Survivor (TV series)/Characters/South Pacific

Sophie Clarke


 * Action Girl: You wouldn't expect a quiet medical student with little-to-no lines and a general narrator status on the season to be a big competitor in challenges, but it soon became clear, especially in the finale, that Sophie was possibly the strongest person on the show besides Ozzy, with three individual immunity wins and two close calls, one actually against Ozzy.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning: Coach bestows the Dragonslayer title onto Sophie after she beats Ozzy in the final Immunity Challenge. She proceeds to vote off Ozzy and win the game.
 * Badass Adorable
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Brainy Brunette
 * Dark Horse Victory: Had easily the least screen time for a winner since Vecepia (or maybe Danni), in lieu of being stuck in a final four with Ozzy and Coach, who the entire season was set up for to win, so who was really expecting that quiet girl to actually win over them?
 * Defeating the Undefeatable: Beats Ozzy Lusth, in spite of his huge lead, to cement her place in the final three and send him out of the game.
 * Funny Background Event: During the reward Upolu won, where the tribe was able to see an advanced screening of Jack and Jill starring Adam Sandler, everyone is shown laughing uproariously... except Sophie, who sits at the back with a "why am I here again?" expression.
 * Hollywood Nerd
 * Ice Queen: Though she gets better in the finale.
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Subverted, she was on the blue Upolu tribe instead of red Savaii.
 * Loophole Abuse: Aint No Rule stating you can't look over at another player's puzzle board during a challenge. She also attempts to pull this off in the final five Immunity Challenge by demanding Albert drop his attempt at winning the challenge and help her win because she was doing better, or she would beat the crap out of him. Probst shuts her down.
 * Meganekko
 * Not So Stoic: Breaks down hard at the Final Five Tribal Council.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Apparently her entire game.
 * Out of Focus: See The Quiet One
 * The Quiet One: Fans have suspected that she's Genre Savvy enough to know not to put a target on her back in the early game. She's spent most of the season as the narrator of the goings-on at camp.
 * Red Baron: Coach dubs her the new Dragon Slayer after she beats Ozzy.
 * The Smart Girl: The smartest on-paper contestant since either David Murphy, Dave Ball or Heidi Strobel.
 * Sole Survivor: Hey, that film reward wasn't the worst thing to happen.
 * The Woman Behind The Man: Presents herself as this in the final tribal council, to great success.
 * The Stoic

Benjamin Wade


 * A Father To His Tribe
 * All There in the Manual: There's a secret scene where Coach tells Albert and Sophie to offer Cochran a Final Four deal, which certainly might have influenced his decision to flip.
 * Badass
 * Badass Long Hair
 * Character Development: Compare him now to him in Tocantins.
 * The Chessmaster: Who would've thought Coach of all people would be this?
 * Digging Yourself Deeper: After Ozzy proceeded to give a very small "The Reason You Suck" Speech...
 * Do Not Call Me Benjamin
 * Hidden Depths: Converses briefly with Sophie in the first episode in Russian.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: See Honor Before Reason
 * Honor Before Reason: Voted out two ideal goats in Cochran and Edna, solely because they weren't part of his original Five-Man Band. He proceeded to vote out Brandon - another great goat - simply because he saw his core Final Three as himself, Albert, and Sophie. This ended up backfiring on him hard when Sophie beat him, and the jurors confirmed at the Reunion that if he'd brought Rick, Edna, or Cochran instead of Sophie, he'd have won. On the other hand, if Sophie hadn't been there to defeat Ozzy in the final immunity challenge, Ozzy would unquestionably have won the game.
 * Hypocrite: Even in this much tamer incarnation, it wouldn't be Coach if he didn't show these tendencies on a couple occasions. Most notably, after going completely over-the-top with the prayer/religious angle, he complained in the season finale about people who are "Holier Than Thou."
 * Manipulative Bastard: Coach can be considered this, due to how he managed to convince Cochran to flip. Then again though, given how they treated him... picked a very good target.
 * My Greatest Third Chance: Subverted, although this is certainly where his game is the strongest.
 * Name's the Same: With the Senator from Ohio and a major league baseball player.
 * No Damage Run: Except for being runner-up to Sophie.
 * Oh Crap: You could almost pinpoint the moment Coach realized he probably is going to finish second when Ozzy says that nobody wants to vote for either of them.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Coach. He outright gets mad when Stacey and Christine start calling him "Benjamin" just to spite him.
 * Red Baron: The Dragon Slayer, though he passes that off to Sophie after she beat Ozzy. In the Recap Episode, he considered changing his moniker to "Zeus."
 * Religious Bruiser
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky
 * Took a Level in Badass
 * Ungrateful Bastard: To Cochran and Edna. Edna stands out, however, for being the only one that would talk to him on the first day.
 * Zen Survivor

Albert Destrade


 * Black Best Friend: Subverted the longer the season went on and his relationships with everyone else (but especially Sophie) got more strained.
 * Cassandra Truth: He tried to get Sophie out at least once, fearing that she would have a good jury performance. As it turned out, he had reason to be afraid.
 * Digging Yourself Deeper: Had already shot himself in the foot several times before the Final Tribal Council.
 * Genre Savvy: Is smart enough to realize that it's important to get to the merge in a majority before worrying about loyalty. However, this falls on deaf ears with Coach.
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Heroic Build
 * Jerk Jock: Subverted.
 * The Lancer
 * Lazy Bum: Was nicknamed "Prince Albert".
 * Loophole Abuse: Aint No Rule stating you can't shout puzzle help out to someone during a challenge.
 * Number Two: To Coach, though he sees himself as Coach's Beleaguered Assistant.
 * Out of Focus: Until Episode 5, where he finds the hidden immunity idol with Coach and Sophie.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Receives no votes after he tries pandering to the jury, even after Jim calls him out on it. Utterly mangling a couple of his answers to the jurors' questions (especially Brandon's) certainly doesn't help him either.
 * Running Gag: A running theme was him creating some kind of plan to take control of the game, only for it to fail every time (usually because Sophie thought the idea was stupid and refused to go along with it). Hilariously, the one time one of his plans did pay off it was almost by accident. He was aiming to convince Brandon to vote with him at Tribal Council, and not only did Brandon do that but he also gave Albert his necklace of his own volition.
 * The Starscream: Tried to be this all season long, but ultimately failed.

Oscar Lusth


 * Back from the Dead: And unlike Matt and Andrea, he actually managed to last past his first Tribal Council. He would later return in the finale, only to be voted out at the final four
 * Batman Gambit: As described below under My Death Is Just the Beginning: pulled off a very risky plan to get himself voted off, eliminate Christine at Redemption Island, and rejoin the game at the merge. In doing so, he successfully calculated that (a) he could beat Christine at whatever duel was presented, and (b) the merge was going to be immediately after the next duel (as his tribe would have been thoroughly screwed if he'd ended up stuck at Redemption Island).
 * Badass
 * Badass Long Hair
 * The Big Guy: To Savaii (albeit in terms of his physical prowess, rather than literally).
 * Crazy Survivalist
 * Defeating the Undefeatable: Broke Christine's winning streak on Redemption Island.
 * Genius Bruiser: See My Death Is Just the Beginning.
 * Go Out with a Smile
 * The Hero: To Savaii, before Elyse's blindside.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Following Elyse's blindside.
 * Jerk Jock: Towards Cochran, at least for the first few episodes. This was largely based on strategy, however; once he no longer saw Cochran as a target for elimination, Ozzy seems to have been quite pleasant to him.
 * Keet
 * Large Ham: Similar to Richard in All-Stars, his Elimination Statement included cheerfully thanking everyone for giving him a chance to play again, and then yelling "yeehaw" at the top of his lungs while going down the Walk of Shame.
 * Loophole Abuse: Aint No Rule saying you couldn't look over at another players' puzzle during a puzzle challenge.
 * My Death Is Just the Beginning: Fearing that Christine would return to Upolu at the merge (leading to a Pagonging of Savaii), he decided to pull a Suicide by Cop, send himself to Redemption Island, win the duel and return to the game at the merge. It worked, making him the first and only player to use the Redemption Island twist strategically... but was ultimately subverted as the whole scheme proved futile: Cochran, who was directly saved from elimination by Ozzy's plan, ended up flipping and dooming the entire tribe anyway. He then returns from Redemption yet again... only to lose the final immunity challenge with a million dollars on the line.
 * My Greatest Third Chance: Subverted compared to Cook Islands, played straight compared to Micronesia.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Ozzy
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sets the tone for what the Jury was going to say to them, telling all three finalists that "Nobody here wants to vote for you".
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome
 * Zen Survivor

Rick Nelson


 * All There in the Manual: Despite being Out of Focus, the scenes on CBS' website show that Rick has quite a few good observations about the goings-on of his tribe.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Applied 14 times to get on.
 * Badass Moustache
 * Informed Ability: Apparently could have beaten the others - it has been pointed out this may not have been as informed, since the final three of South Pacific was "Lesser of three evils", a role Rick could have played.
 * Name's the Same: With the late teenybopper idol.
 * Nice Hat
 * Out of Focus: Excluding Mikayla's boot, the only real attention he received prior to the recap episode was in the premiere where his super-fan status is brought up. Then he turned into a Living Prop to rival Purple Kelly, with his only noticeable line for the next half dozen episodes being "[Albert] snores." He eventually began to show up again around the mid-season recap, if for no other reason than because the editors were starting to run out of other people to show. He then disappeared again at the reunion, getting completely ignored in spite of finishing fifth.
 * The Big Guy: To Upolu.

Brandon Hantz


 * Beware the Honest Ones: Constantly blurts out his or his alliances' plans to the intended victims (or, more commonly, in front of everyone), to the point where the others take to keeping him in the dark as much as possible because they can't trust him to stay quiet. The one time he actually tries to lie strategically himself, he ends up publicly breaking down and confessing at tribal council.
 * Black and White Insanity: Flat out states that he sees the world as divided into good and evil, with no middle ground.
 * Enfant Terrible: The third 19-year-old to play.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Stands up for Cochran after he flips and Jim calls him a coward.
 * Former Teen Rebel
 * Genre Blind: Is unpredictable in the Upolu dynamics, very bad at reading people, and makes moves and statements and has an attitude and stability that in any other season of Survivor would have had him gone within the first few episodes... even giving up immunity.
 * Hero with an F In Good:
 * Honor Before Reason: To the point where he makes Colby and Ian look sensible by comparison. It probably didn't help that he was living with someone like Coach all season long.
 * Hypocrite
 * Informed Attribute: Sophie claims that Brandon could've won if he'd been in the final three because he was a hard worker and everybody liked him. Try and figure that out. Apparently, he was one of the nicest people there, at least according to everyone who was with him for that time, but the cameras only showed the side that appeared on television.
 * Oh Crap: You can probably pinpoint the exact moment that he realizes just how bad of an idea it was to give his immunity necklace to Albert.
 * Religious Bruiser: Is deeply Religious and is a born-again Christian. As a result, he goes after Mikayla because he sees her as being an expy of Parvati.
 * Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny
 * Shocking Elimination: Gives up immunity and is voted out (similar to Erik's elimination in Micronesia), then loses to Ozzy on Redemption Island.
 * The Sixth Ranger: In the main alliance on Upolu, but nobody trusts him, due to his tendency toward self-destructive outbursts.
 * Spin Offspring: He is the nephew of.. well Russell Hantz.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Similar to Taj, he easily received the most screen time prior to the merge, by virtue of being Russell Hantz's nephew. He even managed to turn his uncle into The Ghost. Post-merge, it's since been passed over to Cochran.
 * Tattooed Crook

Edna Ma


 * Asian and Nerdy: Anaesthesiologist, and also a friend of Mick from Samoa.
 * Distaff Counterpart: To Cochran.
 * Genre Savvy: When Brandon tells her that she's the sixth person in a five-person alliance, she tries to get in good graces with the majority rather than get mad and further alienate herself. It worked, and she managed to survive over the stronger, but less trustworthy Mikayla.
 * Informed Ability: When it's either her or Mikayla to be booted, Sophie and Albert mention her sneakiness and distrust of the tribe as reason to get rid of her. The camera never shows any of that.
 * Informed Flaw: Also of note, while Albert and Sophie also wanted to get rid of her for being weak, Upolu only lost challenges that she didn't participate in.
 * Odd Couple: With Coach.
 * Ship Tease: With Coach.
 * Sixth Ranger/The Chick: To Upolu.
 * The Unfavorite: Was put up as an option for elimination every time her tribe was up for a vote, been badmouthed by her tribe and was outright told she was next to go.

John Cochran


 * Adorkable
 * Ascended Fanboy: And how!
 * Butt Monkey: Which eventually leads to him biting back.
 * The Dog Bites Back: He flips on Savaii at the merge because he felt he was treated poorly and helps Upolu get rid of Keith.
 * Fish Out of Water: His impressive theoretical knowledge of the game didn't help him much once he was actually out there. He was largely useless in challenges, precious little help around camp, and had very limited social skills beyond a certain self-effacing charm.
 * Foreshadowing: As pointed out in this video, the editing had quite a bit of buildup to him flipping at the merge.
 * Genre Savvy: He claimed to be, in one of his first confessionals, one of the most game-savvy contestants to ever play. Sure, he was savvy, but it didn't help when he wasn't very good with people.
 * In-Series Nickname: Invoked; he asks Jeff to refer to him by his last name in a similar manner as Colby Donaldson or Jonathan Penner. Admittedly; with how many people named "John" there've been in the show; it's probably not a bad thing.
 * Name's the Same: With another famous lawyer.
 * One of Us
 * The Quisling
 * Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Flips to Upolu at Merge. When it's reduced to him and the six Upolu's...three guesses who gets sent out. First two don't count.
 * Sadly Mythtaken: When Coach calls himself Zeus, Cochran says, "Didn't Zeus eat his children?" It was actually Kronos he did that. He lampshaded this after the show; when he tweeted that he got them confused when they aired that episode.
 * Sixth Ranger: To Upolu after he flips at the merge. Yes, that's three people listed as Sixth Rangers to Upolu.
 * Spear Counterpart: To Edna.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad
 * TMI
 * Unwitting Pawn
 * With Friends Like These...: Was allied with Jim during his coup against Ozzy, but Jim made it clear (to us, at least), that he was only using Cochran as an extra vote.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Was always an option at elimination, treated poorly at camp and was a woobie. The Destroyer part comes when he single handedly doomed the Savaii tribe (and himself) to the jury.
 * World of Cardboard Speech: Delivers a pretty epic one after losing the duel to Ozzy.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness

Whitney Duncan


 * Alpha Bitch: To the Upolu. She was part of the bully brigade that included Jim and Ozzy. Weird for a Living Prop.
 * The Chick: To Savaii.
 * Hair of Gold
 * Hey It's That Girl: Well-known country singer from Nashville.
 * Living Prop: Until Keith was sent packing, she had no screen time that didn't include him.
 * Out of Focus: Surprisingly so, for a well known celebrity. It's been speculated that this might be punishment by the editors for letting slip some spoilers to one of her concert audiences.
 * Romance on the Set: With Keith.
 * Selective Obliviousness: Saw herself as a victim of ostracism at the hands of the Upolu, particularly in an immunity challenge where only the Savaii members (excluding Cochran) competed.

Dawn Meehan


 * Action Mom: Easily the strongest woman on Savaii.
 * Cool Old Lady: You wouldn't expect a middle-age old lady to be a valuable member of any tribe, but Dawn almost single-handedly won the fourth immunity challenge for Savaii, did better than Ozzy on the third, and won the first individual immunity challenge.
 * Character Development: Similar to Cochran, she proves herself to the tribe and is one of their best competitors in the challenges. This is why Upolu voted her out.
 * Determinator: She even trained for ten months to be ready for the show.
 * Expy: She seems suspiciously like Holly from Nicaragua. Old(er) female castaway who wants to quit early on... but gets over it, as well as being one of the stronger members of her tribe. Fridge Brilliance sets in when you realize that she was originally cast for Nicaragua, but was replaced by Holly at the last minute.
 * Sixth Ranger: To Savaii up until Elyse's blindside.
 * Team Mom

Keith Tollefson


 * Be Careful What You Wish For: After Ozzy's Suicide by Cop, he berated Cochran for not taking the fall, and advised that he should "step up and show the world what you can do." Cochran would indeed do just that... by flipping and getting Keith out.
 * Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: The first one targeted by Upolu post-merge.
 * Informed Flaw: His pacemaker. The fact is barely mentioned outside his pre-game interview.
 * Handicapped Badass: First contestant with a pacemaker, and also happens to be one of Savaii's strongest members. Surprisingly for the show, the fact that he has a pacemaker is barely mentioned at all.
 * Jerk Jock: Again, to Cochran
 * Karmic Death: It is Cochran's vote that sends him out.
 * The Lancer: To Ozzy
 * Romance on the Set: With Whitney.

Jim Rice


 * Card-Carrying Villain
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Immediately recognizes the effect that Semhar and Elyse have on Ozzy, and thus pushes to eliminate them before anyone else.
 * Genius Bruiser: Evidenced by his setting a Survivor record in the weight-bearing challenge.
 * Jerkass
 * Jerkass Has a Point: Why did Jim take it so personally when Cochran flipped to Upolu after the votes were tied? Because he and Cochran were the only two Savaii members in danger of elimination in the tie-breaker that would otherwise have followed (due to the odd rules of the Purple Rock of Doom). Jim had been willing to take the risk, and saw Cochran's actions as pure cowardice.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Name's the Same: With a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
 * Smug Snake
 * The Starscream: To Ozzy in the tribal phase.
 * The Smart Guy/The Evil Genius.

Christine Shields Markoski


 * Badass Teacher: The first woman to win an individual Redemption Island duel, and to win two or more. The second woman to win a Redemption Island duel overall.
 * Blondes Are Evil: At least to Coach, seeing as how she's the only one to make it openly clear to him that he's a "temporary player".
 * The Complainer Is Always Wrong
 * Determinator
 * Downer Ending: See Shoot the Shaggy Dog.
 * Elimination Statement: (While tossing her buff into the urn) "This might explode. Be careful, stay back."
 * Genre Savvy: Recognizes that the returnees have to go because every time, the "fans" get awe-struck and let the returnees walk all over them.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Wins every Redemption Island duel, except for the one at merge time.

Mikayla Wingle


 * Action Girl: Is actually not bad in challenges. Unfortunately, she wasn't loyal.
 * Ms. Fanservice
 * Tomboy

Elyse Umemoto


 * Cute but Cacophonic

Stacey Powell


 * Older Than They Look: She's 44. She looks younger than Dawn; when Dawn is the younger of the two!
 * Sassy Black Woman
 * Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: To the point of a Verbal Tic.
 * Taking You with Me: At her duel, she revealed as much about Upolu's dynamic as she could to the Savaii observers.
 * Talkative Loon: Try deciphering her tirade on Redemption Island before the duel.

Mark Caruso


 * Cool Old Guy: Is one of the nicest people to play the game; and despite being the second person eliminated, was actually nice about it.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Papa Bear
 * Invisible to Gaydar: Is gay, but other than a few hints in his speech patterns you wouldn't tell.

Semhar Tadesse


 * Black Girl Gets Eliminated First.
 * Religious Bruiser