Australian Survivor: Blood V Water fans were devastated during last night’s tribal council, when formidable player Khanh Ong was eliminated from the game.
The MasterChef Australia alum had just made it to merge at the beginning of the episode but proved himself to be too much of a threat, having held onto his immunity idol for 21 days total.
“I wish that I did play it,” Khanh tells WHO. “But at the same time, I’ve got an idol now,” he laughs.
Despite the often-traitorous nature of Survivor, Khanh remained in high spirits throughout the game and even laughed his way out after being blindsided by the merged Lava Tribe.
“I loved it,” he said of his exit. “As a fan, that’s how you want to go. If you’re not winning at the end, you want to be blindsided. You want the big move played on you because a blindside means you’re a threat.
“When I came into this game, I didn’t want to sit in the background. I wanted to play. I wanted to do everything,” he says.
A social butterfly, Khanh’s game was made all the more dangerous given his relationships in the game.
“I loved meeting new people and I became close to people that I didn’t even think I was going to. I thought, because it’s so strategic – I didn’t think the relationships would form that easily” he explains.
“I got really close to Sam and Chrissy especially.”
However, it was Sam’s husband Mark who planned and executed Khanh’s demise.
Forming an alliance of the men who had remained in the game with their blood, an essential component of the Blood V Water theme this season, Mark decided it was time to remove Khanh as he was such a threat.
Although he was finally playing alongside his wife, Sam, who had close ties with Khanh, Mark ultimately decided to “take out the king” against Sam’s wishes.
Despite the complicated nature of the blindside, Sam and Khanh remain close.
“We’re both in Melbourne,” Khanh explains. “And because we work very closely with Lululemon, and she’s an ambassador and I’m an ambassador, we spend a lot of time together.”
While Sam remains in the game, with Khanh hoping she can pull off the win, Khanh has become the first member of the jury – the group who will vote for the Sole Survivor when the game comes down to a final two.
“The jury is weird,” he laughs. “You don’t know what’s happening – you come back and you kind of guess what’s going on.
“I thought I might be going just when the jury begins, I had that in the back of my mind for a while… so, I had a lot of outfits ready.”
Although Khanh was able to tick off most of the things he wanted to achieve while playing Survivor, he didn’t get to play alongside his sister Amy.
The pair, who entered the game together, remained in separate tribes throughout the game, and she was eliminated prior to merge.
Khanh shared that the intensity of the emotions surrounding being in the game with his sister surprised him.
“I didn’t know how emotional I would get every time I saw my sister,” he says. “We’re super close, but we don’t, like, openly cry when we see each other.
“But literally, every single challenge I would see her, and I would be in tears, and she’d be like ‘stop crying! You’re making me cry!’.”
“I didn’t realise how intense the emotions would be.”
While Khanh might be out of the game, we’re keen to see who will join him next at Jury Villa, where he confirmed he took over as chef.
“I find cooking really relaxing for me, so I would be the first one up every morning. I would usually ask what people wanted for breakfast or whatever, and then I would make that happen,” he said.
However, we’re also excited to see which way his vote will swing on the jury.
“Get ready for the jury outfits!” he laughs.
Australian Survivor: Blood V Water airs Sunday to Tuesday, 7:30pm, on 10 and 10Play.
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