And the Survivor 45 winner is…

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Survivor 45.

Information is power. And nobody on Survivor 45 knew when to spill info and when to hold it back better than Dee Valladares — even when it came to her island boyfriend.

After Austin Li Coon told Dee in secret that they were going to blindside her ally Julie Alley, Dee told Julie to play her immunity idol. And when the tables were turned and it was time to blindside Austin’s ally Drew Basile, Dee never told her showmance partner and waited until final Tribal Council to deliver the decisive blow and paint herself as the dominant force of the season. The jury agreed, rewarding Dee with five votes (to Austin’s three) and the million-dollar prize that went along with it.

What made the victory so remarkable is that Dee never should have made it there, but a last-minute change of heart at the final five voting saved her and set her on her way to victory.

Wednesday’s three-hour season finale began with five players — Dee, Austin, Julie, Katurah Topps, and Jake O’Kane — left in the game. Jake kicked off the episode by winning an advantage to the first immunity challenge, but then squandered it not once, but twice — forgetting to bring his key to the top of a tower, and then misplacing a piece as he attempted to solve a three-tier puzzle.

Austin ended up winning that immunity, leading to a chaotic final five Tribal Council where Katurah and Jake had decided to secretly take Dee out, and Jake shocked everybody by playing his immunity idol on Katurah. However, the final shock would be on Jake, as Katurah — feeling nervous that Jake would not go through with the plan — changed her vote to Julie instead, even though she had been desperate to get Dee out.

As a result, Julie was eliminated and Dee continued her march to the title. That march included a victory in the final immunity challenge — a victory that was secured when Jake’s stack of cups fell and he proceeded to stomp all over and break the challenge contraption, leading to a disqualification from host Jeff Probst.

Dee chose to bring Austin to the end with her, leaving Jake and Katurah to battle it out at fire, which Jake dominated — sending Katurah to the jury in fourth place. That led to the final three showdown, and once Austin defended his decision to tell Dee about Julie’s ouster, noting that “Dee never told Julie,” Dee was able to reveal to both him and the jury that she was, in fact, controlling both the information and the game. In the end, Dee collected five votes to Austin’s three and Jake’s zero, making her the Sole Survivor.

Keep an eye out for all our Survivor 45 finale coverage. You can read our pre-finale interviews with the final five as well as the jury right now, and we’ll soon have post-finale chats with Dee, Austin, Jake, Katurah, and Julie. We’ll also have our full finale recap, Jeff Probst weighing in on the finale, as well as an exclusive deleted scene and a look ahead at Survivor 46. You can read all of that while Dee is busy counting her money.

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