AntFTW

One thing that I keep thinking about is that it seems like most people still aren’t trying to go into an elimination to get their red skull. it seems like most people’s goal focused on the “now.” They just want to stick around for now and not so much worried about the final down the road.

I think that should be against the rules. The one advantage Ashley had that would have won her the game was taken away when Dee basically got some from 1 of 3 people there that has been apart of the show for the last 20 seasons.

1) Bear is a character. I don't care for Bear, but he's entertaining to watch. Bear knows exactly how to get invited back to the next 20 seasons of this show. 2) I wanted Dee to go home soooo bad. I really want Dee to lose. The way she "threw away" Ashley at the nominations the moment she didn't need her really rubbed me the wrong way. 3) I may be wrong but Ashley doesn't seem to have that same fire that she used to have. It seems like she has less incentive to play as hard as she used to since winning the $1 million on season 32. 4) Aneesa's comic relief this season is on point. I just want to keep her around for the entertainment. The comments when Dee said "love you guys" as she left the tribunal was hilarious. 5) You can tell that none of the Tribunal women wanted to volunteer themselves regardless of what the elimination challenge was. They were all dressed casually. 6) I'm wondering how was it not obvious to the "unholy trinity" alliance that Big T's politicking was not that great and was "amateurish." The only person to question Big T's deal was Nany. 7) Mattie and Ashley... shortest alliance ever.

To add to that: Everyone lashing out at everyone else, except Bear. #ChallengeLogic

I watched Ex on the Beach also. As far as I know, Morgan is currently with Johnny Bananas. Cory mentioned that him and Taylor from AYTO are expecting on the first episode of the Challenge. Cory is really going through all of the AYTO girls. Cheyenne, Alicia, and Taylor are all from that show and two them either have or will have babies with Cory.

I think it’s moreso that he was gassed out. Jay was moving fast and CT was moving pretty slow, but at the end it seemed pretty close. I think had he picked up the pace, he would have won.

I loved it! It put me in suspense and on the edge my seat.

I believe Jenna's vote was a burn vote but her alliance followed suit. Their plan was to burn on Nelson. I would think those 3 that I mentioned decided to burn on Nelson not knowing that other people would also vote for him... which I think they probably didn't care whether Nelson went in or not. It was a burn vote, but it made no difference to them if their vote actually meant Nelson going in or not. After Jay, Nelson, now, becomes the easiest person to vote for and therefore the next target... just by default. It just became easier to say his name after this episode's vote. Nobody has any real allegiance to Nelson other than Cory. Nelson doesn't have a solid bloc of people that wouldn't vote for him.

1) Nelson once again proves he has no political skills. Nelson seems to be everyone's new backup plan. They may give Jay a short break by tossing in Nelson for 1 round or they keep tossing in Jay until he goes home and then the target switches to Nelson. I'm not shocked that once Jenna voted for Nelson that Nany and Kailah followed up because I assume they vote as a bloc. 2) I'm over the Rogan and Dee soap opera. 3) I thought once CT saw the elimination that he would choose not to go in because it didn't look like an elimination that relied brute strength or speed. It looked like an "equalizer challenge" like a puzzle or strategic game. I thought that once he got to elimination and saw what it was, he was gonna put in Nelson. 4) With the twist everybody has to get a red skull, the effectiveness of alliances doesn't go as far so it's confusing to strategize. 5) They added 30 minutes to the running time instead of the show being an hour just to add in a bunch of BS. 6) By that one scene with Cory, Fessy and Nelson, it looks like Fessy has chosen his alliance now. 7) Cory is back to win this season. He's playing differently than he's played before. He seems to be more subtle than previous seasons. Unlike Nelson, Cory's playing more of a Wes game now than the bullish-Young Buck-guns blazing strategy that he's had before.

Millennials vs Gen X was full of personalities. That was the first full season of Survivor that I ever watched. Afterwards, I went back and binged all the previous seasons I could get my hands on. Last night was a night of good TV. Survivor and The Challenge did not disappoint.

I thought the same thing. TJ seemed to emphasize the two skulls.

I saw CT's loss coming. They spent the second half of the episode hyping up how Jay's gonna lose. Watching the show for a number of years, you learn their tricks. They're gonna keep throwing in Jay. This is not the last elimination he's gonna see.

I don't follow any of these people in the off-season if they're in other shows, interviews, social media or whatever it is that they do. I'm extremely curious at how the Dee-Jenny thing happened. I mentioned in one of my previous posts that Dee is losing all of her political capital. The part where Dee basically admits that she said Tori, Jordan and Dee are at the top of each other's lists but "we didn't shake on it" and that her and Tori didn't work together until the final. These have to be the sorriest excuses I've ever heard. I thought Tori had a great rebuttal in that Dee also didn't work with Jenny AT ALL. The alliance that Dee was in, the Paul and Cara alliance, voted Jenny into elimination twice when they obtained Tribunal power. Dee is in a much weaker position because I think people are more willing to go against Dee over Jenny. Dee isn't safe unless she's good at the politics, and she doesn't have the benefit of getting the same "charity red skull" that Jenny got.

Each girl is planning their elimination and how they can get their red skull against a person they think they can beat. When a girl is in the tribunal, they probably won't nominate Jenny if they plan on going in for themselves to get the red skull. The girls around the house will campaign to go against the person they perceive as the weakest, which all the cast members seemed to agree that isn't Jenny. Therefore, it's very possible that Jenny could coast to a final. Overall, either the woman (or women) in the Tribunal will campaign the house to vote in the weakest girl to put themselves in, or girls in the house will campaign to throw the weakest girl in and campaign the Tribunal to throw them in against the weakest girl (as both Jenny and Tori did). Additionally, it's very possible that many of the guys would want to run a final with Jenny so they may want to keep her out of the elimination as well. If the house votes in a "strong girl" (with or without a red skull), I can see the Tribunal throwing in Jenny. For the guys, it's trickier because I don't have much of a read on a lot of them. I have no doubt they want to go against the "lay ups." I can see Jay being put into elimination again. I think they view him as one of the weakest guys (which I believe is why he was thrown in the first time, other than being a rookie). Kyle, CT, Johnny, and Wes would rather go up against a "weak" guy. Bear has a big ego. He may think he can beat Wes in an elimination again. He may be willing to go in against Wes, a person Bear may not believe is the weakest player out of the bunch. - - - The dynamic of the Tribunal is more interesting to me now because throwing someone into an elimination is now a favor (as Cory felt he owed to Jenny). Instead of wheeling and dealing among the house or an alliance throwing someone in that they don't like, the Tribunal members have more incentive make deals among each other. If two guys are in the Tribunal and it's a guys' elimination week, they make a deal between each other to let one of them go into an elimination (assuming the house nominates someone they feel they can beat) in exchange for a later favor... and the same for the women... and that's all a gamble in the end of the day because that person may not be around to return that future favor. Emily is one that I would love to see back in the Challenge house. She is one of my favorites.

I looked at that thinking “ok, I guess they threw out the order of operations on math.”

I never thought of Dee as a strategic player. I think she rode coattails last season to a win, but a win is a win. We’re only at the second episode but Dee is not making great decisions at this point. She’s losing almost all of her political capital in this one episode. Ashley hit the nail on the head. She gave, arguably, the strongest woman in the house the easiest elimination win. Jenny can still go into an elimination but no other woman is going to want to go against her. I can see every other woman in the house campaigning not to vote in Jenny. Also, Wes mentioned that he could see Jenny beating him and Dee in a final. I don’t know if this season will only have one winner, regardless of gender, as they did in seasons 31 and 33. I don’t recall if they mentioned it so I’ll have to go back and rewatch. However, if it’s the case that there’s only one winner, I think Dee just made a terrible game move.

It wasn’t Angie’s building. It was their old high school. I assume Tommy followed them.

I think “Ball Sax” is gonna be the primary antagonist for next season.

One question I have is how exactly did Angela still have the power to make a deal with Dre? She was still technically an AUSA but do you think they would have given her any power to make a deal with Dre as she did considering they were accusing her of some heavy crimes.

If I recall correctly, it was because she was planning on killing Ghost. Correct me if I’m wrong. She hired the Jamaicans to kill Ghost without telling Tommy. Another thing... I understand that this is just a TV show BUT HOW EXACTLY DO YOU NOT SEE THE GUN? In such a close setting (as they were), it’s hard to miss.

This was a rather confusing episode for me. 1) I understand that Tasha doesn’t like Angela. However, after the woman literally saves you from a possible lifetime in prison, she couldn’t let it go??? Also, I thought that Angela’s explanation when she’s staring down the barrel of death kinda made no sense. 2) I think Tommy is overreacting. I think Teresi’s date would have been the same no matter what. Had James showed Tommy the pictures, Tommy still would have killed Teresi, regardless of who he was snitching on. 3) “Breaking team” is a new phrase for me. I kept having to go back because I had to make sure that was what they were saying.

My assumption is that they’re still going to charger her with drug trafficking, murder and whatever else they would have charged her with before Agent Tampio (I think that’s his name) intervened. I think Alicia failed to understand the balance her brother provided. I may have too little information about the Jimenez to even make this conclusion but it seems like her brother was the chaotic one; the outwardly reckless one, much like Ghost and Tommy. Alicia was the strategic one and Diego was the one that kept everyone in line because people were afraid of him. Without Diego, will people actually fear Alicia?

1) Procter is using a nice little "divide and conquer" strategy. He gives up dirt on Angela, and then tells James he has to flip on Angela because Angela would do the same to him to save herself. 2) Tariq... "Teach me the mother%^&*ing game, Ghost"????? Those couple seconds before James says "I'd rather kill you than...", he seemed like he was actually considering it. I thought this whole Kanan experience would have humbled Tariq a little bit, but apparently, I thought wrong. 3) SURPRISE! Angela gets caught by surprise at the end. They have labelled her "consigliere" but she just knows about the stuff she's directly involved in. She can't give them much about their (or rather Tommy's) drug business (connects, distros, street peddlers, etc) if that's what they're looking for. She knows Tommy is the distro and that's it.

With regard to Tasha underestimating Kanan, I thought that was one of few times James lashing out at Tasha was justified. She severely underestimated Kanan. I noticed the grin her and Angela shared because their plan ultimately worked but I don’t think she will ever know how close her son was to death.

The answers to these questions are very gray. Many people (clergymen included), especially in the Southern US, thought it was their right given by God to own slaves. People, at that time, used Christianity (using Christianity in the broader sense) to justify slavery, prejudices, and racism (and many people still do today). Adherents to the same religion also went in an opposite direction; they opposed slavery; helped many gain their freedom; and helped abolish slavery.