Episode 12
.
Previously on "Gladiators." The five remaining gladiators made one last desperate attempt to earn their freedom. They took multiple hostages, including Reynolds, one of the main architects of this game. Colonel Mcnamara was killed during this siege. But their attempt ultimately failed, and they were informed that their tracking devices were also bombs, and they were activated. The remaining four gladiators now have one hour to reduce their number to just one, or they and their hostages will all die. This is the season finale, only one will survive. Will it be Alan York, the police officer who took out many dangerous gang bangers? Or Reese, the hard scrable girl who had sex for money and most likely robbed a liquor store. Or Gaines, the amoral mercenary who is quite familiar with doing whatever is neccessary to survive. Don't underestimate the dark horse Sarah. She seemed unlikely to win, but she surprised many by shooting her own mother and is the only gladiator to win immunity twice in the first stage. Who will be the ultimate winner. Stay tuned and find out.
.
59:13
.
Mancuso turned his screen into a timer, let the remaining gladiators know exactly how long they have to kill each other, just under an hour. Gaines was desperate, murdered one of the hostages. The screen didn't change at all. Reese murdered a female hostage, still no response. It was clear that they needed a new plan.
.
Gaines: We should play russian roulette, or duels. Either way we need to go now.
Alan: I'm not giving up yet.
Gaines: We don't have a choice.
Alan: We might. Is there a doctor in the house?
.
At this point a young man, doctor Weber, nervously raised his hand.
.
Weber: I'm a surgeon.
Alan: Can you remove the tracking devices from us.
Weber: I don't know, I can try. It will be painful. Who first?
Alan: Good question. The only fair way is to draw numbers from a hat.
.
Alan quickly tore a piece of paper into four, and wrote a number on each one, 1, 2, 3, and four. He then put each paper into a hat and mixed it around as much as he could. Gaines picked first, picked the one he believed he'd seen with a 1 on it. It turned out to be number four. Sarah picked next, 2. Then Reese, 3. By sheer luck Alan, the last to pick, ended up with number 1. He had given each of his comrades a chance, he had as good a chance as any. So doctor Weber began operating on his arm. He was right, it was painful. Gaines was the most upset by this. He didn't know how long it would take for the doctor to remove a tracking device, but it seemed likely that he would die before it was even his turn.
.
44:37
.
Dr Weber continued to operate on Alan York, he did his best to ignore the pain and bite down on the cloth. Sarah and Reese were not looking forward to this experience. Gaines realized it had been more than 15 minutes, it was becoming more likely by the minute that he would be dead when it was his turn. He might be able to shoot Sarah and Reese first, and get the drop on York while he was distracted. But Sarah and Reese seemed to never take their eyes off of him, they knew him too well. Gaines didn't want to shoot his comrades, didn't want to be like Reese. He would do it if he had to, but he didn't like the idea. Even if dr Weber removed all of the devices, Mancuso had them surrounded, and he had clearly demonstrated he was willing to let all of these hostages die rather than let more than one gladiator survive. Gaines knew he was about to die, the only question was how. So he grabbed his assault weapon, Reese and Sarah aimed their guns at him immediately. But Gaines didn't try to shoot them, he just walked out the door, and fired upon Mancuso's soldiers. He tried to kill Mancuso himself, but never got the chance. He killed maybe three of them, before he was himself gunned down.
.
The following is an excerpt from Gaines' last recorded statement.
.
Gaines: I'm not a good guy, never claimed to be one. I supposse I did delude myself a little when I was in the military, but I stopped believing in that, and I couldn't fake it. So yeah, I became a mercenary, fighting only for myself. All I have is myself, and I'll do whatever I have to do to survive, with no apologies.
.
37:08
.
Sarah and Reese were nervous, it had already taken 20 minutes, and dr Weber wasn't done yet. If it took more than twenty minutes per patient, Sarah might die, Reese definitely would. Reese began thinking that Gaines had the right idea, at least he died on his own terms, taking down his enemies along with himself. Sarah tried to comfort her friend. Reese kissed Sarah, partly for comfort. This was a hell of a time to start a relationship, but both women needed some comfort right now. Still, noone could forget that there were now only three gladiators remaining, and each death brought the rest one step closer to victory.
.
30:00
.
Dr Weber seemed like he was almost done with Alan. Sarah and Reese's only hope was that the first surgery involved trial and error, and he'd do the other two more quickly. Finally, it worked, the tracking device was removed. It was now Sarah's turn. She bit down on the cloth while Reese treated Alan's wounded arm.
.
24:30
.
Dr Weber did not find the tracking device on Sarah as quickly as he had hoped. Evidently the network put their tracking devices in different places for each gladiator. Hopefully he could find this one in time. He feared it could go off while he was operating, and Sarah's girlfriend might shoot him if he failed.
.
12:48
.
12:34
.
11:11
.
10:00
.
8:37
.
7:38
.
Sarah tried not to look at the countdown, but she couldn't help herself. It was getting closer and closer to her own death. A part of her wondered if she should just give up now. Reese had knocked out Reynolds and moved closer to him. She was eating food, drinking booze, and smoking a final ciggarette. Sarah was tempted to do just that, and kiss Reese goodbye while they could.
.
2:43
.
Finally, dr Weber succeeded, and removed the tracking device from Sarah.
.
Sarah: Okay, Reese it's your turn.
Reese: No.
Sarah: What do you mean? You got less than three minutes.
Reese: I know, and he doesn't have enough time. If I'm going down I'm taking Reynolds down with me. Take the other hostages, maybe you can still use them as bargaining chips.
Sarah: But I don't want you to die.
Reese: I don't want that either, but I don't have a choice.
.
Reese kissed Sarah one last time, then moved towards an unconsciouss Reynolds. She had the tracking devices from Sarah and Alan. Sarah and Alan took their remaining hostages to the other side of the room.
.
00:30
.
Reynolds woke up and saw Reese standing over him, smiling.
.
Reese: Morning sunshine.
.
The bombs went off, killing both Reynolds and Reese.
.
The following is an excerpt from Reese's final recorded statement.
.
Reese: I've always been on my own, not even my mother took care of me, or looked after me. I've always done what I had to do to survive, sometimes that wasn't pretty. This will be no different, I hope. I hope to live and get that pardon and ten million bucks, I hope. I like to think I'm a good person, I have given my soul to Jesus, but I still want to live. If I win, I'll try to be a better person after. If I fail, I can only hope God will forgive me.
.
9:15
.
Despite what Mancuso had said, more than one gladiator was alive after the one hour deadline. But 14 other gladiators had died, Reese didn't even leave behind a body to be buried. They had made their stand, killed Barnes and one of the men who created this barbaric game. But Mancuso's men soon stormed the party and had their guns trained on Alan and Sarah. But they did not fire, just yet.
.
Mancuso: I admit, I underestimated you two. You have both survived the deadline. But I believe we've been clear on this point, there can be only one. So here's how it goes, you two now have one minute to kill each other. If you don't, you both die.
.
Alan and Sarah looked at each other, and silently agreed to one last quickdraw. Both gladiators had seen their arms operated on very recently, but Alan was still much more experience with guns. They both drew, and Sarah shot Alan. Sarah looked at Alan's face as he was dying. Did he let her win, was he tired of killing? Sarah would never know for certain, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. But one thing was certain, she had won the first season of Gladiators. Mancuso held up Sarah's arm and declared for the cameras "The winner, and first ever champion Gladiator, Sarah Thompson.
.
The following is an excerpt from Sarah's first recorded statement after winning this tournament.
.
Sarah: I'm not entirely sure how I'm suppossed to feel right now. I am relieved that it's all over, and I can breath a little easier. I want to thank my mother for her sacrifice, I like to think it wasn't in vain. And I want to thank Reese for her sacrifice. I'm going to honor my word and look after Lindsay's baby. I don't think she was a bad person, she just wanted to go back to her son.
Interviewer: Do you plan to make any further contact with the Underground?
Sarah: I think that was just something that Lindsay made up to lure us to the airport. If the Underground does exist, I'll avoid them. I have no desire to endanger my life anymore.
Interviewer: What are your plans for the future?
Sarah: I'm grateful that they still gave me the pardon and the ten million. I'm going to try and quit smoking, other than that I hope to one day fall in love, maybe even have children of my own. Maybe by the time I have kids this show will be canceled.
