Emily Flippen has a rollercoaster of a journey on Survivor 45, going from nearly being the boot at the first tribal council of the season (with Hannah Rose’s self-elimination being her saving grace), to getting her torch snuffed after a single vote was cast against her in a tribal council that was truly one for the books.
In an attempt to blindside Julie Alley, the plan seemed to be in motion until one castaway spilled the beans. With Austin Li Coon telling Dee Valladares, and Dee Valladares telling Julie Alley herself, the plan to blindside Mama J was ultimately foiled, with Julie playing her Hidden Immunity Idol at tribal council (which Austin had handed to her a few days prior), causing just one vote to determine who would be heading to Ponderosa that fateful night.
That one vote was casted for Emily Flippen herself, ultimately resulting in her untimely exit, and Survivor superfans were not happy (to say the least), with dozens of individuals taking to X to share how heartbroken they were to see her leave.
“FINANCIAL ANALYST EMILY FLIPPEN 😭😭😭”
“BRING BACK FINANCIAL ANALYST EMILY FLIPPEN.”
“Thank you, Emily Flippen, for an incredible season. My heart is broken.”
As mentioned, the Maryland native’s journey on the beloved competition series had its fair share of ups and downs, but does she have any regrets? Keep scrolling to see what she said in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly…
While she does not regret letting her jaded side come to light in the beginning of the game, nor refraining from taking a chance at immunity during her journey within episode 11, Emily told Dalton Ross at Entertainment Weekly that her biggest regret has to do with her Lulu tribemate and first member of the Survivor 45 jury, Kaleb Gebrewold.
“I can start from day one all the way to not splitting the vote at the last tribal council, but I think maybe my biggest regret and where my game really went wrong was making Kaleb such an easy target when the merge happened. I really downplayed our relationship, because I wanted to be perceived as a free agent, and that inadvertently made Kaleb a really easy target. Nobody was willing to go to bat for him. If I had realized that I was in a little bit more of a powerful position than I gave myself credit for, I could have acted faster to protect him, and I let my number one ally get voted out of the game. I think that’s really where a lot of my leverage left.”
Nonetheless, we know that Emily and Kaleb’s reunion at Ponderosa was as sweet as can be!
While Emily Flippen is already greatly missed on our television screens, to see how the rest of Survivor 45 unfolds, catch 90-minute episodes of the beloved competition series every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT on CBS.