Survivor (TV series)/Characters/Redemption Island

Rob Mariano

""I didn’t like the way she ripped into Natalie. She said Natalie’s parents wouldn’t be proud of her, but at the same time, what kind of example are you setting for your daughter?""
 * The Ace
 * Affably Evil: Charming, friendly, funny, and seems to be a genuinely nice guy. But heaven help you if he ever decides you've become a liability.
 * Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain
 * Badass
 * Badass Moustache
 * The Bad Guy Wins: Though this time around he was hardly the villain he'd been in prior seasons.
 * In fact, Jeff even went so far as to label him a "hero"! Next to Russell, that wouldn't have been too hard.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Towards Natalie, which leads to the Pet the Dog moment below.
 * Boring Invincible Player / Showy Invincible Player
 * Boring but Practical: His gameplay this particular season. Even people who think he deserved it thinks this was one of the most boring seasons to watch because he had an entire Cult Worshipping him and nobody thought of removing him until it was too late.
 * Born Lucky: Gets dealt the equivalent of the Five of a Kind in Survivor. Comes back knowing the game from the previous three times he's played it, gets put on a tribe full of players willing to pledge Undying Loyalty, manages to have the producers conveniently forget the "Russell factor" when hiding idols despite filming it after Nicaragua also has the luck to be put on one of the most imbalanced tribes ever (Although to be fair, Russell could have been put on Ometepe too), combined with the challenges that he had to compete in being mostly puzzles, and it's easy to see how he won.
 * Character Development: Just compare this Rob with the smarmy, overconfident Smug Snake from Marquesas.
 * The Chessmaster
 * Cult: Turned Ometepe into one, at least according to the Zapatera. Rob himself preferred to a military metaphor.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: This being his fourth time, it's pretty much expected.
 * Determinator: To the point of collapsing after an Immunity Challenge win.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: See "Stop Having Fun!" Guys below.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: After four seasons and 117 days, the guy finally wins the game.
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Even Evil Has Standards: This interview quote in regards to Julie's speech sums it up best:


 * Flawless Victory: Much to the chagrin of some of the fanbase. About as close as you can get without having a No Damage Run or a unanimous jury.
 * Four Is Death: Averted and Defied. He is originally from the fourth season and this is his fourth time playing the game.
 * Happily Married
 * Hot Dad: IS the father of two, after all!
 * Magnetic Hero
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * My Greatest Failure: As he'd already chosen his final opponents, he really did seem to regret having to vote out Grant when he did.
 * My Greatest Fourth Chance: Finally gets the win many claim he'd deserved a long time ago.
 * Nice Cap: As always.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: "Boston Rob!" they cheered as he jumped off the chopper.
 * Pet the Dog: When Natalie was being berated by the jury for her decisions, Rob quietly assured her that things were going to to be fine after the game was done.
 * "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Votes out Matt for shaking hands with the other tribe. Apparently you can't be a good sport!
 * He saw it as Matt trying to forge bonds with the other tribe in anticipation of a merge, but seeing as Matt is just ridiculously nice it was almost certainly an innocent gesture.
 * Sole Survivor
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While Phillip ended up taking more of the screentime, Rob got a pretty large amount for himself too.
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky: "Government jobs... stressful!"
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Takes serious exception to Matt's behavior early on, reading both his relationship with Andrea and his good sportsmanship as strategic moves for down the line. Odds are they weren't.
 * Zen Survivor

Phillip Sheppard


 * Bald of Awesome
 * Berserk Button: Why did he shout down Julie during her Jury Speech? Because she insulted his skills as a father.
 * Beware the Honest Ones: His first Tribal Council, where he revealed the entire plan of his alliance.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Boston Rob calls him the craziest person he's ever played against. Post-Game, Coach actually admitted to Philip via e-mail that he was crazier than The Dragon Slayer.
 * Fun with Subtitles: Phillip would like to remind you that he is a former federal agent.
 * Jerkass Has a Point: Prior to the first Tribal Council, he calmly asked Kristina just how she planned to gain the upper hand against Rob when his alliance was twice as big as hers. It's hinted that he anticipated Rob would split the vote (which Kristina clearly did not), which may have played a role in his tirade at Tribal Council.
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: A decent, likable guy in real life; so much so that when he did a guest interview on Rob Cesternino's Podcast, it was very well-received, with many comments being "why wasn't this Phillip on all season?"
 * If any references to this season on other tropes are correct, this is the quickest way to the cutting-room floor.
 * The Nicknamer: Dubs Rob "The Mentalist," and Grant "The Assassin."
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: This was his claim for how he got Boston Rob to take him to the final three. However, he handled Final Jury the exact same way he handled everything else up until that point, though a post-game interview indicated that he was worried that if he tried to explain himself it would come across as pandering to the jury.
 * Odd Friendship: With Ralph (the only juror whose vote wasn't for Rob).
 * Older Sidekick
 * Red Baron: "The Specialist."
 * Poor Communication Kills: As mentioned above, he had a rather poor jury performance.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Ended up taking the bulk of the screentime this time around.

Natalie Tenerelli


 * Kid Hero: The youngest person ever to compete on Survivor, Spencer of Tocantins notwithstanding. (Both were 19 years old at the time of filming)
 * Lazy Bum: Encouraged by Rob.
 * The Load: Not to the level of Dan in Nicaragua or Chet in Micronesia. Only reason she got to the finals is because everyone thought they could beat her (and probably misplaced trust in Ashley's case).
 * Ms. Fanservice: Possibly unintentionally, but the cameramen sure liked her.
 * Naive Newcomer
 * Nice Girl: Hands down the nicest (albeit also the most naive) contestant this season.
 * Quiet Young Naive Girl Has a Point: See Wrong Genre Savvy below; coming off the heels of Russell's back-to-back losses, it was actually a reasonable assumption that the strategist would take the fall and the nicer finalist could pull off the win.
 * Tagalong Kid
 * Tall Dark and Bishojo
 * Those Two Girls: With Ashley.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: Attempted the Natalie White-perfected tactic of hiding behind the aggressive strategist and then win because the jury didn't want the one that cut their throats to win. It failed partly because she never made any big moves on her own (while Samoa Natalie worked the Galu ladies to off Erik), but also because she didn't appear to make the effort to get to acknowledge, let alone befriend, anyone who wasn't specifically in her alliance. By contrast, an instrumental part in Natalie White's victory was building bonds with the former Galu.

Ashley Underwood


 * Action Girl: When she puts her mind to challenges, she really can win them! She's almost like the female Brett in this regards. Speaking of which...
 * Alpha Bitch: Of the Ometepe alliance.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Turned out to be a much stronger competitor in challenges than Boston Rob anticipated.
 * Especially since she appeared to be Too Dumb to Live and was literally Out of Focus along with anyone not named Rob, Phillip, or Matt.
 * Distaff Counterpart: To Brett. Both are players who spent the most of the season Out of Focus before emerging from the shadows of the Spotlight-Stealing Squad and showing that they are not the Living Prop they were edited to be early in the season. Likewise, this causes the people in control of the game to think Oh Crap. They also finished in final four and became a Shocking Elimination (in her case, she was shocked).
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The reason she was Brett's Distaff Counterpart.
 * Hair of Gold: Played straight during the season; subverted at the reunion.
 * Hey It's That Girl: Miss Maine 2009.
 * Hypocrite: Throughout the season, she would talk about how much fun it was to blindside another contestant. When she was eventually blindsided, she was less than a Graceful Loser about it.
 * Informed Ability: Zig-Zagged. She was supposedly good in challenges, yet all the time we saw her pre-merge, it was Grant and Rob carrying the team with her in third or fourth, then getting out-performed. Rob also thought of her as a threat, when all she seemed to do is just whatever Rob said and then laid around at camp next to Natalie. Then suddenly, she actually starts winning. Rob immediately thinks Oh Crap.
 * Foreshadowing: If you look in the early challenges, you can see that Ashley actually isn't doing bad, even at challenges that are slanted towards the physically stronger Grant or Zapatera tribe. Later on; she winds up becoming Rob's second obstacle in the season.
 * Jerkass
 * Lazy Bum: Encouraged by Rob.
 * Out of Focus: Until the end when we had a surprising repeat performance of Brett from Samoa.
 * Shocking Elimination: See Hypocrite above.
 * Spanner in the Works: Came the closest of anyone to completely upending Rob's plan.
 * Those Two Girls: With Natalie.
 * Worthy Opponent: One guess.

Andrea Boehlke


 * Action Girl
 * Back From the Dead: But like Matt, it ultimately means nothing because she's voted out immediately after after being unable to do anything about the stranglehold Rob had on the game.
 * Defeating the Undefeatable: Outlasted Grant, Matt, and Mike, who were all very physical competitors. It should be noted that she did it in an endurance challenge which traditionally favors women, but even still.
 * Farm Girl
 * Fatal Flaw: Waiting too long before making a move against Rob - had she flipped to the Zapatera when Matt came back, chances are she would have done better.
 * Genki Girl
 * Genre Blind: But not to the point she could be considered Too Dumb to Live.
 * Hair of Gold
 * Hot Amazon
 * Only Sane Woman: Between Rob planning out every single move of the game, Ashley and Natalie hanging around camp not doing much, and Phillip just being himself, she generally comes off as this (which isn't so Genre Blind).

Mike Chiesl


 * Badass
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Genius Bruiser: Was strong in any challenge, including puzzle-based ones. Given that he's an Iraqi War Veteran, it's safe to say that detail shows!
 * The Hero: For the Zapatera alliance.
 * Meaningful Name: Just look at the guy!
 * We Hardly Knew Ye: Probst barely spoke to him at all.
 * Worthy Opponent: Rob stated in the torch walk that he was glad Mike didn't win the challenge because he was legitimately afraid to have had to compete against him and sit against him in the finals. He was also one of the few people in the torchwalk who the final four didn't deliver a Take That to.

Matt Elrod


 * Badass Long Hair
 * Back From the Dead: He got eliminated immediately though.
 * Being Good Sucks: Boy, does it ever.
 * Broken Bird: The longer he stayed on Redemption Island, the worse and worse he got.
 * Determinator: His run on Redemption Island was nothing short of incredible.
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Honor Before Reason: This is what got him ejected the second time.
 * Identical Stranger: When assessing the cast, Jeff points out his resemblance to Fabio from Nicaragua, but notes that their personalities are (near) completely different.
 * Religious Bruiser
 * Shocking Elimination: It was surprising when he was voted out second over Philip and Kristina, given that Phillip wasn't in Rob's control yet and Kristina was outed as having the idol. It was downright shocking when he returned from Redemption Island only to immediately be sent back there, and then came in third in a Redemption Island challenge.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Don't deny it - along with Phillip and Rob, he was the star of this season. He even almost beat Rob in the fan voting.
 * Sympathy for the Devil: Towards Russell.
 * Warrior Monk

Grant Mattos


 * Badass
 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Long Hair
 * The Dragon: To Boston Rob.
 * Expy: While the edit tries to play him up as an expy of Lex, the way his story plays out is more akin to Gregg's in Palau.
 * Genre Blind: Did you really think Rob was going to take you to the finals? Not once did he even think that Rob had done everything for his tribe and that'd likely win him the game, but was again surprised he was voted out.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Dude played for the Chargers, Broncos, and Titans.
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Worthy Opponent: Rob saw him as this. Truth be told, he's NFL - and during the tribal game (When the challenges were mostly physical or teamwork oriented), it really showed since he and Ashley were carrying their tribe.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness

Ralph Kiser


 * The Big Guy: To the Zapatera alliance.
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Farm Boy
 * Odd Friendship: With Phillip.
 * Plucky Comic Relief
 * Self-Deprecation: Calls himself a "self-proclaimed dumbass" at least once.
 * Spanner in the Works: Stumbles across a Hidden Immunity Idol before Russell can find it himself, thus taking out one of his biggest strengths in the game.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Inverted; he went with deliberately weird spellings of names at Tribal Council, apparently for the hell of it. Notably he spelled Russell's name "Ressell," Krista's name as "Krasta," and Phillip's name as "Philite."
 * Strange Minds Think Alike: The only one to recognize Phillip's playing style for what Phillip thinks it is. He is also the sole member of the jury to vote for Philip as a response.
 * The Unintelligible: Not quite on the level of Big Tom, but pretty close.

Steve Wright


 * Badass Beard
 * Call Back: Uses Rob's betrayal of Lex in All-Stars as proof that Rob has cut his close allies loose before, and can easily do it again.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Fatal Flaw: Hating Russell so much that he took his eye off the million and threw the Immunity Challenge to get rid of him, which at the very least may have cost Zapatera a possible numbers advantage going into the merge. While you could blame much of the Zapatera Alliance for this, post-game Steve's been the only one who's really defended that decision whereas both Julie and David regret it.
 * Even though one can also point out that they shouldn't have done it so early.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: While not as well known as Jimmy Johnson, he's a former offensive lineman.
 * Only Sane Man: Of the Zapatera once Mike was gone.
 * Out of Focus: started off making one think he might get far... but he slowly drifted Out of Focus. We did get to see him give more than three confessionals, though.
 * Team Dad: To the Zapatera Alliance.
 * This Is Gonna Suck: Right after Matt's second blindside, he mutters "Let the fireworks begin."

Julie Wolfe


 * Foreshadowing: When the idea to throw the challenge comes up, Julie is the sole dissenter of the alliance, pointing out that throwing challenges could give the other tribe momentum. Not only does this build up to her being the swing vote at Tribal Council, it also foreshadows Ometepe chain-winning immunities after Zapatera threw the challenge.
 * Hypocrite: In Rob's eyes.
 * Out of Focus: While she did have a decent amount of screentime pre-merge, her only memorable moments of the season were duping Russell and then stealing Phillip's shorts.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivered at the Final Jury.
 * Straw Feminist: Gave off vibes of this at the Final Jury.

David Murphy


 * Badass Bookworm
 * Determinator: Give him credit on his final Immunity Challenge performance; it required him to hang upside down by his legs, which favored the women due to weight. Not only was he the last man standing, he held out for so long that when his body finally gave out on him he could barely even walk.
 * Graceful Loser: The only jury member perfectly willing to admit Rob beat him (especially when casting his vote).
 * Hannibal Lecture: Amazingly, he delivered one to the other members of the jury, telling them exactly why Boston Rob deserved to win the game in very harsh, uncompromising terms.
 * Informed Ability: He's supposedly really good at puzzles but when we finally get to see him do them, he loses both times due to overthinking them and taking too long.
 * For one of those puzzles, it's pretty clear he was in on the fix. He was a part of the six-player voting bloc that discussed throwing the challenge to get rid of Russell. Otherwise, why would Stephanie have called him out at Tribal Council?
 * Shout-Out: After a Final Jury that mostly consisted of the jury members berating the Final Three for how they felt they played the game, what are the first words out of David's mouth before he delivers his Hannibal Lecture? "And now for something completely different."
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Tries his damnedest to win his final Immunity Challenge, fearing that he'll be the next to go. He is indeed sent packing that night... because Rob saw his challenge performance and thought he'd be a contender to take out Matt.
 * The Smart Guy: Of the Zapatera Alliance.
 * Worthy Opponent: This guy totally could have won a previous season or gone down with a huge fight.

Sarita White


 * The Load
 * Nice Hat
 * No Sympathy for the Devil: Though they were both Zapatera, that wasn't Russell she was cheering for at the duel.
 * Noodle Incident: She was apparently the person who made the pitch for throwing the challenge and getting rid of Russell, but the audience never sees this. It would explain why Russell targeted the physically stronger Julie to flip; when he normally targets girls who aren't physically strong like Sarita.
 * Team Mom: David outright calls her this at one point.
 * Stupid Boss: Very much this for the Zapateras.
 * We Hardly Knew Ye: Had less screentime than the other members of her alliance, though this is partly on account of being eliminated pre-merge.

Stephanie Valencia


 * Be Careful What You Wish For: The moment Russell stepped off the plane she wanted to align with him, thinking she could get him to take her to the end game where she could easily beat him because he's Russell Hantz. It didn't turn out that way, partly because this time people knew whom he was.
 * Digging Herself Deeper: As Survivor columnist Jayemel put it: "Did she not realize that her little tirade may have been what caused Julie to vote against her? Maybe Julie was on the fence and then decided she didn’t want to risk her entire game by allying with Hope(less) and Associates."
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Diplomacy? What diplomacy?
 * I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Until she has to try and do so too late in the game in the vain hopes of staying in over Sarita.
 * Lady Macbeth: To Russell.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Wait, she says Russell is the only one who won't backstab the tribe? Talk about Digging Yourself Deeper!
 * Rewarded As A Member Of Russell's Alliance Deserves: After Russell had been taken care of, it didn't take long for the rest of the tribe to vote her out.
 * Shorttank
 * A Storm Is Coming: Says it almost word-for-word when Russell's torch is snuffed.
 * Wrong Season Savvy

Krista Klumpp


 * Alliterative Name
 * Heel Faith Turn: On Redemption Island, she's revealed as a deeply religious person and bonds with Matt, giving him her Bible when she leaves.
 * Expy: Of Natalie White, right down to the occupation.
 * Except that Natalie didn't attempt to point anything out to anyone.
 * Odd Friendship: Russell-acolyte Krista and Warrior Monk Matt.
 * The Quiet One: It's been assumed this was her strategy, and it usually works. Unfortunately; she wasn't good enough in challenges so was dropped as low-man on the totem pole.
 * Token Good Teammate: Easily the nicest member of her alliance with Russell and Stephanie. Chances are if those three were in the finals, she'd have won.

Kristina Kell


 * Alliterative Name
 * Fatal Flaw: Hating Rob so much that she overplayed by looking for the idol, never considering the possibility that this would make her an early target, or even that Rob was going to split the vote and negate the idol's advantage.
 * Genre Savvy: Why she was voted out, on top of not being a member of the Boston Rob Cult. The first thing she did upon realizing she's playing the game with Rob? Start idol hunting to make sure he doesn't get a hold of it and then try to use it to get him out as fast as possible. Needless to say, Rob wants her out first, as well as anyone aligned with her. However...
 * Negated Moment of Awesome: She fails to meet the requirements for being Dangerously Genre Savvy on account of her not realizing that Rob was going to split the vote.
 * Out-Gambitted
 * Too Clever by Half
 * We Hardly Knew Ye: If you watched the reunion episode, you probably wouldn't even know whom she was, along with everyone else voted out pre-merge sans Russell Hantz. She only even got camera time when Rob was referring to her hunting for the idol. You'd think that finding an immunity idol before the first tribal council would deserve mention, but Probst didn't even look in her general direction.

Russell Hantz


 * Asshole Victim
 * Bald of Evil
 * Beard of Evil
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: In an interview before the season, he declared that this season would become "Survivor history." Indeed: it became the first season that he was voted out. And he was the first member of the Zapatera to get the ax.
 * Born Unlucky: This time, he gets put on the smart tribe who has the insight to get rid of him fast.
 * Entitled Bastard: To the bitter, bitter, bitter end. He even wanted to sue the members of his tribe for daring to vote him off.
 * Card-Carrying Villain
 * He Just Doesn't Get It: He used virtually the exact same strategy that he'd played in his past two seasons, only this time he was playing it with people that had the chance to see how he did things. When his tribe threw a challenge to get rid of him ("I'm dealing with a bunch of bitches!"), he failed to realize just what he did wrong.
 * Identical Stranger: To Project Runway season 8 contestant Michael Costello and One World competitor Leif Manson.
 * I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Briefly attempted to pretend that this wasn't true. It was a lie.
 * Informed Ability: Again; we're told he's good at the game and he even says he's not going to be playing the same game he was before. Turns out, save for burning stuff, he starts doing the exact same thing. Right down to his alliance choices.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Finally goes out early after trying to play the exact same game for a third time.
 * My Greatest Third Chance: Subverted, BIG TIME.
 * Never My Fault
 * Nice Hat
 * Small Name, Big Ego
 * So Last Season
 * Smug Snake
 * Sudden Sequel Elimination Syndrome
 * Taking You with Me: After he lost the duel, and recovered from the below-mentioned Villainous Breakdown, he went into a tirade against the Zapatera observers and even managed to dupe Ralph into revealing that he had an idol.
 * Tattooed Crook
 * The Napoleon
 * Villainous Breakdown: Starts to cry after Matt beats him in the duel.
 * Worthy Opponent: Seemed to regard Rob as this at the reunion. Definitely saw Matt as this.
 * Zen Survivor

Francesca Hogi


 * Bald of Awesome
 * Black Chick Gets Eliminated First: First person voted out and loses the first duel.
 * Lovable Alpha Bitch
 * Sitcom Arch Nemesis: With Phillip.
 * The Unpronounceable: For Phillip.
 * We Hardly Knew Ye: Voted out first and eliminated first. Not even spoken to or even SHOWN on the reunion show outside of her knees.