Here’s a hot take for you: If you’re going to partner with a legendary name like Survivor, perhaps you shouldn’t squeeze what could be an epic crossover event into just half an episode. Didn’t the sudden appearance of MrBeast and 10 contestants from Beast Games Season 2 on Jeff Probst’s iconic island feel a bit underwhelming?

While we might not have insider knowledge on orchestrating a reality TV season, decades of watching them equips us with some insight. The Survivor crossover came at a pivotal point in Beast Season 2, yet it seemed too brief. It was a golden opportunity to delve deeper, especially with Probst, the quintessential reality TV host, right at their fingertips. There was a humorous moment when Ian, who ultimately won the private island prize, openly challenged Jeff during the initial beach game. Meanwhile, Sue, a former Survivor player, found herself among contestants like Ian, who had long aspired to be on the show. However, the moment was short-lived. The Beast contestants, clad in their blue jerseys, wandered Fiji’s Survivor landscape like out-of-place tourists, reminiscent of Fallout Season 2’s Norm and his vault escapees in Vegas. Given the visibility of this crossover, Beast Games had a chance to dig deeper into the Survivor experience.

With this context, one might have speculated that Jeff Probst would make a surprise appearance in Beast City during Season 2, Episode 5 of Beast Games (“Ask For Anything You Want”). However, the only remnants of the island trip were the heightened tensions among the 20 players left in the game.

LIFE DURING CUBE-TIME  

“What went down on the island? Any juicy details?” In Beast City, the buzz is about Nina Warrior Ian clinching the private island vote. Beast recalls past games, with players dubbing Ian a “puppetmaster,” and Monika branding him a villain. It’s intriguing, this Ian-centric chatter, especially considering JC, who once pocketed $650,000 for himself, wasn’t exactly adored. Clearly, there’s more to the dynamics in Beast City than meets the viewer’s eye. Meanwhile, the next challenge awaits. A wall collapses to reveal 10 enormous red cubes, familiar to Beast Season 1 fans. The 20 remaining contestants form teams of three, except for one duo, and enter the cubes, where they’ll remain until one member handcuffs themselves to a wall in defeat.

To stir the pot further, MrBeast tempts JC with a wheelbarrow full of cash: will he sell the gold coin he snagged at tribal council, which could potentially double the grand prize to a whopping ten million? JC declines, teams up with Beast City couple Jim and Monika, and the cube saga begins in earnest.

Cory, JT, and Brett (#195) bro it out in theirs. They use the provided red phone to call in food orders, ask for musical instruments, even get haircuts. For some reason Druski, along with MrBeast and his black-hoodied henchmen, is manning the phone bank for requests; this isn’t really explained, and we don’t see much more of him as a special guest. Sue is the star of her cube with Jack (#58) and Tyler (#167), because they’re big Survivor heads and she’s the former finalist. Jeff, the Season 1 winner, delivers a lecture to Hannah and Kady about playing Beast Games hard but fair. And Catey (#157) squares off with Ethan, who won 50K during Get a Grip last episode, in their two-person cube.   

Cube time keeps on ticking into the future. MrBeast: “I don’t care if this challenge takes all night – you will all live in these cubes until one of you is chained to the wall.” 

“DUDE YOU’RE GOATED”

The cubes prove a few things about these players. While it makes sense that guys like Jeff, JT the Captain Bribe millionaire, and even Ian ultimately agree to self-eliminate – they all say a version of “I got mine already” as they get red X’d – what is left behind could signal trouble to come in Beast City. In his voiceover, while running back footage, MrBeast highlights how Jack pulled a fast one on Sue in their cube, switching out the playing cards they were using to choose a cuff-ee. Sue is giving props to Jack and Tyler for being honest guys while they’re making statements to MrBeast like “I hope we can still be friends after this.” While Sue was X’d from the cubes, everyone who remains saw what they did to her.

Remember Vance, #175 and the other Ninja Warrior guy? Evidently he was also not making any friends in Beast City. With so many players to keep track of, we didn’t catch a lot of this flak, but when Nick (#118) and Auguste (#172) concoct a voting scheme to catch Vance as the cuff man out, it totally works. The likeability poll they conducted with other cube residents comes back, and Vance is trounced. Outside the cube, after the ruse, Nate praises Auguste for the plan. “Dude, you’re goated.” But will he still be goated when this cutthroat style resurfaces later? 

And Ethan, in the two-person cube with Catey, keeps up his static with Ian until the bitter end. When MrBeast settles who will cuff by pulling their names out of a box – it’s Ethan – he says “I wasn’t about to pull an Ian on you” and willingly cuffs up so Catey will survive. Her victorious emergence from the cube comes complete with a Mary Katherine Gallagher-style Superstar! pratfall, but she is unbowed.  

Every cube but one has cuffed a departing player. As the remaining contestants gather in the safe zone, they wonder: what’s going on in the last cube between JC, Monika, and Jim? Since their Beast City love affair began, Jim has blabbed to anyone who would listen that Monika is his “sugar-mama,” and that he would self-eliminate to save his girlfriend. But what goes down in their cube is not quite that. JC and Jim both agree to “fast pass” Monika, and begin a game of 52 Pick-Up. And while Jim is behind badly at first, he ultimately passes JC on points, making the Beast City cuffed safe from this cube cuffing. Is JC knocked out of Beast Games, and with him his “leverage” over that ten-million-dollar, potentially game-changing coin?

Or is it twisting time again? Inside the cube, JC says he’s willing to give his gold coin and its inherent leverage to Monika, but only if Jim self-eliminates. “This gives her a lot of power,” JC says. “It will help push her through to the Top 6.” And MrBeast lets the offer hang in the air as the episode ends.  

11 safe players remain, with the fate of three more cuffed to a twist.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.