Survivor: Marquesas

Survivor Marquesas is the fourth installment of the reality television show Survivor. It premiered on February 28, 2002 and ended May 19, 2002. The season was filmed from November 12 to December 20, 2001 on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

Vecepia Towery beat Neleh Dennis to become the winner of this season, and received the $1,000,000 prize.

Production
Originally, Jordan was supposed to be the location of the fourth season. Mark Burnett wrote in his autobiography "Jump In" that the Survivor team were in pre-production of Survivor: Arabia - the outline for the opening involved the Survivors boarding a train, then riding on camels to their camp sites. Eventually, as a result of the September 11 attacks and the political situation in the Middle East, CBS were forced to use another place for the show. The Marquesas were chosen as the backup location.

Twist/Changes

 * Meager supplies: For the first time, the castaways were not given any food rations (such as a limited supply of rice or canned goods). Both tribes' supply crates were drastically reduced to only a magnifying glass, three pans, a fillet knife, two water containers and a magnifying glass, but no food items whatsoever.
 * Tribe Switch: Similar to the previous season, three contestants from both tribes are transferred to their rival tribe.
 * Immunity Necklace: Starting with this season, the winner of the Immunity Challenge reserve the right to transfer the Immunity Necklace to another player, keeping the recipient safe instead and leaving the original wearer vulnerable.
 * Purple Rock tiebreaker: In case of a deadlocked tie and there are no consensus as to how will the vote go, everyone, including people who did not receive votes except the owner of the Immunity Necklace, will pick a rock from a bag. Inside the bag there is one purple rock, and the contestant who gets it will be automatically eliminated from the game.

Season Summary
The two tribes, Rotu and Maraamu, as in previous seasons, were assembled before the game. From the beginning, Rotu prospered as a unified, hard-working tribe, while the Maraamu tribe quickly became divided between the leaders (headed by Hunter Ellis), and the workers (led by Rob Mariano). These differences heavily reflected on the first Immunity Challenges, as Maraamu lost five in a row. These losses sent Maraamu to Tribal Council on three consecutive occasions. There, the alliance made between Rob, Sarah Jones, Sean Rector, and Vecepia Towery soon took action eliminating their rivals: Peter Harkey, Patricia Jackson and Hunter, leaving Gina Crews as the outsider.

On Day 10, a random Tribe Switch sent Rob, Sean, and Vecepia to Rotu, while Paschal English, Neleh Dennis, and Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien joined Maraamu. With her entire alliance taken away to Rotu, Sarah was left alone with Gina and was voted out after Maraamu's fourth immunity loss. After Sarah's elimination, the new Maraamu tribe, now a paltry tribe of four, went on to win three consecutive challenges. As Maraamu came together, Rotu began to fall apart when Gabriel Cade's different perspective to the game led to John Carroll's decision to get rid of him. With Gabe gone, Rob, Sean and Vecepia found themselves at the mercy of an alliance of four: John, Zoe Zanidakis, Robert DeCanio, and Tammy Leitner. John initially promised that his next target would be the members of the new Maraamu Tribe, and he and Boston Rob shook on the deal, though neither one intended on keeping their promises. In the next challenge Rob led Rotu to a comeback victory, sending Maraamu back to Tribal Council, where Gina was outnumbered by her new tribemates and eliminated from the game, leaving the Maraamu tribe to three.

Before the two tribes merged on Day 19, Rob and Kathy were sent to a meeting in which they had to decide on a name, flag and location for their new tribe. Kathy came up with Soliantu - a word, that is supposed to mean "Sacred Allegiance to the Sun". During the meeting, Rob convinced Kathy that the Rotu tribe intended to vote her out first, and she decided her only option was to prevail in the first Individual Immunity Challenge. With this, Kathy persevered and won, resulting in her receiving the Individual Immunity Necklace. The newly-merged tribe then eliminated Rob due to him being a great threat and causing a great deal of stress in the camp. After Rob's elimination, the Rotu Four became arrogant and careless. They ganged up against the other five castaways in the next Immunity Challenge, showing them the exact order in which they will be sent home. With their fates seemingly obvious, the remaining five decided to act while they still had the numbers advantage, and at the evening's Tribal Council, John was blindsided. Outnumbered by Kathy's new alliance, the remaining members of the "Rotu Four" were subsequently eliminated. With the "Rotu Four" gone and in the jury, the final five resumed their previous factions: Paschal and Neleh against Sean and Vecepia, each pair vying for Kathy's vote. After heated discussion in Tribal Council, Kathy sided with Paschal and Neleh and voted out Sean.

Vecepia, the odd-person out in the alliance, went on to win the next Immunity Challenge; and at Tribal Council, Kathy publicly approached Vecepia to form a voting bloc to take them both to the final two as she knew Paschal and Neleh will never turn on each other. Vecepia agreed to the deal, and they both voted for Neleh, resulting in a tie between her and Kathy. With the vote being deadlocked, a draw of rocks would decide who will go next. Oddly, Paschal, the only other person than Vecepia who didn't have votes, drew the purple rock and was eliminated. When Kathy dropped out at the Final Immunity Challenge, Vecepia went back on her word, and offered Neleh to step down if she took her to the final. Neleh agreed, and Kathy became the final member of the jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Neleh and Vecepia were met with a bitter jury as they were grilled for hiding behind religion to use a form of guilt-free deception. Neleh was castigated by the former "Rotu Four" alliance for initially accepting she would have been contented by reaching the jury phase, only to turn on her word while Vecepia was chastised for constantly shifting from alliance to alliance and was met with heavy disdain for betraying Kathy after publicly aligning with her. Ultimately, it was Vecepia who was crowned Sole Survivor after a close 4-3 vote, and became the first African-American victor.

Episode Guide
Notes:

With a deadlock tie between Kathy and Neleh, the Purple Rock tiebreaker was used, eliminating Paschal (despite not having any votes against him).

Trivia

 * This was the first season in which the finalists were of the same gender.
 * Jeff Probst said that Survivor will never use the Marquesas as a location again, solely because of the painful bites from the native no-no sandflies.
 * For the first time the loved ones of castaways were on location during the Loved Ones Reward Challenge (in and  only the winner's loved one visited the castaways).
 * For the first time two different contestants won the penultimate and final Immunity Challenges.
 * This is the first season to see the Purple Rock tiebreaker being utilized.
 * This is the first time that both original tribes were represented in the Final Tribal Council.
 * This is the first season in which both finalists received votes against them during the game.
 * This is the first season to have a male as the first person voted out.
 * Every castaway in the final five switched tribes after the swap. Rob was the only person who switched tribes and did not make the final 5.