“Survivor 45” exclusive deleted scene shows Emily rethinking marriage

And a decade-long boyfriend is revealed!

No player on Survivor 45 appears to have evolved more during the season than Emily Flippen. Emily — who applied to the show the morning after the Survivor 43 finale after being enraged by Mike Gabler’s victory — came out of the gate hot, needlessly coming at returning player Bruce Perreault just minutes into the game and then alienating herself from the rest of the tribe with her lack of team-spirit attitude.

But after a Hannah Rose quit saved her from certain elimination on day three, Emily adjusted on the fly and was able to pivot her social game and attitude to put her in a seemingly powerful position for the endgame. All that work was undone, however, when Austin Li Coon informed Dee Valladares that they were blindsiding Julie Alley. Dee then told Julie, who played her idol, and Emily was ousted with just a single vote cast against her.

However, as an exclusive deleted scene from this week’s episode shows us, Emily did not just evolve in terms of her relationships in the game. Her experience on the island may have a huge impact on her biggest relationship outside the game as well.

The scene, which can be watched above, starts with the tribe gathered for a meal of rice around the campfire. “I know Survivor is like a fast-paced game,” says Jake O’Kane. “But it's nice how it kind of gives you the opportunity to focus on things like: What do I want to do differently in life?” Drew Basile then agrees that, “Some of us have had major reevaluations about our lives.”

And that is when Emily surprisingly jumps in. “You have nothing else to do out here except for think about family and think about home and what's important,” she tells the group. And it seems in that thinking, Emily has begun rethinking a firm position she has outlined time and time again to her longtime boyfriend.

“I never thought I was going to get married,” she says. “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.”

Emily Flippen walking down the aisle??? Not unlike the aliens that built the pyramids, what was once impossible has now become possible. But perhaps that is not so surprising after all, for even with the more condensed play of a shorter 26-day season, there is a lot of downtime on Survivor. Which naturally leads to lots of quiet introspection.

“It's easy to be emotional out here because you have conversations with people out here that it would take you months or years to have in real life,” she explains during an interview. “And just having that time to reflect, all I'm doing is talking about Erik.”

We are then treated to footage — perhaps from Emily’s audition videos — of the player and her decade-long boyfriend, with the contestant telling him, “Erik, you're going to be moving into the house that we just bought — presumably while I'm on a beach out in Fiji.”

Could Survivor 45's resident self-proclaimed pessimist actually be a hopeless romantic at heart? It seems so! “All I think about is what a life together looks like,” she says to the camera. “And I'm just really… it sounds so silly… I'm really so blessed. I'm really so blessed to be in the spot that I'm in.” Of course, that was said before she was voted out, but I suppose the point still stands.

To watch the entire exclusive deleted scene, check out the video above, and make sure to read our full Survivor 45 episode 11 recap.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.