Episode 8
The Adequate Race
“Last time on Endurance Forest!” Vince Goldman says over clips of the previous episode. “The teams faced off in a relay race that consisted of three activities archery, swimming and rock climbing and yeah there’s no way to sugarcoat it, Team Fire got smoked. While there was a glimmer of hope with Nicole quickly catching up to her daughter in the second half of the swimming portion, a pulled shoulder muscle put a hindrance on their chances to win, allowing Clarence to grab victory for his team. Along with immunity, Team Water won calls home where Sue told her mom and step-dad about Lissa, Clarence talked about his standings in the game with his boyfriend, and Ed talked with his secretary and suggested that they’d watch the show together once he gets back. I wonder what’s going on there.” Vince chuckled at that, “Mina didn’t take the offer for a phone call, which ended up leading to Ed opening up to her about his motivation to win this game. It was some pretty heavy stuff. Even if he would later admit in the confessional that some of it was a bit exaggerated. Either way it wasn’t too out of place considering some of the conversations we’ve seen on this show. Seriously, should we like… have a therapist on staff next season? Anyways, over on Team Fire, Simon tried one last time to flip Nicole over to his side, but to no avail as at the elimination ceremony she, along with Lucas and Jillian, voted to send him packing, and he would have if he didn’t reveal that he had The Coin of Salvation. Which saved himself and instead eliminated Lucas. Who had some words of encouragement for Jillian before he put an end to that chapter. Eight are left, who’s the next to be cut from the cast? Find out tonight on Endurance Forest!”
~~~
The episode begins with the aftermath of the previous elimination with three of the four remaining members of Team Fire walking back to camp, but with Simon and Yong-Gi a few paces ahead of Nicole.
Yong-Gi looks over to Simon and says, “Nice play with the coin. Now I see why you weren’t too worried tonight.”
“Yeah, had that little thing in my back pocket. Glad that it came in handy.”
“How long?”
“What?”
“I’m just curious as to how long you had it since, if you had it during the third elimination, you could have used it to save Ben and we could have kept the numbers going forward.”
“Oh trust me, I would have if I had it back then. I found that coin… I wanna say a day or two after the cooking challenge.” Simon said, trying to sound as genuine as possible.
“I see.” Yong-Gi said, seemingly believing him.
~~~
Simon is shown in the confessional, “Yeah… I found the coin on the second day here in some bushes quite a ways away from camp, but Yong-Gi doesn’t need to know that I’ve had it for that long since… yeah, I could have used it to save Ben, but why would I? This is a game that we’re all trying to win. It ain’t smart to get too attached to people. So an advantage like that, if you don’t use it to save numero uno, then you’re just an idiot.”
~~~
The show cuts to the next morning with Jillian sitting on a log by her team's unlit fire pit. She lets out a depressed sigh, but then is surprised by the sound of Nicole’s voice.
“Missing him already, huh?” the mother said as she took a seat next to her friend.
“I started missing him the second that car drove away.” Jillian said, “You know… it’s kinda funny. I didn’t come here looking for a relationship. If I was, I would have auditioned for The Bachelor or something. Not that they would take me. I mean a forty year old park ranger doesn’t really fit with all the twenty-something blonde supermodels that usually make up that show’s cast. Though after these… wow it hasn’t even been three weeks… I don’t know… I just feel something around him that’s… much stronger than anything else I have felt with any of the short lived flings I’ve had before.”
“Eh, that’s not a bad thing. You scored a… decent looking guy who’s a little over a decade younger than you. I would certainly call that a win, sister.” Nicole said with a laugh.
“Yeah… but he’s out now and… he told me not to keep going and playing this game for myself, but… it’s going to be hard to do that. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if, to the people watching, it looks like Lucas is all I’ve talked about since I got here.”
“To be fair, you two did hit it off very quickly, but I see what you mean. People love a romantic subplot so the producers may edit it that way.”
“I don’t know. I think I would find it a bit annoying.” Jillian said with a laugh. “What if they make it look like all you have nothing going on, except being sexy?”
Nicole shrugged, “That doesn’t totally sound like a bad thing. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if that’s the full reason why that producer casted me for this show. I guess the over exaggeration would be a little annoying, but we can’t really control how this show edits us to look. So we shouldn’t worry about hypotheticals like that.”
“I guess.” Jillian said.
“Great.” Nicole said standing up, “I’m going to make some coffee. Want a cup?”
“Yes please.” Jillian said with a small smile.
~~~
The show cuts to Jillian in the confessional booth, “Nicole is a good friend. I’m certainly glad that she’s still here. If she lost that tiebreaker and… just assuming all the following challenges went about the same… I’d be by myself right now… so yeah… it’s nice to have somebody to talk to. Though I can’t help, but worry about starting to treat her like a therapist. I guess all I can do about that is to be there for her when she needs me as well.”
~~~
There’s a cut to two days later with Clarence doing an early morning workout. Mostly push-ups and sit-ups, but with some logs on the side to be used as improvised weights. Even if they were lighter than what he was used to.
It was around this point that Sue woke up, saw him and walked over to him. “You’re working out?”
“Yup. Wanna join in?” Clarence said as he did a sit-up.
“It’s tempting, but isn’t today a challenge day? You wanna risk tiring yourself out before the challenge?”
“I guess there is a possibility of that, but I’m not too worried. I mean we did totally dominate the last challenge.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like it’s been that way the whole season. The win/lose record between the two teams is dead even.”
“Fair, but I have faith in our team to pull out another win today.”
~~~
It cuts to Sue in the confessional booth, “I hope that Clarence’s confidence isn’t misplaced since… unless the merge happens soon, I am screwed if this team loses again since I feel like the only one of those three I have a chance of flipping is Ed. And that’s just assuming he’s not loyal to a fault to the other two.”
~~~
The four members of Team Water stand in the middle of the forest with Vince who motions for Team Fire to walk in and he says to Team Water, “Team Water, take a look at the new Team Fire, the story of Lucas coming to an end at the last elimination ceremony.”
“Wait, how did that happen?” Mina asked her mom, “Wasn’t the park ranger chick and him practically attached at the hip?” Mina pointed over to the sad looking Jillian.
“The con artist found the coin.” Nicole responded, giving a side eye to Simon.
“Hey, don’t blame me for being lucky and playing the game.” Simon said with a cocky smile.
~~~
An annoyed Ed is shown in the confessional, “Damnit, so not only did I not find the coin, but it is already out of play. There goes that as a backup plan. I guess I just need to keep up my plan of not looking like a threat and hope that keeps me in.”
~~~
“Before I explain today’s challenge I want to congratulate all of you for making it out here for twenty days and making it to the top eight. The reason why I bring this up is because you have all made it to the merge. Meaning that at this point forward the teams are dissolved, it’s everyone for themselves and after the challenge you’ll be staying at a new campsite together.”
The competitors all cheered at the news that they had reached the merge, even that was enough to get Jillian a bit out of her funk.
“Now for today’s challenge. On my signal, you’re all going to start racing. The finish line is at the very top of the cliff in the distance.”
“Another challenge involving scaling that thing?” Clarence asked.
“Hey, this location had this natural set piece, we might as well use it.” Vince responded.
Clarence gave a nod, “Fair enough.”
“As I was saying, you’ll all have to run to try to make it past the finish line, but be careful, this isn’t a smooth paved path to the top. The way ahead of you is full of hazards like rocks and roots that can ruin your day and your chances at winning and trust me, you don’t want to come in last place.”
“Why’s that?” Ed asked.
“I’m glad you asked.” Vince said with a smile, “You see, in order to make sure that everyone here truly deserves it, there’s a little twist with this challenge. Whoever comes in last place will automatically be eliminated from the competition. No vote, nothing, you’re just out.”
The contestants all looked shocked at this.
~~~
Simon is shown in the confessional, “That makes me wonder what they would have done if I still had the coin and came in last. Would whoever came second to last be out instead? Would they strip the coin off of me and rehide it? Eh, not that it matters right now. I just need to focus on this challenge. Though I will say that I am relieved. This time around I don’t need to win, I just need to not be last.”
~~~
The show cuts to the contestant standing in a row while Vince stands by an ATV that he clearly was planning on using to drive to the top of the cliff in order to see who makes it past the finish line. “Alright, is everybody ready?”. The contestants all gave various ways of confirmation, from nods to thumbs up to verbal confirmation. Vince blew his whistle and the contestants all started running, with Vince hopping onto his ATV.
At first Jillian was the one in the lead, partly due to both Clarence and Ed stumbling a bit, but luckily for both not enough for either of them to fully trip. Though it did put Ed in second to last with Nicole behind him by a few feet. As for Mina she found herself neck and neck with Simon of all people, both in what could be considered third/fourth place with Sue a couple of paces ahead of them.
~~~
Mina is shown in the confessional, “Going off first impressions, I thought that this Simon guy was the weakest link of the remaining people who were on Team Fire, but he’s keeping pace with me. Either he really wants to stay in, or he’s been holding himself back the whole time. Either way I may need to keep an eye on him.”
~~~
A board appears on the upper left corner of the scene to show the current positions.
1st: Jillian
2nd: Sue
3rd: Mina
3rd: Simon
5th: Clarence
6th: Yong-Gi
7th: Ed
8th: Nicole
As the continued to run some positions changed, from Clarence overtaking Mina to Ed catching up to Yong-Gi and the biggest one, Simon clearly already starting to get tired, falling back to second to last. One other noticeable thing was that the gap between Jillian and Sue was getting smaller by the second.
1st: Jillian
2nd: Sue
3rd: Clarence
4th: Mina
5th: Ed
5th: Yong-Gi
7th: Simon
8th: Nicole
In the next sector they reach an area that was full of trees with exposed roots that spread out on the ground like tentacles ready to grab them and ruin their chances at winning, with the two people falling victim to this being Sue and Ed. Though out of the two Sue was able to recover much quicker, only losing a position to Clarence. Ed however ended up falling in last because of this. Clear panic could be seen on his face as he realizes this.
~~~
Ed is shown in the confessional, “Hell no, after all my planning and putting on this whole dumbass act, I am not going out via automatic elimination by losing a footrace. I guess now I need to risk my whole “not looking like a threat” thing by giving it all that I got this time around.”
~~~
Also in this sector Nicole not only managed to get out of last place thanks to Ed’s fall, but she even managed to pass Simon and catch up to Yong-Gi who took notice and clearly got a bit distracted by her running and the bouncing of certain pronounced parts of her.
1st: Jillian
2nd: Clarence
3rd: Sue
4th: Mina
5th: Nicole
5th: Yong-Gi
7th: Simon
8th: Ed
Once fully back on his feet, Ed with speed that nobody in this game knew he was capable of, burst into a full sprint like he was chasing down a perp through the city. Blitzing past the three people ahead of him putting him comfortably in fifth place at the moment.
Yong-Gi, distracted by how attractive Nicole is, almost tripped on one of the roots, but it was only a slight stumble that put her ahead of him, but didn’t completely take him out of the race.
1st: Jillian
2nd: Clarence
3rd: Sue
4th: Mina
5th: Ed
6th: Nicole
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Simon
Motivated to not stay distracted, Yong-Gi muttered “Come on Yong-Gi, get your head in the game. You’re not a Dead or Alive player. You aren’t here to goon. You’re here to win.” to himself before he pushed himself harder and managed to run past Nicole and even catch up to her daughter. Though at the same time said daughter was passed by Ed who avoided each and every hazard with grace. It was also during this portion where Jillian’s calves began to ache and caused her to slow down, losing the lead that she had since the beginning to not only Clarence, but Sue.
~~~
A tired looking Jillian is shown in the confessional, “I want to do what Lucas asked of me. To show them how much ass I can kick, but… this may not be the challenge for it. I may be a park ranger and know my way around a forest, but I’m also forty years old. It’s not easy to keep up with these other competitors who are still in their twenties.”
~~~
1st: Clarence
2nd: Sue
3rd: Jillian
4th: Ed
5th: Mina
5th: Yong-Gi
7th: Nicole
8th: Simon
Over the next few hundred feet that they covered on foot, the only change in position was Yong-Gi failing to keep pace with Mina and once again falling behind Nicole, putting him in second to last place ahead of his alliance mate.
Simon, seeing that he had been stuck in last for a decent chuck of the race, had a scowl grown across his face.
~~~
Simon is shown in the confessional, “After playing that coin, I no longer have a safety net. I did not play it, just to be eliminated in the very next episode. So I think now is the time that I dig deep and… I may have to fight a bit dirty, but hey, this is a game and right now I’m like a cornered animal.”
~~~
1st: Clarence
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
2nd: Sue
3rd: Jillian
4th: Ed
5th: Mina
6th: Nicole
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Simon
With a sudden burst of speed that his body absolutely hated, but he felt it would be worth it to continue having a shot at a million dollars, Simon rushed forward, passing Yong-Gi and rapidly approaching Nicole.
Meanwhile up near the front of the pack, Sue almost tripped over a rock she didn’t see. Like before it wasn’t enough to make her fall down completely, but it slowed her down enough for her to lose her position to Ed, who also managed to get past Jillian.
1st: Clarence
2nd: Ed
3rd: Sue
4th: Jillian
5th: Mina
6th: Nicole
7th: Simon
8th: Yong-Gi
Recovering some of her momentum, Sue managed to retake second place from Ed, who still managed to trail behind her by about five feet. Though it was at this point that Ed started to look a bit tired and slow down.
~~~
Ed is shown in the confessional, “While I won’t deny that I started to feel fatigued, a thought came to me, I’m no longer in last and, if I don’t want to look like a threat then finishing somewhere in the middle would be best. So yeah, I slowed down a bit on purpose.”
~~~
During this run Simon managed to catch up to Nicole and once he was side by side with her he enacted his plan. With all of his might he took his elbow and with swift swing bashed it against the bridge of her nose with a loud crunch. The farmer didn’t see the attack coming as she fell onto her back and let out a scream in pain.
“Mom?” Mina shouted, stopping and turning around to see her mother laying on the ground, clutching her face and Simon running away like nothing happened, but the small amount of blood on the elbow on his jacket was enough for Mina to know what he did.
“What the f*** Simon!” She screamed ready to beat the door-to-door salesman to a pulp.
“Don’t blame me, that's the game.” Simon said as he kept running.
Yong-Gi, seeing this go down, stopped for a second as well, shocked that Simon would go that far. Part of his brain was screaming at him to help Nicole up, that it was the right thing to do, but the other part reminded him of a simple fact. He was in last place. So he looked away from the downed woman, pretending that he somehow didn’t see her and started running again.
1st: Clarence
2nd: Sue
3rd: Ed
4th: Jillian
5th: Mina
6th: Simon
7th: Nicole
8th: Yong-Gi
Mina began to run back to her mom, but stopped when her mom shouted, “Just keep going!” while she started to stand back up.
“But, Mom, you’re-” Mina began to say, but was interrupted.
Nicole removed her hand from her face, showing the blood pouring down her lips and chin like a waterfall and she ordered, “I’ve had worse than this and I ain’t out yet, just go!”
Mina was hesitant to do as her mother said, but she decided to do so, and as if some higher power was punishing her for it, she immediately tripped over a root and slightly sprained her ankle. This allowed Simon to get past her without any threat of retaliation from the college student. Mina managed to push herself up, but whatever second wind she would have gotten from being motivated by avenging her mother was hindered by the pain in her ankle that she felt with each step of that foot.
Nicole wasn’t doing much better as the elbow dazed her enough that she was now going much slower than she was before, falling back to dead last.
Meanwhile in the middle, Ed’s plan on not looking super strong seemed to be working as he kept his pace, but got overtaken by Jillian. He felt good about this, especially since he was able to see the finish line in the distance.
1st: Clarence
2nd: Sue
3rd: Jillian
4th: Ed
5th: Simon
6th: Mina
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Nicole
With the finish line on the horizon, Sue broke out into a full sprint and blitzed right past Clarence, crossing it first by mere seconds.
“Sue crosses first! Congratulations. Tough luck Clarence.”
“It’s fine.” Clarence said with a deep breath before he extended a hand out to Sue, “Good job.”
Sue was a bit surprised by this, but she decided to show good sportsmanship by shaking his hand. Though she quickly let go of it as she started coughing like she was trying to hack up a lung.
“Are you okay?” Clarence asked.
“Yeah… though I think that’s as good of a sign as any that I really need to quit smoking once this game is over.” Sue explained, sounding even more out of breath than him.
“Yeah, that’d probably be for the best.”
“Alright, now let’s see where everyone else places.” Vince said.
1st: Sue (Finished)
2nd: Clarence (Finished)
3rd: Jillian
4th: Ed
5th: Simon
6th: Mina
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Nicole
While this was happening, as if it was karma for ignoring Nicole when she got hurt, Yong-Gi tripped over a rock and, much like Mina, also hurt his ankle. Though unlike her, he let out a shout of pain, which was heard by the other contestants in the challenge, but most ignored it as they kept running. It took him a few seconds, but he eventually managed to push himself up. Though there was certainly a considerable amount of pain when he stepped on that foot. To make things worse for him, he could see that Nicole was catching up to him. That was motivation enough for him to at least attempt to fight through the pain. Whether or not that was a good idea he would decide once the competition was over.
Over up front, Jillian crossed the finish line.
“And now Jillian has claimed third place. The rest of you better keep moving if you don’t want to go home.” Vince announced to the competitors he could see. Which included Simon and Mina.
Mina had finally caught up to the man who had hurt her mother and felt like now was the time to take her revenge. The second she was slightly ahead of him, she stopped and stuck her leg out, tripping the sixty year old man and causing him to faceplant into the ground before continuing to run.
~~~
A smug Mina is shown in the confessional, “That felt good. Granted he sure as hell deserves more than that, but I still need to cross that finish line. I hope it’s enough for my mother to make it instead of him.”
~~~
Simon is then shown in the confessional, “That little bitch. Oh, she will pay if it’s the last thing I ever do.”
~~~
1st: Sue (Finished)
2nd: Clarence (Finished)
3rd: Jillian (Finished)
4th: Ed
5th: Mina
6th: Simon
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Nicole
Simon got back up and as if he was seeing nothing, but red, ran right towards Mina, but she was way ahead of him.
It was during this that Ed crossed the finish line.
“And Ed takes fourth place!” Vince announced.
“Aww man… I don’t even get the bronze metal? Dang.” Ed said with faux disappointment.
“Hey, you did good, man. Like I noticed that there was a point where you were right on my tail.” Clarence said, patting Ed on the shoulder.
“Thank you.” Ed said with a smile.
1st: Sue (Finished)
2nd: Clarence (Finished)
3rd: Jillian (Finished)
4th: Ed (Finished)
5th: Mina
6th: Simon
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Nicole
Meanwhile near the back, Yong-Gi stepped on his now bad ankle at an even worse angle, causing him to once again fall to the ground in pain, though he quickly got himself back up. He was determined to stay in the game. He wanted that million.
It was now that Mina crossed the finish line, letting out a few tired huffs now that she was finished with the race.
Clarence walked up to her and said, “Congrats Mina, but I do have a question. Why did you trip that Simon guy? It’s not like it was down to the two of you.”
“He elbowed my mom in the face.” She said through gritted teeth, “Last I saw her, her nose was bleeding like crazy. I think it might be broken.” This was a shock to everyone who was ahead of all this as it happened. Mina continued to explain himself, “So I was trying to have him lose in this challenge and be automatically eliminated.”
Vince overhearing this didn’t say anything, but it was clear on his face that this news didn’t sit right with him.
~~~
Clarence is shown in the confessional, “Look I get wanting to win, but Simon went too far. I’ve taken plenty of Elbows in my time and, yeah if it hits the wrong spot, that s*** hurts.”
~~~
1st: Sue (Finished)
2nd: Clarence (Finished)
3rd: Jillian (Finished)
4th: Ed (Finished)
5th: Mina (Finished)
6th: Simon
7th: Yong-Gi
8th: Nicole
The three remaining contestants continued to make their way to the finish line where, much to the dismay of everyone who now knew what he did, Simon crossed the line coming in sixth place in the challenge.
“Ha! I made it.” He said breathing hard like he was a few seconds away.
“Don’t act so smug to piece of s***!” Mina shouted getting into his face, “You think you can just assault my mother and get away with it? You should be disqualified on the spot!”
“I was just ensuring safety for me and my teammate. Don’t blame me for playing the game.” Simon said with a smirk.
“I don’t think the second half of your plan worked.” Jillian said, pointing off in the distance where they could see that Nicole was ahead of a limping Yong-Gi by quite a few yards and that pace was staying pretty consistent.
Simon, seeing this, shouted out to the young fighting game player, “Come on Yong-Gi! You are the last two to cross! Don’t let that floozy beat you! Fight through the pain!”
“A floozy?” Mina shouted, wanting to punch Simon in the face.
“Look, I’ve seen a video of that woman getting railed by three college aged guys while dressed as a nurse. I think I used the nicest word I possibly could.”
Simon’s words did seem to encourage Yong-Gi as, despite the pain, he began to run as fast as he could with that ankle. For most of the remainder of the race he was still lagging behind her a little bit, but with each second the gap shortened more and more until the two of them were neck and neck. Nicole with her bloodsoaked mouth and chin, and Yong-Gi with his right ankle turning a shade of purple that did not look good.
The pair were a few feet away from the finish line when Yong-Gi’s ankle twisted at a weird angle and he fell forward, falling right on top of the line a few seconds before Nicole crossed it herself.
1st: Sue (Finished)
2nd: Clarence (Finished)
3rd: Jillian (Finished)
4th: Ed (Finished)
5th: Mina (Finished)
6th: Simon (Finished)
7th: Yong-Gi (Finished)
8th: Nicole (Finished)
Vince, seeing this, began to say, “Yong-Gi comes in seventh… meaning sorry Nicole, you’ve been elim-” but he was interrupted by Yong-Gi screaming his head off.
“AHHHHHH! MOTHERF*****! MY ANKLE! MY F****** ANKLE!” Yong-Gi shouted as he rolled onto his back, lifted up his right leg and while it was censored on the television it was still clear that his foot was pointing at an angle that it shouldn’t naturally.
“Oh god I think that’s bone.” Mina said, trying not to throw up.
Most of the cast also looked disgusted, though there was a bit of a delay with Ed.
~~~
Ed is shown in the confessional. “I’ve seen crime scenes with some horrible s***. Like one in particular that I don’t think I can even discribe on television still haunts me. Let me just say that one in particular was so bad that I think Art The Clown from the Terrifier movies would lose his lunch. So seeing a broken ankle isn’t really going to bug me, but I need to act like it does.”
~~~
“S***.” Vince said, running up to Yong-Gi and kneeling down. “Somebody get the medic!” he shouted to the crew off screen. He looked over at the bleeding Nicole and said, “We need them for multiple people!”
~~~
The show cuts to about an hour later where Vince, clearly both worried and annoyed walks up to the six uninjured competitors. “Everyone, I have unfortunate news. First off, due to losing the challenge, Nicole is being eliminated tonight.”
“But, Yong-Gi’s hurt, shouldn't he be going instead?” Mina asked in disbelief.
“I was getting to that. You see I was planning on revealing that despite the challenge being an automatic elimination, there was still a vote-off planned tonight. This episode was a double elimination the whole time, but since Yong-Gi’s ankle is broken, he’s no longer able to compete. Meaning that there’s no point in holding a ceremony. The season is planned to be thirteen episodes, so unless we change our plans on what challenges are coming… yeah… we’re not doing a triple elimination. I’m sure a certain one of you is relieved by that.” Vince glared directly at Simon as he said that last bit, “Which reminds me. Simon… the producers and I talked and… while I was arguing that you should be kicked off right now for the s*** you pulled. They think you’re good for TV. Something about needing an antagonist of some bulls*** like that. So you won’t be disqualified.”
Simon smugly smirked and was about to say something, but Vince held up a finger to show he was not done.
“That being said, I was able to talk them into agreeing with a punishment. Congratulations Simon, for purposely injuring another contestant, you have forfeited your right to vote.”
“What?” Simon asked partly in shock, but also because he wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that he heard the host right.
“You are not allowed to vote in every elimination going forward for the rest of the season. I mean unless you win the challenge at the final three, but…” Vince laughed at this, “Judging by how everybody else is glaring at you, you’re going to need to win every challenge going forward in order to have any chance of making it that far.”
Simon just grumbled at this as he looked at his fellow contestants in the final six and it was clear that not a single one of them were happy that he was still here.
“With that out of the way.” Vince said, throwing maps at Jillian and Sue. Here are maps lending to your new merge campsite. Collect your things from your original ones including whatever rewards your teams got during the team phase and meet up there. Also for the former members of Team Fire, since there’s only two of you left, I’ll send an intern to help you guys out.”
“Oh yeah, do I get a reward for winning the race?” Sue asked.
“Nope. No rewards in the merge. Just immunity. Which… since we had no vote tonight… I think I’ll allow you to carry over your immunity over to the next elimination. Though don’t see that as an excuse to not try in the next challenge. If you win that one as well, I will allow you to give your extra immunity to another contestant. Who knows, might be a good way to either make allies or keep any ones you have safe.” Vince said that last part with a bit of a smirk.
~~~
Sue is shown in the confessional, “So I’m now guaranteed to be in the final five? Hell yeah! Though that being said, it kinda sucks that Yong-Gi guy had to get hurt in order for things to turn out this way. I mean yeah, I know last challenge I said he was on my s*** list for his comments about Lissa being voted out, but… look I was still sad about her being eliminated and even if we got a chance to talk to see if he would apologize or double down, he didn’t deserve a broken ankle. Though Vince is right about one thing. Sure I’m safe for now and that Simon guy is public enemy number one, but after he’s gone, what allies do I have? I need to start making nice with those who remain and I think I know one that I can work my magic on.”
~~~
The show cuts to the remaining members of both teams arriving at the new camp that was placed at a midpoint between the two original camps, around the area that the second challenge took place in. A montage is shown of almost everyone helping to set everything up. The only person not helping was unsurprisingly Simon who in the montage is shown to be angrily dismissed by Mina. Causing Simon to storm off for a bit.
Once the camp is fully set up Simon tries to rejoin everyone, but once again is stopped by Mina.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Mina asked.
“I’m going to sit down by the campfire. Why? You have a problem with that, college girl?” Simon asked.
“You’re not welcome at our camp.” Mina said with her arms crossed. “You can get your s*** and get out.”
“Who died and made you queen? What gives you the right to-”
“Simon, just go. After everything you’ve done, especially after today, you’re lucky that one of us isn’t throwing your suitcase in the lake.” Jillian said bitterly as she glared at Simon.
“Now that you say that, that’s pretty tempting.” Clarence said, grabbing Simon’s suitcase, but instead he threw it to the door-to-door salesman, who stumbled back a bit as he caught it.
“Really? The three of you are going to do this mean girls bulls*** on me?” Simon asked, looking past them to Sue and Ed, hoping that maybe one of them would give him the benefit of the doubt, but Sue just looked at him disgusted and Ed wasn’t really paying attention as he was taking full advantage of the fact that he now had access to the coffee maker. Simon let out an annoyed sigh and said, “You know what? Fine. F*** all of you!” before walking off into the woods with his suitcase.
~~~
Simon appears in the booth, absolutely pissed off, “These motherf****** think they can just cast me out like some sort of lepper? I mean, yes, I’ll admit that what I did was maybe a bit much, but come the f*** on! There’s a million dollars on the line! If you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty in a game like this then you don’t deserve to win!”
~~~
The show quickly shows Ed chugging down a mug of black coffee, not even caring about the lack of cream or sugar, before he lets out a satisfied breath and mutters, “God, I needed that.” to himself.
The camera pans over to Jillian poking at the fire with a stick as Sue cooks some fish that she managed to catch in the short time they’ve been here.
Sue, wanting to act on her plan, looks over to the sad looking Jillian and says, “So I’m just curious. What was the deal with you and the Lucas guy?”
“Oh?” Jillian responded with, her face turning a bit flush, “Umm… I guess you can say that we were a bit sweet on each other. We’re planning to meet back up at some point after this show is over and see where things go from there.”
“I see, so you two are in a similar boat to me and Lissa.”
“The complaining rich girl?” Jillian asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, I mean she adjusted a bit to the camp life while she was here and, while we have different viewpoints on food and whatnot, I did find her very cute and we kinda just stumbled into agreeing to a date once this is all over.” Sue sighs and says, “I do wish she was still here just so I could have gotten an even better chance of knowing her, but it is what it is.”
“Yeah, I can say the same about Lucas.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you see in him? I don’t mean that rudely, I’m just genuinely curious because well… even though I’ve never been into men, that scar would be a dealbreaker for me.”
Jillian was a little bit annoyed by this, but in a lovestruck tone she responded with, “He… just seems so sweet. He’s kind, funny, insightful and he’s carrying so much pain… That scar is proof of that. And much like that scar, I don’t think that pain will ever go away for him.”
“How’d he get it? I remember Ed asked him about that in the truth challenge and that got him out, but judging by your tone, it sounds like he told you.”
“That isn’t my story to tell.”
“I see… sorry.”
“It’s fine, I’m sure everyone else here is curious… though talking about him is making me miss him, and he’s only been gone for three days.”
“Yeah, I feel the same when it comes to Lissa, and it’s only been six days since she got voted out. I guess the two of us are just the broken hearts club, eh?”
“Like that movie about the gay softball coach or whatever it was about? I don’t know, I’ve never seen it.” Jillian said with a raised eyebrow.
“I didn't know there was a movie called that. I was just making a joke.” Sue shrugged before the women shared a small laugh.
~~~
Jillian is once again thrown into the confessional where she says, “Sue seems like a nice young woman. Though, to be fair, all the remaining members of Team Water seem to be nice. Going off of first impressions at least. I can say for certain that I feel like things are going to be relatively enjoyable in a few days. We just need to crush one roach.”
~~~
The show cuts to the next day outside of the closest hospital where Nicole, now with a nose guard, is shown being picked up by one of the show’s cars in order to be taken to the hotel with the other eliminated contestants.
Once in the car she speaks, “I’m certainly disappointed that this is how I went out and that I didn’t get much of a chance to spend time with my daughter now that we were no longer on different teams. Though I’m of course more pissed off than anything since I’m out and the man that broke my f****** nose isn’t.” Nicole sighs and mutters, “Creo que necesito un trago.” before switching back to english and saying, “Well… all I gotta say is that I’m of course going to be rooting for Mina going forward. Sure, Jillian’s my friend, but what kind of mother would I be if I rooted for anyone other than my daughter.” She laughed a little and with some pride in her voice said, “Mina is a smart and strong young woman. Certainly smarter than I ever was and stronger than she thinks she is. I think she has what it takes to win this game and that’s even without my personal motherly bias.”
~~~
Mina is shown in the confessional, “Mom… if you're seeing this… I love you and… I am so so sorry that I can’t get rid of that piece of s*** Simon just yet. Though once he’s no longer safe, I promise you that he’s gone. No way in hell is he getting that money. After what he pulled… I take back what I said about Lissa before she started to mellow out, Simon is now the least deserving person to be here.”
~~~
The show cuts to now Jillian in the booth. “First I lost Lucas and now Nicole is gone as well. I lost the two people I really connected with on this show back to back and to make things worse the same man is responsible for both eliminations. I know Lucas told me to focus on myself and not on revenge, but after Simon hurt Nicole… I don’t think I can keep that promise. Simon is going down one way or another.”
~~~
The show then cuts to the same hospital, though much later now as Yong-Gi is released, now having a cast around his foot and needing crutches to walk. A car for the show comes to pick him up and the driver steps out to assist him inside. Once sat down and the car starts being driven away, Yong-Gi gives his final thoughts. “I am certainly disappointed in myself. Not for losing, but for stupidly pushing my body too hard and getting myself injured in the process. I mean look at me.” He motions to his chubby frame, “I was at a disadvantage when that challenge started. I should have just quit after I twisted my ankle the first time. Yeah I would have still been out, but at least I wouldn’t have needed surgery to get said ankle back into place. As for Simon… part of me wants to root for him since he was my ally and he’s the last remaining member of the guys alliance in the game… I don’t think he’s going to make it. You don’t make too many friends by elbowing a milf in the face and he wasn’t the best at challenges in the team phase. The smart money is on the physically stronger people like Jillian, Clarence or Sue.” He sighs and says, “Well… I guess now I can hang out with Ben and… now that we aren’t competing for a million dollars, maybe I can clear the air with Lucas… and Nicole… especially that last one… I need to tell her that even if I did try to stay in the race, I do not approve of what Simon did.”
~~~
Simon is shown in the confessional, thinking for a bit before saying, “It is unfortunate that my only remaining ally is gone, but… now knowing that there was going to be a vote anyways… I can’t be too sad about it. Sorry Yong-Gi, but if you didn’t get hurt… I would have been voted out for sure. So you getting hurt saved me and… aww who am I kidding… you getting hurt only delayed the inevitable… just like playing the coin on Lucas… While I’m not going to give up… I am going to try my damnedest to win every challenge from here on out. If I don’t then I’ll admit it… I’m f***** if I can’t convince some of the others to go after the bigger challenge threats. Which… I should be able to do, right? I mean I’m a salesman… it’s my job to convince people into agreeing to things. Staying in should be doable… right?”
~~~
Vince is shown by himself in front of the area where eliminated contestants normally get picked up. He clears his throat and says, “So after a grueling challenge that ended with some… less than favorable results, we are now down to six with the tensions higher than ever. Will they reach the boiling point? What will happen when they do? Find out next time on Endurance Forest!”
