Yank Your Hank Physical Race / Mental

This next challenge is a fairly straightforward obstacle course which 6 members of each tribe have to complete, followed by a word puzzle, which the remaining 4 members from each tribe have to complete. The obstacle course has two main sections, the first being a series of steep A-frames. I've always really liked this obstacle. While not that difficult, it provides just enough challenge to make teamwork essential for a tribe which desires to get all of their members over each wall. The A-frames get progressively more difficult to overcome due to less room to build momentum, so strategies like allowing the stronger members to hang back and form a human ladder become critical. This is also one of those challenges where props from one part of the challenge bleed into the next in a clever way, something I praised a lot of Cook Islands' challenges for doing. Here, the 6 tribe members running the obstacle portion have to carry three coils of rope. The ropes are primarily used for the second part of the obstacle course, but a resourceful tribe will recognize they can use the ropes to help struggling members get over the walls. The second part of the obstacle course requires the three ropes to be tied together and attached to a heavy crate, which the tribe must then work together to "yank" along a track. Once the crate is successfully transported, the 4 puzzle makers can commence. Something I think is really cool is that the puzzle pieces are actually the planks which make up the crate, so first, the crate has to be disassembled in order to collect all of the puzzle pieces. The puzzle is then just a matter of arranging the puzzle planks in a way which allows them to spell a phrase: WITHOUT VICTORY THERE IS NO SURVIVAL. The tribes remain quite even throughout the whole challenge, but ultimately Galu scores this season's first immunity win.

3/5

Schmergen Brawl Physical Race

So... Alright, over the years, we've seen many types of challenges on Survivor. Even within the first four seasons, we'd seen obstacle courses, we'd seen plenty of skill-based, precision type challenges, and of course, we'd seen the occasional pure brain-powered challenge. But Survivor: Thailand revolutionized the genre with a little challenge called Pilfering Pirates, colloquially known as the iconic ATTACK ZONE. For the first time ever, we had a challenge that not only allowed for physical contact between players, it downright encouraged it. And if you ask me, these types of challenges are GLORIOUS. Few things in this world bring me more pleasure than watching Survivor castaways violently wrestle each other in the name of competition. Since Pilfering Pirates, we've seen many new takes on the format; Palau's By Any Means Necessary has become the go-to physical contact challenge, but throughout the teens we've also seen such classics as Sumo at Sea, Kicking and Screaming, and last season's incredible Basket Brawl, just to name a few. While typically violent in a cartoonish sort of way, rarely do these types of challenges come off as particularly dangerous. Even with Panama's Battle Dig being the most blatantly injury-prone (but perhaps most entertaining of all), normally physical contact challenges produce nothing more than a few bruises and a few minutes of absolutely incredible television. But what if I told you the challenge team has designed a brand new physical contact challenge that proved to be so dangerous that both times it appeared, it resulted in injuries that would either evacuate or severely immobilize at least one player? A challenge so dangerous that CBS publicly banned it from being used again after its back-to-back showings? Well, that... sounds kind of epic, like something you'd want to watch, right?!!! Ladies and gentleman, without further ado, Schmergen Brawl.

Where to even begin here... So, this is another one of those "Survivor Sports." You know, when the challenge team puts their heads together and comes up with this whole points-based, seems-like-it-could-be-professionally-played, sports-like challenge. Not unlike Basket Brawl last season, it's a physical contact challenge which involves throwing balls into hoops to try and be the first tribe to score three points. But oh boy... There are some important differences between this challenge and Basket Brawl. First, they got rid of the water... Now the entire challenge takes place in a pit of sand filled with tiny pebbles. They also increased the number of balls in play from 1 to 3, and it follows then that this challenge is about 3 times more chaotic. Interestingly enough, each of the balls is shaped differently. One is a traditional sphere, another is shaped more like an American football, and the third is something of a blend of both designs. Then, the challenge has this unique design of having some players in "the pit," and having other players on the ledges. In essence, the players in the pit are the ones battling for any of the balls, which they then have to throw to one of their teammates on a ledge, who then have to throw the ball across the court into the opposing tribe's basket to score a point. As far as the battling in the pit goes... I mean, there are "rules," but like, not strictly defined rules like you would find in a professional football or rugby club, just... "try to avoid 'cheap shots,' okay guys?" It gets BRUTAL in the pit. Like, it's not a place I would want to be. I would liken being in the pit to being in the midst of a skydive— Yeah, you likely aren't going to die, buuut it's probably fair to say your chance of dying within the next few minutes has just been multiplied a thousandfold. And then keep in mind, there are some freakish people on this cast. I wouldn't want to be in the pit at all, let alone with Ben Browning and Russell Hantz... All of this combined and we are left with a challenge that honestly, while extraordinarily entertaining, I have a hard time giving a perfect score to, because much like All-Stars' "Blind Cube Crisis" challenge, I can't shake the feeling while watching that production went too far in how dangerous the challenge is designed. Honestly, just playing in swampy water would have made it drastically safer but still epic. But on that matter, let's talk about the Survivor: Samoa cast's experience with Schmergen Brawl.

This is one of those challenges where the real story begins back at camp. Specifically, this challenge is really the story of how Mike Borassi loses Survivor. Well, and also the Ben Browning racist feud origin story, but you know, Borassi is the main character here. And being the older member of the Galu tribe, he has something to prove. Treemail confirms a physical contact challenge is on the menu, which is exactly what Mike has been waiting for. Before leaving for the challenge, he delivers the following confessional, fighting words: "This is the one where I have to prove myself. Show my stuff. I'm a mean motor scooter and a bad go-getter man, when it comes to 1 on 1 stuff. Someone's getting hurt..."

Oh god, this foreshadowing, stop...

"... And it aint our team. I'm gonna take him downtown to Chinatown man, I'm waiting for this... Or I'll die trying."

STOP EDITORS, YOU HAVE TO STOP!!!

And with both tribes adorned in warpaint, the cast gathers at the Schmergen Brawl arena waiting for the battle to begin. If I tried to recap every takedown and tackle that occurs throughout this challenge, it would take me thousands of words. So I'll just say, any possible combination you can imagine of one player tackling or wrestling another, you may as well just assume that it happens at some point along this challenge. Being in the first round, Mike gets to unleash his fury right from the get-go. He definitely takes a couple people down, but unfortunately, it isn't enough to stop Foa Foa from scoring the first basket. And even after this first round, you can tell this challenge is taking its toll on him. While the first round placed all men in the pit, the second round reverses the dynamic with 6 women battling it out. A rumble between Laura and Natalie prompts Jeff to remind everyone to "Watch the choking," and... Oh no, this is starting to sound familiar. Shortly after that, Shambo grounds Monica by pushing down her face, prompting Jeff to very appropriately yell "OHHHH, Shambo! Watch the face!" Galu scores this round evening things up, and before Round 3 begins, Jeff has an announcement to make: "Alright, everybody listen up. I'm just gonna tell you what I'm observing, you're right on that line... of getting ugly. Right on the line. So there's no more warnings for a headbutt, an accidental choke, a slap to the face; consider yourself warned that from this point forward, if I see anything resembling a 'cheap shot,' you're out of the challenge." So, will the Samoa cast take Jeff's words to heart and ensure the challenge continues in a safer, perhaps even cuddly direction? 

Round 3 is the first to have mixed genders in the pit, and among the ensuing confrontations, we see Ben Browning shove Yasmin into the fence. This scene doesn't seem particularly significant during the challenge, as it's the type of thing you see a lot of during Schmergen Brawl, but it's going to cause outrage later in the episode. Yasmin feels like Ben overstepped his boundaries and that a man shouldn't do that to a woman, competition or not, and it's something she confronts him over during her visit to the Foa Foa camp. Now... Okay look, I absolutely hate to sound like I'm defending anything Ben Browning does this season, but I kind of disagree with Yasmin's argument about Ben committing some sort of moral impropriety here. It's a Survivor challenge for guaranteed safety in a game worth a million dollars, I feel like you kind of have to do everything you can within the rules to win, chivalry be darned. Now, does Ben have a respectful conversation with Yasmin where he both apologizes but also attempts to explain his behavior in the challenge? Nope, he just goes on a racist tirade and refers to Yasmin as "ghetto trash" repeatedly. Unfortunate. But this isn't the only Ben-related drama to occur during Round 3; Russell Swan takes hold of a ball and prepares to shoot to one of his tribemates on the ledge, but before he does, Ben kicks him hard in the leg, causing him to fall and Jeff to intervene. He shouts "STOP!!!" and immediately kicks Ben out of the challenge. As he exits the arena, the Galu women cheer which I find very funny. Jeff remarks "First time in the history of Survivor, somebody's been pulled out of the challenge." At first I thought this was Thailand erasure, but I've seen the argument that the rule of making contact outside of the Attack Zone was built in to Pilfering Pirates' rules, whereas this was an impromptu expulsion because Ben really is that awful. But to be honest, I don't think Jeff really cares what's true and what's not (as we've seen last season and his lies about the temperature)— I think he just wanted to rub it into Ben's face and make him feel like even more of an idiot, which I fully condone. The Foa Foa tribe is not allowed to swap anyone in to replace Ben, so they have to continue the challenge with the disadvantage of being down one member. This allows Galu to pretty easily score their second point, allowing Round 4 to be a match point. Mike Borassi is back in the pit, and while he still gives it his all, he becomes clearly weaker and weaker throughout the round. Eventually, he stops responding to his tribemates shouting his name and just starts wandering aimlessly around the court. While this is happening, Galu is once again able to score, which means they win the challenge 3-1. What happens next is very funny— Jeff very smugly asks Ben "How you feelin' about being the first person in the history of this game to ever be thrown out of a challenge?" Ben's response? Of course, he flexes his left muscles and declares "Outlaw, baby!" This reaction clearly angers some of his tribemates, especially Jaison. What's amazing is that Jaison clearly already hates Ben at this point in the episode, and Ben still manages to amplify that hatred by several amplitudes by the end of it. In Ben's defense, he didn't know they were playing by Jeff's "sissy kind of rules." Throughout this post-challenge banter, Mike remains hunched over in pain, so instead of sending him back to camp with Foa Foa, Jeff requests for him to stay behind so medical can take a look. And long story short... He died trying. Figuratively, of course, and so alas, Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Samoa become the first instance in Survivor history of medevacs taking place in back-to-back seasons. As for Foa Foa, they got beat this challenge, but as a wise man once said, it wasn't by someone who was better than them. No, they lost to a bunch of rules.

4/5

Sea Crates Physical Race / Mental

Well well well, what do we have here? The first appearance of a a memorable puzzle which is now a Survivor staple, and, back-to-back physical contact challenges, yahoo! Yeah, I think that a lot of people forget that the first time this puzzle appeared, it was part of a physical contact challenge, but indeed it was, let's talk about it! There are two distinct parts to this challenge, the physical and the mental. On the physical side of things, each tribe has four puzzle cubes floating out in the ocean, and sending out two tribe members at a time, they have to retrieve all four puzzle cubes and bring them back to shore. This is where the physical contact element comes into play in a very interesting way that I'm surprised we haven't seen repeated: Just a little bit of the way into the ocean is a rectangle of water denoted by flags and declared the "Battle Zone." Here, one person from each tribe, the designated defenders, aim to stop the players retrieving the cubes any way they can. In a sense, it's kind of similar to the original physical contact challenge, Pilfering Pirates, where the object was to take advantage of a special "attack zone" to hinder the progress of the opposing tribe. I think the execution here was a little more sophisticated than it was back then, but it's a concept I super enjoy seeing explored again. Once a tribe retrieves all four of their puzzle cubes, they may begin the puzzle. Each of the cubes has a unique color on each of its sides, and the cubes must be stacked and rotated in such a way that none of the sides of the completed tower have a repeated color. It's a very cool, very difficult puzzle, and one that absolutely wasn't invented by the challenge team. Similar to how Survivor: Thailand borrowed from a classic puzzle called Tower of Hanoi, Survivor: Samoa borrows from a puzzle which has existed as early as the year 1900 but is most commonly known by its 1967 Parker Brothers name "Instant Insanity." And what an appropriate name that is! If you've ever tried this puzzle, you know how frustrating and time-consuming it can be. Or, you can get lucky and solve it quickly! I really like the structure the challenge team built for each tribe to stack their cubes; it's fancy and rotates around so the audience can visualize what's going on easier. Overall it's just a really enjoyable challenge; the physical contact stuff is entertaining as always, though a bit subdued compared to most other physical contact challenges, and the puzzle is unique and colorful.

4/5

Well Stacked Physical Race / Skill

This next challenge is one I've personally always had an affinity for. It has elements of that "simple but effective" ideal I've talked about in length before, and actually seems quite challenging, a true test of tribal teamwork. At the start, the tribe members have to race through a "net run" carrying blocks, and this is another example of one of those delightful zigzagging obstacles that encourages opposing tribes to collide with each other— but really, it's a super short obstacle. Once all of the blocks are collected, they have to be stacked into a tower; perhaps a little bit taxing, but nothing too too difficult. The second part of the challenge is where things get tough; it begins with a rope bridge obstacle, not the first time we've seen it but always a fun edition, and then, another pile of blocks, which this time have to be untied before being stacked to form another tower, only this one is much more difficult. Both towers were tall enough to require tribemates to get on each other's shoulders in order to complete them, but the second tower takes it to the next level. Even with one person completely standing up on another person's shoulder, you are maybe only barely able to reach the top of the tower, which means that the last few blocks have to be stacked already on top of one another in order to successfully place them all. Foa Foa also manages to pull off a rare immunity win here after coming from behind, pulling ahead at the final block stacking section which is thrilling to watch. Overall, the challenge is just a fun time and something I enjoy to see.

3/5

Sack Attack Endurance / Skill

It's time for another returning challenge, originally called "Nut Bucket" in Micronesia, but now known as "Sack Attack," and yeah— I'm not exactly sure which teenage boy they recruited to name this challenge, but whatever you call it, it's a really good one. Like I pointed out in Micronesia, its rare to see a challenge which combines elements of endurance and skill, and it does so in a very clever way. Some tribe members are responsible for holding onto a rope attached to a net, while members from the other tribe attempt to throw coconuts into the net in order to make it more and more difficult for those holding onto the rope, leaving us with a war of attrition. There has been a pretty significant design change since its last appearance; in Micronesia, two men and one woman from each tribe all held onto the same rope. In this version, each tribe now has two ropes, and each is only held up by one person; one is hoisted by a man, and another is hoisted by a woman. I actually like this version slightly better, because it adds in a bit more strategy, very similar to what we see in Shoulder the Load, where the players throwing the coconuts get to choose whether they want to evenly distribute the coconuts or put all of their focus on attacking one sack at a time. In the end, Galu prevents Foa Foa from establishing a win streak by besting Foa Foa yet again.

4/5

Canoe Dueling Physical Race / Skill / Mental

This challenge is alright and has a pretty cool puzzle, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't pretty forgettable. It's nice that they got the castaways back into the ocean, something that has been surprisingly infrequent so far this season. Each tribe has some of their members paddle out into the sea, where two designated "fishers" have to use a long hook to latch onto and retrieve buoys with fish-shaped puzzle pieces attached to them. I like this hooking part of the challenge, even though it isn't that difficult, it's cute how they made it so the players are "fishing" for literal fish-shaped puzzle pieces. The fish puzzle pieces are very pretty, they have a rainbow gradient and I just like them. Once a tribe collects all of their puzzle pieces, they may paddle back and begin working on the fish puzzle. I really like this one, it's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, where all of the fish have to fit together in the right way. It's also an interesting design because there are actually star-shaped holes in the completed image, which could easily throw a tribe off that was expecting everything to be filled in. Foa Foa thinks that maybe the leader necklace is to blame for all of their challenge losses— it's bad luck. So, they decide not to bring it to this challenge... Yeah, turns out they still lose, oof. Kind of funny. In the end, this challenge has some pleasant elements but is overall just alright.

2/5

Nut Cracker Skill

It's time for the Merge everyone, does that mean we have an endurance challenge to talk about? Nope! This challenge is sooooo weird, even putting aside the fact that it isn't endurance like most other first Merge challenges. It's Survivor— tee-ball. Huh. One at a time, each player steps up to the plate, whacks their ball with a bat, and hopes to achieve the highest score. In front of the tee is a large area shaped like a home plate. It's divided into a number of differently colored sections each worth a certain amount of points. That's right, this season's Merge challenge is basically a Big Brother crapshoot. There's also a hoop several feet up in the air that, if the ball passes through, is worth a whopping 10 points— I'm convinced it's almost impossible and they just added this to screw with overconfident players. Why did they stop at 10? They may as well have made it worth a million points, just for the gag. This is also a challenge where both the highest scoring man and the highest scoring woman win immunity, which I also think is strange. I feel like usually when they do this, it's because it's a challenge that notably favors one gender over the other, but I don't think any gender has an advantage at Survivor Tee-Ball. So I think they just wanted to shake things up, who knows, maybe increase the odds that a certain player would win Immunity? I'm not exactly sure. Dave Ball is the first one up, and this is where we get the classic Dave Ball quote; Jeff asks Dave if baseball is his sport (which was already an inappropriate question, because this is tee-ball, darnit!), and Dave replies "No, making love is my sport." Jeff asks him if he plays a lot and Dave replies "not enough."— Alright, next round please!!! It's actually pretty interesting how it plays out, where both the last man to serve and the last woman to serve end up being the winners here. Overall, I actually really like this challenge, it's weird but it's also fun, in sort of a Marquesas "Go Fly A Kite" sort of way. It does seem a little too dependant on luck for my liking being an Immunity Challenge, but it's also not so luck-based that it seems like there's no skill at all, the way a lot of Big Brother competitions do where the different numbers are so small and close together that they are impossible to aim for. It's nothing amazing but it's an upbeat and unique way to kick off the Merge, so I appreciate this one.

3/5

Square Peg, Round Hole Skill / Mental

Next up we have one of those challenges that plays out in two parts, where only the first three people to succeed at Part 1 get to move on the Part 2. The first part of the challenge is ripped straight from last season's "Snag, Drag, and Bag" challenge, where you have to use a grappling hook to retrieve bags. Here, each of the bags contains a "puzzle peg," which will come into play in the second, much more innovative part of the challenge. The first part is decent enough, where Mick and Shambo become the first two to move on to the second part. Then there is a great moment, where Russell Hantz successfully hooks his last bag, and he totally thinks he's got it, he's advancing to Part 2. A very smug grin appears on his face, but then out of nowhere, Laura also hooks her last bag, and suddenly it becomes a race to reel it in, and Laura actually beats Russell here, it's awesome. But Part 2 is where this challenge becomes really interesting and creative. The 3 remaining players have to untie their bags which will give them two puzzle pegs. Only one of the puzzle pegs is actually needed, so they have to figure out which one will fit in one of the slots on their puzzle board, which has a bunch of holes. And here is another example of there being some really smart people on the Survivor challenge team— they have it where, if you correctly slide your current peg into the correct slot, the next puzzle peg will automatically drop down for you to try and fit, and the cycle keeps repeating itself all of the holes on the board are filled in with pegs. I love this design so much, and I can only imagine how long it took them to test and set this thing up. Seemingly inspired by the children's game Pop Goes Perfection, It's a great test of attention to detail as well as reaction time, and the way the whole puzzle so seamlessly progresses is super cool. Laura absolutely crushes this part of the challenge and wins Immunity. That being said, it's a pretty quick puzzle and the first part is nothing special, so overall it's a good challenge but not one of the highlights of the season. 

3/5

Spear Me The Details Skill

It's time for the return of the old school classic, Choose Your Weapons, going all the way back to Survivor: Borneo! This has always been a cozy, more laid back challenge from these earlier seasons and I'm sad to say that this is the final appearance of what used to be a Survivor staple. I've never considered it to be one of the show's best challenges or anything, but it was great at adding in a little bit of variety into the types of challenges that appear on the show (Good luck finding a purely skill-based challenge in modern Survivor) and for a while, remained one of the last still-kicking artifacts of Survivor: Borneo's original spirit— the spirit of survival. This final appearance of the weapons challenge has a somewhat unique format; there are two parts, the first involves throwing stones and the second involves shooting spears with a crossbow. Similar to challenges like China's "Star Struck," the amount of ammo you get in the second part of the challenge is variable, and depends on your performance in the first part. In the stone-throwing part of the challenge, each player is given a single stone, which they must attempt to throw at a series of tiles lined up three-in-a-row. You only have to shatter one of the tiles to make it to the next round, but the more you are able to shatter, the more spears you get for the second part, increasing your likelihood of winning. Everyone's tiles are pretty close to one another, which means it's entirely possible to accidently shatter one of your opponent's spears, which is exactly what happens as Dave Ball misses his and strikes Monica's instead. Brett is the only one who is able to strike more than one of his tiles, perhaps foreshadowing his challenge prowess in the homestretch of this season. Laura is the target in this episode, and she fails to make it to the second round, which I guess is a bit disappointing from a suspense-perspective, but it's funny how Shambo openly laughs out loud at her failure. Most of the players do quite poorly at the crossbow portion, but Mick is able to land a pretty good shot and becomes the final person to win Choose Your Weapons.

3/5

Drop A Log Endurance

Finally we get an individual endurance challenge this season, and ehhh, it's one that I don't really love that much. Each player must hold onto a rope which is holding up a log, and every three minutes, they must move their hand down one notch of the rope, making the log more difficult to keep up in the air. The last player to not drop their log wins the challenge. My issue with this challenge is that it's just really basic and not the most interesting, and it's clearly designed to end fairly quickly. As mentioned earlier, Jaison won an advantage in the auction, and Jeff wasn't lying, it is a significant advantage. If it wasn't for the absolutely insane advantage Danni won in Survivor: Guatemala, this would have to be the most OP challenge advantage ever; it's very close to being but not technically an insta-win. At any point during the challenge, Jaison can move his arms back up two fulls notches on the rope, making the challenge significantly easier for him than his opponents. The ideal time to use the advantage is also the most obvious, at the earliest possible opportunity, so in other words, as soon as 6 minutes pass and you have moved down two levels; use the advantage and move back up to the beginning. Eventually the players will reach a point where they are at the lowest possible part of the rope, but Jaison doesn't have to keep moving down to join them, he gets to stop and play the rest of the challenge 2 entire notches above everyone else. Not only does this grant him the inherent advantage of having a less taxing load to carry, but he also gets to rest his arm on a knot, something the bottom stage that the rest of his opponents are in is lacking. So yeah— it's a crazy advantage, and to be honest, it kind of strips some of the excitement out of the challenge. When someone's log drops, it swings down and shatters a tile in dramatic fashion, which is an extra detail I really like. The other good thing I'll give to this challenge is that unlike certain other boring endurance challenges, at least here it's physical enough that you can visually see it wearing down the players, rather than being one of those "oops, they randomly dropped the ball and are eliminated" types of challenges.

2/5

Fauxconut Bowling Skill

This episode's first Immunity Challenge is another weird one— first we had Survivor Tee-ball, and now, it's Survivor Bowling everyone! And like the tee-ball challenge, I enjoy this. Let's just take a short break real fast from all of the physicality Survivor challenges are known for and enjoy a simple game of bowling. The little alley they set up is really cute and nice looking, and they have the players face off in 1-on-1 matchups which are randomly determined, so it essentially plays out as a tournament bracket. At the end of the day, this challenge is just a fun time, and it also manages to be suspenseful when someone only needs to knock down one or two more pins in order to beat their opponent. What else is there to say? Do you like bowling? This is the challenge for you!

3/5

Walk On Water Physical Race / Skill

Well this is certainly a blast from the past! It's the return of Survivor: Africa's "Stomp-ede" challenge, which was used again as a tribal challenge in Survivor: All-Stars. Clearly here, we are back to the individual format as it appears as an Immunity Challenge for the first ever time. I've always really liked this one; place an object on a catapult, jump on it, and attempt to launch it into the basket overhead! It's just another one of those simple but great challenges. There is a new element to the challenge this season: The goal is to launch bags into your basket, but first, you have to swim out into the ocean in order to retrieve each bag. Only after successfully landing one bag in your basket are you allowed to swim and to retrieve the next. This is a neat little new element but it doesn't really change my enjoyment of the challenge that much, it's just an extra thing they have to do now which makes the challenge more physically demanding, especially coming this late in the season where everyone is already so worn down. In the end, Brett ends up winning this challenge, the beginning of a new chapter of Survivor: Samoa— the "Brett actually exists and now he's the biggest threat to win" chapter. It's exhilarating stuff, everyone.

3/5

Combo Platter Mental / Physical Race

First we were lucky enough to see the return of Get Hooked, but Survivor: Samoa's not done borrowing from Survivor: Panama just yet— up next, it's the return of the counting challenge! Or as it's more appropriately remembered, the Call the Whambulence challenge! Easily one of my favorite challenges from that season, its return this season is more than welcome. There have been some pretty significant changes since its first appearance though, so let's talk about that. To put it simply, this challenge has been simplified quite a bit. In Survivor: Panama, players had to travel between the counting stations by using carabiners to hook themselves to ropes which were required to travel along. This severely limited their mobility and made the counting element of the challenge only half the battle. Of course, you also had the issue of colliding with your opponents who were traveling the opposite direction along the same rope, or perhaps someone in front of you was just moving slower than you wanted them to. In this version of the challenge, the entire carabiner system has been done away with. Now, all of the counting stations have been moved to the same area, and all you have to do is run to them and start counting. In my opinion, yeah, this is certainly a downgrade, but I can also see the perspective that this keeps the challenge more focused. Now it's really all about the counting, and that's beauty in that too. Just like before, the numbers of creatures/objects in each counting station correspond to the numbers needed to solve a combination lock, and the first player to successfully crack the code is the winner of the challenge. Unlike the legendary showdown between Aras and Terry in Panama, there really aren't any particularly memorable moments in this iteration of the challenge. That doesn't mean it isn't a good challenge though, I still really like this one because again, it's something totally different from most other types of challenges on Survivor and adds a lot of variety to the viewing experience. The Foa Foa alliance wants to vote out Brett, but Brett once again wins Immunity— it appears that Brett is going full tilt. Can he be stopped?

3/5

Tentacle Physical Race / Mental

The season's second to last Immunity Challenge is very straightforward: Each player has to race over a series of obstacle courses— a net run and two short balance beams— to the end of the course where they will grab a bag of puzzle pieces. Then, they have to run back across the same obstacles until they reach a wall which has to be scaled. Once at the top, they must use the puzzle pieces to solve a puzzle; it's a jigsaw puzzle creating the logo of Survivor: Samoa. So... here's the thing. And I feel bad about saying this because it's a pretty big challenge set that probably took some time to set up— but this is the worst challenge of the season. Really, it is the poster child of "generic Survivor challenge." There is not a single memorable thing about this challenge, and the whole thing probably took less than 2 minutes in real time to complete. To that point, for the penultimate Immunity Challenge of the season, the challenge is laughably easy. How many times have we seen a "run over the net" obstacle on Survivor? Then, not only are the balance beams short, they are also very wide. I seriously don't see how you would possibly fall off either of them. Even Chris Daugherty could tackle them with ease. The scaling the wall part of the challenge is also very quick and easy, because there are steps you can hold onto which make getting to the top a breeze. And we top it all off with the easiest and most generic puzzle of the season, resulting in a challenge that I honestly just do not care that much about. This challenge does have a saving grace though, and that is the story— there are five people left in the game. It is everyone vs Brett. It is eminently clear that if Brett doesn't win this challenge, he is going to be voted out. So naturally, we as the audience are all rooting for Brett to win! He is the biggest threat to win the game, and it would be his third Individual Immunity win in a row, which is actually hilarious, given how irrelevant he has been, edit-wise, for the first 12 episodes of the season. But Brett isn't purple anymore (sidenote: I love how Brett wears a literal purple shirt for most of the season), he's the larger than life challenge beast. A rootable underdog that we want to see succeed, and he in fact does win this challenge, so in the end, it ends up being a decent enough viewing experience after all.

2/5

Over Extended Endurance

We've finally made it everyone, the final challenge of Survivor: Samoa. It's an endurance challenge, and one that I actually really love. It's one of those final endurance challenges that manages to be reasonably fair for everyone (unlike Panama or FijiI) but also pretty fun to watch (unlike Micronesia).  Each player has to take hold of a small pole, atop which they must balance a wooden statue. The last player to not drop their statue on the ground wins the challenge. At first, balancing the statue atop the pole is an extremely easy task, but every few minutes, the Survivors have to insert an additional segment into the bottom of the pole, thereby extending its length, and making it progressively more difficult to keep the statue balanced. The further away the statue gets from your hand, the more sensitive it will be to small movements, which means that by the time the poles become really long, the challenge is both very difficult and very tense. It's always great when we go into a Final Immunity Challenge and we basically know, for sure, that a certain player absolutely has to win— If they win the challenge, they win the game. If they lose the challenge, they're getting voted out tonight. It's a dynamic we've only seen a handful of times before, most recently with Cirie in Micronesia. Today, Brett is the player in that position. Once again, it's everyone vs Brett, and this is the most important showdown of all. Mick is the first person to drop out of the challenge, losing pretty early on, and he is followed by Natalie shortly after, so it quickly becomes the ultimate duel between Russell and Brett. Listen everyone, this part of the challenge is nerve-wracking to watch. Which is great, that's exactly what you want out of a Final Immunity Challenge. The wind starts to blow, and both men's towers begin swaying back and forth. Things really get intense when they have to transition from a 6 foot pole to a 7 foot one. It seems like someone's going to drop any second now, and this feeling of pure anxiety continues for at least a full minute. There is one part where it looks for certain that Brett is about to lose, with the dramatic music cueing in foreshadowing the statue about to fall— but he saves it, an amazing recovery. Then it looks like Russell's statue is about to fall, and oh my goodness the music is so good during this portion. Perfectly suspenseful. Finally, just before Russell's statue is able to lose its footing, Brett's comes crashing down, meaning the winner of Survivor: Samoa will stay in suspense for a little while longer. Overall, it's an extremely good final challenge, that really manages to get your heart racing. Also, if you want to play a mini-version of this challenge for yourself at home, do what I do— Play it with dry erase markers!

4/5