Colton's exit interview has been posted at Reality News Online (here) and it is worth reading. Here is an excerpt:

RNO: Let’s jump into the topics I know people want to hear about. After the episode in which you had plenty to say about Bill, you posted to Twitter to say that your comments were ignorant and you were a 20-year-old brat, but you’ve learned that you don’t have to be funny at somebody else’s expense. How has this experience overall changed you?

Colton: It’s changed me kind of like of I said. I know my comments were ignorant. Not that this is an excuse, but I was a 20-year-old kid. I’d never been outside of my own little world. I’ve led a very sheltered, privileged life.

First of all, I think some people think I really meant what I said. There’s humor behind everything I said except some of the harsher things. Why I went there with Bill was Bill would remind us, “I’m a struggling artist. I’m a starving artist. I’m poor.” I honestly thought, “He’s going to get to the end and play that card.” It’s human nature that if there’s three people at the end and one says he really needs the money, they’ll vote for him.

Did I handle it the right way? No. Were my comments ignorant? Yes. But I never meant them as racist. When I called him ghetto trash, that wasn’t directed at his race but his level of poverty. I’m not trying to justify what I said, just explain it.

RNO: What do you say to those who doubt that there has been a real change yet, such as Monica telling me last week, “It’s an arduous process to change as much as he needs to at this point”?

Colton: The people who say I haven’t changed – people think it’s a back-and-forth thing. I don’t think you can go through that and not grow as a person. I was running that game and you can call it karma or divine intervention – I don’t think you can help but take a step back.

I was more angry when I left because I was thinking, “Why did this happen?!” But when you watch it back and see how you treated people, you really don’t get it until you watch yourself. Then it was this uncomfortable feeling about, “Oh my God.” There really is no justification for it.

Not saying he comes across as ready for sainthood, but after all, those people rarely play Survivor well.

And it turns out he didn't have appendicitis after all. (Kat can breathe easier.) It was a severe bacterial infection.

He also says that had he not gone out of the game, it was Alicia, not Christina, that they were going to target. He had already discussed it with Jonas.

Wish Monica could come back in his place

Regarding Colton: I read something last week, and wish I could find it in order to link to it now, but Jeff pretty much said he wouldn't expect us to see Colton on Survivor ever again. I'll keep an eye out for it and will edit this post accordingly if I find it.

I understand why they voted off Jonas, but I hated to see him go. It seems awfully early in the merge to vote people off because they're well-liked and would be hard to beat in a final TC. While well-liked and a good provider, Jonas didn't appear to be much of a threat. I think, if I were on the show, I'd be voting off the people who are more threatening from an immunity POV, not from a jury-likability POV. At least, at this stage in the game.

I like Kim and Jay (Jed? Geez, I still don't know all their names), and to a lesser extent, Chelsea and Troyzan. It'll be interesting to see how the season plays out.

Oh! Forgot to mention how happy I was that Colton didn't give the HII to Alicia. I'm surprised the producers left it up to him - I'd've thought they would've told him he had to return it to Jeff for re-hiding.

**ETA: Here's the interview I was referring to.

Interesting about Colton.

I think Jonas was a threat because he's smart and everyone liked him. I think Kim had it exactly right -- what can be an advantage before the merge can be a disadvantage after the merge.

I'm thinking Kim may win.

Hey, who wants a 7-up?

Last night's episode was rather boring, imo. I think the most entertaining part of it was Kat's comment during the immunity challenge that she'd suck at the puzzle. 'Cause, you know, puzzles are SO HARD!

Jonas looked happy to be on the jury, didn't he!

I can see why the women did what they did, but I think they might have acted too soon. Especially after Chelsea let the cat out of the bag in front of Alicia and Christina. And honestly, I think they'd be stronger without those two women anyway. Keep the new Salani tribe thinking it's strong, I say!

But, that's just my dislike of Alicia showing.

I agree...it was one long, boring 7up commercial.

Usually I'm GLUED to the tv during Survivor, but these last few episodes I've been paying more attention to Facebook than the tv.

Thank you! I've been trying all morning to remember what soft drink it was that they mentioned once or twice. I just wasn't sure I caught it.

LOL. I liked it when Jeff said something about how slow Jay was with the puzzle, and Jay, without looking up, said "I hate puzzles." But I guess slow and steady wins the race.

I agree that the women may have made their move a little too soon, but boy -- Troyzan bought the story about Michael hook, line and sinker. And I noticed that Jay voted for Michael as well.

Jay has turned out to be better at the non-physical parts of Survivor than I gave him credit for at the beginning. Not sure how far it will get him, but I think he the clearest take on what's going on of any of the men.

I have to comment, too, on one moment I liked: After all the hyper-religiousity last year, I found Sabrina's table grace to be refreshing. Rather than thanking God for favoring them and helping them defeat the enemy to win a 7-Up challenge (you know Brandon would have done that), she acknowledged that they all now have a sense of what hunger is like and prayed for those in the world who are hungry. That gets an "amen" from me.

I thought that was the dumbest move of the night. What was Chelsea thinking? They didn't even need Jay's vote. Why say anything?

I thought the same thing! It was appropriate and refreshing.

Amen!

They (Kim and Chelsea) wanted Jay in on it because they wanted to keep the Kim-Chelsea-Troy-Jay alliance viable and so didn't want Jay to think they were ditching him, especially if it was a new-Salani and not a new-Manano getting voted out.

Chelsea's mistake wasn't in talking to Jay about it; it was in talking to Jay about it in front of Alicia and Christine, two people who are not in their alliance of four and not in the wider new Salani alliance. It had the potential to do exactly what Kim wanted to avoid -- disturbing the alliance of four with Troy and Jay.

I thought that slide looked awesome!

I think the women picked a good time to align, because you saw that the men were already thinking that way. In past seasons when the women waited too long and just listened to what the male leaders said, they got picked off one by one.

Would any of you guess that Tarzan is a surgeon?! I keep thinking that maybe he's pulling a Phillip and is just pretending to be someone in a smart occupation for the purposes of the game. Then he goes and says something crazy to someone, like, "I was wondering if you have a negative bias against me because you had a boob job and now hate your surgeon."

On the other hand, Jay seems much smarter than I thought he was, between the puzzle and the way he analyzed the conversation Chelsea started. I admit, I think I judged him based on his accent and slow speech. Sorry, Southerners!

I think it's particularly funny since he refused for quite a while to say what he did IRL. BUt apparently, Chelsea was supposed to hate him because of what she didn't know he does for a living.

Hey, this Southerner misjudged him because he's a model. Sorry, models!

What's with the "self-directed" reward challenges the last few seasons?? Is Jeff getting so expensive that they can only afford him for one challange and a tribal per episode?