Yam Yam Arocho Sounds Off on His Dramatic 'Murder in Plain Sight' and the Final Words That Have 'Traitors' Fans Divided (Exclusive)
Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho can always spot a "twinkle in the eye," and Real Housewives alum Lisa Rinna was no exception inside The Traitors castle. While his theory on her "murder" method wasn't exactly right, his intuition that she was the Traitor who killed him was dead on. During the show’s most dramatic "murder in plain sight" to-date, the Survivor 44 winner was dragged away—literally—from the Black Banquet table, but not before screaming out a final warning that has left the fandom divided.
In his exit interview with Men’s Journal, Yam Yam defends his vocal departure, explains the intuition that led him to Lisa, and why his dramatic exit was actually exactly what he manifested. He also pushes back on the narrative that he refused to work with fellow "gamers" like Rob Cesternino, revealing how a lack of trust among the fellow Faithful gamers turned the castle into a draining experience.
Scroll down to read the full interview with Yam Yam.
Men's Journal: How are you feeling? The banquet was so fun and dramatic, but that's a tough way to go out.
Yam Yam Arocho: I am a big believer of, like, putting out there to the universe what you wanted. I remember when they called me for Survivor the first time, I was like, I'm gonna win that show. And I said that to my mirror every day, and I did. And when I started going and prepping for Traitors, I was like, as long as long as I make it halfway, because I know I'm a Survivor winner and it's going to be hard. As long as I get to the banquet, because I knew a banquet was going to happen at some point, and as long as I go out not in a confessional, I'm going to be happy. And I got everything.
Men's Journal: I'm seeing debate online about whether a murdered player should be allowed to talk on their way out. What do you make of that?
Yam Yam Arocho: Every person that is saying that just doesn't like Yam Yam. It's okay, not everybody needs to like me. Here's the thing, being a Traitor already gives you an advantage, huge advantage, because you have control over half the game when the other people don't. Then if the show wants to progress and keep being fun, being a Traitor has to be a hard job, and how to make it really, really hard. You're already doing a murder in plain sight. You're already murdering face-to-face. The next level, other than the Secret Traitor controlling how they're going to do the strategy of the voting at the beginning, is do a murder where the person chosen to be murdered can say something because it becomes more dangerous to be a Traitor, and to do the act of murdering in front of everyone. So this commentary of people saying he should not have said anything and that there should be a rule of producers saying, if you get picked, stay quiet. It's a movie, and I was being dragged. My head was not chopped off on the table. I was still alive, and I was able to scream what I say, because when they're going to kill someone and people get dragged out in life, they're still talking.
Men's Journal: Talk to me about Lisa. When you were on your way home from the castle, were you still 100 percent that it was her that killed you?
Yam Yam Arocho: I knew it was Lisa. I knew it was Lisa because the way she was acting with me was very different. I had gotten really close to Lisa because after a few of the roundtables, after Michael [Rapaport] left and Ron [Funches] left. I wanted to have fun. I was tired of feeling heavy, feeling mad, feeling sad, because the first half of the game was very, very draining on my energy. And I remember one night saying, I want to have fun, like Survivor. I had so much fun on Survivor, I need my moment of fun. So Lisa was like my Carolyn [Wiger], and we were having fun, joking around, you know, being herself. And if you know anything about my game of Survivor, I do like the twinkle in the eye thing, so I knew the way she was talking to me was very weird, like, in a more intense way. I got distracted by the fashion and everything, I shouldn't have touched the pin.
Men's Journal: What was your reaction to finding out the other Traitors were Candiace [Dillard Bassett] and Rob [Rausch]?
Yam Yam Arocho: Oh, I was so happy for Rob. So happy for Rob. Rob was my guy. I mean, of course, he's gorgeous. He cannot do no wrong, but my No. 1 trust was with Natalie [Anderson], and then Rob. I was always working very close to Stephen [Colletti], but he was doing some sketchy things, but because how he is, that he was bringing suspicion, I could see what he was doing. Stephen and Maura [Higgins] were like my Traitor choices, but I would have never said it was Rob. He could have gone to me at night in the castle, whisper in my ear, "Yam Yam, wake up." I'd be like, "What's going on?" He says, "I'm a Traitor." And I would have said, "No, you're not. You're not a Traitor."
Men's Journal: You didn't seem to want to work with the other gamers. Was that something that you were thinking about before the game? Talk to me about that.
Yam Yam Arocho: The only people I knew for real were the gamers, like these people did not trust in me, because this is something that happened with the gamers this season. The fact that none of us was a Traitor, and the fact that everybody knew I'm a faithful, someone has to be a Traitor. I'm a faithful, so somebody has to be a Traitor, [and it] created this mistrust within the gamers group that manifested into the relationship of everyone. Because if the gamers are talking with everyone that they don't trust the gamers, then who can we trust? Because where's the strategy is going to lead, right? But I was never like, "I don't want to work with gamers." I've heard this first from Boston Rob on the podcast. He was like, "Why do you want to work with gamers?" Like, that was not a thing. Natalie and I were super close from the beginning. I was super happy to see Rob Cesternino there. I was super happy to see Tiffany [Mitchell], because I'm really good friends with Big D[erek Frazier] I love Ian [Terry] because he's an old school Big Brother player that I used to watch. We never had a chance to work together. It's not a choice. It's that we never had a chance. And I, of course, heard Rob Cesternino say I was putting a highlight on him, or like highlighting that he was a strategist. I was like, "Rob, thank you. It wasn't me. Everybody knew who you were." Because if you're gonna go to Traitors as a player, Sharon, what do you do? YouTube [search] "Traitors strategy" and what's gonna come up on YouTube? Rob Cesternino talking about it.
Men's Journal: You had some heat on you early in the game, and it didn't even seem like you were having fun. Do you feel like once Michael was gone, your game sort of opened up? Did you feel like you were in a better spot?
Yam Yam Arocho: No, I took so much s--t over my Michael that I I wanted it to shift so bad. But by that point, these quiet players, the ones that are being shown now, did not trust in me because I was so strong against Michael every single time. From night one after the picking of the Traitors, Michael went after the gamers and the housewives so hard that that same night, I was like, "Dude, you need to stop saying the gamers or the housewives, because it's just not cool with me." Because at that point, everybody was so quiet, it kind of put all the eyes on us, and I could not do anything. And that's why, when we go into the banquet and with the potions, I was like, I need their trust back. I'm not gonna go for safety, because I was going for safety every single time. I'm gonna say Johnny [Weir] to give it to Kristen [Kish], because Kristen was very outspoken at the roundtable. I prompted Natalie [to drink it]. She was looking for, like, reassurance. I was like, just drink it. Just drink it because I wanted to be trustworthy. But by that point, it was too late. It was too late, even if you see the clips of my face talking. I was already so tired of these people not trusting me, because it was a very new experience for me to have this cloud of doubt over me.
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