I’m pretty sure the Earth just reversed it’s magnetic poles or something because somehow the trashiest reality show on television has morphed into a tarty version of Oprah’s Big Give.

On the season finale of Paradise Hotel 2, we learned which of the hotel guests won the so-called “ultimate prize”. Sit down for this one. The first shocker: it was the biggest tool from Season 1, 28-year-old personal trainer Zach. Shocker two: Zach entered this season as the least offensive and idiotic of this batch of hotel guests. (I dare say Zach actually seems smart and nearly likeable compared to the cocky, confused and verbally-challenged kid he was on Paradise Hotel 1. What a difference four years can make!) Shocker three: Zach shared his “ultimate prize” of $200,000 with Tidisha and Stephanie!

The final two couples left to win the ultimate prize at the beginning of the episode were Ryan and TD and Stephanie and Zach. I’ll admit, I’ve been hard on Ryan. He just has those dopey eyes and hair that looks like it needs a good rinse and repeat. Ryan also slept with Stephanie (holy VD Batman!) and tried to sleep with other women in the hotel by using really bad lines like “Can you feel the ridge?” But in the end, Ryan ended up being a fairly nice guy who was at least honest about his intentions for the show: “to drink and hook up.” I am also charmed by the fact that he resents people who make $50,000 a year because to a lifeguard that seems like a lot of money and like you’re puttin’ on airs.

TD also can be forgiven. She switched alliances several times to advance her game but it never appeared that she humiliated or demeaned herself in Paradise Hotel in a way that will linger beyond the taping and airing of the show. That is a tall order when you factor in all the free booze and sexually-suggestive challenges the producers lay out for hotel guests. For her efforts to help Zach, TD took home $20,000 of his winnings. She was the only original guest to walk away with anything in the game.

Zach, as I mentioned before, has grown up it seems. The baby fat is gone, replaced by a body that appears to be chiseled out of marble or at least silestone. He also speaks more clearly and never tried to stir the pot or turn guests against one other. For his Johnny-come-lately strategy of flying under the radar and making friends with everyone, he walks away with the $90,000 he kept for himself.

Zach also gave $90,000 to Stephanie. This is where my kindness and patience for these people runs out. A box of rocks would be insulted if you compared it to Stephanie. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a dumber girl with worse manners on reality TV. Stephanie makes those saucy broads on Flavor Of Love seem sophisticated and well-read. But Stephanie was Zach’s partner (in more ways than one) and he, apparently, is nothing if not loyal. My only comfort is that she’ll probably blow through the money quickly on a hot new Trans Am or trip to Cancun.

It was the ousted hotel guests who ultimately held the power to select the final couple standing. They had to choose between Zach and Stephanie or Ryan and TD. Four out of seven picked Zach and Stephanie. Then, in a not-so-exciting twist, Ryan and TD got to pick which of those two to give the “ultimate prize”. For reasons unclear beyond the fact that Ryan felt a connection with him, (they both slept with Stephanie after all) they picked Zach.

Zach then got to decide whether to keep all the money or share it. He chose to share his winnings with TD and Stephanie. If this seems anti-climactic, that’s because it was. Though I have to say, I was surprised at how much Zach has matured. To be generous on a skeezy, boozy, greed-fest reality show? That doesn’t happen every day.

So what have we all learned from Paradise Hotel 2? First off, there didn’t need to be one. The original show came along at a time before Girls Gone Wild had gone mainstream. Now every show seems like Paradise Hotel. The meaningless hook-ups, the stereotypical big-boobed, empty-headed and sexually-liberated tarts mingling with disturbingly clueless guys…the airwaves are over-saturated with this played-out concept.

Another problem with this show could be termed ‘skeeze-fatigue’. When everything is shocking nothing is. There is something oddly flat and robotic about a world populated by people who only want to “hook-up” (or “fingerpaint” as the Paradise Hotel guests cryptically put it) without any interest in their conquest as an actual human being. Without any actual attraction or love intrigue, watching booze-fueled people chase after each other solely for sex is about as exciting and stimulating as watching 80’s episodes of Wild Kingdom.

We’ve all seen too much and seen it done better before. Short of killing someone to win a reality TV show prize, I’m not sure what would even generate buzz at this point. Still the shows make money and producers churn them out like sausage so don’t expect the Paradise Hotel genre, or the dignity-challenged people who would agree to be on them, to go away.

Yet even in the era of televised greed and lust some people still want to do the proverbial “right thing”? Zach didn’t have to give his winnings away. No one, not even his fellow players, would have been surprised or outraged if he kept it all. Every man for themselves, right? But he didn’t. He shared it because he felt like TD and that twit Stephanie helped him and for that, he owed them something.

Loyality? Sharing? Doing the right thing? On a show that airs a “mature” version on FOX Reality at 1 a.m.? Maybe the Earth really has undergone a pole shift. Or maybe, just maybe, kindness is the only twist in these types of shows that still has the power to shock.