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"Don't Be a Self-Proclaimed Villain": Jamil Sipes Responds to Kim's Deal or No Deal Island Attack
And what Deal or No Deal Island's Jamil said about partnering up with Claudia Jordan for this week's challenge.
Deal or No Deal Island competitor Jamil Sipes had one goal going into the series: Don't be the first person out.
"I cannot tell you how many of my cousins, my coworkers, my friends were like, 'Listen, I don’t care if you win or not but you best not be the first person to go because we’re gonna let you have it,'" Jamil, laughing, told NBC Insider after he was eliminated from Episode 2. The 47-year-old healthcare recruiter from Grand Prairie, Texas, was eliminated from Deal or No Deal Island by fellow contestant Kim Mattina, who chose Jamil as the week's sacrifice after she won Episode 2's classic game of Deal or No Deal.
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Her reasoning? She'd dubbed Jamil, an ally to seasoned reality series player "Boston Rob" Mariano, too "sneaky" to keep around.
"I’ve never been called secretly sneaky. But I kind of like it and I’ll kind of own up to it because that means you don’t know what I’m gonna [do]. So if you don’t take me out, I can come out from right behind you and snap your head off. I was like, 'Well, OK, I can take that. I can like it,'" Jamil joked about Kim's comments.
Jamil was too "sneaky"
Because Rob (the real threat everyone is gunning for) had immunity protecting him, it was, Kim explained in the episode, either Jamil or Claudia Jordan who had to go. And Claudia, Kim reasoned, was more forthcoming in her plans.
"I understand what she was saying because with Claudia, you knew what you were getting and you can handle that. I get it. But you have somebody else that you don’t know how this person is thinking or how this person is reacting ..." Jamil said.
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"It was funny, Kim and I had a lot of good conversations. So it’s not like we didn’t. We had some good conversations. So the fact that she – I’m not 100 percent sure why she said I was 'lowkey sneaky.' I’m not really sure where that came from ... She was always talking about Boston Rob and [she knew] that was my guy and we were cool. So she was trying to get him out. And I just really wasn’t feeling what she was saying, so I think from that, she took it [to] ‘Oh, you’re being sneaky.'"
Jamil and Boston Rob's Bond
So it was, in a way, Jamil's bond with Rob that did him in. But, really, he just liked the guy!
"I had no idea who [Rob] was [going in]. No idea," Jamil explained. "And now I’m like, 'Oh, he’s a pretty big deal. People love him!' But I’m not really the biggest Survivor guy."
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Jamil had watched the first season back when it premiered in 2000, which is when he, ironically, was living in Boston. So Jamil and Rob were able to bond over that, their ages (both are in their late 40s), and their children (Jamil has three; Rob and his wife, Amber, have four). It wasn’t until he started hearing the whispers around camp — “’Boston Rob’? Why are you calling him that? Am I 'Connecticut Jamil'?” he joked — that he realized the others knew the guy, and that it was kind of a big deal to find himself in his inner circle.
Jamil was a "fanboy" over Claudia Jordan
As for the season’s other notable face in the contestant pool, Claudia Jordan, Jamil was a fan, even admitting to fanboying over her at the beginning. Working with Claudia during the second episode's challenge was a big plus for him, too, even if the episode ended in a big loss for him.
"Teaming up with Claudia and being the first to the tree, being the first back, and having my teammate be the first to [hit a target]. I felt like a million bucks. I had a lot of good times on the island but that series of events to me was perfection. Until Rob came and destroyed it all!" Jamil said, laughing.
“I’m gonna stay by your side because you know this game very well,” he said of his thought process upon meeting Claudia.
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In fact, the two bonded enough for Claudia to promise revenge against Kim on Jamil’s behalf. After Kim named Jamil as the second person exiting the show, Claudia pulled Jamil into a hug and whispered in his ear, with the subtitles onscreen revealing that Claudia promised to “get [Kim]” out as soon as possible.
“I appreciate that,” Jamil said of Claudia’s promise. “My girl Claudia is on the warpath. She’s gonna get Kim out of there … hopefully she does in the next couple of episodes and gets Kim out of there.”
Is Kim really a villain? Or does she just think she is?
All of this focus on Kim by the other players would, in reality show lingo, usually brand Kim as a "villain"? So, is she?
"She’s a self-proclaimed villain — and I don’t really like that," Jamil said. "Don’t be a self-proclaimed villain. Just move around the way you want to move around, and if it’s villainous, then other people will coin you the villain."
Jamil then referenced a famous Game of Thrones line in which Tywin Lannister, after watching his grandson, the boy-king Joffrey, throw a tantrum and declare himself the king, tells Joffrey: “Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king.”
"You’re just playing a role," Jamil said.
New episodes of Deal or No Deal Island premiere on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. All episodes will be available next-day on Peacock.
