Lindsay Dolashewich explains why she changed her Survivor winner vote

Dalton Ross
·14 min read
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Lindsay Dolashewich explains why she changed her Survivor winner vote
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Lindsay Dolashewich was not just a fighter, she was the Fighter. And that was why she had to go. None of the other Survivor 42 final five wanted any part of sitting next to Lindsay at the end, which is why when she didn't win immunity — she was just one puzzle piece away! — her time on the tribe came to end.

Lindsay was just too good and too well rounded — showing strategic chops, strength in challenges, and a strong social game that made her liked and respected by everyone. Which is why the others sent her to the jury. How does Lindsay think she would have done had she made it to the end? Why did she change her vote from Mike to Maryanne to win? And what was up with her roller-coaster relationship with Jonathan? We asked Lindsay about all of that, her Do or Die strategy, and more when we spoke shortly after the finale aired. (Also make sure to check out our full episode recap as well finale interviews with Maryanne, Mike, Romeo, and Jonathan.)

Survivor season 42
Survivor season 42

Robert Voets/CBS Lindsay Dolashewich on 'Survivor 42'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you vote for Maryanne as the winner?

LINDSAY DOLASHEWICH: It really came down to debating between Maryanne or Mike. Me and a few other people were feeling if Mike was not necessarily really true to his word, if he comes off as a very honest guy who goes with his word but admits that he was doing it knowing that he was really going to be breaking those bonds, then we would give him credit for it. But if he really honestly, truly felt he was true to his word, then we [would] feel like he wasn't really fully with it in the grasp of the game.

While Maryanne, we were really not sure [what] her game was, so we were like, "She needs to fight and tell us what she did," and she killed it. She did [such] a great job explaining how she was so self-aware of everybody else around her that she had a very good grasp of what was going on in the game that we could tell that Mike really didn't have as great of a grasp of what was going on. It was more of his own personal feelings and emotion driving him. Maryanne was definitely a hidden driver in that whole game.

You walked in there thinking you were probably going to vote for Mike, right?

Yeah, and I wasn't really the only one. I know that it's been said in previous seasons before of people being like, "I really don't know when we're walking in," but we honestly really didn't know. We just had a lot of question marks. We needed a lot more answers. And at one point I remember Jeff [Probst] saying, "All right, it's kind of been a while. We probably should wrap this up." And I looked at everyone being like, "I don't really know, do you know yet?" And they're like, "No, not really." I'm like, "Jeff, we're really not ready yet. You've got to wait, we have more questions to ask." He was like, "Oh, okay."

And then once we had more time to ask more questions, that's when Maryanne came out and mentioned that she had an idol that she found that she didn't use. And we're like, "Whoa, no way." And so that really was, for me, the big moment that I was like, "Oh yeah, she came here to play, and she had a lot of things locked and loaded that we just weren't aware of."

I spoke to Mike and he said yours was the vote he was very surprised he didn't get. I guess he thought you guys had the Jersey connection and had a close personal connection. Do you think he was a little upset about that?

I mean, it makes sense if he was upset about that. I love Mike and he is a great person, but what I've learned with Mike, at least in terms of Survivor gameplay — he very much sees his line of view and what he remembers and how his game was, but doesn't realize that there's so many different games being played at the same time with different stories to be told with the different information given.

So the fact that he's very beeline to what he knows, he was very shocked [by] where the vote was going, but for everyone else being able to really open up and see the full picture, there are a lot more things that were shown that we saw that Maryanne clearly had a very good grasp of what was going on more so than I feel that Mike did.

How many times have you replayed that final five challenge puzzle in your mind over the past 11 months?

Halfway through the puzzle, I realized that it was double sided, which was silly. Every single puzzle this whole time has been double sided, but this is what happens when you don't eat and you're so under fed — your brain doesn't work properly. And as a puzzle person, you do the outsides first. And I had four outside pieces left and I'm like, "Why do none of these work? There's four options, none of them are working, this makes no sense."

Then, halfway through, I'm like, "Ugh, it's double sided! But the reason why I don't beat myself up so much about it is I had an incredible experience being on the jury. Being in Ponderosa and on the jury was so fun. That was such an incredible extra that I didn't think I was going to get as a Survivor player that I don't think I would've switched it. As silly as that sounds, I love the way everything played out because I had such a great experience that I didn't think I was going to get.

Survivor season 42
Survivor season 42

Robert Voets/CBS Lindsay Dolashewich on 'Survivor 42'

Well, if you're not going to switch it, I'm going to switch it because I'm going to make you play a little Survivor What If? So let's say you either win the final five challenge or Maryanne does decide to save you with her idol and you make it to the end. Is there anyone that beats you in the final three?

Personally, I think no. I mean this very humbly, I don't try to sound very cocky in this sense, but even if Omar was in the top six, I still felt comfortable bringing him. Now, honestly, I think the only way I would've beaten Omar was by having a bitter jury because he was an amazing player. But when it just came to the five, I felt like I was very well rounded, I thought I had good relationships with everybody, people on the jury I don't think had that many qualms with me more than anybody else. So I think I would've been fine at the end, especially considering that challenge of final four, I'm really good at that.

And I love Romeo, but I felt I would've beat Romeo in that challenge, and I would've been able to choose who I would've sat with. And, as silly as it was, I probably would've sat with Mike and Maryanne, because I really had a closer bond with the two of them, and even with them being there, I felt confident that, you know what, I have a strong enough game that I want to be able to pitch myself. I want to pitch it and with the pitch that I have of my résumé, I think I would still win.

I just spoke to Romeo and he says that you all totally bought the fake idol and that, basically, if he hadn't had it that he would've been voted off at five, not you. Do you buy that?

No, I didn't buy his idol. I don't think anyone bought his idol. Like, if he was really on the block every single vote, he would've used it by now. So I don't think he really got it past anybody, but there was no point in fighting him on it because, at that point, I knew no one was really going to be voting out Romeo based [on] what our assumed résumés were.

I didn't think that people were really going to think that Romeo was going to be as big of a threat as I was. Therefore, I didn't think that Romeo would be even a contender to be voted out for five. He was already set. So him having an idol, I was like, "Oh cool, you have an idol, but regardless, you're staying, so cool."

You and Maryanne both made comments about the way Jonathan was talking to and treating women on the beach. What was the issue there?

To put it in a quick sentence, Jonathan's a misogynist. Or at least it felt that way on the island. I'm not someone who's going to be talked to that way in real life. In real life, I would never have accepted being spoken to that way for myself or anybody else that I would've seen that happen [to], but it's a social game so you really can't say that. In my mind, that was very infuriating internally for me. So I figure, "How else can I do this? You know what? I'm going to beat you at the one thing that you're good at, and I'll just beat you in challenges instead. So that was my little way to get back at you considering I can't voice myself in a social game that way."

The edit made it seem like at first you guys were close and then started to drift apart. Is that the case?

I would say up [until] day five we were close. And then me and Jonathan had a kind of bout together where I started noticing more of his true colors. At that point, I started noticing [things], but I was thinking, "Oh, maybe he is under fed. Maybe it's just because I'm a very outspoken person. He's very alpha. Maybe it's because I'm kind of alpha too."

And then as time went on, I started being able to gather like, "Okay, this is a trend that I notice." So no, that was under my skin for a while. He was part of my four of Taku, but he wasn't somebody I was really going back and forth with on strategy at all. I noticed that I couldn't tell Jonathan a strategy, Omar had to do it. So when Omar would pitch it, Jonathan would listen. If I pitched it, [it] would get neglected.

Survivor season 42
Survivor season 42

Robert Voets/CBS Lindsay Dolashewich on 'Survivor 42'

I've always maintained that no one should ever take part in the Do or Die challenge just because of the strategy and the odds and it's just not a smart thing to do. At what point did you start to regret your decision to play in that?

Immediately. It was such a regret. It was so stupid. Before that challenge happened, I was already so frustrated with Jonathan that I was like, "Screw it. I'm going to win today. I don't care what the challenge is. I'm winning." So when I walked in, I already had that mindset I was going to win. Then once Jeff throws us this crazy curve ball, this Do or Die, I was just so zoned in [on], "Well, I plan on winning so falling first won't apply to me. So who cares?" Not realizing I should [have been] assessing everybody. Realizing Drea was probably the one person who might have played. Mike has a bad shoulder, Maryanne wasn't going to do it, Romeo wasn't going to do it. Drea probably wasn't going to do it either because she's allergic to coconut, so she has little food.

But then the other part of me is would I have been able to actually say no and just hand Jonathan the immunity necklace and [have] him thinking that everyone's too scared to play against him? My competitiveness probably still would've been there anyway. But strategically, still a bad idea, so I regretted it. The only thing that kept me sane was that I was safe. I was beating myself up the whole way through and if I got out, I would've still been regretting it to this day. So that's the only thing that saved me.

How many times since then have people been explaining the Monty Hall problem to you and how you should have switched boxes and stuff?

So many times. And once they read the statistics about it, I'm like, "Okay, I guess I get it." But at the same time, in roulette they're like, "Oh, look at who's red and who's black." The odds are the same. The odds are always the same. So from three to two, it's now still 50/50. So I understand the logistics behind it, but clearly that doesn't always work every time. And I went with my gut, and I think that your gut ultimately is going to take you farther than statistics.

What's something that happened out there during the season that you wish we could have seen that never made it to air?

There was so much stuff that wasn't shown. Me and Omar were really tight from very early on in the game and I felt like we had a lot more strategy in the game then what was shown. I was a little bit more behind the scenes from what people saw, but I definitely felt like I had my hands in a lot of different things.

And one thing that they didn't show in this most recent episode was I said in my interview, "I need to make Mike feel really guilty so I'm going to fake cry... to really pull the dad-daughter card." But they didn't show that, so that was really fake tears to just try [and] sell it as best as I could.

What was the feeling like when you had to bow out of season 41 due to having COVID? Was that just a crushing defeat at the time?

Good call that you know that. Yeah, crushing, literally, was the word that I used. I was so excited to go. I trained, I did everything. I was watching 30 hours of Survivor a week to re-watch every season before I left. And to find out literally less than 24 hours before I was supposed to be on the plane that I had COVID and I couldn't go, crushing.

But I said to myself, "You know what, if I got COVID, someone else is going to get COVID, or who knows what? It is not over. I'm not waiting another year. I'm going to quarantine myself for the next month knowing when they're going to be leaving and see what happens."

And, luckily enough, I get a call Wednesday night at nine o'clock saying, "Hey, we're going to need you." And I was in L.A. on a Friday morning. And I was already ready, prepared, so excited, and so happy I was on this season because it was an incredible experience that I never thought I would have. So that just goes to show in Survivor fashion, there's going to be a crazy low and then a crazy high. I'm happy I stuck to my guns and waited to get called.

Is it an experience you would do again?

Hell yeah! I hope they call me. Please call me! I would love to play again. This is in my blood. I can't help myself. It's a problem. I'm sick. So please call me back.

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