S37.E16: Riverdance

[shantown]

Quote

Agents feel what it's like to get their hands on one million dollars during a mission. Emy worries that the rivalry between her teammates could result in her going to elimination. Two agents' broken friendship gets tangled up in the game.

Airs 11/24/21 from 8:00-9:30pm on MTV

[AntFTW]

I'm bored. Same old same old. No shake ups at all.

[LaurelleJ]

Once again, Emerald wins, Ruby and Sapphire battle it out in eliminations, and the resulting elimination makes one or both teams stronger. Big T getting eliminated and Emy going back to Sapphire makes Ruby AND Sapphire super strong. I think Emerald is fine for the daily missions, but to me they look very weak for the final. Looking at the team, Devin, Amanda, and Nany won't necessarily be good for stamina, Emmanuel is a rookie and doesn't have much experience, and Kaycee is unproven. Lucky for them they don't have to go into elimination, but unlucky for them that their team is actually the weakest for running a final right now. If Tori had gone in and won against Big T, going back to Ruby would have been better for her than going back to Emerald for Amanda's spot. The edit did make me think that Big T was going to win. Made me nervous. 

I think that what Nelson said about Devin gassing out got under Devin's skin a little bit. He needs Emerald to win because if they lose, Emmanuel and Devin I think are the most vulnerable. 

The preview for next week looks interesting. I don't like that they have emerald sitting around talking. Makes it look like they are going to win. I hope not. I'm sick of Emerald. 

[AntFTW]

20 minutes ago, LaurelleJ said:

The edit did make me think that Big T was going to win.

The edit made me think she was gonna lose. When people start saying nice stuff about one of the people in elimination, that person is losing. Nelson putting his money on Big T made me think she was losing.

[BK1978]

I only watched the first hour during the commercial breaks for Survivor, but I do feel the need to once again complain about having one team with five people on it taking on a team with three people on it.  Sit some of these fools out.

[aghst]

1 hour ago, BK1978 said:

I only watched the first hour during the commercial breaks for Survivor, but I do feel the need to once again complain about having one team with five people on it taking on a team with three people on it.  Sit some of these fools out.

On this one, I'm not sure the numbers should have given them a huge advantage, unless they're able to relay with say a couple of them going ahead with one back and another loading up.  Also take turns carrying the bag.

But apparently they carried more per turn and two people carried each bag and so that ended up being the winning strategy.

I thought all the teams spilled so much money that it was going to slow them down to pick them off the ground.  Presumably most of it was regular paper but they had the odd dollar bills on the ground.

We've had Finals where teams had to carry heavy things for distances, so that could hurt the 3-person teams.

I don't think the Agency vote should have been much suspense.  Big T all but promised Tori that she would choose Emy in the Lair and probably Tori told Devin that. In any case, Emerald really didn't believe Big T could win down there.

And yet, when I saw the pools filled with ice, I thought that would get one of the players to quit but they only had to go in for dips every few minutes and most of the players were wearing t-shirts so it was probably pretty warm despite being at night.

It doesn't even look like Emy followed CT's directions on the puzzle but either she knew what she was doing or the pieces just fell together right.

So this was episode 16 and there are now 6 men and 5 women left.  Next week will get it down to 5 men but then you have uneven teams if they run the Final with 5 of each gender.  Unless they don't have 3 teams for the Final, you're going to have one team with just one male.

As it is now, it's unbalanced for Emerald to have 3 women while the other cells have one woman each.

If they're really running as teams in the Final, it has to be endurance, puzzles and eating.  Not too much requiring upper body strength or else it disadvantages one team.  

Have we seen Emy running like the others to build up fitness?  Nelson and Logan may be most fit, as they're younger than CT and Kyle.  Imanuel is probably fit but don't know about doughy Devin.

 

[AntFTW]

10 hours ago, aghst said:

Have we seen Emy running like the others to build up fitness?  Nelson and Logan may be most fit, as they're younger than CT and Kyle.  Imanuel is probably fit but don't know about doughy Devin.

I think Nelson is older than Kyle and Logan. I wanna say Nelson is mid-30s???

Kyle and Logan are the same age. We saw this episode that Kyle turned 29 and I think I heard on either the podcast or an aftershow that they celebrated Logan’s birthday in the house… or maybe it was on one of the episodes. My memory is a little fuzzy on that.

[Lantern7]

Another blah episode . . . though after watching the latest All Stars, maybe I'm being too rough on the mainstream version.

I get that Emy is annoying. I get how "Meester TJ" and "Uncle CT" grates. I'm glad she's still here. She's got chaotic energy. Yes, she's more or less a bootleg version of Cara Maria, but t least she's not dull. After the Lair, we gotta wonder if she's worthy of other players that wound up going 4-0 in elimination.

I am sad Tula is out again. She's lovely as all heck . . .but unless she comes into a season jacked up so hard that her wigs have muscles, she'll be seen as a liability..

I liked the mission. Yeah, Emerald had the advantage of extra players, but it was refreshingly straightforward. Grab money from the "safe," run to the SUV shove it in there. I was surprised that TJ didn't yell about missing bills. Also this was as close to $1 million as most of them will ever get on this show. And yes, I'm aware that's probably prop money. All the bills would have Teege's face on it.

Shut up, Devin. Just shut the fuck up. I read a tweet from a recapper saying that Devin was basically a mix of Johnny and Wes, but without any of the accomplishments. I thought that was spot-on.

[millennium]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

Shut up, Devin. Just shut the fuck up. I read a tweet from a recapper saying that Devin was basically a mix of Johnny and Wes, but without any of the accomplishments. I thought that was spot-on.

Or any of the self awareness.  Johnny and Wes don't take themselves seriously, but Devin is a legend in his own mind.

Can't. Stand. Emy.   Is there such a thing as a bad winner?  Her self-aggrandizing displays are repulsive.  She solved a big cardboard puzzle for fuck's sake.   Yet she acts like it's the end of a Rocky movie.   Substitute "Romania!" for "Adrian!"  I felt sorry for Big T, to have to compete feeling cast aside by CT, someone she considered a friend and mentor.

Kyle's birthday party seemed icky.

[LaurelleJ]

One thing I will say about Big T. At the end of the elimination I got a glimpse of her arms and she did look like she had been working out some. Maybe she is taking the challenge a bit more seriously. We might be watching the beginning of something. 

[Remlab]

17 hours ago, LaurelleJ said:

One thing I will say about Big T. At the end of the elimination I got a glimpse of her arms and she did look like she had been working out some. Maybe she is taking the challenge a bit more seriously. We might be watching the beginning of something. 

Big T just got accepted into culinary school and announced she probably won’t be back.

[mojoween]

Friends friends friends oh my poor friendships enough with the damn friendships!  This is what happens when the same people are in seventeen seasons in a row.  Can we get 16 entirely new people next year, plus CT?

T doing her interviews sans wig from the jump was a big clue she was going home, editors.

Devin cannot hear himself speak, can he?  What happened to the funny snarky guy?

[RedbirdNelly]

bring back snarky, funny Devin. The one we have now is ughhh

I'm now dreaming of a daily that is Survivor style--where all team members must get across some obstacle before anyone can start on the puzzle and Emerald is destroyed since it takes forever to get 5 across compared to 3. . . . I can dream. It is NOT cool watching challenge after challenge where the the team with more players wins--and there is no disadvantage to having more. So, so, boring.

I also don't get all the supposed angst on do we send Big T down like she wants, because if she wins she will infiltrate. Well, if you pick Emy or Tori, they will pick Big T--and if Big T wins, Big T will infiltrate. It's not like there was a real option that means no risk of big T infiltrating. . So, so boring.

[AntFTW]

9 hours ago, RedbirdNelly said:

I also don't get all the supposed angst on do we send Big T down like she wants, because if she wins she will infiltrate. Well, if you pick Emy or Tori, they will pick Big T--and if Big T wins, Big T will infiltrate. It's not like there was a real option that means no risk of big T infiltrating. . So, so boring.

I didn't get it either. The reason they don't want her is because they feel like she's not that great of a player. That applies to daily challenges and also eliminations. Like you said, Tori and Emy would have picked Big T to go into elimination. It was a near 100% certainty that Big T was going into elimination.

There was no mystery in this at all. Big T goes into elimination and loses (predictable). If Emy is picked by the agency and wins, we knew she was not infiltrating (boring and predictable). If Tori is picked and wins, she either takes Amanda's spot and goes back to Emerald, or she sticks to Ruby with Nelson and Logan.

Every daily challenges give an inherent advantage to the team with more numbers. As far as these daily challenge, being on a team with more numbers works but for a final challenge, I imagine there would be a lot of dead weight. Devin and Amanda don't have the greatest history when it comes to running long distances. Nany is not the fastest runner but her endurance isn't bad. Amanda likes to say that the final isn't about who can run the fastest for the longest, it's about the equalizers and using your brain. That's how she defends her value to the team. To an extent, that is true. All of that means nothing if the "slower" people can figure out the equalizers fast enough to catch you while you're walking to the next checkpoint. Assuming the final is ran with these teams, rather than individually or some other format, the lack of brain power won't be a problem for any team. Every team has someone who can figure out math and puzzles. The difference will come on those long runs... and maybe an eating challenge.

Edited November 28, 2021 by AntFTW

[LaurelleJ]

I agree with everything @AntFTW said. If your goal is to get to the final, stay on Emerald. To win the final, go anywhere but Emerald. 

Edited November 27, 2021 by LaurelleJ

[xfuse]

Who on Ruby is going to do math and puzzles? Logan? I don't remember Nelson being good at it. I know that Tori isn't. 

[AntFTW]

46 minutes ago, xfuse said:

Who on Ruby is going to do math and puzzles? Logan? I don't remember Nelson being good at it. I know that Tori isn't. 

I'm thinking Logan is good with puzzles. If he's not good at puzzles, he talks a lot of shit for someone that's not good at puzzles 🤣

[Racj82]

On 11/27/2021 at 2:35 AM, Remlab said:

Big T just got accepted into culinary school and announced she probably won’t be back.

She will not be missed. By me anyway. I'm also all for these people getting real jobs and not making this their livelihood. It's not very practical but it also leads to the same people never leaving because they HAVE to do this.

[DEL901]

I’m sure the regulars also hope to make Instagram revenue.  With 500,000 followers, you can make $2-3,000 a post with decent follower engagement.  CT has over 600,000 followers. Johnny B over 850,000. 
 

eta

Devin. 177,000

Kyle 1.2 million 

Ashley 227,000

Emy  204,000

Corey 1.4 million

 

And some have Cameo too

Edited November 28, 2021 by DEL901

[DEL901]

deleted duplicate

Edited November 28, 2021 by DEL901

[millennium]

10 hours ago, DEL901 said:

And some have Cameo too

Quite a few of them have Cameo.   Even Toothbrush Kenny.

I was gifted a Wes cameo this past year.   It was simultaneously the coolest and cringiest gift I have ever received.

[Racj82]

On 11/28/2021 at 2:11 PM, DEL901 said:

I’m sure the regulars also hope to make Instagram revenue.  With 500,000 followers, you can make $2-3,000 a post with decent follower engagement.  CT has over 600,000 followers. Johnny B over 850,000. 
 

eta

Devin. 177,000

Kyle 1.2 million 

Ashley 227,000

Emy  204,000

Corey 1.4 million

 

And some have Cameo too

Which is also not practical. These people are also a tweet or comment away from losing all relevance. I wouldn't cash all my chips into these reality tv/influencer bags. It can go bust real quick.

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, Racj82 said:

Which is also not practical. These people are also a tweet or comment away from losing all relevance. I wouldn't cash all my chips into these reality tv/influencer bags. It can go bust real quick.

You are using logic and common sense.  Would you really apply that standard to these folks?

[Racj82]

4 hours ago, DEL901 said:

You are using logic and common sense.  Would you really apply that standard to these folks?

Nope. That's why I'm happy Big T seems to using some common sense.

[millennium]

On 11/28/2021 at 1:38 PM, Racj82 said:

I'm also all for these people getting real jobs and not making this their livelihood. It's not very practical but it also leads to the same people never leaving because they HAVE to do this.

For some reason I'm reminded of Jenna during the Bloodlines season.  Jenna came to the show billing herself as a "model," but in Bloodlines she gets into a heated argument with her cousin who blurts out that Jenna's only job is babysitting.  Jenna strikes back with "You think you're so great because you work at the bakery.  Well maybe if my father owned a bakery I would have a job like that too!" 

Edited November 30, 2021 by millennium

[AntFTW]

3 hours ago, millennium said:

For some reason I'm reminded of Jenna during the Bloodlines season.  Jenna came to the show billing herself as a "model," but in Bloodlines she gets into a heated argument with her cousin who blurts out that Jenna's only job is babysitting.  Jenna strikes back with "You think you're so great because you work at the bakery.  Well maybe if my father owned a bakery I would have a job like that too!" 

That is the most hilarious Challenge fight ever!

[MaggieG]

On 11/26/2021 at 3:13 AM, millennium said:

Can't. Stand. Emy.   Is there such a thing as a bad winner?  Her self-aggrandizing displays are repulsive.  She solved a big cardboard puzzle for fuck's sake.   Yet she acts like it's the end of a Rocky movie.   Substitute "Romania!" for "Adrian!"  I felt sorry for Big T, to have to compete feeling cast aside by CT, someone she considered a friend and mentor.

I can't stand her either. She's too much. I did laugh at her little freak-out when she realized she was being used as a weapon. Yes Emy, none of these people care about you. They will use you to win. 

On 11/27/2021 at 2:35 AM, Remlab said:

Big T just got accepted into culinary school and announced she probably won’t be back.

Good for her! I went back and forth with her on this show. She annoyed me sometimes but I think overall, she's a good person and has made me laugh at times. Hopefully she can be a successful chef and not have to worry about making the Challenge her long term career.

[millennium]

1 hour ago, AntFTW said:

That is the most hilarious Challenge fight ever!

It was pretty funny.   That's the kind of off-the-wall spontaneity the show is lacking now.  There are few if any American rookies anymore, thus little opportunity for inexperienced players to lose their heads or otherwise engage in petty rivalries and bickering.  The rookies are all international now.  The language barrier and their tendency to be more reserved than Americans puts a big kibosh on the kind of antics that made this show such fun to watch.

[AncientNewbie]

On 11/30/2021 at 10:59 AM, millennium said:

For some reason I'm reminded of Jenna during the Bloodlines season.  Jenna came to the show billing herself as a "model," but in Bloodlines she gets into a heated argument with her cousin who blurts out that Jenna's only job is babysitting.  Jenna strikes back with "You think you're so great because you work at the bakery.  Well maybe if my father owned a bakery I would have a job like that too!" 

I'll mangle the next line, but it sells the whole thing for me. 

"Maybe you could if your dad wasn't in prison."

[millennium]

2 hours ago, AncientNewbie said:

I'll mangle the next line, but it sells the whole thing for me. 

"Maybe you could if your dad wasn't in prison."

LOL, I refrained from including that, just because I like Jenna and feel bad for her.  

[millennium]

On 11/28/2021 at 2:11 PM, DEL901 said:

I’m sure the regulars also hope to make Instagram revenue.  With 500,000 followers, you can make $2-3,000 a post with decent follower engagement.  CT has over 600,000 followers. Johnny B over 850,000.

Corey 1.4 million

 

1.4 milli .... whaaat?  Corey???   Let's gooooo!

[AntFTW]

27 minutes ago, millennium said:

LOL, I refrained from including that, just because I like Jenna and feel bad for her.  

You have to include it. That's what makes the argument so funny! That's the punchline.

"You think you're better than everyone else because you have a job at the bakery. Congratulations, your dad owns a bakery!" 🤣

Jenna literally said if her dad wasn't in jail she would also have a set job. 🤣  🤣  🤣

[Unclejosh]

I am pretty sure Cory got most of those followers after being on Teen Mom.  Kyle has so many from doing shows in the UK, I don't think it has grown so much due to the Challenge but was one of the reasons he was cast in the first place.

Even Bananas was below CT before he started doing his other shows.  But other network or show publicity can net big gains in social media followers than just doing the Challenge does overall it seems.

 

[millennium]

1 hour ago, AntFTW said:

You have to include it. That's what makes the argument so funny! That's the punchline.

"You think you're better than everyone else because you have a job at the bakery. Congratulations, your dad owns a bakery!" 🤣

Jenna literally said if her dad wasn't in jail she would also have a set job. 🤣  🤣  🤣

I don't disagree, but I also found it very funny just on its own that Jenna's idea of a plum job was working at the bakery.

[millennium]

1 hour ago, Unclejosh said:

I am pretty sure Cory got most of those followers after being on Teen Mom.  Kyle has so many from doing shows in the UK, I don't think it has grown so much due to the Challenge but was one of the reasons he was cast in the first place.

Even Bananas was below CT before he started doing his other shows.  But other network or show publicity can net big gains in social media followers than just doing the Challenge does overall it seems.

 

I see.   I have only the vaguest idea of other shows these folks do.  Saw Corey on a teen mom promo once.  Had no idea at all that Kyle is on other programs.  I'm not sure I would be interested to see them outside the context of The Challenge.

[AntFTW]

5 minutes ago, millennium said:

Had no idea at all that Kyle is on other programs. 

Kyle is in the MTV UK family. I believe now he only doing the Challenge. I don't think the Challenge used to air in the UK until they started adding cast members from their MTV UK shows. Admittedly, I'm not 100% certain on that. I think Kyle was on Geordie Shore.

Edited December 2, 2021 by AntFTW

[millennium]

Kyle's funny but ... he had a hand in creating the monster known as Cara Maria/Paulie.

Edited December 2, 2021 by millennium

[Jobiska]

The faux Riverdancing (puddledancing?) was pretty cute, I have to admit, but I didn't need to see Kyle's pasty skinny butt, even blurred.