Survivor crowned Dee Valladares the "Sole Survivor" in a very close vote against runner-up Austin Li Coon during the Season 45 finale that aired Wednesday night on CBS.

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Dee, a 26-year-old entrepreneur from Havana, Cuba, who currently resides in Miami, FL, won Survivor's 45th season through a 5-3 vote on Night 26 of the game at the Final Tribal Council instead of Austin, a 26-year-old graduate student from San Jose, CA, who currently resides in Chicago, IL.

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"I had to win, there was no other option for me," Dee told Survivor host Jeff Probst during the Aftershow, which was filmed in Fiji.

"Because I came on Survivor to retire my parents and take care of my loved ones. I was born in Cuba, emigrated to the U.S., and my parents have been through so damn much that I knew I was going to take care of them. I knew it! And I knew that I was either going to be a millionaire myself or marry a millionaire."

Dee said her parents are "going to be so damn proud" of her.

"Because before I left, I wrote them letters," she continued, "and in the letter, I told them, 'I'm leaving, don't miss me. I'm coming back as a winner.' The million dollars is just going to make me more of a giver, because that's who I already am, and I'm proud of that. I feel like that's why I won this game."

Survivor 45 jury members Julie Alley, Emily Flippen, Kaleb Gebrewold, Kellie Nalbandian, and Katurah Topps voted for Dee to win the game.

Austin received votes from Kendra McQuarrie, Drew Basile and Bruce Perreault.

Jake O'Kane, a 26-year-old attorney from Hanson, MA, who currently resides in Boston, MA, finished Survivor in third place with zero jury votes.

Katurah, a 35-year-old civil rights attorney from St. Louis, MO, who currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, placed fourth in the game after losing the fire-starting challenge to Jake.

Julie, a 49-year-old estate attorney from Brentwood, TN, claimed fifth place in the finale.

The Survivor 45 finale began with Julie, Katurah, Dee, Austin and Jake starting over and building a new shelter in the jungle in Fiji on Night 23 of the game. The Final 5 castaways of the Dakuwaqa Tribe were about to compete in two final Immunity Challenges.

Austin had been blindsided at the previous Tribal Council when his best buddy Drew got voted out. Dee had lied to him about the secret Drew vote, but Dee apologized and said she felt guilty about it.

Austin promised his love interest that he wasn't upset because he probably would've given Drew his Amulet had he known what the others were planning.

Katurah, meanwhile, noted how the "Dee and Austin pair" needed to be targeted because she didn't want to end up in the Final 4 with both of them.

On Day 24, the Survivor castaways discovered a box with a combination lock on it. The castaways were required to find three stations scattered around the beach that each contained a different item. Each station contained a set number of crabs, coconuts, or bamboo.

The players had to race to count the number of item at each station, and then they'd use those totals to open the combination lock. If a castaway guessed incorrectly, he or she would have to run back to each station and count all over again. The first person to solve it would earn an advantage.

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Jake ended up relating each number to a previous Survivor player and season, which helped him to open the box in first place and win the advantage.

The castaways then met Survivor host Jeff Probst for an Individual Immunity Challenge.

Each player was required to crawl under an obstacle, dig up a machete, use the machete to drop a pile of sandbags, toss the sandbags into three baskets releasing three numbers, and then those numbers would solve a combination lock.

Once unlocked, keys would be released, and after crawling to the top of a tall tower, those keys would unlock puzzle pieces. The first person to solve the three-tier Survivor puzzle would win a spot in the Final 4 and Reward in the form of a trip to the Survivor Sanctuary, where the winner would enjoy steak, baked potato, cake and wine.

The next person voted out of Survivor 45 would become the 14th person voted out and the seventh member of the jury.

Jake's advantage gave him two baskets and two numbers, meaning he only had to land one sandbag in the closest basket for that section.

Despite Jake's advantage, he had been missing a piece of the puzzle, and so Austin won the challenge and immunity.

Austin chose Jake to join him at the sanctuary since it was a tight race between them.

Jake was disappointed he had lost, but he had every intention of giving the rest of his game his all and hopefully coming out on top.

Back at camp after the Survivor challenge, Katurah assumed she'd have to grovel to stay on the island, but Julie told Katurah that she'd love to go to the end with her.

"I feel like we'd have more numbers if we just got Dee to vote Jake with us. I just don't trust Jake," Julie told Katurah, later adding how she'd like to stay loyal to Dee.

Dee subsequently told Katurah that she'd be "down" to take out Jake because Jake was good at fire, not to mention he's an attorney and would be pretty convincing or influential at the Final Tribal Council.

Over at the sanctuary, Austin tried to get secrets out of Jake. Jake revealed that he had a hidden Immunity Idol but Julie didn't. Jake insisted he was going to use it and that he wanted Julie to get voted out next. Jake claimed Katurah wasn't a threat to either of them.

Once the entire tribe reunited, Jake asked Austin not to tell anybody about his idol.

Austin, however, immediately spilled the beans to Dee, which ruined Dee's plans to take out Jake. Austin said he wanted Katurah out as a result, and Dee acknowledged Katurah had been playing a "middle game" and would have a good story to tell.

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For Jake's part, he told Katurah to vote for Julie. But Katurah pitched the idea of blindsiding Dee instead and targeting Julie the next day. Katurah thought Dee would be most likely to win the next challenge and then take Austin to the end with her.

"I'm genuinely torn," Jake told the Survivor cameras.

"Katurah just made a really good argument... I don't think the votes are on me tonight, but Katurah's name has come up a couple times. I could use it to do something flashy and potentially save an ally."

Jake added, "This entire game, I've been dying to be in control, and now I feel like I have a little power. But what the hell do I do with it? I just can't be missing another puzzle piece."

Jake told Katurah that he was voting for Dee, even though he was a little unsure.

Dee then warned Julie about Jake's idol, saying they should vote for Katurah. But Julie wasn't buying it and thought Jake's idol was fake.

Austin was torn between voting out Katurah or Julie. He recognized that Julie was close to many jury members and had been viewed as "the mama" at camp. But Dee told Austin that she was going to write Katurah's name down.

Austin said he had to make a decision about what would be best for his game, even though his emotional side was tugging him in a different direction.

On Night 24 at Tribal Council, Julie announced that she believed she was in trouble, and Katurah was also clearly nervous.

It then became time to vote. Dee was shown writing Katurah's name down, and Jake was shown writing Dee's name down. Julie was shown writing Jake's name down. And then Katurah told the cameras how she decided to change her vote last minute because she was pretty sure that everyone was voting for her.

Before Jeff read the votes, Jake played his hidden Immunity Idol for Katurah.

Jeff then read the Survivor votes in the following order: Katurah, Jake, Dee, Julie, and Julie.

Austin and Katurah had both voted for Julie.

On Julie's way out of the game, she asked Katurah to go to law school. Jake also looked pissed at Katurah for not voting Dee out, saying she had made him swear on "Nana" that they were in this together.

"My biggest fear was being the first person voted out, and it turns out I'm the last person voted out!" Julie said in her final words.

"I guess they didn't want to take me to Final 3, and I'm going to take that as a compliment. But right now, I'm hoping I made my kids proud."

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Once the tribe returned to camp, Jake announced what went down at Tribal, and Katurah admitted out loud that she couldn't trust Jake.

Jake was therefore very angry she had lied to him and made him swear on something when she wasn't going to follow through with the plan. Jake was so frustrated he wasn't able to make a big move.

"Jake's strategy is literally all over the place," Katurah vented to the Survivor cameras, adding how she would've voted Dee out had she trusted that Jake was going to play his idol for her and save her.

Katurah ultimately regretted her last-minute vote change because now she was stuck with a power couple/showmance in the Final 4.

On Day 25, the Final 4 castaways competed in the Final Immunity Challenge of the Survivor season.

Each player was required to maneuver through a grid of ropes while using a long pole to place a bowl on a perch. The task must be repeated over and over again with 17 bowls, but the tricky part was that the entire structure was connected to that perch.

"So if you hit a rope just a little too hard, the perch will wobble and your bowls will drop, and you'll have to start again," Jeff explained.

The winner would receive immunity, an automatic spot in the Final 3, and the opportunity to choose which two castaways would be competing in the fire-making challenge to earn the last seat at Survivor's Final Tribal Council.

Both Austin and Katurah lost their tower of bowls at one point.

Jake and Dee were neck and neck with only a handful of bowls to go when suddenly Jake wiggled the structure too much and his entire stack dropped. Jake didn't give up, but then he aggressive and angrily stomped through the grid and broke one side of it, which secured his fate in this challenge.

"Jake, you're out," Jeff said.

"You've got to be kidding me, man," Jake shouted.

"Jake, that's on you," Jeff clapped back.

"Sorry, I was trying to go quick man," Jake replied.

"Yeah I know," Jeff conceded.

Jeff determined that Jake was hustling too quickly and accidentally broke the challenge, and Jake appeared devastated.

Dee ended up winning immunity after a perfect challenge run, her third Individual Immunity win of the season. And Jake apologized to Jeff for having broken his challenge course.

Once the Survivor players returned camp, Dee told the Survivor cameras how she wanted to take Austin to the end and have Jake and Katurah make fire against each other.

Dee claimed she was keeping an open mind, but she said Katurah was the better player of the two and she was confident that Jake could beat her in fire, which would increase her own chance of winning the game. Dee thought Katurah was loving, sweet and articulate.

Jake cried to Dee about how he wanted to make fire, not just to have a better shot to win Survivor, but for himself and his pride.

Katurah then practiced making fire. Katurah cried and blamed herself for having made the poor decision of voting Julie out instead of Dee, but she wasn't about to throw her hands up in the air.

Austin knew that Dee wouldn't want him to have a flashy move under his belt -- if he were to win in fire -- at the Final Tribal, and so he predicted that Dee was going to automatically take him to the end.

Austin noticed that Jake actually wasn't good at fire, and so he suggested to Dee that he should be the one to beat Katurah in fire.

Dee had a big decision to make, and she was worried it could cost her the million dollars.

At Tribal Council that night, Katurah announced how she had kept some of her moves hidden so she wouldn't be viewed as a threat, which ultimately backfired. And Austin explained how Dee was afraid potentially winning fire would be another notch in his belt.

Dee then announced how she was going to bring Austin to Final 3 and force the other two castaways to make fire.

Jake and Katurah had the exact same supplies, and the goal was to build his or her fire hot and high enough to burn through a thin rope that was suspended horizontally in the air.

Katurah got a spark first but it burned out, and then Jake got a spark. Katurah got a second spark but she couldn't nurture it.

Jake's fire eventually burned through the rope, and he won the Survivor fire-making challenge, which is something he had desperately set out to accomplish.

Jake, Austin and Dee therefore became the season's Final 3 castaways, and Jake was overjoyed.

"That was one of the best moments of my life, burning that rope," Jake cried.

Katurah shared with Jeff how she's strategic and logical, and she finally announced how she's a lawyer. Katurah said this was a "learning journey" for herself and she was very "grateful" for the experience. However, she said she never wanted to see Jeff snuff her torch and so that was difficult for her.

On Day 26 of the game, Dee, Austin and Jake enjoyed a breakfast feast, and then they each got to plead their case to the jury as to why they deserved the title of "Sole Survivor."

At the Final 3 Tribal Council session, the power shifted to the eight-person jury: Katurah, Julie, Kendra, Bruce, Drew, Emily, Kellie, and Kaleb.

Kendra asked the players how they played the game and didn't waste a second, and Jake explained how he really juiced the game and busted his ass in challenges, even though he couldn't win one.

Jake said he cried a lot on the island but he remained thankful to play the Survivor game he loves.

Dee said she competed on the show for her family, to take care of them, and she enjoyed being "present" every single day and often detaching herself from the outcome. Austin shared how he was the alternate of Season 45 and went for advantages and ate weird things.

Katurah asked the Final 3 when they were most afraid in the game. Austin said voting against Julie was really hard -- all three times -- and he had to go against his heart. Dee was fearful of blindsiding her allies, especially Julie, and Jake explained how he was afraid to fail.

Jake said he did, in fact, end up failing, multiple times, but he was able to get back up again and keep going.

Dee admitted she had a lot of luck in the Survivor game by starting out on the Reba Tribe, and Austin claimed he had set up their alliance and kept it solid when Dee was afraid of being targeted.

Dee, however, insisted she was never really scared to go home because she had a strong social game and had a strategic say in every vote after the tribal swap.

Austin explained how he and Drew took a Belo out during the swap and strengthened their alliance by bringing in Emily. Austin said his biggest move in the game was the Kellie vote and upgrading his Survivor advantages into idols to work in his favor.

Dee argued that she had brought in Katurah so it was a joint effort and she was the one who wanted Kendra out because she was starting drama for her.

"My goal was to make sure I was always the most insulated person in this game. I was the only person to never have their name written down," Austin said.

Emily asked Dee to reveal what move or moves she had made with her head instead of her heart. Dee explained how her heart and her head were the same in the game and that her strategic moves came from her relationships and being authentic.

Jake then claimed there was a method to his madness, even though his big swings never really worked out.

"I don't think these two tried to make a big swing. I think they felt comfortable in an alliance of four, but I was taking cracks every opportunity I had," Jake boasted.

Austin said he never had to use his idol to stay in the game and he gave one to Julie, but then Emily pointed out how he let his best friend, Drew, get voted out of the game when he had played an idol for himself.

Austin explained that it worked out for him because going to the end with Drew wouldn't have been the right play since jury votes would be split between them.

"Now that the Drew blindside is coming up, I could've let Austin know," Dee declared.

"But I didn't tell him about that, because I knew if I told him, he'd try to save his No. 1. But his No. 1 was a threat to my game... Knowing all the information was just as important as having an idol in my pocket, if not more important."

Julie asked Dee and Austin about their alleged showmance, and Dee said a romance did develop later on in the game but it was natural and not strategic. Austin agreed and said the both of them were playing to win this game and had made individual moves.

With that being said, Dee confessed to Austin that she had warned Julie when the cast was coming for her, which prompted Julie to play her idol. Dee therefore took credit for Emily going home instead of Julie, and Emily seemed impressed and stated how Dee was her next target at that point.

Dee announced how her social game was so strong that she convinced Julie not to write Austin's name down at that same Tribal Council and people believed her at her word. Austin appeared disappointed he had lied to her but also proud of Dee's strategic gameplay.

The Survivor jury then voted for the winner of Survivor 45, and Kaleb yelled out Jake's name.

Julie was shown writing down Dee's name, but Kendra voted for Austin.

Emily voted for Dee, saying heart really does win Survivor but Dee better not spend any of her prize money on Austin. Drew voted for Austin.

Jeff then read the jury votes in Fiji in the following order: Dee, Austin, Dee, Austin, Dee, Austin, Dee, and Dee.

Dee won the Survivor game one vote shy of a tie.

During the Survivor Aftershow in Fiji, it was revealed that Bruce voted for Austin, Kaleb voted for Dee, Kellie voted for Dee, and Katurah voted for Dee.

Austin said, "Girls are better at playing guys than the other way around... I'm good, I'm good, I'm good!"

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Dee also confirmed she'd like to continue dating Austin in the real world.

"I've been single for two years, so I am ready for something," Dee said.




About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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