| Tahiti
Presse story |
Our
interpretation |
What
actually happened |
"On Monday,
November 12, the Survivor contestants will have to swim to their respective
valleys."
Tahiti Presse, November
8, 2001. |
Until
we saw the previews, this seemed like a plausible story. They got the date
right, at least. |
FALSE.
They rowed the two miles to shore in black, inflatable rubber rafts. |
"[Two
contestants] left the valleys of Hakaui and Hakatea for another secret site."
Tahiti Presse, November
28, 2001. |
This implies
the two tribes were in the Hakaui and Hakatea valleys. |
TRUE
/ FALSE. According to SurvivorMaps,
the actual location of the Rotu camp is Hakapaa bay, not Hakaui valley.
Maraamu is camped along Hakatea bay, though. |
Survivor
Nuku Hiva: Two Competitors 'Voted Off'
"Two of the sixteen Survivor contestants were eliminated during the
week of November 24, according to residents of Taiohae, the capital of the
archipelago. They left the valleys of Hakaui and Hakatea for another secret
site."
Tahiti Presse, November
28, 2001. |
This article
is followed by one saying that three more have been voted off, bringing
the total to five. That would imply that these were the first two.
While the dates are
clearly wrong, the other implication here is that the first two bootees
came from different tribes.
|
FALSE.
Clearly, the first two bootees left the game November 14th (Peter) and November
17th. So the dates are wrong.
FALSE for
the two tribes interpretation, as well (not necessarily their fault, though).
|
Survivor
Marquesas in Nuku Hiva, Five Candidates Eliminated
"According to people living in Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, there are only 11 candidates
left in the Survivor TV game. Three more candidates have been voted
out of the game."
Tahiti Presse, December
2, 2001. |
This is
almost certainly wrong, barring unforeseen circumstances. There should
have been only nine players left on December 2nd, making a total of seven
voted out. |
FALSE.
Check the calendar here. |
"'There's
been an unexpected change in the rules of the game for reasons that I cannot
imagine,' said a Marquesan. According to the same source, one
of the two tribes has moved to Hakapaa. It is not sure however if it is
the Hakaui or the Hakatea tribe."
Tahiti Presse, December
2, 2001.
(According to Wezzie, the original article in French reports, "...one of
them is now in Hakapaa. The second tribe remained in Hakaui.") - Survivor
Maps. |
Since
the timing of this matches exactly the TC reducing the show to nine players,
this is most likely just the merge. Presumably, the merged tribe has
to move to a new site. (This is most likely due to the settlement MB worked
out with the two families suing
him over the land Maraamu was on).
If this interpretation
is correct, the merged tribe should be at Hakapaa.
|
PUSH.
A little flimsy on the details, but was useful in predicting (with extensive
re-intrerpretation) a simple merge, and they chose to live at Rotu's camp. |
"These
nine candidates have now teamed up to create one single tribe. Friday December
7, in the morning, the nine survivors merged into one tribe which resides
in Hakapaa where it will remain until the end of the game."
Tahiti Presse, December
7, 2001. |
Once more,
dates wrong, but the important thing here is the merge at nine part.
They're probably partially right. We suspect that, like in Africa,
the merge is delayed, and they become one tribe at the IC. They may simply
delay IC until TC day. |
PUSH.
The date was wrong, as was the number of
people in the merged tribe, but the location of the merged tribe was exactly
right. |
"The "Survivor"
TV show goes on. There are only eight candidates left in the game. Another
castaway has been voted off a few days ago."
Tahiti Presse, December
12, 2001. |
There
should be six players left on December 12th. |
FALSE.
Almost certainly false, barring a major change in game play. |
"One of
the castaway won a 'challenge' and one of his dreams will come true. The
Survivor producers enabled his parents to fly all the way to the Marquesas
islands. They will arrive Thursday, December 13th. The castaway who won
the 'challenge' will leave 'his tribe' for just one evening. He will be
allowed to take a hot shower - the first shower in 33 days! - and will have
dinner with his parents. It will certainly be an enormous dinner. The castaway
will return Friday to the Hakapaa valley and try to be the only castaway
left at the end of the game. He would then win 1 million US$. This will
allow him to get lots of hot showers and good meals."
Tahiti Presse, December
12, 2001. |
First,
a translation disclaimer: the default French pronoun here is "he" - that
does not imply the winner is a man (especially since they are apparently
writing this before the challenge happened). The same probably goes
for the "parents" part. Neither is predictive of the winner.
Still, this is roughly
the time to have this type of challenge, and a greater than 24-hr gap
between RC win and family arrival is certainly feasible. Then again, this
could just be wishful thinking.
|
PUSH.
With some creative interpretation, you can get this to fit the Ep10 and
Ep11 RCs. Pappy and Neleh got showers in Ep10, and the winner of the
Ep11 RC (Kathy's son, Patrick) got to have dinner with his parent.
Not literally true, but the date was also close - Patrick was there on the
13th, and the RC was on the 12th. |
Survivor-Marquesas:
only three candidates left
"With only five days left, there are only three candidates left in the Survivor-Marquesas
TV show. Thirteen candidates have been voted off the game so far. There
will be only two candidates left, Wednesday, December 19th, 2001, for the
ultimate test."
Tahiti Presse, December
15th, 2001. |
Three
left on December 15th? We highly doubt that. (Correct
answer = five).
Two left on December
19th? Yes, after the TC.
|
FALSE. |
Final
countdown for Survivor: one man and one woman left
"Tahitipresse has learned that, since Tuesday, December 18th, 2001, there
are only two people left in the "Survivor" TV show filmed in Nuku Hiva,
Marquesas islands. The two candidates left are one man... and one woman."
Tahiti Presse, December
19th, 2001. |
Dates
are off by a day here. The final two are not there until the 19th.
Could it be a man and a woman? Why not? It has been three times
in a row so far. |
FALSE.
Logical guess, though. |
Final
vote for the Survivor winner
"Fourteen of the sixteen candidates voted off the Survivor TV show
had to choose, Wednesday, December 19th, 2001, between the two final candidates
of the game, a man and a woman. The fourteen candidates were brought
back from New Zealand where they had been sent, far away from all local
media."
Tahiti Presse, December
19th, 2001. |
So many
things wrong here, it's hard to know where to start:
- Fourteen member jury? Almost certainly false.
- Final vote on the 19th? No, that's only Day 38. How did they know the
details of the vote before it happened? Hmmm.
- All fourteen came back from New Zealand (where non-jury members supposedly
went, or didn't, depending on which TP article you believe) - umm, no. Jury
stayed in Nuku Hiva. |
FALSE.
It's unlikely any of this is true, except perhaps the man-woman final two
part. |
'Fafaru'
and 'nono' among the worst enemies
"Among the challenges last week for the eight candidates left, there was
also "fafaru", a traditional polynesian food (fish left in salty water during
several days...) Marquesans love "fafaru" but it is true that it has a very
special taste. Candidates were warned : 'If you do not eat it now, it will
be full of worms tomorrow!' Three of the eight candidates refused to eat
it and were penalized for it."
Tahiti Presse, December
19th, 2001. |
We're
inclined to believe the core of the story, fafaru eating, at least, is true.
One possible interpretation is that this describes the Ep2 IC, with Rotu
losing. Alternatively, how do the losers of an individual IC or RC get "penalized"? |
ALMOST
ENTIRELY FALSE. They got the fafaru part right, but everything
else was completely made up. Pretty sad, considering the amount of
mainstream U.S. media present for that challenge. |
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