Coconut Conundrum Physical Race / Skill

The first Immunity Challenge of the season is essentially just a generic set of obstacles strung together, beginning with both tribes being forced to race through a zigzagging path, causing opposing tribe members to collide with one another a little bit along the way. After that, the tribes have to race through this... net of coconuts-type obstacle? I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but it's extremely easy to get through and not particularly epic, which makes me question why the Survivor art department seemingly spent so much time putting it together. After that comes a pretty decent obstacle of each tribe having to get all of their members over a vertical wall, which requires a lot of strength and teamwork. After that, one person from each tribe has to dig in a little hexagon of sand to find a buried machete. They must then use that machete to chop through 5 ropes, which releases a large bin of coconuts. Finally, 3 designated shooters from each tribe have to try and toss as many coconuts as they can into a net, in a stage that plays very similarly to the Nut Bucket challenge from Micronesia and Samoa. The first tribe to toss enough coconuts into their net to raise a flag wins the challenge. Overall, the challenge is nothing special, but I can at least appreciate how many little sections there are, all together forming a pretty impressive set on the part of the challenge constructors. For a lot of people, the most memorable part of this challenge is going to be Semhar's bad performance at the coconut-tossing section. She simply exhausts herself too quickly and is unable to land hardly any coconuts into Savaii's net. While the challenge ends up being incredibly close, this leads to her tribe losing, Semhar announcing that she feels "sorta bad," Jim Rice announcing that he feels "sorta bad" when he's out of milk, and ultimately, Semhar being the first person voted off the island.

2/5

Crate Escape Physical Race / Mental

I'm starting to wonder if the "Dark Age" of Survivor was really just some intricate love letter to Survivor: Thailand all along, because we are once again dipping back into the Season 5 archives as inspiration for South Pacific's next Immunity Challenge. But first, there are two parts to this challenge, and the first part is completely new, so let me talk about that section first. The basic idea here is that 4 tribe members, the puzzle solvers, are locked behind a little chain barrier, so the other 4 tribe members need to retrieve a key in order to free them so they can begin working on the puzzle. I actually quite like the first part of this challenge— it's definitely creative and demands tribal cooperation— but I also find myself feeling disappointed that they didn't go any further with the concept. This is a great example of a Survivor challenge that is harmed by the producers' insistence on splitting their challenges into multiple, smaller parts, often culminating in a mediocre product, rather than just sticking with one idea and squeezing all of the creative potential out of it. Essentially, each of the 4 tribe members are attached to their own colorful ribbon, and all 4 ribbons are wrapped around the same tall pole. The key to unlocking the rest of the tribe is hooked onto one of the ribbons, but in order to retrieve it, the 4 tribe members have to work together to unravel their tangled ribbons off the pole. Very fun idea, but anticlimactic execution as it goes by way too quickly and is simply not at all challenging enough. Anyway, once the other 4 tribe members are released, they can begin trying to solve a giant Klotski puzzle— you may not know it by name, but you'd certainly recognize this type of puzzle that involves sliding blocks around in order to ultimately release a specific block through an exit; it's like a slide puzzle on steroids. In Survivor: Thailand, this puzzle appeared at the end of the first Immunity Challenge, "Flying Your Flag." In South Pacific, it's the same objective as before, but the producers must have shot the puzzle with some sort of reverse-shrink ray to make it ginormous. Half the battle is just moving the heavy pieces around, made easier since this time around, 4 tribe members get to help solve the puzzle. Once the designated block is removed from the puzzle, all 8 tribe members get to work together in transporting it onto a finish platform, which only takes a few more seconds from when it is initially released. Once again, it's simply an average challenge; the first part is a neat concept, and the Klotski puzzle is fun, but it's really not a particularly memorable challenge in the end.

2/5

Hitching a Ride Physical Race / Skill / Mental

The ocean— long time no see, my old friend. That's right, after two straight seasons in San Juan del Sur (my personal least favorite Survivor location and one which did not allow for ocean challenges despite being a tropical setting), we're finally back at sea in South Pacific! And I've got to say, what a great challenge to return with. This is the return of What-er-Drag from Micronesia, albeit it's been given a new name this season. This is the challenge where one person at a time from each tribe has to race out across a slippery floating bridge to a platform out in the ocean while carrying a body board attached to a rope. From there, they can grab a bag of puzzle banners and strap themselves to the board, whereupon their tribemates can spin a giant winch, pulling them back to shore on a high-speed joyride. As always— I HAVE TO TRY THIS! It's almost like sledding on water! Seriously, it seems like so much fun. Just like before, this stands out to me as being a really creative and enjoyable challenge to watch. The tribes remain fairly close to each other in this stage of the challenge, but Savaii falls somewhat behind due to a few minor mistakes, mostly occurring during Ozzy's stints. On his first time out, he gets extremely frustrated at his tribe because they aren't giving him enough rope to actually reach the platform. On his second time out, he accidently lets go of the body board while they are pulling him, which wastes a bit of time. But that's not the entirety of the challenge, as there are actually 2 more parts to be tackled by the remaining tribe members who had no part in the cranking/riding section. First, they need to use grappling hooks to latch onto baskets containing the newly retrieved puzzle bags and hoist them up a wall, a fun little element of skill. Then, comes the mental component— they have to use the puzzle banners inside the bags to put together a simple puzzle, draping the banners down the wall in the correct arrangement to form an image. This is quite an easy puzzle, but nonetheless, it's a satisfying way to end a really awesome challenge overall. The Upolu tribe really pulls ahead during these last 2 parts of the challenge, and Coach actually deserves a lot of the credit, doing a great job with the grappling portion. I actually think this version of the challenge is slightly better than Micronesia's thanks to that new skill-based section.

4/5

Shoulder the Load Endurance

Next up, it's the return of a classic Survivor challenge, and one of the rare examples of a tribal endurance challenge. Maybe "classic" is the wrong word for it, since they've only really done it 3 times, but this one has always felt especially memorable for whatever reason. It's a challenge where we get to see contestants pushed to their absolute limits and thresholds for pain, and I know that describes a lot of endurance challenges, but maybe it's the simplicity of Shoulder the Load that makes it feel so distinctive; each of the weight-bearers hold a pole on their shoulders, players from the opposing tribe assign additional weight every few minutes, and the last tribe to have at least one weight-bearer standing is the winner. As usual, I enjoy the minor element of strategy in choosing who on the opposing tribe to allocate the extra weight to; do you try and distribute the weight evenly among each person, or do you focus on knocking out one rival tribe member at a time? Just like in Tocantins, Jeff brings up a little Survivor history during this challenge, pointing out when Jim and Brandon reach the 220 pounds mark that they have tied the record with Rupert, Brendan, and J.T. I love this— it makes challenges feel a lot grander in my mind when Jeff references previous records and statistics like they are each their own little Survivor sport. Both men end up breaking this record by reaching 240 pounds, but become eliminated shortly thereafter. Still, it was such a great showdown between the two men, and the pure expressions of agony on both of their faces will forever be ingrained in my memory; this is the pain I imagine Sisyphus to constantly feel. Like usual, the challenge ultimately boils down to the "weaker" weight-bearers who hadn't been targeted with as much weight early on, which in this case ends up being Dawn vs Stacey. Dawn turns out to be the winner of that showdown, and I've always loved how wholesome her reaction is to earning Immunity for her tribe. With that, Savaii wins the challenge, but little did they know, they would become the reigning Shoulder the Load champs likely for the rest of eternity, because this challenge has seemingly been retired. A tad disappointing, but I understand; it's a particularly dangerous challenge that seems to have caused a lot of back and shoulder damage even over its very limited appearances. I want Survivor challenges to be as entertaining as possible, and I love when the producers get sadistic about them, but I obviously don't want people inflicting permanent damage to their bodies to win some silly Survivor challenge. The interesting thing about Survivor: South Pacific is that this will not be the only "old school" Survivor challenge to make its final appearance this season— far from it. It's sort of the end of the road for a lot of classics, which is maybe the main reason its batch of challenges stands out to me, even if this season's average score doesn't end up being particularly notable.

3/5

Pig Out Physical Race

I am so excited to talk about what is almost indisputably the most disgusting Survivor challenge of all time— Pig Out, the third and final installment of the challenge originally known as "Piranha Feast" when it debuted back in Survivor: The Amazon. While it's another old school classic, it's been a while since we've seen it, as it last showed up in Survivor: Fiji as an individual Reward Challenge. South Pacific is much more faithful to the original version from The Amazon, returning to a tribal format with each tribe having their own giant piece of meat to chew out of. The challenge is similar to Survivor: Fiji though in that the meat of choice is pork, as opposed to the original inception's beef— obviously an important detail. Entirely new is the way the meat is presented; in past seasons, it was dangling by a string, probably making it a bit more challenging to eat, but in this season, each tribe basically has their own spit roast. The rules are the same as always though, where both tribes have a short period of time to chew off as much meat as they can to spit into a basket, and the tribe with the most meat wins the challenge. This season, the producers also threw in an added bonus for the winning tribe... getting to keep all of the meat they spat into their basket. Yep. Um, so yeah, remember how I said this was the most disgusting Survivor challenge of all time? I'm not being hyperbolic, I earnestly believe that to be the case. Because while we've seen this challenge twice before, and it has always been disturbing to watch, never before has it been this repugnant. For one, this is the first and only time we get to see the challenge in HD— that alone makes the whole thing much grosser. Then there's the fact that the spit roast is just visually so much worse than the hanging bunches of meat. It has this distinct fleshy texture to it, and it is absolutely smothered in BBQ sauce, which makes everything way worse, because when players go to spit the meat into a basket, it is always accompanied by this sickening burst of porky liquid. But believe it or not, the challenge was originally going to be even more horrific, as Jeff confirms in this EW interview: Each spit roast was initially going to be a "complete pig with ears, snout, tail" until Jeff asked the producers to tone it down a bit; sadism is alive and well in the Survivor challenge team. Personally though, I'm very satisfied with what we got, and honestly, the compromise of BBQ sauce may have actually ended up being grosser than the original plan. Yeah, if you haven't figured it out by now, I love this challenge, and while I would absolutely never want to compete in it, I unapologetically get tremendous joy out of watching it. It's frankly among the cruelest things the Survivor producers have ever done to their contestants, and I guess I'm just an evil person for enjoying every moment of it. Some of the most vomit-inducing moments of the challenge are when players get the meat stuck in their teeth, and another a tribemate has to help out by grabbing it out of their mouth; similarly, there's a point where a piece falls out of Rick's mouth onto the ground, and Mikayla picks it up with her mouth to deposit it. At one point, Albert gets a bit too excited and nearly knocks over the entire Upolu basket, which would have been an iconic challenge failure moment, and a few seconds after that, Jim Rice makes a particularly revolting deposit into the Savaii basket— it's basically just liquid preceded by a truly awful sound, leaving even Jeff Probst a bit stunned. All he can say is "That was... disgusting, Jim," and he says it in the most hysterical, disappointed tone. When there are just a few seconds left, another really funny moment happens as Ozzy manages to pick up his tribe's entire spit with his mouth, and Jeff has to tell him to let go, as disappointed as Ozzy seems by this ruling. The final results of the challenge end up being unbelievably close, with Upolu edging out Savaii by just 2 ounces. Like I said, this is the last time we'll see this challenge on the show, and once again, I have to imagine its tendency to cause injuries is the main reasoning. After all, there was an entire segment at Tribal Council devoted to each Savaii tribe member's oral injuries, most notably of course being Cochran's, who technically hadn't been wearing his retainer as diligently as he should have been.

5/5

Losing Face Physical Race / Skill

I think this next challenge is actually pretty cool, and is probably one of South Pacific's most creative ideas; granted, this isn't a season with a lot of original challenges. At the beginning, 3 members of each tribe have to assemble a wheelbarrow and proceed to push it through a series of obstacles; basically a long curvy path, and along the way, they have to stop at 2 stations to collect large loads of coconuts, each load making the wheelbarrow more difficult to push. When they get to the end of the course, they have to pour all of the coconuts into a troff. From there, the 3 other tribe members have to take apart the wheelbarrow and use the same pieces to build a slingshot. If you've read my past entries, you already know that I love this. It's a rare but always impressive feat when a Survivor challenge manages to incorporate something like this, where objects from earlier in the challenge are repurposed as entirely different objects later in the challenge; we saw a fair bit of it in Cook Islands and Micronesia, with the puzzle boats in Heroes vs Villains' "Lock, Load and Light" challenge being the most recent example to come to mind. It's just such a unique way of designing a challenge, and requires a lot more thought and creativity on the part of the creators. The objective is ultimately to use the slingshot, along with the collected coconuts, to knock down 6 targets, with the first tribe to pull this off winning the challenge. There's also a pretty interesting storyline surrounding the challenge. The Savaii tribe initially does really poorly, and gets mocked by Jeff at various points: "Something as difficult as maneuvering a wheelbarrow, proving difficult for Savaii;" "Savaii cannot even get their coconuts IN THE TROFF!" However, this ends up being one of the exciting challenges where the tide completely turns near the end, as Upolu struggles with the slingshot portion, whereas Savaii does a great job with it. The main issue for Upolu seems to be Mikayla, who misses every single shot, which especially angers Coach, who urges her at various points to just take a break or sit out so that he and Albert have more opportunities to shoot. However, she does not listen, and Savaii ends up coming from behind to win the challenge. Mikayla— gets voted out that night.

3/5

Family Ties Physical Race / Mental

Ah Survivor: South Pacific, remembered for so many reasons; a cult-like alliance that calls themselves "The Family," a player who gives up the Immunity necklace and gets voted out, and best of all, the most infamous Survivor sponsorship of all time— a challenge in which the reward is an early screening of Jack and Jill starring Adam Sandler. You may be thinking, "what makes this particular reward so infamous?" After all, we've had watch party rewards as early as Survivor: Africa, and it was only two seasons ago that our screens were graced by the Gulliver's Travels sponsorship. Well, as you may know, Gulliver's Travels was not received as a good film. In fact, it only scored a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. The thing is, that's still more than six times better than Jack and Jill's Rotten Tomatoes rating. Basically, the ironic comedy here is that the Survivor producers made a challenge where the reward for winning (in addition to Immunity, of course) was being forced to watch arguably one of the worst films of all time. It's hilarious, and several Upolu members have spoken out at some point about how bad the film really was. My favorite is on Twitter, where Albert wrote "Literally the worst movie I've ever seen. We were cued to laugh by production." During the movie reward, you can see the iconic expression of pure dread on Sophie's face. Meanwhile, Coach attempts to make earnest connections between Jack and Jill and the game of Survivor. Jeff does the same thing as he introduces the challenge, but that's because he has to— what's your excuse Coach? Unlike in the nursery rhyme, the Jack and Jill in the movie are identical twins, and the Survivor producers take full advantage of this little factoid in their design for the challenge. First, the Survivors received Tree Mail which instructed them to paint their faces and bodies, and adorn themselves in their best "warrior look." I always like when they do this, so the producers are on the right track so far. But wait, there's a twist— tribe members have to pair up with each other, and each pair must be painted and dressed the exact same way. That's right, like Jack and Jill, they must become identical twins... I think we have already reached the point where an idea sounds so dumb it's actually fantastic.

When we get to the challenge, it's revealed that this is essentially a new variation of Blind Leading the Blind, and all Jack and Jill jokes aside, I actually really like this version. One pair of "twins" serves as the tribe's caller, and they must direct the other two pairs of twins to collect bags of masks. The first thing to note here is that unlike in usual blindfold challenges, we have two callers, which could either make things easier or more chaotic depending on a tribe's communication skills. But what really stands out to me about this version of the challenge is how uniquely aquatic it is for a blindfold challenge. Sure, we've seen water in Blind Leading the Blind a couple times in the past, like in The Australian Outback and Vanuatu, but this time, almost the entire course is in the ocean, giving it a very unique feel compared to other blindfold challenges. There is a long rope the blindfolded twins are hooked onto that extends all the way to the furthest bag, but it's up to the callers to ensure the twins don't run into things along the way, and know where to reach for the bags. The game plays out relay race-style, where one pair of twins goes out at a time to retrieve a bag before the next pair of twins heads out to grab the next one. Once all 4 bags have been retrieved, one pair of blindfolded twins can work on a puzzle that borrows a lot of elements from the Mask Match challenge, while still playing into the theme of "twins." Essentially, there are 8 masks, and 2 of each are identical. Using only their senses of touch, the twins have to get all of the identical masks grouped together, where the first pair to complete this task wins the challenge for their tribe. This looks like a pretty easy task to complete, but it's also a very unique (but smart) type of puzzle to include in a blindfold challenge, so I honestly really like it. During the challenge, the Savaii tribe is in the lead for a long time, but they face catastrophe later on because it turns out that Cochran didn't hook the twins in correctly. There's also a point where all of the Savaii twins somehow end up tangled together, which I thought was quite funny. These mistakes are one half of the pie that allows the Upolu tribe to secure a come from behind victory. The other half? Surely you'd agree, it's the prayer that Coach makes aloud in the middle of the challenge. That's right, I believe this is yet another Survivor first, as the Dragon Slayer seeks a spiritual advantage over the other tribe: "We ask you Father, please to help us right now, you would give us this victory, Father. We will bow on our knees and give you the acknowledgement. Please give it to us." And don't worry, Coach isn't making an empty promise to the Lord. As soon as Upolu wins the challenge, Coach yells at everyone on his tribe to gather around and drop to their knees. I honestly find this to be one of the most hilarious scenes in Survivor history. Not only is it extraordinarily over the top, but it is also perfectly juxtaposed by Ozzy throwing a tantrum on the other tribe, furious at his tribe for failing to use the hooks properly. "The Family," who of course, have no trouble winning the challenge called "Family Ties," are having a cult-like prayer session while Ozzy is simultaneously a few feet away smacking and karate chopping the wall— it is peak Survivor comedy. Jeff Probst proceeds to give the Upolu members physical movie tickets to go and see Jack and Jill, which is almost as funny to me as when he would give them his "actual Visa card" to go and spend at old school rewards. One final little thing I wanted to point out is that this challenge seems to be filmed close to sunset, and there is some really unique backlit lighting at certain points of the challenge; it kind of harkens back to Borneo's Fast Fire challenge, even though it never quite reaches that level of beauty.

4/5

Coconut Cradle Endurance

Just like in Redemption Island, the first Immunity Challenge of the Merge is a very boring endurance challenge. Each player has to stand on a small perch and balance a coconut atop 2 ropes held together by little handlebars. Every few minutes, the length of the ropes increases, making the challenge more difficult. I guess the idea is a little unique, but these types of challenges I usually just find to be extremely forgettable. This is the only time this specific endurance challenge ever appears, and I can't say I'm too upset about it. They did something similar to Push Me, Pull You from Nicaragua where there are little tiles that the coconuts are supposed to shatter when they fall, but most of the time, the coconuts don't even land on the tiles, so it kind of feels like a bust. However, Keith takes advantage of his tile not shattering upon his elimination as an outlet of his anger, by smashing the tile with his own hands, which was... certainly something. I really don't understand what the point of making this a "stages" challenge was; the first stage seems difficult enough, were the producers that adamant that this challenge needed to wrap up in 10 minutes or less? This was also a challenge where the last man and the last woman won Immunity, for reasons I'm not exactly sure of, but since Ozzy and Dawn end up being the winners, it gives Savaii tremendous odds at prevailing at the upcoming rock draw that would ultimately never happen.

1/5

Get Crackin' Skill / Physical Race

Here comes another rather unusual South Pacific Immunity Challenge, and the one that makes me wonder if someone on the challenge team had some sort of... thing for watching people spit. When you have one spit-centric challenge, that's an anomaly, but when you have two spit-centric challenges, immediately following two seasons in a row of Spit It Out, I think that's a trend. But maybe... maybe I have a thing for watching people spit, because I kind of love all 3 of these challenges; this one isn't as good as the others, but I still enjoy it a fair bit. It's actually a 2-part elimination style challenge, and the first part is very boring (but also very short), making me wish they had just gone all in on part 2. Part 1 involves trying to toss a coconut into a ring, and the first four to succeed get to move on. In the second part of the challenge, each player has to use a rock to crack coconuts, and then try and get a mouthful of coconut water. Then, with the coconut water still in their mouths, they have to make their way through an obstacle tower and spit the coconut water into a tube. They have to keep repeating this process until someone successfully fills the tube to the marked line, at which point they would win the challenge. The only notable thing about the first part of the challenge is that Ozzy fails to advance, which essentially seals his fate and he clearly knows it. The second part of the challenge though is genuinely great. I just love how creative the whole thing is; there's really not another Survivor challenge that feels quite like this one. Using the rocks to smash open the coconuts is a really fun visual, and I love watching everyone race through the obstacle tower looking like chipmunks because they have so much coconut water stored in their cheeks. This challenge also appears to be a lot harder than it initially seems; the players are obviously compelled to fill their mouths to their absolute capacities, which can lend itself to nauseating results; it's very easy to accidentally spit water out along the way, and most notably, we see Sophie nearly vomit on the course because she simply has too much in her mouth; while in the lead before that point, she ends up coughing up a bunch of coconut water, losing her progress, which allows Jim to sweep in and win the challenge after very nearly winning on his previous trip. This is a great challenge, but I feel like it easily could have been even better had they done away with the throwing coconuts part, maybe waited until there were less people in the game to begin with, and just made the obstacle course longer, making the challenge's entire focus on part 2.

3/5

Bow Diddley Endurance

Last season introduced Roller Ball, and now, it's time for the debut of another boring endurance endurance challenge that will go on to be used way too often. The challenge is basically just another flavor of Roller Ball; you are still trying to keep a ball balanced, but now, instead of on a plate, it's on a bow-shaped arc; I suppose it's a bit more creative, but it's hardly any more exciting to watch. There's also the added twist of needing to stand on an elevated balance beam, just to make things a little trickier. Every few minutes, the players have to step further down on the beam, and just like in Coconut Conundrum, I have to ask why. Even in the first stage, it seems extremely unlikely that this challenge is lasting longer than half an hour; it's simply way too easy for that ball to slip out of its Goldilocks zone, and once that happens, it's very difficult to recover (though we do see Dawn pull off an impressive recovery at one point). Ultimately, it's just another standing still, balancing a ball challenge and it's pretty uncommon for me to be a fan of them. Just like in Redemption Island, during this second Immunity Challenge of Episode 9 Jeff offers the players the chance to sit out of the challenge and eat food if they're confident they don't need Immunity. Unsurprisingly, all of the former Upolus sit out, in addition to our double agent Cochran, meaning this challenge begins with only 3 people from the get-go. After Upolu's primary target Jim Rice is the first one eliminated, Dawn decides to put on her sycophant hat and tells the Upolus that she's going to keep fighting in the challenge "so they can keep eating." I always thought this was really strange and am not entirely sure if she was doing this solely because she thought it would garner favor, or if she earnestly believed that they were all "one tribe" like she said; if it's the ladder, it sounds like she's in denial to me. At any rate, Whitney ends up winning the challenge. 

1/5

Price On Your Head Physical Race

The first Immunity Challenge of this episode is kind of an unexpected throwback to Survivor: Guatemala— a challenge originally known as "Pot Head." It's definitely not a one-to-one comparison; in Guatemala, it was a two-part challenge, the first part being endurance, whereas in South Pacific, the endurance aspect of the challenge is gone and the second part has been expanded on. Each player has to balance a bowl on their head, using it to transport rice across a series of obstacles to empty into a larger bowl. This process has to be repeated until the large bowl is completely full, and that's really the gist of this simplistic challenge. The obstacles are in the form of a series of tilting balance beams; these could easily get the best of someone who is trying to move too quickly, but finding the ideal pace is the ultimate dilemma, isn't it? Another dilemma is in the question of how much rice you should attempt to transport at once. Filling it up less will of course make it a bit easier to carry, but we see Sophie win the challenge by making a big move, successfully transporting a bowl absolutely brimming with rice. Overall, it's not the most memorable challenge, but I still appreciate it's unique gimmick and consistent identity. It's a tier below the Guatemala version in my eyes, but a large part of that is simply due to the fact that the producers didn't have the advantage of filming this challenge on top of a freaking Mayan temple this time around.

2/5

C.A.T. Mental

Survivor: South Pacific continues the tradition of copying its older brother Redemption Island in every possible way by reintroducing the "Double Elimination" twist, where immediately after one player is voted out, the players jump right into another Immunity Challenge at Tribal Council before voting out a second player. To give South Pacific credit where it's due, it does try and mix things up a little bit— in Redemption Island, this twist occurred on Episode 11, but look! It's episode 10! But more importantly, they actually switched up the challenge. If you remember, last season they played Flashback, the short-term memory challenge. But this season they decided to resurrect a classic, and in the true spirit of South Pacific, this is the last time we'll ever see it. And oh... this one hurts my heart. This is the final appearance of a challenge dating all the way back to Survivor: Borneo, the Survivor Quiz Show; the remaining players have to answer survival-related trivia questions, and whoever performs the best wins Immunity. How nostalgic, and what a surprise to see show up in South Pacific! I guess there are only so many unique challenges you can do with everyone sitting in their stools at Tribal Council. We've seen this challenge use many different formats over the years; it's appeared in the Pre-Merge, it's appeared in the Post-Merge, it's used a point-based scoring system, it's used the coconut-chop format, it's been played against the jury, it's been ran at day, it's been ran at night— but the essence of the challenge has always remained the same. In this season, the producers predictably use the same format they did for last season's Flash Forward challenge: If you get a question wrong, you're out, and the last person left standing is the winner. The questions this time around are more of what you'd expect; a few people get knocked out at the beginning because they don't know you're supposed to drink a gallon of water a day. A few more people get knocked out in the next round because of a trick question asking if the coconut crab gets its name because its favorite food is coconut (the answer is true). The third question is my favorite, which is asking for the term for the "soft, edible flesh found inside the stock of a fallen coconut." There's nothing spectacular about the question itself, what's spectacular is that one of the answer choices is "Coco-Sprouts," which sounds like a reject vegetable name, and Coach actually picks that. I don't know if he honestly believed that or if this was one of those "Rob Cesternino answering 'Amazonian Forest Ranger' to 'what is a bushmaster?'" situations. I love how when Coach reveals his answer, Jim Rice gives Keith this "WTF?" expression to Keith on the jury bench. Sophie ends up winning her second Immunity Challenge in a row, and to this day, remains our Survivor Quiz Show reigning champion. Listen, this has never been an amazing challenge by any means, but it's such a classic that it really makes me sad that they completely stop using it after this season. It's a fun break from the physicality of your typical Survivor challenge, the audience gets to play along, and you get to learn a thing or two about the season's location and its culture. Plus, this is the challenge that gave us such iconic moments as "the best way to avoid a shark attack is to not go in the water" and "if you drank lava you would die, it would burn all of your internal organs." We'll never forget you, Survivor Quiz Show.

3/5

Second Chance Skill

It's time for another appearance of the Survivor Pentathlon, or as Jeff introduces it, a "little Survivor deja vu." It's honestly kind of surprising that the Survivor Pentathlon survives this season given that South Pacific is the final resting place of so many other classic challenges, but we will see it one more time next season, and all I can say is thank goodness for that, because wow, this would have been a disappointing end to such a staple of the old school seasons. I think this is probably the worst rendition the Survivor Pentathlon has ever had; last season's was pretty bad too, with Jeff not even acknowledging it was the Survivor Pentathlon and choosing mediocre challenges to bring back, but this one is just plain sad. The Survivor Pentathlon used to be a really grand challenge— an epic obstacle course consisting of at least 5 unique stages, paying homage to all the fun challenges that appeared throughout the season. Guess how many stages there are in this version of the Survivor Pentathlon? 2. That's right, 2 stages, for a grand total of 2 challenges referenced. Even worse, the challenges that they chose to bring back test very similar abilities; has there ever been a Survivor Pentathlon that only has a single categorization? This just feels so lazy, and makes me wonder if this was some sort of back-up challenge after they had to cancel something cooler. It doesn't feel like a celebration of past challenges in the season, it just feels like the producers went "Alright, we have 28 out of 29 challenges complete, we just need one more to slot into the Final 7, but we're running out of time...... Do you think we could get away with just reusing a couple obstacles from before?" The first part of the challenge is a throwback to Sandbagging, probably the least interesting Redemption Island Duel they've done this season— great pick. Despite there still being 7 people left in the game, only the first 3 get to move on to the second stage, what a missed opportunity. The second part is a throwback to the slingshot portion of Losing Face, which was a decent obstacle, but in no way can it carry this challenge on its own. In this final stage, Sophie falls out of it pretty quickly so it comes down to Rick vs Albert, a close match but ultimately one that Albert wins. Just like in my previous entry, I feel compelled to give the producers some 10 years-late advice on what they should have done for this challenge:

• Phase 1: With their hands behind their backs, the players have to eat meat off of a spit roast and spit it into their baskets. The first 6 players to reach a certain amount of ounces in their baskets move on.

• Phase 2: Players have to transport a certain amount of rice across a balance beam by balancing a bowl on their head. The first 5 to finish move on.

• Phase 3: Players have to use a slingshot to knock over a target. First 4 to finish move on.

• Phase 4: Players have to use sticks and rope to build a pole long enough to retrieve a key. First 3 to finish move on.

• Phase 5: Players have to use rocks to crack open coconuts, get some coconut water in their mouths, and make their way through an obstacle tower to spit the water into a tube. First 2 to finish move on.

• Phase 6: Players have to solve a smaller version of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle from the season's opening challenge. The first person to finish wins the challenge.

Now that sounds like a fantastic challenge.

1/5

Flip Out Mental

And here comes yet ANOTHER classic Survivor challenge that will make its final appearance here in South Pacific. This is another one that goes alllll the way back to Season 1, originally titled "Squared Off." A challenge that I've always loved, it's a game of smarts where each player takes turns flipping over tiles, trying to avoid being boxed in by the other players, and the last person to not run out of moves is the winner. At this point in the show's history, it's been a pretty long time since we've seen this one, last showing up back in Survivor: Guatemala, 12 seasons before. You may recall that in that season, it was won by eventual winner Danni Boatwright who had a humongous advantage that allowed her to swap places with any player at any point. That advantage did not return for South Pacific, but the more sophisticated board design did, once again opting for a fancy, multi-layered approach, and in this season, it's shaped and colored like a giant pineapple, which I just adore. That's something I really love about this challenge in general, is that all 4 of its appearances are completely unique. You of course have the original version in Borneo, which was just a square with the Survivor logo printed onto it. Then, there was the Marquesas version which was still quite simple in its design, but it certainly remains the cutest version of this challenge, shaped like a delightful little turtle. Guatemala had the really intricate design with the rotating section in the middle, and now we have the giant pineapple to cap off the Squared Off quadrilogy. I so want them to bring this challenge back, but I really don't have high hopes. Purely mental challenges are basically non-existent these days— but I guess you never know for sure. Anyone have fun ideas for future versions? How about a board shaped like a frog? A seashell? A cake?! The possibilities are endless! During the challenge, there is a lot of interesting banter. First off, a lot of people are critical of Jeff for using too many metaphors and analogies these days, but this challenge helped me realize that the seeds had been there all along. Just look what he says to Coach only a few seconds into the challenge: "Coach, is this challenge a little bit like a metaphor for the game? The moves you make early will dictate your success later?" Coach replies "You took the words right out of my mouth." A little later on, after Coach takes a turn, he randomly does one of his melodramatic little poses, and Jeff comments "And with that, Coach gives what appeared to be a Dragon Slayer move." Coach exclaims "Whoa!" And Jeff grins and replies "It looked to be (waves his arms around)... a little 'Dragon Slayer.'" There's something so pure and funny about this interaction, I love it. Albert and Brandon are the first ones out of the challenge, and as soon as he's eliminated, Brandon decides to brag about his "little strategy" that he used— "I just wanted to cover enough surface area to where a particular person didn't win this Imm—" "You can just use my name from now on," interrupts Edna. Jeff asks Edna if she's sure that they are talking about her, and Edna affirms that they are, and that it's disappointing how she was simply unlucky enough to not be on the beach the first day when the original Upolu alliance formed. "That's repercussions– just like you used that analogy– your moves on day 1 have implications later on." Oh no Edna, what have you done? You should have never acknowledged Jeff's pineapple analogy. Look what you've created. All jokes aside, Edna is entirely correct about her assessment of the game, and you could argue that it's a flaw in this challenge that it allows for large alliances to gang up on players in the minority. After watching this season for the first time, it definitely made me feel like this should only be used as a Reward Challenge from now on, for the same reason that the coconut chop format should absolutely never be used for Immunity Challenges. Still, I love this challenge too much to give it anything below a 4/5, and this pineapple version is especially marvelous. Brandon's little strategy ends up working, as Edna is taken out, and Coach is the one to win the challenge.

4/5

Batman Wall Physical Race / Mental

This next Immunity Challenge is a pretty fun one that's simple but engaging. The challenge team built this giant wall that needs to be scaled by the players by grabbing onto a rope. The objective is to climb up part of the wall to grab a bag of puzzle pieces, bring them back to the puzzle-solving station, and repeat. Each subsequent bag of puzzle pieces is higher up on the wall, in other words more difficult to reach. I love the visual of everyone climbing up that wall, it feels grand and exciting, and we see quite a few players endure some hard times here; there are players who keep scraping their bodies painfully against the wall on their descent, as well as players who tumble over when trying to land back on the ground. Once all of the puzzle pieces have been collected, the players can begin working on what I consider to be a pretty unique puzzle. Essentially, all of the puzzle pieces have patterns of lines on them, and for each pattern, there is exactly one other puzzle piece with the same pattern. (This is starting to sound like the Jack and Jill challenge all over again). That is, every pattern but 3 of them, which do not have any matches. The objective is to figure out which 3 pieces do not match with any others, and the only way to do that is to figure out all the ones that match first, which looks like it could be tricky because the patterns are so similar. Each puzzle piece has a number on the back of it, and in order to win this challenge, one player has to remember the numbers on the backs of the 3 non-matching pieces, scale all the way to the top of the wall, and use those numbers to solve a combination lock, raising a flag. I don't have too much else to add, I just think it's a pretty good challenge— both parts of it are quality in my opinion. Brandon turns out to be the winner, so at least we know he's not going home tonight.

3/5

Teeter Tower Dexterity

As much as I love to see Survivor seasons introduce brand new, never-before-seen challenges, there is also something really special about seeing an older challenge reimagined in a completely fresh way. That's exactly what our penultimate Immunity Challenge of South Pacific does— it gives us an entirely new, but still brilliant take on the House of Cards Immunity Challenge, which first appeared as the final challenge of Survivor: Gabon and has already appeared 2 more times since then. As you more than likely remember, in the original version of this challenge, it was a race to see which player could be the first person to build a 10-foot tall house of cards, or had the tallest house of cards at the end of 30 minutes. They simplified the objective a bit in Redemption Island, but it was by and large the same idea. South Pacific has overhauled the design quite dramatically though, and I think this version is really cool. They basically shrunk the challenge, but in return, made balancing the house of cards itself one of the primary challenges of the game. Now, the entire platform upon which the house of cards is to be built on a wobbly balance table. On one side of the balance table is a heavy sandbag, so the platform defaults to being slanted, which is not suitable for building a house of cards. That means each player has to devote one of their hands to holding onto a rope, keeping the table properly balanced, and if at any moment they mess this part up, their entire tower will come crashing to the ground. This adds difficulty in multiple ways. First, only being able to build the tower with one hand is not an insignificant handicap— you have to be way more careful. Also, your brain is primarily focused on the house of cards, but you have to ensure you devote a tiny little part of it to not forgetting about the hand balancing the beam. As the house of cards gets taller, you will probably have to make subtle adjustments— release the pressure a bit, now that the other side is getting heavier. The target height is way shorter now, and they've removed the time limit that was present in the original version, but I think the added component of the balance table makes this version just as difficult as the original, if not more difficult.

This is an intense challenge, because the audience knows the remaining players basically have two chances to get Ozzy out of the game, otherwise he wins. This is their first chance, and dexterity challenges are stressful enough as it is. Jeff asks if any of the players do houses of cards for fun, and Sophie confesses that she has a book on how to make them. Just like in the original version of this challenge, one of the unforeseen hardships one could face is the possibility of running out of tiles. The challenge producers really don't give you a lot of wiggle room here, so it's essential you manage your tiles well. Sophie is the first to run into this problem, quickly erecting a beautiful and obviously sturdy house of cards, but she completely runs out of tiles only barely past the halfway point. This is a major setback because it essentially means you have to start over, or at least rebuild a large portion of the house of cards. Ozzy comes pretty close to winning early on as well, but he too runs out of tiles and has to fundamentally rethink his strategy. Meanwhile, Sophie manages to rebuild a decent portion of her tower, but has a bit of an accident and about half of her tiles fall to the ground. This leads into what I think is one of the most memorable challenge moments of the season, and probably one of the most memorable Sophie moments in general— she yells at Albert, who is about halfway to the target height— to drop his stack and come pick up her pieces. Basically, she wants him to quit trying to win the challenge for himself, and focus on ensuring that she is able to defeat Ozzy. But Albert pushes back against this idea: "I'm in a pretty decent spot right now..." This prompts Sophie to snap back at him, and I LOVE this feisty version of Sophie that we get to see a few times during the last few episodes of this season. "Drop your DAMN stack and come pick up my pieces, I'm going to beat you." Albert continues to protest and Sophie continues to plead, but then Jeff Probst butts in— "Let me make it easy for you: There is no helping in this challenge." Jeez Jeff, you really took your sweet time to interject with that rule clarification. I think he really wanted Albert to drop his stack and then blindside him with the "Actually you're not allowed to help each other, haha sucker!" Jeff then makes a statement that always lasted with me as a viewer: "If you want Ozzy out of this game, beat him." South Pacific has officially reached it's "he's no Mike Tyson, he's Brett" stage, and when seasons reach this point, that's always great news for the challenges, because it makes them feel extra nail-biting and high-stakes. It really ends up coming down to whether Ozzy or Coach will complete their house of cards first— this gets so freaking tense I can't even describe it. You can see the sweat pouring down Ozzy's face as he goes to place his last few tiles. As the challenge nears its end, every passing second feels like an eternity— House of Cards has never felt this intense. Ozzy ever so carefully places his last tile... it stays... and just like that, he's made it to the final Final 4— one challenge win away from becoming the winner of Survivor: South Pacific.

5/5

Lei of the Land Physical Race / Mental

Survivor: South Pacific comes to an end with another challenge that dates all the way back to Survivor: Borneo— Out on a Limb. That challenge, along with "The Maze" which was introduced the following season, have served as the foundation for some of Survivor's grandest, most jaw-droppingly incredible challenge sets of all time, and South Pacific was clearly determined to wow us all once again. JUST LOOK HOW FREAKING COOL THIS LOOKS! It's a beautiful, ginormous, flower-shaped obstacle course— the perfect setting for the most important, winner-determining challenge of the season. We most recently saw this challenge in Tocantins with the giant tarantula, which was awesome, but to me, this version of the challenge reminds me the most of Cook Islands' compass-shaped course— it has a more traditional design, with each branching path having its own unique obstacle that needs to be overcome. In total, there are 5 paths that each player needs to take, the objective being to retrieve 5 bags of puzzle pieces. I'll go ahead and briefly sum up each leg of the obstacle course. First, there is a net tube, very similar to every leg of Tocantins' version of the challenge. Second, there is a tightrope each player has to cross, their only support being another rope above that they can grab onto. Third is a wobbly bridge with little circular plates you need to step on in order to cross. Fourth is a series of wobbly swings that need to be traversed. And finally, there's a classic net crawl obstacle. All together, you have one monster of an obstacle course, and that's only the half of it. As you may have suspected, once all of the bags of puzzle pieces are assembled, the players have to get to work on solving a puzzle. It's a familiar but great puzzle, the one from Panama and Tocantins where pieces of the board itself have to be rotated in order for all the puzzle pieces to fit. In Panama the puzzle pieces were skulls and in Tocantins they were snakes, but in this challenge, fittingly enough, they are flowers. Gosh, I just love how bright and colorful everything about this final challenge is.

Unsurprisingly, this challenge delivers on all fronts in its entertainment value. Your adrenaline will be pumping all throughout this one, and it ultimately all comes down to that puzzle. Although Ozzy is the first to finish the obstacle course section, giving him a lead on the puzzle, Sophie isn't far behind, and it ultimately ends up being Sophie who locks in her first piece. Like most puzzles, this one becomes easier the less pieces you have left to place, and Sophie finds herself on an absolute roll, locking in piece after piece. The camera keeps cutting back and forth between Ozzy and Sophie, and you can see the look of sheer panic and distress on Ozzy's face as he realizes that a literal million dollars is slipping away from him. After a season of absolute challenge domination by Ozzy, he finally faces defeat at the hands of perhaps the most unexpected person— the silent assassin, the legendary Sophie Clarke. And the poetic beauty of it all— it's the same exact fate met by Christine at the start of the Merge: An incredible streak of challenge wins, but a failure to prevail at the one challenge that truly mattered. Christine lost to Ozzy, and now Ozzy experiences the same tragic end. What perfect symmetry in a season that, once again, I have always viewed as something of a Survivor tragedy. To be clear, that's not a bad thing— many of the best stories ever told are tragedies. I think Survivor: South Pacific has one of the greatest storylines of any Survivor season. My only tiny nitpick with this challenge is that it is quite physical for being a Final Immunity Challenge, and while I love the way the challenge results ultimately shake out, on paper, it would have made a lot more sense to swap this challenge and the Final 4 Immunity Challenge. Tocantins had it right— Out on a Limb as the penultimate challenge, and dexterity for the Final Immunity Challenge. But I think the puzzle did a good job at balancing out the physical stuff overall, and Sophie won the challenge anyway, so I can look past all of that. At the end of the day, this will always be one of the best Final Immunity Challenges ever.

5/5