Survivor: Marquesas

Survivor: Marquesas
Season Information
Version	United States
Season No.	4
Filming Location	Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, France
Filming Dates	November 12, 2001 - December 20, 2001
Season Run	February 28, 2002 - May 19, 2002
No. of Episodes	15
No. of Days	39
No. of Castaways	16
Winner	Vecepia Towery
Runner(s)-Up	Neleh Dennis
Tribes	Maraamu Rotu Soliantu
Viewership (in Millions)	20.77
Cast
Opening Sequence
Season Chronology
Previous	Africa
Next	Thailand

Survivor: Marquesas is the fourth installment of the reality television show Survivor. It premiered on February 28, 2002, and ended May 19, 2002.

Marquesas was notable for being the Survivor debut of Rob Mariano, who quickly became a fan favorite and would eventually appear as a contestant in four subsequent seasons (as well as a mentor in another), more than any other returning player. It also saw the first ever overthrow of a dominant alliance in the Rotu Four, and featured the first ever instance of a contestant being "rocked out" due to a deadlocked vote, which would set a precedent to avoid a deadlocked vote at all costs for many seasons to come.

In the end, Vecepia Towery beat Neleh Dennis in a 4-3 vote to become the winner of this season, and received the $1,000,000 prize. To date, this season has produced two returning players (Rob Mariano and Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien) for subsequent seasons.

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 was in pre-production of Survivor: Arabia — the outline for the opening involved the castaways boarding a train, then riding on camels to their campsites. Eventually, as a result of the September 11 attacks and the political situation in the Middle East, CBS was forced to use another place for the show within eight weeks from the cancellation of the production in Jordan. The Marquesas Islands were chosen as the backup location. Because there was no island large enough to house the production team, cruise ships had to be used.

The season was filmed from November 12 to December 20, 2001, on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

Twists/Changes

• Tribe Composition: The sixteen castaways were divided into two tribes of eight.
• Meager Supplies: The castaways were not given any food rations. The tribes' supply crates were drastically reduced to only a magnifying glass, three pans, a fillet knife, and two water containers.
• Camps with Pros and Cons: The Maraamu camp was a white sand beach with relatively more fruit-bearing trees than Rotu, but only had a small stream for a water source. The Rotu camp on the other hand had a rocky beach with very little food sources, but had a waterfall as a water source.
• Tribe Switch: On Day 10, the final thirteen castaways were shuffled into two tribes, with the number of members on each tribe remaining unchanged.
• Summit: On Day 19, both tribes were tasked with selecting an ambassador to attend a summit. The ambassadors would have to choose which camp the merged tribe would live at, along with giving it a name.
• Merged Tribe Composition: The merged tribe was composed of ten members.
• Transferable Immunity Necklace: Beginning from this season, the winner of the Immunity Challenge reserved the right to transfer the Immunity Necklace to another player, keeping the recipient safe instead and leaving the original wearer vulnerable.
• Rock Draw Tiebreaker: In case of a deadlocked tie and there is no consensus as to how the vote will 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.
• Final Tribal Council Format: Two finalists faced a jury of seven. The jurors individually addressed the finalists.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Peter Harkey 45, Millis, MA Bowling Alley Owner	Maraamu			1st Voted Out Day 3	5
	Patricia Jackson 49, Lugoff, SC Truck Assembler	Maraamu			2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
	Hunter Ellis 33, La Jolla, CA Ex-Navy Fighter Pilot	Maraamu			3rd Voted Out Day 9	4
	Sarah Jones 24, Newport Beach, CA Account Manager	Maraamu	Maraamu		4th Voted Out Day 12	11
	Gabriel Cade 23, Hollywood, CA Bartender	Rotu	Rotu		5th Voted Out Day 15	7
	Gina Crews 28, Gainesville, FL Nature Guide	Maraamu	Maraamu		6th Voted Out Day 18	3
	Rob Mariano 25, Canton, MA Construction Worker	Maraamu	Rotu	Soliantu	7th Voted Out Day 21	8
	John Carroll 36, Omaha, NE Registered Nurse	Rotu	Rotu		8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
	Zoe Zanidakis 35, Monhegan Island, ME Fishing Boat Captain	Rotu	Rotu		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	8
	Tammy Leitner 29, Mesa, AZ Crime Reporter	Rotu	Rotu		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	5
	Robert DeCanio 38, College Point, NY Limousine Driver	Rotu	Rotu		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	6
	Sean Rector 30, Los Angeles, CA Teacher	Maraamu	Rotu		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	7
	Paschal English 56, Thomaston, GA Judge	Rotu	Maraamu		Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37	0
	Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien 46, Burlington, VT Real Estate Agent	Rotu	Maraamu		13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	5
	Neleh Dennis 21, Layton, UT Student	Rotu	Maraamu		Runner-Up	4
	Vecepia Towery 35, Hayward, CA Office Manager	Maraamu	Rotu		Sole Survivor	2

Season Summary

The sixteen castaways were divided into two tribes: Maraamu and Rotu. Rotu, a unified front, dominated in challenges, despite initial friction between Kathy and several tribe members. Meanwhile, Maraamu was a happy-go-lucky tribe but was marred by politics, being ran by a majority alliance consisting of Rob, Sarah, Sean and Vecepia. This led to Maraamu's 5-challenge losing streak.

On Day 10, a random tribe switch occurred, keeping the tribes' numbers the same. Rob, Sean and Vecepia were sent to Rotu in the minority and Kathy, Paschal and Neleh to Maraamu, outnumbering Gina and Sarah. After the new Maraamu's loss at the fourth Immunity Challenge, Sarah was on the outs and voted out. Now a paltry tribe of four, Maraamu surprisingly went on to win the next three challenges. On Rotu, an alliance of four comprising John, Robert, Tammy and Zoe formed, and despite Rotu's numbers advantage, both alliances came together to vote out Gabriel due to his non-commitment to any strategy.

Before the two tribes merged on Day 19, Rob and Kathy were sent to a summit in which they had to decide on a name, flag, and location for their new tribe. During the summit, Rob convinced Kathy that the Rotu tribe intended to vote her out first, and she decided her only option was to win the first individual Immunity Challenge, which she accomplished. The newly merged Soliantu tribe came together to vote out Rob for being a threat.

Following Rob's elimination, the original Rotu now held a 7-2 majority over Maraamu. An overconfident Rotu Four, however, accidentally gave away their intended pecking order during the next Immunity Challenge, leaving Kathy, Paschal and Neleh to question their allegiance. They joined Sean and Vecepia to form an Outsiders Alliance, systematically picking off the rest of Rotu in the process. With the Rotu Four gone and on the jury, the final five were divided into two sides: Paschal and Neleh on one side, and Sean and Vecepia on the other, with Kathy in the middle. After a heated discussion at Tribal Council, Kathy sided with Neleh and Paschal and voted out Sean.

As the last original Maraamu remaining, Vecepia was on the outs, but went on to win the next Immunity Challenge; and at Tribal Council, Kathy and Vecepia agreed to pair up as Neleh and Paschal would never turn on each other, thus causing a tie between Kathy and Neleh. With the vote being deadlocked, a draw of rocks between Kathy, Paschal and Neleh decided who will go next. In a twist of fate, Paschal, the only person besides Vecepia who did not receive votes, drew the purple rock and was eliminated. When Kathy dropped out at the Final Immunity Challenge, Vecepia reneged on her deal with Kathy by telling Neleh she would step down if she took her to the Final Two. Neleh agreed, and Kathy became the final member of the jury.

At Final Tribal Council, Neleh and Vecepia were met with an averse jury. Both women 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 that 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, becoming series' first African-American winner.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)	Ratings/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"Back to the Beach"	February 28, 2002	None	Rotu	Peter (5-2-1)	1st Voted Out Day 3	23.19	9.1/22
2	"Nacho Momma"	March 7, 2002	Rotu	Rotu	Patricia (4-3)	2nd Voted Out Day 6	23.40	9.4/23
3	"No Pain, No Gain"	March 13, 2002	Rotu	Rotu	Hunter (4-2)	3rd Voted Out Day 9	20.46	8.9/24
4	"The Winds Twist"	March 20, 2002	None	Rotu	Sarah (4-1)	4th Voted Out Day 12	22.81	9.5/26
5	"The End of Innocence"	March 28, 2002	Maraamu	Maraamu	Gabriel (7-1)	5th Voted Out Day 15	20.54	8.2/22
6	"The Underdogs"	April 4, 2002	Maraamu	Rotu	Gina (3-1)	6th Voted Out Day 18	22.17	9.1/24
7	"True Lies"	April 11, 2002	None	Kathy	Rob (7-2-1)	7th Voted Out Day 21	19.34	7.7/22
8	"Jury's Out"	April 18, 2002	Kathy	Tammy	John (6-3)	8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	19.88	8.0/23
9	"Look Closer: The First 24 Days"	April 24, 2002	Recap Episode				N/A	N/A
10	"Two Peas in a Pod"	April 25, 2002	Paschal, Sean	Tammy	Zoe (7-1)	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	19.42	7.8/20
11	"The Princess"	May 2, 2002	Paschal [Neleh]	Robert	Tammy (5-2)	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	19.60	7.8/21
12	"Marquesan Vacation"	May 9, 2002	Kathy	Vecepia	Robert (5-1)	11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	20.83	8.1/22
13	"A Tale of Two Cities"	May 16, 2002	Sean	Kathy	Sean (3-2)	12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	19.15	7.5/20
14	"The Sole Survivor"	May 19, 2002	None	Vecepia	Paschal (2-2; tiebreaker)1	Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37	25.87	10.4/23
				Neleh	Kathy (1-0)	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Neleh (4-3)	Runner-Up
					Vecepia (4-3)	Sole Survivor
15	"The Reunion"						17.89	10.2/17.0
Notes: ^1 Per Survivor rules, if the event of a deadlock tie, the non-immune castaways would have an open discussion to eliminate one of the tied castaways. If no consensus is reached, all the castaways will have to draw rocks, with the castaway who draws the odd-colored rock being eliminated.

Voting History

		Original Tribes			Switched Tribes			Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	10	11	12	13	14
Voted Out		Peter	Patricia	Hunter	Sarah	Gabriel	Gina	Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Tie	Paschal	Kathy	Neleh	Vecepia
Vote		5-2-1	4-3	4-2	4-1	7-1	3-1	7-2-1	6-3	7-1	5-2	5-1	3-2	2-21	Lottery	1-02	4-3
►►	Vecepia	Sarah	Patricia	Hunter	—	Gabriel	—	Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Neleh	Neleh	—	None	Jury Vote
►►	Neleh	—	—	—	Sarah	—	Gina	Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Kathy	—	Kathy
►►	Kathy	—	—	—	Sarah	—	Gina	Zoe	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Neleh	—	None	Neleh
►►	Paschal	—	—	—	Sarah	—	Gina	Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Kathy	Eliminated		Neleh
►►	Sean	Sarah	Patricia	Hunter	—	Gabriel	—	John	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Neleh					Vecepia
►►	Robert	—	—	—	—	Gabriel	—	Rob	Sean	Zoe	Vecepia	Sean						Vecepia
►►	Tammy	—	—	—	—	Gabriel	—	Rob	Sean	Zoe	Vecepia							Vecepia
►►	Zoe	—	—	—	—	Gabriel	—	Rob	John	Robert							Neleh
►►	John	—	—	—	—	Gabriel	—	Rob	Sean									Vecepia
►►	Rob	Peter	Patricia	Hunter	—	Gabriel	—	John
►	Gina	Peter	Sarah	Sarah	Sarah	—	Kathy
►	Gabriel	—	—	—	—	Rob
►	Sarah	Peter	Patricia	Hunter	Kathy
	Hunter	Peter	Sarah	Sarah
	Patricia	Peter	Sarah
	Peter	Patricia
Notes: ^1 Per Survivor rules, in the event of a tie at the final four, all the non-immune players would automatically be forced to draw rocks, with the player who draws the odd-colored rock being eliminated. ^2 Kathy and Vecepia did not vote as they could only vote for each other. By virtue of winning the Final Immunity Challenge, only Neleh voted.

Trivia

• Marquesas is the first season to have a castaway who was born in the 1980s.
• Marquesas was the first season where Tribal Council had a roof.
• Marquesas is the first season where a man was the first person voted out.
• Marquesas is the first season where at no point during the season did the male castaways outnumber the female castaways. This would next happen in Vanuatu, Micronesia, and in Survivor 47.
• Marquesas is the first season to feature two male castaways with the same first name: Robert DeCanio and Rob Mariano.
• Marquesas the first time, the loved ones of castaways were on location during the loved ones Reward Challenge (in Borneo and The Australian Outback, only the winner's loved one visited the castaways).
• Marquesas is the first season where three contestants are tied for most individual Immunity Challenge wins: Kathy, Tammy, and Vecepia each won 2 challenges. This distinction would be matched in Philippines, Survivor 42, and Survivor 44.
• For the first time, two different contestants won the penultimate and final Immunity Challenges.
• Marquesas is the first season to utilize the rock drawing tiebreaker.
• Marquesas is the first time that both original tribes were represented in the Final Tribal Council.
• Marquesas is the first season in which both finalists had votes against them during the game.
• Marquesas is the first season in which the finalists were of the same gender, as both finalists were women.
• Marquesas was the final season to feature the Reebok logo on the tribe's buffs.
• Marquesas is the only season to not have aired in Australia.
• Host Jeff Probst has stated that Survivor will never use the Marquesas as a location again, solely because of the painful bites from the native no-no sandflies.