One For All Physical Race

Survivor's first HD season begins with a familiar idea; it's the old "race to the Immunity Idol" concept we saw in Survivor: Palau and then last season in Survivor: Micronesia. Still, there are a few things of note worth discussing here. First, much like in the previous season, one person from each tribe, regardless of gender, is eligible to win immunity, which is unlike in this challenge's first appearance, where the first man and first woman on the cast would win immunity. This is because the tribes had already been established prior to this challenge starting, which has an extra layer of intrigue this season, because for the first time since Survivor: Thailand, these tribes were put together via schoolyard pick by the oldest members of the cast. Did the captains do a good job? This challenge allows the audience to see right out of the gate how evenly matched the tribes are. (Spoiler alert, not at all.) It isn't just for Individual Immunity this time either; the first tribe to get all members to the finish win an additional reward which they get to share. I really like this element, as it adds an element of risk vs reward: Do you rush ahead of your tribe and risk looking selfish, or do you stay behind to help the weaker members, sacrificing your shot at Individual Immunity? The biggest change between this version and the previous two though may just be the location. Palau and Micronesia both involved rowing a boat as a team until it was close enough to shore to swim the rest of the way. While there would be a brief dash on the beach, this had previously been a very wet, swimming-focused challenge. But here in Gabon, there is no water in sight, so it is all about running, and later, climbing one of this location's copious steep hills. Jeff Probst even has his own little trail paved out for him to run on, which I find to be a very funny visual. In the past, we would usually get a lot of confessionals from the cast during this challenge acting as exposition, but this season, we only really get one. It's from the eventual first-boot Michelle, who just talks about how her tribe is dumb for picking her last, as she was the first woman up the hill. However, sometimes confessionals aren't needed because things just speak for themselves, and for the Fang tribe, do they ever. Survivor: Gabon's pre-merge is largely just a comedy of errors for the Fang tribe, and that becomes evident in this very first challenge, where the Olympic gold medalist Crystal Cox has one of the hardest times out of anyone getting up the hill. It's a funny scene, but it doesn't go on for long, as this is actually a very short challenge. A satisfying way to kick off the season nonetheless!

3/5

Temptation Valley Physical Race / Mental

The first traditional Immunity Challenge of the season brings back a concept from The Australian Outback: Make each tribe complete an obstacle course while tied together. I found that challenge to be fairly boring back in Season 2, but by Season 17, the challenge team has gotten a lot more creative and this challenge is simply more interesting to watch. The first leg of the obstacle course is a great example of taking advantage of a unique location, as a natural swamp is worked into the course design and must be trudged through. Jeff tells everyone that the swamp is "leech-filled," which initially sounded to me like an empty threat, but a behind-the-scenes video featuring a test run of this challenge with various pre-game press journalists reveals that a lot of them actually did end up with leeches stuck to their legs, which is... just cruel, challenge team! The second leg is a simple net wall, and the third leg is a series of hitching posts that the tribes have to crawl under and over. Then, they have to dig in the sand for puzzle pieces which the remaining members of the tribe who did not play in the obstacle course section will use to put together a puzzle. This is the portion where Fang really drops the ball. For some reason, they just can't find those darn puzzle pieces, allowing Kota to start and ultimately finish their puzzle before Fang even shows up with the bags. The puzzle itself is fairly simple, it's pretty similar to a standard jigsaw puzzle. As Kota begins work on the puzzle, Bob gets a confessional talking about how, as a physics teacher, he is looking forward to doing the puzzle. Alright. Meanwhile, Jeff Probst is oddly cranky this season, which is more so funny than anything. A great example of this happens here: Gillian is yelling at her Fang tribe, now far behind Kota, just trying to give them an ounce of encouragement. "DIG FANG, DIG!!!" Even if she truly believed there was no chance for them to catch up, I feel like most would agree it is an admirable trait of any teammate to stick by and root for your team, even when they are probably going to lose. Plus, telling people to "dig" is practically one of Jeff's catchphrases at this point, so you would think he would love Gillian telling her tribe to literally dig. But instead, he looks at her and sternly says "It might be time to put it in the 'deep freeze' Gillian, you might be out of it." Alright, Jeff apparently doesn't like Gillian. This is also followed by a Randy confessional where he says that he says that he's "really tired of that accent." Anyway, it's a pretty good challenge.

3/5

Lemme Go Rock 'N' Roll Physical Race

Back in my Survivor: China entry, I said I wanted to start tracking Survivor challenges named after music, and here's our next case study! It should also be noted that I do not listen to this type of music very often, so this is going to be my first time listening to a lot of these songs. This one pays homage to a song by Kiss, Let Me Go, Rock and Roll. After giving it a listen, it's fairly catchy! Also, this is a Survivor: Africa challenge, and a really good one at that. This is the challenge where each tribe has to work together to roll a giant ball through a series of gates, a truly arduous task. In this version, there are also keys that need to be collected, and which can only be reached by having one tribe member climb on top of the ball at various points. I think that's a fun addition to the challenge, however, I'm not big on the way this idea culminates, with a gate at the end which the keys need to be used to unlock. Like in previous instances of this type of obstacle appearing, it quickly becomes a game of luck, where both tribes are just randomly trying different keys. It's not that big of a deal, but I do wish they found a better way to implement the keys into the challenge. Unlike in this season's first two challenges, the competition ends up being very close between the two tribes, but very much like this season's first two challenges, Kota ends up winning. Overall, this is an awesome, extremely physical challenge. This is the second of only two times it ever appears on the show, which is a shame, but actually makes sense when you consider the unique type of location its courses desire; it's a type of location the show very rarely uses.

4/5

Lake Launch Physical Race / Mental

First off, just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the scenery of this challenge is. In one image, the landscape of Gabon is perfectly encapsulated in its lush forests, rolling hills, and glassy lakes. This challenge once again takes full advantage of that landscape, where tribe members are tasked with sliding down a water slide on a hill, and into one of the lakes. One at a time, a member from each tribe would make this plunge, and once in the water, have to swim out to receive a numbered tile, which they would then have to swim and run all the way back to the start, prompting the next person to go. Once all six tiles were collected, the elected puzzle-solvers would then use the numbers on the tiles to solve a type of puzzle Survivor only uses very rarely: A logic puzzle. We've all seen a puzzle like this before, one of those "my first digit is so and so, and my second digit is 3 more than my 3rd digit," and so on; that's the kind of puzzle this was. One interesting thing about this challenge that I don't think very many people know is that the puzzle was actually slightly different for each tribe. While both tribes had the same set of numbers (1,2,4,5,6,7), here is Fang's clue:

THE SUM OF BOTH END VALUES EQUALS THE SUM OF THE MIDDLE TWO, THE LAST IS EQUAL TO THE SECOND MINUS THE THIRD AND IS ONE LESS THAN ITS ONLY NEIGHBOR. (Solution: 172465)

And here is Kota's clue:

THE SUM OF BOTH END VALUES EQUALS THE SUM OF THE MIDDLE TWO, THE LAST IS EQUAL TO THE SECOND PLUS THE THIRD, AND IS ONE LESS THAN ITS ONLY NEIGHBOR. (Solution: 142576)

Funny how that one little word changes the entire solution! Definitely one of those cool magic tricks of math. I don't think one clue was easier than the other, so this was a totally fair way to do it. During the challenge, as both Ken and Bob are working on their puzzles, we hear Jeff read the clue out loud, and he reads the Fang version. I'm assuming this was added in later as a frankenbite, because it wouldn't make sense to confuse Bob by reading the other tribe's clue. Anyway, this is a really fun challenge that also happens to make great use of its location.

4/5

Big Oar Deal Skill / Physical Race

Next, it's one of my favorite challenges of the season. Much like the previous challenge, it takes smart advantage of Gabon's small but serene lakes for a one of a kind challenge, completely unique from any other on the show. This is one of those "Survivor sports," as I would like to call them. Basically, challenges that seem like they could work as actual sports, like the "Holding Court" challenge from Survivor: Guatemala. This game is kind of like a cross between lacrosse and team handball with some rafts thrown in. I suppose it can also be compared to the actual European game of canoe polo, which fans of The Amazing Race may be familiar with, as it was featured in the show's 9th season. To quickly sum up the rules, tribes have to work together, each member on their own little raft, to scoop up the ball, try and pass it to their teammates, and ultimately use their paddles to toss the ball into their opponent's goal. The first tribe to score 3 points wins. As the challenge begins, it quickly becomes clear that the most difficult part of this challenge is actually controlling the boats. They aren't like ordinary kayaks that can be easily directed, but rather, circular-shaped vessels that seem quite awkward to steer. Still, many of the contestants are eventually able to get the hang of it... And then, there's the Fang tribe. Even following this episode's tribe switch, new Fang is still a trainwreck of a group, and that becomes immediately clear in their first challenge, as Jeff Probst comically points out the ineptitude of so many of its members during this challenge: "Marcus (from the other tribe) just moving it [the ball] along, nobody even attacking Marcus!" "Crystal just watching!" "Kelly not doing anything!" "Kenny can't do anything!" It's hysterical, and mind you, all of this happens in just the first round. Meanwhile, Marcus is a dominant force for the Kota tribe, playing "like he's done this before," as Jeff puts it. The extent of Fang's lack of cooperation becomes even clearer during the second round, when Randy is able to score a point with no one even defending Fang's goal, just a total free shot. "Fang could not make that easier!" Jeff exclaims. Things don't get any better in the third round, as Jeff continues to bury Kelly ("just hanging back"), and Kenny ("virtually useless in this challenge!"). Things get somewhat tense towards the end of this round as both Dan and Ace fall out of their boats, but Randy is still able to score the winning point here as Kota takes a perfect victory. Wow. You know, while I would have loved to have seen those extra couple of rounds we would have gotten if Fang was capable of scoring a point or two, this absolute maelstrom of a performance by one, pitiful tribe may have been even better. Just a true spectacle of a challenge to watch, both in entertainment value and in creative design.

5/5

Cliff Bowling Skill / Physical Race

THIS CHALLENGE IS SO COOL. I just had to say that right out of the gate, because I love this one so much. What is it, you may ask, that makes this challenge so great? I feel like I can break it down to three distinct elements. First, and a common area where this season's challenges excel, is in its ingenious use of this location's landscape. As mentioned earlier, Gabon is a green wonderland of rolling hills, a type of environment completely different from any other season of Survivor, before or after. They could have just gone with a bunch of "safe" challenges that would work in any old location, or, they could have focused on making innovative challenges that would only really work in a place like Gabon. I am so elated that they went with that latter option. Hmm, it's almost as if going to new and unique locations naturally allows for more innovative challenges, and staying in the same location indefinitely is bad for the show and its challenges, grumble grumble. But I digress. Every location has certain unique features to it, which can be reflected in their challenges. In Palau, shallow waters and nearby shipwrecks influenced challenge design. Kenya had a unique flatness to it, wheras Amazones' marshy environment allowed for unique, lagoon and swampy challenge design. Gabon's most unique traits are its hills and its vast openness, and the challenge team really gets their money's worth here. This challenge is literally designed around one of those hills, and it's one of those challenges I would have a really hard time seeing work in any other location. This is a cool challenge that has justifiably only ever appeared once.

Element #2: Use of location aside, this challenge is exceptionally creative. You know how much I love creative challenges, and this is one of the best in that regard. At the top of the hill, one tribe member has to roll a large wicker ball down to the bottom, trying to make it land in one of several goals with assigned point values. The hill is almost pachinko-esque in its design, with little structures jutting out its side which have a tendency to redirect the balls at unexpected angles upon making contact with them. Where things get really, really interesting is that each tribe also has an assigned "blocker" stationed towards the bottom of the hill, near the goals. They carry large shields, with the goal of getting in the way of the other tribe's wicker ball to stop it from moving, thus, not allowing them to score any points that round. Sounds easy, except, of course, the blockers are blindfolded, so their only way of knowing where they need to stand to block the incoming ball is by listening to the tribe's designated caller, shouting directions of where to go. The caller in this challenge has a fairly tough job, as the final trajectory of the ball can be difficult to predict, because as noted earlier, the obstacles on the hill can divert the ball in unexpected directions. They must have the skill to both foresee where the ball is going to end up, while simultaneously being able to tell the blindfolded member where to go, all while being able to react quickly enough to make the necessary subtle adjustments as the ball zeros in on the goals. It is a brilliant test of teamwork that only the most cooperative of tribes would be able to succeed at.

The third great thing about this challenge is just the way the Gabon cast plays it out. It is no secret that they are a pretty entertaining bunch, and they do not disappoint here. On Fang, Sugar struggles as the tribe's caller. Blindfolded Ace becomes increasingly frustrated with her, and during one scene in between rounds, we get this hilarious exchange:

(Ace) "I can't see anything, you have to talk."

(Sugar) "I know."

(Ace) [Elaborating on his frustration] "What's happening?"

(Sugar) [Takes the question literally] "Nothing's happening right now."

(Ace) "NOT RIGHT THIS SECOND, I CAN HEAR THAT! What's happening with the COURSE?!"

While I don't think Gabon is a top tier season, I'd have a hard time arguing with someone who claims that it is when exchanges like these are so incredibly common throughout the season. Other things that happen throughout this challenge... Kota accidently stops their own ball from reaching the goal, Ace's shield gets knocked into his face by one of the balls and he dramatically falls to the ground, standard Gabon stuff. But the most interesting round is the final round, where we see a genius move implemented by Randy. As Ace side steps rightward, increasingly closer to Kota's incoming ball, Randy shouts "FREEZE ACE! FREEZE!" Even though Randy was from the other tribe, human instinct just kicks in and Ace stops moving, allowing Kota to score enough points to beat Fang in the final round. Extremely well played by Randy, and a great example of clever, on the fly thinking. Anyways, I think I've written enough paragraphs about this challenge by now that you know the score it's getting.

5/5

Jungle Relay Physical Race / Mental

This is the concept from Marquesas and Vanuatu that involves each tribe dividing into pairs tethered together and racing into the jungle, through an obstacle course, and then returning, prompting the next pair to go, and allowing this challenge to play out in a relay style. In this version, each pair must retrieve sections of a puzzle flag pole before returning to the start, which are used once all the pieces are collected as the entire tribe works together to assemble their flag. Each bundle of flag pole pieces are placed further along the course than the previous, so each leg of the relay is a bit longer than the last, with additional obstacles to overcome. The obstacles along the course are nothing special; everyone must traverse a web-shaped crawl-under and then pass by some logs. Pairs on the second leg and onward must also pass through a barrier of sticks. The final pair must also pass through an additional, similarly designed barrier of sticks. The interesting thing is that I think these last two obstacles were originally intended to be crawled through, but towards the end of the challenge as things heat up, the pairs find it faster to climb on top of these obstacles, which is kind of cool to see. As far as the puzzle/flag assembly section, it is extremely similar to the assembly of the stepping stones in Cook Islands' version of the United We Stand challenge. Not difficult and a pretty quick process, but the more cooperative team will always finish quicker. Kota leads for most of this challenge, until Kenny and Matty make up a lot of time on the third leg and allow Fang to briefly pull ahead, but they stumble at the puzzle allowing Kota to easily catch back up and win. I like this challenge; you may like it more than me, I wouldn't try and argue it.

3/5

Lake Log Jam Miscellaneous Challenge

It's been a little while, but our fun little logrolling challenge has returned! I don't think I need to explain how the challenge works, but there is an important twist this time: Jeff reveals that both tribes are going to tribal council, and so, the tribes are actually competing as 12 individuals for Individual Immunity. Whoever wins Individual Immunity also has the ability to gift an additional Immunity necklace to someone on the other tribe. I... am not the biggest fan of this. Not the concept of a Double Tribal Council, but the idea of this particular challenge, which clearly works better as a team challenge, being used to crown an individual winner. It works, and I don't really mind it, but I'd prefer it to just be a regular team challenge. But anyway, here are some storylines worth mentioning: After Jeff explains the rules and everything, we get a confessional from Dan that I think the editors put in here just to make fun of the poor guy. He talks about how he thinks he might be the target for tonight, and so it's very important for him to go in there and win. "And not just win by a little, win by a lot." To be fair, it is a bit of a corny line... And like, who cares about the margin by which you win Dan, a win's a win! But of course, the punchline here is that Dan goes on to get eliminated in the very first round. And then he actually does get voted out... I feel bad now. But the bigger storyline is that Bob reveals he won the lumberjack log roll back in college. It's just kind of a funny little scene, and it makes me laugh as Jeff proceeds to introduce him as the "former... log roll... winner." Bob does do quite well in this challenge, but its ultimately Marcus who wins. Another funny line from Jeff comes when Bob falls, and he tells Bob that he "would be ridiculed back home!"

3/5

Keep It Up Endurance

Alright, time to talk about the weirdest challenge of Survivor: Gabon. There has been a lot of speculation over the years that Gabon's second tribe switch wasn't originally planned, and was, instead, implemented last minute in an attempt to break up the Onion alliance in order to prevent a predictable Pagonging in the Post-Merge. I typically do not buy into Survivor conspiracy theories, but this is the one that has always seemed the most plausible to me. The structure of this challenge does seem very suspicious. Earlier in the episode, both tribes joined up at a special location for what seemed (and as some suspect, was originally planned to be) like a Merge feast. The cast got to bond for a bit, eat, throw an idol into the ocean, standard stuff. But then, instead of Merging, surprise, a second tribe switch! Granted, we have seen a similar trick done before, proceeding All-Stars' second switch (which some also suspect was impromptu and rigged), but what really stands out about this season is that the challenges imply we were originally supposed to Merge in this episode. This Immunity Challenge seems clearly designed to be an Individual Immunity challenge. In fact, the exact same challenge will be used in future seasons as an individual competition. It's an endurance challenge, and usually, the last person standing wins Immunity. In this season though, whoever is the last person standing wins Immunity for their tribe... It's just weird, no other endurance challenge in the show's history has been awkwardly forced into this type of tribal format before. The closest we ever get to this was a genuinely interesting idea in Heroes vs Villains, which I'm excited to talk about when we get there, but that actually had a unique format to it which tested both tribes' perceptions of each other. Plus, the fact that it is an endurance challenge also implies Merge, since the first Immunity Challenge following the Merge of every season since Palau, with the exception of China, had been an endurance challenge. (Technically Fiji's first Immunity Challenge following the "Merge" wasn't endurance, but that's because of that season's weird twist where they divided into teams for one Tribal Council. The first real Individual Immunity Challenge was endurance.) So I'm assuming what people who believe this conspiracy theory think is that this was originally going to be an Individual Immunity Challenge, and the Tribal Reward Challenge in the following episode was originally going to be a Team Reward Challenge. (It's also very rare to have a Reward Challenge in the Merge episode [Thailand and One World are the only others]; if this was supposed to be the Merge episode, that would explain a lot.)

With all of that context out of the way, let's talk about the challenge itself. Spoiler alert, there's really not that much to talk about. This is the type of super simple, over-in-10-minutes endurance challenge that may have been novel at the time, but is spammed so lazily in modern seasons that I simply find barely any excitement in watching them anymore. Each player has to use the back of their hands to hold poles up against a small roof above them. It's probably a 2/5 challenge in most seasons, but the weird, clunky format knocks it down a peg further for me.

1/5

Fired Up Miscellaneous Challenge

Alright, if you've read my Borneo or Africa entries, you probably already knew how I would feel about this challenge: I don't find it interesting. Like I said in those entries, the entire premise of a challenge just being "make a fire" bores me. If there's an extra element to it, then yeah, I like that. In Marquesas, they did this challenge at night and with popcorn, that was great. In The Amazon, it was a tribal challenge and the tribes had to transport their fire to burn through multiple ropes, which was somewhat interesting. Even in Africa, which I also gave a 1/5 score to, the players at least had to run over and retrieve their materials. In this version, everything they need is right next to them. I actually like fire-making a tie-breaker, I've always thought that was a great idea. And fire-making challenges can be interesting; the Winners at War showdown between Tony and Sarah was freaking incredible, I could hardly sit still watching that. However, that argument inspires two counterclaims: First, fire-making is just inherently more interesting as a 1 on 1 showdown, especially when the stakes are as high as making into the Final 3 and you have that chilling, suspenseful music playing. And second, the fact that fire-making already exists as tie-breaker by Survivor: Gabon makes the idea of having it be its own challenge seem even more redundant to me. In fact, this season actually goes on to have a tie-breaker fire-making challenge, so I feel like that just further validates my point that it's pointless to have this be it's own Immunity Challenge as well.

1/5

The Domino Effect Dexterity / Physical Race

What's this?! A "dexterity" challenge?! What is this foreign entity?! Could we really be 17 seasons into a show and get an entirely new type of challenge? That's right, not only is Domino Effect a new challenge in its own right, it's the first of many challenges we will begin to see on the show which I classify as "dexterity" challenges. In general... I love them. In fact, I will always maintain that dexterity challenges are the most consistently great variety of Survivor challenges out there. Before I talk about this one, which happens to be one of my favorite Survivor challenges of all time, I think we should first identify some common characteristics of dexterity challenges. First, they are usually objective based, as in, there is a task and an end goal. Most "physical race" challenges are like this as well, but, as you would imagine, there is nothing physical about most dexterity challenges. Because of that, another common trait in these types of challenges is what I'm going to call the "Anyone Can Win element." Without any physical demands, the less athletic are theoretically on equal footing with even the season's strongest competitors in these types of challenges. This is also true of all purely "mental" and most purely "skill" challenges, but those types of challenges rarely feel climactic or tense. Like, an all mental challenge would probably make for a pretty lame Final Immunity Challenge, for example. (Hint hint, The Australian Outback.) Thankfully, the third, and perhaps, most important characteristic of dexterity challenges is that they are exceptionally tense; they keep you at the edge of your seat. There's usually this element of "one small mistake could send you all the way back to the start," and it's riveting to watch. Yeah, that person is in the lead right now, but at any moment, they could make some fatal mistake and have to start over. Not all dexterity challenges are like this, but the majority of them are, and I think it's great. I guess the last characteristic of dexterity challenges worth pointing out is that they almost always reward people with a good balance between patience and urgency; people who can remain calm under pressure, and thus, are able to maintain a strong control of their motor functions, such as slowly moving their arms around, or ensuring the rope holding up a wobbly table remains exceptionally still, even when a million dollars is on the line.

So, with the concept of a dexterity challenge well defined, let's look at our first example, and what I consider to be one of the best Survivor challenges of all time: Domino Effect. Well, actually, first, let's get this little "physical race" section out of the way real quick. Basically, this challenge is divided into two parts, and only the first two people to finish the first part, in addition to the person who won the advantage at the auction, get to advance to the second, dexterity part. The first part is extremely basic, it just involves running across a balance beam twice to collect bags of pieces which are used in the second part. I guess the way the balance beam functions is kind of cool. Alright, next, let's get to the part of the challenge that's actually interesting: The domino part. Ah yes, everyone loves dominos, those fun little rectangular blocks we line up around the house only to knock over, causing a satisfying chain. This Survivor challenge takes the fun of stacking dominos, amplifies the fear we all have while stacking that we might preemptively trigger the chain by accident, and... that's basically it! It's actually another one of those "simple but effective" challenges! It should be noted that this fairly common challenge has two different designs, and that the set-up for this older version is a bit more complicated, but in the end, the concept is the exact same. Both versions are great, so let's get into it: Each player has dominos and a long, narrow platform that slopes up and down at various angles along the way. The dominos have different-shaped bottoms, so they only fit along the certain parts of the platform that have the same angles they do. The end goal is to have the entire platform lined with dominos so that you can knock them over and have them chain all the way across the platform, ultimately knocking over a ball, releasing a flag. To make things more interesting, the entire platform sits atop a wobbly beam, and is entirely surrounded by tripwire, which, if too carelessly pushed, cause the platform to tip, and the dominos to fall. I seriously love this concept so much. There are so many risk vs reward factors to consider: It's a race, you want to go quickly, but if you go too quickly, you have a higher chance of hitting a tripwire and potentially losing a lot of progress. Slow and steady wins the race, but how slow is too slow when you are competing against players who are likely similarly inclined? Additionally, you must be very adroit in placing the blocks and ensuring they are perfectly spaced, because if you go to knock over the dominos and the chain fails, well, now you have to go and restack a whole bunch of dominos, which wastes a lot of time, AND risks you potentially hitting more tripwire along the way, burying you even further. There are just a lot of things to consider, making for an extremely stressful challenge, to play and to watch. The best moments come when multiple players begin to activate their chains at the same time, and there's no way to know whose chain, if any, will successfully make it all the way across the platform. That's exactly how this challenge comes to an end, as Matty's, Kenny's, and Corrinne's dominos all fall to the finish in a race of pure anxiety. Corrinne's dominos suddenly stop... Matty's dominos suddenly fail... Kenny's dominos... make it all the way to the end and he wins! Man, that's an exciting challenge.

5/5

Bombs Away Mental / Skill

Here's another fun little challenge that takes advantage of Gabon's hilly environment! This is basically Survivor Quiz Show meets crapshoot Big Brother Competition, and... it's actually pretty fun, if only a bit unspectacular. The rules are very simple: There are two phases of the challenge. First, Jeff asks trivia questions about Gabon, and everytime a player gets one right, they earn an additional ball to use for the second phase. Once the second phase begins, each player gets to throw their balls down the hill in an attempt to land as close as possible to the center of the target. Once everyone used up all of their balls, whoever had the closest shot wins immunity. Obviously, doing better at the questions gives you more chances to get a ball really close to the center of the target. And I mean yeah, it's a fun little challenge. As always, I like how Survivor Quiz Show makes the location relevant and allows the audience to play along, and the ball-throwing part of the challenges is kind of fun to watch, and it makes good use of a cool-looking hill. Nice challenge! Although... The blanket statement that gorillas were "first discovered" in 1848 is debatable.

3/5

Mask Match Mental / Physical Race

I've always thought this was a really cool idea for a challenge, an excellent test of attention to detail not seen in many other Survivor challenges. To put it simply, each player has to put together a puzzle, blindfolded. They must rely entirely on their sense of touch, feeling a replica of the puzzle on the opposite side of their lane, before going back to the side their puzzle is on and trying to piece it together. The pieces are initially in bags, which must be retrieved one at a time from the opposite end of the lane, so everybody will be making at least 3 trips back and forth no matter what. To really force the players to pay attention to the finer details of the mask, there are decoy pieces which fit into the same places as the real pieces, but are physically different from the replica masks. These decoy pieces are colored differently than the correct ones, so the audience can easily tell when a player is off track, but of course, since the players are blindfolded, they have no idea, which can be kind of satisfying; it makes you feel smart for knowing they are wrong before they realize it. The lanes themselves are basically just giant crawl-under obstacles, so as long as you get down to the ground and go straight, you should be fine navigating, but that doesn't stop Crystal and Susie from getting themselves comically off course. This challenge also gets some bonus points for infusing a bit of culture into it. You see, the masks that the players have to assemble aren't just any masks, they are Gabonese masks, as Jeff explains it. You know, I will say, for a season that does such a phenomenal job at incorporating the location's physical geography into its challenges, I do feel like it leaves something to be desired as far as incorporating Gabonese culture into its challenges. As I mentioned in my China entry, Survivor: China really is the last season to make a big effort at making its challenges full of culture, and while Gabon's challenges have been largely fantastic, I also know there are so many cool things they could have done with the country's unique, African culture had they directed more of their efforts in that department. Even having more little things, like this challenge's mask design, I think would have gone a long way in making Survivor: Gabon feel a bit more connected to the people who actually live at "Earth's Last Eden." Anyway, I've always considered this to be a great, creative, and seemingly difficult challenge.

4/5

A-Mazing Gabon Physical Race / Mental

This is it everyone! This is the season's big, grand finale challenge, and ohhh my goodness, it's a beautiful one. The next installment in the "Survivor makes the coolest-looking mazes of all time" series, it had been a little while since we were last blessed with an awesome Survivor maze, the last one being Guatemala's stunning bird-shaped one. As always with these maze challenges, I feel like it's important to just take a moment to pause and appreciate the amount of effort that went into creating it. For real, just look at the size of this thing. Not to mention, there are actually two mazes here, albeit the second one is the main attraction. I mentioned while talking about the previous challenge that I wish the challenges in general this season took more inspiration from Gabonese culture, and this is the one challenge of the season that I can truly say relishes in the location's unique culture. The second and larger maze consists of 25 authentic-looking Gabonese huts, and it's an inspiring sight. I even love the extra details they carved into the grass surrounding the maze structures. The whole set is just so amazingly well done, and is something you can tell required weeks if not months of work and planning to put together. I hope the challenge team knows how much we appreciate the crazy amounts of effort they put into challenges like this! Okay, to actually break down the rules of the game, everyone must first dig underneath a gate and pull themselves through in order to reach the first and smaller maze making up this behemoth of a challenge. That smaller maze is made up of elevated planks that need to be carefully walked across, as the planks are narrow enough to almost be considered a maze of balance beams. The sole objective of this section is to reach the end, where they will encounter another gate. Instead of digging underneath, this gate requires the Survivors to untie knots which will eventually unlock the door for them to go through, leading to the larger maze of Gabonese huts. This maze is a bit more open-ended in its design; instead of simply racing to the other side, the players have to search through the 25 huts for 3 specific huts that house bags of puzzle pieces, which must be carried to the finishing platform one at a time. Once all of the puzzle pieces have been gathered at the finishing platform, the players can begin work on a really, really awesome-looking 3D puzzle that takes the shape of a cute little mini-Gabonese hut. In the end, Bob wins his 5th straight challenge, his most impressive win on the most impressive build of the season.

5/5

House of Cards Dexterity

Oh joy, it's another dexterity challenge! This is another challenge that becomes something of a classic, as it appears somewhat frequently in later seasons and is memorable for being another fairly nerve-racking challenge, especially as it appears here as the season's final challenge. This also marks the beginning of a new trend which will continue all the way to the modern day of the Final Immunity Challenge, more often than not, being a dexterity challenge. Personally, I think this is a great change. While still inferior to the Hands on a Hard Idol days of the earliest of seasons, I think having a super tense dexterity Final Immunity Challenge that places everyone on an equal footing is generally superior and more fair than having an endurance or physical race challenge that clearly favors the more athletic players left in the game. As I've reiterated many times before in this series, a Final Immunity Challenge that I can reasonably believe that any of the finalists have a shot at winning is something that I really value. If you recall, I even gave Fiji's Final Immunity Challenge a somewhat low score for an otherwise cool endurance challenge because it simply seemed out of place and almost unfair as a Final Immunity Challenge. And don't even get me started on Panama again! So yes, I personally really like dexterity as the Final Immunity Challenge, especially when it is supplemented by a really cool-looking, perhaps more physical Final 5 or Final 6 Immunity Challenge, like we got with this season's epic maze challenge. Okay, so, let's talk about House of Cards!

Just like Domino Effect, it's one of those simple-but-great challenges. The objective is very clear, it's something that you can steadily work towards, and yet, one wrong move can force you to start all the way over from the beginning. Instead of stacking dominos, this challenge requires you to stack small, wooden tiles to create a 10 foot tall house of cards. The first player to create a 10 foot tower, or, whoever has the tallest tower at the end of 30 minutes, wins the challenge. Additionally, there are only 200 tiles, so they must be used efficiently. Alright, there are a lot of things I love about this challenge. First, I just think the concept of a "house of cards" is really interesting, and I like seeing it incorporated into a Survivor challenge. Then, you've got all of the risk vs reward factors to consider: It is critical to secure a sturdy foundation, or else your tower will come tumbling down, but with only 200 total tiles, you have to strike a really smart balance between using enough tiles to build a safe structure, but not so many that you run out of tiles well below reaching 10 feet. Then, there's the natural dilemma between working quickly but more recklessly, or working slower and potentially falling behind your opponents. Finally, the 30 minute time limit poses another great element of risk vs reward: say there are only 5 minutes left and you have an 8 foot stack; do you bother trying to complete the tower and risk knocking the whole thing over with so little time to recover from such a mistake, or do you stop at building at 8 feet and hope no one is able to pass you before time runs out? These are all great questions and scenarios that you will likely have to consider if you play this challenge. While I don't like it as much as Domino Effect, because I think it generally isn't as exciting, I still appreciate all of the quick decisions you have to make along the way, and I think it works quite well as a Final Immunity Challenge.

4/5