Kim Blames James

Things can't get much worse for the beleaguered Ulong tribe. On Thursday night's "Survivor: Palau," they had to suffer through their fourth consecutive immunity challenge loss.

Unfortunately, for graduate student Kim Mullen, her last-ditch effort to sway the women proved too little too late.

The one to blame? Steelworker James Miller.

"I even picked him to be on the tribe, and he still bit me in the butt," Mullen says. "He had it out for me. The whole thing didn't aid the situation, and anger kept building in him toward me."

Mullen's head was already on the chopping block due to her laziness and romance with last week's toss-off, Jeff Wilson.

Asked if perhaps Miller was jealous, Mullen says, "I don't know if, necessarily, he was jealous as (much as) he felt threatened by everything."

Miller was on guard after Mullen and Wilson started to snuggle. So what is going on with that relationship?

"He's out in California, and I'm out in Ohio," Mullen says, but with a little prodding, she adds, "We'll see where it goes. I'm pretty open to it."

The only thing that Mullen regrets is not having prepared physically for the game. She says, "I had done a lot mentally, and I knew it would be grueling. But I think the shock once you're there, you can't prepare yourself for total starvation, and being out there and not sleeping. I could not sleep at night. The weather conditions, the rain, and of course, trying to defend yourself.

"After Jeff was gone, all eyes were on me. It was like walking at a high school naked that dream that people have? Where everybody is staring at you? We got back at the Tribal Council and all three days, the eyes were on me."

Comparing competing on "Survivor" with beauty pageants, the former Miss Ohio says, "I thought a lot about it and competing in Miss USA there is a lot of manipulation, but it's to your face. They want to break you down, and they want you to know that. And on 'Survivor' it's behind the scenes, behind the bushes. People whispering around you and you don't get the chance to see what they're saying."

That is why she was hoping James Miller was the one going home instead of her. After all, her tribe lost because James Miller could not beat Colby Archa.

Mullen says, "Looking at the tribe, you'd honestly think these strong guys - they look pretty muscular - can go out there and kick the other team's, you know, but it didn't work out that way. And in all honesty, that's the reason I thought, going into the Tribal Council, there was a chance James could go home because he lost to Coby not once but twice. He did as well as I did out there."

But at the end, Mullen managed to extinguish her torch with a smile.

"At that point, you can't be bitter," she says. "I want the tribe to not hate me. I want them to win, go out there and kick butt."

Why does she care what they think of her now?

"You're out there, and you still bond," she says. "I know I had anger towards some of them."

Like who?

"Come on! James!" she exclaims.