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Tribes
Jaburu
Color/ namesake: yellow/ Jabiru stork
Members (start): Christy Smith, Deena Bennett, Heidi Strobel, Janet Koth, Jeanne Hebert, Jenna Morasca, JoAnna Ward, Shawna Mitchell
Members (swap): Alex Bell, Deena Bennett, Jenna Morasca, Matthew von Ertfelda, Rob Cesternino, Shawna Mitchell
The women's tribe.
- Amazon Brigade: Quite literally, given the season's setting.
- Animal Motif: Named after a stork.
Tambaqui
Color/ namesake: blue/ fish native to the Amazon river
Members (start): Alex Bell, Butch Lockley, Daniel Lue, Dave Johnson, Matthew von Ertfelda, Rob Cesternino, Roger Sexton, Ryan Aiken
Members (swap): Butch Lockley, Christy Smith, Dave Johnson, Heidi Strobel, Jeanne Hebert, Roger Sexton
The men's tribe.
- All Men Are Perverts: At least how they were edited as.
- Animal Motif: Named after a fish
- Epic Fail: During the first immunity challenge, Daniel and Ryan had trouble with the balance beam after taking an early lead. Jaburu gained immunity and Ryan was voted out of Tambaqui as a result.
Jacaré
Color/ namesake: red/ Portuguese for "alligator"
Members: Alex Bell, Butch Lockley, Christy Smith, Dave Johnson, Deena Bennett, Heidi Strobel, Jenna Morasca, Matthew von Ertfelda, Rob Cesternino, Roger Sexton
The merged tribe.
Finalists
1st. Jenna Morasca
Age/ home/ job: 21/ Bridgeville, Pennsylvania/ swimsuit model
Luxury item: Zeta (Tau Alpha sorority) crown
Tribe: Jabaru -> Jabaru -> Jacaré
- Action Girl: She won four out of the eight individual challenges during the merge. Jenna tied Kelly Wiglesworth's record for most individual immunity challenges by women in a single seasonnote .
- Anti Heroine: She's kind of bratty.
- Ascended Fangirl: Like Rob, Jenna has seen every season since the show began back in 2000.
- Batman Gambit: Giving her immunity (not the HII, but the individual immunity) to Heidi at the Final 6. She was banking on that Rob found her a jury goat.
- Coming of Age Story: She admits during the reunion that even she thought she came off as too bitchy, but has come to terms with it and is trying to do better.
- Dark Horse Victory: After Heidi's elimination it was widely assumed that she would be the next to go. Nobody expected her to win two immunity challenges in a row, vote out the favorite to win and sweep the finals. It was especially surprising because she had been portrayed in the show as an Alpha Bitch while Matt had been portrayed as the closest thing to a hero the season had. While post-game interviews have clarified that Jenna was well liked at camp and Matt much less so, her win is still controversial, if only for how misleading the editing was.
- Erotic Eating: Her chocolate and peanut butter during the "Perch" challenge.
- Flawless Victory: While she doesn't have a No-Damage Run, she's the first winner to win in a landslide vote of 6-1.
- Honor Before Reason: Cleverly subverted - she pretended to want to take a Worthy Opponent to the final two because she claimed it was the honorable thing to do. However, she later admitted that she was lying to make herself look better and was perfectly willing to bring a goat to the finals, as is traditional.
- Last of Her Kind: The last woman Jaburu standing
- Loophole Abuse: Averted. According to the contestants, Jenna and Rob devise a plan to get the most out of least (meaning pay less money for the same food) in the Survivor Auction. However, Jeff caught on and threatened to stop the challenge if this continues.
- Ms. Fanservice: Justified in that she's a swimsuit model.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: To Rob during the final immunity challenge.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Complained about something along this line of thought at the Final 6. While most interpreted it as her claiming it was an actual handicap (given the way Christy was looking at her during her spiel, it couldn't have helped) it was really about how young, attractive model types are not usually perceived to be good at Survivor.
- Sole Survivor: The youngest woman to ever do so note
- Spanner in the Works: Overcame the alliance against her by winning Immunity when it really counted. If she hadn't, Butch would have had her spot in the final three.
2nd. Matthew von Ertfelda
Age/ home/ job: 33/ Washington, D.C./ restaurant designer
Luxury item: unknown
Tribe: Tambaqui -> Jabaru -> Jacaré
- Axe-Crazy: Many of the castaways thought he was this when he started sharpening the machete constantly.
- Batman Gambit: Threw the final challenge because he knew that both Rob and Jenna would want to take him to the final two.
- Unfortunately for him, the reason they both wanted to take him is because they knew he was an easy finale opponent to beat.
- The Big Guy/The Starscream: Depending on where you are in the season; he's either a free vote that Rob can use, or he's going behind Rob's back by cutting deals with the other players to ensure that he gets to the final two.
- Bilingual Bonus: Spoke Mandarin with Daniel in one episode.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his eccentricities, he makes it far into the game.
- The Dragon: To Rob, who uses him as a free vote and to relay orders to Butch.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Everyone in the post-swap Jaburu alliance made fun of him behind his back and constantly plotted to get rid of him. Even Rob, his closest ally, tells the audience that he can't stand Matthew and is only faking a friendship for his free vote.
- His dominant alliance even eliminates him first in the popularity-based immunity challenge, before people who aren't even in their alliance.
- Genius Bruiser: He may not be that good of a player, but he's well-spoken and is obviously very intelligent. He is also probably the most knowledgeable person about how to survive in the wild in this season.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: The consensus among the Jury is that Matthew was the most hardworking tribe member, while Jenna was the laziest. None of that matters as Matthew loses in the most one-sided Final Jury vote up to that point.
- Hidden Depths: Speaks fluent Mandarin, and spoke it with Daniel Lue.
- Kingmaker Scenario: Subverted - it seemed as if Matthew was going to be the Kingmaker at the final three as he was by far the favorite to win the final immunity challenge and was going to lose to whomever he took with him to the final two. Instead, he decides to throw the final challenge and let Jenna and Rob duke it out between them for the win.
- Loners Are Freaks: Aside from Butch and Daniel, pretty much the entire cast looked down on him or made fun of him behind his back.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: People thought he was Ax-Crazy, though he didn't help his case by constantly sharpening the machete, but he was probably the nicest player of the whole season.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: He gave everybody the creeps, to the point where Rob semi-seriously says that they're scared of how he'd react to being voted out.
- Super Gullible: Falls for all the ridiculous 'secret agent' missions Rob sends him on.
- Those Two Guys: With Butch after the merge, with whom he spends a lot of time fishing in the boat until he starts to grow more independent.
- Took a Level in Badass: As the season progresses, he becomes much, much more strategically capable.
The Jury
3rd. Rob(ert) Cesternino
Age/ home/ job: 24/ Wantagh, New York/ computer projects coördinator
Luxury item: magic 8-ball
Tribe: Tambaqui -> Jabaru -> Jacaré
- Ascended Fanboy: Probably the first overt fan of the show to make it on. There were other people in past seasons who were fans, but none to the degree that Rob was.
- The Chessmaster: His strategy for winning this season.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: After Butch accidentally burned down the camp.
- Deadpan Snarker: Had his moments, but not usually in mean spirit.
- Failed a Spot Check: Axing Heidi instead of Jenna in the Final 5, despite the obvious signs showed that:
- Jenna was as good in challenges as Matthew and had already won 2 individual immunity challenges at that time; while Heidi had won none, and one of her strongest assets was in recovery.
- Jenna was a bigger finale threat than Heidi due to all the personal bonds she had formed with the jurors (should have been obvious when Jenna won the popularity-based immunity challenge, even if Heidi came in second).
- Jenna knew how to make herself look good for the jury remainders (by giving up immunity to Heidi as in to save her friend); while Heidi indirectly made herself look horrible for them (by proclaiming that she is the mastermind in this game as in to taunt the remaining tribemates).
-
Follow the Leader: Rob was the first player to truly build on Richard Hatch's alliance strategy. Rather than build a large and powerful alliance to dominate the game Rob used a very small alliance to increase the power of his vote, while also cutting long term deals with everyone at camp to keep the target off his back and flipping himself into being the swing vote as much as possible. His manipulative and deceitful style has had a huge influence on the game and is a very popular way to play the game. - Hollywood Homely: Invoked by Rob himself constantly on the season.
- Manipulative Bastard: Consider that post-merge he managed to play alliances against each other, continually shift his allegiance to whatever best suited him at the time, managed several coup d'etat's whiles putting his neck on the line the entire time and it took him to the final three. No player up to that point was able to pull off that risky of a playing style that well, excluding Vecepia, who granted wasn't in nearly as much danger as he was.
- Mr. Exposition: The man was able to narrate the whole season accurately from both sides of the alliance split.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: He makes frequent references to various things like Seinfeld, Peanuts, old pop songs, and Al Capone.
- Security Blanket: His magic 8-Ball. It was also used by Rob as a way to break the ice and to distract his tribemates from talking strategy. It melted during the fire that Rob blames Butch for.
- Smug Snake: Occasionally he played so overtly strategically without considering how people would react that it blew up in his face (mainly Jenna and Heidi).
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: On and off the show.
4th. Butch Lockley
Age/ home/ job: 50/ Olney, Illinois/ school principal
Luxury item: "Believe in Yourself" banner
Tribe: Tambaqui -> Tambaqui -> Jacaré
- Be Yourself: His luxury item was a poster he got from the high school he is a principal at that said "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF". When the camp accidentally burned down, he exclaims "Well, now we're really going to have to believe in ourselves!".
- Happily Married: His family visit makes it clear that he and his wife are a cute couple.
- Older Sidekick: To Matthew, who was a key ally of.
- Pyromaniac: Rob called him one, presumably because he collected so much firewood. Said firewood was responsible for causing a huge fire back at camp while everyone was away at the reward challenge.
- Sanity Slippage: Was also accused of this late in the game. Hilarity Ensues too.
- Team Dad: Acts very fatherly towards most of the tribe. Particularly noteworthy is the kindness he shows to Christy and Matthew.
- Unwitting Pawn: Unfortunately, Butch never really seemed to have much power, first being strung along by Roger's alliance, then by Rob's alliance, and finally was cut loose by his partner Matthew during the final four.
5th. Heidi Strobel
Age/ home/ job: 24/ Jefferson City, Missouri/ gym teacher
Luxury item: jump rope
Tribe: Jaburu -> Tambqui -> Jacaré
- Action Girl: Good enough in challenges to have that target on her back.
- Brainless Beauty: Varied wildly between this and Femme Fatale.
- Dumb Muscle: One of the stronger female contestants this season.
- Femme Fatale: On multiple occasions used her feminine wiles to get her way. But sometimes it's hard to tell when it's a fluke and when it's Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Hidden Depths: Has an IQ of 165.
- Ms. Fanservice: Stripped naked in-show along with winner Jenna Morasca to win peanut butter.
- The Lancer: Jenna's biggest ally in the season, something that went past the infamous stripping scene.
- The Quisling: Usually wouldn't hesitate to sell people out to a majority alliance.
6th. Christy Smith
Age/ home/ job: 24/ Basalt, Colorado/ children's adventure guide
Luxury item: sage vial
Tribe: Jabaru -> Tambaqui -> Jacaré
- Cloudcuckoolander: Other players have said that Christy was... pretty out there, but the show mostly painted her as the Inspirationally Disadvantaged Nice Girl instead and left out most of her wackiness. There are still hints of it in the show though, such as her story about having sex at the Washington Monument.
- Deadpan Snarker: Was often very sarcastic in confessionals.
- Drunk with Power: Why she was blindsided at the Final 6.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Because she's deaf, her way of speaking often tended to go like this.
-
Hollywood Homely: Despite being a very attractive girl and the same age as Heidi she is never brought up in the same conversations as Jenna, Heidi and Shawna. - Nice Girl: Possibly subverted. According to Jenna's version of events, Christy had moments where she was just as bitchy and rude as her or Heidi was, but used her deafness as a way to avoid any criticism. The way she was portrayed on the actual show though is a straight example.
- One-Liner: Her "he's creepy" confessional is one of the most quoted lines from this season.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Vows to make sure Heidi and Jenna will never win after she is voted out, and then proceeds to vote for Jenna to win the game.
- The Unreveal: Did she genuinely vote for Jenna to win?
7th. Alex(ander) Bell
Age/ home/ job: 32/ Los Angeles, California/ triathlon coach
Luxury item: triathlon medal, which he won
Tribe: Tambaqui -> Jabaru -> Jacaré
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Sometimes they appear larger than his actual eyes.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Both supported and subverted. He was perfectly willing to betray all the men so he could align with Jenna, but during the pre-merge, he was the one who convinced Shawna to forget about her alliance with Jenna, Heidi and Deena.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He made it clear to Rob, right after they blindsided Deena, that he would be voted out at the final four. This was what caused Rob to make a counter-alliance of Matthew, Butch and Christy to vote Alex out.
- Older Than They Look: Alex acts in his twenties but was 33 at the time of filming.
8th. Deena Bennett
Age/ home/ job: 35/ Riverside, California/ deputy district attorney
Luxury item: water balloons
Tribe: Jaburu -> Jacaré
- Distaff Counterpart: To Roger. She was the unofficial leader of the women's tribe and seemed to not respect men. Manipulative Editing perhaps had a part to play.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Ironically goes out in a much similar way to Roger. She more or less threw her shot at immunity away not thinking she needed it, and it turned out she did. On an even more ironic note, the people who got rid of her were the very people that she thought she was manipulating into doing her bidding.
- Idiot Ball: Letting Matt win immunity even though she was a prime contender to go home next.
- Younger Than They Look: Even though she is only 2-3 years older than the youthful Alex, Deena is often referred to as one of the older contestants.
9th. David "Dave" Johnson
Age/ home/ job: 44/ Pasadena, California/ rocket scientist
Luxury item: croquis
Tribe: Tambaqui -> Jacaré
- Always Someone Better: Why Alex and Rob wanted him gone.
- The Dulcinea Effect:
- After the tribal draft, he had the perfect opportunity to get rid of Jenna's best ally(Heidi) and fracture the women's tribe. For some bizarre reason, which can only be explained by this trope, he decided to spare Heidi and get rid of Black Sheep Jeanne instead.
- They were even on numbers 3/3 between him, Butch, and Roger and Jeanne, Christy and Heidi. For whatever reason, they perceived Heidi to be the easiest one to flip.
Voted Out
10th. Roger Sexton
Age/ home/ job: 56/ Valencia, California/ construction company executive
Luxury item: dog tags
Tribe: Tambaqui -> Jacaré
- Fish out of Water: To put it bluntly, Roger did not fit in with his much younger and hornier castmates at all. This is best shown at the merge feast; while everyone else is happy to get drunk and have fun, Roger wants everyone to stop drinking and eating and start working on the shelter.
- Hated by All: Everyone was on board to make him the first boot of the merge and the episode didn't even try to hide it, even doubling up confessionals of everyone talking about how much they hated Roger.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Was initially conceived as a target because he was bossy.
- Old Soldier: According to his pre-game bio, Roger served in the The Vietnam War.
- Outliving One's Offspring: While not talked about in the show itself, Roger's daughter died in 1992 according to his pre-game bio.
- Semper Fi: Again, According to his pre-game bio, Roger was in the marines during The '60s.
- Spear Counterpart: To Deena. He was the unofficial leader of the men's tribe and seemed not to respect women. Manipulative Editing perhaps had a part to play.
- Straw Misogynist: Was accused of being this by almost everyone on his season, though he denies it. His proud homophobia certainly doesn't help his case.
- Stupid Boss: Also was accused of being this by the time he was voted out.
11th. Shawna Mitchell
Age/ home/ job: 23/ Los Angeles, California/ retail salesperson
Luxury item: soccer ball
Tribe: Jaburu
- Innocent Beta Bitch: In the Jaburu tribe's Girl Posse, Jenna was the Alpha Bitch, Heidi was The Lancer(or if you will, The Dragon), and Shawna was this.
- Intergenerational Friendship: In her SurvivorOZ Interview
, Shawna claims that Jeanne was her closest friend. Possibly reaching True Companions. - Sanity Slippage: She had this when her tribe lost out on the Coke fridge. She got better.
- Suicide by Cop: Attempted but failed in the fourth episode. Instead, they kicked out JoAnna, and her indignance at this put her in genuine hot water.
- Tom Boy: Claims to be one in her Survivor Oz interview
- Unexplained Recovery: Was on the verge of quitting the game on Day 13 or so until there was a tribal switch that swapped out some of the female members from her tribe for a few members from the all-male Tambaqui tribe. Then she forgot all about being sick or having thoughts of quitting.
12th. Jeanne Hebert
Age/ home/ job: 40/ North Attleboro, Massachussetts/ marketing director
Luxury item: edible massage oil
Tribe: Jaburu
- Cool Old Lady: An early provider at camp, despite her age.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With JoAnna. When JoAnna left, she was immediately the next target by association.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Shawna. Her defense of Shawna wanting to be sent home wasn't just malice or strategy.
13th. JoAnna Ward
Age/ home/ job: 31/ Orangeburg, South Carolina/ marketing director
Luxury item: picture of mom
Tribe: Jaburu
- The Fundamentalist: So religious in fact, that she considered the immunity idol an affront to the First Commandment "Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me".
- Holier Than Thou: She shows shades of this when she states that "Jesus loves Jaburu!".
- Insane Troll Logic: When Joanna compared the Immunity Idol to a religious idol(as in the First Commandment "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me.") Rob summed up most people's reactions to Joanna's reaction best when he waxed philosophic about whether God had any real vested interest in Survivor.
- Religious Bruiser: She was one of the strongest members of the original Jaburu tribe.
- Shout-Out: When Ryan Howard from The Office name-dropped her in the middle of an episode. It came somewhat as a shock to some fans who would expect name drosp to more famous contestants like Rupert Boneham or Boston Rob. Someone working for The Office (US) was clearly a Survivor fan.
- Token Minority: The Only Black American on this season.
- Tom Boy: Considers herself such, and had an easier time adjusting to the wilderness than most of the women.
14th. Daniel Lue
Age/ home/ job: 26/ Houston, Texas/ tax accountant
Luxury item: 2 magnetic rings
Tribe: Tamaqui
- Asian and Nerdy: Somewhat averted, he seems to be pretty smart; but in terms of Survivor intelligence, he doesn't quite show similar results. He also knew fluent Mandarin and used it with tribemate Matthew von Ertfelda.
- Dumb Muscle: Portrayed as this, fairly or not.
- Limited Social Circle: After Ryan got voted out, Matthew became his Only Friend.
15th. Janet Koth
Age/ home/ job: 46/ Manchester, Missouri/ homemaker
Luxury item: child's teddy bear
Tribe: Jaburu
- Cool Old Lady: The oldest woman in the season's cast.
- The Load: The other reason why she was voted out.
- Misblamed: Mistaken for smuggling a granola bar into camp.
16th. Ryan Aiken
Age/ home/ job: 23/ Ellicott City, Maryland/ model
Luxury item: baseball and bat
Tribe: Tamaqui
- Ironic Birthday: The episode he was voted out in aired on his birthday.
- Misblamed: In-universe example. He was blamed for blowing Tambaqui's lead in the first Immunity Challenge, but Daniel was the one who caused it to happen.
- Mr. Fanservice: Ryan is a model, after all.
- Shout-Out: References the John Woo movie Hard Target when voting for Roger by stating "Don't Hunt What You Can't Kill".
- Worthy Opponent: To Roger, both of whom were battling from Day 1 for control of the men's tribe.
