Controversial opinion: Sean Edwards didn’t quit ‘Survivor 45’ — he was voted out just like everyone else

Marcus James Dixon
·4 min read
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Stop saying Sean Edwards is a quitter.

Sean’s tribe lost immunity during the fourth episode of “Survivor 45.” They went to tribal council. He was voted out. That’s literally how the show works. But clearly I’m in the minority on this one, especially when you look at all of the anti-Sean outrage on social media.

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In case you missed the episode in question, a tribe swap resulted in Lulu member Sean joining four Reba players at their camp. After personally losing his fourth straight immunity challenge, the 35-year-old school principal from Utah expressed his desire to return home to his loving husband at tribal council, telling his new tribe mates to “write [his] name down” in order for them to remain “Reba strong.” At the time, Jeff Probst accused him of essentially “engineering a quit” — and for the record, the host seemed quite irritated, especially as this was coming three tribals after Hannah Rose did the same thing.

SEE ‘Survivor’ winners list: All seasons

But what happened next would forever set Hannah and Sean apart. Sean’s Reba tribe mates each stepped up to the lectern and wrote down the name of the person they wanted to go home. Comparatively, Hannah’s Lulu tribe didn’t have a proper vote, as they just audibly confirmed they wanted to oust her, with Hannah not getting a vote of her own. So even though Hannah and Sean shared similar moments at their final tribal councils, it’s semantically incorrect to claim they are both quitters.

In the end, Sean received three votes (from Janani “J. Maya” Krishnan-Jha, Julie Alley and Nicholas “Sifu” Alsup), Sifu received one vote (from Dianelys “Dee” Valladares) and Dee received one vote (from Sean). The Reba tribe could have kept Sean around and voted out Sifu, which was apparently the plan, but instead they chose to eliminate Sean. And “they chose” are the key words there. It was Reba’s majority decision to oust Sean, so that’s ultimately why his torch was snuffed.

“‘Survivor’ has been an absolutely incredible experience,” Sean said before the vote took place. “I’m never going to forget this. This has been impactful and informative to every single bit of my life. I’m going to think about it for the rest of my life. And the core of me, everything in me, just wants to be spending every single moment that I can with my husband.”

SEE‘Survivor’ deaths: Full list of castaways we’ve lost

Jeff wondered aloud, “So the only question left is, what is the group gonna do? Were they already voting you out? Maybe they weren’t and you’ve changed their mind? Maybe they weren’t and you didn’t change their mind? That’s what we’re gonna find out. And it is time to vote.”

To be clear, at any moment Sean could have jumped up and said, “I’m done! Bye!” He could have quit at tribal council (like Hannah in “Survivor 45”), or at camp (like Lindsey Ogle in “Cagayan”), or at a challenge (like Sue Hawk in “All-Stars”), etc. But he went out the proper way, by losing a majority vote at tribal council. Thus, Sean’s ending is similar to Ben Driebergen‘s from “Survivor: Winners at War,” as he urged people to vote for him because be believed his journey was over and that others deserved to be there more than him.

In the past week, Sean told Entertainment Weekly, “There definitely is an intense feeling of regret about my decision. And it’s okay to have regrets.” And Jeff was personally “frustrated” with Sean’s goodbye, stating on his “On Fire” podcast, “Romanticizing it felt to me like maybe a way to soften the idea of being voted out fourth in a game you imagined winning.” What do YOU think, “Survivor 45” fans? Is Sean a “quitter” or do you agree with me that this is more of a gray area?

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