S02.E12: Revenge Amongst the Ruins

[AntFTW]

Quote

Tables are turned and alliances scramble to navigate a new power dynamic after an intense challenge in the Croatian ruins.

Air date: October 5, 2023

Sneak peek clip of the episode

Spoiler

Sneak peek of the daily challenge

Spoiler

 

[Lamb18]

I want to see Josh crying, as shown in the preview. 

[DEL901]

Ugh, Cassidy and her complaints that the vets haven’t accepted her into their ranks……they’ve been playing together for years.    She hasn’t earned that yet, and her abrasiveness isn’t helping.   

[Lamb18]

I like how the Survivor guys tricked the others.

[Lantern7]

Well, that was a letdown. I don't consider Michele-with-one-L to be a huge pain the ass. I get the hate, but there are bigger assholes. One of them got nominated . . . but it had to be a "girls' night," and Josh wriggled off the hook.

On the bright side, Chris gets some sweet, sweet payback in the mission, and he got to throw Josh into harm's way. Sure, Fessy was probably a more fitting target . . . but we got to see Josh cry, and that never gets old. Until it does. Well, there's always next week.

[choclatechip45]

Loved the Survivor Crew tricking The Challenge Vets. 

[AntFTW]

So we’re left with 5 women and 5 men. Since there are usually 8 finalists, it was predictable that the next episode would be a double elimination. The trailer shows it’ll be the hall brawl. Before this season is over, I need to see Fessy down in elimination whether he wins or loses, and I’m willing it into existence that it will be him in the elimination for the next episode. If it’s Fessy in the elimination next week and he wins, I just want Johnny in the final because I want Johnny to beat Fessy again.

I don’t have much comment on this episode. It was a very plain episode, not much happening.

I liked the daily challenge. Being the first to find out that there were 8 pieces is a huge advantage. Good on Michaela for being the first to figure out that there were 8 pieces, and telling Johnny that there were no more pieces.

One criticism that I have about the daily challenge is the puzzle itself seems like a simple puzzle. It should have been a  little more difficult. I’m guessing the real difficulty that they wanted was trying to figure out how many puzzle pieces there were. Unless someone scoured the entire place, I can see how it would be difficult to know when you have enough pieces to finish the puzzle. In addition to figure out many pieces there are and trying to find them, the puzzle should have been a little harder.

Also, I found it hilarious that Tori walks into the room with Desi, Michele, and Chanelle and they all just spill their guts. Tori just walks into the room and they confess everything. Now that they have confessed that they voted for her on the day of her daughter’s wedding, some day, and that day may never come, she will call upon them to do a service for her.

Lastly, the elimination game was okay. The winner of a game like that is the one that has the most stamina. Every woman left has more stamina than Michele. Michele was unlikely to beat that anyone else in that game.

I think Chris should have taken the shot at Fessy but whatever. Chris had the power to shake up the game and he did it in the least exciting way possible.

Not a very exciting episode overall.

Edited October 8, 2023 by AntFTW

[jabRI]

I love Michaela. I think she's underestimated in my opinion. I remember when she was on Survivor she was voted out, but she had the whole hierarchy laid out and how they could break in like it was a bridge/chess game.  She's brilliant I don't care what anyone else says.

[AntFTW]

3 hours ago, jabRI said:

I love Michaela. I think she's underestimated in my opinion. I remember when she was on Survivor she was voted out, but she had the whole hierarchy laid out and how they could break in like it was a bridge/chess game.  She's brilliant I don't care what anyone else says.

I was excited to see her enter The Challenge world when she first appeared on the MTV show. I think she’s great for The Challenge, and maybe some other reality competition shows, except Survivor.

Her personality is just not a fit for Survivor IMO. People with her personality don’t make it to the end. She’s a smart woman, but she has no filter. Her opinions about people cannot stay in her head. She also wears her thoughts on her face; she has no poker face. That can make her appear abrasive and confrontational sometimes and that is not good if you want to make to the end on Survivor.

[Lamb18]

I was thinking, too, when I watched Michaela during Michele's argument with her, how Michaela was good at The Challenge game in dealing with conflict, staying calm and collected. She's a good competitor, too. I hope she comes back to The Challenge. I have a soft spot for Michele but she can be whiny and entitled. You don't get to go to elimination or win just because you want to - you have to earn it! (or be skilled enough to slide your way through to the final, like Fessy).

Fessy's been practically invisible this season. I hope he gets beat in the finale. Beaten by Chris!

[AntFTW]

14 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

I was thinking, too, when I watched Michaela during Michele's argument with her, how Michaela was good at The Challenge game in dealing with conflict, staying calm and collected.

Agreed. The way she handled Michele, I think, was different from the way she handled other conflicts and confrontations. The conflict with Michele was different overall from the others. The others weren’t as heated.

With other confrontations, it was unprovoked. When she was voted into elimination, she took it upon herself to confront Josh. Josh didn’t come to her. She didn’t have to but she did.

When Wes won his elimination and came back into the house, she gave Wes a flippant comment that seemed unwarranted to me. Wes didn’t say do or anything to warrant that.

This one isn’t really a conflict, but when Cory  and Michaela won the daily challenge and Cory disagreed with her about putting Tori, she was visibly irritated because he didn’t agree, and she started to veer into condescension.

It’s not the conflicts like the one she had with the Michele that will hurt her in my view. It’s all the other smaller ones that rub people the wrong way. Michaela mentioned on The Challenge podcast that she has no problem telling people about themselves. I thought to myself “I know, that’s why I like watching you 😂.” There comes a time where it may not be good game politics but it’s fun to watch.

14 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

Fessy's been practically invisible this season. I hope he gets beat in the finale. Beaten by Chris!

Yes! I’ll allow it!

Edited October 7, 2023 by AntFTW

[KeithJ]

I pretty much dislike everyone left except Chris and Cassidy (maybe I just like the underdog I guess).  I didn’t quite understand Michaela’s argument when Michelle said she was pushing for a girls night.  Michaela said she was pushing for a girls night before the nominations?  That’s still pushing for girls night isn’t it?

[AntFTW]

 

[aghst]

Josh cried.

Again.

Cassidy was pissed.

Again.

Fessy brags about his fitness and in the next shot is bent over throwing up or gasping for air.

Johnny says he’s mapping out the fort, as if nobody else was doing the same.  Then he takes Miachela’s word that there are only two pieces in that tunnel?  Why would he trust her, she’s not in his alliance and among women, Tori and Michelle would both be closer allies.

Not so sure this Daily was some triumph of psyops by the Survivor alliance.

Everyone probably was for a woman’s elimination since there was one more woman than men.  Maybe hoping this was the last Daily and Elimination before the Final.

So Chris probably was burning his vote on Josh rather than Fessy, his #1 target.

 

[bunnyface]

Have Johnny and Michaela even said two words to each other?  Why would he just take her word that there were no more pieces?  That's not the move of a champion, that's the move of a tired old guy.  I mean, I'll still allow him to win if he promises to beat Fessy by such a narrow margin that Fessy sees it happening in slow-motion Cinemascope, but that was a huge fail on Johnny's part.  He's not minding all his Ps and Qs and that's the beginning of the end.

Edited October 7, 2023 by bunnyface

[AntFTW]

11 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

Have Johnny and Michaela even said two words to each other?

Yes. Remember when they were talking about working together when the individual portion of the game kicked in? “I stab people in the chest, not the back”

Also, when Johnny and Tori won, they grabbed Desi, Chanelle and Michaela to talk with them about forming a new alliance going forward, and that they would protect each other if they win.

[AntFTW]

14 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Also, I found it hilarious that Tori walks into the room with Desi, Michele, and Chanelle and they all just spill their guts. Tori just walks into the room and they confess everything. Now that they have confessed that they voted for her on the day of daughter’s wedding, some day, and that day may never come, she will call upon them to do a service for her.

On The Challenge podcast, Tori says that Michaela comes to her before the vote and tells her that she wants to make amends with Tori.

Also, after Michele voted but before the elimination, she told Desi and Chanelle that she didn't vote with them. They knew heading into elimination that Michele didn't vote with them.

One part of the conversation between Michele, Desi and Chanelle in the epside that we don't see is that when Tori walks into the room, Michele falsely confesses to Tori that she voted for Tori. Michele says she does this to take the heat off of Tori off of Desi because Desi told Tori that she didn't vote for her. Michele says she was trying to rebuild that trust for breaking away from their plan so she was willing to take the blame away from Desi onto herself. Then, the lies get messy and that's when they all confess.

[Blueboxes]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Fessy brags about his fitness and in the next shot is bent over throwing up or gasping for air.

I always FF through all the vomit in the eating challenges. But this was GOLD.

Thank you Challenge editors!!

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, Blueboxes said:

I always FF through all the vomit in the eating challenges. But this was GOLD.

Thank you Challenge editors!!

Reminded me of this, from Ride or Dies 🤣

Edited October 7, 2023 by AntFTW

[millennium]

9 hours ago, AntFTW said:

 

I tried to listen to the episode of Bananas' podcast where Michele is the guest.  I couldn't take her for more than 20 minutes.   You don't appreciate how gratingly affected her voice is until you're exposed to it with no other distraction.

7 hours ago, aghst said:

Then he takes Miachela’s word that there are only two pieces in that tunnel?  Why would he trust her,

Because he's comfortable and not hungry anymore.  His deception detector made a rookie error.    I was stunned that he automatically accepted Michaela's assurance there were only 7 pieces. 

 

On 10/6/2023 at 2:14 AM, AntFTW said:

Now that they have confessed that they voted for her on the day of daughter’s wedding, some day, and that day may never come, she will call upon them to do a service for her.

They will need all their powers, all of their skills.

I'm glad Cassidy won.  I loved her on Survivor and swore off the show for good after she was robbed of her win by a catch-phrase  (I swear off Survivor for good after every season finale but this time I meant it more than usual).

I wasn't sure she was a good fit on The Challenge but the girl's a beast.  And making out with Michele was a spectacle worthy of any drunken night antics on older seasons of The Challenge.   Something about the way everybody's against her and keeps throwing her into elimination reminds me of pre-Paulie Cara Maria,  and that's not a bad thing.

Edited October 7, 2023 by millennium

[AntFTW]

I finished listening to the podcast. Michele and Tori say that the girls were pretty even in the daily challenge. All the girls had their 8 pieces, and they were constantly calling for checks. Obviously, we see Michaela tell Johnny that there were no more pieces down that tunnel. Tori was with Chanelle for most of the time, and Chanelle was truthful with Tori that were were three pieces down that tunnel.

Michele was the last woman to get her 8 pieces and the guys’ last piece were still down in that tunnel. When Michele comes back with her 8th puzzle piece, she told the guys that they still have a puzzle piece left down there and that’s when they all go down to get their last piece.

It seems that the girls were communicating with each other (and the Survivor girls were communicating with Chris) and the vet guys were not communicating with each other at all.

I’d be side-eyeing Michaela heavily at this point if I were Johnny.

Also, going back to episode 9’s trampoline challenge. In the second portion of that challenge, we see Tori being the first woman to go first, Michele going second and Chanelle going last. Tori and Michele say that they aired it out of order. Michele went first during that challenge, and not Tori; Michele didn’t have the luxury of seeing other people do the challenge first to figure out how to do it.

[AntFTW]

[aghst]

Were those pics taken during or after the Daily?

Or maybe before?

That makes you wonder if there were producer shenanigans in Michaela fooling Johnny, resulting in a win for Chris and Desi, their first and maybe only Daily wins.

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Were those pics taken during or after the Daily?

I always assume these pics are taken after the daily. The cast usually post a bunch of them on Twitter (or whatever Twitter calls itself now) and Instagram after each episode.

The cast usually mentions that they are usually waiting around for hours before the challenge, during the challenge, and after the challenge. They wait while production sets up the challenge. They wait for their turns on the challenges. They wait while watching other cast members take their turns if the challenge involves being strapped to a contraption of some kind in different heats. They wait while production sets up to announce winners and losers. They have a lot of time to sit around, do stupid shit, and take pictures.

Edited October 10, 2023 by AntFTW

[aghst]

Well they seem pretty friendly, in good cheer.

For supposed rivals trying to beat each other, trying to eliminate each other.

 

 

[AntFTW]

4 minutes ago, aghst said:

Well they seem pretty friendly, in good cheer.

For supposed rivals trying to beat each other, trying to eliminate each other.

To me, they don't really appear to be rivals in the show at this point in the game. They don't seem to be actively trying to take each other out - at least these two in particular.

The cast posts a lot of pictures and they all seem pretty friendly in all of them despite what we see on the show.

Edited October 10, 2023 by AntFTW

[aghst]

Well the Survivor team went after Michelle and tried to protect Chris.

But really, they should be trying to take out Tori who's more of a threat in the Final.

 

[DEL901]

22 minutes ago, aghst said:

Well the Survivor team went after Michelle and tried to protect Chris.

But really, they should be trying to take out Tori who's more of a threat in the Final.

 

They could be thinking the long game.   If you prove themselves, they get invited back….they don’t want to be like Michele and labeled untrustworthy.  

[AntFTW]

49 minutes ago, aghst said:

Well the Survivor team went after Michelle and tried to protect Chris.

But really, they should be trying to take out Tori who's more of a threat in the Final.

Maybe Tori would be a threat in the final, but step #1 is making it to a final.

There has been a sort-of "cease-fire" between the vets and the Survivor girls since the teams were dropped, because everyone is trying to get a final the best way they can, by working together ; and not giving people reasons to say their names.

The Survivor girls took the shot against Tori, and it didn't work. They are outnumbered.

If they wanted to take the shot at Tori again, Desi and Chris were the perfect ones to do it. Chris is the only guy in the house not protecting Tori, but they decided Michele because Michele completely left them out to dry.

Edited October 10, 2023 by AntFTW