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 in a 4-3 vote 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 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. The Marquesas Islands were chosen as the backup location.^[2]

Format

• 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: A luck of a draw sent three members from both tribes to join the rival tribe.
• 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.
• Purple Rock 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 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 36, Hayward, CA Office Manager	Maraamu	Rotu		Sole Survivor	2

Season Summary

The two tribes, Maraamu and Rotu, 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 and the workers. These differences heavily reflected in the first few Immunity Challenges, as Maraamu lost five challenges in a row. These losses sent Maraamu to Tribal Council on three consecutive occasions. There, the alliance made between Rob Mariano, Sarah Jones, Sean Rector, and Vecepia Towery soon took action eliminating their rivals.

On Day 10, a random Tribe Switch occurred. With her entire alliance sent to Rotu, Sarah was on the outs and 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. Maraamu came together. On Rotu, an alliance of four led by John Carroll formed.

Before the two tribes merged on Day 19, Rob and Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien were sent to a summit in which they had to decide on a name, flag, and location for their new tribe. They came up with Soliantu - a word they coined 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 alliance 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 would 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 the new Outsiders 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: Neleh Dennis and Paschal English against Sean and Vecepia, with each pair vying for Kathy's vote. After a heated discussion at Tribal Council, Kathy sided with Neleh and Paschal and voted out Sean.

Vecepia, the odd person out in the tribe, 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 that Neleh and Paschal would 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 did not receive 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 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 the first African-American victor.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Eliminated (vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)[3]	Ratings/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"Back to the Beach"	February 28, 2002	None	Rotu 250px Challenge Title: Outrigger Fire Quest Carrying an outrigger canoe outfitted with two torches, the tribes had to swim with the canoe out into the ocean, light the torches from a fire cauldron, then race back to shore while lighting a series of torches along the way. The first tribe to have successfully lit all the torches and cross the finish line would win.	Peter (5-2-1) Peter's early strategizing and odd demeanor proved to be his downfall, and he was the first person voted off.	1st Voted Out Day 3	23.19	9.1/22
2	"Nacho Momma"	March 7, 2002	Rotu Challenge Title: Float Your Boat Tribes would dive down into the water to remove rocks from a small boat. When they have removed enough rocks, the boat would rise to the surface and float. Tribe members would then proceed to use buckets to get water out of the boat with buckets. Once the tribe decided the boat was sea-fare, they would row back to shore. The first tribe back would win. Reward: Fishing gear.	Rotu Challenge Title: Marquesan Menu Each tribe member would bob for fafaru (raw fish fillet marinated in fermented seawater). If any tribe member could not keep it down or didn't eat it, they would lose the challenge for their tribe.	Patricia (4-3) Patricia's bossy personality and alliance with Hunter caused Rob Mariano to instigate her elimination in her second Tribal Council.	2nd Voted Out Day 6	23.40	9.4/23
3	"No Pain, No Gain"	March 13, 2002	Rotu Challenge Title: Raft Rescue Both tribes were given supplies before the challenge to build a raft. The tribes would use the raft to navigate through a course, picking up five crates along the way. The first tribe back to the start with all five crates would win. Reward: Pillows, blankets, and three lanterns with fuel.	Rotu Challenge Title: Coconut Maze Race Each tribe would have four members moving a puzzle with a pulley system, and a caller telling their tribe members how to move it. After getting one coconut to the end of the maze, they would switch callers. The first tribe to get three coconuts through the maze would win.	Hunter (4-2) At odds with Hunter's leadership, Rob spearheaded his blindside.	3rd Voted Out Day 9	20.10	8.9/24
4	"The Winds Twist"	March 20, 2002	None	Rotu Challenge Title: Life's a Tapestry Tribes must solve a tapestry puzzle. First tribe to complete wins.	Sarah (4-1) After the tribe swap, Sarah was stuck on a tribe with no allies, and was quickly eliminated thereafter.	4th Voted Out Day 12	N/A	N/A
5	"The End of Innocence"	March 28, 2002	Maraamu Challenge Title: Tiki Towers Each team had to pick one member to be the "eyes" of the group, while the others were to be blindfolded. The Caller had to direct the other members to collect randomly scattered segments of four Tikis that had been deconstructed. Once collected, the blindfolds were to be removed, and the first tribe to reconstruct their four Tikis would win. Reward: The winning tribe will have the right to raid the losing tribe's camp. However, the winning tribe must leave at least a pot, a machete, and personal items behind.	Maraamu Challenge Title: SOS Signal Tribes were instructed to build a distress signal on the shore of their beach, using materials in and around camp to catch the eye of a rescue boat that would pass by in the water a few hours later. The tribe with the more eye-catching distress signal would win immunity.	Gabriel (7-1) Distrusting Gabe for his devil-may-care attitude, he was sent packing in a unanimous 7-1 vote.	5th Voted Out Day 15	N/A	8.2/22
6	"The Underdogs"	April 4, 2002	Maraamu Challenge Title: Jungle Relay This is a three part relay race. The first runner races through the jungle, unties a paddle, and tags the second runner. Both then race to untie a second paddle, and then race back to the beach where they break open coconuts to find a key. The two runners pass the paddles and the key to two other tribe members, who must unchain a boat, paddle the boat out to retrieve a flag, then paddle back to plant their flag in the tiki. When the paddlers return to shore, they must push their boat to their chain and both paddlers must be present at the tiki when they put their flag in. Reward: A meal of chicken, quiche, bean salad, dessert, and Sierra Mist.	Rotu Challenge Title: The Maze Teams had to retrieve five ladder rungs, in order, from throughout a giant maze, while roped together. After which, they will climb the ladder they built in the center of the maze. The first tribe to complete this task wins Immunity.	Gina (3-1) Although Gina expected Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien to be voted out, the original Rotus decided to stick together instead, blindsiding Gina in a 3-1 vote.	6th Voted Out Day 18	N/A	N/A
7	"True Lies"	April 11, 2002	None	Kathy Challenge Title: Sea Legs Each player must stand on a floating platform at the sea. If any part of their body besides their feet touch the platform, or if they fall of the platform, they are eliminated from the challenge. Last person left standing wins immunity.	Rob (7-2-1) Despite his valiant efforts to break apart the Rotu Four, Rob's scheming sent him packing in a 7-2-1 vote.	7th Voted Out Day 21	N/A	7.7/N/A
8	"Jury's Out"	April 18, 2002	Kathy Challenge Title: Go Fly a Kite Tribe members must fly a kite. The first person to have their kite 300 feet from the ground wins reward. Reward: A king-sized Snickers candy bar, and a day scuba dive trip at an exotic coral reef.	Tammy Challenge Title: Parang Swing The castaways were asked a series of questions relating to both the Marquesas Islands and survival, topics which they should have learned quite a bit about at this point. Each person had a station with three ropes tied to three bundles of coconuts strung up in the trees. Every time someone answered a question correctly, they would be given the opportunity to chop down one bundle of coconuts of any Survivor's of their choosing. Once a Survivor's three ropes have all been cut, they would be out of the game. The last person to have any bundles of coconuts remaining would win Immunity.	John (6-3) John's arrogance was exposed at the Immunity Challenge, and the Outsiders Alliance banded together to vote him off.	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 Challenge Title: Coconut Juice The castaways would be split into pairs and would gather coconuts. They would split open the coconuts and let the coconut milk run into a tube to raise a ball. The first pair to raise their ball to the top would win. Reward: An authentic Marquesan feast.	Tammy Challenge Title: High Stepping The eight survivors will be compete in a single elimination walk-off tournament on stilts. In one-on-one matchups, they will walk past each other until one fails to keep balance, eliminating that player from the challenge. The player that wins the final round wins immunity.	Zoe (7-1) Zoe became the next victim of the Outsiders Alliance, being deemed a bigger threat to win Immunity than Robert DeCanio.	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	19.42	7.8/20
11	"The Princess"	May 2, 2002	Paschal [Neleh] Challenge Title: Rock Bottom For the first three rounds, contestants would dive under water to find a shell and bring it back. The last contestant to do so would be eliminated. For the fourth and final round, the four remaining contestants would dive into the water, grab a rock and swim back to shore with it. The first contestant with the rock at Jeff's feet wins. Reward: A dinner and shower on a cruise ship.	Robert Challenge Title: Virtues of Fire In the dark, the contestants would gather supplies to make a fire. They would make their fire under a stove with oil and popcorn kernels on it. Once a contestant popped a popcorn kernel, they would take burning embers to a brush pile, and light the pile on fire. The first contestant to have their fire reach the top of the brush pile would win immunity.	Tammy (5-2) With Robert immune, Tammy was the last of the Rotu Four to be vulnerable at Tribal Council. In spite of her effort to vote off Neleh Dennis, Tammy was voted off.	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	19.60	7.8/21
12	"Marquesan Vacation"	May 9, 2002	Kathy Challenge Title: Turtle Roll The loved ones (not the Survivors) would stand around the far edge of a large puzzle, comprised of six-sided individual pieces. One at a time, the competitors would step from one piece to the next. As they stepped off a piece, they had to flip it over, revealing the color green. Taking turns, they would continue moving on to new pieces without the option of stepping back on a green piece. Once a person was trapped, unable to step on an "open" piece, they were out. The last person left on the board would win. Reward: An overnight stay with their friend/family at Soliantu beach.	Vecepia Challenge Title: Sands of Time Each Survivor recognized their name emblazoned on an hourglass-shaped structure dotted with different shaped tiles. Behind those tiles were piles of sand. At the base of each structure was a small tiki. Using the slingshots, the Survivors had to fire rocks at the tile panels of another tribe member's structure, releasing sand, which would cover the tiki. Once a Survivor's tiki was completely covered with sand, that person would be eliminated from the game. The Survivor whose tiki remained uncovered would win.	Robert (5-1) As the last member of the Rotu Four, Robert was voted out unanimously.	11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	20.83	8.1/22
13	"A Tale of Two Cities"	May 16, 2002	Sean Challenge Title: Second Chance Firstly, each Survivor had to construct a Tiki. Next, they had to race to a pile of coconuts, crack them open and drain the juice, filling a bamboo tube. They then had to continue through the jungle to find stilts tied to a tree. Once the stilts were untied, the Survivors had to successfully walk ten feet on the stilts without falling. After completing this leg of the challenge, they would have to find another pile of coconuts and crack them open to find a key that would be used to unlock a crate. Inside the crate would be a slingshot. Finally, with the slingshot in hand, the Survivors would have to find their specific hourglass-shaped structure with a wooden Tiki underneath. Using the slingshot, they must break a tile, releasing sand which will cover the Tiki. The first contestant to cover their Tiki wins the challenge. Reward: A brand new Saturn VUE.	Kathy Challenge Title: Marquesan Folklore The Survivors would listen to Jeff narrate an ancient Marquesan tale. Then, trying to retain all of the information they just heard, the Survivors would answer a series of questions about the story. Each question was located within a private kiosk in which multiple-choice answers were made available. Correct answers would correspond to a basket that would reveal a miniature idol. Survivors who guessed the correct answer would then attach the idol to a necklace with which they had been provided. The first person to answer five questions correctly and race across the finish line with five idols would win.	Sean (3-2) After careful consideration, Kathy chose to go against Sean and Vecepia Towery, voting off Sean in a 3-2 vote.	12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	19.15	7.5/20
14	"The Sole Survivor"	May 19, 2002	None	Vecepia Challenge Title: Fallen Comrades Host Jeff Probst would ask the contestants questions about the eliminated contestants and about events in the first 37 days. The first contestant to get ten questions right wins immunity.	Paschal (2-2; Tiebreaker)1 Paschal was involved in a tiebreaker with Kathy and Neleh, which he infamously lost via drawing the purple rock.	Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37	25.87	10.4/23
				Neleh Challenge Title: Hard Idol Each tribe member held on to the Immunity Idol while standing on a small pedestal. The person who lasted the longest wins immunity.	Kathy (1-0) Believing she had a better chance of winning against Vecepia, and agreeing to a deal made at the Final Immunity Challenge, Neleh voted out Kathy.	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Neleh (4-3) Neleh's game was seen as lacking until the latter portion of the game, and she barely lost to Vecepia.	Runner-Up
					Vecepia (4-3) Despite being accused of being a "holy roller" and duplicitous, her quiet strategy earned her the title of Sole Survivor in a close 4-3 jury vote.	Sole Survivor
15	"Reunion"						18.30	8.3/N/A
Notes: ^1 With a deadlock tie between Kathy and Neleh, the Purple Rock tiebreaker was used, forcing all the non-immune contestants to draw rocks. The player with the odd-colored rock was eliminated, which was Paschal.

Voting History

Survivor: Marquesas 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 at the time, if there is a deadlock tie, all non-immune players will have to draw rocks, with the player drawing the purple rock will be eliminated. Paschal drew the said rock, eliminating him from the game. ^2 Kathy and Vecepia did not vote as they could only vote for were each other. By virtue of winning the final Immunity Challenge, only Neleh voted.

Trivia

• This was the first season in which the finalists were of the same gender.
• 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.
• For the first time, the loved ones of castaways were on location during the loved ones Reward Challenge (in Survivor: Borneo and Survivor: The Australian Outback only the winner's loved one visited the castaways).
• This is the only season to not have aired in Australia.
• For the first time, two different contestants won the penultimate and final Immunity Challenges.
• This is the first season to utilize the rock drawing tiebreaker.
• 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 had votes against them during the game.
• This is the first season to have a male as the first person voted out.
• This was the first season where Tribal Council had a roof.
• This is the first season to have a castaway that was born in the 1980s: Neleh Dennis.
• This is the first season where at no point during the season did the male castaways outnumber the female castaways. This would next happen in Survivor: Vanuatu and later in Survivor: Micronesia.
• This was the final season to feature the Reebok logo on the tribe's buffs.

References