Survivor: Marquesas

Survivor: Marquesas
Season Information
Season No.	4
Filming Dates	November 12, 2001 - December 20, 2001
Season Run	February 28, 2002 - May 19, 2002
Winner	Vecepia Towery
Tribes	Maraamu Rotu Soliantu
Viewership (in Millions)	20.77

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.

Development

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

• 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
File:S4 peter t.jpg	Peter Harkey 44, Millis, MA	Maraamu			1st Voted Out Day 3	5
File:S4 patricia t.jpg	Patricia Jackson 49, Lugoff, SC	Maraamu			2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
File:S4 hunter t.jpg	Hunter Ellis 33, La Jolla, CA	Maraamu			3rd Voted Out Day 9	4
File:S4 sarah t.jpg	Sarah Jones 24, Newport Beach, CA	Maraamu	Maraamu		4th Voted Out Day 12	11
File:S4 gabriel t.jpg	Gabriel Cade 23, Celo, NC	Rotu	Rotu		5th Voted Out Day 15	7
File:S4 gina t.jpg	Gina Crews 28, Gainesville, FL	Maraamu	Maraamu		6th Voted Out Day 18	3
File:S4 rob t.jpg	Rob Mariano 25, Canton, MA	Maraamu	Rotu	Soliantu	7th Voted Out Day 21	8
File:S4 john t.jpg	John Carroll 36, Omaha, NE	Rotu	Rotu		8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
File:S4 zoe t.jpg	Zoe Zanidakis 35, Monhegan Island, ME	Rotu	Rotu		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	8
File:S4 tammy t.jpg	Tammy Leitner 29, Mesa, AZ	Rotu	Rotu		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	5
File:S4 robert t.jpg	Robert DeCanio 38, Queens, NY	Rotu	Rotu		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	6
File:S4 sean t.jpg	Sean Rector 30, Harlem, NY	Maraamu	Rotu		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	7
File:S4 paschal t.jpg	Paschal English 56, Thomaston, GA	Rotu	Maraamu		Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37	0
File:S4 kathy t.jpg	Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien 47, Burlington, VT	Rotu	Maraamu		13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	5
File:S4 neleh t.jpg	Neleh Dennis 21, Layton, UT	Rotu	Maraamu		Runner-Up	4
File:S4 vecepia t.jpg	Vecepia Towery 36, Portland, OR	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 (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 consecutive 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, leaving Gina Crews as the outsider.

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 and was 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. As Maraamu came together, Rotu began to fall apart when Gabriel Cade's different perspective to the game led to John Carroll's decision to get rid of him. With Gabe gone, Rob, Sean and Vecepia found themselves at the mercy of an alliance of four: John, Zoe Zanidakis, Robert DeCanio, and Tammy Leitner. John initially promised 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, leaving the Maraamu tribe to three.

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 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 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.

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 Guide

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	20.10	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 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, if there is a deadlock tie, all non-immune players will have 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

• 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).
• 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.
• At no point during the season did the male castaways outnumber the female castaways. This would next happen in Survivor: Vanuatu.