 Birza privately admitted that although it was his real personality, he planned to use it as a strategy, both by making himself socially popular among the castaways, while also fooling them into thinking that he was not intelligent enough to be a strategic threat, thus giving them more incentive to keep him around.Early on, Birza was an alliance outsider.He initially sided with Shannon Elkins, Alina Wilson, Kelly Bruno, and Ben "Benry" Henry.