Warning! The following contains spoilers for Ultimate Tag's "Every Second Counts." Read at your own risk.
Ultimate Tag has been consistently entertaining and the kind of standard weird programming Fox has leaned into lately. For all the things I like, there are some issues that I feel need to be addressed for any potential seasons that follow. Safety was an issue the previous episode after an injury disqualification, and this week, I'm questioning whether or not the final challenge needs to be revamped.
As a quick recap, the final challenge features one competitor running an obstacle course with two taggers in the arena. One tagger gives chase in the obstacle course, while the other waits for the contestant to get to the base of the summit to tag the contestant on the final leg. Each tagger's successful flag capture results in a five second penalty, which creates some tension as the remaining two contestants try to get the fastest time.
After 4 episodes, I've officially decided the second tagger is an unnecessary factor. Every contestant has to almost break themselves to beat the tagger in the obstacle course, and can sometimes get away and avoid that first tag. The problem is the opening obstacle course is so daunting either way, every contestant is physically spent by the time they reach the base of the second obstacle where the second tagger is waiting.
With a completely fresh tagger on the second leg of the course, it's almost impossible to avoid that second tag. A lot of the contestants don't even really try to fight it, and those that do aren't successful. If everyone gets tagged on the second leg I'm beginning to question why they're even there, and why there can't just be a chance for the contestant to continue their climb unchallenged.
I can understand some logic in the decision considering one guaranteed tag adds the five second penalty to the running clock. This throws off the running clock, which typically disappears by the time the contestant starts the climb. Still though, one could get the same effect by dropping the visual of the running clock much sooner, and would keep the Ultimate Tag audience guessing just as long.
Maybe the issue is that the first part of Ultimate Tag's final challenge is intense and intricate, and the second is just a climb up some beams to push a dynamite plunger. Maybe if there was a little more happening on the second half of the obstacle course, a second tagger would be justified, but right now the difficulty between the first and second part of the obstacle course is lopsided. Something needs to change.
Ultimate Tag airs on Fox Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for all the latest news happening in television and movies.
