By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Though the might not have known it at the time Cedrek’s own Survivor game had a ripple effect on the game as a whole and that began well before that historic tribal council in which he was the sole vote to send Justin home. While he may not be a complicated man, his game sure was.

John Powell: Cedric, it’s nice to be talking to you today. How are you?

Cedrek McFadden: I’m great! Nice to meet you!

John Powell: You were able to watch everything back last night. How you feeling this morning?

Cedrek McFadden: First of all, I am relieved the episode is out but I’m just tremendously appreciative of the experience right now.

John Powell: Obviously a lot happened that afternoon before you went to tribal. How confident were you at the time?

Cedrek McFadden: I suspected the votes will go exactly the way they went. I wanted to believe otherwise. When we drew rocks, I saw the alliances that were already formed. I understood the time that they had to build, those bonds that I just did not have. I was quite aware of the potential uphill climb that it would be for me to make any kind of a difference.

John Powell: You had momentum at the start of the game and then obviously things switched up and you were playing from the bottom. How hard was that?

Cedrek McFadden: I mean, just the mere fact of having all those people all together instead of just having six, right? That’s a big difference in just conversations that you need to have. I mean, just to have the time to go to everybody takes a little bit more effort at that point. I was aware that it was a reset. I was energized by the reset but I also knew the reality of that reset.

John Powell: We watched your journey through the show and it seemed to that you had some difficulty separating the game from the personal end of things? Was that the case?

Cedrek McFadden: I think maybe it came across that way but I didn’t have a hard time. I mean, I got rid of Justin. I mean, that was as personal as you can get. I don’t have a problem with that because if something’s dead, it needs to be cut or something needs to be adjusted. I didn’t have a problem with that. I think that we have a responsibility to make sure that we remain humane in our approach though and that’s what I tended to do.

John Powell: Speaking of which, why did you keep Sai over Justin?

Cedrek McFadden: In that moment there are several elements to it and I’ll try to explain that briefly.

Justin and I had established an alliance and we had determined we’re not writing each other’s name down. We entered into tribal with that in mind but a funny thing happened. Sai showed me the holes in that alliance with Justin and I think there was a moment that you don’t get to see. I said it in the moment while we’re there” ‘This moment is transcending the game.’ I looked across, looked at Sai and I saw a person that was in pain. I saw a person that was hurting and I saw a human across from another human having a connection that told me if there was any trauma in that person’s life. We’re all going to leave this game and I knew if she left in that capacity, in that way, that may be a moment she could not recover from. I saw a person that needed a human touch and I felt that I could not allow my voting her out to compound any issue from her life that she now have to walk out from and carry for the rest of her life…I knew that that was part of my responsibility, that I couldn’t just walk away from it. That was a moment that needed to be handled in a different way.

John Powell: What was interesting last night is we saw you and Sai leave at the same time. Your journeys have been connected throughout the season.

Cedrek McFadden: Very poetic, huh?

John Powell: It was like fate. The Survivor gods spoke. I talked to Sai and she said her Survivor journey would have been different without you. How do you see the ups and downs of your relationship with Sai?

Cedrek McFadden: You know what? What the viewer sees, they see the edited version of any relationship. What you’re not seeing is that she would be the person that would pull me aside and say the girls are talking about sending you home. There was so much strategy that we discussed. She’s strong, she’s analytical, she’s transparent, and that’s the person you want to play this game with. A lot of people saw her as abrasive or polarizing and annoying. I didn’t see any of that because, first of all, she didn’t intimidate me. I wasn’t bothered by it. We were just playing a game together and so I was able to look beyond a lot of the stuff that probably annoyed even the viewers.

I just realized this is the person that’s here to play and I’m glad it came out… This is the kind of person you want to play this game with. Granted, she’s on many sides of people’s emotions but that didn’t bother me. I saw a person that was ready to do what you could take to play this game.

John Powell: Speaking of relationships, you had one with Bianca and we saw her manifest her own destiny or her own exit. Tell us about that situation.

Cedrek McFadden: That vote was compared a lot to the Justin vote. People say: ‘If you lose your vote, don’t tell Cedric.’ I’m not simple-minded. I know how to maneuver these scenarios, the conversations and the alliance that I built with Justin was tried and true. It was tested. When that loyalty was broken, live during tribal council, it was a very different scenario, as opposed to Bianca, and she says it in her interview. She says: ‘You know, I want to build this trust.’ It was being built. It wasn’t built. It was being built. And in that moment, it felt more manipulative than actually building.

John Powell: What moments do you wish fans got to see about your journey?

Cedrek McFadden: You don’t see us having those really deep belly laughs, talking and having a great time. You also don’t see a lot of the one-on-one conversations I had that allowed people to come tell me information. They wouldn’t tell anyone else that actually happened. You see the bumpy part but you don’t see the strategic talk.

Star had that moment with me. I think she was the first person who actually saw me. She was the first person who actually, I feel like, saw me for what I was trying to do in the game.

John Powell: How much did that interaction mean to you?

Cedrek McFadden: It meant everything because it was a moment where I felt seen. Everyone wants to be seen. I tell my medical students when I’m training them, we see the patient for them not for the disease that they may be presenting with. She saw me and that meant the world.

John Powell: You cannot tell us who you voted for but what were some of the things you were debating when you were deciding on a winner?

Cedrek McFadden: It really came down to the moves that people made, why they made those moves. That will carry weight for me.

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