Mookie Lee
Early Show Interview Transcript

Transcript by James Barber  - 4.26.07

HARRY : Well, there was a lot of snooping and spying Thursday on Survivor: Fiji. A desperate Alex and Mookie went looking for the immunity idol, and then Cassandra and Stacy eavesdropped on them, and it all led to the end of Mookie.

(clips)

HARRY : One of the great scenes in Survivor history. Mookie Lee, good morning. Welcome.

MOOKIE (shakes Harry's hand): Good morning. Thanks.

HARRY : That was just stunning, because there you are, you're plotting, you're clearly one of the guys in the drivers' seat, you've got the athletic ability, you've got the brains, you can manipulate people, and you look over your shoulder, and...what?

MOOKIE : Surprise, surprise. (Harry cackles) Definitely caught me by surprise. Shocked. I thought Alex and I came up with a good scheme, something that could save us. Eventually we hear a branch up in the woods.

HARRY : They heard every word, too.

MOOKIE : Yeah. We thought we had it in the bag, we could surprise everyone at Tribal Council. To our demise, there's the two shadiest people in the game.

HARRY : The thing that's amazing to me, very interesting about this season, since I have not watched every single minute of every episode - how many immunity idols are there out there?

MOOKIE : Well, there's two - Yau-Man had one and I had one...

HARRY : And Yau-Man had a fake one?

MOOKIE : And a fake one. Who knows if he made another one in the meantime and planted it somewhere else. There was definitely two.

HARRY : How badly did Dreamz do you guys in?

MOOKIE : If there is a word to describe..."traitor."

HARRY (laughs): That's one.

MOOKIE : That's one.

HARRY : Keep working it up. I want to get your full-throated feeling about this.

MOOKIE : You had to trust someone in the game, and unfortunately I trusted the wrong person. It was a guy that backstabbed us, and lied to us to our face.

HARRY : Then he lied to your face.

MOOKIE : Right. If he'd come to us and said, "I'm sorry, it's a part of the game," it would have felt a little better on our end, but he just shows he's the traitor.

HARRY : What are your feelings about Alex?

MOOKIE : Alex is a good guy. I mean, I didn't know that he'd voted for me until after I got voted off. That came as a surprise, too. I thought I had the game under control and all the sudden everything comes loose.

HARRY : Wow. Overall (stops to marvel at clip of Alex voting for Mookie)...this is a pretty ruthless season, isn't it?

MOOKIE : There's a lot of betrayal, people are swinging sides and as Stacy said earlier, I think she didn't want to give us any food, me and Alex. People are ruthless.

HARRY : Let's take a look - we always have a secret scene and we're going to take a look at this and come back and talk about some of it.

[(Mookie, Cassandra, Yau-Man sitting around camp)

MOOKIE : So, what are your impressions of me? Yau, I know you have some thoughts.

YAU-MAN : I thought you was playing the game from day one; maybe a bit overstrategizing.

MOOKIE : Alex and I thought if our alliance was broken, we know we're on the chopping block now, we're a threat...

YAU-MAN (solo): Mookie kept talking about pretty much resigning to the fate of being kicked out soon. Doesn't seem like Mookie, to admit defeat that he's been outwitted by all of us, and in front of us too. We have to keep on our toes and not just say, "OK, we won this round." We're not going to rest until Mookie is really, really out of the picture.]

HARRY (laughs): Was there a part where you started to think 'OK I have to admit defeat here'?

MOOKIE : I think at a certain point you have to open yourself up and take the game to the side and just be a person. At the same time, always have the game in mind. At that time I thought maybe I could get Yau-Man open, maybe get some secrets to come out, and I could use that to my advantage knowing my position.

HARRY : He's a player. He's a great player.

MOOKIE : He's a smart guy.

HARRY : Overall, how was the experience for you?

MOOKIE : It was great. I couldn't ask for a better experience. I think I really played the game of Survivor, going to every Tribal Council. Although it didn't turn out the way I wanted to, it was a great experience.

HARRY : You've gone back to real life now and I understand you've started to open up with some charitable work?

MOOKIE : It's called Active Chicago Foundation, to help underprivileged children.

HARRY : That's very cool. A good thing for you. Nice to meet you, sorry about under these circumstances. (shakes Mookie's hand)