Survivor: Marquesas
Encyclopedia
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 and the political situation in the Middle East
.
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
.
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.
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.
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.
No reward challenge took place due to tribal switch.
There was no reward challenge due to tribal merge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
: 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.
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 Fields's theory.
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...
. Hosted by Jeff Probst
Jeff Probst
Jeffrey Lee "Jeff" Probst is an American game show host, executive producer and a reporter. He is best known as the host of the U.S. version of the reality show Survivor.-Biography:...
, it aired from February 28 - May 19, 2002 on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. Thirteen episodes aired, plus a mid-season recap and live interview with Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
after the finale. The winner, Vecepia Towery
Vecepia Towery
Vecepia Towery Robinson won $1,000,000 on the Marquesas edition of Survivor. She is the first African American contestant to win Survivor's top prize.-Survivor: Marquesas:...
, 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
Rob Mariano
Robert Carlo "Boston Rob" Mariano is an American television personality, widely known for appearing in several reality shows, including Survivor, and The Amazing Race with his wife, Amber Brkich Mariano. Mariano won Survivor: Redemption Island and the $1,000,000 prize after competing on the show...
which they intended to mean "Sacred Allegiance to the Sun.")
The Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
were initially selected as a backup location for Survivor
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...
. The original location, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, was discounted as a result of the September 11 attacks and the political situation in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
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
Survivor: Africa
Survivor: Africa is the third season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed during 2001 and aired from October 11, 2001 - January 10, 2002 on CBS. It was set in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve on the African continent....
.
Vavrick-O'Brien and Mariano were selected from this season to compete in Survivor: All-Stars
Survivor: All-Stars
Survivor: All-Stars is the eighth season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2003 and debuted in the United States on CBS on February 1, 2004 after Super Bowl XXXVIII. It was set on the Pearl Islands of Panama, where the previous Survivor: Pearl Islands had just finished...
, 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
Survivor: Redemption Island
Survivor: Redemption Island is the twenty-second season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor, which premiered on February 16, 2011. Applications were due in January 2010, and filming lasted from August to September 2010. The season was filmed in the vicinity of San...
, which he won.
A DVD release of the season was confirmed on July 28, 2010. It was released on Tuesday, October 5, 2010.
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 | Finish | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Harkey 44, Millis, MA |
1st Voted Out Day 3 |
5 | |||
| Patricia Jackson 49, Lugoff, SC |
2nd Voted Out Day 6 |
5 | |||
| Hunter Ellis Hunter Ellis Hunter Ellis is an American television personality. A former naval aviator, he was first noted for his participation in the Survivor Television series before going on to host several television shows for the History Channel, including Tactical to Practical; Man, Moment, Machine; and Digging for... 33, La Jolla, CA |
3rd Voted Out Day 9 |
4 | |||
| Sarah Jones 24, Newport Beach, CA |
4th Voted Out Day 12 |
11 | |||
| Gabriel Cade 23, Celo, NC Western North Carolina Western North Carolina is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains, thus it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It is sometimes included with upstate South Carolina as the "Western Carolinas", which is also counted as a single media market... |
5th Voted Out Day 15 |
7 | |||
| Gina Crews 28, Gainesville, FL |
6th Voted Out Day 18 |
3 | |||
| Rob Mariano Rob Mariano Robert Carlo "Boston Rob" Mariano is an American television personality, widely known for appearing in several reality shows, including Survivor, and The Amazing Race with his wife, Amber Brkich Mariano. Mariano won Survivor: Redemption Island and the $1,000,000 prize after competing on the show... 25, Canton, MA |
align="center" rowspan=10 | 7th Voted Out Day 21 |
8 | ||
| John Carroll 36, Omaha, NE |
8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24 |
8 | |||
| Zoe Zanidakis 35, Monhegan Island, ME Monhegan, Maine Monhegan is a plantation on an island of the same name in Lincoln County, Maine, United States, about off the coast. The population was 75 at the 2000 census. As a plantation, Monhegan's governmental status falls between township and town... |
9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27 |
8 | |||
| Tammy Leitner Tammy Leitner Tammy Leitner is an investigative TV reporter and former reality television contestant.Leitner graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in English, before eventually completing her master's degree in journalism from Boston University in Massachusetts... 29, Mesa, AZ |
10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30 |
5 | |||
| Robert DeCanio 38, Queens, NY Queens Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States.... |
11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33 |
6 | |||
| Sean Rector 30, Harlem, NY Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands... |
12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36 |
7 | |||
| Paschal English 56, Thomaston, GA |
Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37 |
0 | |||
47, Burlington, VT |
13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38 |
5 | |||
| Neleh Dennis 21, Layton, UT |
Runner-Up | 4 | |||
| Vecepia Towery Vecepia Towery Vecepia Towery Robinson won $1,000,000 on the Marquesas edition of Survivor. She is the first African American contestant to win Survivor's top prize.-Survivor: Marquesas:... 36, Portland, OR |
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 | 5−2−1 | 1st Voted Out Day 3 |
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| "Nacho Momma" | March 7, 2002 | 4−3 | 2nd Voted Out Day 6 |
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| "No Pain, No Gain" | March 13, 2002 | 4−2 | 3rd Voted Out Day 9 |
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| "The Winds Twist" | March 20, 2002 | None | 4−1 | 4th Voted Out Day 12 |
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| "The End of Innocence" | March 28, 2002 | 7−1 | 5th Voted Out Day 15 |
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| "The Underdogs" | April 4, 2002 | 3−1 | 6th Voted Out Day 18 |
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| "True Lies" | April 11, 2002 | None | 7−2−1 | 7th Voted Out Day 21 |
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| "Jury's Out" | April 18, 2002 | 6−3 | 8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24 |
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| "Look Closer: The First 24 Days" | April 24, 2002 | Recap Episode | |||||
| "Two Peas in a Pod" | April 25, 2002 | 7−1 | 9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27 |
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| "The Princess" | May 2, 2002 | 5−2 | 10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30 |
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| "Marquesan Vacation" | May 9, 2002 | 5−1 | 11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33 |
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| "A Tale of Two Cities" | May 16, 2002 | 3−2 | 12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36 |
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| "The Sole Survivor" | May 19, 2002 | None | 2−2 | Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 37 |
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| 1−0 | 13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38 |
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| "The Reunion" | May 19, 2002 | Jury Vote | 4−3 | Runner-Up | |||
| 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.
No reward challenge took place due to tribal switch.
There was no reward challenge due to tribal merge.
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
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| Episode #: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
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: 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.No tie occurred on the show until six seasons later on Palau
Survivor: Palau
Survivor: Palau is the tenth season of the United States reality show Survivor. Its preview appeared during the final episode of Survivor: Vanuatu. Survivor: Palau premiered on February 17, 2005. The complete season, including the Live Reunion Show, was released on DVD by CBS Home Video on August...
, 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
Survivor: Palau
Survivor: Palau is the tenth season of the United States reality show Survivor. Its preview appeared during the final episode of Survivor: Vanuatu. Survivor: Palau premiered on February 17, 2005. The complete season, including the Live Reunion Show, was released on DVD by CBS Home Video on August...
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
Jenna Lewis
Jenna Lewis was a contestant on Survivor: Borneo , finishing eighth, and Survivor: All-Stars , finishing third. She later gained further fame for her 2004 sex tape which circulated on the Internet....
of All-Stars
Survivor: All-Stars
Survivor: All-Stars is the eighth season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2003 and debuted in the United States on CBS on February 1, 2004 after Super Bowl XXXVIII. It was set on the Pearl Islands of Panama, where the previous Survivor: Pearl Islands had just finished...
voted against her ally Rupert
Rupert Boneham
Rupert Boneham is an American mentor for troubled teens who became known to reality television audiences in 2003 as a contestant on Survivor: Pearl Islands where he placed 8th. He later appeared on the All Stars and Heroes vs. Villains seasons of Survivor, placing 4th and 6th respectively...
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
Survivor: Micronesia
Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites is the sixteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor, being the show's third to include contestants from past seasons, after the all-returning contestant pool from Survivor: All-Stars, and Survivor: Guatemala in which...
, it was theorized by Cirie Fields
Cirie Fields
Cirie Fields is a married mother of three children and a repeat contestant on CBS's Survivor television series. Fields has appeared in three seasons, Survivor: Panama, Survivor: Micronesia, and Survivor: Heroes vs...
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
Survivor: Samoa
Survivor: Samoa is the nineteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season premiered on Thursday, September 17, 2009....
and Survivor: South Pacific
Survivor: South Pacific
Survivor: South Pacific is the twenty-third season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor, which premiered on Wednesday, September 14, 2011. The season was filmed in the vicinity of Upolu, Samoa, which is the same filming location as season 19 and season 20, and it will...
, it was stated numerous times that in the event of a deadlock tie, the purple rock would be used, thus confirming Fields's theory.