Omar Zaheer is all about working with all types. In his day to day life as an exotic animal vet, he has to be adaptable considering all the different creatures he has in his waiting room. And he brought those skills to the island, playing an impressive 23-day game that had him creating relationships across the board, then utilizing them to take out some of the game’s biggest players. Unfortunately, it came time for him to become that big player. And he was done in by the work of someone he worked to protect since the very beginning: Maryanne Oketch. Omar came to Fiji wanting to present as friendly, self-deprecating and likable. And he did just that, becoming a key cog in Taku from the jump. His willingness to open up about his life endeared him to many people out on the island, and he became one of the most unifying voices of his tribe when they entered the merge four-strong. At the Final 12, Omar was without a vote thanks to an earlier visit to the summit. But he was able to spin Survivor straw into gold when he heard that his allies Jonathan Young and Maryanne Oketch were on the chopping block. Feeling Maryanne and her extra vote would help him down the line, he gathered enough people together last-minute to get rid of Lydia Meredith instead. So Omar dictated the vote without actually having one. And it was just the beginning of his emergence into being a power player. With the chaos of the merge settling, there seemed to be a clear majority and set of outsiders. But, true to his nature, Omar kept his options open, creating individual relationships with each of the people on the bottom. That included Romeo Escobar, who Omar decided to protect when he organized a blindside against Rocksroy Bailey. At the final eight, Omar was ready to unleash his more cutthroat side. He exploited a growing divide between Mike Turner and Hai Giang, using a lie to get the former to blindside his closest ally. Then, when Drea Wheeler brought him in on a plan to steal Mike’s idol, he truly showed knowledge is power when he leaked the information to Mike to spare him and foil Drea’s move. Drea verbally gave Omar the credit for the move on her way out, something not lost on the others. And so it was Maryanne who put in her own plan to draw Taku blood. She used her extra vote and Romeo to craft a cunning 3-2-2 blindside, sending a smiling, yet surprised Omar out of the game. Now out of the game, Omar talks with Parade.com about a game-changing advantage he found that wasn’t shown in the edit, all of the various relationships he formed throughout the game, and the fan reaction behind him getting to tell his story of being Muslim. Omar, good morning! What’s up, you thick-ass pigeon? [Laughs.] Oh my God. You’ve been waiting months to say that! Yep, sure have! You came in just shy of the finale. What was it like watching your downfall back last night? I had a good run, I can’t complain. I had the time of my life. It was the best experience I’ve ever had. And to play the game that I wanted to play, I can’t really complain. If I were them, I would have done the same thing. So I don’t blame them at all for that. I wish we were talking next week. But I mean, what can you say? I was an idiot the last few days. So all good things come to an end. [Laughs.] Well I’m excited to talk all about your flight in the game. Let’s start with where things ended. It’s clear you were surprised with what happened at Tribal Council. We saw so many conversations with Maryanne, Mike, Romeo, and Jonathan at camp. Did you have any inkling it would possibly be you? I think they did a good job in the sense that a lot of that strategizing was happening when I was not around. On the other hand, there were so many warning signs that I missed. I was actively avoiding being a paranoid player that was very irritating to me as a trait other people. I could see that the paranoia in certain players would irritate other people as well. I should have been internally paranoid. Eery time before we hit Tribal Council, Jonathan would look me in the eye and he would whisper, “Are we good?” And I’d be like, “Yes, we’re in front of people. Stop.” And Mike would pull me aside four or five times and we would have conversations about the same thing. You even caught a glimpse of it in the last episode. I was like, “Drea is watching. We can’t keep doing this.” And I was not the person they were pulling aside or looking at this time. That was so obvious in hindsight. But I thought maybe they just took my advice of, “Stop doing this, because it’s too much.” But it was really because they were just doing it with each other. Maryanne also came up to me and was like, “Oh, what are we going to eat on Day 26 at Ponderosa together?” And I was like, “That’s a weird thing to say.” How much do you think Drea’s words during her exit that you were the only person she told about Knowledge is Power changed the way people looked at you moving forward? You know, it’s hard to quantify something so subjective in terms of how much it actually affected things. I think maybe for Maryanne it may have a little bit. Because when Maryanne heard that, she realized I was playing a bigger game than maybe she was aware. And then when we got back to camp, I gave Mike the idol back immediately. And she saw that transfer. I think that was really jarring to her. I wanted Lindsay to actually take that idol. But because she was in Do or Die, if she died, the idol would leave. So it had to be me. But my game was about putting heat on others. So I would have preferred that. But I actually think that the biggest thing that led to my downfall was not related to that and actually happened right before Drea left. She told me about Knowledge is Power. I had to figure out what to do in a very short period of time. And my first inclination was to make my priority to keep the idol in the game and know where the idol was. Because I had an immunity idol nullifier that nobody knew about. (Holds up parchment.) Wait, what?! So I was too focused on that. It became the ring to my Gollum. That’s why I was so okay with keeping the idol in the game with a particular person. Jonathan and I found that very early in the game together, and we were not going to tell Lindsay and Maruanne. And then he found out that I told Lindsay, and that was really the domino that let everything go. He told Mike about it, and then Mike turned on me. So it was like this perfect storm. In hindsight, what I should have probably done was, instead of focusing on playing that nullifier at five, I should have just let Drea take Mike’s idol, nullify her out of the game at seven, and then move forward having still having Jonathan and Mike’s trust. But, you know, hindsight is 20/20. You just keep pulling out the surprises, even after the game! I need to know more about this idol nullified. When did you find it? I think it was part of the reward with the fish in the premerge. And it was just sitting by the water well. Jonathan was getting very irritated by Maryanne and her chattering. So he’s like, “Let’s go for a walk.” And I was like, “OK, sure”. And then we saw the thing right there. I’ve never moved faster in my life until that moment. [Laughs.] Then we opened it together. I would have preferred to have it by myself. But we were right there together. So we kept the secret for a long time, and I feel it really was my undoing. How coincidental was it that the Takus made up four of the final six? Was it your intention to keep them together, despite Lindsay constantly targeting Jonathan? Yes, that was very much intentional. Going into the merge, our plan as a group was to split up, not talk to each other. We had enough trust that we would insert ourselves in every conversation with different alliances. Because if you’re in every conversation, they can’t be talking about you without you knowing. So I went in being like, “These are the people I’m going to look out for, and I’m going to carry them all the way. I’m going to be like a mother hen. They’re my baby chicks. [Laughs.] I’m gonna carry them.” Because they were all bickering with each other too. And I was like, “Stop fighting. Like, let’s just stay together.” I do think the heat of the “turn back time” really put a bit of pressure on them to turn on each other. But I was really the one because I was safe. I was like, “No, we’re not targeting Maryanne, we’re not targeting Jonathan. We’re gonna make it Lydia, it’s done.” And then we were still covertly working with each other and doing the check-in, but we still trusted each other. It was funny, because when we got down to eight and seven people, people would start to say to us, “Isn’t it weird that you’re all still here?” And I was like, “Yeah, such a coincidence!” [Laughs.] You talked last episode about wanting to split up Jonathan and Mike. What was your intended endgame at the time you left? My whole goal was being flexible. So I didn’t want to think too far ahead in advance, because I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself into one particular plan. But it just came became clear, as the game went on, it was better to stick with my tribe because there was a lot of trust there. Obviously, they turned around and killed their mother hen! [Laughs.] But that’s fine. But my goal at this point was first to remove Jonathan. Because if he’s going to take up immunities, that’s a problem for me. I was starting to heat up a little bit in the challenges. And especially if there were puzzles, I felt I could sneak out a win. And I didn’t want to rely on him to take me to the end. Then I was going to get rid of Mike at five with the idol nullifier. Then I would be at the Final Four with Lindsay, Maryanne, and Romeo. And at that point, it would be hard. I was like, “Maybe I should take Maryanne and Romeo to the end.” But then Lindsay and I had been working so closely together as well. And Maryanne and I were very close. And Romeo and I got close. I was just gonna kind of let the cards fall where they may and make that decision at that point. Maryanne and Romeo and I had a Final Three alliance called the “Under Birdies.” I was a little bit part of everything. So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do completely. To that point, you seemed to really have a one-on-one relationship with nearly everyone out there. How tough was it to keep those balls juggling without worrying about people comparing notes? It just seemed organic, and it just happened. What helped was I had heard some very good advice from Kim Spradlin. When you’re talking to somebody, just believe what you’re selling them. So when I’m talking to Hai and Drea, I really believe in that moment that I’m gonna go to the end with them. When I’m talking with Taku, I believe that I’m going to go to the end with them. And a lot of it too is listening more than you speak. Out there, if people want something, and you listen to that, and then you give them the same thing, then they’re going to like the confirmation that it’s all good. But in my everyday life, as a vet, I may see eight to ten patients a day that are all different species that all have different problems that are all on different medications with all different owners that all need something different from me. And it’s kind of a similar situation. But obviously, in real life, I’m focused on the animal’s health above all else. In the game, I’m focused on my health above everybody else. [Laughs.] But I think that mentality is helpful. I want to talk about a few of the relationships you formed. You seemed to connect with Mike from the beginning of the merge, and you used that to turn him against Hai. You saved him from Knowledge is Power, and he immediately targets you. Talk to me about that dynamic. Mike is a really caring, loving guy. He’s very easy to talk to and get to know. I felt like earlier on in the merge our relationship was more friendship. We were peripheral allies because it would always go through Hai. And so it was true when I said to him, “Oh, we don’t have a good strategic relationship, because it’s all about the middleman. So let’s cut the middleman out.” But at that point, it very clear that Mike wanted Hai out. We had made a plan to blindside Rocksroy right before the Immunity Challenge where we all split up. And Drea was actually involved in that plan. And when Mike was going to blindside Rocksroy, because he was aligned with Drea, he wanted to make sure that she was in on it. So both Hai and I told him that she was, but she told him that she wasn’t. And that was actually the lie that really set Mike on a collision course with Hai. And I did kind of nudge it along. It wasn’t really that big of a lie. I know there’s some contention about whether Hai would really say that. But my impression was he said it without saying “puppet.” But he did say, “He’ll do what we say. He’s with me completely. He trusts me implicitly.” It was all there. You and Lindsay seemed to be a relationship that seemingly came out of nowhere in the postmerge. The two of you collaborated on the past couple of votes, to the point where Mike clocked that you were working together. How did that end up coming together? Lindsay is most underrated player this season. She was strategic, social, physical, she had it all. She was amazing to work with. Early on, my first alliance was with Maryanne and my second alliance with was with Jonathan. Then we pulled in Lindsay. She was the last one that I connected with, but it was more of a slow burn. As the days went on, I was like, “I feel like I can work with Lindsay really well.” We think the same way. I can tell her, “Go make these social relationships, make these moves,” and I can trust her to get it done. We just like we’re in sync so much. The other thing is Maryanne and I demographically are very similar. So we made a conscious effort to not be seen together. We live 10 minutes apart. We’re both minority religious virgins from Southern Ontario! [Laughs.] So we had a lot in common. We didn’t want to be seen together too much, because that could put a target on our back. But Lindsay and I had a lot more freedom to have these strategic conversations because people didn’t really see us similarly. Demographically, we couldn’t be more different. And so we really grew into very, very close allies. And we were just in lockstep basically the whole time from a few days into the game. Let’s talk about Maryanne. You just mentioned she was your first ally, and you decided to protect her at several key votes hoping her advantages would help you. Cut to last night’s episode, where she uses an advantage to vote you out. How did that dynamic change? Early on when it was either Marya or Maryanne going, I said, “Maryanne is better short-term. Marya is better long-term.” Because she has that vigor for the game. You could tell she was going to make a move before the end. But after I saved her at the merge, I was like, “I want my cake and I want to eat it, too. So she’s staying, her idol staying, her extra vote is staying, and I’m going to need those for me.” And then look what happened with the extra vote! [Laughs.] But as the game went on, at the merge, she didn’t have a lot of traction. A lot of the majority alliance didn’t want to work with her. So I was working with her very covertly. And I felt we were really bonded in that moment. I was like, “She’s not getting a lot of traction from the majority alliance. If she wants to pull off a move on me, she can’t even do that because everybody’s telling me everything.” She got a little bit constipated and sick around the final seven. So she was laying down a lot. So I didn’t see her strategizing. And she was very smart to do it when I wasn’t around. I just thought that there was no way she would see Mike and Jonathan as smaller threats than me. And that’s on me. I didn’t have enough self confidence to be like, “You are the big target here.” I thought that I positioned myself where she would never vote me out before them. And I was wrong. You got some great personal content about getting to tell your story as a Muslim. What was your reaction to watching your portrayal, and the reception from the fandom to your story? It’s been amazing, honestly. Growing up as an Indian and a Muslim, I didn’t really feel there was that representation on TV. Not just on Survivor, but in really most shows. It took a lot of reflecting, even after this experience, for me to look back. In my childhood I would be like, “Wow, you really didn’t feel like you belong at all.” I would just kind of go along to get along. I would never put my needs first. I would just mold into the background, because I always felt like I’m lucky to just be here. And I think that kind of helped my game in a way of like, “Oh, you just go along to get along. Let everybody else’s desires overweigh yours and then you do what you want.” But I think there was a real sense of not belonging in society. You don’t really belong as a part of any group. So it’s amazing to have this platform where people are so thankful to see somebody like them on TV. Hopefully little kids like me feel like they do belong. It’s very special. And I’m very thankful that Survivor shared that story on the show. There have been five Muslims total in 42 seasons of Survivor that I’m aware of. Only twice has it actually been shown, and one of them was me. I felt very fortunate about that. And I hope that there is more representation moving forward because I think that the Muslim community is very misunderstood. It also took 39 seasons to see Karishma as the first Indian contestant. And now there’s three of us: Karishma, Swati, and I. So I hope that people just feel like they belong. Next, check out our interview with Drea Wheeler, who was voted out in Survivor 42 Episode 11.
