In his nearly three-hour interview on RHAP, Rick shares some fascinating new details that help us understand Survivor: Edge of Extinction in a better light.
A little while ago, we published a piece about exit interviews from the cast of Survivor: Edge of Extinction. While those discussions were interesting, they only lasted around ten minutes each, leaving a ton of facts still in the dark.
Thankfully, Rob Cesternino provides Survivor fans with hours worth of exclusive cast retrospectives after the season is over. He started with the most entertaining player of the season, talking with Rick Devens for over two and a half hours, which you can listen to on RHAP.
Devens did not disappoint, so make sure to check it out if you haven’t already. Here are a few of the most revealing comments from that podcast.
Rick and Chris were close from Day 1
One of the many relationships the edit didn’t show the viewers was the bromance between Devens and Chris in both the pre-merge game and on the Edge of Extinction. They become close in the game, but unfortunately, Devens and David decided to cut him loose because they thought they had a better chance going into the tribe swap without blindsiding the Lauren and Kelley duo.
Even though Rick did betray Chris, they both mentioned how they mended their relationship on the Edge of Extinction, where they would spend a ton of time together. This helps us to see why Devens and Chris made such a strong pair when he reentered the game during the finale.
Devens did not find life on Extinction Island hard
Rick was open and honest about the Edge of Extinction not affecting him as much as it was hyped. In fact, Devens said that he ate just as well on Extinction Island as in the game, if not even better. He also emphasized the constant mental strain you’re under during the game, and how that disappears on the Edge.
He wanted to work with his old tribe at the merge
Devens first left the game during an emotional Tribal Council that saw a tight group of people forced to vote out yet another person. He mentioned how he really did feel close to all four members, so much so that he left his bulky sweater back at camp for the girls since they were cold at night.
Once he returned to the game, you might recall how determined Devens was to join the Kama train and get as far as he could from his old Lesu tribe members. That said, Rick came into the merge with every intention to rejoin his Lesu, who he thought would welcome him back.
However, once he found out that Lauren and Wentworth were desperately targeting him, Devens wanted nothing to do with them. That feeling of betrayal was heightened when he saw how upset Kelley and Lauren were after Joe received majority votes instead of him.
Devens explains why he and David “wasted” their idol
The first idol play of the season turned out to be a useless one, as Rick and David combined their two halves and played it for David. This happened at that crazy Tribal Council, where Julia received almost all of the votes.
In one of those side conversations, David was trying to convince Wentworth and Lauren to change their vote to Julia, but they still seemed unwilling to budge on their original vote which was David. As a result, they used their idol as leverage, telling Wentworth that she would be wasting her vote because they were going to play an idol anyway.
That’s why they thought they had to play it even though they knew it was probably Julia getting her torch snuffed. Devens regrets that decision since David got voted out the next Tribal Council!
Devens still thinks he wouldn’t be able to hold onto Chris’ idol
The most pivotal decision in Devens’ game came at the Final Five. Instead of pulling a Tai Trang, Rick returned Chris’ idol half, giving it the power of a normal Hidden Immunity Idol. If he didn’t give his idol back, Chris would have received the majority votes at the Final Five Tribal Council and we would probably be calling Rick Devens the Sole Survivor of season 38.
Rick did realize that he was making more of an emotional decision than a strategic one. He grew tight with Chris and was there for him during his lowest moments on the Edge of Extinction. Although he thought about not giving the idol back, he felt that there was no way he could deny it from his close friend Chris.
One point that Devens emphasized was how he underrated Chris’ game. In his mind, Chris had no chance of winning, no matter what he did. After Chris won the Final Four Immunity Challenge, Devens’ pitch was essentially: “why screw over a friend for second place.” Even after Rick lost in making a fire, he still felt betrayed by Chris.
It was only after Devens made it to Ponderosa when he realized how much the jury appreciated Chris’ game, especially after making a move like that one. From that point onward, Rick no longer felt hurt by Chris’ decision to take him to fire. Although he now knows giving the idol back to Chris wasn’t the smartest move, he doesn’t think he would have ever been able to reject Chris like that.
Jeff asked the cast if they were ok with the big twist
Devens commented on a very interesting unaired moment this season. At the first Edge of Extinction challenge, Jeff asked the cast if anyone thought this twist was unfair. Only one person raised their hand, and it was Rick! That might also be a reason why he voted for Gavin to win the million over Chris.
Here are a few other interesting details Devens highlighted:
- He was 90% sure that Ron’s advantage was fake, so he rehearsed his little Tribal Council speech beforehand
- Discussed with his wife Becca before he flew out to Fiji that they would throw the family visit challenge if he made it that far, in order to avoid facing blowback from a decision
- Rick was never going to play his idol for Julie at the Final Seven Tribal Council. He even told Julie beforehand exactly what he was planning to say
- During the final week of the game, Devens ran off to make fire. He made over a dozen that week, including four or five on the day of the fire-making challenge
- He received plenty of fake idol advice from David. He made a really poor looking one on his first try but felt more confident with his later creations once he noticed how unprofessional an official season 38 idol looked like
- The crew told Devens that this was by far the fastest fire-making challenge they have ever seen
There were so many intriguing facts that Rick Devens got a chance to share in his podcast with RHAP. Cesternino has had the chance to have post-game interviews with several Edge of Extinction castaways, so we will continue to share the most telling comments from these podcasts.