By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

As he left tribal council Gabe Ortis made a promise. “I’ll be back,” he vowed as he took that Walk of Shame.

Whether it is confidence or optimism Gabe exited as he played the Survivor game. He always had his finger on the trigger and had clear targets in his sights. He played with purpose from the moment he stepped on the island.

John Powell: It’s great to be talking to you. How are you feeling today having had to watch everything back last night?

Gabe Ortis: I’m feeling great, man! I’m full of a lot of joy, a lot of pride, a lot of emotions but good emotions. It’s been a really, really cool journey and I’m really satisfied with how it started and how it ended.

John Powell:  On the island you were really proud of the bonds that you established and the connections you made. What do you think happened at tribal council because not everybody came through for you.

Gabe Ortis: Unfortunately, I just think that I hit a wall. I was talking days in advance about this round in my confessionals. I was obsessively saying that nine is my bottleneck and if I get through nine I will have multiple clear paths to go win the game but it will be the hardest round for me to get through…That was my Super Bowl, pretty much. I knew it was going to be tough and it ended up not going my way. Caroline flipped on me, Kyle flipped on me as my Tuku people but they had every reason to and if I was them I would have flipped on me too. It was a good move for them to make so I wasn’t particularly surprised by it. Obviously, it just sucks when you know you’re game ends. Nobody likes to lose. Nobody likes for their experience to have to come to an end. I was anticipating this was probably going to happen. I commend all of them for making the move, the best move in the game for everybody at that point.

John Powell: Looking back do you wish you would have had your shot in the dark?

Gabe Ortis: No. I never would have played it. The only way I’d play my Shot in the Dark is if everybody came to me and eulogized me and said: ‘You are going home tonight, no matter what it will be you tonight.’

I always want to have my vote. There’s never any scenario if I think there’s even a 1 per cent chance that I can swing the votes to where I need them to go. I want my vote to be cast, and God forbid, in a worst case scenario, I play my Shot in the Dark it doesn’t hit and I go home by one vote. There is pretty much no situation where I would want to play my Shot in the Dark and have to sacrifice my vote.

John Powell: Give us some details about why everybody was so willing to give up their Shot in the Dark and why you were so for the move?

Gabe Ortis: Well, I think everybody was on board because you’re a hungry man! It is a big bag of rice! It’s simple and it’s not exciting but I do think that is the main answer from the group. The consensus is that everybody was just starving. I just think the Shot in the Dark is something that a you can only play it up until round seven. So, we only had like two or three more tribals we were even eligible to play it and that rice was going to last us till the end of the game. From a personal perspective I was very, very hungry but also I thought if I don’t have my Shot in the Dark at least nobody else is going to have it either. It was just one less thing that my targets could use to squirm out of getting out of the game. It wasn’t valuable to me and if I could take it away from the people that it was valuable to that only helped my game.

John Powell: You’ve been able to sit back and watch everything that was going on behind your back. Are you surprised that your name was thrown out as much as it was?

Gabe Ortis: No, not even a little bit. No, no, no, no. This was the round for me to go home. It was always this round. Fortunately and unfortunately for me Season 47 top to bottom, first boot to winner, are all just straight up battlers, straight up ballers, game players and maybe on another season people would have been blind to just how dangerous it was to let me survive this round but not on 47. They’re too good at the game. They have too good of a picture of what the future holds in this game. That’s really what it came down to.

John Powell: Do you regret playing that idol so early?

Gabe Ortis: There were a few reasons for it. I always knew that idol was not making it to the merge. Caroline and Sue those votes were going to TJ so the worst case scenario of that night was the most reasonable worst case scenario that night. Tiyana’s in on the flip and we have a tie, and we have to revote, right? If I play my idol I’m safe from rocks so then I can really put the pressure on Tiyana on the revote to say: ‘Look, one less person is drawing a rock tonight. You just went from a one in four chance of going home to a one in three chance of going home. If that’s not enough to get you to flip, then best of luck but I’m going to be here tomorrow and your chances of going home just skyrocketed because I played this idol.’

A lot of people say: Why didn’t I play it for Sue? Well, if you listen to TK’s exit press, if you listen to Tiana’s exit press, we had that relationship on lock and so in the shadows nobody knew that we were close and if I played that idol for Sue we don’t have to deal with going to a revote or anything, which I didn’t think was that dangerous of a situation because I was safe, but also that’s just something tangible in the game that people can reference and use when trying to clock other alliances. People can say: Gabe played an idol for Sue. It’s just a thing that people can say to influence other people’s voting habits and I thought why even introduce that to this relationship we’re doing a really good job of keeping under wraps? I didn’t want folks to know that.

John Powell: We saw a lot of you and Sue but we didn’t see much of you and Caroline. How did that relationship develop?

Gabe Ortis: I get why. We went to tribal and it was to vote out TK who had a big blow up in the game. So I understand why that wasn’t shown but selfishly I wish it was because I think the way me and Caroline’s story was told was: ‘Caroline doesn’t trust Gabe. Gabe shows Caroline the idol now they trust each other for the rest of the game’. Even after I showed Caroline the idol she was like: ‘Okay, you did that but I still really don’t trust you that much even though you did that.’

It really took us having these hours and hours of long conversations at night, just throwing strategy back and forth and just like dumping all of our thoughts on the game, examining the big picture and just the philosophy of Survivor and how it pertained to our game. What we thought of all the people in our tribe and how we wanted to use them. How we wanted to navigate the merge, like even things that never came to fruition just like these ideas that we would just have and just throw back and forth. That’s where me and Caroline’s bond really got established and there was nobody else on Tuku that we could really have those conversations with. I mean this in a respectful way, but like nobody else on the tribe was thinking about the game that deeply. We would try and have those conversations with the people and they would kind of stall out at this very surface level but when me and Caroline found each other we could go deep.

John Powell: Is there anything about your Survivor journey that you wished viewers had seen?

Gabe Ortis: So obviously, all the Caroline stuff that I just said, I wish was there. There was this one moment. This is more of like a funny moment, right? Being the klutz that he is, there was this day where Andy was chopping a coconut. He was holding the coconut in his hand and then chopping it with a machete. He’s on the ground with his feet spread out just like doing that. Sue’s sitting on our shelter bench and she’s all Ramboed out. She’s got her hoodie on and her black vest on top and her hair tied back with her buff.

She’s just going: Andy, you’re gonna cut your hand open! Stop it!

Andy’s like: No. I’ve got it. I’m good. I’m good.

Sue: Andy! I want to tell your mother about this! Stop it!

I’m just standing between both of them like dying laughing at this whole thing going down. They’re both so serious.

Andy’s like: I got it. I got it.

She’s like: Andy cut it out right now!

It was just this mom and son moment. I was just sitting there. I don’t want to say anything because I don’t want this to end.

John Powell: As you were debating this back and forth about what aspects of the game or what things were you thinking of when deciding on a winner?

Gabe Ortis: I needed the person, whoever won, to be cognizant of their game and to have a good understanding of why they were at the end, how they got to the end and to own it. Not just own it but value it and stand by it. I would say that without getting too deep into spoiler territory, that was one of the very big things I was looking at. Be aware of your game, own it, and even if you don’t value it tell us why it should be valued. I feel like a lot of people get to the end and they are either totally unaware of why they’re at the end or they don’t take pride in their game. They’re like: ‘Well, I did this and I’m so sorry about all these things that I did to you and that I did to everybody. I’m just this terrible person but if you want to vote for me it would really mean a lot.’

No! You’re at the end. Puff your chest out a little bit and be like, I did that and it wasn’t personal! It was game! If you felt it was personal, I apologize but I did that! I deserve to be here and here’s why you should vote for me! So for the things I can talk about that was one of the big things I was looking for.

John Powell: It was great talking to you today. You did mention though that you would love to come back. You even said it at tribal last night? Do you still feel the same way?

Gabe Ortis: I’ll be back! I’ve got unfinished business, my man! I’ll be back!

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