Survivor: Marquesas

Survivor: Marquesas
Genre	Reality television
Winner	Vecepia Towery (4-3)
No. of episodes	13
No. of days	39
No. of survivors	16
Tribes	Maraamu      Rotu      Soliantu
All-Stars	Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien, Rob Mariano
Heroes vs. Villains	Rob Mariano
Redemption Island	Rob Mariano
Production
Location(s)	Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands
Filming dates	November 12, 2001 – December 20, 2001
Broadcast
Original run	February 28, 2002 – May 19, 2002
Chronology
Preceded by	Survivor: Africa
Followed by	Survivor: Thailand

Survivor: Marquesas is the fourth season of the 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 'Wind' and 'Rain' respectively). They later merged into the Soliantu tribe (a word created by competitors Kathy-Vavrick O'Brien and Rob "Boston Rob" Mariano which they intended to mean "Sacred Allegiance to the Sun.")

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

This was the first season where the contestants were not given any initial supplies, such as food, water, or matches. Also, the rules of the Individual Immunity Necklace were changed so that a contestant who won the necklace in a challenge was able to give it to another contestant. 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. A small increase in the average number of viewers was observed for the season compared to the prior season, Survivor: Africa.^[3]

Vavrick-O'Brien and Mariano were selected from this season to compete in Survivor: All-Stars, where they placed 8th and 2nd, respectively. Towery was asked but declined due to her pregnancy. Rob Mariano was invited again to participate in the twentieth season Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, as part of the Villains tribe where he placed 13th. Rob was invited for the fourth time to participate in the twenty-second season Survivor: Redemption Island, which he won.

A DVD release of the season was confirmed on July 28, 2010. It was released on Tuesday, October 5, 2010.^[4]

Season summary

The sixteen contestants were divided into two tribes preselected before the game began, Rotu and Maraamu. They were given a crate full of supplies and were forced to jump overboard and paddle towards the shore. However, once they got to shore, the contestants were shocked to realize they were given no food, this being the first time in Survivor history. Both beaches had their pros and cons. While the Rotu beach was rocky had little food on-land to offer other than coconut and taro, the tribe had their own waterfall located in close vicinity to their beach. On the other hand, Maraamu, while they had only a little creek for their water source, had a white sandy beach and an abundance of many tropical fruit trees nearby.

From the beginning, the Rotu tribe prospered as a unified, hard-working tribe, while the Maraamu tribe quickly became divided between those who worked, led by Hunter and those who didn't, led by Rob. These differences became obvious in the challenges as the Maraamu tribe lost the first five challenges and were forced to vote off Peter, Patricia and Hunter. On day 10, a random tribe shuffle sent Rob, Sean, and Vecepia to Rotu, while Paschal, Neleh, and Kathy joined Maraamu. After voting off Sarah, the Maraamu tribe experienced a rebirth, and were able to win three challenges in a row. As Maraamu came together, Rotu began to fall apart, as John suspected Gabriel of playing both sides of the fence, by becoming friendlier with the new tribe members, whom they agreed would be voted off first. After proclaiming he was not there to play the game, Gabriel was voted off a newly formed alliance led by John, which consisted of himself, Tammy, Robert, and Zoe. To prevent themselves from being outnumbered after the merge, John promised the new tribe members that the Maraamu tribe would be targeted first. Rob and John shook on the deal, though neither one intended on keeping the promise.

On Day 19, the tribes were each told to send a tribe member to a secret location to represent their tribe; Rob went for Rotu, while Kathy represented Maraamu. When they arrived, they were told that they would be discussing the merge between the two tribes, which would happen the next day, where they would decide on a new name and paint a new flag. At the location, Rob quickly went back on his word to John by informing Kathy of the Rotu tribe's plans to vote her out at the first merged Tribal Council. Shocked at this news, Rob and Kathy decided to form an alliance, and they agreed they would not tell anyone of what they had discussed. The next day, they helped pack up the Maraamu camp and set sail to Rotu where they became the Soliantu tribe. However, feeling vulnerable and unsure who to trust, Rob confronted Zoe, right in front of Kathy, and point-blank asked her if they agreed to vote for Kathy at Tribal Council. Zoe paused and then lied to Rob, making it obvious to Kathy that Rob was telling her the truth. However, after Kathy won immunity, tempers erupted as John confronted Rob for going back on his word. John quickly formed an alliance with Paschal and Neleh, where they agreed to go to the final six and Rob was voted out that night.

Sean was intended to be the next target. However, knowing her days were numbered if nothing was done, Kathy set to work on toppling John's alliance. She first aligned with Sean and Vecepia who readily joined her. She then tried to persuade Paschal to change his vote, but convinced he had a fair shot with John, he and Neleh declined her offer. However, everything changed after the next Immunity Challenge revealed a distinct pecking order which had Paschal and Neleh eliminated, after Sean, Vecepia, and Kathy were gone. Having interpreted this to be a sign of the order of who would be voted out, Neleh and Paschal quickly turned on John and voted him off. The five outsiders proceeded to take control of the game and systematically voted off the rest of John's alliance until the final five. Kathy then found herself caught between two factions both vying for her vote. Neleh and Paschal targeted Sean for his laziness and bad attitude, while Sean and Vecepia targeted Neleh, as they perceived her as riding Paschal's coattails and not thinking for herself. Even though Kathy was worried about the spoken alliance between Paschal and Neleh coming into play at the final three, she voted with them and eliminated Sean.

With only four players left, Vecepia needed to win immunity or she knew she would be voted off. Having spent time with every contestant came back to work in her favor as a trivia contest about the contestants gave her the immunity win and placed a target squarely on Kathy. Knowing Paschal and Neleh would not vote for each other, Kathy publicly at Tribal Council approached Vecepia about making a voting bloc and taking each other to the Final 2. Vecepia agreed to the deal, and they agreed to both vote for Neleh that night. With the vote being tied and deadlocked for the first time, the new rules for breaking a tie-breaker came into effect as everyone would reach into a bag and pull out a colored rock. Whoever withdrew the purple rock would be sent home; only Vecepia was exempt from participating as she had immunity. Paschal lost and was eliminated, despite having received no votes throughout the entire game. This method of tie-breaking would continue to affect all subsequent seasons, with contestants changing their votes to avoid a tie. At the Final 3, after Kathy was the first eliminated from the final Immunity Challenge, Vecepia went back on her deal with Kathy by agreeing to step down and give Neleh immunity, in exchange that Neleh would vote off Kathy. Neleh agreed and Kathy was the last member to join the jury.

At the final Tribal Council, Neleh and Vecepia were met with a bitter jury as they were grilled for hiding behind religion, while lying and backstabbing at the same time. Neleh met criticism from the alliance of John, Zoe, Tammy, and Robert whom she had turned her back on, and was accused of riding coattails and not playing the game until very late. Vecepia was condemned for constantly flip-flopping from alliance to alliance and was met with heavy disdain for betraying Kathy after publicly aligning with her. However, the final vote ended up 4-3 as the jury decided to award Vecepia for her under the radar, incredible social game, and flip-flopping game play.

Contestants

Contestant	Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Peter Harkey 44, Millis, MA	Maraamu	20	20	1st Voted Out Day 3	5
Patricia Jackson 49, Lugoff, SC	Maraamu	20	20	2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
Hunter Ellis 33, La Jolla, CA	Maraamu	20	20	3rd Voted Out Day 9	4
Sarah Jones 24, Newport Beach, CA	Maraamu	Maraamu	20	4th Voted Out Day 12	11
Gabriel Cade 23, Celo, NC	Rotu	Rotu	20	5th Voted Out Day 15	7
Gina Crews 28, Gainesville, FL	Maraamu	Maraamu	20	6th Voted Out Day 18	3
Rob Mariano 25, Canton, MA	Maraamu	Rotu	Soliantu	7th Voted Out Day 21	8
John Carroll 36, Omaha, NE	Rotu	Rotu		8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
Zoe Zanidakis 35, Monhegan Island, ME	Rotu	Rotu		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	8
Tammy Leitner 29, Mesa, AZ	Rotu	Rotu		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	5
Robert "General" DeCanio 38, Queens, NY	Rotu	Rotu		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	6
Sean Rector 30, Harlem, NY	Maraamu	Rotu		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	7
Paschal English 56, Thomaston, GA	Rotu	Maraamu		Eliminated1 6th Jury Member Day 37	0
Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien 47, Burlington, VT	Rotu	Maraamu		13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	5
Neleh Dennis 21, Layton, UT	Rotu	Maraamu		Runner-Up	4
Vecepia Towery 36, Portland, OR	Maraamu	Rotu		Sole Survivor	2

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.

The game

Episode title	Air date	Challenges		Eliminated	Vote	Finish
		Reward	Immunity
"Back to the Beach"	February 28, 2002	None	Rotu	Peter	5−2−1	1st Voted Out Day 3
"Nacho Momma"	March 7, 2002	Rotu	Rotu	Patricia	4−3	2nd Voted Out Day 6
"No Pain, No Gain"	March 13, 2002	Rotu	Rotu	Hunter	4−2	3rd Voted Out Day 9
"The Winds Twist"	March 20, 2002	None1	Rotu	Sarah	4−1	4th Voted Out Day 12
"The End of Innocence"	March 28, 2002	Maraamu	Maraamu	Gabriel	7−1	5th Voted Out Day 15
"The Underdogs"	April 4, 2002	Maraamu	Rotu	Gina	3−1	6th Voted Out Day 18
"True Lies"	April 11, 2002	None3	Kathy	Rob	7−2−1	7th Voted Out Day 21
"Jury's Out"	April 18, 2002	Kathy	Tammy	John	6−3	8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24
"Look Closer: The First 24 Days"	April 24, 2002	Recap Episode
"Two Peas in a Pod"	April 25, 2002	Paschal, Sean	Tammy	Zoe	7−1	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27
"The Princess"	May 2, 2002	Paschal, [Neleh]	Robert	Tammy	5−2	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30
"Marquesan Vacation"	May 9, 2002	Kathy4	Vecepia	Robert	5−1	11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33
"A Tale of Two Cities"	May 16, 2002	Sean	Kathy	Sean	3−2	12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36
"The Sole Survivor"	May 19, 2002	None	Vecepia	Paschal	2−2	Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37
			Neleh	Kathy	1−0	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38
"The Reunion"	May 19, 2002	Jury Vote		Neleh	4−3	Runner-Up
				Vecepia		Sole Survivor

In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.

^1 No reward challenge took place due to tribal switch.

^2 There was no reward challenge due to tribal merge.

^3 Each of the six remaining contestants were visited by a friend or family member, who then proceeded to compete in a reward challenge on behalf of their loved one. Kathy's son Pat won the right to spend 24 hours at the Soliantu camp.

Episode 1: Back to the Beach

• Immunity Challenge: Each tribe has an outrigger canoe with 2 torches. The teams must run down the beach with it and then swim with it out to a wok where they must light both torches, then come back to the beach, lighting 4 torches along the way. Once they get back to shore, they must sprint along the shore, lighting 3 more torches, get the canoe back in its stand, and light the final torch.

16 Americans began the adventure of a lifetime. Divided into two tribes, Maraamu (Tahitian for wind) wearing yellow, and Rotu (Tahitian for rain) wearing blue, they jumped off the boat in the middle of the ocean with the bare essentials: two machetes, two cooking pots, two empty water containers, one frying pan, one filet knife, and one magnifying glass. Each tribe had a 2-mile paddle to their beaches. Due to the extreme current, the Rotu tribe was making no progress, but by rowing together they started to move. Maraamu noticed that Sarah was not giving an effort into helping row to the beach. Sean said “it was like Cleopatra; the servants are paddling and lifting and she’s sitting on the crate looking so marvelous, with her boobs hanging out and her goldilocks in the air.” After landing on the beach, Sean and Peter had a prayer session out in the water, and Rob M. thought "they either started playing the game as soon as possible, or they were off their rocker."

Rotu tried using their magnifying glass to start a fire, but it was too cloudy to get direct sunlight. They then tried starting a fire with friction, which also didn’t work. As soon as Kathy walked away, some of the tribe voiced their annoyance with her. Hunter look the leadership role at Maraamu, and they got lots of smoke, and thanks to Peter’s long breaths, they finally got a fire. At night, Rob M. and Sarah’s flirtations had the rest of the tribe talking.

Rotu found a waterfall near their camp, and also found a lot of taro to eat. Maraamu found some grapefruit trees. Rob M. heard a rooster crowing at camp, and went on a wild chase, but it flew away. Hunter thought Rob M. was wasting his time and needed to work on other chores. Back at Rotu, John argued with Kathy about the fire situation, but he felt bad afterward so wanted to start the fire for her, which he and Zoe did. Maraamu found their water source, and Peter thought he was working too hard, so he decided to take a break.

The immunity challenge proved tough. Maraamu was first to the center wok, but had issues lighting their torches, and Rotu took the lead. Things got worse as they dropped one of the torches in the water. Rotu won immunity fairly handily.

Peter wanted to keep the tribe as strong as possible, and Gina said she was going to vote the way she wanted to vote and that no one would talk her into voting a certain way. Some of the women thought that Peter was strange. Sean thought the more males on the tribe, the better, and he wanted to vote out Sarah. Going into the first tribal council, there were no clear alliances, and a lot of people had no idea who they were voting for. Surprisingly, the majority of the tribe came together and voted off Peter 5-2-1.

Episode 2: Nacho Momma

• Reward Challenge: Each tribe has a boat anchored at the bottom of the ocean floor with about 250 rocks inside. They must dive down and remove as many rocks as possible until the boat floats to the surface. Then, they must bail enough water as they determine necessary and paddle to the beach.
  • Reward: Fishing gear: mask, snorkel, and fins
• Immunity Challenge: One at a time, each tribe member must bob for a piece of fafaru and eat it without throwing up.

At Rotu, the tribe bonded with a massage line and commented how they were getting along really well, but Kathy continued to alienate herself by sleeping by herself. Rob was also struggling physically due to the lack of food. Some of the males made traps and fishing gear to try and catch some protein. At Maraamu, Hunter, Rob M. and Sean’s morning show was entertaining the tribe, and put them in high spirits. Patricia, or “Momma” as she was nicknamed by the tribe, stepped up around camp. John wanted to be as high as possible on the pecking order, and caught a shrimp with the trap that he made. Almost immediately after, Kathy called the tribe over as she found a trove of shells and crabs. Back at Maraamu, Patricia’s hard work turned into bossiness, which rubbed some people the wrong way. Sean and Vecepia bonded over their culture and love for God. Although Sean looked physically strong, Gina and Hunter noted his laziness around camp. They also noticed that Rob M. and Sarah were spending a lot of time together, and Hunter thought that if Sarah were to go, they could get more productivity out of Rob M. Again back at Rotu, Kathy wanted to have a meeting about the shelter because there wasn’t enough room for everyone. Gabriel fought back a little, saying that she wasn’t putting forth the effort to get to know everyone. Still, they redid their shelter to include everyone.

While Maraamu only sent down one or two people at a time, Rotu went down in groups. They finally sent a group down to flip the boat instead; it worked and rose to the surface. Maraamu followed suit, rising their boat to the surface. While Rotu flipped their boat on their dock, Maraamu flipped it in the water and had to bail water out. That gave Rotu the advantage, and they ran their boat to their mat, giving them their second straight win.

Back at Maraamu, Sarah voiced her opinions about the shelter, but no one wanted to listen to her because she wasn’t willing to put in the effort to do it herself.

The tribes ate the Marquesan delicacy fafaru for their immunity challenge. It was made by letting fish bones, crab and lobster legs marinade by letting it rot in sea water for a few days. The marinade was then poured over fish and left to bake in the sun for hours. After 8 rounds, every person had eaten their piece, each tribe had to select a member of the other tribe to do the tiebreaker. Rotu chose Rob M. and Maraamu chose Neleh to do the tiebreaker. While both had problems, Rob M. threw part of his up and Neleh got hers down first, giving Rotu another win.

At tribal council, Sarah admitted she did less work in order to conserve energy at the challenges, to which Gina responded that if she has to pick up people’s slack at camp, she is twice as tired at the challenges. Although Sarah received 3 votes, an early alliance was formed as Vecepia, Sean, Rob M., and Sarah voted out Patricia, 4-3.

Episode 3: No Pain, No Gain

• Reward Challenge: Each tribe has to construct a raft from bamboo and rope that can fit 6 members and other supplies. Each tribe has to paddle in a criss-cross fashion to 5 boxes that are anchored to the bottom of the ocean.
  • Reward: Blankets, pillows, and 3 lanterns, or a week’s worth of rice
• Immunity Challenge: Get 3 coconuts through a puzzle maze. Using pulleys to raise and lower their platform, one person will guide the coconut through the maze, and each time one falls through the hole, the caller must be switched.

After Maraamu’s vote, Sarah got upset about people saying she didn’t do work around camp, and an argument broke out. Rotu began to repair their shelter after they got soaked from a rainstorm. Paschal formed a tight bond with Neleh, because she reminded him of his two daughters. He became the father figure around camp. John landed on a sea urchin and needed someone to pee on his hand, which Kathy did. The Maraamu members were having big issues with the nonos, which were biting them horribly. While moving the bamboo poles for their raft up to camp, Robert stepped on a rock and sliced the bottom of his big toe open, which John took care of. Later on, John got bitten by an eel while looking for food, which gave him a deep cut on one of his fingers.

At the reward challenge, the tribes were relatively even, and collided in the middle of the course. But on the fourth box, Maraamu had issues unhooking their box and Rotu got back to the start line first, and chose to take the comfort items.

Being 0 for 4 in the challenges, Maraamu needed a win badly. Maraamu scored first with Vecepia guiding the coconut to the hole, with Gabriel scoring for Rotu soon after. Sarah quickly navigated Maraaamu to score #2, with Paschal scoring right after. With Rob and Tammy directing, Maraamu kept circling the final hole and Rotu easily dropped theirs in, winning immunity for the third straight time.

Hunter and Gina tried to target Sean, but when Hunter told Rob, Rob said he wanted people on his tribe that he could control, and didn’t care about how strong his team was physically. Even though Sarah received two more votes at tribal council, it was Hunter who was voted out 4-2.

Episode 4: The Winds Twist

• Immunity Challenge: Each tribe has to unscramble a woven tapestry.

Gathering at the reward challenge, Jeff told everyone to stand on a piece of log. Under each piece was a new buff. The new Rotu tribe consisted of Zoe, Gabriel, John, Vecepia, Rob, Sean, Robert, and Tammy while the new Maraamu tribe consisted of Gina, Neleh, Kathy, Sarah, and Paschal.

The new Maraamu members were excited to have a change of food from the shells they were used to. The new Rotu members felt welcomed in their camp but noticed that they did a lot more work. Rob was worried that he was in the minority and ripped his new tribe mates. Sean said he felt like a slave and that he was really tired towards the end of the day. The Maraamu tribe decided to go for a hike and eventually got lost; Kathy wanted to go further while some of the tribe wanted to head back. They found a pool with shrimp in it. While the rest of the tribe stayed to try and catch some shrimp, Sarah wanted to head back to avoid being bitten by the nonos. However, she got herself lost and headed back to where the rest of her tribe was. Back at Rotu, Sean grew tired of working so much around camp and complained about it to Gabriel. Rob asked Vecepia what she thought about everything, and she said she wanted to stay out of the drama as much as possible.

Rotu got off to a fast start, while Maraamu struggled. Kathy was the only one offering directions, while Gabriel and Vecepia led the way for Rotu. Rotu easily won their fourth straight immunity, but this is the first time Rob, Sean, and Vecepia won while this is the first time Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal lost.

Gina told Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal she wanted Sarah out because of her weakness in challenges and her laziness around camp. Meanwhile, Sarah was oblivious to her tribemates wanting her out and believed that it was everyone for themselves. At tribal council, the original Rotu members sided with Gina and Sarah was unanimously voted out 4-1.

Episode 5: The End of Innocence

• Reward Challenge: Fourteen pieces belonging to four tikis are scattered on a course. One member will guide three blindfolded members to the fourteen pieces. Once all pieces are back, the four tikis must be reconstructed.
  • Reward: The winning tribe gets to raid the losing tribe’s camp
• Immunity Challenge: Each tribe must build a distress signal without using fire to signal a ship from a distance.

Rob was not happy at Rotu because he was in the minority and he had everything under control at Maraamu. He thought that Sean would definitely be the first to go, followed by a tossup between himself and Vecepia, so he tried to get himself in further with the original Rotu members to further himself. Gabriel said he was not there to play the game, but for the experience, which bothered John. At Maraamu, they found tons of crabs and were able to make an entire pan full of crab meat.

At the reward challenge, Gabriel and Kathy were chosen as the eyes for their tribe. Rotu took an early lead and had 13 pieces, but could not find the last piece. Maraamu made up the difference and collected all their pieces first. Rotu eventually found their last piece, but Maraamu was too far ahead. Maraamu won by a landslide, giving the tribe, and Gina, their first win. They had two minutes to raid Rotu's camp, and nearly every reward item Rotu had won ended up with Maraamu.

John noticed Gabriel bonding with the three original Maraamu members. When he approached him about his voting strategy. When Gabriel said he didn’t have one and that he would only tell John who he was voting for beforehand, John did not feel comfortable and said that Gabe was no longer safe, and that he wanted to get rid of him. John concocted an alliance of himself, Robert, Zoe, and Tammy. In order to avoid a tie, John approached Sean about voting for Gabe as well.

Maraamu’s raid proved useful as they used a lot of the supplies taken from Rotu to help their signal. Rotu quickly realized that all three of the former Maraamu members were participating in the challenge, which worried Robert. Rotu built a signal with their raft and their life jackets, but the captain said he didn’t think it was a very good signal. Maraamu used the insides and outsides of their life-jackets, Paschal's American flag, and their white blankets to create moving signals. The captain said that Maraamu’s distress signal was much more obvious, and Maraamu won their second challenge and their first immunity.

John continued to talk to the other members of Maraamu to get rid of Gabriel, but Rob had other plans and considered getting rid of John. After talking to Rob, Gabriel weighed his options of continuing to play his game or by joining forces. John worried that he may have hatched his plan too early and thought he may be going home. However, Gabriel’s apathetic attitude toward playing the game cost him and he was unanimously voted out 7-1. Despite voting against Gabriel himself, Rob told John he was coming after him.

Episode 6: The Underdogs

• Reward Challenge: 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.
• Immunity Challenge: Retrieve five ladder rungs, in order, from throughout a giant maze, while roped together. Climb the ladder they build in the center of the maze.

With Gabriel gone, John takes charge at Rotu, and the four original Rotu members (John, Robert, Tammy, and Zoe) agree to stick together to the final four. Rob and Sean agree that their only option is to hope the tribe wins immunity until the merge. Rob is suspicious of Vecepia, stating that she's been distancing herself from them since they came to Rotu. At Maraamu, they collect more crabs.

At the reward challenge, the Maraamu tribe is shocked to see that Gabriel was voted out. Rob and Zoe easily beat Paschal and Neleh in the jungle portion of the race, however John and Robert have difficulty paddling together, allowing Gina and Kathy to overtake them on the water, retrieving their flag first. However, John and Robert manage to catch up as the boats are heading back. Gina and Kathy forget to take their flag as they ran to the finish, allowing John and Robert to put their flag in the tiki first. Jeff announced that Rotu won the challenge; but Maraamu protests, claiming Robert was not at the tiki before Gina and Kathy put their flag in after John. Jeff then goes to the boats to see if they were in reach of their chains. Maraamu's boat was okay, but Rotu placed their boat to far from their chain. Jeff then stated the Maraamu was correct and that Robert had to be at the tiki with John. Jeff corrects his statement and declares Maraamu the winning tribe.

Back at the camps, Maraamu feasts while Rotu declares it didn't really need food and that the Maraamu members would just make themselves sick eating all that food. Paschal is disappointed that Rotu turned on Gabriel, and he and Neleh bond with Gina which concerns Kathy. Rob confronts Zoe about being in an alliance, which she denies. He then confronts John who confirms that the original four Rotu members are sticking together. After they reach an agreement not to work against each other, Rob M. asks, "Are you gay?" John answers yes.

The four original Rotu members discuss getting rid of Rob M. but Tammy doesn't want to throw a challenge. At the immunity challenge, Rotu is led by Rob M. and Maraamu is led by Kathy. Rotu wins easily.

Maraamu returns to camp to discover that they have no fire or banked coals. Kathy and Gina argue about whether putting sand on coals banks them (Kathy's method) or puts them out (Gina's view). At tribal council, Gina and Kathy fought for Neleh's and Paschal's votes. In the end, Neleh and Paschal decided to stay loyal to ex-Rotu member Kathy and Gina is voted out 3-1.

Episode 7: True Lies

• Immunity Challenge: Each player standing on a floating platform in the water. If any part of their body besides their feet touch the platform, they are out.

The two tribes were instructed by Jeff to remove their buffs. He then reveals the tribes are merging into one tribe, which they later named Soliantu. Rob, Sean, and Vecepia are alarmed as their competition just increased and tries to get one of the former Rotu-Maraamu members to switch sides. John and Rob have a heated exchange over each other's game playing. John, Robert, Tammy, and Zoe manage to bring Neleh, Paschal, and Vecepia to their side, promising them into at least the final five. However, Kathy is suspicious after talking to Zoe about the loyalty and decides to remain neutral. At tribal council, Vecepia and the Rotu members (minus Kathy) stuck together to vote Rob out 7-2-1.

Voting history

	Original Tribes			Switched Tribes			Merged Tribe
Episode #:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Eliminated:	Peter 5/8 votes	Patricia 4/7 votes	Hunter 4/6 votes	Sarah 4/5 votes	Gabriel 7/8 votes	Gina 3/4 votes	Rob 7/10 votes	John 6/9 votes	Zoe 7/8 votes	Tammy 5/7 votes	Robert 5/6 votes	Sean 3/5 votes	Paschal No vote1	Kathy 1 vote
Voter	Vote
Vecepia	Sarah	Patricia	Hunter		Gabriel		Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Neleh	Neleh
Neleh				Sarah		Gina	Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Kathy	Kathy
Kathy				Sarah		Gina	Zoe	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Neleh
Paschal				Sarah		Gina	Rob	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Sean	Kathy
Sean	Sarah	Patricia	Hunter		Gabriel		John	John	Zoe	Tammy	Robert	Neleh
Robert					Gabriel		Rob	Sean	Zoe	Vecepia	Sean
Tammy					Gabriel		Rob	Sean	Zoe	Vecepia
Zoe					Gabriel		Rob	John	Robert
John					Gabriel		Rob	Sean
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

Jury vote
Finalist:	Neleh 3/7 votes	Vecepia 4/7 votes
Juror	Vote
Kathy	Neleh
Paschal	Neleh
Sean		Vecepia
Robert		Vecepia
Tammy		Vecepia
Zoe	Neleh
John		Vecepia

^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.

Purple Rock controversy

Paschal's elimination marked a large controversy in the game of Survivor. In the first tribal council of episode thirteen, 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, if the tribe could not reach a unanimous decision as to who should be voted off within an allotted time, the contestants who were not immune would pull different colored rocks from a sack . Whoever chose the odd-colored rock would be eliminated. The official rules of this tiebreaker also state that the contestants receiving the most votes (in this situation, Kathy and Neleh) also become immune. However at this tribal council, Neleh and Kathy were also forced to choose rocks, when according to the rules they should have been immune, which would in theory automatically eliminate Paschal. Though Paschal chose the purple rock and was eliminated anyway, it is speculated that the fire-making challenge (which would involve only Neleh and Kathy) was meant to be used in this case and that production was in error by using the rock tiebreaker. This theory was supported by host Jeff Probst, when he 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.^[5]

No tie occurred on the show until six seasons later on Palau, which had several tie votes. The first two ties were solved by a re-vote, while the other two had to be resolved by a fire-making challenge (the first occurred when the Ulong tribe had only two members left, and the other occurred with the final four contestants). However, due to Paschal's elimination at the hands of the purple rock, future castaways that took part in the show between the Marquesas and Palau seasons believed that drawing rocks was the tiebreaker for all situations, including the final four. As a result, many contestants would change alliances late in the game in order to avoid another tie and another chance of drawing the Purple Rock. For example, Jenna Lewis of All-Stars voted against her ally Rupert at the final four to avoid what she thought would be the purple rock tiebreaker.

Other than Palau, there have been three other seasons (Panama, Cook Islands and Gabon) where the tie votes were all settled with a fire-making challenge, all of which were when there was only four contestants left in the game. In Survivor: Micronesia, it was theorized by Cirie Fields that the purple rock tiebreaker is the tiebreaker for all ties except in the final four when the fire-making challenge is used instead. In Survivor: Samoa and Survivor: South Pacific, it was stated numerous times that in the event of a deadlock tie, the purple rock would be used, thus confirming Field's theory.

References

1. ^ "Survivor cast and crew". AOL.com. 2007. http://television.aol.com/show/survivor-marquesas/282916/cast. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
2. ^ Hal Erickson. "Survivor Marquesas Summary". Starpulse.com. http://www.starpulse.com/Television/Survivor_Marquesas/Summary/. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
3. ^ "CBS Unveils The Identities of The Castaways For Survivor: Thailand" (Press release). CBS. 2002-08-15. http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-15-2002/0001784082&EDATE=. "Survivor: Marquesas averaged 20.8 million viewers (#4) while Survivor: Africa averaged 20.7 million viewers (#5)." 
4. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Survivor-4-Marquesas-Complete-Season/dp/B00005JOAP/
5. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1024612_3,00.html

External links

• Official CBS Survivor Marquesas Website