Survivor 46′s [Spoiler] Says He Wasn’t First to Consider Quitting Sweat Task: ‘It Wasn’t Even an Idea in My Mind’
The following contains spoilers from the premiere of Survivor 46.
A new Survivor legend has been born. No, not in the Sandra Diaz-Twine or Tony Vlachos sense. But what we witnessed in Wednesday’s premiere was one of the biggest, wildest flame-outs the show has ever seen, and yes, it’s going in the record books.
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David Jelinsky had no problem stepping up for his tribe in need. After Yanu placed last in the first challenge, a monstrous Sweat challenge stood in the way of the tribe and its supplies. But after a mere 90-minutes, Jelinsky and Q decided they’d never complete the task, so they threw in the towel and hung their teammates out to dry. Later on a journey with Maria and Tevin, Jelinsky folded once again, giving up in a card game of deception that could’ve potentially earned him an extra vote at Tribal.
But at the end of the season’s first two hours, the slot machine salesman from Las Vegas couldn’t convince his tribe that he’d give them 110%, and they chose to keep a mentally and physically deteriorating Jess as they kicked Jelinsky to the curb. (Read our full recap here.)
So what does the season’s first boot have to say for himself? We talked to him about his epic Episode 1 downfalls and more.
TVLINE | What surprised you the most watching last night’s episode back?
DAVID JELINSKY | I had no idea Tiff found the Beware Advantage on Day 1 or 2 until last night. I thought she actually found it Day 4 after I got voted out. So that was a surprise to me. She was like, “Yo, let’s go tell the boys,” but then she goes, “let’s not tell Jelinski because Jelinski’s got diarrhea mouth.” That was just super funny to me.
TVLINE | You seemed to have a good thing going with this foursome of you, Tiffany, Kenzie and Q. Why do you think they ultimately turned on you?
They definitely made the right call and I could be mad about it all day, but I am a gamer and Q was able to identify that from the jump. Q and I were kind of at odds because Q is just a natural born leader. There’s a lot of natural born leaders on that tribe, especially me, Q and Tiffany. We’re all strong-minded and if we have an opinion, we’re gonna try to fight our hardest to make it happen. And I rubbed Q the wrong way and he began to put that wedge in between me and the alliance.
TVLINE | The Sweat challenge: Was there a rule that you couldn’t block the holes in the bucket with your shirt?
Yeah, we were not allowed to do that. We tried, trust us. They told us it had to be your fingers and only your fingers. You can’t put anything in the bucket, you can’t put anything outside of the bucket, so it was just meant to be hard. I’m a big guy, man. I’m 6’4.” I’ve got big hands and even my hands couldn’t wrap around this bucket.
TVLINE | How many holes did it have in total?
I want to say that there were five holes. There was one at the bottom, so obviously that one is just gonna leak out the entire time. And they were all at different levels, so it was just water flowing from all different angles.
TVLINE | When you decided to call it quits, how much time would you estimate that you had left?
We probably had two hours left.
TVLINE | And you still didn’t think it was possible?
No. I didn’t think it was possible the whole time. When we started it, I was ready to go, but as we kept going… I came out the gates flying and I definitely didn’t pace myself well, but for the record, I knew I was having a hard time, but Q and I’s jugs were both filled with just about the same amount of water. I might have had some more water in there. So when Q presented the idea to me to quit, I was like, “Yeah, bro, we’re not finishing this. Let’s conserve our energy and move forward to the challenge.” Looking at Siga, we’re massive. Looking at my tribe, Bhanu was 6-feet-tall, Q, 6’1″. Tiffany is a big girl. Jess played rugby. I genuinely thought Siga had no chance against us.
TVLINE | Just to clarify, you said Q was the first one to bring up the possibility of quitting?
Yeah. In fact, it wasn’t even an idea in my mind because Q and I both bonded over being from Memphis. Obviously, he’s from Senatobia, Miss., but my family is from Memphis and I was raised with a southern background. Q lives in Memphis. In Memphis, you’ve got a mentality. It’s called grit and grind. So it was especially not an idea in my mind to quit because I knew Q would look at me a sort of way. So when Q presented that idea to me, I was like, “Bro, not only do we get to quit and I think we’re gonna fail, and this is Q’s idea? Let’s do it, man.” We came back to the tribe and Q had taken the lead. It was a mutual decision, but obviously Q was telling everybody, “This guy is a quitter.” Props to him. But that’s a great move. He was definitely able to use that to his advantage and I respect that.
TVLINE | If you had come back from the journey with an extra vote, do you think that would’ve been enough to sway everyone to vote Jess off?
That’s an interesting question. I think there’s a lot of things that you can do with an extra vote. I think I was at a lose-lose situation because if I came back and told the tribe that I lied and I was able to get an extra vote, they’d be like, “Oh, man. Jelinski can lie too and he’s crazy? That’s a threat. We definitely can not work with him. This dude is already bananas. He told us Day 1 he’s gonna go look for an idol.” I told them as soon as we went on the beach after the Sweat task, “Alright, I’m gonna go look for an idol.” This was after we created our alliance. I behaved that way because I felt so good with everybody. So I don’t think that I would have been able to sway everybody if I got that extra vote, especially because my downfall was my downfall. It was just how I was behaving. I don’t think the extra vote could have helped that.
TVLINE | You had a chance to fight for an extra vote on the journey. Did your tribe reveal any disappointment or have any specific comments about the journey once you told them what happened?
They did. I flipped the question on them. I was like, “What would you guys have done?” They were like, “We would have lied our asses off!” and I was like, “OK, you say that now, but when you’re at the journey and you begin to evaluate, especially against Tevin who has a large personality… I mean, you saw that monologue off the jump. I was like, “Damn, Tevin got me hyped!” You were in a lose-lose situation with that damn skull card. So they told me that they were gonna lie, but that makes no sense. You want to go back to your camp with 12 enemies and an extra vote, [rather] than to have two allies and no vote?
TVLINE | Bhanu seemed to be feeling a certain way at Tribal Council. Was there tension between you two either at Tribal or beforehand?
Not at all. In fact, Bhanu and I were super close out there on the island and we probably had a greater bond than a lot of the other people did out there, to be honest. And Bhanu, you could just tell as soon as you meet him, he’s one of those people that just speaks openly with an open mind. He has a huge heart. He doesn’t hold anything back and obviously, being from India, he’s not filtered at all. So sometimes when he says s–t [that] you’ve got to take at surface value instead of analyzing it. When everyone else is telling you “Jelinsky is crazy,” obviously you’re going to start believing that.
TVLNE | Do you have any big regrets from your time out there?
No, I think everything happened for a reason, especially for my first time being out there. That’s just how the cards fall sometimes. You know, that Sweat task messed my feet up super bad. I couldn’t wear shoes for a month. I’d wear flip flops for a whole month afterwards. I have scars on my feet. I ended up being allergic to coconut. I was eating a coconut and having an allergic reaction in my throat. I lost my water bottle, so I was super dehydrated. On the first challenge, I was moving those pieces by myself when we were doing the puzzle and my leg got a huge gash in it. Everything was going wrong and no, I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I’m happy to go out in the likes of Zane Knight and Francesca and Reem. I’m super happy to be a part of that club. Seriously.
TVLINE | What’s something that happened out there that we didn’t get to see on TV?
There was a lot. I was doing so much. For example, when the shelter collapsed, everybody was sleeping before that happened. But I actually went out idol searching probably an hour before that and everybody woke up and they’re like, “Where’s Jelinsky at?” I was sticking my hands in trees. I got pinched by a crab or bit by a spider. I’m super surprised they didn’t show it. Kenzie and Bhanu ended up catching me and they’re like, “What are you doing?” I was digging at the water well. I was like, “I’m looking for an idol.” So then we go back to camp and everything is fine and next thing you know, everyone’s awake and the shelter collapsed. If I didn’t go out idol searching, they would have been sleeping and three of them could have ended up with serious injuries.
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