The end has arrived. Here’s everything you need to know from an old-school perspective to make All Stars make sense. If you want to know everything that happened, just stream the show on Paramount+.
1. A Hard Day’s Night
After The Arena, TJ tells us the final stars NOW. It’s an overnight final, a tradition we first saw on Rivals. But, it’s just an act of sleep deprivation. One partner sleeps in a hammock while the other stands on a log.
2. Phase One- Three Legs
The first phase of the final requires teams to run to the beach, or the “nucleus,” and complete three different legs to accumulate pieces to fill a mandala. Similar to Rivals 2 and The Ruins, this is a “choose your own adventure” final. You just need to do all three, the order doesn’t matter.
3. Wrong Way
During the run to the nucleus, Nehemiah & Melinda take the wrong path. Not as bad as Natalie running amok into the South African wilderness, but akin to Cory’s blunder on Smuggle Run on Double Agents.
4. It Takes 2
Of course, the tandem bikes from the All Stars 1 final are back, but only for one checkpoint.
5. Enough is Enough
Although they were the first team to reach the nucleus, Ayanna is feeling gassed out during her final leg. Both Nehemiah & Melinda and Darrell & Janelle have filled their mandala up, and MJ & Jonna are halfway done with their last checkpoint. So Ayanna taps out, but this isn’t like Jay quitting the Exes 2 final. It’s more akin to Mattie or Georgia on War of the Worlds. She was fatigued, what did production think would happen by depriving the cast of sleep?
6. King’s Palace Buffet
Phase two of the final has a buffet of Mexican food with some unwelcome guests. Tostadas with fish eyes, burritos filled with crickets, and nachos with roaches and scorpions. To wash it down, they get a glass of blood. Eating gross food is a staple of the final, and we’ve seen blood on seasons like Battle of the Exes, Bloodlines, and Double Agents. The cast needs to eat them all, run to solve math problems, get three answers, and use them to crack a safe. Darrell & Janelle are the first ones done, but MJ & Jonna aren’t far behind.
7. Better Left Unread
Darrell & Janelle struggle to unlock the safe, but they’ve ignored the instructions adjacent to it. So, Jonna actually reads them and learns how to unlock the safe. She wins it for herself & MJ, her first win and MJ’s second after The Gauntlet 2.
Stop Being Polite 