Survivor: Marquesas

***Survivor: Marquesas*** is the fourth installment of the reality television show *Survivor*. It premiered on February 28, 2002 and ended May 19, 2002. The season was filmed from November 12 to December 20, 2001 on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

Bea Smith beat Jason Wylie to become the winner of this season, and received the $1,000,000 prize.

## Development

Originally, Jordan was supposed to be the location of the fourth season. Mark Burnett wrote in his autobiography "Jump In" that the *Survivor* team were in pre-production of *Survivor: Arabia* - the outline for the opening involved the Survivors boarding a train, then riding on camels to their camp sites. Eventually, as a result of the September 11 attacks and the political situation in the Middle East, CBS were forced to use another place for the show. The Marquesas were chosen as the backup location.

## Twist/Changes

* **Meager Supplies:** For the first time, the castaways were not given any food rations (such as a limited supply of rice or canned goods). Both tribes' supply crates were drastically reduced to only a magnifying glass, three pans, a fillet knife, and two water containers but no food items whatsoever.
* **Tribe Switch:** Similar to the previous season, three contestants from both tribes are transferred to their rival tribe.
* **Immunity Necklace:** Starting with this season, the winner of the Immunity Challenge reserve the right to transfer the Immunity Necklace to another player, keeping the recipient safe instead and leaving the original wearer vulnerable.
* **Purple Rock Tiebreaker:** In case of a deadlocked tie and there is no consensus as to how the vote will go, everyone, including people who did not receive votes except the owner of the Immunity Necklace, will pick a rock from a bag. Inside the bag there is one purple rock, and the contestant who gets it will be automatically eliminated from the game.

## Season Summary

The two tribes, Rotu and Maraamu, as in previous seasons, were assembled before the game. From the beginning the Rotu tribe seemed to be fairly unified, yet the women felt that the men weren't treating them fairly around camp. On the other hand, the Maraamu tribe quickly became divided between those who wanted to keep the tribe strong and unified and those who were playing more of an individual game. These differences heavily reflected on the first Immunity Challenges, as Maraamu lost the first challenge, sending them to tribal which lead to Peter Harkey being voted out by those who were irritated by him. This left Steve Hale, who'd targeted Betty Ross on the outs. Rotu lost the second immunity challenge and voted out Paige McCullers after a blunder in the immunity challenge caused Clint Barton to target her. On Day 9, Maraamu lost again, sending them to their second tribal council where Jackie Molina was voted out in order to keep Steve, who they deemed their strongest male.

This decision proved fruitless however when, on Day 10, a random tribe switch sent Johanna Mason, Steve, and Ezra Fitz to Rotu, while Nick Fury, Jason Wylie, and Barton joined Maraamu. Finding themselves outnumbered on Rotu, Steve quickly attempted to align with the remaining Rotu members due to not trusting Johanna or Ezra. Whilst on Maraamu, the group noticed a divide between Barton and Jason when the former began ridiculing him. However after they lost the next challenge, Nick formed a connection with Bea Smith and Stuart Minkus and convinced the tribe that Betty would cost them challenges so she was voted out. After this Rotu lost the next immunity, sending them to tribal twice. Steve Hale was the first to be voted out due to his untrustworthy nature and proneness to flip. Stuart Minkus was the last person voted out pre-merge due to his poor performance physically.

Before the two tribes merged on Day 19, Nick and Kathy were sent to a meeting in which they had to decide on a name, flag and location for their new tribe. Kathy came up with Soliantu - a word, that is supposed to mean "Sacred Allegiance to the Sun". During the meeting, Nick attempted to persuade Kathy that he was in a solid alliance with his tribe. She was unsure about this though and later conveyed this message to Ezra who agreed to vote with the original Rotu. Their original plan was to vote out Barton due to his behaviour and physical skills. However Barton won the first individual Immunity Challenge, resulting in him receiving the individual Immunity Necklace. The newly-merged tribe then eliminated Johanna due to her being in the middle. Over the next few days Barton continued to prove unpopular around camp, casuing the original Rotu to want him out even more. However at the next tribal it was Ezra who was voted out after Nick, Jason, Barton, Bea, Kathy and Jane decided him to be a big threat to win. After this Barton decided to make a move of his own and turned people against long time ally and mentor Nick, fearing he would win. After winning the next immunity, Barton managed to successfully blindside Nick with the original Rotu members, leaving Jason and Bea on the outs. However, the original Rotu joined forces with Bea after she won the next immunity to finally vote out Barton for the stress he was causing.

After this Kathy decided to get closer to Jason and Bea, feeling they would be more trustworthy. With Paschal on her side, they voted out Jane Foster and Teresa Lisbon. After this the final four separated in to two faction, Kathy and Paschal English vs. Bea and Jason. When the votes deadlocked rocks were drawn to decide the result and Paschal was sent home, setting the course for Kathy to be voted out next.

At the Final Tribal Council, Bea and Jason were met with a mixed response from the jury members. Jason was critiqued for being spineless and was particularily laid in to by Barton for making zero moves of his own. Whereas Bea was remarked as doing a simliar thing, but commended for managing to survive in a majority-rotu tribe. Ultimately, it was Bea who was crowned Sole Survivor after a close 6-1 vote, and became the first Non-American native victor.

## Trivia

* Jeff Probst has stated that *Survivor* will never use the Marquesas as a location again, solely because of the painful bites from the native no-no sandflies.
* For the first time, the loved ones of castaways were on location during the loved ones Reward Challenge (in *Survivor: Borneo* and *Survivor: The Australian Outback* only the winner's loved one visited the castaways).
* This is the only season to not have aired in Australia.
* This is the first season to utilize the rock drawing tiebreaker.
* This was the first season where Tribal Council had a roof.
* This was the first season to have a winner who wasn't born in the United States, with Bea Smith hailing from Australia.

## References

1. ↑ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB106452822777931600
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTZUzcIIYZg
3. ↑ http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-survivor-cbs-spring-2002.html