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.

The act of playing Survivor can be as delicate as catching a fish. With a sea full of people to interact with, you have to put out the right bait, hook at just the right time and reel in with a delicate and steady touch. Of all the Ghost Islanders, Sebastian Noel understood this metaphor the most, though he was more prone to making comparisons out of a candy store. The Floridian fisherman played up his goofier aspects to give the others contact highs rather than lows (or even “Malolo lows”), a strategy that got him into several key relationships. But when he received a Ghost Island package in the form of a regifted Extra Vote, his joint plan to take out Domenick Abbate went up in smoke, continuing yet another “curse” and keeping him from seeing green.

Sebastian started a game with a great performance as the designated runner for his tribe for the first Reward Challenge, as well as a new nickname: “Sea Bass.” Though he’s not sure if his friends on the beach call him that, it was clear his new friends would, as the moniker stuck at Naviti. He started to bond in particular with Chris Noble with their Florida connection, which one might compare to two kids in a candy store, picking out all the gummies they want. Unfortunately, his Willy Wonka fantasy would go from sweet to sour after he got separated from Chris during the first tribe swap. The situation wasn’t completely hopeless, though, as he was in a former Naviti majority, which one might also compare to the ecstasy from a banana-flavored piece of Laffy Taffy. The plan seemed straightforward; led by Bradley Kleihege and Kellyn Bechtold, they would stick together and pick off the former Malolos. The formidable foursome tried to appeal specifically to Sebastian and Chelsea Townsend to flip (something cheerleader Chelsea is used to in her real life), and he also grew close enough to Jenna Bowman that he could smell her hair well enough to compare it to a dead weasel.

A tribe swap on Day 15 had beachcomber Sebastian wandering a new shore, as a member of the Yanuya tribe. He was greeted by his old Naviti tribe member Wendell Holland, who surprised him with a gift of a “perfect shell” he left back on Naviti. It could be this shell of a relationship was going to be what Sebastian would crawl into, as he found his new home with the Naviti majority, eventually voting out his formerly closest ally Chris at the merge. His next strategic high came during a split Tribal Council (not to be confused with the split ends the Jenna presumably aided him with throughout the premerge). Though he ended up sitting alongside Jenna that night, her tribe affiliation overwrote his feelings for her, and he purposely led her astray with a Donathan Hurley lure before reeling her in. But even though he had lost a close connection, Sebastian’s stock in the game began to rise. He won the coveted family visit, and his decision of who to take on an afternoon trip ended up getting him into an alliance with Wendell and Domenick. He got sent to Ghost Island and received a pivotal Extra Vote, freshly sealed from when Kellyn misplayed it only four days before. The seafood entrepreneur decided to use this advantage to build a new franchise, and went to Donathan and Angela Perkins with an idea to blindside Domenick at the final six. But loose lips sink ships (or fishing boats, in this case), as the attempted coup quickly got leaked and it only turned them against Sebastian, who was appearing as a threat to win as days passed. At Tribal Council, poker player Domenick tried to make a bluff by presenting host Jeff Probst with his fake idol and trying to play up that Donathan would be his target. And “Sea Bass” fell for it hook, line, and sinker, choosing not to play his Extra Vote and receiving votes from everyone but Donathan in exchange.

I got to speak with Sebastian shortly after the finale on the red carpet about the reason behind his feelings against Domenick at the final vote, how he tried to play up his likability to his fellow castaways and what Survivor taught him about how to approach life and his infamous daily routine.

I don’t know if you know this, but the audience members were given some snacks to partake in during the finale. And among them were banana-flavored Laffy Taffy!

You’re kidding me. Oh my God! I can’t tell you how many times I [talked about] sugar. Sugar is my life; it keeps me going and keeps me alive. I must have been daydreaming about that stuff out there.

It must have been daydreaming every day. You seemed to be talking about it non-stop!

I mean, they had me saying ridiculous things about sugars and candy. Chris and I are the “Gummi Boys” right now. It’s all part of the fun.

Well, you may love the sweet, but we saw a bit of the sour at that Final Tribal Council when you seemed to be the most vocal anti-Domenick people on the jury. What was happening there?

I went total Sour Patch Kid on Dom at the Final Tribal. I don’t get angry that much; I’m a pretty positive guy throughout the course of my life. I try to be like that because it makes everyone around me feel that much better about themselves. But Dom was so conniving the way he did that vote. They didn’t show it, but he was completely bullying the hell out of Donathan, [verbally] beating him up constantly. Putting both of his immunity necklaces on; it was ridiculous. So I felt I needed to let it all out, and that’s how I did it, being aggressive towards Dom and giving my vote to Wendell. There’s no way Dom’s getting my vote.

Let’s talk about your relationship with Dom and Wendell. You previously compared yourself to the remora, attaching yourself to the bottom of the sharks. When did you decide to adopt that strategy with these two?

I kind of floated through the game behind these two big moose. That was part of my strategy: coattail [riding]. Not to say that’s a bad thing, which everyone thinks it is. You can get pretty far following these huge fish. So that was kind of my game plan. But I should have made my move earlier. I should have been sitting at the final eight and talking with Kellyn and Chelsea, who [genuinely] liked me, to get Wendell out. But it hit me that I have this Extra Vote, and I’m sitting here at six. I have to do something. These guys are just going to pick me off if I don’t win immunity. It hit me at the wrong time, a little bit too late. If I were to go back, I’d be sitting there with Kellyn and Chelsea or Angela.

Now that you’re talking about Domenick going in on Donathan, it begins to make sense why you didn’t play your Extra Vote. Were you confident after that you were not going to be the one getting sent to the jury?

I didn’t think I was going home at all. It was what me, Wendell, Dom, and Laurel talked about earlier that day. Angela was even in on it. So I thought I was safe, and I thought that was the game plan going on throughout the Tribal Council. When I found out that Angela let the cat out of the bag, I was like, “Good God!” It seems like every time someone tries to talk, they’re out of there. You saw Des; as soon as she started talking, she’s done. As soon as Jenna started talking, she’s done. It hit me at the wrong time, and it sucks. It really does.

You spoke before about instilling positivity in your life. How did that play into Survivor? Did you intend to come off like the affable guy you ended up being?

If you can bring comedy into any situation, it makes life so much better. I promise you. So my attitude from the beginning of the game was, even though I’m a bigger guy and I look like a crazy Survivor freak, I played it off as a quiet fisherman that’s everyone’s friend. I was everybody’s friend.

All the interviews I’ve done, it seems like everyone had positive things to say about you. Kellyn just talked with me last week about the “Survivor Sunshine” message you left her after the season concluded. So that attitude shows.

And that was my goal. I wanted to play like that as far as I could. Troyzan [Robertson] is a smiler and everyone’s lover. He made his way to the Final Three [in Survivor: Game Changers] by playing possum. [But] that’s how you get votes in the Final Three. Deep down inside, what your gut and what your heart tells you. I thought that’s how I was going to win everyone over. And I was almost there!

But you also have these tough moments where you vote out people who are close to you, like Chris and Jenna. How were you able to balance those emotions with that positive mentality while you took out your “gummi buddy” and your eventual girlfriend?

It’s hard. They were my closest friends out there, and I sided with them on every vote that I could. But eventually, we have to play Survivor. Sorry, Jenna, but I’ll see you on the other side. Somebody’s got to win. It was tough voting out the girl I like and my best friend. But you get over it pretty quickly. It’s easy math.

I saw you talk in a secret scene about how you wanted to use Survivor as a stepping stone to take a turn in your life. Can you elaborate on that?

I was still a kid [going in]. I’m 22 years old, and I didn’t know how to do life. I had no sense of how to spend my money. I was more self-centered than I was anything. “Oh I’m hungry, I’m gonna go do this and not eat dinner with my family.” But being out there on an island, by yourself sometimes, makes you think, “What if my grandma passes away in two weeks and I didn’t get to say anything? What if my mom and dad split?” So many things go through your mind, and you just want to be that overall better person, which I know I am now. It just builds, and you grow more than you think you ever could.

Does that translate to your daily routine? Are you still doing the beach texts and “Stony Baloney”?

[Laughs] It’s a little bit of the same. I wake up, and I go fishing every day. I love doing what I do. Money is not a big thing for me, so I want to do whatever I can to make myself happy for the rest of my life. [Happiness] is the key to life. You can ask Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s definitely what people need. Not money, not fame, but happiness is how I’m going to live the rest of my life.