By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Jason Treul won’t be around to ‘catch them all’. The law clerk and Pokemon fan from California found himself on the wrong side of a tribal swap when the Kele Tribe tanked to just two members. Since he was an alternate though and was never meant to play this season Jason isn’t too bitter about how his Survivor journey ended.

John Powell: Jason, it’s great to be talking to you this morning. How you doing?

Jason Treul: Yo, what’s up? I’m doing great.

John Powell: Now, before we get to business, I have to argue one thing, if it’s Pokemon I’m going for Ghastly every day of the week. You’ve got psychic attacks, you’ve got ghost attacks and I love Hypnotizing foes and hitting them with the Shadow Ball. Why Mudkip?

Jason Treul: Mudkip? He’s just like an adorable little fella, dude. Is he a dog? Is he a fish? I don’t know. Dude, you’re crazy! I mean, if both were on Survivor I do think that Ghastly bring more to the table than a Mudkip and maybe, maybe you would last longer with your Haunter than I would with mine.

John Powell: Jason, was there any thought last night about using your shot in the dark?

Jason Treul: You know, it’s so funny because if I could just switch my Jason brain between the past two episodes I think that would have been a better time to make that argument. I was very shot in the dark heavy on the first episode and by the time it reached the second one all of Uli were clued in on how to pacify this guy that seems so trigger happy. I was kind of talked off that cliff and sort of talked into the frying pan, you know what I mean? So, I think that by that time, truly, and I would love to say that I was a better player than this but I’m not, I think all of Uli did their parts to convince me that: Hey, you’re good tonight! This is our plan. We’re all going to vote out Rizzo and clearly it wasn’t even that much of a thought because this didn’t even make the edit. I think that it is a consideration that a smarter Jason would do better than one who hadn’t been worn down by all the Uli members talking in his ear.

John Powell: Well, then again, you got to see everything that was going on behind the scenes now and that other Jason would have more information to base that decision on.

Jason Treul: I was thinking about this earlier because I agree so much that the confessional is such a powerful tool. Do you think that that would be a really cool advantage? To be able to drop in and listen to someone’s confessional? Because that would have helped me, would change the game for sure.

John Powell: That would change the game for sure! Looking back at things, I’m not a big fan of the three tribes because I think that you end up with a lot of seasons where a tribe gets decimated and it puts other people at a disadvantage who are on tribes who are doing well. I’m going to put you in the producer’s hat for a minute. If one tribe was decimated like that how would you handle it now that you have become a victim of a tribal swap and know what it feels like?

Jason Treul: I always love the school yard pick because I think that there’s so much drama in who you pick, right? I think that schoolyard picks potentially could also end up with a very lopsided composition. So, I don’t think that that necessarily solves it.

I will say as someone who was a victim of a swap screw I can step out of my position and say it’s a tough spot but what would it be a like if we don’t put people in tough spots? We won’t have episodes where people overcome those odds. You put a Tony on in my spot, you put a Sandra in my spot and maybe they are able to answer the call and then we have a really awesome episode. I think that the way that it’s done randomly is a fair way to do it. I think that even though it puts a lot of unfair situations Survivor is about being unfair and the people that can overcome that, those are the people that stay. I was in that hot seat. I couldn’t do it. Other people, I feel like could.

John Powell: We know that you were an alternate, you were not meant to be on this season. How much time did you have to prepare to get into the game?

Jason Treul: Dude, if I told you that you are on Survivor right now you would have more time than I did. (laughs) You would have the full day to think about it. I was told: Hey, you’re on the show! Good night. We’ll see you in the morning! I’m like: Whoa! It’s cutting into my sleep. I’m making sure that I’m not sleeping. I’m by candlelight trying to write in my notes what I want to do…I was prepping and all that other stuff. So very, very little time.

John Powell: I’ve spoken to people who are alternates before, like Austin, and he said to me it was very hard to come into the game but the other thing is that I had different than any of the other players. I felt like I was playing with house money so I could make bigger moves. I could take more risks because I’m not supposed to be there to begin with. Is that how you felt?

Jason Treul: I felt really similar. I think that the difference is that I’m playing with house money in the sense that I’m there but I’m also put in a situation where if you’re on the bottom of a tribe, on the wrong side of the numbers I think there’s just very little room to maneuver. I wanted to go on the journey! I was, dude! Oh, my god! I’m thinking about it right now. I was so close to finding the idol! If Jawan didn’t rig the rocks then maybe if I went to the journey like Austin did, wanting to backstab people for a sandwich, I would. I was trying but I think that the Ulis were very on to me and they wanted to make sure that I was quarantined off as much as possible. It’s it’s hard. It’s hard when it’s hard.

John Powell: You got to see more out there about the Uli alliance. They’re very tough to break through. Based on your observations who do you think is leading that tribe?

Jason Treul: Based on my observations on the island it was very tough. The only thing that I could tell was that Jawan seemingly was at least socially, on the outs. I don’t want to say like on the outs totally, right? Everyone’s talking to each other but I would say that there are more instances of Rizzo talking to Savannah, Nate talking to Savannah. I think especially with Savannah coming to me with all the strategic information I felt like Savannah was very well insulated inside of her tribe.

After watching the edit, I think that there is a lot of implications that Savannah has very strong opinions about everything that’s going on around her and Jawan, even though he is seemingly on the bottom, doesn’t realize it. He’s loyal to Uli enough to rig the rock draw…It’s very tough to know what the power structure is when people like Uli haven’t voted either, right? The first time they’re voting is with us so that they’re figuring out their alliances in real time because before Matt’s vote, before the swap, it was all talk’ We’ll see what happens.

John Powell: I’m going to flip things around now. Hina, you saw more than we have. Who’s running the show there?

Jason Treul: I’ll preface it by saying if you haven’t voted, it’s all talk, but let me tell you about the talk. So the show showed part of the picture that there was this four alliance of Matt, Christina and Steven, and they pulled an MC as a fourth. There was another unaired group of four which was me, Steven and MC with Sophie pulled in as a fourth. That’s something that the show doesn’t show in the edit and me and Sophie knew all about the Christina and Matt side of the alliance. I don’t think that they knew about us.

So MC and Steven are telling us all of their dirty laundry and they’re not telling them any of our dirty laundry. To me, that makes me think that we’re in a better spot but it still puts Steven and MC in the middle. I think that’s how I would describe Hina. If we had gone to tribal it would have been up to them to make that choice as to who goes home. Luckily, me and MC are both alternates so I feel like I would not catch the first stray just out of that empathy and the fact that we got along really well. But you never know right? Talk is talk.

John Powell: Is there anything about your journey that you wish fans would have seen?

Jason Treul: I want to fold in MC because we have this once in a lifetime, and then I correct it, it is twice in a lifetime because it literally happened to two people, experience that is so important to me and she’s living the exact same thing. I feel like that connection that we have bonded us on Hina. That’s why I think after MC shows Steven the idol, she also shows me the idol. There’s this moment that she says: Jason, we deserve to be here as much as anybody else. Even though we’re the alternates we are just as valuable as anybody else and we are here to play Survivor!

I think that moment to me is such an encapsulation of what being put in that spot make you think. There’s so much inadequacy. You think of yourself as the alternate, as the person who was so close to making it on the show, but didn’t you get the chance to do that so to get the chance to do that with somebody that also went through the exact same thing and to have a moment where we are confiding in each other about that exact feeling it was very powerful to feel.

I wish that MC had her moments to kind of feel the same feelings that I did…That feeling is as important as it was to her as it was to me and I think that’s what bonded us and I wish that they should a little more well.

Survivor 49 Fantasy Tribe