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

“As a superfan of Survivor, I at times do miss the whole idea of being loyal to the end,” Vince Moua told me before the season. “But if you’re gonna cross me, you better look all four [expletive] ways.” The college admissions counselor practiced what he preached, going into Tribal Council on Day 8 with a growing trust in the Lairo women and resentment towards the men who voted for him prior. But that left him blind to the paranoia from his trip to Island of the Idols, sending him out of the game with an idol in a water bottle and parched with regret.

Vince’s unique personality and story caught the attention of Ronnie Bardah and Aaron Meredith, who targeted him at the first Tribal Council. But while the rest of Lairo blindsided Ronnie, Vince was still angry, canceling his trust membership with gym owner Aaron. A trip to the Island of the Idols turned the target his way once more, as the others assumed he would get an idol. It turns out it wasn’t completely guaranteed, as he had to first succeed in a Survivor reconnaissance mission for the ages. He snuck into the Vokai camp to steal coals, earning commendations and an idol from his Survivor mentors. Unfortunately, while Vince witnessed Tommy Sheehan’s bad dream, he was about to face his worst nightmare. He tried to put the vote on his wood-gathering buddy Tom Laidlaw, and chose not to play his idol when he saw Karishma Patel scrambling. But as Tom succinctly put it, it was “all for show,” as Vince would be the victim that night.

Now out of the game, Vince talks with Parade.com about why he chose not to play his idol, how he orchestrated Ronnie’s blindside, his Island of the Idols lie, and the reception from the Hmong-American community as its first Survivor representative.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me this morning, Vince. From what I heard on last night’s episode, you’re not a morning person, so I appreciate it!

Tell me about it! (Laughs.) I’m not really, but I woke up early just for y’all.

You end up going out without playing your new idol. Was there anything at Tribal Council that led you to believe that you didn’t need to use it?

What was not shown in its entirety was my alliance with the women. I had aligned with them on Day 2, boy. I was like, “These guys are coming for my ass. I can not work with them!” I was doing recon work between the guys and the women. One of the things I said coming in was that I wanted to work with women. I wanted to get to the end with strong women of color, and I wanted to work with underrepresented minorities. I was doing a lot of things to ensure that history did not repeat itself on our season. I thought I had shown loyalty over and over to the women. That’s why I thought I had rallied all the votes for Tom, because I was doing the hustling at that point. Unfortunately, it just didn’t come through. I also had a lack of time to bring things together. I was gone for a whole day and missed all the strategizing, then came back to camp and went immediately to the challenge. Then I came back and had to solve things.

I’m surprised you ended up turning the target onto Tom, considering how you were grouped with him in the first episode. What led to that change in opinion between Tribal Councils?

Tom, Elaine, and I were super hard workers. I came in as a “thicker” guy, gaining 15-20 pounds to come onto the show. Intrinsically, people view individuals with a little more cushion as less physically fit. But I knew I could carry my weight. At camp, I worked my ass off. I was chopping bamboo and cutting trees down. That’s why people coined me with the nickname “Axe Man.” Tom was great initially. With Ronnie’s vote out, I would say I was leading that blindside. I gathered all the votes. I was the person who got Dean to vote out Ronnie. Dean didn’t want to vote for him; he wanted to keep the tribe physically strong. But I was like, “Dean, that’s wonderful. But I’ll tell you now that he put your name out there. So if you think you can keep playing the game with him, go ahead, boy. But I’m telling you now that he put your name out multiple times.” That caused Dean to flip to us. Had I not done that, I honestly don’t know what he would have done.

By the time I gathered all eight votes, I had told Tom, “We have to split it between Ronnie and Aaron.” I was afraid they had an idol, and if they played it, it would be myself or Elaine going home. But Tom would just not split the votes. After Tribal happened, I realized that Tom didn’t have my back. As we moved forward, it was very difficult working with him. He was very strong-willed. He has his own ideas, and his ideas are correct. There was one point where I was like, “Hey Tom, let’s go gather wood.” I went down to the beach to gather wood, and he comes after me and passes me without saying a word. And I look at the camera and say, “Tom’s not the best at strategy.” (Laughs.) He was in his little world, oblivious to the fact that there may be idols out there or people were talking about him while he was asleep.

On top of that, he was getting very tired and sleeping more often at camp. I was also just worried about the physical longevity and endurance that he had. Also, it wasn’t shown, but Tom actually went after Elaine the morning after Tribal. Tom was like, “We have to get Elaine out because of her story. She’s totally playing all of us.” And I was like, “No! What is happening?!” (Laughs.) At that point, I went to Elaine and said, “Yo, I don’t know if you know, but Tom is throwing your name under the bus to the guys. I thought we were aligned.” When I left for the Island of the Idols, apparently that’s when Tom and Elaine repaired things. But I was not privy to that.

Did you contemplate trying to target Aaron, considering how mad you were at him for voting against you with Ronnie?

People would not vote for Aaron; they thought he was a physical asset. But I was like, “Yo, Aaron never volunteers for things. Aaron always deflects onto other people.” I said in one of my confessionals, “At this point in the game, it’s all about the tribe. It’s a team. If you’re going to think about yourself, you can think about yourself at Ponderosa.” I was actively trying to get Aaron out, but people wouldn’t bite.

It’s interesting to hear you say you led Ronnie’s blindside. Ronnie talked with me in his exit interview about how he saw you running around, mentioning everyone’s names, which is why he targeted you. Can you elaborate on why you chose to gun for him in that first vote?

I actually heard Ronnie and Aaron were gunning for me from Day 1. They told people I was going around looking for things and looking through stuff. That was not the truth. My ass was working like crazy to make sure the shelter was built. Now I find out through reading pre-game stuff that Ronnie said some very strong things about me prior to the game. I had no such feelings towards him. Even in my interviews, I was like, “He likes to sing and hum. I like to sing. Hopefully, we’ll be able to connect over that.” I had no ill will towards Ronnie. But once I heard they were throwing my name out there on Day 2, I started planting seeds with Elaine.

I told people, “It’s those two together all the time. That’s not a good deal for us. Ronnie is being used as an annoying little brother shield for Aaron at the moment, and that’s deflecting all the attention from Aaron.” I needed to get one of them out at that point. It just so happened that Ronnie was also not coming off well for other people. I came into the game wanting to work with and get to the end with women. I didn’t need a woman going home on the first vote; I did not want that from my season. Ronnie says I was everywhere. Yeah, I was everywhere, boy, because I was hustling to get you out! (Laughs.)

Let’s go back to your Mission: Impossible moment of sneaking into the Vokai camp to steal fire as part of your Island of the Idols test. What was the experience like from your perspective?

The thing is it’s so dark out there. It’s pitch black; you can’t see anything. I was slipping and sliding everywhere, trying to get to the area where the fire pit was supposed to be. Let me just tell you that map is all wrong! (Laughs.) I thought the fire pit was going to be at least 5-7 feet away from the shelter. When I get there, I’m legit hiding behind trees, but I can’t see anything. The only thing I can see on occasion is when lightning flashes and I see the top of their shelter. Watching it, I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I was that close to them!” I didn’t know the fire pit was quite literally next to their shelter.

Once I got to the back of the island, I saw there was no light, so I thought, “Dammit, their fire is dead. What do I do?” I had planned initially to steal their flint and start a fire on the beach to light my torch. But it was so dark I didn’t know where the flint was. I also wanted to steal hot coals and pour them onto the torch because the torch was huge. But I had to keep searching for the fire pit because everything was dead. The only thing I could do was gather ashes and coal. I was like, “Yo, this is what the Survivor gods have given me. Rain on the day I don’t need it!” It’s like Alannis Morisette. It was really stressful.

What did you tell your tribe when you came back from the Island of the Idols?

When I returned, we probably had about an hour before w had to go out for the challenge. I didn’t have very much time at all. I came back to camp and told them a story. There were five sets of five different animals arranged in an order. I had to arrange the order of each set. The five animals were the salamander, the crab, the stingray, the shark, and I forget the other one. I had two hours to memorize that, then I had to find those sets in tiles across the island and put them back in order. I couldn’t do it and lost the challenge, so I had to sleep with no shelter. That’s what I told the tribe as a whole.

Then to my core alliance of Elizabeth, Missy, and Elaine, I had a little crocodile tear moment and was like, “I have to tell you that I lost my vote. I did this because I thought we could get an advantage for our alliance moving forward. But I didn’t, so all the women have to vote the same way.” Because Elizabeth had gone, I thought she could confirm with people that I could lose my vote. Also, when I got back to camp, I stripped to my underwear and turned my things inside out to make sure they didn’t think I had the idol. Little did they know I put it in my canteen.

Speaking of Elizabeth, did you two compare stories at all, considering you had both seen what was actually at the Island of the Idols?

I did commiserate with Elizabeth briefly. I was like, “Girl, this is the best time for us to align more closely. Now we know what’s happening, and we can just send each other if we’re given the chance.” Elizabeth was on board, because she said it like, “Okay, that’s great. But talk with some of the girls because they’re not too sure about what’s happening.” That’s when I started to talk to other people.

Before the season, we spoke about you being the first Hmong-American Survivor contestant, and how that ties into your own history and personality. How has the community received your appearance on the show?

It’s been great so far. I do want to address that people were saying pre-season that it was difficult to make eye contact with me or suss me out. That’s because, for many kids in this community, we’ve never been given an opportunity like this. I didn’t want to [expletive] it up. I didn’t want to be the other person who’s told, “You’re talking to other people. Sorry, we’re going to replace you.” I was sticking to the rules. For so long, I have grown up with people saying, “Be okay with what we give you. Do not ask for more or challenge things.” That’s what I was doing. Unfortunately, people didn’t understand that’s what was happening! (Laughs.) I wanted to mention that for future players. Stand in your truth and demand what you deserve.

What’s been the most rewarding are messages from little Laotian, Hmong, and southeast Asian kids saying, “It’s so wonderful to see someone who is from my community, somebody who looks and talks like me, someone who has the same experiences as me. Someone who doesn’t fit stereotypes.” That’s been the most humbling. People like Sandra, Yul, and Natalie were those people for me, the people who I saw myself in. To hear that other people see themselves in me, which will hopefully encourage them to break out of anything that holds them back, it’s been incredibly fruitful. I’m glad the information is out. It takes one person to create change. When you’re willing to step into that role, it’s up to you to encourage others to do the same. I’m incredibly happy. It was only three episodes. But I’ve done so much in those eight days on the island, more than many people who have gone to Day 39. I led a blindside, I was aligned with a women’s alliance, I got an idol, I snuck into a camp. You have to take all these things for what they were and how you move forward.