Cassandra Franklin by Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS
She may have stayed under the radar, but Cassandra Franklin managed to stay afloat in among the shark like contestants even though she couldn't really swim. "I didn't learn to swim at all when I was out there. Not only was I fearful of the water, but I was fearful of the sea snakes. After one time seeing sea snakes, I tried even harder to respect the water and the natural life in it. I was scared, very scared."
Um, what about all those immunity challenges that were set on the water? "For the most part, I tried to overcome my fears and get in there when I had to. I did take swimming lessons, but I had very little time to prepare for Survivor."
But it wasn't her lack of water skills that had the jury up in arms at the finale, it was the fact of if she really played the game or not. And despite the fact that she was always good nature, Alex and Rocky in particular did not go easy on her. "They were hard on me. I think part of that was because Stacy made a decision to change her alliance at a real critical time in the game and I think the people in her alliance felt I was responsible for that, but it was her decision."
"At that point, there was very little I could have said," Cassandra continues. "They had their minds made up by the time they went back to the camp together. I never spent any time with Rocky at all, so I wasn't sure where all the tension from him was coming from. Alex, I was pretty upset with him, that was totally unnecessary and over the board. I'm not surprised he's not practicing law right now."
But her fellow tribemates weren't just tough to handle at the final tribal council, they also gave her and Dreamz a hard time early on. Lisi and Stacy basically shunned the duo when they were with the original dominant Moto (aka the "Haves") crew. "They let Gary, Dreamz and I know what our position was in the game. They treated us pretty bad."
"The coffee [where Stacy and Lisi refused to help Dreamz make a cup since he wasn't in their alliance] was just one incident. It was totally them feeling empowered. The entire time they would say things like, 'Cassandra, the dishes are dirty.' And so after a while Dreamz and I would just tell them, 'do 'em'"
And though she and Dreamz were friends since the beginning, she says she would have voted for Earl as well if she was on the jury. " I got a chance to know both of them very well. I think Dreamz was very good in challenges, and a key player in the game. But earl was a good strategist and put people in critical positions and was very loyal all the way through the game. I like that he was able to remain loyal. He didn't make false promises. What he said, he meant and he was able to stick too it."
As opposed to Dreamz, who went back on his promise to Yau-Man. "I talked to Dreamz a lot about his decision to keep the truck and not give up the immunity necklace. I said, you've got to be able to live with your decision, whatever way it goes, it has to be something you can live with."
Dreamz decision put her in a tough position as well. "It was a very difficult decision for me to vote Yau-Man out at that point. Dreamz had the immunity idol, so I would have had to vote myself (wasn't doing that) or Earl, so the choice was difficult."
But she does reveal that Yau-Man had a couple more tricks up his sleeve that the audience wasn't privy to. "Not only did he have an agreement with Dreamz, but he made the rest of us make a promise too. Anyone that was remaining would have had to vote his way. It was quite a twist."
Interesting… very interesting.
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