Early Show Highlights
Survivor: Palau Episode 13 Cast-Off
Caryn Groedel

<clip of tribal council>

Julie Chen:  Caryn Groedel, good morning.

Caryn:  Good morning.

Julie Chen:  You've had a shower and a nice meal since then.  Are you still stewing?  Are you still mad?

Caryn:  Well I'm angry that there was so much deception and everyone was making it seem like...oh everything is so happy and peaceful at Koror.  And really there was so much scheming going on.

Julie Chen:  But isn't that the name of the game of Survivor?  You've watched it before, before signing up and getting picked to go on it.  

Caryn:  That is the name of the game but I thought usually at tribal council everyone is still playing the game.  They're saying the right things.  They're still making their moves.  They're appealing to the jury. And I just wanted everyone on the jury to know what was happening.  Because there was a lot of plotting going on that they didn't know about.  The jury only gets to see what they see. 

Julie Chen:  Why did you snap at tribal council.  What set you over the edge and you said "I'm going to expose all of these liars"?

Caryn:  I think it was Katie and Ian and the whole thing with Ian saying "Oh I'm so sorry" to Katie.   Katie and this whole love fest going on.  In the meantime the women are talking about voting out the guys.  Ian is talking about voting out Jenn and then Katie.  I'm just saying to myself "come on let's be real here".  Let's get the cards on the table. 

Julie Chen:  Did you also feel like..."you know what, I'm probably going to get sent home tonight anyway so I might as well air it all out"?

Caryn:  Absolutely.  I knew I was on the chopping block.  I knew that Katie could not be trusted to keep her alliance with the women...that she was going to keep Ian on.  She didn't have the guts to really send him packing.  I was going home and since I was going home I wanted to lay the cards out.

Julie Chen:  Was it also like a last ditch effort?  Like "maybe something can save me if I make everyone face the truth...right here, right now".  Because you definitely planted seeds of doubt in Katie's head about her best friend, Ian.

Caryn:  I did think that it was to my advantage in some way to let the cards be on the table.  I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  If Katie could hear that Ian had been plotting against her then maybe she would vote for him to go home.   I had nothing to lose and everything to gain at that point.

Julie Chen:  But were you completely honest at tribal council because you and Tom disagreed about what went down between you and Tom? You thought the two of you had an alliance and then it was like a "he said, she said". 

Caryn:  I never really had an alliance with Tom.  We had a friendship.  We said we would watch out for each other but it wasn't really an alliance.  And yes I was telling the truth.  Of course there's always different sides to it and everybody perceives it differently. But yes, that is what happened.  That is how I remembered it.  I wasn't intending to lie at tribal council.  Just to get everything out in the open.

Julie Chen:  Who were you loyal to other than yourself?  At one point during last night's show it looked like the women formed an alliance and one of the guys was going to go.  Why didn't that stick?

Caryn:  Because Katie and Jenn really were not playing to win at that point.  They were playing maybe to be the runner up.  The only way to really win is to make moves.  Neither one was willing to make a move.  They were going to be led along and told what to do and not take charge and not really start making the decisions.  Again the women lost an opportunity to oust the men.

Julie Chen:  Let's take a look at the final four.  We have two men, two women left:  Ian, Tom, Katie and Jenn.  What do you make of these four?

Caryn:  I think that it depends on what challenges come up.

Julie Chen:  It depends on who wins immunity and the alliances shift every 10 minutes.

Caryn:  Right but I think if the challenges can be such that one of the women can win, that'll be a different game than if the men keep winning immunity and control the game.

Julie Chen:  Do you have any regrets about anything you did or even signing up?

Caryn:  No regrets at all. Loved the game would do it again in a heartbeat.