By the finale, the camp was a wreck. Aris had been eliminated in Week 3 after a trial involving electric eels and his own talk show catchphrases. Kati Gaga survived on sheer chaos, writing a “hammock anthem” that she performed nightly. But the final three were Fiona, Yiayia, and a quiet, forgotten boyband singer named .

The season’s defining moment came on Day 14. With food supplies critically low—Aris had accidentally burned the rice supply trying to cook it in seawater—Fiona led a mutiny. Using contraband oregano (smuggled in by a sympathetic producer) and a discarded tin can, she created a makeshift spit. She convinced Kati Gaga to distract the camp’s “camp leader” (Aris) by fake-fainting over a fake scorpion, while Fiona and Yiayia roasted a lizard they’d caught. The result? A “souvlaki” so aromatic that even the camera crew begged for a bite. The clip went viral globally, racking up 200 million views in 48 hours.

Producers leaned heavily into Greek mythology. The first elimination trial, “The Stables of Augeas,” required contestants to wade through 500 liters of fermented olive paste and goat offal to retrieve a single star. In “Siren’s Song,” celebrities were chained underwater in a sea cave while speakers blasted a loop of Aris’s political rants. The most infamous, “Persephone’s Descent,” involved being buried alive in a sarcophagus filled with Greek yogurt, live mealworms, and a single air hole.

For one chaotic, bug-infested, sun-scorched autumn, Greece forgot its economic worries and bonded over one question: Can a TikTok chef and a diva survive a lizard shortage? The answer, as Season 21 proved, was a resounding, retsina-soaked Nai (yes).