‘Survivor 51’s Ana Sani Reacts to Rob’s Wild Tribal Council Move: ‘I Don’t Understand’ (Exclusive)

Survivor 51 is here! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off the island.

Ana Sani has made a career out of using her voice. But the actress realized only five days into the game that there is such a thing as putting too much of yourself on tape. Ana came into the game with an honors degree in Political Theory, and put that work into practice when she found herself immediately getting into power with a select group of people. Rob Antonson and Carter Krull were quick to make a formal alliance with her, and she made an immediate bond with fellow Iranian Alexis Levine. Building a strong foothold early on, and with impressive puzzle skills to boot, Ana was already looking to put together quite the Day 26 reel.

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Unfortunately, Ana would soon realize that what had been built over three days can instantly be destroyed in two. Fully leaning into her love of chaos and mischief, she began throwing out names like an IMDb page. She painted targets on Linnea Capobianco and Sharonda Cox to Alexis, then proceeded to throw Alexis under the bus to Carter (and subsequently get caught butter-handed by Alexis herself). Facing their first Tribal Council, it seemed Savu had settled on a communal target in Eric Macksoud, whose antics had already gotten on their cumulative nerves. But, over the course of the rest of the day, a wild series of improvisations threw a wrench in those plans, making the perfect popcorn entertainment

It’s only appropriate, given Ana’s penchant for pandemonium, that she get undone by a series of improbable events. Linnea misunderstood a comment Carter was making about the camp’s crabs, believing he and Ana were scheming behind the scenes. And so she and Sharonda decided to act on the information they were recently given, trying to flip the script on Ana at the last minute. Meanwhile, Rob was in his feels, with his intense anger around challenge performance pivoting into despondency over missing his family. And so he attempted his own last-minute maneuver. At Tribal Council, he went rogue, pulling Eric aside to outline his plan: Everyone votes for the mental health counselor, Rob plays his idol on him, and Rob’s self-vote eliminates him from the game. The only issue, as Rob found out when he actually put pen to parchment: You can’t vote for yourself. Even if he succeeded in his gambit, however, it would not win the night. Linnea and Sharonda had gotten enough numbers together to flip the vote, shocking Ana and her allies. The voice actress was officially done in in the booth.

Now out of the game, Ana talks with Parade about whether she saw any warning signs about her blindside, her reaction to Rob’s Tribal Council antics, and the “early promises” she made that she feels led to her boot.

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We’ve got a lot to talk about, Ana. The good news is, if anything gets awkward, we can just talk about popcorn!
Yes, yes, we can always just talk about popcorn. Which I have right here! [Pulls out a bag of popcorn from off-screen.]

Well, let’s start with where things ended. To put it mildly, you were shocked as the votes started coming in against you. In retrospect, was there any conversation or moment that should have indicated you would be the one going instead of Eric?
Moments. We’ll talk before Tribal, then during Tribal. So before Tribal, I actually was tipped off by somebody that there were conversations happening that Sharonda and I had beef,. And I was like, “What is going on? And the only person that threw out Sharonda’s name that I talked to was Alexis. So I pulled Alexis aside, and I was like, “I know that you’re talking about me.” And we had a full conversation. And I literally said to her, “Alexis, I’m coming to you right now because I want to show you that I trust you, I’m honest with you, and I want to work with you. Will we work together?” And she looked me dead in the face, and I’ll never forget this. She pinky-swore with me. She said, “I swear to you, I want to work with you, and it’s gonna be me and you.” And I took that as, “Okay, she’s my girl.”

So I brought her into a bunch of other conversations. But yeah, I thought I could trust her when I put out my name as decoy, which was so dumb. But I was hungry; please forgive me! I saw the expression on everyone’s face, and I was very scared. And I went to my two guys, I went to Rob and I went to Carter. And I said to them, “You guys, I’m very terrified.” And love them both, but both of them went, “Yeah, Sharonda does not trust you.” And I was like, “Why are we not doing anything about this?! And they were like, “Don’t worry, it’s definitely going to be Eric.” Because obviously they were left out of the vote too.

And so I was already amped up going into Tribal. And I spoke to Carter and Rob, and I was like, “Okay, guys, like I need you to give me a look if it’s not going to go a certain way.” And I kept saying, “Are we good? Are we good? Are we good?” Once we get into Tribal, there was something in the air. And I was like, “Something is off right now.” Something in my gut was telling me to play the Shot in the Dark. There was a couple moments where you see me like looking down at my bag because I kept saying, “Should I play it? Should I play it?” And when Rob got up to do his antics with Eric, I moved over to Sharonda, and I was like, “Are we good? Is everything okay?” And she was like, “Everything’s fine.” And then I moved over to Carter, and I was like, “Are we good?” And he’s like, “We’re good.” So that kind of gave me like, “Okay, maybe we’ll be okay.” But we were not good, Mike. We were not good.

You talk about Rob’s antics. Did you have any idea how he was feeling going into that Tribal Council? That he was intending to vote for himself?
He took a really long time in there. I was like, “How long does it take to spell Eric!? It’s four letters! I don’t understand.” I was a little bit alarmed, but I trusted Rob. I really trusted Rob. He showed his anger after the Reward Challenge. He definitely missed his kids. He made that very clear. The one thing about Rob that I’ll always give him credit for is Rob is very honest and clear as water. He told me from the get-go he didn’t trust Eric; he didn’t sway from that. And he told me that it was going to be him, and I trusted him for it. So when he came back, as much as I was like, “What are you doing in there?” I didn’t really think that it was him writing his own name.

After he talked with Eric, did he tell you at all that he told him to play his Shot in the Dark,a nd that Rob would play his idol on him if need be?
No, and that was crazy to watch! He did bring up this idea of Shot in the Dark before Tribal. But it was a nothing burger. It was just something that he brought up, and I was like, “Okay, yeah, do whatever you want to do.” But then when he got up and actually had the conversation, I was like, “Oh, he’s just maybe he’s just performing.” But watching it back, I was like, “Dude, you could have royally screwed me! You kind of, sort of, maybe did. You went in there and you wrote your name, and I still would have been the one voted out!”

Let’s go back to the beginning of this episode. You said in confessional that you wanted to float out names to cause chaos. What made you decide to bring up Linnea and Sharonda specifically, and did you think that would fall back on you at all?
Listen, I need everyone to go back and watch that again. Because who floated out the name? It wasn’t me. It was Alexis. Alexis said Sharonda. And first of all, this was the fourth or fifth conversation that I had had with Alexis in the past couple of days of her coming to me and saying, “Do you have a name? Do you know?” And I was like, “Girl, I don’t know! It’s a game we’re playing here.” But I wanted to work with Alexis. I was like, “I think she’d be a good ally.” When we were in the marooning, I had had conversations with other people that said they liked Alexis. So I was like, “Maybe after we merge, we can do something.” So I really wanted to work with her.

But she just came up to me. She kept asking me those things. And then when she brought up Sharonda, I was like, “Okay, yes, Sharonda’s really smart, and I have a lot of respect for her. Which I do. Sharonda’s an incredible woman, but that’s dangerous. All I said was she was smart. Then the whole “Linnea is strategic” thing, Alexis was asking me, “What do you think of Linnea?” And I just said, “Well, Linnea seems to be strategic, but she’s not really talking to me.” That’s what I said. Anyway, Alexis took that, ran with it, and the girls didn’t think to question it at all. They were just like, “Yes, Ana must go.”

And then you proceed to go to talk to Carter and Cristian about Alexis. What fueled that interaction?
I did not throw her under the bus! Go back and watch that. Carter throws her under the bus. Carter is the one that says, “I don’t trust her. I want her gone. She doesn’t know how to play the game.” She walks in after Carter says that. Carter goes quiet. I’m looking at Carter. I’m looking at Cristian. They’re not talking. Alexis is looking at me. So I just say popcorn!

I know you said that Alexis made this whole pinky promise before Tribal, saying that you were locked in. But did you sense your relationship changed after that moment?
100%. I saw it in her face, and I was like, “Oh, I’m in trouble.” And what they didn’t show was Cristian actually was like, “I’m gonna go and try and fix this.” Which is why I also felt safe with Cristian and Kristin and everybody. I was like, “These guys are working with me. They want to protect me.” But they didn’t show all that.

In your final words, you talked about making a lot of promises early on, and things catching up to you. What were those promises?
I was in a lot of alliances. Actually, when I landed on the beach, I couldn’t believe how many people were coming and talking to me and wanting to align with me. That was very shocking to me, because I thought that I would be kind of on the outs and find my way in. I was approached by Carter. I was approached by Carter and Rob. Carter was my number one out there from the beginning. So then, when Rob approached me and Carter, I was like, “Okay, this is great, three of us.” But then I was also approached by Kristin and Sharonda. I was approached by Linnea. I was approached by Linnea and Alexis. So I felt like I had ins everywhere, which is why I felt comfortable, I guess. And I was scrambling at the end because I knew things were off when I put myself out as a decoy, which was just stupidity.

Let’s say your tribe takes the “lay-up,” to quote Ori, and gets rid of Eric. Who were you planning to gun for next?
That’s a great question. I’d say it was really up in the air. I was waiting for people to make a mistake. I thought that Eric was the easy vote out, unfortunately. And I do love Eric a lot; I didn’t want him to go. But his name was being thrown, so I was like, “Okay, I’m just gonna keep my mouth shut and go with it.” Carter mentioned, when we were sitting under the shelter, he brought up Alexis. And I was like, “Okay, maybe Alexis would be the next one to go.” But I wanted to work with Alexis. And if she had actually followed through with this vote and voted with me, I would have trusted her more, and I would have probably saved her if Carter came for her. So I truly don’t know who I would go for.

Talk to me more about your relationship with Carter. What made the two of you lock in so early on?
He was my buddy out there. Carter basically approached me and was like, “I really want to work with you. I feel like we’d be good.” And he at first was like, “We’d be a good secret alliance. And I was like, “Great!” Except it was not secret at all, and he was constantly around me, and I was constantly around him, and everyone was like, “Oh, they’re working together.” It was so clear. He’s just somebody that I thought was really honest. And I could trust him fully because he wanted to play a very honest game, and so did Rob, actually. Which is why I think they showed the three of us together because I gravitate towards people who I know for sure are being clear with me. And those two of them were clear with me until Rob did whatever he did at Tribal.

Going back to your final words, you said, “I love chaos and mischief. I’ll always be causing chaos and mischief in my everyday life.” How difficult was it for you to contain your chaotic self while playing a game like Survivor?
Mike, you don’t understand! I am such a prankster, a mischief maker. I don’t care what people think. I’ll just do things. It took every ounce of me to be as calm and collected as I was out there, and I was still messy and chaotic. I can’t help it. I love playing messy! That’s fun. Why are we not playing? And my tribe, we were a very chill, “we all love each other” tribe. And that’s great, but come on, let’s be a little spicy here! Where’s the fun in that? But I got booted because of it.

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