‘Beast Games’ Season 2 Episode 6 Recap: Top Ten(se)

Last time on Beast Games, the teasing carryover format of Season 2 left us with a final twist. Life in the cubes had already sent home some major players: Jeff, the Season 1 winner; Sue, the ex-Survivor outlaster; Ian, the Ninja Warrior and private island winner; and JD, the million-dollar Captain Bribe taker. But what was going down inside the final cube? Who would emerge, and would JC’s gold coin, with its ability to juice the grand prize cash, remain in play? Would Jim, the class clown of Beast City, somehow skate through – again – almost totally on luck? Here in Episode 6 (“Hearts Will be Smashed”), it’s a yes to all those questions, but with a new twist. Monika has become the Beast Games master of coin.  

Still cuffed to the cube, JC wished his fellow contestants luck, said they all deserved ten million bucks, and framed gifting Monika his coin and departing the contest as an act of contrition, after all his Season 1 villainy. (“I tried to right my wrongs.”) Which leaves 13 players, 3 Smarts to 10 Strongs, and lots of conjecture as to what will happen next. During the 24-hour break before a two-tiered elimination game, the contestants mostly split out by gender. Mostly: it is whispered that #194 Bryleigh and #162 Tyler “are looking out for themselves.” But there is also Monika, who really seems to be enjoying her secure position of power. With the women, she accepts their trust. Then she runs right to the guys. “I don’t really care about alliances; I have to do what I feel is right in the moment, and it’s not sticking with them.” We honestly don’t know how anybody on any of these shows ever trusts anyone with anything.

A BAD HANG

The glass hearts placed before the final 13 players represent their lives for the duration of this season. Two games will be played, one Strong-coded and one Smart-coded, and the winners of each will choose which three contestants will have their hearts and Beast Games dreams X’d and shattered. Through the portal we go!  

Here’s another example of Monika channeling the power of the coin. Before the Strong side of the game begins, MrBeast drops a couple sacks of cash before her. 100K to sell him the coin! But Monika is unflappable. “Everybody knows I’m un-bribeable.”

And so we begin, with the contestants way, way up there. Strapped to harnesses one hundred feet in the air, they cling to rope-coiled poles as their individual platforms pull back. No one who falls will be eliminated, but nor will they have a say in who makes the Top Ten. Hannah, Nick, and Cory plummet first into the dark abyss, followed by Jim, Kady, Tyler, other Tyler, Auguste, Jack, Brett, and Catey. This leaves Bryleigh, who goes no hands – “I climb a lot of ropes,” the competitive Crossfitter says – and Monika, who is the picture of calm in an airborne lotus position. The others lobby the final two for social standing. Jim: “Please don’t cook me, Bryleigh!”

It’s an interesting showdown between these two players, who call to each other from their poles. Bryleigh agrees to not shatter Jim’s heart, if Monika agrees to keep Tyler safe. That sounds like a deal, she tells her counterpart. And then, so nonchalant you’d think she wasn’t clinging to a pole without a net, Monika turns to the camera for her evil genius moment. “I’m lying!”

ATTEMPT THE PATTERN

The Smart-coded tier of the game involves pattern memorization, on a competition field that looks like the “Billie Jean” video if it took place inside Tron. Monika’s Strong victory keeps her safe at one end, and the rest are shown a pattern of light-up squares for ten seconds. Memorize it, safely walk through it, and the first person to complete it takes the Smart position next to Monika. Only these two winners will decide which three player hearts to shatter.  

Jim gets through about a quarter of the pattern, followed by Catey’s attempt. And since it’s the same for each contestant, the others become like a Price is Right audience, shouting out steps and directions. This is beneficial, but also cutthroat, like when Auguste bamboozles Catey during her chance. And all the while, Monika is down there at the end. She looks content, and calculating. Have you ever watched a reality show, especially in the later rounds, and attached a certain kind of inevitability to a contestant? That is exactly what the master of coin in Beast Games Season 2 looks like. Monika is eventually joined by the grid finisher, Nick and his huge tattooed biceps, who gets a laugh from the group for tapping his temple like a Team Smart-er from Episode 1. As of now, MrBeast says, these two are running the game. “Guard! Bring in the elimination hammer!”

SHADOOBIE, SHATTERED

During the final shatter phase, the phrase “I really want you to know it’s not personal” gets a pretty disingenuous workout. It’s a day later, and games winners Monika and Nick have made their elimination decisions. They walk the line of players and hearts, and Bryleigh is the first to go. “I’m sorry for telling you on the hang that I’d have your back,” Monika says; “I’m not sticking by my word.” Man, she is really letting the power flow through her. And for their next choice, Nick apologizes for X’ing out strongman Tyler, who was Bryleigh’s Ep 5 cubemate, and like Nick turned down the million-dollar Captain Bribe challenge. It’s nothing personal, the shatterers say to the shattered. Note: it totally feels personal. “We just had to put that alliance to an end.”

Which leaves just one heart left to break. Going forward, the Top Ten will be locked in. The coin to double the five-million-dollar grand prize is still in play. And there are four episodes left to determine, of those still standing, who will become the next Beast Games champion.

11 players remain.

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.