The Summit’s players are told who to vote for at the halfway point

At the start of The Summit episode five, our host Manu teased what was to come: “They must remember to heed the rules of the mountain or suffer the consequences.”

What would those consequences be? A helicopter blade? A rope cut as they were rappelling down the side of a mountain?

Just in case that wasn’t enough to keep people watching, the endless later-this-episode teasers showed Manu saying, “Tonight we’re going to have a different vote.” Alas, despite the threat of consequences, it was a disappointing twist.

Manu tells The Summit’s remaining players who the producers have chosen to be voted out (Image from The Summit via CBS)

But first, fallout from the last vote. Camp counselor Robert took off; Dennis stayed. Jennye was not thrilled, and decided to call out Dennis—”I’m going to finish before being interrupted,” she said, and then finished: “I hope we know we traded someone who was perceived as shifty for a known liar.”

Dennis was thrilled by this. “Jennye literally just blew up her own fucking game. Fucking idiot,” Dennis said to himself in a tent.

He wasn’t wrong. Beckylee told Amy that Jennye should go next. “Dennis is a very good scapegoat,” Beckylee said, saying there was “a value to him being around.” Again, for what? They have no idea what the endgame is. I guess having some insurance makes sense, but so would just dumping the annoying liar.

As they took off for the day—a hike up and then down a ridge—Dusty shared that he thinks everyone who knows him will be disappointed if he doesn’t win. “I don’t like not being good at things,” he said. “It’s an ego hit to me.”

Just as that was beginning to humanize him, he said, “I can’t help put a dollar amount next to each of these people.” Okay then.

Pati and Amy were at the rear of the pack on The Summit episode 5 (Image from The Summit via CBS)

On the start of the hike, poor Pati’s leg went into a hole, and was wedged in by a rock, though she got free. But that was the start of the challenges.

The first half was a hike up a massive incline, in snow, holding on to just a rope. Manu told us that, “for safety reasons, they must travel together as a group.”

During that climb, the Mountain’s Keeper helicopter appeared and floated over Pati and Amy, who were at the tail end. Everyone saw this as a message—or at least, they did later.

After the chopper appeared, the front group and rear group could no longer see each other. Of course, they were still on the same rope, so it’s not like anyone was lost. Though knowing this group, some of them might get lost holding onto a rope.

Pati struggled while climbing up a snowy mountain on The Summit episode 5 (Image from The Summit via CBS)

Dusty told us that he loves seeing the Mountain’s Keeper, because that means they are “one moment closer to getting fewer and fewer people that deserve to be up on the mountain.” What does that mean, deserve?

After hiking up that steep, snowy incline, they had to rappel down the other side. A note said:

“You must rush to make camp, where another surprise awaits. But remember to stick together. I’ve been watching you.”

So now they definitely had a warning. Dusty immediately showed off his deserving leadership skills by leaving his partner, Beckylee, behind.

The rappel took them over a rocky cliff, and at some point, they switched to a zipline. Again, the cinematography, while beautiful, keeps a really narrow view of these challenges, probably so we don’t see all the crew and cameras and such. But obviously there were safety people on the mountain helping them.

Still, this terrified most of them, especially letting go of one rope and just flying off the side of the cliff. Trauma ICU nurse Dennis told us, “Right now, I have more adrenaline than I ever have doing chest compressions and breaking someone’s sternum.” That’s—a very specific

“I understand why they told us to wear quick-dry underwear,” Dennis said, apparently having shat himself.

“if I would have known, I may not have signed up,” Therron said. He was freaking out at the part where they had to let go of one rope and zipline down.

After they all made it down, Dusty kept everyone moving, leaving Pati behind. “The group is still having trouble following the rules,” Manu said. “On this mountain, actions have consequences.”

The Mountain’s Keeper dropped a bag they had to carry to camp with them. They arrived at the halfway point, where champagne awaited.

The bag contained letters from their loved ones, and actual boots. They all cried and read their letters—Punkin got a letter from her wife, Nick got a letter from his dad, Therron from a parent, Amy from her daughter, and so on.

I was going to make a joke about Dennis’ letter, but what he said was so sad that I couldn’t. “I’m surprised my mom and dad wrote to me,” Dennis said, because “they didn’t wish me luck for this.” Yikes. In case it wasn’t clear, he said, “my parents are super-strict.” There’s a big piece of the Dennis puzzle.

Then Manu showed up to make them cry even more. “I told you a rule on the first day. Do you remember what that rule was?” He told them: “Stay together as a group.”

Manu revealed only people would be up for the vote: “the person who is consistently the furthest behind, and the person who is consistently pushing the lead.”

That was the consequence? The producers choosing Pati and Dusty as the nominees?

Even though that seemed like the foregone conclusion, I wondered: Is Pati falling behind not staying together? Or is Dusty charging ahead failing to stay together? I’d lean toward the latter; it’s not like Pati was choosing to be so far behind, but Dusty was definitely choosing to keep moving.

That’s when Manu changed the definition, saying she was “too slow” and he was “too fast.” Wait, was that the rule? Also, if you frame it that way, now Pati is 100 percent done. Should we keep the fast person or the slow person?

Beckylee pointed out that Pati always caught up, and Dennis said he needed her vote. But the message was clear: We have to be faster, Pati slows us down—even though they made it to the camp on time. Her speed hasn’t cost them anything.

Pati and Dusty sat together and cried, and I worried all the crying on The Summit might cause an avalanche.

Manu returned and asked for Dusty votes: just Beckylee and Dennis. Everyone else voted for Pati, so she was out.

This both makes sense—she’s the slowest—and is disappointing, because the route is supposed to be doable by everyone, and she’s doing it. If speed matters, then The Summit should have only players of the same physical ability.

The players had a choice here, but to me this seems like being forced to cut Bo in episode two—it seems more like the show trying to speed them up than anything else.

Pati’s exit drains some of my excitement for The Summit, because she’s exactly the type of player I’d love to see succeed—as she has been! Watching someone in perfect mountain-climbing shape with the ego to match? Not as interesting, and yet that’s what this episode delivered.