Charlie Davis Reveals the Real Reason He Targeted Rizo on 'Survivor 50' (Exclusive)

Survivor 50 is here! Every week, Parade‘s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off the island.

Charlie Davis was hoping to treat Survivor 50 like a blank space. After finishing as runner-up in one of the most controversial finishes of the new era, he knew people would be saying, “I knew you were trouble when you walked in.” But when it came to that perception, Charlie was luckily able to shake it off. Things changed, however, when he met someone whose game he didn’t know all too well: Rizo Velovic. When he heard Rizo didn’t vote for his number one ally, he thought back to that cruel summer, and vowed to not let that happen again. Unfortunately, his voracious desire to boot the Season 49 standout had some of his former tribemates telling him, “You need to calm down.” In the closest vote of the season, Charlie was taken out over his rival, who could only tell the gamer on his way out, “Look what you made me do.”

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Going into Survivor 50, Charlie was labeled by his fellow castaways as one of the most dangerous players, based on A. What he accomplished in 46, and B. The fuel he would assumingly have from wanting to win this time. As the first week of the game unfolded, he found himself in a startlingly similar position: On a green tribe that basked in immunity, caught between two different sides amassing. Luckily, Kalo never had to show their cards before the tribe swap. So when three of his tribemates changed beaches with him, he felt he had a grip on the rest of the premerge. And he knows firsthand how important grip strength is to Survivorsuccess.

Rizo, on the other hand, was incredibly vulnerable, the only person from his tribe swapped into a group that did not know him from a hole in the shelter. Banking on his wealth of Survivor knowledge, he figured Charlie was seeking redemption, and confided in him about the “Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol” twist to get on the same page. Little did he know, however, that Charlie burned that book the night before. When talking about his season, Rizo revealed he didn’t vote for his number one ally, Sophi Balerdi, to win. A wide-eyed Charlie had immediate flashbacks to how things fell apart for him due to Maria Shrime Gonzalez (not helped by Rizo asking about their rocky relationship earlier that day). It was in that moment that he adopted a new plan: RizGod must go.

A surprise double Tribal Council sent the new Cila to vote for the first time, and Charlie couldn’t be happier. The Kalos, plus a new associate in Rick Devens would vote out Rizo as the biggest unknown left in the season, allowing him to carry out his wishes. The women, however, had other plans. Dee Valladares went to Rizo, pitching an alliance of them, Cirie Fields and Kamilla Karthigesu. Rizo and Cirie were eager to hop onboard, both feeling on the outs. And Dee and Kamilla were more than happy to turn on Charlie, feeling he was playing both too conservatively and too sloppily. And so “Operation: Bad Blood” went off without a hitch, as Charlie was done in by Rizo and his own “squad,” ending his second season with his face in his hands.

Now out of the game, Charlie talks with Parade about the actual reason he went after Rizo, why Dee and Kamilla were already wary of him going into the swap, and whether he was surprised by his emotional trauma from the Season 46 jury vote.

Related: Read our Survivor 50 pre-game interview with Charlie Davis

Who were you most surprised joined Rizo in blindsiding you in last night’s episode?
Definitely Dee and Kamilla, for sure. I mean, I was a little bit surprised by Cirie, too. But I didn’t expect any measure of loyalty. I put in some time to that relationship, and I really like Cirie. I think she liked me, not enough to keep me, but… [Laughs.] So I was surprised by that too. But definitely Dee and Kamilla, probably in that order.

I thought we were tight. We were working together on original Kalo, and I was definitely not coming after either of them by any means. I never said any of their names. If anything, especially in Dee’s case, I thought I was playing some defense for her out there on original Kalo. So that was a bummer. But I don’t know, sometimes people’s perceptions develop over little micro-interactions. And even if you didn’t intend anything to be taken a certain way, they do.

Speaking of perceptions, what’s your reaction to seeing Kamilla and Dee talk about how you were playing too slowly and with your cards too close to your chest? Did that surprise you at all?
So I think basically to understand that tribe dynamic, you basically have to come in with the hindsight knowledge that, going into that swap tribe, Dee and Kamilla were wary of me. That was not like a brand new development that occurred because of a specific order of how I told people about a “Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol.” From my perspective, I told the people on my tribe basically immediately and without any sort of motive about the idol. It was only an issue because Dee and Kamilla were already wary of me. So from my position, I didn’t really trust Rizo. I wasn’t being loyal to Rizo at all with the idol. Full disclosure, he told me, and I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna tell my whole tribe.” So from my perspective, I was like, “Oh, I’m just being loyal to my alliance.” So I don’t know exactly if I agree with that. I think they were just already wary of me, and I just didn’t know why.

Why do you think that is now? Is it from your preseason perception? Or did something happen on Kalo 1.0?
I mean, Kalo 1.0 was weird. There was a lot of, I would say, “soft jockeying” for control. There wa kind of a strategic uneasiness around the beach. There wasn’t really a majority until a couple days in. I would say, basically the dynamics that shook out were it was a very obvious trio of Dee, Kamilla and Tiffany. They were very much out front; they didn’t care. And then there was the contingent of Coach, Jonathan and Chrissy. And then I would say me and Mike were a little bit in the middle. Not deliberately; we weren’t like, “We’re gonna play the middle.”

It’s a position you know all too well!
That’s where we found ourselves. But I thought I was probably tighter with — in terms of the alliance, maybe not like individually — with Tiffany, Dee and Kamilla. And I viewed that as like that was going to be the majority that ultimately, probably was going to vote out Chrissy. And then the other side was mainly targeting Dee. And I thought, if anything, I was playing defense for Dee a little bit on that beach. So that’s kind of why I didn’t really have them flipping on my radar. Because I wasn’t coming after them. T

There was one conversation which I had with Dee. Tons of people on the beach had been like, “You’re playing too hard.” And I tried tip her off, to tell her to adjust, just be like, “Hey, just so you know, people are saying this.” And I remember it was almost like disbelief, or very dismissive of it. From my perspective, it was a bit of an awkward conversation, and we just never really synced up. Dee’s someone outside the game who is a good friend. I think that caused a blind spot where I didn’t put enough time into the in-game relationship. I think she was wary of me and just thought I was being shady or something.

We need to get into your dynamic with Rizo. Was him not voting for his number one ally to win truly the reason you targeted him? Or were there other things involved?
Oh, there are definitely other reasons. So I won’t rehash what people have seen. I thought that made the most strategic sense for a couple reasons. One being, basically, the whole theme of narratives and storytelling of why people should be voted out has been talked about a lot. The narrative for Rizo is that he’s an unknown quantity. People don’t know who he is, people aren’t sure how he plays. But that goes away the more he’s in the game, because then he becomes a known quantity. And then why is he a threat? No one’s gonna really bring it up at all. So I thought it would be good to target him, because, if he sort of gets enough traction, he’s just gonna be able to go far in the game. That was my perspective on the beach.

And then two being, in my head, he has the fewest connections. So there’s gonna be less collateral damage if Rizo gets taken out, versus anyone else here who has prior friendships or a lot of pregame relationships or other alliances, whatever it may be. So I thought that would be the cleanest thing to do, especially probably with either another swap or a merge coming up, I thought that would be super clean.

So that was my that was my like, more heady rationale for targeting Rizo was not just that little moment, and even that was more complex. Oviously I did say all those things in confessional, but there were good interactions that I had with Rizo. And I talked about in confessional how, “I really like Rizo. We’ve had some good connections. But there’s this other thing that’s gnawing at me.” And I thought I had more room to act on those feelings versus pure strategy. I thought I had the numbers; I felt comfortable. Famous last words.

Talk to me about those feelings. Were you surprised your feelings about the end of 46 camp up this way?
A little bit. I remember it was the context of the conversation. I promise, on a day to day basis, I’m fine. Sure, do I think sometimes, “Man, it’d be really nice if I won. If I had a million dollars, that’d be awesome”? Yeah, sometimes I think about that. But it’s not a super devastating emotional burden that I carry to this day.

But I think when you go back out into that environment, you kind of almost resume where you left off when you were last on Survivor. So it was probably a little bit fresher, a little bit more raw out there. And then, in my head, I was like, “Oh, this is an honest feeling. It makes narrative sense for me to do it.” Not that I was trying to play from a meta perspective. But I was like, “I think this would be good for me to do for a growth point of view.”

We see you wake Rizo up early in the morning, telling him that Jonathan was behaving in a way that seemed like he knew about the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol. What was your intention there, and did you know how that annoyed Rizo?
So what I was worried about was Rizo using that as a wedge to build distrust. So I was worried about him going to Dee or Kamilla, and being like, “Hey, did Charlie tell you about this?” And then I was worried about him potentially bringing in other details and making it seem like I didn’t say everything. So I was trying to get a sense of what he was doing with that info.

And that’s, again, from my perspective, I went to my whole tribe, and I thought I was being forthcoming with them on all of that. But I was trying to figure out if he was trying to play an extra angle there. I don’t think he was. When he told me about the idol, I think that was just genuine. He’s not trying to make an inroad. But I thought, “Oh, that would be a good way to build distrust among us.” If he went to Dee or Jonathan or Kamilla or whoever, and was like, “Did Charlie tell you about this?” So I was just trying to figure out his game.

So there was no truth to what you said about Jonathan?
No, no. I just said that.

You told me before the season you wanted to lock into another partnership. Were you able to find that person out on the island?
Yeah, I had a good alliance with Mike on Kalo. I think we were in a good spot. I think were in, honestly, good control of that Kalo tribe. So, I mean, the answer is yes. But that was only six days. And then Mike, of course, got voted out just before I did. And I mean, there were tons of people who I was tight with out there. I mean, once Mike was gone, I was kind of trying to reorient myself to really play tight with Dee; that obviously didn’t work. But it was going great on Kalo. I felt really in a great spot there. And I mean, to be fair, I thought it was fine on Cila too. [Laughs.]

Talk to me about those relationships. If you had ended up surviving and making the merge, who were you looking to join up with?
I mean, I knew that Kalo was not gonna [stick together]. Not that they came to an open argument. But Chrissy very much knew that the women were targeting her. The women very much knew that Chrissy was targeting them. That was never going to be fine. But I think I would have been in a good spot. Because I was good with Chrissy and Co. and the old-schoolers, I think I would have been totally fine ingratiating myself with them. It’s kind of hard for me to say exactly who else I would have worked with because Dee and Kamilla flipped on me. But I think there are plenty of other players that I could have built good bonds with.

We saw quite a different, and more emotional, side of you this season. How do you reconcile your return appearance? And would you want to come back for a third time, given what happened to you on 50?
You may remember from preseason stuff, I did want to come in and be less of a clinical strategist. So, I mean, I succeeded in that mission. [Laughs] Was it a good idea in terms of my placement? Probably not. So I don’t know. I mean, listen, I’d come back, definitely when the circumstances are right. I love playing the game; Survivor knows that. I mean, who knows what that would be. Maybe a Rivals season to really hash things out? I think that would probably be what would be most enticing to me. And I think people can guess who might be out there for that.

You have a growing list at this point! [Laughs.]
That’s right, that’s what I’m saying. So it’s perfect. But no, I’ve done a lot of thinking about what is good for me to hold onto, who I am at my core after 50. And I think, if I played again, I’d sort of resolve that little bit of my Survivor personality.

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