‘Survivor’ postgame: Krista on her faith and playing with Russell

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Oh, Krista, we barely knew ye. And you seem like such an awesome, cool beans Christian.

The Southern “Survivor” castaway that Russell bragged on after he was eliminated from the current “Redemption Island” season was eliminated herself two duels after him. Both fell to another Christian castaway, Matt, in one-on-one, puzzle-type duels.

We saw very little of Krista until last week, after Russell was sent home, and she had to defend herself. Then in Wednesday night’s episode, we learned about her faith and saw her connect with Matt in their ramshackle shelter on Redemption Island. I asked Ms. Krista Klumpp if she talked to everyone about faith while in the game.

“Well, there’s lots of time to talk,” Krista said, laughing. “I have a tattoo on my foot that reads, ‘faith by His grace,’ so that started a few conversations. But only with Stephanie did the conversation go further and deeper. She wasn’t intimidated by it ... wanted to know more.”

When I asked Krista why Russell thought she could win it all when we’d hardly seen any of her on the show, she laughed.

“I don’t know ... in my alliance with Stephanie and Russell, they’re very big personalities,” she said. “That’s actually how I saw I fit in with them. I’m less on the dramatic side but strategic, wasn’t so brash with others.”

More on Krista’s first thoughts and moves in the game, Russell and who she thinks can win, after the jump.

Krista said that when the game first started, and the Zapatera tribe learned the infamous Russell would be competing with them, she immediately went up to everyone to gauge their feelings on him. “I thought I was a lot like Natalie, and Natalie beat him [on his first season]! I thought he’d be after me,” she said.

But unlike she assumed, everyone was excited about the chance to play with Russell –- or so they told Krista. Likewise, Russell was eager to play with her, not against her, and they got along great.

“Russell’s a Christian, believe it or not,” she said, laughing. “He’s a Southern boy. He went to LSU, I’m an Auburn girl… he didn’t see me being like Natalie as a weakness, he saw it as a strength.”

Seeing as we, the viewers didn’t… see much of Krista, I asked how involved she was in her alliance’s big plays. Or, rather, attempts at big plays, like trying to get Julie to vote against Ralph.

“We thought, ‘Who could be the person to vote with us and blindside the others?’ I talked to Mike, and he was talking about stuff that was not at all game-related,” Krista said. “So I gave up on him. Dave was interested, but he wanted to go with the numbers. I do believe 100% that if Julie had made that bold move, voted out Ralph — with the idol at the time! — that Russell would’ve stuck with her for as far as possible, and I would’ve respected her.”

Krista confirmed for me that she’s been watching the show (“It’s like a car wreck, you can’t turn away…”), and said she’d put money on none of her former tribe mates winning.

“The way that they’re playing, the decisions they’re making…” she went on. “If Stephanie can beat Matt and make it to the merge, I think she’s the only one that could overturn Rob, and then get along with the girls who are around her age.”

Krista’s looking forward to the reunion show as she returns to her pharmaceutical sales job. But for those of us who grew to like Krista in the short time we were shown her, she elaborated on some of her pop culture tastes, albeit after a little prodding.

“No one really likes me lists, I don’t like the award-winning stuff,” she said. “I love ‘Sister Act 2.’ Love Reese Witherspoon, ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ Rachel McAdams and ‘The Notebook,’ and anything with Mark Wahlberg.”

I told her she had me until she said “anything with Mark Wahlberg.”

Note: if you guys ever have any questions you’re dying to ask the person eliminated from the show, tweet me @anthonyw_ent once they’ve put their buffs into the urn. I interview them all Thursday morning.

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Complete ‘Survivor’ coverage on Show Tracker

— Anthony Williams
Twitter.com / anthonyw_ent