Survivor: Marquesas

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Survivor: Marquesas
Filming location	Nuka Hiva, Marquesas Islands
Winner	Vecepia Towery (4-3)
Original run	February 28, 2002 – May 19, 2002
Filming dates	November 12, 2001 – December 21, 2001
No. of episodes	13
No. of days	39
No. of survivors	16
Tribes	Maraamu Rotu Soliantu
All-Stars	Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien, Rob Mariano
Season chronology
Previous	Survivor: Africa
Next	Survivor: Thailand

Survivor: Marquesas was the fourth installment of the popular United States reality show Survivor. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it aired from February 28 - May 19, 2002 on CBS. Thirteen episodes aired, plus a mid-season recap and live interview with Rosie O'Donnell after the finale. The winner, Vecepia Towery, was revealed on May 19, 2002, where she defeated Neleh Dennis by a vote of 4-3.

The contestants were divided into two tribes: Maraamu and Rotu (Marquesan for 'Southern Wind' and 'Rain' respectively). They later merged into the Soliantu tribe (a word created by Kathy and Rob which they intended to mean "Sacred Allegiance to the Sun.")

The Marquesas Islands were initially only selected as a backup location for Survivor. The original location, Jordan, was discounted as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks^[1] and the political situation in the Middle East.^[2]

As a result of a slight ratings drop in the previous season, some changes were made to this one. This was the first season where the contestants were not given any initial supplies, including food, water and matches. Also, the rules of the Individual Immunity Idol were changed so that a contestant who won the idol in a challenge was able to give it to another contestant. Finally, previous votes against a contestant were discounted in subsequent Tribal Councils. As this was the former method of determining if a contestant was eliminated in case of a tie, a new tiebreaker format was developed. The controversial "Purple Rock" tiebreaker was used in this season alone, and resulted in the ousting of Paschal English, then with no votes against him. Ultimately, a small ratings increase was observed for the season.^[3]

In later interviews, Jeff Probst said Survivor would "never go back to Marquesas - ever", as a result of the No-No sanflies.^[4]

Kathy O'Brien and Rob Mariano were selected from this season to competed for Survivor: All-Stars.

[edit] Contestants

The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.

Note 1: Paschal was not voted out. The purple rock determined who would be eliminated. He drew the purple rock and he became the 6th jury member.

[edit] The game

[edit] Voting history

[edit] Elimination notes

• Peter - Eliminated as a result of his strange behavior and his plotting against Patricia.
• Patricia - Eliminated because she was considered to be too bossy and was the weakest in Maraamu.
• Hunter - He was voted out by Rob, Vecepia, Sarah, and Sean because he was considered a physical threat. In addition, Rob felt that he was more deserving of the leadership role that Hunter had assumed.
• Sarah - A tribal swap rewarded Gina with three allies while depriving Sarah of her entire alliance. Sarah was eliminated because of her laziness (a clip from the first episode featuring Sarah lounging on the raft as her tribemates pushed it to shore, complete with a Cleopatra-esque headdress and Egyptian-themed music, is frequently used to demonstrate this point) and was physically weaker than Gina.
• Gabriel - After losing their first immuntiy challenge, the original Rotu members planned to vote out one of the new arrivals (Boston Rob, Sean or Vecepia), but Gabriel refused to make any promises. Although he did ultimately vote for Rob, the rest of the original Rotu members felt that they couldn't trust him, and unanimously voted him out.
• Gina - Was the last original Maraamu member left on the tribe.
• Rob - Left after he stirred the pot at Soliantu, revealing to Kathy that she was the first target and attempting to expose Zoe as a liar to Kathy. Was also a challenge threat.
• John - After winning an immunity challenge, the alliance of the four original Rotu Members (which became known as the "Rotu Four") openly congratulated each other for their victory. Neleh and Paschal, two of their key allies, felt isolated by this move, so they joined Kathy, Sean, and Vecepia to form a new alliance. In a transition of power, the five new allies voted off the members of the "Rotu Four" alliance, beginning with John, who proclaimed himself the leader. Zoe also voted against him.
• Zoe - The next member of the "Rotu Four" to be voted off, Zoe was considered to be stronger than Robert and was considered manipulative and deceitful (Tammy was the orginial choice, but had immunity).
• Tammy - Was considered to be stronger than Robert and was the person second in charge with the "Rotu Four". Robert won immunity, which left her as the only target left.
• Robert - The last remaining member of the "Rotu Four", Robert was offered a chance to go further by joining with Kathy and others against Neleh and Paschal, but he refused to vote against them, so he was doomed.
• Sean - Kathy sided with Neleh and Paschal, voting out Sean because of all the fighting he was causing at camp and at tribal council.
• Paschal - After Vecepia won immunity, a tied vote led to a random elimination. The three castaways who were not immune were forced to draw colored rocks from a bag. Paschal drew the infamous purple rock, which led to his elimination, despite never having had a vote cast against him. This method of tie-breaking would never be used again.
• Kathy - Vecepia gave up in the immunity challenge after Neleh agreed to vote out Kathy. She was seen as the person that no one could beat at the final tribal council. Tammy later stated that Kathy was indeed the one who truly deserved to win.
• Neleh - She was considered to have ridden coat-tails, played the game too late, was hypocritical, didn't really play a strategic game, and was a "Bible-thumper" (according to John). Earned the votes of Kathy, Paschal, and Zoe.
• Vecepia - Vecepia won because she played the game from the beginning and was seen as the more strategic player out of the two. Won with the votes of Sean, Robert, Tammy, and John.

**Note: The "Rotu Four" alliance consisted of John, Robert, Tammy, and Zoe.**

[edit] "Purple Rock" controversy

Paschal's elimination marked a large controversy in the game of Survivor. In the first Episode Thirteen Tribal Council, Neleh and Kathy each received two votes while Vecepia was immune. In previous tie situations, where a re-vote did not determine a single contestant to be eliminated, votes from past tribal councils were used, and the contestant with the most prior votes was eliminated. In Marquesas, the prior votes rule was no longer used; instead contestants who were not immune would pull rocks colored yellow and purple from a sack. The contestant with the purple rock would be eliminated. In this situation, Kathy and Neleh drew yellow rocks, and Paschal pulled the purple rock. Despite having received no votes in the entire game, he was eliminated due to chance. Probst later admitted that using the purple rock tie-breaker was a mistake at this point in the game, because the formula behind it was impossible to apply fairly with only four survivors left. [1]

No tie occurred on the show until six seasons later on Palau. It was during that season that the tie-breaker was revealed to be a fire-making challenge. However, Survivors who took part in the show between the Marquesas and Palau seasons believed that the "Purple Rock" challenge was still intact. As a result, many contestants would change alliances in order to avoid another tie and another chance of drawing the "Purple Rock".

Since Palau, there have been two tie situations that were settled with fire-making challenges, both of which were at the Final Four stage of the game. In Survivor: Micronesia, it was clarified by Cirie Fields that the purple rock tiebreaker is the tiebreaker for all ties except in the Final Four, when a challenge is used instead.

[edit] External links

• Official CBS Survivor Marquesas Website