Simon Mee

**Simon Mee** is a contestant from *Australian Survivor: Brains v Brawn* and *Australian Survivor: Heroes v Villains*.

In *Brains v Brawn*, Simon quickly emerged as a physical powerhouse on the Brawn tribe. His inclination to take on the leadership role pushed him into a perpetual power struggle with rival Shannon Lawson before he usurped control after the tribe switch. With two Hidden Immunity Idols in tow and an arsenal of strong allies, Simon falsely believed that he controlled the new Brawn tribe until his closest confidants Chelsea Hackett and Dani Beale turned on him right before the merge. Blindsided, Simon became the first person in *Australian Survivor* to leave the game with two idols.

Simon returned as a Villain in *Heroes v Villains*, where his string of fumbles and overall disastrous run led to Jonathan LaPaglia describing him as *Survivor*'s "most hapless" player. Despite consistently playing from the bottom after the tribe switch, Simon put up a hard-fought battle to stay in the game, though his numerous attempts at overthrowing the power structure went unreciprocated by his fellow tribemates. Ultimately, his resistance against season-long rival and creators' pet George Mladenov came to an end on Day 42, when he was voted out in sixth place.

## Profile

*Retrieved from 10play.com.au*

* Brains v Brains
* Heroes v Villains

**Carpenter, 31**

A self-proclaimed golden child, Simon has always been exceptionally good at everything he puts his mind to. A recent career change saw him pack up his desk job and pick up the tools to become an apprentice Carpenter. An ex-bodybuilder, Simon is still dedicated to training hard and maintaining his ripped physique and brute force.

As the first person in *Australian Survivor* to be blindsided with two Idols before Merge, Simon is leaving the Outback behind and is back for redemption. He says, "It was pretty tough failing last time, it took a lot to swallow but I let my arrogance and my ego get in the way and this time I am determined to play a very different game and to keep my ego in check."

Recently married, Simon is excited to get a second chance and says after being voted out in *Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn*, it has made him reconsider his game play.

"My strength coming into this season has to be my self-awareness. It's taken a lot of selfreflection to get to where I am now after what I went through and I'm going to use that to my advantage. My biggest fear coming into this game is going home with another Idol, it is something I've thought about for a long time and it haunts me and I'm absolutely terrified of ending up with one and not playing it correctly."

As a natural leader in the real world, Simon wants to step back from that and embrace his dark side, saying, "As a Villain, you thrive in the chaos, you get your hands dirty and you really bring Survivor to life because without Villains, this game would be so boring. I'm pumped to be a Villain because last time I tried to play as a Hero and look how that went for me. This time I can really unleash my full potential."
## Australian Survivor

### Brains v Brawn

Simon quickly emerged as a physical powerhouse on the Brawn tribe. His inclination to take on the leadership role pushed him into a perpetual power struggle with rival Shannon Lawson before he usurped control after the tribe switch. With two Hidden Immunity Idols in tow and an arsenal of strong allies, Simon falsely believed that he controlled the new Brawn tribe until his closest confidants Chelsea Hackett and Dani Beale turned on him right before the merge. Blindsided, Simon became the first person in *Australian Survivor* to leave the game with two idols. Simon ended up being one of the many victims of the producers rigging the game in George's favour when he was voted out on Day 25.

#### Voting History

**^1** In "Episode 3", Kez used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Simon's vote against her.
**^2** In "Episode 4", the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Simon and Benny, forcing a revote. On the revote, Simon did not receive enough votes to be eliminated.

### Heroes v Villains

Simon started *Heroes v Villains* as a member of the Villains tribe, explaining that he had sworn off his heroic, trust-based gameplay in his first season that had caused him to be blindsided. Simon immediately put his villainy on display at the opening Reward Challenge, where he physically held back members of the Template:Dab tribe from climbing to the finishing platform, though to no avail.

Simon's vendetta against George Mladenov, whom he blamed for his elimination in *Brains v Brawn*, would define his early allegiances. He made a quick, but fraught and short-lived, connection with fellow anti-George castaway Michael Warren and further insulated himself among the other male Villains Fraser Lack, Jordie Hansen, and Stevie Khouw. When the Villains spiraled into an extensive losing streak, Simon was protected by his status as the *de facto* tribe leader. However, when Simon acquired what he believed to be a Hidden Immunity Idol on Day 6, he began to trip out on power and started to actively campaign against George, against the advice of fellow returning player Shonee Bowtell and much to his ally Jordie's chagrin. His numerous campaigns proved futile, with the producers protecting George like they did two seasons prior. The tribe rallied against the first-time players instead, sending home Mimi Tang and Sarah Marschke at their next Tribal Councils.

On Day 15, the Villains lost their fifth Immunity Challenge and were set for Tribal Council. There, George and Simon aired out their grievances, visibly upsetting the rest of their tribemates. Though George had orchestrated the votes to blindside Simon and flush his idol, Simon thwarted the plan by winning a surprise individual Immunity Challenge. George's alliance then apparently switched the target to Simon's ally Stevie; after the votes were cast, George pulled out his idol and attempted to strongarm Simon into playing his idol for Stevie while revealing that Jordie had betrayed him by disclosing information about his idol. Still, against Stevie's pleas, Simon held on to his idol. It was revealed that George's alliance had flipped the vote to Fraser, leaving Simon to pick up the pieces of his shattered relationship with Stevie.

Firmly on the bottom, Simon's game was saved by a fortuitous tribe switch on Day 18, which brought him new allies in the form of the Heroes. In particular, Simon eagerly aligned with David Zaharakis, Sam Webb, and his *Survivor* idol Shaun Hampson, abandoning his fellow Villains Jordie and Liz Parnov. To solidify trust with the former Heroes, Simon offered them his idol, suggesting that they pass it to Flick Palmateer on the opposing Heroes tribe to save her from being voted out by George. This backfired spectacularly when Flick attempted to play the idol at her next Tribal Council, where Jonathan LaPaglia revealed that the idol was fake. Flick divulged this information to the entire cast at the next challenge, leaving Simon astonished and the Heroes furious at his apparent betrayal. Having lost the trust of every remaining contestant, Simon went on an apology tour, but failed to permanently regain any trust for the rest of the season.

At the merge, George leveraged Simon's outsider status to pull him into a seven-person Vigilantes alliance. Low on other options, Simon welcomed the opportunity to work with his sworn enemy; this decision paid immediate dividends as Simon cruised into a potential swing vote position between the Vigilantes and the Hero minority. However, George correctly picked up on the fact that Simon was beginning to waver from the alliance and thus staged a counterplan to blindside Sam on Day 33, leaving Simon out of the plan and exposing his hand. From then on, Simon was left out of every single vote, but managed to stay in the game through a streak of Immunity Challenge wins combined with the majority's plans to dispose of higher-priority targets.

On Day 40, a frustrated Simon called out Liz, Matt, and Gerry Geltch for being George's "pawns". This attempt to sway them as numbers onto his side only served to further entrench their loyalty to George. After losing the Day 41 Immunity Challenge, Simon hatched yet another plan, this time with Nina Twine, to blindside George. He attempted to pull in Matt, who had apparently come to the realization that he had no chance of winning against George. However, at Tribal Council, Matt's conduct unsettled George enough for him to switch the plan from Simon to Nina. Nina's sole vote for Gerry then resulted in Gerry and herself being sent to *Survivor* isolation, affording Simon yet another lucky break. This provided an opportunity for Simon to rally Gerry, Matt, and Nina to finally take George out. Unfortunately at Tribal Council, Gerry dug his heels in and openly proclaimed his loyalty to George, prompting both Nina and Simon to back out of their plan and vote against each other out of self-preservation. This allowed George's split vote to proceed as intended, and Simon finally succumbed to George's reign of terror after 42 days. He finished in sixth place, but would likely have defeated George had it not been rigged in his favour.

At the Final Tribal Council, Simon questioned Gerry on whether he had agency in the game, or whether he was simply George's pawn. Despite Gerry's assertion that he was independent from George, Simon remained unconvinced. He joined the jury in unanimously voting to award Liz the title of Sole Survivor.

#### Voting History

**^1** In "Episode 7", George used a producer-given Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Simon's vote against him.
**^2** In "Episode 10", the vote ended with a 4-4 tie between Jordie and Sam, forcing a revote. Simon did not change his vote on the revote.
**^3** In "Episode 12", rather than voting out a member of the tribe, the Villains were given the chance for one castaway to mutiny to the Heroes. Simon did not choose to mutiny.
**^4** In "Episode 20", Fa'amolemole was subjected to a mock Tribal Council where the two players who received the most votes were sent to live in isolation.
**^5** In "Episode 21", the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Simon and Nina, forcing a revote. Gerry and Matt changed their votes to Simon on the revote, eliminating him from the game.

## Post-Survivor

* In February 2023, Simon launched his clothing line, Snuff'd Apparel.

## Tribal Council

### Total votes received:

23

* Simon is the first player in *Australian Survivor* history to be voted out while in possession of multiple Hidden Immunity Idols.
	+ Internationally, he is the third person with this distinction, after James Clement in *Survivor: China* and Kellee Kim in *Survivor: Island of the Idols*.
* Simon was invited to return for *Blood v Water*.
* Simon was originally cast on the Heroes tribe in *Heroes v Villains*, but he was dropped from the cast about eight weeks before filming. He was then reinvited to the season as a Villain about a week before the season filmed.
* Simon is the only player to make the merge in *Heroes v Villains* without being on the Heroes tribe at any point.
* In *Heroes v Villains*, Simon lasted the most days of any contestant before receiving his first vote.
* Simon won the most individual challenges of any contestant in *Heroes v Villains*, with 5.
* Both times Simon was voted out:
	+ He was the primary target of a split vote.
	+ One of the votes to successfully eliminate him was from George Mladenov.

## References

1. ↑ https://10play.com.au/australian-survivor/participants/season-6-brains-v-brawn/simon/pa210711ewmtx
2. ↑ https://10play.com.au/australian-survivor/participants/season-8-heroes-v-villains/simon/pa221221ezjmd
3. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CoMEfy1PYe0/
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://robhasawebsite.com/survivorau-hvv-simon-mee-interview/ (0:11:00)