Survivor Ghost Island has arrived! Every week, Parade’s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off of the island.

In the most recent ball-based Immunity Challenge, host Jeff Probst outlined how focus is essential to a win. Someone could have an excellent hold on their ropes when one slight movement in any direction could send everything splaying and ruin their chances at victory. Desiree Afuye went out early (though to be fair, so did about three-quarters of her fellow Lavita members), and her performance was ultimately an omen for her time in the game. After spending 25 days in the game in a comfortable position with her Naviti majority, she chose to move by going to the Malolo minority to shake up the game, a balls-to-the-wall maneuver that ultimately sent her rolling onto the jury.

Desiree came into Survivor having already survived her own arduous conditions, having been homeless and living out of her car while working in an internship. She had the spotlight shone in her direction from nearly the first minute in the game, as appointed tribe leader Chris Noble elected she would do the puzzle in the hopes of winning the first Reward Challenge for her tribe. Unfortunately, it was an incorrect assumption to make, as Desiree struggled on the slide puzzle, allowing Laurel Johnson to get ahead and causing Chris to tap out of the challenge and give the victory to Malolo, one of the few times the orange group won. Though she seemed single-handedly responsible for the loss, focus surprisingly faded from her and onto Chris, particularly when Domenick Abbate voiced his dissent against the male model’s decision. While Naviti did lose on Day 1, it was only temporary, as they won the next two Immunity Challenges, keeping Desiree safe until the first swap. A buff draw had her moving homes to Malolo, but she was still in a Naviti majority with Kellyn Bechtold, Bradley Kleihege, Chelsea Townsend, and Sebastian Noel. Despite the quintet being on different sides of their old tribe, they all bled the same purple blood, choosing to enforce their numbers. Desiree was also showing her penchant for outside-the-box thinking, being the one vocalizing targeting Brendan Shapiro and Stephanie Johnson. Though she earned praise from Jeff for submerging herself underwater during one of Malolo’s many losing performances, she was able to keep her head above water strategically speaking.

Day 15 brought another tribe swap, leaving Desiree hoping that “fate is the homie” and she continues to be in the numbers. Luckily, fate was on her side, keeping her both on Malolo and on the side of the numbers with Kellyn and new Naviti transfer Angela Perkins. But fate can cut both ways, something she experienced first-hand when she got an opportunity to redeem her puzzle skills in the next Immunity Challenge and once again came up short (but loud, considering her great skills as the caller in the first part). She had hit her lowest point, vocalizing in tears how she’s used to exceeding expectations off the island. Despite James Lim taking advantage of the moment to target Desiree, emphasizing strength in challenges, Kellyn’s oft-referred gut had her help enforce the majority and send James running. Perhaps it was this second chance that gave Desiree the idea to make her own attempt to “reverse the curse” of Malolo by burning the tribe flag. It was both a proper sacrifice, as they finally won the next Immunity Challenge, and foreshadowing, as the remaining thirteen contestants would ditch their respective tribe names to join together as one at the merge. But even with a new name, old tribe lines still prevailed, with the Naviti members continuing to be in the majority. Though they briefly cannibalized in sending Chris out with an idol in his pocket, they got back to the plan by getting rid of Libby Vincek next, a target suggested by Desiree, who felt the frequent flyer had the potential to fly under the radar. At that Tribal Council, she had said, “If you’re not considering big moves right now, then you’re not playing the game.” She made good on that motto the next day by approaching the remaining Malolo players with the plan to vote together against Kellyn, feeling that her, Domenick, and Wendell Holland were too threatening to her game. What she didn’t count on, though, was her Day 1 puzzle opponent in Laurel. Having made a close alliance with Domenick, Wendell, and Donathan Hurley in the premerge, she told them about her plan, and things immediately began to blow up in Desiree’s face. At Tribal Council, she attempted vigorously to turn things back onto Laurel, claiming she never did any such plotting. While she thought her performance was worthy of an Oscar, the entire tribe except Chelsea and Angela (the latter of whom lost her vote after coming up short at Ghost Island) chose to give her a Survivor Razzie, sending her out of the game.

Now on the jury, Desiree talks with me about why she planned to go against Kellyn after being with her every day in the premerge, her various relationships with Malolos and Navitis, and how her hardships outside of the game prepared her for the Survivor experience.

I noticed that, after getting your torch snuffed, you said, “Ladies, y’all better keep winning.” Was that in reference strictly to women being the only ones to win Immunity Challenges so far, or did you think the guys were the ones behind voting you out?

When I said that, I felt like the ladies were kind of in danger. It was a warning; “Ladies, you better winning, because if you don’t, these guys might take control of the game.” I felt like the ladies were winning challenges, but [socially and strategically], the guys were totally winning. Had the ladies been winning, there would be no reason for me to be against Kellyn and there would be no reason for me to be voted out instead of a guy.

So you believed that, even though the ladies were the ones doing well in the challenges because the guys were the ones finding idols and being the ones behind the power plays, they were the ones who were running things?

Exactly. The guys had idols, and they were still in the game; nobody was trying to get rid of them. They were able to convince everybody to get rid of me. That showed me they’re great players and making major moves.

Let’s go back to your decision to go to the Malolos and vote for Kellyn. Often, we see a lot of plans come together in the time between the Immunity Challenge and Tribal Council. However, you went to them the morning after Libby went out, which allowed time for Laurel to spill the beans and get everything to hit the fan. What prompted you to approach them so early in this round?

It’s something I had pre-meditated for a long time. Yeah, it comes off like I just came up with the plan, [that] I was like, “Okay, let me go talk to them and let them in on this plan I just made up.” But I had [planned] this whole thing. I wanted to get to the point where the numbers were 6-5. I knew me keeping it like that forced everyone in the plan to either go along with [it] or be against it. You have to settle on a decision. You can’t be on the fence, because it’s 6-5. It forces everyone to come together. It was the last time we would have numbers like that because then you would have to convince more people than you would [at this moment]. So I thought, “Let’s just do this right now.”

What was the rationale behind targeting Kellyn? I believe you were the only two people to be on the same tribe the entire time in the premerge, so we made the assumption you two were working together closely. Then the merge hits, and suddenly she’s number one on your hit list. What changed in that time?

There was a lot of changes. During the vote for Chris, Kellyn and Chelsea didn’t let me in on the vote knowing it was Chris. They withheld that information from me. So from there, I knew, “Okay, something about this relationship is off.” I thought this relationship was strong where I knew everything that was going down according to Kellyn and Chelsea. But I didn’t know how they were going to vote. They lied to me. So that told me that our relationship wasn’t as strong. On top of that, [there was] information that Dom and Wendell had idols. So I pretty much thought, “This game is sliding out from my hands; it’s not what it looks like at first glance. Kellyn, Chelsea, and I are not as close as we thought. Dom and Wendell were way more dangerous than I thought they were.”

Speaking of Kellyn and Chelsea, talk to me about those premerge dynamics when you first swapped to Malolo. How did you fall in line with the pairing of Bradley and Kellyn, as well as Chelsea and Sebastian?

The first iteration of Malolo, I was smack in the middle. You have Kellyn and Bradley who are kind of like a power couple, [which] is pretty scary. I think I played a large part in keeping [them] safe and not having people target them. A lot of people had issues with Bradley, but I really liked him. I pretty much knew how the vote was going to go every time. I would converse with Bradley and Kellyn, and whatever we decided at that point in time is pretty much what was going to happen.

Going back to the episode you just watched, after you pitch the plan to the Malolos, Laurel goes to tell Domenick and Wendell, and you’re beside yourself about it. We knew from previous episodes that they were in a tight quartet with Donathan. Was that something that was prevalent to you out on the island as well?

I think that was pretty prevalent. [But] what’s not really seen was the fact that I had been building a relationship with Laurel and Donathan as well. I spent a whole lot of time with them before I even came up with the plan. I needed to get them to trust me. So I would talk to them days and nights about anything and everything, trying to get to know them. Building a relationship with them, but also trying to throw dirt on Dom and Wendell the entire time. There was a conversation I had with Wendell [where] he said something along the lines of, “[I] have Laurel.” So I was trying to use that against him. “Laurel, he said he controls you. He’s talking like you’re playing his game. You have to show him you’re not playing his game, so you need to make a move against him. These guys have idols. If you just stick to them and they get to the end with you, what are you going to say?” So that was the pitch I was giving her.

Talk to me about your relationship with Donathan. I watched a secret scene around the merge where you talked about how much you fell in love with him since you came from a similar background as compared to your other tribemates. How did that build over the few rounds you were in the game together?

I had a really good relationship with Donathan. We were very similar, and that’s what I was using to help me pitch the plan to him. I was using our familiarities and commonalities, between growing up in a small town, not really being accepted for whatever reason, and using that as your motivation and being proud of whatever people don’t like about you.

So considering you built that bond, did you feel betrayed watching him adamantly defend Laurel and vote you out?

I definitely don’t have any ill feelings. I don’t have any ill feelings towards anyone, not even Laurel! I was just trying to figure out how that was going to be good for his games. After I was voted out, my first thought was, “Okay, how does that work out for everybody else’s game. I want to understand why they made the move they made.” I can be very understanding, as long as it makes sense. So I was trying to make sense of how that move played out for everyone in the game.

Two people who seemed to be left out of the vote against you were Chelsea and Angela. And at the beginning of the episode, when you’re making this pitch to the Malolos, you said you could bring the two of them into the fold. I had heard that in pre-swap Naviti, you were on the same side together. What was it like working with both of them?

Working with Chelsea was kind of iffy because [she] would be close Dom and she would be close to Kellyn at times. I really wouldn’t know what side she was on. But working with Ang was pretty easy because she was just going to tell me the truth! (Laughs.) Ang was going to tell you whatever’s really happening, even if that’s to her detriment and not to her benefit. I knew if Ang told me she was with me, she was really with me. With Chelsea on the other hand, I didn’t really know. Because Chelsea said she was with me, but then with the Chris vote, I didn’t know that was going to happen, and she was in on that vote. It was kind of iffy.

I had also heard from James that you and Michael had built a close bond when you were on Malolo together, despite being in opposing alliances. Is that true, and how difficult was it when you had to separate to different sides come the merge?

That was true. I had a great bond with Michael. I don’t know if it’s us being the youngest, I’m not sure. But we had a great bond, and I think that’s what got me wanting to keep him around. I wanted to keep Michael around as long as I possibly could until I had to vote him out. But I don’t think that worked well for me. People probably saw our relationship and thought, “Okay, she’s close with Malolo. She’s a little too close to them.” It might have put a target on my back.

You start the game off on a memorable note, being chosen to do the first puzzle and losing the challenge for Naviti. Were you worried about that putting your name on the chopping block early, and did that end up actually happening?

I was nervous about it, before even talking to anybody. I’m like, “Aw man, I messed up.” I know what you mess up the first challenge, you’re usually the first to go, because nobody knows anyone. That [was] the only negative anybody had at that point in time. But after talking with people, I was pretty comfortable. I was like, “They’re not just going to take me out because it’s the easy pick. People are really looking into who might be the best option for my game as a whole, as opposed to right now at the moment.”

Speaking of another puzzle performance, you ended up losing another challenge for Malolo after the second swap. At that moment, you said it was the worst moment of your life, as you were always used to exceeding expectations. You faced so many arduous things in your past before coming into Survivor. Do you feel like that prepared you for the game, and did the experience change you at all, considering everything you’ve been through previously?

The hardships I faced before the game helped me get through the game. I was able to have hope throughout, even in last night’s episode. The only reason I kept lying was because I had faith in my lie. “If I keep this up, it may not be over for me.” I had hope and fight in me to the very end. I think my time on Survivor amplified that in my life. I’m going to have fight in my life until the very end.

Last thing: has the Olympic swimming team recruited you at all following that dominant performance on the boogie board?

(Laughs.) No swimming teams yet. I’m still waiting though!

To your credit, you do have very hydrodynamic hair!

(Laughs.) Yes, exactly!