Deal or No Deal Island Season 2 is the gift that keeps on giving. The challenges are filled with twists, designed to keep the players on their toes. After all, to be the Banker’s ultimate challenger, you have to have your wits about you at all times.
Game Master and host Joe Manganiello acts as the Banker’s intermediary at The Temple. During the most recent challenge, the guests rated themselves on how big a threat they were. Then, they went to the beach and found wooden targets with their faces on them. Contestants had to throw their axes at either the two biggest threats or the two contestants that were the smallest threats in the game. Those players would win immunity.
Dr. Will Kirby targeted himself and ended up with the highest-value case in the game. It was worth a cool $5 million. That also meant that Dr. Will would decide who would face the Banker. He wanted to oust Courtney “CK” Kim but made a deal with her.
So, Storm Wilson approached Dickson Wong, asking if he would be willing to face the Banker and eliminate CK if he won. He agreed and also made the same promise to Dr. Will. However, after Dickson added $5 million to the final case, he went rogue. Instead of booting CK, he sent Storm home in a shocking elimination.
Storm joined Reality Tea writer Kim Stempel to discuss his shocking elimination and his island romance.
Storm explains how close he and Dickson were on Deal or No Deal Island Season 2
Kim Stempel: How close were you and Dickson?
Storm Wilson: Closer than that last episode would probably lead you to believe. You know, I had hung out with Dickson every single day, right? We were pretty buddy-buddy with each other. I helped him dig his sandcastle. You know, I let him pair up with me in that competition.
And then even during Temple, I was probably his biggest fan, going absolutely berserk for him every time he’d make these amazing moves. So, I can say until that very last minute, we were pretty close.
Kim Stempel: Did you have any inkling at all that he might target you? Or target you down the road?
Storm Wilson: No, I don’t think I did, or anybody on that entire island [did]. Set, cast, producers, Joe – I don’t think anybody knew that he was going to do that. And, frankly, I’m not even sure he was going to do that until he won that $5 million. I kind of believe that he was going to take CK out, and then, once we were up there and he just won this money and he was just feeling good, he said, Screw it. I’m going to go for a big name. And I’m going to start a fight with another alliance, too.
Kim Stempel: Yeah. He put a bigger target on himself and the whole Family group, as well.
Storm Wilson: That’s kind of what I was thinking. You basically just started a fight with the only other alliance on the island. And passed up the opportunity to take somebody out and would have had no blood on your hands at all. So, I thought it was kind of a bad move, and I don’t remember if it pans out to be a bad one or not. I think next episode you’ll be able to see.
Have Storm and Maria-Grace taken their romance into the real world?
Kim Stempel: Have you seen Maria-Grace [Cook] since the show wrapped?
Storm Wilson: I cannot confirm nor deny if I visited L.A. maybe once to see her, go to dinner, maybe go to a basketball game, and then fly home. And I cannot confirm or deny that maybe she’ll be coming to Austin at some point in the future. So, you’ll have to ask her.
Kim Stempel: Who do you hope wins the game?
Storm Wilson: So, that last day I was there, right, I had a quick second to talk [with] Maria-Grace [Cook]. Obviously, you saw the end, and I want the best for her.
But in my alliance, who I’ve been closest with first, I remember leaning in and whispering to Lete (Alexis Lete), You can win this entire game. Go win this game. Because I really believe it. I really believe that Lete can win this game. And so, I whispered that to her at the very end … in hopes that she’ll take it all the way.
Kim Stempel: Now, who else besides Lete was in your alliance?
Storm Wilson: The High Five alliance, which quickly became four because Luke [Olejniczak] got eliminated, was me, Lete, Seychelle [Cordero], and Phillip [Solomon]. That was our alliance. Then the Family at the time was David [Genat], Parvati [Shallow] and Dickson. And MG [Maria-Grace] seemed to be kind of warming up to them, but you know, we don’t know yet.
Storm shares who the biggest threats are on Deal or No Deal Island Season 2
Kim Stempel: Who did you think was the biggest threat on the island?
Storm Wilson: It’s funny. [In] that competition, we were supposed to list the biggest threats, and I didn’t list Will as the biggest threat. Now he had a lot of time sleeping in our dome, so we had time to talk to him, and I found him more interesting than anything. Very, very calculated. Although I didn’t see him as a big threat because I was pretty confident we were becoming friends.
So, I listed mostly the Family, and other people on the island as a bigger threat. I listed my team and Will kind of in the middle because I wasn’t exactly sure what happened once we listed them, so I didn’t want anything bad to happen to my people. So, I kind of like rigged mine, but generally speaking, I saw the other alliance as the biggest threat.
Kim Stempel: How far do you think the reality stars Dr. Will, Parvati, and David will go in the game?
Storm Wilson: At this point in time, I’m thinking that they’re probably going to make it relatively far, right? They’ve been on reality TV shows before. Dr. Will, who I’d been slightly familiar with, was an expert manipulator. Again, very calculated with everything he does. Parvati’s [been] on Survivor multiple times, so she’s not exactly somebody you should sleep on. So, I see them all going pretty far, but I didn’t necessarily see them as a threat to me and my game.
Kim Stempel: What was your favorite challenge that you did on the island?
Storm Wilson: I really liked the ax one. I mean, obviously, that last scene was the craziest thing ever. You get a pretty good idea of what happens, but that was all pretty much how it happened. There were a couple more ax throws that I did and missed, but that was the only one I stuck, and it was right after MG had given me that massage. It’s reality TV show perfection, right? So, that was super, super cool, and probably my favorite challenge.
Kim Stempel: Maybe a foreshadowing of things to come, perhaps?
Storm Wilson: Just maybe.
Does Storm have any regrets about his time on Deal or No Deal Island Season 2?
Kim Stempel: How much of a threat do you think CK is in the game?
Storm Wilson: At this point, I believe that she’s starting to become a threat. Right? Because she’s made it very, very clear that she doesn’t like Will. The blue team is kind of working with Will at this point because he’s sleeping in our dome. He’s not an ally or anything, but we don’t exactly have anything super, super against him. We’re just not sure we trust him yet.
And CK’s also not friends with the Family. So, you have our alliance, you have the Family, all gunning for you. So, I see CK as kind of a threat in this game. And not because I think she’s going to hurt us in a bad way. I mean, she’s proven that she can lie pretty well, but because everybody wants her gone.
Kim Stempel: Do you have any regrets about doing Deal or No Deal Island?
Storm Wilson: No. No, the show was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. You know, even when I look back and I’m thinking to myself, Would I change how that night went? Would I try to keep myself in and maybe have Dickson lose? I wouldn’t do it. I mean, you could see in his eyes that was the most amazing thing. One of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. So, I don’t even have the heart to take that away from him. It was really, really cool and made Deal or No Deal history.
This interview was edited for clarity.
Deal or No Deal Island is streaming on Peacock.
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