S35.E17: Reunion

[OnceSane]

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The challengers reunite virtually for the first time since the finale to break down the strategy, expose the snakes, and address the madness from Season 35.

Airs July 22, 2020.

[Hoi Polloi]

I don't watch the Challenge for maturity, but Bayleigh and Swaggy are draining. There's no charisma or charm there either.

[Eolivet]

Vernon Davis? Is he some kind of Challenge super-fan? I can't see TJ stooping so low as to host, but ... that was so random.

Tori was there, but no Jordan? Don't they live together?

Also, I was obsessed with why Jay would have a couch literally blocking the door behind it. Did he push a couch into a room specifically for this? Who does that?

I can't believe this thing is going to be two weeks long.

[luvbadtv]

I was really trying to figure out who was at their own house and who was at a rental (?).  I noticed a person leaving out the back at Kaycee & Josh's residence; wonder who it was.

[Lantern7]

One more week of this. Then we can put this in the rear view mirror and never think about it again.

Nothing has really changed. Josh is still a sad little boy in need of attention. Bayleigh and Christopher are cringe, but not in an interesting way. Jenna is still worrisome. Johnny is still full of himself. And CT is over most of the drama. Oh, and Jay comes off as goofy, but he was probably like that before Rogan slammed him.

About the only fun I had was keeping up in a Challenge group on Facebook, dropping jokes at a fast pace. Granted, most of them are "best of" (Masturbating Bear GIF for Bear, balloon tattoo floating off Kailah's shoulder, Josh being sad), but it's good that I can keep up for the most part.

CT has a wee dog named Chewbacca. Gotta be Lillie's dog.

[Michichick]

Jenny was the first-place finisher and they barely talked to her. Yet they found plenty of time to focus on John. Gee, what a surprise.

Jenny looked good. I think she laid off the lip fillers.

[BK1978]

1 minute ago, Michichick said:

Jenny was the first-place finisher and they barely talked to her. Yet they found plenty of time to focus on John. Gee, what a surprise.

Jenny looked good. I think she laid off the lip fillers.

Yeah I was coming in to say the same thing, Jenny looks so much better in the reunion.

Reunions usually suck and this one was no different.  It was really boring.

[Michichick]

Sorry, double post!
 

so I’ll just add that Zack continues to be a dick.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Michichick

[Treehugger9]

23 minutes ago, Michichick said:

Jenny looked good. I think she laid off the lip fillers.

I think she toned down her eyebrows. She looked great!

[scrb]

Wonder why the challengers agree to  do these reunions.

Do they sign contracts that require doing reunions as part of doing a Challenge season?

Or they want to placate the producers so that they’re reinvited to future seasons?

Most of them didn’t seem to want to be there.  Normally they do it in NY so at least they get a trip out of it.

Host was bad, even though I’m a 49ers fan.

I guess the feuds weren’t as intense as in previous seasons so rehashing them didn’t help.

 

A lot of the individual episodes or at least the challenges were good.  But the Final was a letdown.

And the whole thing with the bunker, Johnny made it sound like torture, like he was depressed.  But why would they try to make it a thing, that they had to endure the mental stress of a dark dreary place?

Maybe that’s why the Czech Republic tourism bureau didn’t want them to mention they were in the country.

Or did they try to cut back on the usual amenities of the Challenge house because it’s MTV?  

They were eating chips a lot of the time for heavens sake!

 

[angelamh66]

I hope Jenny’s decision to lay off the lip fillers was intentional and not just because she can’t get the procedure done due to the pandemic. She looks miles better. Maybe we will actually get to hear her talk next week. 

Nany is a professional drama queen. And yes, Zach still sucks. Jenna is in for a very long life with that one. 

No Rogan??

[LotusFlower]

3 hours ago, Hoi Polloi said:

I don't watch the Challenge for maturity, but Bayleigh and Swaggy are draining. There's no charisma or charm there either.

Same with Jenna and Zach.  They looked miserable.  

[Racj82]

2 hours ago, Michichick said:

Jenny was the first-place finisher and they barely talked to her. Yet they found plenty of time to focus on John. Gee, what a surprise.

Jenny looked good. I think she laid off the lip fillers.

They have a whole other part of the reunion for one thing. Johnny had multiple things he was involved in. And Jenny's only real drama involved Dee who they don't want to talk about. Not everything, in my opinion, is about ignoring her to prop up Johnny. Johnny is always trying to be the center of attention so he has more to say and answer for. Jenny basically just kicks ass. What else is there for her to say? She got the focus first out of everyone.

[Jillibean]

Jenny and Fessy are both strong competitors who give clear descriptions and narrative in their interviews and bring basically no personality to the show, so it makes sense that there’s not much to talk to them about beyond the competitive aspect. Jenny seems too sweet for this show, honestly. I had no idea she was in her 30s. She really is a beast. 

Yikes, Nany. That was messy. Doesn’t she have a new boyfriend now? I’m surprised that she’s still so emotional about this. Kaycee’s explanation of why she would say she kissed Nany if she didn’t was unconvincing, but that’s between her and her girlfriend. 

I like Melissa. I’m shocked by this. 

Poor Johnny tried so hard not to let his shared history with Jay be a thing this season out of respect for his girlfriend’s wishes and Ashley’s tweet thwarted him at the last minute. I laughed at CT telling Ashley that Johnny was burning a hole in her camera with his eyes. I think Jay handled it as classily as he could have. Johnny was clearly committed to continuing to refuse to talk about it, which I also respect. You know MTV has been waiting to bust out that Ex on the Beach clip all season.

”I AM a storyline!” Can’t disagree. 

Zach...I mean, what do you even say? When I heard he was attending, I assumed that he saw how this played out on TV and wanted the opportunity to try to redeem himself and apologize, like he did on the reunion after the bumble incident. It’s crazy to me that he showed up just to refuse to watch it and then stand by his abusive behavior, making no acknowledgment of Jenna being treated unfairly at all. Did anyone see the way Zach reacted to Cory saying he was the one who nicknamed Jenna the Barbie Beast? Yikes! Definitely makes me think there’s something to the rumors that he was the one she had been DMing with. Someone, PLEASE, get Jenna out of there. They both looked miserable. And yeah, Jenna, you’re probably not getting married in Long Island next February, regardless of whether or not your fiancée believes that Covid is real. 

10 hours ago, Eolivet said:

Tori was there, but no Jordan? Don't they live together?

Rumor has it Jordan is being at least temporarily benched due to his past racially changed incident with Nia. Rogan and Bear were also allegedly not invited due to other problematic history. 

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Also, I was obsessed with why Jay would have a couch literally blocking the door behind it. Did he push a couch into a room specifically for this? Who does that?

Ha! I look forward to Jay’s future on this show. I thought he handled himself well. 

8 hours ago, scrb said:

Wonder why the challengers agree to  do these reunions.

Do they sign contracts that require doing reunions as part of doing a Challenge season?

 

Yes, it’s part of their contracts. This came up after Rivals 3 when Sarah didn’t want to attend. 

[peachmangosteen]

The only worthwhile parts of this were Jenny looking fantastic and Fessy's reaction to, I think, the Nany/Kaycee/Aneesa drama. He was just so rapt with a huge smile on his face, it was hilarious.

[Wouldofshouldof]

11 hours ago, Michichick said:

Jenny looked good. I think she laid off the lip fillers.

I think I read on Reddit that she regretted/was embarassed by her lip fillers, so as soon as she won last week I thought, "Maybe now she'll get her lips fixed." She does look good!

[joanne3482]

Does anyone know why Kaycee and Josh were living together? That seemed so random to me. 

I still appreciate that CT has matured enough to be able to say that he was beaten and owns his own limitations for this particular challenge. Loved the little dog and it definitely seemed he was over the whole reunion (him scrolling through his phone while he laid on his couch was amusing).

Zach's whole schtick about not talking about what he found in the DMs was so ridiculous and just makes him look worse. He's trying to be mysterious about it so he doesn't have to admit he was totally wrong and a tool.  Jenna could do so much better. 

[Luckylondon]

Kaycee and Josh are together in LA quarantining for the Big Brother All Stars season that is supposed to start filming soon. They brought a lot of former guests out who have to quarantine and get tested a bunch and maybe they are living together instead of hotels or they got Kaycee and Josh to be together with handlers for the day. I took that as a sign that perhaps this Big Brother thing really is happening when I saw them together because I read a TMZ article that they were two of a long list of people (including Bayleigh and *eta: Paulie) that are out there for that purpose. Have no idea what is true. 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Luckylondon

[Michichick]

22 minutes ago, Luckylondon said:

Kaycee and Josh are together in LA quarantining for the Big Brother All Stars season that is supposed to start filming soon. They brought a lot of former guests out who have to quarantine and get tested a bunch and maybe they are living together instead of hotels or they got Kaycee and Josh to be together with handlers for the day. I took that as a sign that perhaps this Big Brother thing really is happening when I saw them together because I read a TMZ article that they were two of a long list of people (including Bayleigh) that are out there for that purpose. Have no idea what is true. 

CBS just announced today that the new Big Brother season will premiere on August 5.

I thought it was odd to show Kaycee and Josh together if they are quarantining for Big Brother. They could have had separate cameras and put them in separate rooms, unless the Viacom/CBS conglomerate wanted them together to stir speculation for the new BB season.

[scrb]

Only thing I remembered from the backgrounds of these "personal bunkers" is that CT's microwave clock is flashing.

He doesn't bother to set the time.

You know like back in the day your parents had the VRC clock displays flashing because they weren't set?

 

[lasu]

5 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

Zach's whole schtick about not talking about what he found in the DMs was so ridiculous and just makes him look worse. He's trying to be mysterious about it so he doesn't have to admit he was totally wrong and a tool.  Jenna could do so much better. 

God, I loathe him so much.  I said when this shit happened that I didn't believe for a second Jenna actually cheated on him, nor do I believe he ever actually believed it.  He claimed she was caught "red handed" but he's a fucking liar.  He's an emotionally abusive asshole who was gaslighting the hell out of Jenna. I actually thought he was looking down because he was ashamed of his behavior, but no, he doubled down and said he still thought his abuse of his girlfriend was appropriate.  GAH, haaaaaaaate.  So much hate.  #freejenna

 

4 hours ago, scrb said:

Only thing I remembered from the backgrounds of these "personal bunkers" is that CT's microwave clock is flashing.

Blugh, yes!  I wanted to fix it so badly!  And as much as I love CT (and I do!), I still laughed when Ashley put him in his place.  "How's that working out for you?"  "Six figures."  Yep.  Also, Kayleigh's bed wasn't made very well.  If I was going to have my room on camera, that particular view of my home would be perfection, even if two feet away was piled with dirty socks and empty dorito's bags.

And I don't like Christopher or Bayleigh, but...I still think she could do better.  I can't imagine my HUSBAND sitting next to me (and we ALL know he was only there because she made it to the final, those are HER coattails you're riding on) and he sold me out talking about I wish she would have just finished blah, blah, blah.  Look, dumbass, she's the only reason you have a shot at getting asked back.  No matter what you think in private, you have her fucking back in public.  "I know my wife and there is no way she would have quit unless she was truly hurting.  I'm so proud of how hard she pushed, and no amount of money would be worth her getting really hurt."  IS THAT SO HARD?  Again, she's not a great person, but she is far, far, far better reality show cast member, and she is going to have a fun life dealing with his resentment of that.

I actually enjoyed quite a bit of the reunion and lol'ed at a few things, but then ended it on that absolute DOUCHEBAG of a human being and his abuse of Jenna, so I walked away mad and it's showing for sure!  Leave on a funny note!

[mojoween]

Vernon Davis.  Vernon Davis?  How incredibly random.

Josh?  BB All-Stars?  Fuck on outta here with that.  If he shows up on August fifth I’ll...well I’ll still watch because I’m BB’s bitch but I WILL NOT BE HAPPY ABOUT IT.

I know what Jordan did and Bear is, well, Bear, but what did Rogan do?

[Zima]

7 hours ago, mojoween said:

Vernon Davis.  Vernon Davis?  How incredibly random.

Josh?  BB All-Stars?  Fuck on outta here with that.  If he shows up on August fifth I’ll...well I’ll still watch because I’m BB’s bitch but I WILL NOT BE HAPPY ABOUT IT.

I know what Jordan did and Bear is, well, Bear, but what did Rogan do?

Idk what anyone did, so someone please fill me in.

Jenny definitely looked a lot better, but I think y'all are really stretching it by saying she looked "great". 

Why was Zach even there if he wasn't going to spill about the DMs? I agree, I don't think there was anything shady going on with Jenna, and he was exaggerating to gaslight and control her. 

[Luckylondon]

2 hours ago, Zima said:

Idk what anyone did, so someone please fill me in.

Jenny definitely looked a lot better, but I think y'all are really stretching it by saying she looked "great". 

Why was Zach even there if he wasn't going to spill about the DMs? I agree, I don't think there was anything shady going on with Jenna, and he was exaggerating to gaslight and control her. 

I don’t know what anyone did and why they are not there either. Please fill us in!

[Jillibean]

42 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Vernon Davis.  Vernon Davis?  How incredibly random.

Josh?  BB All-Stars?  Fuck on outta here with that.  If he shows up on August fifth I’ll...well I’ll still watch because I’m BB’s bitch but I WILL NOT BE HAPPY ABOUT IT.

I know what Jordan did and Bear is, well, Bear, but what did Rogan do?

I actually thought he did a decentish job. A couple of random questions, but much better than some of the fandoms we’ve gotten in the past.

3 hours ago, Luckylondon said:

I don’t know what anyone did and why they are not there either. Please fill us in!

Rogan apparently has a history of racist and homophobic tweets. I haven’t gone looking for them so I don’t know exactly what they are, but I’d guess your typical privileged cis white straight male asshole stuff. Mattie apparently has some questionable tweets as well, and while she isn’t on this season, Ninja Natalie has a slew of them. 

Bear apparently was involved in some sort of situation involving sex with a minor? I don’t know the details, so someone correct me if I’m wrong about something. I think he’s claiming he didn’t know she was a minor, but possibly his social media indicates otherwise? Also he supposedly made a statement similar to Dee’s, just not in writing, saying in his insta stories that to celebrate BLM he was going to only have sex with black women.
 

And finally, back on The Real World, Jordan got into a fight with Nia in which he used the n word (she used it first, and he repeated after her) and then did some monkey impressions. It was bad. It was also nine years ago, and of all of these people I think Jordan is the best model of someone who has really worked on himself, become more educated, and grown as a person over the past decade of his life. Rather than just tossing him in the punishment category, I would have liked to have seen MTV really make an example of him looking back and analyzing his racism and talking about the steps he took to reflect and try to grow. Not to get too deep, but after reading White Fragility I really think we need more of this sort of approach rather than just cancelling people, and MTV has some perfect examples of people they could use, thanks to the documentary like approach of The Real World. But it’s MTV, so they’ll just keep unevenly firing people or sitting them out until the heat lessens. Bear is a big part of their vision of the future of this show, and I don’t think they’re going to give that up just because of a little problem like statutory rape. 

2 hours ago, lasu said:

And I don't like Christopher or Bayleigh, but...I still think she could do better.  I can't imagine my HUSBAND sitting next to me (and we ALL know he was only there because she made it to the final, those are HER coattails you're riding on) and he sold me out talking about I wish she would have just finished blah, blah, blah.  Look, dumbass, she's the only reason you have a shot at getting asked back.  No matter what you think in private, you have her fucking back in public.  "I know my wife and there is no way she would have quit unless she was truly hurting.  I'm so proud of how hard she pushed, and no amount of money would be worth her getting really hurt."  IS THAT SO HARD?  Again, she's not a great person, but she is far, far, far better reality show cast member, and she is going to have a fun life dealing with his resentment of that.

Totally agree. She’s gorgeous, smart, comes from a wealthy family...this is why people were saying even back on BB that he grabbed onto that opportunity with both hands. IIRC, after being evicted (second!) from the house, he basically moved in with her family without her knowledge (since she was still playing and had no contact with the outside world). And he proposed ON TV after knowing her in the house for like two weeks. I know there were some circumstances involved, but please again note ON TV. He should be singing her praises for making it to the finals on her rookie season, and I completely echo your thoughts about what he could have said to support and defend her. Not impressed.

But, you know, I think Kyle wins the “worst significant other” award for the season after a few years of being nominated but ultimately being beaten out by a more worthy candidate. We’re obviously invalidating Zach’s entry for not technically being on this show, otherwise it’s no contest. Seriously though, are these people just counting on their girlfriends never watching the show?

[MaggieG]

Didn't Bear also get arrested for domestic violence recently?

The only entertaining thing about this was the guy crawling behind Josh and Kaycee

[AryasMum]

On 7/22/2020 at 11:47 PM, Michichick said:

Jenny was the first-place finisher and they barely talked to her. Yet they found plenty of time to focus on John. Gee, what a surprise.

Jenny looked good. I think she laid off the lip fillers.

I agree that Jenny looked good. I could hardly look at her previously because her lips were rather repulsive. I was surprised what a difference it made and thought she looked a bit like are Rebecca Budig.  I hope she gets a lot of positive feedback and lays off the fillers. 

[hilaryvm]

On 7/24/2020 at 4:33 AM, Jillibean said:

Bear is a big part of their vision of the future of this show, and I don’t think they’re going to give that up just because of a little problem like statutory rape. 

This appears to be the case, although I can't imagine why.  Since his first appearance, I have yet to find anything interesting about him.  He's not even "makes good tv" he just...terrible.

I'm only 45 min in, and I've already skipped some (Bailey and Kacey) and I'm not sure I'm even going to finish.