I'm not sure if this was addressed in the reunion but couldn't Johnny, Kenny, or Derrick have just said forget you Evelyn our team is Johnny, Kenny, Derrick and Paula when they were asked to pick the teams for the boats? Evelyn had already taken Dunbar's key at this point so Johnny was safe no matter what.
I'm not sure if this was addressed in the reunion but couldn't Johnny, Kenny, or Derrick have just said forget you Evelyn our team is Johnny, Kenny, Derrick and Paula when they were asked to pick the teams for the boats? Evelyn had already taken Dunbar's key at this point so Johnny was safe no matter what.
Exactly! I don't understand how people try to justify Bananas' action when he could have easily been like "well, I still have my key and I want Paula, Kenny, and Derrick on my boat."
He would have had backlash for screwing Evelyn again, but he spent the entire season messing with her so it wouldn't have been any different. He said it himself back then and it rings true now. He was looking out for number one, meaning he didn't care he was screwing over Paula.
And then he would've gotten just as much shit for backstabbing Evelyn.
What? Bananas whole argument is that the reason it's bad is that they are friendly. Him and Evelyn had nothing going into the game. No screwing Paula isn't the same as screwing Evelyn in Johnny's own book. Based on what he is saying he's mad about these would not be the same scenerios at all.
That aftershow didn't do Johnny any favors. Between his little unnecessary tantrum during the actual episode towards Jay who literally had done absolutely nothing wrong to throwing the elephant statue at Jordan and Sarah and almost hitting the host he looks like a little kid throwing a tantrum. Looking at it through his eyes I guess I'd be mad too if I lost my salary for the year. BTW does anyone know what Johnny does to make ends meet if he doesn't win a challenge? Just curious.
Also the point is to make it to the Final? No, the point is to win the final, something you'd think a guy who has pulled out every trick in the book to become a 5 time champion would understand. It's like saying the point of a football season is to make it to the Super Bowl, even if you lose. "YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME"
I haven't read the entire thread, but I see people are talking about the situation on the Island as an example of Johnny backstabbing a friend in Paula, but that is completely false. Paula was aware of what was happening and was given a portion of the winnings for allowing it to happen. She just played it up for the cameras. It is why she went back to any alliance Johnny and Kenny had after The Island.
Johnny being upset in the moment is completely understandable as this show is his livelihood, but him still being so upset on the Aftershow is completely ridiculous. The goal is to win as much money as possible. Keeping Jay/Jenna and eliminating Leroy or Bananas is the best way to do that for Sarah. Bananas even lobbied Sarah/Jordan to throw in Leroy/Nia and threw a challenge to allow it to happen. He shouldn't complain months after the fact about being backstabbed when he did it during the mission before.
I haven't read the entire thread, but I see people are talking about the situation on the Island as an example of Johnny backstabbing a friend in Paula, but that is completely false. Paula was aware of what was happening and was given a portion of the winnings for allowing it to happen. She just played it up for the cameras. It is why she went back to any alliance Johnny and Kenny had after The Island.
Wow, did not know this. I kind of feel bad for Johnny now because he takes a lot of heat for this and I don't think he can't even defend himself because I know that it's against the rules to split the winnings so it's not in his best interests to admit that. And as if I needed another reason to like Paula even less.
And I think he deleted a reply that called him out on it. If I read some other posts correctly.
Correct, he was originally called out by the twitter account croakerqueen. I saw the tweeted response calling him out and clicked the article they posted which was from 2010 that showed the same picture Johnny was claiming was his injury but when I had returned to the original tweet not 5 minutes later the response was gone. Had I not looked at his twitter during that 5 minute interval I would have never even known that picture wasn't of him. I called him out myself but that tweet disappeared shortly after as well.
My thing is this...Nia ****** up & she admits it. However, I see that she is genuinely sorry for what she did. She is a work in progress; you can tell she is really working on herself just from her Twitter posts in general but it takes time.
Johnny on the other hand, shows no remorse for anything he did & months later still feels as if he is completely in the right.
My thing is this...Nia ****** up & she admits it. However, I see that she is genuinely sorry for what she did. She is a work in progress; you can tell she is really working on herself just from her Twitter posts in general but it takes time.
Johnny on the other hand, shows no remorse for anything he did & months later still feels as if he is completely in the right.
Ok...but what did Johnny DO besides be a whiny petulant brat? It was annoying as shit but I don't see what bad thing he did besides that. He didn't attack Jordan at all. He said Sarah was a piece of shit but pretty much gave her the silent treatment the rest of the time and only made his commentary in confessionals...I guess he laughed at the stuff Nia was saying...but so did Nany and Leroy. Even on the aftershow he only yelled when he was being yelled at by Sarah and Jordan. Whenever the host spoke to him he answered calmly. He was a huge ******* idiot the whole episode...but really he was just acting like a child. I don't think he has much to show remorse for beyond that.
He didn't touch anyone inappropriately. He also didn't attack anyone on a personal level. He didn't throw out language insulting to any group. I have 0 support for how he behaved yesterday but how he acted and how Nia acted are on two completely different planets.
HAHA I thought this was hilarious. I can kind of understand where Wes was coming from. None of the girls on this season are super elite competitors. There's no Evelyn, Emily or Laurel. Most of the girls were pretty even with each other.
My thing is this...Nia ****** up & she admits it. However, I see that she is genuinely sorry for what she did. She is a work in progress; you can tell she is really working on herself just from her Twitter posts in general but it takes time.
Johnny on the other hand, shows no remorse for anything he did & months later still feels as if he is completely in the right.
Ok...but what did Johnny DO besides be a whiny petulant brat? It was annoying as shit but I don't see what bad thing he did besides that. He didn't attack Jordan at all. He said Sarah was a piece of shit but pretty much gave her the silent treatment the rest of the time and only made his commentary in confessionals...I guess he laughed at the stuff Nia was saying...but so did Nany and Leroy. Even on the aftershow he only yelled when he was being yelled at by Sarah and Jordan. Whenever the host spoke to him he answered calmly. He was a huge ******* idiot the whole episode...but really he was just acting like a child. I don't think he has much to show remorse for beyond that.
He didn't touch anyone inappropriately. He also didn't attack anyone on a personal level. He didn't throw out language insulting to any group. I have 0 support for how he behaved yesterday but how he acted and how Nia acted are on two completely different planets.
I mean it really just depends on if you're "pro-Nia" or "pro-Johnny". You'll see things differently from the other side.
I hate that she chose to do any of it because people were literally camping out, waiting for her to be that "disgusting, wretched golddigger Nia" that they couldn't stand from Portland. People weren't really willing to give her any chance. CT has been given TONS of chances (it took him about 7-8 challenges for him to finally get his shit together), and of course Johnny has been given multiple chances.
My thing is this...Nia ****** up & she admits it. However, I see that she is genuinely sorry for what she did. She is a work in progress; you can tell she is really working on herself just from her Twitter posts in general but it takes time.
Johnny on the other hand, shows no remorse for anything he did & months later still feels as if he is completely in the right.
Ok...but what did Johnny DO besides be a whiny petulant brat? It was annoying as shit but I don't see what bad thing he did besides that. He didn't attack Jordan at all. He said Sarah was a piece of shit but pretty much gave her the silent treatment the rest of the time and only made his commentary in confessionals...I guess he laughed at the stuff Nia was saying...but so did Nany and Leroy. Even on the aftershow he only yelled when he was being yelled at by Sarah and Jordan. Whenever the host spoke to him he answered calmly. He was a huge ******* idiot the whole episode...but really he was just acting like a child. I don't think he has much to show remorse for beyond that.
He didn't touch anyone inappropriately. He also didn't attack anyone on a personal level. He didn't throw out language insulting to any group. I have 0 support for how he behaved yesterday but how he acted and how Nia acted are on two completely different planets.
I mean it really just depends on if you're "pro-Nia" or "pro-Johnny". You'll see things differently from the other side.
I hate that she chose to do any of it because people were literally camping out, waiting for her to be that "disgusting, wretched golddigger Nia" that they couldn't stand from Portland. People weren't really willing to give her any chance. CT has been given TONS of chances (it took him about 7-8 challenges for him to finally get his shit together), and of course Johnny has been given multiple chances.
Ordinarily I would agree with this. There's two sides to every story. But even if I could mentally put myself in the "Nia is the best person in the world" camp, I couldn't begin to see how what they did was comparable. Of the things Johnny actually said to people, not in confessionals, he had the dumb argument with Jay, and he called Sarah a piece of shit, exclusively because of the move that she made. Every comment he made in the confessional was *****ing about the move. Every comment that he made about Sarah was pretty much some variation of "You're a backstabber".
How that can be equated with calling her fat, a sloth, a loser, a *****, Jordan a ******, grabbing his crotch, pulling his pants down, literally following them around the suite so she could shit on them, is beyond me. Is Nia more apologetic about it? Yeah...because she has a lot more to be apologetic for. And I'm not trying to sweep it under the rug because I like Johnny. One episode doesn't make me want to stop rooting for him but I have a much lower opinion of him than I did and I'll be way less inclined to defend him in the future. One person doing wrong doesn't make the other person doing wrong ok...and bad behavior can be quantified...there are levels to it. Nia's was much worse.
And, to be quite honest, and this isn't just aimed at Nia, I don't really believe anyone's apologies on this show. I didn't believe any of Laurel's, Frank's, Nia's, Jordan's, anyone's. This show turns people into animals and they're only apologetic months after the fact on camera. How can you buy into an apology when she's been on twitter shitting on the guy the whole season? I have 0 vendetta against Nia. I want to like everyone on the shows...I think it makes for a better show. I thought the way Nia (and pretty much everyone else) behaved on Portland was pretty deplorable but I always want to change my opinion to start to like someone.
Last week, I had so much work on top of work on top of work that I wasn't able to provide my weekly recap. But shoutout to The Challenge for finally being back at a sane hour of the night. I have work in the morning, so I rarely want to stay up as late as I have to to watch it, but I usually do because I love The Challenge. ****, it's almost over...again.
These are the type of moves I wish we had a podcast for. Someone hook up a Vevmo podcast and get me on there or something, because it's worthy a lengthy discussion that I'll condense into a few paragraphs.
Here's the thing about Sarah's decision to throw in Bananas & Nany: It's a smart decision. If you're playing "just a game" (which people in The Challenge use to remove accountability of their decisions & justify shitty actions), you play a game to win. Sarah's not playing the game just to "make it to the final to get paid", she's playing to win. It's a different dynamic in playing to ensure that you're going to win, as opposed to just trying to make it to the final and see what happens there.
But her decision will forever taint her credibility in the game because she lied. Flat out lied. She made the decision, she feels horrible about it, but she only feels horrible because she betrayed her previous alliance. Especially at a critical point when everything was on the line.
What makes it even worse is that she tries to justify her decision by saying Bananas & Nany would've voted them in. Bananas & Sarah aren't the best of friends (he apparently doesn't call her on her birthday), but they were working together the entire game. I completely agree with Bananas for being outraged, because she didn't live up to her word.
It also looks bad because she keeps referencing the money as opposed to the win, it looks money hungry. Like you would screw over your friends for money.
Why Aren't They At The House Again?
I don't know if anyone noticed, but they aren't at the house. They completed The Challenge and now for some reason they're staying in the hotel they just jumped off. Did the lease on the house expire and they just stuffed everyone in a hotel suite or something?
Norway, Where All The Furniture Is From IKEA
Seriously. That's all I saw when they showed the house.
Worst Field Trip Ever
So, it's pretty much a known fact that the producers of The Challenge rarely let the challengers out the house. Hell, they frequented the same bar for eight episodes before we saw them do anything outside of drink, dance, and standing 69s. But with a few episodes left and the numbers perfectly dwindled, they all get to explore Norway and it turns out to be the worst field trip ever. Everyone hates everyone and now even worse than traveling with boastful Bananas -- who makes it to the end of every game, you have to travel with bitter Bananas. Why did we have to sit through this
Originally, I didn't understand it. Was it for the homophobic slur? We've seen racial slurs on previous Real Worlds without consequences. Was it for the crotch poking? Probably had something to do with it. With that said, I didn't understand the thought process of silently removing her from the game with no explanation, no retort, nothing. She left the house completely unaware of what was going on, and was never seen again. It's like if your friend was called to the principal's office, and you don't know if it's something good like being promoted to the next grade or you're in trouble, but three days later you find out your friend was suspended altogether. Television wise, it provided great intrigue for those five minutes, but I didn't like the way it was done.
Concerning the act itself, Nia should've kept her hands to herself (although I think she wouldn't have done it, knowing that it would've got her in trouble because she's done worse to Jordan on their season of The Real World). So like Vinny on the original Battle of the Exes season, she was kicked off the show for "crossing the line".
It hit me now more than ever (for some reason) that this "crossing the line" situation is a result of the entire Tonya/Evan/Kenny (here comes the four page debate) situation during The Ruins that those boys "crossed the line" and there were major repercussions for it. Neither of them have returned to The Challenge since. Vinny hasn't returned to The Challenge since. Could Nia be in the same boat? This isn't the first time she's "crossed the line" and it may not be the last.
Please not Naomi, please not Naomi, please not Naomi
Congratulations Leroy, it's NOT Naomi (also, you're kind of a *****?). With Nia leaving The Challenge for an undisclosed period of time, they had time to ship Theresa back to replace her and Leroy's stock just flew through the roof. I'm happy with Theresa replacing Nia, because it makes everything a lot more interesting for the final elimination.
Leroy and Nia have beaten Bananas & Nany before to send them out of the game, due to Wes & Theresa sending the latter into an elimination round. But Bananas & Nany returned to the game on a TV show twist and helped plotted Wes & Theresa's exit from the game due to Leroy & Nia. Now Bananas & Nany have to go against Leroy & Nia again, or as they thought, but now Bananas & Nany are being screwed by a similar plot twist which brings Theresa back from the dead and now she's teaming with the guy who sent her home.
Yeah. Go Challenge. And now they have to explain their Exes history like it's Episode 1, ten episodes down the line.
Bananas' Kryptonite is a Garbage Man
Bananas has only been defeated in an elimination round by two people prior to this: Tyler and Evan. The fact that Bananas has lost an elimination round twice, in the same season, to the same person, is big. We've seen this elimination round countless times before (through multiple variations throughout the years), and we've also seen Bananas whoop Mark Long and Adam (from AYTO) in variations of this elimination round. I think just training with Bananas, Leroy knew the best strategy to winning the elimination round and he implemented that.
But the real show was between the girls, and I'm glad they let him have the main event. Nany vs. Theresa will go down as one of the more fierce female elimination rounds in the show's history. The tension and history was there, and everything in the show has been leading up to this moment of these two lionesses going at it.
Props to Nany, she's a lot more formidable of a competitor than anyone would've given her credit for before she started this show. She's held her own in the Challenges, in the elimination rounds, and even in a final. This elimination proved a lot more to me about her than anything previously.
Theresa kicked her in the face, Nany kneed her in the chest. It was worth the price of admission to see this battle go down. Like the "Rumble in the Jungle", we'll officially call it the "*****s Play in Norway". The winner should face Ronda Rousey.
Theresa's Tears of Joy
With everything that happened in this episode (and it was a lot), it was refreshing to see someone appreciate making it to a final as much as Theresa. We've seen Bananas make it to a million finals. Even Nany, whose only on her third season, has made it to one more than Theresa. Sarah & Jordan have both made it to finals, but both have put money over values so they've lost quite a bit of integrity.Jay & Jenna still don't know how they got here, nor do they appreciate the work it takes to get to a final because they just coasted along for 11 episodes. Besides Leroy, Theresa may be the only one who holds the value of being a great competitor close to her heart.
Seeing her tear up made me happy for her, because she doesn't take for granted everything that's happened. While she hasn't won yet, Theresa has overcome a stigma that she's placed in herself that she will never win a Challenge. It was that stigma that pushed her to become desperate and insincere to the point where she felt like she needed to do shitty things to make it another week. Now she's kind of earned it. It's a narrative that they probably won't run with (because Theresa calling Nany a ***** is a lot juicier), but it's something feel good amidst all the turmoil.
And suddenly they transport to the finals.
My one beef with this episode was how rushed they seem to be to start the finals. We spent seven minutes of this episode walking with them through Norway, but there's no strong build to the actual finals. Usually before every final, there's some sort of development that will anticipate the hell that all the Challengers have to go through. The Challenges prepare, there's some awesome music, maybe some foreshadowing and it gets me hype. This season, they literally walk up to final mission as if it were a daily Challenge.
Also, we're not going to print Leroy & Theresa another color shirt? No? Okay.
TJ: ...to get there, you guys are going to be riding in helicopters!
SARAH: KEEEWLL!
TJ: Once you get there, you're going to have to jump out of the helicopter!
SARAH: WHOOAAAAA!
TJ: Once you swim to the first checkpoint, you're going to have to kayak your way down the side of the mountain.
SARAH: *tries to contain happiness, but head explodes*
GET A GRIP SARAH! That's why no one invites you to finals!
The final finally starts, and I'm interested to see what they're going to have to do. I'm glad BMP started condensing the finals episodes back into one episode, because the two episode thing was a bit of an overkill.
I'm not sure if this was addressed in the reunion but couldn't Johnny, Kenny, or Derrick have just said forget you Evelyn our team is Johnny, Kenny, Derrick and Paula when they were asked to pick the teams for the boats? Evelyn had already taken Dunbar's key at this point so Johnny was safe no matter what.
Not sure if someone answered this but I'm pretty sure I remember Paula bringing this up at the reunion. Kenny answered saying they didn't know the rules and they were asked to pick their boat right on the spot so he probably panicked and just picked Evelyn. This is why I don't see so much that Bananas betrayed Paula. Kenny made up the plan to keep the key on Bananas and Kenny picked the boat leaving out Paula. Bananas could have intervined to try and save her but that would have sent him home. The Sarah/Bananas situation is different.
I'm not sure if this was addressed in the reunion but couldn't Johnny, Kenny, or Derrick have just said forget you Evelyn our team is Johnny, Kenny, Derrick and Paula when they were asked to pick the teams for the boats? Evelyn had already taken Dunbar's key at this point so Johnny was safe no matter what.
Not sure if someone answered this but I'm pretty sure I remember Paula bringing this up at the reunion. Kenny answered saying they didn't know the rules and they were asked to pick their boat right on the spot so he probably panicked and just picked Evelyn. This is why I don't see so much that Bananas betrayed Paula. Kenny made up the plan to keep the key on Bananas and Kenny picked the boat leaving out Paula. Bananas could have intervined to try and save her but that would have sent him home. The Sarah/Bananas situation is different.
I find it ironic that people are even advocating for them doing that. For all the complaints about the ******* game JEK play, J/K honored a deal that they made and did what they shook hands on. Kenny said on the reunion, "Evelyn did right by us and didn't take Johnny's key, and we did right by Evelyn." So playing the sleazy game is a knock against them, but now we're encouraing them to have taken the sleazy route because it's convenient for this narrative that we're building now? People need to pick a position and stay in it. I love Paula, but she was promised an opportunity to get a key, and to not be sent home. I doubt any of the guys, at any point, said to her, "Hey, Pauls, if any of us accidentally go home, you're in." There's also a daily, if I remember correctly, of Paula trying to throw Derrick under the bus and convince Evelyn that the boat should be the two of them + J/K. She seemed to understand then that if it's them or you, you should pick yourself.
It depends what YOU consider sleazy--they screwed Dunbar far more than they screwed Paula as far as I'm concerned. I don't even believe Paula would have been on the first boat had Johanna or Tyrie (was it Tyrie) won the final challenge. Johanna & Dunbar were ahead of Paula IMO. Paula's only way of being on that boat was Evelyn taking Johnny's key and Dunbar, Derrick & Kenny picking Paula over Evelyn--which would have been stupid
I think it was dumb they picked the boats--they should have done a random draw or something
It depends what YOU consider sleazy--they screwed Dunbar far more than they screwed Paula as far as I'm concerned. I don't even believe Paula would have been on the first boat had Johanna or Tyrie (was it Tyrie) won the final challenge. Johanna & Dunbar were ahead of Paula IMO. Paula's only way of being on that boat was Evelyn taking Johnny's key and Dunbar, Derrick & Kenny picking Paula over Evelyn--which would have been stupid
I think it was dumb they picked the boats--they should have done a random draw or something
It was Dan. But yeah, Dunbar was the one who got screwed...and while he was pissed on the show, never made nearly the stink about it that Paula did. I remember in an interview Dunbar saying Paula had no right to be angry. That he had a greater right to be angry and he wasn't. It would've been Dunbar on their boat in every scenario besides the one that actually happened (maybe not if Kellyanne won...though she probably would not have needed the deal to go after Dunbar, she would've just done it).
But in terms of the Paula/Evelyn thing J/K/D honored their handshake. People want them to have backstabbed now in that instance because its convenient. It's quite hypocritical to ***** about them being ********, but then whine when they didn't do the ******* thing.
It depends what YOU consider sleazy--they screwed Dunbar far more than they screwed Paula as far as I'm concerned. I don't even believe Paula would have been on the first boat had Johanna or Tyrie (was it Tyrie) won the final challenge. Johanna & Dunbar were ahead of Paula IMO. Paula's only way of being on that boat was Evelyn taking Johnny's key and Dunbar, Derrick & Kenny picking Paula over Evelyn--which would have been stupid
I think it was dumb they picked the boats--they should have done a random draw or something
It was Dan. But yeah, Dunbar was the one who got screwed...and while he was pissed on the show, never made nearly the stink about it that Paula did. I remember in an interview Dunbar saying Paula had no right to be angry. That he had a greater right to be angry and he wasn't. It would've been Dunbar on their boat in every scenario besides the one that actually happened (maybe not if Kellyanne won...though she probably would not have needed the deal to go after Dunbar, she would've just done it).
But in terms of the Paula/Evelyn thing J/K/D honored their handshake. People want them to have backstabbed now in that instance because its convenient. It's quite hypocritical to ***** about them being ********, but then whine when they didn't do the ******* thing.
Thank you--it was Dan--I couldn't remember who got voted out when Evelyn won a key...I only watched that season once
I'm fine with anyone, including Bananas, doing whatever it takes to win. I don't see how you can backstab someone that is an opponent of your's. I'll never get that...ever. Allies = teammates.
It hit me now more than ever (for some reason) that this "crossing the line" situation is a result of the entire Tonya/Evan/Kenny (here comes the four page debate) situation during The Ruins that those boys "crossed the line" and there were major repercussions for it. Neither of them have returned to The Challenge since. Vinny hasn't returned to The Challenge since. Could Nia be in the same boat? This isn't the first time she's "crossed the line" and it may not be the last.
I would hope not? I do see the pattern, but I hope that isn't the case. Nia tries her *** off as a competitor, and is actually good TV. I would hate to see crotch poking as the last thing I see Nia doing.
I'm not sure if this was addressed in the reunion but couldn't Johnny, Kenny, or Derrick have just said forget you Evelyn our team is Johnny, Kenny, Derrick and Paula when they were asked to pick the teams for the boats? Evelyn had already taken Dunbar's key at this point so Johnny was safe no matter what.
Exactly! I don't understand how people try to justify Bananas' action when he could have easily been like "well, I still have my key and I want Paula, Kenny, and Derrick on my boat."
He would have had backlash for screwing Evelyn again, but he spent the entire season messing with her so it wouldn't have been any different. He said it himself back then and it rings true now. He was looking out for number one, meaning he didn't care he was screwing over Paula.
What? Bananas whole argument is that the reason it's bad is that they are friendly. Him and Evelyn had nothing going into the game. No screwing Paula isn't the same as screwing Evelyn in Johnny's own book. Based on what he is saying he's mad about these would not be the same scenerios at all.
Seems like Paula basically felt like Johnny was using their incident as cover and as 'No, that wasn't that bad' and she wasn't having that lol.
That aftershow didn't do Johnny any favors. Between his little unnecessary tantrum during the actual episode towards Jay who literally had done absolutely nothing wrong to throwing the elephant statue at Jordan and Sarah and almost hitting the host he looks like a little kid throwing a tantrum. Looking at it through his eyes I guess I'd be mad too if I lost my salary for the year. BTW does anyone know what Johnny does to make ends meet if he doesn't win a challenge? Just curious.
Also the point is to make it to the Final? No, the point is to win the final, something you'd think a guy who has pulled out every trick in the book to become a 5 time champion would understand. It's like saying the point of a football season is to make it to the Super Bowl, even if you lose. "YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME"
I haven't read the entire thread, but I see people are talking about the situation on the Island as an example of Johnny backstabbing a friend in Paula, but that is completely false. Paula was aware of what was happening and was given a portion of the winnings for allowing it to happen. She just played it up for the cameras. It is why she went back to any alliance Johnny and Kenny had after The Island.
Johnny being upset in the moment is completely understandable as this show is his livelihood, but him still being so upset on the Aftershow is completely ridiculous. The goal is to win as much money as possible. Keeping Jay/Jenna and eliminating Leroy or Bananas is the best way to do that for Sarah. Bananas even lobbied Sarah/Jordan to throw in Leroy/Nia and threw a challenge to allow it to happen. He shouldn't complain months after the fact about being backstabbed when he did it during the mission before.
Snowboard?
Wow, did not know this. I kind of feel bad for Johnny now because he takes a lot of heat for this and I don't think he can't even defend himself because I know that it's against the rules to split the winnings so it's not in his best interests to admit that. And as if I needed another reason to like Paula even less.
Time the **** out....Bananas posted a fake pic claiming they were his ribs...wow...what a *****
And I think he deleted a reply that called him out on it. If I read some other posts correctly.
And I think he deleted a reply that called him out on it. If I read some other posts correctly.
Correct, he was originally called out by the twitter account croakerqueen. I saw the tweeted response calling him out and clicked the article they posted which was from 2010 that showed the same picture Johnny was claiming was his injury but when I had returned to the original tweet not 5 minutes later the response was gone. Had I not looked at his twitter during that 5 minute interval I would have never even known that picture wasn't of him. I called him out myself but that tweet disappeared shortly after as well.
That totally reminded me of Melissa from New Orleans 1.
Was it just me or did this episode seem like a complete shit show. Not entirely sure how I feel about it. lol
Also, I loved that they showed them chilling around Norway. Wished they continue doing this everytie they go into a new location on future challenges.
It was. The worst qualities of pretty much everybody showed. It wasn't enjoyable to watch imo
My thing is this...Nia ****** up & she admits it. However, I see that she is genuinely sorry for what she did. She is a work in progress; you can tell she is really working on herself just from her Twitter posts in general but it takes time.
Johnny on the other hand, shows no remorse for anything he did & months later still feels as if he is completely in the right.
Ok...but what did Johnny DO besides be a whiny petulant brat? It was annoying as shit but I don't see what bad thing he did besides that. He didn't attack Jordan at all. He said Sarah was a piece of shit but pretty much gave her the silent treatment the rest of the time and only made his commentary in confessionals...I guess he laughed at the stuff Nia was saying...but so did Nany and Leroy. Even on the aftershow he only yelled when he was being yelled at by Sarah and Jordan. Whenever the host spoke to him he answered calmly. He was a huge ******* idiot the whole episode...but really he was just acting like a child. I don't think he has much to show remorse for beyond that.
He didn't touch anyone inappropriately. He also didn't attack anyone on a personal level. He didn't throw out language insulting to any group. I have 0 support for how he behaved yesterday but how he acted and how Nia acted are on two completely different planets.
http://www.mtv.com/news/2108310/challenge-wes-interview-least-athletic-c...
HAHA I thought this was hilarious. I can kind of understand where Wes was coming from. None of the girls on this season are super elite competitors. There's no Evelyn, Emily or Laurel. Most of the girls were pretty even with each other.
I mean it really just depends on if you're "pro-Nia" or "pro-Johnny". You'll see things differently from the other side.
I hate that she chose to do any of it because people were literally camping out, waiting for her to be that "disgusting, wretched golddigger Nia" that they couldn't stand from Portland. People weren't really willing to give her any chance. CT has been given TONS of chances (it took him about 7-8 challenges for him to finally get his shit together), and of course Johnny has been given multiple chances.
Ordinarily I would agree with this. There's two sides to every story. But even if I could mentally put myself in the "Nia is the best person in the world" camp, I couldn't begin to see how what they did was comparable. Of the things Johnny actually said to people, not in confessionals, he had the dumb argument with Jay, and he called Sarah a piece of shit, exclusively because of the move that she made. Every comment he made in the confessional was *****ing about the move. Every comment that he made about Sarah was pretty much some variation of "You're a backstabber".
How that can be equated with calling her fat, a sloth, a loser, a *****, Jordan a ******, grabbing his crotch, pulling his pants down, literally following them around the suite so she could shit on them, is beyond me. Is Nia more apologetic about it? Yeah...because she has a lot more to be apologetic for. And I'm not trying to sweep it under the rug because I like Johnny. One episode doesn't make me want to stop rooting for him but I have a much lower opinion of him than I did and I'll be way less inclined to defend him in the future. One person doing wrong doesn't make the other person doing wrong ok...and bad behavior can be quantified...there are levels to it. Nia's was much worse.
And, to be quite honest, and this isn't just aimed at Nia, I don't really believe anyone's apologies on this show. I didn't believe any of Laurel's, Frank's, Nia's, Jordan's, anyone's. This show turns people into animals and they're only apologetic months after the fact on camera. How can you buy into an apology when she's been on twitter shitting on the guy the whole season? I have 0 vendetta against Nia. I want to like everyone on the shows...I think it makes for a better show. I thought the way Nia (and pretty much everyone else) behaved on Portland was pretty deplorable but I always want to change my opinion to start to like someone.
Last week, I had so much work on top of work on top of work that I wasn't able to provide my weekly recap. But shoutout to The Challenge for finally being back at a sane hour of the night. I have work in the morning, so I rarely want to stay up as late as I have to to watch it, but I usually do because I love The Challenge. ****, it's almost over...again.
Exes 2 1.PNG
I'm going to Norway to lose.
Sarah's ****** Up Decision
These are the type of moves I wish we had a podcast for. Someone hook up a Vevmo podcast and get me on there or something, because it's worthy a lengthy discussion that I'll condense into a few paragraphs.
Here's the thing about Sarah's decision to throw in Bananas & Nany: It's a smart decision. If you're playing "just a game" (which people in The Challenge use to remove accountability of their decisions & justify shitty actions), you play a game to win. Sarah's not playing the game just to "make it to the final to get paid", she's playing to win. It's a different dynamic in playing to ensure that you're going to win, as opposed to just trying to make it to the final and see what happens there.
But her decision will forever taint her credibility in the game because she lied. Flat out lied. She made the decision, she feels horrible about it, but she only feels horrible because she betrayed her previous alliance. Especially at a critical point when everything was on the line.
What makes it even worse is that she tries to justify her decision by saying Bananas & Nany would've voted them in. Bananas & Sarah aren't the best of friends (he apparently doesn't call her on her birthday), but they were working together the entire game. I completely agree with Bananas for being outraged, because she didn't live up to her word.
It also looks bad because she keeps referencing the money as opposed to the win, it looks money hungry. Like you would screw over your friends for money.
Why Aren't They At The House Again?
I don't know if anyone noticed, but they aren't at the house. They completed The Challenge and now for some reason they're staying in the hotel they just jumped off. Did the lease on the house expire and they just stuffed everyone in a hotel suite or something?
Norway, Where All The Furniture Is From IKEA
Seriously. That's all I saw when they showed the house.
Worst Field Trip Ever
So, it's pretty much a known fact that the producers of The Challenge rarely let the challengers out the house. Hell, they frequented the same bar for eight episodes before we saw them do anything outside of drink, dance, and standing 69s. But with a few episodes left and the numbers perfectly dwindled, they all get to explore Norway and it turns out to be the worst field trip ever. Everyone hates everyone and now even worse than traveling with boastful Bananas -- who makes it to the end of every game, you have to travel with bitter Bananas. Why did we have to sit through this
Exes 2 2.PNG
So, Here Are My Thoughts on Nia being sent home:
Originally, I didn't understand it. Was it for the homophobic slur? We've seen racial slurs on previous Real Worlds without consequences. Was it for the crotch poking? Probably had something to do with it. With that said, I didn't understand the thought process of silently removing her from the game with no explanation, no retort, nothing. She left the house completely unaware of what was going on, and was never seen again. It's like if your friend was called to the principal's office, and you don't know if it's something good like being promoted to the next grade or you're in trouble, but three days later you find out your friend was suspended altogether. Television wise, it provided great intrigue for those five minutes, but I didn't like the way it was done.
Concerning the act itself, Nia should've kept her hands to herself (although I think she wouldn't have done it, knowing that it would've got her in trouble because she's done worse to Jordan on their season of The Real World). So like Vinny on the original Battle of the Exes season, she was kicked off the show for "crossing the line".
It hit me now more than ever (for some reason) that this "crossing the line" situation is a result of the entire Tonya/Evan/Kenny (here comes the four page debate) situation during The Ruins that those boys "crossed the line" and there were major repercussions for it. Neither of them have returned to The Challenge since. Vinny hasn't returned to The Challenge since. Could Nia be in the same boat? This isn't the first time she's "crossed the line" and it may not be the last.
Exes 3.PNG
Please not Naomi, please not Naomi, please not Naomi
Congratulations Leroy, it's NOT Naomi (also, you're kind of a *****?). With Nia leaving The Challenge for an undisclosed period of time, they had time to ship Theresa back to replace her and Leroy's stock just flew through the roof. I'm happy with Theresa replacing Nia, because it makes everything a lot more interesting for the final elimination.
Leroy and Nia have beaten Bananas & Nany before to send them out of the game, due to Wes & Theresa sending the latter into an elimination round. But Bananas & Nany returned to the game on a TV show twist and helped plotted Wes & Theresa's exit from the game due to Leroy & Nia. Now Bananas & Nany have to go against Leroy & Nia again, or as they thought, but now Bananas & Nany are being screwed by a similar plot twist which brings Theresa back from the dead and now she's teaming with the guy who sent her home.
Yeah. Go Challenge. And now they have to explain their Exes history like it's Episode 1, ten episodes down the line.
Bananas' Kryptonite is a Garbage Man
Bananas has only been defeated in an elimination round by two people prior to this: Tyler and Evan. The fact that Bananas has lost an elimination round twice, in the same season, to the same person, is big. We've seen this elimination round countless times before (through multiple variations throughout the years), and we've also seen Bananas whoop Mark Long and Adam (from AYTO) in variations of this elimination round. I think just training with Bananas, Leroy knew the best strategy to winning the elimination round and he implemented that.
But the real show was between the girls, and I'm glad they let him have the main event. Nany vs. Theresa will go down as one of the more fierce female elimination rounds in the show's history. The tension and history was there, and everything in the show has been leading up to this moment of these two lionesses going at it.
Props to Nany, she's a lot more formidable of a competitor than anyone would've given her credit for before she started this show. She's held her own in the Challenges, in the elimination rounds, and even in a final. This elimination proved a lot more to me about her than anything previously.
Theresa kicked her in the face, Nany kneed her in the chest. It was worth the price of admission to see this battle go down. Like the "Rumble in the Jungle", we'll officially call it the "*****s Play in Norway". The winner should face Ronda Rousey.
Theresa's Tears of Joy
With everything that happened in this episode (and it was a lot), it was refreshing to see someone appreciate making it to a final as much as Theresa. We've seen Bananas make it to a million finals. Even Nany, whose only on her third season, has made it to one more than Theresa. Sarah & Jordan have both made it to finals, but both have put money over values so they've lost quite a bit of integrity.Jay & Jenna still don't know how they got here, nor do they appreciate the work it takes to get to a final because they just coasted along for 11 episodes. Besides Leroy, Theresa may be the only one who holds the value of being a great competitor close to her heart.
Seeing her tear up made me happy for her, because she doesn't take for granted everything that's happened. While she hasn't won yet, Theresa has overcome a stigma that she's placed in herself that she will never win a Challenge. It was that stigma that pushed her to become desperate and insincere to the point where she felt like she needed to do shitty things to make it another week. Now she's kind of earned it. It's a narrative that they probably won't run with (because Theresa calling Nany a ***** is a lot juicier), but it's something feel good amidst all the turmoil.
And suddenly they transport to the finals.
My one beef with this episode was how rushed they seem to be to start the finals. We spent seven minutes of this episode walking with them through Norway, but there's no strong build to the actual finals. Usually before every final, there's some sort of development that will anticipate the hell that all the Challengers have to go through. The Challenges prepare, there's some awesome music, maybe some foreshadowing and it gets me hype. This season, they literally walk up to final mission as if it were a daily Challenge.
Also, we're not going to print Leroy & Theresa another color shirt? No? Okay.
Exes 2 5.PNG
Sarah's reaction to the finals
*TJ talks about trolls and mountains and shit*
SARAH: *cheesy smile*
*TJ talks about the money*
SARAH: Over-enthusiastic clap & smile.
TJ: ...to get there, you guys are going to be riding in helicopters!
SARAH: KEEEWLL!
TJ: Once you get there, you're going to have to jump out of the helicopter!
SARAH: WHOOAAAAA!
TJ: Once you swim to the first checkpoint, you're going to have to kayak your way down the side of the mountain.
SARAH: *tries to contain happiness, but head explodes*
GET A GRIP SARAH! That's why no one invites you to finals!
The final finally starts, and I'm interested to see what they're going to have to do. I'm glad BMP started condensing the finals episodes back into one episode, because the two episode thing was a bit of an overkill.
This pissed me off so much. How hard is it to get her an orange shirt? They could have gave her Nia's and taped Theresa name over it.
LOL Not that big of a deal but I feel you though with the shirt
Not sure if someone answered this but I'm pretty sure I remember Paula bringing this up at the reunion. Kenny answered saying they didn't know the rules and they were asked to pick their boat right on the spot so he probably panicked and just picked Evelyn. This is why I don't see so much that Bananas betrayed Paula. Kenny made up the plan to keep the key on Bananas and Kenny picked the boat leaving out Paula. Bananas could have intervined to try and save her but that would have sent him home. The Sarah/Bananas situation is different.
It just made her look weird and out of place.
I find it ironic that people are even advocating for them doing that. For all the complaints about the ******* game JEK play, J/K honored a deal that they made and did what they shook hands on. Kenny said on the reunion, "Evelyn did right by us and didn't take Johnny's key, and we did right by Evelyn." So playing the sleazy game is a knock against them, but now we're encouraing them to have taken the sleazy route because it's convenient for this narrative that we're building now? People need to pick a position and stay in it. I love Paula, but she was promised an opportunity to get a key, and to not be sent home. I doubt any of the guys, at any point, said to her, "Hey, Pauls, if any of us accidentally go home, you're in." There's also a daily, if I remember correctly, of Paula trying to throw Derrick under the bus and convince Evelyn that the boat should be the two of them + J/K. She seemed to understand then that if it's them or you, you should pick yourself.
It depends what YOU consider sleazy--they screwed Dunbar far more than they screwed Paula as far as I'm concerned. I don't even believe Paula would have been on the first boat had Johanna or Tyrie (was it Tyrie) won the final challenge. Johanna & Dunbar were ahead of Paula IMO. Paula's only way of being on that boat was Evelyn taking Johnny's key and Dunbar, Derrick & Kenny picking Paula over Evelyn--which would have been stupid
I think it was dumb they picked the boats--they should have done a random draw or something
It was Dan. But yeah, Dunbar was the one who got screwed...and while he was pissed on the show, never made nearly the stink about it that Paula did. I remember in an interview Dunbar saying Paula had no right to be angry. That he had a greater right to be angry and he wasn't. It would've been Dunbar on their boat in every scenario besides the one that actually happened (maybe not if Kellyanne won...though she probably would not have needed the deal to go after Dunbar, she would've just done it).
But in terms of the Paula/Evelyn thing J/K/D honored their handshake. People want them to have backstabbed now in that instance because its convenient. It's quite hypocritical to ***** about them being ********, but then whine when they didn't do the ******* thing.
Thank you--it was Dan--I couldn't remember who got voted out when Evelyn won a key...I only watched that season once
I'm fine with anyone, including Bananas, doing whatever it takes to win. I don't see how you can backstab someone that is an opponent of your's. I'll never get that...ever. Allies = teammates.
I would hope not? I do see the pattern, but I hope that isn't the case. Nia tries her *** off as a competitor, and is actually good TV. I would hate to see crotch poking as the last thing I see Nia doing.
i think the fact that she got an aftershow shows that it is a possibility that she coudl be back.
when vinny was shut out we never heard from him again
Pages