- For the tribe from Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, see Levu. For the tribe from the Australian version of Survivor, see Heroes (Australia).
Heroes is a tribe from Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
The tribe was composed of ten previous contestants of Survivor who played valiantly or honestly, or to a degree earning them a "heroic" connotation. The tribe, although physically much stronger on paper, struggled with several injuries, lack of teamwork, and their inability to solve puzzles. Although they merged evenly, the use of Hidden Immunity Idols by the Villains and them not listening to Villain defector Sandra Diaz-Twine destroyed their chance of success. Their tribe color is blue.
Members[]
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Tribe History[]
Early Confidence[]
The Heroes tribe was initially seen as the physically stronger tribe, compared to the more strategic Villains tribe. As seen in the first Reward Challenge, the Heroes proved to be a powerhouse, winning the first challenge of the season, but not before leaving the challenge area with injuries and other mishaps, such as Stephenie LaGrossa's shoulder dislocation, Rupert Boneham's fractured toe, and Sugar Kiper's topless finish. Additionally, Colby Donaldson, who historically became one of the show's strongest male contestants, was questioned because of his poor performance, being shamefully defeated by Coach Wade.
The Heroes.
The Heroes immediately worked once they arrived at camp, creating a sturdy shelter within hours. Despite this, egos shortly emerged, when Rupert tried to create fire using their flint, only to use up most of its magnesium, while the rest of the males created rules on consuming the tribe's enormous plantain/banana supply. Unknown to many, J.T. Thomas started to work on strategy by making conflicting alliances with James Clement and Tom Westman.
At the Day 3 Immunity Challenge, the Heroes gained a healthy lead but faltered at the puzzle-solving segment, allowing the Villains to catch up and eventually win the challenge. At their first Tribal Council, Sugar was unanimously voted out for her weak physique and emotional breakdown at the challenge. Puzzles would later become a recurring problem for the Heroes during their entire tenure as a tribe.
At the Day 6 Reward/Immunity Challenge, the tribe collected the giant puzzle cubes first, but James and Stephenie bickered on the puzzle-solving part, unwittingly giving the Villains their second consecutive win. After the loss, James stormed at camp because of communication improprieties, mostly blaming Stephenie for the loss. As Tribal Council loomed, it became apparent that the tribe was torn between three alliances, the alliance of Amanda Kimmel, James, J.T., and Rupert, the alliance of Colby, Stephenie, and Tom, with both groups vying for Candice Woodcock and Cirie Fields' support. After a fiery Tribal Council, Candice and Cirie joined Amanda, James, J.T., and Rupert, sending Stephenie home. After the vote, James apologized for his brutish demeanor, stating that he just wanted the tribe to start winning. After having a bonding moment by catching their escaped chickens, the Heroes' morale was boosted, destroying the Villains in an 8-0 blowout win at the Day 8 Reward/Immunity Challenge, which required pure brawn. Despite this, James was still mean-spirited as ever, hurling his padded bag at Randy Bailey as he plummeted into the mud. This stirred controversy between the two tribes.
The Heroes' lack of cohesion caused dissension within the tribe. After learning of the existence of a Hidden Immunity Idol, the tribe scrambled to find it. Ultimately, Tom succeeded, knowing that his possession of the idol might save him and Colby from the majority alliance. With Tom having the idol, the majority agreed to split their votes between Colby and Tom to effectively eliminate one of them and diffuse the power of the idol.
The tribe's disunity reflected on subsequent challenges, losing at the next two. At their third Tribal Council on Day 11, Jeff Probst castigated the tribe for honoring alliances despite their losing streak. In the end, Tom used his Hidden Immunity Idol, and much to the tribe's surprise, J.T. switched his vote to Cirie, whom Colby and Tom voted, and J.T.'s biggest threat, sending her home. At the Day 13 Reward Challenge, James was badly injured during the infamous Schmergen Brawl Reward Challenge, leaving him with a bad knee. James' injury proved disastrous for the Heroes, losing the next Immunity Challenge. Unfortunately for Tom, his usage of the idol only delayed the inevitable, and was voted out by the majority alliance. Isolated, Colby felt alone as his challenge performance continued to worsen.
During the Double Tribal Council twist on Day 15, the tribes competed for individual immunity, with Candice being successful. She was pitted against the winner from the Villains, Rob Mariano for a feast to be enjoyed at the rival tribe's Tribal Council. She lost by a small amount of time. With their roster about to go down to five, the majority alliance realized that James' injury and rash behavior were too obvious to ignore, and he was unanimously voted out. This somewhat brought an end to the old dominant alliance, instead bringing the focus back to fighting from their 8-5 numbers disadvantage to maybe even the score come the merge.
Knowing that he had to prove that keeping him was not a mistake, Colby led the tribe to a blowout win at the next Reward Challenge, winning them a feast. At the reward, the Heroes discovered a clue to another Hidden Immunity Idol hidden at their camp. Not wanting to ruin momentum, all five members agreed to find it together so they could use it against the Villains after the merge. The Heroes then went on to win the next Immunity Challenge, which ironically had a puzzle component, much to their delight.
While the Heroes continued to win more challenges, J.T. returned to his devious antics, looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol for his own self-interest (in which he was successful). However, Amanda caught him, which forced J.T. to reveal his possession of the idol to the tribe. This gesture irked Amanda and Candice, with both agreeing that the Alabaman was not trustworthy. Despite this, the Heroes won five of the next six challenges.
From this point forward, the five Heroes had noticed that their rival tribe's male members continue to dwindle (Russell Hantz was the only male Villain left), while all five females remained. The Heroes had assumed that the tribe was controlled by an all-female alliance, led by Parvati Shallow (the same strategy which won her Survivor: Micronesia). J.T. even signaled Russell that the Heroes were ready to help him if he needed to (unknown to them, the Villains' majority alliance was actually Parvati, Russell, Danielle DiLorenzo, and Jerri Manthey).
J.T. concocted a bold move that could "save" Russell. He planned to give Russell their tribe's Hidden Immunity Idol at the next Immunity Challenge in order to protect him from the next vote and gain his loyalty post-merger, hoping he would use it to eliminate Parvati. While Amanda and Candice became unsure, the tribe agreed to the plan anyway. After the Heroes won the Day 24 Immunity Challenge, J.T. gave the idol wrapped with a note to Russell while the rest of the Villains congratulated the Heroes for their win.
On Day 25, the Heroes welcomed the Villains at their camp for the merge. The merged tribe stayed at the Heroes' camp for the duration of the game, on the account of the Heroes camp's abundance of food.
| Episode | Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out | Result | Eliminated (Vote) |
Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Battle Dig | Reward | None | Won | Sugar (9-1) |
1st Voted Out Day 3 |
| Lock, Load and Light | Immunity | None | Lost | |||
| 2 | A Crate Idea | Reward/Immunity | Rupert | Lost | Stephenie (6-3) |
2nd Voted Out Day 6 |
| 3 | Sumo in Mud | Reward/Immunity | None | Won | Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Slip, Slide & Score | Reward | None | Lost | Cirie (3-2-0)1 |
4th Voted Out Day 11 |
| Roll With It | Immunity | Cirie | Lost | |||
| 5 | Schmergen Brawl | Reward | Colby | Lost | Tom (5-2) |
5th Voted Out Day 14 |
| Blind Cube Crisis | Immunity | None | Lost | |||
| 6 | Rope-a-Dope | Immunity | None | Candice2 | James (5-1) |
7th Voted Out Day 15 |
| Reward | Amanda, Colby, J.T., James, Rupert |
Lost | ||||
| 7 | Basket Brawl | Reward | None | Won | Tribe Immune | |
| Caught in the Web | Immunity | None | Won | |||
| 8 | Fauxconut Bowling | Reward | None | Won | Tribe Immune | |
| Mud Slide | Immunity | None | Won | |||
| 9 | Chimney Sweep | Reward | None | Lost | Tribe Immune | |
| Strung Out | Immunity | None | Won | |||
| Tribes Merged, Day 25 | ||||||
| Notes: | ||||||
| Original Tribes | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| Voted Out |  Sugar |
 Stephenie |
Tribe Immune |
 Cirie |
 Tom |
 James |
Tribe Immune |
Tribe Immune |
Tribe Immune |
Tribes Merged | |
| Vote | 9-1 | 6-3 | — | 3-2-01 | 5-2 | 5-1 | — | — | — | ||
| ► | Colby | Sugar | Amanda | — | Cirie | James | James | — | — | — | |
| ► | Rupert | Sugar | Stephenie | — | Colby | Tom | James | — | — | — | |
| ► | Candice | Sugar | Stephenie | — | Tom | James | — | — | — | ||
| ► | Amanda | Sugar | Stephenie | — | Tom | James | — | — | — | ||
| ► | J.T. | Sugar | Stephenie | — | Cirie | Tom | James | — | — | — | |
| James | Sugar | Stephenie | — | Colby | Tom | Colby | |||||
| Tom | Sugar | Amanda | — | Cirie | James | ||||||
| Cirie | Sugar | Stephenie | — | ||||||||
| Stephenie | Sugar | Amanda | |||||||||
| Sugar | Amanda | ||||||||||
| Notes: ^1 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against the user.
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Heroes and Villains are the fourth and fifth tribe names in the U.S. version of Survivor to come from the English language, after Drake, Morgan, and The Outcasts.
- Stephenie had previously competed on Survivor: Guatemala where she played a more villainous game. However, the producers agreed her appearance in Survivor: Palau game was more memorable and placed her on the Heroes tribe.
- Jeff Probst mistakenly called John Cochran and Phillip Sheppard in "She Annoys Me Greatly" as members of the Heroes tribe instead of the Favorites while running the first Immunity Challenge.[1]
- The Heroes tribe name and color in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains was later used in Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. The tribe in the latter season was also known as Levu, but had a Hero who became the winner of Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers.
References[]