S02.E03: Firestarter

[shantown]

Quote

The past comes back to haunt one player when their old rival gains power. A misunderstanding tears two longtime friends apart. A free-spirited competitor puts their game on the line at a heated challenge.

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[snarts]

Yep, I knew I didn't like Ayanna. This episode had me remembering why. 

"You're not giving that girl a fucking gift. A gift is a fucking croissant or a spa gift card. That's not a goddamn gift" Love Jasmine. That and her comments on how annoying she was back in day and how she wanted to smack herself is why she's my favorite returnee. 

[AntFTW]

What an interest contrast in Ayanna between last week and this week.

I love it! BRING. ME. THE DRAMA.

Tina made nominating people to go into elimination much harder than it needed to be. She wanted a certain outcome so she made the rules to get that outcome:

1) Anyone from the winning team is exempt. On its face, that’s a fair thing to do. It makes her look fair but she just wanted to narrow the field to get Jodi (and a few others) into the nomination and save the people she wanted to save.

2) They each pick names to save until they narrow it down to 4 people from the losing team. That way Darrell can’t pick Steve because they’re picking people to save rather than picking people to throw in. Tina chooses to save Steve.

In the end, you wind up with 3 people that Darrell intended to save. Had they done it Darrell’s way with Tina and Darrell each picking 1 woman and 1 man to nominate for elimination, Darrell could have saved maybe 2 of the 3 people he intended to save.

[AntFTW]

I’m getting Laurel energy from Jodi.

[funnygirl]

Damn, Ayanna… two steps forward, ten steps back. She let the power and safety of the life shield go to her head. 

 

[Lantern7]

Me last week: "Wow, I think Ayanna has turned a corner. Maybe, at long last, she''ll come out of a season far better than the other three times."

Me this week: "You know that chasm from the Avengers movies? Yeah, I'm ready to push Ayanna into that. I don't even want the Soul Stone. I just want her gone."

*sigh* I know it's dumb to hold people to standards from over fifteen years ago. I know it's dumb to get attached to people we haven't seen in so long. But I felt Sophia was done so wrong. Ayanna made her cry,, then she sent her into the Arena under "Well, she's mad at me already, so why not throw more gas on the fire?" Ayanna was wrong. Regular series wrong. Devin wrong. Josh wrong. Fessy wrong.

Seriously, between this week, and Katie snapping at Steve next week because he apparently screwed her, it's gonna be a long-ass season. I mean, not as long as the mainstream edition (I heard it's nineteen episodes; not sure if the Reunion is counted in the total), but . . . .damn it, I still have memories from Road Rules; The Quest. I didn't expect Sophia to come back last season as an alternate. I certainly never thought Steve would come back. I figure if anyone from RR10 would emerge from the cornfield, it would be Adam Fucking Larsen. HATED that guy.

Mission was good. Arena design was well-conceived, AND the fire didn't seem that extraneous . . . but I'm still bummed and pissed off. Not even Cohutta fighting to see another day makes me happy because Ryan seemed nice and he's got fans.

Well, at least Sophia took the loss with some grace. In retrospect, I wouldn't have blamed her for not going to the viewing party last week. I hope she can come back, and I hope it would be a lot more fun. On that note, here's what I heard about the next edition in regard to her:

Spoiler

Apparently, she was an alternate. Again. I'm thinking BMP like her enough to bring her out to nice locales. I don't know if AS3 wrapped up. If it hasn't, then I guess Sophia didn't get called up. There were three other names I heard would be joining her, two of whom shouldn't be alternates . . . .but I'm not spoiling here.

 

[AntFTW]

Forgot to add that I thought the challenge this episode was Survivor-ish

[shantown]

Sophia is someone I love and was so excited to see again, so I was really bummed to see her go so soon. Ayanna's little snippy comment about "This is a gift" was so uncalled for. 

I was glad we got to see a bit of the pranks around the house - that's what I really want to see on these reunion shows. Everyone having fun, remembering old times, getting to let loose like 20-somethings again being goofy. Ryan was a good sport about the dissolving shorts, and the prank itself wasn't mean-spirited. Katie even brought him new shorts after. I wasn't so into the "This game is UGLY" parts of this episode.

I'm mad at Ayanna, but I did like the "Go Ryan" on her shirt. An unintentional callback to the one season where someone brought iron-on letters and everyone had these t-shirts with random funny sayings on them!

[Zima]

Ew, Ayanna is gross. Poor Sophia, but I do have to say that I'm glad Jodie won the elimination. I want to see if she's still got it after all these years, so I'd like to see her in the final.

Jonna is such a sweetheart these days.

Tina's prank with Ryan was hilarious! I think she would be an exhausting person to be around for the most part though.

I was so torn between Ryan and Cohutta. I wish MJ had to go in, because I think Ryan or Cohutta could have easily beaten him at this, and I don't care for the guy. 

[ljenkins782]

14 hours ago, Zima said:

Ew, Ayanna is gross. Poor Sophia, but I do have to say that I'm glad Jodie won the elimination. I want to see if she's still got it after all these years, so I'd like to see her in the final.

Jonna is such a sweetheart these days.

Tina's prank with Ryan was hilarious! I think she would be an exhausting person to be around for the most part though.

I was so torn between Ryan and Cohutta. I wish MJ had to go in, because I think Ryan or Cohutta could have easily beaten him at this, and I don't care for the guy. 

Same. I have never liked MJ so I was really hoping he'd get voted in. And this was an elimination that everyone had a shot at, so we could have been rid of that doofus early on. Between Cohutta and Ryan, I was slightly favoring Cohutta but I like them both.

I don't have a particular soft spot for Sophia, she always seemed like a nice person and all, but not compelling TV. And I have no idea what the hell went down in this episode, the VOs about it didn't help me understand the conflict. It did recement my feelings of discomfort with Ayanna. She's always seemed just a bit off, like a raw nerve.

Between Sophia and Jodi, I was definitely rooting for Jodi, but had it been Ayanna vs Sophia, I'd have been glad to say goodbye to Ayanna.

Tina thoroughly railroading Darrell was pretty funny, his despair at breaking every single promise he'd just made was hilarious.

[AntFTW]

33 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

Tina thoroughly railroading Darrell was pretty funny, his despair at breaking every single promise he'd just made was hilarious.

That was hilarious!

[AncientNewbie]

Cohutta killed me twice this episode with his dry-as-desert delivery. "I'm not Steve. I'm Cohutta" and "Not since the Moscow world finals..." I'm glad he's back on tv this season. 

This, of course, means he is now marked for immediate elimination if not spontaneous combustion. 

[aghst]

They made the nominations purely personal.

Doesn't seem like there are overt alliances yet but those players without specific alliances seem vulnerable to being called it.

Derrick you figure would have Jodie's back, and he was one of the ones who didn't vote for her?  So they're an alliance of 2 at most right now.

But in a way, the voting on the All Stars, first season and so far second season, is an interesting departure from the regular Challenge, where the alliances are there from the get go.

Tic Tac Toe, pure speed.  So was the Daily for the most part, retrieve the puzzle pieces first and start solving it.  I'm sure they will have the Hall Brawl and the Pole Wrestle eventually.  But this was a good one for Cohutta to go into.

 

[Fretful]

I love, love, love Darell, but... as great as he is at the sport "The Challenge," he's just not that good at the game "The Challenge."  WHY would he let Tina make the rules?  Just tell her that her system doesn't work for him, then hold his ground.

Tina was smart to take the representative role early.  Now she probably won't have to do it again, and if she had lost and had to go in, there are still plenty of weaker women to go against.

Kendall seemed to have picked up some strategy since last season, and is doing a pretty good job of staying in the background.

I would find Ayanna exhausting to be around.  I felt that way about her during Semester At Sea.  I remember fast forwarding through her scenes even then.

[AntFTW]

5 minutes ago, Fretful said:

I love, love, love Darell, but... as great as he is at the sport "The Challenge," he's just not that good at the game "The Challenge."  WHY would he let Tina make the rules?  Just tell her that her system doesn't work for him, then hold his ground.

Because Darrell prefers to stay in the background and not make any waves. That's how he's always played the game. Tina creates the rules and makes the waves, not Darrell. Darrell made sure people knew they were not on the same page on how to pick people and who to pick. To me, that's his way of saying "THAT WAS ALL TINA!"

[Fretful]

2 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Because Darrell prefers to stay in the background and not make any waves. That's how he's always played the game. Tina creates the rules and makes the waves, not Darrell. Darrell made sure people knew they were not on the same page on how to pick people and who to pick. To me, that's his way of saying "THAT WAS ALL TINA!"

 

[joanne3482]

On 11/30/2021 at 5:52 PM, ljenkins782 said:

And I have no idea what the hell went down in this episode, the VOs about it didn't help me understand the conflict. It did recement my feelings of discomfort with Ayanna. She's always seemed just a bit off, like a raw nerve.

The way I understand it is that Ayanna offered to do Sophia's hair. She was twisting it a certain way that Sophia didn't like and she tried to let Ayanna know that. Sophia was, as a child, teased about a certain hair style so she didn't want that style. Ayanna took it personally, as Ayanna is wont to do, and got mad at Sophia for telling her to do something different. A raw nerve does seem like a good way to describe Ayanna. She's always been on the brink and you're never sure what's going to push her over. 

On 12/1/2021 at 2:31 PM, AncientNewbie said:

Cohutta killed me twice this episode with his dry-as-desert delivery. "I'm not Steve. I'm Cohutta" and "Not since the Moscow world finals..." I'm glad he's back on tv this season. 

He had me in the first episode when he said he was living in a Hallmark movie. 😄

On 12/2/2021 at 12:03 AM, aghst said:

But in a way, the voting on the All Stars, first season and so far second season, is an interesting departure from the regular Challenge, where the alliances are there from the get go.

I agree! The alliances get exhausting and often times frustrating. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by joanne3482

[choclatechip45]

Tina screwing over Darrel was hilarious. 

Ayanna has always had a few screws loose. I always felt bad for her because of her mom dying, but she's a troll at this point. I can't take her seriously. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by choclatechip45