By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

It is hard to believe that Survivor 50’s Aubry Bracco is the same Aubry Bracco who 10 years ago had a devastating emotional breakdown that almost crippled her game. Aubry took herself and her game to the next level finally becoming a Sole Survivor last night.

John Powell: Aubry, it’s wonderful to be talking to you today. How are you?

Aubry Bracco: Oh, my gosh, I am wonderful! Thank you, John! It’s—it’s been a wild 12 hours. Like, what time is it, like eight in the morning here? It’s been 12 hours. It feels amazing.

John Powell: Now, you must have given a little bit of thought to this but you won a good chunk of change. Do you have any plans for it?

Aubry Bracco: I want to talk to Rick Devens about where he wants to go out to eat! That’s my number one, absolutely, for flipping that coin. And then I definitely want to make sure my son is set up for the future.

John Powell: I was going to say, you’re a mom now. What do you hope your son takes from your time on Survivor when he watches it in its totality later on in his life?

Aubry Bracco: I think for me, John, Outwit, Outplay, Outlast—Outlast has always been the most resonant with me. I want my son to remember that nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems. My dad always says that to me. My dad’s had a heart transplant. My family’s been through some really hard stuff in the past few years, and I think it’s that we don’t quit. We can—we can get through anything. It doesn’t matter, if you can just put one foot in front of the other, you can do anything you want. That’s what I hope Odie will see.

John Powell: Going into last night’s final tribal council how were you feeling about your status in the game walking in?

Aubry Bracco: I felt very lucky that I had the opportunity to determine who I was sitting with in the final three and I felt like I had a really solid shot, but I’ve been through this, and Survivor goes wrong, and I thought I played a great game then and everything fell to pieces. So I just knew I had to fight like hell. And even after I felt like I left it all on the table, Jonathan and I fought and he played a great game and I wasn’t sure.

John Powell: You got to pick who was going to go into fire. Why did you not pick Joe? What was the reasoning?

Aubry Bracco: Yeah, so I really thought about all the different combinations of people on that jury and my worst nightmare was Jonathan and Rizo because I thought that if Joe was on the jury, he was absolutely going to vote for Jonathan, and that if Rizo was sitting next to me, he had the opportunity to get Dee, possibly. I was really cognizant of what’s my ABC choice for this? I thought that Joe and Jonathan would give me the best shot because I thought they might split those votes and I didn’t want another underdog story sitting next to me. That Rizo can tell a tale! He’s incredible at tribal, that’s like his Super Bowl!

John Powell: You did mention your arch-nemesis, Michele Fitzgerald, who you lost Survivor to that time, and that was heartbreaking. There’s controversy, just like any Survivor finale. You said you learned some things from her when you were talking to Probst during the reunion show yesterday. What specifically did you learn about how she played?

Aubry Bracco: I wouldn’t call her my arch-nemesis. I don’t think that comes from us. I think that comes from the lore, just to be clear. It’s okay. I think previously I got knocked on my social game a lot but I think the social game in Kaôh Rōng,

I made really deep relationships that allowed me to influence the game but when I got to the end of the game people were really hurt by what I’d done. I think Michele really showed me about the importance of being receptive and other ways to be social with people that might not be the way that’s like this super intense relationship-making that is kind of in my DNA. I really kind of explored what it meant to build relationships in Survivor from kind of different facets because of Michele.

Aubry Bracco: Is that what you think put you over the finish line this time around? Was it the social game?

Aubry Bracco: Thank you. Yeah, I think it was a combination of things. I think I’ve done a lot of work on myself to remain grounded. I think this time I had a lot more perspective on where the game was. I was able to zoom out. I came into the merge without a lot of social equity and the blessing in that even though I wasn’t locked with anyone, I was able to kind of sit back and see where all the pieces were moving, where all the people were kind of playing. So that’s kind of the zoomed-out version on it.]

I told myself, “I’m going to come into this game and I’m going to be like someone’s pleasant surprise,” with it just being their best friend. It means I could be a little bit aloof and I think I did that. I don’t want to be an aloof person in life but I think that I kind of had the right balance of not being so far away from people socially that they would leave me out but not being too close that I would hurt them.

I actually think it was a very social game and also like a positioning game strategically. I was very aware of where I was positioned at all times and I wanted to make sure that I peaked at the right moment because I’ve seen what happens if you peak too early, you’re out. And I learned from Michele and Chris Underwood that you can peak toward the end of the game and that can be the perfect time where you’re top of mind to the jury.

John Powell: Watching that tribal council again, I’ve been covering Survivor since the very beginning, man, that was weird! It seemed like there was a lot of stuff going on with the jury. Was it more difficult than before?

Aubry Bracco: Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing with returning seasons, there’s always pre-existing wounds and relationships. I think that this is very much the case for Survivor 50, plus the stakes were so much higher.

I think Survivor 50 is a season we’re going to look back on seasons later and turn over a stone, you see a different facet of it. There were so many dynamics that were obvious and not obvious. I learned stuff watching the season. I didn’t realize how close Ozzy, Cirie, and Rizo were. I knew Ozzy and Cirie were close. So, there were all these things just being uncovered along the way and it was wild!

Like, even Devens was asking me about, like, “Did you keep a secret?” and I’m like, “Did you and Emily keep secrets?” I realized that he was probably asking… I put this together this morning, I’m not sure, but I think he may have been thinking that I gave the idol to Rizo when it was actually Genevieve. Everyone was trying to figure stuff out and it was wild! I learned that Christian gave me the idol at the final tribal, like that was wild!

John Powell: What really surprised you the most about the things that you saw watching the season back?

Aubry Bracco: So, I wouldn’t say it’s… I would say my intuition knew this, and it really validated it: Rizo’s game. That kid has some game on him. I would always say to people, “There’s something about Rizo that we’re not seeing.” Why are we not talking about him? Then, I’m watching him giving advice to vets. I mean, he was giving it to me at times, so I think that was a big part of it. It was also really cool to see Jonathan’s game, too. Jonathan was super deliberate along the way and he was a formidable person to be sitting next to me at the end.

John Powell: I spoke to Ozzy about this at great length, because, and again, this has come up before with Survivors who are on the island, and they say, you know, “I had a dream about this,” or, “You know, I had a feeling that something…I needed to go home,” or like, when Jenna, that whole thing with that. It’s being out there and being away from all of your daily distractions, where there’s this talk about intuition, and you brought it up yourself. Was you intuition different on the island?

Aubry Bracco: Yes. Thank you so much for asking this question. In reality, I am surprised no one else has asked it. My first season, my intuition was my best friend. When you are starving, I almost feel like it cuts off other noise you have in your body and you’re more receptive. I had intuition my first season. I would always say that I could tell who I was going to work with, who I was comfortable with sitting in silence. My sixth sense would turn on, and I would just know.

After the third time I played, or I went out with an idol in my pocket, I lost my intuition and my ability to trust myself. So I spent seven years. I did intuitive healing, I worked with an amazing psychic named Catherine Schiff. She helped me trust myself again and it came back. Because the thing is, if you play Survivor too much, it can get scrambled but if you can really remain grounded that intuition is everything. I felt like I could be grounded in this game dissociate when I needed to, to see everything going on.

John Powell: We’ve seen you come a long, long way. You had a shaky start when you began Survivor. When you look back at the person you were and then you see the person you are today how have you changed as a person? When you look back at that person do you recognize her?

Aubry Bracco: Oh, I recognize her. I just wish that she knew that there are some things that you can’t control and that things are never as good or as bad as they seem. My dad always says that. And that you just have to roll with the punches. I’ve been through so much since the first time I played. I had a child, I started a business, I moved across the country. My father had a heart transplant and we almost lost him. Like, I’ve just lived so much, and I would just tell her, “Don’t worry, every little thing is going to be all right.”

John Powell: Well, Aubrey, it was wonderful talking to you once again. Congratulations on your win. Enjoy it. And who knows, like many other player winners, we’ve seen them come back. Maybe your Survivor journey isn’t over just yet. You never know.

Aubry Bracco: Yeah, you never know but I’m really excited to see the New Era and all these people who deserve another chance. I’m really excited to see them.