Elyse Umemoto

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Insider odcinek 4:

What We've Been Waiting For

Elyse is excited to find her new swimsuit at tree mail.

"Treemail. (claps hands and looks up at the sky) It was what we've been waiting for. Cochran and I picked up Treemail and we figured it would be an invite to the duel, but we got a surprise. New swimsuits. I've never been so happy to see something that would serve as a pair of my underwear in my life."

(cut)

"The new swimsuits, they boosted morale, they inspired us to wash all our clothes and boiling our unmentionables. It's just going to be a good day. It's going to be nice and calm, we're going to have fun at camp, we're going to look nice and snazzy. You just feel good about yourself, wearing a fresh pair of clothes."

(cut)

"I think I might take my new swimsuit for a spin, go out in the ocean, take a swim, play. The ocean doubles as a bathtub, so, take a quick shower, get my hair done. (laughs) Do stuff around camp. Clean up. Load up on firewood. It's so weird to live daily and everything you do be focused on sustaining living. Usually it's like oh, I'm so hungry. I might run to the fridge and grab a soda. Here it's like, well, I guess I have to open a coconut, since I'm thirsty. Then it's like, oh, I'm hungry...not a whole lot I can do about that, either. (laughs) So, boiling clothes, tidying house, same old same old."

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Insider odcinek 5 - dwa filmiki:

It Was Disturbing

Elyse provides details on why it was a bad day for her and her tribe.

"UGH, the challenge. A lot of things happened at the challenge. One, we didn't win. Two, we lost by two ounces. Two ounces of pig fat. And three, it was the most disgusting, dirty feeling I've ever had in my entire life. I had barbecue sauce in every single hole in my head. It was disturbing. So yeah, all those three things combined, and we're going to Tribal Council - yeah, I'd say it was a bad day."

(cut)

"We got back to camp, and everyone's feeling disjointed. We're standing by the fire and we're covered in slime. We want to be clean and our clothes stink and our buffs are trashed. Morale is low. We thought we were going to win. Two friggin' ounces. Anyway, I need to get over it. At one point I think Ozzy comes in and says, 'Hey how do you guys feel? Cochran, right?' and we're like, 'Yeah.' And then, we break off in our own little groups. That sucks to have to run around and have to scramble around, but that's just what you have to do. Talking to people in the ocean and talking to people around the fire, like, hey, what's the plan. That seems to be what everybody's thinking anyway."

(cut)

"It's hard to lose Cochran, partly because he's so loveable, he's such a nice guy. With Semhar and with Papa Bear, they were both kind of irksome. But Cochran in his own way is kind of irksome too, he needs a lot of instruction, but he's trying so hard. You can tell he's been trying so hard. It's nothing personal, and we hope he knows that. We don't want his little sweet Cochran feelings to get hurt. Hopefully he can turn this into some hilarious story later on in life too. It's just time for him to have to be the one to go."

(quick cut)

"I feel comfortable. I'm sad about Cochran, but I'm hopeful he'll just kill it at Redemption Island."

I'm a New Girl Out Here

Elyse is proud of how she has adapted the Survivor lifestyle.

"It's been a long time out here (laughs), and 13 days doesn't quite sum up how long it takes to get here. It might as well have been an eternity. At first it's like culture shock, you miss your friends, you miss your job, you miss your bed, you miss all the things you expect to be homesick for when you're gone, and then you get here and you live it, and you think, oh, it's gonna lift. And it doesn't (laughs), and it just keep s getting colder at night, and hotter in the daytime. The bed doesn't get any softer, and the food doesn't get any tastier. It just wears on you. Day after day after day. To make it to day 13, we're almost two weeks in, we're at the one-third mark. That's kind of a big deal, especially to somebody like me. I'm making huge strides. I don't share a fork with people back home. I don't like to share a glass. I just get up and get another one. I certainly don't share a pillow, much less go a night without brushing my teeth. I'm like a new girl out here. (laughs) I'm like a whole new freaking person. Who knows what I'll be when I get back. Thank God it has gotten a little bit easier."

(cut)

"I'm really proud of myself but I think that it'll really sink in when my family has a chance to see what I'm doing and when they get a chance to know what I went through. They're probably gonna call me an idiot and go, 'What the hell did you do that for? You didn't need to prove anything to any of us.' But I guess it's to prove to myself. I certainly didn't think I'd make it this long without a cellphone. I thought I would have totally flipped my lid and gone bananas, but I'm still here."

ciriefan

Insider odcinek 6 - 4 filmiki

Secret Scene: Elyse

Elyse enjoys getting her bathing suit.

(Elyse and Whitney walk along the shore)

Elyse: It's like it's warmer in the morning and it gets chilly at night.

Whitney: I know. I was expecting it to be um...cold in the morning. I need to get my bathing suit sandy. (they sit down)

Elyse (solo): We got a surprise. (sing-song voice) New swimsuits. (/sing-sing voice) I've never been so happy to see something that would serve as a pair of underwear in my life. The new swimsuits inspired us to wash all our clothes, boiling our unmentionables, it's just a good day. (shot of Dawn boiling clothes) It's going to be nice and calm. We're going to look very snazzy. You just feel good about yourself wearing a fresh pair of clothes. It's like a new day. Having something clean just kind of rejuvenated our spirits. It's just like (stretches) taking the day, sunbathe, feel good about my new swimsuit before it gets disgusting. (laughs)

(Elyse, Dawn and Whitney on the beach, saying they're sandy)

Elyse on Redemption Island

Elyse joins Christine on Redemption Island after just being voted out at Tribal Council

(Christine wakes up when Elyse arrives)

Christine: Oh boy. I don't know you but I feel like I have to hug you. How you doin'?

(Elyse introduces herself and sits down)

Christine: So how'd it go?

Elyse: It was totally out of nowhere.

Christine: I know.

Christine (solo): Finally, I got some company. <applauds> I feel bad that she was voted out, but being selfish, I have someone to talk to.

(Christine tends to the fire)

Elyse: Can I help you with...

Christine: No, don't worry; just relax.

Christine (solo): I am a mother, so I tend to mother...people. (Christine offers Elyse a banana) That seems to help get me through. If you don't constantly keep your mind busy, you can break very easily out here, and I'm trying not to do that.

Elyse: How've you been?

Christine: (laughs) Oh, it's bad out here. It's bad. I don't like it. 10 days out here, 10 days of losing.

Elyse: You spent more time out here than you have in the group, right?

Christine: Yeah. Double.

Elyse: Not how you expected to spend...

Christine: No. No no. Not at all. It's like solitary confinement over here. It's so bad.

Elyse (solo): Christine was very welcoming. She's spent twice as much time at Redemption Island as she has in the game. I can't imagine how lonely and stir crazy and exhausted she must be.

Christine: It's just a little slice of hell out here, really.

Elyse: Is it worth it?

Christine: If my kids can say, "That's my mommy. She did it!" then I'll be alright. I hate it out here. I hate it. (Elyse tries to tell her that her kids are proud)

Christine (solo): My daughter is 7 and my son is 9. My necklace is dog tags with my kid's names and their birthdates, and a heart which says love on it, an elephant for good luck, and a heart from my family, because that's where my heart is. My heart's always there. (begins to cry and covers her face with her scarf)

(one last shot of Christine despondent)

Totally Blindsided

Elyse did not expect to be voted out at Tribal Council

"Now that I have a little bit of time to think about what happened at Tribal Council, I think I expected to be more at peach about what happened. I just have this uneasy, unsettling feeling. I felt totally blindsided. That happens, that's part of the game, I understand that, but in no way, shape, or form did I expect to be sent home by my tribe THIS early. No way."

(cut)

"The votes don't really make a lot of sense to me. 3 votes for me, 2 votes for Dawn, 2 votes for Cochran. Unless it was some big orchestrated scheme and it was supposed to end this way. I don't see why that would happen, it doesn't really make any sense, but it does feel like a slap in the face, because somehow, along the way, plans were made and I wasn't a part of it - that always hurts your feelings - but beyond that, I always thought we were a really unified group, we were all on the same page, had the same vision. Apparently I was just working towards a different vision than the rest of the tribe, or at least 3 other people on the tribe of 7."

(cut)

"I think with Ozzy's leadership, they know what they're doing, but there's still a big piece of me that wants to believe Ozzy was with me, that Ozzy might have been the other Cochran vote last night, that what happened was independent of him, that maybe he would have stepped in. Maybe that's silly of me to think so, maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but if the votes are all over the place and it wasn't on purpose, I don't know what direction they're going. It sounds like they're going to make themselves too vulnerable if they're going to go into the merge with this hodgepodge frame of mind."

(cut)

"I thought about what it's going to be like at the duel, to see a couple of my tribe members there. I have an idea of who might be there. I think it might be Keith and Ozzy, just because Keith hasn't been yet and Ozzy talked about wanting to go to the next one. It's going to be bittersweet, because on the one hand I think they'll be cheering me on, they'll want me to do well, they'll want me to come out on top of Christine, maybe make it back into the game in a few days. At the same time, these are the people that left me out and sent me here and put me through the coldest, darkest, most lonely night I think I've ever had in my life. It's hard to face people like that with a smile. It's just...it hurts."

Elyse the Day After

Elyse reflects on her time in the game the day after she lost the duel on Redemption

"I think though this experience has definitely changed me in a lot of ways. It helped me figure out a little bit more about who I am. I was expecting that. I was expecting to be able to walk out of this and say, this is what I'm like when I'm under pressure, this is what I'm like when I'm pushed to my limits. I didn't think I would have to push them so far <laughs>. I'm really kind of proud that even though I wanted to give up every single second, because it was so uncomfortable, it's so demanding, it's so hard. You want to quit and you want to say, I'm done, but until my very last minute I was in 100%."

(cut)

"I think the highest point for me was after the challenge that we won and we won blankets and mats and pillows, and it wasn't so much that we won those things - those were godsends, don't get me wrong - it was the first time our group felt like a really solid group. We'd already been to Tribal Council once, we knew we needed to win. It kind of felt like, oh my gosh, the game is really on, and we can do this, we can make it really far. I can make it really far."

(cut)

"In relating to my tribemates, it's funny; I knew we'd all get along really well - it's a social game - but the people I typically work with back home or worked with in school or at jobs, I've never been around a group so diverse. I've never been with so many people from so many walks of life. Having done the pageant thing at Miss America, to a certain degree pageant girls all kind of follow the same template. We're all in school, we all want scholarships, we all have talent. Working in Vegas, I work in nightlife, a lot of us are outgoing, we love to have a good time, we're very social. That's kind of what blends us together. Being out on a beach with my tribe, even though we all got along well, there were so many different personalities and backgrounds, it was a situation I'd never really been in, being around a bunch of strangers. Before going into the game I compared it to, we just look like a group of people who sat on a bus together by coincidence, and that's kind of what it was. There wasn't any commonality other than we're here to play a game."

(cut)

"I think one of the things that might have been a drawback for me was that my strategy was so loosely defined. I think people who go into the game with a very rigid concept of what they want the game to be and how they're going to play it, they maybe have a leg up on people like me who are more like taking everything in, absorbing it, and flying by the seat of our pants. Looking back, I don't know exactly what I would have done differently, if at all. I kind of came out of the game really fast, and the votes at Tribal Council were kind of all over the place. But it's great to not be unanimously voted out <laughs>; that could be the silver lining."

(cut)

"Oh my gosh. When I get home, I think my friends are going to be FLOORED at the changes I've made inside. I think immediately I've already noticed I'm a more relaxed person about things I've been uptight about before. I can't imagine ever in my life watching bugs crawl all over me, and I don't really care, I just kind of flip 'em off. Or if a fly lands over my plate, that would really be enough to make me excuse myself from the meal. At this point I've eaten...I don't even want to talk about what I've had to eat. Fish covered in swarms of flies, and you're starving, so you eat it. It's kind of funny how things that really don't matter fade into the background in the name of the game, in the name of survival. I think they'll be really impressed. When they see the show, and I'm chopping things with machete and I'm sleeping on bamboo and I'm dirty...<scoffs> get out of here. <laughs> They're gonna go crazy."

(cut)

"One thing that stands out to me about this experience is hearing about how everyone has persevered with what they've went through in the game. Hearing people say, I'm here because I want to show my kids, or my mother, or my parents, that I'm this, and for me, the accomplishment means so much because the only reason I'm here is for me. To prove I'm here, that I would do it, that I wouldn't give up, that I would give 100% even when I didn't want to, that I would savor every excruciating moment out there, freezing and tired and hungry and dirty and stressed. I did it. I think this is going to sort of be the marker I compare all of the other difficult things in my life. If I have problems at work, or problems with relationships, it's kind of like, if I can persevere, what I went through out here in the South Pacific, <scoffs> I can get through anything. How many people can say they have one experience in their life that they can use that as the measurement of everything else? Not very many. I've been very blessed to have this experience. It was definitely bittersweet to come out of the game, but at the end of the day, I'm happy with the way things are."

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Wywiad z Elyse:

R: Hello, Elyse, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us!

Elyse: Absolutely! There is no better way to spend an early Vegas morning.

R: Going back to the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Elyse: My strategy was a non-strategy. Some people go in and say, “I’m going to feel people out, I’m going to adjust.” That wasn’t mine. I hadn’t had enough Survivor viewer experience to fully appreciate and understand a strategy. So mine was just make it up as you go along. Fake it ‘til you make it – or ‘til you’re voted out.

R: We saw you team up with Ozzy, of course. Did you do any other scheming or alliance-building that we didn't see?

Elyse: Let’s see… The only thing may have been there was right away Jim and I kind of formed a little partnership.

R: I think every person I’ve interviewed so far from your tribe has said they had a partnership with Jim!

Elyse: (Big laughs!) Why does that not surprise me?! I love it!

The thing with Jim and I was we looked at each other square in the face, said let’s do this, we have each other’s back, but we both acknowledged this look that “I’m going to flip on you if you don’t flip on me first.” It was kind of brutal honesty. It was a nice game to play for a minute.

Oh Jim, that guy.

R: Do you think being so close to Ozzy prevented you from interacting socially as much with everybody else?

Elyse: No, in fact, despite how it’s been portrayed, we made a conscious effort to not make it look as though we were really close. We really made a conscious effort to do that. If anything, if I’m withdrawn or not particularly interested in the goings-on, I’m probably just not interested in the goings-on.

R: Why weren’t you interested?

Elyse: Hmmm. I think part of it was one of the elements of the game I didn’t anticipate was that the sense of not knowing was torture. That’s like a tactic used when they torture prisoners of war – they don’t know when it’s day or night or when they’re eating. Having that constant sense of not knowing was a really big stressor to me. Rather than open my mouth and say something crabby, why not just listen and observe and be pleasant?

R: What exactly was your relationship with Ozzy?

Elyse: It was exactly what you saw on the show. There was no romance, nothing like that. We were buddies. It was totally platonic, we had stuff to talk about, had common ground, our past had funny things in common – it was never anything like him and Amanda. I was one of the bros, which is what made me feel really comfortable. I usually make closer friendships with guys than I do with girls.

But I did know that was a very dangerous place to be – to be aligned with the person I believed was the strongest player in the game.

R: I was actually going to ask you that – so you did know that aligning yourself so closely with the person who was viewed as the tribe’s leader could be dangerous?

Elyse: I didn’t think it would be so dangerous, so soon. Of course there’s a little bit of everybody looking at him and he’s the leader and the one to beat, but I remember Ozzy saying in the beginning, “We gotta get rid of Jim.” Retrospectively, we should’ve listened to Ozzy!

I thought the projection that I had of the way the game was going was accurate enough that it wouldn’t be an issue, and he felt very confident about our being teamed up and that put me at ease as well so I felt very confident about it. As you saw, Ozzy was not pleased with what happened. He lost the person that was going to pull for him ‘til the end – and I would have. And he had two people he thought were with him were not.

R: Why do you think your tribe voted you out instead of just taking out Ozzy directly?

Elyse: Ozzy was the provider. Ozzy is the reason we ate; Ozzy built the fire; Ozzy told us about things to eat and not to eat; he had a very casual but strong presence in the group dynamic. Everyone kind of respected him for being a returning player and because he has done this before. To take Ozzy out instead of me would have been to the disadvantage of the tribe. [Contrast this with] last season when they got Russell out, that was probably to the tribe’s benefit.

R: Did Ozzy tell you he had the hidden immunity idol?

Elyse: He did not! Which is interesting because he did tell Keith. I was surprised to hear that because I know that in conversations before, I had said, “I’m not going to ask you if you have an idol, but if you had one would you tell me?” And he said, “Yeah, I think I’d tell you.” But I never did ask him directly – maybe I should have.

R: We’re being told that we’re out of time. But before you go, I wanted to ask you about your final words before leaving the game. You said you never would have known you could push yourself so far, but you’re stronger than you thought you were. Can you expand on that?

Elyse: I don’t like to be uncomfortable in any sense of the word. And I can’t think of anything more excruciating than Survivor. Not giving up and having taken away every comfort of life – everyone around me [in my regular life] was so full of doubt, it became less about proving it to them and more of proving it to myself. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ll ever do in my life. And I did it – I’m unscathed and probably a better person for it.

R: Thanks again, Elyse!