Getting Tanked Skill / Mental

In something of a very rare twist, there is nothing physical about this season's first Immunity Challenge. In this first completely new challenge since Samoa, one tribe member stands at the top of a large staircase structure holding a bucket. Their job is to collect water out of a tank and transport it to the bottom of the structure by pouring it down a gutter. The twist is that the gutter is actually made up of 5 smaller gutters that are being held up by their tribemates, who have to work together to ensure the water is able to properly flow. After about 5 buckets of water are deposited into the target barrel, a net of puzzle pieces will  be released which the remaining 4 tribe members have to use to assemble a simple jigsaw puzzle. The first tribe to get their puzzle put together wins Immunity. The Medallion of Power, which goes unused in this challenge, would have given a tribe about a 1-bucket head start in the pouring section. So... listen, I really wanted to love this challenge. I think it's an interesting idea that has some genuine potential. But the execution here is so anticlimactic. The pouring water part of the challenge, the only part of the challenge that could have been interesting, is way too easy. It's the type of thing that sounds like it would be a lot more challenging than it actually is; really, it only takes like 5 seconds to figure out how you should hold your gutter, and after that, it's smooth sailing for both tribes. It is not difficult at all to keep the gutters held up for the short duration it takes to fill the barrel. Meanwhile, the jigsaw puzzle is the most basic kind of puzzle you can get on this show, and it's not exciting to watch. Ultimately this is a challenge that lasts about 2 minutes on-screen, which like the Reward Challenge, couldn't possibly be much longer than it took in real life. So what should they have done instead? I have a couple of ideas. The first is to redesign the staircase structure so that it's not just a simple straight line to the bottom; a zig-zag path for example, or what about a built-in gap in the gutter that would require one tribe member to try and launch the water to the next? Another idea is to completely redesign this as a tribal endurance challenge. What if each tribe's barrel started full, but had a hole in it, and the first tribe to allow their barrel to lose a certain amount of water loses the challenge? Suddenly, the fatigue felt by holding up the gutters actually is a factor if we're talking about a challenge that is now lasting over an hour. But as it stands, it's a challenge with a unique concept but a lot of missed potential.

2/5

Hey Mate Physical Race / Skill

This Immunity Challenge has two sections. In the first section, four tribe members, one at a time, have to maneuver through a mud crawl obstacle to retrieve a ball, not unlike what we saw in Vanuatu's first Immunity Challenge. The balls are hidden within stacks of hay, which means that the people running this part of the challenge are going to become all muddy and covered in hay, which is a fun little visual. Onto the second section, once all four balls are collected, three other tribe members have to use shields to bounce each ball from one person to the next, and ultimately into a barrel. The first tribe to land all their balls in the barrel wins the challenge. The "Older Tribe," Espada, chooses to use their Medallion of Power, which means they only have to deal with 3 balls instead of 4. I don't have much to say about the first section, it's extremely generic albeit mildly entertaining. It's the second section that I find interesting, because this is actually a pretty unique obstacle. First of all, I have to point out that one underrated thing Survivor: Nicaragua is that it does make a few very, very subtle small nods to its location's culture and history. With one exception, Survivor: Cambodia, I feel like Survivor: Nicaragua is the final season of Survivor that makes any attempt to do this. The season's soundtrack has a very Latin style with a lot of guitar riffs, and there's a subtle theme of the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua sprinkled throughout the season, occasionally appearing in challenges like this one, with the inclusion of these shields. This ball-bouncing obstacle looks like fun, but again, this is an interesting idea that Survivor: Nicaragua refuses to fully realize. Why is this portion of the challenge so short and so easy? Honestly, I would have greatly preferred if they entirely scrapped the mud crawl section and focused the entire challenge on exploring this idea with the shields. It kind of reminds me of China's "Drum Roll," a challenge which I was very high on, and which actually committed to its idea the whole way through. "Hey Mate" doesn't do this, it just slaps two underdeveloped ideas together, and the result is another challenge that I have to rate a lot lower than I would like, even in spite of its creative elements and use of culture.

2/5

Get Barreled Physical Race / Skill

This has to be one of the least ambitious Survivor challenges of all time. I often give credit to challenges which are "simple but effective," but I don't think this is effective, it's mostly just boring. At the beginning of the challenge, each tribe has to go and collect 10 barrels which are scattered about a very close proximity to the start. (Sidenote — what's with all the barrels so far this season?!) After this grueling 30 second task is complete, the tribes have to arrange the barrels onto their platforms and one person from the tribe has to try and toss a sandbag on top of each barrel. The person tossing the sandbags can be swapped at any time. The first tribe to land a sandbag on all 10 barrels (or 8 of the barrels had the Medallion of Power been used) wins the challenge. I mean... this challenge is just so uninspired and forgettable, it's a shame that they didn't add anything that could have spiced it up. I would have made it so there were only 10 sandbags to throw, so each time you missed a shot, you had to run out and retrieve it. That would get exhausting quickly. I will say, I do appreciate how there's a little bit of strategy regarding who should go after which barrel and who should throw the sandbags— in fact, this is one of the rare challenges where they actually air the tribes strategizing before the challenge begins. But still, it's just boring. The storyline does get a bit interesting during the sandbag portion, and it's because the wonderful Tyrone, who is a great tosser initially and gives Espada a big lead over La Flor, kind of loses steam around the 6 sandbag mark. This allows the Younger Tribe to catch up, and on a more hilarious note, causes Jimmy T, one of my favorite Pre-Merge boots, to become frustrated. Jimmy T wants some play time! He keeps muttering things like "I want a shot at this..." and eventually pleads to Jimmy Johnson "You're wasting me here!" However, Tyrone is not ready to give up yet, and yells back "Jimmy T, be quiet!" By the time Espada concedes and lets Jimmy T have a chance, there's basically no time left to catch up before La Flor wins the challenge. It's a pretty funny scene as a Jimmy T stan but it's not enough for me to increase this challenge's rating.

1/5

Seers and Doers Physical Race

It's time for another round of Blind Leading the Blind, and like the majority of this challenge's appearances, it's mildly enjoyable but very unremarkable. This is one of the most basic forms this challenge has ever taken; here are 10 items scattered around, the caller has to guide pairs of 2 shackled together to retrieve them, the first tribe to get the job done wins the challenge. No puzzle at the end this time around! The La Flor tribe uses their Medallion of Power, reducing the amount of items they have to collect down to 8. What's interesting, and kind of funny, about this appearance of the challenge is that they have turned it into a sponsored challenge: As punningly hinted by the title, this challenge is an advertisement for Sears. The reward for winning is the usual "your favorite items from the Sears catalog," but they also made it so that the items the blindfolded tribe members are collecting are random things you would buy at Sears, like a lawn chair or a duffle bag. I think this is the type of thing that probably gets on some people's nerves, but as long as it just happens in rare, one-off instances like this, I just think it's funny. In addition to the 10 items, the caller also has to direct their tribe members to a pair of keys which are used to unlock a chest, which I guess... is something! But once again, the highlight of this challenge involves Tyrone and Jimmy T. To put it simply, Tyrone is the caller and Jimmy T is not interested in following his directions. As it becomes obvious that Espada has no chance at catching up, all Tyrone can say is "Damn that boy don't listen." Sigh, just imagine how good Survivor: Nicaragua could have been if these two made it to the Final 3. But tragically, this episode marks the end of Jimmy T, and perhaps less tragically, the end of the Medallion of Power, as they march together into the Nicaraguan sunset.

2/5

Spit It Out Miscellaneous Challenge / Skill

For whatever reason, I don't really ever see people talking about the pachinko challenge these days. But I do still see people bring up this Immunity Challenge every once in a while, over a decade later, and this is a challenge that couldn't be more deserving of its long-lasting legacy. Perhaps a long lost cousin to Last Gasp, this is the other Survivor challenge where it seems like if they do this enough times, someone is going to drown. What does that say about me as a person that they are both two of my favorite challenges of all time? That's a good question that we don't need to answer right now. But I digress, let's talk about the amazing, the infamous— Spit It Out challenge. Each tribe has a large wheel hovering above a pool of water. 3 members from each tribe are strapped to that wheel, while 3 of their tribemates are tasked with spinning the wheel. The... fun... part about this is that whoever is strapped to the bottom of the wheel at any given time is going to have their head entirely submerged in the pool of water. So yeah, theoretically, if one of the tribes just randomly decided to stop spinning the wheel while someone's head was still submerged, that person would just be stuck underwater with no way to escape, and then... I guess they would drown? But don't worry, that would obviously never happen! I have to imagine that the same people who get anxiety watching this challenge are the same crowd that are uncomfortable watching Last Gasp. In fairness, I did describe Last Gasp as looking like a Saw trap in my Micronesia entry, and that description is probably even more accurate in describing this challenge, but what can I say? It turns out pseudo-torture devices make incredible Survivor challenges. They need to do stuff like this more often! Anyway, during the brief moment where each strapped member is submerged, their goal is to allow a large amount of water to enter their mouth. Then, once the wheel spins another 180° and that person is at the top of the wheel, they have to try and spit the water into a small tube. Now, I have to imagine that this "spitting" part of the challenge is harder than it looks, because the tube you are trying to spit the water into is pretty small, and these people on the wheel are definitely very dizzy and probably can't even tell up from down by the end of the challenge. Plus, the wheel is spinning fairly quickly so you have to sort of... time your spit so that it actually lands in the tube and doesn't completely miss its target. I feel like this description is starting to make the challenge sound kind of disgusting, but you know... in a good, "Piranha Feast" sort of way! Once the strapped tribe members are able to deposit a certain amount of water into the tube, it will tilt sideways, releasing a ball which rolls down a ramp. If you've ever been to a water park, the physics are similar to one of those giant buckets that keeps filling up with water until it reaches a certain volume, at which point it tips over. It's pretty clever to see that design worked into a Survivor challenge. The releasing of the ball begins a second phase of the challenge, which is completely unrelated to the first, but is a decent test of skill nevertheless; the two remaining tribe members that had nothing to do with the death wheel have to try and toss the ball in order to shatter 5 tiles positioned about 10-15 feet away. This part is quite similar to "Rock Block" from Survivor: Tocantins, and yes, Coach would be great at this. Although, I'm sure Coach has also been strapped to a wheel and forced to spit water into a tube at some point in his life as well, so I think he'd be equally effective regardless of where you put him in this challenge. Ultimately it's just an incredibly fun, anxiety-inducing challenge to watch, that's also extraordinarily creative to boot. Also, the La Flor tribe almost leaves Brenda underwater after they release their ball which is quite funny... well, depending on your sense of humor I guess...

5/5

Kitty Litter Skill

Well after the last episode, Survivor: Nicaragua is riding high on the challenges, so as we enter this next episode, the question on everyone's mind is the same: Can the show keep the momentum going?... What's this? The Immunity Challenge is called "Kitty Litter" and involves each player tossing rings into baskets they have on their backs? So in other words... the answer is no? Sigh... I really don't know what to make of this challenge. It is so weird, and I know I've said countless times before that I like weird in Survivor challenges, but something about this one just annoys me. Maybe it's an irrational dislike I have for the Kitty Litter challenge... But I'm simply not impressed by this one. Trust me, if I could hire someone to condition my brain into loving this challenge, I would happily do it. Because like, I feel like I should really enjoy this challenge; it's quite unique and tests a weird skill not tested in any other Survivor challenge. At the same time, it's just, I don't know... too goofy and cheap-feeling? I think I remember in Rob Cesternino and Josh Wigler's Evolution of Strategy, which I first referenced all the way back in my Borneo entry, they described the challenge as seeming like something you would see at a child's birthday party, and I'm like, YEAH, that's exactly it! So to describe this challenge, well first, I should mention that much like in Heroes vs Villains' 6th episode, the producers are forcing both tribes to go to Tribal Council tonight, so this is actually an individual challenge where the winners will face off in a second round to win Reward for their tribe. It's a set-up that I'm pretty fond of, but wow, they chose a strange challenge for the twist this time... To be honest, this is the kind of weird thing I'd expect to see in Marquesas, what with the kite-flying and the stilt-walking shenanigans... The object is very simple: Use a shovel to dig up a ring from your designated square, use the shovel to toss the ring into your basket which is tied to your back, repeat 3 times, and done, you just won Individual Immunity. This seems like a very easy task, and I don't really know if I'd describe it as entertaining, it's just... a thing that happens. I feel like the only issue I'd have doing this part of the challenge is worrying about sand getting in my eye trying to flick the ring upwards. My eyes are very sensitive, and plus, you wouldn't want to end up like Shamar... We have to watch this portion play out twice, once for each tribe, and then we get to see the winners compete in Part 2, which is just a simple ring toss. Once again, this phase is extremely easy, and this time you can't even argue that it's kind of creative, although this may be the first time we actually see ring toss appear on Survivor. The ring toss board is in the shape of a shield (a familiar nice touch), with 3 pegs sticking out that you can try to land the rings on. What's interesting is that even though there are 3 pegs and 3 rings, you don't have to land each ring on a unique peg, you just have to land all 3 rings on a peg. This quirk in the rules makes an easy challenge ever easier. It comes down to Holly vs Jill, and while Holly secures an early lead, Jill is able to make a comeback and win for her tribe. So yeah, in the end, this is just a challenge that, while unique, I just find to be fairly boring, somewhat awkward, and way too easy. But let me know, am I crazy? Is this actually a super underrated challenge that needs to come back? I have to wonder what the general consensus would be. Out of curiosity, I went to go and see what Dalton Ross had to say about the challenge in his episode recap, and I was not disappointed:

"As for this challenge itself, I didn’t necessarily love or loathe it. It just felt kind of…weird. Was it just me, or did it look like everyone had a ginormous toilet strapped to their back? It certainly didn’t help that everyone kept sticking their butts out to catch the rings, making it look like they were getting ready to take a dump right on the challenge course." ... "And then we ended with a ring toss between individual immunity winners Holly and Jill, which — while better than bocce or bowling — wasn’t exactly the height of one-on-one dueling. Weird challenge. Not saying it was bad — just weird."

I don't know, I kind of feel like it was bad. Also, come on Dalton, you're going to slander Fauxconut Bowling?! Blasphemy, I say!

1/5

Cannon Ski-Ball Skill

For the final Immunity Challenge of the Pre-Merge, the producers do something rather resourceful— they are going to reuse the large staircase structure they built for the 1st Immunity Challenge for an entirely different challenge here in Episode 7. I actually feel like this is really clever and cool to see— and this challenge is much better than the previous one that used this set. Two members from each tribe stand at the top of the staircase and are tasked with rolling cannonballs (always a good sign!) down a steep wooden chute that leads to the bottom of the staircase. The fascinating thing about this is that the chute is attached to a pulley system that is controlled with ropes, which 4 other members of the tribe get to use to try and aim where each cannonball will land. It's an extremely creative and sophisticated design most similar to the Get Hooked challenge we saw in Panama and Samoa. The tribes are aiming to destroy 5 tiles that are scattered around the same area, but each requiring the chute to be positioned differently in order for the cannonballs to connect. There are a couple of other things worth noting, and the first is that there is a lot more strategy involved with the people dropping the balls than you would initially think. First, the ball doesn't actually have to be dropped from the top level of the staircase; you can actually drop it from any of the three levels, depending on how much momentum you want the ball to have. To complicate things even further, there are two different sizes of cannonballs to choose from, which will also affect the distance and speed with which the cannonball will be launched. So taking all of these factors into consideration, plus the nuances of the rope system, this is a challenge that requires immense strategy and teamwork. Also, please note that this isn't a race, but rather, the tribes have to essentially take turns launching cannonballs, which I think works a lot better for this kind of challenge. Overall, I absolutely adore the way this challenge is designed— and what do you know, it's another challenge that will never be seen again after this season, like come on, why?!!! It's just such a clever and exciting challenge to watch. When I complained about the "Getting Tanked" challenge, the other challenge with this staircase set, not commiting to its creative idea, this is the kind of thing I was looking for. It's not like "oh, there is only 1 cannonball size and you have to launch it from the top and there are only 2 tiles to break and then you move on to a completely unrelated puzzle." It's like no, they fully realized the idea by adding a lot of extra strategic components to it and making it the entire focus of the challenge. And it massively pays off. During the challenge, all of these strategic elements come into play, as the La Flor tribe fails to communicate and continually misses the same target, despite making minor adjustments between each shot. You can especially sense a lot of tension between Brenda and Fabio in this challenge. Meanwhile, the Espada tribe quickly masters control of the chute and communicates great, allowing them to dominate in this challenge.

5/5

Push Me, Pull You Endurance

We've made it to the Post-Merge everyone, and it's time for yet another brand new challenge! On one hand, this is one of those generic, over-in-5-minutes, stand in one place challenges we see way too often in modern Survivor, but on the other hand, at least this one is kind of creative. Each player has to pull on two metal handles in order to keep tension on a steel bar. If even the slightest bit of tension is released, the bar will drop and shatter a tile on the ground, eliminating them from the challenge. From a game perspective, it's definitely a unique idea, but it's also not that interesting and I'm rarely ever a big fan of these kinds of endurance challenges that are designed to end so quickly. I mean, I'm pretty sure over half the cast is eliminated before the first minute even passes, which is crazy. But from an aesthetic side, there are definitely a couple things I can appreciate about this. All of the props look really cool; the handles aren't just bare-bones, painted wooden arcs like I think they'd be if this debuted in a modern season, but instead have this really fancy design to them, and so do the poles. I also really like the detail of a tile shattering when a pole hits the ground, rather than just, "you're out;" like the buckets of water tipping over in When It Rains, It Pours, this adds a fun climactic element to the elimination process. This is also one of those random challenges where Jeff announces that the last man and the last woman standing will win Immunity, and while Jane ends up as the last woman standing, she opts to continue playing in the challenge anyway to see if she can outlast the guys— to "make a statement," as Jeff puts it. This is an impressively fierce showing from Jane, albeit probably a strategically bad decision; if nothing else, I do think this is the type of stuff that contributes to Jane winning the Sprint Player of the Season award at the end of the season.

2/5

Flashback Mental

Speaking of Survivor: China, it's the first of several reappearances of Chinese Zodiac Symbols, the fun, Simon-like memory challenge that we get to play along in from home! I always enjoy a good mental challenge every once in a while to break up the physicality of Survivor challenges, especially when they are designed like this, where the viewing audience can compete against the contestants. There's not that much to say about it— Jeff shows a series of symbols, repeat the symbols back to Jeff, it's a good time. If you're wondering why I gave this a 4/5 in Survivor: China and only a 3/5 this season, it's simply because they made it more generic and got rid of the unnecessary flashiness from China of stabbing each answer with a sword, which was kind of epic; plus, even though there's still a little bit of it here with symbols like "musket" and "anchor," this version feels a lot less culturally inspired than the China version. It's still a very good challenge though, one of the best purely mental ones to ever appear on the show. My favorite moment is when Dan Lembo is eliminated on the 1st round by answering "coins" when that symbol never even appeared once in the entire sequence. Like, I can understand accidentally swapping two symbols around in your head, but how do you make that mistake Dan?!!!

3/5

Splash Back Endurance

It's time for the return of the Nicaragua pool— hopefully they've put some new water in there for this challenge. Now it's being used for an endurance challenge, and the water isn't really part of the challenge, it's more just there to cushion people's falls when they drop out. This is a very simple one— each player stands on a small platform on the edge of the pool, leaning over the water while holding onto a rope. If they let go of the rope, they fall into the water. Very similarly to the "Drop A Log" challenge from Survivor: Samoa, the rope is divided with evenly spaced notches, and every 5 minutes, the players have to move their hands down one notch on the rope, with each transition increasing the slack and thus making the challenge much more difficult. I appreciate the raw strength that this challenge tests; there's something really pure about its design that I can appreciate. Even though it's debuting here in Season 21, I can easily imagine something like this appearing as early as Survivor: Africa. That being said, there is a cooler, fancier version of this challenge we will see in future seasons that I do ultimately prefer. This is one of those challenges where you can really visualize the players wearing down the longer it goes, and it doesn't take long for us to get to the final 3 of Chase, Benry, and Jane. And that last person is particularly impressive, given that Jane is far and away the oldest woman left in the game and even by just making it to the final 3, she has outlasted a multitude of people who are much younger and which one would assume to be much stronger than Jane. Then Benry falls, and you realize that Jane really does have a genuine shot at winning this incredibly physical endurance challenge. Her "Push Me, Pull You" win was nice, but that challenge was much less physical and she only had to beat out the other women. This would be an even more impressive win. Chase looks over to Jane and says "However you feel Jane, but I'm staying on here." Jane replies that her fingers are about ready to go. Chase replies that he's "pretty secure." Dear future Survivor players— if you are ever in an endurance challenge and it's just you and one other person left, and they randomly claim that they are feeling great and probably not going to fall for a long time— congratulations, you are about to win the challenge! I feel like 90% of the time, people only say this as a sort of last ditch effort to psychologically mess with their opponent to get them to drop, because they themselves are about to drop. One of the beautiful things about endurance challenges in general is that you really don't know how long they are going to last. You don't truly know if your opponent is going to drop in 1 minute or 1 hour, and that can be psychologically brutal. Jane clearly feels discouraged after hearing this from Chase, and announces that she's going to let go. But coach Jeff Probst isn't going to let her quit that easily: "Why are you going to let go?" Jane replies that her fingers are cramping. But Jeff replies "Jane, dig! Don't you dare give up on this challenge! Both of you guys— you've done tougher than this! Keep fighting!" I think this motivation from Jeff really is what gives Jane the drive to keep going, and she doesn't have to keep going for much longer, because Chase drops only a few moments after that speech. I feel like regardless of what your opinions are on Jane as a character, you have to admit that this is a very satisfying win. Here's a little secret about me— I love seeing the "older people" prevail on these types of reality TV shows. There are very few kinds of storylines that bring me more joy than that. I don't exactly know why, but there's something about overcoming the adversity of age in shows that have such predominantly young casts that really gets me fired up. Teri and Ian are my favorite Amazing Race team of all time; Tough as Nails 3 has one of my favorite reality TV winners ever. (Seriously, if you have not seen Tough as Nails 3, go and watch it right after you finish reading this.) I absolutely love how Jane dominates this season's endurance challenges.

3/5

Money Box Physical Race / Mental

Unexpected things Survivor: Nicaragua has in common with Survivor: Guatemala: In Episode 13 of both seasons, the Reward Challenge is the Survivor Penthathlon, and the Immunity Challenge is Pole Dancing. That's right, sort of out of the blue, it's the return of a challenge that had previously only appeared in Survivor: Guatemala! This was the challenge where each player is attached to a rope which is wound around a pole, where the objective is to unwind just the right amount of rope so that you have enough slack to cross the finish line. There's a great element of risk vs reward here, because you don't want to waste time unwinding more rope than you actually need, but if you underestimate the required amount of rope and fail to reach the finish, you will have just wasted a lot of time. There was also a weird, luck-based key component to this challenge in Guatemala of which I was quite critical, but thankfully, that section has been removed from this challenge's reappearance in Guatemala. The challenge has changed in other ways too— instead of the rope being wrapped around a pole, the rope is wrapped around a hitching post, making this challenge decently more physical than it was before; now it's a lot more tiring to unwind that rope. There is also a second phase to the challenge now; the first phase involves unspooling enough rope to reach a bag of golden coins, another appreciated nod to the Spanish conquest. The first 3 people to complete this phase have to use the coins to complete a puzzle, and it's actually a pretty cool puzzle— much more impressive than the jigsaw puzzle we saw earlier in the season. Essentially, there are stacks of golden coins glued together that have to be arranged such that they create a perfect rectangular prism, a task which actually seems very challenging. Benry, Fabio, and Sash move on to the final round, during which Jeff admits that he is not very good at this type of puzzle. Meanwhile, Jane starts to grate on the three people participating in the challenge with her obnoxious rooting— even Fabio mutters "Shut up!" Ultimately, I think this is a much improved design over the debut version of this challenge in Guatemala, and I'm pleased to say this will not be the last time I talk about this challenge!

3/5

Coat of Arms Mental / Physical Race

I think we can all agree that if there's one thing this season has really been missing, it would be any challenge that first debuted in Survivor: Gabon. Well everyone, there's no need to fear, because 14 episodes in, we have the return of Mask Match! Definitely one of Survivor's more creative ideas over the years, each player is blindfolded and has to use only their sense of touch to put together a "puzzle" of sorts, which has to perfectly match a replica they get to feel on the opposite end of the course. In the space between the replica and the puzzle-solving station is a series of obstacles that have to be maneuvered through, which makes things a lot more difficult because it makes it more likely you'll forget the finer details of the replica, details which are important because there are decoy pieces that are similar to the real pieces but have subtle differences. And just like in Survivor: Gabon, these decoy pieces are cleverly colored red so that the audience can easily tell which pieces are decoys, and thus can easily notice when a player is making a big mistake by adding a fake piece to their puzzle. In Survivor: Gabon, fitting with the season's location, the players were assembling a traditional mask, but as the name implies, in this season, the players are assembling a "coat of arms" which consists of several symbols which, once again, relate to the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua. And unsurprisingly, the obstacle portion isn't exactly the same as it was in Gabon either. This time, the players are attached to a rope the whole time, which is threaded over and under a series of hitching rails. Well, this solves the problem Crystal and Susie were having of stumbling completely off course and into the other players' lanes! During the challenge, a bit of drama arises when Holly notices she is missing a bag, and the camera zooms in to a bag that fell on the ground near her station, but which Holly obviously can't see since she's blindfolded. But luckily for her, she's able to find the bag after feeling around a bit. However, the true contenders to win this challenge are Chase and Fabio. Fabio is the first to ask for a correctness check from Jeff, but as the audience can see, he has a decoy piece right in the middle of his coat of arms. This gives Chase a small window of opportunity to catch up, but Fabio is very quick at correcting this mistake and is able to get a second check only a few moments later, and this time, Jeff tells him that he's won the challenge. This is a big win for Fabio, because he's basically at the point of the season where he needs to win out in Immunity Challenges in order to make it to the end of the game. I feel like most people would agree that Fabio is the most likable of the remaining contestants, and plus, we have a natural inclination to root for the underdog, so I feel like Fabio's win streak is a factor that makes all of these final Immunity Challenges a bit more exciting. Overall, I feel the same way about this challenge that I did 4 seasons ago— I think it's awesome. It's creative, it's difficult, and once again, it offers a little bit of culture into a season's challenges that is otherwise mostly lacking in that department.

4/5

Donkey Dig Physical Race / Mental

This next Immunity Challenge is the second and final appearance of the "Swamp Donkeys" challenge from Survivor: China. I described this as my "least favorite challenge" from that season, but that's not the case in Nicaragua; there have been definitely been some worse challenges throughout this season than this one, which isn't actually a bad challenge, it's just sort of unmemorable in the grand scheme of things. Each player has to race out to a station where they have to answer a trivia question about Nicaragua. In China, the players had to race through a natural swampy area, which has been removed in this version, so in that regard, it's actually a little less interesting this time around. The trivia question is multiple choice, and the players have to choose a bag and then return to the start, hoping they picked the right answer. Once they get back to the start, they can open the bag, and if it contains colorful puzzle pieces, then they know they were correct, but if the puzzle pieces are black, it means they picked the wrong answer and have to go back and try again. The thing is, it's really not that huge of a setback if you screw up and pick the wrong answer; the distance between the starting area and the questions is so short, and it's not like there are even any obstacles between them, it's just a sprint. That being said, the whole challenge goes by pretty quickly, so there isn't a ton of wiggle room for mistakes. Anyway, they have to do this 3 times, successfully answering 3 trivia questions, to obtain all of their puzzle pieces at which they can begin solving a puzzle. Curiously, it's the exact same type of puzzle we saw in the season's first Immunity Challenge— a fairly easy jigsaw puzzle, this time creating a picture of the season's logo. The first tribe to complete their puzzle wins the challenge, which you already know happens to be Fabio, but this time, it's an extremely clutch victory. Fabio is one of the last people to arrive with his last set of puzzle pieces, so strong competitors like Sash had already had a pretty big headstart on the puzzle, so frankly, it's quite incredible that Fabio is able to catch up here and still win the challenge. It's especially satisfying because again, it's very clear to the audience that Fabio is probably going home tonight if he doesn't win this. There is also a bit of similar drama to the last challenge where the camera zooms in a piece that Chase dropped on the ground, but it hardly matters since Chase wasn't ever really in contention to win this challenge anyway. So ultimately, it's not the most interesting challenge in the world, but the trivia question section is still kind of unique and the challenge has an exciting ending, so it's an alright challenge in my book.

2/5

Balancing Point Endurance

And lastly, let's talk about this season's Final Immunity Challenge, another one of my favorite final challenges to date. You can tell just by looking at it that this is a challenge that has a lot in common with Survivor: China's Final Immunity Challenge, "Broken China," which involved stacking dishes on a wobbly balance arm. That's also a challenge that we just recently saw in Heroes vs Villains, and both times, I had nothing but nice things to say about it! But to be clear here, this isn't the same thing as Broken China; Nicaragua's Final Immunity Challenge is a different challenge that's cut from a very similar cloth. Each player has to hold a sword in one hand, which they have to balance on a shield that is on the ground. They use their other hand to stack coins, not dishes, of various sizes on the tip of the sword, which I believe is called the "pommel." And just like in Broken China, Jeff plays an active role in the entire experience, constantly telling the Final 4 which type of coin they have to add next. The last person to keep their stack of coins from falling to the ground wins the challenge. Alright, let's talk about these coins, because that's the main thing that separates this challenge from Broken China. Unlike the porcelain dishes, these coins are much more variable in their shape. Even though they come in three, generally consistent sizes, they are rusty and imperfect, the way you would expect ancient old coins, potentially uncovered for a century-old shipwreck, to be. In that sense, none of the coins are exactly the same; they are all shaped slightly differently, and this is potentially very problematic for the players in this challenge, because that makes things a lot more difficult; you have to be extremely careful with how you stack each coin. Especially considering how small the stack of coins are compared to the stack of dishes, there is a lot less room for error early on in this version of the challenge. It's hard for me to say whether I like Broken China or this version with the sword and coins better; I think they are both awesome and I love that they decided to mix things up this season instead of just doing Broken China again. It also restores the fun cultural elements of the challenge that I complained the Heroes vs Villains version was missing. Both versions of the challenge get extremely tense as it comes down to the final two players and you see those dangerously uneven stacks of coins. Ultimately, Fabio keeps his win streak alive, and once again, I think this is the outcome most of us at home were hoping for, so it's a wholesome ending to a super great Final Immunity Challenge.

4/5