Survivor Marquesas: Most memorable moments from season 4

Fall of Rotu 4

The most memorable moment from Survivor: Marquesas was easily the fall of the Rotu 4.

Rotu only had to go to tribal council once before the merge (thanks for being dysfunctional, Maraamu) and after the tribe swap, they booted off Gabriel, who didn’t want to play the game. That left four original Rotu members and three members of the old Maraamu tribe until the merge.

When the tribes merged and became Soliantu, it was clear who was running the show: The original Rotu 4 consisting of John, Robert (“The General”), Tammy, and Zoe. Those four, along with Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal voted out Boston Rob at the merge and looked to be in control of things.

At the episode 8 Immunity Challenge, however, things changed big time.

The remaining contestants participated in a trivia challenge where if they answered a question correctly, they could chop the rope of a fellow teammate. Three chops would lead to that player’s coconuts falling and them being knocked out of the challenge.

The Rotu 4 weren’t exactly gracious about their positions in the game. They’d knock their fellow teammates out of the challenge and would gloat about the order in which they were doing it while also making jokes at the outsiders’ expense.

This gesture made the other members of the initial Rotu alliance question their allegiance to the four and pushed them into an alliance with the other outcasts. They eventually booted John, who was the first of the original Rotu 4 to go with Zoe, Tammy, and the General following right after him.

The fall of the original Rotu alliance was significant because it was the first time we really saw a big alliance crumble in the first four seasons of the show. Now it’s commonplace, but in the early seasons, it was typical for whichever tribe had the numbers at the merge to take those numbers all the way down to the end and pick off the other tribe one by one.

Now, once John was gone, the rest of Marquesas was a bit boring (aside from the purple rock, of course), but his demise along with the demise of his alliance mates was comical to watch.

Never get too big for your britches on Survivor.

To sum up, Survivor: Marquesas wasn’t as dull of a season most remember it as. Pre-merge was great with the dysfunctional Maraamu tribe, the post-swap drama on the new Rotu and the heartwarming moments with the new Maraamu.

The argument can certainly be made that after John got the axe, the season did get pretty boring, but if John hadn’t been booted, it would have been even worse. That moment was critical for season 4 and still goes down as one of the best “downfalls” in Survivor history.