Paddle Battle Physical Race

In a season with the subtitle The Mayan Empire, you have to admire a challenge which bases its entire premise upon an ancient Mayan modus operandi. The first part of the challenge is nothing new, each tribe has to paddle out into the lake to retrieve their tribe torch. Once they return back with their torch, that's where this challenge gets really interesting. The tribes have to drag their boats onto the shore, and then attach the boats to a rope. Four members from the tribe then race uphill to pull on a rope, in order to slowly and painfully drag the boat uphill. In order to make this easier for the pullers, but an exhausting task in of itself, other members of the tribe are employed to move around giant rolling logs across which the boat is to be transferred, which is the same method the Mayans used. If you've been keeping up with this series, you already know how much I love when challenges incorporate the culture of their season's location. The last part of the challenge involves the person carrying the torch running up the hill to light the victory cauldron. The challenge plays out very entertaining; at one point, Stephenie's foot gets caught underneath one of the large rolling logs, and the same thing ends up happening to Danni and Cindy as well. These are some tough challenges that this season is starting out with!

4/5

Dragged Through Mud Physical Race

This is actually only the first of two brilliant physical contact challenges that we are going to see this season and then never see again. This is Survivor's version of tug of war, and it's just as rough and physical as you would expect. I will say, this challenge has a somewhat strange structure, where it begins with everyone from both tribes playing at the same time, but if after fifteen minutes neither tribe is successful, then the format completely switches to a series of one on one showdowns. At first, I wasn't a fan of this structure; I thought it was clunky and didn't see the reasoning behind it, but after thinking about it, this is actually a very smart design decision. If one tribe was able to overcome the other during the first fifteen minutes, that would mean that one of the tribes simply had a lot more strength than the other, which would make the one on one showdowns somewhat boring because the more powerful tribe would likely win most of the rounds. This format is designed to spare us from that scenario, and if one tribe is notably stronger than the other, then the challenge would just end quickly before the fifteen minutes were up. Anyway, let's talk about how this challenge actually plays out, because I think it is wonderfully entertaining. Starting with the first part where everyone is playing at the same time, it becomes immediately clear just how difficult this challenge is. It takes every bit of strength from each tribe member in order to stay in this, and the fact that the challenge takes place over a thick pit of mud just makes it even harder. Fun moments during this phase include the return of feral Bobby Jon screams and a pretty wild bout between Danni and Brian, which starts with the two wrestling over each other until Brian has Danni on lockdown. Fifteen minutes pass, and neither tribe has won, so we go to the individual rounds. The rules are the tribes are playing to three, each round is five minutes and if neither person reaches the flag, whoever is closest scores the point, and any person from a tribe can go as many times as they want, which I think is a good rule for television purposes. The first round is between Gary and Judd, and it's a greatly eventful one. Firstly, this is where Danni exposes Gary for being a former NFL linebacker. Then, as Judd approaches his flag and time is almost up, Gary decides to stand up, run over to Judd's side, and tackle him. This was in no universe going to be a winning strategy, so I'm not quite sure what Gary's motivation for doing this was other than just wanting to tackle Judd, which I suppose is a reasonable enough justification. Suffice it to say, Judd wins this round. The second round is pretty forgettable, but the third round more than makes up for it. It's Judd going against Jamie, and for the entire round, Jamie has the lead over Judd. It seems like Jamie is just going to play out the clock and score, but right when there are just ten seconds left, Judd makes this move, and it's truly awesome to watch. It's like he's been powering up this entire time and right at the end, he just lunges forward, scoring Nakúm's third and winning point in one of best clutch moves I've seen in a Survivor challenge. Super great challenge, it'd be great to see return, especially in a season with a Heroes vs Villains-esque theme.

5/5 

Holding Court Physical Race / Skill

Before I get into this one, I would like to point out that I have been classifying challenges like this and Sumo at Sea as "physical race" challenges, despite the fact that technically, these really aren't races. Still, these types of challenges test very similar elements to the typical physical races, namely, an emphasis on strength, so I feel comfortable grouping them all together. Alright, let's get into this one- this is a favorite of mine. Like I mentioned earlier, this season has two physical contact challenges that never return, and what do you know, they appear in back-to-back episodes! As Jeff explains, it is based on the oldest and most popular Mayan game, "Court Ball." We're already off to a good start, tying in the challenge with Mayan culture. The way it works is three members from each tribe square off on an elevated court. The court is made of netting, which makes it somewhat difficult to move around. There is one ball over which the tribes have to fight, and much like in sports like team handball, the person with the ball has to throw it to another tribemate- no kicking or running with the ball is allowed. The goal is to throw the ball through one of your team's two hoops, which are elevated quite high above the ground. There is no rule against pushing and shoving each other in order to get the ball, and that's where this challenge gets really fun. Now, I love the way that Jeff sets this up and how it ultimately ties into what Survivor represents as a whole; he explains that when the Mayans played, the losing team had to sacrifice a member. Given that this is an Immunity Challenge, the tribe that lost this game would figuratively have to do the same thing- I find this really cool to think about. The first team to score five points wins, and I think all of the rounds are pretty enjoyable to watch. Something about this challenge just seems really fun! I think even the people who don't like Survivor's physical contact challenges because they find them to be overly barbaric would still appreciate this one, because even though it sometimes gets physical, it's never overtly so, and the game still feels like a full-fledged, perhaps even sophisticated sport. When it comes to individual moments in this challenge of note-worth, this is where Amy hurts her ankle, something that is going to weaken her for the rest of her time out there, and may very well be the reason we never see this challenge again (a reason I disagree with, especially since there are other challenges like the blindfold challenge that are probably more dangerous, BUT I DIGRESS!), and Lydia proves that sports aren't her strong suit. I mean, she doesn't even know what a PICK is! What planet is this girl from, am I right Stephenie?! At one point in the challenge, Jeff gives the rare "temperature update," and says that it is 114 degrees. That is just astonishing, and makes me wish that the show would tell us the temperature more often, because it really gives the audience a whole new perspective on how tough these challenges really are. I mean really, whenever they have the "Elapsed Time" chyron pop up, why not put the current temperature below that in a smaller font? Anyway, people often cite Guatemala as being one of the most difficult seasons of the show, and that becomes pretty clear during this challenge; there are points, especially between rounds, where you can really see the toll the weather and just the outright brutality of the location is taking on everyone. It certainly doesn't help them that Guatemala is continuing to prove itself a season of very difficult challenges!

5/5

Rows and Throws Physical Race / Skill

Here's a pretty good Immunity Challenge that once again finds a way to incorporate some Mayan culture into it. There are two parts to this challenge, the first half is paddling, the second half is throwing. I think I could probably do without the first section, especially since we just had a challenge with paddling in Episode 1, but it's alright. There are three bags that need to be retrieved out in the water, and then a tribe can return back to shore. There's one part of this that is pretty fun, when Nakúm and Yaxhá collide, and Nakúm responds by using their paddles to push Yaxhá off the course. Once the tribes get back to shore, they have to untie their bags to collect Mayan war clubs, and let me tell you, Mayan war clubs always make challenges better. The object here is to throw the clubs to smash three tiles, each tile further from the previous one, and I think this makes for a pretty entertaining challenge.

3/5

What's For Launch? Physical Race

This is the return of the Wicker Flicker challenge from Survivor: Thailand, with a couple of changes. Firstly, to play into Mayan culture, instead of wicker baskets, the catchers are now using "Mayan catch nets" to catch the balls being launched towards them. I have no idea if the producers just made that term up or if someone on production just did some incredibly thorough research, but my Google search for "Mayan catch net" did not yield any common results; apparently though, a Mayan catch net is a triangular shaped basket with a handle on each of its corners, requiring three people to hold, of course, with one person handling each corner. The second notable change is that unlike in Survivor: Thailand, it no longer matters which tribe the launchers are on- if you catch a ball, you score a point, even if the person who launched it was on the opposing team- I like this change. Lastly, and this is a minor change but still something I felt was interesting enough to point out- instead of using slingshots, the launchers now have these really cool catapults with levers they pull to launch the ball. I'll just say this- I think that this is a very solid and enjoyable challenge, and all of these changes are nice improvements, but this is a challenge that has just never gotten me overly excited. It's a fun challenge but I'm sure that its some other peoples' cup of tea more so than my own.

3/5

Sudden Death Physical Race / Mental

Although we are still in the Pre-Merge portion of the game, this is an Individual Immunity Challenge, because this is one of those episodes where boths tribes are going to tribal council, but the tribe that won the Reward Challenge gets to play an Immunity Challenge where one person gets to protect themselves. We saw this same format in Survivor: Vanuatu, but in that season, both the tribal and individual portions were all combined into the same challenge- Great Escape Run. In this season however, these are treated as two completely separate challenges, so let's break this one down. This is pretty much just a completely watered down version of Thailand's Letter Hunt challenge; race out, untie a bag, bring it back, repeat a couple of times, unscramble a word phrase. Judd saves this challenge from being a 1/5 for me though, by looking over at Rafe's puzzle, figuring out the answer before he does, and then telling him what it is; this at least provides something memorable about this challenge.

2/5

Tomb Raider Mental / Physical Race

This is another challenge that originated in Survivor: Africa under the name "Puzzle of Shields," and I gave that version a 1/5 because I thought it was boring. I don't think that this version is that much better, but it's saved by its awesome location (surrounded by Mayan pyramids) and the fact that this time, the puzzle is a Mayan Calendar, which plays into the season's location much more than the little tiki thing the tribes were putting together in Africa. It's also a little bit more difficult to retrieve the puzzle pieces than before, as some of them are buried under quite a bit of dirt.

2/5

Pot Head Endurance / Physical Race

Time for the extremely elusive "Endurance / Physical Race" hybrid challenge! This season's first challenge following the Merge is pretty interesting. It begins as an endurance challenge, but if after one hour, everyone is still in the game, they go to a tie-breaker round, which is oddly enough, essentially a completely different challenge. Before the challenge begins, Jeff offers food to people who are feeling confident enough to sit out of the Immunity Challenge, which is something I love to see at least once a season, and something we will start to see pretty consistently from here on out. I'm not a huge fan of this format- I don't like the idea that if the endurance challenge goes on for too long, it just completely switches to a different challenge. In future seasons (and later on in this one, I guess), we will see endurance challenges that are designed to be made artificially more difficult as the challenge progresses, such as having to move to a narrower part of a beam to stand on. I see why they are doing this, they don't want this challenge to go on for too long, but the way they handle it here just makes the challenge feel inconsistent. That being said, I find both portions of the challenge to be pretty good in their own rights. The endurance part is something we'll never see exactly again, but all it is is each person has to balance a pot on their head, and if it falls, you are out. It's really not a very interesting idea on its own, but what makes this part entertaining is Jamie, someone who, ironically enough, isn't even playing in the challenge. Jamie is one of the people who decided to sit out and eat, along with most of the rest of the Nakúm tribe, who felt safe enough in their numbers advantage to sit out. What makes this funny though, is everyone else on the Nakúm tribe is trying to act as humble as they can about the Pagonging they know is about to ensue, except for Jamie, who basically starts rubbing it in to the Yaxhá people that they don't have the numbers. This really annoys the rest of his alliance, especially Rafe, and it all in all provides enough drama to make this first part of the challenge entertaining enough. The tie-breaker part of the challenge I think is a bit more interesting, but it is also very short, so I'm not really sure which part of the challenge I prefer here. The way it works is, everyone, still with the pots on their heads, has to race up a Mayan temple (which is really cool, by the way), and the first person to the top wins. There's some fun risk vs reward stuff going on here- do you try and go faster than everyone else and risk losing your pot, or do you go slow and steady and hope everyone else messes up? I find it odd that if your pot breaks, you are out of the challenge. Why not just let them restart from the beginning? Sure, their pot will shatter, but they should just be able to grab a new pot and try again; it would be really anticlimactic if no one made it to the top of the temple because everyone's pot broke. Thankfully though, that's not what happens... Very interesting challenge- I think that this is definitely a case of a challenge being greater than the sum of its parts, because while it's kind of all over the place both in structure and in entertainment value, it still manages to finish as a pretty memorable challenge.

3/5

Bridge It Physical Race

This is an elimination-style challenge that plays in three parts, and while it's not the most memorable challenge in the world, I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I think part of that is just that I have always really liked the elimination-style format, I think it works very well in Survivor challenges. The first round is a simple but new obstacle- it's a balance beam, but along the way, you have to untie planks; it could be tricky to untie while keeping your balance at the same time. The second round is a plank bridge- I think this is the first time we see a plank bridge, I could be wrong on that though. It's a decent obstacle, but my favorite part of this challenge is the third round. It's a rope bridge, or "two-line balance bridge," over a pool of water. It is in this round where Rafe has one of my favorite challenge goofs, when he flips over, spins around, and dunks his head in the water. Danni starts laughing, and so do I.

3/5

Around The Bend Physical Race

This is the first appearance of a challenge which has definitely become a Survivor staple over the years. Each person is attached to a rope which is threaded through a bunch of fencing, and you have to throw yourself under and over the fence in order to untangle yourself. In this version of the challenge, it is actually elimination-style, where the first four people to complete the first section move on to a more difficult section in which the fencing is three levels high, making it even harder to untangle yourself. I have always found this to be a very solid challenge, and one of the more difficult challenges that is still in frequent rotation on the show. I mean, this just looks tough- now consider that it is probably at least 100 degrees out- yikes.

3/5

Maya Folklore Mental / Physical Race

IT'S SURVIVOR FOLKLORE TIME AGAIN!!! I am so excited to talk about the sixth installment in one of the best-ever Survivor challenges, and this is actually going to be the last time I get to do this for a very long time (we don't talk about the Cook Islands version). Alright, so this version of the challenge is pretty much exactly the same as the Vanuatu version- it is played during the day, which isn't as good at night time but a 5/5 challenge is a 5/5 challenge regardless of time of day, and just like before, you have to use puzzle pieces in order to construct the question, which is then broken once you leave the station so the next person has to build it again. I still really like this format- now, they are going to perfect this challenge in its next appearance, but this format works great as well. Okay, let's get to the story, because let me tell you, this is the type of story you could only expect to hear from someone who drank a bit too much kava: One of the most popular figures in Mayan mythology is the moon goddess, Ixchel (who also was the inventor of weaving). Now, she was married to Itzamna, who was the creator of the entire Maya culture. They had four sons, and it was their job to hold up the four corners of the sky. But unfortunately, that marriage didn't work out, and so Ixchel married Voltan, the earth god, who was actually a human that was turned into a god. Eventually, Ixchel got tired of him and started having an affair (?!!!) with the sun god. This made Ixchel's grandfather angry, and to teach her a lesson, he did what any good father figure would do- threw lightning down at her to kill her. You would think this is where the story ends, but no. This is when dragonflies come to the rescue, sing over her body, and bring her back to life. Given a second shot at life, Ixchel decides to return to her affair with the sun... for a few days at least. You see, she got tired of the sun, and so she ditched that affair in favor of a new affair with the sun's brother, the morning star! The sun god was devastated by this, so he decided to banish Ixchel from his sight forever. Today, Ixchel spends her nights alone in the sky, nursing the women of Earth in their pregnancy, and this is why when the sun is in sight, the moon stays hidden. You know, as funny as this story sounds today, it's actually pretty remarkable to think about. The Mayans were incredibly smart, and their great knowledge of astronoyy was particularly mindblowing. But even though they had a vast, logical understanding of our solar system, they also had these beautiful explanations as to why these phenomena were occuring, and looking back at these anecdotes today can be powerful. I find it amazing that a Survivor challenge can be so enlightening— what I am really getting at here is that Survivor Folklore continues to be amazing.

5/5

Watch Your Step Mental

Squared Off is back! We last saw this as the Loved Ones Challenge in Survivor: Marquesas, so it's fair to say it's been a while since we last saw this one. In all fairness, this challenge works better as a Reward Challenge for reasons we will see when this challenge appears again in South Pacific, but this is definitely my favorite version so far. In Marquesas, there were power-ups in the center of the board. In this version, not only is the board fancier than ever, taking place on multiple levels and in a wild shape, but the beginning section now rotates allowing for even more strategy (or confusion) to be utilized. Also, I kind of love the color of the flipped tiles. Is that a weird thing to say? I don't know, it's just such a radiant shade of red! Alright, let's get to Danni's advantage: At any point, she is allowed to switch places with another player... That. Is. Immense. In my opinion, this is actually the most powerful challenge advantage that has ever appeared on Survivor- ever. This pretty much guarantees you the win. As long as you aren't completely incompetent and trap yourself early on, you cannot lose the game with this advantage. Squared Off is a challenge that always plays out in the same way- people make their moves early on, but by the second half of the challenge, you can usually tell who is going to win and from there, you just play the game out. It is so easy to simply switch places with whoever is obviously going to win- that is exactly what Danni does. But even that doesn't do justice to just how overpowered this advantage is, because not only can you use this advantage to guarantee yourself a win, you could, hypothetically, but very easily, use this advantage to guarantee that someone else does not win. This isn't just a Winners at War-style challenge disadvantage, this is literally the power to completely shatter a person's chance at winning. All you have to do is trap yourself in a circle, switch places with the person you don't want to win at the last moment, and done, it's game over for them. I don't think anyone on this cast would have done something like that, but if Brandon Hantz got his hands on this advantage, that would have been a different story. Long story short- Danni has a crazy-powerful advantage in this challenge, which takes a bit of the suspense out of it, but she did earn the advantage fair and square, and any of her tribemates could have and should have outbid her on it- I mean, she didn't even have to pay that much for this!!! I do think that this is the most interesting design this challenge has ever taken, and so it's still getting a very high score from me.

4/5

Pole Dancing Physical Race

This is a very interesting one- I like the idea behind it, but I'm not a fan of the execution, and this is a challenge that reappears improved multiple times, so I know exactly in what ways it could be better. The big idea is that each player is attached to a rope which is wound around a pole, and you need to unwind enough rope to run across a field to the goal. That's where it becomes risk vs reward- what is the least amount of rope I need to reach the finish? Because you don't want to waste any time, but you definitely don't want to get all the way to the end only to realize that you don't have enough rope. Listen, I love this element of the challenge. However, I do not like the other part of this challenge, which involves using keys to unlock shackles on the players' hands and feet. First of all, I don't like this weird luck element that they decided to go for here, making there be ten keys but only one of the keys works, so you have to fool around trying a bunch of different keys until one works- and also, I just personally find this large portion of the challenge to be kind of boring; it's too hard to follow, it's hard to see how exactly how much progress each person has made, and I just really don't think it makes for good television. But thankfully, like I mentioned before, this challenge will return for future seasons, and it will be better!

2/5

Maya Maze Physical Race / Mental

JUST LOOK AT IT! For me personally, nothing is ever going to beat Thailand's Final Immunity Challenge when it comes to the best job the art department has ever done on a challenge. However- this may be the coolest-looking challenge, as in the actual challenge itself, not the environment around it- to ever appear on the show. I think we get another maze challenge on Ghost Island, and possibly even Gabon, that may rival this one, but just wow, can we all just take a moment to admire this? It's stuff like this that really makes me fall in love with this show. Logistically, at least from my perspective, they had zero reason to do this. They could have just done something smaller, something a bit more typical for the Final 4 Immunity Challenge and no one would have complained; there's no way to prove that this challenge inspired even a single person who just got hooked on the show to stick around for Survivor: Panama that wasn't going to watch the next season anyway- they just did this because they knew that they could do it and that it would be really cool- that is so awesome. I would also like to briefly talk about the puzzle- I think that it's pretty cool too! Each piece is in the shape of a long triangular prism, each side with different stuff on it, so not only do you need to solve the puzzle in a traditional sense, but you also have to figure out which side of each piece needs to be used. Aside from that though, you'd get more out of this challenge just by continuing to look at it than reading anything else I have to say about it, so I'm going to move on, but just one more time to make this very clear- thank you Survivor production team! I love you guys so much!

5/5

Wobbly Boots Endurance

I have been thinking about this challenge ever since I started this series- I have always been so conflicted on this one, and so even back when I was writing my Borneo entry, I was thinking to myself "some day, I'm going to have to talk about Guatemala's Final Immunity Challenge and form a concrete opinion on it." (Deep breath) Okay, so where to begin with this one? I don't even think I have that much to say about it, I'm just struggling as to where to start. Let's just start with how it works, or, how it's supposed to work. Each person is standing on a wobbly beam, with each arm holding onto a rope for some added stability. If you fall off, you're out. The wobbly beam part is interesting but it's always felt kind of weird to me- I don't know why, but it has always just felt sort of out of place to me, especially on a relatively early season of Survivor. Anyway, this first part of the challenge is alright, but I don't think it's particularly interesting- it's different, it's a bit strange- but it's just sort of okay. Now remember, this season comes right after Palau, where production had to sit and watch a challenge go on for twelve hours, and we already saw in the "Pot Head" challenge that they don't want challenges to be able to go on for that long anymore. So what is their solution for this one? After one hour, each person is going to have to let go of one of their ropes, which, theoretically, is going to make it much more difficult to balance on the beam. So, an hour passes, each person releases a rope, and what happens next is so strange, it's just so strange. Everyone loses their balance, pretty much at the same time, all seconds after letting go of one of the ropes. There's this really great, tense moment where all three of the finalists are just dangling around, holding on to a single rope, and it seems certain that the challenge is going to be over in just a few seconds. Well, it is over in just a few seconds- just kidding, it isn't; all three of the players get into this awkward position, with their backs against the challenge's structure and their feet pressed against the balance board... And this is how the rest, and actually, the majority of this challenge plays out, just like this... It is just so BIZARRE! It is just so strange watching the biggest challenge of the season devolve into this weird, alternative endurance challenge that the producers clearly did not envision. It feels wrong... but it's also... quite entertaining? Just something about it feels so raw, it's like a scene from an action movie where the person falls out of the helicopter, but then you look out the window and they are still barely hanging on by landing skids- this is not supposed to happen, and yet, it is. In that sense, it's kind of fascinating to watch, as the three finalists completely break the Final Immunity Challenge of Survivor: Guatemala. On the other hand, it isn't very fair. As many people have pointed out, the challenge "Wobbly Boots" devolves into is a challenge that heavily favors a tall person like Danni, and for me, that's a problem. This has never really come up so far, but I mentioned in the main page of this series that part of my criteria for rating these challenges would be where they are used, and it is very important to me that a season's Final Immunity Challenge be fair for everyone. Survivor: Fiji is a great example of a season with a Final Immunity Challenge that is really awesome, but I can tell you right now that it is going to get docked points from me because it should not be a Final Immunity Challenge- you can't have a challenge that has such a big emphasis on strength be the Final Immunity Challenge. But with this challenge, I can't blame the producers, because the challenge wasn't designed this way- the original design for this challenge was perfectly fine for a Final Immunity Challenge- I mean, it was a bit dull, but no one can argue that it was unfair in any way. That's why I have always been so torn on this one. There is a part of this challenge that is incredibly entertaining, and it plays out in a crazy unique way that no other challenge has ever played out before- but the way it plays out isn't very fair, but it wasn't designed to play out that way, but if it had played out the way it was originally designed, it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting or memorable. It's such a tough call! In the end though, I think that there are so many things that I enjoy and don't enjoy about this challenge that it's going to end up with a solid, 3/5 "not mediocre but not amazing" score.

Also, huh, it turns out I actually did have a lot to say about this one, surprise surprise!

3/5