'Survivor' recap: Sean Edwards becomes second castaway to de facto quit Season 45

Survivor featured a tribal swap and another castaway, Sean Edwards, "engineering a quit" by convincing his new tribemates to vote him out at Tribal Council during the Season 45 episode that aired Wednesday night on CBS.


Sean, a 35-year-old school principal from Lawrence, NJ, who currently resides in Provo-Orem, UT, was voted out of his new "Reba Tribe" on Night 9 of the Survivor game after crying about how he wanted to reunite with his beloved husband back home.

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Sean was therefore voted out of Survivor with three votes instead of Nicholas "Sifu" Alsup, a 30-year-old gym owner from O'Fallon, IL, and Dee Valladares, a 26-year-old entrepreneur from Havana, Cuba, who currently resides in Miami, FL, who had each received a single vote.

"I came into this game with every intention of getting to the very end. I have no doubt that I could've gotten there if I wanted to," Sean said in his final words.


"I was coming out here to win a million dollars. I got so much more than that! I quit on my own terms because, at the core of my heart, I did exactly what I feel is right."

The Survivor broadcast began at the Lulu Tribe's camp on Night 7 following the Tribal Council in which Sabiyah Broderick had been blindsided and voted out.

The "Lulu Tribe," wearing yellow, was made up of Sean; Kaleb Gebrewold, a 29-year-old in software sales who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia; and Emily Flippen, a 28-year-old investment analyst from McKinney, TX, who currently resides in Laurel, MD.

Emily apologized to Sean, who was totally "dumbfounded," for leaving him in the dark about the Sabiyah vote. Kaleb also told Emily that he loved her.

"I'm at the bottom -- here I am, at the bottom!" Sean told the Survivor cameras.


Kaleb felt he could truly trust Emily because Sabiyah and Sean had been secretly targeting him. Also, when Emily had a real opportunity to take Kaleb out, she chose not to.

Sean claimed that Sabiyah had been controlling him the entire time and she needed to go, but Kaleb said in a Survivor confessional that no one was buying his story.

"Sean has this persona of being so friendly and so gregarious. He puts on this face, right?... He becomes this chameleon that is constantly changing his spots," Emily explained.

"So the fact he's 180'd his emotions and is trying to get back on good terms with us, it just made me feel like he's not being very genuine."

Sean then told Kaleb that it was never his idea to vote him out, which made Emily chime in about how Sean had wanted her gone instead.


Sean began praying for a pre-merge swap so that he could make some new connections over on the other side. He believed that was his only chance of saving himself at this point in the Survivor game.

On Day 8, the three tribes gathered together and met Survivor host Jeff Probst. The "Belo Tribe" and the "Reba Tribe" seemed shocked about Sabiyah's elimination because everyone could tell that she was a strong and reasonable player.

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The "Belo Tribe, wearing blue," was comprised of Brandon "Brando" Meyer, a 23-year-old software developer from Oak Park, CA, who currently resides in Seattle, WA; Bruce Perreault, a 47-year-old insurance agent from West Warwick, RI; Jake O'Kane, a 26-year-old attorney from Hanson, MA, who currently resides in Boston, MA; Katurah Topps, a 35-year-old civil rights attorney from St. Louis, MO, who currently resides in Brooklyn, NY; Kellie Nalbandian, a 30-year-old critical care nurse from Weston, CT, who currently resides in New York, NY; and Kendra McQuarrie, a 31-year-old bartender from Haverhill, MA, who currently resides in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Survivor's "Reba Tribe," wearing red, featured Sifu; Dee; Austin Li Coon, a 26-year-old graduate student from San Jose, CA, who currently resides in Chicago, IL; Drew Basile, a 23-year-old graduate student from Birmingham, MI, who currently resides in Philadelphia, PA; Janani "J. Maya" Krishnan-Jha, a 24-year-old singer from San Francisco, CA, who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA; and Julie Alley, a 49-year-old estate attorney from Brentwood, TN.


Jeff asked everyone to drop their buffs for a tribal swap -- the first one in Survivor's "new era," he said -- and the host had a platter filled with new buffs to hand out.

Each Survivor castaway selected a new buff at random, and Belo whispered to each other how they still needed to remain "Belo strong" going forward.

Kaleb, Sean and Emily also hugged and expressed their love for one another.

Once the buffs were revealed, Kaleb, Sean and Emily all ended up on different tribes, and they appeared pretty shocked and blown away. Meanwhile, four people from Belo were heading over to Lulu.

The new Reba Tribe was comprised of Sifu, Dee, Julie, Sean, and J. Maya. There were four former Reba tribe members joined by one former Lulu.


The new Lulu tribe was made up of four former Belo members, who were joined by a Survivor loner, Kaleb, who claimed he was excited to make new friends and hang out at the dog park with "new dogs."

The new Belo Tribe featured two original Belo, Kendra and Brando, as well as two former Reba members, Austin and Drew. Emily also joined them as "the lone person from Lulu," according to Jeff.

When Bruce arrived at the Lulu beach, he got very emotional because this was the beach where he had been medically evacuated from the game. Being on this beach took him back to that scenario, and he just let himself have a good cry.

Kaleb recognized he was an outsider in the Survivor tribe, but he was prepared to work hard and climb his way back up to the top. He planned on being the most trustworthy and likeable person on the beach, ready to join any pre-existing alliance.

Katurah and Bruce, meanwhile, were starting to butt heads. Katurah questioned Bruce's story from his boat trip earlier in the game, and Bruce could tell she was suspicious of him.

Jake then attempted to get a little more comfortable with Kaleb, and Kaleb could tell that Jake was at least open to having a working relationship with him on Survivor.


"[Kaleb] is saying, 'Hey man, I need you to help me out,' and I'm like, 'Yeah you do.' This is an opportunity for me to secure some more connections and create more opportunities for myself," Jake explained in a Survivor confessional.

"I'm not coming in here saying 'Belo strong.' This is a new era of Survivor, and I need to be ready to jump ship. Thank god I'm a good swimmer!"

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Over at Belo's camp, Emily's feeling of being on the outs wasn't entirely new to her, and so she intended to play low key, genuinely get to know people, and show them the real "kind, generous, open and honest" Emily. She wanted them to get to know her before getting to know her strategy.

Emily therefore revealed to her new Survivor tribemates how Sabiyah had been running her tribe and she never felt included or welcomed.

Drew acknowledged how Emily had been built up as this "cruel" and "mean" lady when she was actually pretty normal. Drew pointed out how the new Belo was the only tribe to incorporate players from all three of the former tribes.


"Emily is the swing vote. Who is Emily going to join? Who is Emily going to help? I'm very nervous, and it's vital in these first few days to take control and get Emily on our side," Drew explained to the Survivor cameras.

Meanwhile, at Reba's camp, Sean was a little worried about possibly being the next one out of Survivor 45. Sean expressed to his new tribemates how he was grateful for the swap, and J. Maya said she was "ecstatic" to have Sean's "amazing, positive energy" in the tribe.

When J. Maya and Sean went for a walk and formed an alliance, Julie, Dee and Sifu looked in Sean's bag to see if he had brought a hidden Immunity Idol with him.

Sean tied his bag in an interesting way, and so Julie an Dee practiced how to re-tie the knot in the same way by using one of their own bags. The ladies, however, didn't find anything in Sean's bag.

J. Maya shared with Sean how if their tribe lost Survivor's next Immunity Challenge, she wanted to blindside Sifu. She didn't think Sifu could be trusted, and this was music to Sean's ears.

"I absolutely intend to capitalize on this potential crack," Sean boasted, adding how there was "definitely hope" for him in the Reba tribe.


J. Maya then admitted to the girls that she had told Sean about their plan to blindside Sifu. But Julie mentioned how they needed strength on the tribe at this point and so she wanted to vote out Sean first.

"Guys, Sean is great and Sifu is such a threat," J. Maya insisted to the Survivor women.

It concerned Julie that J. Maya was trying to build a connection with Sean. She initially wanted them to stay "Reba strong," but she did concede that Sean brought a great energy to the tribe.

On Day 9, Austin and Drew continued their tight bond, and they were proud to have an idol, a Goodwill Advantage, and a Safety Without Power advantage all in their possession.

Austin looked at Emily like an opportunity because if the tribe took Emily out, it would be a 2-2 split in the tribe in which he and Drew would likely be facing off against Kendra and Brando.

Emily was fully onboard with this Survivor plan, and she suddenly felt like a Survivor commodity for once.


Meanwhile, Kellie felt like she had to work with Jake and Bruce, who wanted to bring Kaleb in. Bruce told Kellie that she was his No. 1, but she didn't really believe that.

Katurah then pulled Kaleb aside to warn him that Bruce -- whom she found "annoying" and preachy -- was a bigger threat than he appeared. Katurah was ready for Bruce to go, but her former tribemates didn't think about targeting Bruce at all.

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Later that day, it became time for the Survivor season's next Immunity Challenge.

For the challenge, each tribe was required to swim out to a cage, climb up, leap into the ocean, and then carry that cage up the beach, where one tribe member would have to dig out from under it. That person would be the "rebound" as the rest of the tribe would attempt to shoot balls into very tall baskets.

The first two tribes to sink one ball in each of their three baskets would win immunity and be safe from the vote. The losing Survivor tribe, however, would be forced to vote out the fourth castaway of this season. Jeff would also rescind the losing tribe's flint.


In the end, Lulu won first place and Kaleb was absolutely thrilled, and Belo finished in second place. Emily was so excited that she cried in Austin's arms.

While Lulu built a nice fire at camp after the challenge, Kaleb felt bad for Sean's position in the Survivor game. And J. Maya's mission was to convince the girls to blindside Sifu and get him out that night.

Sifu and Sean then spoke about how the three women strategizing with each other were "dangerous." But Sifu told the cameras that he still wanted to be "Reba strong" with his former allies.

Sifu acknowledged that Sean would be the easy vote that night, or else his female tribemates may turn their attention to him.

Julie pitched how they'd have a better shot to win challenges with Sifu on their team, but J. Maya said that if Sifu played an idol that night, it would be one of the ladies going home.

J. Maya thought keeping Sean around would help her be more successful come the merge.


"Sifu's first and then Sean, leaving us three, and then we merge," Dee agreed with J. Maya when discussing their options with Julie as well.

Julie believed the best way to avoid going home was to stay away from Tribal Council, and so she didn't like the Sifu plan at all. However, she felt her hands were tied in the Survivor game because she needed to keep the numbers.

Julie then told Sean that they were going to vote out Sifu that night, and Sean hoped the women were being genuine. If he had doubts, he could play his "Shot in the Dark" that evening.

"But I don't have many options other than trusting what I'm being told," Sean reasoned to the Survivor cameras.

"Trust is a tricky thing on Survivor. I was blindsided last time at Tribal Council.. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt [but] maybe that's absolutely insane for me to be doing given what I've been through, but I feel like what other options do I have?"

Sifu wondered if the women were playing him, but he intended to remain "Reba strong" going into Tribal Council whether he'd come out looking like a fool or not.


On Night 9 at Tribal Council, Julie pretended like the Reba four were going to vote Sean out, and Sean played along so that Sifu wouldn't become paranoid or feel vulnerable.

J. Maya also told Jeff that tribal strength was very important to her, but Sean insisted that he always gave each and every challenge his all.

"We don't know Sean, and I've spent eight days with these other people, building great relationships with them," Dee announced to the Survivor host, suggesting that Sean was going home.

Sifu pointed out that while Sean had a great energy about him, he wasn't "the burger" that he wanted. The whole tribe laughed, and then Sean -- who had grown up in a conservative, Mormon family -- told his tribemates how he had a lot of love and respect for all of them.

Sean apparently spent a lot of time concealing his sexuality and hiding as a child, and he said being on Survivor made up for a lot of lost time. With that being said, Sean declared how his dream had already come true by marrying the love of his life, his husband.

"I know how bad all four of you really want this. I don't want to take your dream away from you, because this, it's not mine -- and I'm at peace with that," Sean announced in tears.


"Because my dream is at home. So, respectfully, I would kindly ask that when you vote tonight, you write my name down on the parchment."

Sean's tribemates appeared stunned, and even Jeff's eyes opened wide at the Survivor Tribal Council.

Jeff asked Sean what just happened, and Sean explained how he had a ton of time to reflect on his life while playing the game. Sean said his husband means more than anything to him and so he'd like to return home to him.

"This is me saying, really and truly, 'Write my name down.' All four of you can stay in this game and be Reba strong," Sean explained.

Jeff pointed out how maybe Sean's emotions were taking over because he was "engineering a quit" on Survivor, but Sean said he had been thinking about this the entire time.

Sean said Survivor was an incredible and impactful experience that he'd think about for the rest of his life, but he said his core -- everything in him -- wanted to spend every moment he can with his husband.


Dee then whispered to Julie to still write Sifu's name down, and Julie appeared very surprised.

It then became time to vote, and Julie confirmed to the Survivor cameras that she had been asked to write Sifu's name down.

Jeff proceeded to read the Survivor votes aloud in the following order: Sifu, Sean, Dee, Sean, and Sean.

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Sean was therefore voted out of the tribe, and he expressed his love to everyone on his way out. Sifu wondered who had voted for him, and Dee's wheels were probably turning as well.

The episode's closing credits later showed that Dee voted for Sifu and Sean voted for Dee.







About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski