Survival of the Richest, Finale: The Richest Survivor

Welcome to the final episode of Survival of the Richest. The show starts off with a recap of the events so far this season. You can read my recap of last week’s article here.

As a reminder the poor kids are Esmerelda (eliminated), Tracy (eliminated), Jim, Jacob (eliminated), Michael (eliminated), Johanna, and Marcus (eliminated). The rich kids are Kat (eliminated), Elizabeth (eliminated), T.R., Liz (eliminated), Nick (eliminated), Sammy (eliminated), and Hunter.

This episode starts with the two remaining teams, Hunter & Johanna and T.R. & Jim discussing the elimination of Sammy and Jacob in the last episode. They are sorry the other team lost, but they are happy that they won.

When they get back to the mansion, they find a note saying that they have to wake up at 5:00 the next morning. It is 11:00 now and they are exhausted from being in boot camp all day. They trudge up the stairs for six hours of sleep.

At 5:15 in the morning, they get up, get dressed in painter’s outfits and hop in the van. They soon arrive at home. It’s A Place Called Home. This is a recreation center in south central Los Angeles. The players have to walk through metal detectors to get in and they are met by a bad ‘70s motif, complete with 30-year old arcade games and water-stained pool tables.

Hal meets them and explains the challenge. They will be designing and building a new recreation room. The staff will be monitoring their performance and they will have to be done by 3:00 in the afternoon when the kids arrive.

So, they break out the paint and brushes and begin painting. Hunter says that the only painting he has done has been abstract expressionism. And soon, it becomes obvious that he is telling the truth. When he uses a paint roller, he tends to draw slash marks on the wall instead of nice and smooth strokes. But, he does well enough.

T.R. shows his butt crack and everyone runs screaming out of the room. Outside, they find themselves face with pre-fab furniture that they need to unpack and assemble. Johanna and Hunter are fairly hopeless at assembling the furniture. Jim and T.R. are doing pretty well and are confident that they will win.

Hunter, though, tells us that he quickly forgot that this was a challenge and became focused on doing things right and helping the kids get a better recreation center. Soon, they have abandoned their teams and all four of them are working as one large team, doing whatever is needed and helping anyone that needs the help.

At 3:00, the kids finally show up. The kids pitch in and help put the finishing touches on the project. Hunter, being a great big kid himself, interacts perfectly with the kids and involves them in paint fights and other activities that have the kids squealing with delight.

After a while, the kids are led into the newly renovated family room and they are more than happy. They jump up and down with excitement and rush off to play with the new equipment. The players are quite excited to see how well that their work has been received.

The staff members come out and congratulate the players. Hal joins them and then doesn’t declare that either team actually won the competition. He does tell them that the winner of the game will be determined later in the day. He invites them to go back home, clean up, and get ready for the final challenge.

Back at the house, the players muse over what they’ve been through so far. T.R. says that he feels like he’s had a lifetime of living in these last few weeks. He has grown more than any other player in the game. The only thing that Hunter admits to learning is that people whose opinion he doesn’t respect can be good people anyway. Take Johanna, for example, he says, she is a great mother to her child.

Jim tells us that he really wants to win the game, not just for himself, but also for Marcus and Jacob. Recall that he made a deal with them that the winner would give the other two $5,000 each and then they’d all be winners. Jim really doesn’t want Johanna to win because she refused to go in on the deal, and thinks that she’d selfishly keep all the money. I think she’d do that too.

In fact, she talks to the camera for a few minutes and she go on and on about how much the money will change her life and make a great life for her daughter and blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, she has learned absolutely nothing from this whole game. She has watched rich kids live completely empty lives because they have too much money. The only thing she has learned is that she needs to sell out to get more money.

But, let’s fast forward to the final ceremony. Hal greets the two teams and springs a surprise on them. The last challenge will not determine who wins, but rather, in true reality show style, the eliminated players are invited back to determine the fate of the final two teams. Hunter looks crestfallen, since he had a direct hand in eliminating almost every person now standing in front of him.

But, the two teams will have a few minutes to present their case to the “jury” and explain why they should win the money. Hunter begins.

He explains that, if he wins, he will use the money to gain some financial independence from his parents. He doesn’t think he can change the world with the money, but he will do what he can. He can’t really make any promises.

Of course, it is fairly irrelevant what the rich kids say, the winner will be determined by which poor kid needs it the most.

Johanna is next and she says that everyone already knows what she’ll do with money. She does explain that she was stuck with Hunter and that she feels that has grown a little by coming to accept him.

Jim is next up. He says that he is glad that he met everyone. He thinks that he and T.R. have matured a lot and grown in the way they treat other people.

Last is T.R. He says that he has wasted his days. He feels like his Scrooge, from A Christmas Carol, in that he has been shown the error of his wicked ways. He pledges to go forth and be a better person and do things like be a Santa at the local mall. He says that he feels like he has been a loser all his life and wants to change that.

The players return and the jury is polled with a voice vote. Emerelda is first and votes for Johanna, noting that she is NOT voting for Hunter. Nick says that he thinks T.R. and Jim grew the most and votes for them. Michael says that T.R. and Jim make the effort to get to know him, so they get his vote.

I note that they skipped over Kat’s vote. Sammy then votes for Johanna because she has a daughter to support. Marcus votes for Jim because they speak from the heart, although, of course, he makes $5,000 if Jim wins. Tracy votes for T.R. and Jim because she feels that T.R. has grown the most.

Liz holds a grudge against Hunter and votes for Jim and T.R. Jacob is up next and he votes for his buddy Jim and, of course, he makes $5,000 if Jim wins.

With that, the vote is 6 to 2 and Jim and T.R. win. We never get to hear the votes from Elizabeth or Kat. I somehow suspect that the producers polled the jury ahead of time and knew which people to call on to get the most dramatic vote.

All the players gather around T.R. and Jim and congratulate them. Johanna storms off into the house and says that she just wants to be alone. Well, I say that it’s just tough noogies for her. She had many opportunities to join in on the agreement to split the money, but she decided that she wanted to win it all and now she goes home with nothing at all. That’s karma for you.

T.R. is the obvious winner in this game. He learned that he needs to change his life and he vows to do it. Regardless of the money, he is the real winner.

Personally, I am happy that T.R. won. He deserved it. And, it was good that Jim won. He is a good person and vowed to help his fellow players. It is rare that the people I support actually win their reality show. All is right with the world this week.

Bill ( bing@paxentertainment.com ) is a huge reality show fan. Be sure to join him in a month when he begins reviewing Hell’s Kitchen 2 on June 12th.

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