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

 * No food provided: 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 pair of machetes, three pans, a fillet knife, two water containers and a magnifying glass, but no food items whatsoever.
 * Tribe Switch: Similar to the previous season, several contestants switched tribes before the merge.
 * Immunity necklace can be passed to another player: Starting with this season, the holder of the Immunity Necklace will have the ability to transfer it to another player, keeping that player safe, while leaving the original holder vulnerable.
 * Purple Rock tiebreaker: In case of a deadlocked tie, 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 (Rain) and Maraamu (Southern Wind), 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 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.

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 Crews (a former ally of Hunter) and was voted out after Maraamu's fourth Immunity loss. After Sarah's elimination, the Maraamu tribe experienced a rebirth, and went on to win three consecutive challenges. As Maraamu came together, Rotu began to fall apart when Gabriel Cade's weird behavior led to John Carroll's decision to get rid of him. A four-way voting alliance of John, Zoe Zanidakis, Robert DeCanio, and Tammy Leitner, the "Rotu Four", was formed, whilst the three former Maraamu also members remained strong. In Rotu's first Tribal Council, Gabriel was unanimously sent home. John declared 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.

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 teamed 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, making him the 5th member of the Jury.

With only four players left, Vecepia needed to win Immunity as she knew she would be voted off next. Having spent time with every contestant worked in her favor as a trivia contest about the contestants gave her the Immunity win and placed a target on Kathy. During Tribal Council, Kathy publicly approached Vecepia to form a voting bloc to take them both to the Final 2 as she knew Paschal and Neleh were not going to 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 tied and deadlocked for the first time, the new rules for a Tiebreaker came into effect: everyone would reach into a bag and pull out a colored rock. Whoever drew the purple rock would be sent home; only Vecepia was exempt from participating as she had won Individual Immunity. Paschal lost and was eliminated, despite having received no votes throughout the entire game. In the final Individual Immunity Challenge, all three remaining castaways would hold on to an Immunity Idol for as long as possible. After Kathy dropped out, 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 by riding on Paschal's coattails and starting to think strategically too late into the game. Vecepia was condemned 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.

Trivia

 * The location for this season was originally going to be the Middle Eastern country of Jordan, but it was moved following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
 * This was the first season in which the finalists were members of the same sex (two women).
 * This is also the first season with a same-sex final three.
 * 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 the island during the Loved Ones Reward Challenge (in and  only the winner's loved one visited the island).
 * For the first time two different contestants won the final two immunity challenges.
 * This is the only season to see the Purple Rock tiebreaker being utilized.
 * This is the first time that both of the 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 the first person voted out a male.