Survivor (TV series)/Characters/One World

Kim Spradlin


 * The Ace
 * Boring but Practical: While many fans lauded her impressive game, just as many were disappointed that it led to another season of predictable votes.
 * The Chessmaster: Completely controlled the game since the merge, through a deft combination of strategy and manipulation.
 * Consummate Liar: A skill she repeatedly uses to convince other players to act against their own best interests. Lampshaded repeatedly in the final few episodes; Tarzan complains that she can convince anyone of anything just by batting her "angelic blue eyes" at them, and Kim remarks while sharing a reward with Chelsea and Sabrina that even she herself can't always tell when she's lying.
 * Genre Savvy: See The Quiet One below.
 * Guile Heroine: Manages to convince people in several competing groups that they're part of her alliance, even as she colludes with the other women to pick off the men one by one. The men are halfway Pagonged by the time they catch on.
 * Honor Before Reason: Chooses to vote off both Cloudcuckoolander Kat and universally-unpopular Christina, even though they were both excellent choices to go up against in the final three, apparently because she thought Chelsea and Sabrina most deserved to go to the end. In the end, though, neither decision harmed her – and she justified it later by pointing out that if the jury respected her gameplay they'd vote for her regardless of whom she was up against. (She only lost the votes of Leif and Troyzan)
 * Invincible Heroine
 * The Lancer: To Sabrina, at least pre-merge.
 * Les Yay: Her bond with Chelsea came across like a bit more than friendship at times.
 * Manipulative Bitch
 * Metaphorically True: Kim exploits the bad blood between Troy and Mike to make the former believe that the latter is targeting him, and gets Alicia to turn on Greg by telling her about his side-deals with Kim, using that to sell a lie about him trying to take Christina and Sabrina to the final three.
 * The Quiet One: Up to the merge, had probably had the least air time of anyone on Salani. Then she was slowly revealed as a master manipulator who was Genre Savvy enough to avoid drawing attention to herself.
 * Sole Survivor
 * Statuesque Stunner: By far the tallest on the women's tribe, and taller than most of the men as well.
 * The Strategist
 * TMI: If you listen carefully when she tells Chelsea where she's hiding the immunity idol... you may wish you hadn't.

Sabrina Thompson


 * Black Boss Lady: Voted leader of the womens' tribe early on. Averted post-merge as she largely takes a back seat to Kim.
 * Born Lucky: Found the hidden immunity idol on a bathroom break.
 * Genghis Gambit: Threatened Kim with one, if she ended up on the jury.
 * Sassy Black Woman: Something of an aversion – while she does work hard to keep her tribe's spirits up, Sabrina is largely free of the stereotypes commonly associated with black contestants who did appear under this trope.
 * Surrounded by Idiots: Compared to how unstable to the rest of Salani ended up being.
 * Team Mom: To Salani before the tribes shuffled.
 * Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Found an idol but had to give it to the mens' tribe. She gave it to the only guy she was acquainted with: Colton.

Chelsea Meissner


 * Action Girl: Caught two chickens with her bare hands in the first episode - "Don't mess with the country girl!" indeed.
 * Bad Liar: By her own admission. Also demonstrated when Jay seeks reassurance that the women aren't plotting to Pagong the men after Jonas gets voted off; Chelsea clumsily hedges her response, requiring some hasty damage-control by Kim. She makes various revealing slip-ups on a number of other occasions as well.
 * Farmers Daughter
 * Holier Than Thou: After the tribes merge, she starts talking about the people who "deserve" to be in the game.
 * The Lancer: To Kim, post-merge.
 * Les Yay: See note under Kim (above).
 * Nice Cap
 * Tomboy
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Combines an eye-catching pair of yellow thigh-highs with Daisy Duke shorts in the third episode.

Christina Cha


 * All of the Other Reindeer: Ostracized early on for rather vague reasons, mostly because a couple of early influential players disliked her. By the time of the merge she'd spent so long on the outs with the majority alliance(s) that her position at the bottom of the pecking order was pretty much set in stone.
 * Asian and Nerdy/Asian Airhead: Starts out as the former, then starts to resemble the latter as the game progresses.
 * Born Lucky: Despite being at the top of the boot list since the very first episode, she keeps on managing to avoid elimination... thanks to a series of increasingly-improbable flukes, including two medivacs and the other tribe actually volunteering to give up immunity right before tribal council.
 * Chickification: While she starts out as a highly assertive and proactive player, by the later stages of the game almost everyone sees her as an Extreme Doormat who barely even seems to be trying anymore. She eventually reveals that she did this on purpose to avoid becoming a target, after her earlier in-your-face attitude almost got her voted out.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Manages to Houdini her way into the final four, likely because she's no good at challenges and could be more easily beaten than Alicia. However, in the final immunity challenge, it quickly becomes a match between her and Kim - and mind you, both of them were leagues ahead of Chelsea and Sabrina in that challenge.
 * Elimination Houdini: Is on the list for elimination at almost every tribal council, but manages to dodge it and makes it to the final four.
 * Informed Flaw: Several people claim that she's lazy and useless, but the only time this has been said of her was overlapped with shots of her working. By the end of the game, almost every other player claims that people hate her or find her annoying, but there is never any evidence of why this is (allegedly) the case, besides everybody's say-so.
 * Sympathy for the Devil: Goes out of her way to comfort Colton when his illness causes him severe pain, even after he'd spent the past several days mocking, threatening, and insulting her.
 * Those Two Girls: With Alicia after the merge.
 * Turn the Other Cheek: Deliberately chooses not to respond in kind to Alicia and Colton's constant abuse. To be fair, this is motivated at least in part by strategy: she's hoping it'll drive home to everyone else just how irrationally nasty they are.
 * Unkempt Beauty: Many fans share the opinion that Christina grows steadily more attractive the longer she spends out there in the wilderness. It probably helps that she started out at a slightly more substantial weight than some of the other women, making her better-equipped to handle the relative lack of food without losing muscle tone or other attributes.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Alicia, who spent the first half of the game attacking her relentlessly, somehow ends up as her closest ally by the final episodes.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Earns Alicia's wrath in the very first episode for trading some woven palm fronds to the other tribe in exchange for fire... even though Alicia was right there when the deal was being negotiated and didn't seem to have any problem with it at the time.

Alicia Rosa


 * Alpha Bitch: Especially pre-merge, although she ends up cooling down once the game progresses.
 * Evil Teacher: A special education teacher, even, but it doesn't stop her from repeatedly bullying and belittling Christina (even threatening to punch her in the face for simply standing up for herself), indirectly mocking the intelligence of her own special education students, and doing everything she could to become a Latina NaOnka. She does offer up a tearful apology after getting called out on it at the reunion.
 * Fiery Redhead
 * Hair-Trigger Temper
 * Informed Attribute: Considered a strong competitor by the other women, but very little was shown to that effect.
 * It's All About Me: When Colton was being pulled from the game, she was more concerned with the fact that Colton was taking his idol with him than she was for Colton's personal health. Again by her jury speech, she spends her entire time gloating about how she was seen as such a threat they had to take her out.
 * Spicy Latina: Self-described "ghetto Puerto Rican".
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Not quite as eye-catching as Chelsea's outfit at that same challenge, but the long white socks qualify.

Greg Smith

""I'm fed up with people talking about race. I'm tired of it. I want people to base what they think about somebody on how they behave and what their merits are and nothing else. I don't care what color they are, that's what people should do. And I think this country is moving in that direction. We have a black president.""
 * Badass Moustache
 * Berserk Button: Anything (real or imagined) that he perceives as a betrayal of his alliance, or as personal criticism.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Regardless of his eccentric and volatile personality, he is apparently a highly successful plastic surgeon in real life. Some of the women lampshade this when they remark that highly-educated people often seem to be the most dysfunctional.
 * Catch Phrase: "The game is afoot!"
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Besides insisting on being called "Tarzan", for the first couple of episodes he is mainly notable for prancing around the campfire in a speedo bellowing jungle cries. He soon reveals a tendency towards bizarre outbursts, especially in already-tense situations. He also periodically does randomly weird things like using a previously-booted (female) contestant's underwear as a headband, or tearing pieces off the shelter walls during a storm.
 * The Comically Serious: Has drawn comparisons to Phillip, but unlike the latter he's not constantly bumbling around.
 * Ditzy Genius: He was able to figure out what was ailing Colton before the medical team showed up.
 * The Dragon: His very forceful personality made him a useful, if weird, enforcer for Colton in the early phases of the game.
 * Elimination Houdini: Manages to dodge his way out of elimination all the time, ending with twelve votes.
 * Large Ham
 * Last of His Kind: The last remaining male of Tikiano.
 * Mistaken for Racist: Meta-example. After Colton's putdown of Bill at Tribal Council, Greg went on a rant about how he's sick of hearing of racism. To a number of fans, who were already upset by Colton's own racism, it sounded like Greg being in denial about the existence of racism or possibly being racist himself; but a close look at what he actually said denies both accusations:


 * My Name Is Not Durwood: To other people (Type C). Tarzan revealed that he has nominal aphasia, which causes him to have great difficulty remembering names, though he can get them right if he tries hard. This first becomes noticeable when he insists on calling Jonas "Jason" throughout one reward challenge. Later on, when explaining to Christina that he doesn't like her, he hastens to add that he nonetheless respects her tremendously, and then finishes by calling her "Katrina".
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Tar-ZAHN!
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
 * Turncoat: In spite of his expressions of solidarity with the men, post-merge Tarzan voted quite consistently alongside Kim and her alliance. While the first few times were successfully disguised as coincidence, he was ultimately revealed to have had a secret deal with Kim to help her eliminate the other men.

Kat Edorsson

""Oh, my God!! (beat) What is that?""
 * Adult Child
 * Buffy-Speak
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * The Ditz: Possibly one of the standout examples of the series - such feats include:
 * Not knowing what "ambiance" meant.
 * Not knowing what appendicitis was.
 * Not knowing that there was bacon on a BLT.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: On the receiving end from the rest of the tribe - she decided to bring Kim and Alicia on the loved ones reward trip instead of Christina and Tarzan, which angered everyone except Kim and Alicia to the point where they rallied to vote her off.
 * Dumb Blonde: Called this word-for-word by Nina after single-handedly blowing an immunity challenge.
 * Genki Girl
 * Hair of Gold
 * Hidden Depths: See note under The Woobie (below).
 * Hypocrite: Actually says “Blindsides are always fun and exciting!” at tribal council. Then she found herself on the ouch end, and was even less of a Graceful Loser than Ashley Underwood. To her credit, she got over her bitterness by the final tribal council, and consciously chose to avert this trope by voting for Kim (whom she had blamed for the betrayal) regardless.
 * In-Series Nickname: Alicia nicknamed her "Kittykat."
 * I've Heard of That! What Is It?: Kat's immediate reaction when Jeff tells them about Colton's appendicitis:


 * Lazy Bum: Again accused by at least one Salani.
 * The Millstone: Single-handedly lost the second immunity challenge for Salani by not listening to anything anyone was telling her.
 * Naive Newcomer: Was she ever.
 * Shocking Elimination
 * Thousand-Yard Stare: Immediately after getting voted off. She says nothing, just stares blankly as her torch is snuffed and then slowly staggers off into the night.
 * The Woobie: Whether she had it coming or not, her elimination was like watching a puppy getting kicked.
 * Compounded with her final jury speech: she reveals that she had two open-heart surgeries as a child, and has to go in for another within about a year. Her constant excuses of "I'm only 22!" become a lot more weighty when you realize that she has a not-insignificant chance of dying in the next year and had been hiding it through the entire game to avoid looking weak.

Troy Robertson


 * Ascended Fanboy: This is particularly apparent when he wins the first individual immunity challenge. In his exit interview, he mentions that he's been applying since Borneo.
 * Badass Beard
 * Catch Phrase: "This is my island!"
 * Defiant to the End: Tries his damnedest to break the women's alliance even when it becomes clear that he has no chance of surviving the vote.
 * Grandpa What Massive Hotness You Have
 * Ineffectual Loner: Once he's run out of allies Troyzan becomes fatalistically aggressive, fighting hard for immunity and openly opposing Kim and her team at every turn.
 * Keet: A rare grown-up version.
 * The Man Behind the Man: Even though Colton was the head of the Manono alliance, the plan to vote Matt out came from Troyzan.
 * Older Than They Look: Would you believe he's over 50 years old? He looks probably ten years younger than that.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: "Troyzan"
 * Sitcom Arch Nemesis: At first with Greg, simply for a similar nickname - Greg is "Tarzan", while Troy is "Troyzan".
 * Thanatos Gambit: Stage-whispers "do it" into Kat's ear right after being voted out, presumably in an attempt to plant the seeds of discord within the women's alliance. It's implied to have contributed to the other women turning on Kat in the following episode.

Leif Manson


 * Beware the Honest Ones: Lets slip to Bill that Colton's been targeting him for elimination. When Colton and Tarzan find this out, they do not react well.
 * The Ditherer: Seems prone to going along with whoever happens to be talking to him at the moment.
 * Funny Background Event: As seen in several brief shots, he apparently sleeps inside a small wooden crate.
 * Genre Blind: Seems to be completely in the dark about Survivor strategy. In spite of knowing full well that he's destined for the chopping block along with the rest of the men, he makes no effort to consolidate votes with the others until it's far too late.
 * Nice Hat: Wears a dark grey fedora.
 * Out of Focus
 * Smart People Wear Glasses
 * Token Minority: Given his apparent cluelessness about how the game actually works, his casting as the first little person on Survivor is largely believed to have been this.

Jay Byars


 * Expy: Jeff compares him to Bobby Jon Drinkard from Palau during his cast assessment - both hard-working Southern gentlemen who placed 10th after being duped and/or beaten by a woman.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Tells the women on his alliance that Troyzan was becoming paranoid and planned to play his immunity idol at tribal council. Unfortunately, the women were planning to betray the men, and Jay's attempt to sell Troyzan only put him at the top of the hitlist in his stead.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Works as a model in real life.
 * Oh Crap: Seen in his expression at tribal council as all the votes against him and Troyzan are read out, and he realizes that Kim has betrayed them. Made all the more poignant given that he'd basically signed his own execution order by snitching to her, in spite of Troyzan warning him that she wasn't to be trusted.
 * Only Sane Man: Was easily the most level-headed guy on the original Manano tribe. After the tribes merged... not so much.
 * The Quisling / Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once he sees the other five members of Manono aligning against his alliance of four, he ditches his original alliance and votes with them to oust Matt. Following the merge he abandons most of them in turn to join up with Kim and Chelsea.
 * Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves
 * Southern-Fried Genius: Until his boot episode.
 * What an Idiot!: In spite of his earlier suspicions that Kim and Chelsea are planning to turn on the remaining men, he tells them that Troyzan is planning to forestall such a move by playing his hidden immunity idol. They respond by adjusting their vote-splitting plan to pile extra votes onto him; combined with his stubborn refusal to align votes with Troyzan, this effectively guarantees his own ouster that night.

Michael Jefferson


 * The Big Guy: For Salani after the tribal shuffle.
 * Dragon Ascendant: Originally Matt's right-hand man, he started strategizing more and more after Matt's elimination, including throwing Leif under the bus after Matt's elimination. After the tribal shuffle, he was quickly able to get in good with his new tribemates.
 * Identical Stranger: He bears a sharp resemblance to Joe from Tocantins.
 * Loophole Abuse: Aint No Rule saying he can't steal the other tribe's supplies.
 * Out of Focus: Is mostly memorable for stealing the other tribe's supplies during the premiere. After that, he largely fades into the background until his boot episode.

Jonas Otsuji


 * The Pawn: Admitted that he's perfectly willing to play lapdog to Colton as long as he can use it to get further in the game. But then Colton is gone and the merge hits...
 * Poor Communication Kills: Genre Savvy through the pre-merge stage, his boot episode is practically a case study on how not to communicate with your alliance. First he has a big fight with Tarzan over not being told about the latest plan, then scrambles to apologize later when he realizes the opposing alliance is gunning for him. He still thinks that Tarzan's plan to vote out Kat is a terrible idea, but decides to keep his mouth shut... then abruptly changes his mind at tribal council, where he suddenly tries to talk everyone into voting out Mike instead, thus offending both Mike and Tarzan. Needless to say, Jonas was voted out that night.
 * Team Chef: A sushi chef, to be precise. He also made his own version of potato chips out of coconuts and sea water.
 * Worthy Opponent: Some of the women, Chelsea in particular, apparently saw him as this.

Colton Cumbie


 * Alas, Poor Villain: Is reduced to a fetal position and sobbing in pain from his illness.
 * Alliterative Name
 * Alpha Bastard: Especially after teaming up with Alicia; the two act just like a high school Girl Posse.
 * Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Has claimed, in post-game interviews, that he was actually preparing to do this to Alicia on the very day he was evacuated.
 * Base Breaker: You either thought he made the show watchable just hating him, or you were singing "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" when he was evacuated.
 * Camp Gay: Turned Up to Eleven.
 * Card-Carrying Villain
 * Disc One Final Boss
 * Drunk with Power: He started the game as an insecure and neurotic outcast, but then the "misfits" rallied around his hidden immunity idol and it went to his head. Succeeding in voting out Matt, the head of the rival alliance, made it worse.
 * Fish Out of Water: In the first few episodes especially, he comes across as a 'country-club kid' who'd never so much as gone camping prior to the game. He does nothing to help around camp, is largely useless in challenges, makes it perfectly clear that he hates his tribemates, and spends the first several days sulking and acting miserable. But then he found himself in a position of power...
 * Gay Conservative
 * Hypocrite: Says he doesn't believe in handouts, and told struggling comedian Bill to "get a real job". Yet he himself does not have a job (he's still in college), has been pampered his whole life, and just while on the show begged for (and got) a "handout" in the form of an immunity idol from Sabrina.
 * Karmic Elimination: Even a few of his tribemates point out that karma got him in the end.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: That's putting it mildly.
 * Non Gameplay Elimination: Due to appendicitis (or possibly some other intestinal illness).
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Where to begin with this kid?
 * He calls Bill "ghetto trash"; given that Bill's quite possibly never been near a ghetto in his life, this was interpreted by many people as racial stereotyping.
 * The next episode, he calls Leif a Munchkin (before saying he's going to kick him back to Oz) and then decides to also call him an Oompa Loompa). And this is far from the worst thing he said that night. Let's just say that when Jeff read these lines at the reunion, you could tell that Leif was not pleased.
 * He then started treating Christina in much the same way as Bill, mocking her not just in confessional but right to her face, even telling her she was worthless and should jump into the fire. He and Alicia are also seen (in a scene only shown online) apparently mocking Christina's Asian heritage.
 * Sissy Villain
 * Smug Snake: See "Drunk With Power" above.

Monica Culpepper


 * Action Mom: Jeff boasts her as one of the most physically adept women to ever play. And yet...
 * Hot Mom: Raised 'three straight-A students.'
 * Muscles Are Meaningless: Was Manono's strongest member after the tribal shuffle, but her tribemates saw her as a social threat and (except for Christina) voted her off.
 * What Could Have Been: Monica's husband, ex-NFL defensive player Brad Culpepper, was sought after for the show, but Monica was recruited instead.

Bill Posley


 * Black Best Friend: To everyone on Manono except Colton.
 * Digging Yourself Deeper: It was harmless enough that he wanted to clear the air with Colton. However, Colton said he didn't want to talk, and almost anyone else would have taken the hint.
 * Graceful Loser
 * Keet: Insanely hyperactive, cheerful and prone to barely-coherent running off at the mouth.
 * Too Goofy for This Sinful Colton's World

Matt Quinlan


 * Big Bad Wannabe: He also said he played the best game out of anyone there.
 * Expy: The parallels with Shannon from Nicaragua (minus the latter's blatant homophobia) are striking.
 * Reality Show Genre Blindness: Apparently didn't even consider the possibility of his alliance of four being outvoted by the other five.
 * Straw Misogynist

Nina Acosta


 * The Complainer Is Always Wrong
 * Cool Old Lady: Almost became the first female S.W.A.T. officer in Los Angeles. The only reason she didn't was because of discrimination laws at the time.
 * The Load: Alicia called her "a bag of rocks," while Sabrina called her "the walking dead."

Kourtney Moon


 * Game-Breaking Injury: Broke her wrist in three places and had to have corrective surgery after falling into a net wrong.
 * Graceful Loser: Her boot speech was remarkably classy and touching, particularly given the rather ignominious nature of her elimination.
 * Hot Mom: More of a cute mother.
 * Nice Hats: She showed up in a black cap that looked a like a shark or dolphin; her profile picture shows her with a yellow cap.
 * Non Gameplay Elimination: The earliest one in the series thus far - three days in, on the first episode.
 * Tomboy: Works in motorcycle repair.
 * We Hardly Knew Ye: As well as being one of the earliest evacuees ever, she is ignored along with Nina at the reunion.