S01.E11: Weight of the World

[shantown]

Quote

The deal-making gets dirty and teams find themselves making promises they can't keep as the Final approaches. A conflicted competitor must destroy a friendship in order to survive.

Available May 10 on Paramount+

[AntFTW]

First of all, fuck this episode!

Nothing about it made sense to me.

Second of all, Yes is the most useless partner when it comes to swimming. He just hitches a ride with Emily.

Lastly, I could have skipped everything about this episode up until the elimination and Kaycee and Troy getting to choose their opponents.

[jsm1125]

I thought it was an interesting editing choice to show the audio but not the visuals of Sarah confessing to Emily that she might have to vote her into the elimination. Do you think that was a request from Sarah and/or Emily that production granted?

If Kaycee is going to be, or at least edited to be, dull as dishwasher, at least she’s not coasting this season and is proving herself physically. I’m a bit stunned that Big Brother even put her on the map as a reality show contestant in the first place. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by jsm1125

[Lamima]

12 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

I thought it was an interesting editing choice to show the audio but not the visuals of Sarah confessing to Emily that she might have to vote her into the elimination. Do you think that was a request from Sarah and/or Emily that production granted?

If Kaycee is going to be, or at least edited to be, dull as dishwasher, at least she’s not coasting this season and is proving herself physically. I’m a bit stunned that Big Brother even put her on the map as a reality show contestant in the first place. 

Her BB win was a drag along by someone who didn't do proper jury management. She won by default. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Lamima

[MaggieG]

I got a kick out of Theo having a whole conversation with himself about whether or not he would go in the hot tub, ending with him sitting in the hot tub. 

[lasu]

3 hours ago, Lamima said:

Her BB win was a drag along by someone who didn't do proper jury management. She won by default. 

While she's boring, I don't think this is fully a fair statement.  I don't think you can say she was dragged to the final when she won the final HoH and chose who to sit next to for the jury vote.  She also won another HoH, and five Power of Vetos.  She wasn't a goat.

I started this episode disliking Sarah more than Emily, though I really don't like either of them. But seeing Sarah's husband gave me a new perspective - he doesn't want her to have fun.  He sees this as a vacation that she gets to off and have fun while he's stuck at home, and she buys into that.  It's stupid.  If she has fun on The Challenge, it doesn't make his workload at home any different. I'll admit, knowing she has (what appears to me, based on 20 seconds of screentime, lol) an unsupportive husband at home.  I think he's fine with her going off and getting them money, but she better not have any fun while doing it.  That kind of resentment really sucks.

And over the last two episodes, I grew to intensely dislike Emily.  I just find her very self-important. I'm neutral to negative on Yes, so I was glad to see them go home.  I also really enjoyed Troy shutting Yes down when yes tried to say he was sorry for pulling their flag.  It irks me how Yes wants to see himself as above everything.  I was WAY too invested in the elimination, and was pulling HARD for Kaycee and Troy, despite the fact I care little about them.  I'll admit I was surprised Emily got past Kaycee even once, and I was full on cringing at Emily's breakdown over losing.  The second hand embarrassment I felt over that was intense.  

I find Tori to be too much of a golden retriever puppy to dislike her, and I have enough good will leftover from the last Challenge for Danny to root for them.  Jordan has been so much better, except for the last episode when I wanted to punch his smug, condescending face for being so rude to Taz.  Kayee and Troy are nothingburgers to me, but I wouldn't care if they won.  I think I'm only pulling AGAINST Sarah, despite generally liking Theo.  And even that, Sarah's husband kinda ruined me hating on her.  Meh.

Edited May 11, 2023 by lasu

[bunnyface]

I cackled like a hysterical hen when Emily started wailing like a baby at losing.  Good enough for her.  

I want teams split.  I like Theo, not Sarah.  I like Danny, either or on Tori.  I like Jordan, except he is a smug ass.  No feelings on Kaz. I like Troy, meh on Kaycee.  So if we can figure out how to get Theo and Danny to win, I'm okay with that.

Edited May 11, 2023 by bunnyface

[AntFTW]

I admit I would have sat here and stared at this for a really long time before I figured out what the pattern was.

[Lantern7]

I'm ready for this season to end. It’s not a dumpster fire like USA, but it does show that multiple incarnations of the show wreck the franchise as a whole. And I know that I’ve been generally negative, but the show doesn’t feel fun to watch when it’s constantly on.

Kaycee and Australian Hutty FTW. IIRC, only two players have won a season after winning at least four eliminations, and I think Kaycee should be #3. The fact that she was with Ben to start and that she should have left with him doesn’t matter to me. They win, Amber gets credit for stepping down, and she and Kaycee would stand as the only successful and bearable BB players on The Challenge.

TJ appearing to play Mr. Conductor next week . . . eh. I think we need a new host. He can do the main show and a P+ spin-off. Let someone else take the reins.

11 hours ago, MaggieG said:

I got a kick out of Theo having a whole conversation with himself about whether or not he would go in the hot tub, ending with him sitting in the hot tub. 

That was funny. “To Jacuzzi or not to Jacuzzi?”

Yes is on the shit list, right? He doesn’t bug me, but I can see how he can be considered annoying. At least he’s a better partner than Jordan. Emily ugly-crying would’ve been made worse by Jordan.

[Lantern7]

8 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I admit I would have sat here and stared at this for a really long time before I figured out what the pattern was.

I don’t get it, and I’m not on a rope ladder.

[aghst]

Yes was dead weight, losing to Troy.  He stayed high and Emily had to carry him this far.

Also there were enough swimming portions in several Dailies to get them tHis far.

So looks like a lot of endurance sections, running, going up mountains, cycling and then eating challenge to mess them up more.

[susannot]

Is there a final episode?  When?  My Paramount stream cut to another season of Challenge.

[luckyroll3]

On 5/11/2023 at 11:28 AM, MaggieG said:

I got a kick out of Theo having a whole conversation with himself about whether or not he would go in the hot tub, ending with him sitting in the hot tub. 

I loved his self-awareness that he didn't really earn it, but then he didn't care cause HOT TUB! 😂 That totally would have been my rationale too!

On 5/11/2023 at 1:24 PM, bunnyface said:

I cackled like a hysterical hen when Emily started wailing like a baby at losing. 

Me too! You would have thought she lost a gold medal. The Challenge doesn't warrant a full on tantrum on TV. 

19 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I don’t get it, and I’m not on a rope ladder.

It took me a couple minutes, but I figured it out. When you multiply the top and bottom number of each diamond, the answer is the left and right number. So the missing number is 6 (6*6=36). Now, if I was also hanging on to a rope ladder, I wouldn't have figured that shit out! 

[AntFTW]

2 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

It took me a couple minutes, but I figured it out. When you multiply the top and bottom number of each diamond, the answer is the left and right number. So the missing number is 6 (6*6=36). Now, if I was also hanging on to a rope ladder, I wouldn't have figured that shit out! 

The struggle for me is figuring out where to start. There's a pattern, sure... but there's nothing that obviously sticks out as a pattern. These are just seemingly random group of numbers on a board. The instructions say there's a pattern so somewhere, somehow these seemingly random numbers make a pattern. It wasn't obvious to me if each box has something in common that creates a pattern. When they started multiplying numbers, I was like "why are they multiplying numbers? what made them start multiplying numbers?"

Theo was adding the numbers in each group. I think he said they all summed up to 20 IIRC.

[luckyroll3]

11 hours ago, AntFTW said:

The struggle for me is figuring out where to start. There's a pattern, sure... but there's nothing that obviously sticks out as a pattern. These are just seemingly random group of numbers on a board. The instructions say there's a pattern so somewhere, somehow these seemingly random numbers make a pattern. It wasn't obvious to me if each box has something in common that creates a pattern. When they started multiplying numbers, I was like "why are they multiplying numbers? what made them start multiplying numbers?"

Theo was adding the numbers in each group. I think he said they all summed up to 20 IIRC.

Yes, I totally agree. Nothing really immediately sticks out. I only started multiplying myself because the 2 diamonds on the left had 9s, so my brain assumed they all had 9s, and I can do multiples of 9s quickly on my fingers (thinking about the competition aspect). So I just happened to trip on the pattern!

[AntFTW]

This was probably Kaycee’s worst season, politically. Is this the first season that Kaycee hasn’t had an easy road to the final?

Also, I’m only now noticing that we’re left with spinoff winners. Each international spin-off brought their winners (except Argentina) and MVPs, and only the international winners are still standing. Troy won Australia; Kaz won UK; and Sarah and Danny won USA.

[AncientNewbie]

I have always felt Sarah Lacina gets a bad edit, given that people seem to like her and she seems to do very cool things in real life (7 marathons, 7 continents, 7 days for one) but she comes across as so joyless and dour on tv. Then this week we see she's married to the police officer version of Zach, who is mad she's out making the family another potential six figure check while he has to parent his son. Is being a police officer in Iowa so lucrative that he can downplay what she brings home with these stints on tv? 

[Lantern7]

31 minutes ago, AncientNewbie said:

I have always felt Sarah Lacina gets a bad edit, given that people seem to like her and she seems to do very cool things in real life (7 marathons, 7 continents, 7 days for one) but she comes across as so joyless and dour on tv. Then this week we see she's married to the police officer version of Zach, who is mad she's out making the family another potential six figure check while he has to parent his son. Is being a police officer in Iowa so lucrative that he can downplay what she brings home with these stints on tv? 

Good points. “No, I’m not making out and getting into orgies with those people. (awkward beat) They never invite me in on those.”

I’m still rooting against her. Heck, the current season of Survivor has been more compelling, and Jeff Probst is halfway up his own ass.