Having worked as a tight three from the very beginning, George, Liz and Shonee had been a power trio, executing blindsides, perfect Idol plays and strategising to get revenge on anyone who targeted them. But all of that shifted this week as the King’s constant thirst for power saw him turn on Shonee.
Having realised that he was the third wheel to BFFs Shonee and Liz, George saw the perfect opportunity to take out a major threat in the game.
“I remember having a conversation with Matt around the fire saying oh, this doesn’t feel good. This feels a little bit too easy,” Shonee told 10 Play. “At Tribal Council, I remember saying to Liz I’ve got a bad feeling. Even when I voted I think I said something along the lines of I really don’t like these three-three votes.
“I basically gaslit myself into thinking my intuition wasn’t right,” Shonee continued. “I was so on point but I thought, you’re being so emotional… just don’t worry about it, you’re just being crazy it’s all good. It wasn’t all good.”
Assuming she was just emotional due to a lack of food, Shonee ignored her intuition that had served her so well up to this point in the game, even to the point that she was voted out of the game with an Immunity Idol in her pocket.
“I was like, whoops daisy,” she said, laughing. “I thought I was just having an off moment, she’ll be right tomorrow. And you know what? The next day wasn’t that bad, waking up to some pancakes.”
During her first day in Jury Villa, Shonee said it poured with rain, which gave her slight relief when thinking of the people who wrote her name down the day before. “Of those eight people, only one will win half a million dollars but they’re all suffering in the rain,” she said with another laugh.
Leading up to her final Tribal Council, Shonee admitted that she and George hadn’t spoken much. “We were kind of butting heads because he is so passionate about the game.”
Following the vote where the Spice Girls came to a stalemate, and eventually sacrificed Stevie to save Flick and Matt, there were clear fractures in the relationship. But there was enough leftover trust that Shonee continued to convince herself that, despite her gut feeling, she would be safe for another vote.
Looking back, there are a few things Shonee would do differently if she had her time over again. “I probably wouldn’t have saved George on the second Tribal Council… and I probably wouldn’t have played my Idol for George either,” she said.
Coming into this season, Shonee’s strategy had evolved, having previously been an under-the-radar player, her reputation preceded her, so her aim became voting off the under-the-radar players and surrounding herself with big threats to shield herself. While she says she was “never interested in going to the end with George”, their alliance served them both well through the pre-merge game.
“He doesn’t really owe me anything, that’s the nature of the game and, to be honest, I was already talking about voting him off anyway so I can’t really blame someone for doing what I wanted to do,” she continued.
But this vote was different to the other two times Shonee’s torch had been snuffed in the past, as it was the first time an ally had turned on her. “It’s normally the opposition, so I was definitely upset but I was like oh wow I saved him twice. We were friends. To be voted off by someone like that, I was definitely sad.”
Still, Shonee says her vote can’t be considered “a full blindside” because she was sure something was wrong heading into the vote.
“It’s actually a little bit more annoying for me because if I just listened to myself I could have avoided this.”
Joining Heroes V Villains, Shonee became the first player to compete in three seasons of Australian Survivor and holds the record for the longest days lasted. And she’s not ruling out another stint in the future.
“Never say never,” she laughed. “I feel like every season I’m like oh my gosh I would never do that, then it comes around and I get the call and I’m like, life is for living!
“In the beginning I was more there for the money, going into round three I’m more like - let’s see how far I can push myself. Let’s do all these crazy challenges and have fun and get to have this crazy experience that hardly anyone gets to have. That’s such a special opportunity to be given, so that excited me about playing.”
Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains airs Sunday - Tuesday at 7.30 on Network 10 and stream on 10 Play
