Outlasting Tribal Injuries with Joe Dowdle of Survivor TocantinsThroughout all of the seasons of CBS' Survivor, injuries haven't taken too many survivors out of the game. It all started with Michael back in Outback during the second season of Survivor when he fell into the fire hands-first. Last week on Survivor Tocantins it was Austin, Texas Real Estate salesman, Joe Dowdle, who was bitten by the injury bug and had to be air-lifted to hospital after nursing an infection that wouldn't go away.
Although Joe made it to the Survivor Tocantins merge, the ex-Jalapao tribe member couldn't hang around long enough to form new alliances since Survivor host Jeff Probst noticed the cut on Dowdle's knee was swelling out of control. However, the Tocantins twist in the episode came after the merged Jalapao tribe members took control of the game but were told there wouldn't be a Tribal Council due to Joe's injury. After Jeff let the newly merged "Forza" tribe know they'd be continuing the game minus a tribe mate, Joe was air-lifted to hospital in Brazil to make sure the injury didn't put his life in jeopardy.
The morning after the most recent episode of Survivor Tocantins, we grabbed our Survivor first-aid kit and headed for the phone lines to chat with the now ex-Survivor Tocantins tribe member, Joe Dowdle, to find out when the injury happened, when he knew that he was out of the game, how he was going to play the fake immunity idol, and what it was like to crave peanut butter pizza.
THE DEADBOLT: Since we didn’t see a typical ending at Tribal Council, are you going to be the first jury member?
[Survivor Tocantins CBS] JOE DOWDLE: I am not. I missed the jury.
THE DEADBOLT: When did you actually injure your knee?
JOE: It happened at the immunity challenge where we were rolling blocks and stacking them up, still with Jalapao, I scraped it. And then at the lacrosse slingshot one I fell and kind of felt some stuff go in there and I woke up the next morning and it was already off and running.
THE DEADBOLT: Oh, so you injured it way back when Jerry got voted off?
JOE: Yeah, and it just progressively got worse and worse, as you saw.
THE DEADBOLT: As soon as Jeff told you to hang back for medical, did you have a feeling that it was all over right then?
[Survivor Tocantins CBS] JOE: My first natural thought was that they were going to tell me the idol was fake, because I suspected it all along. I don’t know why I thought that. But then, yeah, once he said the medics were going to come over I realized they were going to really lean on me hard to take me out of there. It wasn’t really a decision on my part. It seemed more like a policy for them, like they had already decided it.
THE DEADBOLT: So before the infection took you out, how were you going to steer the game with the fake idol?
JOE: I was going to use it for fire wood, man. I was going to show up at Tribal Council and drop it in the fire.
THE DEADBOLT: [laughs] But at the time you didn’t know it was fake, did you?
JOE: I considered the possibility. I’m being honest, and I wasn’t sold on it at all, actually. When I recovered it, I had my adrenaline pumping, got it .. You know, my first thought was it was this yarn with beads on it, which it was, and that’s why I didn’t give it to Syd and that’s why I never played it. But I wanted it to be real, I tell you that much.
[Survivor Tocantins CBS] THE DEADBOLT: Last week I asked Sydney why you didn’t give her a heads up to how the tribe was voting. I know you didn’t tell her about the idol, but why didn’t you tell her what was going to happen?
JOE: I did tell her what was going to happen.
THE DEADBOLT: Okay. But we really didn’t see that on TV and she didn’t really allude to that either.
JOE: Yeah, I let her know, man. J.T., Stephen, and I talked, and we went back and forth between Taj and Sydney, and obviously I didn’t know anything about Taj, and now I know why they voted the way they did and I let Syd know. I was like, ‘I think they’re going to vote for you. I trust you. I’m going to stick with you.’ And that’s what happened, man.
THE DEADBOLT: Which challenge was your favorite?
JOE: [laughs] The ones we won. No, probably the one where we were spinning everybody around. That was kind of fun to watch happen.
THE DEADBOLT: Since Jalapao didn’t have the numbers on their side, who were you looking to hook up with after the merge?
[Survivor Tocantins CBS] JOE: Well, I wanted to reach out to Erinn and utilize that relationship after the merge. And I kind of primed that up to her, as she could even out our numbers and she’d be safe and all of that good stuff.
THE DEADBOLT: That’s not a bad plan.
JOE: Yeah, I actually did do some strategizing in the game. It doesn’t really come off like that, though.
THE DEADBOLT: What particular food did you crave the most?
JOE: Peanut butter pizza.
THE DEADBOLT: [laughs] So what’s a peanut butter pizza?
JOE: That would’ve been just pizza with peanut butter on it.
THE DEADBOLT: Seriously?
JOE: Yeah, dude, it was weird. And cheeseburgers, too.
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