S02.E11: Slippery Business

[AntFTW]

Quote

Contestants take on a slippery challenge in a physical wrestling match.

Air date: September 28, 2023

Sneak peek of the daily challenge

Spoiler

 

[susannot]

Damn, Chris is unstoppable.  My opinion of him from Survivor is undergoing a huge revision.  Which is what he wanted from The Challenge.

Cassidy accusing Michaela of playing a rational emotion-free game is rich.  That's exactly why Michaela looks like a good possibility to win.

[choclatechip45]

I'm rooting for Chris and Michaela!

[Lantern7]

"On tonight's episode of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."

Am I being too tough? Or maybe it's the thin crust pizza that I ate. Chris isn't a compelling hero to me. He doesn't get mad or snappy on those that wrong him. He just shrugs his shoulders and goes into elimination. Honestly, I don't think he's on the same level as Horacio. And we had an elimination where the results could have easily been fudged to keep Chris and send Tyler out. I should be thrilled we're out of Big Brother newbies, but I'm just so bored.

The mission also sucked. Instead of having six dudes try to pull each other's oiled-up bodies out of a ring, we just have a few guys at a time wrestling. Naturally, Chris is out first because the other guys are chumps. Cory won even though Fessy didn't really fight at all, for he was too busy arranging the battles. I should be happy that Cory showed himself to still be in the game, but . . . meh.

Thinking about it, I blame production. A better idea would've been to have three one-on-one clashes, then have the winners wrestle it out for immunity.

I'm just tired of Chris getting pulled into elimination, Cassidy and Michele-with-one-L getting mad, and Josh being a goof. BTW, how many episodes are left? Are we ready for the prospect of Josh running a finale, or possibly even winning it, even though he's shown the least amount of growth over the years?

Fuck it, maybe this is all just me. Right now, though, I just want USA to wrap up so I can get back to the main franchise.

[AntFTW]

1) Wow! The girls' round was so much scrappier than the guys' round.

I didn't care for the daily challenge. Nothing exciting about it.

I expected them to go for Cassidy first and Tori second, but the fact that they went for Tori first should have told Tori all she needed to know about her future of working with the Survivor girls.

2) Michaela... what do I think about Michaela... hmmm...

I understand where Michaela's head is at. She thinks Tori will be tough to beat in the final and therefore Tori should go. Michaela was on The Challenge podcast for episode 10, and if my memory is correct, she said something like her competition are the girls. Her focus is on the girls, and not so much the guys. She would let the male winner pick the male elimination nominee, and wouldn't resist because her competition is the other women in the house. She would pick the female elimination nominee. I think she said that's the approached she took with Fessy. That train of thought really shows in this episode when Cory gives Michaela a lot of resistance to nominating Tori. I genuinely believe that in the moment that Michaela thought Cory's reasoning for keeping Tori didn't make sense. I believe she thought it was the DUMBEST reason. It did not compute for her. Cory's reason is plain and simple: "I want to keep her because she will protect me if she wins. She's not targeting me." (I'm paraphrasing)

Cory says he wants Cassidy, and he says why. Michaela, with the straightest face, asks "what value is that to anyone?" ... and I. cracked. up! because I thought that was such a ridiculous question because he just told her what value it gave to him. "You're not thinking in terms of genuine probability." 😂

Despite Michaela saying otherwise, she was irritated because Cory didn't agree with her. Cory told her what his thoughts her, and she didn't agree because she thought it was "stupid", and Cory kept saying "stupid stuff" and she got irritated.

3) I find it interesting that Tyler threw a stray vote at Chanelle or maybe it wasn't a stray vote. Maybe they told Tyler that they were all voting for Chanelle.

I wish Chanelle's name was drawn. I need to see something from her. Maybe Michele should have thrown her vote at Chanelle.

4) Chris is just knocking them out, one by one. Right now, he's the #1 person I'm rooting for because he's been such an underdog this season. No matter what he tries, it just never works out for him. He just keeps coming back.

Now, as I mentioned on last week's episode, assuming that Chris doesn't win and he's nominated for elimination again by the winners, who is going to be the sacrificial lamb to take him out? Now, Johnny, Faysal, Josh, and Cory (minus whichever one wins) would have to choose. If Johnny doesn't win, they choose Johnny. That's my guess.

5) Faysal is literally skating by this season... and I don't fucking like it. I'd throw him in against Chris. Most of these eliminations haven't been the physical eliminations that gives Faysal is a huge advantage. They've been even-handed strategy games. I'd like to see Faysal in an elimination at least one time before the season ends.

6) Now... if I saw what I think I saw... Michaela tried to snatch Chanelle's wig off during that daily 😂

Edited October 1, 2023 by AntFTW

[Yogisbooboo64]

Claude have mercy.....Tyler's body looking all oiled and buffed and scrong?  Whoo, he done beefed up since breaking up with Angela.

19 hours ago, susannot said:

Damn, Chris is unstoppable. 

He's like Michael fucking Myers at this point!

[KeithJ]

It feels like everyone except maybe two or three people (Cassidy, Chris, Michelle) are in a single big alliance.  I can't wait to see what happens when they have to start turning on each other.

[AntFTW]

35 minutes ago, Yogisbooboo64 said:

He's like Michael fucking Myers at this point!

Chris after he wins:

[Yogisbooboo64]

Who is the monster behind the Scream dude?

[AntFTW]

1 minute ago, Yogisbooboo64 said:

Who is the monster behind the Scream dude?

Jason Voorhees

[AntFTW]

31 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

It feels like everyone except maybe two or three people (Cassidy, Chris, Michelle) are in a single big alliance.  I can't wait to see what happens when they have to start turning on each other.

The girls have already started. They threw their votes on Tori after making the deal with her, which Tori has held up her end so far. By voting for Tori and Michaela trying to nominate Tori, they reneged on that deal. The guys have avoided thus far, but they have no choice now. If Chris goes in again, they'll have to flip on someone.

Edited September 29, 2023 by AntFTW

[bunnyface]

4 hours ago, Yogisbooboo64 said:

Claude have mercy.....Tyler's body looking all oiled and buffed and scrong?  Whoo, he done beefed up since breaking up with Angela.

 

They tried to go slightly p@rn-y with the music while they were oiling up but it's just too hard to look sexy with those big ol' mouthguards in.  

[aghst]

It might not have made a difference but Michaela voted for Chris instead of Tori.

She’s worried Tori might win a Daily again and throw her in.

But there’s a good chance that she will be voted into the elimination next time, though the vets could vote for one of the 3 black Survivor women instead of sending her in vs. Cassidy.

As for putting Fessy in, you know that he will get Hall Brawl or pole wrestle in the elimination.

Though it was funny, he was counting on his third Daily win and saying he’s been playing football and this is what I do.

Cory did Cory also play football, he wrestled in the 8th grade!

He did well to escape Fessy near the out of bounds and get Fessy to go over.

 

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

It might not have made a difference but Michaela voted for Chris instead of Tori.

I’m not understanding this part because Michaela couldn’t vote in the house vote. Michaela and Cory voted for Cassidy and Tyler in the winner nominations. 🤔

[aghst]

Sorry I meant to type Michelle.

[AntFTW]

This challenge served as a marker for me. There is a snippet of this oil wrestling challenge in one of the trailers for the season, and I remember seeing the Survivor girls in it; Desi, Michaela, Cassidy and Michele looking like they were ganging up on Tori. Every time these girls went into elimination, I pretty much figured they weren't losing because we haven't gotten to this particular challenge that I saw them in.

On 9/29/2023 at 11:30 PM, aghst said:

As for putting Fessy in, you know that he will get Hall Brawl or pole wrestle in the elimination.

I want him thrown in anyway. He's not unbeatable.

There was a Hall Brawl in the season trailer. It just might be Fessy in it.

On 9/29/2023 at 11:30 PM, aghst said:

Though it was funny, he was counting on his third Daily win and saying he’s been playing football and this is what I do.

I was like "None of that means anything if you haven't played football covered in oil." 😂

Edited October 1, 2023 by AntFTW

[jsm1125]

How is Bananas never an option for the men to vote in? Did his social game improve immensely? 

[AntFTW]

 

[peachmangosteen]

I don't want him to tie Sarah lol.

[Lantern7]

On 10/1/2023 at 9:15 AM, peachmangosteen said:

I don't want him to tie Sarah lol.

Neither do I. And the game has been set up over the years to prevent players from going in all the time, to the point where it's rare if anyone sees elimination four times. And I know that it's dumb to hang onto the image of Sarah as a heroine after twenty years. I just don't find Chris compelling.

I like Allan, though. He tweeted that Chris has the Grand Slam of eliminations, having booted people from The Amazing Race (Luis), Survivor (Sebastian), The Challenge (Wes) and Big Brother (Tyler).

[millennium]

On 9/29/2023 at 12:10 AM, Lantern7 said:

Chris isn't a compelling hero to me.

He's a colossal bore.  To make an impression on The Challenge, you need skill and charisma/personality.   You can get by on either one alone, at least for awhile, but I think it's personality this audience values more.  Michaela, Cassidy and Desi have both.  Michele has personality but will probably never see a final. Chris and Chanelle have physical ability but are duds otherwise.   I would never watch a future season in the hope that Chris wins (or loses), for example.  Challenge viewers want favorites to root for and villains to hate, that's how we were raised.     And I think that will be the problem with the upcoming season of the flagship show -- nobody to care about.   For example, Horacio was great athletically but as a character he's about as exciting as vanilla yogurt.   The show is bringing vets in as mercenaries probably to hold on to longtime viewers like me, but ultimately I think the strategy will backfire as vets like CT, CaraMaria and Jordan remind us each week that THEY are the kind of players we want to see all season, not Horacio, Olivia, Hughie or the rest of the mediocre mix.

 

On 9/29/2023 at 12:10 AM, Lantern7 said:

Are we ready for the prospect of Josh running a finale, or possibly even winning it, even though he's shown the least amount of growth over the years?

No.  The pool of good players has become so weak and diluted overall that perennial losers like Josh, Corey and Fessy are positioned to possibly be in the final.   I call this "The Devin Syndrome."   These barnacles keep coming back because they know most of the people who have beaten them in the past are gone, thus increasing the odds that they can finally make a final.  

I'm slowly starting to face the fact that like so many things in modern life, The Challenge's best days are behind us and there's nothing very good waiting for us up around the bend.

Edited October 7, 2023 by millennium