Maria-Grace Cook Talks Elimination, Dr. Will & Showmance with Storm

“The Family” has lost its first member on Deal or No Deal Island. On Tuesday’s (February 4) latest episode, “Trust Fall,” host Joe Manganiello pulled a fast one on the contestants when he revealed after they paired up that they’d be playing against each other instead of in lockstep during the daily challenge.

Unfortunately for Maria-Grace Cook, that meant that she had to contend with her show-dad, David Genat, and when he won the daily, she was in contention for elimination.

Once Dr. Will Kirby sabotaged his own game, though, MG seemed to be pretty safe. After all, he’d already been pushing for Courtney Kim a.k.a. CK to be ousted when Dickson Wong won against the banker, so it stood to reason he’d go after her himself when given the chance. Only, secret deals were made (with Seychelle Cordero and Alexis Lete, it seems) for Will to oust MG instead. And when his strategy of picking cases in numeric order, starting with one, paid off by landing him a good deal, he followed through on that promise.

So how did she feel about being sent home so unexpectedly? Has she forgiven Dr. Will yet? And where does her showmance with Storm Wilson stand today? TV Insider caught up with Maria-Grace Cook to find out!

I wanted to start just with the obvious. I know Storm talked about it a little last week, but where do you guys stand now, in your opinion? 

Maria-Grace Cook: Yeah, he’s really great. He’s been very supportive of me. A lot of things have changed since I left the island. I moved to LA, and he did come visit me, and we got to have some real-world talks. I don’t plan on visiting Austin anytime soon. It’s very much up in the air. I think we’re really great friends, but that’s pretty much how it is. He’s very awesome.

So in the game, when you guys were kind of in your showmance, did you ever consider bringing him into the alliance? 

Actually, we did. There was one night that we were sitting on the hammock on the island, and he was kind of in Dr. Will’s alliance. Dr. Will came down and was like, “Ask her, ask her,” and he never ended up asking me to be in his alliance, but that was in the plans further down the road if we were to stay in. 

With “The Family” alliance, what made you trust Parvati and David so much? 

Well, one, David was in my tent, and, Sydney [Peck] was in our tent as well. So I think we both bonded over just disliking her.  So then after she left, it was me, La Shell, and David. So we just got along really well. We’re laughing, we’re always with each other and they don’t show that as much as we really are. So I connected with him automatically. I liked Parvati, but I knew she was a little sketchy, but I kind of got grandfathered into it just because David was my number one. 

Did you know either of them were reality stars when you teamed up with them? 

No idea about David. I think that’s very obvious from my clips, but I did kind of know about Parvati. I never watched anything about her, but I remember seeing her on stuff. So I did approach her like one of the first days and said, “I know who you are.” And then she was like, “Really?” And she kind of told me more than she should have; she’s like, “Oh, you know that I won Survivor.” And I was like, “Yeah,” which I didn’t know at the time. And then I later conveyed to David…

What do you think Dickon’s strategy was in taking Storm out, knowing that you guys were close? 

I don’t think there was any strategy behind it. I truthfully think he won, he beat the banker the best you could ever beat them, and it was just insane, the whole aura in the room. We were all so ecstatic. Everything was going crazy, and I think he may have been jealous, I’m not sure, and then just looks at Storm and goes, “I’m gonna make a big move, Storm.” And then he got the reaction everyone wanted. Everyone blew up in his face, which didn’t do so bad for him so far because the next person out was me. 

Were you surprised that Seychelle and Lete were in Will’s ear like trying to save CK and sacrifice you? 

That actually was the most surprising part. Seychelle is one of the funniest people I know. 

 3:25: She’s actually coming to LA Sunday, and we’re getting dinner together. She is great. It’s very hard for me to separate personally from the game because it personally hurts me, and I watched that last night and I was texting her like, “What the hell?” … She’s like, “I’m sorry my sweet sweet angel, but we just had to.” But that was the most surprising part. 

Lete, we weren’t in an alliance at all. She did actually come to me and say, “If you want to play the banker tonight, I’ll let you,” which in hindsight… hindsight is always 20/20. I should have said, “Oh, I’ll play,” but I let Will. 

Were you surprised by Will’s like case picking strategy? What was he doing? 

Yes, I think everyone was not really surprised cause it’s antics that Dr. Will would do, but we were more just dreading. We were all sitting there — and the temple takes a very long time to film — and we were sitting there like, “This is torture,” banging our heads on the wall. You could see me at one point leaning down on the ground like [head] in my knees, like, “Please make it stop.” But that’s what he wants. He wants everyone to be unhappy because then he can have control. 

Dr. Will Kirby, Joe Manganiello, and Maria-Grace Cook / Cr. Monty Brinton/NBC

Obviously he’s making a lightning rod of himself on purpose. Did anyone actually like him? 

I don’t think so. On the island, no one did. They just kind of put up with him because we always knew like he didn’t care to go up against the bankers. So I think that’s why they aligned with them because they’re like, “Oh, easy, he’ll go up against the banker and then take out who we want if he wins. If not, he leaves and no one cares.” So I don’t think they really liked him. 

You said you’ve forgiven Seychelle. Have you forgiven Dr. Will? I know he apologized to you. 

Oh yes, I have forgiven him. It’s been hard, but he bought me a nice bottle of champagne and flowers, and then my favorite treat is Rice Krispie treats. So he got me like 50 Rice Krispie treats. He’s like, “I’m so sorry.” So yes, I have forgiven him, but watching it back hurt. It hurts. 

When you left, who were you rooting for at the time?

Honestly, even I didn’t know all that stuff had happened with Seychelle, I thought she was so funny. We didn’t have any strategic gameplay, but just like personally, I was laughing the whole time on the island. She’s hilarious, so I’m really rooting for Seychelle. 

And who did you think had the best chance of winning?

I really had no clue. Every single day it changed. After getting off the island and realizing David was a Survivor player, I was like, “Oh, no one on the island knows that.” So that could be a good chance, but without knowing that I had no clue. 

Who did you think was left with the biggest target on them after what happened to you? 

I think Will always had a target on him, but I think him getting someone out of The Family. Probably the rest of the family. I mean, I think any of them now they don’t have numbers, so I think any of them have a target. 

Deal or No Deal Island, Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC