S01.E08: What in the World?

[shantown]

Quote

The competitors must deal with an unexpected turn of events that completely changes the course of the game. The competitors bet on a win at the "Ripcord Roulette" trivia challenge. A damaged alliance struggles to maintain power.

Available April 19 on Paramount+

[jsm1125]

Ugh, felt badly for Benja and Jodi, who never even got to answer a trivia question. 
 

Ahh, so this is how Amber finds out that she’s pregnant. If she ever returns to The Challenge and the Vacation Alliance still shits on her, I’m going to be furious. She did Kaycee a huge favor when she owed her nothing. Speaking of pregnancy, does the Challenge medical team not test for it before the players fly out to location? First Melissa, then Liv, then Natalie Anderson, then Bettina, now Amber?
 

Did I space out and miss what exactly happened to Ben that led him to be medically unfit to continue?

[bunnyface]

I have liked Tori well enough in the past, but she is so stupid.  She thinks it's okay to actively work against her own partner and lay her game down in service of everyone else.  Like Danny said "who is this money for?  It's for US."  Not Kaycee, not Jordan.  HER and DANNY.  And I'm not a big Sarah fan but loved it when she said "The game YOU keep signing up for."  You'd think Tori would know how it works by now.

[AntFTW]

Interesting episode.

I always love the trivia challenges for the rigs they strap the challengers onto. It's the awkward platforms and rigs that make these hilarious for me.

We finally get to the fill in the gap between Ride or Dies and its reunion on Amber's pregnancy. Did she take a break at all? She gets off Rides or Dies, and flies back out for World Championship, and then gets off of that, and flies back out for the Ride or Dies reunion.

Amber, Tristan and Ben aren't feeling well. Kaycee catches a lucky break and is swapped in for Amber, who opts to leave. If Kaycee left, I wasn't going to complain. I sure was rooting for her to lose the elimination.

Kaycee and Troy are the easy team to gang up because they're the newly formed team... how boring is that?

Jodi and Benja lose and KellyAnne and Tristan wins, which means they can't participate in the voting politics. It puts all the people that voted with them in a vulnerable spot because they're down two votes.

Troy would have been vulnerable any, I think, because he voted with KellyAnne in the last vote so he was probably going to get some votes thrown his and Amber's way this time. Then he gets a new partner, and the convenience excuse is that he's a part of a newly formed pair.

Emily says Kiki and Darrell aren't going to have her back at the end of the day, but she hasn't had their backs at all at any point in the game. She's never made the effort to have their backs. She fired the first shot by having Kiki nominated for the very first elimination.

I am ready to get off of the Tori and Danny roller coaster. Tori is acting like she's never played this game before. Save yourself! Vote for them and move on. I'm sure they would understand. Troy and Kaycee effectively nominate themselves to break the tie.

I liked the elimination game. Sorry to see Jodi go. I always wish Jodi would stick around longer but she dealt a bad hand from the start. I wanted Kaycee to lose.

[luckyroll3]

3 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

If she ever returns to The Challenge and the Vacation Alliance still shits on her, I’m going to be furious. She did Kaycee a huge favor when she owed her nothing.

Amber is a better person than me. Given how awful Kaycee and her crew have been to Amber for several seasons now, I wouldn't have saved her. But I'm also petty!

24 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I always love the trivia challenges for the rigs they strap the challengers onto.

I loved the set up for this trivia challenge, but I think the trivia writers forgot that the rest of the world is much smarter than us Americans. If this was the regularly cast of characters, most of the questions would have been answered incorrectly!

25 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

Tori is acting like she's never played this game before. Save yourself! Vote for them and move on. I'm sure they would understand. Troy and Kaycee effectively nominate themselves to break the tie.

Tori is acting as if The Challenge is life or death; like the person who get's voted in and loses is automatically decapitated. I know she probably doesn't have much else going on, but take it down a few notches. 

52 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

I have liked Tori well enough in the past, but she is so stupid.  She thinks it's okay to actively work against her own partner and lay her game down in service of everyone else.  Like Danny said "who is this money for?  It's for US."  Not Kaycee, not Jordan.  HER and DANNY.  And I'm not a big Sarah fan but loved it when she said "The game YOU keep signing up for."  You'd think Tori would know how it works by now.

Both of them are dumb. Neither of them communicate with each other, and Tori's trying to save too many people that she can't even figure out a compromise with her partner. And Danny is actively trying to tear about Tori's alliances as a way to protect them, but doesn't seem to realize that they'll lose numbers that way. And being aligned with Sara is not gonna help cause no one likes her, but him.

33 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I am ready to get off of the Tori and Danny roller coaster.

Listen, if I was seated at that table and had to watch the Tori/Danny telenovela for the 4th or 5th fucking time, I would have changed my vote to them and actively/openly campaigned for everyone else at the deliberation to do the same.  

[AntFTW]

7 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

Amber is a better person than me. Given how awful Kaycee and her crew have been to Amber for several seasons now, I wouldn't have saved her. But I'm also petty!

So am I.

I would have happily let them dismiss Kaycee (maybe give it a little time), and then announce my departure.

[luckyroll3]

3 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

So am I.

I would have happily let them dismiss Kaycee (maybe give it a little time), and then announce my departure.

[shantown]

4 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

Listen, if I was seated at that table and had to watch the Tori/Danny telenovela for the 4th or 5th fucking time, I would have changed my vote to them and actively/openly campaigned for everyone else at the deliberation to do the same.  

Hard same! I'm generally neutral to pro-Tori but she's acting like a mush brain and Danny is just being a block head and I don't understand how anyone is putting up with either of them. I'm hoping everyone realizes USA just dropped from 4 teams to 2 and starts voting Tori/Danny and Sarah/Theo in every damn time!

8 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

If she ever returns to The Challenge and the Vacation Alliance still shits on her, I’m going to be furious. She did Kaycee a huge favor when she owed her nothing.

From a gameplay standpoint, you could look at it that Kaycee now owes her. And Kaycee tends to play with her heart, not her head, so maybe it's a good move for Amber. You're going home either way, might as well try to have a save card up your sleeve for next time!


Kinda stunk for Australia that all three of their teams were against each other when everyone else got to go against other countries. I guess you're guaranteed at least one of your teams going to the winners round but you're guaranteed one is going to the losers round too.


ETA: I was so excited to see Yes back on All Stars 1 after not seeing him for so long. But wow did he wear out his welcome fast with me. He's gotten way into a dirty game while trying to act like he's so above it all in the talking heads. Really rubs me the wrong way and it stinks that I don't like him now when he was one of my favorite Road Rulers for 2 decades!

[Lantern7]

Ben got sick again, and the game was altered as a result. Again. I’m willing to bet he found the one flagpole in South Africa with COVID and he licked it clean. Of course, the alternative is that something’s really wrong with him, and I shouldn’t be that mean.

Once again . . . I am reminded the international meets of American Ninja Warrior where one team can’t keep up. That was Argentina. Nice country, exquisite soccer, but the worst luck here. As much as I like the roulette aspect of the mission, it sucks Benja & Jodi went 0-for-0 on trivia. I’m also thinking Benja is still nauseous from swaying so much in the Arena. Jodi’s been through worse with this series; the only thing missing from Veronica knocking her out in Inferno II was the bucket of pig’s blood dumped on her by the badasses.

I think Amber is done. As bland as Kaycee can be, she still comes off as human . . . which is more than I can say about her BB peers.

[angelamh66]

I too would have liked to see Amber hold out and have Kacey leave, but I think she did it for her partner. Because if she would have waited he would have had to go home too and she didn't want that. Added bonus is that she gets to hang it over Kacey's head at some point in the future. 

Tori, who I generally like, is so frustrating this season. I think she was able to win with Devin because she trusts him and he balances her out. She fell short many time in the past (before partnering with Devin) I think because she does put other people's games ahead of her own. Loyalty is good, but you have to protect your own game. Learn from the champs of the past and don't make that many promises. You can have one number one, not five. 

 

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

As bland as Kaycee can be, she still comes off as human . . . which is more than I can say about her BB peers.

More human than Josh, who has lots of emotions?

[Lantern7]

6 hours ago, AntFTW said:

More human than Josh, who has lots of emotions?

“Bearable” is a better word.

Anytime I see a pregnancy announced on this show, I wonder if Cohutta is the father.

[AntFTW]

7 hours ago, angelamh66 said:

I too would have liked to see Amber hold out and have Kacey leave, but I think she did it for her partner.

Yeah, tell me about it... she's way too nice.

7 hours ago, angelamh66 said:

Tori, who I generally like, is so frustrating this season. I think she was able to win with Devin because she trusts him and he balances her out. She fell short many time in the past (before partnering with Devin) I think because she does put other people's games ahead of her own. Loyalty is good, but you have to protect your own game. Learn from the champs of the past and don't make that many promises. You can have one number one, not five.

Tori is also really bad at the game politics. That, IMO, is why she has fell short and why she is always vulnerable in the game. She's never willing to make the hard choice when it becomes necessary. Devin usually was willing to make the hard choice, so he balanced her out in that way also. She was perfectly willing to blame all the blowback, if any, on Devin to stay in others people's good graces. She is a good competitor and that is what has usually kept her going instead of her bad politics. She has gotten to a comfortable place in the game after so many seasons where she comes in each season with more friends than enemies.

[MaggieG]

I thought the little scene of Amber telling Troy she was pregnant was so sweet. Kaycee did not deserve Amber's kindness but I also agree she did it for Troy since she didn't want him to leave because of her. 

[aghst]

Why didn't they test at least the sick people if not the whole house.

One case of covid could have knocked off several people.

Maybe the show would have given people a week to recover from covid or maybe they were going to send people home as fast as they could to save on production costs.

Certainly delays for a shooting schedule could cost people if they committed to have the production and filming crews be available on specific dates.

The one who got the IVs, I was thinking the other sick people should be offered that option.  Then they might not have sent the first one, Kaycee's partner home right away.

Bad luck on the trivia contest for Benja and Jodi and also language differences didn't help in the elimination.

Oh well.  But Jodi is always going to struggle to make alliances with those much younger than her and this is her first time competing against contestants who've been in more recent seasons.

[snarts]

Tori's problem is that she's blindly loyal to people who wouldn't do the same for her. Neither Jordan or Kaycee would wreck their own game for Tori. Yet, here she is riding hard for them to the point where she almost voted herself in. Stupid, and I don't blame Danny for being frustrated. 

While I'm enjoying the crop of new competitors, I don't understand at all why they felt the need to have the pairs play under the country flags. Once they brought in the "legends" (in quotes because Nelson, Nia? Ha) the country lines became pretty irrelevant.

Why does Jodi always look like she's on the verge of tears? Did they ever say what took Ben out?  Flu?

Edited May 1, 2023 by snarts

[millennium]

I think Tori's off-center because Jordan's there.   While she's come a long way since "I'm-Tori-and-I'm-on-anti-depressants" in the last season of the flagship show, she still seems insecure in his presence.  It may be this insecurity that's leading her to overcompensate in her loyalties to other friends.   Vulnerability isn't a quality I would have associated with her in past seasons but ever since the break-up she hasn't been the same.   I guess I feel protective of her because while I understand Danny's frustration, I don't like the way he expressed it.   And I felt like slapping Sarah when she said "the game you keep signing up for," as if she's a vet saying "Welcome to The Challenge" when in fact she won her "Challenge USA" season by default.

[Maya]

I’m shocked they don’t test for pregnancy before coming on this show with the stunts they do and the stuff they make them drink.