SPOILER alert:This interview contains spoilers from “No Man Left Behind,” the Oct. 11 episode of “Survivor,” now streaming on Paramount+.
“That’s such a great name. That’s so ironic!”
That’s how my Thursday morning conversation with Sabiyah Broderick, the latest “Survivor” castaway to be voted off the island, began. She’s referring to her tribemate, Emily Flippen, who ultimately turned on her and wrote down her name at tribal, securing her ticket off the island.
During Wednesday’s episode, Lulu went to their third tribal council — there have only been three this season —and while Sabiyah had thought Kaleb Gebrewold was going home, she was blindsided when Kaleb and Emily both wrote her name down. (Shawn Edwards was the only one to write down Kaleb’s name.)
Going into tribal, Sabiyah admits she felt “a lot more safe than I should have,” something that was clear by her decision not to vote and instead, hold on her to her idol a bit longer.
“Kaleb and Emily had forged this relationship, unbeknownst to me and Shawn about the depth of it. We have seen them going on walks, which is kind of what put him on our radar for the social game. But at the end of the day, from my perspective, she was coming at both of us,” Sabiyah says. “So I’m thinking we’re in the same playing field when it comes to approaching Emily. I’m thinking that partnering with somebody that has an idol really would impact her game more beneficially than partnering with someone like Kaleb, who’s such a big threat. I’m a big threat, but I’m holding some security that I’m willing to use for the both of us because, as far as I’m concerned, there’s a swap coming, and we’re together. I don’t know these other people, so even if we’ve had more of a hero-villain, dynamic, I still would side with her over anybody that I hadn’t really met or got to know.”
Still, Sabiyah views the blindside as an honor —something that any “Survivor” fan knows really only happens to big threats in the game.
“I went into the game thinking and talking to my mom and dad like, ‘Either I’m gonna make it to the end, or I’m gonna get blindsided early.’ I just knew it because I know how I come off,” she says. “I come off as a leader. I come off with somebody that you can trust and that you can ultimately love.”
While Emily and Sabiyah eventually came together as friends, it wasn’t that way at first. During the first episode, Emily drew a big target on her back, verbally coming for Sabiyah, Kaleb and even Bruce Perreault, who played the game last season but was medically evacuated on the first day. Because the three players Emily called out were Black, some viewers voiced their concerns on social media.
Sabiyah, however, states she “never” felt that Emily’s remarks were racially motivated.
“Emily is not racist, not prejudiced. I’m kind of disappointed in that conversation being, like, the forefront of her character, based off of her social gameplay radar being so good. Me and Kaleb were close. Bruce was trying to downplay his threat ability. He only made it to Day 1, but that’s more than all of us. That’s true. The mindset — having to go through the pregame, having to go through casting, he’d already done it,” says Sabiyah. “Me and Kaleb did click heavy. We’re both Virgos, we have similar backgrounds having immigrant parents and coming from athletic backgrounds. We both adore basketball. So we were cutting up at camp. So her being threatened by that — she was right. So I don’t feel like it’s fair, just because we’re Black and she’s white to assume that she’s coming for us because of that dynamic, when it’s so small compared to everything that was going on out there.”
She adds: “If me and Kaleb are white and we have the same get on or if Bruce is white, is it even a conversation? I feel like she would have came for us just the same like, ‘They’re so close, they’re such a big threat and they’re carrying the challenges. We’ve got to get them out while we have the numbers.’ That’s not racism. That’s just smart.”
“Survivor” airs on CBS Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
