By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Her journey was definitely the most fascinating this season. As she evolved as a person and a player throughout Survivor 45 many fans who were once put off by her unfettered frankness soon warmed up to the investment analyst. It may be a surprise to many that despite the reaction or perhaps because of it, Emily is not eager to play Survivor again and she told us why.

John Powell: Emily, it’s great to be talking to you. How are you today?

Emily Flippen: I’m good. How about yourself?

John Powell: Fine, thank you! Now, you must be really surprised at the fan reaction. I’m always the kind of person I’d rather someone be blunt, direct and straight with me because then I always know where they’re coming from. That’s the kind of personality I prefer. You are pretty forward at the beginning of the series and then you tempered yourself. What has it been to sit back to see the reaction from fans?

Emily Flippen: I will say the whole experience is so jarring for exactly that reason. Although I feel like when you set the bar on the floor like on episode one, it was like anything decent that I did everybody was suddenly shocked. (laughs) I do feel like I had a little bit of an easier path in the sense that because I started off so terribly the expectations for me were just really, really low. I’m flattered by the support that I get! I will say it’s odd because ‘Weird and Aggressive Emily’ is still a part of me, right? I think some people are giving me too much credit in some way. Everything I do, everything I touch is gold and the reality is somewhere in-between. I definitely learned a lot about myself and I think this experience changed me for the better. I have a painful level of self-awareness but you know ‘Weird and Aggressive Emily is still there just hopefully tempered a little bit more.

John Powell: Although you may be different people it seems like you’re when I spoke to Bruce, his journey was kind of the same when he watched it back on TV. It’s hard for us to all look in the mirror and see what’s reflected back to us a lot of the time be your journeys ran parallel in a sense throughout the season.

Emily Flippen: I actually love that! Ironically, I think Bruce and I are very similar but I had the benefit of having somebody like Kaleb who was willing to be really honest and direct with me. You talked about looking in the mirror. Kaleb held up the mirror. I could have buried my head in the sand but he contributed to a lot of that change. I’m not sure if it’s so much as personality change. I do think I’ve changed a bit through the experience but it was being more open, letting people see other sides of me because the one Emily everybody knew was just like a very small part of who I am. So, I’m so thankful that I had as much time as I did for people to get to know me because my story should have and could have ended with Episode One. I’m just thankful that I had this chance.

John Powell: We’ve heard that this change has transferred into your real life outside of Survivor, especially in your relationship. Tell us a little bit about how things are going now because this again is really surprising and interesting to hear that you are getting married, etc.

Emily Flippen: It’s funny. I never expected to take anything really away from that Survivor experience but when you’re stripped of everything it shows you really what’s important in your life. I’ve been with my boyfriend for so long now and he’s always had the mentality of we’re not in a rush and whenever you’re ready, I’m ready. I think I had this hold up, I don’t know if it’s terminology or whatnot, but I’ve been happy with where we are. There’s no need to change. The first thing I did when I got back from Survivor was say: ‘I think I’m ready.’ I think we’re heading in that direction. Survivor has been crazy taking up all of our time but hopefully when this ends we can start organizing as opposed to just directing in that area.

John Powell: Congratulations! That’s wonderful! Were you surprised that Julie wrote down your name last night instead of Austin or Drew’s?

Emily Flippen: Not surprised, actually. I felt like I burned that bridge with Julie during the Bruce vote. I don’t know if that’s how she felt but that’s how I felt heading into the this episode. I knew Julie and I didn’t have any chance of a working relationship. I felt like I burned that when I threw her name out there for the Bruce vote. So, in my thought process the moment she pulled out her idol I knew it was my name on the parchment. You don’t see it but I was already rooting for my bag. (laughs) I had a couple of seconds of processing time before Jeff actually read the votes. I’m thankful I got taken out by such a bad ass.

John Powell: Do you think how you were able to manipulate Bruce into not using his idol factored into the decision for Julie to vote you out?

Emily Flippen: I think it could have. I don’t know if it actually did. I think I was ‘not long for the road’ or the game, if I’m frank with you. I think if I was going to save my game I think my game needed to be saved plenty of episodes before this one. I was walking like a zombie. I was a zombie in this game kind of at this point. Obviously I was insecure about the fact that I felt like I never had autonomy or control in the game. I was able to pull off a move and I was insecure that I wouldn’t get credit for it. Everyone is obviously focused on Katurah. I wasn’t aware of how deep that beef went but I wanted credit. I don’t know if it came from a place of ego but I do think it came more from a place of insecurity, which is embarrassing…I think that was a contributing factor in my mind but whether it did change votes, I don’t know.

John Powell: Do you regret not playing that advantage challenge we saw last night?

Emily Flippen: I have soooo many regrets but that’s not one of them. You could have left me out there at that puzzle all day, every day. I mean, even today, I cannot solve it. I don’t think I was ever actually going to have a chance to complete that puzzle. I knew I needed my vote because I figured Julie and I were coming for each other. If it was a different puzzle maybe it would have been different but that one in particular, No.

John Powell: You were playing from underneath the entire game especially with Lulu just imploding. Not much went in your favour.

Emily Flippen: I will say this, let’s not pretend like I wasn’t a contributing factor for why Lulu was such a mess. I single-highhandedly tanked that tribe. So as much as I want to be like: ‘Well, look what I came out of.’ I could have come out of something better if I played better. I feel bad for really ruining the game of other decent Lulu players. You’re right. Navigating from the bottom is kind of tricky. I’m thankful though. Austin and Drew, they really were giving me a decent amount of information. I did feel like we were working together. You never saw it on the show but Kendra and I also had a very close relationship. I didn’t feel completely alone but I was aware that I was not in a position where I got to make decisions. I could try to on the edges, like move people in a direction but when you come into the merge without the numbers you’re really kind of powerless. Powerlessness in the sense that you can’t direct decisions but powerful because people need your vote. It’s a trade off.

John Powell: A lot of Survivors I have talked to find it difficult to navigate the fact that it is a social game, you get to know people and then you have to vote them out. You grew close to Kaleb and Brando and then had to cut ties for your game. Did that ever bother you?

Emily Flippen: This may be soooo bad to say but…not really. (laughs) I remember thinking this was a game and people who are getting upset, well, you signed up to be here. You knew this was happening. This is a game only one person wins. It’s great and you can be friends after this but you have to make the decision if you think it’s going to further your game. I don’t know if I ever felt really emotional. If I’m frank with you, I probably should have but I do think that one of my bigger mistakes in the game was letting somebody like Kaleb, my alliance members, be such easy targets. I wish I had been more thoughtful about the bonds I created and the people I defended. By the time Kaleb was in trouble, for instance, I had already isolated him too much.

John Powell: Is there anything about your journey that or time on the island that you wish people would have seen?

Emily Flippen: There were so many incredible moments. I’m so thankful we have 90 minutes so we’re getting so much more of that. I think one thing that I’m really sad about is my and Kendra’s relationship. We were pretty close on the island and the narrative, which I totally understand from the edit perspective, is I blindsided her twice with Brando and Kellie so why would she trust me? In reality, we were actually pretty close and wanting to work together which is why that Kendra vote was so hard for me. I really wish I had told her to play her Shot in the Dark the way that I told Caleb to play his. I didn’t and I didn’t have a vote that Tribal Council so again I let somebody who was close to me become an easy target which was a kind of a theme throughout my journey. I’m sad that nobody ever got to see how much we liked each other.

John Powell: Obviously you cannot tell us who you voted for but when you were debating about who should win the season what were some of the things you were weighing back and forth?

Emily Flippen: I said it on my way out, the stupidest thing I’ve ever said: I’m voting for the best player! Like, Of course you are. That’s your job as a jury member. What I really meant by that is I did feel like our season in particular, a lot of our decisions were made based off the heart as opposed to the brain. That’s not implying that I voted with my brain all the time. I’ve made plenty of mistakes but I remember being surprised about the decisions that people were making, especially those who are in power, because it did seem to be made less logical. I wanted to vote for somebody who I felt like was playing a good strategic game that wasn’t just at final tribal because everybody liked them, and they’re kind and they have a lot of heart because they’re actually really smart and cunning. They’re making decisions maybe with the heart but also their brain. So that was kind of my thought process. I really wanted to vote for the best player and when you are surrounded by such incredible players I will say that’s a challenging thing to do!

John Powell: You have become such a fan favourite. Would you ever play again?

Emily Flippen: I’m flattered if anybody wants to see me back. I think the short answer is probably no and that’s only because the Emily that existed especially during episode one is really hard to recreate because now I’ve seen it back and I have this like new self-awareness. I think I would be a lot more reserved in terms of showing what I did because I did not expect the reaction from the public. That I experienced both such positive and negative reactions and that is weird. I don’t think I’m overly eager to return. I kind of want to just move forward with my life and be normal again but I’m happy I had the experience!

News

Survivor and Big Brother Canada News:

• Kicking off with two weeks of two-hour episodes, Canada’s #1 series Survivor returns for Season 46 on Wednesday, February 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, before continuing with supersized 90-minute episodes.
• Next, hosted by Arisa Cox and produced by Insight Productions, Canada’s springtime reality TV tradition Big Brother Canada premieres Tuesday, March 5 at 7 p.m. ET/PT exclusively on Global and STACKTV. #BBCAN12 premiere week continues Wednesday, March 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT (moves to 9:30 p.m.ET/PT the following week) and Sunday, March 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This season, new episodes will air weekly Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT (HOH), Tuesdays at 7 p.m. ET/PT (POV), and Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT (EVICTION).

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