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, Los Angeles, 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.

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