Characters / Survivor 45

The Tribes

Belo

Original Members: Brando, Bruce, Jake, Katurah, Kellie, Kendra

Post Swap Members: Austin, Brando, Drew, Emily, Kendra

Tribe Color: Blue

• Always Second Best: For the majority of the immunity challenges, Belo has placed second in all but two (the first being the first in the season and the second during the swap). But since two tribes can win immunity, this isn't a huge problem for Belo as of the fourth round, and four of the original members who were swapped to other tribes still won enough challenges to be immune for the entire tribal phase.
• Dwindling Party: Once the jury phase begins, the Belos fall apart and start getting pagonged by the more united Reba Four. After Bruce's elimination, Jake and Katurah are the only ones left.
• A House Divided: While the tribe didn't go to Tribal in the first half of the game, it was clear that the tribe was very unstable due to Katurah and Bruce's feuding as well as several fracturing relationshipsand rising tensions. Then when the jury phase came, the tribe completely fell apart.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Belos have a great deal of internal tension, with Bruce and Katurah's feud making up their main plot, but when push comes to shove, they do vote together as a unit. That is, until episode 8, where Katurah's betrayal and Kendra and Kellie's decision to finally go after Bruce and Jake cause them to completely implode.

Lulu

Original Members: Brandon, Emily, Hannah, Kaleb, Sabiyah, Sean

Post Swap Members: Bruce, Jake, Kaleb, Katurah, Kellie

Tribe Color: Yellow

• Butt-Monkey: Lulu's performances in the first three episodes were nothing to write home about. Not only did they lose three straight immunity challenges, but they didn't win their flint until the fourth immunity challenge, and even then it was after the tribe swap happened and only Kaleb remained. Kaleb was almost eliminated unanimously Episode 6 but he got a second chance using his Shot in the Dark....only to be sent packing as the inaugural member of the jury, just barely making it on there. If there was no merge or tribe swap, Lulu could have very well whittled themselves down to nothing, Ulong style.
• Dwindling Party: Across the first four episodes only Lulu members were eliminated, leaving Emily and Kaleb as the sole remaining members of the tribe. But after Kaleb is voted out early in the merge, Emily was the only member of Lulu left before she eventually got voted out.
• Epic Fail: Throughout the entirety of the competition, almost nothing went right for Lulu. They lost all three immunity challenges, didn't get flint until Day 9, and only managed to win the last two immunity challenge thanks to a major tribe swap. By the time of the merge, more than half the original were voted out, with Kaleb just barely making the jury. Only Emily managed to get a single-digit placement, and even then she didn't make it past the final 7, cementing Lulu's reputation as one of the worst performing tribes in Survivor history.
• Failure Tribe: And how! Throughout the first three episodes, Lulu had lost all three immunity challenges. Comparisons to Luzon from Cagayan, Malolo from Ghost Island, Matsing from Philippines and Ulong from Palau were made early on. They didn't even win the Sweat/Savvy challenge. In fact, even when they did win a challenge solely due to Kaleb, they proceed to lose the next one after. It wasn't until the tribe swap in Episode 4 that Lulu finally won their first immunity challenge. Even then though the original members still make this tribe one of the most pathetic in the entire series with two members quitting, one being a huge challenge liability, one overplaying, and one almost managing to be voted out first over those four. And the final member was almost voted out unanimously Pre Jury and swiftly removed after that. Their legacy as a losing tribe is sealed when Emily gets voted out at the final 7 with just one vote thanks to Julie's hidden immunity idol.
• Total Party Kill: Not one of them made the final 6.

Reba

Original Members: Austin, Dee, Drew, J., Julie, Sifu

Post Swap Members: Dee, J., Julie, Sean, Sifu

Tribe Color: Red

• The Ace: For the first three episodes at least. Reba went undefeated in reward and immunity challenges and never had to worry about going to Tribal Council. However, that streak ended by the swap in Episode 4 where they lost their first immunity challenge and had to vote someone off. Fortunately, despite all six original members attending Tribal for the first time, they all made it to the post-tribal stage intact.
• A House Divided: Despite never going to Tribal, it's increasingly clear that the relationships and tensions among the tribe has rendered them incapable of working together strategically. The fact that they immediately vote out one of their own at the merge is proof. However, the remaining four do rally and pull in Emily to take the majority.
• Pet the Dog: In episode five, when forced to pick someone from each tribe to go on a journey, they pick Kellie from Lulu as they saw she wasn't happy about being forced to sit out.
• True Companions: For as downright nasty as they can be to their competition, the Reba Four are very close to each other and go out of their way to provide emotional support and protection to the others. That is until episode 11, when they turn on each other.

The Sole Survivor

Dianelys “Dee” Valladares

Tribe: Reba —> Reba

Age: 26

Hometown: Havana, Cuba

Current Residence: Miami, FL

Occupation: Entrepreneur

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• Action Girl: Dee is one of the most competent challenge performers in the game. She ends up winning the most immunities by the end of the season.
• Alpha Bitch: Loves to belittle and bully other ladies constantly making fake promises especially to Emily, Kendra and Kellie. What really sells this though, is her cruel treatment of Jake with Drew the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing abusing him.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: That being said, Dee can be very pleasant at times, like when she and the other girls comforted Katurah over her letter from her mom, and she has a very close relationship with both Austin and Mama J.
• Affably Evil: While Dee can have occasonal moments of meanness, for the most part she is very pleasant and easygoing, despite also having a chokehold on the game.
• Big Bad: The Villain Protagonist of this season being the leader of the Reba Four.
• The Bad Guy Wins: While not as openly villainous as Drew, she still was the one pulling the strings for 90% of the game.
• Boring, but Practical: Compared to Austin, who hoarded but misused powerful advantages, and Jake, who frequently tried and failed to make big moves, Dee focused entirely on having a strong social game and Pagonging the Belos out, a simple but effective strategy that won her the million.
• Chekhov's Skill: Dee has a longer than average big toe and boasted that she can handle the balance portions well. She proves that boast in the following Immunity Challenge when she easily crossed the balance beam. It helps her again in the first individual immunity challenge.
• Dark Action Girl: On top of her challenge skill, Dee can also be manipulative and devious.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite being the reason Austin's key allies Emily and Drew go home, Austin still forgives Dee and stays loyal to her.
• Femme Fatale: Dee is very easy on the eyes and she knows it, but she is also a very dangerous and competent schemer.
• Hourglass Plot: Austin tips her off that the rest of the players are planning to target Julie in an effort to preserve their relationship. When the other players begin plotting against Drew, Dee finds herself in the same position. Unlike Austin, Dee chooses to hide the blindside.
• Invincible Villain: From start to finish, Dee never so much as suffered a minor setback. Even mistakenly voting for Sifu and losing Julie in Final Five didn't hurt her at all.
• Kick the Dog: She, along with Drew, eat a much bigger portion of rice than Jake.
• The Leader: She's the main one calling the shots of the Reba Four.
• Oh, Crap!: Her reaction to the Sean vote out, as her vote for Sifu causes a rift.
• Pet the Dog: When Jake begs to go to fire against Katurah because he wants some kind of control over his game, Dee is sympathetic and agrees.
• Poor Communication Kills: She completely misses the hints to indulge Sean in his Suicide by Cop, which winds up tipping off Sifu about the plot against him.
• Ship Tease: With Austin.
• Sole Survivor: Of Survivor 45.
• Sympathy for the Hero: How she felt towards Jake in the end, which leads to her honoring his request to make fire against Katurah.
• Undying Loyalty: To Julie and Austin. She never voted them out, and they in turn never vote for her and choose to protect her. It ends up winning her the game when Austin saves her and Julie pushes for her win in the Final Tribal.
• Villainous Friendship: With Julie. Dee and Julie are genuinely close friends and Dee has her back, especially when Reba falls apart.
• Villain Protagonist: Dee is both the villain and driving force of the season, along with being the ultimate winner.

The Runners-Up

Austin Li Coon

Tribe: Reba —> Belo

Age: 26

Hometown: San Jose, CA

Current Residence: Chicago, IL

Occupation: Grad student

Eliminated: Lost in Final Tribal Council Vote 5-3-0 (received 3 votes), Day 26

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• The Ace: He's so far shown to be good at everything, having great challenge skills, good strategic chops, and a strong social game. Even with his endgame blunders, his early and midgame showings earned him three jury votes.
• Advantage Ball: Received a hidden immunity idol through the Beware Advantage. He also gets an Amulet which confers a different advantage based on how many are left in the game, though he regards the latter as being useless. Until he took out the other amulet holders and matured it into a full idol. However, he winds up misplaying both.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Clearly enjoys being Dee's Number Two and top enforcer if it means he can be rude to the underdogs Katurah and Jake.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to his alliancemates Drew and Dee, while he is prone to aggression and loves to lie, he's not as bad as them all things considered.
• Big Eater: Austin clearly loves food a great deal, and will eat his fill and even gush about food at every opportunity. He even ate the most out of other players at the auction, and was even willing to eat fish eyes voluntarily.
• Brains and Brawn: The brawn to Drew's brains, but it should be noted that he's not stupid either.
• Co-Dragons: With Drew to Dee.
• Conflicting Loyalty: He is equally loyal to both Drew and Dee, so naturally, when they begin working against each other, he is left struggling who to support, and decides to play the middle, warning Dee about Drew's plot against Dee while still voting with Drew. It backfires spectacularly.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Austin is the one to stop Bruce's immunity streak in its tracks.
• Disaster Dominoes: Letting Julie borrow his hidden immunity idol winds up setting off a chain of events that royally screws him over. First, Julie chooses to hold onto the idol herself after he does so, so when Drew decides to target her, Austin decides he can't demand it back for fear of setting off her paranoia. Then he tells Dee about the plan, who in turn tells Julie, who proceeds to idol out Emily, one of his closest allies. Then the remaining players get together and blindside Drew with him the only one left out.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He swore revenge on J. Maya and Kellie, aggressively lobbied to his alliance for them to be eliminated, and took the first shot he had to take away their shots at a million dollars... because they chose an advantage he hated over sandwiches, which he wanted.
• Epic Fail: Austin got his hands on two immunity idols, and wound up completely misplaying both of them. One he gave to an ally that he later attempted to blindside, and she used to idol out one of his allies instead, and the other he played for himself when Drew was a blindside target.
• Fatal Flaw: His tendency to think with his emotions. He spent several episodes wanting payback over a sandwich, making a bigger deal over it than Ross Geller, and when despite that, he gets into a position of power, he still blows major moves due to his feelings towards Dee.
• Good with Numbers: So much so that he solves a mathematic logic puzzle by just being good enough at math to crunch the numbers without needing to engage the logic part.
• Lost Food Grievance: He bemoans the lost the sandwiches on his journey with J and Kellie for what he considers to be a useless advantage in the form of an Amulet and plans to backstab both of them to turn it into an idol. He manages to get J. Maya and Kelllie in the Merge.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Episode 11 saw him have a chance to blindside Julie so long as Dee was unaware of the plan. However, because of his feelings for her, he ended up telling her. This resulted in Dee telling Julie, and Julie using the idol he gave her to blindside his ally Emily. It also ends up causing him to lose Drew, as Dee chooses to flip on them to save Julie again. And even when he's upset about the loss of Drew, he STILL trusts her and saves her over Julie, This ends up costing him the game.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He declares that he's determined to take out J and Kellie as revenge for his lost sandwich, and leads the charge to take J out at the first opportunity. He then takes out Kellie the very first chance he has after that.
  • Shocking averted with Drew's blindside. When he and Dee talk it out on the beach, he ends up forgiving her and staying loyal to her.
• Ship Tease: With Dee.
• Sympathy for the Hero: How he felt towards Jake in the end, understanding why he wants to go to fire against Katurah.
• Those Two Guys: He's in a strong alliance with Drew.
• Terrible Trio: With Dee and Drew.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Austin was one of the smarter players in the early game, but once he hits the endgame, Austin begins making careless blunder after careless blunder that wipes out his alliance with Drew and Emily.

Jake O'Kane

Tribe: Belo —> Lulu

Age: 26

Hometown: Hanson, MA

Current Residence: Boston, MA

Occupation: Attorney

Eliminated: Lost in Final Tribal Council Vote 5-3-0 (received no votes), Day 26

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• Attack Backfire: Big time. His attempt to take out Julie jettisons him directly to the bottom.
• Audience Surrogate: Jake's frustration with the other players conservative playstyle, constant unanimous votes, and unwillingness to crack definitely plays into fans love of gameshaking blindsides.
• Break the Cutie: Between his body giving out, and him being constantly on the outs and lied to by others, he ends up crying in Episode 10 after beginning to struggle with imposter syndrome. It gets worse in the Finale, where he breaks down in the confessionals after Julie's vote and understands that he doesn't have a chance in winning but wants something to improve his game at least a bit.
• Broken Tears: In the Finale, as the pressure of being the season's Butt-Monkey finally catches up to him and he despairs about his chances.
• Butt-Monkey: Jake is constantly on the receiving end of the other players abuse, regularly being used as a decoy vote, or having his food stolen from him, or being constantly kept out of the loop.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Jake has rapidly decreasing self-esteem, is mediocre to downright bad at challenges, and has been unable to make a move for several rounds, but he's still a good guy and wants to take out the Reba alliance.
• Delicate and Sickly: And not remotely happy about it. Despite being stocky, his body is shown to be giving out, to the point that he's passed out twice.
• Despair Event Horizon: With every move he makes failing despite his best attempts, Jake finally reaches a point where he realizes he can't win and breaks into tears after failing to vote out Dee and losing the Final Four immunity challenge.
• Determinator: Despite all his setbacks, loss of his alliance, and inability for anything to go his way, Jake still powers through the game, getting to Final Three.
• The Dog Bites Back: Is one of the deciding votes against Drew after being bullied and manipulated by him since the beginning of the Jury phase.
  • Comes up again in the Finale, as he is the one to take out Katurah after she had repeatedly screwed over his plans to make a difference in the game.
• Failure Hero: Jake's every attempt to shake up the game blows up in his face, leaving it impossible for him to shake up the game. By the finals, despite having the jury's sympathy, they still don't vote for him.
• Fainting: He has a few fainting/mini-seizure episodes at camp a few times, starting in Episode 3, very close to the fire which could've been a repeat of Skupin in the Australian Outback, then again in Episode 5. Kellie, who is a nurse, suspects that it's because of Jake standing up way too fast.
• Formerly Fat: He used be many pounds overweight, but got in shape two years before he got on the show.
• Innocently Insensitive: Yells out "Whoa!" as a reaction to Kellie's blindside after going into tribal assuming he was going home, he immediately apologizes noticing how crushed Kellie is by her vote out.
• The Hero: While Emily and Kaleb were the heroes of the first part of the season, Jake becomes the true heroic figure who underdogs genuinely connect with. Cemented by Emily's vote off by Julie, as he's the last remaining heroic player.
• Hidden Depths: He actually teaches a theater class for kids.
• Nice Guy: He's constantly shown to be a standup, friendly guy.
• Only Friend: He's probably the only member of Belo who genuinely likes Bruce.
• Unfolding Plan Montage: His plan to blindside Julie is shown this way, with him outlining his plan as clips from that night's tribal council are shown. And of course, his plan goes wrong when Katurah double crosses him.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When he follows the trend that every vote in the merge has been almost unanimous except for the one time he went rogue, he decides to act like he's already defeated to get the other players to postpone his elimination for a bigger threat. It works and Kellie takes the hit.

The Jury

Katurah Topps

Tribe: Belo —> Lulu

Age: 35

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Current Residence: Brooklyn, NY

Occupation: Civil rights attorney

Eliminated: Lost fire making to Jake, Day 25

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• Arch-Enemy: She and Bruce can't stand each other. She wins out, but is significantly worse for wear after the fact.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Does she ever. While it was hinted at in episode 10 from her reaction to receiving a letter from her mother (who she went no contact with a year prior), we learn so much more in episode 11. Katurah was taken out of school when she was in the fifth grade because her family joined a religious cult, and immediately, she was forced to work various jobs despite being a child. At the age 14, the leader of the cult her family joined specifically chose her to be his bride. Luckily, her mother finally saw how depraved that was and ran away with her from the cult, but Katurah then had to go to high school with a severe disadvantage due to her stunted learning growth, and then had to deal with the prejudices of being black, poor, a woman, and gay. Making it all the more amazing that she still managed to become a very upbeat person and went on to become a lawyer.
• The Eeyore: Is not popular among her tribe due to how she never stops talking about how much she hates Bruce.
• Fatal Flaw: Tunnel-vision. Very early on, Katurah developed an obsessive hatred of Bruce, to the point that voting him out became her sole motivation. In the process, she helped speed along Belo's disintegration at the merge, and left herself as six in a five-person alliance.
• Freudian Excuse: With the reveal of her backstory, which shows her to have escaped a very controlling cult, her dislike from Bruce in the game could be from how he micromanaged her. Bruce even admits after a Heel Realization in episode 9 that he could be overbearing.
• Lethally Stupid: At the final five, she flips her vote from Dee to Julie, and Julie goes home. Guess who ended up winning?
• Lipstick Lesbian: Admits in episode 11 that she is gay.
• Missing Mom: Katurah reveals late in the game that she broke contact with her mother a year and a half before appearing in the game, which leaves her very surprised when she receives a letter from her mother during a reward.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Upon finding out that everyone on New Lulu helped Bruce find the Lulu idol and kept her out of the loop, she decides to finally cut ties with the Belo alliance and join up with Reba, helping them to vote out Kaleb.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Katurah torpedoes an idol play that Bruce had set up through Jake (lying that Kellie had gone home with his idol in her pocket) that was fooling the Reba Four due to her hatred for him. While it eventually resulted in his elimination, it also left her and the remaining two outsiders at their mercy when she could have kept her mouth shut and let Bruce weaken Reba.
• The Pawn: Her vendetta against Bruce makes it easy for the Rebas to turn her traitor against the Belos, but it's obvious they have no intention of taking her to the end.
• Pyrrhic Victory: She succeeds in her season-long goal of eliminating Bruce... at the cost of a completely dominant Reba alliance and shooting herself in the foot, leaving her in a position where she has no choice but to wait for the small chance of an alliance crack.
• Turn Coat: As the only member of the Belo alliance who doesn't want to work with Bruce any further, she decides to abandon them in favor of the Reba Alliance.
• Rags to Riches: Went from having to attend high school with a lack of any real schooling and with very little due to her family having to escape a cult to a highly successful lawyer.
• Unknown Rival: To Bruce. She views him as a threat and is more vocal of her suspicions of him in confessionals compared to everyone else in Belo. It stops being unknown in episode 4, however, once Bruce realizes how much she dislikes him.

Julie Alley

Tribe: Reba —> Reba

Age: 49

Hometown: Brentwood, TN

Current Residence: Brentwood, TN

Occupation: Estate Attorney

Eliminated: 2-1-1-0 (Jake played his idol on Katurah, negating one vote against her), Day 24

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• Action Girl: Comes extremely close to winning two endurance challenges in a row.
• Anti-Villain: Julie is loyal, friendly, and honorable, but she's aligned with the Reba Four and can be very vindictive and vicious when someone crosses her.
• Cool Old Lady: She's one of the older contestants, but also one of its toughest and smartest.
• The Dragon: She's this to Dee, being not only a stronger challenge competitor than her, but also serving as Dee's enforcer and de-facto second vote in the strategic aspect.
• Heel Realization: Julie begins to realize that she's acting outside of her usual character outside of the game, and fears the other players may loathe her for playing a manipulative game with the Rebas.
• In-Series Nickname: Mama Julie or Mama J.
• It's Personal: Her reason for going after Jake. He targeted her, and she won't feel comfortable until he's gone.
  • This is why she took out Emily, as Drew was throwing Julie's name out but was immune, so she took out one of his closest allies to weaken him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After eliminating Kendra and Kellie, she begins to feel very guilty about taking advantage of her friendship with them to blindside them.
• Only Sane Woman: She's frustrated with her younger Alliance members tendency to change plans at the last second.
• Team Mom: She acts as this to her tribe, hence the "Mama J" nickname.
• Token Good Teammate: Of the Reba Four, as she's the only one who hasn't antagonized or betrayed other contestants.
• Undying Loyalty: To Dee. Julie is extremely close to Dee and votes with her and in her interest constantly.

Drew Basile

Tribe: Reba —> Belo

Age: 23

Hometown: Birmingham, MI

Current Residence: Philadelphia, PA

Occupation: Grad student

Eliminated: 4-2, Day 23

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• Advantage Ball: Received the Safety Without Power advantage after winning a challenge through his journey.
• Backstab Backfire: Spectacularly. After betraying Julie, not only does Emily get sent home, but Drew gets knocked out right after.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: He comes across as a very quiet player in interpersonal conversations, and is often overlooked as a vote target, which he uses to great effect to orchestrate the game.
• Birds of a Feather: Averted. Brando attempts to get him on his side by making note of their shared hobbies, but Drew refuses to engage with him, knowing that those attempts are ruses.
• Brains and Brawn: The brains to Austin's brawn. Downplayed in that Drew isn't a bad challenge performer himself.
• Evil Nerd: He looks like Napoleon Dynamite, has a host of nerdy hobbies, and even admits in his first confessional that he's a nerd, but he's also a devious strategist.
• Humiliation Conga: Drew's entire game falls apart when he betrays the Reba Four. Emily gets voted out with Austin's idol. Drew loses a reward challenge and is left behind at camp to watch Julie, and gets stuck cleaning the rice pot, a boring, tedious task that takes an hour. Then he loses the immunity challenge, spends the entire day unable to sniff out that the other players are plotting against him, and to top it all off, Austin plays a hidden immunity idol for himself.
• Hypocrite: Drew is downright offended when he learns that Jake has suggested blindsiding him, despite the fact that they'd worked together for several rounds, but he doesn't hesitate to throw around Jake or Julie's names.
• Kick the Dog: He, along with Dee, eat a much bigger portion of rice than Jake. Drew in particular winds up eating more than he intended.
• Nerdy Bully: He's grown into this overtime. He's very intelligent, but he knows it and has no problems showing it off and acting like it entitles him to special privileges. In Episode 9, he rubs in how Bruce has alienated the other players after he showed remorse for what he did and wanted to improve then eats a larger portion of rice and rubs it in Jake's face.
• Smug Snake: Drew has been running the game with a Reba Core Four since the beginning of the game, and considers himself the mastermind of the group. However, it becomes increasingly clear that Dee is the true power in the group and Drew is nowhere near as powerful or dangerous as he thinks he is. He doesn't last long at all once he decides to strike out on his own.
• Sore Loser: Drew tended to not hide his frustration whenever he lost challenges or wasn't picked for rewards. He's also visibly pissed off when he gets blindsided and voted out.
• The Starscream: Drew is the one who ultimately breaks up the Reba Four's dominance by attempting to take out Julie so he can assume control of the Reba group. It goes about as well for him as the trope namesake.
• Stealthy Colossus: Noticeably the tallest castaway of the season, yet he manages to be a quiet, yet competent strategist.
• Stereotypical Nerd: Played with. He has a very nerdy appearance and even hobbies, but he also admits that he can also have the personality of a Frat Bro in the right environment.
• The Strategist: He seems to be the main strategist of the Reba alliance.
• Those Two Guys: With Austin.
• Ungrateful Bastard: How Julie sees him after episode 11, as she was loyal to him and unwilling to make a move against him until she heard her name being thrown by him. Funnily enough, Drew himself saw Jake in this light prior because the latter was tired of being the decoy vote.

Emily Flippen

Tribe: Lulu —> Belo

Age: 28

Hometown: McKinney, TX

Current Residence: Laurel, MD

Occupation: Investment analyst

Eliminated: 1-0 (Julie played an idol on herself, negating 6 votes against her), Day 21

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• Alpha Bitch: The first episode seemed to set her up as one, with Emily being so mean that her bad attitude alone would have gotten her voted out if Hannah didn’t quit. Downplayed as later she becomes a Defrosting Ice Queen who forms a strong bond with Kaleb and immediately bonds with Austin and Drew after the tribe swap.
• Bitch Alert: Her first confessional, as well as the first words out of her mouth establish her as one, with her attempting to discredit Bruce's claims that he doesn't have an unfair advantage, and when he attempts to amicably defuse the issue, she keeps pressing. Everyone notes privately that it was an awful first impression.
• Bittersweet Ending: Doesn't win the game, but ultimately comes out of the experience having undergone a lot of growth as a person and joins the jury having made some huge moves such as the Bruce blindside and being the only Lulu to make it as far as she did.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: In her day to day life, Emily is an investment analyst. She also admits to being extremely bad with numbers.
• The Cynic: Assumes the worst of her fellow team members' intentions almost immediately. She's also the only person to challenge Bruce and his return on the boat before anyone sets foot on the island.
• Decoy Antagonist: Her first couple episodes paint her as a negative, unlikable villain and Big Bad of Lulu's story, but after some much needed character development she becomes a much more positive presence, to the point that her rival Sabiyah comes out looking worse by comparison.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Her story arc across the season is this. After the poor first impression she gave out to everyone and almost being voted out in the first episode for her negative attitude, she's able to turn herself around over the course of the season. She becomes kinder, more lively, and more trusting of others.
• Funny Background Event: After her tribe loses the episode 5 immunity challenge, Emily, who sat out, can be seen with a blurred out mouth.
• The Hero Dies: After focusing on her development into an empathetic and nicer person, Emily is voted out in episode 11.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: How she felt on Lulu. She was one of the tribe's smartest members, but was isolated because she refused to engage with their antics.
• Irony: Would've originally been the first boot of the season and first member of Lulu eliminated had Hannah not quit. She ends up lasting the longest out of everyone in the tribe and is the only original member left by the time of the final 10.
• Last of Her Kind: Following Kaleb's elimination on Day 14, Emily is the last remaining Lulu member in the game.
• The Mole: For the Reba Core Four, Emily acts like she's just as much on the outs as the other players, when in reality she's been working with and relaying info to Austin and Drew.
• Motor Mouth: Her biggest flaw is how much she talks to the point that Kaleb has to tell her to shut up so she can save her own game at Lulu.
• Only Friend: Kaleb seems to be the only person willing to give her the time of day. Subverted as later she builds bonds with others such as Austin and Drew.
• Pragmatic Hero: Although she's taken several levels in kindness, Emily is still fully willing to vote against people she openly admits she considers friends to further her position in the game, including Kaleb and Kellie and openly admits that she's trying butter up Bruce for a possible jury vote while openly planning to vote him out.
• Revenge by Proxy: A victim of this, as Julie voted her out because Drew threw out her name but was safe, so she targeted Emily for being his ally.
• The Sixth Ranger: To the core four Reba Alliance. She joins them after the tribe swap, but is as much a loyal member as the others.
• The Smart Girl: She's shown to be very intelligent, especially since her job requires analyzing massive amounts of data.
• Spanner in the Works: Her warning Kaleb that the vote was going to be on him led to him playing his Shot in the Dark, ruining the plan to send him home and leading to J. Maya going home.
• Tears of Joy: Upon winning her first immunity in Episode 4, she cries tears of joy and hugs Austin.

Bruce Perrault - Survivor 44

Tribe: Belo —> Lulu

Age: 47

Hometown: West Warwick, RI

Current Residence: West Warwick, RI

Occupation: Insurance agent

Eliminated: 4-3-1, Day 19

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• Anti-Hero: Bruce is a good guy and means well, but he's also jealous, controlling, stubborn, proud, and incredibly difficult to work with.
• Arch-Enemy: He and Katurah can't stand each other.
• Attention Whore: From day one it was clear that Bruce reveled in being in the spotlight, entertaining his tribe for hours on end. Unfortunately, after meeting Kaleb, this trait turned downright nasty, as he causes his tribe to implode out of jealousy towards Kaleb, who was developing strong, possibly stronger, relationships with the other castaways than him.
• Bald of Authority: He's the leader of the Belo alliance.
• Bittersweet Ending: While Bruce was voted out in a strategic blindside, he at least got a chance to play Survivor properly after what happened last time.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Bruce is a major goofball, but he's also fully aware that Katurah is working against him and is a great challenge performer.
• Control Freak: Bruce constantly feels the need to exercise control over his allies, demanding they vote and play his way.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the alpha male tribal leaders like Andrew Savage and Tom Westman. Like them, he quickly assumed a leadership position in his tribe, with most of said tribe in an alliance with him, and is a challenge beast, leading his tribe to victory throughout the tribal portion, losing only one member who was swapped to a different tribe. However, unlike them, Bruce's chokehold on the other players games gradually rubbed his tribe the wrong way, and after jealously sacrificing Kaleb to hold onto his power and respect, his tribe imploded, with Katurah betraying the group, Jake becoming a free agent, and Kendra and Kellie plotting against him, allowing the Reba tribe, which lost more members at the merge to easily steamroll the divided group.
• Eccentric Mentor: Acts as one for his tribe, as while he is their mentor and leader, he's also making a joke a minute.
• Fatal Flaw: Vanity. Bruce loves to be the center of attention, and part of the reason he spent most of his time entertaining his tribe was so they would always be interacting with him. As he quickly became the leader of Belo, his need to hold that position drove him to turn on a potential ally in Kaleb purely out of jealousy and spite for his natural charisma. Doing so turned the other players against him, forcing him to go on an immunity run to stay in the game while his tribe implodes around him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Despite the fact that he's the leader of the Belo alliance, his tribemates don't hold him in much regard due to his difficult personality. This reaches the point where everyone celebrates when he gets voted out, even the jury.
• Green-Eyed Monster: When he realizes Kaleb seems to be usurping his popularity among the tribe, with him being left out of conversations, he becomes extremely hostile toward Kaleb and lobbies to get him eliminated.
• Jerkass Realization: After learning that Kellie saw him as a hindrance to her game, Bruce begins to sincerely reflect and realizes that he's been insufferable.
• The Millstone: The disintegration of Belo after the merge can be traced directly back to Bruce's insistence on running the tribe his way.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Following his very short stint in his previous season, Bruce returns to play the game properly this time. By virtue of making it past Day 1, he has beaten his original performance. Along with that, unlike what eventually happed with his first tribe, Tika, after his exit, the tribes Bruce was a part in this season manage to be immune for the entire tribal phase.
• Oblivious to Hatred: He has no idea that Kellie, who he believes is his number one ally, loathes him and views him as dragging her game down.
• Pet the Dog: During Jake's Break the Cutie moment in episode ten, Bruce is the only one to reach out to Jake and offer him genuine words of encouragement and pride.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: After being appointed Belo's leader, he acquits himself more than well in the challenge and camp life aspects of the game, but once the merge hits, Bruce proves to be atrocious at strategic leadership, throwing members of his own alliance under the bus and coming up with impossible plans that alienate every member of his alliance.
• Team Dad: Despite wanting to be seen as the "Cool Uncle" instead, his teammates view him as this. This winds up being to his detriment, however, as when he starts actually treating the players like his children, they see it as condescending and grating.
• This Means War!: Upon realizing that Katurah is trying to run a smear campaign against, him all but says she's going down.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He becomes a lot less pleasant come the merge, lashing out at tribemates who disagree with him and shooting down all dissent within his alliance.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After some much-needed reflection, Bruce is much more patient, thoughtful, and compassionate in his last round of the game, but unfortunately for him, the damage was done and he gets voted out anyway.
• Tragic Hero: A charismatic, charming, funny tribe leader who kept every tribe he was on from going to tribal council, and once the merge hits, his need to be the center of attention destroys his tribe, alienating his allies one by one until he and the remaining Belos are completely incapable of working together. Eventually, his strength gives out and he's voted out in eight place, having unwittingly destroyed his own tribe getting there.
• Tragic Mistake: All of Bruce's problems began the moment he turned on Kaleb and lobbied for him to be voted out... because he was jealous of Kaleb's charisma and likability among his alliance members. In doing so, he alienated Emily, Katurah, (even further) Kellie, and Kendra, and eventually lost Jake's loyalty as well. Needless to say, the other players have had enough of him to the point they celebrated when he was voted out.
• Too Dumb to Live: Believing Emily, who's been working against him all game, that he didn't need to play his idol since she was going to flip. Even though he knew there was no chance of Katurah working with him to flip the game, so even if Emily was being honest, the plan was doomed to fail.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He seems to be playing an old-school tribal loyalty season of Survivor, which the other tribe members universally dismiss as archaic, and rapidly loses him the merge tribes respect.

Kendra McQuarrie

Tribe: Belo —> Belo

Age: 31

Hometown: Haverhill, MA

Current Residence: Steamboat Springs, CO

Occupation: Bartender

Eliminated: 6-1, Day 17 (Emily and Katurah both lost their votes during the immunity challenge and failed to earn their votes back during the journey)

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• Action Girl: One of the most capable challenge performers on her tribe.
• Ascended to Carnivorism: She's been a vegetarian for 15 years, yet wastes no time in chowing down on a rotisserie chicken she won as a reward.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Shortly after the merge, she gets fed up with Bruce's attitude and plots to blindside him, only to be talked out of it by Kellie since Bruce is too valuable a meat shield that early into the game.
• Granola Girl: She's a vegetarian, extremely into astrology and repeatedly talks about the "vibes" of her fellow campers and the game.
• Death Glare: Gives a vicious one to Emily when she helps Drew and Austin vote out Brando.
• Groin Attack: During the second immunity challenge, Kendra fell groin first into the balance beam.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Continues to trust and confide in Emily and Drew after they both screwed her over twice. Obviously, the third time she pays for it with a snuffed torch.
• The Lad-ette: She's shown to get along with the guys very well, and definitely on occasion acts like just as much of a guy as any of them.

Kellie Nalbandian

Tribe: Belo —> Lulu

Age: 30

Hometown: Weston, CT

Current Residence: New York, NY

Occupation: Critical care nurse

Eliminated: 5-3, Day 16 (Bruce lost his vote during the auction and Jake played his shot in the dark and lost his vote)

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• Advantage Ball: She gets her hands on an Advantage Amulet that confers an advantage and becomes more valuable as others with one are voted out.
• Didn't See That Coming: She only briefly considered the possibility she could be targeted instead of Jake at her blindside. When she is in fact the target, she's left completely floored.
• Dragon with an Agenda: To Bruce. She knows he's a hindrance, but he's also a powerful shield for her, so she works to keep him in the game.
• Fatal Flaw: Hesitation. Kellie had a perfect opportunity to cut loose Bruce, whom she had acknowledged several times as hindering her game in the round before her elimination, but chose not to since she was unwilling to cut him until exactly the right moment. Unfortunately for her, she missed that moment and got taken out when Bruce wasn't an option.
• Heroic BSoD: Her state after being eliminated. Not only can she only ask the other players who betrayed her, but she even forgets her torch on the way to Jeff.
• Hide Your Lesbians: Is gay, but this is not mentioned on the show.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Twice over. First, by hitching herself so closely to Bruce, she became a de-facto alternate target when he became immune, and her tie-breaking vote to take the amulet of power over the sandwiches caused Austin to target her at his first opportunity.
• The Medic: Since she has medical experience, she takes it upon herself to tend to Jake when he has his passing out episodes.
• Sore Loser: She's shown to be utterly devastated and angry over her blindside.
• Tear Jerker: She and Kendra both are devastated by her blindside, being shocked and clearly close to crying.
• Too Clever by Half: Her strategy to use Bruce as a shield until she didn't need him anymore was a clever strategy... but only so long as he doesn't win immunity and she isn't considered his number one ally. Needless to say, once Bruce is being targeted, but immune...
• The Woman Behind the Man: It becomes increasingly clear after the merge that she, not Bruce, is the true power in the Belo Alliance. This ends up leading to her blindside.

Kaleb Gebrewold

Tribe: Lulu —> Lulu

Age: 29

Hometown: Port Coquitlam, British Columbia

Current Residence: Vancouver, British Columbia

Occupation: Software sales

Eliminated: 4-2, Day 14

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• All-Loving Hero: Manages to make a friend out of Emily, of all people and is The Heart of his tribe.
• Bittersweet Ending: His successful Shot in the Dark play couldn't keep him from getting successfully targeted the next time he was vulnerable. However, thanks to both it and Dee winning the reward for the split tribes at Final 12, he was able to hang on just long enough to make the jury phase.
• Born Lucky: By sheer virtue of winning the Shot in the Dark when every single vote was against him.
• Decoy Protagonist: The opposite of Emily. At first he seemed like the "hero" of the Lulu tribe being that he's by far the nicest guy and makes friends with everyone making him an early favourite. However, thanks in part due to Tall Poppy Syndrome and players growing Genre Savvy to "triple threat" players like Malcolm Freberg from Philippines, he was quickly booted when the merge came and becomes the first member of the Jury not unlike Matt last season.
• Disc-One Final Boss: By far the most dominant and important player of the season for the first half, he ultimately only ends up as the inaugural member of the season's Jury when a plan by Jake to flip onto Julie fails.
• Failure Hero: Despite his charisma, skill, and challenge competence, Kaleb is never able to get any momentum in the game, between being stuck on the failure that is Lulu, being saddled with the paranoid and jealous Bruce, and singled out as a compromise vote by the new merge tribe, Kaleb could only hold out for so long until his luck ran out.
• Karmic Jackpot: Bonding with Emily when no one else would proved to benefit him later, as she leaked the plan to blindside him so he could use his Shot in the Dark to save himself.
• The Lancer: Of Lulu being the second in command, though he shares this role with Sean.
• Loved by All: He's noted to be liked by everyone he's playing with.
• Only Friend: First to Emily, then to Katurah. Also to Jake given he was the only one who could tolerate him. Jake is also by the same token, the only person that didn't vote for him the second time so it comes full circle.
• Supporting Leader: While Sabiyah seemed like the decision maker, in reality, she was a Puppet King for the true leader, and as soon as Sabiyah exposes herself. Kaleb and Emily band together to get her out leaving Sean on the outs.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Kaleb is singled out at the merge for being too likable, with everyone noting that he has managed to form a working relationship with almost everyone within hours of landing on the merge tribe, causing everyone to converge on him to make sure they have a chance to win.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Compared to Emily who was swapped to Belo already with flint and an impressive winning streak, Kaleb finally winning flint while still in Lulu is a massive relief for him after his original iteration's abysmal losing streak.

Pre-Jury

Nicholas "Sifu" Alsup

Tribe: Reba —> Sifu

Age: 30

Hometown: O’Fallon, IL

Current Residence: O’Fallon, IL

Occupation: Gym Owner

Eliminated: 5-1, Day 14

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• Hated by All: He was already disliked on Reba, but the new Reba tribe all can't stand him.
• Large Ham: Takes a lot of cues from Coach Wade and Tony Vlachos in this department.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He shows a tendency not to think before he acts. Going searching for a hidden immunity idol in the first few days and getting caught red-handed puts him square at the bottom of the pecking order.
• Out of Focus: For someone with as big a personality as he does, he had remarkably little screen time, and even in his elimination episode he tied for the least number of confessionals in said episode.
• Third-Person Person: Speaks this way in confessionals.
• This Means War!: Once he realizes the ladies on Reba are targeting him, he begins making moves to figure out who the ringleader is.

Janani "J. Maya" Krishnan-Jha

Tribe: Reba —> Reba

Age: 24

Hometown: San Francisco, CA

Current Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Occupation: Singer

Eliminated: 0, 10-1 revote, Day 13 (due to Kaleb's successful Shot in the Dark play nullifying 11 votes against him, a revote was forced due to the original vote being unanimous, as Kaleb lost his vote, also Austin sacrificed his vote so he could extend his idols lifespan)

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• Advantage Ball: She gets her hands on an Advantage Amulet that confers an advantage and becomes more valuable as others with one are voted out.
• Awesome by Analysis: She figures out the patterns on their tribe flags are the top and bottom halves of letters without a clue.
• A Death in the Limelight: After a low key first few episodes, J started to receive more attention approaching her elimination compared to before when she had very few confessionals, becoming a moderately large presence during her boot.
• Graceful Loser: While she's naturally bummed she lost, she's enjoyed her time playing and was happy that she went out in such a wild tribal.
• Leader Wannabe: Of the Reba women's Alliance. Turns out, there was no Reba Women's Alliance and she was the only one who didn't know, since they both vote her out at the merge.
• Oh, Crap!: When she realizes that Kaleb is safe and that she's most likely going home on the revote.
• Stunned Silence: Falls into this state as she realizes she's being unanimously voted out on the Merge revote.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: With the merge vote being between her and Kaleb, she is saved by the fact that the tribe is willing to unanimously vote out Kaleb. Unfortunately, Kaleb plays and wins his Shot in the Dark, causing everyone to turn on her instead.

Brandon "Brando" Meyer

Tribe: Belo —> Belo

Age: 23

Hometown: Oak Park, CA

Current Residence: Seattle, WA

Occupation: Software developer

Eliminated: 3-2, Day 11

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• Bad Liar: What causes Emily to turn on him is her catching him in a completely unnecessary and stupid lie about opting to betray Kendra.
• Birds of a Feather: Attempted. He tries to bond with Drew due to their shared nerd hobbies, but Drew sees it for the shallow, self-serving, and false move that it is and shoots him down.
• Death in the Limelight: Up until his boot episode, he remained Out of Focus, only getting the occasional line about how he doesn't feel like he fits in.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with Brandon Donlon.
• Sacrificial Lamb: He's the first member of the otherwise dominant Belo tribe to get voted out.

Sean Edwards

Tribe: Lulu —> Reba

Age: 35

Hometown: Lawrence, NJ

Current Residence: Provo-Orem, UT

Occupation: School principal

Eliminated: 3-1-1, Day 9

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• Butt-Monkey: Even among the Lulu tribe he is this. He started off as a strong second in command to Sabiyah but due to the Lulu tribe's constant losing, and being left out of the Sabiyah vote, he ends up hoping for a tribe swap, and even ends up failing to win the challenge this time on his new tribe, as a Reba whereas Kaleb and Emily at least stayed for longer, Sean asked to be voted out to be with his husband. Lastly, unlike Kaleb and Emily by the tribe swap, he never got to win flint for his tribe.
• Irony: Hoped for a tribe swap to put himself into a better position and gets exactly that, but still ends up leaving after asking to be voted out.
• Mercy Kill: His entire elimination is this. Although the day after, the Reba women wished he could've just straight up quit instead.
• Older Than They Look: Lampshaded in his Parade pre-season interview. He is 35 years old but he could pass off as one of the contestants in their 20s
• The Lancer: Shares this role with Kaleb as the second in command of Lulu.
• Spanner in the Works: New Reba was planning to blindside Sifu with him as the decoy, but his decision to quit, following by him telling Sifu that he is not the one who voted for him tips Sifu off about the plot against him. To say the ladies are furious about this is an understatement.
• Suicide by Cop: Unwilling to quit, but wanting out of the game, he asks the Reba tribe to vote him out.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The Reba ladies threw him a lifeline by offering to blindside Sifu. However, he not only decides to announce his request to be voted off at Tribal Council without giving them a chance to make a decision privately, but when one of them throws a stray vote at Sifu by accident, he tells Sifu it wasn't him, cluing him into the women's scheme. Not one of the Reba women appreciated his honesty and had a whole scene voicing disgust at his actions.

Sabiyah Broderick

Tribe: Lulu

Age: 28

Hometown: Locust Grove, GA

Current Residence: Jacksonville, NC

Occupation: Truck driver

Eliminated: 2-1 (Sabiyah sacrificed her vote so she could extend her idols lifespan) , Day 7

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• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Upon finding the idol, Sabiyah learned it was encased in wax and needed to burn the was off to make the idol gain power. As Lulu kept losing challenges, Sabiyah decided to use the tribal council fire pit to melt the was in front of her whole tribe, exposing herself in the process. To make matters worse for her, Sabiyah learned the idol was only good for one tribal council unless she sacrificed her vote. Her decision to do this right away leads to her downfall and elimination. Even worse for her original tribe is that she inadvertently gave the original belo tribe a huge advantage as Bruce was able to find an idol that is valid to play until the final five and that is charged because of her.
• The Leader: Kaleb and Sean go to her for decision making.
• Morton's Fork: What Sabiyah's idol turns out to be. Either she plays it when she think she doesn't need it and leave herself open later on, lets her idol expire whilst keeping a valuable vote, or loses her vote to keep a valuable idol. Inevitably, she chooses wrong.
• The Social Expert: Is able to make connections with just about anyone, and is incredibly savvy. Unfortunately this was not enough for her and Kaleb to win the tribe's supplies.
• Starter Villain: She's the main antagonist of the Lulu storyline, being the one antagonizing Emily, and she's voted out just before the swap.
• Too Clever by Half: Sabiyah comes up with a good idea to use the fire at Tribal Council to get her idol since she's stuck on one of the most incompetent tribes in the show's history and can't get fire until they win a challenge. This ends up failing due to two factors out of her control: the idol requiring her to sacrifice her vote to have longer power and that there would be a tribe swap next episode, which Jeff suggested in outside interviews were gone for good in the new format.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In Episode 2, Sabiyah finds a Beware Advantage and right before Lulu's second tribal council, she manages to obtain it. Unfortunately, it's incased in wax and the only way to melt it is with fire... which the tribe has not been able to get for the first five days.

Brandon Donlon

Tribe: Lulu

Age: 26

Hometown: Sicklerville, NJ

Current Residence: Sicklerville, NJ

Occupation: Content producer

Eliminated: 3-0 (Sabiyah lost her vote due to her Beware Advantage and Brandon lost his vote on the Day 5 Journey), Day 5

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• Dirty Coward: What ultimately sent him home. He could have kept the idol for himself but didn't do to fear of the Beware Advantage. He is only able to stop Sabiyah's vote for him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Brandon’s was eliminated not just because of his own performance in challenges but also due to selfish and poorly thought out decisions. He made Sabiyah open the beware advantage, which not only cost her votes at tribal council but it also had Sabiyah find the idol only to find it encased in wax and this was all because Brandon wanted to keep his vote at tribal council. He loses his vote hours later at a summit puzzle challenge in an attempt to get an advantage, leaving him completely defenseless at elimination.
• The Load: Ultimately why he's eliminated. After struggling in all challenges and losing his vote to a failed advantage challenge attempt, Lulu votes him out for tribe strength.
• Nervous Wreck: A very anxious player who gets overwhelmed by the elements and game.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with Brandon "Brando" Meyer.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Brandon’s poor gameplay and his decision to hand over the beware advantage to Sabiyah had a huge impact towards the game after his elimination. This is because Brandon has become indirectly responsible for Sabiyah’s elimination as he not only made Sabiyah untrustworthy by having her give up her vote but he also had Sabiyah find an idol that was covered in wax and couldn’t be played until the was was melted off. As Lulu kept losing challenges and being denied flint to start fires, Sabiyah resorted to burning the wax off at tribal council, exposing her true colors to her tribe and resulting in her elimination as the idol was only good for one use until she sacrifice her vote, which she did and therefore prevented a tie with Kaleb.
• Sucksessor: To previous introverted nerds like Fishbach and Spencer with none of their challenge prowess. While they knew how to hide their introversion to keep their tribes happy, Brandon's neurosis quickly earned him the ire of his tribe.

Hannah Rose

Tribe: Lulu

Age: 33

Hometown: Woodbridge, CT

Current Residence: Baltimore City, MD

Occupation: Therapist

Eliminated: Quit, Day 3

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• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Arguably. Though she did volunteer to quit due to her withdrawal, the tribe was able to do an informal vote, and Jeff did still say that "the tribe has spoken".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Was mentally checked out out shortly after the immunity challenge due to suffering from nicotine withdrawal, and admitted that she was willing to quit at tribal if need be.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Had she not quit in the premiere, Emily would not have gone through her own personal growth arc throughout the season since she would've been voted out instead of Hannah. Her quit gives Emily her second chance in the game that allows her to build her bonds with Kaleb and later Austin and Drew.
• Sucksessor: It's quite obvious casting wanted her to be reminiscent of Carolyn Wiger of the previous season both being blonde women who conquered drug addiction and went into counseling. While Carolyn Wiger was a strategic powerhouse and a quintessential example of Hard Work Hardly Works, Hannah quit in the first episode.