Characters / Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers

This is Survivor: Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers. And like all seasons of Survivor, spoilers are going to be unmarked.

The Tribes

Initial Tribes: Heroes (Blue), Healers (Yellow), Hustlers (Red) → Tribe Switch: Levu (Blue), Soko (Yellow), Yawa (Red) → Merged Tribe: Solewa ^note Portmanteau of "So" from "Soko", "Le" from "Levu", and "Wa" from "Yawa", ergo "Solewa" (Purple)

Levu

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• The Big Bad Shuffle: Post-swap, as suddenly, Alan is usurped by Joe as the presiding antagonistic presence in a coup against the Heroes.
• Blue Is Heroic: They're the Hero tribe, and just like in the previous hero tribe, their color is blue.
• Face: Subverted, because half of these folks turn Heel quite quickly. Katrina was out first, but she was upstanding in the short time she was playing. JP was also a nice guy with little to no faults. Ashley is the only one who managed to stay the course for the long haul.
• The Hero: Pre-swap, they were this. People chosen for their generosity, being good role models, and employed in professions that protect people.
• Headbutting Heroes: In the very first episode, too. They couldn't form up a smooth alliance thanks in part to Alan's paranoia over an idol and the idea a "power couple" had formed.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: For the post-swap, it's clear that the two pairs (Joe and Desi vs Devon and Ashley) are gunning for each other, but they do at least put their animosity away for the challenges.
• Total Party Kill: No member of the second iteration made it to the final 3 thanks to Ben's success at the final 4 fire challenge.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Joe might have possibly seized control over the tribe in episode 4 with Desi as his sidekick.
• Wizard Needs Food Badly: Real-life example. Yawa was perilously close to running out of food and down to sugar the day before the merge. Ashley felt the game was getting real and that they could die.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: They were very fortunately blessed, as they managed to hold on long enough to enjoy catering from Outback Steakhouse (who also catered Big Brother earlier that year, package deal as it were- the shows both use Outback as their go-to food service as of recent years due to a marketing deal being struck).

Soko

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• The Ace: Soko has not lost any of the first four Immunity Challenges, winning three of four and runner-up in the third- they could have won all four had it not been for the incident with the missed block noted below under Failed a Spot Check. The only thing they've lost so far is the second Reward Challenge (where the reward is played for separately and not bundled with immunity), and a second-place finish in the initial Reward Challenge. Their status as this carries over to the member swap.
  • Unfortunately for them, it's subverted in the next two episodes where they lose the next two immunity challenges and are whittled down to three.
• Combat Medic: Some of them are medics that are participating in a very physically demanding game.
• The Confidant: In addition to people who are experts are physically healing people, some of the people of this tribe are this as they can emotionally heal people.
• Dwindling Party: Under attack by the Heroes and Hustlers under the leadership of Chrissy in a purge that has managed to result in the removal of Roark, Jessica, and Desi. Cole digs his own hole and eventually runs out of lucky breaks. Joe is a major nuisance to all and also targeted. After Joe's elimination, Mike is the only original Healer left. He went out in fifth place, finishing off the Healers and leading to an ending with only two Heroes and a Hustler.
• Failed a Spot Check: A BIG one in the third episode, where the tribes play for joint immunity and reward in the form of 4 chickens and one rooster, or a dozen eggs for the runner-up. The whole group managed to get all the way to the end of the Immunity Challenge thinking they had all their blocks stacked up... then Jeff alerted them they were short one of the blocks. Cue a Mass "Oh, Crap!". Then Joe manages to spot the straggler block half-hidden under a sandbag and the whole tribe has to scramble back over to their block tower, form a human ladder, and set it on top. This little slip-up causes their win streak to be broken and the Heroes to pull ahead and win. Fortunately, the Healers still managed to get the final block in position and take second, going back to camp with a dozen eggs from the first place chickens.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: For the most part, people from the Healers are good at handling adversity and have been quite prone to winning challenges. Morals, on the other hand, seem to only be Mike's department.
• Healing Hands: Everyone from this team is involved in some kind of medical/recuperative profession.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Post-swap, Soko seems to end up with everyone who is either more brains than brawn, underdogs, or the people who have been Out of Focus.
• Total Party Kill: The original tribe was wiped out of the competition by the final four. No Healers made it to the Final 4.

Yawa

• The Determinator: As Jeff says, "They're respected for their work ethic; get it done no matter what. They stop at nothing to achieve their goal."
• Flawless Victory: Post-Swap. Yawa managed to win all the reward challenges and immunity challenges in the three episodes before the merge.
• Hustler: Because they're hustlers.
• Pragmatic Hero: Very much so. Any time Hustlers have been at the locus of a Tribal Council, they have always voted to go after the person who is most likely to dismantle the working ethic of the tribe and hold them back.
• Red Is Violent: The Hustlers fittingly get the color of tenacity. Physically, they don't do anything aggressive, but strategically, a lot of their moves are blunt and decisive, because they always seek to trim the fat off their tribe.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: They lose twice in a row, both times due to the poor showing of specific tribe members in challenges who drag down the rest and don't communicate well at all, causing Yawa to dispense with its weak links both times. Then History Repeats when two members migrate to Soko and suffer the same picking off that leaves only Ryan, Devon, and Lauren as the remaining Hustlers.
• Took a Level in Badass: Post-swap. Immediately following the member swap, the new Yawa wins both reward and immunity consecutively, with the immunity win being the first time Yawa has won it in the season since the first episode.

The Sole Survivor

Benjamin Russell "Ben" Driebergen

Tribe: Levu → Yawa → Solewa

Age: 34

From: Boise, Idaho

Occupation: Marine

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• The Ace: When it comes to Hidden Immunity Idols. He found three in a row and played all of them successfully, something no player has managed to do until he came around.
• Action Survivor: He loses all his allies due to the threat he poses and manages to escape elimination twice in a row due to the Hidden Immunity Idols he had on him. Episode 13 makes it clear he has no alliances to fall back on and has to rely on himself, as everybody else admits his not in their final three plans. By the finale, he becomes the champion of this in that he single-handedly saved himself a grand total of five times.
• Affectionate Nickname: A lot of people have resorted to calling him "King Arthur" on account of the fact he seemed to head a "knights of the round table"-style alliance, has a beard, is a combat-experienced veteran, and is a redhead.
• Apologetic Attacker: When Ben realized Cole was going home, he turned towards him and quietly remarked, "Sorry, bud.".
• Arch-Enemy: Joe became his as of Episode 8, due to accusing Ben of swearing on the Marines. Chrissy later took his place when he shifted allegiances to Devon, and then Mike also became one with her when Ben realized Mike was pushing for his elimination the hardest. Devon also became one due to growing friction in their splinter faction and Ben's erratic behavior, and the showdown the two guys had at the final four with the fire-making challenge.
• Badass Boast:
  • Puts his second idol in play early and affirmatively declares, "I'm in the final five".
  • Loves to say he's "blowing up the game" in general.
  • Also, "PWOOOSH! Ben Bomb!"
  • Also, "Now your faith is in those two." Said smugly when Devon gets caught in a tie with Mike because Ben used his third idol.
• Berserk Button: Joe accusing Ben of swearing on the Marines is this, as Ben takes his military duty very seriously.
• Big Good—>Big Bad: Seemingly established as the Big Good by Episode 9, where he's remarked as the guiding force in Solewa and the one with the most airtight morality. But as of episode 12, he's shown to have become The Big Bad. He crafted a fake idol necklace with the intention of using it to humiliate Chrissy before he eliminates her and got vindictive toward Lauren after she called him out — casting his vote towards getting her and nullifying everyone else's votes against him with his real idol, which sent her home. Episode 13, he started showing a belligerent side by insulting people during confessionals and mocking everyone at Tribal Council after revealing his second Hidden Immunity Idol. This has resulted in him becoming a common enemy for the remaining players.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Seems to be the nature of his marriage to his wife Kelly, as Ben admits to still being haunted by his experiences in the military but that his wife was the one who saved his life with her love.
• Can't Vote You Out, Still Need You: Ashley told Devon it might be a really good idea to get rid of Ben after eliminating JP, due to the threat he posed as a player and former Marine with a family. Devon disagreed and argued that Ben was still useful as a double agent.
• Catchphrase: "Get to getting." Also, "Ben bomb" for when he's about to blow up the game.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: "Get to gettin'" was used by Jeff at the reunion to go into a commercial break.
• Chewing the Scenery: Every time he uses an idol, he makes it into a big spectacle.
• Determinator: When he gives himself a mission he is relentless in pursuing it to completion. This works both for and against him, as his relentless crusade to take out Lauren turned every other player against him. However, Mike saw Ben became a terrifying player when he was driven even harder to get to the end on his own and Ben was convinced he was playing for his family. Ben got to the end purely on luck and skill alone, and that made Lauren along with the majority of the Jury vote for him.
• Deus ex Machina: He would've been a goner had it not been for Chrissy's advantage.
• Double Agent: As an idea Devon presented, Ben pretended to be blindsided and stay on the side of Chrissy and Ryan. It's also so he can manipulate Joe into believing that he was no longer in the bottom, and convince Ryan to play his hidden immunity idol.
• Drunk with Power: Episode 12 and 13 present him as this, as his hidden immunity idol prevents him from elimination and gives him the power to decide who goes home. Jeff even remarks how Ben played his second idol early as a display of power. The finale has one more instance, where he behaves like a Manchild just because he's gotten so cocky. But then it tapers off when he realizes, "I have no more Ben bombs to drop."
• Earn Your Happy Ending: He was playing for his family, retirement, and a future, and went from a near defeat to total victory.
• Entitled Bastard: While he showed shades of this in the Round Table alliance, as Chrissy warned him others were beginning to see him as a dictator, it escalated openly when he had the idols in his pocket, as it allows him to be safe from elimination and leads him to try and sway others into voting the way he decides.
• Family Man: Ben cites his wife and two kids as the reason why he's stopped living in the past and is now living in the future because of them. He says his PTSD was like "a monkey on my back" and they've helped him out of it.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: As the tribe vote in Episode 9 finally starts to take shape, Ben recognizes that out of the ten votes, two were flipped to Mike and Cole cast his against him, but there are seven people in Ben's alliance and after three votes go up against Cole, Ben recognizes that there's enough people left to carry the vote against Cole.
• Good Ol' Boy: Ben's casting archetype is this. Some other men who were cast for the Good Old Boy character trope with Ben are Roger Bingham, Big Tom Buchanan, Travis 'Bubba' Sampson, James Clement, Brandon Bellinger, Boo Bernis, Chicken Morris, J.T. Thomas, Ralph Kaiser, Rick Nelson, Jeff Kent, Caleb Bankston, Jeremiah Wood, Keith Nale, Mike Holloway and Caleb Reynolds. Carl Boudreaux would follow Ben in this casting trope two seasons later.
• Good Luck Charm: Necklaces, which comprise all of his Hidden Immunity Idol finds (though it might be the same one repeatedly reused).
• Happy Dance: Is prone to a jig when he's celebrating.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Downplayed; Ben seems torn between alliances after the merge and can't figure out where to go. He likes the idea of working with Cole but notes Cole's offended him at Yawa with his disgusting eating habits and finds it distressing to go against docile Lauren or side with Chrissy, who has plans of her own alongside Ryan to get rid of the Healers.
  • Face–Heel Turn: As of Episode 12, where he Took a Level in Jerkass and alienated everyone with his paranoia and deceit.
• The Hero: Initially this, as Ben is a literal hero and has a major role in nearly every episode. However, this subverted as of episode 12, where he turned on nearly everyone and showed many flaws that prevent him from being a clean-cut player.
• Heroic Second Wind: One of the most notable, as he lost the Final Immunity Challenge, and as a lone player with no allies left, that would have been under normal circumstances the final blow to his game and he was worn out. When he got a second chance with the final secret advantage of the game in a fire-making duel, he really put his all into it.
• Hidden Weapons: A variant; the second idol necklace he found was something the audience didn't know about. When he found his second hidden idol, the edit didn't show him getting it to leave the suspense intact, as it did in with Amanda Kimmel.
• Ironic Echo: Ben revealing his second Hidden Immunity Idol out in the open just to keep him from being a target is almost identical to the way Joe played his own second idol. Like Joe, his idol was wasted due to the awareness it gave other players, causing them to vote for someone else entirely.
• Innocence Lost: Ben discusses his PTSD in a confessional and explains that combat trauma stays with someone forever and you can only understand it if you've experienced it yourself. He admits he still has recurring nightmares of the bad memories.
• Joker Immunity: Every single time he seems to be about at the end of his rope, a twist saves him. Mike lampshaded him as "like the villain from all the horror movies" who you try to kill and he keeps coming back.
• Large Ham: While Ben is an adept player, he's very bombastic and loud when he's excited or angry. Takes it up to eleven towards the end of the season. He has no allies but is able to find Hidden Immunity Idols left and right to save himself, and he takes great pleasure in dropping so-called "Ben Bombs" when he reveals the idols during Tribal Council, complete with whistling to mimic the sound of a falling bomb and explosion sounds/gestures when he finally pulls the idol out of his boot.
• Laughably Evil: He giggled and chimed "Secrets, secrets, secrets...!" when he revealed idol number two, then made explosion noises like he blew up the game. Idol number three saw more explosion noises and the use of the term "Ben Bomb".
• The Leader: Originally of the "Core Four", an alliance of four in the Heroes consisting of himself, Alan, JP, and Ashley. However, the Core Four is no more once Alan splinters the trust between them, and Ben resorts to pairing up with Chrissy as his new most trustworthy ally, who got on his good side and aligned to vote out Katrina with the others. The alliance cracks apart early on and is broken up when the tribes are split and he is forced to start from square one as Alan turns out to be the next boot. He still ended up as part of a four-man Final Four alliance with Ashley, Devon, and Lauren, but the leadership in that one is a debatable split between everybody. Subverted with the roundtable alliance, in which he was the figurehead and Chrissy lead the charge against various players. Subverted again as of Episode 13, as he has absolutely no one to fall back to or work with due to his threat as a player and alienating betrayals.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: After overhearing talk of betraying him he starts playing a completely different game, trading his strong alliance and social bonds for an extremely aggressive game based on rapid fire idols.
• Manly Tears: Sheds a few after being surprised by his old buddies from the Marines in a 12-year reunion on top of the Survivor live reunion.
• Mole in Charge: Goes along with Lauren's plan to betray the Roundtable Alliance, but votes with them so he can appear to still be Chrissy and Ryan's leader allowing him to steer their votes and feed information to the splinter faction.
• My Greatest Failure: He would have won the final immunity challenge and secured total victory for himself had it not been for one misplaced puzzle piece. Averted, however, because...
• My Greatest Second Chance: ...the Day 38 twist gave Ben a chance to fight for a seat in the finals, a fight he won which brought him from the brink of total defeat to winning the top prize.
• Nice Guy: Ben is a good person who is well-respected veteran in real life. His game self is obnoxious at times but it's usually just him trying to be funny.
• Noble Demon: Ben makes a lot of villainous moves near the end but they always happen whenever someone asks for it, and Ben manages to stay friends with everybody afterwards.
• Nothing Personal: Ben sincerely believes that nobody should take anything he does personally, however, he shows signs of taking the actions of others as personal, such as regarding Cole's eating behavior, Joe's accusations of him swearing on the Marines, his alliances attempts to target him, and crafting a fake idol to humiliate Chrissy with. Happily, in the end, nobody took it that personally, as he won the jury votes of several people he burned and everyone was a good sport about it.
• One-Man Army: A rare Survivor example. Ben plays the last third of the game completely alone and socially isolated, relying on idols to stick around and force the tribe to consume itself.
• Playing the Victim Card: Or as he so eloquently put it, the "why me, poor me, oh me" card. Done so as a ploy to make Chrissy and Ryan vote one way so Devon could use the majority to take out Joe.
• Properly Paranoid: Zigzagged. He overheard his alliance talking about voting him out but didn't catch that the conversation was Devon talking Ashley out of targeting him. While they did discuss the need to betray him eventually, ultimately it was his reaction to overhearing them that pushed them to target him immediately.
• Refuge in Audacity: Ben loves to be brazen. He is so brash with his idols that he became the first contestant to ever put an idol in play before the votes were cast.
• Retired Badass: A former U.S. Marine. Now more so, as he planned to use some of his winnings for a retirement fund.
• Revenge: Joe's elimination could be seen as this, due to their rivalry and the fact that he accused Ben of swearing on the Marines, which is something Ben takes very personally.
• Secret-Keeper: The only person all season who managed not to give away the fact he had advantages (idols) in his possession in a season where Jeff had ironically conjured the idea where it would be a season full of secrets.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Ben suffers from PTSD due to his time as a U.S. Marine. The sound of bamboo popping reminded him of bullets and triggered him into a frightened state, and he had to go into the water to calm down.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Chrissy, eventually. The two bicker and fight a lot but ultimately come out of the game as good friends.
• The Social Expert: Between him and Chrissy, he is definitely this as he gets along with everyone in his tribe and can rally people together.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Choice confessionals reveal that Ben may be a Type IV, specifically his hard-line belief that morality and empathy has no place on the battlefield. At first, it's benign as he spends much of the game as a hero. But as the days dwindle on and the situation becomes more and more like war to him, he slips into this persona, culminating in him destroying all of his friendships to save himself in episode 12. However, his friendships with everyone in real life post-game are rebuilt and healthy.
• Sole Survivor: The 35th winner of Survivor. The fact that he was driven to make it to the end for a good cause (his family) helped make him appear a worthy candidate for the grand prize.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: From the very beginning of the game to the end, Ben is very much in the spotlight. He is the first person Jeff singles out to talk to on account of his hat distinguishing him. His aired confessionals are bountiful compared to some other players. He also is almost exclusively the focus of the live reunion because of his compelling story and the fact he won. Ava, a girl who shares Jeff's daughter's name, even predicted he would win with a just for fun parchment vote at the live reunion.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Repeatedly targeted all game long for standing out as a hugely influential player in the social aspect of things. When he flips to following Devon and working with Ashley and Lauren, Lauren starts a talk that Devon and Ashley should think about sending him out next because of how much of a powerhouse he is. Eventually subverted when Ben flips out from being targeted so much and his social aspect goes kaput and people start to target him because he's acting wild.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: His role as a double agent turns everyone in the game against him. Upon learning that his own alliance is planning to betray him, Ben decides to single-handedly blow up the entire game for everyone by spilling all of the secrets he was privy to, knowing that doing so would make everyone turn on him. This allowed him to play the Hidden Immunity Idol to control the vote and take out his target - Lauren.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Shortly after his scare with the bamboo, he finds himself looking up at his hat while lying down with a vacant stare.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from being a player who was just an impressive competitor to an idol-snagging machine whose record tied the infamous Russell Hantz's record when looking at either Samoa or Heroes vs. Villains separately (3 idols per season fell into his possession). He also powered his way through the last and most important competition of the game, the final four fire-making challenge, the only individual win under his belt. He also has a cool hat like Russell's fedora.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While Ben was fairly snarky, he started the beginning of the game as friendly guy with honor and good relationships. However, post-merge has shown a more malicious and rude side to himself, starting with him dictating how people vote, insulting Joe and Cole, humiliating and lying to Chrissy (his former ally), and then gunning for Lauren (his current ally) over the paranoia of his alliance turning on him — which wasn't even her idea, but Ashley's. It's very telling how everyone wanted him gone after he started throwing accusations and blaming everyone but himself for the core four falling apart. Episode 13, he comes to Tribal Council with an idol he just found at camp, then blows up on the others when he reveals it just because he wants to revel in knowing he won't go home. In the finale, he's become enamored with just plain childish behavior at Tribal Council. He reverts back to being nice by the reunion.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ribeye steak, which he is ecstatic to get at the merge feast.
• Tragic Keepsake: Ben's tattoo on his right shoulder is a memento of a dearly departed loved one in the Driebergen family, displaying their birth and death date. He sometimes keeps the face covered up.
• Tragic Villain: Ben tried to play a heroic game, but a combination of his conflicting loyalties and discovering that nearly all of his friends were planning on betraying him at some point ultimately causes him to play a much more villainous game.
• Trauma Button: Anything that sounds like explosions gets him jumpy and very frightened, due to his time in the Marines leading to some traumatic experiences and PTSD.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: By Episode 12, Ben is controlling the game all by himself and making absolutely wild and chaotic decisions to sway it wherever he wants it to go.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: When he gets his way, he's shown to be cheering to himself and hollering at others. And making explosion noises and dropping "Ben bombs" on the game.
• You Are Not Alone: Many PTSD sufferers reached out to Ben post-season, as did his own Marine unit in a surprise reunion.

Runners-Up

Christine Irene "Chrissy" Hofbeck

Tribe: Levu → Soko → Solewa

Age: 46 (turns 47 by the time of the finale)

From: Bernardsville, New Jersey

Occupation: Actuary (Insurance Adjuster) or Financial Analyst^note Chrissy took time off from her job to play on Survivor but was, unfortunately, let go for her long absence.

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• Accidental Truth: Claimed to JP that Roark wanted an all-girls alliance as a means of getting him to turn on her. Unknowingly, Roark actually had mentioned to Ali about the idea of an all-girls alliance with them and the Healer girls.
• Action Mom: She won two immunity necklaces so far. She picks up two more in the finale.
• The Ace: Won four individual immunity challenge, tying the record for women as one of four females out of a then-258 female total in the game (impressive she knows that fact, though she might have been informed of that in private).
• Anti-Hero: A Type IV. She will make moves that benefit her, even if they are cold and methodical or just plain mean.
• Ascended Fan: Chrissy has been applying to come on Survivor since it first aired. She identifies herself as a student of the game.
• Big Bad: Once she implemented the Healer purge and coordinated the Roundtable to do things the majority came to admonish because Chrissy stood out alongside Ryan as a menacing taskmaster. The blindside against Jessica revealed that some people were aware of her power in the alliance when she started racking up votes, but when Lauren drew attention to how the Roundtable seems to be referring to the same peoples' decisions over and over, she and Devon got Ashley and Ben on board as they realized it was Chrissy and Ryan who were running the alliance.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: As she loses her power and with Ben becoming increasingly hostile and paranoid, she falls into this. It could be argued that she's become the show's Anti-Hero in trying to eliminate Ben.
  • Final Boss: She was the last obstacle Ben faced before getting to the end, winning immunity every time he tried to vote her out, while he uncovered a hidden immunity idol every time she tried to do the same. In a very close back-and-forth final immunity challenge where the castaways had to stack blocks on a tilting platform they had to unlock while stacking and go back to a platform if they dropped blocks to reset them, Ben almost won, but put the "U" on his platform upside-down spelling out "HUSTLERS" and dropped his blocks trying to hunt out his mistake. Chrissy nearly overtook him, but then she dropped hers. Then everybody dropped theirs. Ben almost reset his blocks twice, as did Chrissy, but they both messed up. Then just as Ben nearly finished the blocks correctly, Chrissy beat him to the punch and won. She tried to get rid of Ben by having Devon outdo him in a fire-making heat, but Ben smoked him. Then it was up to the Jury to decide who won and Ben managed to prove he was more resilient in the end.
• Bittersweet Ending: She lost her job and didn't go back when she went on the show and was gone for a long time, even though she put in for leave.
• Book Ends: She got the first and last secret advantage of the game. The first was the super idol, the last was information that she got to decide who went with her to the end.
• Brick Joke: During the individual immunity challenge where everyone balanced on a narrow beam while holding up a statue with a wooden pole, bugs started crawling up Chrissy. Jeff noted this might be a theme of the challenge, as the last time they did it (Season 34: Game Changers), ants were crawling on people.
• Bystander Syndrome: Chrissy threw it back at Soko for wanting to vote her out for not coming through in an immunity challenge when they were every bit as responsible for the loss because they hesitated to switch places with her when she asked them to.
• Can't Vote You Out, Still Need You: Ryan picked out Chrissy to be one of his allies and had the ability to influence the vote against her or Roark after Chrissy did badly in an immunity challenge and Roark was targeted for physical threat. Ryan decided to go against the wishes of his original tribemate Ali and swing the vote against Roark, bailing Chrissy out of hot water.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Super Immunity Idol she gains possession of goes dead, but she remarks she might use it to fake somebody out. Come Day 37 and she tries to pull this on Ben in conjunction with the instructions from Ryan's own Hidden Immunity Idol that are left over from using it. It was admirable, but Ben beat her to the punch by finding the actual Hidden Immunity Idol long before that.
• Control Freak: As noted by other players, Chrissy was the one initially controlling the Round Table alliance along with Ryan and seems to thrive when she's leading the charge. But when she lost control and ended up on the bottom, she broke down and cried. Ashley even makes a comment in Episode 13, when Chrissy convinced Devon they bring Ryan instead of, who Devon had a falling out with.
• Cool Old Lady: Being the oldest woman in the tribe, and managing to flip her situation so that she's the person everyone is going to, she's definitely earned this title. Joe calls her the "Queen" next to "King Ben".
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While Chrissy initially came off as a sweet, harmless mom type, she quickly shows off just how intelligent and crafty she is. Despite the first-day tribal council immunity idol being useless, she still plans to use it as a decoy in the future, and she subtly manages to cause rifts in the Ashley/JP and Alan/Ben duos by acting as a sympathetic ear and playing up their fears. This actually led her and Ben to become a duo. Later, after swapping to Soko, when Ali and Roark believed her to be an easy boot, she quickly turns it on them by lying about Roark wanting an all-girls alliance and using her bond with Ryan to keep herself safe. Chrissy pretended to be part of this alliance to keep up appearances, but never truly agreed to it.
• Family Woman
• Fatal Flaw:
  • She allows power and control to go to her head, and blinds herself to the fact other people are playing. When she's in control of the Roundtable alliance, Chrissy feels secure and belittles the minority alliance — but as soon as she loses her power, she's seen scrambling and breaking down in tears. And when she approaches Lauren for strategic talk and a final three deal with Ryan, Lauren points out that she has never once talked to her regarding the game at all before, a callback to episode five where Chrissy does the same to Roark when she felt insecure about her position in the tribe.
• Genre Savvy: Showing just how long she's kept up with the show, Chrissy has resorted to the oldest old-school Survivor strategy- Pagonging the Healers one by one. And she ultimately succeeded.
  • Another flaw that ultimately costs Chrissy the title is arrogance. Late in the game, Chrissy felt high and mighty that Ben would never find an Idol, nor that he had a chance of winning the fire making challenge over Devon. Both of those would blow up in her face. What's worse, that same arrogance made her feel too comfortable in deciding not to find an idol before Ben did, something Desi called her out on at the Final Tribal Council.
• Guile Heroine: Between her and Ben, she's definitely the more strategic of the two.
• Heroic BSoD: She is absolutely sullen and tearful the day after JP got sent home, sitting through a rainy day in camp and wondering if she's going to go home and her dream of 16 years will come to an end and wishes it not to.
  • She's Back: Then she wins her first individual immunity with a come-from-behind victory and fulfills another one of her dreams on the game and is back to her confident self.
• Hyper-Awareness: Justified, because she is a dedicated fan and viewer of the show from practically the beginning. Immediately knew she or Katrina were the ones in trouble due to the fact no one would talk to them and seemed to intentionally withhold the idol due to the comments Alan made about distrusting his alliance due to his belief they had one. Now she's resorted to keeping the now-powerless Super Immunity Idol as a decoy to trick somebody into thinking it's still useful if necessary. She also recognized that Ryan trusts her more going forward in the game than Ali in the dispute that followed Roark's elimination. Then, she found it odd her reward had no plate and was savvy enough to go looking for a clue, discovering the plate had been disguised and trusting Ryan would also be smart enough to look for it (which he was).
• Hypocrite: When Chrissy is in control of the game, she believes she's the only one playing and that others shouldn't take her strategic moves personally. But when Ben is the one taking control of the game, she gets upset and calls him a jerk, and seems shocked that Ashley and Devon are playing the game.
• It's All About Me: Downplayed. Chrissy campaigned that she would be a good representative of the season if voted as the winner, and that a winner should be chosen as an example of who was the best overall definition of a survivor. It was a compelling argument that got jurors like Ashley on her side. What she failed to do was make it sound considerate of everyone's interests instead of just hers, and she came one vote shy of a tie.
• Irrational Hatred: Ben notes that Chrissy gets angry and spiteful toward anything that isn't hers to own, even when they have free will to do whatever they want in the game. However, Ben has been shown to act similarly, as best seen with how he treated Lauren and Mike.
• It's Personal: Chrissy reached this level of animosity with Ben for playing Double Agent. And it's seemingly reciprocated, due to Ben's attempts to humiliate her despite his claims that it was Nothing Personal.
• Kick the Dog: Her denying Ben the chance to spend some time with his wife during the family visit could be seen either way. Editing makes it hard to tell who's in the wrong, if anyone.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Her attempts to push Ben out of the game only made him stronger and she had to parlay against him in the Jury, something she knew would be very hard to do, and couldn't sway enough people and win them over to her cause.
• A Lighter Shade of Gray: When compared to Ben. While Chrissy can be condescending and smug in power, as Ben has shown to be, she has shown that she's very caring and loyal to Ryan and JP, the latter who's blindside shocked her, and the former who she intentionally left a clue behind for so he could get the hidden immunity idol. This is in contrast to Ben, who betrayed nearly everyone in the game. She also buried the hatchet with Ben on Day 37 just to be friends again, even though that carried the connotation of a pretense toward eliminating him. Finally, she stayed loyal to her alliances and only went against people who were never a part of them to begin with or did her wrong.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Invoked. In the second immunity challenge after swapping tribes, Chrissy found herself repeatedly stumbling off the balance beam ramp while trying to maneuver balls up to the top of a puzzle full of holes. Finally, she declared, "I gotta take my sneakers off, somebody else go." Unfortunately, shedding the sneakers didn't help much because her feet by themselves also slipped off the ramp, and her tribe didn't do a good job of pulling the slack.
• The Man Behind the Man: Well, Woman Behind: While Ben seemed to be head of the roundtable alliance, Chrissy was the one who did most of the plotting and shot-calling. She got mad at Ryan for trying to lay claim that it was his idea at the final tribal council, jerking her head and glaring at him when he said that.
• Moral Myopia: Chrissy gets upset that the dominant alliance is seemingly belittling her, while being completely unaware that when she was in power, the minority alliances felt the same way towards her.
• Nice Girl: Despite how crafty she is, she is very much shown to be a sweet person. Her first reaction to when Ryan admitted to giving her the first tribal idol was to gush in a confessional about how kind he was. Zigzags later, as while she is still affable to her alliance, she lets her annoyance to the people who irritate her be known. However, unlike Ryan, she at least got to know people even if she used them like tools.
• Properly Paranoid: Chrissy made a statement that you cannot ever stop playing Survivor while you're on it. She believes you have to be prepared for every individual hour, because the moment you stop playing is the moment when you get caught off-guard.
• Smug Snake: Shown in Episode 10, as she and Ryan believe they're running the game.
• Team Mom: What she eventually becomes for her tribe, as everyone comes to her with their problems. She actually takes advantage of this by subtly looking for a strategic partner, as well as playing up the fears of Ashley/JP power duo with her concern. She believes Ryan wanted to work with her because she reminded him of his mom.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Perhaps because of the misfortune Chrissy faces in the first Immunity challenge, Ryan decides to secretly pass the Super Immunity Idol to her. Chrissy, however, sits on the idol and sees no need to use it, because she was able to form up with an alliance in the first few days of the game, and let Katrina be voted out, probably knowing that if she were to play the idol, Chrissy would make a bigger target out of herself later.
• Too Clever by Half: She tried to implement an otherwise smart plan by masquerading the Super Immunity Idol as a legitimate Hidden Immunity Idol, but didn't know Ben had already found hidden idol number three. He instead pretended to be fooled and had an excuse to stop acting like he was searching for the real thing. It certainly fooled the Jury, but not him. Ben even mocked her by pulling out his own fake immunity necklace from earlier, jesting since everyone's pulling out their fake idols, he might as well pull out his.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from vomiting at her first Immunity Challenge to hanging in the game for a very long time and winning immunity twice, the second time at the site of the first challenge. And this continues on as she has a win streak that bumps her up to four and sets her up as one of the top four female competitors in immunity.
• Trademark Favorite Food: When she heard a reward included cheesecake, she said, "Ooh, that's my favorite!"
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Poor Chrissy pukes up on the first episode after the challenge. Jeff reminds her about this on Day 36 when Solewa returns to the platform where they did the first challenge, now reconfigured for a new challenge, and Chrissy ends up winning, showing how far she's come. Chrissy reflected in the finale that she threw up because she was so terrified of the physical challenges due to being told she was terrible at stuff like this in real life growing up.

Ryan S. Ulrich

Tribe: Yawa → Soko → Solewa

Age: 23

From: North Arlington, New Jersey

Occupation: Bellhop

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• Advantage Ball: Downplayed. Ryan was lucky enough to spy a Secret Advantage on the boat to the islands, and after hiding it on his person, he later found it contained a Super Immunity Idol- good for only the first Tribal Council. However, it could be used after the votes were read to save somebody. In addition, if his tribe won immunity, Ryan had to secretly pass the idol along to somebody else in the losing tribe and chose Chrissy. Neither Ryan nor Chrissy played the idol because the Hustlers took second place and Chrissy didn't want to make a target out of herself among the Heroes. Later played straight when Ryan found a Hidden Immunity Idol for himself.
• Book Ends: Ryan gave Chrissy a free pass over the first elimination with the first game advantage, of the season, the Super Immunity Idol. Chrissy later gave Ryan a free pass to the final three with the final Secret Advantage of the season. Ironically, neither advantage served its ultimate purpose and both players were thwarted by Ben as well.
• Butt-Monkey: Ryan is the subject of many jokes when he isn't giving them, such as Jeff pointing out how long he lasted on the first individual immunity challenge.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Ryan only got Devon's vote at the finale, his closest and original ally from the Hustlers.
• Deer in the Headlights: When a brawl takes place over a Hidden Immunity Idol, Ryan, who had already found it, is standing there mortified and says in his confessional it was "pandemonium".
• Disaster Dominoes: His slip-up with Devon ended up causing him to lose control of the game, JP, and well over half his alliance.
• Epic Fail: His first individual immunity challenge ends up being this. He went out two seconds in.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Wasn't too pleased about Lauren's comment on gingers. There's also the fact that rather than laugh at the brawl for an idol he had already procured, he was downright horrified.
• Face–Heel Turn: He started out the game as probably one of the nicest guys in his tribe. And while he was a strategist, he was shown to be willing to compromise in order to not alienate his allies. Betraying Ali twice in a row shows that he is beginning to become a much more ruthless and callous strategist.
• Freudian Slip: At his tribe's first Tribal Council, in its most tense moment, he accidentally inferred that he wasn't very confident in Patrick, but was quick to backtrack after this, and Patrick also did a good job of defending himself, realizing he had been considered for the chopping block.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Episode five showed him in this situation. It was the first time he had to make a really risky move. His long-time ally Ali wanted Chrissy gone as Roark gave them more options in the future due to her alliances, and Chrissy, who he saved and formed a genuine and friendly bond with wanted Roark gone to save herself and bring down the Healers' numbers. This left Ryan having to chose who to vote out, someone who he was fond of, or someone who could give him more choices in the future game. Ultimately though, he chose to vote out Roark. The next episode sees him in an argument with Ali post-tribal council that reduces her to tears, but Ryan explains that he wanted to have two allies at his side and couldn't get rid of somebody he stuck his neck out for before.
• Hypocrite: When Devon betrays him by voting out JP, Ryan expresses outrage that someone he was so closely aligned within the beginning would turn on him like that. But in episode five, Ryan had done the very same thing to a very loyal Ali.
• Irony: In the end, Ryan got a free pass to the final three because he couldn't make fire, and he lampshades it quite well.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He aligned with Devon early on back during the first stage of the game, but betrayed two of his fellow Hustlers to get ahead. He betrayed Ali to gain an ally in Chrissy by keeping JP, and didn't inform Devon he told Ben about his idol. He eventually lost JP and used up his idol thanks to Devon and was left with only Chrissy as his ally and no idol to protect him anymore. He doesn't realize that Ben is pretending to be Ryan's ally and that he is now circling the drain as of Episode 11. Eventually, it happens again when Ryan tries to take Devon to the end as his goat but then Devon goes out in an unexpected fire-making challenge and he becomes the goat.
• Last of His Kind: He's the final Hustler left in the game after Devon goes out and tries to play this up as bragging rights at the final tribal council. It doesn't get him very far, though.
• The Load: In challenges, he proves to be this. Mike voiced annoyance at this after he messed up a reward challenge. At the final tribal council, many jurors were quick to point out he didn't do much to help out in camp, and Ryan admitted he was trying to avoid dragging them down because this was his first experience at wilderness survival and he was unprepared, justifying at least part of this issue. It should be noted that the proper definition of a "goat" is someone who causes a team to lose. Ryan was responsible for a few costly mishaps, including the one above where he got tangled in rope trying to get over a hurdle above the ocean (though Mike might have pulled it too taut for Ryan to wriggle free).
• Loose Lips: Ryan blundered when he shared news of his idol with Ben and Devon, two separate allies, and they compared notes. This actually ends up costing him Devon's trust. Devon then blindsided JP and tricked Ryan into flushing out his idol via Ben.
• Manipulative Bastard: Best shown after Roark's elimination, when Ali confronted him about the betrayal and he managed to turn it around on her and make her out to be the bad guy for voting against Chrissy.
• Must Have Coffee: At the final tribal, it comes up that he used a lot of the iced coffee.
• Non-Action Guy: Due to being the smallest and non-athletic. He makes up for it by being strategic and good at puzzles.
• Only Friend: Chrissy has turned out to be the only person who is loyal to Ryan unquestionably.
• Oh, Crap!: When Ryan realized JP was being voted out, he quietly yelped, "Holy shit!"
• Opportunistic Bastard: Ryan rarely plots on his own terms. Rather, he attaches himself to whoever is most charismatic/powerful and strategizes with them as partners. This really kicks his butt at the Final Tribal Council when the Jury grills him on it for being almost incapable of survival skills on his own (he rarely even went out to fetch the merged tribe water, apparently) and he admits to it.
• Poor Communication Kills: Aside from the situation where he was loose-lipped, Ashley was particularly quick to voice dismay over his poor alliance of seven control, since he never went to her as a real ally, but Ryan remarked he still kept a social relationship open.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He's often wearing a set of pink shorts.
• Running Gag: Ryan seems to shove all his in-game advantages into his pants to hide them. Also his bad luck in challenges, often being one of the first out in Individual Immunities.
• Self-Deprecation: Ryan frequently acknowledges his flaws and berates himself when his conscience is guilty. He even calls himself a "weasel" in Episode 6 when he feels bad about having to vote out Roark and Ali to protect himself knowing he's made Ali feel betrayed and Chrissy is trusting him anyway.
• Stronger Than They Look: Ryan is probably the smallest person in the entire cast, yet he managed to help pull up a heavy cart in the very first challenge. Jeff even lampshades the odd choice of him being the one to do it.
• Tagalong Kid: The youngest person of the season along with Devon, but the most kid-like compared to Devon. Mike considers him the kid of the cast and the one with the most energy, but also in the respect, The Load, because he is terrible at challenges.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Started off as one of the nicest people on his tribe, but similar to Chrissy, betrayed all his allies leaving only Chrissy left by his side. He can also come across as having an elitist attitude towards people on the bottom, as he initially believed that he and Chrissy are the only ones really playing.
• True Companions: With Chrissy, as they stick together all the way to the final three.
• Villainous Breakdown: During Final Tribal Council, when he realizes that his "strong social game" argument could only carry him so far, he panics and begins making up facts on the spot to undermine Ben and Chrissy. When the jury calls him out, he becomes increasingly defensive and erratic, dooming himself to only receive Devon's vote.
• Yes-Man: Many times, this was Ryan's strategy when he was in a corner. He told people what they wanted to hear, but didn't actually mean it. Most notably, Ryan tried to lie his way through the final tribal council and was aware he was doing that, but he got called out on his backstabbing by people who were annoyed with his inability to pull his own weight and would latch on to people and lie to them to go forward in the game.
• You Need to Get Laid: Makes note of his inability to get a girl many times. He's also never been to prom.

The Jury

Devon Nestor Pinto

Tribe: Yawa → Levu → Solewa

Age: 23

From: Rohnert Park, California

Occupation: Surfing Instructor

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• Affably Evil: Devon is a cordial and laid-back person, but he's just as cut-throat as the other players and willing to betray allies if it furthers him in the game, as seen best with Ashley and Ryan.
• The Big Guy: He's really tall compared to players like Ryan and Chrissy.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While Devon started off as an affable young man, he later showed that he willing cut allies if it means getting further, as best demonstrated with Ryan and Ashley.
• Birthday Episode: He ended up getting first dibs on a family portion reward thanks to it being his birthday in episode 9. Subverted, as it was revealed by Ashley on Twitter that Devon lied about it being his birthday.
• Breakout Character: Devon gained a big following post-season and many people look to him as a good role model, which is discussed at the live finale.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Devon can concoct excellent plans when he has his mind in the right place, but a few times he copped out of his alliances without much thought given to how it would affect his game, and finally, he slacked off at making fire in practice before a challenge he knew he needed to win, which was his worst and final mistake.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: After initially coming across as a quiet and laid-back player, Devon later came into his own as a strategic gamer, forming an alliance with Lauren, Ben, and Ashley to break up the roundtable seven and enact a Final Four alliance with blindsiding JP and making Ben play the part of a Double Agent who would fool Joe into a trap.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Devon has managed to betray Patrick, JP, Ryan, Ben, and Ashley.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fire-making challenge that blew him out of the game. Devon thought he was assured by his own skill level and tried to sprinkle magnesium flakes off the flint to spark his kindling, but then Ben was able to get a flame going and completely destroyed him, quickly building a small fire that easily burned the rope above and raised his flag... while Devon didn't even start his fire.
• Death By Sigh Of Relief: Played straight. Devon thought it would be better to go into the fire-making challenge without practicing because he felt comfortable with his skills with making fire throughout the game because the flint broke on him during practice. Turns out that was the worst decision he made because Ben creamed him at the challenge. Devon's decision not to practice fire-making with Ben very driven to win the game became a tortoise and the hare scenario.
• Decided by One Vote: Defied. Devon had a chance to be a swing voter as the lone Hustler on the new Levu tribe post-tribe swap, but Jessica's advantage had prevented him from doing so.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Somebody from an entirely separate tribe, Jessica, used a Secret Advantage to block his vote at the Tribal Council after the tribes had been shuffled.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Devon was visibly amazed at how Desi looked when she dressed up for the jury.
  Devon: Whoa.
• Elimination By Irony: Devon spent nearly all the game reliant on someone to go forward. When he had to rely on himself, he got eliminated by another unexpected twist and overconfidence. It was also spurred by another twist in the hands of a blonde-haired woman, just like the one Jessica used to stop him from making another pivotal move earlier.
• Epic Fail: His elimination, where he had the chance to practice fire-making for the final secret advantage and Chrissy didn't even tell Ben about it to make his chances of winning the lowest. Devon didn't do much practicing at all, never successfully made a flint-struck fire on his own, and Ben won a no contest lead.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After Ben reveals to him that Ryan told him about his idol, Devon felt betrayed by Ryan, thinking he was the only one Ryan told. This prompted him to betray Ryan in turn and form an alliance with Ben, Lauren, and Ashley.
• Failed a Spot Check: He was the only one who didn't examine the eating site for the shared pasta reward, leading to three of the others discovering the clue.
• Fatal Flaw: His overconfidence. He made several bold moves to pick off major players feeling in control, yet when he tried to save himself, he neglected practice at the fire-making challenge without realizing how outmatched he was.
• Gut Feeling: Choosing to vote for Mike on suspicion that Ben had pocketed a third consecutive Immunity Idol saved his hide because it caused a tie when Ben's otherwise lone vote for Devon was countermanded. During the finale, Jeff talked about how it was wise for Devon to go with his gut at the time.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: He shaved his beard after joining the Jury as its final member and shows up to the live finale with his long hair lopped down to a very corporate coif.
• Hidden Depths: Although he gives off the appearance of a friendly but not strategically inclined player, post-merge has shown that Devon is far more calculative then he initially seemed, as best seen when he puts forth the idea that Ben plays the double agent on the opposite alliance. Also, he shows that despite his more athletic nature, he easily befriends Ryan, who self-identifies as a nerd and is not very physical in challenges.
• Kick the Dog: Inviting Ryan over Ashley, who was visibly upset she was chosen due to their close relationship and the fact that he and Ryan were no longer allies. And again when he voted her out, even though it was likely the best maneuver for his game to not go against his new alliance's plan. Devon's response to Ashley rebuff suggests he is remorseful, though.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He turned against Ashley and Mike to save himself and was thwarted by his own shortcomings at a fire-making challenge after he chose not to practice.
• Metaphorgotten: Devon made an incoherent comment in the second post-merge tribal comparing his state of mind as feeling like a zombie and wanting to feel like himself playing the game, but then lost his train of thought and it turned into a Wall of Blather, which actually helped prove his point even more than if he got his thoughts out coherently.
• Noble Demon: Despite being capable of sneaky plots, Devon is arguably this in comparison to Ben, Ryan or Chrissy. Whereas everyone has betrayed someone, treated them poorly, or generally acted like a Smug Snake, Devon's been shown to be loyal to those who are loyal back — such as his willingness to go to rocks with Ashley if they had to — and will keep a secret if he trusts someone. Subverted in episode 13, which shows Devon is willing to cut an ally if it means improving his position in the game.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Devon puts on this act in order to get people to trust him and downplay himself as a threat. Lampshaded later by Ryan and Chrissy, who wondered how they could have been deceived by a "twenty-five-year-old suffer".
• Revenge: Got this on Ryan for not telling about telling Ben about finding the merge idol by blindsiding JP, one of Ryan's biggest allies.
• Satellite Character: Pre-swap, his most defining characteristic is his partnership with Ryan. Post-swap, almost all of his scenes are talking to Ashley. Post-merge has him subverting this by becoming a definitive player of his own.
• Smarter Than You Look: It goes with his Hidden Depths, but Devon did display some strategic chops in episode three by admitting to Ryan he wanted to keep the steadfast Lauren over the unpredictable Patrick. And he must have gotten his way, as Patrick was voted out that night. This continued post-merge, specifically episode 11 and 12, as he came up with the double agent strategy to eliminate JP and Joe.
• The Starscream: Devon has attempted to be this, especially regarding Ryan, but has shown to go back to players if he's backed into a corner.
• True Companions: Becomes this with Ashley on Levu, swearing to her he will not vote her out and that they would go to a tie if next tribal council happens. He later decided the two of them would have a Final Two alliance. Subverted, however, when Chrissy and Ryan offered him a Final Three deal take he took. Ryan would turn out to be his real true companion, as the two had been allies from the start of the game as Hustlers, and Devon voted for him because of how cunning Ryan had been and being around him the longest and knowing it firsthand.
• Verbal Tic: "Whoa!"
• Villain Decay: He managed to secure some plays as the seemingly empty-headed surfer bro who was really a cunning plotter that briefly took the reins when Ryan fell out of power that masterminded plays that went over even Ryan and Chrissy's heads, but fell down to this status when he made a few unwise decisions to save himself and largely cost himself his own shot at a million dollars by being too sure of his own abilities to make fire.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Devon was set up as a swing vote with a huge role to play in the first Tribal Council following the tribe swap because Jessica willed him a Secret Advantage, but it turned out she had done so after using it against him.

Michael Preston "Mike" Zahalsky

Tribe: Soko → Yawa → Solewa

Age: 43

From: Pompano Beach, Florida

Occupation: Urologist

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• Appeal to Force: The Coco-Nuts alliance he had with Joe began all because Mike showed Joe he could play hardball and mess with other players.
• Ascended Fan: He named his son Ethan, after the winner of Survivor: Africa. He's even said Ethan was his wife's "hall pass" back in the day.
• Batman Gambit: Right before Desi arrived to listen in as-as the first member of the Jury, Mike whispered to Joe to follow his lead. He later gave a speech that Survivor is like "society", and sprinkled in cocky comments about being "The Statue of Liberty" against "The Knights of the Round Table" alliance and as a compliment to the fact Joe said those folks were living in a "fantasy world" during the ninth Tribal council because he knew it would make people leery around him and willing to vote against him. Lauren warned him he was picking up a shovel and going to bury himself... without knowing that's exactly what Mike wanted to happen. By boasting he knew the game better than everyone else, he drew attention to himself and annoyed people enough that he caused attention to pull away from Joe and no votes were cast on Joe that night, but rather Mike netted some. Mike handed Jeff his Hidden Immunity Idol and nullified these votes, though Cole was still the big target to go home.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He is one of the more polite players in the game, yet when Lauren told him she knew of the advantage Jessica had, the first thing he did said when he went up to his fellow healer was to aggressively interrogate her and threaten her if she was playing him. He also baited the castaways into voting for him to take the attention off of Joe, then used his idol to cancel their votes, making sure Cole went home and Joe stayed in the game. And then he takes the half of Lauren's idol, that she gave to him as a symbol of trust, and tosses it into the Tribal Council fire pit.
• Big Good: Due being an underdog who survived the Healer's pagonging and called out the majority alliance for treating the people on the bottom poorly, Mike could be seen as this. Episode 13's Tribal Council even has it brought up that Mike hasn't made anybody mad.
• Big "NEVER!": Played for Laughs, Episode 12, during the Individual Immunity Challenge:
  Lauren: (teasingly) Drop it, drop it, Mike!
  Mike: (facetiously) Never!
• Bond One-Liner: When he burns Lauren's idol.
  Mike: This idol... will NEVER be played.
• Celebrity Resemblance: Mike has been compared to the Verizon/Sprint spokesperson, Paul Marcarelli.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his awkward demeanor, he stood his ground when being confronted by Joe over searching for an idol. He later turned in a strong performance in the first immunity challenge and the one who brought home a win for the Healers in the second immunity challenge. He also baited a vote against him and made himself an active threat on purpose in order to protect Joe. Then in Episode 12, he ended up destroying Lauren's immunity idol, taking away an advantage she had an indirectly sending her home.
• Determinator: Mike doesn't give up easily. For instance, take the fish he accidentally threw into the campfire in Episode 6. It didn't matter to him that he caught a tiny fish, nor that said tiny fish fell deep into the logs and got heavily charred. Mike still fished that fish out and he even shared it with everybody.
• The Dragon: Decided to partner up with Joe and actually worked to keep him in the game in Episode 9 as the lone two Healers left in the wake of a purge.
  • The Creon: Most of the time, Mike is very keen on staying away from the center of attention and likes to play off to the side.
  • Dragon Ascendant: When Joe went home, Mike managed to solo it out and do something fiendish to quite literally incinerate Lauren's game all by himself.
• Dramatic Irony: Joe asserts segment of the game. In the second segment of the game, the two guys have been shipped off to opposing tribes, and Joe promptly plays his immunity idol. A couple days later, Mike finds one for himself by exploiting the knowledge of how the last one was found at his old camp and is now holding the power that Joe once had. And then Mike manages to incite Joe to reveal his second idol by stating at the first post-merge Tribal Council about how Joe cornered him alone. By Episode 9, they've settled their differences and are working together.
• Enemy Mine: After learning the Healers are fast becoming targets of a roundtable alliance that is seven strong, Mike appeals to Joe for them to plot the alliance's downfall. Later averted with Ryan, who refused to work with him after the tribe switch and then wanted to work with him after JP was blindsided, which was "a day late and a dollar short" to Mike. Even so, double subverted- when Lauren crashed and burned at Tribal Council, Mike decided to team up with Ryan. Eventually played completely straight in Episode 13, as the remaining players team up against Ben.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Mike and Joe went from enemies to close allies after the Round Table alliance pagonged most of the Healers.
• Foil: For Joe. Mike is shy and sometimes introverted, Joe is tough and sometimes aggressive. Mike behaves gentle, cooks his own food, and shares his food with everybody, but Joe throws a fit if the food doesn't suit his needs alone and throws it into the dirt, and it was somebody else's cooking. Mike sits out challenges a lot because he feels like a liability, but Joe takes center stage in a lot of challenges. And lastly, they both have scored Hidden Immunity Idols in the game from a keen sense of intuition on how to find them, each finding the first one with the help of one tribe member and using foreknowledge to gain their idols after the first one had been found at the Soko campsite well.
• Gaslighting: Mike hatched a plan to convince the roundtable alliance of seven they needed to crack through a combination of acting like he'd lost his mind making them believe the game would get to them, too, and working off of people's paranoia toward the Healers. It worked, but Joe was voted off by the end because he'd already made too many people upset to get back on solid ground for very long. People also didn't buy into the idea they'd believe him simply because he was a doctor.
• Godzilla Threshold: When faced with either joining an alliance that is bent on getting rid of all Healers as a fellow Healer or going with a guy who is known to cause trouble and keep the game in disarray, Mike decides he'd better go with the guy who he knows respects tough players and proves his worth to Joe, rather than worry about becoming a backstab target by the roundtable.
• Graceful Loser: He's sad he doesn't make it to the end because it was his dream to get that far, but he's happy to have enjoyed the whole experience of Survivor.
• Last of His Kind: With Joe's elimination, Mike is the only Healer left in the game. He finally went out of the game when Devon wrote his name down on the off-chance Ben would play an idol and try to knock Devon off with one vote. The vote went to a tie, with Ben, Chrissy and Ryan (the eventual final 3) re-voting, and Chrissy and Ryan upheld their alliance to Devon and voted for Mike.
• Laughably Evil: Mike's attempts to be a villain are pretty silly. Joe and Mike together turned into sort of a villainous comedy duo that Joe remarked was like Siskel & Ebert and dubbed their alliance the "Coco-Nuts" ("He's "Coco" [Joe], I'm [Mike] "Nuts".) after the fact the castaways usually have nothing to eat but coconuts and rice.
• Nice Guy: Dr. Mike is quite friendly to his tribemates and very outgoing in being there for them. Ben remarks how he respects Mike for catching a very tiny fish and still choosing to share it with everybody even after he tried to cook it himself and dropped it into the campfire, burning it to a crisp; he recovered it and refused to acknowledge "It's gone, Doc". Contrast with Joe, who offended Desi by finding fault with her cooking and discarded it.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Dr. Mike has been able to confound a few players with his goofiness.
• The Pollyanna: To his credit, Mike is always able to keep a positive attitude no matter the outlook.
• The Scapegoat: For Joe. Joe befriended everybody on Soko except for Mike and was very quick to corner him and interrogate him under the suspicion Mike was looking for an idol. Joe started making Mike look like the bad guy and the weak link of the tribe afterward, and Mike didn't like that at all and eventually called him out on it in front of everybody.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Ryan struggles to get in an alliance with Mike after being blindsided, he ultimately is rejected and Mike gives him a very scathing speech for not sticking up for him when he had the chance.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Invoked; right after Mike finds his very own hidden immunity idol, he celebrates the fact it makes him much safer in the game and very powerful, but he notes how quickly things can change when you go from being on the bottom to the top.
• The Trickster: Mike's strategy is to cause as much chaos as possible and to try and turn the majority alliance against each other.
• Token Good Teammate: The only one in the final five to play a game of honor, albeit with some sneaky moments, but they pale in comparison compared to what everyone else has done.
• Too Slow: Mike's downfall. He and the rest of the tribe were asleep when Ben went off hunting for another idol without their knowledge, and then when Mike wondered if he should vote against Devon, he didn't detect the warning signs Ben might have an idol in his boot again and think to ask him to take the boots off to inspect them. Mike got caught in a tiebreaker as the one person who Ryan and Chrissy had allied with on sparse terms and they kept Devon over him, who had proven himself more dependable. Jeff reminded Mike that he was eliminated when he was because Devon made a big move when he should have as well.
• Took a Level in Badass: When Mike and Joe ally together, Mike's game starts to become bold and dangerous, as he's trying to create chaos and turn the majority against each other.
• Who's Laughing Now?: His gameplay radically changed in Episode 9, when Mike whipped out his idol to show Joe he was every bit as dangerous as Joe could be and send a message to his tribe that the Healers were NOT easy targets.
• Wild Card: Mike is an unpredictable player who will screw anyone over, regardless of whether or not he's voting with them, as he feels he can trust no one after being lied to repeatedly. Best seen when he votes with Lauren to eliminate Ben, after he had burned her idol.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Defied. Mike provided an aversion to the trend where Hidden Immunity Idols are destined to be played at some point by outright destroying an idol before it could be played.

Ashley Marie Nolan

Tribe: Levu → Solewa

Age: 26

From: Satellite Beach, Florida

Occupation: Lifeguard

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• Action Girl: Ashley does pretty good at a lot of challenges, especially aquatic ones, and she finally won individual immunity in Episode 10, proving she was no goat. The biggest things she ever did in the game were to win immunity twice (though once was a gimme) and participate in the blindsides on JP and Joe of Episodes 10 and 11, respectively.
• Arch-Enemy: Joe, as of Episode 9. The friction between them began right after the tribe switch in Episode 4 when they were placed on Levu together and Joe immediately singled her out as a weak player and someone he planned to vote out. It died off when he turned his attention towards a chance to blindside Alan instead and Levu dodged Tribal Council multiple times, preventing further conflict. But when the tribes merged, Joe started in on Ashley all over again because he was being difficult at camp following their defeat at a randomly picked red vs. blue team Reward Challenge, going around digging holes for idols instead of resting, and Joe was already in a bad mood, to begin with after the loss. When told to settle down and relax by Ashley and warned this was a reason people couldn't trust him, Joe got mad and Ashley became his lightning rod because he saw that as a waste of time. It is notable up until this episode Ashley has been off to the side and had minimal impact on the game, but not completely inactive. But Joe considers her useless and drifting through the game doing nothing- and in Survivor, a derogatory term was coined for that- goat. Joe sees fit to call her a goat. Ashley flips her lid and starts arguing with him, only for Joe to call her the epitome of a goat. The argument branches over to Chrissy, and soon the two women are bickering with Joe, and by the end of the argument, Ashley is beckoning Joe to SHUT UP with a very hostile tone of voice and is so mad at him she is even willing to forego voting out Cole next just to be rid of Joe. After causing a chain reaction that screwed up Joe's shot at immunity for the next Tribal Council, she was placated. Ashley still went with the majority and kept her cool long enough to get a few key players out of the way. By the time Devon set up a plan to boot Joe out, Ashley had mellowed enough that she thought about eliminating Ben before Joe. But with some calculating, neither Devon nor Ashley cast their votes for Ben- they kept Ben around for his reliability and got Joe and Mike dummy votes at Ryan to make him relinquish his idol and then delivered a swift Survivor spanking to Joe.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She voted for Chrissy to win because Chrissy wanted to represent the best qualities of all the Heroes, Healers, and the Hustlers out of the group and for saying that the winner should reflect the best example out of them as their representative, favoring a political survivor. However, Ben earned the title instead by doing the opposite in toughing his way out to the end and being a more traditional survivor.
• Berserk Button:
  • Showmance accusations. Downplayed; it aggravates her when other members of the Heroes have the impression that she's formed a power couple with JP after interacting with him a lot, especially considering that there's nothing going on between them. At the first Tribal Council, this is one of the more hot-button issues of the night, next to Alan's paranoia.
  • Calling her a goat. She is active in the game and competitions. Ashley is simply overshadowed by others most of the time and hasn't broken off on her own making big moves for herself.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Ashley stays under the radar a lot of the game but she has a scorching temper and went off on Joe for dragging her name through the mud. She also seeded the idea in Ben's head to go after Lauren, which Chrissy seems to detect.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Her enraged response to Joe when he keeps pushing her buttons. Not so much yelled as stated as a thinly-veiled threat that she was about to let him have it if he kept talking.
  Ashley: Shut. Up. Seriously.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor girl never caught a break. She was always a blip on someone's radar.
• Cassandra Truth: She warned Devon that maybe they should take out Ben instead of Joe because he would be a shoo-in to win if he made it to the final three. Devon only heeded her advice after Joe got eliminated, by which time Ben had become too powerful and paranoid to surmount. Ashley was caught on the wrong end of this rampage and Ben incited her elimination, and then Devon got eliminated when he couldn't make fire against Ben, whose willpower had gone through the roof.
• Chekhov's Skill: As a lifeguard, she's a fantastic swimmer. Jeff notes how much this helps her in the Reward Challenge in Episode 9.
• The Chew Toy: Ashley has been beleaguered all three stages of the game. At the start of the game, Alan believed she might be trying to form a power couple with JP. After the tribe switch, when she drifted through the game doing little because it was simply a calmer phase, Joe targeted her. Post-merge, as soon as Ashley starts considering attempts to make power moves so she isn't seen as a goat, Chrissy swoops in to target her. Finally, just when she thinks she has a solid alliance with Devon, he throws her under the bus.
• A Day in the Limelight: After many quiet episodes, Episode 9 was hers to own, where she stood her ground against Joe and showed us that she has the scariest temper out of anybody.
• Death By Sigh Of Relief: Ashley got complacent when she aligned with Devon in an apparent final two alliance, but because Devon knew that everyone knew about this alliance, he realized that of course they were going to be targets going into the endgame, and Devon abandoned her.
• The Dragon: She's Devon's partner in crime. Devon even said "It's well known that Ashley and I are in a pretty solid alliance."
  • Devour the Dragon: In a really rotten move, Devon unceremoniously snubbed her a chance to enjoy reward and then voted her out without very little consideration of her feelings.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: She tossed the idea of eliminating Ben to Devon while Ben's back was turned because Ashley knows they wouldn't stand a chance against him in Jury, and Devon liked it, but the two ultimately agreed he was still useful to their game and kept him around- and that was for the better, because he had just found himself a Hidden Immunity Idol. Ashley still hasn't given up on removing Ben from the game, though. If anything, she's even more driven to make that move with the endgame approaching and Ben making himself a big target. Ashley additionally got Ben to go after Lauren and it made him look threatening enough for the whole tribe to turn against him.
  • Number Two: Most plans Ashley feeds to Devon have to be given his seal of approval first, but only because he wants to make sure they don't mistime their plays.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Kept eyeing and flirting with JP in episode three, admitting she finds him very attractive.
• Enemy Mine: She and Alan didn't get along initially, but both agreed to work together against the two Healers after a tribe swap. Unfortunately, Alan was voted out not too long after.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Ashley was full of consternation after Devon decided to take Ryan to a reward over her. This, after he threw a challenge for her in exchange for a shoulder rub. Then, two days later, thanks to a persuasive argument from Chrissy to go to the final three with her and Ryan, Devon broke his alliance with her. She understood why, but as she walked past him, she gave him the Arctic's finest cold shoulder.
• Female Misogynist: Noted in pre-game interviews to not think highly of the other female contestants, claims she's about as well-rounded as a woman could be, One of the Guys, and immediately aligns with all the men to take out the women of her tribe the first episode. However, subverted later into the game, where she's very chummy with Chrissy and enraged by the mere presence of Joe, a male.
• Foregone Conclusion: Ashley tweeted about Devon during the airing of this season. The fact she did so indicated early on that she wasn't under lock and key in sequester before the finale, so it hinted she wasn't one of the final three castaways. Also, her decision to reveal Devon lying about his birthday on Twitter makes a lot more sense after seeing the circumstances of her boot episode.
• Graceful Loser: She understood why she went home when she did (Ryan mentioned at Tribal Council how lucrative final three deals can be and that they aren't guaranteed), but still had some understandably hard feelings she wanted to sleep off.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: She's determined to prove that she can play the game at a high level.
• One of the Guys: Claims to be this, and immediately shows this as she aligns with the men of her tribe.
• Revenge by Proxy: Somehow caused this by complete accident. After Joe called her a "goat" earlier, Ashley fell out of the following Immunity Challenge. She saw her ally and friend Chrissy struggling and reminded her to watch her form. Devon's curiosity got the better of him and he looked at Chrissy, messing him up and costing him the challenge. Joe happened to be right next to Joe to his immediate left, and Devon messing up made Joe look over, and the Joe himself immediately messed up and blew the challenge. Basically, Ashley triggered a series of Disaster Dominoes.
• Satellite Character: Ashley herself laments this status, lampshading that she may not have a lot of big moves in her Survivor resume. Beyond winning immunity, Ashley hasn't spearheaded any plans of her own outside of a potential knocking over of Ben that she postponed. If something involves Ashley, she will usually be co-conspiring with another player or part of a team power move, acquiring Devon's status as the camp orbiter. What a coinky-dink: she hails from Satellite Beach.
• Ship Tease: With Devon, possibly. She won an Immunity Challenge thanks to a promise to rub Devon's shoulders.
• Shocking Elimination: Ashley didn't expect to go home when she did, not realizing that Ben's decision to play his second consecutive idol would make Chrissy default to her Plan B again- with Ashley as the next target. Shoes in her satchel as if ready to go back to camp, instead, she walked out of Tribal Council barefoot— and incredibly sour.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from being one of the least antagonistic players to a ruthless strategist over the course of a few days, all because Lauren encouraged over half the roundtable alliance to break away and do their own thing. She even remarks how she feels like her game has evolved to the next level and it's actually hers to lose.
• True Companions: Becomes this with Devon on Levu, as she swears to stick with him and go to a tie if they go to next tribal council. Later on, they've struck a solid Final Two agreement. Devon also tossed a challenge to her when it was down to just them on the promise of "shoulder massages for the loser", which was pretty darn adorable. But a subversion hit in the next episode when Devon abruptly cast her off.
• Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Ashley frequently wears a black baseball cap and has a very guy-oriented personality.
• Tsundere: Type B. She's chill and fun-loving, but angering her is a HUGE no-no!!
• Woman Scorned: Devon made Ashley one icy icicle after tossing their alliance to the curb like it meant nothing to him.
  Devon: (nicely) Later.
  Ashley: (scornfully) I'll see you.
  Devon: Oh, okay. ...Ouch.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Devon sees that Chrissy is prowling after Ashley and Ryan is loyal to her, Devon decides he'll probably become the next target if he remains loyal to Ashley and she eventually gets eliminated, so he helped to eliminate Ashley.

Lauren Danielle Rimmer

Tribe: Yawa → Solewa

Age: 35

From: Newport, North Carolina

Occupation: Fisherman

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• Action Mom: While Lauren has consistently shown to be a good physical player, episode nine shows her winning individual immunity against challenge-threat Cole. She then won a reward in episode ten and became inclined to jump over to a side alliance.
• Advantage Ball: An extra vote, which she has saved for a crucial moment. Lauren found the Secret Advantage hidden in the merged tribe's nail rucksack. The advantage had some special conditions to meet; it allows her to acquire the second vote, but she had to sit out the next tribal council vote she went to, slip the parchment with the advantage into the urn, and then take a piece of parchment and steal it from the voting booth, all without being seen. Lauren had to feign voting not once, but twice, because the vote came to a tie between Joe and Desi, partly because she needed to avoid voting.
• Arch-Enemy: Patrick. By Episode 2, Patrick has started to annoy her, and in Episode 3, they can't stand each other's company. Lauren eventually gets him voted out. Come episode five, and it appears she has one in Cole, who she views as a greedy pig and anchor on the tribe. Episode 12 saw Ben as this, though unlike the previous two, Lauren was the one who was voted out.
• Beware the Honest Ones/Beware the Quiet Ones: Lauren is a very quiet, but a blunt individual who lets her thoughts be known. And she absolutely reams Patrick in episode three, especially in tribal council by calling out his poor performance in the challenge, smug attitude to her at the beach, his lying and sneaking in camp, and inability to be a team player. And her words must have taken effect, as Patrick was soon voted out.
  • She later blows up Cole's deceit when she tells Mike that she and Ben both know about Jessica's advantage. If nothing else, it certainly caused a rift between the trio of healers, as Mike feels the couple are playing him and Jessica feels she can no longer trust Cole.
  • She cut loose from the roundtable alliance and helped to vote out JP under the suspicion that it would crumble and she wanted to be more in charge of her fate in the game.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She's the huskiest member of the cast this season. However, it's a strong build and she's as tough as they come.
• Brutal Honesty: Her comment as she votes out Patrick:
  (holds up a vote reading "PAT!!" with a frowny face made out of the exclamation points)
  Lauren: I hate it for you [having to vote him out]... (whispering) but you're aggravating.
• Cool Old Lady: In a sense, given she's the oldest woman in her starting tribe and has been able to integrate with the group.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Subverted. She was the loudest voice speaking out against Patrick following the episode 3 immunity challenge, and in the end, the rest of the tribe felt likewise.
• The Cynic: Sometimes slides into this, as when Patrick said the Tribal Council is like going to a birthday party of a kid you don't like, she one-upped him by calling it like going to a funeral.
• Deadpan Snarker: Lauren seems to have a very dry sense of humor that almost goes unnoticed by her tribemates. At episode 3's tribal, when asked about if she has an idol, she casually states she has two of them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Was disgusted when Ben planned on planting a fake immunity idol to mess with Chrissy, thinking it was cruel how he wanted to send her home humiliated. She also drew the line at switching alliances multiple times, citing she was tired of jumping ship.
• Facepalm: Her reaction to Mike calling her out on how stupid she was with her seashell idol and then tossing it in the fire is just one long and painful double-handed covering of her face as she slouches down in her seat.
• Graceful Loser: She came to terms with her loss as her own fault and actually voted for Ben in the finale, saying for him to make her proud as a veteran.
• Handy Feet: Invoked by a reward challenge that required the contestants to use only their feet to untie a set of blocks, stack them into a fort, and then plant a flag on them. Lauren managed to do the task with little issues, even surpassing Mike, who stumbled near the end and cost himself the win.
• Idiot Ball: Lauren had a two-vote advantage, and an immunity idol, yet didn't bring the advantage or keep the immunity idol for herself to play that night, even though she knew Ben was gunning for her. This resulted in her elimination. She admitted her fault post-elimination. Just to add insult to injury, the seashell survived the fire pit, albeit scorched, and Jeff didn't give it to her as a souvenir because he wanted to keep it as an example of poor gameplay decisions (because the next season is centered around that).
• I Shall Taunt You: May or may not have engaged in this to trip up Cole in the water jug balancing challenge she ended up winning, telling him "I think your thing's leaning a little." to put him off-balance. Sure enough, it soon fell over. She did it again at her last immunity challenge where everyone balanced chimes in place, yipping, "Drop it, drop it, Mike!" She actually quit the challenge first... then he immediately dropped.
• Innocently Insensitive: In trying to bond with Ryan by pointing out the two of them are physical outcasts of the tribe, she calls him an oddball (while also calling herself the older woman), which he secretly takes offense to. Funnily enough, when he complains to Devon about it, Devon doesn't disagree.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lauren might be brutally blunt and snarky, but she's a good woman who looks out for her allies and is playing the game for her family. Her comments towards Mike in episode nine's tribal council, while somewhat harsh, do come across as a warning him to stop so he doesn't put a target on his back.
• Mama Bear: She's playing for herself above all else for the sake of her daughter.
• No Social Skills: Averted. While she mentions that her occupation is solitary by nature, she's quickly worked her way into the good graces of Ryan and Ali, the two power players on Yawa. It seems to zigzag in episode three, but ultimately, the tribe chooses to keep her over Patrick. Shown to be fully averted when she integrates with the hustler-hero alliance well and has a working relationship with Ben and Mike.
• Only Sane Man: Lauren is the voice of reason most of the time when Survivor paranoia starts working on people, and has managed to influence several votes and alliances simply by keeping a cool head and pointing out the facts. She's also the only person who sees the "roundtable alliance of seven" as a load of crap, knowing that it logically must dissolve for the game to progress. Lauren later refused an alliance with her because Chrissy suddenly wanted to work with her after her ally JP went out in a blindside. While Mike would go on to say new people in alliance is not necessarily a bad thing because it's like having more than one surgeon who can do a job and might do it better than another, Lauren disliked the fact Chrissy didn't come to her earlier and decided it was untrustworthy.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Implied when she mentioned being an outfielder for twenty-five years.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Downplayed as she was really annoyed with Patrick, and basically made a few comments about gingers, mostly saying they cannot tell a lie.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: Zigzagged. She made a comment that she has never met a redhead who is a convincing liar, which is a statement that disregards notable redheaded players on the show, such as Jerri, Corrine, Cochran etc. However, she has managed to align with another older player, Ben, helped to get out Jessica, and has managed to snag an extra vote through finding a hidden advantage.
• The Scully: Justified. Lauren takes the news of Jessica finding a Secret Advantage hidden in her potato chip bag following the winning of a reward with a grain of salt, because pre-tribe shuffle, she was dealing with a he-said, she said kind of bunch.
• Shout-Out: Her two idols comment might just be one to Val's lie in San Juan Del Sur.
• Stout Strength: Her husky build allows her to perform well in challenges that require strength.
• The Strategist: Lauren is incredibly adept at thinking up ways to change the course of the game, especially when her back is against the wall.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the second half of the game, Lauren got an extra vote, won individual immunity and reward back-to-back, and broke off from a majority alliance to an even more powerful Final Four alliance.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Lauren's last episode saw her lose both her advantages due to misjudgments on her part, which resulted in her elimination.
• Too Dumb to Live: While Lauren is usually a savvy player, her last episode saw her giving away half her immunity idol when she could've instead played it on herself that night, as she knew she was in trouble. She was sent home immediately after.
• Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Played straight. Lauren was an outfielder and wears an authentic baseball cap. Her personality is strong and steely.
• Tragic Mistake: Giving away half her immunity idol in an attempt to regain Mike's trust. While Mike didn't vote for her and in fact voted against Ben, he did destroy the other half, and with Ben playing his own idol, she ended up being the one sent home instead. In a post-show interview, she remarks "I should've grabbed that idol out of the fire." However, fire, being, well, fire, no one will blame her for not doing so, especially after seeing what happened to Michael Skupin's hands.
• Troll: When talk about Pat looking for idols is thrown around and he admits he hasn't found any, Lauren holds her fingers up and jokes, "I have two."
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Tucked her extra vote inside the neck of her blouse in a sturdy place.

Joseph Benjamin "Joe" Mena

Tribe: Soko → Levu → Solewa

Age: 34

From: Tolland, Connecticut

Occupation: Probation Officer

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• Advantage Ball:
  • Subverted; Joe found the Hidden Immunity Idol buried near the Healers campsite five feet away from the well, but needed Cole's help to decipher the clue. Cole is fully aware Joe has the idol and doesn't like that it gives him a lot of power and could leverage it against him. Double subverted when Joe and Cole are switched over to entirely separate tribes and Joe uses his idol to blindside Alan at the very next Tribal Council, taking away Cole's bargaining chip momentarily.
  • Played straight with his acquisition of a second Hidden Immunity Idol after the practice run he had with the first. This one he found in true secrecy and is taking to the merge. But Cole could still acknowledge that Joe found an idol earlier in the game and be coincidentally right in that he can expose Joe's second idol in the act of trying to expose the first while unaware Joe used it up. But Joe went ahead and played it openly to stop anyone from quizzing him if he had one.
• Affably Evil: Joe is a nice guy who is devoted to his family but he is not afraid to play the game of Survivor intensely.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Coco-Joe", thanks to Mike's insistence that they're a comedy duo ("Coco" and "Nuts", respectively). Chrissy put his name on her vote just as so the night that JP got blindsided.
• Anti-Villain: Despite the first five episodes showing why Joe was sketchy, rude and untrustworthy, episode six shows that the only reason he's playing so crazy is that he wants the money for his children to have better lives.
• Arch-Enemy: He and Ben go from adversaries to hate bitter enemies in episode 8 when Joe accuses Ben of using his time as a soldier to get into people's good graces, causing Ben to blow up at him for what seemed like 5 minutes straight. It is clear by Tribal Council that the two of them cannot stand each other. Episode 9 sees him pick up another one in Ashley, whose aggressive streak is brought out because Joe calls her the epitome of a goat (a do-nothing, float to the end player that is desirable to go to the end with because they look bad at Jury next to you), soon followed by Chrissy joining the list. As half the tribe is at the reward, Joe's presence at camp becomes unbearable for the both of them when he starts talking smack, getting angry and sharing the animosity because Joe will not stop running his mouth.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Joe's got a few shades of this, not knowing when to shut up, and making boisterous moves that backfire because he didn't take steps to avoid telegraphing his gameplay to quieter/cautious players like Chrissy, Ryan, or Ben. By Episode 9, it's gone full blast, where Chrissy is now sick of his trash talk and Ashley hates him for mouthing off to her face and calling her a goat.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Realized Mike is actually an impressive player when he trusted him to do something crazy at the tribal that got Cole sent home- where Mike suddenly got unusually cocky and self-destructive... all for the sake of busting out his own Hidden Immunity Idol (which Joe found twice), proving to Joe that they were indeed equals. Not only did he protect himself, but he protected Joe from the spotlight, and Joe recognized him as a serious and competent player and not a wimp and weak link like he originally thought. He also nodded in agreement in the thirteenth Tribal Council when Ben mentioned resumes in the game would soon be looked at, and gave a Game Face to the suggestion that people shouldn't be afraid to play hard (which he always did).
• Batman Gambit: In episode 4 of the season, Joe managed to really prove his salt in the game with one. He had planned to charm Devon into being his swing vote, but a huge stroke of luck allowed him to make a move without Devon being a factor in the following Tribal Council. That same day, he had openly declared he would vote out Ashley as a person he felt was the weak link on the new Levu tribe after they lost their first Immunity Challenge together and turned his back on Desi to make the chances of him being viewed as a snake even higher and thus hike his chances of being the only one on the chopping block, but would broker a deal to use his idol in exchange for her loyalty. When Devon turned out to have his vote blocked by a Secret Advantage played by Jessica, Joe then reasserted his alliance with Desi and enacted an impromptu blindside against Alan with flawless execution.
• Big Bad: Attained this status as of episode 4 by making the first big blindside of the season and going from Dead Man Walking to Karma Houdini. Then he really sealed the deal when he aped Russell Hantz's notoriously unlikable presence by pissing off people around his tribe and saying he didn't care if he made them mad.
• Big Eater: Orders two steaks and three deserts at the merge feast. What makes this amusing is that Cole was stunned you could order multiple helpings of the same courses, and he eats more than Joe or anybody this season put together.
• Born Lucky: Found two idols, and dodged elimination three times. He also got the white rock at a Reward Challenge where winning this Survivor lottery as the odd man out meant receiving a food reward without having to compete for it on the teams, and jurisdiction over the order of when each person would eat their serving- but when it was revealed to be a family portion, Joe decided to eat last at the shared reward just to be fair (and avoid making himself into a bigger target), and gave (phony) birthday boy Devon the first serve.
• The Bully: Mike considers him bully-like in their first encounters on Soko, and by the merge, Joe is being seen by most of the tribe as a bully on the playground.
• Commitment Issues: We learn about this in extra footage online and at the finale from Chrissy. Joe doesn't think marriage works... because his parents divorced when he was young. Chrissy used this fact to argue she got to know some of the players and was interested in who they were as people and not just as pawns.
• Death By Sigh Of Relief: What ultimately does him in. After joining forces with Lauren, Ashley, and Devon to blindside the Round Table Alliance, Joe assumes he is in a stable alliance of five due to the fact that they couldn't afford to lose him. What he didn't realize was that it was an alliance of six, as Ben was a double agent, and he wasn't needed anymore.
• Discard and Draw: After using up his Soko camp idol, Joe snags the last remaining one at the Levu camp right before the merge. Which he used immediately. Notably averted with a chance to get his third idol, because by then, Chrissy and Ryan prevented him from seeing a clue leading to it.
• Disc-Two Final Boss: Posed a huge threat during the pre-merge half of the season, until the Hero-Hustler alliance dethroned him, and he was eventually eliminated on Day 30.
• Does Not Like Spam: Raw potatoes make his stomach turn, enough that he demands they be cooked properly and even chucks them into the sand.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • The evening he decided to team up with Mike, Joe said "We wouldn't even be having this conversation if I had an idol right now." Later that night, Mike revealed he was actually in possession of one.
  • After Devon messed him up in an individual immunity challenge, he said, "You got me, Dev." Six days later and Devon completely blindsided him in the game proper and sent him off to the Jury.
• Family Man: Seen in Episode 6 where Joe's Hidden Depths come out into the open after he scores his second immunity idol. Joe doesn't think of Survivor like a game to have fun but more like work, and he is working to support his family.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Joe and Mike started off taking shots at each other but splitting them up on separate tribes made Joe's new grievance sponge Ashley and then Mike managed to become his buddy once they learned the Healers were being ganged up on.
• Four Is Death: He became the fourth member of the Jury upon being voted out and after the first four votes were read (two for Ryan courtesy of himself and Mike which Ryan cancelled out with his idol) and two for Ashley (scapegoat votes), every vote afterward was for him, and a majority of four votes- all issued from the new Final Four alliance- got him sent out of the game.
• Graceful Loser: Gave his fellow castaways a handshake and told them "Good game." with a smile when he finally got voted out.
• Grin of Audacity: Joe is constantly amused and smiling at the outrageous ways people react to his gameplay and when he gets people sent out of the game. Even after he joins the Jury, he is on the verge of cracking up at Mike for running Lauren aground and finishing her game by burning her idol.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Regardless of who Joe played his idol for in episode four, he and Desi were safe due to Jessica's intervention. If he played the idol on himself, Alan is sent home. If he played the idol on Desi, she's safe, and there would be a tie, which would automatically make him safe due to the fact Devon cannot vote, which means either Devon or Ashley would go home.
• "I'm Not Here to Make Friends": He implied this on the night where he hunted down his second idol because he said he treats the game like being at work instead of relaxing and getting close with people, but then outright declared this word-for-word in front of Chrissy and Ashley when he wouldn't stop digging for idols and started dishing out smack. He made it very clear he was not there to be liked, but to play the game.
• Indy Ploy: A STELLAR one. When it seemed like Joe was going to be the one going on the chopping block because Devon was the odd man out among two Healers and two Heroes as the lone Hustler and a swing vote, Devon revealed a Secret Advantage unknowingly passed along to him by Jessica. But it turned out to be an advantage for the Healers, as the Secret Advantage negated Devon's vote. With the swing vote no longer a factor, it was clear the Healers and Heroes would end up with a tie. Joe and Desi then used pure body language alone to affirm that the time was right for Joe to use his Hidden Immunity Idol. The Heroes obviously wanted him out, but Joe and Desi both wanted Alan out due to seeing him as a strong physical threat. With both of Joe's votes nullified, Alan was the only person whose votes against him counted and he was the only person eligible to go home.
• Karma Houdini: Joe has avoided the ax twice, the first time countering a vote against him and getting Alan out, the second time being caught in a re-vote to break a tie between Desi and himself, which went to Desi when Lauren abstained from voting through her newly-acquired advantage. The ax didn't fall until the Jury was up to three members and needed a fourth...
• Laser-Guided Karma: After Joe called Ashley a goat, in the following Immunity Challenge, Ashley failed before Joe. While sitting on the sidelines, Ashley warned Chrissy to watch her form. This made Devon curious enough to look at her, which broke his concentration and made him fail, and in turn, Joe's concentration was broken by Devon failing and he failed. He didn't realize it at the time, thinking Devon messed him up, but Ashley started it.
• The Napoleon: One of the shortest and most conniving castaways this season.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His cocky and boisterous tactics during the merge has resulted in both Jessica and Desi being voted out thanks to his doing.
• No Indoor Voice: Both Desi and Chrissy noticed how loud and obnoxious Joe can be, which makes him an easier target.
• Oh, Crap!: When he realizes that when he used up his second Hidden Immunity Idol, he played right into the hands of Chrissy, who had thought up Jessica as the safest bet to vote for if Joe was packing an idol. He used it up by accident. Later repeated when he thinks he's on top again with a solid alliance, but then sees his name coming up after the first four votes at his ouster.
• Papa Wolf: It's his love for his children that drives him to be ruthless on Survivor.
• Refuge in Audacity: When at the first Tribal Council after merge, Joe blatantly whipped out his Hidden Immunity Idol to broadcast to everybody that, yes, he was indeed packing another idol like they suspected, and he was going to use it. Although he had no votes cast for him at that tribal, the act of revealing it had a lot to do with it.
• Smug Snake: Claims he's the most manipulative and intelligent guy in his tribe as he's interrogating Mike, though Mike sees right through him and knows what he's trying to do. This is subverted in episode four, as Joe manages to save himself and Desi from elimination despite the two-to-three odds against them. He also mocks Ashley openly as a total goat.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Joe refuses to eat some food Desi cooked in episode 3, claiming it was undercooked. Then, rather than offer it to anyone else, he throws it away. Given how scarce food can be on Survivor, his reaction reeks of this.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He got too overconfident playing another Hidden Immunity Idol. His second idol may have stopped people from targeting him the night he used it, but didn't know Chrissy was ready to launch a Plan B to eliminate Jessica, and by showing everyone he had this idol, made it obvious to go with that plan and took away all the guesswork, when if he had avoided revealing his idol, he would have made their vote much trickier and Chrissy might have gone home instead (she had 5 votes against her and had Joe kept quiet and let himself be voted against and then play his idol, might have stopped Jessica from carrying the majority and deflected it to Chrissy instead). Instead, he helped send one of his fellow Healers out of the game and strengthened the hold of a Heroes and Hustlers pact to pick off the Healers.
• Well Played: Told the opposing side that voted off Jessica that the blindside they pulled was well-played.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Sells his vote to Lauren's alliance to blindside the Roundtable Alliance. He is then immediately blindsided because he is more trouble than he's worth.

John Paul "JP" Hilsabeck

Tribe: Levu → Soko → Solewa

Age: 28

From: Huntington Beach, California

Occupation: Firefighter

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• Achilles' Heel: Balance-based immunity challenges. JP just fell shy of victory whenever he had to compete in them, only ever achieving a personal best of second place in them. Lauren points out he's not good at them, but good at everything else.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 6 was JP's chance to shine, which saw him control his own fate at Tribal Council with a very solid argument that he was not a person who deserved to go home and prove to Ryan he would be worth keeping around.
• Big Brother Instinct: Episode nine secret scenes reveal that JP is playing for his younger sister.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: With his game over, JP gets really candid in his exit statement, saying that he was totally blindsided, "A couple people flipped on me- good for them", but thinking they pulled the trigger too soon, "but it is what it is."
• Dramatic Irony: The one big statement he made at Tribal Council in Episode 10 was that when you don't notice things happening in the game and think you're okay, that's when it's most likely to catch you by surprise. That night, he got eliminated. The episode made special note of that remark on purpose. He really needed to take his own advice more than he realized.
• Flat Character: JP has become this in the circles of Survivor fandom because of how one-dimensional he appears to be in general. Some people joke he's actually a mastermind in charge, but he's really just an uncomplicated person.
• The Generic Guy: What he's shaping up to be, due to being Out of Focus. Subverted in that this was a facet of portraying The Quiet One.
• Hidden Depths: They emerge in Episode 6. Some tribemates feared JP was acting like a lost puppy in the game in that he didn't seem to show any clear intuition of what was going on, but in truth, JP was simply keeping quiet and doing nothing remarkable to their faces. He was actually studying the game quietly and not letting on that he was actually very in tune with what was going on and only voiced important concerns when it mattered most- when it meant the difference between staying in the game or going home.
• Naked People Are Funny: Not by choice, but because of one paranoid Alan, JP went as far as to lay it all out in the open to prove without a shadow of a doubt he hadn't found a Hidden Immunity Idol. "JP Drops Trou" is sure to be an embarrassing search term associated with him now.
• Nerves of Steel: JP is shockingly patient and cool-headed, which is probably his greatest strength.
• Out of Focus: After the first episode. He's not gone to Tribal Council because he's been on the winning side four times in a row and there's been no real push to take a closer look at his character due to the attention being placed on tribes going through conflict, which Soko has managed to avoid.
  • Becomes an Enforced Trope as of Episode 6; it turns out JP has deliberately played a quiet game and the show has reflected this by keeping him in the background; as soon as it comes to light at the last Tribal Council before the merge, everyone is remarking how this was good for his game and JP himself admits this was part of his strategy.
  • Played straight in Episode 10. JP has no confessionals and says only one thing at Tribal Council without being prompted by Jeff. Once again, this is a case where a huge blindside is underway and the show has made a sharp turn far away from JP to avoid giving him away as the big target. Even his exit statement players always give at the close of every episode in front of the cameras is cut because his vote-off took place in a double feature night with two episodes. It's actually because he dropped the S-bomb in the middle of his exit statement and they couldn't put that to air.
• The Quiet One: Enforced; JP is trying to play a quiet game. It is noted in Episode 6 that JP doesn't say or do much in camp a lot of the time, and Jeff notes he is like granite in that respect. It really shows in Episode 9 when a tribal gets heated and Jeff remarks everyone had something to say and JP has only uttered a few indistinct things.
• Rule of Three: After losing his third consecutive balance-based immunity challenge, JP was socked from the game and became the third juror.
• Silent Bob: JP rarely talks about much beyond a few personal details about his home life, but then sometimes out of nowhere he offers his pearls of wisdom. Eventually subverted when he gets voted out and he finally cuts loose with his real personality.
• The Stoic: He sure doesn't emote much.
  • Not So Stoic: After he gets voted off, though? The Silent Bob act is over. The start of his exit statement is "DAMN!!! They got me good. They blindsided the s—t outta me...!"
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Played with. He was considered as a target by Ali to eliminate right before the merge when Yawa returns to Tribal Council one more time. JP then recognizes this and blows the door open on any intentions to get him out that night because the tribe is also looking ahead to the upcoming merge (most of them are paying attention to the game and recognize it is about time for it to happen) and JP realizes it is a common tactic to vote out the strong, then tells his tribe he has played quiet and avoided causing trouble and makes a good case to leave him alone by downplaying his appearance of a possible threat. Eventually, though, he was blindsided out of nowhere.
• Verbal Tic: "You know," "at the end of the day," and "and things like that," based on his preseason press and early confessionals.

Julian Cole Medders

Tribe: Soko → Yawa → Solewa

Age: 24

From: St. George, Utah

Occupation: Wilderness Therapy Guide

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• Action Survivor: Jessica was targeted over him on a night when he was slated to go out as an easier target, then a few days later, Cole won individual immunity when not doing so would have absolutely cemented his voting out.
• Aesop Amnesia: After being told it's a bad idea to eat food on his own, Cole mindlessly eats a cinnamon stick on his own. It was established that Cole didn't register he shouldn't do that. Later, when Cole is aware of his eating problem, he deliberately does this to spite everyone at a reward by eating his fill of a family-size portion.
• Ate It All: The thing that everyone immediately cites is the problem with keeping Cole around is that he devours supplies meant for the tribe to share and defeats the whole purpose of Survivor. While it's not on purpose at first, it eventually does get to that point, when Cole overate maliciously during a reward after having enough of the tribe's insults.
• Big Eater: To the point of mockery. Cole snacks on tons of food and grosses people out with how ungraceful and piggy he can be, and no one takes him seriously when he complains about a lack of food. He notes in Episode 7 he regularly consumes about 8,000 calories a day (whether he means it or not is anyone's guess), while average humans shoot for 2,000-2,500.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Cole has squealed twice in a row about hidden gameplay advantages and made them public knowledge. Justified, because he's doing that on purpose to advance his own position of trust in the game, but he doesn't realize Jessica is disappointed in him for that.
• Cerebus Retcon: Cole complaining about not getting enough to eat after seemingly eating the tribe out of the house and home stopped being funny the moment he flopped over from not getting the right amount/balance of food, causing his tribe to realize that Cole really was having issues with malnutrition.
• Deadpan Snarker: During the tribal that led to his elimination, Jeff noted how the conversation got really intense and drew attention to the fact that Cole had tried to shrink down in his seat as if to slip out of view, immediately putting all attention back on him. Cole responded with a tinny, "Thanks, Jeff."
• Determinator: Held out through a challenge involving balancing on a beam and keeping a statue held up by a stick against JP, both of whom struggled not to falter several times.
• Did Not Think This Through: Cole is the first person to spy the clue at his team's shared reward and tried to cover up the plate bearing the clue with the placemat. However, Chrissy, who was next to eat, found it weird that she didn't evidently have a plate and looked for a hidden clue, quickly seeing through his deception. Worse, Ryan also saw through it and did the one thing Cole should have done in the first place- hide the plate in the bushes so Joe couldn't find it.
• The Dog Bites Back: Quietly rebelling by eating too much of a shared reward and winning Individual Immunity was Cole's way of getting even with a group that seemed bound and determined to make him the subject of everything wrong with their tribe. He also took his time to berate the final three for using his appetite as a reason to target him, especially Ryan.
• Entitled Bastard: Justified. Cole gets fed up with everyone trashing him at camp and decides even though his reward is a family portion, he's going to eat as much as he wants, and subsequently is the first person to unveil the hidden clue on the plate with the spaghetti. But Laser-Guided Karma sees to it that Ryan snags the Hidden Immunity Idol first.
• Failed a Spot Check: Coupled with Dramatic Irony, as Cole is talking about looking for some kind of advantage to help protect him in the game after the merge, when his name is brought up as a target, Cole doesn't notice a tiny little bundle housing a scroll with some kind of advantage on the ground (which the cameras zoom in on and is shown glimmering with a special effect for emphasis). What makes this so bad is, had Cole actually found this, it might have stopped him from hunting an idol and causing a spectacle that resulted in several people pouncing on him.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: In the beginning of the game, Cole was set up to look very heroic, along with the lines of Malcolm and Joe. However, as the season has worn on, Cole has proven himself to be good at challenges only; His social game is atrocious as he is extremely insensitive to the needs and wants of others, he has to eat more than everyone else because he has no body fat to burn, which rubs everyone the wrong way, he can't keep a secret to save his life, and he seemingly has zero concepts of strategy. These have ensured that even though he is good at challenges, he is disrespected and disliked by most of his tribemates.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Impulsiveness. Cole has a complete inability to control himself in terms of telling secrets, food consumption, and recklessly searching for an idol in public. He was still in the game at the time of writing, but nobody wanted him around due to his thoughtless actions.
  • Gluttony. Though Cole's appetite sometimes does call for huge amounts of caloric intake, he eats so much that people get mad at him for running out camp supplies and turn against him as a liability.
• Graceful Loser: He took his elimination very well, shaking everyone's hand and smiling.
• Heroic RRoD: Collapsed in Episode 6 from lack of nutrients. He stood up and passed out so suddenly he didn't even realize what happened!
• Hero with an F in Good: It's obvious that Cole wants to be and thinks of himself as a good guy, but his selfishness, impulsiveness, and insensitivity have revealed him to just suck at occupying that role.
• Honor Before Reason: Sorta. It was a nice thing to do, but maybe correcting Joe on what the idol clue meant and helping him find it wasn't the smartest thing to do. However, Cole is also aware that this puts Joe in a place of huge power and unwilling to let it stay that way. Ultimately, it doesn't come back to bite him when they get split up in the tribe swap and Joe uses his idol in the next Tribal Council, but Cole may have to deal with the repercussions of that later when the tribes merge if Joe is still in the game/has done anything to implode Cole's game or that of the Healers from afar.
• Idiot Hero: Good intentions and genuinely heroic profession aside, Cole has zero social graces and understanding of strategy.
• Jabba Table Manners: Cole digs into mason jars of jam with his fingers, licks and smacks his fingers clean, licks spoons and anything else clean, and gobbles down his food noisily. By episode 5 the new Yawa tribe is getting grossed out from his slovenly habits, especially Lauren, who brings it up that he's behaving like a pig, and hopes it becomes an excuse to vote him off if it comes to it.
• Leeroy Jenkins: When he saw Chrissy apparently digging at the Solewa tribe flag for the Hidden Immunity Idol (rather, she was hiding the spot Ryan already extracted it from), Cole rushed over there and caused the tribe to flood the beach, all looking for it in vain. And people thought he had it.
• The Load: His tribemates on Yawa feel like he has tendencies to become a liability for doing things that may sabotage their chances of moving ahead in the game, and see his unpleasant spectacle of overeating and passing out because he requires an excessive amount of food to stay energized as reason to vote him out later, with Mike noting how the scales of the pecking order could gradually tip against Cole's favor. However, with a merge looming, that happens a lot faster than expected.
• Loose Lips: Blabbed about Joe having the idol right after telling Jessica he and Joe found it to Desi and Roark, much to the annoyance of Jessica. Then he made it even worse for himself by blabbing about Jessica's newfound Secret Advantage to Ben, an outsider brought into their tribe who they couldn't trust who then told everybody and left Jessica feeling burnt by Cole.
• Mr. Fanservice: The man is extremely ripped, and Jessica has certainly noticed his good looks.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It actually helped Joe to have his idol revealed to Desi and to reveal Jessica's Secret Advantage, because Jessica blocked Devon's vote on the new Levu tribe, and Joe, he went ahead and told Desi about his idol anyway after they were relegated to Levu as the only two Healers there and he was able to stage a coup against Alan by using the idol with Desi playing along with his move. Then Joe just replaced his idol while on Levu and would arrive at the merge reequipped with a new one, with Cole none the wiser.
• Oblivious to Hints: Has no idea his bad manners and eating for himself are upsetting other castaways, and on a more literal note, did not investigate the supplies at the merge tribe's site well enough to spot a scroll tucked away far below (though given how tall Cole is, it's easy for him to miss). Subverted when he actually saw a clue to an idol, but double subverted when he failed to hide it well and got to the location too late, triggered a rush of idol hunters, and became a sponge for accusations he found the idol.
• Pass the Popcorn: Whenever the Jury is gathered, Cole gawks at any Tribal Council involving the ruination of a former Round Table alliance member.
• The Scapegoat: Pegged to have a Hidden Immunity Idol due to making it obvious he was going to one's location and caused several people to rush there after him and didn't find it. It was actually in Ryan's possession, who snatched it covertly.
• Smarter Than You Look: Immediately caught on that Chrissy and Ryan found the hidden clue to the Solewa camp's hidden idol through their whispering and called them out on it.
• Too Dumb to Live: Partly desperation-driven. After Jessica is voted off and a lot of conversation that he is on the chopping block, right in front of his tribe, Cole suddenly makes a mad dash for the sand and digs frantically for a Hidden Immunity Idol that had been buried under the Solewa tribe flag after spotting a clue printed on the plate with the family dinner portion reward, without realizing Chrissy and Ryan were too smart to fool and actively scouring the reward. But it is so obvious to the others who are witnessing it what he is doing that he actually gets into a dogpile fighting off other tribemates who want their hands on the idol themselves, resulting in a rare moment of physical fighting (mostly wrestling to grab it first) in Survivor and proves there are disturbing consequences if you try to find one out in the open- people grappling with you for it. Even more Egregious in that he missed out on a secret scroll hidden in the new Solewa's supplies and that fell into Lauren's possession.

Desiree Janine "Desi" Williams

Tribe: Soko → Levu → Solewa

Age: 27

From: Newport News, Virginia

Occupation: Physical Therapist

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• Action Girl: Easily the toughest of the women when it comes to challenges, and won the first individual immunity challenge. This ends up being a factor in her elimination come to the next episode.
• Amazonian Beauty: Desi is a very beautiful woman who has participated in beauty pageants, and is very athletic and strong. Joe even makes note of her strength in the first episode.
• Berserk Button: Having her cooking insulted and wasted by Joe gets her very irritable and becomes a reason to think about voting him out.
• Break the Badass: Finds herself in a tiebreaker situation with Joe, and she is the one who gets flipped on. She leaves the game wiping away tears and crying in her exit statement, unable to think of much to say because she is too overwrought.
• Enemy Mine: With Joe in episode four, as they ended up together on new Levu. She assisted him in blindsiding a player native to an opposing tribe after Joe worked to earn her trust back by agreeing to use the idol to protect her. When Devon's swing vote was no longer an issue, Desi let Joe play the idol for himself and they got rid of Alan by default when only their two votes for him counted.
• Foreshadowing: Ben mentioned that somebody was going to cry after the merge when he believed the game really begins. It ended up being Desi when she was the one brought down by a re-vote.
• Honor Before Reason: Desi knew it was between her and Joe and could have prevented a tie by voting against him. She chose not too, as she wanted some honor in her game, and Joe had been one of the few people she could trust. This resulted in her elimination.
• Out of Focus: In comparison to all the other castaways, Desi's edit wasn't as visible. While she does have her moments at tribal and is a strong player, she has only a handful of confessionals.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Desi goes into full pageant regalia when she returns to the Ponderosa, donning makeup and mystical earrings. She showed up to her first Jury sit-in wearing a fancy green dress and pretty makeup. It left Devon speechless.
• A Taste of Defeat: After being Voted Off the Island, Desi, a pageant girl who had spent most of the game up until then in a position of confidence and success, states she's not used to losing.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Desi turned into a target after showing a lot of strength in challenges and being a Healer, all of whom Chrissy incited a plan against to get rid of. Her alliance to Joe also seemed to contribute to her downfall, as Joe was the most vocal enemy against the Round Table alliance.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Desi had probably the most devastating question to ask out of anybody in the Jury. She trounced Chrissy for the whole tribe's lack of foresight to stop Ben from going out to find more idols. She was very right in that they didn't put someone on watch or run shifts as they slept to make sure he didn't go out hunting and were so complacent that they thought there would be no more idols left to be found in the final days of the game. Desi, of course, voted for Ben.

Voted Out

Jessica Lauren Johnston

Tribe: Soko → Yawa → Solewa

Age: 29

From: Louisville, Kentucky

Occupation: Nurse Practitioner

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• Alliterative Name: Jessica Johnston.
• Amazonian Beauty: Jessica is a pretty girl, and her body is incredibly toned. Joe makes note of her strength in the first episode.
• Bittersweet Ending: Post-elimination, Jess admits she is upset to be the unexpected target of the new Solewa tribe, but she hopes she can still go on a date with Cole. Post-episode interviews reveal that while they haven't gotten back together yet due to their respective careers, they're still willing to do so.
• Celebrity Resemblance: No, that is not the previous contestant Andrea Boehlke◊ in the picture, although it can be hard to tell them apart. When Jess has no eyeshadow on, it's easier to see the difference.◊
• Celibate Hero: Played with; she's just waiting for the right one to come along. Mentioned in episode three that she is a virgin, coming from a very religious background.
• Disappointed in You: Cole has let her down twice by failing to contain vital knowledge about gameplay advantages confidential between them. She got over it after a few days.
• Dramatic Irony: Jessica's biggest move was one where Joe played his first Hidden Immunity Idol and used it to his benefit. Her elimination saw Joe play another idol and waste it by accident, after over half of Solewa agreed to vote as Jessica as an easy boot because Joe having an idol might put a hitch in getting rid of him and it would help to make it easier to be rid of Cole.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Took notice of Cole's good looks in the first episode, and has since formed an alliance with him based on this first impression.
• Fatal Flaw: Her overconfidence, which she reflects on in an interview with Us Magazine.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: A variation as they're both healers; but Jessica is a nurse practitioner, and seeing Cole pass out from malnutrition drove her to really care about him in the game and overlook his past shortcomings.
• Graceful Loser: Recognized that pining for Cole cost her the game and took it quite well.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She is very kind-hearted when it comes to people who are in need and very blonde-headed.
• Hospital Hottie: Jess is quite the beautiful nurse.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Blocking the vote that might have been used against Joe spurred him to use his first Hidden Immunity Idol to blindside Alan. Joe managing to find and use this idol became public knowledge after the merge and made Chrissy think to go after an easier target if Joe was sporting another idol, that target being Jessica.
• Love Hurts: In episode 4, she feels betrayed and is crying in her confessional and wondering if it is alright to fall for someone she gave a kiss to after having her trust crushed, when she learns Cole told Ben and Lauren about her Secret Advantage.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Despite the fact that Cole had previously told other players about Joe's secret that the two of them had, Jessica still elected to tell him about her secret advantage, which Cole then later promptly told everyone in an attempt to make alliances. This causes Jessica to break down in tears, and later when Mike finds an idol with her, she elects to keep it a secret from Cole this time.
• Ship Tease: She is very sweet on Cole, and even gave him a smooch on the cheek.
• Too Dumb to Live: Downplayed, as Jessica knew Cole was alienating potential allies, as she had told him to go apologize to Ben for offending him, but had she distanced herself from him post-swap and post-merger, she might have had a better chance to escape the vote.

Alexandrea Lynn "Ali" Elliott

Tribe: Yawa → Soko

Age: 24

From: North Hollywood, California

Occupation: Celebrity Assistant

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• Always Someone Better: Ali was desperate to sweep JP out of the game before he could gain a foothold because he was outpacing everyone in challenges. Unluckily for her, JP also had a social game hidden away that he revealed when inquiries were made, and he was very upfront and honest about acknowledging how the tribe felt about him. Ali's own social game had been pockmarked with dishonesty and a few attempts to bolster control of the game for herself despite what the majority wanted, which was her downfall. Eventually, Devon, a fellow Hustler, did what she couldn't do and got JP out simply by playing a quieter game of strategy and social guile, using a vote against JP as an excuse to blindside part of the Round Table alliance.
• Break the Cutie: Her final episode saw her closest ally Ryan not only break away from her but also vote her out, which causes her to leave in tears.
• Can't Vote You Out, Still Need You: Mentioned this in regards to her relationship with Patrick at the start of episode three, but ultimately subverted, as she elected to vote out Patrick anyway.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Pre-tribe switch, Ali was an imposing from within her home turf. She appeared to be the most dangerous strategic threat among the Hustlers due to her ability to seemingly form bonds with anyone and her willingness to stab anyone's back. However, she suddenly found herself outmaneuvered by a much more strategically dangerous force in the form of Ryan, who has since supplanted her position as one of the most dangerous strategists in the game. After the tribe switch acquainted him with Chrissy, who he had selected as a recipient of the Super Idol, Ali lost her management over the game and couldn't gain the trust of the new people in Soko, ultimately rolling down to the bottom and out of the game without making it to the merge.
• The Eeyore: Comes across as this, as she is the only member of her tribe shown in confessionals to be disparaging their early game performance.
• Everyone Went to School Together: While not mentioned on the show, she and Patrick were classmates and neighbors at Auburn University.
• Hypocrite: She's shown to be shocked and angry at Ryan's betrayal, but she herself had turned on Patrick quite easily, even though they were real-life friends.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Ali helped to fool Patrick into thinking Yawa would keep him before voting him out. After swapping to Soko, the group there seemed to go with the idea of voting JP out, but then JP proved himself more trustworthy than Ali and she went home instead.
• The Leader: A rare female example on Survivor, as up until she switches from Yawa to Soko, Ali is seemingly the one calling the shots on her tribe, and everyone goes to her with their plans and troubles.
• Ms. Fanservice
• Properly Paranoid: Ali was immediately fearful she would go home after Soko lost a critical Immunity Challenge right before the sixth boot, which is traditionally the last one before merge and Jury commence and the final opportunity for a tribe to eliminate a player who is seen as either untrustworthy or very strong, narrowing it down to her and JP. And despite her efforts in eliminating JP to save herself, Ali's paranoia was proven correct and she was voted out 3-1.
• Sore Loser: Ali's last words expressed disappointment in her tribemates when they decided to keep JP over her, after warning them he would be a very strong physical threat.
  Ali: "Good luck beating him."
• The Social Expert: She talks about how she succeeds in her job through her social skills. She uses her social skills while in the game to try to form relationships with everyone she can.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Ali gets the idea to use Simone as an ally because she's very compliant and trustworthy, but she doesn't get a chance to go forward with it because the Hustlers lose the next immunity challenge and decide Simone must go, and Ali rolls along with it.

Roark Elizabeth Luskin

Tribe: Soko

Age: 27

From: Santa Monica, California

Occupation: Social Worker

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• An Elimination In The Limelight: Episode five showed a lot of Roark and gave her more depth, however, she was the one blindsided and sent home in the end.
• Ascended Fan: Before appearing on the show, Roark frequently appeared on the Survivor with All the Fixings podcast, which is hosted by former contestants Corinne Kaplan and Max Dawson.
• Dead Star Walking: Jeff noted, "even Roark" got eliminated early in the game at the finale, as she was hyped up as a big name pre-season. Roark shrugged glumly at that.
• Hypocrite: She wanted an all-girls alliance with the female healers and Ali, but didn't want Chrissy in it even though she would have been willing to join in. She also mentioned that the day they had to go to tribal was the first time Chrissy ever spoke to her, but Chrissy called her out on it by saying Roark didn't talk to her either and that it was a two-way street.
• Informed Attribute: Chrissy calls her a strategic mastermind, but from what was shown, Roark's strategic and social play ended up backfiring on her when she can't convincingly make Chrissy feel safe.
• Irony: Roark placed 14th, the same place Max Dawson, the co-host of the podcast she appeared on, placed back on Worlds Apart. Even more fitting since both were in casts of 18 and originated from yellow-colored tribes.
• Jack of All Stats: Roark is a balanced player, who does well in the strategic, social and physical game, but not enough to keep herself in the game.
• Master of None: Roark is both smart and competitive, which is why it's hard to get a read on unique traits about her. She can perform both tasks suitably, but not to an astonishing degree that she could offset a movement to remove her from the game because she didn't make it clear enough that she was reliable, which is what her tribe really sought moving ahead.
• Out of Focus: Zigzagged and justified. Roark has gotten a few confessionals but not any real defining moments in the show within the first four episodes due to avoiding Tribal Council. Most of her big moves are her competition skills, but because challenges are over quickly and split the attention of the cameras between everyone, Roark doesn't see much exposure after the first episode until the tribe swap.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Roark's hairstyle is sometimes a braided ponytail and she has a very take charge personality.

Alan Sheffield Ball

Tribe: Levu

Age: 31

From: Houston, Texas

Occupation: NFL Player

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• Accidental Truth: On various occasions, sometimes even veering into Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • Assumed there was a power couple in the group and was correct on that, except instead of Ashley and JP like he thought, it was Chrissy and Ben.
  • Ashley later then proves him right by admitting her attraction to JP but is frustrated now that she can't act on it due to Alan's accusations and fear of validating his perception.
  • Knew somebody had an idol but accused the wrong people, and the only idol in play at that time is now defunct.
  • Worried someone would use an idol to get him out of the game in his initial tribe, without realizing it could also happen if he was grouped with the wrong person at the wrong time following a tribe swap and someone found an idol in a different camp.
• All for Nothing: Alan's mistrust over his tribe having an idol was proved to be this, as later it was shown that the new tribe member Joe was the one with an idol, which he used to send Alan home.
• Celebrity Survivor: Played in the NFL for nine years.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: While he may have had a chance had it been the immunity idol alone, Alan had no chance of coming out of tribal unscathed due to Jessica's decision to use her Secret Advantage to block Devon's vote anonymously, which prevented him from acting as a swing vote. Joe and Desi took advantage of this, using the idol to negate Joe's votes sending Alan home.
• Didn't See That Coming: Due to Joe had stated he would be voting against Ashley, Alan and Ashley were shown to be stunned when Alan ended up being the one to go home.
• Dramatic Irony: Alan was desperate to find out if anybody on his own tribe discovered a Hidden Immunity Idol and flushed it out. Turns out that right after the tribe swap, he got paired up with somebody who did have an idol from an entirely different camp and took advantage of a blocked swing vote to blindside Alan.
• Elimination By Irony: In his first tribe, Alan was paranoid that somebody had an idol and was afraid of being blindsided. Post-swap, that is exactly what happened.
• Enemy Mine: He and Ashley didn't get along initially, but both agreed to work together against the two Healers after a tribe swap. Though it didn't pan out, as Alan was voted out not too long after.
• Eye Pop: His eyes tend to bulge out a lot when he gets freaked out.
• Four Is Death: Alan was the fourth castaway eliminated and the first major blindside of the season.
• Graceful Loser: Despite how paranoid and loud he was in the game, Alan took his elimination gracefully and admitted he was outplayed.
• Meaningful Name: His last name is Ball, which is fitting because he played football for a living.
• The Paranoiac: Alan starts dipping into this very quickly, because no matter how many times he's told nobody has found a hidden immunity idol, it isn't enough to convince him, and it starts to make him look very untrustworthy.
• Sanity Slippage: The paranoia of the game is already getting to him, as he had JP strip naked on night two on the suspicion that he was hiding an idol.
  Alan: I'm not crazy- I'm confident!
• Starter Villain: He essentially functioned as the main antagonist of the early Heroes storyline, with his presence serving to disrupt the Heroes' unity, but a combination of the swap placing him on a tribe with the far more dangerous Joe knocked him out in the early game.

James Patrick Bolton

Tribe: Yawa

Age: 24

From: Auburn, Alabama

Occupation: Small Business Owner

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• Death Glare: Upon being voted out. Gives a pretty frightening one to his tribe, but it's likely directed at Ali.
• Everyone Went to School Together: While not mentioned on the show, he and Ali were classmates and neighbors at Auburn University.
• Freudian Slip: Admits he trusts only most of the people in his tribe, and then quickly tried to backtrack and say he meant everyone as soon as he was receiving weird looks. While that slip-up didn't result in him going home that night, it ended up factoring in the next elimination.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Everyone on his tribe is annoyed by him, and even his closest ally Ali is easily irritated by him. This ends up causing his ouster in episode three.
• The Gadfly: He always wants to have fun and party all the time and do as he pleases, even if it annoys others. Ryan notices this is bad for the overall tribe dynamic because he knows Patrick will start to wear on people's nerves very quickly.
• Glory Hound: Lauren accused him of this, as Patrick refused to step back and let someone else take over in episode three's immunity challenge, which ended up causing the Hustlers to lose. It ultimately ended up playing a factor in his elimination.
• Informed Ability: The tribe's initial reason for keeping Patrick over Simone was that he would be useful in challenges, but come episode three, and he single-handedly loses an immunity challenge. The tribe then votes him out, 4-to-1, with his vote against Lauren completely shut down.
• Keet: Shown to be hyperactive and energetic at camp, to the annoyance of some of his tribemates.
• Manchild: Lauren remarks that if you tell him not to do something, he'll do it anyway like an overgrown child.
• Oh, Crap!: When he realizes he's going home.
• Smug Smiler: Has a bad habit of grinning during tense situations because he believes he's safe. It was quickly wiped off his face when he realized he was going home episode three.
• Sore Loser: His last words before leaving Tribal Council were "you guys are awful," and his final words after being voted out were used to hope Ali, Devon, and Ryan wouldn't succeed further because they are liars and they didn't keep their word to him.
• Why Did It Have To Be Crabs?: Patrick is absolutely terrified of crabs, to the point that they make him shriek like a little girl. He's trying to face this fear by coming onto the show.

Simone Tran Nguyen

Tribe: Yawa

Age: 25

From: New York, New York

Occupation: Diversity Advocate

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• The Corruptible: Other Hustlers noticed Simone was easy to manipulate and a good idea for a subordinate, but her bad performance in challenges was too steep a drawback to keep her.
• A Death in the Limelight: After an invisible first episode, she got two confessionals the next week before being voted out second.
• Hope Spot: The episode where she is voted out seems to lead viewers into thinking Patrick will get the boot because he's the one last spoken out against right before the Tribal Council, and even the episode description notes his game might be in trouble for his annoying behavior, but Simone's the actual boot.
• Like Is, Like, a Comma: Simone sprinkles a lot of things she says with "like", leaning on Verbal Tic.
• The Load / The Millstone: Although she had a good social game going, Simone was noted for not contributing much to the rest of the Hustlers, and being the reason they bombed the signpost immunity challenge when she couldn't act fast. She got completely outvoted by the rest of the tribe, who realized they'd be better off competition-wise for the long haul with Patrick, even though he could be irritating. Her poor showing in challenges was just too worrisome for them, particularly Ryan, who wanted to keep Patrick at their first Tribal Council because he was a very strong competitor.
• Toilet Humor: Much like another first boot from a red tribe, the most notable part of Simone's run was her taking an aqua dump.
• Tragic Keepsake: Defied. Simone left camp without taking any of the field clothes she wore upon arrival, and the guys are very quick to start messing around with them in the next episode and Ryan jests that in a way, she's managed to become useful to her tribe.
• Valley Girl: Subverted; she has the voice of one but is actually quite intelligent.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Didn't get much airtime before her ouster.

Katrina Diana "Trina" Radke

Tribe: Levu

Age: 46

From: Excelsior, Minnesota

Occupation: Olympian

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• Action Mom: While not really getting the chance to show it off in the game, Katrina once was an Olympic swimmer who won gold medals.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Katrina once had a difficult battle with mononucleosis that was so bad that she needed a handicap sticker while driving.
• Graceful Loser: Katrina is happy to have at least been on the show, even if her run lasted only 3 days. And her goodbye statement is, "I will always be an Olympian."
• Out of Focus: Received just one confessional before being voted out.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Thanks to being voted out first.