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.

It’s often the quiet ones you need to watch out for. Often in the game of Survivor the tallest nails get hammered down, whether it’s those who stick out socially, strategically or physically. But while the carpenters focus on those nails, there are those that remain untarnished, maintaining their position strike after strike. Chelsea Townsend was able to benefit from consistent Naviti majorities to stay in the loop for nearly all of the votes in her time on Survivor. But her two straight Immunity Challenge wins suddenly turned all eyes on her, and an attempt to gun for the power players came up short when remaining Malolos Donathan Hurley and Laurel Johnson chose to stick with their secret alliance and keep a man who knows his way around hammers in Wendell Holland.

Though her Naviti tribe did not have the opportunity to go to Tribal Council in the first phase of the game, a schism was already brewing between Domenick Abbate and Chris Noble, with the dancer taking the side of the amateur rapper. But she got thrown off beat when a tribe swap sent her over to the Malolo beach. She was able to regain footing, though, when she found herself in a Naviti majority with Kellyn Bechtold, Bradley Kleihege, Desiree Afuye and Sebastian Noel. Despite coming from different sides, the idea of staying purple (an unfortunate indicator of Chelsea’s ultimate portrayal) kept them together. Though the Malolos attempted to bring her over by pitching she was on the bottom, she not only stuck with her alliance but was a key planner in the one-two punch of sending Brendan Shapiro out of the game and getting Michael Yerger to waste his idol. Another game shake-up on Day 15 sent Chelsea and Bradley in tandem back to Naviti’s camp, a move that probably had the latter humming the theme to The Jeffersons in his head. But the two of them were surprisingly as contentious as George and Weezie. When the new Naviti tribe lost the last Immunity Challenge before the merge, the trio of Bradley, Chelsea and Domenick decided Libby Vincek was the more appetizing prey. But Chelsea and Domenick realized the possible havoc the Bradley/Kellyn duo would wreak in an individual game, and decided to cut him loose while they had the opportunity.

Despite the betrayal of the “Naviti Strong” mantra, a supermajority had come together at the merge, leading to some relatively easy votes in the most tumultuous time in the game. All the while, Chelsea was beginning to prove she was a force to reckon with in endurance challenges, with her aptitude to literally not drop the ball leading to two consecutive Immunity Challenge wins. Despite being safe, she stumbled for the first time in the game when she was left out on the plan to blindside Desiree, possibly because the student had talked her up as part of her Survivor study group. The results had Chelsea ruminating on her position in the game, though she received a much-needed lift from her sister after one month in the game. Though she missed out on the opportunity to spend an afternoon with her, she found herself making sisterly bonds back at camp, when Kellyn proposed the women work together to separate the power couple of Domenick and Wendell. After a slippery grip prevented her from an immunity three-peat, the guys decided to not give her a second chance at victory, unlike the advantage Wendell received in the challenge from his trip to Ghost Island. The Naviti group, true to how they started the game, was divided cleanly down the middle, with the two Malolos straddling both sides. In the end, though, despite Donathan dropping many “bombs” at Tribal Council to put people on their toes, they ultimately fizzled out when he and Laurel helped flatline the EMT’s game.

Now out of the game and on the jury, Chelsea talks with me about why she felt the target was on her even before the Immunity Challenge, her various relationships with the castaways and one strategic maneuver she wishes had made the air.

In your Final Words this week, you spoke about how you “went out fighting,” and one of your secret scenes this week seems to imply you knew the guys were coming for you, which we didn’t get to see on the episode proper. Can you elaborate on that?

Come the merge, I knew I wanted to really earn the title of Sole Survivor. I wanted to win individual immunities; I wanted to play hard, I wanted to make big moves. During these challenges that I had won, Wendell started throwing out the name “challenge beast,” and I was like, “Oh, great. I’m on the radar now. Game on, they’re coming after me. It’s only a matter of time.” I think at that point, I had it in the back of my mind. The loved one’s visit was my answer [that] they were coming after me because the separation was very clear. I knew I was on the chopping block going into the challenge. Unfortunately, I could not pull off the three-peat, which was very upsetting. I did everything I could to pull off this epic move. But unfortunately, Laurel’s tie with Wendell and getting them to flip just didn’t pan out.

On that note, talk with me about the plan to target Wendell. You speak in another one of your secret scenes that you were the one formulating it. How did that idea come up about?

Wendell was the biggest threat out there. He knew that I was a big threat to him, and I knew I had to get him out of this game. But I already knew about his idol, so if I was going to take him out, it was going to be a blindside. That was the only way. I also knew I was on the chopping block, so I knew I had to keep things completely under wraps. Otherwise, he’d just play his idol, and I would go home regardless. It came down to me talking with those girls and being like, “Listen, it’s guys versus girls at this point. They’re bigger threats than we are, so we can make this work in our favor. We need to take out Wendell; it needs to be a blindside.” They all agreed that was the best plan because we had to split up Dom and Wendell while we had the chance. The timing was perfect; Laurel was upset from the loved ones visit for not being picked. It just seemed like the perfect recipe for an epic blindside; [it] just didn’t work out.

Perhaps some of the seeds of the targeting against you were planted in the Desiree vote. You were left out and felt confused about where you stood in the tribe. Were you aware at all of Desiree’s plan, or were you merely guilty by association?

I wasn’t included in Desiree’s plan. She never filled me in on what she was doing. I think maybe in part because she was worried I would say something to Kellyn. Both sides would have worked out in my favor, but I didn’t want to get rid of Kellyn yet. So I wasn’t involved in that, and I don’t know why my name was thrown out; I got tossed in as collateral. That was a really hard part of my game because the people I was aligned with [and] had good relationships with started to be skeptical of whether or not they could trust me. I had a really good relationship with Dom until that point. When that happened, I think Dom was like, “Oh, I don’t know if I can trust you anymore. I’m going to keep playing with Wendell and toss our relationship to the side.” That was a hard thing for me. It was the first time I had voted wrong all season, so it was a shock. And it was hard to go back to camp and say, “Oh my gosh, I actually didn’t’ know what was going to happen!” I felt blindsided! I spent the whole next morning doing damage control.

What did that damage control involve, trying to rebuild connections with your allies to avoid being the next to go?

I pulled Kellyn aside and had a long conversation with her. I had to have a heart to heart and be like, “I had no intentions of voting you out. My name got tossed in there.” Good for me, there was a lot of discrepancies between the conversations that were had regarding the Des vote. Some people included me; some people didn’t. I used that to my advantage and said, “If you look at all the various version, there are some discrepancies when it comes to my involvement.” I think that was enough to get her to trust me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get Dom to trust me. I had a conversation with him, and I could tell that he at that point was unsure. He was very aware and slightly paranoid at times; I think that was enough to push him over the edge that he can’t trust me anymore. I knew that I had repaired things with Kellyn; I knew I hadn’t with Dom. But I knew Dom and Wendell would probably come after me eventually anyway. So at least I had Kellyn back on board.

Let’s speak about some of these relationships. You and Kellyn started on different sides of Naviti but worked closely together on Malolo, and you end your game close with her. Talk to me about your dynamic.

I think at first, I was trying to feel out relationships. The original Naviti split very quickly. I was stuck in the middle deciding where I wanted to go, which I really liked because I felt like I had a lot of power in deciding where I wanted to land. I had been approached by both sides, and I started to form a relationship with Kellyn, but it was very small. I think when we went to Malolo, that was a big changing point for Kellyn and I. It was small numbers and even though she had Bradley, who she was close to, I think I was the person she felt closest to next. We had a lot of conversations out there and became really close. And Malolo was a really hard camp to [live] at. We bonded over “roughing it out” at the Malolo camp. It was really, really cold at night; the wind would come in. We would all try to cuddle up next to each other. The merge happened, and our relationship just kept getting better. As soon as I got Bradley out, she came back to me stronger, which was great because that was what I was trying to do in getting rid of him. Things just got better from there, and we ended up being really tight. The hardest thing was considering the fact I probably was going to have to get rid of her near the end because I couldn’t potentially beat her.

What about Domenick? You voted together in that second swap right before the merge. Is that where you connected?

They don’t actually show a lot of Dom and I’s relationship. We had a very good relationship throughout the game. I remember on Day 2 or something, Domenick came up to me, pulled me aside and was like, “I want to work with you. I think that we mesh. I think we can be really powerful in this game.” I was a little bit skeptical, because [I thought], “It’s Day 2. Wow. You’re coming on strong. But this is great! If I can have someone this willing to work with me, it’s only going to help me.” So [I said], “Yeah, let’s work together!” Then we got split up, and I wasn’t sure where I sat with him. So when we got back together, I was like, “I’m really happy to see you,” and he was like, “Same! We’ve got some work to do.” We worked really well together once we were back at Naviti and the beginning of the merge. Then the Des vote happened, and our relationship fell apart.

I noted a couple of times in the past you said you had built something with Donathan. What was that connection like, considering you were reaching across “to the other side”?

I had a really good relationship with Donathan. We had a lot of things in common. He grew up dancing; I grew up dancing. He was taking care of his mom and grandma, and we talked about the medical field because I’m in the medical field. He was such a kind person. It’s funny because people think our relationship was all over the place. I think even Donathan thought that at times. But I always felt really good about Donathan. Even [on] the Jenna vote, I was like, “We’re voting for Jenna.” He didn’t tell me about his idol, Jenna did. So I went back to Donathan, and I said, “Donathan, Jenna says you have an idol. What’s going on?” I think that freaked him out to make him think I didn’t trust him and I would potentially gun for him. But I didn’t. If I found an idol, I wasn’t going to tell anybody, so I respected that. I wasn’t going to be the one taken out that night, so I wasn’t truly offended. But I talked to him about it, and he was like, “No, no! I don’t have anything.” I voted against Jenna like I said I would, [but] there was a lot of mistrust there. Once he pulled out his idol, he knew I knew he had lied to me. I think he was just scared and didn’t know how I actually felt about him, whether I was bitter or not. And I never was!

So how did you feel then when you discover he and Laurel had voted against you?

Before that Tribal Council, Donathan had told me, “Girl, I am on the same page as you! I want to get Wendell out; I’m ready to make a big move. I’m ready to play this game. I just have to get Laurel on board.” I think if Laurel had been willing to make a big move, Donathan would have been like, “All right, let’s do this,” and we would have pulled off this blindside against Wendell. But they were a pair; they always voted together. So I think when he couldn’t convince Laurel to vote with me, he thought, “Well, I don’t want to be in bad graces with Wendell and Domenick, so I better vote with Laurel.”

I’ve talked with a couple of others about your relationships, and they said it could sometimes make you come off as nebulous, with them not knowing where you stand. Were you aware of this perception of you?

I was, in a sense. I’ve watched Survivor for so long; I know how important it is to have a relationship with every single person out there. You never know when you’re going to need them to get further in the game. I think that was the risk I took in developing relationships with everybody. Trying to keep it under wraps I obviously knew wasn’t going to happen. But I took that risk, knowing it’s better for me to make a relationship with this person. Even if it’s not a benefit to me now, it could be down the road. And if that makes me look a little sketchy, then so be it, because I’m going to need to fight tooth and nail anyway in winning these individual Immunity Challenges. There’s already a target on my back; all I can do is foster good relationships to help carry me past these wins.

What was one thing that you did out on the island that you wish could have been shown, whether it be strategic or character-based?

Well, there’s a lot of moments I wish would have been shown! [Laughs] But one that sticks out to me was the Bradley boot. Dom and I decided to throw that challenge to get him out before the merge, and that wasn’t shown at all. It was a big strategic move for me. I basically told Dom, “Hey, I’m down to throw this challenge. The problem is I physically cannot throw a challenge. It’s not in my nature to be able to do that. So if this is going to work out, I need you to throw the challenge. I’ll sit myself out, and it will be less suspicious.” I was also planning that so, if things backfired with Naviti, I could say, “No, I didn’t throw the challenge. I was sitting on the bench! It was all Domenick.” So it was a big move for me to keep myself safe, but get rid of someone I absolutely needed to get out before the merge.

Lastly, in honor of the game “One Word” that you played with the other jurors on Ponderosa, give me one word to describe your Survivor experience.

Unforgettable.