“Win” was the last thing Taylor Stocker’s then–Survivor girlfriend, Jessica “Figgy” Figueroa, told him when she was voted off on the October 26 episode. Three weeks later, Stocker met his demise on Wednesday, November 16, after desperately trying to claw his way out from the bottom.
Stocker and alliance member Jay Starrett knew they were on the bottom since the previous Tribal, when original millennial tribe member Michelle Schubert was unexpectedly voted off. Stocker had been living a hedonistic, risky life on the beach since the merge, stealing food from the merge feast and burying it in the sand.
“I think my biggest regret was not telling Jay and Michelle about the food stealing,” the 24-year-old tells Us Weekly exclusively. “We could have used it as an advantage and not just stealing food for the sake of it, almost holding it as hostage was what I was kind of going at. No one has done that. You could argue that a lot of the people that have done that stuff in the past, they never win. I just wish that I would have communicated that better and maybe they would have talked me down, you know, ‘Just don’t do it.’”
The person who did know about the stolen food was Adam Klein, who, in turn, trusted Stocker with his secret advantage — the ability to steal a reward from someone. Knowing he and Starrett were at risk of being voted off, Stocker decided to reveal Klein’s advantage to the entire tribe at Council.
“I was thinking we have a lot better of a shot of just throwing him under the bus at Tribal,” the snowboard instructor explains. “I thought that the worst idea would be to expose him early on and give him time to dig his way out.”
Klein and Stocker battled it out in Tribal, but Stocker says his fate became an inevitability: “I knew that I was going home.” Despite his original plan with Starrett to vote for Klein, Stocker explains that in an unaired Tribal moment, he told Starrett to vote for Klein.
“I didn’t want Jay to suffer the consequences of voting against Adam again,” the Post Falls, Idaho, resident explains, not anticipating their foes would split the vote. “When I watched it last night, actually watching the votes, I realized if I would have voted for Jay, it would have been a tie, I believe. And so, we might have been able to pull something off there. Survivor is one of those games where you have all these woulda, coulda, shoulda situations after, and it’s not the reality; you learn from your mistakes, but you’ve got to move forward.”
The Idaho-based first-time Survivor applicant shares more with Us.
Us: Watching the episode, were you frustrated that Jay didn’t tell you about the idol?
Taylor Stocker: I feel like we could have schemed up something between him and I. Our minds just kind of run like crazy if we get put in a situation where we have to dig out, so I really think we could have done something. But I think Jay was just so paranoid of having that thing, he didn’t want to tell anyone that he didn’t have to.
Us: Why do you think people saw you as so untrustworthy?
TS: I guess I give off that vibe? You can kind of look at someone and in their eyes you can just tell that they’re scheming, they’re just trying to find any way to get through a rough patch of a situation. I think Jay and I kind of both have that same look and so, yeah, I think people saw that a lot more than we thought they did.
Us: Do you think you were seen as a mental or social threat as well as physical?
TS: I don’t think so. I actually think it worked out perfect because I come across as this careless snowboarder that is just kind of oblivious, and I’m actually extremely observant. I never put myself out there to do puzzles or anything like that because I’m extremely good at puzzles and I just didn’t want to take that position if I knew that someone else was going to take that position. A lot of the carelessness was just me kind of playing up this “yeah, I’m really oblivious to what you guys are doing.” As far as me playing up this dumb snowboarder – I know who I am, what I fit in, and I’m going to use that.
Us: What were your thoughts walking out of that Tribal?
TS: My thoughts walking out were, Wow, I can go, like, actually take a shower and sleep in a normal bed and kind of just chill with Michelle and eat an awesome dinner. I don’t have to steal food anymore!” There were so many jokes at Ponderosa, just, “Taylor, this is food here for everybody and it just gets replenished when it’s gone so no need to hide it in the sand …” It was a really funny situation there.
Us: Would you play again?
TS: I don’t know if I would. I love the idea of going on again, but, you know, there are some things in life that are just meant to happen once. And if you do it again then it just doesn’t work out well. So do I have that desire? Yes. Do I think it would work out? I don’t know. I could see it happening, though.
Us: Who do you think is the biggest threat in the game as of now?
TS: That’s so tough. I would say Jay would probably be my biggest threat. He’s smaller, not as strong, but has more agility-wise and he’s also intelligent.
Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X airs on CBS Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
