Jill Behm and Marty Piombo were one of the first alliances formed on Survivor: Nicaragua, and were firmly in control of the Espada tribe in it's early days.  But it wouldn't be Survivor without a few unforeseen twists, and a major tribe shake-up in week 5 left Jill and Marty badly outnumbered on the La Flor tribe, surrounded by younger players and their adversarial fellow La Flor alum Jane.  Here Jill talks about the ups and downs of her once powerful alliance, and how their stronghold on the game slipped away.



Did Marty tell you that he had made a deal for the idol before you went into tribal council?

Yes, I knew all of it.

Were you upset with him?

Well, there was not a lot we could do.  We were down in numbers 2 to 5, and we tried making inroads with Sash and Fabio, and couldn't get anyone to swing over with us.  So Marty told me, "Sash said that they're sending you home tonight.  I can either play the idol and they'll send you home by splitting the vote, or I can give Sash the idol and they said they'd give it back to me once you're gone."  So either way I was going home.

From watching the show, though, Sash was talking about sending Marty home that night.  Do you have any insight into what happened that caused them to go back to voting for you?

I don't, other than possibly they assessed that I was a bigger threat to win individual immunity should there be a merge.  Those last couple episodes where it was one on one in individual challenges, I was pretty solid in that.  Better than anyone actually.

You and Marty were put at a real disadvantage when the tribes were shaken up.  Did you two decide strategically that he was going to show everyone that he had the immunity idol?

Which time?  We did it once with Espada and once with La Flor.

With La Flor, the second time, after the tribe shakeup.

The reason we did it at La Flor was because we had done it at Espada so Jane knew we had it.  Better that they found out from him than from Jane.

So the first time you did it was a display of power, but this time you were just trying to get out ahead of Jane?

The first time wasn't a display of power, actually, and this is something not shown.  Jimmy Johnson tricked Marty into telling him he had the idol.  He told him that he overheard him in the confessional, and bluffed him, and Marty admit that he had it.

Jimmy Johnson did this?  He didn't seem the crafty type.

Well there's a lot of editing going on.  So we said, "you know what, JJ knows about this."  And at the time we didn't have control of the tribe so we were like, "let's get it out there."  And then you see Jimmy T, when Marty did reveal that he had it, he was like, "oh, that strengthens the tribe."  So that part worked out really well for us.  Although Jane knew we had it, and she told La Flor, and that was the beginning of the end for us.

Sash was revealed in the last episode as having a bit of a devious side with his proposed deal with Marty.  Were you surprised by that?

Not really, because when we got to La Flor it was readily apparent that Sash and Brenda were the brains behind the operation.  Kelly was just doing what they were telling her to do, and Fabio didn't have much of a social game other than that he really didn't like the drama that would kick up.  It upset him and he didn't really want to be part of it.  But it didn't surprise us at all that Sash and Brenda were the ones calling the shots.

Jeff Probst seemed like he was trying to drive a wedge into the tribe based on Sash's slip-up when talking about trust at tribal council.  How much solidarity do you see in that group, and where does Jane stand with them?

Jane made her bed and she's going to have to lie in it.  She said that we treated her like the ugly duckling on the tribe, and we did no such thing.  She was just picking alliances with Wendy Jo who got voted off, and Jimmy T who got voted off.  She never came to Marty and I and said, "I want in with you guys."  We never gave her the shaft or turned on her.  And all of La Flor, except for Fabio and purple Kelly, are making alliances with people who are lying and untrustworthy.  So it will be interesting to see how it turns out for them.

Jane seemed to catch the best bounce with the tribe shake-up.

Holly did too.  She would have gone next for our tribe after the shoe incident.  So Jane and Holly both caught a HUGE break with that.

Do you think that Sash has any intention of giving the immunity idol back to Marty, as he promised?

If Sash did opt to give it back to him, great, but I won't be overly shocked if he doesn't.

Marty talked about it being a dumb move, but it might have been his only choice, right?

He could have stayed by playing it, but it immediately ensures that everybody's going to vote you next.  There's nothing you can do.  This way, then maybe they'll keep him over Jane, or maybe something will happen.  I think real students of the game appreciate it, I'm not sure the casual fan understands that.

Realistically, Sash giving it back would be the dumb move.  Do you think Marty's been given a reprieve with the merge arriving right when he's teetering on the brink?

Oh sure, anything's better than what he's got going on now.  It can only go up for him from here!

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Survivor: Nicaragua airs Wednesdays at 8.00pm on Global.