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Lots of new Catalie stuff to post. I'll start with her RNO interview:

"I Knew Parvati Was Going to Receive My Vote" - An Interview with Survivor: Micronesia's Natalie
by David Bloomberg -- 05/12/2008
Natalie seemingly came out of nowhere and then had a ton of camera time. Was that her plan all along? Why did she vote for Parvati when they had an alliance that Parvati broke? What was up with the weird jury question for Parvati? Where does Natalie draw the line in her actions within a game? And who was the best manipulator of the season? Natalie answers all these questions and much more in this exclusive RealityNewsOnline interview!

As you could probably guess by Natalie's one-on-one chats with the camera as the endgame drew nearer, she has plenty to say in an interview. But she's not talking about ripping out anybody's throat now - indeed, she has quite a few nice things to say. So read on to find out why she thought Parvati played the better game, what Natalie's own strategy was, and much more.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Natalie, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline. Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Natalie: Coming into the game, I kinda was a little freaked out. My friends have known me for years, and my family is thinking with my attitude, I'm off on day one or I may go pretty far because I'm a thinker. I knew I had to check my ego and get my attitude under wraps. I'm opinionated and vocal and I knew I had to button-fly my lip and play under the radar. In the beginning of a game like this, you have to earn your keep, so I went in and kept my head down and stayed behind the scenes and worked and played a quiet game. That was my strategy going in.

Once I realized it's a lot harder to control 19 people than ten, nine, eight, seven, six… so I knew if I could keep my head down, once the numbers got lower, I would have a little more control and they would get to know me better and I would have a little more freedom with my mouth and my personality. You get to know people more thoroughly in a small group rather than large numbers.

RNO: How did your strategy change as you got into the game, especially when you found out it was Fans vs. Favorites?

Natalie: I think I was the last - some of the other fans kinda realized what was going on. Once I saw Parvati and Amanda and Ozzy, I thought, oh man this doesn't look good. I was literally on the mat when Jeff was explaining things that it finally hit me - I was probably a little slow on the uptake. I was like, man if they don't mix up right now, we're screwed.

RNO: How much of a hand did you have in the early Fan votes?

Natalie: Actually, I had quite a bit of control in those, because I was the swing vote. There were three vs. seven, even though the numbers are there, people were afraid Alexis would vote my way, so that was contingent on what my opinion was. So Joel would come my way. But I also really liked the older three - Kathy, Chet, and Tracy - and they got a lot of grief. I had a lot of power because I could have been a swing vote, but I went along with the flow.

RNO: Why did you guys vote out the strong players early?

Natalie: I think because we went with Joel - it essentially came down to Joel fighting Mikey B and everybody falling in between and what side everybody was on. In the beginning of the game, I didn't 100% trust Mikey B. He was rallying so hard and seemed so threatened and ruthless and in dire need of doing what it takes. I didn't trust him, so I went along with Joel. So he had to go down with Mary, who was a strong, solid girl, very intelligent, which was a threat to me. She had to go at some point. I would like to say Mikey B is an extraordinary individual, an amazing human being.

RNO: What do you feel you learned as a fan of the show that you took with you into the game?

Natalie: The question is asked so many times, who had the upper hand, Fans or Favorites. I think I went in having watched all the seasons, knowing people's downfalls and where people make wrong decisions. So I kind of kept my cards close and played a quiet game and took a lot in, and as a fan I kind of went in very humbled because I'm playing against players who have already played and very alert to my surroundings.

RNO: To what do you mostly attribute Erik's dumbest move ever - your ability to convince him or his own naïveté?

Natalie: I don't even know how that went down. I don't know how the stars aligned so beautifully to make that situation go down. In his defense, he is so beautifully pure and innocent, that I admire it. It's naïveté, but the girls shook it down - Cirie was running around the beach trying to find everybody and warning us when he was coming. Amanda would go, "Erik you did this," and blast him and then he got so emotional because he had four girls coming down on him so hard, he's never experienced anything like it, nor will he ever again.

He was so frazzled and like, take the damn necklace. It's so sad but sweet at the same time. He's amazing. I think he'll smarten up real quick.

RNO: Or he'll never trust a woman again!

Natalie: He comes from such a small town that being final five, he didn't do so damn bad! There's something going on! You don't get that lucky that late in the game. There are moves made and you have to be a good player to be that far in the game.

RNO: Who was the best at manipulating people in this season?

Natalie: I think that I would say myself, obviously, that's what I'm getting coined as, the queen manipulator. Cirie, sitting back on her laurels, she can play kingpin from the top, that's pretty gangster. I would have to say the heads were the four girls left. Amanda did herself right on Erik, he was spinning his wheels on her and she would twist him on an emotional heartstring level. Cirie would let everyone else freak out as she was the puppetmaster on top. She was good at planting seeds, like saying, "I wonder if…" People would run with it, she's just brilliant that way. Parvati was a true leader and powerhouse in the game. Probably after she survived Jonathan wanting to vote her out, she was pretty much the powerhouse of the game. And then myself, I got my hands dirty a little bit.

RNO: Why were you so graphic in some of your chats with the camera, such as referring to Jason as a "little bitch" and talking about ripping out his throat and flossing with his veins?

Natalie: I am from the South and I think we are animated and women are sometimes - it's a joke that women can [talk about people] with a backwards comment and a backhanded slap. It's somehow okay and a cute thing. It's just part of my personality and where I come from. People that know me totally get my personality and know I'm joking 100%. Was there a little seriousness to it? Yeah a little, but it's all done out of love and fun.

My one-on-ones were my only time to vent and not have it held against me. If I say something like that in front of my tribe, obviously that could be very detrimental to me. So my one-on-ones, I would just let it out. The camera guys are egging me on, it was my chance to be animated. I was pretty under the radar throughout the show, so once I was able to let some steam off, it felt great. No harm, no foul.

RNO: By now, I presume you saw the ending of Survivor: China? What did you think of Amanda's performance in front of the jury this time compared to her performance the first time?

Natalie: I think at Amanda's core, she's a kind and sincere and loving person. She gets very emotional with decisions having to be made. A lot of that's very genuine. At the same time, we saw so much of that that we didn't know what to believe anymore. It was hard for us and it became cloudy with what she was actually thinking, but in the reality of it all, she's a caring and sincere and genuine person. She let it get the best of her.

RNO: If you had made it to the final two, what would your arguments have been in front of the jury?

Natalie: I would've gotten the question from Jason and Erik of, "Why did you betray me and blindside me?" It all comes down to, I get a lot of hate mail saying how could you do this and that, I can't believe you're able to do this. In my real life and the choices I make morally are completely different within a structured game. A game allows me no rules, and everybody makes their choice as to how to play their game.

At the end of the day, I'm so blessed to make so many friends, people I quote-unquote screwed over and blindsided. It is a game. I didn't go in to make friends, I went in to make a million dollars. Anything short of that I can do to get that within this game, I would've done. I don't think that says anything about my character, but it's me playing my game and having game playing skills. We're here to win the million, at least that would have been my focus.

RNO: Why did you ask Parvati the question about flirting and how that parallels with her bedroom life?

Natalie: Parvati and I got pretty close in this game. She came through for me, she told me she would do this and this and she did. At the end, it was the two girls in the final two, I had mad respect for, but I knew Parvati was going to receive my vote.

I didn't really have any jabs or punches to take at her, so I thought I'm going to put her on the spot and embarrass her and make her think on her feet. Even though she's my friend, I'm not going to give her a million dollars, she's going to have to work for it, and she did.

RNO: Why did you vote for Parvati even after she made an alliance with you and then broke it?

Natalie: She made an alliance with me during the switch-up which saved me to the merge and then I pretty much saved myself after the merge with the decision-making process. I honored that. And also, she never promised me anything to the end. Had she done that and then broke it, I would have thought a little longer and harder about who to vote for. She didn't promise me anything she didn't deliver on.

The thing that screwed us up, we assumed it would be final three, so 37 days in, your brain can't shift too quickly without food and water to think one step ahead. We were blindsided with it going to final two. Had it gone final two, Cirie and I would have teamed up and it would have been two against two. We didn't think that far ahead.

Parvati got my vote because she was committed to what she was committed to with me. And she played a good game.

RNO: Was there anything Amanda could have done to win you over?

Natalie: No. I was actually on the switch-up with Parvati so I had 12 days to really get to know her, which was to Amanda's detriment. I had that time with Parvati and that's what worked out in her favor. Also, in the time spent with her, I got to learn she's an amazing person. The chips fell where they did and I ended up on Parvati's team vs. Amanda's; it could have been very much the same thing had I gotten to know her instead.

RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn't know about while you were there?

Natalie: I was shocked and didn't expect when Jason was on Exile Island and talking about "Natlie and I are going to have this great plan to win and go to the end." I was shocked and stunned because I hadn't really said two words to Jason the entire game. I didn't bond with Jason. No ill feelings or anything, but you connect with some and not others.

RNO: What would the Fans have needed to do in order to stand a chance against the Favorites?

Natalie: You know, they I think they were a little smarter strategically with how to stay headstrong throughout the course of the end of the game and not get frazzled and lose focus and control. What would have been nice, had I been able to trust Erik a little more, because he kept switching and flip-flopping, I feel like I could have taken him to the end and he could have won the challenges and I could have played the smart game. We could have gone to the end. I definitely think, it's clear, that having played the game before gave the Favorites a leg up.

RNO: If you could change one decision you made in the game, what would it be?

Natalie: Probably a wherewithal about me, being a little more hip to being more open to do the numbers in a final three vs. final two situation. Had I thought one step ahead and teamed up with Cirie, saying hypothetically we might go to a final two, she 100% would have teamed up with me, it very well could have been Cirie and I in the final two. [For the record, when I interviewed Cirie, she said no, she probably would not have teamed up with Natalie.]

RNO: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Natalie: I'm completely thankful and grateful for my experience. For all the fans out there, I hope they keep sending in their tapes, the experience is completely life-changing. You learn things about yourself, strengths and weaknesses, it all comes out when you're raw and exposed. It's an amazing experience and I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience it. It was amazing and mind-blowing. I would do it again if they called me tomorrow.

RNO: Thanks again, Natalie!

Catalie <3