@glennganges Published Feb. 25, 2026, 8:25 p.m. ET Where to Stream: Beast Games Powered by Reelgood Episode 9 of Beast Games Season 2 left us with its usual tease before the finale, which featured a usual player: Nick of Team Strong, whose Episode 8 decision triggered the major trust issues and bold cash grabs that would define the remaining rounds. So here he is again, choosing the last spot in the top 6 as the finale begins, and using a familiar hinged sentence structure to do it. “I’ve tried to play with integrity” – Beast Season 2 buzzword alert – “and fill my pockets while I was ahead. I still care about everybody here, but my decision is made…”
We feel like this season of Beast Games at least minted a new reality show power couple in Monika and Jim. But they’ll have to take their Beast City love affair elsewhere. Even though he accepted Monika’s bribe, and Jim’s deception and swagger went into overdrive during his “Operation Sugarmama” push, Nick gives his top 6 vote to Brett, which puts through his all-dude ally and handlebar moustach’d fellow Team Stronger. Nick, Monika, Jim, and Kady are X’d, while Brett joins Tyler, Auguste, Jack, Cory, and Hannah in the final.
Earlier this season, we wondered why this show decamped to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for its final episodes, only to never mention it again. But we had forgotten about MrBeast’s temporary theme park. And here in the Season 2 finale, we’re wondering why Jimmy Donaldson narrates a weird retrospective segment that calls his show “a simulation in an alternate world,” uses some strange stew of AI and animation to put a crystal ball in his hand that features the finalists in Wizard of Oz miniature, and combines the usual faceless Beast Gamers from challenge demos with summaries of actual players’ journeys. It feels both high-concept and incongruous, reachy but not well thought-out. Which to us explains many of the awkward transitions featured throughout Season 2. Beast Games isn’t going anywhere – it was already renewed for a third season. But in our opinion, they’ve gotta more effectively integrate and present the stuff that surrounds the gameplay. Honestly, this looks kinda cool and seriously hokey at once.
We’re about to go from six players to four, and it all comes down to…kicking volleyballs? Players face their hearts across a chasm, which will be shattered with accurate hits, but the rounds soon devolve into “choosing peace,” with little kicks to send balls wandering nowhere near an elimination. Jack eventually gets X’d, but what’s most notable about this round is Tyler’s emerging kill shot strategy. With Auguste in his ear – “Kick for Hannah!” – he instead targets his all-dude alliance pal. Auguste is eliminated with no cash winnings, because he spent all his grave-flop cash on Episode 9 bribes. In a bit of cold comfort, Tyler says he X’d his friend because “I just don’t think I could’ve beat you.”
With four players left, Beast Games brings back the poles. Maybe if Monika was still in it, she could have hung out forever – again – in an airborne lotus. But instead it’s Hannah, Brett, Cory, and Tyler who must either hang on and pray or opt for the strong-smart combo and attempt to recite a stacked pattern of 16 colored blocks. While we decided we’d never make it past remembering even 20 percent of it, Brett boldly attempts the pattern and completes it, with only one assist from Cory. We also don’t think we could be as gracious and funny as Hannah, who Brett chooses to eliminate. “I feel so honored to be here with you four, and obviously I’m about to be dropped to my death, but I feel OK leaving with this combination.” Hannah, X’d, drops.
So it’s down to Brett, Cory, and Tyler, who MrBeast arranges at podiums, with their fists cuffed over buttons inside. Just like in Captain Bribe, a money counter will advance, and the first to hit the button will receive the money on the screen. But it’s still a hard choice: they gotta game when or even whether their opponents will hit it, and risk this gain against the potential of winning the five-million-dollar grand prize. 100k. 200k. 377. 410. Nobody’s even tempted, and the mood is light. 720,000. 900,000. One million dollars. “Congratulations! You are now a millionaire!” It’s Brett who hit the button, and he says winning a Season 2 total of $1,193,000 makes finishing third more than worth it. He is X’d as he greets his cash.
Tyler and Cory recognize the circular podium of briefcases Beast next brings out. This is the same challenge that concluded Season 1, when Jeff Allen won it all in the first round. And again, the mood is light, so light even Donaldson is surprised. It speaks to the social side of Beast Games that these final rounds have been cordial enough, even in the face of hard eliminations and ever more finite access to the five-mil pyramid. A player will hide MrBeast’s check in a case while the other is blindfolded, and they will do this round after round until the correct case is guessed. “Just tell me which one,” Tyler tells Cory, which is pretty funny. But they also lock in tough guy poker faces and trade one line back and forth. Three rounds. Four rounds. Five. “Open it and find out.”
“That way he can’t read me.” Did these guys practice this at home? Their case logic? Because Cory deploys a strategy where he shuts his own eyes and places the check, so as to hide any tells from Tyler’s questions. When the final countdown becomes three cases, Tyler looks across the podium at his Beast City buddy. “I’m glad to playing a stressful game with this man,” he says, and chooses case #3 to honor the number of Cory’s kids. And…Boom! Tyler Lucas, #167 of Team Strong, is your big Beast Games Season 2 winner, with total earnings of 5.1 million. That’s in dollars, not Feastables.
Did the Smart vs. Strong stuff really matter? Like so many other reality competitions, was being super good at the social side ultimately better? Maybe Tyler’s gaggle of cute kids showing up in Episode 7 was all the inspiration he required. Now that they’ve done 1,000 contestants and 200 special skills contestants, Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and his co-conspirators will have to concoct another hook for Season 3’s contestants. We’ll just have to see what happens when the next trapdoor opens.
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.
