S02.E14: The Pursuit of Glory

[AntFTW]

Quote

The final eight competitors battle it out in a grueling two-day final challenge where only one man and one woman will have the chance to be crowned champions and split the $500,000 grand prize.

Air date: October 19, 2023

[AntFTW]

Sneak peek of the episode

Spoiler

 

[DEL901]

I watch at 7 eastern.   Will just say I’m happy with the results.  

[Lamb18]

I want Chris and Michaela to win. More than that, I want Fessy to lose. Especially the nasty eating challenge. I'll never forget how he stood there with his arms folded watching Kaycee eat the nasty stuff during the finale. He gave up because she was injured, so he couldn't be bothered trying.

Last place every heat,  Fessy!

[AntFTW]

11 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

I want Chris and Michaela to win. More than that, I want Fessy to lose. Especially the nasty eating challenge. I'll never forget how he stood there with his arms folded watching Kaycee eat the nasty stuff during the finale. He gave up because she was injured, so he couldn't be bothered trying.

Last place every heat,  Fessy!

I don't really care who wins, except Fessy. I am exclusively rooting for Fessy to lose, not for any particular reason other than I think it would be hilarious! Fessy losing is great entertainment.

Edited October 20, 2023 by AntFTW

[Lamb18]

Fail, Fessy!

Yes! Fessy failed the axe throwing!

[Lamb18]

And he was the only one that did.

[jsm1125]

1 minute ago, Lamb18 said:

And he was the only one that did.

Tori also failed at it 

[Lamb18]

And now he went the wrong way and has to go back. Ha! Ha!

I like that map showing the contestants' positions shows Chris driving along and Faisal going backwards.

[Lamb18]

I'm glad Desi won. Chris, too!

[AntFTW]

Chris didn't catch a break all season, and he came back every time and won.

After watching Desi be tied to Enzo's non-swimming ass in season one to winning season 2 is...

Edited October 21, 2023 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

2 hours ago, DEL901 said:

I watch at 7 eastern.   Will just say I’m happy with the results.  

When you posted this, my first thought was "if @DEL901 is happy with the results, that must mean Fessy didn't win." 🤣

Edited October 20, 2023 by AntFTW

[jsm1125]

Production couldn’t have been bothered to give Chanelle a confessional after she finished and placed 2nd? Or shown whether Michaela was medivacced or actually made it to the the finish line? Come on now! 

Edited October 20, 2023 by jsm1125

[Artsda]

Great winners! After all Chris had challenged to him and he came out on top. Everyone against him all the elimination challenges. 

Desi too went through a lot last season especially and got short end with a partner so glad she won. 

[Lantern7]

I consider Chris to be an "unlikely" winner of Survivor because he had been voted off, and I feel that season's format favored him because most everyone who played got to be on the jury. Tonight, he undoubtedly earned his win on Challenge USA. He got sent into elimination four times, won all four times, and he beat out three established veterans to earn $250K. Bravo, Chris. Bravo.

Desi also kept the USA title in the Survivor family. I kept forgetting she was the one shackled to Enzo's weak ass in the last finale. This was her redemption as well. She and Chris got the big money, and they're not going to a "world title" season. Win-Win!!!

Last week, I figured the three absolutes in life were death, taxes, and Josh never making the finale. Well, we can add "Fessy Never Wins a Finale" to that. Sure, most of us would have taken the shortcut when we didn't earn it out of pure exhaustion . . .  but this is Fessy. Screw him. He couldn't land an axe on a target, he mistakenly took the shortcut, and he got beat to the station by Cory . . . someone who started so far behind, he had virtually no chance of winning. So sweet.

Sure Cory not winning a season is also Challenge tradition, but he shouldn't hang his head so low. He blew every preliminary station, but he wound up passing Fessy and Johnny. Much respect.

28 minutes ago, jsm1125 said:

Production couldn’t have been bothered to give Chanelle a confessional after she finished and placed 2nd? Or shown whether Michaela was medivacced or actually made it to the the finish line? Come on now! 

It's BMP. What else can you expect from them?

Congrats to Chanelle for finishing runner-up and Michaela for getting as far as she did. Johnny and Tori? Meh. Anyone else amused one of the stations involved stacking cinder blocks? Johnny should've had Ride or Die flashbacks for weeks after seeing those.

That's it. Onto S39 and -- fingers crossed -- All Stars 4!

[choclatechip45]

Happy Chris and Desi won. Bummed that Michaela was medivaced. Thought it was a boring episode overall. 

[AntFTW]

Next season, I'll be looking for someone that isn't a former Survivor contestant to win this show.

Season one of this show was boring as fuck. Watching it felt like a chore. Coming from the MTV flagship show to this CBS show was a huge let down in the first season.

Season two was exciting to watch, much better than season one in every way. They made the CBS look and feel like the MTV Challenge. This season was more entertaining IMO than season 38 of the flagship. If there is a season three, I hope it is as good as this season two was. The daily challenges were decent, and the elimination games were pretty good. There was a decent amount of good watchable drama.

Edited October 20, 2023 by AntFTW

[mojoween]

Survivor *is* my favorite show and I loved Chris in his season and was rooting for Desi in hers so the outcome was awesome.

Also Cori knocked out Faysal and Tori and John didn’t win again so this was satisfying.

Also also I forgot Paul was even ON this season so it was pleasing again to know he was eliminated at some point.

[Guest]

I'm happy for the winners.

I'm more happy that Faysal was the 1st man out.

[bunnyface]

I'm happy with these wins, especially for Desi after being saddled with Enzo last  year.  I do love to clown on Cory, but really proud of him overcoming that deficit as well as he did.  That was impressive.  And ha double ha ha ha ha to Fessy.  He's always said if it was up to him, not with a partner, he'd win.  Well, no he won't.  And it wasn't a partner's fault.  All on him.  Douche.

[aghst]

14 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

Fail, Fessy!

Yes! Fessy failed the axe throwing!

 

14 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Tori also failed at it 

 

That more or less decided the race, at least for them, both got eliminated at the second station, didn't even get a chance to do the rock balance thing to get on the ATV.

Cory seemed foolish, doubling down on the rock on sled task.  It looked like Chris won by only taking two boxes at a time and others may have tried to take more than 2 so it slowed them down?

The women seemed to do only one box at a time.

The spelling bee was embarrassing for many of them.

The eating challenge, you could see that all the vets were prepared and used to it, had an actual strategy -- I thought they had to eat and drink in the order TJ listed the ingredients but that wasn't the case.  So not surprised Johnny and Tori won.

Cory being 5 minutes down was bad and he likely wouldn't have caught up if not for the shortcuts.

But 5 minutes is nothing compared to not getting shortcuts to avoid the over 1-mile stretches.  One mile even on flat terrain, if they ran the fastest they could, without worrying about running several miles after that, would take at least 6-7 minutes for the most fit of them.

Obviously they couldn't go at full speed because they were going uphill, on uneven terrain and carrying rocks and they had to pace themselves.

So 5 minutes penalty wasn't that bad.  Cory passed Bananas and Fessy because they both failed the axe task, which was mostly luck.

I don't know if 5 attempts is enough to develop a consistent throwing technique, accounting for having the axe spin at a certain rate so that it hit the board with the blade side.  That was Fessy's problem, he couldn't get the spin right and it basically prevented him from being able to compete.

But they were all rushing and just taking their chances.  If they really thought about it, even that one shortcut was a huge deal so they maybe should have taken their time, be more methodical.

So of all the finishers, they all got both shortcuts so it was 8 miles for them and Bananas missed on both tasks so he ended up running 10 miles.

 

[lilabennet]

Johnny completed the axe throw on the first try.  He's always good at those kind of games.

[bunnyface]

Bananas even says it's amazing all the useless nonsense he's good at.

 

[AntFTW]

I only have a couple complaints about this final. The first is that the risk stations during the 10-mile run gave too much of an advantage, especially because the final checkpoint of putting the names of eliminated players in order was too easy. The shortcut after the axe-throwing gave an insurmountable advantage to anyone that succeeded at the axe-throwing over those that didn't, unless someone literally passed out. The ATVs gave an insurmountable advantage over those that had to run the distance. The final station wasn't much of an equalizer. It was too easy... unless there was another station that we didn't see.

I just thought that if they were going to give such huge advantages to those that completed the stations, the final one should have been a more difficult equalizer. If you had to walk/run to the final station, your game was pretty much over. There seemed to be no reasonable chance of catching up if you're behind someone unless they passed out.

My second complaints is not really about the final, but rather about production... because I love overnight torture in finals. Those are usually the funniest parts, and they chose not to show us the overnight torture.

2 hours ago, bunnyface said:

And ha double ha ha ha ha to Fessy.

The funniest thing about the whole episode is that they let him walk the wrong trail the entire time, and told him to go back at the end.

[luckyroll3]

Was it just me or were there a couple of the rock scales that weren't even???? I was so confused when Chris, and one other person got to take the ATVs. 

Fessy: Can you believe they're making me go back because I cheated!

Me: 

Lol at TJ leaving notes for Tori and Fessy instead of telling them to their faces that they were out! 

I was surprisingly very impressed with Corey on day 2. But man, you can't keep dumb down. Why would he double down on that first one. Also, how did he come in last place when he was just behind Chris on the first set of tows and got to second set relatively before everyone else?

15 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Season two was exciting to watch, much better than season one in every way. They made the CBS look and feel like the MTV Challenge. This season was more entertaining IMO than season 38 of the flagship. If there is a season three, I hope it is as good as this season two was. The daily challenges were decent, and the elimination games were pretty good. There was a decent amount of good watchable drama.

Although this was much more entertaining than the first season, it really bugs me that they so heavily over edit/cut stuff out as compared to the OG challenge.  

[AntFTW]

17 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

Although this was much more entertaining than the first season, it really bugs me that they so heavily over edit/cut stuff out as compared to the OG challenge.

I know!!!! They edit out all the mess! There were whole fights that we didn't see!

[aghst]

Only Bananas missed the rocks on the scale thing.

I would have expected that he'd do better than others. 

Cory passed Bananas and Fessy because he got both shortcuts, while they missed both -- Fessy didn't even get to attempt the scales.

Only chance he had of overcoming the 5-minute deficit is if Chris missed at least one of the shortcuts or he really struggled to climb the mountain.  Would be nice to know how much later Cory completed the race.  If it was less than 5 minutes, he would probably beat himself over it.  He's got to work on puzzles and eating.

 

[AntFTW]

On 10/20/2023 at 1:29 PM, aghst said:

The women seemed to do only one box at a time.

From what I saw, it looks like Michaela did the same as Chris. She took her first two boxes to the finish line, and went back to take her second two boxes to the finish line. You can see her towing her last two boxes on the sled to the finish line.

It looks like Tori towed her first two boxes closer her last box, and then did one box at a time from there.

It's hard to tell what Chanelle and Desi did. I can't make much sense out of what we're shown from the way it's edited. At one moment, you can see there's only one of Chanelle’s red boxes at the finish line and you can also see her putting her second red box past the finish line. Then, you can see her pulling her sled with two boxes. It's possible she also moved her boxes closer like Tori did.

On 10/20/2023 at 1:29 PM, aghst said:

So of all the finishers, they all got both shortcuts so it was 8 miles for them and Bananas missed on both tasks so he ended up running 10 miles.

Johnny got the first shortcut. He was the first to complete the axe-throwing station. Johnny got to shave 1.2 miles off of the run.

When Chris gets to the scale station, they show that is 4.6 miles into the 10-mile trek. From there, he gets to drive to Mile 6. He gets to drive an ATV for a few minutes for 1.4 miles.

Chris successfully completing the the scale station gave him such a massive time advantage. If you failed at the scale station, you were never going to catch him.

Edited October 21, 2023 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

4 hours ago, aghst said:

So 5 minutes penalty wasn't that bad.  Cory passed Bananas and Fessy because they both failed the axe task, which was mostly luck.

Cory passed Johnny because Johnny failed at the scale station. Cory passed Johnny while he was driving the ATV.

[AntFTW]

21 minutes ago, aghst said:

Would be nice to know how much later Cory completed the race.  If it was less than 5 minutes, he would probably beat himself over it.

Chris says on The Challenge podcast that he was there for about 20 to 30 minutes before other people started showing up. Cory was the next person to show up, then Desi and so on.

[aghst]

16 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

Chris says on The Challenge podcast that he was there for about 20 to 30 minutes before other people started showing up. Cory was the next person to show up, then Desi and so on.

Interesting so the race wasn't close, once Johnny missed the scale.

Even then, Fessy reckoned that he and Chris would be the best at running/hiking up the mountain, assuming they both performed equally at the risk stations.

It would also imply that Chris outperformed Cory by a good margin in the running/hiking climb since they both got both shortcuts.

It will be interesting to see how they deal with Chris in future seasons if Chris does more Challenges.  They will likely try to pull him into an alliance because they don't want to risk going into eliminations against him.

OTOH, he only won one Daily so maybe they'd be incentivized to eliminate him sooner than later, maybe put him into the elimination as often as possible to prevent him making the Final.

 

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, luckyroll3 said:Although this was much more entertaining than the first season, it really bugs me that they so heavily over edit/cut stuff out as compared to the OG challenge.  

That’s because we got only 60 minutes instead of the OG 90.  

wh3n I saw neither Fessy nor Josh were in OH 39, the hunt for a new winner, I thought that meant one of them won this season.  Happy I was wrong.  It just meant TJ didn’t want one of them to win.  

[Remlab]

Fessy came in 4th AGAIN! 😂😂😂

Edited October 21, 2023 by Remlab

[AntFTW]

 

[AntFTW]

Johnny says in one of these interviews that Chris was down to his last ax. Chris got his very last ax to stick.

[jsm1125]

I assume that, for the scales leg, they passed that portion as long as neither scale touched the ground?

[KeithJ]

Overall I’m happy with the winners and the season in general.  One thing though, why were the stations called “risk” stations when there was zero risk involved? If anything they should have been called bonus stations.

A real "risk" station would have been:

Skip it and you have two miles to run
Do it and finish it and you have one mile to run.
Do it and fail and you have three miles to run.

There was no reason to skip these.  I don't know why they even said they were optional.  Michaela did skip one (not sure I agree with that choice) but that was only because she would have had to wait.

Edited October 21, 2023 by KeithJ

[mojoween]

Chanelle said that they let three vets get to the final, but how is Faysal not considered a vet at this point?

[AntFTW]

3 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Chanelle said that they let three vets get to the final, but how is Faysal not considered a vet at this point?

He is but within the context of the CBS show, the six MTV players are the vets. They were introduced as the Challenge vets when they came in.

[aghst]

41 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

Overall I’m happy with the winners and the season in general.  One thing though, why were the stations called “risk” stations when there was zero risk involved? If anything they should have been called bonus stations.

A real "risk" station would have been:

Skip it and you have two miles to run
Do it and finish it and you have one mile to run.
Do it and fail and you have three miles to run.

There was no reason to skip these.  I don't know why they even said they were optional.  Michaela did skip one (not sure I agree with that choice) but that was only because she would have had to wait.

I guess the "risk" was if they failed to succeed in the tasks and not get the shortcuts.

No way to win because several other players got both shortcuts so anyone who didn't get both were probably not going to be able to win.

I wonder how long they were taking to load up the balances.  Couldn't have been that long, seemed like they were loading up at most 10 rocks.

Michaela made a bad decision, because there was no way she was completing a mile before they could load up the scale and pull a lever.

Especially if that extra mile was uphill and/or on uneven terrain so she couldn't really go as fast as she would on flat and even terrain.

[AntFTW]

54 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

There was no reason to skip these.  I don't know why they even said they were optional.  Michaela did skip one (not sure I agree with that choice) but that was only because she would have had to wait.

It’s very clear that Michaela made the wrong choice. Her choice was a $250K mistake. She just had to wait a few minutes for Desi to finish. If she also succeeded at that station and getting an ATV, she might have caught up to Desi.

The time it took to walk that mile-and-a-half was clearly much greater than the time it took to complete the station and drive an ATV for that same distance. Michaela miscalculated and gave Desi an insurmountable lead.

10 minutes ago, aghst said:

I wonder how long they were taking to load up the balances.  Couldn't have been that long, seemed like they were loading up at most 10 rocks.

On one of these YouTube interviews, if I recall correctly, Desi said she was at that station for about 10 minutes.

Edited October 22, 2023 by AntFTW

[peachmangosteen]

On 10/20/2023 at 5:16 PM, AntFTW said:

There were whole fights that we didn't see!

Do tell!

[millennium]

I think Chris is an asshole, so no joy there.  

Desi, congratulations, but Michaela and Cassidy deserved to be there a whole lot more.   Chanelle's presence in the final was a joke.

The final was a toddler version of the flagship final.   Even so, what is the deal with Banana's problem when it comes to stone blocks and/or weight?   The first time he was eliminated all those years ago was due to misjudging the weight of coconuts.

Kind of ... i don't know ... that two CBS Survivor players won the CBS version of the show.

Certainly this season was easier to watch than last season, and it had some good moments, but the final, both in execution and result, was a letdown.   Kinda like Hall Brawl with cushions.

Edited November 5, 2023 by millennium

[millennium]

Personal note to Bananas:

Quit the old man act.   You're 40 and in better shape than most twentysomethings.  You probably have another 40 or more years ahead of you.

This "just finishing is a win" business is BS.   You lost.   Not because you're older than the other players but because you made a stupid and needless mistake with the rocks.

Own it, learn from it.  Then come back and win again.