'Survivor 45' Winner Dee Valladares Talks Through Her Victory-Clinching Final Tribal Council Reveal

Dee Valladares

Survivor 45 is here! Every week, Parade.com's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off of the island.

"When you're in a partnership, you've gotta be on the same page all the time. You have to have the same vision, be on the same page, and then you can have disagreements. It's taught me how not to take things personally. Nothing is ever personal. People don't do things as a 'screw you,' but rather, more like a 'pro me.' And I've just learned how to connect with people."

That's what Dee Valladares told me the day before Survivor 45 when asked about a life experience that prepared her the most for the game. The entrepreneur predicated a game on close one-on-one relationships (both strategic and surprisingly romantic). But even when advocating loyalty, she was eager to cut some of her tightest allies at the knees if it meant maintaining her own personal agenda. Dee turned her social capital into a worthy investment, responsible for nearly all the postmerge boots and the most cutthroat moves of the season. On top of that, she brought home three Immunity Challenge wins. And so, in the end, for someone whose abnormal foot made her clutch in balance challenges, her well-balanced game won over the jury, as Dee took home the "V" in the most dominant win of the show's new era.

Starting on Reba, she quickly fell in with Julie Alley and subsequently formed an alliance with her, Drew Basile, and Austin Li Coon that would go on to dominate the majority of the game. Though not as outwardly strategic as Drew or advantage-hungry (or just regular hungry) as Austin, Dee established early on that if she had a plan, it would get put into motion. In her first two Tribal Councils, she schemed to put the votes on her former tribe members Nicholas "Sifu" Alsup and Janani "J. Maya" Krishnan-Ja. When Kaleb Gebrewold announced publicly that she and Julie were running the game, the "Dee-venge" plot came into the forefront. For the rest of the season, anyone who called out Dee as a threat had to go. And she had the numbers in both the Reba four and the relationships they were cultivating to do just that, as players like Kaleb and Kendra McQuarrie would shine a spotlight on Dee, only to have their own games black out.

Dee said in final Tribal Council that she played with both her head and her heart, and nowhere was that more clear than her showmance with Austin. The two former red tribe members became Survivor valentines in the last week of the game, generating genuine feelings for each other. But, over two votes, Dee showed how masterful she was at both integrating and separating that into the game. When Austin tipped her off about Julie's impending boot, she immediately told Julie, getting her to play her idol. The next round, when Drew was the one in trouble, she did not reciprocate, fearing he would play his idol on his number one ally. In both instances, Austin trusted that Dee did nothing underhanded and stayed loyal to her until the end. Reaching Day 26 together, the two seemed to go from lovers to rivals, as they faced off against each other for the umpteenth time. For every point Austin made about his control of the game, Dee would counter with her own independent moves. When she revealed to him that she told Julie to play the idol, the deal was closed. Dee got the win 5-3, and perhaps the guy as well.

The day after the finale, Dee talks with Parade.com about how she rated her final Tribal Council performance, navigating her relationships with Julie and Austin, and the status of her and Austin after the season ended.

Related: Read our Survivor 45 pre-game interview with Dee Valladares

To start, a  massive congratulations! How are you feeling right now? Because you obviously found out you had won back in April. So what's it been like to watch your journey all over again, especially the past couple of weeks when we really saw you emerge as a contender?
It's been a roller coaster of emotions. Luckily, I am very self aware. And I don't let comments get to me. But there's always like one or two that there's a part of me that thinks it's true. But watching it back last night, I am still in shock. I feel like I was out on the island and Jeff was in front of me reading the votes. That's how I felt. And, of course, it's mixed with deep gratitude, because everyone wants to play Survivor. And the chances of that happening are so low, but even more lower chances are winning it. So I have so much gratitude in my heart. I'm still shocked.

Well we saw some of that shock when you watched the jury votes coming in. Now, you rated your win odds highly going into final Tribal Council. Were there any votes that surprised you, either for or against you?
Yeah, so I have both answers to that. So for, Kaleb surprised me. Kaleb and I, we didn't really play too much. He was the first member of the jury. We had like that clash, obviously it was an in game clash. Love him. But we had that clash. And it had been  two weeks since he played the game. So in my head, I was like, "Alright, I don't know where his vote is going." So that was a surprise for me. And then against me, I think Kendra's was the one that surprised me a little bit more. Because I knew for certain that Drew would vote for Austin, and also Bruce, because I called him out at Tribal too. [Laughs.] I played with fire. I shouldn't have done that. Whatever, lesson learned. But yeah, Kendra surprised me a little bit. But they also played longer on the island together than Kendra and I, because they were in the swap together.

How do you look back on that final Tribal performance? I know that you were coming in ready to fight. But were you surprised that Austin was throwing some hits your way as well?
I thought I did great. I thought we all did. In the [Final Four Tribal], they cut it out, but I told Austin, "If you need to [expletive] on my mother, [expletive] on my mother." [Laughs.] I am coming for you. My fire's coming out. So I think I did just that. And I'm very proud of myself. And it was fun. It was fun. And the jury did a great job at asking us questions. Rough questions, but also emotional ones. And it was a lot of fun.

I want to ask about the bomb you dropped to Austin that you had told Julie to play her idol. Austin actually told me that happened earlier in final Tribal than what was shown. What made you decide to strategically deploy it at that spot in the evening?
I was waiting. That happened early on in the Tribal, but I didn't want to lead with that Tribal. Because that was my biggest move to differentiate. And I knew that it would shock the jury. So I actually waited until Austin brought it up first. So Austin was taking the credit for it. He said something and then I was like, "No, that wasn' it." But that happened early on in the Tribal. So some of the questions were rearranged for sure.

Let's talk about that move. Because, despite Drew saying he was on "an island of bad actors," you were somehow able to convince everyone that you had not tipped Julie off to play her idol. Talk to me about how you were able to accomplish that?
Mike, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. Like I said, I don't lie in the real world. If you ask me for something, I will tell you the truth, whether you like it or not. But this was absolutely insane. As soon as I went back, they only obviously show me speaking with Austin, but I had a conversation with every single person. Because every person had a conversation with me beforehand on an apology tour saying like, "Hey, so sorry. It's gonna be Julie." I just had to be like, "Okay, okay, fine, fine, fine."

And then coming back, Katurah, [I'm] swearing on my family. Austin, [I'm] swearing on my family. Mind you, it wasn't me just being a good actress, because Julie was also the great actress. We had three, four days left in the game. We made it so awkward at camp to the point where, if you're having conversation with someone, we'd sit right next to each other and be silent. So this actually happened for two days. It was very hard, because then we had to play like, whenever we need to talk, it has to be briefly. And Julie has to approach me because she's the one mad at me. And I'm the one that betrayed her. So it wasn't a lot of fun. I'm not gonna lie. I didn't know if I would be able to put it off. But I knew I was gonna lie my ass off off to try to pull it off. It's crazy. Because I would never lie for my parents like in the real world. But on Survivor...

Anything goes! On the note of Julie, talk to me about that relationship. Had she survived at Final Five, did you intend to go to the end with her, despite how much of a threat she was?
100%. You can never be 100% of other people, but I was always 90% sure that Austin and Julie would never write my name. But I was also 100% on my end that I would never write their names ever. And I would do whatever it takes to take them to the end. Even if that meant that one of them had to backstab me. Because they really were my blind side. I was blinded by them. If they blindsided me, it would have been insane. I would have never seen it coming. Because they're the two people that I put like my absolute trust in. I 100% was going to take her to the end with me. It just so happened that in that Final Five vote, it was out of my hands. I was told that right before Tribal again. And at this point, I'm like, "Well, I'm not writing her name for sure. So you figure out what you want to write." But I really thought that it was going to be Katurah. I didn't think Jake was going to use his idol on Katurah.

It became a trend in the postmerge that, for the most part, whenever you wanted someone gone, they would leave. And I feel like the secret sauce of Survivor is convincing people to do something that it's in your own best interest. How were you able to do that so successfully?
So the thing about Survivor, and, everyone's like, "Oh, [Dee's] very dominant, very safe." It's very hard to hear your name postmerge, and you're getting [seen] as a threat every single time. Because you have to lower yourself every time. So what you have to do is obviously be extremely intuitive and always be watching who talks to whom after Tribal. Who goes on longer walks? Who doesn't talk to me? Who doesn't speak strategy with me? There's a lot going on. 

Out there, there's always a shiny object, and you got to make people believe that there's a shiny object. So every time with Reba, what was so special about us is that we gave and we took. For example, the Kellie vote, I didn't want her gone. But I understood that it was an amulet that we turned into an idol. And then the four of us would use it in rotation. Or at least I have information in the game. And then the whole Kendra thing, it was funny because it shows that I just want her out because of her name. But it's not necessarily just that. It's because she was the first person she was so perceptive of Austin and I. She was the first person to catch on to us.

So I would tell Austin and Julie and Drew, "She needs to go because she said my name." But really, it's because she caught on to Austin and I. But I couldn't say that out loud because I couldn't tell Julie and Drew that Austin and I are in a showmance, [even] producers. Because we weren't in a real showmance. We'd flirt; we'd hug. But our heads were in the game. We didn't really start opening up until we were in the majority. So I was like, "Oh yeah, she said my name." But no. It was because she was so perceptive that she needed to go because it was going to be bad for my game. It was going to come back to me. Also what they didn't show was Drew telling me that Kendra told him that I had a crush on Austin. So I'm like, "Oh, hold up! These are two people now. So this girl has to go, because now she's gonna get that in people's heads." And like she's likable. So I couldn't have stuff floating around. Anything that floats back to me is a danger to my game. So you gotta go.

Obviously the Reba dynamic was very important to your game. But in my Kellie interview, she confirmed you had a strong relationship. And you mention in final Tribal about how you brought Katurah in with the Rebas. Talk to me about some of the key relationships you had outside of the Reba majority.
The Kellie one was really important. It obviously was short-lived, because people saw us together. And we even told each other, "We've got to stop talking. Everyone knows that we love each other. We got to stop talking." And it wasn't shown, but when Kellie went to the journey with J and Austin, Austin came back and told me the truth right away, right. And so I knew that J lied. And then I knew that Kellie lied. So I go to Kellie and I sit her down at the beach. I'm like, "Kellie, I want to work with you. I got the numbers. But you got to tell me what happened on the island." I already knew the truth. And she was such a good liar that I was like, "Oh my God, this girl did not budge. She's so good at playing this damn game." So I went back, and I was like, "Right, yeah, okay, I'm down for her to go."

But Katurah was important. I feel like our relationship wasn't really shown a lot, because a lot of our conversations that we had were about family, relationships, outside [stuff]. And that helped. Because as soon as Katurah came to the merge, and we knew that she was at the bottom, she was telling Julie and I the story of how Jake lost the ring and all of that. And I know that sounds mean, but Julie and I were laughing. [Laughs.] The three of us were cracking up at the water well. We're like, "That kind of missed up, but that's actually pretty funny that they did that. That's really smart." But then after she left, Julie and I had a conversation like, "Oh my God, we can pull Katurah. She's at the bottom. And she likes us, and we like her too. So let's make this work." And she did was a huge part of a lot of the votes, especially that didn't involve Drew and Austin.  

So let's speak to the Austin of it all. You spoke about how, despite it not really happening until you were in the majority, there were little moments here and there. Did it go from 0 to 60 in that moment? And how surprising was it for you for those feelings to develop?
Absolutely insane. I even said in one of the interviews, "Red flag. No showmances. You cannot do that." That obviously shocked me, the fact that that happened. But it didn't shock me how, once we had majority, we kind of like let loose a little bit. Our heads were in the game. And I respect him so much for that, that it didn't start off as a showmance. Because I could never forgive myself if we got called out because somebody caught us as a duo and we left the game. It didn't shock me. I'm so grateful that it happened the way it did and it was later in the game, because it showed like the respect that we have for the game. And [it's like, "Okay, now we've got majority. Now we can learn a little bit more."

Walk me through, then, the decision for you to not tell Austin about Drew's blindside. Considering you knew you would hurt him, and he had just done the opposite when he was in the exact same shoes the round before.
Honestly, Drew was the hardest voteemotionally, but that's because I had an emotional attachment to him too. And he had to go because he was the first one to turn on us. He wanted Julie out. And then I also was very fearful of Drew and Emily's relationship. I knew that Emily was closer to Drew than she was with me. And I knew that's a threat; she's the gotta go. But it is very sad. And I think it was even more sad to not tell Austin and blindside him. But I also knew that he would respect it like, because had he done it to me too, I would have understood it. It would have hurt. I would have probably cried for sure, because I did cry when Julie went home. I would have cried, but I would have respected that it was the game. And I still would have trusted that he would have taken me to the end, just like I'm glad that he still trusted me that I kept my word. "I'm taking you to the end like we're in this together."

Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about how things are with Austin in the months since the season ended. I did ask Austin the same thing, so I want to see if you're on the same page. [Laughs.]
[Laughs.] I think we might be on the same page. I don't think you'll like my answer, Mike. But we decided to keep it private for now. It's been so emotionally draining, this entire process. And it's gonna get crazier after, too. So we've decided to just keep it private for now. But all good things!

Glad to hear it's all good things! Finally, you are the first Cuban native to play on Survivor. What has the response been like from the Cuban community, especially now that you've won?
Oh, man. Yeah, my phone has not stopped blowing up. I'm  on 30 minutes of sleep. It was it was really fun to watch back with my family. And it's a lot of responsibility to hold that, but it's cool. I always went in the game and I said, "Obviously, I want to win the money. That is the goal: The million dollars." But more than the title itself is just having someone watch me on TV and say, "Damn, I want to do what she's doing. I want to do something that scares me. I don't want to live an average life." And I think that's so important to go out there and do things that scare you. And I did that. And I hope that someone's watching me and says, "Man, she's cool. I want to be her friend. She inspired me." And that, to me, is worth more than the title. Even though I know the title is huge. [Laughs.]

Next, check out our interview with Survivor 45 third-place finisher Jake O'Kane.