S37.E02: Bertha

[peachmangosteen]

Quote

TBA

Airs August 18th.

[AntFTW]

Me hearing Bettina's laugh:

Edited August 19, 2021 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

Emy's not built for this game. Maybe she proves me wrong and wins the season.

[Lola82]

Nothing this season will be as funny as Cory’s reaction to his partner’s laugh. 

[Lantern7]

Well, if Josh wasn't on every fan's shit list, he sure is now. Just straight-up lied about Kelz trying to make deals. Normally, I don't like the idea of players returning to the game, but I'd make an exception with Kelz.

Obvious question: why was Amber relegated to standby status? Yeah, she did more or less luck into big money last season, but she still won. Nope, we gotta wait for Lauren to get sent to the cornfield before Amber and her hair returns. I can just imagine how thrilled she was that her partner was Josh.

I get the hate towards Emy stemming from last week (turns out Michaela's fanbase is huge), and I get that she's not stable. But then she says "Mr. TJ" and I like her all over again. Well, at least until she decided to steal Devin for herself, and do it with slightly less gusto than CT going for Kam last season. Fessy and Esther (my name for them: "Fessther") made a mistake sending in Emy's partner. I know Emy & Ed only had the one mission together, but they were on the best possible wavelength  in The Lair. Oh, and I think Emy had a wall full of Cara Maria pics back home.

Ashley goes right back to being insufferable, and she screws up Berna's name. Devin calls her "Meltdown Mitchell," which was clever. Well, for Devin, anyway.

[AntFTW]

I had absolutely no opinion of Ed on The Circle, maybe perhaps because he was with his mom but he brings good vibes to the Challenge.

[CrazyDog]

That daily challenge was pretty dull.

It didn't work out for Kelz, but seeing him just end Josh during deliberations was amazing.

"We all know you're dumb as a rock, Josh, and if I was making deals you wouldn't be the one to figure it out." (Slightly paraphrased). Lol. Plus the other vets trying not to openly laugh.

I can't stand Emy, at least for now. She's exhausting.

I don't like Fessy at all, but I can only imagine how challenging it is to do the show during Ramadan.

Meltdown Mitchell...yikes. That was embarrassing. Drunk, slurring, yelling at a girl for talking to her not-boyfriend.

Ed is adorable, and I hope Kelz returns next season. Overall I'm actually enjoying a lot of the rookies so far.

[TiffanyNichelle]

Oh man I was rooting hard for Kelz because I wanted him to fuck up Fessy and Josh's plans. After having to sit through all that Josh airtime I deserved to see his plans blow up in his face, damn it! Also I loved when Kelz told him to his face that he was too stupid to figure out if Kelz was plotting anything.

Nelson is an idiot, what did he expect to happen after a hookup with Ashley and then choosing to hook up with another girl in the house. Dude, you wanted this drama.

Why is everyone picking Devin so much?? LOL.

Emy's freakout at being put into the elimination was way too much, way too soon. And calling people sneaking and snakes when you were the one to spy on Michaela and put out the information that there was a list....girl.

Edited August 19, 2021 by TiffanyNichelle

[BK1978]

Her laugh sounded like Robert Carradine's laugh in Revenge of the Nerds.  Side note, I remember when I first realized that Robert was the brother of David and Keith my mind was blown.  Mainly due to the characters I saw them play, but still I always find it hard to believe that three of them are brothers.

I remember Fessy being pretty devout on Big Brother and him talking about fasting during  Ramadan leads me to think that he is.  But last season I thought he was commenting about drinking at the bar when he got into the "Tutu fight" with CT.   I thought that drinking alcohol was banned by the Muslim faith.  Am I wrong in this?  

Emy can go at any time.  She annoys me.

If Kelz is going to continue to savage Josh like he did tonight, they can bring him back for as many seasons as they want.  Kelz's retort was brutal but hilarious.

Esther bragging about being the first Nigerian to win a competition made me laugh.  My reaction was, "Well you and Tacha are, to my knowledge, the first two Nigerian's to play the game.  So it really is not that big of a deal."

Also, how sad is it that this show only has five people from the Real World on it?  There are more people from Big Brother (Counting the international versions) on the show.

Edited August 19, 2021 by BK1978
Because there is an e in the word note. Who would have guessed?

[ImpinAintEasy]

Devin: “Ed, it’s a map of the world!”

Ed: “I know!!!” 😂

I like Ed. I like Kelz. I was sad that they had to face each other. 
 

Big Brother US continues to be by far the worst feeder show. Seriously, most of the rookies are more charismatic and entertaining than the whole lot of BB alumni. I’m so sick of having to hear about and watch the Big Brother alliance. Josh is the worst Challenger of all-time when you factor in the amount of screen time he gets.  

 

[aghst]

I think daily challenge was good.  Definitely some teams outperformed others with Esther throwing fastballs on the money.  Cory blundered by being on the helicopter rather than the car.

Elimination was good, picking up the pieces was where the game was won and lost and the one female kept dropping the pieces.

Yeah epic takedown of Josh by Kelz.  Too bad but I think some of the rookies saw him as a threat because of his size and athleticism.

So it’s going to be more whittle down of the rookies for awhile, since some rookies see other rookies as their biggest threat, even though the vet alliance is going after every rookie.

And rookies who win elimination are always going to pick vets to avoid being the house vote.

But vets are dividing and conquering, though wild cards like Ashley may lead to the breakup of that alliance.

[AntFTW]

On 8/19/2021 at 12:11 AM, CrazyDog said:

It didn't work out for Kelz, but seeing him just end Josh during deliberations was amazing.

That was epic! I loved it. The way Kelz handled Fessy at the club left the implication (to me) that he’s not one for making deals. The way Kelz started was awesome with “this is awkward” (because you’re full of shit). Also, Devin putting out such a false choice annoyed me to no end. Devin said in deliberation to Kelz “if it’s not you, then who?”… and I’m like you're standing in a room of 30 people to vote for. The choice is not simply this or that. 

That moment, along with Bettina’s laugh, and Emy breakdown at elimination were my favorite parts of the episode.

Edited August 21, 2021 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

3 hours ago, aghst said:

And rookies who win elimination are always going to pick vets to avoid being the house vote.

Right! When Emy picked Devin and Ed picked Tori, I was like “look at them being smart!” knowing that if they pick a vet at least one group of people won’t target them in the house vote.

[peachmangosteen]

This episode was a billion times more entertaining than the first. Although maybe that was because I decided to fast forward most of the daily challenge as well as the elimination (I always ffwd the latter) this time lol.

I wasn't a fan of Emy's psychotic-ness in the first ep because the way she went after Michaela was little off to me but she was fun in this ep. And I love Ed.

Cory's partner's laugh and his reaction to it is possibly this season's 'FRESH COTTON PADS?!' I was rolling and watched it multiple times lol.

[AntFTW]

I have to say that I'm liking the crop of people they brought on this season. I'm the harshest when it comes to new people and the new people seem like a good mix of personality and drama. I'm loving Esther, Priscilla, and Tacha. Even though Kelz wasn't there for long, he gave a good performance with the way he shut Josh down. We don't see much of Berna but I'm liking her because she doesn't appear to be on the crazy train. Berna realizes that Ashley is being ridiculous (although, I do feel like Nelson may be leading Ashley on) but Berna doesn't engage that much.

I like Emy from the first episode because she pushed the drama, and it was good drama. I'm just not a fan of her breakdown over feeling betrayed. If the game isn't going your way, play the game. If you're surrounded by "snakes", be a snake. Don't cry about it.

Keep Bettina around for her laugh. Her laugh makes me giggle. It's cute and weird at the same time. Every time I hear it, it cracks me up.

I always have complaints about new people but not so much this season.

I haven't been a fan of Fessy simply because I think he's boring to watch. He has a cardboard personality but I like that they're showing his observation of Ramadan because it makes him not so dry.

Edited August 21, 2021 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

Cory's partner's laugh and his reaction to it is possibly this season's 'FRESH COTTON PADS?!' I was rolling and watched it multiple times lol.

LOL! I watching that thinking "ok, is she gonna stop laughing? The joke is over" because Cory was joking about waiting to hear the laugh... But she never stops laughing, and then Cory reacts, and she laughs even more. LMAO! I compared that to the "Wes getting hit in the face with a shoe" moment from last season. 🤣

[aghst]

15 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I haven't been a fan of Fessy simply because I think he's boring to watch. He has a cardboard personality but I like that they're showing his observation of Ramadan because it makes him not so dry.

I think Fessy has been able to stick around by causing drama, whether going after some women for poli-dicking or trash-talking other guys like CT last season.

There have been some other rookies in recent years who were big athletic guys, including a couple of Brits who no longer seem to be invited anymore.  But those guys were laid back and so maybe MTV decided they weren't colorful or had big enough personalities.

So that may be what happens to Kelz, unless he comes back and starts making waves, getting more screen time.

They've introduced so many people in recent seasons that I can't keep their names straight.  There was that one Brit who was hooking up with that racist Australian-Chinese girl one season and conspired to get her voted into the elimination.  He came back and won or made the Finals I think?  But they haven't had him back since, even though he was a good villain.

Fessy generates a lot of drama with others talking about him.  I guess Josh is in that category as well, creates drama, gets a lot of others talking about him.  Easy way to get air time.

This messiness with Nelson and the two women, that may keep Nelson returning to future seasons.

 

[joanne3482]

21 minutes ago, aghst said:

There was that one Brit who was hooking up with that racist Australian-Chinese girl one season and conspired to get her voted into the elimination.  He came back and won or made the Finals I think?  But they haven't had him back since, even though he was a good villain.

Rogan, racist tweets in his past. He did apologize for them, but the presumption online is that he isn't invited back because of that. 

I have been watching too much reality tv. With all of Fessy's talk about fasting for Ramadan I was expecting this episode to have an eating challenge and him having a conflict over that. 

Edited August 19, 2021 by joanne3482

[AntFTW]

1 minute ago, joanne3482 said:

Rogan, racist tweets in his past. He did apologize for them, but the presumption online is that he isn't invited back because of that. 

I literally just found out about that 30 minutes ago. I had no idea.

[AntFTW]

On 8/19/2021 at 11:23 AM, aghst said:

I think Fessy has been able to stick around by causing drama, whether going after some women for poli-dicking or trash-talking other guys like CT last season.

There have been some other rookies in recent years who were big athletic guys, including a couple of Brits who no longer seem to be invited anymore.  But those guys were laid back and so maybe MTV decided they weren't colorful or had big enough personalities.

So that may be what happens to Kelz, unless he comes back and starts making waves, getting more screen time.

They've introduced so many people in recent seasons that I can't keep their names straight.  There was that one Brit who was hooking up with that racist Australian-Chinese girl one season and conspired to get her voted into the elimination.  He came back and won or made the Finals I think?  But they haven't had him back since, even though he was a good villain.

Fessy generates a lot of drama with others talking about him.  I guess Josh is in that category as well, creates drama, gets a lot of others talking about him.  Easy way to get air time.

This messiness with Nelson and the two women, that may keep Nelson returning to future seasons.

 

Fessy caused no drama in season 35. The highlight of his season was beating a one-handed Jordan in a pole wrestle elimination. He did cause some drama in season 36 by getting into a fight with CT and getting himself voted into elimination against Nelson.

For the most part, most guys introduced don't cause much drama. The two men that cause the most drama to come from the Brits were Bear and Rogan.

All of Rogan's drama stemmed from Dee, "that racist Australian-Chinese girl". Rogan's drama disappeared when MTV fired Dee.

Nelson has been messy and hotheaded since his AYTO season. Nelson got drunk and got in a fight with Derrick Kosinski literally over nothing on Dirty 30. On season 31, Nelson stupidly helped fuel a rumor that caused the drama that led to Jemmye and Brittney bullying Kayleigh by throwing Kayleigh's stuff over the second floor balcony (a rumor that had absolutely nothing to do with Jemmye or Brittney). Nelson flipped out on Kailah and Aneesa on season 35 several times for ridiculous reason. Nelson is a useful idiot for reality TV.

 

Also, the elimination that they had this episode is the type of elimination I want Fessy thrown in. Every time Fessy gets thrown into elimination, it always happens to be a hall brawl or a pole wrestle.

Edited August 20, 2021 by AntFTW

[LaurelleJ]

Kelz was 100%. correct when he said the vets need to be straight up and say you are a threat to my game, I want you out. Josh looked like such a punk saying yeah you are making deals. I laughed so hard when Kelz shut him down like dude you are not the one known to be the smart one in the room. Still can't stand Josh. 

Fessy wants Amber out because his male ego can't handle her being in the house knowing she won when he switched partners. He knows she is strong in the final and again his ego won't allow him to consider her as a partner, so he wanted her gone. My first thought was that Fessy was going to throw in CT. That solves some of his problems. 

Em cries as she says Mr. TJ and I feel so bad for laughing. Then Ed made me laugh even more with his speech. I'm so upset that Kelz is out, Ed you are the new scape goat. Be prepared to go in every time a vet is in power. I don't care for Em at all. 

If I'm CT, I am already scheming about how to make Amber my partner again, because if it ain't broke... The strategy for the rookie should absolutely to pair with a vet, because a rookie/rookie team is very vulnerable. 

Edited August 19, 2021 by LaurelleJ

[aghst]

32 minutes ago, joanne3482 said:

Rogan, racist tweets in his past. He did apologize for them, but the presumption online is that he isn't invited back because of that. 

I have been watching too much reality tv. With all of Fessy's talk about fasting for Ramadan I was expecting this episode to have an eating challenge and him having a conflict over that. 

Ooh, I'd have a lot of respect for the producers if they did that.

Well respect for their troll game.

[LaurelleJ]

36 minutes ago, joanne3482 said:

I have been watching too much reality tv. With all of Fessy's talk about fasting for Ramadan I was expecting this episode to have an eating challenge and him having a conflict over that. 

Yes! Definitely felt like they were setting up for that. 

[AntFTW]

Just now, LaurelleJ said:

Yes! Definitely felt like they were setting up for that. 

We still got time. I don't think this is the last we're hearing about it 🤣

Although, I don't think producers would do that. I think they would respect Fessy's religion and not be that petty lol

[AntFTW]

24 minutes ago, LaurelleJ said:

Kelz was 100%. correct when he said the vets need to be straight up and say you are a threat to my game, I want you out. Josh looked like such a punk saying yeah you are making deals. I laughed so hard when Kelz shut him down like dude you are not the one known to be the smart one in the room. Still can't stand Josh. 

It seems like Josh didn't really have to say anything. That plan was already in motion. They were all gonna vote for Kelz anyway. Why was there a need for Josh to open his mouth to justify his vote?

[TiffanyNichelle]

7 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

It seems like Josh didn't really have to say anything. That plan was already in motion. They were all gonna vote for Kelz anyway. Why was there a need for Josh to open his mouth to justify his vote?

Because he's Josh and he thinks he's the smartest person in the room but every season he proves he is not. He likes to think he's so clever and that he has a lot of power in this dynamic of him, Kaycee and Fessy grouping but look at how he was practically begging Fessy to not throw in his partner and screw him over. Fessy would rather mess with the vets voting in rookies in order to get "revenge" on Amber rather than let Josh keep a winning partner.

There was too much Josh air time! I need a rookie team to win and throw him to get him out.

Edited August 19, 2021 by TiffanyNichelle

[LaurelleJ]

32 minutes ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

Because he's Josh and he thinks he's the smartest person in the room but every season he proves he is not. He likes to think he's so clever and that he has a lot of power in this dynamic of him, Kaycee and Fessy grouping but look at how he was practically begging Fessy to not throw in his partner and screw him over. Fessy would rather mess with the vets voting in rookies in order to get "revenge" on Amber rather than let Josh keep a winning partner.

There was too much Josh air time! I need a rookie team to win and throw him to get him out.

Exactly. He is probably so relieved this season that there are no skulls so he doesn't have to go into elimination. He thinks if he stays underneath Fessy's balls that he will be safe. What a reversal, Josh needs to keep his partner because it will help him in the final. Amber is very likely to get stolen from him. Yes it's safe for the rookies to partner with Vets so that they will be safe, but this whole picking individual people doesn't keep them safe. The rookies have the numbers, hopefully they will take advantage of it. 

[MaggieG]

10 hours ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

Devin: “Ed, it’s a map of the world!”

Ed: “I know!!!” 😂

 

I love Ed forever for this!

I'm still trying to remember everyone's names but I noticed Priscilla in this episode and she is stunning.

[AntFTW]

29 minutes ago, MaggieG said:

11 hours ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

Devin: “Ed, it’s a map of the world!”

Ed: “I know!!!” 😂

I love Ed forever for this!

Me too. That was hilarious.

31 minutes ago, MaggieG said:

I'm still trying to remember everyone's names but I noticed Priscilla in this episode and she is stunning.

Yes, she is. She's gorgeous and it seems like she has a good TV personality. She seems ready to fuck shit up after what the vets did to Kelz.

[FlyingEgret]

4 hours ago, LaurelleJ said:

Exactly. He is probably so relieved this season that there are no skulls so he doesn't have to go into elimination. He thinks if he stays underneath Fessy's balls that he will be safe. What a reversal, Josh needs to keep his partner because it will help him in the final. Amber is very likely to get stolen from him. Yes it's safe for the rookies to partner with Vets so that they will be safe, but this whole picking individual people doesn't keep them safe. The rookies have the numbers, hopefully they will take advantage of it. 

Why no skulls this time?

Maybe we can bring them back and apply the requirement just to Josh...

[Jobiska]

Ed is the perfect balance of a challenger to me--funny, friendly, self-aware, supportive of his partner, confident yet aware of his limitations, and yet still reality TV material (unlike people like Nam who are too pure and good for the challenge, LOL).  Please let him stay this way and be the anti-John.  

I could understand Emi crying after the regular challenge since she was afraid of heights, communicating in a second language, and it was probably at least partly an emotional reaction after the rush of adrenaline.  But she needs to stop crying all the time.  

I was so confused by the title "Bertha" but now that I've seen it it makes perfect sense--unlike their stupid puns and plays on movie titles etc.  They don't do that very well.

[AntFTW]

How could I forget about Emanuel imitating Amber’s walk as she got out of the lambo like “ooh yeah like gimme the applause” 😂😂😂

[aghst]

Ramadan or not, eating challenge is Fessy's kryptonite.

He refused to eat one bit.

 

[BK1978]

14 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I like Emy from the first episode because she pushed the drama, and it was good drama. I'm just not a fan her breakdown over feeling betrayed. If the game isn't going your way, play the game. If you're surrounded by "snakes", be a snake. Don't cry about it.

 

The thing is, she's from Survivor originally (I think she was on Romanian Survivor, though I am not sure), I don't know if she won or not.  Therefore she should be used to cutthroat game play.  Unless that is not how Survivor is played over there.

13 hours ago, LaurelleJ said:

Still can't stand Josh.

 

The one and only time I liked Josh was when he beat Paul in Big Brother.  Other that that, I think Josh is a bully and dumb as shit.

[joanne3482]

20 hours ago, FlyingEgret said:

Why no skulls this time?

I feel like skulls didn't work the way they wanted them to, but I also think that was the problem with the design to begin with. They should have designed the game so they had some folks who didn't get skulls by xyz episode and get booted for not having one in time. They didn't do that. Somehow by the "run my final" episode everyone had a skull and there were no people without one who got automatically booted.  With this HUGE number of participants, (this feels like more than usual) they may have been able to do it this time. But they have to limit the number of skulls. 

[mojoween]

God DAMMIT.

Also Emy is overly too much and Ed is annoying.

[RedbirdNelly]

I dislike people who stir things up for others but then freak out when it is directed at them. Thus, Emy is not high on my list of people to like.

Ed seems fun enough or so far a good personality for a show like this. 

I wish they had quickly shown a pic of Lauren so I could try to remember who she was. 

The daily looked cooler than it actually was, which often is the case for me. I was glad to see a elimination round not tied to strength and it required some partner team work. 

I get picking vets as partners, and I love Devin for his snark (again, if he gets eliminated, can we have him do snarky narration?)--but puzzled as to why he keeps getting picked. You can pick others. Also not sure I get why Tori keeps getting picked given there are plenty of others and she has not done well the last 2 seasons (which are the only ones I've watched with her).

[AntFTW]

4 hours ago, RedbirdNelly said:

I wish they had quickly shown a pic of Lauren so I could try to remember who she was. 

Apparently, she’s from Love Island US. Someone had to point out to me that she’s the woman we see in the pink tights on episode 1 at the moment where Big T comes up to Michaela about the list.

They did a great job of erasing Lauren from this season. I still have no idea who she is or what she looks like.

[Unclejosh]

The reason Devin keeps getting picked is he has one of the best social games going. No one targets him because he isn't much of a threat, yet he is friends with a lot of people and is well liked by the majority so him being a house vote so early is not likely.  So anyone attached to him in the early goings is pretty safe from being voted in by the house. Of course the "Agency" can pick anyone so being his partner wouldn't help necessarily in being picked by them but if he likes you and he has friends in the agency, they aren't going to pick his partner.

Edited August 24, 2021 by Unclejosh