Summary

• The Survivor season 43 finale brought fresh faces, but lacked wild and over the top cast .
• Brandon Hantz coasted on family connections, behaved horribly towards Mikayla Wingle, and acted immature on Caramoan.
• Sherri Biethman started strong but ended up as a follower, sticking with Favorites and showing poor gameplay tactics.

The Survivor season 43 finale aired on December 14, 2022. It was exciting to see castaways back in Fiji. New cast were interacting and forging alliances. It was easy to become interested in the fresh faces.

Early on in the season, none of the Survivor season 43 contestants matched the energy of some players from previous seasons. Most seemed to be getting along well with their fellow castaways, and none stood out because they were especially strange. At that stage in the installment, there weren't really wild cast who were over the top, shady and downright cringe-worthy.

Russell Hantz

The Lame Hat Was Just The Beginning

While Russell is one of Survivor's most notorious villains, he is also a player who often makes audiences cringe. Between his inability to recognize his incredibly poor social game to his misplaced confidence, Russell often leaves viewers bewildered. They wonder if he is even aware that the other players don't want him to win the million dollar prize.

To make matters worse, Russell even tried to outright buy the title of Sole Survivor off of Natalie White. This was a ridiculously embarrassing thing to do. The fact that he ran through Heroes vs. Villains confident that he won Samoa — a season that he lost — only makes it worse.

His sins extend to sketchy personal style.

"Rocking" a fedora while strutting around shirtless (and showing off a large cross pendant) does not scream, "castaway chic." Therefore, his sins extend to sketchy personal style. He might blend in better with the cast of Jersey Shore. This tacky yet unrefined Survivor villain would stoop to the lowest conduct to get his way. His moral com was gloriously askew.

When he wasn't dumping the water out of his costars' containers, he was setting their socks alight.

Brandon Hantz

He Coasted On Family Connections (For A While)

This player was recruited solely because he was the nephew of Russell Hantz. That is cringe-worthy in and of itself. Brandon never actually managed to charm his castmates or viewers. He really went off the deep end during his series stint - in fact, he absolutely ruined an entire Survivor season with problematic behavior during Caramoan.

His behavior towards Mikayla Wingle during South Pacific was also reprehensible, as he rallied for her elimination solely because he was attracted to her. It was all incredibly uncomfortable to watch. This is why it's so easy to have a negative view of Brandon.

The super bitter series alum got juvenile on Survivor: Caramoan, venting after an argument by throwing away the food and water. He dumped it out so no one could consume it. At the time, he was only 21 years old, so maybe he should get a for that reason. However, other young players have shown some kind of maturity on the show. His language was also exceptionally salty. When thwarted, dropping F-bombs was the norm.

Sherri Biethman

This Woman Is Controversial

Sherri started Caramoan on a high note. As the only player who actually managed to keep Shamar Thomas active in the game, she was quickly proving to have a strong sense of strategy. Also, her social play seemed canny. By the end of the season, though, her strategy had really fallen apart.

Having lost all agency, Sherri just followed the Favorites loyally. She even finished the game by angrily informing a bitter jury that she didn't care what they had to say. This was incredibly poor gameplay, and it was all too easy to cringe when they watched her tell a jury member to sit down.

In real life, Sherri's a savvy entrepreneur who owns a variety of franchises - one is Wetzel's Pretzels, and another is Cinnabon. She owns six in all, and seems proud of this achievement. While she's been hated for her onscreen antics in the reality competition, offscreen, she still has confidence. Sherri believes in her social skills, her feminine wiles, and all the other tools that she used to try and hit her goals on the show.

Kat Edorsson

This "Blindside Fan" Got Owned

She's a One World player who shared just how much she loved "blindsides" before summarily being blindsided. Kat definitely made the show somewhat awkward. It was an incredibly memorable blindside, but her strong reaction turned any humor into cringes.

It certainly didn't help that she spent a large portion of an otherwise great Survivor reunion episode talking about how her recent surgery made her more attractive to her boyfriend. It was incredibly uncomfortable, especially since the other players didn't seem to know how to respond.

It seemed like Kat got a breast augmentation procedure to please her man. On the series, she talked about becoming "top heavy" for his sake. While that doesn't make her a villain, it did create a sense of awkwardness. It seemed like a private and personal thing to reveal. She got plastic surgery for a man who later broke up with her - the operation was a big step to take. However, that isn't the only surgical procedure she's had.

Kat actually underwent open-heart surgery as a tween, and later on, in young adulthood.

Rodney Lavoie Jr.

The Birthday Boy Acted Like A Big Baby

A player who seemingly had a strong chance of winning, Rodney's game fell apart because he had to wash dishes on his birthday. After spending multiple episodes ranting about his horrible special occasion, he seemed insufferable. Even those who agreed with him probably wanted him to give it a rest.

Having gone through most of the game without a challenge win, Rodney was understandably frustrated that he hadn't gotten a reward. However, his insistence that he deserved a better birthday was as ridiculous as it was embarrassing. After all, Rodney had the chance to spend his birthday on Survivor, which should have been good enough for him.

Rodney lost sight of the big picture. His b-day obsession distracted him from what was important - trying to win the game. He got sidetracked, and seemed like a petty whiner. He appeared to be childish.

John Cochran

His Herpes Comment Was A New Low

While Cochran certainly improved for Caramoan, his appearance in South Pacific was incredibly awkward, as was his return in Game Changers. Since Cochran was a player who outright told his fellow tribemates that he expected to get herpes from a challenge, it is hard not to cringe at his performance. He was vulgar, perhaps for shock value. His crassness was a bit unusual.

The fact that he also betrayed his Survivor "bro" in South Pacific certainly didn't help, since his decision to turn on Jim destroyed an entire tribe and sent him packing. Most fans had the same reaction when he flipped: Why? The choice was as poor as it was embarrassing, and his strange return on a boat at Exile Island didn't help. Overall, he made odd choices and said bizarre things - he acted weird.

Virgilio "Billy" Garcia

This Hopeless Romantic Made A Fool Of Himself

A player who only survived two episodes, Billy certainly left his mark on the show. He even managed to appear in one of the cringiest scenes in Survivor when he announced his love for a player he had never even had a full conversation with. Of all the Survivor showmances, it was certainly the strangest. The player he adored is Candice Woodcock.

Billy's poor performances in challenges (and the fact that a tribe wanted to get rid of him so badly that they threw a challenge immediately) goes to show just how perplexing he really was. It's one thing to try to play the middle, but to play it so badly that both sides realize within only a few days is a sign of a subpar player. He wasn't sophisticated enough to con his castmates.

Phillip Sheppard

He Didn't Mince Words

The player who coined the Stealth-R-Us alliance, Phillip often took himself and the game a little too seriously. Having fought with most of his tribe enough that he held a personal grudge against a first boot, Phillip could be as harsh as he was awkward. He had a bit of an attitude, and maybe he went too far with that.

He was too eccentric in general - flaunting pink underwear that some of his costars didn't appreciate. There's nothing wrong with wearing a certain color, but due to his other quirks, he was off-putting sometimes. He'd botch phrases, saying the wrong thing. He'd brag about his pre-game career. He was just a lot.

The fact that he spent most of Redemption Island following Boston Rob Mariano as an unaware goat certainly didn't help. The only way that situation could have been more awkward is if he went to Final Tribal Council to argue with the jury — which is something that he did.

Angelina Keeley

Angelina Was So Melodramatic

Making a sacrifice for a tribe is supposed to give a Survivor contestant a heightened chance to win the game. For Angelina Keeley, though, it only helped to make her more cringe-worthy. After all, when she chose to sit instead of competing in a challenge, it won her tribe rice and Angelina the enmity of her team.

After all, Angelina never let the tribe forget her decision, even if the tribe knew that Angelina had no actual chance of winning the challenge. Her insistence that she almost died on a ladder also didn't help to win her any friends. It was embarrassing all around, which did not help her case.

In August 2024, Angelina's seemingly very happy. She's put her cringe past on the iconic CBS series behind her. Days ago, she posted about celebrating her 7th anniversary with her partner. On May 17, in another IG post, she mulled over another Survivor stint, writing:

Some days, especially when I’m on a beach, I think “oh man, I really hope I get one more shot to play Survivor, I could do so much better than last time.” Then, I try to hop on a tube in shallow water, topple completely over, bonk my head on the sand and come up gasping for air. Life has a way of humbling you 😅

Benjamin "Coach" Wade

He Was A Wannabe Con Artist

It's hard to be more cringe than a man who intentionally makes up stories about himself, even if the entire tribe knows that his tales are lies. Nonetheless, Coach was always happy to try to manipulate his tribemates. In general, they were on to him, rarely falling for his attempts to deceive them.

Between his cringe-worthy sayings and his holier-than-thou demeanor, Coach's lack of self-awareness turned castaways and audiences against him. Tyson Apostal had to sit Coach down during Heroes vs. Villains and beg him to relax. When Tyson takes a moment for seriousness, a situation inevitably becomes unbearably awkward.

Coach's fake spirituality was grating. His attempts to present himself as a pure being with Jedi-like insights were cringe - however, it could be very funny. The series' most histrionic players are frequently (and unintentionally) hilarious. While they try to themselves off as awesome people, they leave little clues that show who they really are.

Unraveling the mysteries of Survivor stars' characters (are they good or bad?) is one of the most diverting aspects of watching the show. However, the "Coach" seemed clownish as he was just too easy to figure out. He wasn't as slick as he thought he was.