S02.E05: Old Tina Can't Come to the Phone

[shantown]

Quote

A Challenge icon fears the repercussions when a former enemy lands in a position of power. A poor performance at a high-flying challenge leaves one All-Star fearing their shot at redemption will be cut short. A much-loved player faces a shocking betrayal.

Airing now on Paramount+

[Lantern7]

Short story: Casey loses her cred by bailing on a mission . . . a mission that was exhausting and had no time limit. She's saved when Melinda (who would 've had a C-section on that day had the baby not died) has to get medical attention. Steve winds up with the slowest time.

Deliberations come down to Casey/Tina and Teck/Tyler. Steve has the unmitigated gall to want to face Teck, and the "Palace" alliance hates him for it. Tina winds up going in, and she starts to revert back to the obnoxious angry witch I knew so long ago.

Arena. Teck gets picked and actually beats Steve in a creative game. Tina faces Melinda . . . and promptly gives up, citing that she doesn't want to become the person she once was. We don't see Teege rip into her like with Casey. Steve gets no parting words, and he will no doubt get run over on social media. Also, he's the other person I've met in the past after Sophia, so I'm bummed. I’ve seen the roster for next season, and I’m worried for the one person on the cast that I also met.

ETA: I’m not a fan of Casey, but the mission looked exhausting as fuck. There might have been a time limit, but we didn’t see it. And I’m not a fan of Tina, but I felt she got screwed. The banging of the pots? Show some class, Tina. That’s Josh’s move. Are you okay with your name being associated with him?

Edited December 9, 2021 by Lantern7

[AntFTW]

1) Old Tina can’t come to the phone but Old Tina is hogging the line. Tina enjoys nominating people and voting for people to go into elimination and expects people to suck it up and take it but she couldn’t handle the same treatment handed back to her. Interesting…

2) Cohutta did not exist in this episode

3) I was hoping Tina went home because I like Melinda so I’m not mad at Tina quitting.

4) I liked the daily challenge and elimination. I thought they were very creative… and exhausting.

[jsm1125]

1 hour ago, AntFTW said:

1) Old Tina can’t come to the phone but Old Tina is hogging the line. Tina enjoys nominating people and voting for people to go into elimination and expects people to suck it up and take it but she couldn’t handle the same treatment handed back to her. Interesting…

2) Cohutta did not exist in this episode

3) I was hoping Tina went home because I like Melinda so I’m not mad at Tina quitting.

4) I liked the daily challenge and elimination. I thought they were very creative… and exhausting.

Kendall didn’t exist either in this episode. Why haven’t we seen her this season?

[Michichick]

There are too many quitters on this season. It makes for boring competitions.

[aghst]

13 hours ago, AntFTW said:

1) Old Tina can’t come to the phone but Old Tina is hogging the line. Tina enjoys nominating people and voting for people to go into elimination and expects people to suck it up and take it but she couldn’t handle the same treatment handed back to her. Interesting…

2) Cohutta did not exist in this episode

3) I was hoping Tina went home because I like Melinda so I’m not mad at Tina quitting.

4) I liked the daily challenge and elimination. I thought they were very creative… and exhausting.

I thought maybe the women’s setup could have been made easier, like not have to jump as high on the last one.

But Jasmine finished so it was do-able, though challenging.

 

Guess Tina’s life with that pool really was that good.  Or she realized they were going to keep voting her in.  She says she doesn’t play personal but was she saying that when she voted Jodi in?

Steve in the Arena should have lowered his shoulder if Teck headed towards him.  But maybe the collisions wore him down.  Or the extra weight did.

In any event, he expressed a preference and Laterrian and Nehemiah got really upset?  I don’t think it would have mattered, the rest were voting for Teck, who’s still the same loudmouth from his RW season.

[lasu]

Personally, I'm really bummed that this is just an alt-season of the regular Challenge.  For me, the whole point of this was to get people back who might never be Challenge beasts again (or never were to begin with).  I'd rather see goofier challenges on this version, that aren't going to scare the older folks I'd love to see away.  I enjoy seeing them overcome things and being proud of themselves, but I think we could meet in the middle.

I feel like I praise the music editors every week, but If You Don't Know Me By Now over Tina quitting was Master Class.  I couldn't even.

[aghst]

I think a lot of these Challenge vets they're inviting back are people that MTV deemed weren't as popular as other cast members.

Some of them may have walked away for the C/hallenge and then after like 10 years decided to come back.

Obviously the money is a lot more than what they used to try to win when they left around 10-15 years ago.  Plus with 10 episodes, it's not as much of a demand on their time.

But someone like MJ, could probably compete in any of the regular Challenges or he could have kept competing, at least until he started a family.  He might be someone that MTV didn't think appealed to the viewers as much, especially when they started drawing younger cast members from other MTV shows and reality shows on other networks.

Unlikely most of these cast members came back for nostalgia alone.

[Nellise]

On 12/10/2021 at 10:40 AM, lasu said:

Personally, I'm really bummed that this is just an alt-season of the regular Challenge.  For me, the whole point of this was to get people back who might never be Challenge beasts again (or never were to begin with).  I'd rather see goofier challenges on this version, that aren't going to scare the older folks I'd love to see away.  I enjoy seeing them overcome things and being proud of themselves, but I think we could meet in the middle.

This is what I was afraid of this becoming and it took only one season. I'm fastforwarding through most of the episodes like I used to with the regular Challenges because I don't care about the drama. It's now back to fighting between themselves to try to not compete rather than just having fun doing weird challenges.

I think Tina would've enjoyed the first season and competed in the elimination. I can see why someone wouldn't enjoy getting back into this politics version again.

[aghst]

They don't seem to form alliances before they come to the house.

Like this 3 Kings thing, all because they ended up in the same room?

 

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, aghst said:

They don't seem to form alliances before they come to the house.

Like this 3 Kings thing, all because they ended up in the same room?

 

After hearing the podcast with Melinda, that's what it seems like.

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, Nellise said:

This is what I was afraid of this becoming and it took only one season. I'm fastforwarding through most of the episodes like I used to with the regular Challenges because I don't care about the drama. It's now back to fighting between themselves to try to not compete rather than just having fun doing weird challenges.

I think Tina would've enjoyed the first season and competed in the elimination. I can see why someone wouldn't enjoy getting back into this politics version again.

I think the reason, or at least part of the reason, is because of the returning players. Specifically, Nehemiah, Teck, and Laterrian (the "3 kings") are playing much harder than they did last season. As much as last season was fun to them, they don't want to lose again. They're willing to play harder to make sure that doesn't happen.

I think Tina would have had the same reaction last season if she had been voted in. Tina pulled the trigger first. I think Tina drove a lot of the politics this season that made her unhappy starting with nominating Jodi. I think Tina would have done the same to someone last season (probably Beth), and she may have gotten that same treatment in return last season.

Edited December 12, 2021 by AntFTW

[millennium]

As long as I don't ever see Kenny's face on this show, I'm good.

I have no problem with this show morphing into an alt-season of the regular Challenge.  Because there is no regular Challenge anymore.  The mother ship has lost its way.

I agree the quitting is out of control on this show, though.  They should tell them up front -- you quit, you're gone, you won't be invited back.

"Hear that plane?  That's you on the next flight outta here."

[IDreamofJoaquin]

Booooooorring.    Tina, I want you to have a meltdown like Arissa.