It was a showmance that got Jessica “Figgy” Figueroa voted out of Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X. That’s gotta sting. But at least she and her cuddle partner Taylor can find everlasting love outside of the game, which is worth waaaaay more than a million dollars!!! Or not.
Figgy called into EW Morning Live on Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105) this morning and shared the news that she and Taylor are no more, due to what she calls “a real life situation that I found out after the game.” We asked the 23-year-old bartender from Nashville about that, whether she feels the showmance was her undoing in the game, and her thoughts on Michaela openly rooting against her in a challenge. She also was clear in her disappointment over Taylor’s lack of interest in anything involving strategy in the game. (She’s not the only one!) Here are a few highlights from our chat:
On whether she now feels it was a mistake to get into a showmance when competing for a million dollars:
“That’s such a tricky question. I wanted to manipulate him and wanted to manipulate Jay and have all these guys in my back pocket, so when I actually started caring about him I was like, ‘Oh, man. How am I going to get my way out of this one because I don’t want to hurt him?’ Ultimately, I think that it affected my game for sure. It definitely affected my game. If I wouldn’t have gotten into that, who knows how far I would have went? Or I could have actually been the second person voted out because maybe I would have been more expendable because Taylor didn’t have an attachment to me.”
On not hiding her showmance very well from Ken and Jessica:
“I guess I brewed my love potion too strong. He kept wanting to cuddle and hold my hand. It was like having a little puppy dog follow you everywhere. At some point we just kind of figured that we weren’t going to keep it a secret anymore. So we figured we will tell Jessica and Ken, figuring all the other Gen Xers probably knew and we didn’t know if Adam was going to keep it a secret or not. They called us out on the cuddling in the morning and the holding hands. In this situation of strategizing, I was Boston Rob and he was Amber. That was the joke around camp: ‘I’m Boston Rob. You are Amber. Let me do everything.’ That ‘s why I would be like, ‘Don’t touch me. Don’t look at me. Don’t hug me. Don’t sniff me. Don’t do anything.’ And it just got out of hand. He couldn’t control it and it was becoming more visible.”
On the status of her and Taylor now:
“There was a real life situation that I found out after the game and it led to Taylor and I not being together. So #RIPFigtails. You guys will find out on the reunion show. There were just some real life situations that were going on that I found out about outside of the game, and not from me. Taylor and I just aren’t together any more from things that I learned.”
On how she felt about Michaela openly cheering for the other tribe to beat her in the immunity challenge:
“It was crap. It was total crap. Total crap. Because at that point, I’m frustrated. I’m angry because me and Jessica are not getting the balancing down and the ball is going all over the place. And then Michaela started helping Vanua out and I was like, ‘Are you freakin’ kidding me right now?!’ Aside from that, I’m trying to focus because we’re trying to get this ball around this dang corner, and she’s just instructing them on how to do everything.
“And her reasoning was, ‘Well, y’all have the Millennial numbers. If you can’t do math and you can’t get along then you don’t deserve to be here.’ It had nothing to do with that. Let’s be honest here, okay? Michaela was coming after me guns blazing on the second episode with the machete and we just weren’t getting along. We got along for the numbers in that second Tribal Council, but if I would have been on Vanua and it would have been Michelle over on Takali, I think she would have been cheering on Takali. So I think it had everything to do with me at that time, and Taylor because she was annoyed with the cuddle shack, and I wasn’t very happy with that as I was trying to get the ball in the arcade game.”
On if she will get in a showmance if she playsSurvivoragain:
“Hell no! Looking back when I watch the stuff, and even if the secret scenes that CBS puts up, I see Taylor saying, ‘I don’t care about the million dollars.’ So bro, why didn’t you volunteer your spot like Katniss in the Hunger Games and be like, ‘I volunteer in tribute. I’ll go, because she wants the money.’ You already had the experience! I was Boston Rob. He was Amber. I was the strategist. I wanted to play the game and he just didn’t care. So I was the one thinking for him.”
You can hear the entire interview on SiriusXM On Demand. Also, check out an exclusive deleted scene from last night’s Survivor below, and make sure to read my full episode recap as well as our weekly Q&A with Jeff Probst. Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to compete in an actual Survivor challenge against former players, head here for more info. And for more Survivor scoop, you can follow me on Twitter @DaltonRoss.