Even though we (read: I) may have paid them an ass-first visit earlier this morning, Channel Ten still quite graciously let us pick the brains of Australian Survivor jury member and eternal favourite Luke Toki on a raft of things, including not only the huge outpouring of generosity from everyday Australians who have thus far pledged in excess of $180,000 for his young family via a GoFundMe page, but also just why in the hell he threw out his seemingly invaluable advantage during his now-infamous double blindside Tribal Council. There’s some smoke and mirrors at play here, mates!
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Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV a short while ago, Luke stated that it was “humbling as” to watch the overwhelming amount of support the GoFundMe campaign has received.
“I haven’t spoken to the person [who put it together] yet. I’ve been busy all day and to get told over the phone, far out.”
“When I went to bed last night I saw it and it was at $5,000 and I was like yiewwww you know? And now Australia’s really gotten behind it. It’s humbling as. It’s a TV show, I got voted off like any other contestant. It makes you speechless. You want to thank every one [the people who contributed] but that’ll take a year.”
“I’m very fortunate.”
Beyond that though, it turns out the wild double blindside Luke orchestrated on Abbey last week was a little more in-the-making than the show’s editing showed.
In that tribal council, Luke – who won individual immunity – used an advantage he found earlier in the episode to send Baden away from Tribal Council, effectively giving him immunity but erasing his vote from the council at the same time. From there, Luke orchestrated a vote on Abbey by convincing Pia to vote for her, and Abbey to split off and vote for Harry.
But given he went home at the next tribal council, you would’ve thought Luke might’ve held onto that advantage a bit longer and used it to save himself.
As it turns out, not only did he have that for a lot longer than we all saw, but that tribal council was the last opportunity for him to play it.
“I actually found it maybe two Tribals earlier. Right before the Silent Vote, I think.”
“I had to use it. The last time you could use it was at 5. Obviously I would’ve kept it and played it at 4 if I could, but it was gonna expire.”
“That was when I decided to blow it all up.”
Luke also mentioned that following last night’s heartbreaking Tribal Council exit that the emotions “hit me like a brick wall,” but that he was also “just sad, not angry” to have gotten that close to the end of the game and fallen short.
And if anyone from Channel Ten happens to be reading this, Luke also reckons me staging a turd photo in the network lobby this morning was “unreal, brother” and “funny shit,” which he said in between laughing about it for a solid few minutes.
He’s my friend now, 10. Not yours anymore. We’re bros.
