Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale Survivor 45.
Information is power. And no one is on Survivor 45 She knew when to spread information and when to withhold it better than De Valladares – even when it came to her boyfriend on the island.
After Austin Lee secretly told Kun Dee that they were going to shock her ally Julie Allie, Dee asked Julie to play her immunity idol. When the tables turned and it was time to omit Austin’s ally Drew Basile, Dee never told her co-showrunner and waited until the final tribal council to deliver the decisive blow and portray herself as the season’s dominant force. The jury agreed to reward Dee with five votes (versus Austin’s three votes) and the accompanying $1 million prize.
What made the victory so remarkable was that Dee never should have gotten there, but a last-minute change of heart in the final five votes saved her and set her on her path to victory.
CBS
The three-hour season finale began on Wednesday with five players — Dee, Austin, Julie, Catora Tops and Jake O’Kane — still in the game. Jake started the episode by winning the first Immunity Challenge feature, but then blew it not once, but twice – He forgot to bring his key to the top of the tower, then misplaced a piece while trying to solve a three-level puzzle.
Austin ended up winning that immunity, leading to a chaotic Final 5 Tribal Council where Katura and Jake decided to secretly take out Dee, and Jake shocked everyone by playing his immunity idol on Katura. However, the final shock would be on Jake, as Catora – nervous that Jake wouldn’t go through with the plan – switched her vote to Julie instead, even though she was desperate to get Dee out.
As a result, Julie was eliminated and Dee continued her title run. That run included a victory in the final Immunity Challenge – a victory achieved when Jake’s stack of cups fell over and he proceeded to stomp all over the place and break the challenge prop, disqualifying host Jeff Probst.
Dee chose to bring Austin with her to the finale, leaving Jake and Catora to battle it out in the fire, which Jake took control of – sending Catora to the jury in fourth place. This led to the final three confrontation, and once Austin defended his decision to tell Dee about firing Julie, noting that “Dee never told Julie,” Dee was able to reveal to him and the jury that she was, in fact, controlling both of them. Information and game. In the end, Dee collected five votes to Austin’s three and Jake’s zero, making her the sole survivor.
Stay tuned for everything we have Survivor 45 Final coverage. You can read our pre-finale interviews with the final five plus the jury now, and we’ll soon be having post-finale conversations with Dee, Austin, Jake, Catora, and Julie. We’ll also have a full finale recap, Jeff Probst will weigh in on the ending, plus an exclusive deleted scene and a look at the future Survivor 46. You can read it all while Dee is busy counting her money.
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