It happens all the time on Survivor- someone gets hurt, then gets an infection in the wound because they can’t keep it clean and sterile, they call in the medics and end up having to go home. This season, it was Joe Dowdle who was given the bad news that he would have to leave or possibly lose his leg or his life. His parting words were, “This game’s cool, but not that cool.” Here’s what Joe had to say after his earlier than anticipated departure from the game, his fellow castaways, and that arrogant idiot d-bag, Coach:
The show made it seem like your leg had only begun acting up as a serious problem after the 18th day or so. Is that when it really started acting up or did they just not show you struggling with it before then?
Joe: It was a process for sure. That’s when it really started giving me fits, but it started to ache and just be more of a nuisance more than anything about a week before that… Actually I scraped it at the block challenge where we were rolling the blocks and stacked them up to the balcony or whatever. I scraped it there on the block when I was rolling it, and then in the [Episode 5] challenge is where I fell and I felt some stuff go in there and I almost felt it get infected. You know what I’m sayin’?
Was there any back and forth between the doctors about whether there was any chance you would be able to continue in the competition or were they adamant from the beginning that you were not going to continue no matter what?
Joe: …They took footage of me getting shots and they didn’t show any of that, so up to that point I had been in basically a back-and-forth with the docs about what’s going on and what are my chances here. They gave me four different shots, and on the fourth one they can’t do any more — it’s some policy they have — and so they did everything they could as best I understand.
What was your plan if you hadn’t been forced out of the game? Were you planning on trying to do some kind of alliance with Erinn and Taj, Stephen, and JT?
Joe: Absolutely man. I had played under the radar up to that point in which things were just getting good and just starting to shake out. So I sold Erinn to the alliance of JT, Stephen, Taj and I. Basically she was all about it because, like we thought, she was kind on the outs over [at Timbira].
Who did you regard as the biggest threat in the game at that point ?
Joe: I think you gotta look at [Brendan Synnott]. He’s been to Exile as many times as Taj has and there’s a good possibility that he’s got the Idol. So you gotta look at him, and then from a physical standpoint going into individual Immunity Challenges I think you have to look at [Tyson Apostol]. So those two guys and then I obviously I knew Stephen was a really smart guy. I knew JT was great at challenges. So all of those guys, I would say. Taj too because I felt there was a good possibility she had the Idol, so I knew that and I also know that she’d be ability to kinda pull off some strategy.
[Benjamin "Coach" Wade] seems to be a pretty polarizing figure in the competition this season, what did you think of him?
Joe: Honestly I didn’t think much about him because I didn’t have a chance to get to meet him and get to know him. I did meet him but I didn’t get to know him too well. But I kinda thought he was a, well, kind of a jackass. There were some things he said after the challenges that really just came off the wrong way, and we all kinda thought he was full of himself. He didn’t really add much to the physical challenges and everything, so we were kinda scratching our heads saying “Where’s all this perceived confidence coming from?” Those intense meditations, you know.
Yeh, Coach is a moron, and Brendan and Tyson are both huge threats. Glad Joe is doing better and has made a full recovery… I’m glad he foiled everyone’s evil vote out plans- might put a new twist on the game after the merge. What do you think of this season’s Survivor castaways?
[image: CBS]
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