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 Survivors 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]
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, and two water containers 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 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.
Castaways
| Contestant | Tribe Affiliation | Finish | Votes Against | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Tribe | Switched Tribe | Merged Tribe | ||||
| Peter Harkey 44, 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 47, 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, 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 and the workers. 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 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 taken away 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 meeting in which they had to decide on a name, flag, and location for their new tribe. 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 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 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 English, and Neleh Dennis against Sean and Vecepia, each pair vying for Kathy's vote. After a 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 | 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 | 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 | 20.10 | 8.9/24 |
| 4 | "The Winds Twist" | March 20, 2002 | None | Rotu | Sarah (4-1) | 4th Voted Out Day 12 | N/A | N/A |
| 5 | "The End of Innocence" | March 28, 2002 | Maraamu | Maraamu | Gabriel (7-1) | 5th Voted Out Day 15 | N/A | 8.2/22 |
| 6 | "The Underdogs" | April 4, 2002 | Maraamu | Rotu | Gina (3-1) | 6th Voted Out Day 18 | N/A | N/A |
| 7 | "True Lies" | April 11, 2002 | None | Kathy | Rob (7-2-1) | 7th Voted Out Day 21 | N/A | 7.7/N/A |
| 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 | "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. | ||||||||||||||||||
Trivia
- This was the first season in which the finalists were of the same gender.
- 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
| Survivor (US) Seasons |
|---|
|
Borneo • The Australian Outback • Africa • Marquesas • Thailand • The Amazon • Pearl Islands • All-Stars • Vanuatu • Palau • Guatemala • Panama • Cook Islands • Fiji • China • Micronesia • Gabon • Tocantins • Samoa • Heroes vs. Villains • Nicaragua • Redemption Island • South Pacific • One World • Philippines • Caramoan • Blood vs. Water • Cagayan • San Juan del Sur • Worlds Apart • Cambodia • Kaôh Rōng • Millennials vs. Gen X • Game Changers • Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers • Ghost Island • David vs. Goliath • Edge of Extinction • Island of the Idols |
