Transcript by James Barber  - 5.04.07

HANNAH : On Thursday's "Survivor: Fiji", Alex knew that his days were numbered after losing the immunity challenge, so he made quite a last-ditch effort and put Yau-Man on the chopping block instead.

(clips)

HANNAH : Alex Angarita, good morning.

ALEX : Good morning.

HANNAH : The powers of persuasion. You were really, really trying hard.

ALEX : I was trying, trying anything. I knew my days were numbered, I knew they wanted me gone. It was 6-1. I was just like, "Oh man, this is so bad. My odds are so low." If I quit now, then everything I would've done from this point prior to, just so I could say at the very end, "Hey, thanks guys you got me, I'm just gonna go."

HANNAH : Off into the sunset. I was seeing that Harvard Law School background. You were trying to be very convincing. (laughs with Alex)

ALEX : Use the logic. It's true though. I felt like a lot of times people didn't think more than one step ahead. Convincing people to think what would happen two or three steps down the road was like (makes an "over their heads" gesture), just wasn't happening.

HANNAH : You had a really tough immunity challenge. You had to climb that pole. I understand you were pretty significantly injured. We didn't really get a sense of it from the show, but you hurt yourself?

ALEX : I did. Climbing the pole - I knew that Boo and Dreamz were probably physically stronger than me, and I knew they'd just eaten, so I had to do something different to maybe try to beat them. Maybe I'll try to scale this thing. In the process they've got these metal things where the spokes go in. I scraped my knee up and down, up and down, as I was going up, as you can see there (in the clip). Subsequently I developed a staph infection in my knee, I had to go to the hospital, I was on antibiotics for a month and a half, I was on crutches.

HANNAH : Wow.

ALEX : My girlfriend was like squeezing puss out of my knee for a week.

HANNAH : (laughs) Too much information. It's early in the morning, people are eating breakfast.

ALEX : It was so nasty, it was so, so nasty.

HANNAH : Given everything that you went through, did you ever think, "What am I doing out here? I'm a lawyer, I could make this money anyway, eventually."

ALEX : There was definitely times where I was like, "Ah, a million dollars, that's $600,000 after taxes, you know what I'm saying? I work extra hard. Is this really necessary?" At some point, it was not about the money so much as about testing myself. When you get down to that kind of environment, you can't replicate that kind of thing in real life. There's no way to test yourself that was, especially with the hunger, the starvation, the mean people around. (laughs) There's no way to do that. For me I felt like this is my chance, this is my opportunity. This can't be about the money. Unless you're an extremely greedy person, which I'm not, which is why I left the law to begin with, is not going to be enough of a motivator.

HANNAH : Let's take a look at the secret scene, which actually has something to do with your fishing skills taking a bit of a beating.

[ ALEX (solo): We've all developed certain specialties. One day at Ravu I caught six [fish] in one day and I thought, "Holy crap, guess I'm a fisherman."

(Alex goes underwater with the snorkel gear while Stacy and Cassandra, also in the water, look on)

STACY : Is he trying to scare the fish away? Any fish in a ten mile radius are probably swimming away now. (Cassandra laughs)

CASSANDRA (solo): Alex, he jumped in like doing a frog move. He was splashing water everywhere. You could tell that if not his first time, he was a beginner at it.]

HANNAH : Did you have any idea they were making fun of your fishing skills?

ALEX : I did not have any idea they were making fun of my fishing skills. Admittedly as I look at it now that's pretty awkward, I've gotta say. (they laugh)

HANNAH : Your future may not be in fishing.

ALEX : Yeah, I may not be a fisherman. That's OK.

HANNAH : You referred to some of the mean people, but you did some things that may be...I don't know. Do you regret going through Yau-Man's things? Some people said you threw Mookie under the bus. Things like that.

ALEX : First of all, I didn't look through Yau-Man's things, Mookie looked through Yau-Man's things. I did not STOP Mookie from looking through Yau-Man's things...

HANNAH : Right, you were maybe a little complicit in that.

ALEX : I was an accomplice to that, but I did not start that. I felt like after that point - before that point I felt there was some semblance of rules about this. I mean, there are no rules, but I felt like people were being civilized. After Dreamz double-crossed me and I was left with Mookie I think we were both. It's weird. We were like, they're playing dirty, they're playing nasty, do you go to their level? Maybe you do, maybe you don't.

HANNAH : Decisions, decisions. You can always second guess.

ALEX : With Mookie...pardon me?

HANNAH : You can always go back and second guess, but it doesn't help any at the outcome.

ALEX : At the time it's a different set of circumstances, and with Mookie, Mookie wanted to go home. Mookie had expressed that to us, so I didn't feel like I was necessarily going against his wishes.

HANNAH : Alex Angarita, good luck with your future. Thanks for being with us this morning.

ALEX : Thanks so much.