Unchained Physical Race / Mental

Survivor: The Amazon opens with a very compelling, intricate challenge. At the start of the challenge, members of each tribe are tied together, similar to "Lock Step" from The Australian Outback. Then, they race through through obstacles to retrieve keys, allowing the tribes to reduce the amount of people traveling together. I like this concept a lot, because it tests the tribe's perception of who they think are their weakest members (who they presumingly free as soon as possible), and who they think are their strongest (who they would have run the entire course). Ultimately, there are four obstacles– one designed for 8 people, then for 4 people, then for 2 people, then for 1 person. One of the obstacles involves crossing a balance beam, during which the men completely squander their lead due to Ryan and Daniel's inability to cross it, culminating in absolute hilarity as Daniel somersaults to the finish. We also see our first appearance of a "flying fox," which is one of my favorite Survivor obstacles; I love watching people glide over a challenge. The women eventually win the challenge, which is edited in disfavor of Rob and Dave, who are shown to completely botch the puzzle, although we know from post-game content that this wasn't actually the case. I think this is probably the best opening challenge we have had so far, as it has interesting and action-packed challenge design, a victory on the part of the underdogs, and comedy provided by the balance beam segment.

4/5

Total Recall Mental

This is an interesting one– each tribe has 2 minutes to explore an "Amazonian Indian village." Then, they are quizzed on what they observed. I like the culture here, but this just isn't fun to watch. It is so important in mental challenges like this that the audience gets to play along too, and that is not possible with this one.

2/5

The Great Escape Skill

Alright, this is a lot like the "Jail Break" challenge we saw last season, but ehhh, I don't like this version nearly as much. It's kind of like a Survivor escape room, but in my opinion, none of it translates very well to TV. I really can't put my finger on it, but for some reason, I've just never felt very engaged while watching this one. There is some incredible storytelling going on in the background here though, leading to a very satisfying conclusion. Prior to the challenge, the women's unwavering training for the challenge was juxtaposed with scenes of the men goofing around with their Magic 8 Ball. The men were even confident enough to decorate the Immunity Idol with their tribe's colors, so when the women win, it just feels so rewarding.

2/5

Gone Fishin Micellaneous Challenge

It's the iconic fish-off challenge! I actually really like this one. It's kind of weird, but it also perfectly fits into the season's location and culture. Sometimes, variety itself is what makes a challenge great, because it makes the challenge memorable. Plus, I love Jeff paddling around the lake trying to commentate.

4/5

Up the Creek Physical Race / Mental

This is a very interesting challenge— it's sort of like a combination of "Swahili Scramble" from Africa and the variant of "Shipwrecked" that appeared in Marquesas. The start of the challenge involves finding five names of Amazonian animals on a word scramble, although there are ten clues, which means that five are decoys. Once the correct five animals are found, each tribe has to paddle around the lake to find the matching flags, and bring them back to the start. The challenge ends up being closer than you'd expect, and I just find the whole thing to be a great blend between mental and physical, while also taking advantage of the season's physical location and culture.

4/5

Piranha Feast Physical Race

Gross challenge alert! It seems like this is one of those challenges that you either love or hate– well big surprise, I'm in the camp who loves it. Would I want to compete in it? I'm the type of person who won't even share a bottled water with someone, so this challenge is my nightmare, but it makes for truly great television. If anyone needs a reminder of how this works, each tribe has a huge piece of beef on a string, and with their mouths only, tribe members have to rip off pieces of meat and spit it into a bucket, which is then weighed after ten minutes to see which tribe got the most. This is supposed to replicate the actions of piranhas, which are common in the Amazon River. There's not much more to say beyond that; it's just five minutes of each tribe slobbering over a giant piece of meat. I love this challenge because it's unique, it's indecent, and once again, it ties in to the season's location.

5/5

Perch Endurance

I endlessly praised this challenge when it appeared in The Australian Outback, even suggesting that this may be the best challenge to ever appear on the show due to it being purely willpower, more than any other challenge. Once again, it has returned as the Merge Challenge, and once again, it delivers. Of course, everyone knows this challenge for one particular event— Roger jumping off after only 35 minutes because he was so confident that the women were going to be Pagonged, culminating in his spectacular blindside later that night. Except wait, that's actually not the event that takes place during this challenge which has made it iconic, but in my opinion, that could have been enough to cement this challenge in the Survivor hall of fame. Just like I wrote when reviewing this challenge in Season 2, what really makes it better than possibly any other challenge is that whoever gets voted out that night has to own the fact that they willingly stepped off; they didn't accidentally drop their ball or slip off a narrow foothold, they made an active decision to step off their perch, whether it was because of the temptation of food or just plain confidence. Anyway, let's get to the moment everyone remembers...

Leading up to this challenge, the idea of Jenna and Heidi taking off all of their clothes was alluded to multiple times; before the first Immunity Challenge, Jenna gives a confessional saying that if the men take the lead, Heidi should "show them her boobs" to... distract them I guess? Amazingly enough, next season, the men on the Drake tribe are actually going to put this strategy to the test– we'll have to wait and see how that works out for them. Then, during the Matchmaker challenge, Jeff remarks that "Jenna's not showing anything, literally," to which Jenna replies "not today, maybe tomorrow." So really, there was a lot of foreshadowing to what's about to happen here. A little while into the challenge, Jeff declares that there are going to be some temptations coming up. Immediately after that, Jenna says that she will take her clothes off for chocolate and peanut butter, and Heidi is quick to agree. Minutes later, Jeff reveals a plate of peanut butter and chocolate— cookies. I mean, I guess it gets the job done. As promised, the two "girls gone wilder" strip completely naked and bow out of the challenge, much to the delight of this season's unusually lustful men; it's a memorable moment alright. Now, I've seen some people who I think are less familiar with the show try and misconstrue this as Jeff making women take off their clothes for food, but let's be clear here: They were going to get food anyway; for some reason, being naked is something that Jenna and Heidi both wanted, and we also know from post game content that this is something that they planned on doing eventually regardless. Long story short, spectacular challenge, even if it doesn't last ten hours like in The Australian Outback.

5/5

Face Off Mental

Yay, it's "Survivor Quiz Show!" Double yay, we're using the "coconut-chop" format! What could possi- oh... it's an Immunity Challenge again. sigh... Well, just like in the two previous seasons, I am not a fan of coconut-chop challenges being used for Immunity. It's just not fair— it's too easy for a majority alliance to just take out the person they don't like first, and then send them home that night at Tribal Council. That is exactly what happens in Thailand; thankfully, Survivor: The Amazon has an amazing, unpredictable Post Merge, so that is not the case this season, but it shouldn't even be a possibility. This time, instead of coconuts or torches, each Survivor was given a chance to decorate a mask to look like themselves, to be used during the challenge, a detail I very much enjoy. As for the quiz element, the castaways are tested on their knowledge of Amazonian culture– culture is always good in challenges. One fun moment is the downfall of Rob Cesternino during this challenge. Believing the best possible strategy to be throwing the challenge to avoid offending anyone with his chops, Rob intentionally answers incorrectly, and in order to clue the audience in on his tactics, he always answers the most obviously incorrect answer. That's all great, until Jeff calls him out for answering "Amazonian Forest Ranger" to the question "what is a bushmaster?" Rob then jokes that he originally thought the answer was going to be "porn star," much to the obvious annoyance of Jeff, who tells him to take a step back. Rob's tribemates then proceed to absolutely KO his mask, taking out all three of his lives in one round, teaching Rob a lesson for trying to game the system.

3/5

Amazon Menu Miscellaneous Challenge

Time for the next evolution of the food eating challenge! Just like last season, this is an individual challenge, but this time, the entire challenge is elimination-style. This time, they have to eat a grasshopper, then 10 live coconut worms, then five beetles, and finally, a live Amazonian beetle larva; gross stuff, but definitely not as bad as Thailand. I love how Matthew just swallows the beetle larvae whole, like he eats them every day— he knew that his digestive juices would do battle and win.

4/5

Q & A Mental

Don't you just love it when two top tier challenges come back to back? Where to begin with this one... Ah, I know: NIGHT TIME CHALLENGE!!!! Seriously, why don't they do this anymore?!!! This is a challenge that would have worked just fine in the day, but the producers thought it would look nicer and feel more unique at night, so they went an did something unthinkable by modern Survivor standards— they just ran it at night. Just like Marquesas' fire-making challenge, the lighting here is absolutely beautiful. That's already a lot of praise, and we haven't even got to what the challenge is yet. This is the debut of another Survivor classic, "Q & A," but much more commonly known as "Touchy Subjects." It's a fan favorite, and for good reason. It's kind of like the Mario Party of Survivor challenges: Its sole purpose for existing is ruining friendships. Each Survivor has to answer questions about the others in private; some of them are nice, and others, are not. Then, when the game begins, they have to answer each question with the person they think the majority of the group answered. Answer correct, and you get a point, first to five wins. It's such a simple but ingenious idea, and every time it's used, it's great. But let's get into the game itself. Some surprisingly raunchy questions, but I guess you should expect nothing less of Survivor: The Amazon, the most PG-13 of all Survivor seasons. There's "which tribe member uses sex appeal as a weapon?" and "who would you most like to see pose nude in a magazine?," but the best question by far is "who do you have a crush on?," because Matthew, amazingly, decides to guess himself, despite the fact that there are 4 men and only 3 women. This is probably Matthew finally deciding to start throwing some challenges, but I like to believe Matthew thought that all three of the women, plus one of the guys with an undisclosed secret, all secretly had the hots for him. I'm glad you're here, Touchy Subjects, please never go away! (Spoiler alert, it's going to go away eventually.)

5/5

Shoot 'n' Shuffle Skill

Survivor Shuffleboard time, everyone! Let me just say right off the bat, I'm not a fan of Survivor Shuffleboard— most of the time that is. In my opinion, it's an unfair challenge; whoever goes last has a huge advantage, and most of the time, the person who goes last wins because of it, even if they were never winning at any other point during the game. This is pretty much what happens with Jenna during this rendition. Survivor: South Pacific is going to introduce a version I like a lot better, but that's also going to be the last time this challenge appears. There is an interesting twist here though— it's not just shuffleboard. They also brought back the Australian Outback and Africa version of "Blue Plate Special," which is played at the start of the challenge, where the goal is to hit your own plate, and which determines how many pucks each player gets for the main game (of course, it doesn't really matter very matter how many pucks you have though, it's mostly about going last). I do like how they combined these tests of skill into one challenge though.

2/5

Here's another direct throwback to Survivor: Borneo. It's the massive obstacle course with different paths, like some kind of giant jungle gym. I've always loved this challenge, it's impressively large and encompasses a lot of action. It is pretty much exactly the same as the Borneo version, and I find it about exactly as entertaining.

4/5

Braille Maze Physical Race

Here's another sort-of-Survivor classic that originates here in The Amazon! I have to hand it to the challenge team. They somehow took an impossible idea: A maze that you have to complete while blindfolded— and they made it work. Incredibly well, might I add. Let's just start with the set: Even though this is not the same challenge as "The Maze," which appeared in Seasons 2 and 4, I think this is easily the most impressive maze they have put together so far, even if it's intended to be completed while blind. The way it works is quite creative: In order to figure out where you need to go, you need to use your sense of touch; there are guide posts throughout the maze that you can run your fingers across, which point you in the direction that you need to go. It ends up being a pretty close challenge, in which Jenna ultimately pulls out a very satisfying, clutch victory. We are kind of beginning to enter the era of Survivor where there always needs to be some sort of really huge challenge somewhere in the finale, and I have to say, I like this era quite a bit.

5/5

Will Power Endurance

For this season's Final Immunity Challenge, they are trying something new— admirable. However, I'm honestly not the hugest fan of this one. Before we get into the challenge itself though, it's worth noting that they had all of the finalists dress up like Amazonian warriors before the challenge began, and also had them decorate the headdresses they would use during the battle. I really like that detail. Another thing worth noting, this challenge took place at Tribal Council, right before it was time to vote, just like in The Australian Outback. Alright, on to the challenge. Each Survivor stands barefoot on a wooden perch, while holding their headdress above their head. The headdress is attached to a string of beads which connect to a collar around each person's neck, limiting how much you are able to move the headdress around. The goal is to not let the headdress touch your head or fall off the balance beam. I guess it's an interesting concept, but I just find it to be a bit underwhelming to watch. I find the challenge's name, "Will Power," to be a bit ironic, because in my opinion, disregarding The Australian Outback's quiz challenge, this is the least will-power based Final Immunity Challenge to appear so far. The headdress feels a bit finicky, and it seems like it's easy to slip off the balance beam without even thinking about it. We don't know exactly how long the challenge goes for, but it's definitely not long until Rob slips and Matthew uses the Richard Hatch strategy of throwing it on purpose. Survivor: Thailand also had a very fast Final Immunity Challenge, but it also had the best challenge set of all time. Still, this season's Final Immunity Challenge certainly gets the job done, and incorporates a little bit more culture into the show, it just isn't a favorite of mine.

2/5