S42 Omar Zaheer

[Whimsy]

CBS bio

Name: Omar Zaheer
Age: 31
Hometown: Kitchener, Ontario
Current Residence: Whitby, Ontario
Occupation: Veterinarian

Favorite Hobbies: Training animals, Settlers of Catan, and watching TV

3 Words to Describe You: Silly, empathetic and shameless

Pet Peeve: People who complain about the cost of vet care, rudeness, feeding seeds to parrots, gym grunters, Joey from “Friends,” the fact that mini wheats have gelatin, when people talk bad about pigeons, and institutional racism.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I’m most proud of setting my mind to become an exotic animal specialist from undergrad. It is more difficult to get into vet school than med school in Canada, and the avian/exotics residency has the lowest admission rate of any specialty (3-5%). I’m also proud of maintaining my Muslim values while living in the Western world – abstaining from alcohol, pork and premarital sex – no matter how hard it may be. I am also proud of the resilience I didn’t know I had within me to deal with my father’s death in 2017.

What is something we would never know from looking at you? People would never know the difficult childhood I had financially and emotionally. We had very little money, living off my mom’s disability support; there were times where our lights were cut, we were evicted, and there was little money for food. Given that level of instability, people would be surprised to realize how far I’ve been able to come. I still love both my parents very much, but I can also recognize their shortcomings. Their love for us was never a question to me, but I can reconcile that they are imperfect people who did the best they could, even though they fell short in some important ways. Also, I’m afraid of condiments.

Who is your hero and why? Although my father had many shortcomings, he’s definitely someone I consider a hero. He had a tremendous amount of love for his children and even through some of his poor choices, that always shined through. He is missed every single day. I also admire my older sister very much because she often acted as a parent towards my younger sister and I but had no one to look up to herself. She’s always been there for us emotionally, financially, or with whatever we need. She has risen to be a top emergency psychiatrist in Toronto, and that work with mental health is so important.

Which past Survivor will you play the game most like? Rob Cesternino’s strategic prowess – he really understood the power dynamics and when to shift the game, and also made people feel comfortable with humor. He was also able to articulate his game beautifully in confessional. Cirie Fields – her sit, wait, and strike strategy is savage. Tyson Apostol – his sass and strategic game. Kim Spradlin – her social skills were top notch, and she made an alliance with everyone, and wasn’t afraid to make moves. Natalie Anderson for her laser focus.

Why do you believe you can be the Sole Survivor? “They must adapt, or they’ll be voted out of the game.” A statement that has not changed. You can look to nature and Darwin’s theory of evolution and see how the fittest survive, but the fittest may not be the lion in every situation. My ability to adapt, connect with others, understanding strategy & how to manipulate numbers, and most importantly – social awareness of myself and others are the key ingredients to success. I am not going to leave everything to starve on an island to let someone else win. I am playing for me and my family, and no one will get in the way of that. I can’t wait to do the show I love so much proud, by not only winning but being the first Indian and Muslim to do so. It would be a dream come true to see my nieces watch me win and serve as a role model – that will never leave my mind.
 

[violet and green]

I like him so much.

[Vikitty]

Me too. He's one of my favourites so far.

[Nashville]

Why do I keep thinking John Lovitz is playing a veterinarian…?

[EllenB]

So far, I kind of adore him. It's funny that he's Canadian, because he's like a normal version of Harold from The Red Green Show.

[LadyChatts]

Omar's exit interviews:

https://parade.com/1384963/mikebloom/omar-zaheer-survivor-42-interview/

-Because there weren't enough idols and advantages in the game, apparently Omar had an idol nullifier he found at the Taku camp (which means the other camps must have had one, which makes me wonder how the heck Drea, Queen of Advantages, didn't find hers).  Anyway, Jonathan knew because they found it together, and Lindsey and Mike found out, so Omar believes this helped lead to his downfall.

-He admits he should have let Drea take Mike's idol, and then nullified it.  

-He says that he was trying to play a paranoia-free game, and that Mike and Jonathan were constantly paranoid.  He says a red flag he should have seen was when they quit talking so much game to him, but he thought they were following his advice of not being seen together so much and overthinking the next vote (he didn't realize they were just scheming with each other instead)

-He said Taku intentionally stuck together and had no plans to vote each other out until the final 6, but tried to make sure they were inserting themselves in with others to not make it obvious that they were close

-He calls Lindsey underrated as a player.  He also didn't want to be seen too much with MaryAnne because of how alike they were (and apparently they live 10 minutes from each other).  He said the majority of players didn't want to work with MaryAnne, so he was working with her covertly

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by LadyChatts

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

Because there weren't enough idols and advantages in the game, apparently Omar had an idol nullifier he found at the Taku camp (which means the other camps must have had one, which makes me wonder how the heck Drea, Queen of Advantages, didn't find hers).  Anyway, Jonathan knew because they found it together, and Lindsey and Mike found out, so Omar believes this helped lead to his downfall.

Jesus Christ, show. This season has followed 41 pretty closely in terms of twists and advantages, but did 41 have an idol nullifier? Or did they actually look at all the s*** in that season and say "we need MORE!"

13 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

He said Taku intentionally stuck together and had no plans to vote each other out until the final 6, but tried to make sure they were inserting themselves in with others to not make it obvious that they were close

Seems like they pulled this off pretty well, since the only people we heard saying "we need to break up Taku" were the Takus themselves.

[LadyChatts]

Here are Omar's word associations with Gordon Holmes:

https://youtu.be/Y8tz_oGTdCM

Marya: Inspirational

Jackson: Sweetheart

Lydia: Mommy

Jonathan: Elephant

Romeo: Misunderstood

Drea: Hypocritical

Hai: Confident

Lindsey: Sister

Tori: Empathetic

Chanelle: Resilient

Mike: Very caring

Rocksroy: Lies (I think?)

MaryAnne: Outrageous

When asked about his remarks about Drea, he brings up Ponderosa and said he was disappointed by some of her behavior there in regards to him (this starts around the 9:40 mark if you want to listen).  He expected her to have hard feelings towards him, but he thought she was being malicious and going beyond the game with lies (apparently some were personal and not just game related).  He said Drea was always saying it was a game, but apparently didn't take her own advice when she was voted out.

Edited May 19, 2022 by LadyChatts

[hendersonrocks]

Quote

Jonathan: Elephant

This is hilarious. And wow, the Drea stuff. That sounds like some fireworks.

[Guest]

This cast needs to stop with the Ponderosa teases. It's too cruel!

[DEL901]

Omar’s EW exit interview. 
https://ew.com/tv/survivor-42-omar-zaheer-interview/

[Guest]

I wonder if TPTB are a little irritated with Omar for talking about the idol nullifier, since it seems to be putting everything in a different light.

This is my favorite line from Omar's interviews so far (from the Parade one linked above):

"The other thing is Maryanne and I demographically are very similar. So we made a conscious effort to not be seen together. We live 10 minutes apart. We’re both minority religious virgins from Southern Ontario! (Laughs.)"

[LadyChatts]

2 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

I wonder if TPTB are a little irritated with Omar for talking about the idol nullifier, since it seems to be putting everything in a different light.

This is my favorite line from Omar's interviews so far (from the Parade one linked above):

"The other thing is Maryanne and I demographically are very similar. So we made a conscious effort to not be seen together. We live 10 minutes apart. We’re both minority religious virgins from Southern Ontario! (Laughs.)"

I liked that line from him.  Overall I think the majority of this cast was fun, although I’ve read elsewhere online people think they don’t really get along with each other (I haven’t seen enough post show interactions to get that vibe but it seems like some of them are close at least).  I’m actually shocked that TPTB didn’t show Omar finding the nullifier, because that made his boot have even higher stakes and they really could have played up the drama.  So far none of the advantages or twists have gone anywhere in the game.  The two idol plays we had were more for personal reasons, and next week Mike and MaryAnne may play theirs for nothing.  TPTB are probably mad that everything has gone to waste.  Although I guess MaryAnne’s extra vote had an impact, so there’s that.  
 

As for Drea, I don’t get the vibe she was well liked by the cast based on exit interviews.  Omar seemed surprised by her reaction to him at Ponderosa.  She kind of gives me Shan vibes, in that she might have still been in game mode and was more this powerful mastermind in her own mind.  I wonder what personal stuff she was saying about Omar that were lies.  

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

I liked that line from him.  Overall I think the majority of this cast was fun, although I’ve read elsewhere online people think they don’t really get along with each other (I haven’t seen enough post show interactions to get that vibe but it seems like some of them are close at least).  

I don't follow any of them (though I've checked in on some of their Instagrams from time to time), but they generally have kind words for each other in these interviews. Perhaps it's more of a "we like each other a lot and will always have this shared experience, but we're not going to be flying out to visit each other all the time" vibe.

6 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

I wonder what personal stuff she was saying about Omar that were lies.

The immediate thought that comes to mind is something relating to his relationship with his girlfriend, but I have no real basis for this. Just that there was a discussion here regarding his preferences that walked the line of getting mean, and I could see a recently-booted, still-exhausted player going there.

[LadyChatts]

4 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

I don't follow any of them (though I've checked in on some of their Instagrams from time to time), but they generally have kind words for each other in these interviews. Perhaps it's more of a "we like each other a lot and will always have this shared experience, but we're not going to be flying out to visit each other all the time" vibe.

Well, Hai said this in his Twitter in relation to something Omar said in his interviews about him.  All I’ll say is we were robbed of a Young and the Restless style Ponderosa.  I thought only the Big Brother house got this salty about each other.  I kind of feel like watching everything back has been eye opening for the cast maybe, and I do get the vibe that some of them are not into the whole “let’s revolve our whole lives around Survivor and show up at everyone’s weddings!” cult concept that some seasons cast have been.  Which I almost find refreshing?  
 

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by LadyChatts

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

Well, Hai said this in his Twitter in relation to something Omar said in his interviews about him.  All I’ll say is we were robbed of a Young and the Restless style Ponderosa.  I thought only the Big Brother house got this salty about each other.  I kind of feel like watching everything back has been eye opening for the cast maybe, and I do get the vibe that some of them are not into the whole “let’s revolve our whole lives around Survivor and show up at everyone’s weddings!” cult concept that some seasons cast have been.  Which I almost find refreshing?  
 

 

Someone replied to Hai's tweet asking what he's referring to, and he posted this quote from the EW interview:

Dalton Ross: Let's talk about another big move of yours. I spoke to Hai and he said he didn't even truly know the extent of your lie to Mike about him until he saw it play back on TV. Which leads me to ask, when did Mike find out and what was his reaction?

Omar: I don't know what Mike's reaction was exactly because I didn't talk about it with him, but I will say that it was a little bit of a lie, but wasn't really a lie. I know Hai feels that he wouldn't talk to somebody that way, but the general sentiment in the game that I felt it was kind of like he said puppet without saying puppet, you know?

So that's a hell of a paraphrase by Hai of what Omar said. It's possible that there was some other evidence that Hai saw of Omar's "biased perception", whatever that means, but otherwise Hai isn't coming off too well here.

UPDATE

Hai justed tweeted this (sorry the embedding didn't work): 

My frustrations are not about the lie within the game itself, it’s about words still being put in my mouth 1 year post game in exit interviews.

I mean, Omar's being interviewed about the game, as they all are, so he's going over things that happened. What is Hai's problem?

Edited May 20, 2022 by tracyscott76

[violet and green]

"Oh, you know, flew too close to the sun."

I think this line says it all. He was an amazing player and made the season so fun to watch, until he seemed to get a little too confident.

[SVNBob]

12 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

-Because there weren't enough idols and advantages in the game, apparently Omar had an idol nullifier he found at the Taku camp (which means the other camps must have had one, which makes me wonder how the heck Drea, Queen of Advantages, didn't find hers). 

Per what I've seen summarized, the Nullifier was actually part of the pre-caught fish reward.  So the other two camps didn't have Nullifiers to be found.  In addition, apparently Jonathan knew that Omar had the Nullifier, and that's why Omar was being targeted (and not the fact that everyone knew he was running the game and had the best chance at winning.)

But we only have Omar's word to go on that there was a Nullifier at all, so I'm taking the whole thing with a spoon of salt until Jonathan can confirm Omar's stories.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Per what I've seen summarized, the Nullifier was actually part of the pre-caught fish reward.  So the other two camps didn't have Nullifiers to be found.  In addition, apparently Jonathan knew that Omar had the Nullifier, and that's why Omar was being targeted (and not the fact that everyone knew he was running the game and had the best chance at winning.)

But we only have Omar's word to go on that there was a Nullifier at all, so I'm taking the whole thing with a spoon of salt until Jonathan can confirm Omar's stories.

In his interviews, he holds up the parchment that came with the nullifier. You can see it in the Gordon Holmes interview linked above; the image quality isn't great, but it clearly says "Idol Nullifier".

Also, why in the world would Omar make this up, when he knows that in a week Lindsay, Jonathan and Mike are going to be doing interviews themselves and could reveal that he's lying? That would be pointless.

[LadyChatts]

10 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Per what I've seen summarized, the Nullifier was actually part of the pre-caught fish reward.  So the other two camps didn't have Nullifiers to be found.  In addition, apparently Jonathan knew that Omar had the Nullifier, and that's why Omar was being targeted (and not the fact that everyone knew he was running the game and had the best chance at winning.)

But we only have Omar's word to go on that there was a Nullifier at all, so I'm taking the whole thing with a spoon of salt until Jonathan can confirm Omar's stories.

Ah, I missed that part in his interview.  All I read was that he and Jonathan found it by the water well I think (maybe I’m getting that mixed up with another advantage).  He wasn’t happy that Jonathan found it with him because he would have rather kept it a secret.

Along with what others have said above about Omar telling the truth, it actually makes more sense that he had it and why he’d betray Drea to Mike.  He was waiting until the final 5 to take out Mike by the sounds of it, knowing he was going to play his idol.  It sounds like this information, based on one of his interviews, led to his downfall.  

[SVNBob]

20 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Also, why in the world would Omar make this up, when he knows that in a week Lindsay, Jonathan and Mike are going to be doing interviews themselves and could reveal that he's lying? That would be pointless.

Unless the point for Omar was to troll the interviewers.  He did say he nearly busted out with an "evil laugh" after the Drea vote, so trolling the press might also be within his sense of humor.

It is possible for him to have made a fake parchment to help sell the story of a "never-shown advantage in the game".  Or if the parchment from the Nullifier from DvG was ever up for auction, he could have bought it and used it for credibility.

 

But I do concede that all of that is very unlikely.   Occam's Razor dictates that he's telling the truth.  Spoon of salt downgraded to just a few crystals.  (It is still possible....)

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 5/19/2022 at 8:38 PM, tracyscott76 said:

I mean, Omar's being interviewed about the game, as they all are, so he's going over things that happened. What is Hai's problem?

I sorta get it. Part of Survivor is lying to get ahead. So Omar saying that Hai told him that he considered Mike his puppet -- all part of the game.

Omar saying "Hai didn't exactly say that, but I could tell that was what he really thought" in post-boot interviews is a statement that doesn't serve any in-game purpose. And from Hai's perspective, it paints him with an unfair brush as Omar tries to get out from under the fact that it still is at the end of the day a lie. 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I sorta get it. Part of Survivor is lying to get ahead. So Omar saying that Hai told him that he considered Mike his puppet -- all part of the game.

Omar saying "Hai didn't exactly say that, but I could tell that was what he really thought" in post-boot interviews is a statement that doesn't serve any in-game purpose. And from Hai's perspective, it paints him with an unfair brush as Omar tries to get out from under the fact that it still is at the end of the day a lie. 

I guess. It still seems like Hai's being a bit overly dramatic here. Omar's giving his reasoning for telling the lie at the time, and why he thought it was a good lie to tell. This is the point of post-boot interviews, so Hai's indignation at Omar doing this one year later is a bit silly.

And it seems like Hai's trying to do a little weaseling out himself, by acting like he would NEVER treat Mike like a puppet. Omar's point seems to be that Hai might not have literally used the word "puppet", but he was giving Omar (and others) the impression that this was how he saw Mike. Hence, it was a good lie to tell: garnished with some truth as Omar saw it.

Hai certainly has the right to deny that, but to act like Omar is doing something underhanded is a self-serving exaggeration, in my opinion. And Hai using the phrase "biased perception" is problematic to me and paints Omar with an unfair brush.

[ljenkins782]

6 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

I guess. It still seems like Hai's being a bit overly dramatic here. Omar's giving his reasoning for telling the lie at the time, and why he thought it was a good lie to tell. This is the point of post-boot interviews, so Hai's indignation at Omar doing this one year later is a bit silly.

And it seems like Hai's trying to do a little weaseling out himself, by acting like he would NEVER treat Mike like a puppet. Omar's point seems to be that Hai might not have literally used the word "puppet", but he was giving Omar (and others) the impression that this was how he saw Mike. Hence, it was a good lie to tell: garnished with some truth as Omar saw it.

Hai certainly has the right to deny that, but to act like Omar is doing something underhanded is a self-serving exaggeration, in my opinion. And Hai using the phrase "biased perception" is problematic to me and paints Omar with an unfair brush.

Agreed. It's not like Omar randomly tweeted something out, he answered a question he was asked. And Hai's outsized reaction suggests that it hit closer to home than he wanted it to.

[pennben]

I do understand why Hai was hurt. In the game, Omar was basically giggling about the lie he told Mike. That’s fair and delicious!  A year later he’s sticking with his lie as a truth about Hai, when maybe it wasn’t. Time & grace are your friend. 

Edited May 25, 2022 by pennben

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Brendan Birch said:

I think that Hai said something to Omar to give him the impression that he saw Mike that way, even though it was far from his intention.  Omar was probably able to use that.  But it doesn't necessarily mean that Hai actually said it, which is what Hai must be getting at.

But that's exactly what Omar is saying, that Hai gave him the impression that he saw Mike that way: "I know Hai feels that he wouldn't talk to somebody that way, but the general sentiment in the game that I felt it was kind of like he said puppet without saying puppet, you know?"

Hai gave Omar the impression that he saw Mike as a puppet, so he used that in the game to his advantage. Now, he's explaining his perspective in response to questions in a post-game interview. Like I said, Hai can counter that with his perspective, but to act like Omar is doing something weaselly by "bringing it up a year later" is over the top, and as @ljenkins782 suggests, perhaps protesting too much.

But this is getting repetitive, so I'm going to give it a rest.