S36.E02: Dive Another Day

[falltime]

Air date December 16, 2020

I don't know where to get a summary since my TV guide doesn't have one for this episode.

[Eolivet]

I'm with Kyle: Fessy seriously saw one ring, a giant arena and thought, "I don't know if that's a physical challenge?" Fessy is a wuss. Free Aneesa!

However, I'm watching Vendettas now, so I got a kick out of the Rookie Class of (Season) 31 team-up of Kyle and Kam. Plus, it made Josh so annoyed, and that's always good TV.

Can they retire these Survivor-type "reveal the hierarchy" challenges on these shows, since they were broken by none other than Natalie in her first Survivor season?

(Also, I continue to lodge my objection to the idea that "winning a daily challenge" is at all equivalent to being a "double agent." It's like ... words have meaning, MTV. You can't just declare someone a double agent because it sounds cool.)

[TiffanyNichelle]

I am literally only here for Nam being so cute. More sections about him being shirtless and less...everything else?

Fessy should have gone into that elimination. That was an easy win. No matter who put in against Joseph was going to take him out.  I wasn't rooting for Kyle or Joseph. Kyle because he is a lying snake and Joseph because he was annoying. I had to wonder if he was trying to get voted off this whole time. I'm glad Big T is free of Joseph.

Kyle came off like a baby with how he threw a fit over being put in. Maybe you shouldn't have lied for no reason.

 

[aghst]

2 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

Kyle came off like a baby with how he threw a fit over being put in. Maybe you shouldn't have lied for no reason.

 

All things considered it was a favorable way for Kyle to win his skull.  Joseph is tall and lanky but he was doing strange exercises in the dining room while others were lifting weights.  And licking the mustard?  Should have taken the whole jar — still wouldn’t have helped since it’s um BS.

But smart of him to infiltrate the alliance, though Kat isn’t voting against her alliance.  Nany was so thirsty telling Fessy that she would pick him but she’s unlikely to win eliminations against most of the other females.

Kyle was all bluster after he won.  I think some of them ham it up on camera like pro wrestlers do, talking trash.  Wes is either doing the same thing in his talking heads or he’s delusional, saying if Fessy sent him in the elimination, Fessy would be destroyed.

The ice water swim challenge was dumb.  Should have been the first one to put 3 in their own  station.  As it was, it was all strategic moves, people standing around with those red things, looking around.  Why hand the challenge to Fessy and Aneesa?  Should have been the men getting two ice blocks and the women getting one and first one to 3 wins.

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by aghst

[Lantern7]

*sigh* Well, there goes a nice guy we'll probably never see again. I kinda wanted Joseph to go further, given that he seemed pretty chill. But, of course, nobody really liked him . . . not even his own partner. Luckily for Big T, she walks away with CT. Basically, she's gone from farm horse to Clydesdale. Kyle takes Kam as his new partner, Nany picks Josh, and everyone got to question Fessy's manhood for not going into the Crater to get a Golden Skull. Not that Joseph was an automatic lay-up, but Fessy could have won AND not puked his guts out like Kyle did.

Not much of an episode. Natalie decided to stick with Wes (she did NOT do her homework on these guys), everyone swims in ice and plays a game designed to show the social pecking order, and Aneesa and Fessy get another win. Also, 3-4 British women started talking, and I couldn't make it all out. I would've thought years of watching Doctor Who could help me.

Seriously, was anyone rooting for Joseph? Devin was particularly vicious. Note to Nicole: if you win a Skull, you should upgrade. The guy can ruin so much.

Crater? Well, Joseph did make Kyle earn that Skull. Seriously, doesn't anyone like the normal folks? I guess you can count Nam, even though his physique and accent shout "Asian-German Turbo." And that isn't bad at all. I know Jay as a lot of fans on the Facebok group where I post, but I bet Nam's bandwagon will fill up just as quickly.

Fessy's tie and Kyle's turtleneck . . . why?

Next week: CT vs. Josh! That won't be a one-sided verbal battle at all! “WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING OVER ME?!?” “BECAUSE YOU’RE SO STUPID!” Seriously, though, Josh is a clown.

[ImpinAintEasy]

I love Kyle. He’s the funniest, most consistently entertaining person on this show. He was swept up in the Cara-Paulie vortex in a couple of seasons, but great in the other 3. 
 

Joseph was a total bore. Don’t care if he’s a nice guy. I don’t watch this show for nice boring people. 
 

 

[Jillibean]

So prior to this season, I’ve always said that Wes seems “in on the joke” and has awareness about his role on the show. Turns out I may have to revise that opinion. Wes seems really genuinely angry that he’s being targeted by everyone, both on the show and on social media. Being everyone’s biggest target is something that has happened to Johnny in most of the last few seasons and that Johnny has accepted with a lot more grace than Wes is right now, which is sort of shocking. It looked to me like he basically threw a tantrum during that daily. He also seems insulted that his integrity is being questioned and is insisting that he is very honest and genuine with his true allies—his problem being, I guess, that many of those “true allies” are on this season and seem to feel otherwise. I think Wes is so used to plotting and masterminding and feeling in power that he has no idea what to do when no one will play his game with him. This is a whole new side of Wes that we’re seeing here, and it’s not flattering. Also, while I laughed at a lot of what he said during the deliberation, “multiple challenge champion?” Hasn’t he only won two? That’s more of a “double challenge champion.” I hope he was intentionally being funny with that, but I can’t say with certainty that that’s the case. Meanwhile four time champ Darrell is sitting there very quietly. 

9 hours ago, Eolivet said:

I'm with Kyle: Fessy seriously saw one ring, a giant arena and thought, "I don't know if that's a physical challenge?" Fessy is a wuss. Free Aneesa!

This exemplifies to me why Fessy isn’t ready to win this game yet, despite his athletic and physical prowess. This isn’t a purely physical game, and Fessy isn’t playing the other pieces well right now, in my opinion. Saying TJ didn’t explain the rules before he got to make a choice was laughable. Everyone with any understanding of the show knew what the rules were more or less going to be. There are so many new, random eliminations that the contestants actually can’t figure our prior to hearing the rules; this one was a gimme. It’s like walking in there and seeing a basket for balls set up, or a pole, or a hallway. This is a challenge classic and the fact that Fessy didn’t know what it was shows that he’s not prepared enough. Also, he should know that Kyle won basically this elimination in the recent past. That might have changed his decision.

On top of that, his loyalty is spread too thin and is too vague, as exemplified by the daily challenge and his alliance mates being annoyed by his elimination choice. Instead of following Aneesa’s lead about keeping the information that they can see the secret vote to themselves, he should be telling his closest allies to build trust. Cory and Nelson are probably already wary after the Kyle nomination, and will be more so when everyone eventually finds out about the “classified intel”. 

Finally, his confident statement that he can beat Wes in a final made me roll my eyes. Can you though, Fessy? You lost last year to Johnny, who is almost 40, and Kyle, who is Kyle. 

Quote

Can they retire these Survivor-type "reveal the hierarchy" challenges on these shows, since they were broken by none other than Natalie in her first Survivor season?

Can you imagine Jeff Probst watching them standing there discussing where to put their kills? He would have ended the whole challenge and told them to just pick who wins, in that case. 

Kyle should know better than to assume there’s no twist around the secret vote. Wes and CT have to be thinking it. Interesting that they haven’t shared with him or tipped him off.

Finally, can we discuss the fashion choices in last night’s confessionals? Was Fessy attending a wedding? Was Kyle an 80s police officer going to a nice dinner? Since when are we wearing suits and blazers to our interviews?

[toomuchtv47]

Not sorry to see Joseph go. During his talk with Big T he rubbed me the wrong way when he said she reminded him of his ex. The whole exchange made me side eye him and then his teetering back and forth during the deliberation. It was as if he was trying so hard to be manipulative and failed badly.

I wouldn't trust Kyle in real life but he is entertaining. I laughed out loud when he picked Kam and the look on Josh's face was priceless. Now we get to see Josh all butt hurt cAusE Its ALl aBouT HiM. 

[joanne3482]

So they're all still playing the scared game even though there are only 10 skulls to run TJ's final, which I presume will be 5 guys and 5 girls. There are currently 15 of each, so 10 got to go. 

I was amused by (I think) Devin's inability to understand Amber's super thick accent. 

I think the double agent thing could work if a few of the contestants were plants paid by the show to stir stuff up, be incompetent, whatever. They were "double agents" because secretly they were getting paid by production and their whole goal was to avoid being caught and going up for elimination while at the same time making things more chaotic than normal. 

[RedbirdNelly]

I will never understand on a show where you HAVE TO GO TO ELIMINATION and win to be in the final, people keep freaking out about being put into elimination. Esp now that TJ is saying up front: 10 skulls.  I can see avoiding the very first one to confirm you know the full range of rules, but after that? nope. Each elimination is an opportunity--and towards the end everyone will be scrambling to be put in--and if you have a skull, at that point, why would you LET a strong competitor earn their skull? thus, (a) Wes, I don't get why you were trying to avoid going in ---esp since Joseph seemed to be your opponent and (b) Fessy--once you saw it and it looked 99% certain strength related, you did not go. It's like Fessy thinks he'll get to choose every time? 

[shantown]

Does anyone know if/when MTV will have episodes up on their site or smart TV apps?

[xfuse]

53 minutes ago, RedbirdNelly said:

(a) Wes, I don't get why you were trying to avoid going in ---esp since Joseph seemed to be your opponent and

I think Wes figured that if he got put in last night he was going to be put in every time until he left like they did to Jay last Challenge. He still has a target on his back but not as big. I doubt that Fessy will come for him again unless Wes does something to screw it up or until it's down to his alliance and Wes.

Fessy's alliance right now is crumbling and it's only week two. Corey and Nelson seem to realized they are just add-on to the alliance and Kyle knows that he wasn't really a part of it.

What I see coming but they don't seem to is for both partners to go into elimination. It's a easy way to get rid of people. 

What I wish would happen is that after the 10 skulls are given out than it's game over for the rest. Somehow I don't think that it's just going to be straight up 10 eliminations and then the final.

And while CT seems like he's excited for Big T, i'm thinking he rather have a strong woman as his partner.

Nany is excited because she now thinks that she is with someone who will protect her until the end (and then whine because she has to go in).

Kam seemed excited to be picked by Kyle. Was it her ego or was Josh that much of a whiny baby?

 

[Michichick]

1 hour ago, xfuse said:

Kam seemed excited to be picked by Kyle. Was it her ego or was Josh that much of a whiny baby?

 

Why not both? Hahahaha!

I enjoy Big T. I hope CT teaches her to be a stronger competitor.

[BK1978]

8 hours ago, Michichick said:

Why not both? Hahahaha!

I enjoy Big T. I hope CT teaches her to be a stronger competitor.

I like Big T as well, I also think she's cute but that is not the reason why I like her.  Not totally that is.  She actually seems to have a great personality which is always a huge plus.

[MaggieG]

I don't really like Devin but I was laughing when he talked about not being able to understand Nicole.

[Treehugger9]

21 hours ago, xfuse said:

Somehow I don't think that it's just going to be straight up 10 eliminations and then the final

It's been announced that the season is 19 episodes, so it's most likely not just 10 eliminations. 

[luckyroll3]

CT: Professor Kyle killed Colonel Mustard in the crater with a hula hoop! 

LMAO! And what the hell was the deal with the mustard. That shit was strange. Joseph seemed like a nice guy, but he was annoying as fuck.  If his pilates in the middle of the kitchen and his performance at the deliberation are any indication of his need for attention, he'll be back in future seasons.

I'm shocked Josh didn't start crying when Kyle stole Kam.  Good on Kyle for making a big play and smart move to gain insight into what that alliance is doing.  Also, did he have to show a house to prospective buyers after his talking head interviews? Cause that off-white turtleneck and jacket combo was a bit much. 

On 12/16/2020 at 11:26 PM, TiffanyNichelle said:

I am literally only here for Nam being so cute. More sections about him being shirtless and less...everything else?

Nam is hot!!!! I was kid of annoyed that all the interstitials have been replaced by every single person working out (like when the heck did that happen? Usually there are just the 6-7 people who workout all the time while everyone else is up to shenanigans. last night it looked like everyone was working out at some point yesterday), but I would totally be okay with more shirtless Nam talking about going to take a shower.

On 12/17/2020 at 8:49 AM, Jillibean said:

Finally, his confident statement that he can beat Wes in a final made me roll my eyes. Can you though, Fessy? You lost last year to Johnny, who is almost 40, and Kyle, who is Kyle. 

Lol! Exactly. He lost to Kyle! He is so full of shit.  And this was definitely his opportunity to earn a skull and he missed out.  TJ is at the point where he's about to scream, "what don't y'all fucking idiots get about there only being 10 skulls!"

I wish they had thought up something for the rogue agent to do instead of just standing there and watching everything take place. Some kind or subterfuge. Like what if CT could prevent people from getting more ice blocks or was a human shield for someone's tower thing so that if people wanted to get Wes' team out first, they had to battle CT in order to deposit their tube.  I don't know; I'm just looking for something a bit more creative that, you can't compete or vote.

On 12/17/2020 at 2:55 PM, shantown said:

Does anyone know if/when MTV will have episodes up on their site or smart TV apps?

They are totally fucking around.  I had to resort to other means to rewatch the episode.

[Fretful]

The women would be crazy NOT to go after Natalie this elimination.  There are only 5 skulls for women in TJ's final.  Natalie has one.  The alliance should figure out which 5 go to the final, and  fight to take skulls away from anyone else. Once someone in the alliance wins a skull, you start throwing lay-ups in against alliance  members,

Of course, this only works if eliminations don't directly impact your partner.  The men n the alliance might oot want to throw in Kyle again if it puts Kam in danger,

[ImpinAintEasy]

8 hours ago, Fretful said:

The women would be crazy NOT to go after Natalie this elimination.  There are only 5 skulls for women in TJ's final.  Natalie has one.  The alliance should figure out which 5 go to the final, and  fight to take skulls away from anyone else. Once someone in the alliance wins a skull, you start throwing lay-ups in against alliance  members,

Of course, this only works if eliminations don't directly impact your partner.  The men n the alliance might oot want to throw in Kyle again if it puts Kam in danger,

The problem is most are probably intimidated by her. You think they’ll be in a hurry to challenge her? I think Aneesa and Kam will want layups, and then they’ll start throwing Natalie  or LoLo in. 

[AntFTW]

23 hours ago, Fretful said:

The women would be crazy NOT to go after Natalie this elimination.  There are only 5 skulls for women in TJ's final.  Natalie has one.  The alliance should figure out which 5 go to the final, and  fight to take skulls away from anyone else. Once someone in the alliance wins a skull, you start throwing lay-ups in against alliance  members,

Of course, this only works if eliminations don't directly impact your partner.  The men n the alliance might oot want to throw in Kyle again if it puts Kam in danger,

None of them want to be the one to go against Natalie, with a very small number exceptions (maybe Kam or Tori would do it for the skull).

On 12/18/2020 at 9:05 AM, MaggieG said:

I don't really like Devin but I was laughing when he talked about not being able to understand Nicole.

Right before Devin said that, I was thinking to myself “what the fuck is Nicole saying?”

that was probably the most hilarious moment of the episode for me.

Edited December 20, 2020 by AntFTW

[Zima]

I felt second-hand embarrassment for Wes and everyone else involved in that conversation when he said the alliance should hire him in as a Janitor unless they wanted to make him their CEO. Yikes, Wes, tone it the fuck down.  CT's face during that whole exchange was priceless.

I like Big T too, and it seems everyone in the Challenge house does as well. That will be great for CT's game, but he might want to ditch her before the final if he wants to take first place, unfortunately. 

I love Darrell's random (but astute) observations during his talking heads. Kyle is a much better competitor than people give him credit for. 

Also love Wes admitting that Nam is hot, lol! That is a fact that can't be denied. 

Joseph's Pilates routine in the living room was hilarious, but those pulses are no joke! I'd like to see some of the other guys try an actual advanced Pilates routine sometime and see how they do! 

I can't even with the mustard. CT's Colonel Mustard comment was fkn great. 

Kyle was very smart to pick Kam.  Fessy and Aneesa weren't so smart to throw Kyle in, imo. They revealed their hand too soon. Had they voted in Wes, nobody but Wes and Natalie would have been upset. Now, half of the house is upset by their decision. 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Zima

[shantown]

Finally got to see the episode!

On 12/16/2020 at 11:12 PM, Eolivet said:

I'm with Kyle: Fessy seriously saw one ring, a giant arena and thought, "I don't know if that's a physical challenge?" Fessy is a wuss.

Completely this. For as annoying as TJ is (if he said "run MY final" one more time I was going to punch the tv) he's got a point - if you want a skull at some point you're going to have to fight for it. Joseph was probably the easiest way to do that, especially when it's obviously going to be "put the ring on the post" when those are the only objects in the arena.

Kyle was a baby about being thrown in, but I kind of liked him throwing up the middle fingers (physically and verbally) after he won. If he was smart he'd realize Fessy/Aneesa know something - otherwise why throw him in? Agreed with whoever said CT/Wes must be figuring out there's a secret twist by now. They should, they've been doing this long enough! Same goes for Nelson and Cory. I skipped a bunch of challenges so I don't know them, but I think it said this is #8 for each of them? You should know by now there's more to it. 

[luckyroll3]

14 hours ago, shantown said:

Same goes for Nelson and Cory. I skipped a bunch of challenges so I don't know them, but I think it said this is #8 for each of them? You should know by now there's more to it. 

Except Nelson and Cory are both really, really dumb. Cory has a few more brain cells than Nelson, but not that many more.....

[AntFTW]

10 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

Except Nelson and Cory are both really, really dumb. Cory has a few more brain cells than Nelson, but not that many more.....

Ain't that the truth! I spent all last season saying Nelson was an idiot. Every episode had a stupid moment from Nelson... except maybe one episode.

I really think Nelson will never win. He sucks at this game.