Idols seem to be bad luck for the Hansen brothers, after last year during Blood V Water when brother Jesse’s Idol was “stolen” right before he was blindsided by his closest allies. For Jordie, this time around the Idol was much less about protection and more about trust.

First playing on the OG Villains tribe, Jordie admitted the gods of Survivor didn’t seem to be stacking the odds against him.

“The situation I was dropped in from day one was already difficult,” he told 10 Play. “Having just been on everyone’s screens, being in a tribe that was losing time and time again, somehow I managed to make it to swap.

“To then be swapped into a tribe where I really only had one friend in Liz and that was it, the Survivor luck was not on my side.”

Not only was Jordie on a tribe swap with a majority of the big boys from the OG Heroes, but his game had just been blown up by George during the explosive Tribal Council right before swap, which gave Simon even more of a push to work with the Heroes rather than his OG Villains in Jordie and Liz.

“Simon and George had crossed the line and I wanted an opportunity to show them what happens when you cross that personal line, and how it affects people’s games,” Jordie said. “When people make personal decisions and act with personal language, it affects people’s games.

“I wanted the opportunity to show them that and tell them that, but we swapped and I swapped into an even worse situation.”

Jordie and Liz weren’t just playing from the bottom, they needed a miracle to survive in the game. Thankfully, Liz managed to score herself a hidden Immunity Idol, and as luck would have it Shonee was still holding on to hers. Making a sneaky swap during the challenge, Jordie pocketed Shonee’s Idol, and the pair seemed to have just found that very miracle.

Before Tribal Council, Jordie and Liz approached Hayley and Nina to pitch working together, revealing their idols and hoping to create some cracks in the OG Heroes.

But Jordie also revealed his plan to not play the Idol.

“That, for me, was not so much about tricking people or bluffing people,” he explained, “I would have either woken up having not played the Idol knowing I have the trust of the people around me, the trust of the girls that voted with me, or I will have not played the Idol and gone home.”

Knowing that, in order to have any future in the game, he needed to have people on his tribe willing to work with him, Jordie said playing the Idol would have only temporarily given him another few nights in the game.

“Regardless of whether I played my Idol or not, I was in trouble. I needed the girls to vote with me… playing my Idol actually didn’t matter in the end. It was just a symbol, it wasn’t really a tool for me, it was more trying to gain the trust of people around me and, as we saw, they didn’t.”

Going into what would be his final Tribal Council, Jordie said he did feel fairly confident that he and Liz had done enough to crack Hayley and Nina into voting with them. “I had accepted the fact that if I didn’t, I would be going home.

But Nina and Hayley did vote with Jordie, and ultimately it was Simon who pushed the vote into a tiebreak, where the OG Heroes saw their opportunity and voted for Jordie.

“I wasn’t ever going to play the Idol,” he reiterated. “I was always going to hold onto that thing because I knew that I needed the trust of the girls and if I didn’t have it, I didn’t have it.”

As soon as he sat down at Tribal he said he knew he was the next to go. But despite how everything shook out, Jordie said he wouldn’t have changed a thing.

“Even including the Idol, I wouldn’t change anything,” he said, adding, “I got dropped into a situation that was far from ideal… It was far from easy, so it became about how you face that situation and how you set a good example.

“Something I think about often is a phrase I heard from Bear Grylls,” Jordie continued. “He said ‘character beats strategy’ and I feel like that represents my time out there. Not that I sacrificed strategy but, if I had played the Idol sure I would have woken up the next morning, but I would have had no one.”

Admitting that he was shocked he made it as far as he did, Jordie reflected on how his game evolved from Blood V Water to Heroes V Villains, a calmer Joker had emerged this time around.

“That was not a strategy, I was just calmer,” he said, laughing. “I had been through it before, I understood what it felt like to be snitched on or talked behind your back. Nothing was new for me, so I felt like I was on top of it a bit more.

“I did everything I came to do, obviously you go to win and that didn’t happen but, other than that, it very quickly became about setting an example for my son,” Jordie said.

With fiancé Sam Frost at home and pregnant with their first child, Jordie almost didn’t want to head to Samoa for another season, leaving her behind.

“Sam had morning sickness that was all-day sickness, was struggling to eat, was not really sleeping properly and she was in a bad way. So there were days where I was like nah, I don’t think I should go I should be home looking after you.

“She ended up booting me out the door and said there’s no way you can skip this opportunity, and I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m so grateful for the opportunity,” he said.

As for if he’d want to play for a third time, Jordie said he’d definitely give a third try a shot. “It’s like getting your first tattoo,” he explained. “You walk away going oh that was a bit painful… but when it heals up and you look at it and go that’s pretty cool, get me back in the chair.

“I’ll go again, 100 percent.”

Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains airs Sunday - Tuesday at 7.30 on Network 10 and 10 Play on demand