Liz Wilcox reveals the “Survivor 46” finale speech she never got to give

The fourth-place finisher also weighs in on if she still thinks she would have won the game

Let me tell you something: one million dollars can buy a lot of damn Applebee’s. Unfortunately, Liz Wilcox will not be getting Applebee’s for life after coming up short in her quest to win Survivor 46. Then again, maybe she’s so rich it doesn’t really matter?

Liz thought she had the game in the bag, even telling the final three of Kenzie Petty, Charlie Davis, and Ben Katzman that “It was really over for you guys. I would have beat all of you.” Whether that is true or not is open for debate, but Liz never got the chance to prove it after she lost a final four fire-making competition to Kenzie that sent the former to the jury and the latter to the final 3 and eventual victory.

How does Liz now think she would have done had she made it to the end? Why did she vote for Charlie to win? And where did the idea come from to help Kenzie in the final five challenge to beat Maria Shrime Gonzalez? We talked about all of that and more over an imaginary plate of Applebee’s.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with your vote. Why did you vote for Charlie to win Survivor 46?

LIZ WILCOX: I voted for Charlie because of his move at final seven. Kenzie, and I really wanted to keep Venus. Kenzie and I wanted to be in the final three together with Venus. And he was so not budging, and he convinced not only Kenzie but me to keep Q and betray Venus. And I thought, “Oh snap. Yeah, you actually did that. I really wanted Q out and you convinced me one more vote and I didn't even see that that was to protect you.” And I got played, my darling. I got played, and so that's why I voted for Charlie.

So we saw you talking a lot about how you would have wiped the floor with those other ho-bags had you made it to the very end. After talking to the jurors, do you still feel that way?

I want to say that when I talked to the jury about this, I was still very upset. And the jury, if you couldn't tell by their 30 second timers and their no jokes, they were not very nice. That's all I'll say. And so I was really not being heard. And to this day, I haven't really been given an opportunity to explain myself too much.

But yeah, I do still think I could sway some people. Would I have won? I don't know. And I'm not one to speculate, but I do believe that I had things to say. And when Maria left the game, she said, “My vote is going to the person that's going to drop a bomb on me. I want to be wowed and I want to be impressed.” And I said, “Oh, honey, now you've definitely got to go to the jury because I've got some things to say to you.” And I feel like the jury really respected Maria, and if she came in respecting me, they would've listened to me.

Related: Survivor 46 finale recap: A stunning vote from a juror tips the scales

So hit me with your speech to the jury. What were you going to say if you'd gotten there?

Yeah, so before we hit record, Dalton said, “Liz, my favorite Survivor weirdo.” I knew that I wasn't going to go in there and try to blend in. That was something I talked about in the casting process. And I knew that people tend to dismiss me. Very similar to Ben's story, I've always been the clown for the party. And I said: Instead of trying to hide that or try to be something I'm not, why don't I just lean 10% more into that personality? And so I did. Instead of trying to hide my wealth, I actually exaggerated it. I'm not a millionaire, or rumored billionaire, sorry to break your hearts. I'm just a single mom.

And I think even that dropping that bomb and saying, “Hey, I've been talking about my family, I've been talking about coming out of poverty, a lot of my family is still there, and actually everyone relies on me for support and the money I've made actually isn't what you think. Give me the money” I think that would've swayed people, especially people like Maria and possibly even Q who said in the finale after-show, “Hey, Kenzie's answer about the money really helped me solidify who I was writing down.”

I know the jury might be saying now, “Nah, nah, nah, Liz,” but we don't know. And I really think making that move of saying I was a millionaire really did disarm people. “There's no way she's lying to us” — when really I actually was. And the second biggest thing I think was actually the Tevin vote. And it might seem like, “Oh, that was a million years ago.” I did that very much on purpose. It was very intentional to get rid of Tevin so early. Similar to Gabler. I make a move really quick and then I kind of go under the radar. You forget about me.

Also, what they didn't show is that to push that vote, people kept asking online, “How did she actually convince everyone? She's not part of the secret six and Tevin was.” I made a promise to each person I individually talked to: If you let me drive the bus today, I'm going to get in the back of the bus and zip my lips. I'm going to vote however you want. So I was able to make that deal with Tiff, Maria, Ben, and Charlie, and I feel like I fulfilled that promise to everyone but Tiff. And the only reason I voted her out was because I believed that she was the one that left me out of the Hunter vote. And so I said, well, contract null and void, you're out of here.

But I did tell Maria, Ben, and Charlie, “If you help me make this move, I'll help you make a move.” So Maria came up to me, “Hey Liz, remember when you said that? Now's the time, let's get out Tiff.” And I said, “Well, I have a contract with both of you, but Tiff didn't fulfill her contract with me yesterday, so she's gone today.” And I think that would've had a lot of people nodding their heads of, “Oh yeah, she did say that. Oh yeah, she did do that. She did exactly what she said. She went to the back of the bus and she helped me drive my vote.”

Related: The Survivor 46 final 5 speak!

Let's get into a few other things that happened, like you helping Kenzie with that final five challenge. Tell me about where that hit you to be like: I'm going to go back and get this woman's plank and start counting.

Listen, I'm nothing if not a creative being. Jeff said it best, like “Liz, you're one of the most unique people to play the game.” And for me, I went into that challenge knowing: Oh gosh, if there's a puzzle, it's not me. I'm not a visual learner. So puzzles are actually really hard for me to see and to understand. And so I was between Maria and Kenzie, I saw them and I'm like, “Oh, neck and neck, come on, Kenzie, come on, Kenzie!” And then I noticed that it was saying something about geckos, And so I started counting the geckos. If you go and rewatch, you can see that Liz isn't actually trying to solve the puzzle. I'm actually counting and I'm whispering to Kenzie "36, 36, 36." And I'm double counting and I'm triple counting for her.

I forget what the middle piece was, but I'm counting those two and I'm giving her the numbers and I'm like, “Keep counting, keep counting.” And she's like, ‘What is it? Plank holes?” And the moment that I realized I needed to go was when Jeff said in the challenge, he was like, “This plank, you can do whatever you want with it.” And so I was like, “Oh, plank holes!” And so I knew Kenzie had to finish her puzzle, and so I just ran, ran, ran. And yeah, the mission was not for me to win, it was for Maria to lose, and I fulfilled that mission. Another point for FTC.

What was your reaction to your own Applebee's explosion after it happened? Both out there and then watching it back on TV?

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was like: Wow, I've never done that before. I've never really just lost it. And I was like, “Thanks guys. Wow, I'm not dead!” And I think that's what a lot of people are missing is, yeah, I lost it. But what I loved and the biggest lesson I learned out there was as much grace as I give, I can receive that grace. So it was awesome for people to be gracious and be like, “Yeah, Liz, we've all been wanting to explode. You were the one to actually do it. Kudos to you. That's incredible. I wish I could be so brave to lose it.”

We knew it was going to be a moment. We were like, this is the biggest, craziest, wildest moment in maybe 10 years or so. And so we had so much fun laughing about it. And then watching it back, my body was reacting, but mentally, I had moved on from it. But it was really hard to see my daughter so upset. She was really upset, and I said, “Well look, mom's right here. I'm actually just fine. And I didn't starve to death. I just lost it for a second.”

Related: Survivor 46 finale exclusive deleted scene shows 'final several minus 2'

So about the pooping? Was it just a one-time thing or were there follow up sessions?

Okay, so that morning I sat, and I could not do the aqua dump because it was just taking me so long, I didn't want to drown. And I sat, and I sat, and I sat, and I sat, and I'm eating a little bit of rice at a time so I don't get impacted or whatever. And I'm like: I know something's coming. It finally happened. Woohoo! I made a joke about “Now I'm in the game!” Again, that was another seeding so I could get to the end and be like, “Obviously I've been in the game, just because I took a BM. Did you guys really buy that?” But anyway, then I ate the Chinese food after releasing the first demon and it was bad that whole day. It was like, oh my gosh!

What happened to your shoe?

I. Don't. Know. So I put my shoes in the crevice of the tree every single night where we left our wood where Venus would feed the fire all night. And I woke up and there was only one, and the one was just fine. So the only — and sorry to the camera men and crew — the only explanation is the wood was in the way of Venus checking on the fire. And so they were immediately throwing things over a little cliff and they threw my shoe and we never found it. I looked and looked and looked and looked.

Related: Survivor 46 recap: Liz is pissed, and Applebee’s is to blame

Anything else that happened out there that did not make it to TV that you wish we had seen?

I really wish they would've shown that I was purposely exaggerating my wealth. I feel like that would've been pretty epic, but what are you going to do?

Finally, how much Applebee's have you eaten since you got back?

A s--- ton.

Check out the rest our other Survivor 46 finale coverage including 1-on-1 chats with Kenzie, Charlie, Ben, and Maria, an exclusive deleted scene, group interviews with the final five and the jury as well as our full episode recap and look ahead to next season.

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