationships caused his new friends to be sent to the jury. For instance, he mounted an attack on Hai after Omar Zaheer crafted a lie that he was the data scientist’s “puppet.” Omar then protected him from Drea Wheeler’s “Knowledge is Power,” and Mike proceeded to target him, fearing he was becoming too powerful. Seeing himself as the biggest threat at the Final Five, Mike made moves. He won his first Immunity Challenge, played his idol on Maryanne Oketch, and seemed to do the impossible when he beat Jonathan in the fire-making challenge. But for the guy from the Garden State, the seeds he planted over 26 days did not sprout the way he wanted. The jury called out his continued insistence that he only lied once, making Mike realize the inconsistencies in his game. He did get one vote from Jonathan, but the rest were not meant for Mike. After the finale, Mike spoke with Parade.com about his reaction to all the questions the jury threw his way, the various relationships he made and broke, and how he ended up looking back on his own game. So you seemed to be pretty satisfied out there on the island, even after you lost. But do you feel the same way watching it through all again? Going into the final Tribal, I kind of felt confident. But I knew Maryanne was going to give me a tough run for my money. I knew she played a very low-key game, but a very good game. I knew her social game was amazing. Nobody disliked her. So going in. I felt strategically, I did enough. I just needed to connect with the jury more. And I did realize I burned some of the jury members throughout the game. So I had to come and try to win them over. And the truth is I probably didn’t come across in a way that I could make them understand that it was all a game. But I’ve got no regrets. I don’t blame them. I don’t hold any animosity. It’s a game. We went out there to play the game. I really give it my best shot. It did seem like you were genuinely surprised when you realized that there were multiple times when you gave your word to people, then broke it. Talk me through that. The funny thing is, when you’re in the middle of a game, it’s hard to take a step outside the game and look at what you’re actually doing. You’re just in your head. I relate it to when you’re in a dirty room and don’t know the room is dirty until you step outside and look. So there were some dirty rooms going on in there that maybe I couldn’t see because I was in the middle of it. Stepping back now, I could have played a little differently in terms of burning the bridge with Hai, or even being a little more delicate with how I handled Lindsay in the end. But I didn’t see it. I’m not ashamed of what I did. However, I can understand where some of the jury felt my game of honesty and integrity was lacking in their eyes a little bit. But nobody plays a perfect game. Just hope the game you play is perfect for that time. I personally believe that the Jenny vote changed a lot for you. Not only did you lose your closest ally, but it also seemed like you became a lot less trusting in people in general. Is that accurate to say? You hit it right on the head. When that happened with Jenny, it was a smack in the face. I came into that Tribal saying, “I believe Daniel. I believe Chanelle. We’re good here.” And I took it for face value. That’s what I do in real life. The good thing about that Jenny Tribal is it gave me a smack in the face. And it woke me up to say, “Holy crap, these guys are playing a game that I didn’t realize. I need to start playing now.” So I decided I didn’t trust anybody. And I’m not even sure if it was subliminal or intentional. But there were times in the game where I maybe should have trusted somebody a little more. But because of what happened with Daniel and Chanelle–to no fault of their own; they were playing their own game–it woke me up to say I’ve got to be careful with everything everybody says. I have to make sure I listen, as opposed to before when I went in blind. You spoke about wanting to show people what’s underneath your tough exterior. And it seemed like it happened, as we heard Jonathan say you touched so many people’s hearts over the season. Talk me through that social game. I don’t try to do it. It just happens because that’s who I have been since I’m a young kid. At the end of the day, I didn’t pick how I look. My parents did this to me. (Laughs.) So I only could work with what I could work with. Normally when I walk in, the first impression is always a tough guy. He wants to start fights. And that’s really not who I am. Over the last 40 to 50 years, I’ve had a lot of time to work on softening people up. Not being so abrasive, understanding that my look can be a deterrent sometimes. So I opened myself up, and it comes naturally to me. So I didn’t do it on purpose. It is just my personality, and I enjoy being that person. I don’t want to be the person that people fear. Let’s talk about these relationships you made. You connect with Jonathan at the merge, and he arguably becomes your most important ally by the endgame. How did that happen? The funny thing is when I saw Jonathan, obviously, Jonathan is a guy that I would look at when I was younger. I’m not saying I was as big or as lengthy as Jonathan. But I can relate to who he is. Because when I was younger, I was that guy to a certain level. Trust me; he was a lot better in terms of physicality. But I can understand. So going into the merge, I felt I could connect with him because he was the type of guy that I might hang out with and goof around with. And when the merge came, he said the same thing to me. We never had an alliance. I mean, Jonathan never shook my hand and said we were. But we had an understanding that we would look out for each other. And part of the game grew and grew and grew to where we became friends. We talked about a lot of things in life and where he wanted to go. And I’m not going to, by any means, step out and say I’m his mentor. But at my age, I understood a lot of things that he wanted to do. And I saw that in Jonathan was a very good heart, a very good soul. And maybe, with the lessons that I learned, I can help him out. We wound up having a great bond. I’m happy to say I’m friends with Jonathan. So that begs the question: If you won the final Immunity Challenge, would you have taken him to the end with you? Absolutely. I didn’t think Jonathan could win the game because I had known that the girls didn’t like Jonathan. So my goal was to take Jonathan and Romeo. That’s why I tried to talk Romeo into putting Maryanne in fire. I knew Romeo was putting me in fire. It was very clear. They all said, “You’re going to fire. We can’t beat you.” And so, my goal is to lessen who I had to go against. And Jonathan was very good at fire. I felt I could beat Jonathan in the end. I felt like I could beat Romeo. If there was anybody that would give me a hard time, it’d be Maryanne. And so I said, “I’ll go into fire. I don’t mind. But I want to go against Maryanne.” And I thought my logic to Romeo was very good. He was just so confident that Jonathan would beat me it wouldn’t matter. And, obviously, it turned out the way it did! I very humbly say I beat Jonathan at fire, because he was the fire maker for the tribe. And I went to the Final Three, which is unbelievable. Jonathan did speak up at the final Tribal Council about needing to own your game. Did you ever doubt that he wouldn’t vote for you in the end? No, I actually didn’t. At that point, if there was one vote I knew I had, it was Jonathan. We had talked about it. We said, “Listen, we know that one of us may go before the end.” We knew the game we both played, and we knew the integrity that we felt. Now I’m not saying we showed total integrity throughout the game, but we felt we did. So we felt we were in each other’s corner. I did feel Jonathan was the guy that was going to vote for me. Let’s talk about Hai. You start on opposite sides of Vati; then, he becomes one of your tightest allies. But what turned you around to relishing his head rolling down the road? The funny thing is how Hai and I came together was because of what happened with Jenny. Coming back from that Tribal, I was thinking, “I’m on the botto; I’m done. Hai has Lydia and he’s going to rally Daniel and Chanelle for him.” And the first thing I hear him say back at camp is, “I need to go because I really do need to talk to Mike. I’m like, “Oh, crap, why do you want to talk to me?” (Laughs.) We go down to the beach. And he says, “I want to apologize for telling you to vote for Lydia,” because he had told me to vote for Lydia. I went, “Why would you do that to me? I was on your side the whole time. I would have voted Jenny if you wanted to.” That was just self-preservation at that point. He was very apologetic. I took advantage of that. I made an alliance with him, which I thought was very good. But if I’m being 100% honest, I never felt–and I could be wrong– that he was in my corner and wanted to go further with me. I think he did want to cut me at six or five. And the turning point was when he told me about voting out Rocksroy. I said, “We can’t vote Rocksroy. I just gave him my word.” He says, “Well, we discussed it this morning.” So if I’m your number one, why am I just finding out now about it? It was a red flag for me. He also said Drea told him to do it. I went back to camp and asked Drea. Drea said, I never greenlighted us taking Rocksroy out.” At that point, I truly felt Hai was not the guy that wanted to take me further in the game with him. And I had started making alliances with Lindsay, Omar, and Jonathan. And even though they were Taku, I felt I could have been stronger with the Taku crew than if I was still with Hai. What was your reaction when you found out that Omar came up with the lie that Hai called you a “puppet”? The lie was great! I didn’t know it was a lie. It was so believable because that was the way it was going. First of all, when Omar told me that lie, I had previously said on the reward, “Hey, guys. What do you think about Hai? It’s a good move. He’s sticking his neck out there. He wants to be the strategic mastermind.” But he’s also looking out for Hai. He’d say, “Let’s get out Rocksroy; he hurts my game. Let’s get out Jonathan; he hurts my game. It wasn’t about the alliance game. So I threw it out, and they said yes, and it was great. And then, quite frankly, how could I not believe the lie? Omar was sitting there. I just got done seeing my family and my kids. We were laying down. He caught me in an emotional moment. And quite frankly, I bought it. I didn’t think he would lie to me. Kudos to Omar. Good move. But it’s not like it was a stretch for me to believe it since I felt that way already. Lindsay said at the final Tribal Council, “It seems like anyone who was allied with you was not allowed to talk to other people. That’s how people get information to give to you. Yet you’re allowed to talk to other people. That’s where it’s inconsistent.” How do you respond to that critique? Well, I think throughout Survivor, when you have an alliance with somebody, and you see someone in your alliance talk to other people, it’s questioned. Lindsay did it. I did it. But when I questioned it with Lindsay, it’s like, “Why you don’t trust me?” I was just questioning the alliance as anybody else would! We all talked to everybody out there. But it’s how you talk to them. Here’s the bottom line with Lindsay. I loved Lindsay. Lindsay was a great player. But Lindsay knew about Omar’s nullifier. That was the key. And Lindsay wouldn’t tell me. She kept telling me she was on my team. “Mike, play the idol.” But my question kept going back to her, “Did you know about Omar’s nullified he as going to use on me at five?” And she said, “Yes.” I said, “Why didn’t you tell me?” And she said, “Well, I thought you might tell somebody.” And that in itself says you don’t trust me. She said, “If you didn’t trust me, why are you questioning why I trusted you?” And she started to get all flustered. And I said, “Lindsay, it’s as simple as that. Jonathan told me about it. How can I say I can’t trust Jonathan now? He told me about the nullified. He told me about your and Omar’s plan. I asked you three or four times if there was anything I should know about the nullifier, and you said no. And you call me paranoid? But I knew you knew about the nullifier and you didn’t tell me?” So when we got to that point, I shouldn’t have trusted her. That’s how I felt. You spoke a lot in the finale about wanting your kids to see your success on Survivor. So what was it like watching it all back with them, as they saw you in your underwear for 26 days? Those are kind of iconic now. My kids make fun of them all the time. They’re like, “Why were you out there in your underwear?” And I’m like, “That’s all I got!” But they weren’t that surprised. Quite frankly, they didn’t see a different Mike out there. They saw a Mike that plays hard every time. I went out there to play hard for myself. But I also wanted to make sure that my kids and my wife were proud of me. And hopefully, I accomplished that. I’m not saying I played the perfect game. But overall, their reaction, they’re blown away by it. I kind of became the cool dad because I went on Survivor and hung out with all kids their ages and survived. So I’m humbled by the experience. I’m humbled by how many people have come up to me and said, “We’re rooting for you.” I didn’t think I was that vulnerable. And it’s very humbling in every aspect. It’s an amazing, amazing experience. Next, check out our interview with Survivor 42 winner Maryanne Oketch.
