Destination X’sMack Fitzgerald has been one of the most consistent threats in the competition, but after losing a tie-breaker question during the most recent episode,Mack spoke to Screen Rant about getting booted in a surprising way. ThroughoutDestination Xseason 1, the twists keep on coming for the most formidable players on host Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s high-tech bus.
While Mack, who wasone of the most threatening playersthroughout the first stretch of episodes, has been moving through the game with a practiced ease, seeing her trip up throughout the most recent episode didn’t necessarily seem like she would go home. Despite losing out on challenges,Mack had information, which is usually enough to stay in the game.
Unfortunately, after speaking to Biggy Bailey about the final destination of the leg, Mack put herself in danger. After getting into the map room and finding herself tied with other players, Mack’s fate wasput in Peter Weber’s handsand, making a strategic move, she was ousted from the game.Mack spoke to Screen Rant about her surprisingDestination Xfate.
Screen Rant: Mack, I am sad to see you here. I did not think we would be meeting like this! I just want to start with what drew you to this show because you seem like one of the most well-rounded players in this game. I’m curious, what about it appealed to you?
Mack Fitzgerald: I really like travel, and I really like challenges, or like, I like things where I have to use my brain, and I had been backpacking in Europe quite a bit right up to this show, and so it felt like if ever there was a time for me to have, you know, a lot of European knowledge on my brain, this would be the time. And I saw a TikTok casting call, and it just kind of popped up one night when I was kind of bored, and it just seemed like the perfect opportunity to use my skills and my interests.
Mack Was One Of The Strongest Players Early On
Her Threat-Level Was High From The Start
Screen Rant: In terms of your gameplay, okay, so you started off the season really strong and really threatening, and I think you kind of continued to be strong and threatening throughout, but what were you thinking when you were going in terms of alliances or in terms of building connections? Did you have any strategy going into the game, or did you just kind of wing it?
Mack: Well, initially, my strategy was indeed to partner up with the dumbest person there, and kind of, as I said, episode one, keep them close to me, give them all of the information, and then if we got to a point where I didn’t know where we were, then that’s when I would lie to them, and then they would kind of, you know, self-sacrifice for me. That never really ended up working out, and I kind of realized pretty quickly on that, like, while some people may lack the, like, geography skills, maybe they’re really strong in another category, so there wasn’t just, like, you know, some big idiot to tag on for me. Unfortunately, everybody was cast for a reason.
Everybody had some skill set, and I also kind of realized, like, oh, I can just figure this out by myself, and, like, I don’t have to rely on other people, because, like, relying on other people, while there’s definitely benefits to it, also kind of screws you over at some point, you know, if you, depending on how you play it, but, like, nobody can screw me over if I’m only reliant on myself, and so that’s kind of what I ended up doing. I did still try to get really close with Biggie. It wasn’t ever, like, an official alliance, and a lot of it was just because, like, I thought he was funny, and I just, like, wanted to be good buddies with him, but also I knew he was really smart, so it was helpful to talk things over with him, but it was never, like, an official, like, alliance or anything like that.
Screen Rant: Definitely. Okay, going into this episode, you were the first person to figure out where you guys were, just in terms of the clues, so you kind of had that on lock. I do want to ask about the dungeon situation. Can you give any kind of insight into what that was like?
Mack: It was really cold. If you had anybody else, if you were interviewing anybody else right now, they would have told you it was terrible, miserable, the worst night of sleep they’ve ever had in their life. I loved it. That was, like, one of my favorite nights during this whole show. I’ve been asking Jeffrey at every location, like, can we go camping? Just drop us off in the woods. When we were in Germany, I think, yeah, the episode previous, I was like, oh, good, we’re in the woods. This is perfect. Maybe the bus will just leave us here for a night. It’ll be great, so I’d really been wanting to go camping, and this was about as close as we could get to that, but it was cooler than camping. Like, we’re in a dungeon in a castle from apparently 1191, and I had a great night of sleep. It was, there were a lot of spiders there, I will say that, so it was kind of scary in that sense, because there was, like, a real threat, but I loved it. I had a great night of sleep [laughs]. I thought it was fun.
Screen Rant: That’s awesome. The castle looked incredible. I feel like that dungeon would have been the exact right temperature.
Mack: It was, like, I like to sleep cold, so it was nice for me, but, like, we had a very thin blanket, so I think a lot of others didn’t appreciate it.
Screen Rant: I can understand that. So you did ultimately figure out where you guys were very quickly, and the interactions with Biggie in this episode were very interesting. So you said you guys didn’t really have an official alliance. Did you trust his intel, though?
Mack: Yes. We’ve been, we’ve been talking, it’s funny because our relationship is not shown at all on this show, but we’ve been talking a lot since, like, episode two, maybe end of episode two for sure by episode three, and, like, always talking about the location, and I told myself after episode two that I would never fully rely on what somebody told me, like, if I thought something and somebody else told me something else that I’m going with myself, but, like, we were always bouncing ideas off of each other, and we were always both correct, and so very much trusted him, very much trusted he wasn’t lying to me, and so me talking to him about Salzburg was part of a much larger conversation. It wasn’t just, like, hey, by the way, Salzburg, okay, see you later, but, yeah, that was part of a bigger conversation that, yeah, ultimately, obviously, it bit me in the ass.
Screen Rant: Now, I want to talk about the map room. So we saw first in this episode with there being a tie for everyone in the map room. When you were picking, you understood where you were. When you heard about the tiebreaker, what was your first thought?
Mack: I think I probably shat myself, because it was, like, I, you know, going into the map room each time, there’s a little bit of anxiety, even if you’re pretty sure, but Salzburg, I was 100%, like, every single clue individually, separately, told me Salzburg, and then all of them together, I was, like, I’ve got so much evidence, like, yeah, it’s done, and so I was, like, so confident, you know, I’m going on to the next round, and then he says tiebreaker, and it’s just, like, oh, my God, because we’ve never had that before, but you just know it’s not gonna be good, and then I just had a pit in my stomach, and I just knew as soon as it was a tiebreaker, I just knew I was going home. Before I even heard the question, it was, like, oh, dang. Yeah, that question was tough. It was tough, and it was nothing to, it’s a bummer, really, because my lucky number is 11, and I almost was just, like, screw it, go 1111. That would have been the best one, but that sounded too old to me, but I should have known better, like, those things, everything in Europe is super old.
Peter Was At The Hands Of Mack’s Elimination
He Chose To Eliminate Her After Winning The Tie-Breaker
Screen Rant: Understanding thatPeterwas choosing who was leaving, did you feel any kind of protection with him considering he had it out for Shayne [Cureton]? Did you feel safe in that moment, or were you just cooked?
Mack: It was, it’s funny, because you can see me sitting next to Peter smiling, and I feel pretty good. I, so there’s a really long pause. Peter really took his time to think about it, for better or worse, but at the beginning, I really was, like, oh, for sure he’s going for Shayne, like, they got into a fight, you know, two days ago, three days ago, whatever, so Shayne is gone, but then he was thinking about it for a while, and I was, like, oh, he’s not making an emotional decision, like, he’s making a smart decision, and that sucks, because I think I am, and so I realized it before he said it, but definitely at the beginning, I was feeling okay, and then it just quickly caught up.
Screen Rant: I was shocked to see him make, and no shade to Peter, but I was shocked to see him make that rational decision.
Mack: Yeah, it seemed like he’d been perfectly primed to make an emotional decision.
Screen Rant: Well, this leaves us here. My last question for you, who do you think is playing the best game out of everybody that’s left?
Mack: I think it’s probably got to be Biggie. I don’t know, there’s a couple different people for a couple of different reasons, like, you know, I think Shane is playing a really strong game, in that he’s picked really, really strong people to partner with, and, like, really, really helped him out. I think Biggie’s kind of the same, in the opposite reason. I think Biggie has, you know, found an alliance that he can kind of bring along, and, you know, that will benefit him. I think Rick [Szabo] is playing a good game, in that he’s got, you know, some extra coverage. Peter’s playing a good game, because, you know, like, everybody’s kind of playing a little bit of a different game, but I think probably ultimately Biggie or Rick are playing the strongest, playing to win, not fully reliant on other people that help them get answers.
