Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Snake In The Grass episode that aired on Monday, August 29th. Read at your own risk!
Snake In The Grass had a very riveting episode in which fans saw veterans of Big Brother and Survivor go head-to-head. In the end, Janelle Pierzina, Rachel Reilly, and Cirie Fields managed to out Stephenie Kendrick (formerly LaGrossa) as the Snake, and went home with a split prize of $100,000. While other players conceded it was hard to sniff her out initially, her former Survivor co-star Fields said she wasn’t fooled by Kendrick’s deception from the very start.
Cirie Fields and Stephenie Kendrick have both played Survivor several times, but only once together. The Season 20 Heroes vs. Villains veterans know each other quite well, and Fields told CinemaBlend that was exactly what made it so obvious that Stephenie was the Snake. While it might’ve taken the Big Brother players longer to figure things out, Fields said she had her former friend pegged from the jump:
From the beginning til the end, I knew it was her. I know her, and she looked weird…literally the second he said, “And one of you are a snake,” obviously, we all turn and look at each other, and I looked at Stephenie. [To Stephenie]I wish I could recreate that face you made! I hope they do show it because I looked at you, and then you did a little [head jerk] to Janelle. You’re like, ‘It’s her.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh Stephenie. Damn.’
Cirie Fields might be the victim of one of the unluckiest Survivor tribal council meetings of all time, but she’s also considered one of the greats for a reason. Whatever Fields may lack in physical prowess, she more than makes up for in being observant and strategizing. Fields spotted Stephenie Kendrick was acting off from the very start, and as much as Kendrick might’ve tried to throw her off the trail, it didn’t work.
With that said, Stephenie Kendrick didn’t establish herself as one of Survivor’s greatest players by folding when the chips were down. In fact, Kendrick tried just about everything she could to sway her fellow contestants that she wasn’t the Snake, going so far as to swear on her children that she wasn’t the Snake. I asked Kendrick about the moment and what was going through her head at the time and she told CinemaBlend:
I mean, listen. It was my last chance to try to like convince them. I already knew that they all thought [it was me]. Not only would they [not] look at me, they wouldn’t even talk to me, and I was like, ‘Well, seriously, I do still think it could be,’ and they wouldn’t even look at me. So, it was my last chance to really try to convince them it wasn’t me and they were going to make the wrong decision, they’re going to lose the money, and blah blah blah. I mean, obviously, it didn’t work, but I had to go down with a fight a little bit!
Stephenie Kendrick did just that and gave a performance worthy of some of the most heated tribal councils in Survivor. It might’ve worked on other players new to reality television, but given Rachel Reilly is one of Big Brother’s most memorable winners and Janelle Pierzina is good at speaking her mind about other players and sniffing out deception, perhaps Kendrick never really had a shot. Kendrick did tell CinemaBlend that even if Cirie Fields hadn’t pegged her from the start, the final clue the team received was pretty obvious, so she might’ve been doomed either way.
Snake In The Grass is a game in which four contestants attempt to complete various challenges over 36 hours in the jungle, all in an attempt to expose the Snake among them. Each challenge completed means another clue about the Snake is revealed, so they’re incentivized to sabotage the challenges in whatever way they can. Should the Snake elude discovery at the game’s end, they’ll go home with $100,000, but if the others out them, the Snake leaves with nothing, and the other three contestants split the money.
Snake In The Grass airs on USA on Mondays at 11:00 p.m. ET. Those who tuned in to see the amazing women of Survivor and Big Brother in action will definitely want to see their many performances in those other games, which are available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription.
