Why Ousted Survivor Villain Changed His Vote: "This Is Going to Look Genius on TV"

Seventh castoff dishes on "slimy" Russell, his fatal mistake...and his own awesomeness

"I was a victim of my own stupidity. It ended up being my demise. I'm still pretty awesome."

If you watched last night's episode of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, you know those are the parting words of the Villain sent home after his risky vote swap backfired.

Get all the deets in our Survivor: Insider and then head on in here for our exclusive chat with Mr. Awesome himself.

Q&A With Tyson Apostol

First things first: Why the leopard-print undies?
Why wouldn't I? You have five seconds to answer this question: "If  you could take one thing on Survivor to wear, what would it be?" Of course it's going to be a leopard-print underwear.

How did a smart guy like you become a victim of his "own stupidity"?
I told Russell we were splitting the votes three to three, and he needed to vote Parvati out or play the idol. On my way to Tribal Council I thought, if Danielle and Parvati are smart, they are going to vote for Russell and save themselves—but I wanted Parvati gone more than Russell. In hindsight, [voting for Parvati] was not a good move, but at the time, I was like, "This is going to look genius on TV. I'm finally going to get the credit I deserve for being the smartest person in the world."

When did the Villains start forming alliances?
Courtney and Rob and myself had aligned pretty early on. We said, "OK, our core three are going to the finals, but we're going to pull more people in as reinforcements: Sandra, then Coach and Jerri." Jerri didn't like Rob—she wanted him gone—but I convinced her she needed to stick with us for the time being. I was kind of like the glue that held everyone together.

Did you know about Coach's allegiance to Russell?
I knew Coach was talking with Russell, and Coach told me Russell had an idol. That's kind of why I wanted Parvati gone before Russell: I thought if we could get rid of Parvati, Russell would have nowhere to go except to me, which would give me another option if things went sour anywhere else.

What was it like playing the game again with Coach after Tocantins?
It was kind of hard, because he wanted to talk—and touch. I said, no we can't, because people will see that and view us as an alliance and want us out immediately. Any type of connection you had with anybody there was definitely brought out into the open and used against you as much as it could be.

So that gave Russell an advantage?
Of course. Nobody knew who he was. How big an advantage? Probably not that big. Everyone knew he was slimy. He oozes. To say that we didn't know because we hadn't seen him on TV, that would just make us look stupid.

Who did you like most on your tribe?
Rob, for sure. I think we get along so well because I'm so indifferent...He's a decision maker. I do everything not to make decisions. It worked out perfect.

Do you think your elimination will really hurt Rob?
A target was on his back before, but he won immunity. With me gone, I definitely think it puts him in a tough position. To some degree, it makes me feel bad. But it makes me feel worse that I didn't win a million dollars. Now I don't really care who wins it. It's not like whoever wins the million is going to be like, "Here's your half, Tyson. And I already paid taxes on it, so you're good to go."

So what's next?
Actually, I made it to the finals. It was a shock to me that through the magic of editing they had me voted out last night.