‘Survivor’ 45: Emily Says Her Elimination Was Unavoidable, Reveals Shocking Deleted Scene

The Tribe Has Spoken

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“The tribe has spoken” became “Julie has spoken” in Survivor Season 45 Episode 11.

After catching wind that she was on the chopping block, Julie Alley played an idol to cancel out every vote against her in Tribal Council. Since every other vote was cast for her, this gave Julie’s vote immense power because it was the only vote that counted. She sent Emily Flippen packing just one night after she staged the stunning Bruce Perreault blindside. It was a sad ending to one of the fan-favorite arcs of the season, but Emily tells TV Insider that she doesn’t see how that Tribal Council could have gone any other way.

Emily’s elimination in the December 6 episode was the result of a major mistake made by Austin Li Coon, one of her two closest allies (the other being Drew Basile). Austin and Dee Valladares have been getting closer with every episode, and a showmance was teased in Episode 11. Austin’s closest ally has always been Drew, and Dee’s has always been Julie.

The two pairs make up the so-far unbreakable Reba majority alliance, but the cracks began to show in the latest installment. When Julie’s name was offered as the most appealing option at Tribal and Austin learned that Drew was fully supportive of this plan, Austin had to decide between blindsiding Dee and breaking their trust or telling Dee about the plan and convincing her to play along.

He chose the latter, assuming that he could trust Dee to betray her biggest ally. It didn’t work out in his favor. Dee told Julie, and together, they made it so every vote went to Julie except for her own, thus giving Julie the power to choose who went home. With Drew protected by his individual immunity necklace, Austin became a big possibility. Viewers may have been hoping that Julie would choose Austin, given his betrayal. But Julie ultimately chose Emily, going with the strictly strategic move over the retaliatory one (although nixing Austin would have also helped her game).

In Episode 10, Emily convinced Bruce not to play his hidden immunity idol by saying Julie was playing him just like Kellie Nalbandian had before. Instead, she lied about a “Mama J” blindside, convincing Bruce he was safe. The tribe was stunned that Bruce, who wasn’t the most popular guy in the cast, didn’t play his idol. Emily tells TV Insider that she regrets how they all reacted as he was walking away (lots of muffled celebrating). She also questions if she should have staged his blindside at all.

Emily gets her torched snuffed in Survivor Season 45 Episode 11 (Credit: CBS)

“I feel so kind of ashamed of our reaction. It’s incredibly rude to Bruce. Bruce went out so gracefully,” Emily says. “I think part of that is just because we were genuinely that shocked and surprised in the moment. Now, whether or not it was a good move for my game, I mean, I was voted off right after Bruce. So there’s a strong debate about whether or not I could have tried harder to make a different reality happen during that vote.”

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After her successful blindside, the tribe returned to camp and wondered how it happened. Julie questioned why her name appeared on a ballot, and Emily revealed it was all her doing. This is the moment Emily would go back in time to change if she could.

“I never felt like I had autonomy or independence in the game,” Emily says, so she wanted to own her narrative by revealing this move. She notes that other people were involved in pulling it off, “so as much as it was kind of my idea, I wouldn’t say that it was just me, but I did want credit for it.”

“Don’t take credit for things in Survivor! What a numb skull,” she adds with a laugh. “Wait for the final Tribal Council if you’re going to sit here and try to explain all the ways that you pulled strings in the game. But I think my insecurity got the better of me there.”

“I would definitely have saved that information” if she could do it all again. “Now I’m embarrassed by the fact I knew it was coming, and I think that’s the silliest thing that I did in the entire game of Survivor, which is really saying something,” she continues. “I will say, though, I don’t think that changes the outcome. If I go back and I stay quiet about the Bruce vote, I think I’m still Julie’s target. Julie and I kind of had [an] awareness of the game that the other one was playing. We both knew that we were coming for each other. So I think even without the Bruce bragging, then I would probably still be the person voted off. But the Bruce bragging was not a good look, so I wish I could make it go away.”

Emily’s blindside reveal didn’t come off as “bragging” in the episode; she simply took credit for her move. But Emily reveals there were cut scenes showing just how much she talked about getting Bruce out.

“I wish they included the scene” with Katurah Topps, who “at some point pulled me aside and she was like, ‘Girl, you’ve got to stop talking about Bruce.’ And when Katurah tells you to stop talking about Bruce, that’s telling you a lot.” Indeed! Katurah was Bruce’s No. 1 hater all season long. For Katurah to warn Emily about talking about Bruce may have been an early indication that she was in danger of elimination.

Survivor Season 45 Episode 11 Tribal Council (Credit: CBS)

Bruce wasn’t the only option she considered in Episode 10. Julie was a possibility then, too, “but I never quite felt like I had the trust that I needed with Jake [O’Kane] and Katurah to pull off that blindside,” Emily explains. With eight people left in the game at that point, she could either choose to side with the Reba Four and vote for Bruce, or she could side with the underdogs and vote for Julie. Looking back, she wouldn’t have made her biggest move of the season and would try to get Julie out in Episode 10 instead.

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“I was a little bit afraid that doing anything other than trying to flush Bruce’s idol was going to be bad for my game,” she explains. “But in hindsight, I think Bruce was a really big target, and letting him play his idol [and] stay around a little bit longer would’ve very likely bought me at least additional time on the island right from Episode 11 to potentially Episode 12. My whole game is potentially different without that move.”

The things she would change aside, there’s lots to be proud of with Emily’s Survivor arc. She started the season ready to fight and put a big target on her back by calling out Bruce in the season’s first moments and convincing herself that Sabiyah Broderick and Kaleb Gebrewold were coming for her in the first Tribal. Emily ended her time as a Survivor player with genuine friends with whom she emotionally connected.

“I came in and I was so focused on, ‘This is the game, I need to be here to win.’ These qualities about myself that are normally a little bit more muted showed themselves really readily. I don’t know if it’s a stress response. I wish I could explain it better than I can other than to say that I am really direct. I am really aggressive. I know these things about myself,” she explains. “I can be really intense, especially in the way that I communicate with people, especially when I’m stressed out. And for the first few days, I was so in my head, I was picking up on things that made me believe that I was at the bottom of the Lulu tribe, that I was going to be, if not the first person voted off, the second person voted off, and all that stress led me to communicate, I think, really ineffectively with some really great, wonderful players.”

“I did it to myself in a sense. I’m really thankful that I had the opportunity to stay much longer than I should have, honestly, so that people could get to know the other aspects of myself,” she continues. “Kaleb helped me kind of put my head back on my shoulders, calm down, and give people the opportunity to get to know the real Emily, which, yes, is intense, aggressive, and direct, but it’s also thoughtful and caring and emotional at points and considerate at other points, and likes to dance for cheese.”

We’ll certainly miss her as a player, but Emily is a great addition to the Survivor 45 jury. As she said in her last words to the players, she’s “voting for the best player.” Who do you think that is? Let us know your thoughts on Emily’s game in the comments below.

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