We now know how The Summit will end, after a devious lie ends a player’s game

The Summit episode nine, the penultimate episode, narrowed the group to just four players, and revealed how the endgame will play out—or at least a key part of it.

The Summit has just five players and, as host Manu Bennett said, “nearly $750,000” as its prize. Why nearly? Why so low? That’s thanks to the show deleting $124,362 from their prize last episode.

As the group started their walk, we heard about their alliances:

• Punkin and Bucks are close
• Punkin said, “I just gotta get Nick out before he comes for me”
• Nick said, “Punkin would kick me out of this game, and that worries me”
• Nick also said “I trust Therron, I trust Jeannie, and I trust Becklyee”
• Therron wanted to stick with Punkin, to have “two queer Black people at the final”
• Beckylee said she has a final three with Punkin and Therron
• Jeannie said “from day one, Nick has been so supportive of me”; “I want his dreams to come true”

The Summit’s final five: Jeannie Geyer, Beckylee Rawls, Punkin Jackson, Therron Pittman, and Nick Morgan (Image from The Summit via CBS)

The final five found a note: “You must defy gravity by ascending straight to the top,” it said, and then they broke into song: It’s time to try defying gravity/I think I’ll try defying gravity/And you can’t pull me down/I am climbing to the summit/the name of this show/summit!

They made it up pretty quickly, and then had to walk uphill in the snow, just like everyone’s parents on their way to school.

At the top of that hill, they found another note: they had to cross “a deadly crack in this mighty mountain” by pulling themselves across on a rope.

I was going to say that this crossing seemed easier, in that they weren’t looking down. But they also had to pull themselves with their arms, so a physical challenge.

Of course, it was also a mental challenge, though it was not Therron and his fear of heights, or Jeannie and her self-doubt. (“How am I going to do this? I work at Trader Joes,” Jeannine said, and then she turned to the camera and said, Have you tried these yet? They’re new and they’re so good!)

“I need some freakin’ help man,” Nick called out, freaking out. As he said “I can’t, I can’t,” he dropped, and the show cut to commercial, probably because the safety cables failed and he dropped to his death.

Nick struggles to pull himself across a chasm on a rope (Image from The Summit via CBS)

When the show came back, we saw Nick fall three times, and then a full five seconds of silent showing the chasm, Jeannie looking down at his body. Oh, wait: Nick was fine! But he had to reset and start over.

The Doom Chopper showed up to yuck everyone’s yum, and when it dropped its payload, Beckylee and Nick ran for it, throwing themselves into the snow so they could be the first person to touch the Mountain’s Keeper’s Fun Bag.

Inside was not another command to lower the show’s prize or send another player home, but instead: “inspiration you need to give you strength to reach the summit.” Yes, Jeff Probst popped out and said WHO’S READY FOR SOME LOVE?!

Yep, it was messages from home on a tablet, and everyone got teary. While the show earlier showed Punkin talking about her wife, who she met in the Air Force, her message was from her mother.

Becklyee worried she screwed up by competing with Nick for the Fun Bag, because that might cause him to doubt her loyalty—but she also admitted she wasn’t loyal to him because she didn’t think he was loyal. “I don’t think he has a loyal bone in his body,” she said. Heh, bone.

Becklyee was worried that Nick will turn on her, and threaten her final three with Therron and Punkin. So she wanted to vote him out, but she also had to tell him she planned to vote out Punkin, so he wouldn’t suspect the blindside.

But Therron told Nick that he was going to be blindsided. I guess Therron’s bone isn’t loyal either, huh.

And that’s when Nick went to Punkin and told her a brazen lie: the plan was “to get you out.” Punkin said, “What?!”

The Summit finalists Punkin and Nick, who lied to Punkin in order to get Beckylee out (Image from The Summit via CBS)

Punkin, thankfully, went to Beckylee, who said, “I swear on my life” that she would not vote out Punkin.

Then Nick and Becklyee talked. “I was not gunning for you,” she told Nick, but admitted, “I mentioned to T, your name.” She told him, “it’s Punkin. Trust me.”

For such a short amount of time and so few players, it was fascinating to watch this unfold.

Also fascinating that, as Manu called them over to vote because he had to get to his 7 p.m. monosyllable class, Beckylee was still trying to convince Jeannie to vote for Nick. “I’m begging you,” she said. But Jeannie was reluctant.

At Tribal Council, Beckylee admitted her deceit. “I have people I trust wholeheartedly and I’ve never questioned,” Beckylee said. “Nick, you’re not one of them. I never planned to bring Nick to the top.”

“I think that’s pretty evident,” he said, and called her Dennis 2.0. She explained that “I was willing to make people comfortable for a long time.”

Manu—who apparently doesn’t get off on conflict like other reality TV hosts—tried to hurry this along. “Okay, everybody’s had their say, okay?” he said.

Becklyee nominated Nick, and he nominated her. Only Becklyee voted for Nick; everyone else voted for her.

“I never questioned you, either,” Punkin said. “I’ve been struggling with this. I have to do what’s best for my game.”

I didn’t understand why Punkin flipped, but it seemed to be entirely about Nick’s lie: “Because of that I lost trust in her and her word,” Punkin told us.

On her way out, Becklyee said, “Do not trust him. Jeannie, he’s not taking you to the top,” and added that he’d dump Punkin, too.

Beckylee told us “Jeannie doesn’t know what’s going on so, whatever, I can’t blame her,” which LOL. She also told us “I wish I didn’t feel this way, but I feel so bitter.” Nice to see a bitter juror admit that!

And yes, juror: We learned that all The Summit’s players who’ve left the game are coming back “for retribution,” Manu said. In the preview for the finale, he said they have “the power to decide how much cash the people who reach the summit will take home.”

Manu also said, “The vanquished will decide who will be crowned the champion of the summit.” Champion, singular?!

Of course, we don’t know how this will work, but the preview showed the jury sitting in a grassy field being as bitter as CBS Wednesday night juries often are, and grilling the final four.

How that vote will play out, and who will take home money, will be revealed in next week’s finale. I assume that’s also when we find out who The Mountain’s Keeper. My guesses: D.B. Cooper, or New Zealander Phil Keoghan, promoting next season of The Amazing Race.