Jenna Doore started Survivor 51 on her back foot after contestants theorized she was lying about her profession. She wasn’t lying, but the rumor rill was strong enough to impact her game from the very first tribal council, where she had to play her Shot in the Dark. As Jeff Probst said in his notes about Survivor 51 Episode 4, it was hard for Jenna to regain her footing after this.

The 30-year-old wedding photographer from Ohio was dealt a very unlucky hand when the two tribes were split into three in Episode 4 and she ended up on a tribe with the secret “helicopter alliance” between Devin Way, Jelly Loblack, and Ori-Jean Charles. Alexis Levine was their fifth member, and neither Jenna nor Alexis knew about the alliance their new teammates formed on day one of the game that they’ve maintained on different beaches ever since.

Devin tried to make Jenna the first boot of Survivor 51, and Jelly voted for her that night as well. Here, Jenna explains why she trusted that Devin and Jelly were working with her in Episode 4 despite this, revealing a deleted scene with Ori that made her trust it was either Jelly or Alexis getting voted out. Plus, after years of unsuccessful Survivor applications followed by a heartbreaking early elimination, Jenna reacts to Probst revealing that Survivor fans told him they thought she would win.

Robert Voets/CBS

Did you really trust Jelly was with you on the plan for the Alexis vote?

Jenna Doore: To be fully honest, yes, I did. And I was in a precarious situation the whole game. This tribal I went into being like, “All right, feel pretty good. Let’s go.” And it’s not because we had this amazing relationship or even because they were so great at lying to me, which they were, but it was because I was all day long assessing the options and I was talking to Alexis and Ori, and Alexis is coming to me and she’s saying, “Devin and Jelly are coming for you.” And I’m like, “Is this true? I don’t know Alexis. Is this true? Can I trust her? Let me corroborate the story with Ori.”

I go to Ori to corroborate the story and he is like, “No, Jenna, we’re on the block. Tell us if there’s anything we can do.” He is not corroborating this at all. He’s not saying Devin and Jelly are coming for me, so that leads me to believe Alexis is lying and she’s just desperate. And also that means Devin and Jelly aren’t coming for me. And I, of course, was nervous about that, but after that, it was like putting the pieces [together]. Those were the pieces I had to work with. And so I legitimately thought it makes sense that we could work together for this vote.

Also, it’s hard when you see Dev coming at me, coming at me, coming at me. Devin and I, I don’t know this at the time that he’s doing all of that, but we had a lot of heart to hearts, so much repair, so much deep life talks. So, it wasn’t like there was nothing to go on, that we had no relationship. And I will say, I think this is my strength and my absolute weakness as a player, this is in life, too: I don’t cut people off easily.

My instinct is not to be like, “They’re coming for me, I’m coming for them.” That’s not me. And maybe I could use a little bit more of that, but what is me is I will bring you into the fold. I want to win you over. Let’s see what we can work with here. And I think that’s why I felt I had options with Devin, Jelly, and perhaps in a different iteration of this game I do, but not this one.

Robert Voets/CBS

I guess because he was having those deep talks with you, it’s like, “Oh, he doesn’t want me out. He likes me, so I’m safe.” Is that the feeling?

Yeah, it’s the feeling. It’s like we haven’t been on the right side of the votes, but a little bit like, OK, Dev, I don’t blame you. You’re coming for me. OK. OK. I’m not coming for you. Can we see what’s possible here?

Of course, the big piece of information that you didn’t have was this helicopter alliance that those three were in. So, Ori wasn’t the person to trust.

Completely, completely.

When did you learn about the helicopter alliance and what was your reaction to seeing it play out on screen?

I learned it pretty immediately after the game. I learned it pretty soon after and everyone was like, “Yeah, that was a really bad swap for you.” I had a watch party last night and of course nobody knows what’s happening, but everyone there, I get swapped and they’re like, “Oh, boy.” I mean, of course it was not a great swap for me, but I didn’t realize how not great of a swap it was for me.

It would’ve been a bad swap for anyone. It was a bad swap for Alexis, too.

It was a bad swap for Alexis, 100%.

Robert Voets/CBS

Because you two got put into a tribe with an alliance that already had the numbers against you.

And one that we didn’t know about to their credit.

‘Survivor 51’s Patt Cannaday Reveals Alliance ‘Mistakes’ That Sealed Her Fate

Totally. And it wasn’t on mine.

Do you think that taking someone’s shoes as collateral would really work as a sign of trust in the game? What good does that do?

Listen, I’m giving Alexis her flowers here. Let me tell you this. It had a mixed reaction to me because what I felt from Alexis, and I’ve told her this, I’m like, “Girl, you play hard and I love it. I respect it.” But you saw her, the initial conversation where she’s like, “Girl, I think it would be absolutely stupid if you work with these people who don’t like you.” And I kind of laugh because I’m like, “I can also form that conclusion.” You know what I mean? Thank you for letting me know, but I can get there, too. And I think that was Alexis’s energy.

In some ways, it kind of pushed me away to be like, “OK, I want to come to this conclusion on my own. I’m going to come to this conclusion on my own.” But I will say this, I thought it was smart. I thought it was smart as hell to be like, “Will you give me your shoes?” Because to be honest, what’s happening for me in this moment was I won’t because I’m voting for you. And I think that clued her in: Jenna’s not with me. And maybe, maybe there’s another world where she actually is convinced I’m with her and I don’t get every single vote. Not that it would’ve helped, but I don’t know. I respect it.

Robert Voets/CBS

Why was it clear to you that it was either you or Alexis on the chopping block? What conversations made you think that too because as you said, you didn’t know.

It wasn’t clear to me that it was me or Alexis.

The episode made it look like that a bit.

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It made it look like that. It did. And I loved the suspense of it all, the edit. I thought it was great. And I think it portrayed what was the actual reality, which was it was me or Alexis, but that was not clear to me. To me, it was Alexis or Jelly. That’s the conversations I had with Alexis and Ori. It was like, “We’re voting for Jelly.”

Did you talk to Ori in the episode about getting Jelly out? I can’t recall seeing that.

I don’t know that it was shown, but it happened.

But there was a conversation about that. What was that conversation like?

It was basically like that was the plan. That’s why I was so blindsided. Alexis and Ori are making this plan. We got to vote for Jelly. Devin and Jelly are coming for me kind of a thing. And that’s what Alexis is pitching and they’re making this case that they’re on the bottom.

Also, if you’re them and you take away the helicopter alliance, it does make more sense to swoop me up versus taking me out because then we have a more obvious majority versus now they’re two, two. I mean, that’s not actually how it is, but you know what I’m saying? So, there’s a lot that made me actually think Ori and Alexis, their interest is aligned with mine to vote out either Dev or Jelly.

Robert Voets/CBS

I don’t know how much other tribe members knew about that five alliance that was going on with Patt, Brady, Mike, Jelly, and Devin, but did it seem like coming for Jelly would help destabilize that alliance, too? Was that on your minds?

It wasn’t really on my mind, to be honest. No. I felt like what happened happened and all the lines were messy. But I mean, it certainly created this division that was very real. So yeah, a little bit. I mean, I think Jelly’s an incredibly strong player, and so I think she’s a threat. And so in that way, it could have been a cool opportunity to take a stab at someone that you really think can win. But also, I felt that way about Alexis as well.

Totally. And I want to get your reaction to something Jeff Probst said in his “Field Notes” about your elimination. He said, “Jenna got off to a tough start and I don’t think she ever regained her footing. So much sacrifice to get on the show and then the undeniable devastation with being voted out so early. A lot of fans told me they had Jenna as a pick to win, and that’s why we play, to separate dreams and possibility from action and result.” What is your response to that?

Man, it’s so crazy. Sorry, I’m getting slightly emotional —

I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention. That’s really cool that fans told Jeff that they thought you would win.

Yeah. No, it’s so sweet. It’s so sweet.

I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry!

I cry pretty easily. You could see this on the show. No, I’m crying from a good place.

OK, good.

It’s honestly funny. In some ways, it’s not what I expected to hear, but also it really does encapsulate what I feel, which is like, man, you go out and you chase your dreams and you have all this potential and all of this hope of what it’s going to be, and then you do it. Sorry, I need to get it together. OK

Then you do it and you deal with the disappointment at best and absolute devastation maybe at worst of those things coming together. And that sounds negative, but when I think about that, it’s something I deeply take as a value I have in my life, but it’s certainly something I take from playing Survivor, which is, man, I don’t ever want to be afraid of the heartbreak and the devastation and let that get in the way of me chasing the things that matter to me because it means I’m in the arena fricking doing it. And I feel proud.

I said this in my last final confessional. Thank God I had some clarity in my brain to say this, but I wouldn’t want it any other way but to go out and be heartbroken because it meant my heart was in it.

Yeah, that’s really moving. You dream of this thing, reality is always going to be different than how you pictured it in the dream, but it’s still good you got it, right?

Yes, exactly. It’s still good you got it. And if you only see success in terms of the 1% that win, and I’m saying this in Survivor, but also in anything you’re going for, you miss out on all of the gifts of the process of trying and what it was like to put yourself in a place of facing failure and seeing what you’re made of. You miss all of those gifts if you’re so narrow-minded to think that success is only the outcome.

Do you agree that it was hard for you to regain your footing after that first tribal?

Yeah, I do. And it was a bit, I don’t know, I agree with it and I also don’t a little bit. It’s true in the sense that maybe the game board, I couldn’t regain my footing. Devin and Jelly were already against [me]. I didn’t have the relationships that they had built on the beach. I was trying to catch up, trying to catch up, and I couldn’t. In that sense, I totally agree.

In a different sense, I feel, and I said this to Joe in my interview going into that tribal council where I get voted out, I was like, “It’s not fun to go to tribal council, but Joe, I’m putting in my reps right now.” You know what I mean? I feel like I’m getting it. So, in that way, maybe I was at the very beginning of regaining my footing and it never got to be fully seen.