After last week, Russell Swan will always be known as the guy who almost died on Survivor. Selected as Galu;s leader on the very first day of competition, the 42-year-old attorney from Glenside, Pa. took his appointment very seriously, sacrificing his personal comfort and health to try to keep his team going. But his dedication took its toll, and during the immunity challenge, the severely dehydrated Swan collapsed, unable to stand up or even respond to questions. Although Swan recovered and is now in good health, doctors determined that he could no longer continue and took him out of the game.
How are you feeling?
Believe it or not, I am alive and well! Quite alive and quite well.
I'm very happy to hear that. What was it like to watch your collapse last week?
Let me tell you, it was absolutely spooky. I have no memory of any of that. In fact, the memory I have is completely incongruent with what I saw on TV. What I saw on TV freaked me out.
How did you remember it happening?
I thought I was pushing a ball – and obviously, I knew I was tired because it was a tough challenge. All these challenges were tough. My memory is that I get to the station and somebody does grab me because I'm stumbling around because I’m blindfolded, but I get to the station and I take a knee to rest. I'm waiting for Laura to tell me to lift my side [of the platform] up, and she says, "Russell, lift up your side," and I lift up my side and hit myself under the chin. My thought was that I had knocked myself out when I did that. When I came to, I heard Jeff say stop and calling in medical, and I was like, "No, I don't really need medical; I probably just have a cut under my chin, but I'm good." That's when you hear me say, "No, I'm fine! Let's go!" In my mind, that's the tape that's playing. When I see the actual episode, I'm just like, "OK, what is this? Is this some kind of stunt double?" I really don't remember any of it. It completely freaked me out; it really did.
And you went to the hospital after that?
They took me to a clinic that they run and they checked me out. In my mind, I'm still angry and belligerent, because I wanted to be in the game! I had applied [to be on Survivor] eight times and I don't want to go out on my back, of all things! If they snuff my torch out, OK, that's the game, but to go out on my back, oh, it sucked. So they were checking me out and I was having none of it. They were talking about my blood pressure; I didn't care. They were saying how close I was to death; I was like, "Well, I'm not dead, so come on, let's go. I'm ready to have at it."
Well, I'm glad you didn't die!
Me, too! I kind of like living.
Before any of this happened, you sent Shambo over to Foa Foa twice. You and the rest of the tribe just didn't seem like Shambo very much.
Yeah, she made the game tough for me specifically because she was such a loose cannon. She was constantly questioning every decision I made. "Oh, you need to get these kids up! They need to do work!" And I'm like, "Shambo, we just won a challenge, for crying out loud! Let everybody sit and rest and chill! We can get the firewood." So she made me vulnerable because she kept second-guessing me and I kept worrying about what effect it was going to have on the tribe, vis-a-vis my position as chief.
But wouldn't you want someone like that on your side? Sending her over to Galu is practically asking her to switch her alliance to the other tribe if she makes it to the merge.
Yeah, but who cares? She's such a loose cannon, she's going to hurt them, too. Shambo, I love her to death, but she's the type of person that always shoots herself in the foot. She's her own worst enemy. She was going to be vulnerable with us, and we were a strong tribe. Can you imagine how vulnerable she's going to be on a weak tribe?
After applying for Survivor eight times, you must have had a pretty solid strategy going into the game.
That is correct. I had this whole strategy planned out and it's actually the strategy that you see many of my tribe members utilizing: hang back, do just enough – not enough to be seen as a threat but not so little as to seem lazy – and take care of yourself. That was my strategy. Well, so much for that. That got shot to hell because I got elected chief and I can't sit back and relax because all eyes are on me. It just shot my strategy out the window.
You took your position as tribe leader very seriously, but since it was based on first impressions, it was essentially meaningless. Couldn't you have just chosen to ignore it?
Right, and that's the route that Mick took [on Foa Foa], but the difference between Mick and me is that one, I'm not wired that way. If I'm given responsibility, I guess I do take it seriously. Number two, I had a stronger tribe, which is obvious. They just needed all the pieces. Mick had weaker people; I don't. If I lose a challenge or another challenge or a series of challenges like his tribe did, my tribe would have definitely voted me off.
If you had not been taken out of the game, who do you think would have been voted off at tribal council?
Win, lose or draw, both teams would have had to vote people out. Psychologically, the advantage it gives me is that I'm safe and on Galu, it could have been anyone from Shambo to Monica, because she had been on the chopping block before. On Foa Foa, who knows, it could have been Liz or Natalie, who just seem to be floating.
If you had stayed, what would have been your next move?
My next move would have definitely been to be looking toward that merge, shed this whole "chief" crap and then clutch it way, way back, get myself together and start winning the individual immunity challenges. There was not another person left who was stronger than me. As far as the puzzles go, it would have been an issue, but I think that I had a fair amount of intelligence as well. My thing was to get myself together, do a systems check, drink a bunch of watch, start getting a bunch of food for myself – screw the tribe! – get myself strong, win individual immunity and start voting these people off.
Obviously, collapsing and almost dying was your worst point of the show, but do you wish you had done anything differently?
I just wish I had never been voted chief. There's nothing I could have controlled about that, but I just think it really changed the game. I think I overplayed everything, I stressed myself out, I didn't take care of myself and it ended up being my demise, almost.
Who do you think will win Survivor?
I don't know who should win, but I'm hoping Shambo wins.
But you didn't like her on show!
Any woman who is brave enough, in 2009, to wear a full-on mullet? She gets my vote. It would be such a hoot to see Shambo collect that million-dollar check. Can you imagine what she's going to buy? I can just see her getting a big Harley, letting that mullet fly and us getting to watch her on TV, being a millionaire. That's just too funny.
Survivor: Samoa airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Global and CBS
© Copyright (c) dose.ca
