Beast Games 2 Strong/Smart: an Exhaustive Review

[00:00] Welcome to the Beast Games quarantine.

[00:02] This is intended to be something of an

[00:03] appendix to the mainline Mr. Beast video

[00:05] and so we'd recommend you watch that

[00:07] video before watching this. If you

[00:10] don't, it might feel a bit like you're

[00:12] walking into a room midway through a

[00:14] rant, but also this is probably pretty

[00:17] entertaining on its own and the context

[00:20] is not that hard to grasp.

[00:27] The original plan for the mainline video

[00:29] was to keep discussion of Beast Games

[00:31] itself to an absolute minimum. But as

[00:33] the project developed, we found

[00:35] ourselves in need of more examples of

[00:36] Team Beast's

[00:38] creative instincts. And Beast Games was

[00:41] a petri dish for Team Beast's worst

[00:44] creative instincts. So, we quickly found

[00:46] ourselves overwhelmed with examples and

[00:47] minor grievances that we just we just

[00:50] need to exercise. Exorcise. That's like

[00:53] like like the exorcist. We we need a

[00:56] priest.

[00:58] There's really no better way to attack

[00:59] this than in linear order. So, let's

[01:01] start with literally the first thing we

[01:03] see. This opening CG shot is another

[01:06] example of a post hawk editing decision.

[01:09] >> Did you already know that the beginning

[01:10] was going to be that VFX shot or did you

[01:12] have that idea afterwards?

[01:13] >> So, this whole mic coming down, me

[01:14] grabbing it, this was definitely a thing

[01:16] we did afterwards. You could make the

[01:18] argument the reality TV ought to be shot

[01:20] with soft eyes open to spontaneity, but

[01:23] does that argument really play for the

[01:25] very first shot of the show? If any

[01:27] moment could be scripted and shot with

[01:29] intention, it's this. But as we drilled

[01:32] into you during the video, Team Beast is

[01:34] making this up as they go along.

[01:37] We covered this in the main video, but

[01:38] the opening strong challenge was

[01:40] conceived and shot entirely for

[01:41] spectacle. But spectacle was seemingly

[01:43] the only thing given any real thought.

[01:46] And to be fair, it is visually

[01:48] interesting. In the various

[01:50] behind-the-scenes bits, Jimmy is clearly

[01:52] proud of the concept and the spectacle

[01:54] of this thing, but like it was just too

[01:58] hard. The sandbag that they needed to

[02:00] carry back up the rope was onethird of

[02:02] the contestants body weight, which

[02:04] sounds like it evens the odds, but

[02:06] that's not how mass works. All the

[02:08] dancers, swimmers, and cyclists finished

[02:10] really fast because they all have a

[02:12] really high lift to body mass ratio

[02:15] while everyone else struggled. It's

[02:17] basically the rocket equation. Building

[02:19] muscle makes you stronger, but stronger

[02:21] muscles are heavier, which creates

[02:23] diminishing returns when those muscles

[02:25] need to lift themselves. A 105lb

[02:28] ballerina needs to lift a 31.5 lb

[02:31] sandbag for a total lift of 136.5 lb. A

[02:36] 240lb bodybuilder needs to lift a 72lb

[02:40] sandbag for a total lift of 312 lbs.

[02:45] >> 41 and through.

[02:46] >> Wow, we're not going to get there.

[02:47] >> Who would have thought that despite

[02:49] having 100 of these giant mammoth people

[02:52] that over half of them didn't even

[02:54] complete it.

[02:55] >> So yeah, the majority of the Strongs

[02:57] actually fell off and the remaining

[02:58] slots were filled with a tiebreaker

[03:00] round of push-ups.

[03:02] >> Do you worry that this may not be the

[03:03] most interesting content? like this

[03:05] isn't the most visual after going from

[03:07] that to this.

[03:08] >> This will never make the show.

[03:09] >> The narrative presented in the show ends

[03:11] up being highly misrepresentative of the

[03:13] reality of the game. And as you'll see

[03:15] the further we go into season 2, the

[03:17] more this stuff will crop up. It really

[03:19] needs to be stressed that this is a

[03:21] massive undertaking. This strong

[03:23] challenge is probably the one game that

[03:25] really delivers on the promise of Beast

[03:27] Games as unparalleled spectacle, but

[03:29] that only makes the abject failure of

[03:32] the game all the more embarrassing. This

[03:34] goes back to the lack of intent and the

[03:36] seeming lack of actual testing. Like I

[03:38] think the flaw in this game is apparent

[03:40] from the whiteboard. These numbers alone

[03:42] communicate the issue. But even if we

[03:45] accept that the laws of gravity are too

[03:46] nuanced for Chandler and the boys to

[03:48] comprehend, surely any good faith

[03:51] testing would have involved a jacked

[03:53] dude having a hard time. There's just no

[03:56] version of this where Beast Games comes

[03:58] out looking good because either they

[04:00] tested it properly and understood the

[04:02] dynamics at play and still chose to go

[04:04] ahead with it or they didn't test it and

[04:07] made this enormous investment based on

[04:10] vibes. For whatever it's worth, the

[04:12] show's director, Tyler Conklin, is

[04:14] adamant that they did in fact do loads

[04:16] of testing and it was literally just a

[04:18] skill issue on the contestants part.

[04:20] Sure thing, brother. As a bridge subject

[04:23] here, between the strong and smart

[04:25] challenge, we're met with a recurring

[04:26] gripe that will haunt the show until the

[04:28] very end. Block stacking puzzles. It's

[04:31] so vestigial that it's not even worth

[04:32] mentioning most of the time, but the

[04:34] strong challenge had a block stacking

[04:36] puzzle as the capstone task before

[04:38] contestants could push the button. I

[04:40] guess the boys figured that the

[04:41] competition would be such a nailbiter

[04:43] that they needed one last task to slow

[04:45] contestants down long enough for the

[04:47] cameras to react. But, you know,

[04:50] >> everybody in push-up positions.

[04:52] >> That brings us to Oops. All block

[04:54] stacking, the smart challenge. As

[04:56] discussed in the main video, the smart

[04:58] challenge involved playing Simon with

[05:00] colored blocks replicating Jimmy's

[05:01] pattern. In order to properly talk about

[05:03] the smart challenge, we need to

[05:05] distinguish between the game as

[05:06] presented in the show and the reality of

[05:08] the production. First, the fiction of

[05:11] the show. The game was easy and

[05:13] overhyped to an insulting degree.

[05:15] literal rocket scientists enrolled in a

[05:17] game show framing itself as a test of

[05:19] intelligence only to be greeted with a

[05:21] literal children's game, but that ended

[05:23] up being irrelevant because there wasn't

[05:25] even an attempt to stop players from

[05:26] just copying off each other. It wasn't

[05:29] much more than a test of procedure and

[05:30] of mass hysteria. The narrative, as it

[05:33] is shown to us in the show, is

[05:35] incoherent. We're shown three rounds of

[05:38] Simon. Round one involves six blocks

[05:40] with a 60-second timer with failure

[05:42] leading to elimination. In round two,

[05:44] it's 10 blocks in 30 seconds, but only

[05:47] 22 make it through. No eliminations.

[05:49] Round three involves 16 blocks, no time

[05:52] limit, and with the first 28 to complete

[05:54] the puzzle successfully making it

[05:56] through to the city. This is all shown

[05:58] to us in a delirious 5-minute sequence.

[06:01] So, you can be forgiven for just letting

[06:02] it all wash over you, even as I describe

[06:05] it. In reality, they started with four

[06:08] block stacks, which eliminated no one,

[06:10] and incrementally ratcheted up the

[06:12] difficulty until they landed on the

[06:14] final format.

[06:15] >> We'll be doing this over and over again,

[06:18] adding more and more blocks until 50 of

[06:21] you are eliminated.

[06:22] >> In reality, they were making these

[06:24] people stack blocks all night.

[06:26] >> Look outside. Like, it is like 6:00 a.m.

[06:30] >> They were tuning the difficulty of their

[06:32] game as they were filming it. And then

[06:35] Jimmy was like, "This is too easy." I

[06:37] don't know why we did it. That

[06:38] eliminated more people than we needed.

[06:40] Like, it was a disaster.

[06:41] >> This moment as a whole is also a great

[06:43] example of something that will plague

[06:45] the entire show. So much so that we

[06:47] won't even bother to call attention to

[06:49] it most of the time. But there is so

[06:52] much Jimmy voice over that has been

[06:54] added to make it look like this was all

[06:57] according to plan. Like round one

[06:59] eliminating zero players was an intended

[07:03] outcome. As I expected from a room full

[07:06] of geniuses, you all got that pattern

[07:08] correct.

[07:10] >> Like so much of Beast Games, this

[07:12] foreshadowed a persistent issue. The

[07:14] creators have no idea how to produce a

[07:17] game show for smart people.

[07:19] >> I don't have a degree in memory.

[07:20] >> The premise of the season is strong

[07:22] versus smart. It's nerds versus jocks.

[07:25] Fine. The problem is that what it means

[07:27] to be smart is incredibly elastic.

[07:30] >> 100 of the smartest people on the entire

[07:32] planet. Are we talking about academics?

[07:35] If so, what field? Surely we want some

[07:37] NASA folk. How much emphasis are we

[07:40] putting on personality? Is it enough to

[07:42] just be a stereotypical nerd of medium

[07:45] intellect? Whatever definition we might

[07:47] come up with, Jimmy walks straight past

[07:50] it. We have the usual suspects of smart

[07:52] people, but we also have contestants

[07:54] labeled as Rubik's cube savant, street

[07:57] smart, media mogul, AI prodigy, top 1%

[08:02] board gamer, Guinness World Record

[08:04] gamer, stay-at-home dad, sweepstakes

[08:08] champion, billiondoll problem solver,

[08:11] young investor, top 1% national public

[08:14] speaker, high school grad at 17 while

[08:18] raising children. I mean, very

[08:20] commendable. That's not smartest person

[08:24] in the world territory. We should note

[08:26] that players had these labels imposed on

[08:28] them. Jack didn't scribble child genius

[08:31] into his application form. Some dork at

[08:33] team beast gave him that title.

[08:36] Essentially, anyone can be smuggled onto

[08:38] the smart team with the right framing.

[08:40] Susi, a finalist from a recent season of

[08:43] Survivor, is a smart contestant. In

[08:46] fact, this season as a whole is marked

[08:48] by a notable uptick in professional

[08:50] reality TV personalities.

[08:53] So, what is a smart challenge for this

[08:55] cohort? No, seriously, that isn't a

[08:58] trick question. Answer in the comments.

[09:00] What are we supposed to do? Are we

[09:01] making them sit the Harvard entrance

[09:03] exam? Maybe an egg drop? This is a

[09:05] really difficult problem at a baseline,

[09:07] and Beast Game simply has no idea how to

[09:10] solve it. Beast Game season 2 does not

[09:13] have a credited game designer. It's

[09:15] pretty much an open secret that Jimmy

[09:16] and the boys come up with the games, and

[09:18] they don't seem to be particularly big

[09:20] into QI or Jeopardy. Beast Games

[09:23] conceives of smart people from the

[09:24] perspectives of a group of guys who

[09:26] never went to college and think high

[09:27] school is obsolete, trying to pander to

[09:29] an audience of 9-year-olds. I mean, for

[09:31] God's sake, when introducing Beast City,

[09:34] the Strongs get a functional and

[09:35] well-rounded gym, while the smarts get a

[09:38] child's chemistry playset and a shelf

[09:40] full of the cheap public domain books

[09:42] real estate agents used to dress show

[09:44] homes. If there was an answer to this

[09:46] smart challenge conundrum, these guys

[09:48] were not going to be the ones to solve

[09:50] it. Across the entire show, there are

[09:52] extremely few instances of pure smart

[09:54] coded games, and they are universally

[09:56] memorization games for children. It's

[09:59] stacking blocks and memorizing a path

[10:01] through a grid. And like the strong

[10:03] contestants aren't Sims. They don't have

[10:06] an ability score aotment. They're adult

[10:08] humans with adult human intelligence and

[10:11] experiences. They can both get yolked

[10:13] and solve block puzzles. And since that

[10:16] is the ceiling on smart challenges,

[10:18] smart people have no actual function in

[10:21] this game.

[10:22] >> There's a lot of strategy in it. You

[10:23] know, I'm excited to see the smart

[10:25] people maybe like grab the strong and

[10:26] kind of point them in a direction. Hey,

[10:28] listen. You can go super fast, but if

[10:29] you fall, our whole game's over. So slow

[10:31] and steady, you might win the race.

[10:33] >> There is enormous asymmetry that

[10:35] advantages strong contestants. A strong

[10:37] contestant can survive and win a smart

[10:40] challenge. But if a smart wants a shot

[10:42] at the private island, they will need to

[10:44] win get a grip. Predictably, this

[10:47] filters out and neutralizes pretty much

[10:49] all smart contestants. There's a

[10:51] perception that strong people have that

[10:53] competitive dog in them that the smart

[10:55] people simply don't. But what that means

[10:57] in practice is simply that certain

[10:59] strong people have a willingness to be

[11:01] rude that the smart people don't know

[11:03] how to deal with. From the very first

[11:05] game until the last remaining smart,

[11:07] we're going to see what amounts to

[11:08] outright schoolyard bullying of them by

[11:10] strong contestants. Smarts are

[11:12] systematically eliminated with almost

[11:14] scientific efficiency. There's something

[11:17] almost mlonist in the way that Jimmy has

[11:19] made a children's game show nominally

[11:21] for adults and immediately the adults

[11:24] start acting like children. So far, not

[11:26] a single smart person has been picked

[11:28] yet.

[11:29] >> Jim's new nickname is backpack boy cuz

[11:31] his girlfriend is carrying him through

[11:32] the finish line.

[11:33] >> Those few smarts who do go on a deep run

[11:35] ultimately make it through because

[11:36] they're non-threatening, just lingering

[11:38] at the margins. A free space that one of

[11:40] the real contenders can cash in at the

[11:43] right time, which they absolutely do.

[11:45] There is an almost ritualistic moment

[11:47] where seemingly everyone agrees that the

[11:48] two token smarts have outlived their

[11:51] value and now get thrown into the

[11:52] volcano. It's so intense and immediate

[11:55] that both of them start crying. Beast

[11:57] Game season 2 is ultimately tailored for

[11:59] a very specific kind of archetype, and

[12:01] by the end of the show, we have three

[12:03] identical dudes slapping each other on

[12:05] the back for making it here. So, you can

[12:07] look forward to that.

[12:09] So, I'm five pages into the script and

[12:12] we're only 20 minutes into episode 1.

[12:15] That's a great sign. The contestants

[12:18] arrive at B City and I'm sorry, but this

[12:21] place sucks. The scale of the space is

[12:24] big enough that everything needs to be

[12:25] cheap to fit the budget, but it's small

[12:27] enough that there isn't much of note for

[12:29] people to do, especially people who

[12:31] aren't gym rats. Also, the production

[12:33] does basically nothing to maintain

[12:35] kayfabe and frequently include wide

[12:37] shots that show the bare dirt

[12:39] construction site that surrounds the

[12:40] build. The show tries not to draw

[12:42] attention to it, but contestants are

[12:44] sleeping in what are essentially

[12:45] barracks with zero privacy. The pitch

[12:47] being that don't worry, we'll filter it

[12:50] down pretty quickly and so you'll get a

[12:52] barracks to yourself soon. The city is

[12:54] built for 100 people, but by episode 3,

[12:56] we're already down to the top 25, so the

[12:59] city feels empty almost immediately.

[13:02] That trope plays well in Survivor when

[13:03] it gets to the last few contestants.

[13:05] It's a meaningful absence the show can

[13:07] explicitly draw attention to, but that

[13:09] doesn't work here. There are only two

[13:11] episodes where the scale even remotely

[13:13] matches the actual population. I'm

[13:15] loathed to give suggestions here, but

[13:17] here's one for free. If you want to keep

[13:19] your big stupid spectacle 10,000

[13:21] contestant opening, then do what

[13:23] American Idol does and end episode 1

[13:25] with 20 people left who get to go and do

[13:28] the actual game show. Moving on, in the

[13:31] scope of things, this gripe is perhaps

[13:33] more forgivable, but the edit has a big

[13:36] problem of overemphasizing contestants

[13:38] who end up going deep into the show.

[13:40] Overwhelmingly, these players are top 10

[13:42] to 15. This gives the show a weird

[13:45] energy because Beast Games has an army's

[13:47] worth of contestants, but you keep

[13:49] seeing the same dozen or so faces over

[13:51] and over again. On the first viewing,

[13:53] this was noticeable, but on rewatch,

[13:56] it's unbearable. It's not a subtle

[13:58] leaning towards contestants in the top

[14:00] 10. It's the Nick, Jack, and Monica show

[14:02] with other contestants sprinkled in for

[14:04] plausible deniability. During episode

[14:07] one, while blitzing through the entire

[14:08] setup of the show, the edit takes 50

[14:11] full precious seconds to give Jack the

[14:14] Child Genius a full introduction, doing

[14:16] what can only be described as gesture

[14:18] maxing to pander to a group of strong

[14:20] contestants.

[14:21] >> I mean, listen, the right to bear arms

[14:23] is right here.

[14:25] >> It's not interesting, but Jack is making

[14:27] it to the top six, so you'll be seeing a

[14:29] lot of him. So, he gets an introduction.

[14:31] He's the closest thing we have to a

[14:33] smart protagonist, clearly because he

[14:35] went all in on embedding himself into

[14:37] the strong clique. Jim and Monica also

[14:39] get a 70-second introduction during

[14:41] episode 1. As already mentioned in the

[14:43] other video, they both go on a deep run

[14:45] and end up getting married during

[14:46] production. I I don't know, fake

[14:48] married. It wasn't legally binding, but

[14:50] who cares? Many reality shows have a

[14:52] protagonist couple, and these two are

[14:54] essentially that. Even in the

[14:56] behind-the-scenes stuff, they're given a

[14:58] lot of emphasis. Considering how much

[15:00] time will be spent focusing on these

[15:02] people in the back half of the show, the

[15:04] amount of time they get in the front

[15:05] half is simply outrageous. This is Team

[15:08] Beast overcorrecting in response to

[15:10] season 1 criticisms. It was said that

[15:12] they didn't spend enough time with

[15:13] contestants or build character. So,

[15:16] they're ramming these people down our

[15:17] throats until we choke. But the effect

[15:19] of all this is that the majority of the

[15:21] contestants feel like NPCs in these

[15:23] people's game. Again, all of this would

[15:26] be fixed by simply making these people

[15:29] the ones who actually do the show. You

[15:34] clearly have your protagonists, your

[15:37] chop 20.

[15:38] Just chuck everyone else. You don't need

[15:41] them. They could they can go sooner.

[15:46] Episode 1 ends with six minutes of setup

[15:48] for the next game, which we'll call OG

[15:50] Bribe. 10 players from season 1 were

[15:52] selected to have a chance to compete in

[15:54] season 2. So, this game involves them

[15:56] bribing contestants to swap places with

[15:58] them for 100 grand. This premise is sort

[16:00] of take it or leave it. There's

[16:02] arguments for and against bringing back

[16:04] notable contestants from season 1, but

[16:06] whatever those arguments may be, this

[16:08] isn't one of them.

[16:09] >> You can't just snap your fingers and

[16:11] make 100 million people or however many

[16:12] people end up watching season 2

[16:14] instantly care about people. So, the

[16:16] best way to do it without rushing it and

[16:18] give it time to breathe was just to

[16:20] bring back the people they already knew

[16:21] from season 1.

[16:22] >> Our whole idea for bringing back the 10

[16:24] contestants from season 1 was from the

[16:26] criticisms, which is kind of funny.

[16:28] Like, they said that we couldn't tell

[16:29] stories. We couldn't build characters.

[16:31] And what better way to do it in season 2

[16:34] than bring back the people that we've

[16:35] already fully built.

[16:37] They thought they were cheating the

[16:39] system. They thought they were sticking

[16:40] it to the haters by bringing back these

[16:42] fully formed individuals. The fact that

[16:44] this even crossed their minds once again

[16:46] highlights that they can't build

[16:48] character. The fact they think reheated

[16:51] leftovers are a viable substitute just

[16:54] proves that they really aren't cut out

[16:56] for storytelling. I'm sorry. Anyway,

[16:58] episode one cliffhangs on a contestant

[17:01] stepping forward to take the bribe. It's

[17:03] not an effective cliffhanger. We don't

[17:05] know who this guy is, nor do we care,

[17:07] but it does parse as a cliffhanger. Like

[17:10] it's a dramatic beat that carries

[17:12] momentum even if you feel nothing. So

[17:15] whatever. The episode has to end so we

[17:18] may as well end here. But does it need

[17:21] to end here? Because the only reason

[17:23] this moment is available as an end point

[17:25] is due to the odd pacing of the episode

[17:28] overall. The episode is 43 minutes long,

[17:31] 38 minutes once you lop off the teaser

[17:34] and credits. Despite being the launching

[17:36] pad for the season, it's the shortest

[17:38] episode in the whole thing. In that

[17:40] brief 38 minute runtime, we introduce

[17:43] the show and its premise, introduce the

[17:45] first 200 contestants, set up and

[17:47] complete the strong challenge, set up

[17:49] and complete the smart challenge,

[17:50] introduce and screw around in B city,

[17:52] and set up the OG bribe challenge to

[17:54] serve as a cliffhanger. 38 minutes. To

[17:57] say it runs at a breakneck pace is an

[18:00] understatement. The natural end point

[18:02] would have been the arrival at Beast

[18:04] City, possibly with some preamble about

[18:06] the city itself to build some hype

[18:08] leading into the teaser of what is to

[18:10] come, but there simply isn't 40 to 60

[18:13] minutes of content in the first two

[18:14] challenges, even before they had to be

[18:17] gutted in the edit. And of course, we've

[18:19] got to have that cliffhanger ending. So,

[18:21] we get the setup of the OG bribe on this

[18:23] side of the episode. and that

[18:25] effectively pads it to just long enough

[18:29] to call it a full episode. Already we're

[18:32] seeing weird structural decisions.

[18:34] Episode 1 is just as much of a parade of

[18:37] segments as episode 7. You're just

[18:39] inclined to forgive it on the first

[18:41] watch.

[18:43] Okay, so episode two, we spend 7 minutes

[18:46] resolving OG bribe. All the season 1

[18:49] contestants make it in. Cool. Then we

[18:51] get the premise of this episode. Players

[18:54] can choose one of four games to

[18:56] participate in where each game will

[18:57] eliminate half its contestants. This

[19:00] will be a problem.

[19:03] All the games try to leverage this

[19:05] massive video floor that I'm told was

[19:07] accidentally a world record.

[19:08] >> I mean, we weren't going for a Guinness

[19:10] World Record, but we got one.

[19:11] >> Dodgeball is the only game that really

[19:13] requires the screen as designed. And

[19:15] really, it only serves to complicate

[19:16] matters and introduce problems, but it

[19:19] is a core part of the game. It's

[19:21] dodgeball where teams are dynamically

[19:22] split based on these lines on the floor.

[19:25] This is meant to produce even groups and

[19:26] break up clicks. But in this, the first

[19:29] real game we see, players immediately

[19:31] disobey the rules of the game as

[19:33] designed. The best way to survive is to

[19:35] be on the side with the most people. So

[19:37] rather than spreading out evenly like

[19:39] this pretty graphic suggests, people

[19:41] would hoard into the one slice and it

[19:44] becomes a question of who the stragglers

[19:46] will be. And in cases where a popular

[19:48] person was stuck, people would just

[19:51] throw their ball away. So, who are we

[19:53] eliminating? The answer may not surprise

[19:56] you.

[19:56] >> I'm falling back towards you. Okay.

[19:58] Okay. Cuz there's smarts in front of us.

[19:59] >> Yes, I know exactly what we need to do.

[20:01] >> You say we're going for smarts, right?

[20:03] >> Yeah. Yep. I got you. I heard you.

[20:04] >> So, yeah, we get Patrick with Predator

[20:06] eyes staring down smarts like it's

[20:08] middle school gym. That's all there

[20:11] really is to say about this game. It's

[20:13] It's dodgeball.

[20:15] The next game was Balance, which I'd

[20:17] argue is the best game of the show. And

[20:19] director Tyler agrees with me.

[20:21] Contestants are split into pairs and

[20:23] have to vibe check the weight of this

[20:24] heart and stack rocks on the other side

[20:26] of a scale. The goal is to avoid placing

[20:28] the rock that tilts the scale and breaks

[20:30] the heart. Because it's reasonably well

[20:32] balanced and works fine, there's not a

[20:35] ton to say about it. The next game was

[20:38] Bluff, which was a complete disaster. We

[20:40] covered it in the main video, so we

[20:42] won't dwell on it here. It was a game

[20:44] premised on contestants lying to each

[20:46] other with no incentive to lie. No one

[20:48] lied and contestants were eliminated by

[20:50] drawing names from a box. If this worked

[20:52] in play testing, it was play tested

[20:54] wrong. Everyone who signed off on this

[20:57] should lose their job.

[20:59] Finally, we have the blocks game, which

[21:01] I'll call big blocks to distinguish it

[21:03] from the previous block game. Seemingly,

[21:05] because the first block game was so

[21:07] easy, people gravitated towards big

[21:09] blocks as their choice of game. 40 of

[21:11] the 100 contestants chose big blocks,

[21:14] which kind of broke the whole game. Big

[21:17] blocks involve stacking a bunch of large

[21:19] foam blocks to reach a flag. Each team

[21:22] has a designated guy on top of the pile

[21:24] stacking them up, and they're limited to

[21:26] one runner at a time who retrieves the

[21:28] blocks from a pile. So, there are 18

[21:30] people on each team without a specific

[21:32] role to fill. They try and form a

[21:34] committee of engineers to help plan the

[21:36] build, but it's a stack of blocks. It

[21:39] doesn't require a civil engineer to

[21:40] figure it out. In fact, that ends up

[21:42] being another dagger in the heart of the

[21:44] smart campaign. The producers use the

[21:47] fastest completion of the Strong and

[21:48] Smart games from episode 1 to ordain the

[21:51] strongest and smartest players as team

[21:53] captains, and they draft the players

[21:55] into their teams. Again, like middle

[21:57] school PE. So Corey, the Navy veteran,

[22:00] drafts all the biggest bloss he can see,

[22:02] while Johnny, the pro Pokemon player,

[22:04] spends his precious first round draft

[22:06] pick on Dino for experience. The teams

[22:11] drafted ended up being split almost

[22:13] entirely along the strong and smart

[22:15] divide. Johnny's team is composed of 15

[22:18] smart people, four OGs from season 1,

[22:21] and one strong contestant, a bare

[22:23] knuckle fighter. And as it turns out,

[22:25] running and lifting giant foam blocks is

[22:28] physically intensive. And given that the

[22:30] game didn't just take all night, but ran

[22:32] almost until noon, it was unbelievably

[22:36] physically intensive.

[22:38] >> Yo, it's going to get hard getting those

[22:39] up. By the way, there you go, buddy. Dig

[22:42] deep.

[22:42] >> So, while Cory's team was able to rotate

[22:44] between gigachads to lift these blocks,

[22:46] Johnny's team had Gage from season 1,

[22:49] who eventually subbed out for Johnny

[22:51] himself. While it took all night to play

[22:53] out, the smart team was never going to

[22:55] win this. I don't know how to say this

[22:57] politely, but this ended up being an

[22:59] enormous brain drain for the whole show.

[23:02] 15 of the 50 smart contestants. Over a

[23:05] third of the total pool of smarts were

[23:08] eliminated from this one game. And

[23:10] Johnny picked all the well, he picked

[23:14] all the actual smart people. the MIT

[23:17] researcher, the PhD candidate, the civil

[23:20] engineer, the NASA data scientist.

[23:22] Johnny picked them all for this suicide

[23:24] mission. And so, the smart people who

[23:26] survived this challenge were the ones

[23:28] just filling up the numbers on Cory's

[23:31] team. Going forward, most of the smart

[23:34] people you'll see will be people like

[23:36] Luke, the crypto content creator,

[23:38] Sophie, the licensed attorney, and

[23:40] Katie, the reptile breeder. Anyway, the

[23:43] show drags this out over 11 minutes and

[23:45] ends on the cliffhanger of Jimmy egging

[23:47] Johnny on to attempt a 9- foot hail mary

[23:50] of a jump. A basketball hoop is 10 ft

[23:53] off the ground. Johnny is being asked to

[23:55] make an NBA caliber leap while standing

[23:57] on like 40 ft worth of precarious foam

[24:01] blocks.

[24:03] But anyway, spoilers for Beast Game

[24:05] season 2. But Johnny misses the jump and

[24:07] the strong team wins because Mitch is so

[24:09] close. He just needs to work up the grit

[24:11] to stand up. They milk that for an

[24:13] additional 3 and 1/2 minutes. Seven more

[24:15] minutes of milling around B city and we

[24:17] get the obstacle course.

[24:20] This is perhaps the most overhyped thing

[24:22] on the show. They say it's the craziest

[24:24] obstacle course we've ever seen, but gun

[24:26] to my head, I could not tell you what

[24:28] separates it from any other obstacle

[24:30] course on Wipeout or Ninja Warrior. Like

[24:33] Ninja Warrior is tuned for top tier

[24:35] athletes who are expected to do monkey

[24:37] bars with a single bar, while this was

[24:39] literally beta tested by Jimmy's rando

[24:42] buddy in their backyard for a main

[24:43] channel Mr. Beast video. The only thing

[24:45] of note that stands out is this Y shape

[24:48] at the end of the course. It brings the

[24:49] contestants together and raises the

[24:51] possibility of some honest to god

[24:53] violence going down. That would at least

[24:55] be a unique spin on a classic formula

[24:58] and really fit the whole Beast Games

[25:00] vibe. But no, it turns out they didn't

[25:03] even notice this element until they had

[25:05] already built the damn course

[25:06] >> because we have a Y and then we have a

[25:09] path that both of you share and he stood

[25:10] on the path and we're like, "Oh, there's

[25:12] like interaction there."

[25:14] >> I was surprised like I wasn't rammed off

[25:16] the platform there.

[25:17] >> If somebody's standing there and $5

[25:19] million is at stake, I'm going through

[25:21] you. We can't have that. Somebody's

[25:23] going to get hurt.

[25:24] >> So, no, no blood sport. There was a

[25:27] whole set of rules against violence that

[25:29] the audience is never told about.

[25:31] >> You'll see the right arm of White.

[25:34] >> Here it is.

[25:34] >> Grabs the side. Now goes for the head.

[25:37] >> Oh, that's where it gets the illegal

[25:40] move.

[25:40] >> And he's out no matter what.

[25:42] >> It's not that I'm pro Blood Sport, but

[25:44] it's just they really built this thing

[25:48] before noticing the players could

[25:49] hypothetically crash into each other.

[25:52] And now we're going frame by frame

[25:54] through this footage as if Mike, who

[25:56] speaks four languages, has been flagged

[25:58] for holding. Players are each split into

[26:00] teams of five and go against each other.

[26:03] But each round has a different theme

[26:05] sort of. They keep changing the rules,

[26:08] but nothing materially changes because

[26:10] for three of the five races, anyone

[26:13] failing to complete the course

[26:14] eliminates their whole team, which

[26:16] happens very quickly in all three of

[26:19] those rounds. It's another bizarre

[26:21] decision that leads to a huge portion of

[26:23] players not getting a chance to

[26:25] participate. The obstacle course

[26:27] involved 50 contestants and by our count

[26:29] 28 players didn't get the chance to

[26:32] participate at all and 16 of those

[26:35] players were eliminated. This is

[26:38] seemingly another byproduct of bad

[26:40] production. The details are a bit fuzzy,

[26:42] but as we understand it, production gave

[26:44] themselves one night to film the

[26:46] obstacle course, Captain Bribe, and The

[26:48] Cannonball Find. before everyone would

[26:51] need to fly out for the Survivor collab.

[26:53] Then you had the big block game run over

[26:55] and into the morning of that same day.

[26:58] So four games would need to be shot on

[27:00] that day to stay on schedule. A huge

[27:02] thunderstorm rolled in that night and

[27:04] they gave themselves no other option

[27:05] than to brute force through it.

[27:07] >> We had such a tight turnaround.

[27:09] Basically were under the impression if

[27:10] we didn't film all of the games, which

[27:13] seemed impossible at the time. We

[27:15] weren't going to be able to go to the

[27:16] Survivor Island and film that entire

[27:18] episode. We could have missed that. We

[27:20] were stuck.

[27:20] >> We've just been sitting here on lockdown

[27:22] for the past 3 hours.

[27:24] >> The bigger thing is the next steps of

[27:26] what we're going to do to salvage the

[27:28] episode. Just be on standby. We are

[27:31] going to get this thing done. So, thank

[27:33] you guys. Thanks for uh sticking it out.

[27:35] >> We're just going to try to get as many

[27:36] runthroughs of contestants going through

[27:38] this obstacle course as possible before

[27:40] we have to shelter in place.

[27:42] >> So, we would speculate that the decision

[27:43] to be so cutthroat was part of their

[27:45] attempt to salvage the episode.

[27:48] ruthlessly cutting production time when

[27:49] the opportunity presented itself, even

[27:51] if it meant almost a full third of

[27:53] contestants were eliminated from a game

[27:56] without being given the opportunity to

[27:57] participate. On top of that, a wet

[28:00] course is a significant increase in

[28:02] difficulty. So, a bunch of contestants

[28:04] get to sit there and be eliminated as

[28:06] their single runner slips off the wet

[28:08] rubber within seconds of leaving the

[28:10] platform.

[28:11] Anyway, let's move on to Captain Bribe.

[28:14] The same teams from the obstacle course

[28:16] are kept together for this game. A

[28:17] player is nominated to serve as captain

[28:19] and they're well, they're bribed. It's

[28:21] it's all there in the name. This is a

[28:23] recycled game from season 1. The

[28:25] captains are offered an increasing

[28:27] amount of money that they can take at

[28:28] the cost of eliminating their team. And

[28:30] this feels incredibly fast, right? Like

[28:32] there has been one cooperative challenge

[28:35] so far, the obstacle course, which we

[28:37] already pointed out was not really a

[28:39] cooperative challenge since a majority

[28:41] of people didn't run it. only one team

[28:43] really had a clutch moment that

[28:44] suggested there was any cohesion or

[28:47] camaraderie between them. So, the

[28:48] challenge sort of plays it both ways. In

[28:52] some cases, the obstacle course teams

[28:53] reflect pre-existing alliances and so

[28:56] there is implied off- camerara rapport

[28:58] between them, but at the same time, some

[29:00] people were forced onto certain teams

[29:02] and so there's distrust of other

[29:04] members. And they work both of those

[29:06] angles, but it's just not compelling.

[29:08] The bribe caps out at $1 million. As we

[29:11] said in the video, the calculus is

[29:13] obvious here. You take the money. As a

[29:15] top 25 contestant, you have a 4% chance

[29:18] of winning the 5 million, and you're

[29:20] being offered a 100% chance at 20% of

[29:23] the prize pool. You would be a fool to

[29:26] turn down those odds. And so, the only

[29:28] justification to turn down the bribe is

[29:30] if you value your integrity that much in

[29:33] a game show all about debasing yourself

[29:35] for money. So yeah, we get another

[29:37] rugpull cliffhanger with the show

[29:39] pretending Nick took the money when he

[29:41] hoverhanded the button, but plot twist,

[29:43] he was too slow and JT took the money.

[29:45] It's better than season 1.

[29:48] Episode 4 then opens with four full

[29:51] agonizing minutes trying to put the

[29:53] screws to JT. Jimmy hands him a

[29:55] microphone to explain himself. JT says

[29:58] he has nothing to say, hands the mic

[30:01] back to Jimmy, who promptly hands it

[30:03] back to JT again and presses him to

[30:06] address his team. And it's just it it's

[30:10] not good television. It's uncomfortable

[30:12] and awkward because JT just won a

[30:15] million dollars and is being made to

[30:17] feain guilt for the camera. He is in

[30:20] fact happy to be a millionaire.

[30:22] >> I think that when I leave here, I could

[30:24] live with myself knowing that I got that

[30:25] million dollars. And then we get the

[30:28] most insane line in the show.

[30:31] >> Greed is idolatry.

[30:33] >> Imagine saying that on your second

[30:36] appearance on Beast Games. With that

[30:38] cliffhanger resolved, we can move on to

[30:40] the main hook of the episode, which is a

[30:42] crossover episode with Survivor.

[30:45] For whatever reason, the Survivor

[30:47] segment only includes 10 of the 20

[30:49] remaining contestants. So, to punch

[30:51] their ticket to Survivor Island,

[30:53] contestants need to find cannonballs

[30:55] hidden around the city. It's the only

[30:57] instance of them actually using the city

[30:59] as a play space. And I'm surprised they

[31:01] didn't do it more, probably because it

[31:03] would involve reusing an asset.

[31:05] >> And in traditional TV, they'll run like

[31:08] 20 seasons on one site. Not us. That

[31:10] would be boring. Who wants to watch the

[31:12] same thing over and over again? Not me.

[31:14] >> Because the production crew had to film

[31:16] three challenges in one night, there's a

[31:18] noticeable lack of coverage in this

[31:20] segment. Just to pick one moment that

[31:21] stood out on rewatch, we see Katie find

[31:24] a cannonball in this wide shot. It then

[31:26] cuts to a closeup of her holding the

[31:28] cannonball in PPE from elsewhere at the

[31:31] cannons. It then cuts back to the sand

[31:33] pit and we see Katie still there digging

[31:35] all in a 5-second span. But anyway, I

[31:39] find the pyrochnics bit very irritating

[31:41] because it's just a pointless waste of

[31:43] money. It reeks of insecurity. This is

[31:45] the sort of thing you do for the

[31:47] contestants and yourself, not to make

[31:49] good TV. Anyway, Jack is the only smart

[31:52] person who doesn't find a cannonball,

[31:54] and so he cries ugly tears to camera

[31:56] while the winners, who aren't idiot

[31:57] nerds, hop in a stretch hummer to go win

[31:59] a private island.

[32:01] The Survivor crossover is fine, and not

[32:05] like a limp fine. It's actually fine.

[32:08] It's Btier Survivor, which makes it S

[32:11] tier beast games, but for our purposes,

[32:13] that makes it very boring to talk about.

[32:16] The Survivor team did everything, and

[32:17] Team Beast just had to turn up, which,

[32:19] as we saw, they barely managed that. We

[32:22] partnered with one of the largest shows

[32:24] ever programmed on television in order

[32:27] to create the most insane television

[32:29] crossover the world has ever seen, Beast

[32:32] Games and Survivor, FUSED INTO ONE

[32:35] single groundbreaking episode. The

[32:38] precise way that Jimmy Hard sells his

[32:40] content has become really irritating to

[32:42] me. It's the way he talks as if he's

[32:44] trying to get you to invest in the show

[32:47] itself. It's not enough for you to want

[32:49] to watch it. You have to believe in the

[32:52] content's value and believe in Jimmy's

[32:54] value for making it. This is the kind of

[32:57] language you use when talking to

[32:59] investors. The survivor segment lasts

[33:01] about 45 minutes and features one team

[33:03] game followed by Get a Grip and finally

[33:06] tribal council. No one is eliminated in

[33:08] the segment, but the winner gets a

[33:10] private island valued at 1.8 million,

[33:12] which they're allowed to cash out. The

[33:14] tribal council segment takes about half

[33:16] the episode, which isn't great because

[33:19] Ian and JC are both very unlikable

[33:21] people, and watching them both gravel

[33:23] and plead for votes to win the island

[33:25] sucks. Because the Survivor episode is

[33:27] entirely self-contained, it wres havoc

[33:30] on the overall pacing of the season and

[33:32] skews the screen time towards a select

[33:34] few people. Ian wins the island, but

[33:36] we're shown in a postredits bit that he

[33:38] cashes out because yeah, a normal person

[33:42] does not need a private island. Like it

[33:45] it's actively a liability to own. As a

[33:48] consolation prize, JT wins the coin, a

[33:51] mcguffin that gives the holder an

[33:53] opportunity to flip the coin and

[33:54] potentially double the prize pool if

[33:56] they make it to the top six. It's meant

[33:58] to act as a hostage that protects the

[34:00] holder as they move through the show.

[34:02] But again, the game theory is weird

[34:04] because for some reason, the person who

[34:06] flips the coin risks elimination if they

[34:08] call it wrong. So, if you make it to the

[34:10] top six, you have a 17ish% chance to win

[34:13] $5 million, and the coin represents an

[34:16] 8ish% chance at $10 million instead. The

[34:20] absolute odds balance out, but the

[34:22] relative odds do not. $5 million is

[34:25] life-changing money. $10 million is

[34:27] life-changing money plus X. Flipping the

[34:31] coin strictly benefits the opposition.

[34:33] Either you flip the coin and double the

[34:34] prize pool or you fail and get

[34:36] eliminated, increasing their odds of

[34:38] winning to a clean 20%. So, in that

[34:41] sense, the coin is a cursed idol that

[34:43] grants protection early on but requires

[34:45] a blood sacrifice down the road. Maybe

[34:48] that's interesting, but this little

[34:49] subplot costs Jimmy $5 million in season

[34:52] 1. So, he spends all of season 2 trying

[34:55] to bribe the holder to sell it to him,

[34:57] which they eventually do. Really, season

[35:00] 1 played out more or less the ideal way

[35:02] that this device could. The holder gets

[35:04] a buy through several rounds because of

[35:06] it and then calls it doubling the pot.

[35:08] But in a hypothetical 20 seasons of

[35:11] Beast Games universe, I suspect this is

[35:13] how it would go. Hold the coin with no

[35:15] intention to flip it and cash it out in

[35:17] the late game. It would then lose its

[35:19] mystique and the protection that comes

[35:20] with it.

[35:22] Moving on to episode 5, the gang returns

[35:24] from the island just in time for a full

[35:26] 10 minutes yapping over the outcome of

[35:28] the island. Most of the chatter is based

[35:30] on the false premise that the island has

[35:32] permanently shaken up alliances.

[35:34] >> Island people are going to stick for

[35:36] island people.

[35:37] >> That ends up going nowhere because the

[35:38] island was an adversarial exercise. They

[35:41] were competing against each other. In

[35:43] that same sound bite, JC says he feels

[35:46] isolated because people voted against

[35:48] him. That is the real tone of the

[35:50] aftermath. People are either lukewarm on

[35:52] the whole thing or harboring new petty

[35:54] grievances. Jimmy eventually gathers

[35:57] everyone together under the pretext of

[35:59] offering JC 50 grand for the coin. JC

[36:02] predictably rejects that. And so we move

[36:04] on to Cubes, Beast Games most notorious

[36:07] challenge.

[36:09] Cubes is the only Beast Game challenge

[36:11] that really breaks away from the strict

[36:13] children's game theme. This game was

[36:15] featured in season one of Beast Games

[36:17] and was popular enough that Jimmy has

[36:20] reused it elsewhere, most recently on

[36:22] Kevin Hart and other mid-tier

[36:24] celebrities with bad agents. The

[36:26] decision to run it back with cubes is so

[36:28] hack that one team assumed there must be

[36:30] a twist to it and started destroying the

[36:32] room looking for clues.

[36:34] >> I hate to break it to you, there is no

[36:35] twist. Cubes involves two or three

[36:38] individuals entering a room and one

[36:39] individual needing to elect to

[36:41] self-eliminate from the game so the

[36:43] others can leave and continue in the

[36:45] game. Players are given freedom to use

[36:47] whatever method they want to determine

[36:49] who should be eliminated and each room

[36:51] has a phone that calls out to Chandler

[36:53] and Code to order explicitly whatever

[36:55] they want to reach a verdict. The whole

[36:58] pitch of the challenge is that the show

[36:59] goes hands off and lets the contestants

[37:01] figure it out on their own terms. The

[37:04] problem emerges when this concept comes

[37:05] into contact with Jimmy's love of

[37:07] deception and dishonesty. Beast Games is

[37:10] not just unconcerned with players

[37:12] reneggging on their agreements. Jimmy

[37:14] actively encourages it.

[37:16] >> Yeah, you've given them your word, but

[37:18] you don't technically have to.

[37:20] >> In season 1, there were 80 different

[37:22] cubes running and so several rooms

[37:24] devolved into these antics.

[37:26] >> Yeah, I'm out.

[37:27] >> Are we fair?

[37:28] >> Yep.

[37:29] >> Are you sure?

[37:30] >> Yeah. Actually, no. I lied. And bam,

[37:33] we're all gone.

[37:34] >> Are you serious?

[37:35] >> Yeah, I'm dead ass.

[37:35] >> The most notable instance of this

[37:37] featured the Habibi brothers. A pair of

[37:39] brothers were paired with a woman. One

[37:41] of the brothers simply refused to

[37:43] participate in any game, and so the

[37:45] three spend several hours sitting in an

[37:47] empty room with the brothers badgering

[37:48] her to agree to let that brother sit out

[37:51] their game, increasing her odds of being

[37:53] eliminated in any game of chance. She

[37:55] eventually capitulates to the game,

[37:57] loses, and is left to sit alone in the

[38:00] room chained to the wall. It's this

[38:02] scene that gives the game its reputation

[38:03] for being torturous. And that is why

[38:06] here in season 2, Katie immediately

[38:08] starts crying and reaching out for other

[38:11] women the moment the cubes are revealed.

[38:14] >> Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

[38:17] >> Most people go on game shows because

[38:19] they're fun. If this is how your

[38:21] contestants react to the dramatic reveal

[38:23] of your signature game, it might be

[38:25] worth interrogating why that is. The

[38:29] incident with the Habibi brothers is

[38:31] another example of a major failure in

[38:33] Beast Games, one that shouldn't have

[38:35] even made it to air, but the creators

[38:37] are explicitly quite proud of the game

[38:39] they've built. And so the habibi footage

[38:41] is shown to us like three times in

[38:44] season 2. The good news is that the

[38:46] cubes game in season 2 is a lot less

[38:49] dramatic. Rather than 242 players

[38:52] needing to pair up, season 2 only needs

[38:55] to deal with the top 20. So basically

[38:57] everyone knows each other and mostly has

[38:59] their clique. The gimmick with the

[39:01] phones is that their stated purpose is

[39:03] to bring contestants things like a deck

[39:05] of cards or Jenga or whatever to elect a

[39:07] sacrifice. But the boys will bring them

[39:10] literally anything. So in season 1, you

[39:12] had some rooms partying with a tattoo

[39:14] artist and other rooms sitting in an

[39:16] empty void with nothing but a pack of

[39:18] cards and some Door Dash. In season two,

[39:21] everyone's in on the joke. Season 1 had

[39:23] a firm time limit of 5 hours to reach a

[39:25] verdict, or else everyone was

[39:27] eliminated. This led to mutually assured

[39:29] destruction being regularly invoked.

[39:32] >> And bam, we're all gone.

[39:33] >> In season 2, the crew prepared for the

[39:35] game to last all night. So, while there

[39:37] is an implicit deadline, it's not

[39:40] hanging over the contestants heads. They

[39:42] seem to have been encouraged to screw

[39:43] around with the phones and party on

[39:45] Amazon's dime. As a result, the season 2

[39:48] cubes go off without much incident. In

[39:50] terms of manipulation, Vance was

[39:52] convinced to agree to a popularity

[39:54] contest. And given that he was the least

[39:56] popular person in the competition, yeah,

[39:58] that was a mistake.

[40:00] >> Less than 10% of people voted for Vance.

[40:02] >> When Sue was eliminated from a card game

[40:04] because the child genius, Jack, swapped

[40:06] in a loaded deck. That is the only thing

[40:08] Jack does in the whole show, and Jimmy

[40:10] has milked it to death in the aftermath.

[40:13] You got to GIVE HIM A HUG.

[40:16] JI'S ELIMINATION is just funny because

[40:19] he wants to be a ruthless operator and

[40:21] make Jimmy proud, but just doesn't have

[40:23] it in him. He's paired with Jim and

[40:25] Monica, the maybe possibly married

[40:27] couple with Lego wedding rings. JC and

[40:29] Jim agree to let Monica sit out the

[40:31] elimination because chivalry isn't dead

[40:33] just yet. And so, the two guys play a

[40:36] card game. JC loses and rather than

[40:38] honoring the game, tries to bribe Jim to

[40:41] self-eliminate by offering to give the

[40:43] coin to Monica. And so that is our big

[40:46] cliffhanger for the episode. Will Jim

[40:48] take the bribe?

[40:51] Rather than episode 6 continuing with

[40:53] this exchange, the episode opens outside

[40:55] the cubes and we get the big reveal of

[40:57] who survived and it's Jim. The decision

[41:00] to shift perspectives is an odd creative

[41:02] choice until you see that like the

[41:05] actual conversation was not the least

[41:08] bit dramatic. Jim refuses the bribe. JC

[41:11] says, "Oh, well, Monica can have the

[41:14] coin anyway." And that was that. And so

[41:17] that is stretched into a threeinut

[41:19] sequence. There's a few more minutes of

[41:21] decompression before we get episode 6's

[41:23] challenge. Hearts will be smashed.

[41:26] That's what the wiki calls it. That's

[41:28] the name. We're stuck with it. The goal

[41:30] here is to decisively crown the

[41:32] strongest and smartest contestants in

[41:34] the city through a smart challenge and a

[41:36] strong challenge. These challenges don't

[41:38] eliminate anyone, but the two winners

[41:40] get to decide collectively which three

[41:42] contestants to eliminate. This had a

[41:44] curious impact on the game theory at

[41:46] play because players only valued the win

[41:48] if they felt like they were at risk of

[41:50] elimination. But almost everyone was

[41:53] entirely confident that they were safe

[41:55] from getting voted off. Also, you know,

[41:58] no one wants to try too hard to be safe

[42:01] and signal that they feel like they're

[42:04] unsafe. It produces an odd lack of

[42:07] tension given the circumstances.

[42:10] First up, we have the strong challenge,

[42:12] which is another spin on Get a Grip.

[42:14] This is the third of what will

[42:15] ultimately be four strong challenges

[42:17] involving hanging from a pole. All

[42:20] tailored for a very specific kind of

[42:22] athlete. So, shock, horror, the gymnast

[42:25] wins. I will just say though, Team Beast

[42:27] got really lucky that August didn't

[42:30] collide with the platform during this

[42:31] fall.

[42:33] The Smart Challenge is yet another

[42:35] children's memory game. Contestants need

[42:37] to memorize the path through a grid. A

[42:39] staple of game shows produced for

[42:41] literal children. Three, M2,

[42:45] M1, and Andrew's away. Runway, slip

[42:49] away, takeaway, and causeway.

[42:51] >> That 30-year-old clip from the

[42:52] Australian cult classic children's game

[42:54] show Time Masters is arguably more

[42:57] complex than the one here in Beast

[42:59] Masters. The time master's game is timed

[43:02] and the board is just a single element,

[43:04] a path they need to cross to answer a

[43:06] trivia question on the other side. A

[43:08] thing that never happens once in Beast

[43:11] Game season 2. Have I mentioned that

[43:13] yet? A game show purporting to challenge

[43:16] the smartest minds in the world and they

[43:18] have absolutely zero trivia. Well, I

[43:22] mean, okay, maybe that's a good thing

[43:24] given the tier of trivia they managed to

[43:26] pull out for season 1. What is the

[43:29] biggest animal on our planet? Blue

[43:31] whale, Indian rhinoceros, or spiny lump

[43:35] sucker?

[43:36] >> Anyway, this game is another spectacular

[43:39] failure because again, no one in the

[43:41] room thinks they're at risk of getting

[43:43] eliminated. And so this game that was

[43:45] conceived of as an individual

[43:48] adversarial one where each contestant

[43:50] needs to find their zen and focus

[43:53] through a cacophony of conflicting

[43:55] directions is instead handled

[43:57] collaboratively from beginning to end.

[44:00] Contestants were happy to volunteer to

[44:02] attempt the maze guided by other players

[44:04] who felt safe to guide basically anyone

[44:06] through the maze because they didn't

[44:08] believe the maze runner would eliminate

[44:10] them.

[44:10] >> Y'all better help me out though cuz I

[44:12] really don't remember anything. So, the

[44:13] entire player pool split up to memorize

[44:16] individual portions of the maze, worked

[44:18] together to get someone through it, and

[44:20] the player crowned the smartest person

[44:22] in the city was Nick the wrestler. Jimmy

[44:26] tries to lampshade this whole thing, but

[44:28] it's another catastrophic failure of a

[44:30] game. This wasn't Nick shocking everyone

[44:32] by winning a quiz. He won because

[44:34] players engaged with the game in a

[44:36] fundamentally different way than was

[44:38] intended. So, the last 14 minutes of the

[44:42] episode are spent milling around

[44:44] pondering who will get eliminated. Small

[44:46] Tyler and Bryley are the obvious

[44:48] candidates. So, after Big Nick

[44:50] eliminates Small Tyler with a

[44:52] sledgehammer, we get our cliffhanger. As

[44:54] we covered in the main video, the third

[44:56] elimine is veiled in the edit, but the

[44:58] show signals with equal bluntness that

[45:01] Brett will be the third pick.

[45:03] >> Alliances are crumbling. I don't know if

[45:06] I can trust you.

[45:07] >> I just don't open up. I struggle with

[45:09] that.

[45:09] >> I know you told me that you don't open

[45:11] up to people very easily and you don't

[45:13] trust people very easily. It's about

[45:14] having people who, you know, we both

[45:17] fully trust here.

[45:18] >> The language of the edit couldn't be

[45:19] more clear. Not only is Monica

[45:22] referencing a conversation we see with

[45:24] Brett, we literally see that visual and

[45:27] Brett's reaction. The language of filmm

[45:29] is telling us that this isn't even a

[45:31] real cliffhanger because it's so clearly

[45:34] Brett.

[45:35] And so then episode 7 continues to hide

[45:38] the elimin for another 90 agonizing

[45:40] seconds where we finally learn that it

[45:42] is Katie. Before we poke at that, I want

[45:45] to point out that the reveal occurs

[45:47] precisely at the 90 secondond mark,

[45:49] almost to the frame, by the way. 89

[45:52] seconds would have felt rush, but 91

[45:54] would have been too indulgent. But yeah,

[45:57] Katie, this is an attempted twist, but

[45:59] ends up being simply a rugpull. We had

[46:01] no reason to expect Katie to be

[46:02] eliminated. Katie had no reason to

[46:05] expect Katie to be eliminated. Rather

[46:07] than paying off a narrative beat, this

[46:09] dramatic moment is undercut simply by

[46:11] Monica and Nick needing to explain

[46:13] themselves and justify this decision.

[46:15] They rattle off a list of minor

[46:17] grievances and social fowls that

[46:19] ultimately emerge from Katie wanting to

[46:21] form an all girls coalition in response

[46:23] to the obvious boys club that was

[46:25] forming. But there you have it. We have

[46:27] our top 10 contestants and so we can

[46:30] continue with the worst reviewed episode

[46:32] of all of Beast Games.

[46:36] After Katie's elimination, essentially

[46:38] nothing of relevance happens. Each

[46:40] sequence has a practical purpose that

[46:42] makes sense on paper. The existence of

[46:44] the cliffhanger makes sense. The

[46:46] decision to bring the families in for a

[46:48] Last Supper makes sense. Using the

[46:50] cemetery as a highlight reel for the

[46:51] show makes sense. And perhaps even

[46:53] setting up a buried alive in advance

[46:55] makes sense. But in practice, it's all

[46:57] just vapor. It's pointless padding. The

[47:00] 30-something military guys have young

[47:02] kids. The young athletes all have

[47:04] parents who are so proud of them. The

[47:05] cemetery scene is even more of a waste

[47:08] of time. It's meant to be a recap of the

[47:10] show's most pivotal moments, a chance to

[47:12] reflect on how far we've come now that

[47:14] 200 players have become 10. But

[47:17] literally half the highlights Jimmy

[47:19] rattles off are from Cubes, which was

[47:22] barely an hour ago. This sequence is

[47:24] meant to remind us how much has

[47:26] happened, but it only serves to

[47:27] highlight how little has actually

[47:30] happened. The whole sequence is another

[47:32] example of pointless excess. Like the

[47:34] cannonball sequence, I'm sure it made

[47:36] for an impressive sight on set, but it

[47:39] does not translate to good television.

[47:42] >> 210 players entered Beast Games, and 200

[47:45] have already fallen.

[47:47] >> All of this is ultimately just set

[47:49] dressing for the next game, Buried

[47:50] Alive. In this game, players each get a

[47:53] turn taking a cut of a million-dollar

[47:54] pile of cash. It's build is a test of

[47:57] greed and integrity. Will everyone take

[47:59] their fair share or will contestants put

[48:01] themselves first? The order of players

[48:03] is determined via the nomination of a

[48:05] team captain. Essentially, Nick put his

[48:08] hand up and his team, who call

[48:09] themselves the Ultra Avengers or

[48:12] something, are by this point a strict

[48:14] boys club. The women and Jim weren't

[48:16] cool with the dynamic forming and so

[48:18] voted against the Mega Avengers. That

[48:21] left Cory and Brett, who are a bit older

[48:23] and don't really fit with the Turbo

[48:24] Avengers, but they are Nick's boys, just

[48:26] not his boys, right? So, Brett and Corey

[48:30] ultimately side with the boys. Nick

[48:32] wins, and the order of players that Nick

[48:34] goes with just transparently reflects

[48:36] their loyalty to him. These four are the

[48:39] last four to get dug up. But let's not

[48:41] get ahead of ourselves. We have another

[48:44] cliffhanger to ensure. After five

[48:46] minutes of sitting on the pile of money,

[48:48] wafting on how much to take, we get this

[48:50] sequence heavily implying that Nick

[48:52] takes all the money.

[48:54] >> You have a 1 million opportunity. The

[48:58] only question is,

[49:00] are you going to take it?

[49:06] >> Yeah.

[49:09] Episode 8 then totally rug bulls this.

[49:11] Nick doesn't take a million, he takes

[49:14] 250,000.

[49:15] So, the cliffhanger isn't just a rug

[49:17] pull that feels gross and distracting.

[49:20] It actively works against the show by

[49:23] inverting the expectations. Beast Games

[49:26] has force-fed us clips of Nick

[49:29] proclaiming his integrity and his

[49:31] immunity to bribes. He's so forward

[49:33] about it that as Brett will point out,

[49:36] it would be hypocritical for Nick to

[49:38] take even $1 over a fair split.

[49:41] >> If you took even a dollar more, if you

[49:43] took $100,1

[49:45] you're a villain.

[49:46] >> That is how you frame this development.

[49:49] That is the point that you drive. The

[49:51] quantity Nick took is a distant second

[49:54] to the rhetoric he pushed. The need to

[49:57] backtrack makes the segment more garbled

[50:00] and confusing. But more crucially, the

[50:02] show leads us to believe Nick took the

[50:04] entire pot. So when we learn he only

[50:06] took a quarter of the pot, it has a

[50:08] mitigating effect on the betrayal rather

[50:10] than an emphasizing one. The cliffhanger

[50:13] makes the moment less impactful. So

[50:16] we're off to an awful start, but

[50:17] ultimately episode 8 is probably the

[50:19] best episode that isn't just Survivor.

[50:22] Basically, every Beast Games challenge

[50:24] directs the contestants to behave like

[50:25] children.

[50:26] >> I'm falling back towards you. Okay.

[50:28] Okay. Because there's some arts in front

[50:29] of us.

[50:29] >> Yes, I know.

[50:30] >> And while this was probably an accident,

[50:32] this challenge has the contestants

[50:33] holding each other to the standards of

[50:35] an adult. And while I stand by our

[50:37] statement that Beast Games doesn't

[50:38] unveil anything about the true nature of

[50:40] Nick and company, I will admit that I am

[50:42] not above passing judgment on the

[50:44] simulacrims put before us for the

[50:46] purpose of entertainment. For example,

[50:48] Nick took a quarter of the pot instead

[50:50] of his onetenth share. This pissed

[50:52] everyone off and all but guaranteed his

[50:54] immediate exit from the game. So, at

[50:56] that point, should he have just taken

[50:58] the whole pot? I don't know. Discuss in

[51:00] the comments. Another example, once

[51:02] people saw that Nick took too much money

[51:04] and the 100k split was out the window,

[51:06] basically every player defaulted to

[51:08] taking an even split of the remaining

[51:10] pot. In doing so, those players took on

[51:12] some burden from stolen money. By

[51:15] contrast, Tyler did what he said he was

[51:17] going to do and took 100,000, an even

[51:20] split in absolute terms, but kicking the

[51:22] Nick problem down the chain for others

[51:23] to inherit. So, is it okay for Tyler to

[51:26] take 100 grand, or should he have paid

[51:28] the Nick tax like August did? I don't

[51:30] know. Discuss in the comments. Beyond

[51:32] that, the only notable bits are Brett

[51:34] and Monica. Brett follows Nick's lead

[51:36] and also takes 250K. Notably, it took

[51:39] him several hours to reach this

[51:41] decision. The crew was apparently

[51:43] legitimately furious with him for

[51:45] single-handedly dragging this challenge

[51:47] into the late morning again. Also, for

[51:50] some reason, the cubes are are green

[51:53] now. Also, if you think I went too hard

[51:55] on the boys in the main video, here's a

[51:57] taste of Chandler trying to do his job

[52:00] as a co-host.

[52:01] >> You have the whole pie in your hands

[52:03] right now. You're about to set the

[52:04] standard whether each pie is going to be

[52:06] equal or different based on what you do

[52:08] right here. utterly incompetent. But

[52:12] Monica's bit is, or rather could have

[52:14] been, the most interesting. Monica is

[52:16] left towards the back of the queue, and

[52:18] she finds $188,000 to split four ways,

[52:22] less than half the fair value. It's at

[52:24] this point that Jimmy rolls out a half

[52:26] million bribe for the coin, but it

[52:29] includes a unique caveat. She could sell

[52:31] the coin in secret. This presents her

[52:34] with the opportunity to make a bunch of

[52:35] money and do a solid for the people

[52:37] behind her in Q without losing the

[52:39] protection of holding the coin. That's

[52:41] how Monica wanted it to go and that's

[52:43] perhaps how it would have gone if the

[52:46] production hadn't spilled the beans. It

[52:49] seems the whole sellin secret component

[52:50] was an emergent element the production

[52:52] wasn't prepared for. So, the cat was out

[52:54] of the bag almost immediately. The boys

[52:57] need to feain ignorance for the camera

[52:58] and pretend that they only suspect that

[53:00] she sold, but they do know for a fact

[53:02] that Monica sold the coin.

[53:04] >> So, when Monica revealed the 500K, was

[53:07] everyone kind of just like, "Oh, well,

[53:09] we knew like or we had this decision."

[53:11] Okay,

[53:12] >> that's exactly how that played out. We

[53:14] already

[53:16] We already knew.

[53:17] >> Anyway, after Jim gets his go with the

[53:19] money, the show gets bored and

[53:20] unceremoniously starts wrapping the game

[53:22] up. Hannah and Katie are dug up

[53:24] simultaneously and their segments are

[53:26] blitzed in a combined 45 seconds. Just

[53:29] the raw disrespect this show has for

[53:32] women who aren't Monica. I swear to God.

[53:34] So after this, we get about 10 full

[53:36] minutes of yap about the fallout of the

[53:38] game. Though again, this is the only

[53:40] game that really felt like it could

[53:42] warrant that. If anything, I wanted to

[53:44] hear maybe a bit more of it or I wanted

[53:48] there to actually be Fallout. Like

[53:51] there's this tantalizing bit where Brett

[53:53] admits that his hope was for Corey to

[53:55] empty the pot and leave nothing for Jim

[53:57] and the women.

[53:58] >> I don't regret what I did. I was hoping

[54:00] that you would take the whole thing as

[54:02] well. I really wanted to give you that

[54:04] opportunity to take that if you wanted

[54:06] to.

[54:06] >> And yeah, I did want to see Cory put the

[54:08] screws to Brett for that statement and

[54:10] point out how crappy it is to think that

[54:12] way. Tragically, Corey is too much of an

[54:15] adult and too invested in his alliances

[54:17] to give us a proper crash out, but

[54:19] there's enough there to justify its

[54:21] runtime. All of this is followed by a

[54:23] big announcement from Jimmy where he

[54:25] declares that there's only two episodes

[54:27] left.

[54:28] >> First, there are only two episodes

[54:30] remaining until one of you wins

[54:33] generational wealth.

[54:35] >> What?

[54:36] >> Two.

[54:36] >> What?

[54:36] >> One of the most consistently funny bits

[54:38] of this show is when the contestants

[54:40] foresee the show's problems in real

[54:42] time. in this case. Yeah, August, the

[54:44] pacing of the eliminations is about to

[54:46] get really weird. Anyway, Jimmy declares

[54:49] that they're all leaving the city to do

[54:51] the finale elsewhere, which leads us to

[54:53] the worst segment in the show, the trip

[54:55] to Riad.

[54:56] >> That is so sick.

[54:57] >> Let's get it.

[54:58] >> Yo, let's go.

[55:00] Go, dude. Lock in.

[55:02] >> The decision to shoot in Riad adds

[55:03] nothing of value to the production. It's

[55:05] like how the opening episode was shot in

[55:07] Las Vegas. I didn't mention that at the

[55:09] time because it's irrelevant. The show

[55:11] isn't set in Vegas, Greenville, Riad, or

[55:13] Toronto. It's set in a sound stage. It's

[55:16] just another manifestation of the show's

[55:18] conflict with the optics of the

[55:20] production. Building a set on a

[55:21] construction site in Vegas is more

[55:23] prestigious than building on a

[55:25] construction site in North Carolina. The

[55:27] same goes for shooting in Saudi Arabia.

[55:29] But moving on, we get the setup for the

[55:31] episode 9 game here in episode 8. It's

[55:34] called Telephone Game, even though it

[55:35] has no connection to the actual

[55:37] children's game of telephone. And the

[55:39] literal telephones in this game are

[55:40] superficial elements that get discarded

[55:43] very early on. The game involves several

[55:45] rounds of voting where players vote on

[55:47] who ought to make it through to the

[55:48] final six. The catch being that

[55:50] contestants are able to bribe each other

[55:52] with the money earned from Buried Alive.

[55:54] We'll talk more about the game on the

[55:56] other side of the cliffhanger, which

[55:58] once again goes absolutely nowhere.

[56:00] August gets on the phone and attempts to

[56:02] blackmail Monica with his knowledge that

[56:03] she sold the coin.

[56:05] >> I have some unfortunate news for you.

[56:07] Yeah. What is that?

[56:08] >> I do know that you sold the coin.

[56:11] >> Beast Games has two kinds of cliffhers.

[56:13] Cliffhers that put forward an entirely

[56:16] fictitious version of events and

[56:17] cliffhers that tease a decision or

[56:19] action that is immediately revealed as

[56:21] immaterial. Episode 8's cliffhanger is

[56:24] the latter. It tries to sell August

[56:26] blackmail as a big deal. But once we get

[56:28] into episode 9, nothing comes of it.

[56:30] Neither that specific phone call nor the

[56:33] narrative thread broadly. And I'm like,

[56:35] dude, what if I use this as blackmail?

[56:39] And looking back, because obviously it

[56:41] doesn't really work. August never

[56:44] announces it to the group, and we never

[56:46] so much as see a single person upset

[56:48] over the possibility that the coin has

[56:50] been sold. This is the closest we get to

[56:53] a payoff for August's attempted

[56:54] blackmail.

[56:55] >> It's a theory, though. I don't know.

[56:57] >> Yet, the coin's not here. That

[56:59] conversation featured August trying to

[57:01] convince Katie to accept a larger bribe

[57:03] from him for her vote, but it's unclear

[57:05] if the whole coin thing influenced Katie

[57:07] at all. The plot thread is simply a

[57:09] bust. The kind of thing an editor would

[57:11] normally excise from the show entirely

[57:13] if they didn't need a cliffhanger.

[57:16] Anyway, the telephone game itself is

[57:19] weird.

[57:20] >> This is definitely by far the worst game

[57:22] that we've played so far.

[57:24] >> Yeah,

[57:25] >> it's designed to be a bidding war. Jimmy

[57:27] wants people spending big to buy each

[57:29] other's votes. And he wants people

[57:31] double crossing each other and

[57:32] additionally being perceived as double

[57:35] crossing each other. The whole gimmick

[57:37] with the phone and boos is about opening

[57:39] the game up for subtrafuge and paranoia.

[57:42] Like if Tyler paid Nick to vote for him,

[57:44] but Tyler sees Nick on the phone to

[57:46] Hannah, Tyler is supposed to get anxious

[57:48] about whether Nick is going to double

[57:50] cross him for Hannah. In the end though,

[57:52] it just makes the process less efficient

[57:54] and difficult to edit because a series

[57:56] of rotary telephones are a sub-optimal

[57:58] means of complex negotiation within a

[58:00] group. Round one was an hour long to

[58:02] account for that. Jimmy has this

[58:04] throwaway line that I think captures

[58:06] what he's trying to do. He thinks it's

[58:08] easier to lie over the phone than to lie

[58:11] to someone's face. And I guess that's

[58:13] true. But is that such a compelling

[58:15] observation to warrant building this

[58:17] entire game around it? I don't know.

[58:19] answers in the comments. Nothing like

[58:21] that ever really happens. The more

[58:23] interesting dynamic is the game theory

[58:26] around the voting. If a player is

[58:28] successfully voted through a round,

[58:29] they're gone from the pool. So that

[58:31] means if you vote for an ally, they're

[58:34] absent from subsequent rounds to vote

[58:36] for you. In essence, it's much easier to

[58:38] get through the early rounds when you

[58:40] have friends you can leverage compared

[58:42] to later rounds when a single vote can

[58:44] determine the outcome. And almost

[58:46] inevitably, someone in an alliance is

[58:48] going to be left holding the bag and the

[58:51] bag. The game kind of plays out that

[58:55] way, but the texture is strange. Part of

[58:57] this is once again a product of the

[58:59] edit. Once again, this episode took all

[59:02] night to film, and so hours completely

[59:04] vanish in the edit, and complex

[59:06] negotiations need to be flattened into

[59:09] singular ideas.

[59:10] >> Actually, the rounds were even longer

[59:11] than that. They were like they started

[59:13] out at like an hour long and then they

[59:15] kind of broke it down further and

[59:17] farther. So, it's kind of like Yeah, it

[59:19] was uh as you guys know all these

[59:20] challenges with filming and everything,

[59:22] it just it takes forever.

[59:24] >> Well, and they don't show this, but I

[59:25] think my conversation with Monica was

[59:26] like 20 minutes.

[59:27] >> The other major issue is that this

[59:29] process pushes the eliminations to the

[59:31] back end. And so, the tension in the

[59:33] early rounds is very abstract. Monica

[59:37] spends almost the whole game trying to

[59:38] buy her way through, but ends up letting

[59:40] herself get pushed to the back of the

[59:42] line. But maybe that's fine because

[59:44] ultimately there were only seven

[59:45] contestants truly vying for a spot in

[59:47] the top six. We knew going into this

[59:49] too, Nick was not going to spend his

[59:51] money. Um, he's just not.

[59:53] >> Nick was never a realistic contender to

[59:55] move on and was happy to cash in and

[59:57] cash out. Jim was maneuvering to get

[59:59] Monica through. And Katie wanted to make

[1:00:01] a push for the top six, but quickly

[1:00:03] found herself drowned out and never

[1:00:05] ended up making a play. I just felt

[1:00:07] really bad for Katie, honestly. It was

[1:00:09] And it's kind of portrayed like in the

[1:00:10] episode and stuff like that. Just uh

[1:00:13] people saying things that they shouldn't

[1:00:15] have said, and I felt really bad for

[1:00:16] her. She was crying. I understood the

[1:00:18] stress she was under, the pressure. It

[1:00:19] was just it was unbearable.

[1:00:20] >> The first round featured an hour of

[1:00:22] negotiation only for Tyler to get eight

[1:00:25] of the 10 votes without bribing anyone.

[1:00:27] People just agreed to vote for him

[1:00:30] because they think he's neat.

[1:00:31] >> Do you know who you're voting for?

[1:00:32] >> Um,

[1:00:34] would you be cool with me?

[1:00:35] >> I mean, I would be okay with that if

[1:00:37] everybody's on the same page.

[1:00:38] >> I would vote for you.

[1:00:39] >> Our group of people agree to vote Tyler.

[1:00:41] >> Hannah and August empty their accounts

[1:00:44] to get through. Jack is able to leverage

[1:00:46] the Hyper Avengers to get through with a

[1:00:49] 30K contribution to Jim and Monica's

[1:00:51] honeymoon to seal the deal. This makes

[1:00:53] Jack overconfident. I have been waiting

[1:00:57] waiting for a game like that where I can

[1:00:59] use my intelligence to its fullest

[1:01:01] power.

[1:01:02] >> Cory makes the novel decision to bribe

[1:01:04] for votes around in advance. This is a

[1:01:07] terrible decision because it gives the

[1:01:10] other contestants last mover advantage.

[1:01:13] Brett, Jim, Monica, and even Katie will

[1:01:15] have 30 minutes to talk themselves and

[1:01:17] everyone else into a different course of

[1:01:19] action. Cory is betting at it all on his

[1:01:22] peers ability to remain disciplined in

[1:01:24] the face of prolonged peer pressure.

[1:01:27] It's a bad strategy. But because the

[1:01:30] show is worse than his strategy, several

[1:01:33] contestants declared that they're firm

[1:01:34] on voting for Cory this round and Jimmy

[1:01:37] just offers to let everyone skip the

[1:01:40] negotiation phase altogether, which

[1:01:43] everyone agrees to do.

[1:01:45] >> All right, this round is over.

[1:01:47] I was like

[1:01:48] >> cuz we were already there for a long

[1:01:49] time as it was. So everybody was already

[1:01:51] getting tired and just like, "Hey, let's

[1:01:52] go to the next round."

[1:01:53] >> So Cory managed to accidentally turn

[1:01:56] everyone's last mover advantage into his

[1:01:58] own no last mover advantage. And look,

[1:02:02] I'm not going to say that Jimmy ought to

[1:02:03] have had these guys stand in silence in

[1:02:05] a circle for 30 minutes in some

[1:02:07] warehouse in Riad at midnight, but I

[1:02:09] can't think of another serious game show

[1:02:11] that seeds its rules to the whims of its

[1:02:14] players in this way. The last round is a

[1:02:16] two-way duel between Brett and Monica.

[1:02:18] Brett bribes Jim, Monica's literal

[1:02:20] pretend game show husband, $30,000 to

[1:02:23] vote for him instead of Jim's literal

[1:02:25] maybe game show wife. And Brett is

[1:02:27] surprised when Jim votes for his

[1:02:30] probable wife. No amount of money would

[1:02:32] change that decision, and Brett is made

[1:02:34] to look like an idiot for even trying.

[1:02:36] But what's even the point of this game

[1:02:38] otherwise? Nick ends up taking big money

[1:02:40] from both Monica and Brett for his vote,

[1:02:42] promising them both his vote. Throughout

[1:02:44] this episode, the edit has presented

[1:02:46] Nick basically as a two-faced liar,

[1:02:49] saying whatever was necessary to get a

[1:02:51] bag.

[1:02:51] >> Nick, Nick, Nick, I I don't understand.

[1:02:53] So, Monica's paying you 20K for a vote

[1:02:55] this round, and Cory paid you 15 grand

[1:02:57] for a vote next round.

[1:02:58] >> Yes.

[1:02:58] >> But between us, I thought you were

[1:02:59] running the wrong.

[1:03:01] >> We're going to see what happens.

[1:03:02] >> Monica, in particular, is framed as

[1:03:04] being consistently strung along by Nick.

[1:03:06] >> Please don't screw me over this.

[1:03:08] >> I got you. You're good. Start making

[1:03:11] your way to your pods.

[1:03:13] You're good.

[1:03:14] >> I'm so sorry. Like, I swear. Like,

[1:03:17] >> you're good.

[1:03:18] >> Okay.

[1:03:18] >> You're good. Thank you. You give me 10

[1:03:20] more thousand.

[1:03:21] >> I would. Can I again trust you to not

[1:03:24] change your mind here?

[1:03:24] >> Yes.

[1:03:25] >> Thank you.

[1:03:26] >> Monica's entire strategy ends up hinging

[1:03:28] on Nick's vote in round six, the final

[1:03:31] round. And we see every step of that

[1:03:33] process in agonizing detail. By

[1:03:36] contrast, we're shown no substantive

[1:03:38] conversation between Brett and Nick for

[1:03:40] the whole episode. Episode 9 cliffhangs

[1:03:43] on Nick's deciding vote. So, the framing

[1:03:45] is pretty straightforward. Will Nick

[1:03:47] deliver for Monica, or will he betray

[1:03:49] her one last time for Brett for some

[1:03:51] sort of vague unsatisfying reason like

[1:03:54] he's my boy?

[1:03:56] >> The person that I'm locking in the

[1:03:58] person I'm voting for is

[1:04:00] >> Thank you for your vote.

[1:04:02] >> So, I'm recording each of these segments

[1:04:06] in its own audio file. So, this is like

[1:04:08] beast video 2, episode 10. And I've

[1:04:12] already said this a whole bunch of

[1:04:14] times, but it is insane that we are

[1:04:18] going into episode 10 with the final six

[1:04:24] that there are going to be five

[1:04:27] eliminations

[1:04:28] in this one episode.

[1:04:32] Cracked.

[1:04:34] Nick casts his vote for Brett because

[1:04:36] he's Nick's boy. The finale then stops

[1:04:38] in its tracks to get really, really

[1:04:40] weird about passing judgment on specific

[1:04:43] contestants. Both Jim and Nick reneged

[1:04:46] on their promises, effectively canceling

[1:04:48] each other out. Jim renegged on a

[1:04:50] promise involving $30,000, and Nick took

[1:04:52] $33,000 for a vote he didn't provide.

[1:04:55] Jim stuck by his wife. Nick stuck by his

[1:04:58] boy. They are offsetting sins. It would

[1:05:01] be a waste of time to try and weigh the

[1:05:03] ethics of these lies. It'd be

[1:05:04] particularly weird to scold Jim for

[1:05:07] voting for his own wife simply because

[1:05:09] Brett was gullible enough to offer Jim

[1:05:11] money to do otherwise.

[1:05:14] The show weighs these lies and opts to

[1:05:17] school Jim for voting for his own wife.

[1:05:19] >> Brett looks so mad I didn't vote for

[1:05:21] him. What's he got to be mad about?

[1:05:22] >> He took 30 grand and he didn't vote for

[1:05:24] you. Oh yeah.

[1:05:26] The show then absolves Nick by passing

[1:05:28] the most extreme judgment on Monica for

[1:05:32] attempting to lie about selling the

[1:05:34] coin, going so far as to try and pedal a

[1:05:37] bizarre claim that Monica's failure to

[1:05:40] make it into the top six was a direct

[1:05:42] consequence of her deception.

[1:05:45] >> Can't trust Nick at the end of the day.

[1:05:47] >> I was honest about the money I made that

[1:05:48] night. You weren't. And you lost because

[1:05:50] of it.

[1:05:51] >> Yeah. If you told your teammates you

[1:05:52] took $0 so they could take more money

[1:05:54] when in reality you took 500. If you

[1:05:56] told everyone you took 500, you would be

[1:05:57] here right now.

[1:05:58] >> By this point, it should be clear that

[1:05:59] the final edit cannot be relied upon to

[1:06:01] accurately capture what went down on

[1:06:03] set. So maybe this is true. Maybe people

[1:06:06] were pissed off at Monica for insisting

[1:06:08] on maintaining a lie even after the

[1:06:10] truth had well and truly come out. But

[1:06:12] that is not the story we were just told.

[1:06:15] We were just told a story where no one

[1:06:17] cared about the lie around the coin. We

[1:06:19] were just told a story where a virtuous

[1:06:21] down on his luck wrestler rejected a

[1:06:24] million-dollar bribe earned the trust of

[1:06:26] the majority of his peers only to later

[1:06:28] surrender to his greed and devolve into

[1:06:30] a hypocrite. A man who in the end

[1:06:33] demands sweeteners in order to maintain

[1:06:35] his promises.

[1:06:37] >> Can you give Nick three more K? You know

[1:06:38] what? I'll give Nick three more K.

[1:06:40] >> For what? I don't know. He wants more

[1:06:41] money.

[1:06:42] >> If you give me 10 more thousand,

[1:06:43] >> I would. Can I again trust you to not

[1:06:46] change your mind here?

[1:06:47] >> Yes.

[1:06:47] >> Thank you. We were just told a story

[1:06:49] where a woman who, despite all the

[1:06:51] warning signs, rests her shot at

[1:06:52] generational wealth on the word of this

[1:06:54] man and is ultimately betrayed by him

[1:06:57] for vague and fickle reasons. Look, I

[1:07:00] don't need to overwork this. Nick is a

[1:07:02] villain. It's a villainous act. And

[1:07:03] yeah, it is worse than Jim voting for

[1:07:06] his maybe game show wife. By trying to

[1:07:10] make this about the coin, it undercuts

[1:07:11] the story we were just told in favor of

[1:07:14] a contradictory version of events. And

[1:07:16] worse, it essentially turns this moment

[1:07:18] into an exercise in victim blaming. Yes,

[1:07:20] Monica was betrayed, but she got what

[1:07:22] she deserved because she lied, too. If

[1:07:25] Monica's lie about the coin was indeed

[1:07:27] worse and more harmful, then show it.

[1:07:30] Don't try to spoon feed me August

[1:07:32] after the fact to try and

[1:07:34] manufacture a conclusion for the coin

[1:07:36] out of thin air. Regardless, this gives

[1:07:38] us our top six and the stage is set for

[1:07:40] the finale. or I guess we're 6 minutes

[1:07:44] into the finale, whatever.

[1:07:46] We get this kind of high production

[1:07:48] value animation that is made very

[1:07:50] annoying by Jimmy's narration declaring

[1:07:52] Beast Games to be a very legitimate and

[1:07:54] very illuminating simulation of reality.

[1:07:57] We then get the reveal of just how big

[1:07:59] of a warehouse Jimmy hired for the

[1:08:01] finale. Keep in mind as we go that this

[1:08:03] entire finale was filmed in one night,

[1:08:06] so strap in. First up is a game that the

[1:08:08] wiki refers to as ball kick, which

[1:08:12] yeah, it's not quite dodgeball because

[1:08:15] it's less interesting than dodgeball.

[1:08:17] Players each take position on a platform

[1:08:19] opposite a heart representing their own

[1:08:21] life in the game. Players then take

[1:08:23] turns kicking a soccer ball attempting

[1:08:25] to break each other's heart until two

[1:08:27] players have been eliminated.

[1:08:28] Apparently, Beast Games went with soccer

[1:08:30] balls because Ronaldo was supposed to

[1:08:32] have a cameo because he's in Saudi

[1:08:34] Arabia at the moment. Did that influence

[1:08:36] the production's decision to shoot in

[1:08:37] Riad? I do not care. Do not discuss this

[1:08:40] in the comments. Anyway, there's an

[1:08:42] initial foreplay period where again,

[1:08:44] players refuse to play the game. After a

[1:08:47] bit of that, they get a bit boulder and

[1:08:49] think strategically. Your closest

[1:08:50] players are your greatest threats, and

[1:08:52] there's a chance that aiming at the

[1:08:54] person next to you could result in a

[1:08:55] whiff that breaks your own heart. So,

[1:08:57] the game settles into a routine of

[1:08:58] players kicking it vaguely over there in

[1:09:02] an attempt to be as agreeable as

[1:09:04] possible. though over there quickly

[1:09:06] begins to resemble Jack and Hannah's

[1:09:09] hearts.

[1:09:10] >> So, I assume it's me.

[1:09:11] >> Let me try for Jack again.

[1:09:13] >> Let's just aim for Jack.

[1:09:15] >> Jack is nothing personal.

[1:09:16] >> I know it's easy for you to say it's not

[1:09:18] personal, but when everyone's aiming for

[1:09:19] you, it's not a fun feeling.

[1:09:21] >> Eventually, whether deliberate or

[1:09:22] accidental, Cory merks Jack. The game

[1:09:24] then gets super melodramatic for a few

[1:09:27] beats, and Jack really drives home how

[1:09:30] blindsided he is by the elimination.

[1:09:32] >> You You do so much in this game. you

[1:09:34] give like a full effort for 41 days and

[1:09:37] to lose on someone just kicking a ball

[1:09:39] right into your heart.

[1:09:42] It is literally the worst feeling in the

[1:09:43] world.

[1:09:44] >> And Jack is justified to feel this way.

[1:09:47] So, let's take a detour and drill into

[1:09:50] Jack's emotions in this instant and see

[1:09:52] if we can figure out why this moment

[1:09:55] feels so strange.

[1:09:59] The top down structure of Beast Games is

[1:10:01] very bizarre and causes all sorts of

[1:10:02] problems. We've hammered very hard on

[1:10:04] the issues caused by the cliffhers, but

[1:10:06] a perhaps equally harmful choice

[1:10:08] involves the pacing of eliminations.

[1:10:11] Most game shows have an uncontroversial

[1:10:13] pace to the eliminations. Ideally, it's

[1:10:15] something the audience would barely

[1:10:16] notice. A contestant is eliminated each

[1:10:19] episode, maybe once a week. Beast Games

[1:10:22] has a bizarre cadence of eliminations,

[1:10:23] which is further aggravated by the

[1:10:25] cliffhers shifting everything around.

[1:10:27] So, let's go through a timeline of

[1:10:29] eliminations, listing eliminations based

[1:10:31] on when they are official. and we see

[1:10:33] the stupid red cross imposed over the

[1:10:35] players. Episode 1 features 50 strong

[1:10:38] and 50 smart players being eliminated,

[1:10:40] leaving us with a clean 100. Episode 2

[1:10:43] features the choose your own challenge

[1:10:44] gimmick. We have nine eliminations in

[1:10:46] balls, 11 eliminations in balance, 10

[1:10:49] eliminations in bluff for a total of 30

[1:10:52] eliminations in episode 2. Episode 3

[1:10:55] features 20 eliminations in big blocks

[1:10:57] and 25 eliminations in the obstacle

[1:11:00] course for a total of 45 eliminations,

[1:11:03] 50% more than episode 2. Episode 4

[1:11:07] features the survivor crossover, so the

[1:11:09] only eliminations are the four from

[1:11:10] Captain Bribe plus one person who had to

[1:11:13] withdraw due to a family emergency.

[1:11:15] Episode 5 features six eliminations in

[1:11:17] the cube game. Episode 6 features one

[1:11:20] elimination from cubes and two from

[1:11:22] Hearts Will Be Smashed. Episode 7 begins

[1:11:24] with one last elimination from Hearts

[1:11:27] before we see zero eliminations for the

[1:11:29] next

[1:11:31] 159 minutes of television Sans credits

[1:11:35] in a production where a 15-hour shoot

[1:11:37] boils down to 30 minutes of television.

[1:11:40] Those 2 hours and 39 minutes represent

[1:11:43] like 2 weeks of production. The top 10

[1:11:46] cohort spent an absurd amount of time

[1:11:49] together. And finally, cutting the top

[1:11:51] 10 down to the final six involved a huge

[1:11:53] and elaborate telephone game that took a

[1:11:56] full night. And here in episode 10, Jack

[1:11:59] gets his red elimination cross just 9

[1:12:02] minutes after those previous four

[1:12:04] eliminees. In reality, this is something

[1:12:06] like an hour into the next day's shoot.

[1:12:09] So yeah, Jack would be justified to

[1:12:12] expect more from the finale, that the

[1:12:16] show would continue to build big and

[1:12:18] ceremonious eliminations resulting from

[1:12:21] complex challenges, and that he wasn't

[1:12:23] paying 30 grand for the privilege of

[1:12:26] being bullied at a worse version of

[1:12:28] dodgeball. After all, nine of the top 10

[1:12:31] contestants are eliminated in the

[1:12:32] finale. An insane decision. And so this

[1:12:36] is the way the finale is going to go.

[1:12:38] It's time to wrap this crap up. The show

[1:12:40] will screech to a halt to press F to pay

[1:12:42] respects to the elimine, but they're

[1:12:44] universally anticlimactic because

[1:12:46] there's simply so much still to cram

[1:12:48] into the episode.

[1:12:50] Jack was right to feel blindsided by his

[1:12:52] elimination and feel bitter in the

[1:12:54] moment about this whole thing. But at

[1:12:56] the same time, how did he think this was

[1:12:58] going to go? How did he think his beast

[1:13:01] games journey was going to end? By this

[1:13:03] point in the game, it's clear that smart

[1:13:05] players offer no unique benefits in

[1:13:07] themselves. Team Beast are not, in the

[1:13:09] literal 11th hour of filming, suddenly

[1:13:12] going to ask the contestants to do math.

[1:13:14] Jack's primary utility to the Giga

[1:13:16] Avengers was simply that he was a

[1:13:18] non-threatening ally that helped them

[1:13:20] attain majority voting power. And

[1:13:23] ultimately, he was a free elimination

[1:13:25] that could be cashed in at the right

[1:13:27] time. And top six was the right time.

[1:13:29] So, farewell, Jack. Now, let's play a

[1:13:32] quick game. If you had to guess which of

[1:13:33] these five people was about to get

[1:13:35] bullied by the remaining four, who would

[1:13:37] you pick?

[1:13:41] That's right. Actually, that's a little

[1:13:43] unfair.

[1:13:44] >> Hannah. Unless I want to create enemies

[1:13:46] with the three that are aiming for you

[1:13:47] right now. I have to I have to join

[1:13:49] forces.

[1:13:50] >> Despite saying that and really thinking

[1:13:52] about it, Cory does not in fact go for

[1:13:54] Hannah. But that clip is indicative of

[1:13:56] the rhetoric in the room and it makes

[1:13:58] for a really uncomfortable watch. It's

[1:14:00] not even malicious. And that lack of

[1:14:02] malice kind of makes it worse. It's so

[1:14:04] self-evident that Hannah is the correct

[1:14:06] option to target such that Cory's

[1:14:08] decision not to is an act of mercy.

[1:14:11] >> It's just the smartest play for myself.

[1:14:13] Kick for Hannah. We're all kicking for

[1:14:14] Hannah.

[1:14:15] >> And so Hannah, like a woman, starts

[1:14:17] crying to make it weird.

[1:14:18] >> It is a sucky feeling to have the entire

[1:14:21] cast gang up against you.

[1:14:22] >> This might actually be the weirdest

[1:14:25] moment of the show. I'll explain what

[1:14:26] we're shown and told, but understand

[1:14:28] that this is almost certainly not

[1:14:30] reality. Tyler is aiming to go for

[1:14:32] Hannah. She breaks down crying and Tyler

[1:14:35] hesitates. August then begins chirping

[1:14:37] to Tyler non-stop about how he simply

[1:14:39] has to go for Hannah. And then this

[1:14:41] happens.

[1:14:50] Oh my god.

[1:15:03] So Tyler breaks August heart from a kick

[1:15:05] that we only get shown for a few frames.

[1:15:08] >> I truly felt bad. You know, all of us

[1:15:11] were targeting Hannah and then after

[1:15:13] seeing her tear up, man, that's that's

[1:15:15] when I made my mind enough just told

[1:15:17] myself I couldn't keep doing this to

[1:15:19] her. My young boys at home, you know,

[1:15:21] that would watch this, you know, I want

[1:15:23] to be a good role model for them.

[1:15:25] >> Dang. And you know, I want them to stick

[1:15:27] up for the you the underdog, the little

[1:15:30] person, you know, the person in need. So

[1:15:33] >> that is the version put forward by the

[1:15:35] show. Tyler regretfully eliminated

[1:15:37] August to put an end to the harassment.

[1:15:39] Tyler merckked his best friend to

[1:15:41] protect a woman in need. What a guy.

[1:15:44] This is fiction. August is adamant that

[1:15:47] the edit misrepresented the situation

[1:15:49] and his and Hannah's relationship. I

[1:15:51] think in the edit it makes it seem like

[1:15:53] I like really hate Hannah or she really

[1:15:54] hates me. But there's no animosity

[1:15:55] against each other. There's no there was

[1:15:56] no hate for Hannah and Hannah and I are

[1:15:58] totally good. Hannah's awesome. As

[1:16:00] August tells it, Tyler was playing the

[1:16:01] game as Jimmy intended. Tyler and August

[1:16:04] had been close the entire show, but

[1:16:05] Tyler saw August as a threat. Tyler

[1:16:08] deliberately eliminated August for that

[1:16:10] reason. So when August is yelling go for

[1:16:12] Hannah, it is not misogynistic blood

[1:16:14] lust, but rather August pleading for his

[1:16:16] own life. that would track given that

[1:16:19] Hannah had just made the I'm a small

[1:16:21] bean, you should want to face me later

[1:16:23] argument to Cory. So, who should we

[1:16:26] believe? August, who was kind of wound

[1:16:28] up and annoying on TV, but otherwise

[1:16:30] seems like a normal dude, or the

[1:16:33] production team that brought us the

[1:16:35] amazing disappearing push-up contest.

[1:16:38] Answers in the comments.

[1:16:40] So, we have our final four, and it's

[1:16:42] time for the penultimate Beast Games

[1:16:44] challenge. The ultimate strong versus

[1:16:46] smart. The merging of brains and bronze

[1:16:49] into one spect. It's just stacking

[1:16:51] blocks again.

[1:16:52] >> Do you all recognize these?

[1:16:54] >> Yes.

[1:16:54] >> It's a combination of the pole hanging

[1:16:56] challenge from episode 6 with the block

[1:16:58] stacking from episode 1, but somehow

[1:17:01] even worse than that makes it sound.

[1:17:03] Players hang from the poles opposite a

[1:17:05] stack of 16 colored blocks. You can then

[1:17:07] press a button that will raise all the

[1:17:09] platforms up and drop the blocks. You

[1:17:11] must then attempt to recreate the stack.

[1:17:13] If you're successful, you get to

[1:17:15] nominate a person to eliminate. If you

[1:17:16] get it wrong, you're eliminated. So,

[1:17:19] just to start, the game theory of this

[1:17:21] challenge is ridiculous. The raw

[1:17:23] statistical odds of succeeding at the 16

[1:17:25] block stack are incredibly low, lower

[1:17:27] than your two in three chance of not

[1:17:29] being selected for elimination. So, even

[1:17:32] if you are Hannah and know for a fact

[1:17:34] that you're likely to be eliminated

[1:17:36] next, you're better off doing nothing

[1:17:38] and betting on the contestants failing

[1:17:40] to match the pattern. And if you're

[1:17:41] Tyler, beloved by all, you have every

[1:17:44] reason to just hold on to that poll and

[1:17:46] let the other contestants sort it out.

[1:17:48] Or at least that's how it would have

[1:17:50] gone if the players didn't break the

[1:17:52] game yet again. The the edit's kind of a

[1:17:55] little bit different than how it

[1:17:56] actually played out. Um, all right. So,

[1:17:58] the thing was me, Brett, and also Tyler,

[1:18:02] you know, we kind of had already a

[1:18:04] strategy made up. Hey, Brett was going

[1:18:06] to count the first six blocks. I was

[1:18:07] going to count the next six blocks. And

[1:18:09] then Tyler was going to count the last

[1:18:10] four blocks. And what what you guys

[1:18:12] don't see is actually Tyler was the one

[1:18:14] who stacked the last four four blocks on

[1:18:16] there.

[1:18:17] >> So it was actually like a three-way

[1:18:19] alliance that was working together. So

[1:18:21] yeah, no caveats this time. No

[1:18:22] mitigating factors. It was a three-way

[1:18:24] conspiracy against Hannah. It's # bags

[1:18:27] for the boys. This represents one last

[1:18:29] individualistic smart challenge that was

[1:18:31] bypassed collaboratively. And there's

[1:18:33] something almost poetic about this being

[1:18:35] how the last smart contestant goes. A

[1:18:37] perfect distillation of the smart

[1:18:38] experience on this show. The producers

[1:18:40] are too cowardly to admit to this

[1:18:42] happening, by the way. And so the

[1:18:44] version we see on the show is an

[1:18:46] incoherent fantasy. We're shown Brett

[1:18:48] pushing the button with no preamble. He

[1:18:50] gets about halfway through and looks

[1:18:52] cooked before Corey for Lornly begins to

[1:18:54] give Brett the solution, and it's

[1:18:55] implied that Brett is led by Cory all

[1:18:57] the way to the end of the sequence. The

[1:18:59] scene suggests that Brett attempted the

[1:19:01] puzzle with no confidence in his

[1:19:03] recollection, essentially committing

[1:19:05] Beast Game suicide before Cory saved

[1:19:07] Brett from himself at Hannah's expense.

[1:19:10] Oh, right. Brett chooses to eliminate

[1:19:12] Hannah. By the way, now that the season

[1:19:14] is all said and done and the cast have

[1:19:16] made their podcast appearances, it's so

[1:19:18] aggravating that Team Beast insisted to

[1:19:20] our faces that they don't manipulate

[1:19:22] events in the edit. Not only is that so

[1:19:25] clearly untrue, they don't even

[1:19:27] manipulate events for the right reasons.

[1:19:28] They excise whole elements of the

[1:19:30] production because they're embarrassing

[1:19:32] and discrediting to the creatives. Case

[1:19:34] in point, the final bribe. Three players

[1:19:37] must become two, so there is a final

[1:19:39] bribe for a player to self-eliminate.

[1:19:41] The set is designed to try and evoke

[1:19:43] mystery and subtrifuge with covered

[1:19:45] buttons, whatever. But the three just

[1:19:48] negotiated who would take it. It was

[1:19:49] agreed that Brett would be the one to

[1:19:50] take the bribe basically before the game

[1:19:52] even started.

[1:19:53] >> The edit doesn't show us really talking

[1:19:55] or anything like that because obviously

[1:19:56] they want the drama for the TV. But in

[1:19:58] real life, we're just sitting there

[1:19:59] talking and hey, who's going to take it?

[1:20:01] Who's not going to take it? Who wants to

[1:20:02] move forward? Who doesn't want to move

[1:20:04] forward?

[1:20:04] >> They chatted through the whole thing and

[1:20:06] did the prisoners dilemma thing where

[1:20:07] they simply wanted to see how high the

[1:20:09] counter would go until Jimmy told them

[1:20:11] it wasn't going any higher. So even here

[1:20:13] we have adversarial games being resolved

[1:20:16] collaboratively. And again, we're shown

[1:20:18] none of this in the edit, which

[1:20:19] constructs a simulacum of tension

[1:20:21] through everyone's bored expressions and

[1:20:23] benile remarks, but MMA fighter Brett is

[1:20:26] now a millionaire. And that leaves our

[1:20:28] finalists as Air Force pilot Tyler and

[1:20:30] Navy vet Cory.

[1:20:32] Which leads us to the final briefcase

[1:20:35] challenge. This game was famously a bit

[1:20:37] of a schmazzle in season 1. It's meant

[1:20:39] to be analogist to poker. Adversarial

[1:20:42] deal or no deal. One contestant will

[1:20:44] place the $5 million check in one of

[1:20:46] these briefcases, and the other

[1:20:47] contestant will have to guess which case

[1:20:49] contains the check to win it all. After

[1:20:51] a failed guess, a briefcase is

[1:20:53] eliminated to increase the odds of

[1:20:55] finding the check. This is supposed to

[1:20:57] be the ultimate beast game. Jimmy and

[1:20:59] his boys imagined this playing like a

[1:21:02] master's game of poker with players

[1:21:04] lying, double bluffing, searching for

[1:21:06] tells, and all that. In season 1, Jeff

[1:21:08] found the check on the first attempt by

[1:21:10] random chance. Here we see return to the

[1:21:13] mean and the game goes on far longer

[1:21:15] than is ideal. Now either Corey or Tyler

[1:21:17] are master poker players. Both hate

[1:21:19] lying. Both are fatigued from shooting

[1:21:21] beast games all night long. And so both

[1:21:24] are scared of giving away tells and lean

[1:21:26] on their military stone faces to get

[1:21:27] through and end up repeating phrases at

[1:21:30] each other like lunatics.

[1:21:31] >> Opening to find out. Open and find out.

[1:21:33] Opening to find out. Open and find out.

[1:21:35] >> I really really don't get this show's

[1:21:37] obsession with shooting at night. Like

[1:21:40] there's so many scenarios where they

[1:21:42] shoot at night for no reason. Set up in

[1:21:46] a sound stage and shoot during normal

[1:21:48] hours, you you goblins. But Cory, in one

[1:21:52] last act of disobedience, realizes that

[1:21:54] the odds are in his favor, and it's

[1:21:57] actually not in his interest to know

[1:21:59] what case the check is in because he'll

[1:22:02] have a tell. So Cory just closes his

[1:22:05] eyes and chooses a case randomly. It's

[1:22:07] like that one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh where

[1:22:09] Yugi outwits Pegasus' mindreading

[1:22:11] ability by swapping between personas and

[1:22:13] blindly playing each other's cards.

[1:22:15] You're wrong, Pegasus.

[1:22:17] >> Huh? Remember, I still have one more

[1:22:20] card out. The card that took the last

[1:22:23] bit of Yugi's courage to play. And now

[1:22:25] IT'S TIME TO FIND OUT WHAT IT IS. I

[1:22:28] DIDN'T need to play that clip, but at

[1:22:30] this point, it's just nice to have a

[1:22:31] moment's respit from Beast Games. Upon

[1:22:34] seeing this, Tyler then pretends to

[1:22:36] start closing his eyes as well. But in

[1:22:38] perhaps Beast Game's biggest twist,

[1:22:40] Tyler doesn't actually pick randomly. An

[1:22:44] act of deception that accomplishes

[1:22:46] nothing. Cory takes him at his word and

[1:22:49] asks no further questions, so it

[1:22:51] devolves into yet another game where

[1:22:53] players discard the game Jimmy made up

[1:22:55] in favor of simply rolling a dice. Like

[1:22:57] seriously, if I were a game designer on

[1:22:59] Beast Games, I would be offended that

[1:23:02] most people opt to solve my games by

[1:23:04] playing other pre-existing games

[1:23:07] instead. But maybe that's better for all

[1:23:09] of us. The game is bad, and it takes

[1:23:11] eight rounds for Tyler to eventually

[1:23:13] win. They then insist on stoically

[1:23:15] dropping Cory into the foam pit. Tyler

[1:23:17] flexes on the pile of fake money and

[1:23:19] then the show wraps up by spending its

[1:23:21] final two minutes doing inspiration porn

[1:23:23] of the contestants families and slapping

[1:23:25] itself on the back for how much money it

[1:23:26] gave away.

[1:23:27] >> But no one is walking away empty-handed.

[1:23:30] Multiple people literally became

[1:23:32] millionaires.

[1:23:33] >> Getting on the show is a miracle.

[1:23:35] >> So, what did we learn today? Nothing.