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That supposed to be Big Tom-Ethan-Lex if it wasn't for stupid trivia challenge mistake.

beatles, please don't be one of those people who ranks Borneo at #1 just because it's Borneo, because that challenge was so much easier than the other three, and Marquesas' was way more epic in the way it turned out.

If Brett had been more OTTP throughout the season, I think that would have been a great final challenge.

The Samoa F4 challenge should be deducted a few points simply for the fact it gave Russell a chance to rewrite history and claim that he "only won challenges when he had to", instead of being repeatedly thwarted despite wanting to win everything.

8. Fiji
Winner: Dre "Dreamz" Herd

Fiji wasn't exactly the most compelling season but there actually was something with this final challenge that made it pretty vital: namely, the Yau-man/Dreamz deal. It truly raised the stakes and heightened an already pretty cool challenge because Dreamz was so determined to win it and keep his end of the bargain. The situation also opens the door for one last assault on the final three, and you'd better believe I'm going to take it. Let's not kid ourselves; it wasn't as though Dreamz definitely would have stayed true if this was a final two situation. But he did make it clear that the final three forced him to strongly reconsider his promise. Yau-man would have easily been one of the most popular winners ever, but the final three--something designed to produce "better" winners--directly resulted in his fourth place finish. In the previous episode, Yau-man won a car at the reward challenge and offered to give it to Dreamz in exchange for immunity should he win it at the final four. Jeff reminded Yau-man that this could not be enforced; the agreement was only as good as Dreamz's word. Yau-man immediately responded, "Well, fuck that! Has that guy ever kept his word in this game? I take it back, Howie Mandel, no deal!" If only it were so. No, Yau-man agreed and ended up having to play his idol the next Tribal Council to thwart Dreamz's underhanded attempt to evade the deal by eliminating Yau-man before the final four. That should have been the first sign that Yau-man had made a mistake in giving Dreamz the truck. Well, the first sign should have been that it was Dreamz. Make this deal with Boo; he'd probably live up to it. Dreamz wasn't exactly a go-to guy for trustworthiness.

Anyway, when the final four came on in, guys per Jeff Probst's command, Yau-man surrendered the immunity necklace with Dreamz promising, "You'll get it back." The challenge itself was a little weighted towards men, since a large part of it was upper body strength. But unlike Vanuatu, the only thing you were carrying was your own weight, so a woman like, say, Courtney Yates wouldn't be totally up the creek. Of course, the only woman here is Cassandra, of whom it's safe to say is not built like Courtney. The players lied on a plank, holding their arms above and clutching a handle. To make it more difficult, a steady stream of water would run down. This was a sort of unnecessary element but it did make a cool visual at least. Every five minutes, the planks would be turned to an increasingly more vertical angle. Once the challenge is explained, Dreamz finds out that this is it: whoever wins immunity will face the jury and have a shot at winning the million dollars.

As usual, everybody does fine at the initial angle. But the next ten minutes see signs of struggle from Earl, Cassandra and Yau-man. After 15 minutes, Jeff straightens the planks and Cassandra immediately falls off, either unable to handle the pain or distracted by an apparent orgasm. Even after Earl is eliminated, Dreamz and Yau-man continue to duke it out even though Yau-man should be immune no matter what. But soon he can no longer take it and Yau-man drops out. Afterwards, he and Dreamz share an assured high five. In a funny moment that seems to go unnoticed, Dreamz gives Earl, who had been complaining that his wrists were hurting, a high five as well. Earl responds with the most anguished high five reaction in the history of the human race.

Back at camp, Yau-man seems to think that Dreamz will come through, but is showing some doubt now that it's evident that Dreamz would be giving up a guaranteed spot at the final Tribal Council. What's really telling is that everybody is working on the assumption that Dreamz could go either way, including Dreamz himself. We all know what happened next: Dreamz shocked everyone by living up to his word, was voted out 3-1 and Yau-man won Fiji in a unanimous vote. Ha! In your dreamz.

7. Guatemala
Winner: Danni Boatwright

Here's another example of a not-exactly-fair challenge that manages to make for exceptional watching thanks to the players. The unfortunate thing is that it really did not need to give anyone an advantage, but the rules inexplicably allowed something that caused it to not even be that much of a test of endurance for one contestant. The players stood on a shaky platform, and for the first hour they got to hold onto two ropes to help them keep balance. Once that time passed, they'd have to let go of one rope. After another half-hour, they'd let go of the other and have no choice but to go it alone. At least, that's what they made it sound like.

The problem here is that, because of these unnecessary time restrictions and the wobbliness of the platform, they knew that the players would have a tough time making the transition after losing a rope. So they had to institute a rule that you weren't out until your feet touched the ground. And when I say that, I mean your feet could be totally off the platform and you would still be in the challenge. It happened with all three players once they dropped the first rope. The solution? To lean against a post. To me, this completely defeated the purpose of the first hour. It didn't even make the challenge more difficult; it turned it into an entirely new challenge. Indeed, when it came time to ditch the second rope, nobody even flinched; they were all already in a successful position. The challenge was perfectly fine as it was in the beginning. It wasn't like people found a position and remained steady and motionless; the platform wasn't designed for that. I would have liked to see them stick with that, having the players hold onto ropes rather than lean against anything. But then again, this challenge would have been significantly less dramatic in that case.

She's one of the most polarizing figures in all of Survivor-dom, but if it weren't for Stephenie LaGrossa, this challenge could have very easily been in the bottom four or five. Because it's what happens after the leaning begins and Rafe is out that truly makes this legendary. See, Danni is considerably taller than Steph and as such is having a comparatively easy time doing this challenge. And when I say that, I mean she is literally filing her nails and using her fingers as an abacus to determine how much of the million dollars she's bound to win will go the government. I'm not saying that it's especially comfortable for her, but there isn't an iota of difficulty with Danni. On the other hand, a series of dissolves show just how far Stephenie has slid down the post in the half-hour after dropping the second rope. At two hours and 38 minutes in, Jeff asks the girls for an update. "I feel the same," Danni shrugs. "I can't move," Steph solemnly admits. She holds back tears and tries to readjust herself, her hat falling off from between her neck and the post. She continues to seethe in pain as Danni pulls a copy of Us Weekly out of her shorts and begins reading it. At least, she might as well have. It would have given her something to do as she waited for Steph to fall.

Steph constantly tries to pull herself up and gives it everything she has--even her haters have to give her props; she managed to defy the laws of mathematics and somehow give more than 100%. But 107% is not enough when Danni is approximately 18 feet tall, and Stephenie plunges to the ground. When Jeff declares Danni the winner, Steph takes it hard and begins sobbing due to a combination of remorse over the loss and a bruised ass from the way she fell. Danni walks over to congratulate Steph on an amazing performance and Rafe, realizing that he has done nothing to make this challenge exceptional up to this point, decides to tell Danni that she needn't honor their final two deal. His permission was unnecessary, as Danni later admitted she would've have taken Steph to the end either way. Even so, it was the perfect way to end an epic battle.

6. Amazon
Winner: Jenna Morasca

I'm probably the only non-Morasca diehard who would rank this so high. But although I'm hardly a fan of her or her victory in Amazon, her winning this challenge is ultimately irrelevant to why it comes in at #6, although for reasons of poetic justice, better her than Rob. No, it's the first 30 seconds alone that do it…although in fairness, we have to back up a little bit to explain why.

"Matt, I really think you have this one in the bag."
"Not necessarily. What do you think?"
"I think you're 100% right. If I were in your situation, I'd be thinking the same way. You are figuring this game out!"
"Hey, I'm learning, man."

This conversation took place between Rob Cesternino and Matthew von Ertfelda before the reward challenge in the ninth episode of Survivor: The Amazon, a time when Rob thought he was God's gift to Survivor and Matthew was his eager puppet. Little did Rob know that his encouragement and manipulation of Matt was slowly but surely turning the latter into one of the game's most viable forces. And certainly, Rob never would have expected his advice that Matt should consider throwing challenges would come back to haunt him so perfectly at the final challenge. He'd probably be even more surprised that Matt would pick up on the turning tides and initiate a final two deal with Jenna the day before.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me cover some of the other things I love about this challenge. I love that it takes place at Tribal Council in front of the jury, the only time I can recall this happening outside of tiebreakers, Fallen Comrades and the Pearl Islands final four. I love that if a person totally lost balance, they could have easily fallen into the fire and the show would have a ton of damage control to do. I love how hot Jenna looks here, and I ain't just talking about the heat from the fire, hey-o! But mostly, I love that it's a totally fair challenge. Over the years, this has been cited as biased towards Jenna, but I don't see it. Yes, balance is key here. But the rules make it clear that upper body strength is just as important, because you only had a rigid range in which to hold your headdress. Not to mention…has anyone noticed that Jenna actually seems to have the most difficulty here? In my view, it wasn't until Vanuatu that we started seeing challenges that gave one or more players an inherent advantage or disadvantage.

So everybody steps up and gets as adjusted as possible. Nothing seems to be happening at first, but after 30 seconds, Matt shifts to his right and takes the fall. Even the jury seems perplexed by this development, since it came out of nowhere. But in fact, it had been planned before Matt even walked into the challenge. And it opens the door for an amazing exchange between a desperate Rob and a confident Jenna, emphasis mine.

"Jenna, you wanna make a deal?"
[Laughs]
"Jenna, step down, I'll take you."
[Sarcastic 'syeah right' sound] "No, no, let's just fight it out. I think we should just fight it out and pick whoever we wanted to pick."

Matt's grin as she says this last part is the icing on the delicious cake that is the ultimate example of the apprentice outsmarting his teacher. This may have been my favorite Jenna moment in Amazon in which she was fully clothed. Matt may not have won the game, but in the end, he outsmarted Rob, and you can't ask for a much better comeback edit save for Kathy in Marquesas.

5. Marquesas
Winner: Neleh Dennis

I think everybody knows why this challenge is up here and above the Africa and All-Stars editions so there's no need to beat around the bush. I'm still going to though. Would you expect anything less?

At the final five, Kathy was truly caught in the middle. There were two clear pairs in Paschal/Neleh and Sean/Vee (though the latter maintained that it was Pappy and Sweet Pea's tightness that forced them to come together) and Kathy won immunity. It led to the single most amazing Tribal Council in the history of the show and is possibly the greatest moment ever that you never see mentioned. Do yourself a favor and watch that Tribal Council (it starts about 10 minutes in). It's astonishing. This list will still be here when you get back.

Kathy ultimately decided to vote out Sean, a move Kathy seriously questioned after returning to camp and I highly criticized in my Tribal Council moments ranking from way back when. This left a final four of Kathy, Neleh, Paschal and Vecepia. When Vecepia won immunity, it put Kathy in a greater bind because it meant that two votes would automatically be going her way. Her only hope was with the woman whose ally Kathy had helped to vote out the night before. The always-inventive Kathy proposed an offer to Vee (once again, emphasis mine): "If you keep your immunity and we form a vote alliance today and tomorrow, you'll definitely get to the final two." Vee accepted and the pair publicly decided their votes would go towards Neleh. The votes were a moot point that night because the purple rock decided that Paschal would go.

Going into the last challenge, it seems like it's do-or-die for Neleh. She says as much during the challenge so Jeff asks Vecepia what happens if Neleh drops out--would she and Kathy simply end the challenge because their deal is already enough to bring them to the finals together? Vee confirms that, while Neleh also hints that, if she wins, she already knows who she'll bring to the end, and it isn't Kathy, fueling Kathy's fire to win. The women battle it out against a stunning backdrop, with everybody holding tight for well over four hours. Neleh oh-so-helpfully warns Kathy to watch her blouse, because her cleavage level is hovering too close to the sinful range. Kathy smiles and adjusts, but in the process loses her balance and is eliminated from the challenge. Sneaky maneuver, Miss Dennis! Kathy stumbles as Jeff sternly reminds her not to walk near Neleh, and then sits in shame at her loss…all within earshot of the two competitors, natch.

Immediately after this, Vee drops the bomb: "Neleh, I'll give you immunity; I'll drop off if you take me to the end with you." Kathy looks up in confused anguish. Neleh and Vee both affirm that they could go on all night. "We might as well; I mean…Kathy already…went out." Kathy can't believe she's hearing this, and so soon after she got out, but the biggest power player in Marquesas is completely helpless to stop it. Vee steps down, allowing Neleh to wear the immunity necklace for the first time.

Initially I was going to write that the idea of making a deal at the final challenge itself wasn't exactly earth-shattering, but you know what? It kind of was. Richard stepped down in Borneo out of arrogant confidence that his two competitors would both take him to the final two. He had faith in himself, not Kelly or Rudy. If his plan backfired for some reason, he would only have himself to blame. Vecepia's offer involved blatantly putting trust in someone to keep her word. Granted, that person was Neleh, but just go back to the #8 entry if you want an example of how easily a player can get duped by this sort of deal. That said, it's not just the fact that Vee made an offer that puts this in the top five. Yes, it paved the way for future players to return to the idea in a good number of the final challenges that followed. But that's not it. This was undoubtedly the coldest strategic maneuver we'd ever seen on the show up to that point. The Vecepia/Neleh final Tribal Council may not have been terribly exciting outside of Tammy's speech, but Marquesas is seriously one of the most action-packed finale episodes ever and this unprecedented act of betrayal is a big reason why.