SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the Season 3 finale of “The Challenge: All Stars,” streaming now on Paramount+.
Another season of Paramount Plus’ “The Challenge: All Stars” is in the books — and two people are $250,000 richer.
The season finale, which dropped on Wednesday morning, picked up where the penultimate episode left off — with Mark Long, Brad Fiorenza, Nehemiah Clark, Wes Bergmann, Nia Moore, KellyAnne Judd, Jonna Mannion and Kailah Casillas kayaking across the ocean to a checkpoint.
Once arriving there, they each had to play one round of “King of the Hill,” the first game T.J. Lavin had ever hosted, back on “The Gauntlet 2” in 2005; this time, each player had to push their opponent off a platform in the middle of the ocean.
After the matches ended, they had to switch partners again, and each pair was given 100 pounds of sandbags to take up a mountain. Brad struggled so much that Jonna decided she’d carry 60 pounds and he’d handle 40 pounds, which seemed to work better. However, it was Mark and Nia who continued to pass every group and finished that heat first.
At the end of the first day, Jonna was in the lead with 24 points, while Wes led for the men with 22. Everyone expected a tough overnight portion of the final — a staple for “The Challenge.” Instead, Lavin let them all sleep on a yacht right next to the money. Everyone seemed thrilled, except Wes, who didn’t want the group to rest, and possibly put them ahead of the game. He was also seasick.
Still, they were thrown back into the game in the morning. Unfortunately, there were only six spots in the final day’s competitions, so there were two elimination rounds — Brad vs. Mark and KellyAnne vs. Kailah. They each had to work on a crossword puzzle based on the map in the house; while KellyAnne had studied, Kailah still was able to figure it out quicker; Mark and Brad both struggled but ultimately, Brad sent Mark home.
Then came the ultimate twist: The final leg was a race with a few checkpoints along the way, completely solo. There were no partners. Everyone seemed happy with that, since it meant that they were each responsible for their own success.
Of course, that happiness came to an end when they came upon the first checkpoint; each competitor had to eat two pounds of food before moving on. The “food” offered was liver, crickets and other various animal parts. This part was especially difficult for Nehemiah, who is a vegan and hadn’t eaten any meat in 15 years.
A moment worth noting came when Nehemiah and Nia, the last remaining players during the eating portion, encouraged each other to keep fighting. When she wondered whether there was any way she could even catch up, he reminded her that you never know what the checkpoints are, or what could happen.
After one more puzzle, the group headed to their last checkpoint: building blocks.
“All of this studying to become a genius, all of these weights to become the strongest guy, none of it matters because I have to build a pyramid of blocks like a frickin’ child,” Wes said.
Still, both he and Jonna finished the blocks first and headed into the water with a paddle-board, swimming their way out to the yacht.
Jonna became the first mom to ever win two back to back challenges — and this time, she did it completely on her own. She also won Season 2, but she was partnered with M.J. Garrett.
“Jonna is a completely different challenger than when I played with her the first several times,” Wes said. “She’s a very impressive woman, and I’ve had a blast playing with her.”
