Kathy Cut Loose

Boston Rob's Power Plays Control Alliances Yet Again

(CBS)  After losing her closest ally in the game, Kathy O’Brien was forced to surrender her own torch Thursday night on "Survivor: All-Stars." But she did not go without making her case and giving some advice.

Kathy tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, “The bottom line is many of the players that are left haven’t gone past maybe seven or eight, so they don’t realize that those numbers go so fast. Right now after eight, the numbers go quick. So if you don’t work on it right now, you’re not going to have enough numbers. ‘Survivor’ is about numbers and luck.”

Her biggest mistake was not having voted off Amber when Kathy and Lex still had the power to decide.

Kathy says, “I thought I could trust Rob. Rob is a good friend of mine, Lex and I both. I don’t think I need Rob in my world right now.”

And once she joined Lex for Tribal Council she admits plotting Rob’s demise. “That’s the only thing on our minds,” Kathy says, “We were really stung. We were hurt. Forget the game part. It was just the fact he talked to us like we weren’t friends. It was difficult to take. It was heart wrenching. “

By her own admission, it was Kathy’s idea to keep Amber on board. She says, “But the bottom line also is we brought Amber, not just because we trusted Rob and he was a good friend, but it gave us options. Bringing Jerri over, the only thing we could do was grab Tom. Bringing Amber over, it was a favor to the godfather, right? It could be possibly the friend acting on friendship. There were, like, four other good items that would keep us in the game.”

And the other thing she notes was by knocking Amber out of the game, she was putting herself in a position of game changer, which strategically was not what she wanted to do.

She explains, “You got to understand that ‘Survivor’ brings you down to your core. You don’t have anything out there. All you’ve got is right here [heart] and up here [head]. I’m a risk taker and so is Lex. So, yeah, we would have been in the same slot. We would have been hopefully number one and two. It would have worked. And we would have been there. But I think that the players that are standing still might not have figured that out. They might not have been the risk takers.”

Rupert, Big Tom and Jenna are big riders, Kathy notes. “Those personalities don’t step up front.” She also points out that they don’t know what the game is like once they are down to four or even five.

Besides Amber, Kathy’s other big regret was not having had the same camaraderie in her tribe as the one enjoyed by Chapera.

Asked by a caller if she really thought she could trust her alliance with Lex, Kathy says, “Definitely. We had an alliance: we’re going to the final two together. It was totally different than Ethan and Lex. Ethan and Lex are just really good friends. I thought Lex was a great man to walk up to Ethan and explain that position. We were crushed. We were outnumbered, Rob should tell us. He didn’t give us that courtesy. In the end, that’s what really stunk.”

Answering a question from a caller, Kathy points out the other players know well Rob is in control. She says, “Rob has got several deals worked out. They’re all trying to figure out 'OK, which one is the real deal?' So that’s what I was trying to point out. I could teach from afar maybe because I knew Rob, because he was a power player. I tried to unseat him, obviously unsuccessfully.”

So does this mean that Rob will win the game?

Kathy says, ”Everybody is getting tired out there. He is a physical force, no doubt about it. But I think in the end, right now you’re probably going to have some thinking challenges. Therefore, I think some other cast members might just win.”

Kathy apologized to Jerri for not having brought her along. But she still has high hopes for her Mogo Mogo friend, Shii Ann.

Kathy says, “She has to mix it up. I have to give myself a little credit. I was teaching her a little about negotiating and when to keep your mouth shut. They didn’t show a lot of us mixing things up. Shii Ann and I were working it.”

As for the reason why she didn’t give Lex the immunity necklace as she had promised, Kathy says, “We had an agreement going into the Tribal Council. The editing didn’t show that, but that was it. I promised I wouldn’t give it to him. He said he would be embarrassed, and he wanted out. He was embarrassed at that point, what had happened to him.”

And as for why Kathy played the game all over again, “Because I love the game,” she says. “It’s a blast. It wasn’t about the money. It’s an over-the-top adventure. The money is the icing on the cake. You always come out learning something new about yourself.”

Here is a recap of Thursday night’s show:

The opening of "Survivor: All-Stars" found the newly merged Chaboga Mogo tribe struggling through some growing pains – many stemming from tensions surrounding Boston Rob's maneuvering to vote off Lex van den Berghe at the previous tribal council.

The "Survivors" were also battling a bout of severe blues brought on by relentless rain showers, dreary skies and ever-increasing homesickness. A combination reward/immunity challenge that ended in hot chocolate, letters and videos from home temporarily bolstered spirits before serious game-playing took off, eventually leaving Kathy high-and-dry at the latest tribal council.

Bemoaning her decision to trust Boston Rob, she left the game becoming the second member of the “Survivor” jury.

Players talked strategy to the camera before being summoned to the joint reward/immunity obstacle course that ended with a battle of wits as players scrambled to solve a puzzle game.

At the challenge, the tribe divided into two four-member teams, racing through an obstacle course that included balance beams, walls to scale, rope ladders to climb and tightropes to walk.

The four members of the winning team in the reward challenge – Boston Rob, Alicia, Amber and Shii Ann – advanced to the immunity challenge, which was a puzzle piece game.

Players struggled to find the right alignment of pieces to release one containing a knife. The first to get the knife and cut free a flag won immunity.

Proving he has at least a little brain to go with the brawn, Boston Rob was the winner, scoring immunity for the a second consecutive tribal council.

For reward, the four winning players received a rain poncho and a letter from home. As immunity winner, Boston Rob was also in line to receive a video message from his brother.

In a surprising gesture that was part good will, and certainly part strategy, he sacrificed his video and instead requested all Survivors be given their letters from home.

Back at camp, Shii Ann and Kathy, the last remaining members of the original Mogo Mogo tribe, clambered to sway votes and form new alliances. The maneuvers saved Shii Ann, but the target stayed on Kathy's back and when votes were tallied, she was ousted from the game.

"I can't believe I got voted off. I thought Rob would be there for me. It was a stupid play," she said in her parting commentary. "That's what happens when you put too much trust and loyalty into your thought process out here. I wish I got further."