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The Tribes

    Upolu 

    Savaii 

The Sole Survivor

     Sophie Clarke 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_sophie_clarke.jpg

  • Action Girl: You wouldn't expect a quiet medical student with little-to-no lines and a general narrator status on the season to be a big competitor in challenges, but it soon became clear, especially in the finale, that Sophie was possibly the strongest person on the show besides Ozzy, with three individual immunity wins and two close calls, one actually against Ozzy.
  • Aloof Dark-Haired Girl
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: Coach bestows the Dragonslayer title onto Sophie after she beats Ozzy in the final Immunity Challenge. She proceeds to vote off Ozzy and win the game.
  • Badass Adorable
  • Badass Boast: When casting the damning vote for Ozzy.
    "Because I am the new dragon-slayer."
  • Badass Bookworm
  • Brainy Brunette
  • Broken Tears: She was reduced to uncontrollable tears in the finale after Ozzy revealed the scorn everyone felt for her.
  • Can't Vote You Out, Still Need You: Sophie wasn't the biggest jury threat of the season but certainly wouldn't have been as easy a final opponent for Coach as, say, Edna. However, any worries that Coach and the Upolus had about Sophie as a finalist were mitigated by the fact that she was consistently one of their strongest players and was needed for the final immunity challenges in case Ozzy came back from Redemption Island, which paid off completely when Ozzy fought his way back only to lose to Sophie in the very last challenge of the season.
  • Dark Horse Victory: Had easily the least screen time for a winner since Natalie, in lieu of being stuck in a final four with Ozzy and Coach, who the entire season was set up for to win, so who was really expecting her to actually win over them?
  • Deadpan Snarker: Oh boy, where do we start?
    "You can never count on someone flipping over. You can never know for sure. That said, I think I feel as confident about Cochran flipping over, because Cochran thinks that if he switches and comes back to camp he's gonna get beat up. Which is a legitimate thing for a dodgeball target to be afraid of."
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: Beats Ozzy Lusth, in spite of his huge lead, to cement her place in the final three and send him out of the game.
  • Defrosting the Ice Queen: She provides the page quote for said trope:
    "I would think that when I came out here that I would have much tougher skin, so I don't think I'm building skin out here, I think I'm losing it."
  • Foreshadowing: In the beginning of the season, the camera panned to her after Jeff said "Only one will remain"
  • Funny Background Event: During the reward Upolu won, where the tribe was able to see an advanced screening of Jack and Jill starring Adam Sandler, everyone is shown laughing uproariously... except Sophie, who sits at the back with expression that indicates she would rather be anywhere else.
  • Ice Queen: Though she gets better in the finale.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Subverted, she was on the blue Upolu tribe instead of red Savaii.
  • Loophole Abuse: Ain't No Rule stating you can't look over at another player's puzzle board during a challenge. She also attempts to pull this off in the final five Immunity Challenge by demanding Albert drop his attempt at winning the challenge and help her win because she was doing better, or she would beat the crap out of him. Probst shuts her down.
  • Not So Stoic: Breaks down hard during the finale, after Ozzy tells her during Tribal Council what people have been saying about her on Redemption Island.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Apparently her entire game.
  • Out of Focus: Given she was sharing a season with Coach, Ozzy, Brandon and Cochran, who all took the lion's share of the screentime.
  • Plucky Girl
  • Red Baron: Coach dubs her the new Dragon Slayer after she beats Ozzy.
  • The Smart Girl: The smartest on-paper contestant since either David Murphy, Dave Ball or Heidi Strobel.
  • Sole Survivor
  • Smart People Wear Glasses
  • The Smurfette Principle: The only female player to be a part of Coach's main alliance.
  • The Woman Behind The Man: Presents herself as this in the final tribal council, to great success.
  • The Stoic

Runners-Up

    Benjamin "Coach" Wade - Tocantins 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_coach_wade.jpg

  • A Father to His Men
  • Anti-Hero
  • The Bus Came Back
  • Character Development: Compare him now to him in Tocantins.
  • The Chessmaster: Who would've thought Coach of all people would be this? Even if someone else wound up doing it a bit better...
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: After Ozzy proceeded to give a very small "The Reason You Suck" Speech...
  • Do Not Call Me Benjamin
  • Fatal Flaw: His arrogance, he would've had the finale won had he just owned up to his gameplay. However, his answers to the jury questions just came off as sanctimonious, dissuading jurors from voting for him
  • Hidden Depths: Converses briefly with Sophie in the premiere in Russian.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: See Honor Before Reason
  • Honor Before Reason: Voted out two ideal goats in Cochran and Edna, solely because they weren't part of his original alliance. He proceeded to vote out Brandon - another great goat - simply because he saw his core Final Three as himself, Albert, and Sophie. This ended up backfiring on him hard when Sophie beat him, and the jurors confirmed at the Reunion that if he'd brought Rick, Edna, or Cochran instead of Sophie, he'd have won. On the other hand, if Sophie hadn't been there to defeat Ozzy in the final immunity challenge, Ozzy would unquestionably have won the game.
  • Hypocrite: Even in this much tamer incarnation, it wouldn't be Coach if he didn't show these tendencies on a couple occasions. Most notably, after going completely over-the-top with the prayer/religious angle, he complained in the season finale about people who are "Holier Than Thou."
  • The Leader
  • Manipulative Bastard: Coach can be considered this, due to how he managed to convince Cochran to flip. Then again though, given how they treated him... picked a very good target.
  • My Greatest Third Chance: Despite not winning, this was Coach's best season.
  • No-Damage Run
  • Oh, Crap!: You could almost pinpoint the moment Coach realized he probably is going to finish second when Ozzy says that nobody wants to vote for any of them.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Coach. He outright gets mad when Stacey and Christine start calling him "Benjamin" just to spite him.
  • Red Baron: The Dragon Slayer, though he passes that off to Sophie after she beat Ozzy. In the Recap Episode, he considered changing his moniker to "Zeus."
  • Religious Bruiser
  • The Strategist
  • Tall, Dark, and Snarky
  • Took a Level in Badass
  • Ungrateful Bastard: To Cochran and Edna. Edna stands out, however, for being the only one that would talk to him on the first day.

     Albert Destrade 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_albert_destrade.jpg

  • Cassandra Truth: He tried to get Sophie out at least once, fearing that she would have a good jury performance. As it turned out, he had reason to be afraid.
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: Had already shot himself in the foot several times before the Final Tribal Council.
  • Genius Bruiser
  • Heroic Build
  • Jerk Jock: Subverted.
  • The Lancer
  • Lazy Bum: Was nicknamed "Prince Albert".
  • Loophole Abuse: Ain't No Rule stating you can't shout puzzle help out to someone during a challenge.
  • Number Two: To Coach, though he sees himself as Coach's Beleaguered Assistant.
  • Out of Focus: Until Episode 5, where he finds the hidden immunity idol with Coach and Sophie.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Receives no votes after he tries pandering to the jury, even after Jim calls him out on it. Utterly mangling a couple of his answers to the jurors' questions (especially Brandon's) certainly doesn't help him either.
  • Professional Butt-Kisser: Came across as one, especially at final tribal council.
  • Running Gag: A running theme was him creating some kind of plan to take control of the game, only for it to fail every time (usually because Sophie thought the idea was stupid and refused to go along with it). Hilariously, the one time one of his plans did pay off it was almost by accident. He was aiming to convince Brandon to vote with him at Tribal Council, and not only did Brandon do that but he also gave Albert his necklace of his own volition.
  • The Starscream: Tried to be this all season long, but ultimately failed.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: It became increasingly more noticeable as the season went on.

The Jury

     Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth - Cook Islands 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_ozzy_lusth.jpg

  • Back from the Dead: And unlike Matt and Andrea, he actually managed to last past his first Tribal Council. He would later return in the finale, only to be voted out at the final four.
  • Batman Gambit: As described below under My Death Is Just the Beginning: pulled off a very risky plan to get himself voted off, eliminate Christine at Redemption Island, and rejoin the game at the merge. In doing so, he successfully calculated that (a) he could beat Christine at whatever duel was presented, and (b) the merge was going to be immediately after the next duel (as his tribe would have been thoroughly screwed if he'd ended up stuck at Redemption Island).
  • The Big Guy: To Savaii (albeit in terms of his physical prowess, rather than literally).
  • The Bus Came Back
  • Crazy Survivalist
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: Broke Christine's winning streak on Redemption Island.
  • Genius Bruiser: See My Death Is Just the Beginning.
  • The Hero: To Savaii, before Elyse's blindside.
  • Ineffectual Loner: Following Elyse's blindside.
  • Jerk Jock: Towards Cochran, at least for the first few episodes. This was largely based on strategy, however; once he no longer saw Cochran as a target for elimination, Ozzy seems to have been quite pleasant to him.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ultimately turned out to be this. He was an absolute Jerkass to Cochran, but eventually reconciled with him before his eviction.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: He correctly points out that Brandon was expecting people to play the way God would, not the way greedy people who came on the show to win would.
  • Keet
  • Large Ham: Similar to Richard in All-Stars, his Elimination Statement included cheerfully thanking everyone for giving him a chance to play again, and then yelling "yeehaw" at the top of his lungs while going down the Walk of Shame.
  • Loophole Abuse: Ain't No Rule saying you couldn't look over at another players' puzzle during a puzzle challenge.
    • Redemption Island was intended to be a a form of purgatory for the players who are voted out, a final opportunity to cling to the game. However, it just so happens to play directly to Ozzy's strengths. Being on Redemption Island means he doesn't have to worry about the strategic or social aspects of the game, which are his biggest weaknesses. Instead he just spends the post-merge doing what he's best at, which is winning challenges and surviving the elements without having to share with or compete against an entire tribe. As a result he is able to reenter the game well nourished and no blood on his hands.
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: Fearing that Christine would return to Upolu at the merge (leading to a Pagonging of Savaii), he decided to pull a Suicide by Cop, send himself to Redemption Island, win the duel and return to the game at the merge. It worked, making him the first and only player to use the Redemption Island twist strategically... but was ultimately subverted as the whole scheme proved futile: Cochran, who was directly saved from elimination by Ozzy's plan, ended up flipping and dooming the entire tribe anyway. He then returns from Redemption yet again... only to lose the final immunity challenge with a million dollars on the line.
  • My Greatest Third Chance: Subverted compared to Cook Islands, played straight compared to Micronesia.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Ozzy
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sets the tone for what the Jury was going to say to them, telling all three finalists that "Nobody here wants to vote for you".
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome
  • Took a Level in Jerkass

    Rick Nelson 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_rick_nelson.jpg

  • All There in the Manual: Despite being Out of Focus, the scenes on CBS' website show that Rick has quite a few good observations about the goings-on of his tribe.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Applied 14 times to get on.
  • The Big Guy: To Upolu.
  • Good Ol' Boy: Rick's casting archetype is this. His pre-season bio video and Jeff's cast assessment have to do with his country background and family values. Some other men who were cast for the same Good Old Boy character trope in other seasons are Rodger Bingham, Big Tom Buchanan, Travis 'Bubba' Sampson, James Clement, Brandon Bellinger, Boo Bernis, Chicken Morris, J.T. Thomas, Ralph Kaiser, Jeff Kent, Caleb Bankston, Jeremiah Wood, Keith Nale, Mike Holloway, Caleb Bankston, Ben Driebergen and Carl Boudreaux.
  • Informed Ability: Apparently could have beaten the others - it has been pointed out this may not have been as informed, since the final three of South Pacific was "Lesser of three evils", a role Rick could have played.
  • Out of Focus: Excluding Mikayla's boot, the only real attention he received prior to the recap episode was in the premiere where his super-fan status is brought up. Then he turned into a Living Prop to rival Purple Kelly, with his only noticeable line for the next half dozen episodes being "[Albert] snores." He eventually began to show up again around the mid-season recap, if for no other reason than because the editors were starting to run out of other people to show. He then disappeared again at the reunion, getting completely ignored in spite of finishing fifth.
  • Two First Names
  • The Unintelligible: Apparently, the reason he was Out of Focus was because the editors had a hard time understanding what he was saying and he would never give Jeff a straight answer to any question.

     Brandon Hantz 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_brandon_hantz.jpg

Controversially, Brandon would returning for The second Fans vs Favorites.

  • The Apprentice: To Coach.
  • Beware the Honest Ones: Constantly blurts out his or his alliances' plans to the intended victims (or, more commonly, in front of everyone), to the point where the others take to keeping him in the dark as much as possible because they can't trust him to stay quiet. The one time he actually tries to lie strategically himself, he ends up publicly breaking down and confessing at tribal council.
  • Black-and-White Insanity: Flat out states that he sees the world as divided into good and evil, with no middle ground.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: his extreme religiousness caused him to come across as this.
  • Creepy Child
  • Enfant Terrible: The third 19-year-old to play.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Stands up for Cochran after he flips and Jim calls him a coward.
  • Former Teen Rebel
  • Genre Blind: Is unpredictable in the Upolu dynamics, very bad at reading people, and makes moves and statements and has an attitude and stability that in any other season of Survivor would have had him gone within the first few episodes... even giving up immunity.
  • Hero with an F in Good
  • Honor Before Reason: To the point where he makes Colby and Ian look sensible by comparison. It probably didn't help that he was living with someone like Coach all season long.
  • Hypocrite
  • Informed Attribute: Sophie claims that Brandon could've won if he'd been in the final three because he was a hard worker and everybody liked him. Try and figure that out. Apparently, he was one of the nicest people there, at least according to everyone who was with him for that time, but the cameras only showed the side that appeared on television.
  • Oh, Crap!: You can probably pinpoint the exact moment that he realizes just how bad of an idea it was to give his immunity necklace to Albert.
  • Religious Bruiser: Is deeply Religious and is a born-again Christian. As a result, he goes after Mikayla.
  • Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny
  • The Sixth Ranger: In the main alliance on Upolu, but nobody trusts him, due to his tendency toward self-destructive outbursts.
  • Spin-Offspring: He is the nephew of... well Russell Hantz.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Similar to Taj, he easily received the most screen time prior to the merge, by virtue of being Russell Hantz's nephew. He even managed to turn his uncle into The Ghost. Post-merge, it was passed over to Cochran.
  • Tattooed Crook

    Edna Ma 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_edna_ma.jpg

  • Asian and Nerdy: Anesthesiologist, and also a friend of Mick Trimming.
  • Butt-Monkey: She the Unfavorite. Edna gotten 15 votes against her in one season. The most for a women at the time.note 
  • Distaff Counterpart: To Cochran.
  • Informed Ability: When it's either her or Mikayla to be booted, Sophie and Albert mention her sneakiness and distrust of the tribe as reason to get rid of her, but none of that was ever shown.
  • Informed Flaw: Also of note, while Albert and Sophie also wanted to get rid of her for being weak, Upolu only lost challenges that she didn't participate in (the only contestant to sit out challenges that season).
  • Odd Couple: With Coach.
  • Ship Tease: With Coach.
  • Sixth Ranger: To Upolu.
  • Team Mom
  • The Unfavorite: Was put up as an option for elimination every time her tribe was up for a vote, outright told she wasn't part of the Upolu 6, and even had Brandon attempting to make her lose when she needed immunity the most.

    John Cochran 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_john_cochran.jpg

Cochran would return for The second Fans vs Favorite season.

    Whitney Duncan 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_whitney_duncan.jpg

    Dawn Meehan 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_dawn_meehan.jpg

Dawn would return for the Second Fans vs. Favorites season.

  • Action Mom: Easily the strongest woman on Savaii.
  • Cool Old Lady: She almost single-handedly won the fourth immunity challenge for Savaii, did better than Ozzy on the third, and won the first individual immunity challenge.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: once she was able to recover from her emotional breakdown near the beginning of the season, she proved herself to be one of, if not the strongest woman, in challenges.
  • Character Development: Similar to Cochran, she proves herself to the tribe and was one of their best competitors in the challenges. This and being a threat for individual immunity is why Upolu voted her out.
  • Determinator: She even trained for ten months to be ready for the show.
  • Sixth Ranger: To Savaii up until Elyse's blindside.
  • Team Mom

    Jim Rice 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_jim_rice.jpg

Jim was one of the candidates who was eligible to return for the Second Chance season. However, Jim failed to get enough votes and didn't return.

    Keith Tollefson 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_keith_tollefson.jpg

Voted Out

    Christine Shields Markoski 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_christine_shields_markoski.jpg

    Mikayla Wingle 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_mikayla_wingle.jpg

Mikayla was on the 32 candidates eligible to return for the Second Chance season but wasn't didn't get enough votes to return.

  • Action Girl
  • Amazonian Beauty: Became this after Survivor.
  • Fatal Flaw: Refusing to listen to Coach in the challenges put her out of the game before Edna.
    • To a lesser extent, her sole reliance on her physical game to help her. She got voted out after repeatedly one-handing the slingshot, despite Jeff implying 3 times that wasn't a good system. Then, the duel she lost against Christine was heavily cerebral.
  • Ms. Fanservice
  • Tomboy

    Elyse Umemoto 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_elyse_umemoto.jpg

    Stacey Powell 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_stacey_powell.jpg

    Mark "Papa Bear" Caruso 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_mark_caruso.jpg

    Semhar Tadesse 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23_semhar_tadesse.jpg


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