‘Survivor 50’ star Christian Hubicki has finally spoken out, revealing the shocking reason behind his elimination from Survivor 50.

“I think this conversation should center around the story we want to tell ourselves moving forward. Survivor is about stories and sort of stories within stories. We’ve got to write the story where we ascend back into dominance.”

Christian Hubicki said this on Day 3 of Survivor 50, at the first of what would be many Tribal Councils he’d attend over his 18-day journey in the game. But it’s emblematic of the general attitude the David vs. Goliath standout had going into his highly anticipated return to the beach. After getting taken out due to being the biggest perceived threat, the robotics scientist was adamant this time around to trade in a calculator for a pen, eager to commit “narrative warfare.” And, for the majority of the game, he was able to do so, finding idols, putting together massive blindsides, and even getting revenge on some of his former castmates. But, eventually, the same narrative came bubbling up like severe gastrointestinal distress: Christian is one of the most dangerous players in this game. And so, with an alley-oop courtesy of Jimmy Fallon’s new twist, Christian’s chances of winning were suddenly evacuated, leaving his game soiled.

Christian was eager to start his second season off on the right foot (before subsequently tripping over said foot). And he got the right tribe to do that. He and Emily Flippen affirmed their pre-game relationship, becoming immediately tight allies. But Christian’s ultimate number one fell to the man he wanted to be “Number One” to: Rick Devens. He was eager to work with his fellow standout from the 30s, and when his “breadth-first search” had him acquiring a “Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol,” he immediately informed him. Rick, for his part, looked at Christian’s idol note, and saw an opportunity. So that night, under cover of darkness (and a pratfall straight out of Charlie Chaplin), he hid a fake idol he had made at Tribal Council, hoping to pull it out at an opportune moment to save both of their games.

The swap continued a constant for Christian this season, as he went to Tribal Council in every single episode. But there were a number of variables now in his grasp, including his former David vs. Goliath compatriots in Mike White and Angelina Keeley. For one vote, it seemed like Christian was able to keep his strategic equation balanced, managing both his Season 37 trio and his alliance with Emily. But, when Mike pitched taking out Emily, even invoking a comparison to Gabby Pascuzzi, Christian was seeing red with the White Lotus creator. He felt Mike was too dangerous in this game, and not wanting to repeat the same mistakes as last time, he put together a tightrope 3-2-1 vote to take down the Nacho Libre writer from the top rope. After subsequently getting rid of Angelina, Christian made one thing very clear to his competition: Any pregame dynamics didn’t matter with him. If he felt getting rid of you in the present would help his future, he was happy to make you a thing of the past.

While a lot of eyes were on Christian in the premerge, they had a lot of directions to look once the game turned individual. But, while he wasn’t a target in the first couple of postmerge votes, he was still regarded by a certain percentage of the population for being a threatening “middle person.” The way Christian saw it, however, that was a faulty line of code in his perception. Ozzy Lusth, on the other hand, was the prototypical example of what people said he was, someone who was playing all sides, and had the protection of an idol. So he attempted to stage another big move to reel in the iconic Survivor fisherman. The only problem: He pitched it to Ozzy’s secret number one ally, Cirie Fields.

The night prior, Rick had capitalized on the heat being on him to pull out the fake idol. And, while he felt every day on Survivor resets, there was a severe antipathy towards him the next morning, giving “Captain Kirk” a target as bright as a red shirt. But the tide soon began to shift against Christian, between Jonathan Young and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick feeling like he had strung them along, and Cirie now coming after him for throwing out Ozzy’s name. Perhaps it was a recognition of this impending trouble that had Christian eagerly volunteer to go on a journey, where he faced a new twist that had him, fittingly, saying, “Ew!”

Jimmy Fallon had given him a challenge to face, with a small reward and large consequences. If he succeeded, he would get an extra vote to cast against someone right there and then. If he failed, he would make history by being forced to vote against himself. Unfortunately, while Christian’s Survivor career memorably kicked off with him absolutely beasting a puzzle, it ended with him flopping on one. Christian had said getting rid of Coach Wade and Chrissy Hofbeck was like takiing out “the heart of the Death Star.” But if Return of the Jedi taught us anything, it’s that another one can be easily built in its place. And this one shone a beam large enough to blow his game to smithereens like Alderaan. But, as one of the best wordsmiths in 25+ years of Survivor, Christian didn’t go out without speaking his mind towards a certain late-night host and superfan in his voting confessional.

“This is a message for Jimmy Fallon. How dare you? This idea you had is terrible. no more ideas for you. I look forward to your apology.”

Now out of the game, Christian talks with Parade about how much he felt Jimmy Fallon truly messed with his game, why he pitched Ozzy’s name to Cirie, and whether he ever told anyone about his newborn son.

First off, has the estate of Jimmy Fallon paid you any reparations for everything that went down last night?
[Laughs.] We will see. I mean, that remains to be seen. Look, Jimmy, my phone is open to you, whenever you want to get in touch. I can bring a mediator if that will help. Whatever it takes to make sure that we repair our very short friendship.

Let’s get into that “friendship.” I want to get your thoughts on the twist, as an analyst of the game. Because, before the journey, it sounded like some of the tide was already turning against you. So how much do you think being forced to vote for yourself is the reason why you’re talking with me today?
I think it was significant. I’m not going to say, “Oh, the twist screwed me.” I think it’s a little cliched. But I think that the fact that I already had a vote on me when you have two targets. And to be clear, I made myself a target specifically by telling Cirie the name of Ozzy. That was just a pure mistake. And on Survivor, you’re kind of only as good as your worst day. I think that was my worst day by far in the 18 days I was in the game. So it put me on the target.

But I think there was actually a legitimate chance it would have flopped to Emily. Look, I’m not sure I will ever know. But certainly, I think you heard Rizzo say it, like, “No, Christian is against the wall here. Do not let him get away from it.” I understand that. I don’t blame him at all. So I think that it’s played a role in really shifting it in the end. That’s my perspective.
I wasn’t in on all those conversations, but that’s why I think that it did play a role.

And even if I didn’t tell Cirie about the Ozzy plan, I think that me going on that journey, I’m not sure I would have in that case. I’m sorry, I’m going off on a rail here. But if I come back with a disadvantage, I think it would have been dangerous regardless. Would I have gone home? I don’t know. But I think it would have coozed along Jonathan’s drive to get me out. Like, “Oh, look, he’s got a vote on him, too.” So I think that telling Cirie or the Jimmy Fallon advantage were dangerous. But together it was pretty deadly.

You mentioned pitching Ozzy to Cirie, one half of that deadly equation. What was your perspective on their relationship, and what made you think you could pitch his name to her?
So I mean, it’s good on Cirie and Ozzy! I mean, to be clear, there were rumblings about this alliance. We talked about it a lot back on Old Cila. So I feel partly it’s just a boneheaded mistake. How did I forget this element? So it’s just that’s the simplest explanation. I lost track of all things going on with the 11 different people having relationships. I had the time to think about it. This is a two-day cycle. I kind of woke up with this terrible epiphany that Ozzy was in the middle. I mean, it’s true. Ozzy was in the middle. But the tactics where I went about it [were not good]. And frankly, targeting Ozzy was probably not even the right call there, period. Why did I target Ozzy? He’s the one I sensed was in the middle. But clearly, there was more going on around him.

And I’m not trying to pretend like I knew about what seems like a very strong trio of Cirie, Ozzy and Rizo. But on my sort of list of people going into the pregame of people that like would be nominally good targets, I was pretty good at staying on this sort of doctrine I set up. I had a set list of people that I felt would be like maybe taking close to the end, and some people who were just threatening because they’re very good and they blend in.
That’s Cirie and Rizo.

And, to be clear, he’s doing great stuff. Nominally out there, he looked like he was laying in the shelter and sick and not eating. And so it really seemed like people were carrying Rizo along. I’m not saying he’s not playing a great game. That was the perception I think that a lot of people had. So Cirie and Rizzo, per my doctrine, were better targets. And I ignored that. Ozzy was not on that list. And Rizo had an idol. Cirie, I wanted to keep around for longer purposes. I went off the rails of your question. But the reason that I trusted Cirie is that I actually promised her a Final Three deal on Day 1.

Right, you told me you were going to do that in the preseason, capitalizing on her fear of not making it to the end.
Yeah. And I will say she did a great job of cultivating me. She’s very good. I’m going to go on record saying Cirie is quite good at Survivor. And I remember the specific pitch that I said to her was, “Look, we both have this same problem, which is punching through to the finals. You have this problem to a much greater degree than me. To be clear, I’m not you. But there are shades of the same color of the problem. And look, there’s times in the early game, I’m sure it’ll be helpful if I were to help you. I will help you. And come the merge, I will need you to help me. I will help you, you will help me. (5:50) And at the end, we’ll help each other.”

And on the way that Cirie said it in the episode, I felt there were shades of that and how she talked about her relationship with me, which was, “Yeah, Christian’s my number three.” Which, by the way, I’m happy to be Cirie’s number three. That’s very high on the list of Cirie’s numbers. There’s a lot of people on that list. But she said, “Oh, yeah, there are times Christian protected me. There were times that I protected him.” I’m like, “Yes, that was the plan!” But I, of course, scuttled that when I just forgot — it’s so silly — how close she was with Ozzy.

Let’s hit on a couple of other relationships. You had a pregame relationship with Emily, and you link up quickly on the island. But you also experienced her being loose-lipped with a couple of secrets, including the idol you had given Aubry. How did your dynamic change over the course of the season?
I mean, I was surprised. I did not expect the degree to which Emily would pill these secrets.
But I will say, while I didn’t always understand her tactics, I always felt that she wasn’t gunning for me, and she wanted me to stick around and was willing to protect me. So to be clear, when Mike White was pitching Emily, I did listen to what he said. There was a point where I was like, “Maybe Mike is right. Maybe I’m trusting Emily too much.” But then it shifted. And I was like, “No, wait, no.”

I felt like Emily is acting in a way that she’s a little erratic in how she shares the information.
But I think there’s a method to it. But I felt that she always wanted to go deep with me and would be willing to protect me in spite of the spilling of the secrets. It wasn’t an act of disloyalty. It was sort of an act of freneticism.

And I felt that that was ultimately validated at this vote. Because she could have just thrown me under the bus like, “Oh, Christian voted for himself. That’s it.” Instead, she tries to throw the target on Ozzy. She tries to pitch it on Ozzy. So I felt like I made the right bet. This is a person that would have been just easy to [target me]. It would have diffused our target as a group, which is, “No, I’m going to help Christian.” And so I feel so vindicated that I didn’t get spooked by any sort of comparisons to Gabby or things like that. I had the right read on her intentions.

Let’s talk about your “Captain Kirk” in Rick Devens. Talk to me about your relationship. If you survived, how far were you planning on taking him?
I would have loved to take Rick to the end. Absolutely. I think that it’s a dangerous game because he’s a very likable figure who does a lot of dramatic moves at tribal council that the jury tends to love. But I think that there’s something to sort of a reveal of like, “Oh, actually, that hidden idol, I tripped at Tribal Council to help hide it.” The argument would be “the power behind the throne.”

But truly, I would have taken him to the end because I trust him. The shenanigans that we did together require complete trust. And every time I would do these things, we would do these things for each other, it would build that trust deeper. And so it just made sense to go to the end with him. Not that I would expect it would be easy to beat him, far from it. But I think that that would be the right call to go with him to the end. I was totally willing to rock and roll with Captain Kirk.

You mentioned Mike White. I’d be remiss not to talk about you mounting this 3-2-1 vote against him. What made you decide to turn on him at this moment? And how tough was that to do, considering the years-long friendship you had up to that point?
It was hard. I mean, that swap at first, I was like, “This is great! I have options. I got people from my old tribe, people from my old season.” But then, as we started going to Tribal, I was like, “This is going to show where my loyalties are.” And there was this just talk in the air of the “DvG 3, Mike and Angelina and Christian, they are a tight trio.” And so nominally, once you start going to Tribal Council and there are votes piling on Angelina, I was like, “Well, Angelina is the natural choice. Ozzy wants to get her out. That’s an easy sort of momentum-based decision. I can just hop on that train.”

But, as you saw in the episode, Mike is really trying to push to get out Emily. And it didn’t quite make quite sense to me. But, in a way, I trusted his sort of character judgment on people. He’s got a good judge of people. And he said, “She’s going to stab you in the back, just like Gabby did.” And honestly, I believed him. And I went back to Stephenie, and I said, “Stephenie, let’s do Emily.” And so we were going to do it.

And then I went back and talked with Mike again. And it’s just like, “Ok, what are we going to do with the merge? Because that’s the problem. What are we going to do with the three of us?” And he said, “We’ll figure it out.” And I’m like, “Oh, Mike, we need something!” I was kind of pleading with him, almost hoping that he would change his mind because of how much a bigger target I would be. And I realized there was no plan. I was going to be marching into a slaughter. I’d be taking the bullet of the three of us. And I’m like, “This has got to change.” And Mike is doing everything he can to save Angelina, including trying to convince me to do something I know is a bad idea.

And so I look at it now, and I’m like, “Ok, Mike is a connecting tissue between Ozzy and Angelina. And so if Mike is removed, then Ozzy and Angelina are unlikely to work together.” And I think that ultimately was borne out. And also it demonstrates to everyone that the “David vs. Goliath 3” was not as tight as they thought they were. And when I realized that, how do we do that? It has to be a 3-2-1. Ozzy can’t know. It was pretty clear Ozzy would tip off Mike. Turns out that was true. So that’s how it came.

But it was hard. I remember talking in an interview at the time. And there’s a point where I even turned to the producer. I said, “Am I allowed to do this? Because it’s Mike White.” And he’s like, “Christian, you can’t ask that question.” [Laughs.] Because in part, I knew he wouldn’t like it. That was the one thing I hated about it. But I just like I wasn’t going to throw my game away. I wasn’t going to do it. And that’s the only way to move forward without being a huge target.

Mike and Angelina have certainly had some things to say in their interviews. They’ve said you were “performative” and that you had made a preseason boot list. And Mike has revealed that the two of you haven’t spoken since you voted him out. What’s your take on your relationships with them now?
I mean, I reached out to Mike as soon as I got back. I sent him a long message saying, “You know why I did what I did.” Because I really wanted to work with him. And I didn’t want him to think I was always planning to deceive him and get him out. So I gave him a really long message saying all the reasons that it happened. And also, I hated the fact that it got him, because I know he cared deeply about this game. He cares so much about Survivor, and to take him out of it, I knew it would hurt him.

So I tried to give him every element of the explanation. So hopefully at some point, he absorbs that. And I hope someday he understands, and I’m hopeful that he will, because there certainly was no malice behind it.

I’m not sure what other allegations you’re talking about. But I hope that everyone knows that I respect everyone on that island in terms of my time I got to spend with them. Angelina, when I voted her out, I said, “Many people know you as the ‘asker of jackets, the master of negotiators.’ But I see you as a loving mother of two children that you love dearly.” And so we’re all people. And I respect them as competitors. And I hope that one day we can really have a relationship with everyone on that island, them included.

Of course, you spoke to us a lot about Michael, your newborn son, whom you left to play, your “north star.” Did you tell anyone about him once you were voted out at Ponderosa?
Once I got to Ponderosa, I was able to open up to the people there. I had one photo on this Kindle-like device of him. So I was able to show that, “Yeah, this is my son, Michael.” And he was just my secret for me. It was a motivation to do the right things. Whatever other motivations come into your mind when you’re on a season of Survivor, are you doing this just because it’ll be silly and fun? And silly and fun is fine. But does it threaten the goal, which is to show Michael you can win?

And so that would be a phenomenal filter, an anchoring force back to what really matters. Right. And that’s what he was to me. I mean, whether I would have revealed him later at any point, it would have depended. But I think that ultimately that’s what he was. And so for me, I wanted to make sure that I did something to make him proud. That’s what it was about.