By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

To say Solomon “Sol” Yi’s Survivor journey was a struggle would be an understatement. Not only did he have to contend with Rome Cooney and his nonsense on the island, nonsense which would’ve tested the patience of Mahatma Gandhi himself but was often the “back-up plan”, had to feign surprise after bestowing a power on a potential ally but was unanimously sent to jury after enjoying a BLT sandwich. How cruel is that? Through it all though, Sol displayed patience, understanding and a lot more composure than most people.

John Powell: It must have been hard to watch things back. What surprised you the most about what happened at tribal council?

Sol Yi: I love watching myself on TV! It wasn’t hard at all! It’s awesome! (laughs) The hardest thing about that though was just not knowing what was going to happen. That’s why Survivor is so hard. All you can do is just put your faith in other people’s hands and just hope that they’re telling you the truth. I felt that I had done that enough with the numbers to keep myself in the game, which is ultimately why I didn’t play my Shot in the Dark and in the end, my ass got played.

John Powell: Were you surprised that it was unanimous vote?

Sol Yi: No, I wasn’t surprised because we have very, very smart players on our season. Not to say other seasons don’t have smart people but the strategic minds of this game, they knew once Sol was not going to stay, they can’t vote Sue Kyle or whoever because now they’d have a target on their back. The smart move was to put my name down once they understood that they don’t have the numbers.

John Powell: Now that you were able to watch everything back, things you were not aware of, what shocked you the most when it came to your vote?

Sol Yi: Genevieve. Genevieve did it! When I heard that it was me, when Sam told me it was me my reaction was: I’ll do the best that I can. That was literally what I did. Then, you find out who did it. It’s Genevieve! At tribal I’m on my knee on the other side of tribal council whispering and they tell me: Genevieve is responsible for this. We, Genevieve, Teeny and I wanted to go to the end. We wanted it to be the Lavo Three. I will say a little bit earlier in the day Genevieve was acting a little what all the kids say “sus”. That’s when I realized what was happening. It wasn’t that big of a shock when when they told me because she was acting so weird.

I’m in complete shock because I had amazing relationships with everyone at this point, well, I thought I did. That’s ultimately why Genevieve, you know, The Terminator that she is, knew that. Saul is in tight with everybody. I don’t think me getting Rome out was the motivating factor. Here it was. She’s a smart, smart player, one of the best Survivor players ever in my opinion.

John Powell: When I spoke to Rome I made sure to inform him that an ultimatum is a kind of threat. What are your feelings towards Rome. What was it like watching it back and and where are you guys today?

Sol Yi: Rome and I, we hung out at an event but I haven’t talked to him since. He made my game very, very difficult out there, enough to the point where I say Rome’s either the worst player or he’s one of the best players out here because if he has an agenda on his mind, he’s going to do everything he can, no matter what the cost to do that. I was that person for him and it was so hard to play with him.

John Powell: You must have seen some of the reaction online to what he did to you. What kept you centered? You handled that with a lot of grace.

Sol Yi: I had to take mental breaks all the time. Because of Rome, I’m meditating all the time. I’m talking to myself all the time, Sol, don’t go there. Be cool. Be calm. The internal dialog was going on constantly when Rome was around. That ultimately was what paid off for me to keep my cool.

John Powell: You had a very strong relationship with Teeny to the point where when you were voted out she was crying and upset. You must appreciate that bond with her.

Sol Yi: Oh, my gosh! Teeny is my best friend in the game. She and her mom came over last night. We watched the show together. (pauses) She is a beautiful soul and a best friend that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. I remember watching that (her crying) and just made my heart melt.

John Powell: Why did you give the special power to Rachel and what was it like to have to fake shock at tribal council?

Sol Yi: It was actually a no-brainer who I was going to give it to because I loved Rachel. Rachel and I, they don’t really show it, but we had great connection. As soon as we hit the merge Rachel and I were like…Boom! Right? I really wanted to save Rachel and the problem was that Rachel decides to have a press conference at tribal council and tell everyone: Hey, I got this from somebody from the jury! No, that’s not what you say. You just say, Jeff, I have the Safety Without Power and I’m leaving. That’s it. We don’t need to give any more information away. What that did for me? My heart went into my stomach! I’m like: Oh, no! Now I have to act here! I really just tried to do my best to put myself in a situation where I’m one of them and I literally don’t know. I was proud of myself.

John Powell: As a jury member you have a very important decision to make. You have a very important voice. What are some of the things that you were looking for in a winner?

Sol Yi: For me, it’s giving me information at the final tribal council. I want to be mind blown. I want people to tell me things that I had no idea was going on…I want to be shocked. That’s my hope at tribal council.

John Powell: Was there anything about your Survivor journey that you wish viewers had gotten to see that they didn’t?

Sol Yi: Yeah, there’s, there’s a couple. When Andy has his meltdown on the first episode at the challenge my heart breaks for him. I want nothing more than to go over there and be like: Dude, keep your head up! You got this. I had that opportunity as I’m walking off. So, there’s a moment when Jeff goes: Hey, Lavo! You forgot your flint! We all stopped and I look right at him. He’s like, head down and he looks up. I say:  Keep your head up, dude! You got this! He smiles and says thanks. Talking to him afterwards, he said that was one of the coolest moments that he’s ever had in his life. That was very, very special to me because he needed that. The other thing I’ll say is Teeny. She’s always going to be in my life and I didn’t feel that watching the show. We had so many cool, funny, hilarious moments they didn’t show. It’s like we said it last night: We’re not Ying and Yang, we’re Ying and Ying! We just feed off each other.

Survivor 47 Fantasy Tribe