Back in June, while the Survivor 50 cast were battling it out on the islands of Fiji, I reached out to a selection of former Survivor players to get their thoughts and predictions on the returning castaways. I will be posting those interviews intermittently here on Inside Survivor over the coming months.
Today, we’re talking to Gabby Pascuzzi, who played with Christian Hubicki in Survivor: David vs. Goliath. As members of the David tribe, Gabby and Christian quickly bonded over a shared nerdiness and became one of the season’s most dynamic duos. They played a significant part in many of the season’s biggest blindsides, including the Davids’ overthrowing of power at the merge. However, as Christian’s threat level rose, Gabby saw an opportunity to separate her game from his and attempted a blindside on her closest ally. Fortunately for Christian, his other allies clued him in and he turned the tables on Gabby.
Inside Survivor reached out to Gabby to get her thoughts on Christian’s return to Survivor 50.
1) You and Christian spent the entire time together on David vs. Goliath through the start, swap, and merge. What was your initial opinion of Christian, and how did it change throughout the season?
My initial impression was that this was the male version of myself – the “nerd” archetype. Minutes into the game, when he finished the opening challenge’s slide puzzle in mere seconds, I knew that he wasn’t just a nerd about Survivor – the “superfan’ – but was actually incredibly intelligent. He was also very humble, which was an impression that remained the rest of the season.
I think the biggest change in impression came from when I realized he was a real threat to win the game because he was so socially likable. I maybe had a preconception that he would be like previous “nerd” types and find it difficult to connect socially with people, but it’s where he excelled. I was especially surprised when he was able to connect with people very different from him, like the Brochachos.
2) On TV we see a lot of the strategizing and “big moves,” but I’m more interested in the general day-to-day. What was Christian like around camp during the downtime? How did he fit in? What was it that made you gravitate towards him?
Christian is the type of person who gets along easily with everyone. He ingratiated himself with every tribemate by listening intently to their stories, asking thoughtful questions, making jokes, sharing nerdy trivia, and never taking himself too seriously. I think this made everybody, not just me, gravitate towards him! I think our game relationship grew stronger once I realized that he and I thought of the game in similar ways and could be really good sounding boards for each other strategically.
3) As a viewer, it seemed Christian had a relatively easy time on David vs. Goliath, at least in terms of the social game, being super popular with the Davids and Goliaths alike. Do you think that’s an accurate depiction of his time out there socially and how he was perceived?
Yes, I think he was always very well-liked. I do think, however, that because he is such an agreeable person, he became almost an easy target after the merge, and people would try to frame that as flattering (i.e., that he was a threat to win), but that also got frustrating for him. I think there’s also a Sassy Christian that was not shown on TV as often… it’s one of my favorite versions of him. If someone said something pandering or phony to him, he would have some witty retort. He knew he was good at charming people, but it’s not like his ego got in the way of having a critical or skeptical eye of people’s treatment of him or their intentions.
4) How do you think his game changes if he doesn’t get that same reception this time around? Will he adapt his game? How would you approach season 50 in his position?
Not to cop out of an answer, but I think it would be hard for Christian not to be well-liked. His adapting will be figuring out how to connect with people socially if it’s not working. If he, for some reason, does not find his social footing (which I doubt), he will adapt by being strategically savvy, scrappy, and lowering his threat level by not being everyone’s best friend and letting them feel like they’re in control.
5) What stands out to you as Christian’s best move from his original season?
Choosing to play (the game, not in the sand) with me and voting out Jessica Peet. I’m only half joking because, of course, this was early in the game, but it solidified us as alliance members, he never took any heat for it, and it gave him an early taste/experience of how to conduct a blindside, a skill that would be enacted several more times. But really, it also brought him closer to Davie and Nick, who were two crucial allies that helped him survive via two idol plays (Davie saving him, and him saving himself when they told him about my attempted blindside).
There’s not one particular move, but everything he built with his social connections kept him safe many times; for example, by the Brochachos not wanting to get rid of him at the first merge vote because they felt close to him, which indirectly led to their blindside the following vote.
6) How do you think Christian will fit into the dynamics of this cast? Who will he gravitate towards and why? Who will be a good ally for him?
I think he’s really well suited as someone in between old school and new era. He will get along with old schoolers because he’s in a similar phase of life to a lot of them, but the new era will hopefully look up to him as someone who was one of their favorite players before he played. His strategic mind is maybe a lot more suited for a fast-paced new era game, so he can help the old schoolers adapt to that, and he can play ball with the new eras. I don’t know who he’ll gravitate towards. I’m hoping Emily Flippen, who he’s played social deduction games with online, and who I think would make a really funny and smart duo.
7) On the flip-side, who on this cast poses the biggest threat to Christian? Is there anyone you see him butting heads with?
Anyone with a huge ego. They might feel threatened by Christian’s likability, and Christian would be annoyed with their ego. He might be good at hiding it, but I’d be surprised if he found it easy to work with someone who thought they were more important than him in some way.
8) What is Christian’s biggest strength? And his biggest weakness?
His likability. His likability.
9) As there are three David vs. Goliath members on the cast, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also ask for your thoughts on Angelina and Mike White. How do you think they’ll approach this season? Will the three DvG players put up a united front? Or do you expect them to clash?
I haven’t seen either of them in years, so I’m equally as excited to see what they bring to season 50. Angelina is now a mother, and I think has even greater ambition and determination than ever before, and also has the benefit of having years of being able to reflect on her game (which brought her to the end) and what she could change. I think Mike will have a really interesting dynamic with people out there who are now super aware of his level of fame and success. He will have, I assume, a lot of experience of people in Hollywood wanting things from him, wanting to social climb, wanting parts in his shows, so that won’t be new to him, but how he leverages it in the game will be fun to watch.
Mike and Angelina went to the end of the game together. They have more game days together than most other combinations of players out there, and they both live in Southern California. I expect them to team up. Christian and Mike had a good game relationship, and I would expect that they could get together again.
10) Before I let you go, what is new in the world of Gabby? How has life been recently?
I’m in the home stretch of finishing my PhD in Social Psychology and have really been loving doing research and teaching at the university. I currently live with my girlfriend in Buffalo, NY, and am still an avid reality TV and Survivor fan!
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Yes we all complained about the 50 cast choosing five 48 and 49 players but can we just applaud CBS for closing these locks for 50 regardless: Genevieve, Angelina, Devens, Chrissy, Emily and Christian? So excited to see all of them.
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