S01.E04: World on Fire

[shantown]

Quote

The Competitors put their bodies on the line as they try to escape the Gates Of Hell. A group of eager MVPs secretly plot to remove strong players from the game, but face resistance from their Legend partners.

Airs March 22 on Paramount+

[jsm1125]

I did…not see that medical story from Nia coming. 

[AntFTW]

Good episode!

In the first five minutes, they paint the picture that Wes is a target. He's either being to win or be in elimination. Then, we pivot to Nia. Either this was going to be a comeback story from her health struggles or she's going into elimination. It doesn't help Nia that the bus the house is driving is just running over Team Argentina. Then, we do a brief pivot to Jodi and Benja, another pair from Team Argentina, where they both express concerns about that elimination bus running Team Argentina.

Danny's interesting. He wants to go after the big Legends, Wes and Jordan. Understandably, he doesn't want to see them in the end. Unfortunately for Danny, he's paired with Tori and going after Jordan is not a plan that she will be onboard with. Danny realizes that and says he'll settle for Wes. However, Wes wins the daily challenge, so Jordan is Danny's target, but Tori won't be having any of that.

I find it interesting that the MVPs are sticking to the team members of their home country. However, the Legends are not. The Legends couldn't give any less of a fuck about sticking with their particular team's country. They will use it for numbers if they have to but will disregard if it becomes necessary. MVP alliances aren't made the same way as the Legends alliances. Jordan is Team UK and Tori is Team USA, but Jordan is a number for Tori and vice-versa. However, all of Danny's numbers are Team USA with Sarah, Justine and Ben... but none of those people are Tori's numbers. It's almost impossible for both the MVPs and Legends to be on the same page. Wes, however, (and possibly Johnny) is willing to toss all of that aside and apparently so is Zara. Zara from Team UK was also willing to vote for Tristan, who is also Team UK. Wes is willing to start fresh and build new numbers, and discard old alliances when he needs to.

I liked the daily challenge. I didn't like the elimination game.

Team Argentina comes in last because of Nia so that makes it easy just to vote for Benja and Jodi again. Argentina vs. Argentina. KellyAnne and Tristan also gets nominated but of the two teams, who is likely to work with Wes and Zara? That would be KellyAnne and Tristan. Also, Zara gets to make up for the fact that she voted for her fellow countryman, Tristan, in the last house vote.

I think Brihony should host more often. I liked Brihony's style of hosting on Australia.

20 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

I did…not see that medical story from Nia coming. 

That could explain why she wasn't on Ride or Dies. On Johnny's podcast, Aneesa said that Nia was supposed to appear on Ride or Dies as Jordan's partner but didn't because she didn't pass her medical exam. What we heard in this episode is probably why.

Edited March 23, 2023 by AntFTW

[shantown]

58 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I find it interesting that the MVPs are sticking to the team members of their home country. However, the Legends are not. The Legends couldn't give any less of a fuck about sticking with their particular team's country.

For the Legends this is just another season, they just happen to have an international/spinoff partner this time around (this is kind of reminding me of the set-up of Spies, Lies, & Allies now that I think about it). There's no reason to stick as close to your assigned spinoff/country team, because that doesn't really mean anything to them. At least on like a Battle of the Seasons you had a history with your teammates from doing a show together. But it's hard to get a buy in when you're not from that country, especially when it was sort of unfair that two teams (Argentina and UK) started down a pair from the start. I like the setup idea, but this idea of competing "as a country" instead of just happening to be from that show I think is holding some people back.

I liked the MVPs choosing their Legend partner, but it definitely framed the game as spinoff teams. If Legends had picked an MVP (Fresh Meat-style) it would have framed it much more around existing alliances. Neither one is better, it just makes a whole bunch of complications this season when you're trying to make moves!

All that being said - they're gunning for Wes and Jordan but somehow Johnny's name hasn't been brought up...

ETA: Forgot to mention I love that Brihony Dawson got a chance to host more this ep. I thought they did really well. I hope they keep rotating through to use all the hosts more.

[AntFTW]

2 hours ago, shantown said:

or the Legends this is just another season, they just happen to have an international/spinoff partner this time around

2 hours ago, shantown said:

I like the setup idea, but this idea of competing "as a country" instead of just happening to be from that show I think is holding some people back.

Right! but I wouldn't even say they're competing as a country but rather their numbers just happen to be the people who they did their Challenge season with, and that's the conflicting part with the Legends because they aren't loyal to any of the spinoff countries. For the MVPs, their "country" is their comfort blanket because they don't have anything else. They need the alliance and the numbers.

In much of the same way that Danny probably wouldn't throw in Justine or Sarah and Grant probably wouldn't throw in Troy or Kiki, Tori wouldn't throw in Jordan. Amber probably wouldn't throw in Darrell (assuming Troy wanted to). The MVPs didn't think about the politics among the Legends.

This makes me think about Final Reckoning with Zach and Amanda. Although they were partners, they were not playing together, each in their own sphere of politics. Every time they had to vote, their compromise was Jozea and DaVonne because that was the only team they both were unconnected to. I feel like a lot of that will be happening with Tori and Danny.

[Lamima]

How can I watch? Didn't record and can't find any episodes, except the 1st one, on demand. Can't even find next week. Isn't it on MTV?

[AntFTW]

18 minutes ago, Lamima said:

How can I watch? Didn't record and can't find any episodes, except the 1st one, on demand. Can't even find next week. Isn't it on MTV?

It's on Paramount+. They only aired the first episode on MTV.

[Lantern7]

Straightforward episode as the Argentines continue to leave one at a time. It’s like when American Ninja Warrior does an international competition special, and one of the teams just can’t hang. Worse, we lose Rodrigo, who I found to be the most unique guy from Argentina.

Nia . . . shit, man. As disappointed as I can be with her lack of results, I’m glad she’s okay these days. I’m great with her no longer being “Hurricane Nia,” because that person was a nightmare. If you’re a glutton for punishment, watch RW: Portland and prepare to cringe.

Great to see Bethony (?) hosting. I don’t always feel like we need a break from Teege, but the novelty is appealing.

I’m surprised the mission wasn’t called “Black Friday” . . . probably because the non-Americans wouldn’t have gotten the reference. I’m also thinking that the players were prohibited being too rough with each other. Otherwise, we would’ve seen players getting pushed to the wrong side of the gate as it closed.

Good Arena as well. I don’t think Nelson would’ve screwed that up as badly as last week. It should be interesting to see if Jodi/Benha remain targets, because I’d think they would be vital additional votes for any of the factions/alliances.

[luckyroll3]

19 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I liked the daily challenge. I didn't like the elimination game.

That elimination game was stolen straight out of the Double Dare production file cabinet!

I really did like the daily challenge and continue to be impressed that Wes has kept up his physical fitness given that we don't see him as much as we used to. He straight up smoked almost everyone in just about every round of that. I know they kept talking about the speed of his partner, Zara (who I kept imagining as the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Toons in my head every time she talked about her uncaged animal instinct!), but they needed to give more props to Wes.

18 hours ago, shantown said:

But it's hard to get a buy in when you're not from that country, especially when it was sort of unfair that two teams (Argentina and UK) started down a pair from the start. I like the setup idea, but this idea of competing "as a country" instead of just happening to be from that show I think is holding some people back.

Totally agree. I would have preferred the kept the teams strictly as people from their own country, or at least use the Legends as daily or elimination assassins. 

Did anyone else's room get dusty during Teej's Hall of Fame segment??? This was totally me:

[AntFTW]

24 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

Totally agree. I would have preferred the kept the teams strictly as people from their own country, or at least use the Legends as daily or elimination assassins. 

When I learned that they were including the Challenge 401K vets on this spinoff, I thought they were going to do the originals vs. the spinoffs; the United Challengers Union vs. the spinoff scab workers. I thought they were going to "test" if the spinoff players can beat the vets.

[Lamima]

Ugh, so Jordyn and Bananas and Wes are going to bully their way to the finish. Never winning a challenge but keeping their names out of elimination using fear. And Tori, Jonna and Kaycee help them. Blah. Not interested after just coming off of last season of Challenge. I am all for the US challenge, whenever they are called, making a play to oust those 3 guys. Love me some Ben and Sarah and Danny. Team Survivor all the way, Jay. Like the Brits, too, who are also gunning for the old vet bully boys.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Lamima

[aghst]

The Daily, maybe Wes being smaller allowed him to slip under the door vs. Danny, the bigger former NFL guy but it also seems like Wes was faster period.

As for the Elimination, Nia doesn't deserve to be a Legend but for whatever reason BM cast her this season.  Maybe she won a few physical eliminations where she outweighed her opponent?  I can't recall?  But I guess her partner wasn't able to do as well due to his leg problem.

As for as the politics, it makes sense for the vets or Legends to band together, probably had an informal agreement before arriving at the Challenge, because they didn't know what the format is going to be, how they'd be partnered up.

BM tries to create teams or pairs which should be natural alliances because they probably realize that the challengers are going to gravitate to people they know, people who were in their seasons.  So they try to set up alternate alliances but the vets don't go for it, they have their own deals already and the newcomers see that and recognize that they can't play along with the vets because they will be picked off one by one.

So far, they've played along, not wanting to make waves.  So they've repeatedly voted in Kelly Anne, who isn't helping matters by getting mad and giving them an excuse to vote her in again.

I forget why Jonna voted in Kelly Ann last week but her reaction has made her more of a target.

Lets hope we see the MVPs make their moves soon.