George, the king of destruction and chaos, found a key at camp, giving him the power to use an Immunity Idol for himself, or someone else at Tribal Council without anybody else knowing.
In another epic JLP twist, George’s closest ally, Cara, was in the firing line after landing in the bottom four during the Immunity Challenge alongside Laura, Wai and Dani.
After Cara used her Idol to save George, he decided to return the favour and play the Idol for her, unbeknownst to the others.
According to Laura, who spoke to 10 play, the plan was for everyone, including George, to put their votes onto Cara.
“I had spoken to my majority alliance and everyone was on board to vote for Cara. Emmett had approached me at one stage and said, ‘I will vote with you to show that I am loyal to you,’ which is hilarious. I was actually surprised everyone voted for Cara. But in hindsight, now I’m thinking I definitely could have thrown a vote on someone else and it could’ve changed the entire thing.”
Despite being one of the four castaways up for elimination, Laura said she wasn’t worried about losing her spot in the game.
“To be honest, I felt really safe. Now that I think back on it, whenever you feel safe that's when you’re probably going to go home. But in the moment, I was like, ‘no I’m good, I really do have a great group of people around me’ and I knew they weren’t going to vote for me at all,” Laura explained.
So, during Tribal Council, when JLP pulled out the hidden Immunity Idol, everyone was completely caught off-guard.
“I don’t think anyone had any idea that was going on and if they did, then I wasn’t privy to it. I remember sitting at Tribal Council, thinking I should get Andrew to put his two votes on someone else just in case and I just had this weird gut feeling. I don’t know why I didn’t say anything and, as soon as that Idol got played, I knew that I was going home.
“I just had a feeling, I knew that while all these votes were coming out for Cara, that she would’ve put one on me.”
In the moment, Laura had no idea who played the hidden Immunity Idol. But when Wai hugged her goodbye and “kept apologising”, she thought it was Wai.
“I immediately thought Wai played the Idol and she was apologising for sending me home. But then I found out a little while later that it was George. I should not have put it past him… I definitely wasn’t surprised that it was George. I mean, the amount of advantages and Idols he has played and won in this game is quite incredible.”
Even though Laura was voted out of the game, she secured the third seat in the Jury and joined Baden and Gerald in Jury Villa.
“It was really fun actually; I had a great time. It was nice to get to know people outside the game, because everything in the game is clouded in manipulation, deceit and trying to get yourself ahead and, in Jury Villa, people are just living a normal life, eating and happy. It's really nice to get to know everyone properly.”
She also revealed how she will be judging the castaways when it comes time to pick the Sole Survivor.
“It’s such an achievement to get so far and I’m proud to be involved as a Jury member. I will be judging them on play; there's some people that are floating along and not doing much, and there’s other people who are really getting in there and messing things up, which when you come out of the game you really start to appreciate. But yes, someone who’s got great strategy, someone who is a genuine person, and really wants to have a great time in there as well.”
Her pick for top three are “Andrew, Dani – I really started to get to know Dani after merge because I hadn’t worked with her before – and something tells me George, which is funny because he’s such a menace, but played the game really well and as much as he really does blow things up, he’s fun to be around.”
During her time on Survivor, Laura’s strategy was to play a social game, and she stuck to it “the whole time.” But she admitted she did have a downfall. “It’s so tough living and breathing it every single day. There’s definitely things I would’ve changed now, but I do think I’m too loyal and that was my downfall.”
Laura began her game in a majority alliance, then at merge she was flipped into the minority, which had a massive impact on her mindset.
“Yeah, its actually quite difficult and disheartening, like it’s really hard to want to work as a team when you know you’re getting picked off and it’s almost like you seem invaluable to the team. You do have to work through a fair bit of mindset when you’re in that situation to know that this is a game, it’s not personal and you’ve just got to keep fighting.”
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Laura was in hot water for a while, but her persistence and great play propelled her further than she expected.
“I thought I definitely would’ve gone around the same time as Rachel and Georgia, but there were a few little plays and twists and turns that allowed me to stay a bit longer, which was really cool. So after the tribe swap, I really didn’t think I’d make it to merge.”
Laura had a great Survivor journey and is really happy with the way she played the game.
“Survivor was the ultimate social, physical and mental challenge. I really enjoy putting myself in situations that aren’t common and testing everything about my personality, and Survivor did that. It’s not only a great way to meet a whole bunch of amazing people, but also to spread my environmental messages as well.”
