S34.E14: Declaration of Independence

[OnceSane]

Quote

CT is faced with a tough decision when it comes to the future of his UK team. Only one challenge and elimination separate players from Team USA and Team UK from the Finals. Two women battle it out in a unique elimination.

Airs November 27, 2019.

[mojoween]

Ashley’s life was literally on the line and the temperature was literally a million degrees.  It’s a wonder they didn’t ALL die!

I was rooting for Nany so hard it was like she was my own sister.

And hey!  How the fuck are Ashley and Cara friends?  Weren’t they mortal enemies like one season ago?

Ashley sucks.  Fuck Ashley.

LeRoy, I like you, but anything that gives Paul a win is terrible, so I cannot root for you in any way.

[Treehugger9]

Ok so the one part I didn't understand was, why was the UK team able to have Jordan swim every time but the US team had to have only female swimmers? I know team UK was at a disadvantage because they have less players, but it seems extremely sexist (not that that would stop mtv) to disadvantage team US by only allowing female swimmers. Why not just let team UK use whomever but only allow team us to use each player once to swim? 

Also, go CT. It's about time someone on that team grew a brain. I also got a huge kick out of Zack's geelful delight at CTs decision. I hate Zack, but that was great. 

[xhoipolloix]

What a joke watching a bunch of people who never competed in an elimination thinking they accomplished something by making the final. Can't wait to see Paulie fail.

[BK1978]

The only thing that bothered me about Zach was him trying to be all moral.  Nearly every season this guy is either in Johnny's alliance or in orbit of Johnny's alliance.  You would never see him bitching about it being a numbers game during any of those seasons.

[scrb]

1 hour ago, xhoipolloix said:

What a joke watching a bunch of people who never competed in an elimination thinking they accomplished something by making the final. Can't wait to see Paulie fail.

And Paulie’s talking about his legacy, like he’s Michael Jordan or something.

GTFO you m*****.

Haven't won one and he’s talking big.

Only reason Pauli’s and Cara had the numbers is that Wes and Bananas took each other out.  Remember in the beginning Cara was whining  about putting USA players in eliminations?  Because they didn’t have the numbers.  Once Wes went out, they picked up the UK people that Wes had locked up.

They got lucky the other groups knocked each other off.

Liked the challenge, the basked suspended over water, very apropos for the Thai jungle.

Also liked the “super elimination” which was simple but involved some stamina, though it wasn’t enough for one of the women to have an advantage over the other.

Nany probably froze in a bit of panic.  Face it, others were right that you’re not as strong as the others.  Ashley would have outrun and probably beat her in a physical challenge as well.

I don’t understand the Finals.  There are 5 on UK and 7 on US?  So they all have to run together and there’s an eating section.

But is the money going to be split 5 or 7 ways?  Or are they going to have say 2 or more stages where one or both teams shed some players and there’s a chance one player gets most of the prize money?  Would be like $200k each for UK and $140k each for US if every member remaining got a share.

Or maybe an MVP on the winning team gets to steal everyone else’s share?

Who was Ashley saying already spent half a million?

[Aaron4102]

1 hour ago, scrb said:

But is the money going to be split 5 or 7 ways?  Or are they going to have say 2 or more stages where one or both teams shed some players and there’s a chance one player gets most of the prize money?  Would be like $200k each for UK and $140k each for US if every member remaining got a share.

Bingo. At some point during the final, a surprise individual purge is suppose to take place in which only the top 4 players from each team (regardless of gender) will advance to the next phase of the final. That means 3 of the 7 USA players and 1 of the 5 UK players will get purged. The top 4 USA players and the top 4 UK players will continue on and compete for the win. The 4 members of the winning team will split $1 million ($250,000 per winner)

Edited November 28, 2019 by Aaron4102

[Spencer Hastings]

I’m glad CT finally showed up to play. I hate Zack but I was amused to see him so gleefull.  

[Eolivet]

A final with 12 people? I am so lost. I get that there are teams, but this feels so arbitrary. Like, it's a Survivor merge and next week, it's the finale. What with the what now?

I think I read on here that they hadn't done a team season since 2009(?), and if that's the case, I hope they wait another 10 years. This was beyond confusing to keep track of who was in what alliance. I also feel like I blinked and missed the moment CT and Paulie were aligned, as well.

I'm still puzzling over CT's vote for Ninja, which he knew would piss off Dee, and who Rogan would never agree to, unless it was some weird "blood on my hands" thing and he knew he didn't have the votes to put in someone like ... Cara, who's won two finals and would weaken the U.S. considerably if she was gone. Ninja's sat out of more challenges this year, and only beat Laurel on a technicality in an elimination, so ...

[Lantern7]

I just want this season to be over. I mean, it’s not that bad, but I’m thinking we’re not getting as happy an ending as last year. UK wins, Jordan and CT get their third titles . . . but I’m thinking most people would gag at Rogan being on the winning side. US wins, Cara and Ashley get their third titles, but neither would be that solid . . . what with Cara’s innumerable appearances and descent into being more derided, and Ashley needing luck and her bitchiness to win. Also, Paulie would win. Who wants that? I feel bad for Leroy and Natalie; the hard-luck Challenger and perhaps the most derided of the new wave, respectively. But Paulie and his pirate wench? No.

I’m not bothering to keep up with the subtle stuff, especially how CT apparently has his balls back. The mission was fun, but that lead to Jordan basically jerking it in interviews. That’s not fun, and you know you’d have to shake that hand.

”Super Elimination”? Okay, Boomer TJ. Simple game with a tough course. Of course Ashley wins. She’s insufferable. Her early exit last season didn’t teach her anything. Nany stays on the “You Need To Move On” list. I don’t feel anything about her either way, but I feel bad for those who grind and grind and get bupkis at the end, if that.

I’ll post up stuff I posted online on Facebook last night. I remember thinking Paulie’s legacy would be failure and cheap cologne. He would be a Sex Panther guy.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Lantern7

[ImpinAintEasy]

3 hours ago, Eolivet said:

A final with 12 people? I am so lost. I get that there are teams, but this feels so arbitrary. Like, it's a Survivor merge and next week, it's the finale. What with the what now?

I think I read on here that they hadn't done a team season since 2009(?), and if that's the case, I hope they wait another 10 years. This was beyond confusing to keep track of who was in what alliance. I also feel like I blinked and missed the moment CT and Paulie were aligned, as well.

I'm still puzzling over CT's vote for Ninja, which he knew would piss off Dee, and who Rogan would never agree to, unless it was some weird "blood on my hands" thing and he knew he didn't have the votes to put in someone like ... Cara, who's won two finals and would weaken the U.S. considerably if she was gone. Ninja's sat out of more challenges this year, and only beat Laurel on a technicality in an elimination, so ...

CT and Cara are friends. They’re both from Massachusetts and always look out for each other. 

[ImpinAintEasy]

It’s a no brainer to root for team UK for me. I like Jordan as a competitor, and it would be neat to see CT win again. LeRoy is the most decent person on the show, and he’s never won, but Paulie and Cara make it impossible to want that team to win. Cara has only had to go in like 1 elimination in her last 4 or 5 seasons. That is ridiculous. God I wish Laurel would have stayed instead of Ninja. She wouldn’t have let Cara skate like this. 
 

If the teams are whittled down to 4 in the final, I’d say UK is the favorite if Dee is purged. I hope Paulie and Cara are purged. If that happens I can be fine with US winning. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by ImpinAintEasy

[falltime]

Team Tori/Jordan. I got a laugh when Dee said Rogan wouldn't lie to her. 🤣 I also got a kick out of Zach laughing during team UK voting. Any time anyone mentions how many seasons they have done without being/winning a final it reminds me of Paula.

21 hours ago, scrb said:

Who was Ashley saying already spent half a million?

She said "you two," maybe Jordan and CT since they have won the most on UK team.

[Jillibean]

On 11/27/2019 at 10:05 PM, mojoween said:

And hey!  How the fuck are Ashley and Cara friends?  Weren’t they mortal enemies like one season ago? 

They sure were. I don’t think Ashley has real friends, just people she gloms onto to have the numbers and further herself. Even in the “lavender ladies” she had no problem screwing over alleged friends Amanda (on two different challenges) and Sylvia (on FR) to promote her own interests. She was happy enough to hate Cara when Amanda hated her and it didn’t cost Ashley anything, but this season she needed an alliance, so...bygones! I actually feel like I dislike Ashley less with each passing season. At least she doesn’t pretend to be noble or morally superior.

Zach’s commentary appears to foreshadow a Paulie loss, which I would very much enjoy.

Good for CT for making the decision that would be best for his team. Hilarious how Paulie decided to try to intimidate ROGAN over CT’s decision. With all his macho posturing he’s clearly still too scared of CT to even bother.

I agree that the rules for the swimming challenge seemed to make no sense. I know there was some vague explanation involving the fact that the US had three “extra” women but I was still lost. I wonder if the producers knew that CT planned to make that move and therefore set up the conditions so the UK would have a decisive win.

[ImpinAintEasy]

The rules for the challenge were that there had to be a male and female in each bucket. The UK having only two women made it impossible to have one swim I guess. I don’t know. I was rooting for U.K. so it didn’t bug me. 
 

I’m wary of being misled by previews. The finale preview seemed to show a lot of discord on the US side. Which isn’t really surprising. 

[jsm1125]

It really is ridiculous that 2/3 of the remaining players (Kam, Cara Maria, Dee, Paulie, Zach, Leroy, CT, Rogan) made it to a final without seeing an elimination round.

And that Kayleigh, after 3 seasons of never having made it to a final, has yet to lose an elimination round (she has been purged or quit).

[Lola82]

I’m all for a Jordan/Tori win. They’re both impressive competitors and don’t whine when it’s time to prove themselves. I also think their relationship is genuine and not just for cameras. It’d also be the cherry on top to see Cara lose to them. 

[TiffanyNichelle]

On 11/28/2019 at 1:48 AM, BK1978 said:

The only thing that bothered me about Zach was him trying to be all moral.  Nearly every season this guy is either in Johnny's alliance or in orbit of Johnny's alliance.  You would never see him bitching about it being a numbers game during any of those seasons.

This is why I was so sick of him and Nany this season. When it's Johnny's alliance and Johnny's game and it benefits them, it's ok. But when it's Paulie and Cara, suddenly it's amoral and only bad people will do anything to get themselves into a finale no matter what. RME.

I can't stand Nany or Ashley so I would have been happy to see either go.

This is the first time we've seen such a large alliance stay mostly intact and make it to a finale. I'm a little impressed.

Edited December 1, 2019 by TiffanyNichelle

[Jobiska]

2 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

I can't stand Nany or Ashley so I would have been happy to see either go.

I'm not fond of either, but I have to admit sometimes Ashley's talking heads make me laugh (even while not making me like her better as a person), while, especially this season, Nany's have been all whine whine Leroy whine whine all alone whine whine Cara is so awful, which is tedious.

[Zima]

On 11/28/2019 at 1:48 AM, BK1978 said:

The only thing that bothered me about Zach was him trying to be all moral.  Nearly every season this guy is either in Johnny's alliance or in orbit of Johnny's alliance.  You would never see him bitching about it being a numbers game during any of those seasons.

Exactly this! Same with Nany. Their BFF John plays with alliances and cheap moves/back-stabbing every season, but as long as Zach and Nany are on the winning side with him, they never ever have a problem with it. Every time Zach bitches about how it's sooo awful that Cara and Paulie etc. keep throwing in members from team U.S., I want to scream at him, "Well, your alliance started it by throwing Wes in, you idiot, so STFU!" 

17 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

This is why I was so sick of him and Nany this season. When it's Johnny's alliance and Johnny's game and it benefits them, it's ok. But when it's Paulie and Cara, suddenly it's amoral and only bad people will do anything to get themselves into a finale no matter what. RME.

This is the first time we've seen such a large alliance stay mostly intact and make it to a finale. I'm a little impressed.

Yes, exactly this. And I've also enjoyed watching the alliance stick together, but I think it was very smart of CT to wait until now to play his own game. 

15 hours ago, Jobiska said:

I'm not fond of either, but I have to admit sometimes Ashley's talking heads make me laugh (even while not making me like her better as a person), while, especially this season, Nany's have been all whine whine Leroy whine whine all alone whine whine Cara is so awful, which is tedious.

Yep! This is the first season that I've found Ashley tolerable. I think it maybe because she doesn't have Amanda or whoever else to cling to and be all "mean girls" with.  

Leroy did everything he could for Nany. If not for his protection, she would have gone home a long time ago. And look, when it came time for her to prove herself, she failed. No surprise there. 

I love team challenges, and I've missed them. Cut Throat was the last season to have one, and that was one of my fav. seasons. I hope there are more planned for the future. 

[Drogo]

18 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

This is the first time we've seen such a large alliance stay mostly intact and make it to a finale. I'm a little impressed.

Not I... there's no component of this season (outside of the purges and elimination results) that wasn't a popularity contest.  Speaker is decided by a majority vote.  Tribunal is decided by speaker, therefore indirectly by a majority vote.  Losing team selects elimination competitor by majority vote.  This was the perfect season for a large alliance to run shit until the end.  

IMO, much nicer when the worst-performing player went into elimination and/or the person voted into elimination was able to choose their competition from anyone outside the top performer/s- so 'popular' players still needed to put up points or risk being eliminated.    

Remember when Paulie ate shit before the WotW final and had no one to blame but himself for not being in it?  I watch it whenever I need a laugh.

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