By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

She wanted a blindside. She got blindsided instead. In one of the most emotional exits we have seen in some time Tiyana Hallums missed making this season’s jury by one tribal council. A twist forced Tuku to cannibalize each other at tribal and Tiyana didn’t have the social currency she thought she did.

John Powell: How are you feeling today?

Tiyana Hallums: Oh, gosh! I am feeling awesome! I honestly have not slept since I watched the episode but you know what? We’re still having a great time.

John Powell: What were you feeling watching your exit back?

Tiyana Hallums: The moment that the episode started I remembered everything. I remembered exactly what emotions I was feeling here. I remember exactly what emotions I was feeling at tribal council. That vote out scene, I was literally right there in Fiji. It was so crazy! I think that that’s why I was not able to sleep because right now it’s super early in Hawaii and I’m like: Why do I even need to go to sleep? Let me just drink a bunch of coffee and get ready for this interview. Why not just do that? It was very therapeutic to see it, to see exactly what happened when my back was turned.

John Powell: What surprised you the most about that?

Tiyana Hallums: I think that what was crazy about that was that my two alliance members that I felt the most connected to, I felt like had my back no matter what was Caroline and Kyle. However, that was not the case and I don’t know what exactly happened.

I think with Caroline, she was thinking more of the numbers, which I can’t fault her. With Kyle, I don’t know what happened. Maybe he just didn’t want to ruffle any feathers of tribe going back.

It was kind of unfortunate with Caroline because that same episode before we went to tribal council, she kind of broke down to me and was a little bit vulnerable. And she was like: Tiyana, you would never write my name down, right? You would never do that to me like I would never do that to you. She was kind of getting very emotional. I was there for her and I was like: Hey! No! I got you. We’re going to be in this together. I would never write your name down. You would never write my name down. It kind of felt a little below the belt too because why would you cry to me? Why don’t you cry to your actual alliance members? Why are you crying to me about it because I technically have no power.

John Powell: You do you feel most betrayed by?

Tiyana Hallums: Definitely, Kyle and Caroline. I had a really good rapport with them and I think that we really collaborated well in terms of an actual alliance rather than just following someone kind of how we were seeing with Gabe and Sue. She is just relaying information back to the head honcho and he was kind of dictating what was going on, like dictating to his little birds.

When I really think about it Gabe had not had to play the game since TK got voted out. Like they were so locked in that there was nothing that I could really do. So I think I was the most betrayed from Kyle and Caroline, for sure.

John Powell: Do you regret throwing Gabe’s name out during the social and apologizing to him for doing so?

Tiyana Hallums: One of my very few regrets in that game is apologizing because first and foremost, as you all saw, and we all saw, Gabe threw my name out first. So throwing my name out to Kyle and Kyle came back to me with that information.

He was like: Gabe is throwing your name out there but don’t worry I got you…Blah…Blah. I was like: Okay, now I’m officially locked on you Gabe because now I have confirmation from somebody else that you are throwing my name out there.

When the Hot Dog Social came about I was like, perfect! I’m literally gonna throw it all out there and say a Hail Mary. I didn’t know how close Sue and Gabe were at the time so that was my only blunder but honestly, in my head, I’m now thinking, looking back on it, I wish I threw his name under the bus even MORE because if my back was really up against the wall as much as it was, I should have been way more savage and way more unhinged.

When we got back to camp I was so mad at myself for not going with what my gut which said that I can’t trust Gabe, which I couldn’t and I did what I wanted to do, but Sue and Caroline both made me feel like Gabe never threw me name out there.

They gaslit me into apologizing to him Looking back on that now I’m like: Why on Earth would I do that? I was so mad because in my regular day-to-day life I stand on business.

I’m kind of mad at myself but I was going back and forth because I want to work with Caroline and Sue. I have to make it seem like they’re being heard because if they don’t feel like they’re being heard, they’re not going to trust me so I have to go freaking do this stupid apology with Gabe.

John Powell: You were not only right about Gabe but you were right about that red paint. Tell us a bit about how that all went down.

Tiyana Hallums: Right when we came up to her she said she bit the back of her tongue and then she said she was with the machete. I was like: Oh, where? You see me looking around checking her for any sort of cuts or anything like that. We don’t see anything.

We didn’t press her, or at least for me, I didn’t start pressing her with questions at all, because leading up to that which viewers didn’t see is that Sue was having a couple breakdowns throughout the days. She would tear up, cry. She’d have to be by herself a little bit. She was sick in the shelter a little bit.

Her actions were not giving me threat at all. It seemed like she was having a really hard time and struggling and I don’t know if that was her gameplay to cry or I don’t know what was going on. When we found her I was like: I’m not going to press you on this because it seems like you’re unhinged already and that’s why when I was walking away with Caroline, I was like: She’s kind of scaring me a little bit, which is true. She was doing weird stuff.

John Powell: Tell me more about this women’s alliance because it seems to me it is quite late in the game for this considering that all of the members have anchors with men, bonds with the men.

Tiyana Hallums: I don’t know about everybody else but I really wanted to roll with the all women’s alliance because as Teeny mentioned in the Old School era women have really bonded together and they’ve pulled incredible moves, you know what I mean? So, I really wanted to bring that into the New Era as did Teeny. However, I don’t think that was ever going to happen now that I think about it because Sue and Caroline were both so attached to Gabe’s hip. These were his “little injured birds”, as he liked to call them.

I don’t know if that would have ever happened but I would have wanted that to really go down. I think we could have done some really cool things because we did have anchors. We did have relationships with the men so we could have pieced together all this information and come to collaborative unit.

John Powell: Was there anything that you wish fans could have seen about your journey?

Tiyana Hallums: Oh, that’s such a good question. I think I was really happy with the way that I was represented. I think that I got a good amount of air time, especially in the clutch decisions, which I really appreciated a lot.

I think what I would have wanted more of, if I could have had anything is how many conversations Kyle and I had. I don’t think that it was very obvious how close Kyle and I were. We did talk a lot. We were talking all the time, going back and forth which is why he half-heartedly tried at tribal council to be like: ‘T’ has been truthful to us all the time. She is telling us the truth. Her stories line up and Gabe is the bigger hit. We should take out Gabe. I thought that it was a shoe-in that we were going to stay together. However, it was unanimous that I was going home. So, I clearly knew nothing and I was playing by myself.

Survivor 47 Fantasy Tribe