‘Deal or No Deal Island’: Dickson Wong Reveals What We Didn’t See About That Challenge & Temple

Mom and Dad might still be partying on the island, but their baby boy has been sent home. Dickson Wong’s attempt to preserve his “Family” alliance with David Genat and Parvati Shallow and make a new “girlfriend” connection with Alexis Lete backfired on Tuesday (March 4) night’s episode of Deal or No Deal Island.

Dickson was the first to go into the daily challenge, which involved carrying cases over a razor-thin beam hovering over quicksand, and he found himself stuck in the muck for too long to complete it.

Despite him wanting to go into the temple to play against the Banker — and the fact that last time he did, he added $5 million to the group account — his dear old dad had a different plan. David instead chose to send Lete in, and when she made a good deal, she decided she and Dickson would have the most expensive breakup in history right then and there.

So how did Dickson feel about David not abiding by his wishes to go in? And just how strong was that “Family” alliance anyway? TV Insider caught up with Dickson Wong to find out.

You got a little emotional at times about “The Family.” What was it about that alliance that got to you?

Dickson Wong: That relationship was 100% genuine, How I felt with both of them, it was cool having island parents. I know a lot of people think we’re creepy, but at the end of the day, it’s a game. I don’t know why people need to be so harsh on that. I mean, realistically we already knew like this is an island family thing, we’re gonna play it up because it was annoying people… And the one thing is, I was calling Parvati “Mom” and David “Dad” because I wanted people to know we were working together. Because my goal coming into this was to keep two threats ahead of me, play like a weakling character that you want to carry to the end, and then also take people to the end that I could beat.

But going back to the family, it was definitely genuine how we came up with that. We were talking about our family lives, and one thing the edit doesn’t show is that … I had an allergic reaction the first night, and David sat with me the entire time on the couch, and I don’t know how long it was ’cause they had IVs in me, they had Benadryl on me, but he sat on me with that couch the entire time, and that speaks volume to his character, and how he was as a dad in real life. And with Parvati, I got to my bed. I remember I was dead, but Parvati tucked me in bed, so it was all a genuine connection.

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And for me, I don’t want to air out a lot of personal stuff in my life, but the one thing I will say is that it was kind of true that me and my dad don’t have the best relationship ever, and I think a lot of people were basically saying that I was asking David to adopt me, which is not what I was saying. I was just saying that I wish the characteristics that David had that my real dad had with me, wanting to spend time with me, talk to me, you know, and stuff like that.

At the temple, you wanted to go in, and David didn’t choose you. What was your reaction to that?

I was disappointed because I did — I mean, you see me saying it a couple of times in the temple. I was begging him on the island to let me play. At first, I was looking at it, I’m like, maybe Lete would take out CK. I’m trying to fish it out of her. But when Lete told me that she was gonna take me out, Lete was an honest player up to this point; she’s shown a lot of integrity in this game, and I figured she was speaking the truth. So after I heard that, I’m like, “David, let me play. Let me play the banker. I want to play the banker.” I came up with this thing where I’m like, “Okay, David, listen, if I’m flashing a 1, it means Lete. If I’m flashing a 2, it means Dickson.” And I was flashing the number 2 so many times at him, and at temple, it didn’t even show how many times I really asked him. I kept asking him over and over and over to the point where Parvati’s like, “Just let him play,” and David’s like, “Okay, Lete, you’re playing still.” So for me it was a little heartbreaking, but I still wouldn’t change his experience for anything. Everything was meant to be what happened, so.

What do you think David’s thought process was there, though?

From David’s perspective, he was probably thinking that Lete really was gonna take out CK, and I — the one thing I will say that kind of supports the argument a little bit is whenever Lete did say, “I’m gonna take your head off if you stay in this game, CK,” during that explosive temple with Phillip dropping the Harriet Tubman reference. Again, I didn’t think she was going to, as soon as she told me that she was gonna take me out, I kind of thought she was being real about that, but in David’s perspective, if she is really bluffing him, you either lose Lete that night or you lose CK.
But I do wish, going back, that David will let me play the banker. I was upset with Parvati the other time cause she was taking so long to decide, and for David, I’m not gonna say I was upset, but I was really, I was a little disappointed.

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The time that you did play the banker, obviously you won the $5 million case. What was going through your mind when you were playing that? It seems like you’re on a little bit of an adrenaline rush. Was it your plan the whole time just to push through, or did you do it on the fly?

As soon as I had those final three amounts — I think it was $1, $2.5, and $5 million — I was gonna go to the end no matter what. At that point, you have Storm saying, “Take your case, you’ve stuck with it.” I was gonna do it anyways because — and I hate saying this, I’m all about building money for the pot, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time, my mode was on survival. And unfortunately, I was never in a situation where I could take a good deal, where the odds were in my favor. So if they were, I would have taken it immediately, and I would have been out cause I had the $5 million. But with me having the final two amounts, it was a 50% chance I was taking it no matter what.

I definitely had a good feeling going on in me that night…. I was nervous to an extent, I will say that. But I figured I had the $5 million in my case, cause the one thing that I always did in temple, and it looks like I don’t pay attention in temple, but I was paying attention to what the numbers were. And case number 9 actually had the highest amount when Rock was facing the banker, and it’s all randomized, don’t get me wrong, but what are the chances that case number 9 is gonna have the highest amount twice in a row?

And going back to David choosing Lete to face the banker, I actually made it to finale week. This was deemed finale week. It was the last week of the show. So we had two days off prior, and I was telling David the entire time, we were talking about the odds and stuff like that, and I was like, “David, if I face the banker, I’m choosing case number 11 because it had the two highest amounts in there last time. It had the highest amount whenever Dr. Will faced the banker, and then when La Shell faced the banker had the second highest amount.” So I would have chosen case number 11. It ended up having a dollar in it, and I would have made a good deal, but you know. I’m happy everything turned out the way it did. I’m happy for the person at the end.

You mentioned Storm. You sent him home, and there’s some question about whether that was an impulsive move or something you planned with David and Parvati.

Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of stuff going around. I’m glad you bring that up as an impulsive move of jealousy and stuff like that. No, it was 100% my plan. And that’s another thing is that people were giving David all the credit and Parvati all the credit for making that move. That was my move 100%, 100% my move.

Going in, I think it was even day two, during our interviews or confessionals, people said, “Who is your biggest threat in the game, and one person I mentioned was Storm. Storm was very well-liked on the island, and  I like Storm a lot. He really always put a smile on everyone’s face around camp. And I hate to sound like a camp killer, but that has to go. You see Season 1, Jordan [Fowler] wins the game ’cause she doesn’t make enemies, and she wins the challenge at the end. That’s all it really takes to win this game is not making enemies and winning the challenge at the end, and that’s exactly what Storm was doing.

And for people to think that it was jealousy, it definitely was not jealousy. I have nothing to be jealous of Storm about. I have a great life back at home, and it definitely wasn’t the fact over MG, ’cause people are saying I was jealous cause MG and Storm had a thing. I was hitting on Lete at the time, definitely wasn’t jealous of that, and I didn’t really talk to MG that much. We had maybe two game conversations, but other than that, you know, I took out Storm because he was well-liked. It was a physical threat in the game, and one thing it doesn’t show, you know, I talked about getting out physical threats, but one thing the show doesn’t show is that they have a workout squad in the morning, and it was him, Lete, and Phillip in it. They would always work out every single morning, and it’s like, if you’re gonna be this dedicated to work out in a show where you could get taken out for the smallest thing, I sit on that swing every morning drinking my coffee, so targeting the workout squad is something I always had in mind. And that night, whenever I faced the banker, it was either gonna be Storm or Lete. They were both physical threats. Lete was well-liked around camp, too. But what really separated the two was the showmance. Watching Big Brother, showmances are very dangerous in the game, and I did want to split that up. So that was the ultimate deciding factor of taking out Storm was the showmance. And looking back now, too, Storm didn’t care about losing me. People are saying that I screwed him over, he was a friend of me. He didn’t really care about losing me that much. Like, yeah, we had a good relationship, but that goes back to showing how strong his social game was. And post-show, I still think some of my cast members are a little upset with me, and that shows how it was.

What’s your relationship with Lete like now? 

I haven’t really talked to too many people outside the show, and it’s just cause I’ve been really busy. I work full time. I’m going to school right now. I help take care of my grandma, so it’s a really busy time being able to actually go out and visit people. We did have a group chat going, and people always post pictures about whenever they would meet up. I haven’t seen anyone from the show, unfortunately. I did talk to Lete the night before, a text, “Hey, your big temple’s coming up, I’m really, really excited for you.” I was just kind of telling her whenever I had my temple, I always got texts, people saying they’re proud of me. But hopefully,y whenever I finish up school, I can go visit more people.

I just want to talk about the quicksand. As a millennial, that’s a common nightmare. What was it like for you, and was that the scariest thing you did this season?

No, the heights thing was still the scariest. I am truly afraid of heights. The quicksand, I was just watching my game literally, no pun intended, sink away, and whenever Joe’s like, “You got a minute left,” Joe, it’s like, “Okay, thank you, Joe, you could see me struggling right now and I’m probably not gonna make it out.” Quicksand sucked. I think David broke the challenge once he showed everyone how to do it. I think if I would have chosen anyone other than David at the time, people would struggle to get out of it just like I did because the more I struggled, the more I sink in there. And one thing that the edit doesn’t show, too… is they actually took three people to get me out of that with a rope. I was very, very, very stuck in there.

Monty Brinton / NBC

Did David not share with you his army crawl technique?

He did not share with me. I think he was yelling to swim from the sidelines, but I was in the moment where I was like, “Just let me get across somehow,” ’cause I had fate in my hand where if I made it across, I was safe… My ultimate downfall in the game, and it’s not even choosing Lete next over David, it was choosing David in general. What I should have done, and I thought about it at the hotel … I was just so disgusted with myself, ’cause I failed, and that’s one problem about being an overachiever is you expect to achieve everything. I should have chosen CK next, ’cause if I would have chosen CK, I would have stuck with my strategy of having two threats in the game. Because there were only three cases for safety. I took one of them, CK would have taken the other one, and then whoever CK, it probably would have been Parvati next, David would be at the bottom with me. And if Lete would have faced the banker, she’s more likely to take out David than me, and I do think, I really believe if I would have chosen CK next, I would be sitting in the end.

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