A River, Run Through It Physical Race / Mental / Skill

Punnily named after the 1992 film A River Runs Through It, this season's first challenge highlights Tocantins' terrain right out of the gate. The challenge begins with members of each tribe having to race across a series of sandy hills and into a shallow river where they must all get to a raft stationed out in the water. Like in last season's first tribal Immunity Challenge, the incorporation of a natural water source into the challenge's design is happily appreciated. The raft has puzzle planks tied to it, and has to be dragged all the way back to the shore; the same path, but now a much harder journey. After untying the planks, tribe members then have to transport them back over the sandy hills to a mat near the start of the course. This is a physically demanding part of the challenge, especially under the extreme heat of the sun; Jeff claims that it's "120 degrees today," but I think he may be exaggerating a bit given that the highest recorded temperature ever in Brazil was 112.6°... Now I'm wondering if Jeff has lied about the temperature before?! Does he just think that because it "feels" like what he imagines 120 degree weather to be it must actually be so?! Anyway, once all of the planks have been collected, the tribe can work together on a puzzle staircase, having to fit each plank into the correct position. To me this really harkens back to Thailand's "Step On Up" challenge, even though the design of the puzzle isn't exactly the same. During this portion of the challenge, the tribes are basically neck and neck, and an interesting development arises in Sierra and Sandy naturally falling into the leadership position, guiding their tribes through this part of the challenge, despite being the two "voted out" at the beginning of the season. Once the staircase is complete and the tribes make their way up, two designated "puzzle solvers" begin working on a table maze, the final stage of this challenge. We've seen a table maze before, back in Panama's "Wall to Wall" challenge, but this one is a bit more unique, as it requires two people to work together, each operating a hook-like handle attached to a single peg. Honestly, this puzzle would probably be easier to do as one person just operating both hooks themself, but this aspect of the challenge is obviously designed to test the puzzle pairs' communication skills. Jalapao falls behind during the stair part of the challenge and is never able to catch up, allowing Timbira to win this first challenge of the season!

3/5

Basket Brawl Physical Race / Skill

If you've read any of my past entries, you probably already know exactly how I'm going to feel about this challenge— it's AMAZING! Genuinely, one of my favorite recurring Survivor challenges of all time, and here it is making its debut in the beautiful state of Tocantins! I've talked before about how some Survivor challenges feel like sports in their own right, "Survivor Sports" if you will; the commonly appearing Wicker Flicker challenge, "Big Oar Deal" from Gabon, and so on and so forth. Basket Brawl is an incredibly welcome addition to the family; an epic physical contact challenge that virtually guarantees entertainment each time it appears. To compare it to previous challenges, it has similar elements to By Any Means Necessary, being a physical contact challenge played entirely in the water, but the added skill-based element of having to land balls in hoops harkens back to "Holding Court" from Guatemala, one of my favorite one-off Survivor challenges. To get into the exact rules of the challenge, three members from each tribe at a time face off against each other to retrieve a ball, with the object being to land it into the opposing tribe's net to earn a point. The first tribe to score three points wins the game. Once again highlighting the advantage to varied locations like Tocantins, this challenge is played in a really cool shallow river setting. Another interesting thing about this challenge is that, for some reason, almost every time they do it, it just so happens to be violently raining on the players. It's like the universe knows these types of physical showdowns are made even better by thundering downpours, and enjoys this challenge every bit as much as I do. 

The first round of the challenge plays out quickly, but right out of the gate, displays just how physically violent this challenge can get, with people being tackled into the water left and right and a whole lot of shouting. Timbira scores the first point of the game. The second round features a whole lot of manly men, the combination of Joe, Brendan, Tyson, and J.T. promising to produce a brutal battle. They certainly do provide a lot of entertaining takedowns, but I think most would agree the most memorable part of this round involves Sandy and Erinn, who remain in perpetual stalemate throughout the round on the other end of the field. Sandy grabs a hold of the top of Erinn's swimsuit in order to cease her mobility, and it looks to me like she almost ends up ripping it off her body from behind. For some reason while doing this, Sandy decides to start waving one of her arms around in the air like she's riding a horse, and the music turns to short little banjo ditty— it's an extremely strange thing to witness. Timbira finally scores, earning them a second point, leaving Jalapao dispirited heading into the third round, an all-women showdown. It's a fun round that ends with a couple really close shots that miss the hoop, where ultimately Jalapao makes a basket allowing them to prevent a Timbira shutout. The fourth round features all men and is the first time we get to see Coach hit the water, and alright, I can't not talk about Coach's presence in the challenges throughout this season. This man is incredible; I know some people don't like him or get sick of his persona, but I honestly find Coach to be the most hysterical person to ever play Survivor. Of course, a lot of the humor is derived from the ironic nature of Coach's character; here is a guy who acts like he knows how to do everything, a paragon of courage and integrity, the second coming of Julius Caesar— and yet, fails to live up to expectations at every opportunity, all while doubling down on his absolute superiority. His actions and words are constantly undermined by the editors, and his challenge performances speak for themselves. If you were to just watch all of this season's challenges in a vacuum without seeing the rest of the season, you would be missing a lot of the narrative relevance to Coach's blunders, and what makes a lot of these challenges so funny. Even in episode 2, his mightier-than-thou attitude has already been fully established by the editors, and so when Jeff notes that "Coach is really dragging," it's very funny. He certainly doesn't help his tribe in preventing Jalapao from scoring their second point, tying up the scores... The final round is long and the ball is exchanged many times until Stephen becomes the last person to get a hold of it; at first, he is unable to throw it because Sierra has her arms locked around him, but in a moment of climax, he breaks free, throws, and successfully lands the ball, I think to everyone's amazement. And so, Timbira blows their 2-0 lead and is forced to Tribal Council for the first time this season. The challenge is exceptional on its own, and the added satisfaction of the Jalapao comeback just makes it even more special.

5/5

A Crate Idea Physical Race / Mental

I think this next challenge is fairly popular among the Survivor fanbase, despite only appearing a couple of times. It's for good reason, I also think that this is a great challenge and its nice to finally see its debut. Two members of each tribe have to race out to a large puzzle cube and then roll it all the way back to the beginning of the field, a process that must be repeated by various members of the tribe until all 6 puzzle cubes have been retrieved. Then, they have to be used to assemble a block staircase, which the tribe must ultimately climb to win immunity. The twist is that the blocks have their tribe's names printed on them, and the staircase has to be assembled so the name is revealed correctly. So all in all, there are a few things that make this challenge really great. First, it's very difficult. You know how some challenges you feel exhausted just watching them? Well, this is one of them. The cubes are so big and so obviously heavy that pushing them back to the beginning of the course looks nothing short of grueling, and it's great seeing these types of extremely physically demanding challenges really push the contestants from time to time. The weight of the blocks becomes even more taxing during the staircase-assembly portion of the challenge, because it requires certain pieces to be hoisted up into the air, which takes a tremendous tribal effort. And you do not want to make a mistake in putting this thing together, because it's going to be a rough time moving everything around again to try and get back on track. The other thing I really love about this challenge is that it has a clear, consistent identity. I've stressed before how I appreciate challenges that have a satisfying flow in their design, as opposed to the more common structure of challenges that just feel like 3 random obstacles strung together. Here, the rules are very simple: Retrieve some blocks and use them to make a special staircase; there are no random extra elements unrelated to the central theme of the giant crates, and I think there's a certain beauty in challenges with that type of effective simplicity. During the challenge, the Timbira tribe takes the lead during the crate-rolling portion, but they have a communication breakdown trying to assemble their staircase correctly. This, entertainingly, allowed Jalapoa to surpass them under the coordinated guidance of J.T., albeit the challenge ends up having a really close finish.

4/5

Try-Any-Angle Physical Race / Mental

This is the return of the "Race out to get some puzzle pieces, bring them back, solve a puzzle" challenge that we've seen a few times now; first in Africa, then in Guatemala and Panama. There are, of course, some changes, and I like all of the tweaks they made here. As far as the running and retrieving puzzle pieces portion, the path is now a zigzag, which encourages opposing tribe members to run into each other, which is always brilliant design. The puzzle is new and really creative— the puzzle pieces are in the form of vertical triangular prisms with letters printed on them. Each puzzle piece has one of eight possible places it can be slotted, and on top of that, each puzzle piece can be rotated one of three ways, as each side of the triangle has its own set of letters. The goal of the puzzle is to find the correct combination of where to put each puzzle piece and how each should be rotated to spell out an actual phrase. To me, this puzzle has always seemed really hard, but it doesn't seem like either of the tribes have too much trouble with it. Perhaps it's one of those "easier than it looks" situations. Whatever it may be, as someone who likes puzzles, this one looks really fun and is objectively super creative and I'd love to try something like it. The phrase that each tribe is trying to decode contains their tribe name, which means that the two tribes have different puzzles. It's the fortuitous reality that both of the tribes have 7-letter names that allowed for this clever implementation. Like in previous versions of the challenge, I also have to commend the challenge department for creating such a pretty, unnecessarily detailed set, the colorful designs etched into the grass making the challenge a visual treat to look at. I gave past implementations of this challenge lower scores, but I think my love for the puzzle just barely elevates it to 3/5 territory.

3/5

Water Mortar Physical Race / Skill

It's time for another round of Wicker Flicker, last seen four seasons ago in Survivor: Fiji! The rules are the same as usual, with the first tribe to catch 5 balls being the victors of the challenge. It's a challenge I normally give a score of 3/5 to, but out of all the times this challenge has been used, I think this is the best and most memorable rendition. To that point, I think if you brought up this challenge to the average Survivor fan, its use here in Tocantins would be the first thing to come to mind largely because of J.T.'s tooth— we'll get to that. First, I want to point out a cool thing about this challenge's location, which is right next to a little river, and parts of that river leak over onto the course giving the arena a unique swampy section. Once again, incorporating physical geography into a challenge = awesome! After the second round, Joe says "I hurt my knee back there..." Subtle Micronesia reference by superfan Joe Dowdle? The main storyline throughout the challenge though is J.T. getting frustrated by his tribemates, mainly Taj and especially Spencer, for not trying hard enough, to his criteria. Jalapao had already lost the previous episode's Immunity Challenge, and I think J.T. was very nervous about the notion of going to tribal council twice in a row, so he was a bit grumpy during this challenge. But things are about to get much worse for J.T.— he dives down to catch a ball in his net, and amazingly, he actually does catch it, but at the same time, he knocks out one of his teeth. And no one is more fascinated by this whole development than Jeff Probst. J.T. is comically nonchalant about it, and just throws his broken tooth onto the ground. That prompts Jeff Probst to start a search party looking for the tooth, and is where he delivers the episode title "You're going to want that tooth." Brendan is the lucky one who finds the tooth and asks J.T. if he wants it back, but J.T. says he doesn't want it back. So Jeff Probst takes it... And he already knows this will be a TV moment: "For the first time ever in the history of Survivor, a point was scored while losing a tooth." I think losing a tooth over this challenge just makes J.T. even more frustrated that Spencer continues to flounder, to a point that even Stephen Fishbach looks frustrated. J.T. confronts Spencer about his performance, who gives an excuse and says "What do you want me to do?!" To which J.T. snarkily replies "Stop them from scoring a point, that would be the best thing." Wickler Flicker has never been so dramatic! Even though he was a bit of a grouch, there is no understating how amazing J.T. was in this challenge. He continues to make amazing catches throughout, but sadly for him, it isn't enough to win the challenge. After they lose, Jeff tells him, incredibly, "The only thing I have for you... is your tooth."

4/5

Sandstone Shootout Skill / Mental

Next up we have a simple but sweet slingshot challenge. It's been a while since we've had a challenge like this, so it's nice to see a challenge more reminiscent of the show's early days. This is a tribal version of Marquesas' "Sands of Time," which itself was a variation of The Australian Outback's "Blue Plate Special." Instead of every player having their own structure to shoot at, each tribe shares one structure that is brilliantly designed. I've said it many times now— there are some really smart people on the challenge team who manage to make contraptions I'm not capable of understanding. When a tribe smashes one of their tiles, sand starts pouring out, just like in Marquesas, but now, it causes two things to happen. First, the next tile is magically revealed on the structure, somehow triggered by the fleeting sand. Second, a bag of puzzle pieces is magically released, which will be used for the second part of this challenge. In total, there are three bags of puzzle pieces to collect, which means three tiles need to be shattered. Once all of the puzzle pieces have been retrieved, the tribe may begin on the puzzle. This is the second appearance of the classic,  rotating puzzle board we first saw in Panama's "In-Cog-Neato" challenge, and this version of the puzzle is really cool because the pieces are shaped like curled snakes, a clever nod to the Brazilian location. Tyson and J.T. take charge of the slingshot portion for their respective tribes, and Tyson is faster than J.T. A concerned Joe asks J.T. if he really wants to keep trying, which J.T. replies that he does. This allows for some trademark Tyson humor who offers to help the struggling tribe out: "I'll come over and do it if you want." This is the type of challenge that would ordinarily be 3/5 but the awesome way the sand/slingshot structure is designed and the unique snake-looking puzzle pieces that tie into the location elevate it up a level for me.

4/5

Get a Grip Endurance

The season's first individual Immunity Challenge is the return of what is, even at this point in the show, already a Survivor classic. Everyone is holding onto a pole— the last person to not fall off is the winner. Joe falls off of the challenge early and this is the first time he is confronted by Jeff Probst about the infection on his knee, which will ultimately see him evacuated by the end of the episode. When J.T. falls off his pole, he leaves just four people left in the game, all from the Timbira tribe, and Coach makes sure to let everyone know it. Jeff asks Coach if this means that Timbira is still "Timbira strong," and Coach grins and replies "We're going strong baby." He falls off shortly after he says that and does a little "defeat flex" or I don't even know what to call it, but it's very funny to me. Then Sierra falls and skins her whole body on the way down which is tough to watch. It leaves only Tyson, and impressively, Debra, still in contention, which is an interesting showdown to watch. There's a fun interaction between Tyson and Erinn, who warns Tyson not to fall off because she doesn't want him to hurt his "pretty little face," and Tyson acknowledges that she has a point because it is his moneymaker, after all. Erinn doesn't have to worry, because Tyson ends up winning the challenge shortly after. Always an excellent challenge to watch.

4/5

Rope-a-Dope Physical Race

Now it's time for the first of many reapperances of Around the Bend, a Guatemala born challenge where each contestant has to maneuver through an obstacle course by untying themselves from a rope. This will demand that they throw themselves under and over obstacles, doing whatever it takes in that quest to untangle themselves. It's clearly a very exhausting challenge, especially given the extreme heat of Tocantins. Just like in Guatemala, the challenge is elimination-style, with only the top finishers from the first round getting to play in the multi-leveled second round. There is a hilarious moment during this challenge courtesy of Jeff Probst. Coach has a hard time with the challenge, falling behind most of the other players fairly quickly. Jeff notices this and delivers this line of gold: "Coach frustrated. Stuck. Nothing prepared him for the Rope-a-Dope." Tocantins really was one of Probst's greatest years of hosting.

3/5

Tocantins Shuffle Skill

So far Survivor: Tocantins' challenges have all been so consistently above average, so it's a shame that they decided to bring Survivor Shuffleboard back and hurt the average. Yeah, perhaps a nod to that the last time they filmed in Brazil, Survivor: The Amazon's shuffleboard challenge has returned. I don't like the challenge in Survivor: The Amazon because not only is it not that interesting to watch, it's very unfair because the person who goes last has a huge advantage. What I did like about The Amazon's version was that the challenge had an extra portion before the shuffleboard part, where the players had to shoot slingshots to determine how many pucks they got to use. Survivor: Vanuatu introduced a much improved version of the challenge that changed the objective in a compelling way and added a lot more strategy into the competition. So what did Survivor: Tocantins choose to do? ... They decided to bring back the inferior Amazon version. Except now it's even worse, because they got rid of the slingshot portion at the beginning. The challenge also has a kind of depressing storyline. The entire episode, Sierra is the televised boot; Tyson even tells her to her face that she's  the next to go and there is nothing she can do to change it. Sierra is losing for most of the challenge, but on her last shot, she knocks both of Tyson's pucks away from the center putting her in the lead at the last moment. But unfortunately for her, Debbie has the last shot, and as we know with this challenge, whoever goes last is probably going to win, and surprise surprise, Debbie wins. Thankfully, instead of Sierra getting voted out, we get the incredible Tyson blindside, giving this episode (but not this challenge) a satisfying storyline after all. If there's anything good I can say about the challenge, it's that the shuffleboard table is beautiful. It may seem like a silly thing to say, but I really do appreciate those types of details; it's genuinely cool. It pays tribute to the location they are at, designed like an overhead view of Tocantins' mountainous and sandy terrain. The mountains even jut up from the table, which is an awesome touch. This is also one of those challenges where Jeff offers people the opportunity to sit out and eat instead of compete, which is good, and it's pouring rain, so everyone is miserable, including the eaters, which is somewhat funny.

1/5

Snag, Drag, & Bag Skill

This is a challenge that often comes up as a duel in seasons with Redemption Island, but it actually makes its debut here at the Tocantins Final 7! It's a very basic challenge but still enjoyable to watch. There are two parts to the challenge, and only the first three people to complete the first part move on to the second part. In the first part, each player has to use a grappling hook to retrieve three bags. This is where the title of the challenge comes from, first you have to snag the bag, then drag it back to where you are standing, and then... bag. You have a bag now. The second round is a simple table maze, and if you've been keeping track, this is the fourth time we've seen a table maze, following Marquesas, Vanuatu, and Cook Islands. Yeah, I guess we were due for a table maze. The grappling hook section is a good test of skill, and it's something we don't see on the show very often. Of course there was that fun "Grapple Perch" challenge in Fiji, but if they aren't going to do that challenge again, I'm happy we still get some grappling hook action with this challenge. Throughout the challenge there is a little bit of fun Debbie/Jeff Probst banter. Ultimately, Debbie, Coach, and J.T. all end up in the final round, and it gets very intense between Coach and J.T., both neck-and-neck on the maze, but at the last second, J.T.'s ball falls, and that's right, you better believe it baby. Dragon. SLAYER!!! I love this moment so much, but the even better moment comes back at camp when Coach pulls J.T. aside and asks him if he heard him say it, as if it were the biggest moment of the season or something.

2/5

Propellerheads Physical Race / Mental

It's time for the rare math challenge on Survivor! Granted we did get a fun math logic puzzle last season, this is more of a straightforward "do you know how to add/subtract/multiply/divide numbers" type of challenge. Each player has to race across a series of obstacles; first, they have to dig through the sand to fit under a log, an obstacle we've seen a number of times at this point. Then, they have to run across a simple balance beam and under a simple rope crawl to a field which is where they will find a series of math symbols. The math symbols are spinning around which is a fun but seemingly inconsequential twist to the challenge. The objective is to memorize as many math symbols as possible before heading back to the beginning of the obstacle course and writing down the math symbols in the correct order. Once all of the math symbols are recorded, they can be used to complete a series of math problems which sequentially build off of each other. Order of operations doesn't exist on Survivor, folks! Overall, it's a pretty good challenge, but what stands out most about it is Stephen Fishback's path to victory. He starts off very slow, the second to last person to dig themselves out of the first obstacle, and he flounders badly at the balance beam falling far behind everyone else. When he finally gets to the symbols, he stays and watches them for longer than anyone else, because unlike the other five players, he intends on memorizing all ten in one trip. It's a risk because memorizing more symbols means more likely to forget them all, but Stephen's ambition turns out to be very effective. Amazing everyone, including Jeff Probst, Stephen successfully computes the correct answer on his initial return and wins the challenge after taking a single look. Stephen's celebration is so pure, he's just so happy to have won an Immunity Challenge. When questioned by Jeff Probst, he talked about his strategy of making each symbol a number and turning the sequence of symbols into two distinct numbers, no longer than 7 digits each, because of course, that's the length of number the brain can easily remember (that's why phone numbers are 7 digits long)! Fishback is a treasure.

3/5

Chimney Sweep Endurance

Let me start this one by asking you a question: Do you remember when endurance challenges were special? When they only appeared a couple times a season, always in dramatic fashion, rather than literally every individual challenge until the Final 7? When they were genuinely climactic tests of strength, instead of boring balancing acts? When they went on for hours and hours, instead of being engineered to last less than 15 minutes? I don't know exactly when the spirit of endurance challenges started to change on Survivor, but boy do I miss these golden days. We are now at the Final 5 on Survivor: Tocantins, and it's a dramatic episode. The season's biggest character Coach is in trouble, and the audience knows it. He's currently at Exile Island helping produce the greatest 5 minutes in television history, and he has something to prove. He wants to show everyone that Coach Wade won't be defeated so easily, because he's still the strong warrior that he's been since Day 1 of this game. In an incredible speech at Exile, he describes himself in six words:  Unbreakable, unbending, unyielding, immeasurable, immovable, and invincible. And most importantly of all, he claims that he is going to win this next Immunity Challenge. In truth, he has to if he is to stay another day in this game. It's a beautiful coincidence then that our Immunity Challenge for this episode is an endurance showdown. If this were a modern season and we had already seen 6 endurance challenges and this was the seventh, it wouldn't be nearly as exciting. Not anywhere close. But in this era of Survivor, endurance challenges are special, and the timing couldn't have been any better. This will be the ultimate showdown of Survivor: Tocantins, that becomes obvious before the challenge even begins.

First thing's first, it's the return of Chimney Sweep from Survivor: Fiji! Perhaps not an iconic challenge yet, but by the end of this episode, it will be. One of the more grueling endurance challenges, each player has to stand barefoot between two walls with only tiny little pegs for support. Jeff explains the rules, everyone gets into their places, and the battle begins. Everyone makes it past 15 minutes, and Jeff has a question for Coach: "Coach, do you think the time you spent on Exile meditating may have conveniently prepared you for a challenge like this?"

Coach's response is phenomenal: "Deep down inside the pit of every man's stomach is the feeling that he's no longer going to be invincible. So for me to go out there and put myself in the most extreme situation that I could, I did it because I wanted for my mind to once and for all, tell my body that, 'You still have it.'" Erinn can't stop herself from laughing while he says this. Jeff concedes that this is the perfect time to put that philosophy to the test, because "this challenge is about mind over matter, and it will get difficult."

Everyone makes it to 30 minutes, and thus, the smallest foothold portion of the challenge, but Erinn doesn't last much longer, becoming the first person eliminated. Stephen falls shortly after, and then Taj falls too, and suddenly, we have our final showdown: J.T. vs Coach. This is the climax of Survivor: Tocantins. In Jeff's words, it's the listener versus the talker. The young buck— versus the older warrior. Coach nods in agreement at that last part in satisfaction. At one point J.T. ask Jeff if he has any food, and that he will step down for steak and a pack of beer. Coach then tells J.T. that he may as well step down then, unless he's trying to vote him off tonight. J.T. replies "I can't believe you don't trust me, Coach." 

Coach maintains that he does trust J.T., he trusts him implicitly. "You are a man of your word. Few and far of those left in this world." The audience knows that J.T. is lying to Coach, and I think deep down Coach knows it too, making this whole exchange fascinating to watch. Jeff tells Coach that this is exactly what he wanted, isn't it? A battle against the best. "You've been talking about it for 36 days, you're getting it today."

After 50 minutes, both men are clearly in pain. J.T. says "You aren't going to let me try on that necklace, are you Coach," almost admitting defeat. Coach immediately says no, he will not. "I've got something to prove coming back from Exile." Then from the sidelines, something hilarious happens: Taj tries to lure Coach off the challenge by pretending to care about his supposed back pain: "Don't hurt your back anymore, don't." After this, it becomes obvious that Coach is actually in a lot more trouble than J.T.. You can see the pain on his face. He is in pure agony. Suddenly, Coach lets out a scream. "AHHHHH!" Anyone who's seen the challenge before, even if it was years ago, can hear the sound in their head right now, it's just that memorable. Then, the music starts to get extremely dramatic, like we are watching the crucifixion of Jesus Christ himself. And then— Coach steps down. Just like that. The Dragon Slayer has officially been defeated. I genuinely believe Coach was trying as hard as he could during this challenge and his feet gave out without his control. What I do think was in his control however, was the decision to collapse onto the ground afterward in a way which epitomized the phrase "going for the Oscar." Then, the entire cast has to help Coach stand up and guide him to the bench, and Coach makes sure to grab his walking stick he found at Exile during this sequence. When Jeff asked him where he was feeling it, he said it was his back. His back was spazzing and, in his words, "he felt something go." Jeff asks him if he wants medical to take a look at that, and Coach's response is one of my favorite things ever said: He doesn't want medical to take a look because if they did, they would have no choice but to evacuate his from the game, and Coach isn't going to let that happen. It's that bad, he has pushed himself that far, that he is certain medical would take him out of the game if they got even a glance at his body. Taj's facial expressions during this whole thing are extraordinary. My gosh this is just like, the best episode of Survivor ever, isn't it? Rarely do Survivor challenges get this good, this cathartic. It's the best challenge of the season without a doubt.

5/5

Tarantula Physical Race

Prior to this challenge, the Final 4 receives a fake tarantula in their Tree Mail, which I think scares the players and audience into initially thinking we have an eating challenge coming up. But instead, it's one of the coolest, most amazing challenge sets of all time: The giant tarantula. Where to even begin... Alright, well, this is a new rendition of the Borneo classic Out on a Limb; you know, huge obstacle course, branching paths, have to go along and collect things; this challenge also showed up in The Amazon and of course, the incredible compass-shaped version in Cook Islands. But I think this is my favorite version of all, it's just so darn awesome looking. And hey, this is absolutely an example of incorporating the location into challenge design! I mean, if you want to see tarantulas, Brazil's a good place to go! Just, the idea of creating a huge obstacle course shaped like a tarantula where you are actually supposed to crawl through the legs is SO amazing to me. I wonder how long this challenge took to design and put together? As I always say, the show doesn't have to do these things. They don't have to go that extra mile to make an exceptionally flashy challenge like this which is why it's so, so special when they do. Due to the nature of this version's design, there isn't as much variety in the course since all of the legs have the same gimmick, but I don't mind one bit. One thing I find interesting about this challenge is that even though there are eight legs to the tarantula, you only need to go through three of them to collect bags of puzzle pieces. This is another instance of me wondering if maybe this was a last minute change? Jeff describes the netting as very painful to crawl through, perhaps they realized having the contestants go through all eight tunnels was a bit too much? I'm also wondering how the players knew which tunnels to go through since obviously each bag of puzzle pieces had to be distinct. Once all of the bags were collected, they could begin on the final puzzle part of the challenge, which was shaped, appropriately enough, like a spider web. (Or maybe inappropriately, given tarantulas don't make traditional cobwebs...) We see a couple times during this challenge two players collide going different ways in the same leg of the tarantula, where they just sort of have to work it out somehow; have one crawl over the other, wait, etc. I'm wondering if you would be allowed to intentionally block someone from exiting, it would have been interesting to see someone try that. My guess is that Jeff would yell at you though. After an extremely close showdown between J.T. and Erinn, the latter of whom had caught up tremendously at the puzzle, J.T. ends up winning the challenge.

5/5

Simmotion Dexterity / Endurance

Survivor: Tocantins comes to an end with the introduction of a new Survivor classic; a legendary challenge beloved by fans across the board, myself included. Most people don't know the names of the various challenges, nor do they really aspire to, but I feel like almost all hardcore Survivor fans know that this one is called "Simmotion." And the reason is because it's iconic. I talked extensively about this in my Gabon entry, but I love the idea of the final Immunity Challenge being something dexterity-focused that everyone has a chance at. Even better if you can make it something extremely suspenseful, something that makes you sweat just watching it. Simmotion is a challenge that ticks all of those boxes, as well as just being an exceptionally awesome concept. Another one of the most innovative Survivor challenges of all time, it's one of those challenges that you see and just have to try for yourself. But sadly, most of us are never going to get to try it, at least not the authentic version. If you somehow don't know how this challenge works, each player has one hand tied behind their back. With their other hand, they must drop a ball into a metal chute, which then rolls down and around through the chute's spiral design and eventually exits out one of two holes. It's another one of those challenges with a really clever design; this one uses a turnstile which causes the ball to alternate which hole it exits from every time. As soon as the ball drops out of a hole, you are to catch it and immediately place it back into the top of the chute. If you accidently let a ball hit the ground, you are eliminated from the challenge. What actually makes the challenge difficult is that every few minutes, the players have to add an additional ball into their chute, amplifying the difficulty exponentially. Not only is there an inherent increase in the pace of the challenge, but you have to be extremely strategic as to your timing in adding the new ball. It's possible you could accidently screw yourself preemptively by setting two balls into motion too close together. If that happens, you have maybe 15 more seconds until you are eliminated when both balls exit from the chute too quickly for anyone but Dash from The Incredibles to catch them both. It's a fascinating game of dexterity and skill, and when the stakes are as high as the final Immunity Challenge, it's downright electrifying to watch. Maybe the best thing about this challenge is just the sound of it. The sound of the balls rolling down the metal chute, the sound of the turnstiles clinking back and forth; it is SO SATISFYING. Why would you watch ASMR YouTube videos when you can just listen to Simmotion instead? Eventually the challenge comes down to just Stephen and J.T., each with four balls rolling down their chutes, and it is intense. Stephen is ultimately the one to drop out, and what I love is that you can see the exact moment where it goes wrong for him. He goes to catch the ball on the right, but instead of going into his hand, it bounces back a bit into the chute, delaying his retrieval for a couple of seconds. This ruins his whole schedule and doesn't give him enough time to catch the ball that comes out of the left hole, and that's when J.T. wins the challenge.

5/5