Skull Crush Physical Race

For the first time, we are starting off with a challenge that I don't like. Similarly to Survivor: Guatemala, this season starts right off the bat with a Reward Challenge, with the last tribe to finish being forced to send one of their members to the season's titular island, Exile Island. For me though, there are two key differences between last seaosn's opening challenge and this season's opening challenge. First, even though the Survivor Wiki appears to disagree with me on this, I am declaring this to be the first appearance of a new type of challenge— a Hero Challenge. Hero Challenges are very rare, only appearing a few times throughout Survivor's run so far, but essentially, it is a Reward Challenge where only one member of each tribe competes, so they are basically playing the challenge on behalf of their tribe. I actually think this is a very compelling format, that I would like to see explored more often, but the format alone cannot sell me on this challenge, because the second big difference between Guatemala's first challenge and this season's first challenge is that Guatemala's first challenge is actually good— this one is not. The person playing for each tribe has to run into the jungle (a very short distance) until they reach a pile of skulls. Then, they smash the skulls open until they find a skull with an amulet. Then, they race back, and that's it. Like seriously, what is is this?!!! First of all, I hate how pointlessly luck-based this challenge is. There is no way to tell which skulls will have an amulet, so you just have to hope you aren't the unlucky one of the group who takes the longest to find one. Not only is it bad television to watch people break open skulls until they find a "correct skull," but this is really unfair; in most cases, whoever loses this challenge is going to get sent to Exile Island, because who else could the tribe justify sending? After all, there are only four people on each tribe. Starting off the game at Exile Island is a huge disadvantage, and one which someone should not have to endure simply because they lost a luck-based Reward Challenge. Now, the Bayoneta tribe actually sends Misty to Exile Island, but I don't think that was an ordinary outcome. I actually do see what the producers were going for here— it's all about that suspense of "who is going to emerge from the jungle?" Of course, this is just my opinion, but even though there is suspense, it's not exactly a nail-biter. After all, much like in Palau's opening Individual Immunity Challenge, I have to ask the same question- why should I care? We are only minutes into the season, so I don't really care who wins, because I don't even know who I like yet. I think maybe the producers really thought that we would all be rooting for our respective gender/age tribe to win, and maybe some people were, but I just don't care. Overall, the challenge is just really boring. It's only about 2 minutes long, and is still feels boring. And can we talk about that real quick?- why did it have to be so short?! If anyone watches Big Brother, it kind of reminds me of the types of Power of Veto Competitions they like to do during Double Evictions; super short, maybe a bit luck-based, but understandable, since it is a live challenge and they have to make sure it is over in less than 2 minutes. But why does a Survivor challenge have to be this fast? They have all the time in the world! Maybe this was a last-minute idea to have an opening challenge or something, I don't know- but not my favorite opening challenge, that's for sure.

1/5

A Reptile Dysfunction Physical Race

Before we get into this, just a couple of things. First, spectacular challenge name. I'm sure whoever came up with that one was feeling real proud of themselves, as they should. Second, a really interesting motif of Survivor: Panama challenges is the inclusion of random creatures. Sometimes they are real, sometimes, they are not, either way, I really like how this is a recurring theme among this season's challenges, and it is all going to culminate in this season's fantastic version of Survivor Pentathlon which I can't wait to talk about. In this challenge, each tribe has to navigate a lengthy series of obstacles collecting large wooden snakes along the way; the wooden snakes are pretty cool, by the way. The first tribe to collect all of their snakes and reach the finish wins. There are a few things about this challenge that make it great; first, I just love the creativity involved with carrying around these snakes through the obstacle course. Much like the "New Tribe Member" challenge from Thailand, this is a rare challenge that tests a tribe or tribe member's ability to carry around an awkwardly-shaped, large object. Now, the way they go about the carrying of the snakes is another thing I really like- only one person is allowed to carry all of the snakes. You can't divy them up, so this puts a lot of pressure on whoever is selected for each tribe to carry the snakes, and it also rewards the tribe with the better judgment of the individual strengths of their members. Also, I really like the obstacle course through which they have to navigate, it is surprisingly full of new ideas up to this point. One of the first obstacles involves a giant, triangular shaped slope that each tribe has to climb up, which is a great obstacle and one which will be expanded on when we get to Survivor: Samoa. Later, there's this really cool balance beam that is kind of like a ladder placed downward that zigzags left and right. There are also some returning obstacles like a crawl-under, and digging through a pile of leaves, which is something we saw in Palau's "Supply Dump" challenge.

4/5

Cross Fire Skill

This is a really cool challenge! This is another variation of Wicker Flicker from Survivor: Thailand, but it's much less physical and a lot more dependant on hand-eye coordination... They have never done this version again. I really don't understand why, because, and I may be in the minority here, but this is my favorite version of the challenge. If they were to continue doing it, it probably wouldn't always be as exciting as it turns out to be here, where it really comes down to the wire between the two tribes, but it would still add a lot of variety to the challenge rotation to see this version once in a while too. So in this version, you still have the launchers for each tribe, but everyone else is perched up on a balance beam above the water. There is not as much action, but we get a lot more clutch moments when it comes to people catching the balls. There are a few instances where someone on the balance beam will leap off and catch the ball in mid air, and it is just so satisfying to watch. It ultimately comes down to the final round, and La Mina ends up scoring the winning point.

4/5

Puzzle Paranoia Physical Race / Mental

Up next we have the return of the Floating Puzzle challenge from Survivor: Thailand, and this version is actually pretty good. It's still not the most memorable challenge, but this seems like the most physically demanding version so far, since the puzzle pieces are so big and have to be pulled over the hexagon frames by individual tribe members. The puzzle is pretty unique- I think it's interesting that each time this challenge has appeared, it has been a different kind of puzzle. In Thailand it was a jigsaw puzzle, in Palau it was a slide puzzle, and this time, it's some sort of logic puzzle, where all of the triangular pieces need to be rotated so that all of the sides correspond with the same symbol. It's a nice new puzzle, and I think it's, on paper, the best version of this challenge. We don't see anything like this again, so I'm happy it finished strong.

3/5

For Cod's Sake Physical Race / Skill

Man, the challenge team were really on top of their pun-game this season! I guess they liked the name of this challenge so much that they also made it the episode title! By the way, this is a great episode of Survivor, and this is a great challenge. It is time for Part 3 of random creatures showing up in the challenges of Survivor: Panama. This time, as you could probably deduce from the title, it's dead fish. Now, there are three parts to this challenge. One part involves bags of rice, the second part is bags of beans, and the last part involves the cod. Each tribe designates one person as their "retriever," and they have to race out into the ocean to get the bags/cod from a boat and bring them back. The rest of the tribe stands in a line, and they have to toss the items to each other until the item reaches the final person. This is very similar to the Fire Fighter challenge from Vanuatu, but instead of throwing buckets of water, you are throwing bags and fish. So, we can just kind of yada yada the first two rounds, because it's the cod that makes this challenge shine. First of all, it's just so ridiculous and weird that it actually works. It is so delightfully cartoonish watching the tribe members throw these giant, floppy fish to one another, and it gets even better because in part 3, there is a third component to the challenge- the person at the end of the line has to chop the heads and tails off of the fish before throwing them into the bucket. Now, every time I watch this challenge, even though I've seen it multiple times and am very familiar with the outcome, I get nervous that one of the fish-choppers is going to lose a finger, especially Bruce, who is surprisingly terrible at this section of the challenge, and it is very funny to watch. The challenge is very back-and-forth, with Casaya having the lead for much of the challenge, but Bruce's ineptness at the fish-chopping sets them back, and it seems like La Mina is going to win, but Sally starts having some major trouble with catching the cod, which allows Casaya to sneak back in and take the win. Overall, great challenge!

4/5

Rock the Boat Physical Race

I think this is another really cool but forgotten challenge. At first glance, it seems like a very simple coconut-transferring challenge, but there is actually a lot of strategy involved. There are three teams, and each team has a bin of coconuts at the end of the beach, as well as their own boat. The goal is to carry the coconuts from your bin to the water and dump them into the other teams' boats. Having more coconuts in your boat than the other teams puts you at a disadvantage at the end of the challenge. Once your team's bin of coconuts is empty, everyone gets into your team's boat, and paddles out in order to reach a floating crate, attached to which is your team's flag, as well as a net. Then, you paddle back to shore, where all of the coconuts must be emptied into the net, and the net must be dragged back to the starting bin, where all of the coconuts in the net have to be emptied back into the bin. The first team to complete this wins the challenge.

Alright, so there's a lot to break down here, but I want to focus on the strategic intricacies of this concept. First, this degree of choice each team has when it comes to which team they want to penalize by depositing coconuts into their boat. There's a lot of ways to look at this— if the goal is simply to make sure that your team wins, you would ideally want to focus on the strongest team. But of course, the question of "who is the strongest team?" all comes down to perception. I can just hear Jeff Probst shouting at the David vs Goliath opening challenge "it's not who has the advantage, it's what is the advantage?!" That actually applies pretty well to this challenge, because you have to consider that while this challenge penalizes the team which is ostensibly the strongest, it also rewards the team that is actually the strongest; objectively, the strongest team is whichever team is able to get rid of all of their coconuts and begin paddling first. Paddling first is a big advantage, because it means that the other teams can no longer place any more coconuts into your boat. Likewise, being the last team to get rid of all of your coconuts is extra damaging, because those last few coconuts need to be deposited into your own team's boat, as the other team's boats are out at sea. Of course, there is also the possibility that it isn't about your team winning, but moreso, about ensuring another team, and possibly, a specific person, does not win, perhaps to make sure they are weak for the Immunity Challenge. Here, you could ally with another, possibly stronger team in order to dump all of your coconuts into the same boat. There are also social dynamics that come into play. If three very likable plays get onto the same team, their presence alone could dissuade the other teams from targeting them. Or, you, as an individual, could avoid placing coconuts into the boat of a team with members you are trying to get on your good side. Let's just list all of the strategic decisions you have to make during this challenge: "Whose boat do we put the coconuts into? How many coconuts should we carry at once? What is the quickest way to load the coconuts into the net? Should we take one trip back to the bin or two? What is the quickest way to unload the coconuts into the bin?"

As far as the outcome goes, the orange team, with Terry, Shane, and Austin, is targeted by the other two teams, but since the team was strong, they were able to avoid being the last team to start paddling. It comes down to their team, or the black team. It really comes down to those strategic decisions, because where the orange team really goes wrong is in their slow-paced method of getting the coconuts into the net, as well as attempting to transport the coconuts in two trips, while the orange team realizes that a single trip is ideal. We get a bit of a tense moment when the orange team realizes they forgot the flag, and Sally has to race back to the water and get it, but I really don't think it's as close as Jeff's commentary tries to make it seem. So, it's a greatly strategic and political challenge, but it doesn't necessarily surprise me that it has never returned, because it's not the most entertaining challenge in the world, but I still love its one-off appearance here in Panama.

4/5

Get Hooked Physical Race / Skill

Everyone loves Get Hooked! This is a wacky challenge that involves one person lying down on a cradle and being flown around by their teammates in order to grab flags. It makes me dizzy just watching it. The way it works is, the cradle that the person is lying on is attached to a bunch of ropes being held by the other team members, so with good communication, the rope-pullers are able to move the cradle in whichever direction they please. But this is not a safety-approved attraction, because both of the teams are in states of utter chaos, and it seems like at any moment, the person on the cradle is going to fall straight off. The goal is to move the person on the cradle to the various flags, which are numbered, so they have to be collected in a specific order, and then to bring the person on the cradle to the series of slots in which the flags are to be placed. It's pretty fun to watch, especially when the players make silly mistakes like knocking out the flags after they have already been secured into their slots. At the end of the challenge, Courtney's team wins, and everyone just lets go of the ropes, so Courtney, who is still on the cradle, flies backward, and it's really funny. If I have one issue with this challenge, it's that it can be too disorienting to watch for me at times. This may be a problem with how the challenge is shot, where we get a lot of close-ups that switch back and forth between various people. The image I used for this challenge is zoomed out, but this is actually a rare perspective. I wish more of the challenge was presented this way because it makes it easier to see what's going on and something about the close-ups in this challenge makes my head hurt after a while.

4/5

Voo Doo Mental

It's time for a coconut-chop challenge! After a few seasons in a row of Survivor Quiz Show, it's time to shake things up and play a game of Q & A instead. I like Q & A better than Survivor Quiz Show, so for me this is great news. When people think of this challenge, this season's version is probably the first one to come to many peoples' minds, because it is just so great in this season. That's largely due to the insanity of Panama's cast. I mean, if you take characters as colorful as Shane, Courtney, and Bruce, and make them play a game that's designed to make everyone hate each other, it's no surprise that you will end up with phenomenal television. Before we get to the hilarity of the questions though, let's talk about the method of the chop in this version- you still chop a rope, but this causes an ignited torch to tilt over, igniting the next torch, and so on, and it's a really cool system. We are also harkening back to The Amazon by having the players decorate their own look-a-likes to be used as props for the challenge, which I really love.

Alright, so the first question is about who does the least work around camp, and the consensus is Danielle. This is great because we already had that great fight earlier in the season when Shane asked Danielle why she had "such an aversion to working." Round 1 results in a KO of Terry. Round 2 asks "who never shuts up?" The correct answer is Courtney, but I think it's really funny that Aras seemingly thought the answer was Bruce, an answer that greatly sums up their relationship throughout the season. In Round 3, Shane learns that people think he mistakenly believes that he is running the game, and Bruce is eliminated. Jeff's commentary this season is about as blunt as it gets- "clear pecking order being established." Let's fast forward to Round 5, where we get the question "who is the biggest poser?" Courtney asks what a "poser" is, and Jeff has a great line where he says "the answer to what a poser is, is you, Courtney." In Round 6, Courtney gets the answer correct and chops Shane's rope for the second time, which really miffs him. "You're the only one that's hit me twice, your life is changing." Jeff chimes in to remind Shane that he isn't actually running the game, but Shane clarifies that he meant that Courtney's enjoyment around camp is what is going to change. Courtney's like "give me a break, we're just playing a game!" And then, of all people, Bruce chimes in with "a helicopter game, with a spa and food :o" This is Bruce trying to shake things up, and it is so great. Shane and Courtney then bicker back and forth, until Aras tries to settle everyone down, pointing out that the game is meant to "splinter" them, and that they should rise above it. Terry is great here- he's like "yeah, it is meant to splinter you guys!" and starts chuckling. Maybe the best part about all of this drama with Shane is that the question of the round was "who is the moodiest," to which the answer was Shane- it's poetic. Courtney continues to get ripped apart by the questions in Rounds 7 and 8, including being labeled as the most annoying person there. She gets increasingly frustrated by this, while meanwhile, Cirie starts cracking up more and more, which is just brilliant. I think Cirie really embodies how the audience is feeling a lot of the time in Survivor: Panama, like how she often sits back and laughs at the craziness of Casaya, and this is just more of that. Courtney is eliminated here, and it comes down to Shane and Aras, each with one rope left, along with Cirie, who has to decide whose rope to chop. Shane pleads for Cirie to spare him, but guess what, she chops his rope anyway, which prompts Shane to throw his flipbook onto the ground in anger, and then he starts ranting about Cirie as he sits down on the bench. Round 9 is the final round, and Cirie ends up winning the challenge, and who could be upset with that?! This whole challenge is just so great, like... it's just really, really great.

5/5

The Key of Sea Physical Race / Skill

This is a two-part challenge, there is a team portion and there is an individual portion to win a car. Let's break down each section separately. So, the team portion is kind of combines elements from Strung Out, Around the Bend, and "R.A.M.". Those are three challenges that I have praised quite a bit, so it isn't much of a surprise that I like this challenge too. Now, in Strung Out, the players have to move an object attached to a rope along the rope. Well here, the players themselves are attached to the rope, as they are clipped using these little rings that are hooked onto the rope. As far as Around the Bend goes, there are obstacles, including some on land, that you have to throw yourself over and around in order to continue following the rope. Each team starts on land and has to get through these various rope obstacles until they reach the lily pad section. This is the part that reminds me of R.A.M., the contestants in Palau had to run across very similar platforms to get to their memory stations. Each team member has to go at least once, across the lily pads and into the hexagon frame (which seems very similar to the hexagon frames we saw earlier this season), where they then dive into the water to get a bag out of a chest. After all of the bags are collected, the team has to go all the way back through the course until they get back to where they started. It's all pretty entertaining, but I think the challenge would be a lot better if it wasn't so one-sided. The white team wins over the black team, it's really not close at all.

The second portion of the challenge is very simple, you have to use a slingshot to break three tiles. It's basically like "Shoot Your Way Home" from Vanuatu only on a much smaller scale. It's... really not that interesting. Terry wins a car, good job Terry!

3/5

Second Chance Physical Race

The Survivor Pentathlon has appeared in every season of Survivor since The Australian Outback, and I've loved it every time. But this- this may be the best version of all. I mentioned this earlier, but throughout the season, various challenges included random creatures in them, and many of them were going to come together in this season's rendition of this challenge. Well, the time has come, let's talk about this really great, really goofy challenge! There are four stages, and the first stage involves digging up a sandbag. This is, of course, a throwback to the Battle Dig challenge from early in the season. Now listen, I know sandbags are not creatures, but the sandbag is the only non-creature-related object that has to be carried here. So the first four to get a sandbag move on. Now what I love about this challenge is that each round outdoes the previous round, because you have to keep carrying the objects throughout the entire challenge. You have to complete Round 2 while still holding the sandbag from Round 1. Round 2 brings back the great wooden snakes from the first Immunity Challenge! So you have to get a hold of a wooden snake and carry it to the finish. Now in Round 3, each person is holding a sandbag and a wooden snake. Round 3 has obstacles from the "Ups and Downs" challenge, but this is actually where the dead carp from "For Cod's Sake" comes into play. Round 4 is just hilarious to me, it is so funny watching everyone run around with all of this random stuff, especially the large fish. Round 4 has that large series of tunnels and towers, and I love watching people race through this big structure trying not to drop anything. The final showdown between Terry and Aras is fantastic, things get really heated at the points where the two paths cross, and then Aras makes the fatal mistake of dropping his sandbag, which falls all the way to the ground. I don't know why I love this so much, it's just funny seeing such a silly idea take itself so seriously.

5/5

Station By Station Physical Race / Mental

I LOVE this challenge! This is the rare but wonderful counting challenge where there are a whole bunch of different stations with different objects that need to be tallied up. It is just so much fun to watch, especially this version in Survivor: Panama. Before we get into just how great the challenge plays out, let's really break down the format and what you are supposed to be doing. Basically, each person has three combination locks that need to be undone. The codes to unlock the locks correspond to the number of objects at the different stations, so you need to go to each station and count, and make sure that you don't mess up, because if you are one number off, the lock will not open. The objects at the stations are all different; one station has rocks, one station has seashells, one station has iguanas, etc. The variety is great, it means that different counting strategies work better for different stations; for instance, grouping things together is a great way to handle the rocks, but you should probably try a different strategy for the moving iguanas. The way you get from station to station is very interesting as well- it's basically the return of End of the Line from Borneo and The Australian Outback, where you have to use carabiners to clip onto different ropes which branch off to different paths. This format works wonders for this challenge because it means that there will be instances where people run into one another, as everyone is using the same rope system. Also, and this may seem like a trivial thing to bring up, but if you are wrong and need to go back and take a second look, you don't have to go back to the station each time, you can go to multiple stations in a row. Seriously— there is no rule against that. You can try it for yourself, Jeff will not yell at you, I promise!

Okay, I'm not going to break the entire challenge down, it's mostly just a lot of chaos as people scramble to get to the stations as fast as possible. But what makes this so excellent is that this is really the climax of the season-long rivalry between Aras and Terry. (You would think the climax would come during the Final Immunity Challenge, but nope!) Terry has completely dominated the Post Merge, and Aras wants nothing more than to finally beat him, especially after the Loved Ones Visit, where Terry didn't award Aras any time with his mom, a bond that Terry didn't value as much as, say, the bond between a husband and wife. There is so much tension between Aras and Terry during this challenge, you are really on the edge of your seat through the entire thing. The carabiners are great because people get tangled up, and this gets really intense near the end of the challenge, where Aras and Terry actually get a bit physical in what is definitely not a "physical contact challenge-" the two of them start ramming into each other, it's thrilling to watch. Alright, so we get down to Aras and Terry both being wrong about one of their numbers, and this is where we have a controversy. For some reason, Terry is under the impression that you are only allowed to look at one station at a time before coming back to the combination locks, and he realizes that Aras is taking multiple looks! Terry vocalizes this concern with Jeff Probst, who's like "Terry, you can take multiple looks too!" Terry seems kind of aggravated by this, and yells "You didn't tell us that!!!" Aras is within earshot of him yelling this, and this is where we get our episode title- "Somebody call the whambulence, Terry's crying on the course!" The whole thing is magnificent. It still ends up being a close battle, but ultimately, Terry finally loses a challenge, and Aras fulfills his goal of beating Terry in a showdown.

5/5

Wall to Wall Physical Race / Skill / Mental

This is a great challenge full of new ideas- or at the very least, new ideas to Survivor. The first part of the challenge is a table maze. Everybody knows how these work; move the peg through the maze until you are able to get it to the other side. Once you finish the table maze, you get your first bag, which has two pegs inside. The second part of the challenge is another logic puzzle, this one involving a wheel with a bunch of bags. Basically, you have a note that tells you something like "spin the wheel clockwise 5 times, then counterclockwise 7 times," and so on, and whichever bag is in front of you at the end, that's the one you are supposed to take, which contains more pegs. Once you have all of your pegs, you use them to get up a steep wall- which is, by the way, very pretty; there are a whole bunch of cool designs printed on each wall. Once you get to the top of the wall, you place each peg in the corresponding slot, which magically raises a flag, and the first person to do so wins the challenge. I'm wondering if I'm too high on this one, it's pretty fast, but I don't know, I just really enjoy it for some reason. 3/5 for solid challenge!

3/5