Survivor’s [Spoiler] Talks Fake Idol Chaos and the ‘Uphill Battle’ That Followed (2025)

The following contains spoilers from Wednesday’s episode ofSurvivor47.

The biggest showdown of the season has officially come to an end.

In Part 1 of Survivor’s Season 47 finale, Rachel became persona non grata after a successful idol play sent Andy packing. Her death warrant in the game was more or less signed until she won the episode’s second immunity challenge, shifting the target away from her and smack dab onto Genevieve. But even still, no one knew whether Genevieve’s fake idol was real or not… except for Sam, who, after realizing he might catch some strays, spilled the truth to Teeny. Teeny told Sue, but even with the truth in their hands, they still didn’t know whom or what to believe. But when the results came in, Genevieve’s luck ran out and she was ousted by a vote of 3-2. (Read a full recap here.)

Below, Genevieve talks to TVLine about her contentious relationship with Teeny, her post-merge rivalry with Rachel and what went down after Sam leaked the truth about her idol.

TVLINE | Losing that last immunity challenge. You were so close to victory! Has that haunted you since you left the island?
GENEVIEVE MUSHALUK | You know what? I am very fortunate. Nothing has haunted me since I left the island. I feel like I tried my best and you can’t win them all, right? So I’m not beating myself up too much about it. I had an amazing time and Rachel is a really great competitor. I am not a performance athlete, so I think I did about as well as I could.

TVLINE | You duped Teeny over and over again, and we saw many tears coming from their face. Tell me a little bit about that dynamic.
I feel like the way it was laid out, I understand why viewers are confused. Why would we keep working together? What is this tension that’s happening? But what wasn’t shown is there’s so many highs that were just as good as those intense lows, and it really did feel like a sibling or close family relationship where you’re like, “OK, we’re gonna fight, but we’re not really gonna do anything to hurt each other.” And so there were votes that could have gone me or somebody, me or Gabe, and Teeny was an advocate in my corner even though they’re stomping around saying, “I hate Genevieve so much.” So it was a really interesting dynamic. It’s one that I didn’t have a strategy for in my tool belt. I was not prepared for that type of dynamic. But it’s a really close relationship and it still is to this day.

TVLINE | I understand why Sam spilled the beans about your fake idol, but why did you decide to tell Teeny the truth when they asked you?
Good question. A couple reasons for that one. I was totally unprepared for it. I did not foresee Sam wanting to blow up this thing because I thought, “Well, we’ll still work together and we’ll find a way to get there together,” because I didn’t think he would be intimidated to sit by me. I mean, he had a fantastic game. I was intimidated to sit by him. So I was unprepared for it, and then talking about this close relationship with Teeny, when Teeny approached me… that conversation was long and they laid out everything. So I was like, “Oh, Sam has really sold me out here. Teeny knows everything. Teeny is crying. Teeny is furious.” So Genevieve, the person, steps in and is just like, “Yeah, jig is up and I’m so sorry. I can see you’re hurting here.”

Then Teeny and I go talk to Sue who’s sitting in the hammock and we’re like, “Yeah, you know what? The news is true. Genevieve’s idol is fake,” and Sue goes, “How stupid do you think I am? Genevieve’s always got a trick up her sleeve,” and that’s when I was like, oh my gosh, Sam could blow up this whole game and Teeny could be furious, but there still might be a chance that people are insecure enough to make a mistake here, even with all the tools at their disposal to take me out. And I’m just a sitting duck. There might be a chance that they don’t take the shot. It was an uphill battle, [but] that whole day I went into that Tribal knowing like, “Yeah, I’m cooked.”

TVLINE | The Kishan vote really seemed to affect your emotions and gameplay moving forward. We saw you comment on how you chose to not have any friends in this game. Do you regret the way you compartmentalized your emotions?
I feel like I’m going to get asked this and I’m going to give different answers to every person who asks me because it depends on the day and the time of day. But honestly, compartmentalizing really helped me see the game more clearly and it allowed me to work with more reliable data because as soon as you start feeling some type of way about someone, that skews your perception of how you’re viewing what they do and why they do it. So I think I was so unprepared at five to have a plan there because I just didn’t foresee those relationships. Teeny fighting with me, that was very foreseeable. It happened all the time. But Sam turning on me, I did not foresee because I had totally clouded judgment. So I think compartmentalizing helps you think more clearly in the game, at least for me.

TVLINE | Tell me a bit about your early ties with Rome. He seemed like such a wild card and you two seemed like an unlikely duo at the start.
So what wasn’t shown is the first night I was really sick and Rome stayed up with me most of the night. Being like, “It’s gonna be OK. You’ll get through this,” and I saw a side of Rome that nobody else really got to see. He was a chaotic player for sure, but there are benefits to that, right? He’s obviously a shield for me and he had a wonderful talent at finding things, and he was pretty communicative when he found things. So from an alliance perspective, I feel like I was able to work with him in a way that other people weren’t necessarily, and he was a great shield and a great asset. No regrets in working with Rome. His chaos is a lot, but he’s also a pretty consistent, predictable player. Where some people who are less flashy are more unpredictable. I would be more afraid to work with Andy than I was with Rome, just knowing each of their playing styles.

TVLINE | You masterminded the Sol vote, but it made your target grow three-fold. In hindsight, was it too early to pull that trigger or do you stand by the timing of that?
I do think the timing was right because even though my target grew, I didn’t go home the Tribal after or the Tribal after or the Tribal after. People are like, “Well, don’t raise your threat level because you’re just gonna go out next.” In the new era, if you raise your threat level at the right time when there are still other big threats, you have a better shot at maneuvering back in. And Sol, he’s so lovable. He’s able to make bonds very quickly, as was Teeny. I would be the least lovable Lavo. So the longer all these lovable people are in the game, the more it’s like, “Well, let’s just get rid of Genevieve. She’s so cold hearted, ice queen, get her out of here.” So Sol had to go then. I’m so sorry. I know everyone loves Sol.

TVLINE | This Rachel/Genevieve showdown was such a blast to watch. You’ve both spoken a bit about not clicking right away and clocking each other right after the merge. Can you tell me a little bit more about the early days of this rivalry?
Before Sierra went home, I wanted that vote to be Rachel. I was very wary of Rachel right away. And then the fact that I thought she was going to fly under the radar for the first bit and connect with people in a way that’s not threatening… that type of player can become so entrenched in the tribe that it’s very difficult to see… like get people to see why they need to leave. But there was no momentum for Rachel early on, so it had to be Sierra. But from that moment, I think I heard through the grapevine, “Rachel’s noticing Genevieve. You’re in a lot of conversations, but you don’t share a lot of information.” So she clocked me and I clocked her, and after that, we would dance around soft discussions of, “Should we work together?” But it was never in either of our best interests to do so. And so we just stopped pretending. We would go to battle and all these things, then go back to camp and I would braid her hair. It was a really lovely non-personal rivalry.

TVLINE | If you played again, what would you do differently?
I would try to find my Sam on Day 1. That’s what I tried to do on Lavo beach, find a No. 1. I thought I had that in Rome. Then Rome found his idol, showed it to Teeny, Teeny showed it to Kishan, and I realized I was actually four, which then really put me into gear being like, “I do something to change this, otherwise, I’m going home sooner rather than later.” But yeah, I would love to have a No. 1 because it makes the game so much more fun to play when you have friends. Which I did for like two days at the end. [Laughs]