"Purple Rock" controversy
Paschal's elimination marked a large controversy in the game of Survivor. In the Episode Thirteen Tribal Council, 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 contestants who were not immune would pull rocks colored yellow and purple from a sack. The contestant with the purple rock would be eliminated. In this situation, Kathy and Neleh drew yellow rocks, and Paschal pulled the purple rock. Despite having received no votes in the entire game, he was eliminated due to chance. Probst 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. It was during that season that the tie-breaker was revealed to be a fire-making challenge. However, Survivors who took part in the show between the
Marquesas and
Palau seasons believed that the "Purple Rock" challenge was still intact. As a result, many contestants would change alliances in order to avoid another tie and another chance of drawing the "Purple Rock."
Since Palau, there have been four tie situations that were settled with fire-making challenges, all of which were at the Final Four stage of 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 a challenge is used instead.
ing nowhere with a legit treasure map.
.
