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The Tribes
Tagi
Color/ namesake: orange/ Tagi beach, Pulau Tiga, Sabah, Malaysia
Members: Dirk Been, Kelly Wigglesworth, Richard Hatch, Rudy Boesch, Sean Kenniff, Sonja Christopher, Stacey Stillman, Susan Hawk
- Anti-Hero Team: The Ur-Example and Trope Maker as the Tagi alliance were the first alliance in Survivor history.
- The Bad Guys Win:
- Chekhov's Skill: The Pagonging strategy will be used by numerous tribes during the merge in future seasons.
- Location Theme Naming: Their tribe name was based on the beach they lived on, Tagi.
- Monochrome Casting: The entire tribe was white.
- Nothing Personal
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork
- Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Called this in the opening of episode 8.
Pagong
Color/ namesake: yellow/ Pagong-Pagong beach, Pulau Tiga, Sabah, Malaysia
Members: B.B. Andersen, Colleen Haskell, Gervase Peterson, Greg Buis, Gretchen Cordy, Jenna Lewis, Joel Klug, Ramona Gray
- The Chew Toy
- Decapitated Army: Tagi purposely targeted Gretchen in their first vote, because she was clearly the Team Mom. Once she was gone, Pagong became easy pickings .
- Dwindling Party: Both the Ur-Example and Trope Maker for Survivor.
- From Bad to Worse: After Gretchen's
Shocking Elimination. - Location Theme Naming: Their tribe name was based on the beach they lived on, Pagong.
- Out of Focus: Get noticeably less screentime during the first episode in comparison to Tagi; over half the tribe aren't even shown speaking.
- Repetitive Name: The actual name of the beach they were on is called Pagong-Pagong.
- Too Dumb to Live: Basically played into the hands of Tagi all season long.
Rattana
Color/ namesake: yellow-green/ Rattan trees
Members: Colleen Haskell, Gervase Peterson, Greg Buis, Gretchen Cordy, Kelly Wigglesworth, Jenna Lewis, Richard Hatch, Rudy Boesch, Sean Kenniff, Susan Hawk
The original merged tribe, created when just 6 six players out of the original 16 were voted out.- Cerebus Syndrome: Gretchen is the first one out, and if you're part of the audience that hates alliances at the time it only gets nastier...
Finalists
1st. Richard Hatch
Age / Home / Job: 39 / Newport, Rhode Island / Corporate Trainer
Luxury Item: Journal
Tribe: Tagi -> Rattana
Richard would return for All-Stars.- Action Survivor: He's no Non-Action Guy, but he's nowhere near the league of physical players like Kelly or/and Greg.
- Affably Evil: For all his manipulative ruthlessness, he's still a pretty nice guy and is very relatable.
- Anti-Hero:
- Badass Boast:
- Before he was even officially cast, here's what he had to say to Mark Burnett, Jeff Probst, and Les Moonves:You know you're going to pick me, but what you don't know is that I'm going to win. And after I win, I'm going to host next year's show.
- Of course, on the very first day of Borneo, he said this:I'm good to go survival-wise. People-wise, it'll be a little more challengin', but I've got the million-dollar check written already. I mean, I'm the winner. It's that kind of cocky attitude that makes people really hate your guts. So, that's the kind of thing I have to keep under wraps.
- Again, in Episode 9, referring to the last Tribal Council where Sean referred to Richard's fishing as the reason he hasn't been voted out yet:...Catching fish makes people happy, but that's not the reason they're voting me here. They're not voting me off because I'm not letting them.
- Before he was even officially cast, here's what he had to say to Mark Burnett, Jeff Probst, and Les Moonves:
- The Bad Guy Wins: At the time the inaugural season was airing, he was portrayed as an antagonist for forming an alliance when it was still considered taboo by the audiences.
- Batman Gambit: Throwing the final challenge. He correctly assumed that Kelly would win and vote out Rudy, ensuring that he didn't have to vote out Rudy. Although they were extremely loyal allies throughout the whole game, Richard believed that he couldn't win against Rudy, so if he had won, he would have voted him out over Kelly. This raises the possibility of Rudy feeling betrayed by Rich and voting for Kelly, so by throwing the challenge, Richard gets to throw the dirt onto Kelly. He also knew that Kelly felt the same way about Rudy (that she couldn't win against him, but could win against Richard). He also waited long enough to get the temptation (food, in this case oranges) from the host.
- Big Bad: His portrayal at the time.
- The Chessmaster: The Ur-Example, Trope Maker and seen as the Trope Codifier within Survivor. He established the strategical gameplay that future players will be using in future seasons.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Hatch is a corporate trainer by profession, and the edit portrays him as the sleazy white-collar businessman who is extremely cutthroat and will do anything to outwit his competitors.
- Off the show, Hatch was sentenced to 51 months in prison for evading taxes on his Survivor winnings, causing him to miss out on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Defeated Kelly, the castaway who dominated the individual challenges until the very end, in a close vote.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the first episode, the rest of Tagi is scrambling around trying to figure out how to set up shelter and figure things out survival-wise. Richard, the first strategist of the series, simply sits back in a tree and watches them all go, sizing his competition up.
- Evil Genius/The Smart Guy
-
Follow the Leader: His style of gameplay will be considered basic Survivor plays for future seasons. - Intergenerational Friendship: One of his closest allies on the show was the much older Rudy.
- Jerk Ass Woobie: He had a tough childhood and was discriminated against in his lifetime for being gay.
- And it's pretty hard not to feel bad for the guy with all the shit he's gone through legally post-show.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Large and in Charge: He's 6'4, and over 200 lbs. Before the show, he was even bigger (at one point he mentions how he dropped one hundred pounds just to get in shape enough to pass the physical).
- Large Ham: His obnoxious, over-the-top rendition of 99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall during the final six Immunity Challenge would qualify him for this. Not to mention his weird little Happy Dance that he does when he wins immunity during the Episode 10 challenge.
- Manipulative Bastard
- Naked People Are Funny: He doesn't view being nude as sexual, he viewed it as Natural.
- Odd Friendship: With Rudy.
- Pixellation: Richard was the first person to be fully nude.
- Self-Deprecation:(Referring to Rudy) They think he's arrogant? I'm out of here!
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Colleen after the merge.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Subverted. While Richard is the first person to admit that he's an arrogant bastard, in this case he really is the smartest guy in the room.
- Smug Snake: Early on. But by episode four, he shows that he knows what he's talking about when he forms Survivor's first successful alliance.
- Sole Survivor: The Ur-Example.
- Straight Gay: Sue called him a masculine Gay Guy.
- The Strategist: The prototypical version of this trope in the context of Survivor. More than a few players tried to pattern themselves after him in subsequent seasons.
- Trope Maker: For many things in Survivor.
- Ur-Example: For Survivor: He's the Example for the Strategist and the first winner.
2nd. Kelly Wiglesworth
Age / Home / Job: 22 / Kernville, California / River Rafting Guide
Luxury Item: Sewing Kit and Beads
Tribe: Tagi -> Rattana
Years after Borneo, Kelly was chosen via a public vote to compete on Survivor: Cambodia- Action Girl: Her impressive streak of immunity challenge wins is the reason she made it to the final, as the Tagi alliance was gunning for her from the moment she defected. Also, Kelly created the record for most individual immunity wins in a single season for womannote .
- The Big Girl: To Tagi.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sean and especially Susan viewed her like this at Final Tribal Council.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Richard claimed in post-game interviews that Kelly may have been fed by members of Production at points.
- Cluster F-Bomb: During her fight with Sue.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: She was a whitewater rafting guide so you'd think she'd have an easy time beating Gervase, who had no experience with boats whatsoever, in a challenge that involved operating a canoe. Instead, he beats her easily. Sue makes sure to turn this into a Take That! at Final Jury.
- Deal with the Devil: Kelly explicitly refers to allying with Richard as "like making a deal with the devil".
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Being the first challenge Dominator does not mean you win the million dollars.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Kelly eventually finds Richard's alliance to be taking the competitiveness and fun out of the game, and decides after Gervase's boot to start going solo. She also yearns to hang out and be with the members of Pagong, people her own age, rather than be on Tagi where everybody is older than her.
- Lady of War
- No-Damage Run: Though she lost in the end.
- Narrating the Obvious: Used in the first episode to largely shed light on the opinions of the tribe at large, mainly their disinterest and frustration toward Rudy.
- Out of Focus: For the first half of the game.
- Pixellation: Kelly had her mouth blurred a few during her fight with Sue.
- Plucky Girl
- Shout-Out: After leaving Richard's alliance out of guilt, she said she felt that not voting her conscience made her feel like Luke Skywalker being tempted by Darth Vader (Richard).
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: To the Tagi alliance.
- Spanner in the Works: How she outlasted Colleen, Sean, Sue, and Rudy. They liked Colleen more than Kelly, especially after Kelly defected, but when she won immunity, they had no choice but to vote her out. Kelly then keeps on winning immunity after immunity.
The Jury
3rd. Rudolph "Rudy" Boesch
Age / Home / Job: 72 / Virginia Beach, Virginia / Retired US Navy SEAL
Luxury Item: Unknown
Tribe: Tagi -> Rattana
Rudy was chosen to compete in All-Stars
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Would frequently make remarks about what he and his "buddies" would do to anyone that broke ranks from the Tagis. Exactly how many of them were supposed to be taken seriously is a Riddle for the Ages.
- Breakout Character: While he's still a fan favorite, at the time of the show he was by far the most popular contestant due to his humorous personality.
- Character Development: He originally said he would vote out someone for being queer, but then forms his closest alliance and friendship with Richard.
- Cool Old Guy: The oldest person to appear on the show.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Determinator: He even applied for the next season following this one, saying that he's willing to play until he finally wins. Hell, he was even willing to compete on Heroes vs Villains ten years later, while he was in his early eighties. This guy's a beast.
- Fish out of Water/ Only Sane Man: Rudy's age and extensive military background make him very uncomfortable around his much younger civilian tribe-mates, but unlike B.B on Pagong, he understands that he's outnumbered and has to work with them rather than trying to impose his way of living.
- Grumpy Old Man: Certainly to Stacey.
- Hair-Trigger Temper
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: During his confessionals, he admits that he and Richard were developing a close bond, but quickly adds “not in a homosexual kinda way, that’s for sure.”
- I Gave My Word: If he makes an agreement he will keep it. Early in the game he and Richard agreed to make it to the end and Rudy never wavered from it. In the final tribal council, he asks no questions and in the confessional, he says that he had made an agreement and is fulfilling his obligation by voting for Richard. He holds everyone else to this same standard of honor and warns several people that there will be violent consequences if they betray him.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In a bonus scene from the "Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments" DVD, he mentions that he won't eat a rat until he's truly starving, "And then I might eat my buddy", with Richard standing right next to him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Made blunt remarks about sexuality, incest, and when he thought people were idiots amongst other things and that was part of his charm.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Richard, who was much younger than him.Me and Richard got to be pretty good friends, (but) not in a homosexual way. That's for sure.
- Noble Bigot: Unapologetically homophobic but a good (though not very nice) man with a strong sense of personal honor.
- Odd Friendship: You wouldn't think he and Richard would get along very well, considering Richard was openly gay and he was a homophobe, but they did.
- Old Soldier
- Perpetual Frowner
- Retired Badass: He was a retired Navy SEAL.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Stacey.
- Team Chef: The cooking area even had a homemade plaque reading "Rowdy Rudy's Diner".
- Team Dad: To Tagi
- Touch of Death: Whoever Rudy voted for at every single Tribal Council in which he participated was the person voted out. He was only voted out at the Final 3 when he was unable to vote.
4th. Susan "Sue" Hawk
Age / Home / Job: 38 / Palmyra, Wisconsin / Truck Driver
Luxury Item: Tweezers
Tribe: Tagi -> Rattana
Susan was selected to return in All-Stars- Brutal Honesty: Sue admitted to this.
- Cool Shades
- Cluster F-Bomb: During the penultimate episode when she has a falling out with Kelly, Sue falls into this.
- The Dragon or The Starscream: Depending on what point of the season it is she's either the most ardent supporter of Richard's alliance or planning to backstab him with Kelly.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She has her moments.
- Lad-ette: Greg outright calls her "A Boy Named Sue" at one point.
- Lady Macbeth: To Richard.
- The Nicknamer: In the companion book, she refers to her male tribe-mates as (Sean) "a neurotic doctor", (Dirk) "a confused virgin", (Richard) "a masculine gay guy", (Rudy) "and an old grump."
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Sue claims that this was part of her strategy. Odds are she's decidedly smarter than she initially let on (right up until she snapped at Colleen at a Tribal Council for complaining about the alliance and likened it to corporate lobbyists), but perhaps not as smart as she thought she was.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Sue.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Her Snakes and Rats Speech is the Ur-Example.
- What Could Have Been: Was in consideration for the highest-profile post-Survivor gig of any of the contestants. She guest-hosted Live with Regis after Kathie Lee Gifford departed from the show, and won acclaim for both her rapport with Regis Philbin and her interview with then-President George W. Bush. However, she decided that she did not want to take on the role full-time. Shortly thereafter, soap opera actress Kelly Ripa was chosen as the permanent replacement for Gifford.
- Wild Card: Let in on an alliance by Stacey to try and vote off Rudy after the first challenge. Sue instead uses this knowledge to vote Sonja out, securing Rudy's longevity in the game and throwing Stacey to the bottom of the totem pole.
- Younger Than They Look: Sue was only 36 but looks at least 40.
5th. Sean Kenniff
Age / Home / Job: 30 / Carle Place, New York / Neurosurgeon
Luxury Item: Razor
Tribe: Tagi -> Rattana
- Advanced Tech 2000: His (useless) handcrafted fishing pole, which he dubs "The Superpole 2000."
- Being Good Sucks: He chose to vote alphabetically only because he was trying to find a way to vote that wasn't based on emotional decisions, and thus not upset the person he was voting for.
- Brainy Brunette: In Real Life.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sean was a Doctor, specifically a Neurologist and he did treat Sonja's wound. However, his personality and portrayal on the show cause people to question how he was able to become one in the first place.
- Butt-Monkey: Everyone treated him as either weak or stupid (or both) because of his alphabet strategy.
- The Ditherer: The Alphabet Strategy was a way for Sean to never have to choose a side, but there are other examples too. For instance, after he had won the Reward Challenge where he got to spend overnight on a Yacht, he had promised to take Kelly on board the next morning for breakfast. When confronted by Jeff Probst with the decision on whom to take though, Sean chickened out at the last minute and took Rich instead. Sue in particular was always talking about how Sean lacked the balls to make any kind of decision in the game.
- Ditzy Genius: Not just with the Alphabet Strategy, but in general. He's supposed to be really smart (given that he's a neurosurgeon, this should come with the territory) but really flaky and weird sometimes, with Gervase calling him "the dumbest smart guy that I ever met'' during the DVD commentary.
- Honor Before Reason: The alphabet strategy.
- Loon with a Heart of Gold: He always meant well. Even his alphabet strategy was because he didn't want to vote out anyone maliciously and wanted to be as "fair" as possible.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He chose the alphabet strategy to avoid hurting people's feelings, seeing himself as a throwaway vote and not wanting to be a swing vote. He never considered that by being so open and predictable with his strategy he was designating a target at every tribal council. When Jenna got voted out he finally realized that his one innocent vote (cast because he believed Jenna was not at risk or else he would have deviated from his pattern) was responsible and was visibly horrified.
- Nice Guy: He cares for others' feelings and doesn't want to hurt them. However, He was Likely too Nice for his own good in this game.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His early post-merge decision to openly vote for people based on alphabetical order is what ultimately costs Pagong their last chance to topple the Richard/Sue/Rudy/Kelly alliance. Had he voted for Richard not only would Jenna have been saved but Richard would have been sent packing and the Tagi alliance would have been destroyed.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: In the companion book, it's revealed that Sean adopted his alphabet strategy because Pagong's names came up earlier in the alphabet. He notably abandons the strategy once the letters get to Tagi members.
- Also, note that he abandons the alphabet strategy immediately after Jenna is voted off and he realizes rather than being 'unbiased,' he was putting a very obvious target on someone's back. It's possible he was intentionally working the system, or he may have been just that oblivious.
- Odd Friendship: With Richard.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome
- The Slacker: Briefly with Dirk. He gets better, shortly before Dirk is voted off.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the Tagi Alliance.
- Too Dumb to Live: The In-Universe Reaction from his unawareness of the Tagi alliance.
- Additionally, his failure to realize that openly announcing who he would be voting for each week made that person a huge target to the other players.
- Those Two Guys: With Dirk in the first few episodes.
- Unwitting Pawn: The only Tagi to make it to the merge without joining the alliance. Then, he unintentionally joined it anyway.
- Wall of Blather: When he spoke about His Alphabet Strategy.
6th. Colleen Haskell
Age / Home / Job: 23 / Miami Beach, Florida / Student
Luxury Item: Soap Bar
Tribe: Pagong -> Rattana
- Broken Bird: Actually manages to turn into this the further along the season goes post-merge. As it becomes more and more hopeless for Pagong to win it's pretty clear she just wants the whole thing to be over with.
- In particular, her legs were in a nauseating condition by the time she was voted out, to the point that bugs were starting to nest in her wounds.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: While she does it much less than Greg, she does her fair share of mocking the concept of the show.
- Break the Cutie: As she watches her tribe get voted out one by one, this happens to her.
- The Cutie
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially with Richard around.
- Gallows Humor: Renamed herself “Sitting Duck” for her two final Tribal Councils, in recognition of Tagi’s dominance and her inevitable demise.
- The Ingenue: Colleen Haskell is the Ur-Example of the Survivor Ingenue archetype, a role many women on Survivor have been cast for over the years. She was portrayed as a very young, innocent, wholesome woman and as America's sweetheart.
- Just Friends: Her response to her and Greg's relationship.
- Lampshade Hanging: When the tree mail indicates that the upcoming Reward Challenge involves a trivia contest, Colleen shouts out "Wait a minute...we're on a Game Show."
- Last of Her Kind: Was the last member of Pagong still in the game
- Nice Girl
- Plucky Girl
- Late Character Syndrome: Not given any lines or notable screentime until the second episode, an early sign she's not going to win the show.
- Ship Tease: With Greg (though they claimed it was only friendship).
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Richard after the merge.
- Shorttank
- Strong Family Resemblance: To her mother as seen in the loved ones video challenge.
- Worthy Opponent: She came to appreciate Richard’s skills and sense of humor and was originally going to vote for him to win until Kelly’s answers and (probably) Sue’s speech convinced her to vote for Kelly.
7th. Gervase Peterson
Age / Home / Job: 30 / Willingboro, New Jersey / Rec Center Basketball Coach
Luxury Item: Playing Cards
Tribe: Pagong -> Rattana
Many Years after Borneo, Gervase would be selected to return for Blood vs. Water with Niece, Marissa- The Charmer: This was his strategy to winning the game. He made no effort to disguise the fact that he didn't particularly pitch in and help around the camp and instead banked on people finding him entertaining enough to keep around.
- The Lancer: To Pagong.
- Late Character Syndrome: Not given any lines or notable screentime until the second episode, an early sign he's not going to win the show.
- Lazy Bum: Self-Admitted.
- The Slacker: Even called one by Susan.
- Straw Misogynist: Depending on whether or not you believe that his "Women are the stupidest things on the planet next to cows" comment was meant as a joke or not.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In his final vote confessional, he delivers one to Sue for her own “snakes and rats” speech, which he finds very hateful and mean-spirited.
8th. Jenna Lewis
Age / Home / Job: 22 / Franklin, New Hampshire / Student
Luxury Item: Journal
Tribe: Pagong -> Rattana
Jenna would return for All-Stars as a replacement for Colleen.- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Despite her (overly) sunny demeanor, Jenna admitted that she was looking forward to voting people out. Especially evident with Ramona, who Jenna befriended but was more than happy to vote out.
- Broken Tears: After not getting her videotape from home.
- Call-Back: Said “Moo” when she voted against Joel and later Gervase, referencing Gervase’s comment that “women were the only things dumber than cows.” Also counts as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner for Joel, who was voted out in that Tribal Council.
- Genki Girl: Sue calls her the "energizer bunny" at one point. She is always talking and has tons of energy. Jenna is the Ur-Example of the Social Butterfly archetype on Survivor.
- Late Character Syndrome: Not given any lines or notable screentime until the second episode, an early sign she's not going to win the show.
- Ms. Fanservice
- Wall of Blather: One thing that almost everyone who plays with Jenna says is that she never, ever shuts up. When she was getting voted off, Rudy even said in the voting booth that "I'm eliminating the big mouth".
9th. Greg(ory) Buis
Age / Home / Job: 24 / Gold Hill, Colorado / Graduate Student
Luxury item: Frisbee
Tribe: Pagong -> Rattana
- All There in the Manual: In the companion book to the show, Mark Burnett espouses in detail how Greg basically drove the crew nuts.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: "If people are fear and self-preservation motivated they'll band together, they'll form alliances, they'll start beating people out to get rid of the strong ones and get rid of this and get rid of that and, you know, if that happens I hope they vote me off soon because that to me is — whoa, cool flying fish."
- Badass Bookworm: Attended an Ivy League University, and was one of the best pure survivalists in this or any other season.
- The Big Guy: To Pagong.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: His general mockery of the show, especially the supposed seriousness of Tribal Council, counts as this.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Rudy jokes about Greg being attracted to his sister based on the odd way the two communicate via the video messages they send one another (Dr. Sean takes a more lighthearted approach to the videos and says something to the effect of that being a Cloud Cuckoo Lander must run in Greg's family).
- Chewing the Scenery
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The Ur-Example for Survivor.
- Earthy Barefoot Character: Greg Buis goes to tribal council barefoot, which is pretty rare throughout Survivor history. People are barefoot plenty of other times but usually never at tribal.
- Establishing Character Moment: When he hosted an impromptu island version of The Dating Game with the rest of his Pagong tribe, but the introduction of Greg's coconut phone in Episode 4 is when we really got to see an extensive look into his personality (or as much as the producers would allow us to see).
- Foreshadowing: Greg's comment about wanting to be voted if the game turned into strategy taking over.
- For the Lulz: For a lot of antics.
- For Want Of A Nail: Had he not won immunity at the merge, the Tagis were going to vote him off.
- Insufferable Genius
- Ivy League for Everyone: He went to Brown.
- Keet
- Large Ham
- Late Character Syndrome: Not given any lines or notable screentime until the second episode, an early sign he's not going to win the show.
- Mr. Fanservice
- Nothing Personal: In his last episode, Greg said if you had a pet kitten, it's this in a survival situation where you have to eat the kitten
- Ship Tease: With Colleen (Though they claimed it was only friendship). He may have been deliberately invoking this trope as another parody moment.
- Show Some Leg: He tries to mess with Richard, who finds him attractive, by flirting with him. Richard is amused but sees through the ploy and votes him out anyway.
- The Smart Guy: Greg is the prototype for the Survivor Mentalist archetype.
- Stealth Parody: Several, but his "pick a number" request is perhaps the most well-known.
- Troll: If Mark Burnett's descriptions of his antics are anything to go by, he certainly qualifies as this.
- Worthy Opponent: Greg's feeling towards the show itself. Despite being a pain, his final words are about how much he respects the show and the production team, especially Mark Burnett.
Voted Out
10th. Gretchen Cordy
Age / Home / Job: 38 / Clarksville, Tennessee / Teacher
Luxury Item: Toothbrush
Tribe: Pagong -> Rattana
- Action Mom: Gretchen was a Survival Instructor for the army.
- Anyone Can Die: The reaction the Pagong tribe (and even the production team) had when Gretchen was voted out.
- Big "OMG!": At her last tribal council.
- Death by Pragmatism: Richard said the reason they targeted Gretchen at the merge was that she was the only person on the other tribe with enough life experience and wisdom to keep Pagong unified post-merge.
- Decoy Protagonist: Had the show remained a test of strength and survival skill as it was originally envisioned, Gretchen the Army Survival Instructor would've had a good chance of winning her season. During her time on the show she portrayed as The Heroine of the Pagong tribe and the most competent member of it, but as a result became the very first victim of blindside in the show's history. Her refusal to create an alliance, then being voted out for purely pragmatic reasons by the Tagi tribe's own alliance, is perhaps the show's Establishing Series Moment.
- Graceful Loser: Took her elimination with a smile despite the shock of it.
- The Heroine: To Pagong.
- Honor Before Reason: Refused to consider an alliance between the members of her tribe against Tagi once they got past the merge. This cost her (and everyone else in her tribe subsequently).
- Intergenerational Friendship: With BB
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Even though Gretchen was a great inspirational leader for Pagong and the one who knew the most about wilderness survival, she was also the one most responsible for Pagong coming into the merge naive and unprepared for the threat that was the Tagi Alliance. Some contestants (such as Joel, and later on, Colleen, Jenna, and Gervase) were perfectly willing to make alliances, and there's a possibility that they would have formed one earlier had Gretchen not convinced them that alliance making was wrong.
- Oh, Crap!: When she realizes that she's about to be eliminated.
- Sacrificial Lion: She is the very first example of a castaway blindsided due to their strength.
- Team Mom: For Pagong.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Gretchen’s feelings towards Joel, particularly during the spear-throwing challenge.
- Women Are Wiser: In the first couple episodes of Survivor, Gretchen is portrayed as the older person with prudence and sound reasoning in contrast with B.B. who is running around manically preoccupied with making the shelter absolutely perfect. She is much more calm and relaxed, and she is shown assessing her tribemates and narrating a lot of what is going on.
11th. Joel Klug
Age / Home / Job: 27 / Sherwood, Arkansas / Health Club Consultant
Luxury Item: Shampoo
Tribe: Pagong
- Boisterous Bruiser
- The Cassandra: He was the only person on Pagong who even considered that forming alliances might be a good idea, and was booted because he was considered "arrogant" for even bringing up the idea.
- Farm Boy: According to his Bio, Joel grew up in a farm.
- Genius Bruiser
- Mr. Fanservice
- Out of Focus: Relative to his castmates, Joel didn't get much screentime.
- The Stinger: During the montage where the women of Pagong proclaim that Joel is a chauvinist, Joel adamantly denies that he is one and says that he thinks that women are equal to men. But at the very end, Joel makes a weird little fluttering movement with his eyes that suggests that maybe he really is one.
- Straw Misogynist: Maybe. See The Stinger above.
12th. Dirk Been
Age / Home / Job: 23 / Spring Green, Wisconsin / Dairy Farmer
Luxury Item: Bible
Tribe: Tagi
- Blind Date: Dirk Mention liked to go out on these in his Pre-Game Profile.
- Farm Boy: He was a dairy farmer when he came on the show.
- Hypocrite: A minor example, but Dirk said he was getting annoyed with Rich talking about his homosexuality. Dirk was talking a lot about his Religion and was annoying his tribe (Sue in particular) with his blather while Richard kept quiet about him being gay.
- The Fundamentalist
- Lazy Bum: In the last episode or two that he was in.
- Precocious Crush: With Kelly. It's actually a little cute once you realize that it genuinely is just precocious and not sexual in nature.
- Those Two Guys: With Sean.
13th. Ramona Gray
Age / Home / Job: 29 / Edison, New Jersey / Biochemist
Luxury Item: Journal
Tribe: Pagong
- Acquitted Too Late: Perceived as lazy at first when in reality it was because she had grown sick from the tropical climate. By the time she had recovered and shown she was more than capable of assisting around camp, the rest of the team had grown too close to possibly save her, leaving her on the bottom during the second vote and getting her eliminated.
- Audience Surrogate: Shown mere minutes into the game what happens when you throw a normal, average joe into the wilderness and tell them good luck, as she immediately struggles, and her own inability to adapt to the game is established as her primary narrative.
- Boyish Short Hair
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: She was sick for most of the game, but she got better just in time for this to happen. In fact, the episode she was voted off in is entitled "Too Little, Too Late".
- Lazy Bum: Her tribe accused her of this, when in reality she was simply too sick from the elements to properly contribute.
- The Load: Ramona's sickness made her weak in challenges and she didn't work around camp until the end.
14th. Stacey Stillman
Age / Home / Job: 27 / San Francisco, California / Attorney
Luxury Item: Camera
Tribe: Tagi
- Alliterative Name: Stacey Stillman.
- Brainy Brunette: Technically, she was the first person to start an alliance on Survivor. It was just a failed one, and it only failed allegedly due to Executive Meddling and/or Sue to be a Wild Card.
- The Load: Accused of this, in spite of being the reason Tagi won the second challenge.
- Played Straight in terms of camp life, where Stacey was regularly brought up as slacking around camp in terms of physical work, and her main issue with Rudy was his pushing to work hard on the shelter and collecting food.
- Plucky Girl: A rare negative example; Stacey's own optimistic and rather lax view on the survival element in exchange for a higher emphasis on her social game rubbed her tribe the wrong way, especially in the early, "old school" days of Survivor strategy. To her credit, she never stops fighting to try and keep herself in, it just didn't work out that way.
- Satellite Character: To Rudy. Any time Stacey's onscreen, the only thing she's talking about is her intense rivalry with Rudy and trying to get votes to vote him out.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Rudy. She was personally spearheading an alliance against him since the first day, only to never assemble enough votes to actually get him out. Eventually this grudge rubbed people to wrong way, contributing to her elimination.
- Smarter Than You Look: Sees right through Sue's attempts to lie to her about voting for Rudy, realizing she's on the bottom of the tribe because of this. It ultimately doesn't save her, but the thought was there.
- Those Two Girls: With Kelly before her boot.
- When She Smiles: Just see how she smiles after clenching the win for her team in episode 2- it's night and day with how she spent the game prior and after.
15th. Bill Byron "B.B." Andersen
Age / Home / Job: 64 / Mission Hills, Kansas / Real Estate Developer
Luxury item: Towel
Tribe: Pagong
- Alliterative Name: B.B. is short for Bill Byron.
- Benevolent Boss: At least he TRIED to be this.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Unlike Rudy, B.B refused to alter his aggressive Type A personality to work with his tribe. Gervase even references this very trope just before Pagong heads to Tribal Council by saying that B.B dug his own grave.
- Fish out of Water: B.B. was the oldest member of the youth-dominated Pagong tribe, and his age combined with his abrasive personality didn't let him fit in. Or as best summed up by Greg:Greg: "B.B.'s a good guy. He's pretty strong willed and he's got his plan as well. He's caring. He commands respect. Definitely feels the difference between his age and other people, and doesn't want to seem to bridge that gap as much as just be who he is."
- Grumpy Old Man: B.B. was upset with tribemates' lack of work ethic.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Gretchen. Had good things to say about Jenna and Greg, though he didn't take the time to know Jenna's name and mistakenly thought Greg was named "Craig".
- Pointy-Haired Boss: What most of his tribe thought of him.
- Stupid Boss: Gretchen repeatedly told him that the Pagong shelter should be moved back farther from the ocean, but he didn't listen until the said shelter was almost flooded.
- Suicide by Cop: He asked to be voted off, and even admits it several times during his boot episode. Interestingly, Mark Burnett makes an (possibly apocryphal) anecdote in the Borneo companion book about the psychologist who used to work for the show, Gene Ondrusek, and how he actually convinced B.B. to quit the show when going through the pre-show tests.
- Workaholic: This trope certainly applies to B.B in one respect, as he was a workaholic, but he doesn't totally fit into the trope on account of him being a millionaire in real life.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Parodied in the Mad Magazine article about the show, BB was thought of as too bossy to be kept around after he was done building the shelter.
16th. Sonja Christopher
Age / Home / Job: 63 / Walnut Creek, California / Musician
Luxury item: Ukulele
Tribe: Tagi
- Cool Old Lady: Sonja is the oldest woman to complete ever on Survivor and is a very sweet and funny woman.
- Establishing Character Moment: When she played her parody rendition of "Bye Bye Blues" on her ukulele to Richard.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Sonja's sexuality wasn't known until well after the show.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: According to her Bio, Sonja beat out Cancer.
- It's All My Fault: Sonja felt responsible for the tribe's loss at the immunity challenge.
- The Load: Sonja's stumble cost her tribe the win.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Losing the first immunity challenge made her an easy target to pick off and set the standard for cutting the weak link when they drag down the rest of the tribe from thereafter.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She doesn't do much while she's in the game, but Sonja is Where It All Began as what to think about as the biggest reasons to cut someone loose when voting someone out of the game, hers being poor challenge performance.
- Team Mom: The oldest and sweetest member of the Tagi tribe who immediately struck a cord with the younger women (Kelly and Stacey), who tried to swing the vote toward Rudy to save her.
- Two First Names: Not every day Christopher is the family name.
- Ur-Example: The very first person to be Voted Off the Island.
