Almost immediately George and Mitch were at odds with each other, causing some one-sided tension for the Brains tribe very early on, but when Mitch spoke with Luke on the most recent episode of Australian Survivor Talking Tribal, he revealed a very different experience.
“Now that I’ve seen it, he seemed to think… I was the authoritarian member of the tribe — leader I guess — it’s definitely not a role I wanted,” Mitch admitted in the chat. “I was desperate, desperate, not to be made any form of leadership in Survivor.
“As soon as you put your head up you get it chopped off and this is just showing that’s true, isn’t it? So perhaps George didn’t like that,” he continued.
“I also think there’s a chance that he just didn’t like me, or there was some complex feelings there that I don’t truly understand, but I totally respect that. People don’t have to like each other.”
Despite George’s very strong feelings toward Mitch, they weren’t reciprocated. At least, Mitch admitted, not at first.
WATCH NOW: Australian Survivor Talking Tribal - S2 Ep. 1
“I thought George was really nice! Everyone liked him. He was funny, everyone liked his jokes and it was only at the [first] tribal that I felt, ironically, when he was calling everyone else out as fake that I thought, well, George, no one saw this coming, we’re a bit unsure if you’re fake.”
Ahead of the first Tribal Council of the season, George snagged himself an advantage that allowed him to save himself and five others from the first vote. It was a twist none of his tribunates saw coming and, in saving himself and Wei, left the Brains tribe to scramble for an alternative.
“At that stage, I started becoming very wary of George, but up until that point I thought he was a nice guy.”
Ultimately, despite their rocky relationship, George was one of the few people who didn’t know about the plan to blindside Mitch.
The doctor told Luke during the interview that he felt like there were two major factors that saw his tribe turn on him so early on. Playing off the middle too much, Mitch said the vote was “perfectly predictable”.
“They were always going to blindside me, it was just a matter of time.”
Taking charge from the outset and establishing himself as a bit of a leader was the last thing Mitch wanted to do, and watching his time on Survivor back, he likened it to an out-of-body experience, screaming at the TV in “a state of paralysis” seeing it all play out.
Check out the full episode of Australian Survivor Talking Tribal where Luke, Nathan Morris and Shannon Guss chat about all the action from this week’s episodes, their thoughts on all the big moves and who they see as the biggest players so far.
Find out what happens next on Australian Survivor on Sunday – Tuesday at 7:30pm on 10 and 10 play on demand.
