Sparks might be flying between Dee Valladares and Austin Li Coon on Survivor 45…
Dee and Austin have been working with one another since the very beginning of their respective Survivor journeys, beginning on the Reba tribe with one another, separating after the tribe swap, and then reuniting post-merge. Now, the duo is a part of the majority alliance, along with Drew Basile, Julie Alley, and Emily Flippen, orchestrating a blindside against Kellie Nalbandian just last night (November 15).
According to viewers, the group is truly unstoppable, however, the preview for episode 9 says otherwise…
In said preview, Emily is seen talking to Austin, uttering the words “If Dee is in the final three, Dee wins,” implying that she wants to vote her out and break up the majority alliance.
Given the strong bond that Austin has with Dee, he shared in a confessional, “I can’t blindside Dee. I love talking with her, I love hanging out with her,” over a series of clips of the pair giving each other goo goo eyes — could love be in the air between the two castaways?
Naturally, @itsjessmara proposed the idea of a showmance between Dee and Austin via Reddit, garnering a whopping 124 upvotes.
To kick off the conversation, she wrote, “Austin and Dee… I swear from the first few episodes I was like ‘Hmm Austin definitely has some eyes for her,’ but kept my mouth shut because it seemed far-fetched, but I’m fully convinced Austin is head over heels for her. Just the way he looks at her when she talks? Certainly a showmance!”
“I saw someone on Twitter say they fear Austin will go home with all these idols/advantages in his pocket, just for a chance to save Dee. The preview of next week’s episode was very interesting indeed. Dee has played an incredible game and she is surely a huge threat at this point,” the Reddit user continued, with 57 individuals adding in their thoughts.
While there were definitely some satirical comments, mentioning that Austin’s showmance is more likely to be with Drew (or even a sandwich) rather than Dee, a majority of respondents were in agreement with what was mentioned in the original post.
“They’re super hot together, I’m here for it,” one viewer gushed.
“I’ve been feeling it for a while. I think they’d be a great match,” another dished.
A third wrote, “I’m not sure if we’ll see anything on the show like we did with Frannie and Matt, but if we find out that something happened after the show, whether something brief or something that’s still going, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s definitely not for certain, but there are definitely a couple potential signs,” inserting a slightly different point of view.
Will Dee Valladares and Austin Li Coon become a Survivor 45 showmance? After a flame between Frannie Marin and Matt Blankinship ignited during Survivor 44, anything is possible!
To see how the rest of Dee and Austin’s relationship unfolds on Survivor 45, catch 90-minute episodes of the beloved competition series every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT on CBS.