What started as a 16-person chase for a million is about to end as a dream job of a lifetime through the thick of the impossible. When last we left Shawn and Sara, they were about to give "the presentation of a lifetime" as to why they should be chosen as the last person standing. What the two don't know as we return to Necker Island, Sir Richard's center of operations, is that they will be giving their presentations in front of a familiar crowd... their eliminated opponents! And as they reveal themselves stone-faced, it became clear that this was going to be a tough crowd. Will speaking from the heart win them over? Or will old feelings die hard?

Sara begins the party. Of her highlights, brainstorming in the bathroom gets a rise out of a few people, but of her low lights, playing damage control and repeating herself over and over begin to do her in. And it also hurts matters that she never really got into her own ambitions, only saying that "making women's butts look better is not her ultimate ambition" and that she wants to use the prize money (at last check, $1 million) to "benefit women" after saying that she wanted to "help people." The first to notice this: Jermaine. The second to notice this: Candida, who also doesn't see Sara as she was during this presentation. Through it all, though, Richard is impressed with how she tackled the challenges she was faced with, and how in her never-losing, she faced her greatest fears.

Now to Shawn, who is as cock-sure as he's ever been. He says that he should win because he wants it so bad that it makes his teeth hurt, but among the people not buying it, Tim, who was left on the first tarmac after Shawn uses Sara's fear of heights against her. You remember that episode, right? It was also the episode when Tim was spared due to Jennifer's cowardice. But Shawn's speech did have an overlying structure about his hopes and dreams, something that Sara was lacking. He also wants to use the money (still $1 million at this point) to further his mission that he started with the Love Sac company, to fulfill the dreams of the people who have stuck with him through thick and thin. This wins over some of the crowd, as the likes of Candida approve. But without acknowledging Sara's role in the competition, will anyone see beyond his cocky attitude?

So who wins? No one. At least not yet.

This was merely a formality to set up another challenge, as Richard invites everyone to change into their swimsuits for another physical challenge within the confines of a nasty storm. Richard poses a challenge to Shawn to learn to sail, while Sara will learn to kite surf. The challenge is to take their modes of transport and race to a reef off the coast of Necker Island and then return. The first one back will be the winner. This poses a challenge to both Shawn and Sara, as Shawn will be facing a challenge alone for the first time, and Sara will once again face her fear of heights. Not to mention that both will be doing this as a hard rain's beginning to fall. Sara had a pretty good feeling that kite-surfing would be involved, as Richard first brought it up at the start of the Necker Island venture. One thing she didn't count on was that the conditions would be so hard or the instruction time so limited.

But then, a lightbulb moment. Richard did say to use the transports to get them to the reef and back, but he never said we couldn't do it alone! She enlists her instructor, a world-class kite-surfing champion, to accompany her, as she could never make the trip alone. With this, she bypasses Shawn as he struggles to keep his one-man rigger aloft in the storm. Shawn didn't even notice the second body on the horizon. All he could see was Sara moving really quickly. Only on Sara and her instructor's return trip does he notice that the singular surfer is actually two. Instead of any ill will, he is actually full of praise for her resourcefulness. Sir Richard shares in the sentiment as she did not break any rules, instead exploiting a loophole in the challenge that allowed her to win. It isn't the first time that he admits that he didn't even think that they would see a challenge through to its completion.

So does Sara win the money? Not yet... Gee, what else can this guy throw at them?!

Back at Richard's keep, he tells that in order to be successful in business, it's necessary to surround yourself with the best people, trust them, and draw on their expertise. That said, it's time for a different bit of cross-examination, with each player choosing teams from the pool of 14 to best help them grill their opponent by coming up with five of the toughest questions that they can use to confront them with. Richard will not only pay attention to the questions to be asked, but to the teams to be picked, as selection will be as telling as hearing the questions.

Now to the draft, as both players want Gabriel, forcing him to choose between the two. He decides to go with Sara, as he still has questions to ask Shawn. Now here's the weird thing about Gabriel. During the competition, he was more of a gopher for the teams he was on, and a pushover when it came down to presentations. Remember his incredibly drawn-out plans for the African tribes in that particular episode? But now that he has pretty much displaced himself from victory, he starts, as is wont to do for people in his decision, to grow some balls. He's got a fire for insight and all of a sudden is as strong mentally as his character. He's still a gopher, but now he's a gopher who's cooking with gas.

In the end, the teams are as such:

Sara's team: Gabriel, Heather, Steve, Jessica, Sam, Jennifer, Aisha
Shawn's team: Candida, Tim, Nicole, Erica, Michael, Spencer, Jermaine

Jessica thinks that her team is obviously more put together than Shawn's. Because to bite the hand that feels you would be bad. Shawn's team will be playing the character assassination card. Jermaine's initial process about the people being whittled down to women will come to play. Candida suggests that her speech, like everything about her so far this series, revealed nothing about herself personally. Nicole adds that Sara tried often to usurp power of whoever was the appointed leader of the team. Tim and Erica agree that Sara was good at speaking about herself, but not that good about talking other people's strengths, but it contradicts Candida's earlier charge that Sara revealed little about herself.

Sara's team will also play character assassination, as many of them questioned Shawn's approach to the game. Sara encourages them to be adversarial. The leading strategies come to one thing: Shawn's bravado was for sheer effect and the carefree attitude was a front. Heather notes that Shawn liked to cause trouble, not so much to further his own chances, but just for his own amusement. Jessica comes up with the idea of asking Shawn where the others come from in terms of business background. Add this to Shawn's short fuse, and they have a strong case against the player, something Jessica predicted a long time ago.

Sir Richard cites that this challenge is more or less a test of grace under fire to see who will conduct themselves on the highest plane of discipline when confronted with a hostile audience. And another storm is approaching. Symmmmm-bolism! Sir Richard gives the teams final instructions, saying that in life you are often forced to make decisions with limited time and information, "so use this time wisely and make the most of it."

Shawn is the first one on the grill. Off the bad, Sara asks him to state his three biggest weaknesses. Shawn does so. Gabe shifts the line of questioning to one of his weaknesses, his confrontation. Shawn's answer is far from direct and shifts the blame to the group dynamic rather than assuming responsibility himself. Gabe seems dissatisfied with the reply. This is followed by a bevy of disjointed questions about teamwork, communication and trust. Shawn goes on the defensive, stating that he isn't being asked questions so much as lectured and attacked from every angle. Yeah, yeah, moving forward...

Now to the real killer question, from Heather. "We all, as team, decided that one of the most important skills as a leader and a team player, is listening. We all know the name "LoveSac". So we were wondering if you could please tell us the names of the companies that everyone here works for, and if they don't own a company, what they do?" And Shawn is a deer in headlights, as he admits that listening is one of his weaknesses and can't come up with an answer. Dun dun duuuuuuun! Sir Richard seems to be disappointed.

With that, we move to Sara's inquisition. Shawn, still bleeding from the last question, asks her "It's been said by multiple people that they feel that they don't know you, they feel that you've been hiding different sides to yourself and that you really haven't been yourself. What exactly are you hiding and why?" Sara, back on the offensive after a less-than-stellar pitch to begin with, says that she is not hiding anything and can count on one hand the number of times in seven weeks anyone has asked her a direct question about herself. The question backfires because Sara is able to point out that she doesn't feel the need to be self-promoting in a group setting and as a leader she is much better at listening to people and ascertaining their qualities than singing her own glories.

Guess she wasn't thinking about that, though. The questioning continues as Sara defends herself until Nicole asks that she lists the qualities she feels that she has over Shawn. She was able to do so earlier... not this time. Well, she does mention listening skills, but that's pretty much it.

Sir Richard commends both on their handling of the pressure. "In order to learn something valuable, the questions needed to be tough." But he has one more... If the prize (which, so far as I know, is still just the million dollars... heh, if only they knew) had any monetary value, would at least half be given to charity? Sara immediately says yes; Shawn would make better use of the money by parlaying it into a greater amount before attempting any charitable gift. That ends tonight's portion of the final challenge, as the group is invited to rejoin him for dinner...

He still hasn't decided. Like so many decisions that Sir Richard made in the past, this is going to prove to be quite difficult.

Dinner = an excuse to drag clips to pad the show into its two-hour slot. Steve interrupts the clips to apologize to Jessica about the way he treated her. There's a general air of love and happiness until Richard reminds them that the game is not yet over. Tomorrow is the final challenge.

And here comes tomorrow, as Sara and Shawn discuss the events of the previous day. But enough about that. Now comes the final challenge before Richard makes his final decision. The finalists each choose one person to act as their advocate, and these advocates will decide who will win the prize. In the choosing, Shawn wondered why Gabe, who was his best friend since the show began, chose Sara over him. He acknowledges that Gabe had his reasons, and that his friendship shouldn't suffer over it. He also describes Lovesac as a miracle which led to other miracles. He knows that Sara really wants to win, but he needs to win in order to bring his dreams to fruition.

Sara, meanwhile, gets some news that her Spanx got some free publicity when Gwyneth Paltrow was asked how she managed to look so good after her birth. Yay for free pub! Sara attributes her company and plans for the future per the competition to being fluent in others (namely Shawn's business) while staying reserved. As it turns out, while Sara has reached a stage where she is able to delegate authority effectively within her company and move on to focus on other projects, Shawn is still struggling to make his business work. Richard is still not sure, after viewing Shawn's financial records, if the company is destined to have a long lifespan without a large infusion of capital.

Now to the final challenge. Again, both players choose Gabriel, and again, Gabriel chooses to champion Sara. That leaves Shawn to choose a champion from the remaining 13. He stuns the crowd by selecting Heather, who is known in her contempt for Shawn. Candida likes Sara, but wants to see Shawn win. Nicole thought that she could've argued more persuasively for Shawn's behalf. Meanwhile, Gabe and Heather map out their game plans and design traits that they feel a good leader must possess. Gabe's strategy: stressing the important of focusing on the tenets ob business that they have learned from Branson as he ran Virgin and his vision of the traits he was looking for in the winner. That seemed to no avail, as Richard has such a list for the two to argue over! Gabe & Heather divide the list between the two finalists arguing who demonstrated the stronger attributes. Both seemed to be firm in their resolve, as they pool the others and then weigh their own opinions. In the end, they reach... an impasse. But, to quote Richard: "The time has come, and a decision has to be made."

The participants assemble at the veranda, where they await a decision. Heather goes to Shawn and says, "I'm sorry... but Gabe and I were not able to come to a unanimous decision." Okay, all that buildup, and we still don't have a winner! Or do we? Once again, the decision rests on Richard's hands. Some of the players have doubts about Shawn's leadership abilities, but he still exhibits potential to grow. Sara has achieved the most with her own company, had a successful run in the game, and gained the respect of all that she worked with in the game. But Richard had to look past all that into the big picture, and to where the potential for dream and goal fulfillment was...

And in the end, he picks Shawn. So he wins a million dollars, right? Well, Richard makes the offer, but first...

"What you have accomplished so far as an entrepreneur is nothing short of amazing." So he gives him one more choice, take the money and run with no regrets, or risk it for a chance to join Richard on one final adventure, the opportunity of a lifetime, and something that could ultimately be worth more than the $1 million. Shawn still has no idea what it is. "Is it a good time?" Not meaning "Is this the right timing," but rather, "What is it you limey bastard?" Richard tells him that it is indeed a good time.

Shawn sits alone with at least 30 minutes to himself. Richard asks for an answer, but Shawn doesn't have one just yet. Gabriel shows Shawn that he is indeed still his best buddy by telling him that he knows that it isn't just about money, but in the end, it is the money, and nothing's worth taking the gamble. Thinking that this may be another "barrel over the waterfalls", Shawn had to assess whether this was an acceptable risk. Would he take $1 million from his company and risk it on a toss of a coin? Would you?

Shawn wouldn't. He couldn't return to his wife and employees knowing that he gambled their future away. He's going to take the money and high tail it back to Utah. But before he does, Richard, hearing the answer that he was hoping for, informs that Shawn had just passed the final test and will be awarded not only the $1 million... but the entire chocolate factor... no, wait. Sorry. Got caught up in the moment there. What I meant was that Shawn would not only win the $1 million, but ... the keys to the entire Virgin empire, which, really, is what Fox was saying all this time. But per government rules sanctioning the awarding of prizes on televised competitions (or at least S&P sanctions), here are the details per Richard Branson: Shawn will be appointed titular head of Virgin, work alongside Richard for three months (C-Note: wasn't this supposed to be one year?) at the end of which Richard may appoint him to one of his enterprises.

Which then leads to Shawn being reunited with his wife, and then being faced with another decision. Richard asks Shawn to choose one of the competitors to accompany him as his second in command. Someone who could keep him grounded. There was no other choice, as Gabe's rational thinking and saving Shawn from another frivolous risk gives him the job. Friends until the end, I always say.

End of series? Not yet. In another surprising twist, Sara is awarded $750,000 to start her charity and the services of Virgin Unite, the charity arm of the Virgin empire. So in effect, both Shawn and Sara are winners today, but in another, more real effect, Shawn is the winner. We go through the usual parade of "I'm glad/sad he/she won", as Sir Richard noted that Sara's attitude would make Spanx into a million operation very shortly.

But back to Shawn, as he is escorted to his office, another part of Richard's keep. Shawn quickly helps himself to the hammock, but little did he realize that his place was behind a desk. The hammock belongs to Richard, as he explains that they need to examine, as he has the entire series, the big picture. With that, two helicopters arrive to take the Rebel Billionaire and his new protege onto their next adventure together. "We'll work later."

With that, Richard and Shawn spend what daylight they have left... not in the two choppers, but rather fittingly, suspended below the two of them. After all, history remembers the risk takers.

Final notes from Shawn: "From the very beginning we've been competing for a mystery prize. We've been laying it all out there something we didn't know what it was, hoping that Richard would make good on his own, and he far exceeded anyone's expectations."

Final notes from Sir Richard: "The last few months have been more than just a TV show. We traveled the world. We got to know each other inside out. We've had an enormous amount of fun in the process and I hope that every person who's been on the journey with us has learned an enormous amount from it. And all I can say is that I certainly have."

And with that, I, Chico Alexander, the Rebel Recapper bid you many fair winds and following sails. See you soon!