Emily Flippen is hands down one of the most intriguing Survivor castaways to date, starting out her journey on the beloved competition series as jaded and controversial, and ending said journey as kindhearted and vulnerable. After Survivor superfans grew to love Emily week after week, her luck unfortunately ran out on December 6, in a tribal council that was truly one for the books.
With a plan to blindside Julie Alley, things seemed to be smooth sailing until one castaway spilled the beans. With Austin Li Coon telling Dee Valladares, and Dee Valladares telling Julie Alley herself, the plan 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 get their torch snuffed that fateful night. Unfortunately, that one vote was casted for Emily Flippen herself, resulting in her untimely exit.
As mentioned, the financial analyst managed to steal the hearts of Survivor superfans nationwide, with dozens of individuals taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) 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.”
Nonetheless, Emily started to gain popularity from her tribemates and viewers alike as she began to open up more and more about her personal life, admitting that she has a boyfriend of nearly a decade during the legendary “Girls Night” reward that occurred a few episodes prior. Contrary to popular belief, Emily shared that she has no plans of getting married to her boyfriend, Erik (despite just moving into their first home together), but a deleted scene from Survivor 45 shows her having a change of heart.
Keep scrolling to see for yourself…
The deleted scene posted by Entertainment Weekly begins with the tribe gathered around the fire for a meal, with castaways like Jake O’Kane and Drew Basile asking extremely thought-provoking questions like “What do I want to do differently in life?” Because of this, Emily found it to be the perfect opportunity to be vulnerable about her relationship with Erik, sharing some words that her tribemates never thought that they would hear.
“You have nothing else to do out here except for think about family I guess and think about home and what’s important. I never thought I was going to get married, and I told Erik our entire relationship basically, ‘Don’t plan on it,’ and I feel like since I’ve been out here, I’ve just been reflecting on it a lot. These things are just more important than to me. I’m thinking twice about it.”
Could wedding bells be in the near future for Emily Flippen? After being eliminated from the beloved competition series, her thoughts of marriage began to get stronger and stronger.
In an exit interview with Dalton Ross at Entertainment Weekly, Emily elaborated on the situation when asked an extremely thought-provoking question.
“We have an exclusive secret scene this week on Entertainment Weekly where you talk about how you always told your boyfriend you would never ever get married, but being on the island you were maybe starting to rethink your drink a little bit. What’s the update there?”
After admitting that she kept her guard up during her first few days (or weeks) on the beloved competition series, Emily explained that the one thing she would consistently talk about with her tribemates was her relationship — we seriously never saw that one coming!
“When I got out there, I’ll tell you what, it strips you of everything and all the things that I was proud of myself for in my life. When I was talking to the other contestants, I never talked about my career, my school, my adventures, my travels, all these things that I thought were qualities that made me me. I spent the entire time talking about my boyfriend. It’s honestly embarrassing, but everybody kind of knew him as a result of that, and so when I got back from Survivor and I told him I had this change of heart, he’s like, ‘I was just waiting for you to come around,’ so it’s happening… At some point, we’ll get our act together. I think organizationally, that’s the challenge for us, but directionally, that’s where we’re headed.”
It looks like Ms. Emily Flippen will become a Mrs. sometime soon, and we seriously cannot contain our excitement.
Will any of her tribemates be bridesmaids in the wedding? Only time will tell…
Nonetheless, 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.