Neleh Dennis - Season Summary

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.