For “little fanboy” Simon Mee, getting a second chance to play Survivor was a huge thrill. He just didn’t know Heroes V Villains was going to be so difficult.
“It was really hard to push through some dark times,” the Brisbane carpenter admits to TV WEEK.
Things have not gone Simon’s way in Samoa – and he points to the “cookie idol” he found that turned out not to be an idol after all.
“My wooden circle of disappointment instead of my chocolate chip of chaos has really defined my game and it’s been so unfortunate,” he says. “But that’s how the cookie crumbles and you just have to play from that position.”
“It was really hard to push through some dark times,” the Brisbane carpenter admits to TV WEEK.
(Credit: Channel 10)Even though Simon found himself in the majority after the merge – with his nemesis, “King George” Mladenov, putting together an alliance of seven known as the Vigilantes – things didn’t improve. Simon says it was “very, very clear” that he was on the bottom of the alliance.
“I wasn’t part of all the conversations, I was still sleeping outside the shelter, I never got to share the blanket,” he explains. “It was really lonely.
“Even when Liz [Parnov] served the food, watching her scoop small half-scoops for me and not being able to say anything about it… it was so heartbreaking.”
Despite the dark times, Simon, 33, says it was a “dream come true” to compete for individual immunity and win. It’s something he didn’t have the chance to do in Brains V Brawn, where he was voted out before the merge.
“It’s just such a special part of the game that I’d always been looking forward to and I felt I got robbed of in my last experience,” he says. “They were all such emotional victories that meant so much more to me than just that necklace and another day in the game.”
Something else that’s meant a lot to Simon is the support he’s had in the outside world from George. Since Heroes V Villains has been on air, Simon has been coming under attack on social media – and it’s his former nemesis who has been there for him.
“George and I are in touch quite a bit and he is a very different person outside of the game,” Simon says. “He’s known that I’ve been doing it pretty tough the last few weeks and he’s been one of the few people to take the time to check in on me. I really appreciated that.”
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