WIDM aftertalk: this is the last eliminated contestant

We have talked about the infamous ‘Ron Boszhard award’ before, which is for the person who has to leave the game first. A prize that no candidate ever wants to win; but there is another title that might be just as bad: that for the very last person eliminated before the final. You can almost touch the finish line and think you are in a good position with your suspicion, and then bam; back to reality and off you go with your suitcase to the losers' hotel.

A culinary masterpiece

Losing €5000 from the pot has hit hard. The candidates keep discussing who put in what. Roos wisely keeps her mouth shut about her highest bid and is perfectly fine with the fingers pointing more and more at Sophie. They can't linger in the bickering for too long, it's time for a new task. In such a beautiful country as Cambodia, you must fully immerse yourself in the culture, including the traditional cuisine. The candidates must prepare the dish fish amok, and preferably better than a real Cambodian kitchen princess. If they can convince a three-member jury of chefs that their dish is the best, they will earn €2000, although one convinced chef already earns €1000. After a brief discussion, Stijn will relay the cooking instructions, Roos and Maaike tie on their aprons, and Sophie tries to distract their opponent. We can't fault this last candidate much; she even eats a pepper that she claims is definitely spicier than the ones from Albert Heijn, all for the win, of course. Stijn also seems to take his task seriously; but if you look closely, you can see that the vegetables and fish should have been cut differently than how he explains it. Although Roos and Maaike occasionally follow their own plan, did one of them already know how the recipe should and shouldn't be? Although the dish ultimately looks quite okay, the kitchen princess still takes a convincing win. The significantly damaged pot is not yet replenished. chefs to convince that their dish is the best, then they earn €2000, although one convinced chef already earns €1000. After a brief discussion, Stijn will relay the cooking instructions, Roos and Maaike tie on their aprons, and Sophie tries to distract their opponent. We can't fault this last candidate much; she even eats a pepper that she claims is definitely spicier than the ones from Albert Heijn, all for the win, of course. Stijn also seems to take his task seriously; but if you look closely, you can see that the vegetables and fish should have been cut differently than how he explains it. Although Roos and Maaike occasionally follow their own plan, did one of them already know how the recipe should and shouldn't be? Although the dish ultimately looks quite okay, the kitchen princess still takes a convincing win. The significantly damaged pot is not yet replenished.

A big nightmare

Exhausted from yet another intense day, the group thinks they can wind down the evening peacefully, but it is and remains WIDM. Without further instructions, they are taken away in a van in the middle of a stormy night. Maaike jokes that they are going to end up in some sort of ‘The Shining’; does she already know what is coming? It seems so. Once they arrive at an abandoned hotel, the candidates hear that Rik has not yet paid for their rooms, and the maids are not exactly happy about it. The only way to solve this is by listening to the ghosts of the previous hotel guests, who tell them in which rooms money is hidden. If someone is spotted by the masked maids, the room price goes up even more. With trembling knees, everyone spreads out through the hotel. Stijn, Maaike, and Sophie try to overcome their fears and sprint through the hallways. Meanwhile, Roos seems to have become a ghost herself; during a large part of the task, no one knows exactly what she is doing. A conscious choice by the editing to keep her mole actions off-screen? The moments we see her, she is lying in a bathtub to ‘hide’ from the maids. Well, that’s quite a unique move. After quite a bit of screaming and hearing the creepy phrase ‘I see you’ a bit too often, the group manages to pay off two rooms, adding €1500 to the pot. Calm returns, although it remains to be seen whether the candidates will get any sleep that night.

The last trump cards

No matter how short and restless the sleep was, the next day the group must get back to work. On a salt flat, they must haul kilos of salt, to then open cages and choose between . Women hide a purchase twice as often as men. The frontrunners in the list are women up to 29 years old. Certainly, a quarter of them has bought something without telling her boyfriend. Oops. Shhh. Can this fact remain a secret too? Thanks. Best regards from me and my YSL bag. or those always attractive envelopes with a question mark. Roos seems to continue her tactic from the hotel task, she keeps circling around the others without really contributing much herself. She manages to convince the others to send her to a cage first. There she wants to know as quickly as possible what is in that envelope, only to be very surprised that she has lost the money with it. Yes, yes, I think the task was quite clear. Meanwhile, they are lifting enthusiastically and new cages are opening. Despite the increasing amount of money to be won, Sophie and Maaike also go for an envelope. A chance at a trump card just before the final is quite interesting; and Stijn will surely go for the money with his final exemption. Whether that is the case, we will never know, he is too late to open the last cage. Again, nothing earned for the pot. Only for Maaike is there still something to be happy about: she gets two jokers. Roos and Sophie had to settle for the knowledge that whoever picks a question mark last would get these trump cards, while they are left empty-handed.

The finalists are known

The ladies prepare for the last test and elimination before the final, Stijn does not have to participate in this. Somewhere very nice, of course, but he also doesn't know which questions will come up. Then it is time for the award ceremony that no one was really waiting for: the award for the last eliminated goes to Sophie, and she is obviously very disappointed about that. Meanwhile, we can start puzzling over who was on whom and what the trump cards of Maaike have meant. Just a little longer and we can finally answer that eternal question.