Elimination on a show like Destination X usually comes down to a mistake. That could be a mistake in the gameplay, or a mistake in trusting the wrong person. For Tai Lowry, her mistake came at the end of Destination X episode 3, which spilled into episode 4.
Tai decided not to let anyone on the bus know that she met JaNa Craig on the bridge during the episode 3 challenge. Shayne was upfront about meeting Peter, and that led to a lot of questions from Peter, Shayne, and others. It was clear to many that they couldn’t trust Tai, and so, it wasn’t too surprising to find out that Biggy chose her as the one to make believe they were in another country.
Tai Lowry talks strategy, mistakes, and the VR goggles in Destination X
GeekSided: Hi Tai, it’s nice to meet you. How are you?
Tai Lowry: I’m alright. I wish I was still on the bus, you know!
GS: That was brutal!
TL: Yeah, it was really rough just being in that moment. I really felt, like you heard me say to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, ‘I guess I got no friends.’ I really felt like the whole bus didn’t like me, didn’t trust me.
GS: You started off with a great alliance as well, but as Biggy said in the confessionals, lying about JaNa broke his trust. Do you have regrets now looking back on that decision?
TL: Yes, I do regret it. I feel like if I would have just admitted to it in the moment with Shayne, that would have put us on an equal footing with each other. Even though I had my reasons for why I did it, I think that would have changed things.
By doing what I did, I gave Shayne the upper hand, because I gave him an opportunity to, which he did do, create other narratives about me being even more sneaky. Like where he said I was yelling at somebody? What was that?
I did admit it to the bus, but I didn’t do it exactly in that moment, so that was a mistake. Honestly, what I think I regret more is not fessing up to it as quickly. I should have been faster with it.
GS: What was your strategy going into the game?
TL: Even though I was a flight attendant at the time of going through the casting process, I hadn’t been to Europe at all. So, then I started picking up a couple of flights, but because I hadn’t been boots on the ground in Europe, my strategy was to study as much as I could to be a smart, strategic player. A person that people see value in so that I could have an alliance, and the alliance would help me when I’m lost geographically.
That was my plan, and had I not messed up with the lie at the bridge, Amsterdam would have been an example of where I actually did need my alliance. I was very lost with the clues.
GS: You said in the confessional in the Map Room that you knew it wasn’t Brussels, but you had a location in mind. Where was the location in your mind?
TL: I thought it was Germany, so I would have went home anyway. That’s why I had mixed feelings leaving the bus. I would have went home of my own devices anyway, because I was super off, but my alliance worked so hard to control and isolate me so that I wouldn’t figure out that we were in Amsterdam.
I was being told, ‘You can’t talk to JaNa anymore. Stay away from Peter.’ I was trying to be nice to them, but they said, ‘Nobody trusts you’.
I knew the clue of Germany that Biggy and Rick told me was fake, but I thought Ally would have my back. If she could forgive Shayne for what he did, then I thought she could forgive me, and she just left me hanging. That’s why I did not like her with Shayne.
GS: Showmances always create a problem.
TL: Always! It was my worst nightmare as soon as her and Shayne started hooking up. I just can’t believe this is my first time playing one of these shows — I love strategy games, I love competitive reality TV — I’m the one who’s in the alliance and they’re starting a showmance. It was awful for me, so I knew I had to work with other people.
I started working with Rachel, and then Rick, which wasn’t shown. Then when I met JaNa, I immediately saw an opportunity to try to work with her as well. I wanted an alliance with her, but it was mishandled and messy. It just didn’t work.
GS: I have to ask about Rachel, because I want to know if you genuinely thought you were in Cannes and not Paris.
TL: I thought it was Cannes. I was shocked! How did I miss Paris? I wasn’t paying attention to the windmill part of the movie clue. I just kept thinking film. There are windmills all over Europe, so I thought that could mean several places. But if I went into the Map Room I would have been home. That actually scared me, because I was pretty confident up until then.
I thought I understood the clues. They were a play on words. Roman numerals and Romeo and Juliet for Rom. Gen and Eva for Geneva. So, hands down, cross my heart, I thought it was Cannes.
GS: You did get some of those early clues a lot sooner than anyone else.
TL: That was the most exciting part for me in the game. I really like puzzles. I love riddles, board games, brain teasers; I’m an analytical person. So, I like things that I have to decipher, so that was really exciting for me. I felt proud of myself in those moments.
GS: Something that really threw me off watching was that you didn’t spend any time in “Destination X.” What was that like for you trying to guess where you were?
TL: Confusing! Especially the first round when we were going through Rome. I knew we were at least somewhere in Italy, but it was very confusing, because it’s like ‘we’re playing here, but it’s here.’ Now we’re getting back on a bus, and we’re driving for hours. I didn’t even know how long. There were no clocks, no light. It’s just a very weird experience in that way, but yeah, very confusing. It made the game very tricky.
GS: Did you at least get to see a bit of Amsterdam?
TL: A little bit, but with the construct of the game, the bus had to keep moving. I got to see more of the exit location for [Destination X episode 5]. Unfortunately, Jeffrey still owes me that coffee.
GS: With a little extra.
TL: Yes, with a little bit extra. We’re in Amsterdam! I was ready to party! Forget my alliance!
GS: Let me finish with a question about those VR goggles. What were they like?
TL: Horrific. Zero out of 10. I hated them. First of all, because it always messed up my makeup. My eyebrows were coming off, and I didn’t appreciate that.
They’re also very heavy, and they suctioned onto your face. In the Paris episode, when I’m meeting JaNa, you can see lines all over, and it hurts from the pressure.
I can say that we couldn’t see a thing, and it was terrifying having to be guided by people working on the show to get to the challengers. People online can’t believe it, but we were walking up an icy mountain, holding onto arms, and I was trying not to fall and kill myself. It was stressful.
Destination X continues to air on Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.