Monster time for 'Beast Games' creator

MrBeast says Mideast is the perfect setting as Season 2 nears the end in dramatic style.

- BY JIM HALTERMAN

Photographs by CORY OSBORNE Prime.

JIMMY Donaldson (MrBeast) leads contestants in Season 2 of "Beast Games."

This article contains spoilers for “Beast Games” Season 2, Episode 8, “Would You Steal $1,000,000?”

A surprised Monika Ronk is staring at a $500,000 pile of cash that’s just been wheeled out in front of her by Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. YouTube's MrBeast, the creator and host of the exhilarating reality competition series “Beast Games,” currently airing its second season on Prime Video.

Ronk, one of 10 remaining contestants in the competition that began with 200 people, is being offered this money by Donaldson in exchange for a very important coin she has in her possession that, if she wins the reality competition series, would double the $5 million prize to $10 million.

It’s also important to note that in this eighth episode of the 10-episode season, her fellow contestants do not know about this offer and it’s up to Ronk if she wants to tell anyone else what she may or may not choose. In short, Ronk sells the coin, takes the half-million dollars and has her eye on the prize. “It’s Monika’s villain are season,” she joyfully says into the camera, ready to do whatever it takes to cross the finish line.

These kinds of choices are at the fundamental core of what makes “Beast Games” a roller coaster of emotions coupled with intense physical and mental challenges that include a tower-building puzzle, obstacle course, dodgeball game and being buried alive. But it’s the frequent offers of life-changing money by Donaldson that often shake even the strongest players.