Survivor 49 is here! Every week, Parade.com's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off the island.For Jake Latimer, the game was afoot. By Day 6, the correctional officer was walking tall, the most well-connected member of his tribe with two number ones and a brewing "bromance." While he had family on the mind, missing the birth of his child, he was eager to make missing the milestone worth it, playing a dominant game with cheeky dashes to boot. But, ironically, the "Shoe Bandit" was shockingly done in by an incident with his foot, as a sudden bite from a venomous sea krait caused an immediate shift. Now Jake was no longer fighting for a million dollars. He was fighting for his life.
Five days prior, the mood was very different. The former male revue star metaphorically stripped himself to the rest of his cast, opening up in the first few minutes about the fact that he was playing now before his dad fully lost his eyesight from glaucoma. But he had another heavy familial secret weighing on his heart, as his choice had come at the cost of missing his child's arrival. It was information he immediately divulged to both Alex Moore and Sophi Balerdi, who he immediately clicked with. From there, despite Kele becoming more disastrous by the day, a solid strategic foundation was built. The trio was in control of the tribe, with Jake serving as the biggest connector between the other two.The morning after voting out Kimberly "Annie" Davis, Jake went to the water to think about those back home. He had no idea, however, that it would be his last Fijian beach trip. While sitting by the water, Jake was bitten by a sea krait. And after finding out the snake is one of the most venomous and dangerous creatures they could encounter in the wild, it was an immediate all-hands-on-deck situation for the Survivor crew. Jake was rushed back to production base camp, where he was triaged and given treatment by the entire medical staff. The good news: He had received a "dry bite," meaning there was no venom in his system. The bad news: While his life would continue, his life in the game would not. The doctors felt that Jake's situation was too dangerous to resume playing (and, as we found out later from host Jeff Probst, required him being flown to a hospital to Australia for full care). In tears, the former hockey player's game was put on ice. But there is a happy ending to this tragic tale, as he was able to make it home for his son's birth after all.Now out of the game, Jake walks us through the timeline of his life-threatening medical emergency, the relationships he managed in the game, and why he's ready to come back with a fire in his belly.Related: Read our Survivor 49 pre-game interview with Jake Latimer
First, I have to ask, how are you? It was spoken about on the show that you went through a highly physically and emotionally traumatic incident. So what was it like watching that trauma back again last night?I've been dreading this day since it happened. I knew that this was going to be a massive part of the show. At one point, when I was getting off the boat, I thought my life was over. I got I was told it was a very, very poisonous snake. And I kept saying, "I'm gonna be a dad," and that's all I can think about. "I'm gonna be a father. I'm gonna be a father. Don't let me die. Don't let me die." And to watch that back, I'm not gonna lie to you, I was bawling my eyes. out I had Mr. Joe Hunter right next to me. I was down in San Francisco for it,. He has arm wrapped around me, making sure I was okay. Kevin was there, Anika. Brice and Wen made sure I was doing okay. But it was a very, very tough watch, incredibly tough to relive that again. But I'm so thankful for the medical staff. And I'm still here today, and I might not even be here talking to you if it went differently, right? So, yeah, I'm very thankful.Let's walk through the timeline of how this happened. Because we didn't actually get the bite on camera. And Dr. Barry says later in the episode that a dry bite only happens when a snake wants you to get away. So did you provoke the sea krait at all?So basically, every single day, I kind of went down to the beach, and I kind of just sat there with my feet kind of in the water before the tide comes in. And I shut my eyes. I spoke to my family and my loved ones back home like they were beside me. And it was kind of a weirdthing to do, but it just kind of grounded me and just reminded me why I'm out there. So I was down there with my eyes shut, and I was telling my family, "We have a water challenge coming up. I'm gonna get ready. I'm gonna go for a swim right away. Do some laps here. Get ready for it." And then I felt like this little — so we got bit by crabs at night time, because we slept on the beach. They didn't show that on the end either, but we were sitting on the beach. So crabs would pinch you and stuff like that. So it felt like a crab pinched me.And I opened my eyes, and this white and black snake, mouth open, was on the bottom of my right foot. It didn't hurt. It just felt like a pinch, almost come, "Check this out, man, I think this thing just bit me." Then I go to production, like, "Hey guys, I don't know what that is, but that just bit me." And then chaos. People started running out of the jungle. The snake stayed on the beach for a couple minutes, scurrying the guideline there. And then you could see the fear in the production's eyes, and that's when I got real. So, did I provoke it? Not at all. I didn't even know it was there. I've been thinking about this, dude, for f—king four months now. And I think I might have been near a nest of some sort. I haven't done any sort of research on this thing, but I wasn't provoking it. So unless it felt threatened, maybe that's why. It kind of gave me a little bit just to tell me to get away.Once we get into that chaos, what was your reaction? We see Alex find out that the snake in question was a sea krait. When did the reality of the situation hit you?He didn't tell me. He was trying to keep me a little bit calm, I guess you could say. But he knew it was poisonous. But I don't remember who told me. But someone just said, "Dude, this is a very serious situation. This is a very highly venomous snake, and we got to get you to the tent now." And that's when my world kind of flipped upside down. I wasn't out of consciousness, but I was in there with mental capacity. I don't remember the boat ride. I do remember like I was on the floor for some point to that. I think I even threw up on the boat. It was a lot of psychological stuff happening, too. Like I said, man, I'm about to be a father. This cannot be the way I go. So, yeah, it was just after that, everything was a little bit of a blur. Just so much happening.What memory do you have of being brought to base camp and getting treated by the medical staff?So, I mean, they were treating it like it was a venemous bite. So I was kind of out of the loop a little bit. All these medical charts are going around. I got needles in me everywhere. I got oxygen on me. My leg, at one point, was in this massive balloon — I don't even know what it was. It was like a pressure cooker almost on my leg. And yeah, it was real scary. But one thing I will say, man, so Jeff folks showed up there, and I'm like, "Holy shit, Jeff's here. This has got to be something pretty crazy."When you're a kid and you're riding a bicycle. And you fall off your bike, scrape your knee up, and you're crying, you're looking for a familiar face. You're looking for mom or dad to come and pick you up and hold you and tell you everything's gonna be okay. I have all these medical people around me who I've never seen in my life, and I'm scared for my life at the moment. And when Jeff showed up and he held my hand, you can see that on the show, and he said that it's okay, that right there was so calming. It was just like this familiar face. And I don't know Jeff other than being on Survivor. But having him there in the moment and holding my hand, it made me so calm in that situation. And I can't thank Jeff enough. He doesn't know how much that meant to me at that moment, but it means a lot more than anyone would ever think.Give me your reaction to the ultimate diagnosis that you wouldn't be returning to the game. Was it something you were expecting, considering you were told it was a dry bite?Dr Barry said it appears that this is a dry bite, and that was music in my ears. I'm like, "I'm gonna be able to see my kid. I'm gonna be able to see my kid." And then I go into "Survivor Mode, where it's like, "Alright, I gotta get back to my tribe. We got a challenge coming up." So did I think I was getting pulled out of the game at the moment? No. It was a dry bite. Like, "Bandage me up. Let's get back there. I'm ready to f–king go here." But then when they pulled me out, I'm not gonna argue the decision. These are medical professionals. Jeff's there. This is his show. Was I absolutely devastated? 100% .That was not the way I wanted to go out. I feel like with Survivor, the only way your journey is done is when your torch gets snuffed. And my torch was never snuffed. It's unfinished business; I don't feel like I'm done out there. But I do respect the game. I respect the rules. I respect the medical staff, which are great, by the way. And it was out of their best interests to just get me out of there, and they flew me up to Australia to be seen by some other doctors and some specialists, and I respect all that. [Sighs.] It sucks, but I got to go home for the birth of my kid, and that's worth more than a million dollars.Talk to me more about that. Because, as you're recovering in an entirely different country (of which, ironically, you previously lived in), your wife is getting ready for her own intense medical situation. Talk to me about getting in contact with her and making your way back home for the birth.Once I was pulled from the game officially, I went to the Fiji hospital. I was told by our medical professionals that they're getting me on a plane and taking me to Australia. It's just a bigger hospital. They have more outlets, I guess you could say. But they gave me a phone, and I called my wife, and just that was an emotional phone call. I said, "I'm safe. I'm okay. I gotta go to Australia. But I'm gonna be home very soon." So yeah, that's a phone call I'm never gonna forget in my life, because there's a lot of crying. However, I tried to comfort her knowing that I wasn't dying, but it's gonna be a few more days until I can be home.I'd be remiss, Jake, not to talk about the other five days you had in the game before the snake bite. You struck up this bromance with Alex before he even knew it. Talk to me a bit about your relationship.Yeah, so Alex, I just kind of knew, even on that very first challenge, just the way that he handled himself in that water, he gave everything. I'm like, "This is kind of the guy I know I want to work with." However, what they didn't show you in the edit...so listen, this is where the bromance comes from, because I'm getting absolutely blasted online for making it so known. So me and Sophi were actually ride or dies on the very first day. We made an alliance of, "Let's get to the end together." But they didn't put that in the edit. So when I made the bromance with Alex, I did that on purpose. I made it very well known to take the heat off me and Sophi. So Sophi did her homework, I did my homework, and we come back with information for the two of us. So that's why I kind of made it so well known to everybody. And it worked out for me. I had two number ones!To that point, if you had to pick to trust one of Alex or Sophi over the other at any time, who would you have picked?That's such a tough question, because I love both of them so so much, and they're both my very good friends outside the show now. I would have stayed true to my word with Sophi if I had to pick between her and Alex. And Alex will probably kill me for saying this. I would have probably taken Sophi, but I was hoping to never get in that situation between both of them. My whole plan was to take us three, in a perfect world, to the top three, right to the final. And then if any of them beat me in the final, I'd be the first one to give them a hug. So that was my whole gameplay. But, yeah, if you're getting me to pick one over the other, I have to go with my girl Soph. Miami Latina!Sophi and Alex were also the only two people you told about your expecting wife. That was interesting to me, considering that you were very open on Day 1 to everybody about the story with your dad. Talk to me about why you chose to keep that a secret from so many people.So with my dad, that just kind of came out. That was the reason I was playing for, and I wanted people to kind of know that. But when I told Alex and Sophi about me having a kid, I kind of used it as currency, right? So I hyped that up. And I see online, people saying, "He's saying too much." However, that kind of locked me in with them with a friendship and a trust thing. Because I said, "Listen, guys, I have to be here. I'm here for a reason. I need to make this count. And in order for me to get far in this game, I need your guys' help. So I'm going to keep you guys safe. You keep me safe, and let's do this together." So that's why I disclosed that just to them.Was that something you were going to disclose to other people eventually, to your point about using that information as currency?I think if I felt threatened. If I went to the merge, I knew I was going to be a massive target, I had to use that information to keep me safe. Because it does pull the heartstrings. It shows people why you're there. There's more reason than just a million dollars why you want to be there, right? So I didn't get that far. So I don't know how to answer that. My plan was, if I got to the top three, I was going to use that in my speech. But yeah, I just wanted to get that off to my alliance straight away. And I mean, it worked! We ran that tribe. I didn't get a vote cast against me, and I just kind of dictated what happened. So I think that revealing that information helped my game massively with those two things.I have to talk about the Shoe Bandit. Was that something you came into the game wanting to do?Not at all! I'm actually in the Calgary airport right now. I'm just checking out everyone's shoes. On Day 2, I think it was, we had a lot of downtime that day. There's not much happening. And I've never been diagnosed with ADHD, but I'm pretty sure I have it. I can't sit still for more than five minutes. I was able to sit on a log. I saw a shoe, I think was Nicole's shoe or something like that. I was like, "I'm gonna go hide it. I'm gonna put it 10 feet away." I just wanted to see her try to figure out where it went or why it went and sow chaos. And I enjoyed it! I enjoyed that little bit of entertainment for myself. And I just kept doing it, man! I did a lot more shoes than they put on TV. A lot more shoes?!Yeah, I actually hid my own shoe at one point! They didn't put that in the edit either. I see everyone saying that online, "Why didn't he hide his own shoe?" I did do that! They just didn't put it in the edit. So I was causing plenty of confusion at camp.As you mentioned, family was a major part of why you were playing. So what has the reaction been of your family through your time on Survivor, especially considering how it all ended?I mean, I have so much support up here. Being the first player from Alberta to play on the show, I have both Calgary and Edmonton, all the small towns support me, which is really nice. But my family watching it, man, I watched Episode 2 with my father up in Edmonton at a watch party. He sat right besides me as we watched the show together. So I got to experience the love from my father watching his son on TV. And that's the whole reason I was kind of there. I wanted to make him proud visually one more time. And I did do that. Obviously, he's very upset with how it ended up. I haven't actually even talked to him about watching it last night. I'm gonna wait till I get home. But, yeah, I love my family, and I made them proud. And I'm sorry I couldn't go farther for them.On that note, Jeff Probst did tell me that he would be open to having you come back for a future season. And it sounds like you're game as well, considering your talk about "unfinished business."It's something that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. Did I want to go out like that? No. And I mentioned before, the only way to leave Survivor is getting your torch snuffed. I have unfinished business out on an island. And if I ever get a call for a production saying that they want the Shoe Bandit back, they don't even have to finish a sentence and I'll be packing. I'm ready to go. There's a fire in my belly. And then next time, I'm coming to play, if I get the shot.
Related: 'Survivor 49's Jeremiah Ing Reveals Why He Asked Nicole to Spit in His Face (Exclusive)
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