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The Tribes
Ika
Left to Right, (Zach Wurtenberger, Drea Wheeler, Tori Meehan, Romeo Escobar, Rocksroy Bailey & Swati Goel
- Amazon Brigade: The women of the tribe (Drea, Tori, and Swati) are all physically capable women who pull their weight during the challenges and at times do more than some of the men, who in contrast joke about having a Skinny Guys Alliance.
- Animal Motif: Ika's main emblem is a fish.
- Color Motif: Blue.
- Dwindling Party: Although Ika started the individual phase with four members (as with Vati and Taku), they started losing members around the final ten mark. Both Rocksroy and Tori were voted out on Day 17, and with Drea voted out a few days later, Romeo becomes the last member against a dominant alliance.
- Team Dad: Rocksroy, who is a stay-at-home dad and acts both fatherly and bossy to the younger tribemates both at camp and in challenges.
- Team Mom: Drea, who initially took on this role, bonding with the older tribemates and taking care of the younger ones.
- Those Two Guys: Romeo and Zach, with their short-lived Skinny Guys alliance.
- Younger and Hipper: Initially. While the other tribes have one tribemate who functions as the younger sibling, this tribe is notable for half of them bonding over Harry Potter and singing the Survivor Ancient Voices theme. The older tribemates are not amused by this.
Taku
Left to Right, (Marya Sherron, Jackson Fox, Lindsay Dolashewich, Maryanne Oketch, Jonathan Young & Omar Zaheer
- The Ace: After losing Jackson and Marya as their two Sacrificial Lion members within the first three contestants out, all of the remaining four manage to make it all the way to the final six of the game while the other two tribes are brought down to one member each. Their streak of no vote outs finally ends when Omar is voted out at final six.
- Animal Motif: Taku's main emblem is a hawkbill sea turtle.
- Badass Crew: After the loss of Jackson and Marya, the remaining Taku Four absolutely dominate the game. All four made final six, and Maryanne went on to win the whole game.
- Color Motif: Orange.
- David vs. Goliath: Serves as the Goliath during the pre-merge, with Jonathan specifically being called Goliath. Despite having less numbers early on, Jonathan's physical prowess in challenges has them finishing immunity challenges long before the other tribes.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Taku Four.
- Phlegmatic: Lindsay
- Choleric: Jonathan
- Melancholic: Omar
- Sanguine: Maryanne
- Sacrificial Lion: Jackson after being pulled from the game after 48 hours, which leads to the tribe's next immunity win. Marya as well, to a lesser extent. Her elimination brings the tribe down to 4 members who band together due to their dwindling numbers.
Vati
Left to Right, (Lydia Meredith, Chanelle Howell, Jenny Kim, Mike Turner, Daniel Strunk & Hai Giang)
- A House Divided: Their very first tribal council led to fractures and lines drawn throughout the entire tribe, with all tribemembers feeling blindsided and betrayed. Two tribemembers did not vote and were outed. A deadlock vote occurred, leaving two members having to debate on which member is eliminated or to go to a random rock draw. Their strongest puzzle solver gets eliminated, and their distrust continued into their second tribal which once again did not result in a unanimous vote.
- Animal Motif: Vati's main emblem is a crab.
- Butt-Monkey: Daniel dislocates his shoulder in the very first challenge. Their next two Tribal Councils were spent sowing distrust into the group.
- Cast Full Of Queer: Hai is gay, and Lydia and Chanelle are both bisexual, making Vati the tribe with the highest percentage of LGBT members in Survivor history.
- Color Motif: Green.
- Dwindling Party: Although Vati started the individual phase with four members (as with Ika and Taku), they quickly lose Lydia and Channelle, leaving Hai and Mike as the only two remaining members. With Hai eliminated at the Final 8, Mike remains the only member of Vati left.
- The Load: Daniel. After dislocating his shoulder in the first immunity challenge, the rest of the tribe cover for him while he sits out of most of the subsequent challenges. He also seemingly is unable to carry his weight during Tribal Councils.
- The Power of Friendship: Subverted. There was a lot of talk about all the members getting along well, everyone being emotionally supportive, and wanting to be friends after the game. This comes to a head by the first Tribal Council were multiple people are betrayed, and despite talks about friendship, they are unable to make a unified decision.
The Sole Survivor
Maryanne Oketch
Tribe: Taku
Age: 24
From: Ajax, Ontario
Occupation: Seminary Student
Vote: 7-1-0
- Advantage Ball: Gains an Extra Vote. She later finds the Beware Advantage.
- Always Someone Better: She was this to Romeo. Both wanted to play under the radar games, but while Romeo’s didn't really work, leading to him being constantly seen as a possible vote, Maryanne was extremely successful in her own gambit, keeping herself from getting targeted and keeping anyone from realizing she was a threat until she was ready to reveal herself and yet still managing to appear non-threatening to be taken to the end, which ultimately won her the game.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Can come off as this, especially when her extrovert energy contrasts with her older and tired tribemates.
- Ascended Fan: She was active on the Survivor subreddit years before she played, and even created the subreddit census.
- Aside Glance: Looks at the camera
in annoyance as she watches Mike, Romeo and Jonathan try to solve the immunity challenge advantage clue. - Badass Adorable: Maryanne is a quirky, bubbly, and cute young woman, but she's also very smart and manages to blindside Omar and eventually win the game.
- Beware the Silly Ones: She may be a hyperactive and energetic young woman, but she manages to come up with an idea to get out the biggest strategical threat in the game, and pulls it off.
- Born Lucky: Despite her being paranoid and looking for an idol, her tribemates still opt to save her over Marya. She then gains an extra vote, and finds the Beware Advantage the next day. Continues later when she plays an idol for moral reasons, and immediately finds the idol again the next day with no strings attached.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's quirky and bubbly, but also surprisingly intelligent and good at public speaking.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: After she gets her extra vote and her first idol, she goes on to tell her whole tribe about them.
- Chekhov's Gun: Her Extra Vote. This is what helps her eliminate Omar.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Maryanne is quite the eccentric space cadet and at times, seems to happily live in her own little world. Mike even joked "There's normal, and then there's Maryanne".
- The Cutie: She has an extremely bubbly disposition and optimistic attitude. Even her very first scene is her gushing about how thrilled she is to be on Survivor. She also seems to be a really Nice Girl, audibly sobbing and seeming heartbroken over Jackson leaving despite only knowing him for 48 hours, showing that it doesn’t take her very long to form strong emotional bonds.
- Ditzy Genius: She's very bubbly and hyper, but manages to pull off a massive blindside by voting out Omar with the help of her Extra Vote.
- Genki Girl: Has boundless energy that never stops. By Day 5, the starvation and exhaustion have dampened her tribemate's spirits, while she is still excitable and talks a lot.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Almost never swears and often uses substitutes for swearing such as, “Fudge”, “Shiz”, “Fiddlesticks” and even “Shizzlesticks”.
- Guile Hero: While a competent challenge performer, Maryanne's true strength in game lies in her intelligence, strong grasp of the tribe dynamics, and her excellent public speaking skill.
- The Hero: Fits this trope the most of the season, being a consistently positive presence who is universally liked and is the one to take out the resident Big Bad Omar.
- Hidden Depths: For all her bubbliness, Maryanne occasionally demonstrates signs of distressingly low self-esteem, but also very high emotional intelligence.
- History Repeats: Her win parallels Erika's from just last season: being Canadian women of color who won against two men in a 7-1-0 jury vote, and were brought to the Final 3 by the eventual zero-vote finalists (Xander and Romeo)
- Internal Reveal: When she pulls out her idol at Final Tribal Council. The entire jury is shocked, but the viewers already knew that she had an idol.
- Improperly Paranoid: Panics and looks for an idol, reasoning that that is what people do when they are scared. Despite being caught, the tribe opts to eliminate the older and more mature Marya instead.
- Large Ham: Her incredibly intense reaction to Jackson being sent home after knowing him for only 48 hours, along with the glimpse of Jeff’s mildly annoyed expression while witnessing it, became one of the season’s first memes.
- Chops wood like she is swinging an axe in a horror movie, complete with crazy impressions.
- Jeff enjoys letting her talk as her energy keeps going on and on.
- Last of Her Kind: The sole member of Taku in the Final 3 after Omar, Lindsay, and Jonathan were taken out in quick session after the Final 6.
- Love at First Sight: Describes Zach as "looking like all the white guys she has had a crush on", and is visibly crestfallen after he is eliminated. Jokes about maybe them developing something after the game.
- Loved by All: Everybody likes Maryanne, so much so that only one member of the jury doesn't vote for her at final tribal council thanks to her kind demeanor and genuine skill.
- Nice Girl: Upon learning Omar is Muslim and will be taking time daily for his religious prayers, she weaves a mat for him to use while he kneels. She is also genuinely kind and friendly in general, especially to other players who were perceived at outcasts such as Tori and Romeo. This ultimately ends up helping her win the game, when Romeo chooses to bring her to the end over Jonathan and Mike, who he has duke it out in fire.
- Obfuscating Insanity : Her strategy was seeming more crazy than she actually was so no one could take her seriously and she could sweep in the final 3.
- Odd Friendship: With Mike, which only started to develop near the end but ended up very impactful. Especially when, out of all the people he's played with, she's the only one he's ever kept his word for by honoring his deal to play his idol for her at Final Five.
- Plucky Girl: Has lots of energy and is very optimistic.
- Sole Survivor: The forty-second.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Uses her immunity idol after she and Drea talk about racism in the show even though she doesn't expect to be voted out to show that she is not just "playing the racism card" to make sure she doesn't get eliminated. She immediately finds a new idol in the next episode.
- Took a Level in Badass: Young, eager Maryanne started out the game on the bottom of the tribe, who only kept her around to use her many advantages she found that she shared with them. Come the merge, she becomes much more savvy and and self-aware, even keeping the secret of her second immunity idol from her allies. And then come episode 12, and she formulates an incredibly risky plan to get Omar out and it works. This ultimately results in her winning the game.
- Wham Line: Has not one but two of these.
- The first of these is when Maryanne tells Omar she was the one who masterminded his blindside.Omar: [Shocked] You did it?Maryanne: I did.
- The second of these is when she reveals she had an idol at Final Tribal Council. Her revealing she had this shocked the jury and told them that she had more control than she let on, it also told them that she could have saved Lindsay, her ally but also the biggest threat to win, at the Final 5 if she wanted to and it told the jury that Mike wasted playing his idol for her at the Final 5 as Maryanne could have played her own idol at the Final 5 anyway.Maryanne: I kept the only secret in this game. I actually, after your vote-out, Tori had the merge idol. [pulls out the idol and the note]
- The first of these is when Maryanne tells Omar she was the one who masterminded his blindside.
The Runners-Up
Mike Turner
Tribe: Vati
Age: 57
From: Hoboken, New Jersey
Occupation: Retired Firefighter
Vote: 7-1-0
- Advantage Ball: Finds the three-way idol. Does not activate it after consulting with his alliance, but eventually does so after finding out that Drea and Maryanne found theirs'.
- Berserk Button: Lying to him. He tends to have This Is Unforgivable! reactions whenever someone does it.
- Best Friend: Seemed to consider Jenny his closest friend out of all of his tribemates, making it all the more tragic that she ended up being the tribe’s first boot and, due to his unactivated idol taking away his ability to vote, he was powerless to stop it from happening.
- Birds of a Feather: He quickly bonds with Jonathan and Rocksroy due to their shared propensity for strength and taking fatherly roles within their tribes.
- Boisterous Bruiser: The most physically capable person on his tribe. Also talks a lot.
- Brains and Brawn: Forms an alliance with Daniel specifically to become this, with Mike acting as the muscle. After Daniel's betrayal and Jenny's elimination, Mike forms this instead with Hai.
- Bruiser Witha Soft Center: While not on the same level as Jonathan, he is also the the most physical member of his tribe yet there is a lot of talk of him wanting to be friends with people outside of the game. This is to the point of Chanelle accusing Daniel of appealing to Mike's soft center when in trouble.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Throughout his time in the game, Mike made allies of nearly everyone and betrayed all but two players: Jonathan and Maryanne.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He’s infamous for saying several goofy and nonsensical, yet hilarious, things throughout the season, such as “There’s no kumbaya. The K left, the umba left, it’s now holycrapaya”, “We’re going to cut the snake off the head tonight”, “Where art thou Romeo? That’s where Romeo art thou”, and “I’m in, girl” while agreeing to an all-male alliance.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Despite being at odds with Lydia and Hai, after Hai successfully manages to get Daniel to flip on Mike's number one ally Jenny, Mike lands on his feet and ends up forming an alliance with the very people who were on the opposing alliance just last tribal.
- Face of a Thug: Discusses this in a Confession Cam segment, where he acknowledges that he is a stern-looking guy but wants to prove to his tribe that he is much more soft-hearted than his appearance would suggest.
- Fatal Flaw: Self-righteousness. Had Mike admitted that he used promises of honor and loyalty to sucker people in and betray them, he could have swayed the jury to vote for him, but because he seemed to genuinely believe he played a noble game, he lost the jury's respect for failing to own his game.
- Forgetful Jones: Not his most defining characteristic, but it is notable that he finds an idol and hides it, only to immediately forget his hiding spot. Previews for Episode 3 implied that he lost the idol again.
- Graceful Loser: Despite being a runner-up with only one vote, Mike is nothing but gracious and kind to Maryanne, despite obviously being dejected over his loss.
- Heel Realization: He goes into the Final Tribal Council truly believing that he played an honest game and that his only dishonest moment was lying to Rocksroy. The Jury makes it clear that he was far more dishonest than that, and eventually it seems to dawn on him that they were actually right.
- Hero with an F in Good: Mike tried to play an honorable and noble game, but his constant feelings of paranoia and belief that he was being used, and his explosive reactions to other people not being honest with him caused him to backstab and betray most of his allies.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Forms a bromance with Jonathan and the two become good friends with Mike taking Jonathan on reward at the Final 5.
- Hypocrite: Develops a huge grudge against Chanelle when she casts a vote for him during a Tribal Council after Chanelle told him that she was his ally, and he states that he can never forgive a liar. However, during the exact same Tribal Council Mike voted for Chanelle as well, despite telling her that he was her ally and even bold-faced lying right to her face that he wouldn’t vote for her.
- Irony: Turns on Hai because Omar lied to Mike about Hai lying to him. He speaks at length about how no one can tell him what to do by doing exactly what Omar told him to do and voting out Hai.
- It's Personal: Mike hates being lied to, and once someone lies to him Mike will never drop the grudge until that person is voted out. Daniel, Chanelle, and Hai all learned this the hard way (although in Hai’s case he never actually lied, Mike only thought he did).
- Jerkass to One: Despite being a Nice Guy overall, his hatred of Chanelle gets a bit excessive especially when considering that his reason for it, Chanelle voting for him at a Tribal Council despite supposedly being his ally, was during the exact same Tribal Council that he voted for her despite supposedly being her ally.
- Joisey: Is from Hoboken, New Jersey.
- Last of His Kind: After Hai's elimination in the tenth episode, Mike remains the only Vati member left in the game.
- My God, What Have I Done?: As the Jury tears apart his claims that he played a noble game, Mike slowly begins to realize that they are actually right and that his game was anything but noble.
- Never My Fault: Blames his “only lie” of betraying Rocksroy on Hai, even though Mike is ultimately the one who chose to cast his vote on Rocksroy. Hai could not have forced him to do that even if he wanted to.
- Nice Guy: Mike is very polite, kind, and easy-going.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Plays his idol for Maryanne at final five much like he promised. Come final tribal and Maryanne uses this fact, combined with the fact she had a secret idol, to make Mike look like an utter fool.
- Odd Friendship: With Maryanne, which only started to develop near the end but ended up very impactful. Especially when, out of all the people he's played with, she's the only one he's ever kept his word for by honoring his deal to play his idol for her at Final Five. This ends up backfiring on him, when Maryanne reveals she had an idol no one knew about and had contingencies all along.
- Pet the Dog:
- Despite being more of a Jerkass in the late game and taking perceived betrayals extremely personally, he actually laughs about Drea using both of her votes on him and seems to genuinely have no ill-will toward her for attempting to vote him out.
- Mike honoring his word and playing his idol for Maryanne can be seen as this, given he has otheriwse rarely kept his word with his allies during he game.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil/Face–Heel Turn: Like his tribemate Hai, Mike begins the game as a sweet and likable Nice Guy, earning the reputation of a soft-hearted friend as he wanted, but he becomes increasingly hypocritical and volatile toward more and more of his fellow contestants as time goes on, and he clearly becomes a much less rational person as the game wears him down.
- This Is Unforgivable!: After Chanelle votes for him during a Tribal Council, he says that he will never forgive her. And he never does (during the game of Survivor at least.)
Romeo Escobar
Tribe: Ika
Age: 37
From: Norwalk, California
Occupation: Pageant Coach
Vote: 7-1-0
- Anti-Climax: When he pulls out the fake idol he made at the Final 5 Tribal Council. The jury is shocked, until he reveals that it’s just a fake idol and promptly throws it in the fire, the jury goes from having their jaws dropping to looking bored and disappointed.
- Butt-Monkey: He’s treated with respect before the tribes merge, but then he seems to take over this role from Chanelle after she’s voted out. No one seems to want to be around him after Hai notices his paranoia and he gains a reputation as The Paranoiac for it. Because of this, he ends up being on the wrong side of the vote consistently, showing that he’s out of the loop, and then after Tori is voted out, he’s very clearly on the bottom of the social ladder, as he seems to be the singular player not integrated with the remaining group.
- Camp Gay: Can be flamboyant, works as a pageant coach, and mentions that he is most comfortable with strong women, which leads to his alliance with Drea.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: After being weak in challenges the whole game and being left out of many votes, Romeo defeats more skilled competition to win the Final Immunity Challenge. Justified as he had been stealing food from his tribe since the merge so naturally, this would give him more energy.
- Foreshadowing: Has a confessional in Episode 5 talking about his background in the pageant industry and how he strives to support strong women, at the time he was talking about Drea due to their close bond at the time. However, later on in Episode 13, Romeo wins the Final Immunity Challenge and chooses to take Maryanne with him to the Final Tribal Council, Maryanne then goes on to win the game. Maryanne was the strong woman he was supporting all along.
- The Chessmaster: Forms an older person alliance with Rocksroy and Drea. Then forms a secondary alliance with Zach.
- Gayngst: Has scenes of him talking about being worries about being rejected by his extended family for being gay, also doesn’t come out to the other castaways until after the merge.
- Downer Ending: After running the Ika tribe pre-merge, he finds himself on the bottom of Kula Kula with nobody wanting to work with him, due to this he is left out of multiple pivotal votes until Maryanne recruits him for her plurality blindside of Omar, despite having to play from the bottom the entire post-merge and being a dominant strategic force on Ika, the jury sees him as a goat and he gets no jury votes as a result.
- Last of His Kind: The last Ika left in the game after Drea's voteoff in the Final 7.
- Momma's Boy: Mentions his close relationship with his mother, and how it reflects in his career and his alliance with Drea.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Despite being left out of the loop for almost the entire post-merge game and hardly ever being on the right side of the votes, at the final six he turns out to be the only one willing to listen to Maryanne, which leads to him ultimately playing a pivotal role in helping her take down the Big Bad, Omar, and finally being on the right side of the vote again at the most critical moment.
- The Paranoiac: Romeo becomes convinced that the other players are targeting him when his name was only being used as a decoy.
- The Smart Guy: One of the more strategic-minded members of the tribe.
- Those Two Guys: Briefly had this, with his Skinny Guys alliance with Zach. This was enough for him to attempt to sway the votes away from Zach.
- He later forms a close relationship with Drea, and the two hunt for idols together and become the main strategic force of the tribe.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Poor man was a Butt-Monkey the whole second half of the game, but in the endgame he finally got to build up a resume, being the lynchpin in Maryanne's plan to blindside Omar and beating Jonathan in the Final Four immunity challenge, sending him to the jury.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: At the end, despite giving his good and honest efforts at his Final Tribal Council performance, none of the jury members voted for him to win.
The Jury
Jonathan Young
Tribe: Taku
Age: 29
From: Gulfshores, Alabama
Occupation: Beach Service Company Owner
Vote: N/A (Final 4 Fire)
- Affectionate Nickname: Calls Jeff Probst “Mr. Jeff”.
- Arch-Enemy: Lindsay. Once Lindsay begins to notice and hate his He-Man Woman Hater tendencies, and starts plotting against him, Jonathan notices and starts plotting against her in turn. Since the two were also by far the best at challenges, they’re seen repeatedly duking it out and trying to win over each other in nearly every challenge after the merge.
- Big Eater: Describes his usual meal as, “18 eggs, 9 pieces of cheese, and grits.”
- The Big Guy: The most physically impressive contestant and best challenge performer. At one point, he singlehandedly pulls his entire tribe's rowboat back to the beach with everyone inside. And that was in the first episode.
- In the third immunity challenge, he singlehandedly dragged the ladder and his tribe through rough currents that the other tribes were struggling in and gave Taku a well deserved victory.
- Birds of a Feather: He quickly bonds with Mike and Rocksroy due to their shared propensity for strength and taking fatherly roles within their tribes.
- Book Dumb: Can not do puzzles. An early puzzle involved counting the number of triangles. His answer was 11 triangles; the correct answer was 51. Similarly, the final five immunity challenge, despite reaching the puzzle first, he makes very little progress. He ends up giving up and just watches Mike and Lindsay solve the puzzle.
- Brains and Brawn: Forms this with Omar, acting as the muscle.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: The most physically imposing player on the season. Also owns a beach service, speaks very eloquently, and is kind and compassionate to his tribemates despite having contrasting personalities.
- Control Freak: As of Day 19, Jonathan has become more aware of people not pulling their weight, and generally tries to set up irrational blindsides without thinking, or even discussing them with Omar or Lindsay.
- Did Not Think This Through: He plans to blindside Drea using Maryanne as a decoy vote. Lindsay quickly calls him out on his plan's shortsightedness as Maryanne has all of the tribe's advantages. To make things worse, he told Maryanne she was the decoy boot, making it obvious that she was fourth in the Taku alliance.
- Dreadlock Warrior: Is the most muscular person on the cast and wears his hair in dreadlocks.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Implied by his backstory where to make him "man up" his father would make Jonathan and his brother run a three part triathlon and the loser would have to do everything.
- A byproduct of this may also be him finally losing patience with Maryanne, while early episodes had him liking her energy, by episode 5 her constant talking about "nothing" has him visibly annoyed with her.
- Happens again in episode 11 where him starving himself by not eating as much as his height demands has made him into a Control Freak.
- Drunk with Power: Winning immunity brings out an unpleasant side to Jonathan, and he attempts to dictate a blindside against Drea that ignores his alliance partner's rational concerns.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Tori on the Ika tribe refers to him as "Goliath" which he is not happy about, just wanting to be seen as a humble Christian man.
- Gentle Giant: For the most part, Jonathan is a tall, (6 foot 5 weighing at about 280 lbs) affable guy. Though he has his grievances with the tribes, he generally keeps them to himself. He is a bit of a Control Freak however.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Both Lindsay and Maryanne saw him this way. In fairness to them, several clips were shown of Jonathan being condescending to Lindsay and not taking her seriously as a strategist, always deferring to Omar instead. And he was clearly even more condescending to Maryanne in general, likely due to her younger age and goofy energy, and was the one Jury member that didn’t vote for her to win.
- History Repeats: He was eliminated right before the finals, just like his appearance on Endurance: Fijinote when he was a teen.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Forms a bromance with Omar. Jonathan believes that "together we make the perfect human being." Later on he forms a bromance with Mike and the two become good friends with Mike taking Jonathan on reward at the Final 5.
- Holier Than Thou: He scolds Lindsay for voting for him, viewing it as a betrayal, even though he has openly pitched her name several times throughout the season and he backstabbed her via Bystander Syndrome by not telling her that Maryanne was gunning for her ally Omar.
- Humble Hero: What he wants to be seen as, given his strong Christian faith and disdain to being called "Goliath" by Tori.
- Innocently Insensitive: During a heated Tribal Council moment in which Drea is concerned to see the pattern of all of the black contestants getting voted out one after the other and talks about how subconscious bias can lead to people seeing black people as more threatening that they actually are, Jonathan tells her that she’s being too aggressive. While his comment wasn’t particularly ill-intended, it was certainly poor timing in the context of that conversation.
- Ironic Death: His elimination at the Final Four is due to failing at the challenge and survival skills that he'd touted as his biggest strengths: first he loses Final Immunity to Romeo, and loses the firemaking challenge to Mike.
- Non Sequitur: When out of nowhere, he asks the other castaways if he ever showed them his monkey run and proceeds to get on the ground and run around on all fours.
- The One Guy: In Episode 9, when the Kula Kula tribe is split into two groups of 5 who will each go to Tribal Council and vote someone out, Jonathan ends up on a group that consists of himself and all the women remaining in the game.
- One-Man Army: His third tribal immunity challenge has him literally singlehandedly carrying his tribe to victory, carry a 4 man ladder by himself, dragging his struggling teammates across the water, holding up the heavy ladder while Lindsay climbs it, and finishing the last part of the challenge himself. This is especially impressive as by the time he was finished, the two other tribes were still struggling to complete the first part of the challenge themselves and struggled so much that Jeff had to call off the challenge and have the challenge restart due to the contestants being too exhausted to continue safely. Jeff rightfully praises Jonathan for that performance.
- Pet the Dog: Although he is initially defensive and takes it more personally than he should when Drea and Maryanne bring up their concerns of all of the black players on their season getting sent home back to back, he does end up having a kind moment when he whispers to Drea and Maryanne asking who they want to change the target to. In spite of not seeming to completely understand what was bothering them, he has the empathy to see that they feel hurt by the situation and changes his original plans at Tribal accordingly. He also is seen hugging Lindsay when she falls off in Episode 11 during the Do or Die immunity challenge.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Omar’s Blue Oni.
- Religious Bruiser: After his Number Two Omar reveals he's Muslim, he says he can come to him about any questions about Christianity, and he wears a cross meaning he's likely Catholic or Orthodox.
- The Rival: To Lindsay. Jonathan's dominant challenge performance makes an enemy of Lindsay, who is always his closest competitor. Once she starts gunning for him, the two quickly become enemies.
- Smarter Than You Look: Downplayed in that Jonathan is by no means a strategic genius, but he is far more perceptive and better at lying than his competitors give him credit for. He manages to convince Lindsay, who is watching him like a hawk, that he has no idea she's targeting him while he is in fact quietly setting up a counter-alliance against her and Omar.
- Surfer Dude: Can come off as this with his laid-back personality, struggling with puzzles, owning a Beach Service Company, and wearing dreadlocks.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: As the game wears on, he eats less and less and it causes him to become crankier and prone to confrontations. This is exemplified when he all-but refuses to help with a fishing net, getting snappy when he's asked to help and leaving his allies frustrated.
- Training from Hell: His father would make both Jonathan and his brother run up a mountain, do several squats and sit-ups and the loser of this decathlon would have to do everything again. This man has earned his spot as a One-Man Army.
Lindsay Dolashewich
Tribe: Taku
Age: 31
From: Asbury Park, New Jersey
Occupation: Dietitian
Vote: 4-1
- Action Girl: Wins two Individual Immunity challenges and one Individual Reward challenge. As well as this, she consistently has a high placement in every individual challenge.
- Advantage Ball: Has a shared advantage with Hai and Drea, which gets stronger if any of the three of them are eliminated.
- Amazonian Beauty: Is a dietician and one of the stronger female challenge competitors.
- Arch-Enemy: Jonathan. Once Lindsay begins to notice and hate Jonathan’s He-Man Woman Hater tendencies, she starts plotting against him and seems more dedicated to taking him down than anyone else. Jonathan notices and starts plotting against her in turn. Since the two were also by far the best at challenges, they’re seen repeatedly duking it out and trying to win over each other in nearly every challenge after the merge.
- Braids of Action: Predominantly wears her hair in two braids, and is arguably the most athletic woman on the cast.
- The Chessmaster: Has a secret alliance with Hai and Drea on rival tribes. Has a close relationship with Jonathan and is in the majority alliance. She also becomes wary of Maryanne stacking advantages.
- The Dragon/Dragon Their Feet: More or less becomes the Big Bad Omar’s second-in-command, and is his strongest ally all the way until he is voted out. After this she is the next target due to being nearly as big of a threat as he was.
- Joisey: Is from Asbury Park, New Jersey.
- The Lancer: Serves as a contrast to the louder Maryanne and more strategic Omar, while being physically impressive but not on the same level as Jonathan.
- Last of Her Kind: As of Drea's blindside, she is the final remaining amulet holder, giving her an idol.
- Never My Fault: She has some of the lowest accountability of any Survivor in history, it reaches a peak when she blames Jonathan for Omar going home when she could've saved him with her idol.
- Nice Girl: When Drea and Maryanne are concerned about the pattern of all of the black contestants getting voted out back to back, Jonathan becomes a bit defensive while Tori mostly stays silent. Meanwhile Lindsay is actively supportive toward them speaking their minds and demonstrates a lot of empathy in the situation, acknowledging that the white contestants can’t fully understand the lived experiences of the black contestants and that listening to their concerns is important.
- Nice Jewish Girl: After Omar and Jonathan talk about their religious beliefs, she openly laughs at herself for not being religious and calls herself a bad Jew.
- Only Sane Man: Serves as this in the tribe with the bubbly Maryanne, the sassy Omar, and the big softie Jonathan.
- Out of Focus: She gets significantly less screen time than the rest of cast in the first half of the game, with the editing mostly just treating her as a Taku four member without giving her much characterization on her own. However, she does begin to get more screen time as the game enters its second half, and Jonathan’s stubbornness and unwillingness to listen to her drives her toward taking on qualities of The Starscream.
- Later subverted, as her screentime ramps up considerably during the endgame and she finishes the season with the 3rd highest confessional count of the whole cast.
- The Rival: She quickly becomes Jonathan's rival in the merge, not only because the two of them are constantly opposing each other for individual immunity, and she is constantly trying to remove him from the game.
- The Starscream: She appears to be the second-in-command of the Taku four behind Jonathan (Omar being The Man Behind the Man aside) and is easily the second-strongest at challenges out of the Taku four next to Jonathan. However, because of Jonathan not listening to her and making her feel that she’s being disrespected, she has plans to usurp him and take his place as the strongest member of the remaining Taku tribe.
- Underestimating Badassery: A critical mistake in her game. She concludes that Jonathan is a complete meathead who has no idea he's in danger. Unbeknownst to her, Jonathan is far more perceptive than she realizes and quietly formed a counter-alliance with Mike and Maryanne to take out Omar while fooling her into thinking he was the complacent one.
- Villainous Breakdown: Has a massive one after Omar's elimination, calling out Jonathan for betraying her as he rightfully points out that she has been attempting to blindside him for several rounds, with the argument going in circles and only making her angrier and angrier.
Omar Zaheer
Tribe: Taku
Age: 31
From: Whitby, Ontario
Occupation: Veterinarian
Vote: 3-2-2
- Affably Evil: Omar may be a Manipulative Bastard Big Bad, but he is genuinely charming and kind outside of his ruthless gameplay moments.
- Aside Glance: Gives one of these to the camera after a conversation with Jonathan.
- Big Bad: Omar has managed to take total control over the game with a handful of opportunistic lies.
- Brains and Brawn: In his alliance with Jonathan, he serves as the brains.
- The Chessmaster: Showed shades of strategic acumen in the premerge, but this aspect is shown in the merge episode, after discovering that the majority alliance is planning to vote out Jonathan, he manages to trick Lydia into seeming unreliable, then convinces everyone else to vote her out instead.
- Consummate Liar: What he tries to make Hai look like, ironically, he's even more of one, but so far (at least until episode 12) nobody has thought to think of his lies as anything but the truth.
- Death by Irony: Early in the season, he pitches to keep Maryanne as he believes he can manipulate her into using her advantages for his own game. Come episode 12, and she uses those very advantages to get him out.
- He convinced Mike that Hai was only using him as an extra vote and puppet. Once Omar began to think of Mike as a puppet to be used and discarded, Mike betrayed him.
- Didn't See That Coming: Takes a blindside from Maryanne of all people, who manages to talk Romeo onto her side and, with her extra vote, makes the final voting in Episode 12 3-2-2 against him.
- Forgot I Couldn't Swim: Is not the most elegant when he dives into water, as seen here.
- Graceful Loser: His reaction to being blindsided by Maryanne is... absolutely impressed and congratulating her for making such a big move.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Independent of his sexuality, forms something of a bromance with Jonathan and together makes the main strategic force in his tribe.
- Iconic Outfit: Wears a bright orange t-shirt that depicts an emu staring straight forward.
- The Man Behind the Man: On the surface Jonathan is the leader and biggest threat out of the Taku four because of his incredible challenge record, but in actuality Omar is the biggest threat of the four due to his great social game and successfully manipulating Jonathan along with everyone else into playing his game.
- Manipulative Bastard: He notices that Mike was unhappy with Hai telling him to vote out Rocksroy, so he lies to Mike about Hai calling him a puppet. Mike, already feeling negative about Hai, accepts the lie wholeheartedly and helps Omar vote out one of his strongest strategic competitors. Mike has essentially become his Dragon after the Hai vote, with him using Mike to remove strategic threats.
- The Mole: He pretends to be on the outs of the majority alliance so that he can gather information from the players who are actually on the outs.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Has controlled every vote in the merged tribe so far, and started off as a quiet, but sassy nerd who was a devout Muslim.
- Noodle Incident: Finds an idol nullifier with Jonathan after Taku wins the reward challenge in Episode 4. Omar goes on to tell Lindsay about it, and Jonathan finding out that Lindsay knew about the idol nullifier was a contributing factor towards Jonathan turning on Omar. Despite this we don’t see any of this aired on the show and exit interviews are where this is mentioned.
- Odd Couple: His alliance with Jonathan. The physically imposing, dreadlock-wearing, Christian Jonathan with the sassy, smart, soft-spoken, virgin, Muslim Omar.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He shows shades of this when Rocksroy attempts to create an all-male alliance and he spends a Confession Cam explaining why he wasn’t going to go along with these plans. It wasn’t necessarily out of altruism of wanting to support the women in the game, but because it would leave him up against three incredibly strong men in the endgame (Rocksroy, Jonathan, and Mike) which would make trying to win any challenges almost impossible. He even got a free idol when Mike trusted him to help him vote out Drea and defeat her Knowledge is Power advantage.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Jonathan’s Red Oni.
- Religious Bruiser: Is Muslim and is open and proud of his religious beliefs, sharing his spirituality with his tribe and taking time for his prayers. He is also the main strategic force, and successfully eliminated Marya in a unanimous vote.
- The Smart Guy: Serves this role in the tribe, especially with his alliance with Jonathan. He also takes into account the possibility of the Shot in the Dark in his strategies, trying to make the target comfortable enough to not play it.
- The Social Expert: Forms a good relationship with Jonathan, and together with him form a majority alliance with Lindsay that pullys Maryanne in. He later forms a good impression and potential ally in Chanelle on the rival tribe.
- Token Evil Teammate: Of the Taku Four, being the most strategically ruthless.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Omar is manipulative, deceitful, and controlling of the game, but everyone trusts him and thinks he's on their side. Subverted by the 12th episode preview, showing people are comparing notes and finally seeing him as untrustworthy.
Drea Wheeler
Tribe: Ika
Age: 35
From: Montreal, Quebec
Occupation: Fitness Consultant
Vote: 5-3
- Advantage Ball: The most extreme example of this trope in Survivor history. Risks her vote and gained an Extra Vote. Also forms a Secret Alliance with Hai and Lindsay along with a shared advantage, that gets stronger if any of the three of them is eliminated. Additionally, she gains a hidden immunity idol and a Knowledge is Power advantage. In her time on the show total, Drea found four unique advantages to use at her disposal.
- Amazon Brigade: Considers forming a female alliance with the women of her tribe, all who happen to be physically capable and attractive.
- Amazonian Beauty: Due to her passion for fitness and health she clearly takes good care of herself.
- Beneath the Mask: Came off as jovial and not bitter when she was voted out, but post-game interviews have revealed that she was not as easygoing about her ouster as she appeared and was not pleasant to Omar at Ponderosa.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: While she treats the physical and strategic aspects of the game as Serious Business and is extremely capable at Survivor because of it, she comes across as a loving person and even a bit of a goofball outside of strictly gameplay situations. When Rocksroy gets mad at the younger tribemates for not taking the game seriously enough early on, Drea tells him to take it down a notch and let them enjoy their experience. When she finds an idol with Romeo a few episodes later, she makes a bunch of extremely silly facial expressions while celebrating the moment. And in a Confession Cam after finding the idol, she has this goofy little moment:Drea: Most women are stuck at camp making rice or whatever, and I just didn’t care. I went out to find an idol. So kudos! Women in the new era, Survivor 2.0, we can find idols too! We’re just as good as men. Probably better, actually. We’re better than men... sorry. [sheepish grin]
- The Chessmaster: Creates an alliance with Hai and Lindsay on rival tribes. Forms an older person alliance with Rocksroy and Romeo on her tribe. Forms an all-female alliance with Tori and Swati on her tribe. She did this in the first five days.
- Too Clever by Half: The reason she was blindsided along with her multiple advantages, Omar couldn't have another person like Hai in the game, especially when he realizes he can keep Mike's idol, rather than letting Drea have it.
- Genre Savvy: Her prediction of what Rocksroy’s advantage will be (the Hourglass Twist) ends up being completely accurate.
- Graceful Loser: After Omar pulls a fast one on her by holding onto Mike's idol not unlike Xander giving his idol to Tiffany during the merge TC to foil Liana's attempt at removing Xander from the game, she walks out with an adorable reaction, and just like Hai, congratulates all remaining players, even admitting that Romeo is helpful, and decides to flip the script on Jeff, by her being the one to say "The tribe has spoken."
- Handicapped Badass: Is the first legally blind contestant to be on Survivor, being legally blind in one eye.
- History Repeats: Just like Liana in Season 41, Drea fails to use the knowledge is power advantage to get an idol, though that's in part due to some behind the scenes manipulation by Omar.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Has a loud booming laugh.
- Serious Business: Has shades of this as she takes the game pretty seriously and is very driven. She has created multiple alliances, is starting to stack advantages, quickly risks her vote for another advantage, and openly considers voting out alliance members.
- The Stoic: Drea is shown to be consistently calm and in control of her emotions.
- Not So Stoic: Seeing two black players voted out in a row and realizing that she or Maryanne -both black- were the targets of the next vote brings out a whole other side to Drea, causing her to become visibly upset.
- Team Mom: Of the Ika Tribe. She, Rocksroy, and Romeo recognize that they’re the three oldest tribe members and seem to see the younger half of their tribe as their kids. When Rocksroy takes on the Team Dad role and becomes a bit of a Fantasy-Forbidding Father to them, Drea tells him to take it down a notch. Her encouraging and laughing along with the tribe’s “kids” as well makes her seem like the loving mom to contrast Rocksroy’s role as a strict dad.
Hai Giang
Tribe: Vati
Age: 29
From: New Orleans, Louisiana
Occupation: Data Scientist
Vote: 6-2
- Advantage Ball: Gains an advantage shared alongside Drea and Lindsay, with the twist being the advantage gets stronger if any of the 3 get eliminated.
- Animal Lover: Loves animals and leads a vegan lifestyle. Him having to sacrifice his vegan lifestyle so as to not weaken himself and the tribe during challenges fills him with guilt.
- Asian and Nerdy: Is Asian, and a Data Scientist.
- Berserk Button: Goes on a paranoia-fuelled witch-hunt after receiving a single vote at the Final 11 Tribal Council. Hai proceeds to ask people if they voted him in a fit of panic.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Hai was a legitimate contender for the title of Big Bad, but just as he established control of the majority alliance, his skill in the game gets noticed and he gets blindsided.
- The Chessmaster: Forms a Secret Alliance with Drea and Lindsay on rival tribes. Does consider voting them out to strengthen the advantage.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Hai has betrayed his allies left and right.
- Consummate Liar: What ultimately got him voted out. His lies get gradually more desperate during his boot.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Like Tori before him, he was one of the biggest strategical threats in the game, only to be voted out midway through the merge.
- Genre Savvy: Takes note of Chanelle usually being calm, only to be panicky after coming back from her journey, implying on a subconscious level he senses that Chanelle may have risked her vote. He later catches Chanelle telling his ally Daniel to vote for his ally Lydia. He then is able adapt to the situation and stick his ground, saving his ally Lydia due to his tribe not wanting to go to a rock draw.
- Graceful Loser: Seems much more impressed than he is hurt when he gets voted out, even congratulating the remaining players on blindsiding him so well that he didn’t see it coming.
- Heroic BSoD: When he realizes that him continuing to starve himself on the island for his vegan beliefs will weaken him and may drag down his tribe in challenges, he has an emotional moment as he prepares himself to eat meat temporarily while competing. He is not happy after eating meat and mentions he feels guilty. Happens again when he is powerless to save Lydia later on and is forced to vote her out to keep his standing in his alliance.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When he learns Lydia is being targeted by their new alliance, he tries to save her by shifting the target over to Jonathan. Unfortunately, the rest of the alliance doesn't waver and he's forced to vote Lydia out to maintain his standing.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Has nothing but nice things to say about his fellow castaways, and despite what Mike thought, he did not think of Mike as a puppet. He's also shown cheering on Lindsay when she is playing the Do or Die challenge.
- Sadistic Choice: Vote Lydia out and be near the bottom of his alliance but still an unlikely target or keep Lydia, and be public enemy number one. He chooses the former.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Hai started the season as a pretty standard nice guy with a decent strategic edge. As the game has gone on, Hai has become more and more ruthless and treacherous.
- The Smart Guy: After Daniel's betrayal, Hai becomes the main strategist of the tribe, successfully pully the votes away from his ally Lydia and pulling Mike into an alliance.
- Straight Gay: Revealed to be this in the merge episode having revealed to have a boyfriend at home. As such, he forms a bond with fellow LGBTQ+ castaway Romeo.
- Undying Loyalty: Hai was willing to get eliminated by rocks if that meant Lydia was staying. He does join the others in voting her out out at the merge when he realizes she can't be saved, however.
Tori Meehan
Tribe: Ika
Age: 25
From: Rogers, Arkansas
Occupation: Therapist
Vote: 4-0 (No vote due to using Shot in the Dark)
- Action Girl: Wins the first two individual immunity challenges of the season. Her luck runs out after Rocksroy is sent to Jury and the group decided to vote Tori out.
- Anti-Hero: While Tori does have some sympathetic qualities and is playing from the bottom, she is also shown to be selfish, duplicitous, and manipulative.
- Arch-Enemy: Hates Rocksroy with a passion, to the point that she gets her winning team to exile him and then spends their victory lunch smack-talking him behind his back.
- Disc-One Final Boss: She had one of the biggest presences in the game and was shaping up to be the Big Bad of the season, only to be voted out just a few days after the merge.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Knowing she was going to be voted out, she gives up her vote to play a Shot In The Dark. Like Zach, Marya, and Swati before her, it fails.
- Genius Bruiser: Tori is both very intelligent and good at challenges.
- Graceful Loser: Tori is nothing but respectful after getting voted out.
- Guile Hero: Shows shades of this, as she focuses on using her social skills, charm and wit as part of her playstyle.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody on Ika trusted her from the beginning of the game.
- Hated by All: After the tribes are disbanded, due to her poor standing within her tribe at that point, all of her former tribemates go out of their way to poison the well for her with the whole cast, leaving her with zero friends and everyone wanting her out. However, she is able to make it to final ten thanks to winning immunity.
- Irony: Despite her mutual rivalry with Rocksroy, both get voted out in separate tribals on the same night, with neither one being responsible for the other's elimination.
- Jerkass: Tori has a rude and condescending demeanor.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: In spite of her villainous edit on the show, most of the cast seems to only have nice things to say about her in post-game interviews, and Tori even comes to the defense of Drea and Maryanne on social media from the Tribal Council that sent her home.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a former beauty pageant queen and has scenes in her underwear/swimwear.
- Religious Bruiser: She only brings up her religious beliefs around the time that she’s voted out, but she makes it clear that she has a strong sense of faith with comments about praying for her safety and how she felt it was the will of God to leave the game when she did. She also happens to be one of the strongest contestants at challenges, winning the first two individual immunities and only getting voted out after she lost the third one.
- Sherlock Scan: Tori is very perceptive and skilled at noticing minor details. She catches on to Drea's Vote Steal advantage based solely on very hard to notice context clues.
- Silent Snarker: Has a very expressive face and frequently rolls her eyes whenever something bothers her.
- Smug Snake: She repeatedly comes across as insufferably arrogant in her ability to play the game, which when combined with her less-than-stellar social game causes her to be universally mistrusted.
- The Social Expert: Despite technically being on the bottom, three of her five tribemates approached her to form an alliance with and have continued to work with her. Bonus points for being a therapist.
- Is warned by Zach that Drea was suspicious of her having an idol, and respectfully confronted Drea to clear the air. Drea then teams with her in targeting Rocksroy and then Zach.
- When she was the number one target after her team lost their second challenge, she successfully managed to shift the tribe’s distrust of her over to Swati and save herself a second time.
Rocksroy Bailey
Tribe: Ika
Age: 44
From: Las Vegas, Nevada
Occupation: Stay at Home Father
Vote: 4-1
- Arch-Enemy: Hates Tori with a passion, and he even states that smashing the hourglass for the game-changing twist is partly motivated by him wanting to screw Tori over.
- Birds of a Feather: He quickly bonds with Mike and Jonathan due to their shared propensity for strength and taking fatherly roles within their tribes.
- Boring, but Practical: Refuses to entertain any wavering from the plan after Zach was targeted, as he seemed visibly annoyed at the idea of scrambling. While it can come off as controlling, it led to Zach being unanimously eliminated.
- Death by Irony: He suggested an all male's alliance only to be stuck with all men in a double vote out and voted out by them
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Can come off as this, as he gets visibly annoyed with the younger tribemates having fun and singing the Survivor Voices theme song. Also would rather have a straight-forward decision over who should be eliminated, without any scrambling or wavering.
- Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness. Once he makes up his mind, he refuses to change. Not only does this make strategizing with him impossible, but Hai targets him specifically because this trait makes him impossible to predict or manipulate.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Zigzagged. He seems to get along well with Drea during his time in the Ika Tribe, and also has a So Proud of You moment toward Swati, showing that he can be respectful toward women at times. However, he also makes a comment about his “nagging wife” during a Confession Cam which was interpreted by some viewers as having misogynistic undertones, makes a comment about how the women aren’t useful at camp, and then goes on to try to create an all-male alliance when it isn’t necessary because of the men already outnumbering the women 6-4 at that point.
- Irony: Despite his mutual rivalry with Tori, both get voted out in separate tribals on the same night, with neither one being responsible for the other's elimination.
- Nerd Glasses: Wears a pear of oversized glasses with huge lenses. As well as this, the glasses have a strap so they stay on.
- No Social Skills: His authoritarian attitude causes tension within the tribe, with multiple tribemembers mentioning how they are annoyed at his attitude. He also has a tendency to shoot down the strategic ideas of others, preferring to stick to the original plan over any changes. This leads to the tribe leaving him out of a vote, and him realizing that he doesn't have a good social game as he thought.
- Pet the Dog/So Proud of You: Shortly before Swati is voted out, Rocksroy tells her how proud he is of her for coming out of her shell and expresses genuine admiration for her as a person. Considering how strict and no-nonsense he usually is, it was a surprisingly heartfelt gesture. It’s also worth noting that he was the only one on the tribe to vote for her to stay.
- Sore Loser: Finishes off his outro by saying he hopes his tribe chokes.
- Straight Man: His tribe is mostly filled with young people who treat the game as an adventure, while he's more serious about it. Deconstructed as his tribe members view him as a jerk rather than someone playing his own way.
- Stuffed in the Fridge: For the guy's alliance and the second group to go to tribal they are noticeably horrified and the group before them is Mistaken for Racist.
- Team Dad: Acts as the father figure of his tribe, leading the tribe during challenges and camp life. He is seen guiding the younger tribemates and reminding them to clean up do the camp work. One of his tribemates sarcastically called him "dad" during a confessional. Bonus points for being a stay at home father.
- Tempting Fate: When Tori has to return her immunity necklace, Rocksroy makes a comment that she's going home. Guess who ends up winning for the second time in a row?
- The Leader: Comes with being the tribe's father-figure, as he takes an authoritarian position in challenges and camp life. Notably, after it was decided that Zach be the one targeted at Tribal Council, he pushed for following through on the plan and did not entertain any wavering to a different target. This led to Zach's unanimous elimination.
Chanelle Howell
Tribe: Vati
Age: 29
From: New York, New York
Occupation: Executive Recruiter
Vote: 7-3-1
- All the Other Reindeer: During Episodes 6 & 7, we see two different scenes of Chanelle approaching a group of people having a conversation, almost immediately after she joins the conversation, the entire group of people all scatter, claiming to be about to go spearfishing. A lie which Chanelle sees straight through, as they were actually talking strategy.
- Amazonian Beauty: Obviously very fit and also has a beautiful appearance.
- Butt-Monkey: After her blunder of risking and losing her vote, and losing Jenny because of it, the show’s editors clearly lose all respect for her and seem to go out of their way to edit her as poorly as possible. In one episode alone, they dedicate a clip to her slipping and falling on her butt to injure herself
which doesn’t come up again or impact the story at all, show another clip of her spilling rice before showing Rocksroy on a completely different island successfully getting every grain of rice in his bowl and talking about how important it is to not waste food, and show two separate occasions of her attempting to talk to people but everyone making excuses to leave immediately. - But Not Too Bi: Is bisexual, but this is not once brought up on the show.
- Hated by All: After the tribes are disbanded, due to her poor standing within her tribe at that point, all of her former tribemates go out of their way to poison the well for her with the whole cast, leaving her with zero friends and everyone wanting her out.
- The Heart: Serves as this in her tribe, comforting Hai as he cries over having to betray his vegan beliefs, and acts as a confidante to Jenny, Daniel and Mike.
- Idiot Ball: After telling Omar she needs her vote tonight, she ends up going for the risk anyway and loses her vote. This not only caused Omar to lose his vote, but ended up being the worst time to do so as it results in her ally Jenny going.
- Pride: Despite being away from camp and vocalizing to Omar that she can not lose her vote ahead of that night's Tribal Council, she still decides to risk her vote due to wanting to play hard. She then goes back to camp and attempts to influence a difficult 2-1-1 vote split. She does so while boasting about how her social game is so good she can influence votes without having a vote herself. This leads to a messy tribal council with her ally Jenny voted out. Had she protected her vote as she had stated, or played more conservatively, her alliance would have had the majority votes to save Jenny.
- Team Mom: While not the oldest, she is shown giving emotional support to her tribe members and also providing food and doing the cooking.
- The Scapegoat: Daniel blames the decision to vote out Lydia on Chanelle in an attempt to stay on good terms with both her and Hai, despite targeting Lydia being his idea and Chanelle only being brought into it later.
- The Social Expert: Forms a bond with Jenny as the hunt hermit crabs together, comforts Hai as he struggles with his vegan beliefs, and is approached by Daniel about his plan to minimize immunity idols and possibly eliminate Mike. She later forms a good impression and a possible alliance with Omar from the rival tribe.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chanelle risking her vote in Episode 3. Because of this, she loses her vote at that episodes Tribal Council and her alliance loses their majority, which leads to a deadlocked vote between Jenny and Lydia, during which her closest ally Daniel completely self-destructs, throws Chanelle under the bus and adamantly refuses to draw rocks, which is exactly what Hai needs to be able to take control of the tribe with Lydia. Hai and Daniel then send home Jenny by consensus. After this Tribal Council Chanelle has went from being on the top to being on the bottom and lost her closest ally. This starts a mutual distrust between the members of Vati and leads to them all turning on each other after the merge. Chanelle’s game never recovers from losing her vote and she becomes an perennial target until she is put out of her misery in Episode 8. Chanelle could have been in a much better spot if she hadn’t risked her vote. But because she risked her vote, she ended up losing all of her allies as well as being perceived as untrustworthy by most of her fellow castaways. This leads to nobody wanting to work with Chanelle after the merge and she becomes an easy consensus boot at the Final 11.
Voted Out
Lydia Meredith
Tribe: Vati
Age: 22
From: Santa Monica, California
Occupation: Waitress
Vote: 6-2-2-1
- Born Lucky: Due to a string of lucky events she doesn’t get voted out in her first Tribal Council despite four out of five of her tribemates wanting to send her home. Mike and Chanelle are both unable to vote due to different game twists, which allows her and her one ally Hai to tie the vote with two votes against Jenny. Then, due to Jeff explaining that someone will be sent home by a random draw if the tie isn’t broken, Daniel decides that it’s not worth challenging Hai to keep Jenny and decides to vote Jenny out, leading to Lydia staying despite all odds. Her luck runs out at the merge.
- But Not Too Bi: Is bisexual, but this is never brought up on the show.
- The Ditherer: What gets her voted out. She admits to Omar that she's not sure about sticking with the majority alliance and floats ideas about betraying other members of the group, causing him to rally almost everyone to vote her out instead.
- Fish out of Water: While a fan of the game, she is very much not prepared for outside camp life, which she readily acknowleges.
- Hollywood Homely: She is not unattractive, but openly talks about having struggles about her body image, preferring to cover up, which is difficult when living on an island.
- Large Ham: While not on the same level as Maryanne, she is very bubbly and animated with her tribemates.
- Lazy Bum: Stood around while everyone was working hard at camp, then sat out in the first and third challenges.
- Prone to Sunburn: Lampshades this in the first episode. By Day 5 she has visible red marks along her skin.
Daniel Strunk
Tribe: Vati
Age: 30
From: New Haven, Connecticut
Occupation: Law Clerk
Vote: 2-2-1 Tie, 3-0
- Backstab Backfire: Episode 3 shows him attempting to vote out Lydia, despite claiming an alliance with her and Hai. This backfires spectacularly and results in Jenny going home instead.
- Brains and Brawn: Is approached by Mike to form this, with Daniel being the main strategist.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Is a law clerk and showed good strategic skill and understanding. However, he is paranoid, flaky, gets injured in the opening challenge, and frequently loses his things including a borrowed Immunity Idol.
- The Chessmaster: Convinces Mike to not activate his three-way idol, realizing this minimizes idol usage across all three tribes until the merge.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: Dislocated his shoulder in the first challenge but it's not until medical takes his shirt off that it's apparent how the bone is jutting out wrong. Medical is able to fix his arm but as seen in the immunity challenge it clearly still hurts. Only time will tell if Daniel has to get medevacked.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: The lawyer was the one with no negotiation skills.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: To the lovable neurotic nerds like Stephen, Spencer, and Christian. With them their social awkwardness and neuroses were just harmless charming quirks and they compensated with killer gameplay. With Daniel, his neuroses quickly nuked his social standing and strategic gameplay when he let himself get so afraid of rocks and his attempts to reconcile were undone by his low confidence and his efforts to prove valuable around camp seemed suspicious since he wasn't contributing in challenges from a shoulder injury.
- Dirty Coward: Daniel can be forgiven for not wanting to go to rocks, but during the discussion, he jumps entirely on the defense to be subservient to Hai's whim rather than pitch a case on keeping the competent Jenny over Lydia who has served no purpose.
- Forgetful Jones: Loses his shoes, water bottle, and various other things around camp, including Mike's idol and instructions (which he forget in the underwear he was wearing).
- Idiot Ball: Despite an early showing of strategic savviness, Daniel completely blows up his game in episode 3 when he attempts to backstab Hai and Lydia by voting the latter out, then cowers under the threat of rocks and throws Chanelle, his number one ally, under the bus by claiming it was her idea rather than his to vote Lydia out despite having plotted it with Mike an Jenny early that episode. This not only results in Jenny going, but also in him losing trust with Mike, Chanelle, Hai and Lydia.
- The Load: Injures his shoulder in the opening challenge and promptly sits out in subsequent challenges. Despite having strategic skill, his first tribal council showed him as a liability. His tribe eventually gets tired of carrying him.
- Manipulative Bastard: Mike shares with him about his three-way idol that only activates until all three players say their unique phrase, taking away their vote until then. He convinces Mike to not say his phrase as he isn't in danger. It's later revealed that Daniel did so in order to both minimize the use of idols across all three tribes, and keep Mike at a disadvantage in case he needs to vote him out.
- Non-Action Guy: Daniel often sits out of the more physically demanding challenges, due in part to his arm injury.
- The Paranoiac: Openly states that this is likely the reason why he would lose this season. Despite having a close alliance with Chanelle, being confided in by Mike and Jenny, and being trusted by Hai and Lydia, he overthinks the strategies and the advantages, and his flakiness ultimately eliminates Jenny and loses the trust of his tribemates.
- The Smart Guy: Serves this to his tribe, with Mike consulting him specifically because of this.
Swati Goel
Tribe: Ika
Age: 19
From: Palo Alto, California
Occupation: Ivy League Student
Vote: 3-1 (No vote due to using Shot in the Dark)
- Amazonian Beauty: Like her tribemate Drea, she is noticeably strong and attractive, though in her case her passion that inspired this strength is for the Army National Guard rather than for fitness itself.
- Asian and Nerdy: Is Indian, and shows early signs of strategic skill.
- Badass Bookworm: Is an Ivy League student, got into every college she applied to, and enlisted in the Army National Guard.
- Consummate Liar: It's what gets her voted out. She was able to convince everyone she was their closest ally until they compared notes and realized her statements didn't add up. She gets caught in so many lies that her tribemates vote her out because they can't trust anything she says.
- Do Not Go Gentle: She manages to see through her tribe's attempt to blindside her and plays her shot in the dark as a last resort. It doesn't work.
- Fatal Flaw: Being a False Friend. Telling everyone on her tribe except for Rocksroy that she considered them her number one made them all end up distrusting her after they shared this with each other, which led to everyone except for Rocksroy voting her out.
- Immigrant Patriotism: She is Indian in ethnicity and has a grand respect for the US military, enough for her to enlist.
- Ms. Fanservice: She is physically fit, being in the Army National Guard, and also competes in challenges in her underwear.
- Sacrificial Lion: A capable and cunning Survivor player who could have gone far, but her tribe discovered a history of duplicity that led to her being voted out from her position of power.
- Starter Villain: She's this for Ika. Swati quickly assumed a position of power and control in her tribe which she used to dictate and control the votes. Everyone believed she was in their corner until they compared notes and realized she was manipulating everyone, causing most of her tribe to turn on her and vote her out in the premerge.
- The Strategist: Specifically targets Zach who is then unanimously eliminated. After Drea brings her in for an all-female alliance and reveals her Extra Vote, Swati immediately reasons that Drea is too influential and powerful, and pulls in Tori to target Drea.
Jenny Kim
Tribe: Vati
Age: 43
From: Brooklyn, New York
Occupation: Creative Director
Vote: 2-2 Tie, 1-1 Tie, Eliminated via consensus
- Asian and Nerdy: Is Asian, and works as a Creative Director, and the Tribe's main puzzle solver.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Immediately realizes the intricacies of the Triangle Puzzle, and proceeded to walk the tribe through the basics of the puzzle.
- Best Friend: Seemed to consider Mike this out of all of her tribemates, with Chanelle seeming to be her second-closest friend. Unfortunately they just happened to be the two members of the tribe who lost their votes when Hai and Lydia were gunning for her.
- Born Unlucky: Despite the majority of her tribe wanting to keep her in the game, she still ends up going home through no fault of her own due to a string of unlucky circumstances. Her two strongest allies, Mike and Chanelle, both lose their votes due to game twists, leading to a 2-2 vote of herself and Daniel voting for Lydia versus Lydia and Hai voting for her. On the revote, neither Daniel nor Hai change their minds leading to another tie at 1-1, making Jeff force them to choose or send someone else home by a random draw. Hai’s Undying Loyalty to Lydia wins out over Daniel being a Dirty Coward unwilling to stand by Jenny, leading to Jenny losing.
- City Mouse: Describes herself as a city girl and freaks out at successfully hunting hermit crabs.
- The Smart Guy: Is the tribe member usually designated for puzzles, carried the Triangle Puzzle challenge, wins Tribal Immunity in the puzzle challenges, and is able to accomplish a puzzle while blindfolded.
Marya Sherron
Tribe: Taku
Age: 47
From: Noblesville, Indiana
Occupation: Stay at Home Mother
Vote: 4-0 (No vote due to using Shot in the Dark)
- A Death in the Limelight: Does not get much attention in the first episode. In her elimination episode, she is given a lot of depth, revealing that she has been functioning as the team mom, she reveals her backstory about mourning the death of her brother, and talks about looking for closure.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Like Zach before her, she correctly guesses she was being targeted and gives up her vote for a Shot in the Dark. Again like Zach, it does not work.
- Downer Ending: She specifically went onto Survivor to overcome the trauma of losing her brother to COVID, which she would symbolize by burying a necklace engraved with his likeness on the island. She's eliminated before she gets the chance to do either.
- Genre Savvy: In post-elimination interviews, she explained that she played her Shot in the Dark because she was picking up on cues from her tribemates that led her to correctly believe that she was being targeted. Lindsay winked at her when they were getting ready for Tribal, which she identified as an Out-of-Character Moment, and Jonathan told her “I’m really gonna miss Maryanne”, which she thought made it obvious that he was deceiving her.
- Gut Feeling: Stated that she will trust her gut on whether she would need to play the Shot in the Dark. Her gut was correct.
- Hidden Depths: Was mourning the death of her brother, the first healthcare worker to die of Covid in the US. She came on Survivor because she believed he would want her to get out of her comfort zone. Part of the reason she was on Survivor was to get closure.
- My Nayme Is: Marya, pronounced like “Mariah”.
- Team Mom: Acts as one for Taku for the first few days, enough so that voting her out is fairly difficult for her tribe to do.
- Her elimination confessional has her likening playing Survivor to parenting.
- Tragic Keepsake: Carries a necklace engraved with an image of her deceased brother. She specifically brought it on the island to bury it. She's eliminated before she gets the chance.
Zach Wurtenberger
Tribe: Ika
Age: 22
From: St. Louis, Missouri
Occupation: Student
Vote: 5-0 (No vote due to using Shot in the Dark)
- Ascended Fan: Calls himself a "super-duper fan" of the show. He is such a fan he makes a Survivor Wiki reference in his last words.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: To the young eager superfan. Unlike Jacob Derwin, he at least knows not to overplay his hand, but he's so starstruck that he's on Survivor he only knows basic things like taking a chance when you're on the bottom and doesn't focus on the social intricacies of the game, how long term gameplay can save you even in the early stages, and need to compensate for challenge weaknesses in the early stages. He's also shown more trying to enjoy his Survivor experience at critical moments of the game like building a shelter.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Correctly guesses he was being targeted and gives up his vote for a Shot In The Dark. It fails.
- Irony:
- Stated in his profile that he would be using Jeremy Collins' meat shield strategy so as to not be targeted first. He fails to do so, and becomes the first person voted out of the game.
- Also described himself in his profile as "athletic enough to not be a liability". His tribemates eliminate him after citing him as the weakest link.
- Nice Guy: Surprisingly for a first boot he never does anything personally to rub off the tribe the wrong way and was just at the bottom for his challenge performance, one could argue his niceness was his downfall and if he tried to make himself not get voted out and vote off someone else he could've had a shot of at least surviving that first tribal. Romeo and Tori both feel bad for voting him off so he could've potentially had a strong alliance if he got his hands dirty.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Is shown bonding with the younger members of the tribe, as well as forming an alliance with Romeo, possibly setting him up as a swing vote. Come Tribal Council and the Tribe turns on him for his poor challenge performance, and Romeo fails to save him.
- Self-Deprecation:
- Sarcastically calls himself and Romeo "ripped" during a confessional while he flexes his incredibly scrawny frame.
- During the credits after his elimination, he says that the Survivor Wiki can add the trivia bit that he was the first contestant voted out unanimously without casting a vote himself. note
Jackson Fox
Tribe: Taku
Age: 48
From: Houston, Texas
Occupation: Healthcare Worker
Vote: N/A (Medically Evacuated)
- Achilles' Heel: Jackson went through a painful experience being a caregiver to his ailing mother before she passed on and developed severe anxiety. He went on lithium pills to counteract it, but went off his medication in Fiji and waited until the day before filming began to disclose this information. Unfortunately, the withdrawal caused him to dehydrate and feel dizzy, which on-site doctors monitored. Before he might have experienced worse symptoms, the medical crew decided he shouldn't continue playing the game.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Given that he was able to gain the respect of his tribemates within the first few days, forming genuine friendships with them, as well as their devastation at his forced elimination, one wonders how well he could have done if he was healthy enough to play for more than two days.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: Only disclosed his use of lithium medication a day before the game started, believing that he had been reducing his intake at a steady enough level that he could play the game without it. The doctors observed his condition for a few days before ultimately deciding that the stress of the game, harsh physical conditions, and starvation, may be too much to risk any complications to his health.
- Sacrificial Lion: Is eliminated 48 hours into the game for medical reasons, which reduces a lot of his tribemates to tears. His elimination likely pushed his tribe to not only avoiding elimination, but finishing first in the Immunity Challenge.
- Worthy Opponent: After his campfire story where he came out as a transgender man and explained his coming out journey with his family, most of his tribemates grew a genuine respect for him. When he was eliminated, multiple tribemates were reduced to tears, with Maryanne noticeably howling before he could properly announce the producer's decision.
