Lete Reflects on Her Deal or No Deal Island Finale: "I Don't Want to Be Bitter, But..."
"I was immensely proud of the game I played," Alexis Lete told NBC Insider after being crowned Season 2's runner-up.
In a season jam-packed with shocking blindsides and nail-biting twists, Alexis Lete thrived on Deal or No Deal Island Season 2 thanks to an honest game driven by integrity.
Despite narrowly losing the final challenge to Survivor Australia champ David Genat, Lete delivered an unforgettable performance that led her to be crowned the season's runner-up. From the moment the season began, Lete emerged as a trustworthy ally in an environment where high stakes often evoked ruthlessness. While some DONDI players entangled themselves in deceptive plays, Lete's approach was refreshingly pure. Knowing her athletic stature made her a threat, Lete embraced friendship at the core of her gameplay. While Lete's social game was top-tier, she also dominated Excursions, winning three of the Banker's grueling island challenges. No one can say Lete went down without a fight, and she maintained her morals every step of the way.
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In our exclusive NBC Insider interview with Season 2 runner-up Alexis Lete, she talks about that explosive final challenge, her do-good gameplay on Banker's Island, and the friend who betrayed her at the eleventh hour.
Alexis Lete on the "cool" passing-the-baton moment with Parvati Shallow
To prepare for her Banker's Island stay, Lete said she binge-watched reality shows like DONDI and Big Brother to better understand for the grueling twists and turns ahead. During her streaming adventure, Lete noticed that players like her — athletic, muscular, confident — were almost instantly eliminated due to being threats. Lete figured that if she couldn't deny her frontrunner status, she'd help as many people as possible in hopes of playing an honest game.
"A lot of people like teaming up with someone like me because I can help win. I can help protect them. I can help bring them to the end," Lete said. "And for me, that was really a big advantage ... not so much as a hindrance as a lot of people make it. So I started playing an honest game because I wanted people to trust me.
"And so that was my game plan going in, and with this strategy, I couldn't lie," Lete continued. "I couldn't backstab because as soon as I backstabbed, someone's like, 'She's a huge physical threat, and she's backstabbing and lying? Can't trust her.'"
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While it restrained her a bit, that no-BS approach to camp interactions and gameplay led Lete to form several strong alliances on Banker's Island. Because Lete made quick friends with everyone, she thrived during the Final Excursion when recently eliminated players returned to throw wrenches in the finalists' games. Thanks to her lack of burnt bridges, Lete didn't experience much resistance until she got to Survivor star Parvati Shallow.
"Parvati, I was scared to see [her] because she was so hardcore Team David, and I didn't work with her the whole time," Lete admitted. After navigating the game on opposing alliances, Lete was understandably stressed to see Parvati standing in her way of the prize.
But game recognizes game, and after Parvati asked Lete why she deserved the win, Parvati was pleased with her answer and helped Lete out.
"It was cool," Lete said. "It's especially cool leaving the island and hearing about how many people love watching Parvati and love watching her play games and her mind manipulation and the way she's able to talk her way through and out of everything. I was like, 'Oh wow, she's really the G.O.A.T.' It was cool to be able to say that I played with Parvati and not necessarily worked with her but had a little bit of a passing of the baton."
The final Excursion: "Phillip betrayed me"
But it's not all sunshine and happy memories for the DONDI runner-up. Lete has a bone to pick with her Banker's Island ride-or-die, her ally from Day 2, Phillip Solomon.
"I do look back and I am a little bit bitter about the people that I let close to me because I really do feel like Phillip betrayed me," she said. "Philip's a nice guy, but that is the one thing where I look back, and I'm bitter about it, I'm not gonna lie. I don't want to be bitter, but I am."
During the penultimate episode, Phillip had the opportunity to jeopardize David's game during the Final Excursion. Despite Lete pleading with Phillip to sabotage David, her ally failed to do so.
"He helped the guy!" Lete exclaimed.
It's also worth noting that Phillip championed Parvati's elimination due to his belief that reality TV champions shouldn't win massive cash prizes twice. So the moment Phillip handed David the highest-value case, thus securing his victory in the Final Excursion, it was a grand twist of cosmic irony for him to later watch the Survivor winner break primetime records with his $5.8 million earnings.
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"To see him have the power to not help someone who's already won Survivor win, and then choose to do it anyways, to me, is spineless," Lete said. "Let me paint the clown makeup on and look like Phillip... And I'm not necessarily blaming Phillip on my loss. I'm not doing that. I'm not like, 'I lost because of Phillip.'"
Lete continued: "I'm bitter because someone that I trusted and someone that I helped get so far in this game, someone that I really had a connection with, and I would describe us as friends when we were out there. Like I would have loved to come and visit him, I would have loved to hang out with him outside of the show. I really felt like we bonded — [but he] was not willing to do what I would have done for them… Philip is a super nice guy. The issue is Philip is so nice that he's not willing to stand up for what he believes in."
Alexis Lete takes pride in the way she played Deal or No Deal Island
Despite the lingering sting of Phillip's performance in that game-changing Excursion, Lete remains elated over her DONDI experience.
"I was immensely proud of the game I played," Lete said. "I was immensely proud of the way I carried myself. I was immensely proud of the way that I was able to take my roots from Kentuckiana and put that on a show where people are made to lie and manipulate and not have to do that to do amazing in the game.
"And yeah, there's a little bit of ego involved to that. Of like, 'I don't have to do what you have to do to do amazing.' It feels so good to do it this way. And it does because I am ultimately proud of myself, and I think I proved to myself and other people that — I fell short of winning, yes, of course — but I could have won," she added. "And you could win by playing this honest and truthful, integrity-driven game. And I know people don't watch [reality TV] to watch people have integrity; they want to see the backstab and the lying, and there was plenty of that.
"That's for other people to do and need to handle," Lete concluded. "I'm proud of the way I played."
Watch Deal or No Deal Island on Peacock.
