S02.E05: Operation Hat Trick

[AntFTW]

Quote

"The Challenge" vets come up with a plan to take advantage of a growing rift among the rookies, resulting in one of the most shocking hopper results of the season.

Air date: August 24, 2023

[AntFTW]

I love this stupid show. I love how the vets are able to reverse their fortunes, from being the target of the house to not even considered for an elimination twice in a row now.

I hope it doesn't last. I need some retaliation 😂

Edited August 25, 2023 by AntFTW

[mojoween]

The more Buddy Games commercials I see, the more they are wearing me down to where I may actually watch that dumb show.

That Gran Turismo ad with Devin, Veronica and Darrell was hilarious.

Disappointed that Cassidy came back, not that I have any great love for Alyssa but I have residual sourness about Cassidy from Survivor.

Does anyone else glaze over when TJ starts explaining how the comps are going to work?

[bunnyface]

32 minutes ago, mojoween said:

 

That Gran Turismo ad with Devin, Veronica and Darrell was hilarious.

 

Oh no.  I always blast through commercials, so I must have missed that.  

I get kind of queasy when I see Josh trying to flirt in the hot tub.  Blurgh.  I don't know if it's residual man-baby vibes left over from previous seasons or what, but he skeeves me out.

[aghst]

Liked that the Daily gave smaller Green team an advantage or at least didn't penalize them for having fewer challengers.

But basically it favored teams that didn't have big challenger and those that just skipped the puzzles after the first check point.

So it had a rather big loophole.

Yeah I don't understand why the newbies would abandon getting out the vets.  Maybe some producer intervention there.

Alyssa gets unlucky, really unlucky given the odds, and it's another physical challenge against a bigger competitor -- she was eliminated last season against a bigger competitor as well.

She struggled to move that cube thing and reach outside of it, being smaller.

 

[AntFTW]

56 minutes ago, aghst said:

Alyssa gets unlucky, really unlucky given the odds, and it's another physical challenge against a bigger competitor -- she was eliminated last season against a bigger competitor as well.

She struggled to move that cube thing and reach outside of it, being smaller.

For that one, I don’t think size makes a difference rather than knowing how to throw your body to move this ridiculous metal hamster ball. I think Alyssa had an even handed shot at winning this one.

Edited August 25, 2023 by AntFTW

[Lantern7]

Leave it to Wes to hack a challenge through brute strength and ego. And leave it to Johnny to sow chaos in his wake.

Not much I can say about this episode. I'm glad Cassidy is still in there, but potentially showmancing Josh? Ewwwwwww. I bet that guy is inept in every facet of relationships. Mission was pretty good, but Wes found a loophole and exploited it.

Chris going on about how others call him the most undeserving Survivor champion . . . I'm not with him on that. He was voted out, failed to come back the first time, then returned the last time re-entry was permitted. He played about a third of the main game, if that. And instead of the last people to get voted out, the jury was made up of everyone that didn't bail out of Edge of Extinction. Anyone going back into the game from there that late had an advantage of jury members who had also toiled in EoE. Bad concept, asterisks on Chris's name.

I didn't need to see Devin again. I feel bad for those that had to explain who he was, as well as Darrell and Veronica.

[luckyroll3]

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I'm glad Cassidy is still in there, but potentially showmancing Josh? Ewwwwwww.

That's what I said! So gross!

Also, when is Cassie going to realize that the reason her name is being thrown around is not because of Wes, but because of the people her and her alliance are working with. They made her the scapegoat and now it makes sense for Wes to keep using her as one since she won't let it go. I know nothing about Cassie, cause this is the only episode so far they've shown her speaking, but given her crush on Josh I'm guessing she's not that bright. 

 

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I didn't need to see Devin again. I feel bad for those that had to explain who he was, as well as Darrell and Veronica.

I think I missed this....

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, luckyroll3 said:

I think I missed this....

 

 

[choclatechip45]

Cassidy/Josh romance is the most random thing ever. I only like Alyssa from her move last season so I was hoping she would stay since Cassidy is boring.

[AntFTW]

13 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

Also, when is Cassie going to realize that the reason her name is being thrown around is not because of Wes, but because of the people her and her alliance are working with.

If I’m remembering the podcast correctly, she found out when we found out. She didn’t know until the episode aired. She said Tyler and Monte threw Wes under the bus to make it look like Wes was specifically targeting her, and therefore, voted for her.

From watching the episode, Wes took that and rolled with it. Since he made a new enemy, he needed to get her out now. I think Wes could have just talked to her after that vote and explain that the green team told him that they were voting for Cassidy, and that Desi specifically said she wanted Cassidy. From listening to the podcast, it seems like she had already formed an opinion of Wes, that typical manipulative “mastermind” view that people usually put on Wes. Maybe it’s highly likely that even if Wes explained that to her, she wouldn’t have believed him anyway because of the opinion she had of him and the opinion of the “puppet master” game that Wes plays.

Edited August 27, 2023 by AntFTW

[luckyroll3]

13 hours ago, AntFTW said:

From watching the episode, Wes took that and rolled with it. Since he made a new enemy, he needed to get her out now. I think Wes could have just talked to her after that vote and explain that the green team told him that they were voting for Cassidy, and that Desi specifically said she wanted Cassidy. From listening to the podcast, it seems like she had already formed an opinion of Wes, that typical manipulative “mastermind” view that people usually put on Wes. Maybe it’s highly likely that even if Wes explained that to her, she wouldn’t have believed him anyway because of the opinion she had of him and the opinion of the “puppet master” game that Wes plays.

Totally! Her whole "Wes the master manipulator" thing was coming way out of left field. And also, even if he was, why would he be targeting her??? But I agree that Wes' best shot was to lean into it since she was so set on him being the bad guy. 

[AntFTW]

Also, Johnny touched on this a little bit on the episode, that they went from being the house's main target to being the swing votes.

Tori says on the podcast that before this point (or maybe before the events of the last episode), nobody in the house was strategizing with them; nobody would tell them any intel; and they didn't know what was going on in the house. Now that the game was flipped, the CBS players suddenly had to scramble rather than the vets having to scramble. Now, they're sharing intel with the vets because these separate alliances were trying to recruit the MTV vets to their side.

[Jobiska]

The whole "Bachelor" contest was kind of cute--and Wes did do a good job saying he wasn't worthy--I would have voted for him too (I'm sure they all know he was married and it was just in fun in his case).  Cassidy was a little ridiculous getting all upset that they chose him!  I get her being mad (knowing what she knew then) about him voting for her, but geez.  Have a little chill.  At least she still has more chill than Dusty "I wuv Bananas" the stan.

 

[AntFTW]

I listened to Johnny's podcast, and he says he had a conversation with Chris and Sebastian. Chris and Sebastian recognized they were at the bottom of the Survivor alliance, and they promised Johnny that they wouldn't say his name. I think this was when Cory was still on the blue team and he made a deal with Alyssa to vote for Johnny. As we saw in the previous episode, Chris still voted for Johnny, but Sebastian didn't. Sebastian voted with Tori for Monte. I think this is the episode when Paulie got eliminated. They said that Johnny and Fessy were arguing back and forth for at least 30 minutes after Fessy voted for him.

Also, it seems like no one but Tori followed through on "Operation Hat Truck." Cory says he didn't vote for the name he pulled. Cory may have been joking and it's kinda hard to tell, but he also says Josh and Fessy didn't vote for the name they pulled. Assuming this is true and he wasn't joking, Tori is the only one that voted for the name she pulled, and we see Johnny vote for Fessy in the episode. Tori, on The Challenge podcast, speculated that Johnny may have voted for Fessy because he pulled Tiffany's name, and Johnny and Tiffany started to build up a little friendship. Johnny seems to confirm that he pulled Tiffany's name and he wasn't voting for Tiffany so he votes for Fessy to stir up confusion.

Fessy got paranoid about that one vote because he hadn't had any votes for the entire season up to this point, and Fessy tells people that he voted for himself. Fessy, when asked by Johnny, tells Johnny that he voted for himself, while Johnny clearly knows he's lying.

Edited August 30, 2023 by AntFTW

[lilabennet]

What did he think telling people he voted for himself would accomplish?  Ah, FOUTTE...