Survivor gameplay these days is like brain surgery: Complicated and meticulous, with so many factors that even the slightest slip-up is the difference between life and death. Well, perhaps I should see if that comparison truly holds water for David Voce. The neurosurgeon came in with a confident and driven plan to master the “pathology” of people and win the game. But for a guy who impressed Jeff Probst with his math skills at one point, the numbers didn’t work out in his favor, as the Yase tribe put an end to his operation. From the beginning, Voce realized he was on a tribe that was paddling upstream (when they even had a paddle in the first place). The group was struggling in challenges, not helped by the fact that they voted out physical asset Eric Abraham first. But Voce was still confident he was safe in the dwindling tribe, working with Xander Hastings and Evvie Jagoda. Little did he know that Evvie was courting multiple suitors, though, working with the Yase women to take out Xander, who had become increasingly dangerous with his extra vote and eventual idol. The key move sealing Voce’s fate, though, was a last-minute pivot from Tiffany Seely. The teacher feared Xander was about to school her with an idol play, so she changed the target to the safer option of Voce. Her alliance followed her paranoia-fueled lead. At Tribal Council, Voce shared a touching story about being raised by a single mother just minutes before his torch was ultimately snuffed. Now out of the game, Voce talks with Parade.com about why he feels he left, the real reason why Abraham was voted out first, and how he looks at the Survivor experience as a “reset” from the past year of the pandemic. You mentioned on-air that your boot was a “fail.” But was it a blindside? Were you surprised to see your name on that parchment? It was a complete blindside. Going through it, I suspected that there was a women’s alliance. On Day 4, things weren’t adding up. It actually goes back to Abraham. Abraham was the unanimous vote. From Day 1, after the Sweat challenge, he broke our flint, and just got up and walked away. So we couldn’t have fire, and we were furious. He’s a great guy but did not gel with us. There was no three versus two; it was five versus one from Day 1. Us talking to Abraham was preventing him from playing his Shot in the Dark or finding an idol. There were no lines drawn in the sand after that first vote. On Day 4, I started getting a feeling that there was something else going on. Xander found the idol he couldn’t use, lost his vote, and had an extra vote everyone knew about. So I reasoned through it and thought, “Even if there’s a women’s alliance, they have to get out Xander. If you leave Xander in the game, and his idol is activated, he is so powerful.” Pregame, everyone thought I was going to overplay and be super out there, super aggressive. I told people I could tone it down, and that was my strategy. How do you react to your boot now that you see what Tiffany was doing to turn the votes onto you? It made no sense to take me out. If you are three strong, you need to get out Xander. Xander is the one that will thwart your plan. You saw Liana go, “This is idiotic.” Evvie’s like, “What in the world is happening?” One unfortunate thing that wasn’t shown is that Evvie was at the island trek for so long. She had about five to ten minutes when she got back to talk to everyone. So I couldn’t get to her before we went to Tribal. Ultimately, the downfall was that Evvie could not have the time to tell Tiffany that this is not smart. If they had been thinking it through, if they were really worried about an idol or something being played, they should have split their vote. That way, they could flush an idol. But there was no thinking through it. It was a purely paranoid emotional decision—random Russian Roulette. As you mentioned, your tightest allies were Xander and Evvie. How did that come about? Did it stem from you and Xander doing the Sweat challenge? The sweat challenge way undersold on how hard it was excruciating. I had bloody thighs; it was the most ridiculous challenge. Oh, so now I see why you complain about Tiffany complaining about her thighs in the challenge! I mean, literally, blood was going down our thighs, and we were passing out in the ocean. It was ridiculous. What wasn’t shown was I had no intention of joining up with Xander. Xander and I were complete opposites. Then we started talking, and we actually had run into each other at the gym before because we were both at the University of Chicago. He had lived two blocks from me. So I instantly flashed to Patrick and Ali [from Survivor 35]. And I was like, “Don’t make this mistake!” But I figured we were tight, loyal, and thinking the same. The girls actually did not think we were that tight because we made sure that we were not together a lot. Our personalities are very different; we don’t really click on a normal basis. On Day 4, I went to Xander and said, “Evvie just made a final two with me. Did she make a final two with you?” And Xander was like, “Yep!” She did the same thing with Tiffany. So we knew that she was playing the field, but we felt that we had something real with her. But I told myself, “Do not overplay this. If Evvie is double playing and is with the girls, then they will get out Xander.” Talk to me about the post-challenge strategy, when Tiffany gets incensed that you were putting her name out there. The unfortunate thing is that going into that Tribal, the girls had said, “Okay, we’re gonna vote out Liana as a decoy.” Liana was actually the one that said to vote for Tiffany because she didn’t want to be the decoy boot. So that was a part of this whole thing that exploded with Tiffany. We were very close. We slept together. We pooped together! We literally would go take aquadumps together, where we would go out and see each other’s tushes. So I do think that Tiffany was hurt that someone that she gelled with was gunning for her. Wow, there really is nowhere to hide this season. Even when going to the bathroom! Oh, yeah! And for future Survivor players, a six-person tribe is a completely different game. Especially when you’re down to five people, one person doesn’t have a vote, one person’s at an island, and there are all of these advantages that no one clearly understands. Everyone was reeling through all of these things being like, “Wait, what’s active, what’s not active?” And so it just became this like cluster of “what in the world is going on?” On that note, what was your reaction to Xander revealing the Beware Advantage, with everyone from butterfly and goat secret phrases to the fact that he couldn’t vote until he got the idol? My first thing was, “Xander, what are you doing with an idol just out walking down a path?!” That’s Survivor 101! And he actually didn’t tell us initially. We stumbled upon him with an idol just out with his script. At that point, he definitely trusted me way more than Evvie. In a perfect world, I would have hopefully been able to talk to him alone and tell them that Evvie will run to the girls, like what we just saw in the episode. Then I would tell all the girls what he has. If anything, I thought, “Well, this is to my advantage because they need to get him out. He is a threat if you have another alliance going on. He has to be gone because you have no idea when that idol will be activated. Let’s go back to the Abraham vote. Was it as simple as him breaking that flint on Day 1? I love the guy outside of the game. But in the game, he was strong, but he got gassed very easily. He also would not talk strategy with us, not working through how to best approach challenges. So we actually felt that we might be better without him. He’s physically strong, but there are more things involved in strength. So he was the only target. He was fixated on Tiffany, but Tiffany did fine in challenges. We were not worried about her jumping in the boat. But we just let him ride with it so that he would have some target to put on. So then what made you decide to target Tiffany in the next round? It really flipped for me. I felt safe–I should say I felt “Survivor safe”–because I thought Xander would be the target with all these advantages. And Liana’s name was being floated out as a decoy. And I said, “Why are we voting her out when Tiffany is bad in challenges?” I love Tiffany, but there was one point where she almost gave up on that balance beam. That’s the point that killed me where it was such a blowout, and she just gave up. This is a tribe that has only won one challenge with the Sweat challenge. At some point, every single member of our tribe said, “Why don’t we Matsing this [and lose every challenge on purpose]?” Everyone wanted to be those two people who survived from the tribe. Something is wrong with your math! If everyone wants to be those two people, one, two, or three people are delusional that they can Matsing. I get how it’s advantageous once it gets to that point. But getting to that point is dangerous. You said in your final words that your downfall was putting trust in only a couple of people and not expanding that circle to include everyone. Can you elaborate on that? I’m actually a little surprised that I said that going out. Going out in a complete blindside, I was like, “Did I just completely misread people?” Watching it back, clearly, the woman had the strong alliance that went above reason and superseded some strategy. I had bonds with everyone. Getting blindsided like that, I was just wondering, “What in the world happened? I thought that I had these bonds with people and maybe that that was not actually true.” In the game, it’s hard to separate relationships and strategy. You’ve got to be able to say, “Okay, I’m close to this person, but am I strategically close to this person?” Being blindsided, I thought, “Well, I guess these relationships that I had were false. Could I have just completely misread things?” And as we saw in the episode, it was pure paranoia and me not being there to be the voice of reason. Liana was trying to be the voice of reason to Tiffany and just could not do that. It’s heartbreaking. Preseason, you told me you planned to save your typical bluntness for the confessionals and play that down to the other contestants. Do you feel you were successfully able to do that? I think 100% was able to pull it off. I think you saw that the character in the Sweat challenge where I was like, “What in the world are we doing?” But I was able to reel that in bite my tongue, and I feel like I was able to do that throughout the game accurately. I would also say you have to be careful with the preseason material. How so? Those bios are the first thing we send to casting when we start the process. You are trying to play up someone for casting. So, of course, when I read it back, I was like, “Oh my goodness, this sounds so horrible.” But you can’t change anything because that’s what you submitted. The other thing that I’ll say is that my pictures look like I’m horribly angry. Part of that is that I would say don’t get LASIK before you go out there! I got a raging tropical eye infection. I tried to get it under control like Jessica Lewis and Shamar. I could not open my eyes. My face is actually photoshopped where they’re trying to open my eyes. So that’s part of the reason why, in the pregame, people were saying, “Who is this angry asshole?” We heard you say in the premiere that playing Survivor would be a “reset” after a year of being on the frontlines of the pandemic. At the end of your adventure, did the game serve as that reset for you? Regardless of my arc, COVID for everyone has been a crazy year. Coming into Survivor, I was like, “Oh yeah, you’re going to have this adventure, but just let me play this game. But Survivor strips you down to the core. You hear that and say, “Oh, Jeff, how corny.” But it tells you what’s important in life, and it blocks out all the noise from the world. That is really an invaluable trait of the show. It really breaks you and says what’s important in life. It really gives you perspective when you come back to the crazy hustle-bustle, where we’re on our phones and computers all day. It causes you to say, “Wait a minute, I remember what it was like to have nothing out there and to really focus on relationships and the people that are in front of me.” One of the things that you didn’t see from the Yase tribe is that we all got along so well. That was not just some Tribal Council BS that was being said. We really enjoyed each other. We really are lifelong friends outside of the game who got bonded through this experience. And that’s the amazingness of the game. Next, check out our interview with Sara Wilson, who was voted out in the Survivor 41 premiere.
