Up to now, the Destination X eliminations have been due to contestants putting their Xes in the wrong spot. That wasn’t the case for Mack Fitzgerald in Destination X season 1, episode 6. One of the strongest players in the game was eliminated due to being such a threat.
During Destination X season 1, episode 6, Mack had been sent to the dungeons early. Yet, everyone shared their clues, giving her the bits she needed to figure out where they were heading. Her mistake was definitely in telling Biggy the location, considering he wasn’t heading to the Map Room. That led to Biggy telling Shayne, leading to Mack’s untimely exit.
Well, really, it was thanks to a tie-breaker in the Map Room, leading to Peter getting the closest date and having the power to send someone home. He decided Mack was too much of a threat, and she was. She possibly could have won the game had that not happened.
We got to chat with Mack about her exit, including Biggy’s betrayal and whether he’s apologized since. Destination X will not be the same without her.
Mack Fitzgerald says Biggy has apologized after Destination X
GeekSided: I was gutted for you. I wanted to see you win. Was it any concession being eliminated because you were considered the biggest threat?
Mack Fitzgerald: It’s the best possible way to leave without winning the game. Episode 1, I came in saying, ‘I’m here for my ego. I want some validation.’ To be hand-selected, the only one so far that’s been hand-selected, to go home, not because I got anything wrong, was a huge compliment. I think it’s the best way to go out.
I wish it had happened later. Obviously, I wish I had won, but short of those two things, I think it was the best possible way to go for my ego in terms of elimination.
GS: Could you understand Peter’s decision to choose you and not Shayne?
MF: I thought for a split second he was going to pick Shayne. They had just gotten in a fight a couple of days before, but he was really taking his time thinking. Once there was that pause, I knew he was making a smarter decision than that. Unfortunately, it’s gonna be me, so I realized before he said it. But at first, I had a little bit of hope.
GS: I could see it in your face that you knew. Would you have done the same with that power?
MF: I’ve gone back and forth on this. I don’t actually know what I would have done in that moment. I really wanted the alliances with Biggy, and Shayne obviously got in the way of that. I think I could have gone head-to-head against Shayne better than Peter, but Shayne was in my way with Biggy, so I might have gone that way.
I also knew Peter was working with Rick, so that was a point against my alliance. When your alliance is dwindling down in numbers, it’s a problem, so I think for almost the same reason, I would have done it to break up the alliance. I could have picked from either of Rick’s alliances.
GS: I feel like Rick’s alliance was the worst kept secret.
MF: It’s almost impossible to keep a secret on that bus. If two people are constantly going to have a quiet chat on the other side of the bus, you’re like, ‘Well, I know you’re not just getting to know each other, because you could have done that with the rest of the group.’ I don’t think everybody knew that they had an alliance or the extent of it, but I thought it was pretty obvious that they were together.
GS: How did it feel learning that Biggy ultimately led to that elimination? Shayne was choosing Vienna.
MF: Yeah, it was devastating, because I had gotten really, really close with Biggy. I obviously knew he was really close to Shayne, but at this point, I thought he and I were super close, and I thought he would at least keep this a secret. I knew generally things were being told to Shayne, like me, Shayne, Ally, and Biggy were all kind of working together, those three more closely than me, but I really thought he would have kept this a secret.
It really felt like he wasn’t going to tell Shayne because otherwise it would have caused a tie-breaker. I thought he knew all that. He says he doesn’t, but he says he didn’t know Peter was working with Rick. Then I talked to other people on the bus, and they were like ‘Of course he was gonna tell Shayne. They knew each other since episode 2.’ But in that moment, I absolutely didn’t expect that and was gutted by it.
GS: Has he apologized since?
MF: Yes! I think aside from his dad, once he was done filming, I think I was the first person he called to apologize. Apology accepted! It’s all cool. It’s just a game. I get it. You got to do what you got to do to win or keep promises, so no hard feelings at all. But it was definitely a shock.
GS: So, what was your strategy going in to Destination X?
MF: It was exactly what I said in episode 1. I wanted to find the dumbest person and just kind of tell them everything until I got to the point where I didn’t know something. Then we just kind of lie and that would keep me safe.
There wasn’t really anybody who was particularly dumb or had no skills. Some people lacked geography, but they pulled their weight in other ways. A lot of people buddied up and had alliances pretty quickly, so then my strategy pretty much just changed to, ‘I can figure this out on my own.’
I can have friendships. I can bounce ideas off of people, that was Biggy and Kim for me, but there was never an official alliance. We just kind of always talked about things. I was in this alone, which was fine by me.
GS: Looking back, would you have done anything differently?
MF: I regret telling Biggy Salzburg, mostly because there was no need to do that. He wasn’t going into the Map Room, so I didn’t need to divulge that information. So, a lot of the blame for my exit should be placed on me. Other than that, not really.
I feel like after episode 2, I figured out how the game worked pretty well. I was figuring out the clues pretty easily. I think had I not told Biggy, I would have made it at least a few more rounds. I feel decently comfortable saying I would have been Top 3 with Rick and Biggy. Those are the two I clocked as my threats early on. Who knows if Peter would have come along with that alliance.
GS: I said that you and Ally were the two people were underestimating a lot.
MF: Yeah, it’s been so interesting watching Ally play, because I definitely underestimated her the entire time on the bus. I never really saw what was going on and her conversations with other people. I didn’t realize how strategic she was being the whole time. She was playing the game both socially and geographically. She was definitely one of the stronger ones there, but I didn’t realize that at all during it.
GS: What sort of research did you do beforehand?
MF: I got really lucky in that I had just spent several months of the preceding year backpacking Europe, backpacking almost exclusively getting around by bus. I had a really good familiarity with the map in terms of general direction with how long it would take to get from A to B on the bus.
They didn’t really show me doing it, but a lot of us were using the sun. The producers couldn’t lie about the sun, so that was one thing. You generally know where in the continent you are.
Beyond that, I made some flash cards. I picked a couple of major cities in each country and just put some fun facts about each one, and a lot of those kind of ended up being clues, so I picked the exact right things to study. But mostly, it was just familiarity with Europe.
GS: Something that threw me off trying to guess where you were was that you were never in X. What was that like for you?
MF: That took me a couple of episodes to realize that. The clues were pointing towards where we were going, but we could be a couple hours out. Europe is generally not that big, and the countries are pretty small too. We could be pretty far away from the actual city, but for example, from Paris, we went north. So, anything south could be ruled out, but it was definitely confusing.
GS: Have you watched Sound of Music now?
MF: My mom told me that I have watched that movie several times, but I don’t remember. Before we filmed, I was in Croatia with a couple of my friends, and we went to Salzburg to see everything for Sound of Music, because one of my friends was interested. So, I knew Salzburg was related, just based off that. I didn’t know it was based there or filmed there. I just knew the clip of her singing in the hills.
GS: You were lucky with how many clues people were willing to share in the dungeon.
MF: Each person came in and there wasn’t even a question of ‘what was your challenge?’ They just immediately said everything. I was like, ‘Edelweiss, oh, okay. Mozart, oh, Salt.’ It was just like boom, boom, boom. You just told me everything I needed to know.
I was actually upset after that there was a challenge. I was hoping there wasn’t another challenge, because I think I was the only person who knew at that point. I didn’t want others getting to see any information. I don’t think I would have known Salzburg just from the yodelers. I knew we were in Austria, but Vienna is not too far away.
Munich to Salzburg is pretty close, but we drove a pretty far distance. I think they were trying to throw us off, so who knows. I think I would have still got it, but I would not have been as confident in the Map Room.
GS: For me, the Salt clue sealed it.
MF: Oh yeah!
GS: What was the VR goggle experience like?
MF: They were rough. I hate the eyeball goggle shots.
They were really heavy, and it got to the point they eventually gave us these eye masks to go under the VR goggles, and that made it more comfortable, but they were still constantly slipping down your face. I would need to adjust it, and I was like ‘I’m not cheating. I promise.’ Sometimes they would flash. They were not comfortable.
GS: My last question is more of a potential two-parter. Would you do another reality show, and if so, which one?
MF: I want to do this one again, because I feel like I’ve got a lot more to give. I want to test how I would do if I just kept my mouth shut the entire time.
Other than that, I would definitely do another show. I think one where I can kind of rely more on my own wits than the social game, because I don’t think my social game was my strength, though I would like to be tested.
I’ve always wanted to do the show Alone. They put 10 people in the wilderness, and it’s just who can survive the longest without saying they need to go home. I think that one would be a lot of fun. I also think Traitors would be a lot of fun, but that one is a lot more social. I think it would be a fun test.
Maybe The Mole on Netflix. That one looks really cool. But mostly, Destination X is what I want to do again.
Destination X airs on Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.