Kane Fritzler reveals reaction to Jaime's fake idol on Survivor

Kane Fritzler thought he was in control on Survivor 44. But he wasn't. He thought he was in possession of an immunity idol. But he wasn't. And, like so many players before him, Kane found his torch snuffed out along with his hopes and dreams of being Sole Survivor.

Why was Kane so fooled by the Tika trio? What went into his decision to sit out the challenge and not battle for an immunity that might have saved him? And, most importantly, when and how did he find out that Jaime's immunity idol, which he was holding upon his ouster, wasn't actually real?

We spoke to the pride of Moose Jaw to get the fool scoop on everything we saw — and a few things we didn't see — in his ultimately futile pursuit of a million wing-wangs. You can watch the entire interview above, or read it below.

Robert Voets/CBS Kane Fritzler on 'Survivor 44'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How frustrating is it to go out there and not take home the wing-wangs?

KANE FRITZLER: That's a strong leading question. I was keen for the wing-wangs. Everyone goes out there, and I grew as a person, I had a good experience, but I was also keen to get the cash. So it was a little frustrating for sure, but that's how it boils down.

Tell me what you were thinking when you walked into that last Tribal Council in terms of what you thought was going to happen?

That was our first live Tribal, and it was not by accident. [Laughs] It was a very chaotic day on the beach. There were lots of different things percolating. Like Frannie's proposed hit on the Tikas — I heard that as well. So I heard that the Sokas were maybe going for Tika. We knew that the Sokas were maybe coming for Ratu. We thought we had the Tikas pointed at Soka, so on and so forth.

So there were a lot of different plans that were going around. Honestly, that was probably the night where I felt the worst about what plan was real. There was a lot of plan talk at Tribal Council. I distinctly remember everyone just like, "What is the plan? What is the plan? What is the plan?" And it's like, "I've told all of you three different plans, so I don't even know how to help you through this."

I was pretty uncertain going into that Tribal about what was actually going to go down and was basically just holding onto my seat hoping I'd rip through one more vote.

What was your level of trust that the Tika folks were on your side? Also, if Soka had come to you hard and been like, "Hey, Tika is playing the middle, let's go for them," do you think you and the Ratu side would've bit on that or would you have thought that that was just a fake out?

I thought that Ratu would never flip on me. I really had Lauren and Jaime locked in, and I had a very good strategic relationship with Carson. Obviously, he also had a very good strategic relationship with other players as well. But he had proven to me at the Josh vote that if Tika was planning something that involved me, it would come back to me.

I felt good that we had the Tikas pointed at them. It was just a matter of whether that would actually happen, because with the Brandon vote, things kind of went everywhere. Some votes went all over the place. So, I trusted that Tika was pointed at Soka. For Soka, I thought maybe they were pointed at Tika, not at me, but at the same time, through the episode I'm talking about how little the scout's honor bit meant and I didn't have a lot of trust that they were going to point at Tika.

Robert Voets/CBS Kane Fritzler on 'Survivor 44'

You thought you were holding a real immunity idol in your pocket. You told Jaime you would play it for her if she wanted. Did you ever consider playing it for yourself?

I'm glad I didn't in the end because that would've been the absolute slam dunk on my exit. I was holding Jaime's idol in that moment and you kind of see a moment where I do look at her, and when she came over to me during the live Tribal, she said that she wanted me to play it on me or her.  But we weren't sure about where it was heading, right? Because you also see at the tribal that Frannie actually told me that she thought it was pointed at Jaime. So there's a lot of different information going. I think four names total actually hit parchment. I looked to Jaime and sort of waited for a cue to play it and I didn't get it.

Again, that was a blessing in the end, but I think that that was the beat I couldn't get over. If it was my own idol in my sock, I might have been more willing to just be like, "You know what? Let's get through this vote." But there was the idea that it was sort of a tribe idol and the tribe lines were growing pretty strong, so I didn't want to take that action for myself. That's sort of how it boiled down. I think that if it was my own idol, I might have been able to just say screw it. But that's not really how I looked at that idol.

So you thought you had been voted out with an idol in your sock, but it was actually fake. That seems to be a theme this season.  When and how did you learn that the idol Jaime had given you was fake?

I won't tell you exactly when and how I learned, but I'll tell you it was not at Ponderosa. [Laughs] Literally, when I came, I was like, "Argh, the sock idol!" And everyone was like, "No way!" Everyone at that point in the game thought it was real. Usually, people can kind of get a sniff of it. On Jaime's idol, there was not a sniff that it was fake. Every rumor percolating was that this was authenticated. It was like Probst himself handed it to her. So it was really interesting.

So you also found Brandon's fake idol, which he hid at the merge. Tell me about the high and low of thinking you had found a real idol and then realizing it was phony baloney.

I almost set a record going out of the game with two fake idols in my possession. I don't think anyone's ever done that before, but thankfully I'd seen Brandon's before. Me and Danny specifically would just bring back firewood on firewood on firewood because we would look for idols. We'd bring back firewood all the time.

There was this little cubby, I found it, and I did my full celebration. It was an important piece in the game, too. That was a time that was very chaotic. I wanted a little more autonomy and I get this little bundle and I'm so happy and I've got to sneak off to the beach and I open it up, and as soon as I saw the medallion, it was like I got sucker-punched. This is phony. There's nothing to this. It was insult to injury, honestly. But I was good at finding fake idols for whatever that's worth. [Laughs] I don't know if that's a good skill to have.

Robert Voets/CBS Kane Fritzler and Carson Garrett on 'Survivor 44'

You told me before the season that you wanted to "break down the stigma about sitting out for food." But you didn't immediately put your hand up to sit out of the challenge for rice, so take me though what was going through your mind when Jeff made that offer.

I anticipated that the rice negotiation was coming, and I was trying to think of ways that that negotiation could break down differently. I thought, Are there other things we can barter with? Could we potentially give Jeff votes or do something cool? But then I was in a very vulnerable position when we got there. To me, it was risk assessment and I wasn't exactly known for my balance out there. [Laughs] I was seeing that little slice of wood and I didn't think I was going to win that.

It was risk assessment, but that doesn't mean that it's not a strategic decision. I didn't want to be the first one to go up. I wanted my position to be meaningful. If other players were going to sit out and still give me a shot, that was good enough for me because again, I didn't really believe that it was as good as immunity for sitting out. I wanted to wait on it. I had intention of sealing the deal. I didn't want to set the table.

Did you get too comfortable at the merge?

Yeah, it was truly the bang-bang double deal. It's funny, when we came back from the Matt vote, Ratu stood in a circle and laughed — like, literally laughed. I was sitting there the night of, and I was like, I know this is bad. It was a guilty pleasure thing where I was like, I know this is wrong. I know you're not supposed to laugh about your enemy's downfall, but that laughter was the highlight of my Survivor career. It felt so good to be that cocky.

But yeah, I think we got comfortable. The thing is, from my perspective, we had a legit majority alliance. I know there are things going on, but that was the frustrating part; it was a fairly unanimous vote and so it was a good vote to disrupt. The game at that Brandon vote got ripped out of my hands and I could literally in real time feel my autonomy in the game slipping.

So that's what you get, but it's hard to not feel comfortable when you're part of a perceived majority alliance. I remember just being like, Well, what do you want me to do? Everyone I talk to says that the vote's going the way that I think it is. I have no reason to disrupt this vote based on my game. So what am I supposed to do? I did my homework and checked in with my people, but at the end of the day, I didn't get the accurate information, so not much you can do.

Robert Voets/CBS Kane Fritzler on 'Survivor 44'

Who was your ride or die out there?

Mine was Jaime. I put everything through Jaime. She was basically my last check. I would go in with Jaime and I'd be like, "Does this make sense?" And she'd usually call me out if it didn't or if it did. We had a named alliance, we had all the works.

What was the name of your alliance?

We were Triple R. We called ourselves that because we'd say, "Real eyes realize real lies." Then we'd go and we'd be the little lie detectors moving around the camp, and everyone lied to us. It didn't end up working out, but I would move all my information through Jaime to try and verify, because she was very close with Tika as well. She was playing a good social game.

It sort of changed as I went through the season. I was very close with Maddy. She was the person that I was actually working with the most at the very start, and then she got ripped away and I was just like, "Maddy who?  Never heard of that person. There was a sixth member of our tribe?"

So I tried to cover that up, and then I started getting strategically close with Matthew. I could see that we were sort of seeing the game similarly. And then he obviously had to leave because of his shoulder. I was like the curse of Fiji. If someone was like, "Yeah, I'm going to play with Kane" — they just sort of disappeared. [Laughs]

What's something else that happened this season that didn't make it to TV that you wish we had a chance to see?

One of the pieces that I missed out on was just the Ratu life, because Ratu went on a hot winning streak, and then they never really showed us. We went from an extremely disruptive first vote to kumbaya. We were living life there. Me and Brandon would go out and we'd catch fish and we would like sit around a campfire and tell stories. That bonding was very integral and I think a reason why, up to my vote, I was looking at my Ratu girls to see if I should play the tribe idol. Those bonds were very strong. So I think that that's something that I wish would've made it on the screen a little bit more, but it's not as good as hard-hitting strategy.

Finally, how many D&D games have you been invited to since the season started airing?

A few here and there for sure. I got my tables running, so I have no shortage of D&D in my life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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