S02.E06: A Really Good-Looking Underdog

[AntFTW]

Quote

Things get heated between two rookie players; the competitors brace themselves for host TJ Lavin's favorite challenge of the season, trivia.

Air date: August 27, 2023

[Lamima]

So, the daily...I call BS. Tori and Nanas glass platform hardly moved. They got so many wrong and yet the other 2 platforms were pretty vertical and Tori's was not...watched from side when they got last one wrong and it moved barely, if at all. Nanas was even sitting up. Yeah, whatevs...so scripted.

Watching the end now and I bet Dusty loses to Wes. No way are we getting anymore vets out. BS.

[dizzyd]

Dusty had the advantage of watching Wes go 1st. Also Wes got the call from home so it seemed like they were telling us he’s going out today, so quite the twist. It was nostalgic seeing Wes through the years, 20 years of it. Bye Dusty, didn’t like him on TAR and felt bad for his partner. Sucks for Chris. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by dizzyd

[mojoween]

Cassidy’s ego is larger than Croatia.

Such fools, commiserating Wes’s demise before TJ called it.

[Lantern7]

If this format has a future (and I’m rooting against it), either we get better representation from TAR, or we get no Racers.

Good mission, good elimination, crap ending . . . because there’s always the chance Teege saved Wes because his “story” is better.

I’m good with the abuse on Dusty. I was just waiting for someone to talk shit about TAR itself. It’s still the superior show, even if CBS doesn’t promote it as such.

I don’t think we’ve seen Mrs. Wes. Better her on the phone than Johnny doing a stale gag. Speaking of stale . . . Teege laughing during the mission. I doubt he’s having that much fun.

[AntFTW]

This was a pretty boring episode. I liked the trivia challenge. I always like them. I didn't care for the elimination. It seems like being in the peanut gallery and watching that elimination was boring.

I feel like this episode should have been called "Go to Hell, Dusty"

Then they started saying nice shit about Dusty, that was my clue to tell me that he was losing. Michaela said "his strategy seems to be working." Fessy said "Dusty (blah blah blah) good strategy (blah blah blah) not looking good for Wes."

9 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Cassidy’s ego is larger than Croatia.

😂🤣🤣

Edited August 28, 2023 by AntFTW

[Lamima]

Not only did I call the Wes win but he switched to the team with Tori and Nanas...hmmmm. Such BS. They ain't ever losing.

[AntFTW]

27 minutes ago, Lamima said:

So, the daily...I call BS. Tori and Nanas glass platform hardly moved. They got so many wrong and yet the other 2 platforms were pretty vertical and Tori's was not...watched from side when they got last one wrong and it moved barely, if at all. Nanas was even sitting up. Yeah, whatevs...so scripted.

I give the benefit of the doubt because it's edited. We're watching an edited episode. We're watching a few minutes of a challenge that probably lasted for hours (the cast usually describe these challenges as being hours long). The parts shown may not even necessarily be in chronological order. It's not uncommon for them to rearrange what they film. Listening to past interviews, some cast have said before that the people or teams did not compete in the order that was shown in the episodes. I imagine they do it all the time from listening to interviews of cast members. For example, in the last episode, we see Wes jump in the pool naked. According to Johnny on his podcast, that happened on the first night the MTV vets came in.

I just don't think the few minutes of edited scenes is enough to draw that conclusion IMO. Also, that's a very blatantly obvious way to rig a game in front of people that came to win $250,000 at the end of it, unless they were also paid $250K (or something close to it) to be quiet about it. I would assume the production team is not that stupid.

[Lantern7]

1 minute ago, AntFTW said:

I would assume the production team is not that stupid.

I dunno about that.

33 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Cassidy’s ego is larger than Croatia.

I'm not seeing it. Meanwhile, Fessy continues to annoy in his oversized jacket.

[Halting Hex]

So, having now watched my second-ever episode of all the series of this show (because the golf made it impossible to DVR Big Brother and the commercial intrigued me into staying), I think I can safely say this isn't for me.

I positively hate the industrial æsthetic (hoodies all the time and of all the greens, they go for military drab?  Blecch), TJ does nothing for me (I don't think he's a Probst-sized tool, but Jeffy brings a certain charisma) and the multi-tiered structure of the voting feels too ornate. (Not to mention, whom am I supposed to root for, Josh?  Pass.)  I hope the fans of the show keep on enjoying it, but I don't see it growing on me.

That said…parts of the hour were certainly memorable, because my mind shuddered at how jaw-droppingly stupid these players were.  How do you not know the capital of Canada? Croatia, maybe…but Canada???  Has literally nobody there ever watched an NHL game? Or SportsCenter?  (It seems that every time the Senators play, the political status of Ottawa [which one can infer from the name "Senators", anyhow] is referenced.) Or, I don't know, looked at a map?

I understand that Alyssa could have lost her brains when she lost her lip filler (according to a convo on the Big Brother live feeds last year, Botox Barbie had it pop out while she was doing something with her mouth that we don't need to specify here), but that can't be everybody's excuse.

Staggering.  The only two questions I didn't have were the dating-app one and Hendrix and his teeth. (Jimmy Page and the violin bow I knew, but I guess I need to rewatch Monterey Pop.) But if I, who hate Coldplay, can still recall that they named an album after the process of getting an erection (and yes, that is what the actual title means) you might think that somebody on a team of SIX could say who won this year's Super Bowl or what is the state slogan of Minnesota, or 1861.  Crikey.

I weep for America.  Wherever its capital is.

(Croatia is Zagreb, right?)

Have fun, all.

(So…Wes has won the show 3x and lost due to knotty problems 4x?  But now he's all weepy that, if he loses today, on what is at least his eighth Challenge, he might not get another chance?  Dude, at this point I'm fairly sure they have your phone number [and email and socials and probably the GPS route to your house] memorized.  Invitation #9 or whatever won't be that hard to wrangle, I wouldn't think. MTV throws juicy appearance fees at him and Bananas, I'd guess

And if Weepy Wes is thinking that once he's a father, he won't want to leave home for two months or however long this show takes to film, he can get over himself.  I'm fairly sure that once the kid hits the Terrible Twos, Wes will be calling TJ to book another slot, post-hasty.

"Sorry, honey!  Daddy's gotta win some jack! See ya!"  Cry me a river, fella.  Sheesh.)

Edited August 28, 2023 by Halting Hex

[choclatechip45]

Wes is so dramatic. There is no way this is his last challenge. 

[bunnyface]

No, he'll be like all the others who whine about how they have to win because they have kids.  They seem to think that makes them more deserving of winning than others.  I had Dirty XXX on while I was packing boxes today and to paraphrase Cara, "it's not our fault the condom didn't work."

I find the elimination highly suspect.  There was some heavy, heavy editing involved if Wes won by 37 seconds.  The Challengers all seemed to think Dusty did it faster, like not even a question in their minds.  But somehow Wes won by 37 seconds, which is half a lifetime in Challenge time.  Eh...  I like Wes, I like that (generally) he's in on the joke and can laugh at himself even when he's being and over-the-top prick.  But I don't think he won.

 

[aghst]

2 hours ago, bunnyface said:

No, he'll be like all the others who whine about how they have to win because they have kids.  They seem to think that makes them more deserving of winning than others.  I had Dirty XXX on while I was packing boxes today and to paraphrase Cara, "it's not our fault the condom didn't work."

I find the elimination highly suspect.  There was some heavy, heavy editing involved if Wes won by 37 seconds.  The Challengers all seemed to think Dusty did it faster, like not even a question in their minds.  But somehow Wes won by 37 seconds, which is half a lifetime in Challenge time.  Eh...  I like Wes, I like that (generally) he's in on the joke and can laugh at himself even when he's being and over-the-top prick.  But I don't think he won.

 

Yeah seems suspicious to me too.  Both Wes and Bananas thought that he lost.  In fact most of the challengers watching it thought Dusty won.

The Daily, I didn’t like this setup of the trivia.  Seems like they were incorrect on more questions than one of the other teams yet they were able to stay on the glass longer.  I think the bigger, heavier players went down first so it wasn’t a level playing field.

Previous trivia contests, you missed 3 questions, you went down so it was all about the questions.  This time it was about trivia and being able to stay on the platform.

 

As for Wes, didn’t hE boast in tHe past about how successful his business was?  He seemed to imply that he wasn’t doing all these Challenge seasons for the money.

He even joked about having a mansion or something, didn’t he?

He was actually tearing up about possibly going home without the prize money.

He’s no different than Corey, gotta win to support my baby.

Edited August 28, 2023 by aghst

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Both Wes and Bananas thought that he lost.  In fact most of the challengers watching it thought Dusty won.

3 hours ago, bunnyface said:

The Challengers all seemed to think Dusty did it faster

They don’t actually show that most people thought Dusty won. They don’t really show anyone’s interviews or their thoughts on whether they thought Dusty won other than Alyssa. They don’t show anyone actually saying Dusty did it faster than Wes. Cassidy says Dusty got Wes off the wheel pretty fast, but she doesn’t say he was faster than Wes.

The feeling of loss comes from Wes. Wes puts out the idea that he lost so everyone seems to accept that, and I’m judging that by what we’re shown as their reactions to Wes. He’s sitting there crying and saying he lost. Johnny goes over to comfort Wes because Wes is sitting there looking pitiful in this filthy looking pool of slop saying he lost. Wes is the one saying that it’s time to go home, and no one else is as far as we’re shown. Wes is giving them the message that he lost, and everyone else is reacting to that message.

They start the elimination building the narrative that Wes is doing everything wrong, but Dusty is doing everything right. People’s talking heads are painting Wes as being methodical, moving slow, and questioning whether his slow strategy is working. Then they show us Wes seemingly moving slow taking the ropes and knots out. Then they describe Dusty as being less controlled but fast, and they add talking heads about how his strategy is working. To me, that suggested Dusty was going to lose. They always hype up the loser before they lose. They’ve done it with Josh countless times 😂. They show the talking heads about how Dusty’s strategy is seemingly the better one, and then surprise, he loses. That’s usual Challenge fuckery.

Except Alyssa, they don’t actually show anyone saying they thought Dusty won. They only show Alyssa’s brief talking head.

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Previous trivia contests, you missed 3 questions, you went down so it was all about the questions.

Not always.

Also, there was no sabotage here. Answering the question correctly is its own reward, and they don’t get to sabotage the other teams.

Edited August 28, 2023 by AntFTW

[mojoween]

I didn’t think Wes was crying about losing the money.  He said that he was sad that he might never do this again, and this chapter of his life was closing.  Seemed to me he was lamenting the end of his Challenge career.

[Lamima]

When Tiffany was the only one left on the other 2 glass panels and Team Tori had a ton left (either all of them or all but 1) and Bananas was actually sitting up they showed a side view where you could see the 1 empty panel and the one with just Tiffany and then the full Tori one....the Tori panel was not as vertical as the other 2 and then they got another question wrong and the panel appeared to be the same as it was. 

Then the Wes win and his chosing to swap over to team Tori. 

Someone mentioned how the show could blatently rig results when everyone wants to win the 250k. Well what if they pay everyone To be on this show. Not 250k but each gets money to play it out as told to them by production. Maybe there really is no big 250k win at the end.

After having watched the recent 4 or 5 seasons (the 2 USA, ride or die and all stars and maybe 1 other regular)...just shocks that folks like Tori, Bananas, Jordyn and Wes are not gotten out right away. They go to finals all the freaking time. And win a lot. Any smart person would not want to compete with them at the end. You'd want the weakest so you can beat them and win. Makes zero sense. Yet, over and over...Tori and all others mentioned are allowed to stick around. I am focused on Tori because A- she's been on every season I've watched except the 1st USA and B- she is one note in that her strategy is always to help keep the other big dogs safe which most of the time has been Jordyn. C- the her and Jordyn show is old.

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Lamima

[seacliffsal]

I did not understand why they didn't vote in a male vet to go against Wes.  That seems like the only guaranteed way to start eliminating the veterans.  I just can't with people who are "I need to win so I can provide for my family."  My response is always-well, then, get a job...  People who rely on winning reality t.v. shows for their income (or on being 'content creators/influencers') get no sympathy from me when other people don't sacrifice their own games for their competitors' sob stories.  

[Lamima]

Yeah, when Tori said the show liked to make them look like dumb dumbs with the trivia daily...I thought in my head..."that's because you are dumb dumbs and it's why you have to do this show". 

[bunnyface]

5 hours ago, mojoween said:

I didn’t think Wes was crying about losing the money.  He said that he was sad that he might never do this again, and this chapter of his life was closing.  Seemed to me he was lamenting the end of his Challenge career.

In other words, a regular ol' midlife crisis.  Mourning his youth and the fun times.  Makes sense.  He has always said he makes enough money outside of this and just does this for the fun. 

[Racj82]

Oh Wes, shut the hell up. You have been playing this for decades now. Hang it up. Also, no one cares if you have an expecting child. You should have enough money squared away for 2 kids all the way up to college at this point.

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, Lamima said:

Someone mentioned how the show could blatently rig results when everyone wants to win the 250k. Well what if they pay everyone To be on this show. Not 250k but each gets money to play it out as told to them by production. Maybe there really is no big 250k win at the end.

I believe they do get paid for appearing on the show. However, if they promise a $500K prize pot at the end, then they have to pay it. Otherwise, they’re risking some legal liability. Unless all the people that appear on the show know that it’s entirely fake and the results are predetermined, they risk legal liability.

Separately, just curious to know that if you (a general "you", not specifically you) believe the results were rigged, and everything seen is scripted and/or manufactured by producers, then why watch the show? Unless people solely watch for the personalities, if someone believes people aren’t actually competing in the games, and there possibly will not be a prize pot at the end of it, and people aren’t actually trying to win because the results are predetermined, then why watch? If you don’t believe some part of what you’re seeing, I’m not understanding why would you watch a competition show that you don’t actually believe is a competition.

The scenes that we watch are deceptive. They are designed to be deceptive; to create a narrative of the events, keep us on our toes, and then pull the rug right out from under us. They are edited to create a story just as much as any other show. Dusty goes crazy at the beginning of the show, which makes people hate Dusty, and therefore the people vote for Dusty. That’s a story that people can follow. I won’t go as far as to say everything is rigged because I don’t have anything to support that. I do think it’s possible that producers may give a favored contestant a game they think may be suited for them. For example, Fessy seemed to always get physical eliminations that may be stacked in his favor but I wouldn’t say that producers urge Fessy’s opponent (whoever that happens to be) to go into this physical elimination and lose for the sake of a “more entertaining” show.

5 hours ago, Lamima said:

After having watched the recent 4 or 5 seasons (the 2 USA, ride or die and all stars and maybe 1 other regular)...just shocks that folks like Tori, Bananas, Jordyn and Wes are not gotten out right away.

It’s not like they aren’t trying. We’ve seen just about all the vets, except Cory, be voted into elimination. They put Jonna and Tori against each other. Desi got easiest one, Amanda.

I remember listening to one of the podcasts some time ago, and I think it was Aneesa that said what people (and especially newbies) are really competing against is years of friendship. A lot of the same people come back season after season for years. These people hang out with each other outside of the show. They go to each other’s baby showers and birthday parties. When they appear on the same season together, they stick together. They save each other as much as they can. They stick with the people they know over the people they don’t know.

Edited August 28, 2023 by AntFTW

[mertensia]

Dear lord. These people are dumb as a hammer. 

[DEL901]

8 hours ago, Lamima said:

When Tiffany was the only one left on the other 2 glass panels and Team Tori had a ton left (either all of them or all but 1) and Bananas was actually sitting up they showed a side view where you could see the 1 empty panel and the one with just Tiffany and then the full Tori one....the Tori panel was not as vertical as the other 2 and then they got another question wrong and the panel appeared to be the same as it was. 

Then the Wes win and his chosing to swap over to team Tori. 

Someone mentioned how the show could blatently rig results when everyone wants to win the 250k. Well what if they pay everyone To be on this show. Not 250k but each gets money to play it out as told to them by production. Maybe there really is no big 250k win at the end.

After having watched the recent 4 or 5 seasons (the 2 USA, ride or die and all stars and maybe 1 other regular)...just shocks that folks like Tori, Bananas, Jordyn and Wes are not gotten out right away. They go to finals all the freaking time. And win a lot. Any smart person would not want to compete with them at the end. You'd want the weakest so you can beat them and win. Makes zero sense. Yet, over and over...Tori and all others mentioned are allowed to stick around. I am focused on Tori because A- she's been on every season I've watched except the 1st USA and B- she is one note in that her strategy is always to help keep the other big dogs safe which most of the time has been Jordyn. C- the her and Jordyn show is old.

 

I’ve read payments start at $1000 an episode for newbies, $3-5,000 for mid-list vets and players like CT and Bananas could vbe getting as much as $80,000 just to appear.  This is all in addition to the prize money.  

[Jobiska]

Heh, despite his Banana-worship, when Wes was teary about ending his challenge career once his baby is born, and Bananas, thinking Wes was fussing about being in danger, said he was in the same boat last week (kind of like he told Tori "welcome to my world" the prior episode), Dusty sharply schooled him, "you don't have a child on the way, you don't know what it feels like" (paraphrased).  [edited to add:  though I'm a parent, I generally dislike it when people act like non-parents cannot possibly understand, because I figure empathetic people can do their best to understand enough to matter; but John was asking for it by centering it on himself again, so I'll allow it, Dusty.]

I think Tyler and Alyssa are a much better match than Tyler and Angela or Alyssa and Kyle.  I don't mind Angela but I don't think she was that great for Tyler.  Alyssa seems less high strung.  And I still like Tyler just fine--his "ramen noodle hair" as some call it on the BB board doesn't bother me--and he certainly seems a nicer person than Kyle.

The one thing I dislike about the trivia challenge is that over all the variations, whether you can sabotage someone or not, whether it's individuals or teams, etc., is that it is unfair that they don't structure it like, say, a spelling bee.  If a contestant is wrong, they should be safe until the next up (person or team) answers a question right.  If your team lucks out in that it goes last in each round (and you have the same number of players, of course), you could get every one wrong as long as the two preceding teams got every one wrong before you.  

(The person I lost to in the 5th grade spelling be had to spell "epistle" correctly after I said "apistle."  I knew that both epistle and apostle had to do with the Bible and I got them mixed up, heh.  If he had gotten it wrong, I'd have been given the next word, not dumped in the water!)

Edited August 28, 2023 by Jobiska

[luckyroll3]

17 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

But now he's all weepy that, if he loses today, on what is at least his eighth Challenge, he might not get another chance?  Dude, at this point I'm fairly sure they have your phone number [and email and socials and probably the GPS route to your house] memorized.  Invitation #9 or whatever won't be that hard to wrangle, I wouldn't think. MTV throws juicy appearance fees at him and Bananas, I'd guess

 

12 hours ago, mojoween said:

I didn’t think Wes was crying about losing the money.  He said that he was sad that he might never do this again, and this chapter of his life was closing.  Seemed to me he was lamenting the end of his Challenge career.

I took Wes to mean that HE was choosing to step back from The Challenge after this season, not that he was worried about not being asked back. And if this is indeed his last one, he wants to go out on top. I definitely think if his wife said, come home, he would quit in a second and endure TJ's wrath on his way out.

I was very confused by what were shown of the daily challenge, because it seemed like Blue had gotten the most questions wrong, yet their glass wasn't as tilted. The editing has been a bit ridiculous this season. 

And definitely not as satisfying a trivia episode as usual. 

[AntFTW]

Tori says a couple things that I thought was interesting on the podcast. She says that the trivia challenge lasted about an hour and a half. Alyssa was up there by herself answering questions correctly. Dusty says he was dangling off that platform for about 20 minutes.

She also says that Michele had gotten close to Wes and was playing with him, which could possibly explain why she didn't vote for Wes instead of Luis a couple of episodes ago. Apparently those goes out the window because she votes for Dusty in this episode, which would put Wes into elimination. Michele is playing both sides.

Dusty apparently fumbled a lot trying to get the first wheel out during the elimination. He tangles the rope. He says he learns from watching Wes go first, so he tries to get the first wheel undone and onto the "crankshaft", and then just go for the second wheel rather than waste time trying to move the thing with just the first wheel. While working on the second wheel, Desi gives him the advice on how to pull the rope (which we see in the episode), and Dusty said it helped. Apparently what was slowing Dusty down was getting the ropes out of the wheels. They said that elimination didn't last that long, a few minutes (I think Tori said 10 minutes for each of their rounds).

Edited August 29, 2023 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

8 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

I was very confused by what were shown of the daily challenge, because it seemed like Blue had gotten the most questions wrong, yet their glass wasn't as tilted. The editing has been a bit ridiculous this season. 

It has been. On the episode, just after we see Blue get their second question wrong, we got a shot of all that platforms and it shows that Blue is the only team tilting. Then it goes back to Red, and they get a sports question that they get wrong in which the answer is the Kansas City Chiefs. Josh immediately says something like "Fuck I had it right" and in that same shot, you can see the green team's platform is tilting. The green team's platform is tilting even though we, the viewers, have not seen the green team get a question wrong yet.

Edited August 29, 2023 by AntFTW

[ImpinAintEasy]

Wes and the Survivor women are the only ones I care about. I just don’t like the Big Brother players, never have. The Amazing Race doesn’t really produce the type of players who can succeed at The Challenge. 
 

So I’m obviously glad Wes is still in it, even though it’s odd that Wes thought he lost. Did we ever find out if the law that is supposed to prevent game shows being rigged applies to shows like this? I’m sure Dusty would be making a huge fuss if he truly felt he won. 
 

At least this version of trivia didn’t include any sabotage. You miss, you’re penalized for it. I hate when a player or team can literally not miss a single question and still lose. 

[DEL901]

6 hours ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

Wes and the Survivor women are the only ones I care about. I just don’t like the Big Brother players, never have. The Amazing Race doesn’t really produce the type of players who can succeed at The Challenge. 
 

So I’m obviously glad Wes is still in it, even though it’s odd that Wes thought he lost. Did we ever find out if the law that is supposed to prevent game shows being rigged applies to shows like this? I’m sure Dusty would be making a huge fuss if he truly felt he won. 
 

At least this version of trivia didn’t include any sabotage. You miss, you’re penalized for it. I hate when a player or team can literally not miss a single question and still lose. 

In an interview, Dusty said he was sure he had won…but he also admitted he took way longer to release the first wheel than shown on tv.    Also, trivia lasted over an hour.  

[AntFTW]

Also, forgot to add that while listening to The Challenge podcast, Tori gives Johnny the credit for the strategy of how to stick to the glass platform. According to Tori, Johnny gives them the strategy of leaning on their sides so that they can use the soles of their water boots that the cast has on to hold themselves in place and lift themselves up when they start to slide. Johnny also explains this on his podcast as well that the soles of the water boots has really good traction on the glass and told everyone to use their water boots, and that's the "stickiest thing" they have.

Edited August 30, 2023 by AntFTW

[millennium]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:45 PM, Halting Hex said:

And if Weepy Wes is thinking that once he's a father, he won't want to leave home for two months or however long this show takes to film, he can get over himself.  I'm fairly sure that once the kid hits the Terrible Twos, Wes will be calling TJ to book another slot, post-hasty.

Truer words ...

I thought it was touching when Bananas stepped off the platform and went down on the sand to console Wes.   For all their vaunted rivalry, those two are brothers.

And Bananas wasn't exaggerating when he reminded Wes before the Elimination that the two of them built that house.   Aside from TJ, they're the only two cast members in Croatia who can truly make that claim.

(obviously I am way behind in the season but I'm still here)