The three finalists for Destination X‘s $250,000 cash prize have been revealed, and Shayne Cureton just missed the boat. Well, he didn’t actually miss the boat, since he did get to spend his final day on a yacht in Monaco, but following the ouster of his then-showmance partner Ally Bross, his alliance with Christian “Biggy” Bailey came back to bite him … and send him home.

On Tuesday’s newest episode — titled, “How’s Your Poker Face?” — Shayne found himself in The Rock city alongside fellow Top 4 contestants Biggy, Rick Szabo, and Peter Weber, and none of them knew exactly where they were.

Host Jeffrey Dean Morgan took them out to a mountainous countryside that could’ve just as easily been in the United States’ wild, wild West as Western Europe. There, they played a game where they were each treated to a box with a coded clue that left them all more confused than before. (As it turned out, artichokes, golf balls, ring boxes, and mini shovels were meant to indicate the symbols on a deck of cards and evoke thoughts of casinos.) Shayne and Biggy decided to share, while Rick and Peter exchanged notes as well. Perhaps not surprisingly, Biggy also shared his clue with Rick, and Rick treated him to a misdirect in exchange.

Soon after, they were asked to all go into the map room and choose their location, with Shayne furthest off base with a guess of Milan. That wasn’t the end of the story, though, as they then got a chance to play roulette and move either their own or others’ X marks around. In the end, Shayne decided to do Biggy a solid by moving his X closer to the mark, which put them in a tie, but Biggy ended the game with the final advantage and moved his spot closer to Monaco, thus leaving Shayne furthest out.

So how did Shayne feel about his fate? And what else did he have to say about the season — particularly, his brief on-air romance with Ally and friendship with Biggy? TV Insider caught up with him to find out!

How was it for you to rewatch the show and some of the more emotional moments you had, particularly with Ally? 

Shayne Cureton: Well, I mean, now, looking back, it made me question a few things, just about the seriousness — and, you know, [I] love Ally to death. I don’t think we got deep enough to where it was like it would completely destroy our world, so I think that’s what allows us to still be friends. But it makes you question what was really true, and I try not to think too deep on it.  She’s happy, I’m happy. Things happen for a reason. 

Last week, she told me that you guys were friendly enough that she was coming to visit you in Indianapolis. Is that true? 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there’s her and Mack [Fitzgerald] are gonna come do their under the covers and hopefully Biggy. Hopefully, Biggy pulls up with them, so that’s a potential. 

Speaking of Biggy, after what happened in the previous episode in Venice, what made you want to trust him again in this one? 

From the beginning, we had an agreement: “I am your bulletproof vest as long as you get me through.” And that’s how we’ve kind of rocked with everything. All the clues I get, I was able to pick up or get from anybody else, I shared with Biggy. He made sure that I never went into a map room blind, outside of … we were in Germany, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to chat, and I figured I had the answer from Ally, which we were both wrong. So yeah, as long as things played the way that they played… It’s tough. He gave me a dagger, but I told him to do that. A lot of people don’t know because I wanted to make sure — you can’t give yourself daggers. So I wanted to make sure that if Ally was getting attacked, I’m at least gonna even this out. ‘Cause if I would have only had two, it would have been me and Biggy that were safe automatically. And I didn’t know they were gonna allow Biggy to choose, but in hindsight, we could have taken that a little differently, but yeah, trusting Biggy, I trusted him the whole game. He made sure, even with the risk of Mack going home, that I was good. 

Were you aware of how in cahoots Rick and Peter were towards the end there? 

Oh, towards the end? As soon as he got on the bus, I’d been trying — and I love my man Biggy… It sucks I gotta say this in every interview, but I told him from Jump, “Bro, they’re working together, they’re talking for way too long on the bus.” There’s info that’s being known that — I’m talking to JaNa, and she’s pretty out there but will tell you the truth, you know what I’m saying? She was just kind of, “I guess this is my alliance. I’m out there with who I’m tied to.” But the things she was saying … it showed that their alliance lacked certain info. And then all of a sudden they had it, and it was like, “No, this can’t be right.” And I tried to tell Biggy, and that’s why later in the game, especially on the horseback challenge, “I’m gonna just let you talk, bro. Because we’ve tried to talk about this. You’re telling me he’s not. You’re giving me the info, so I’m gonna just respect it. I’ll let you shoot yourself in the foot in a sense.” 

Throughout the season, it seemed like people underestimated you. When you’re watching back the things they would say about your ability to play the game, but you made it this far, do you feel like you proved them wrong? 

Oh, yeah, I mean, literally the social aspect ended up being the reason why some of these smart players were no longer in the game. So it’s like, yeah, I could have had all the knowledge, but if I would have had the most knowledge, would I have made it that far? I would have been headhunted. What would have been the outlook then? Peter’s decision to send Mack home was an extremely smart decision, but it just showed that if you were coming off too smart, something like this happens, you’re on the chopping block. 

Absolutely. Digging into this episode, you moved Biggy’s X back to where yours was. Knowing what you know now, do you have regrets about that? 

Nope. Some things actually happened in that episode that could have fueled that, but now I was rocking [with him] to the end. I would not be there if it wasn’t for Biggy. 

When you say things that happened, are you talking about him giving Rick his clue? 

Well, I mean, yeah, a lot of things just throughout. I don’t get too deep, but..

Gotcha. Looking back on the season, what was your favorite challenge and why? 

Oh, that’s a toughie. I would say my favorite challenge probably would have to be… I liked the maze challenge. Obviously, I won, but that was fun running through it and then kind of seeing the differences… coming out winning every single checkpoint was like, “Oh yeah!” We were flying through there. Favorite one to watch, though, was definitely this last — or no, I’d say number eight. 

You mentioned Ally, Mack, and Biggy. Who else do you keep up with from the cast? 

I try to keep up with Jonah here and there… I feel like me and Biggy and Ally and Mack kind of made — we had time after the show as well, we all connected. I wish I could say more, but Tai was there. And then her interviews started coming out, and it was like, “Shorty, what?” It just kind of threw us for a loop. So after that, it was like, “All right, we’re not cool no more, just because you’re on your lying.” 

How was it getting to spend time in Venice and Monaco as compared to some of the other cities, and did you get to do anything after you left the yacht? 

No, so, I didn’t get to do too much after I left the yacht. They make sure that nobody sees you. They were very secure on making sure that you were really separated from the game itself before you even got your phone before anything like that. [As for Venice], oh my God, that was [great]. I mean, not getting to experience really any other place outside of [that] and outside of the Swiss challenge… I don’t think there was any other telling challenge. It was just, you’re just in a place. I mean, even the horseback challenge looked like Arizona — we had no idea. So being able to actually get out, experience the people, get a haircut, do all that with Ally, it was just nice kind of actually being able to pick up culture. 

When you left, who were you rooting for? 

Oh, my guy Biggy, of course. Of course. Man, anybody but Rick.

Destination X, Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC