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The Tribes
Nakúm
Color/ namesake: yellow/ Nakum archeological site
Members (start): Blake Towsley, Bobby Jon Drinkard, Brandon Bellinger, Brooke Struck, Cindy Hall, Danni Boatwright, Jim Lynch, Judd Sergeant, Margaret Bobonich
Members (swap): Brooke Struck, Cindy Hall, Jamie Newton, Judd Sergeant, Lydia Morales, Margaret Bobonich, Rafe Judkins, Stephenie LaGrossa
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Especially before the tribe swap.
- Meaningful Name: Means "cooking house/ house of the pot" in an unspecified Mayan language
Yaxhá
Color/ namesake: cyan/ Yaxhá archeological site
Members (start): Amy O'Hara, Brian Corridan, Brianna Varela, Gary Hoogeboom, Jamie Newton, Lydia Morales, Morgan McDevitt, Rafe Judkins, Stephenie LaGrossa
Members (swap): Amy O'Hara, Blake Towsley, Bobby Jon Drinkard, Brandon Bellinger, Brian Corridan, Danni Boatwright, Gary Hoogeboom
- Dwindling Party: Post-swap Yaxhá were eliminated right at the merge, with only Danni left against five post-swap Nakúms.
- Failure Tribe: Though not as bad as most, Yaxha (both incarnations) generally lost challenges.
- Meaningful Name: Means means blue-green water in an unspecified Mayan language.
Xhakúm
Color/ namesake: Red/ blend of Yaxhá and Nakúm
Members: Bobby Jon Drinkard, Brandon Bellinger, Cindy Hall, Danni Boatwright, Gary Hoogeboom, Jamie Newton, Judd Sergeant, Lydia Morales, Rafe Judkins, Stephenie LaGrossa
The merged tribe.Finalists
1st. Dani(elle) Boatwright
Danielle "Danni" Boatwright
Age/home/job: 29/ Tonganoxie, Kansas/ sports radio host
Tribe: Nakúm -> Yaxhá -> Xhakúm
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl
- Ascended Fangirl: To Gary Hogeboom.
- Dark Horse Victory: Seemed to have no shot post-merge and yet managed to claw her way to the final two.
- Foil: To Stephenie
- Guile Heroine: Managed to claw her way into the finals by taking every advantage given to her in the game, including going into the merge with three stronger guys, which would ensure she would be the last of her alliance standing, planting the seeds that led to Jaime's ouster over Gary, getting rid of Stephenie's ideal finals partner in Judd, and letting Rafe and Stephenie eat away at their own alliance until before anyone noticed, she was sitting in the finals against a former player who nobody wanted to vote for.
- Last of Her Kind: Danni was the sole survivor of her alliance at the final 6. The rest of the post-swap Yaxha was pagonged at the start of the merge.
- Male Gaze: A few shots in challenges seem focused on her rear.
- Ms. Fanservice: She was cast for the Beauty Queen archetypical role. She was crowned Miss Kansas in 1996 and then represented Kansas in the Miss USA pageant.
- Nice Girl: Was mostly kind to everyone, which worked to her advantage in a tribe with many heated personalities.
- Out of Focus: Possibly the most out of focus winner since Vecepia. It is known that Danni tried to Invoke this to some extent, as she noticed the confessional questions she was receiving seemed to hint at the other player's strategies, and so she did her best to be as quiet as possible around production.
- Plucky Girl: Overcame being in the minority alliance and being targeted multiple times to win the game.
- Religious Bruiser: Leads Yaxha in prayer at one point, and during Final Tribal, she mentions that she asks for forgiveness every day.
- Sole Survivor: The eleventh one of the series.
- Statuesque Stunner: The tallest woman of the season.
2nd. Stephenie LaGrossa
Stephenie LaGrossa
Age/home/season: 25/ Toms River, New Jersey/ 10. Palau
Tribe: Yaxhá -> Nakúm -> Xhakúm
Stephenie would return for a third time on Heroes Vs. Villains
- Accentuate the Negative: It only takes a couple of challenge losses for Stephenie to start comparing her tribe to Ulong, which is a fairly harsh comparison seeing as that was the single least successful tribe in Survivor history.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Her hair was notably dyed darker here.
- Big Eater: The one thing that everybody seemed to agree on, whether they were on her side or not, is that Stephanie never, ever stopped eating.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Had no set allegiances this time around.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: She often had a negative attitude in the game, something she later confessed to, and it came back to haunt her at the very end.
- Darker and Edgier: Played a much dirtier game than in Palau.
- It's All About Me: Got a little self-centered this season.
- Made of Iron
- Ms. Fanservice: Her physique got more attention this time around.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Of her three stints on the show, this season has her strongest game and highest ranking.
- Poor Communication Kills: Stephenie was already unpopular with the jury, but she gave terrible answers to all of their questions.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Subverted. She was already popular from the last season, but got to appear once more from her time here.
- Shorttank
- Took a Level in Jerkass: The season definitely wrecks the heroic image of Stephenie it presented in the previous competition.
Jury
3rd. Rafe Judkins
Rafe Judkins
Age/home/job: 22/ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania/ wilderness guide
Tribe: Yaxhá -> Nakúm -> Xhakúm
- Ascended Fanboy: One of two superfans of the show this season (the other being Brian) who have watched and studied Survivor since their youth.
- Badass Bookworm
- Honor Before Reason: Twice; first by ensuring Danni made the final three and not Lydia because of their agreement to get that far, and then to actually tell her it was okay to not honor their agreement to get to the final two because Stephenie had tried so hard in the final challenge.
- To be fair, it was established that Stephenie would never win a jury vote and would be taken no matter what, so Rafe releasing Danni from their agreement was really a formality at that rate.
- Nice Guy: He was always concerned about other people's feelings. When Jamie would try to rub it in post-swap Yaxha's faces when they'd lose, Rafe did not like that. He also released Danni from the promise to go to final two, which was a very Mr. Nice Guy kind of thing to do.
- The Smart Guy
- Smart People Wear Glasses
- Straight Gay
- Too Clever by Half: Keeping Danni over the nonathletic Lydia to boost his chances of getting to the Final Tribal Council. See Wrong Season Savvy.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: His final two episodes showed him acting like a bit of a brat when he didn't get his way. He spent most of the Reward/Immunity interim complaining about Cindy not giving him the car, and in his elimination statement, he snapped at Danni for breaking their deal even though told her beforehand he wouldn't hold her to it.
- Wrong Season Savvy: The other reason he decided to vote out Lydia at the final four was that older women usually do well in the Final 3 endurance challenge. Unfortunately, this season's was one where Lydia's lack of height would have been a major disadvantage.
4th. Lydia Morales
Lydia Morales
Age/home/job: 42/ Lakewood, Washington/ fishmonger
Tribe: Yaxhá -> Nakúm -> Xhakúm
- Cool Old Lady: Her singing and dancing were pretty fun.
- Out of Focus: Has a couple of moments but mostly just sort of stays off to the sidelines, being kept in the game because she was incapable of winning anything. Though according to Rafe the edit really didn't do her personality justice.
- Shout-Out: Does an impression of Keenan Ivory Wayans as Little Richard on In Living Color! at one point.
- Team Mom: Of Stephenie's alliance.
5th. Cindy Hall
Cindy Hall
Age/home/job: 30/ Naples, Florida/ zookeeper
Tribe: Nakúm -> Xhakúm
- Friend to All Living Things: A zookeeper, and she was delighted by the local wildlife, in contrast to the rest of the tribe.
- Laser Guided Carma: Wins the car challenge and is given the choice of keeping the car or giving it up and letting the other four get cars instead, in order to ward off the notorious "Car Curse." She decides to keep it, saying she can beat the odds and overcome the curse. Guess what happens next.
- Male Gaze: There’s a shot of her rear in the intro, no less.
- Ms. Fanservice: See Male Gaze above.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Chose to keep her car instead of giving the other four tribemates cars, and this decision alone manages to keep the infamous "Car Curse" alive when the others, who were really unimpressed with this, put her on the wrong side of the voting road.
- Out of Focus
6th. Judd Sergeant (IV)
Judd Sergeant
Age/home/job: 34/ Ridgefield, New Jersey/ hotel doorkeeper
Tribe: Nakúm -> Xhakúm
- AAAAY DEEEE... Ooh, Shiny!
- Bad Liar: Gary notices he's looking upwards when the guy says the idol is on the ground.
- The clue he gets basically says "the Idol is in a tree" so he tells the tribe "It is definitely, by far, on the ground".
- Later at tribal council he says he has never told a lie, when Gary points out he lied about the idol clue he says "okay, so I told one lie."
- Big Brother Instinct: Towards Jamie
- The Big Guy: To new Nakum in particular.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Can get angry at the drop of a hat.
- Even Jerk Asses Have Standards: Is upset with Jamie because of his behavior at the merge immunity challenge.
- Fat Bastard: By Survivor standards, anyway, where it's very rare for anyone visibly overweight to be there.
- Jerkass
- No Indoor Voice: Judd tends to like to yell a lot.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Came the closest of anyone to delivering one at the Final Jury, though it's not an out-and-out one as he was still asking questions at the same time.
- Sore Loser: "I hope you guys get bit by a freaking crocodile. Scumbags"
- Verbal Tic: He tends to say "damn" and "man" a lot.
7th. Gary Hogeboom
Gary Hogeboom
Age/home/job: 45/ Grand Haven, Michigan/ retired NFL quarterback
Tribe: Yaxhá -> Xhakúm
- Celebrity Contestant: Among the earliest examples.
- Cool Old Guy: The oldest person on Yaxha and the first person to find the hidden immunity idol.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: An ex-NFL quarterback pretends to just be an ordinary landscaper in a game where another player (the eventual winner, by the way) is a sports reporter- Hilarity Ensues. Amazingly, though, he doesn't really get stigmatized for that.
- Retired Badass: Former NFL Quarterback.
- Team Dad: For Yaxhá
8th. Jamie Newton
Jamie Newton
Age/home/job: 24/ Los Angeles, California/ water skiing instructor
Tribe: Yaxhá -> Nakúm -> Xhakúm
- Boisterous Bruiser
- Hair-Trigger Temper
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Large Ham: By proxy of imitating Bobby Jon.
- Odd Friendship: With Judd, Brian and Lydia. And, once on the jury with him, Bobby Jon.
- Properly Paranoid: Subverted; his paranoia that he's going to get blindsided early wears on everyone so much that they fulfill his prophecy for him.
- The Rival: To Bobby Jon. Especially during his screaming match
with Bobby Jon.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome
- Wild Card: Jamie was the first recurrence of the Wacky Wildcard Survivor archetype (of which Robb Zbacnik was the prototype). In Jamie's pre-season video, he said he was so crazy, he'd wrestle a crocodile without a second thought. On the show Jamie was portrayed as a loose cannon, especially in the merge episode when he'd taunt the post-swap Yaxha castaways during the immunity challenge, which disturbed even his own allies.
9th. Bobby Jon Drinkard
Bobby Jon Drinkard
Age/home/season: 28/ Los Angeles, California/ 10. Palau
Tribe: Nakúm -> Yaxhá -> Xhakúm
- Determinator
- Mr. Fanservice: Bobby Jon's a model, you know.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Barely. He placed tenth in Palau, and came back ninth in Guatemala; but it was at least enough for him to make the jury this time.
- Odd Friendship: While he and Jamie spent a decent amount of time as rivals, once they were voted off back-to-back they appeared to get along with each other very well in the jury.
- The Rival: To Jamie.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Voted Out
10th. Brandon Bellinger
Brandon Bellinger
Age/home/job: 22/ Manhattan, Kansas/ farmer
Tribe: Nakúm -> Yaxhá -> Xhakúm
- Alliterative Name
- Farm Boy
- Foil: Becomes this to Jamie during his boot episode.
- Good Ol' Boy: Brandon's casting archetype is this. His pre-season bio video was all about his country background in Kansas. Some other men who were cast for the same Good Old Boy character trope in other seasons are Rodger Bingham, Big Tom Buchanan, Travis 'Bubba' Sampson, James Clement, Boo Bernis, Chicken Morris, J.T. Thomas, Ralph Kaiser, Rick Nelson, Jeff Kent, Caleb Bankston, Jeremiah Wood, Keith Nale, Mike Holloway, Caleb Bankston, Ben Driebergen and Carl Boudreaux.
- Nice Guy: One of if not the nicest in the cast
- The Pratfall: At the beginning of the 11-mile hike.
- The Stoic: In confessionals he was funny and snarky, but most of the time he was this.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky
11th. Amy O'Hara
Amy O'Hara
Age/home/job: 39/ Revere, Massachussetts/ police sergeant
Tribe: Yaxhá
- Determinator: See below.
- Officer Ohara: She's a police seargant from Boston and her name actually is O'Hara.
- Handicapped Badass: Screwed up her ankle relatively early in the season. In spite of it, she kept going, actually was a force in challenges, and lasted much longer than one might expect.
- LadySwearsALot: According to Rites of Passage.
12th. Brian Corridan
Brian Corridan
Age/home/job: 22/ New York, New York/ university student
Tribe: Yaxhá
- Ascended Fanboy: One of two superfans of the show this season (the other being Rafe) who have watched and studied Survivor since their youth. It can get to the point of One of Us.
- Badass Boast: (When voting for Blake) "You may be the golden boy, but I'm platinum."
- at his
Shocking Elimination- "This is the Outwit part in Outwit, Outplay, Outlast"
- at his
- Deadpan Snarker
- Graceful Loser
- Mistaken for Gay: Let's just say just that a lot of viewers thought he was gay, but he never confirmed so one way or the other.
- Odd Friendship: With Jamie and Lydia.
- Too Clever by Half
13th. Margaret Bobonich
Margaret Bobonich
Age/home/job: 43/ Chardon, Ohio/ nursing practitioner
Tribe: Nakúm
- Chekhov's Skill: Being a nurse came in handy after the first challenge: an 11-mile hike to camp.
- Cool Old Lady
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially where Judd is concerned. Once he starts ranting, she starts riffing like nobody's business.
- Diabolus ex Machina: The tribe switch and Judd's flipping.
- Team Mom: She took care of her tribe in episode 1 after the long hike and called out Judd for being a "bad sport" later on.
14th. Blake "Golden Boy" Towsley
Blake Towsley
Age/home/job: 24/ Dallas, Texas/ land broker
Tribe: Nakúm -> Yaxhá
- Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: He loved talking about both his girlfriend and his past relationships. This ended up being his downfall, as Brian came up with the "Bait Blake" strategy of encouraging Blake to constantly talk about his hookups as a way of getting the rest of his alliance to get annoyed with him and vote him out, which worked!
- Mr. Fanservice
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Golden Boy"
- Upper-Class Twit: He's hinted by the editing as being one.
15th. Brooke Struck
Brooke Struck
Age/home/job: 25/ Hood River, Oregon/ law student
Tribe: Nakúm
- Diabolus ex Machina: The tribe swap. According to post-game interviews, she was in charge at Nakúm. Afterwards, thanks to Judd flipping, she was a dead woman walking.
- Out of Focus
16th. Brianna Varela
Brianna Varela
Age/home/job: 21/ Edmonds, Washington/ retail salesperson
Tribe: Yaxhá
- Celebrity Resemblance: To Katie Holmes.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Apparently to Lydia. We hear a very brief confessional where Brianna is complaining about her, but it's never elaborated on.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appeared in three episodes and had little focus.
17th. Morgan McDevitt
Morgan McDevitt
Age/home/job: 21/ Decatur, Illinois/ magician's assistant
Tribe: Yaxhá
- Alliterative Name: Her full name is Morgan Malloy McDevitt
- The Ingenue: Morgan was probably a recurrence of the Survivor Ingénue casting archetype (Colleen Haskell being the prototype). In the Survivor: Guatemala - TV Guide Preview, Morgan said, "I think the fact that I'm only 21, I'm the baby. The fact that I'm not set in my ways and am very open-minded, very optimistic, I think that all of those things will help."
- Lovely Assistant: Morgan was a magician's assistant when she played Survivor and is still to this day the only person with that listed occupation.
- Out of Focus: Only appeared in two episodes and had little focus.
18th. James "Jim" Lynch
Jim Lynch
Age/home/job: 63/ Northglenn, Colorado/ retired firefighter captain
Tribe: Nakúm
- Cool Old Guy: Jim was the oldest castaway of the season and a former firefighter. Judd called him the toughest dude he ever met.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Tears his bicep in the first immunity challenge.
- Old Soldier: Jim was cast for the Seasoned Veteran archetypical role for which Rudy Boesch is the prototype. Jim is a former marine.
