S04.E11: Live Free Or Die Starred

[AntFTW]

Quote

One All-Star fumes when an old friend steals their star at the eleventh hour. TJ upends the game with a shocking twist. The Final challenge kicks off with a wild ride and a shocking elimination checkpoint.

Air date: June 12, 2024 on Paramount+

[bunnyface]

To Be Continued.  Dang it.

I do like that they can't see what the others are doing.  That's always been a big thing for me; the advantage that later players get by watching the first ones.  That they all go in blind (and can exaggerate or downplay what happened) is good game play.

[ljenkins782]

Interview with Averey and Ryan

Just read this interview with Averey and Ryan where they talk about not going into the elimination and go into some details about relationships. 

Mainly, I'm just here to check that Adam is in his 40s, correct? Not sure how old Averey is, but if she's anywhere north of 25, then she's too old (and he's WAY too old) to be connecting with someone over things such as "his birthday is my best friend's birthday", "his name is my brother's name!", he's from Michigan, I'm from Michigan!" etc. And the story about Adam's daughter calling her to say "my dad has a crush on you!" I'm sorry, but no. Not actually cute.

A lot of it sounds like extremely careful timelining to sidestep the probable truth that Adam had someone at home and they hooked up on the challenge. Not to say that "my brother's name is the same as your name, OMG!!" isn't the bedrock for a love connection, but come on. Not buying any of that. 

As for the episode, I'm glad the star holders got to keep their stars and no one had to lose out at the very last second. Especially Steve, since Adam was on the warpath. Loved seeing him lose after he was such a poor sport. 

Boo to the To Be Continued, how many more episodes are there? 

[AntFTW]

40 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

Boo to the To Be Continued, how many more episodes are there?

One more episode.

[angelamh66]

So IF Nicole's bs crying was the reason Laurel went slow on the electrocution thing, and IF Laurel actually gets eliminated on this (TBD), how pissed is she?? Pretty on brand for Nicole but still must be insult to injury for Laurel. 

Veronica just getting shocked and not reacting at all??? That was impressive. Or terrifying. I have not quite decided. 

[bunnyface]

I don't know anything about Veronica's background, but like Ace (?) said, if you grow up on a farm with electric fences, you get used to it.  

[Lantern7]

Well, at least Adam won't win. I get the lack of appeal for Nicole, but Adam has the timeless suck about him.

I'm at work and I don't have much time (or manual dexterity for a phone keyboard). I think the additional two stars twist was bullshit, even with the irony that either Derek or Laurel will be getting eliminated. Also, shouldn't there have been a penalty for touching the rod to the star? It's not much of a challenge to bull through and take the zaps. If Laurel didn't get shocked, shouldn't she have bern rewarded for taking her time?

Steve FTW, but I expecting Cara Maria or Leroy to get the big win.

[Stinger97]

An unpopular opinion, but I don’t really care that Adam may have had a relationship back at home while he and Avery were making eyes at each other in South Africa. I wasn’t dating either of them, so … *shrug*.

Good on Flora for recognizing that it didn’t make much sense to put herself through the pain of the mini final since she knew she was never going to win. We all know TJ hates quitters, but why do something that you know is futile and might eff up your body even more? 

The stunt car challenge was super cool, but I have got to wonder what production’s insurance premiums are. 
 

[aghst]

Laurel outpaced the men in the kayak portion of the challenge to get the final 2 stars.

But it was about the run and the paddling, straight out race.

The paintball on the car was just random, since they all only got one attempt at it and they didn't know where the stars would be.  With 100 shots, they could just shoot rapidly instead of worrying about being accurate.

Yeah I don't know why people didn't get that it's better just to power through the shocks to not have the slowest time.  Laurel avoided getting any shocks.  Derek got some shocks but he still tried to be careful rather than speed up because the shocks were probably not that big a deal.

Laurel was compared to the Terminator so why didn't she just go fast?

[AntFTW]

I think TJ bringing out two more stars at the end was bullshit. Eight people usually make it to the finals so I would have just preferred they compete for 8 stars from the start.

It takes the fun out of having a "qualifier" like a star (or skulls) if people can just sit around and not take the necessary risks to get one, and yet still have a chance.

The car challenge was cool. It looks so fun! It seems appropriate for a daily challenge rather than a final but ok...

I'm rooting for Leroy, Steve, Veronica or Derek (assuming he doesn't get eliminated). If it comes down to running a few miles, I know Veronica doesn't really have a shot but it would be such a hilarious win.

Ace was willing to risk it all taking all the shocks. Veronica not reacting at all to getting shock... interesting.

I don't blame Flora for quitting. She seems like she had a great time, enjoyed the experience, and that's what she really came there for.

21 hours ago, bunnyface said:

I don't know anything about Veronica's background, but like Ace (?) said, if you grow up on a farm with electric fences, you get used to it.  

I have questions

Edited June 14 by AntFTW

[Ladystardust]

I laughed so hard at Ace. I grew up on a farm and it’s so true. My brother, cousins, and I used to dare each other to touch the electric fences, try to trick the younger ones into touching it, link arms and grab a kid running by (last one in the chain gets shocked) - not a lot to do out in the country lol. We lived 20 miles from our one stoplight town. 

I can’t remember why, but I didn’t like Averey in her RW season and she hasn’t done anything on The Challenge to change my mind so I’m not sad to see her go. Also think she doesn’t fit into the all star format at all - I barely remember her few challenge appearances and she’s younger than most of the cast. 
 

Alternately, I loved Leroy on his RW season but he’s soured to me since he started hanging with Johnny Bananas and became annoyingly entitled. Also do not care about his kid or marriage. Anyone remember in a VERY early season when that one lady (was it Beleu?) brought her kid to the Challenge house?

Edited June 14 by Ladystardust
Clarify a word

[peachmangosteen]

6 hours ago, Ladystardust said:

Anyone remember in a VERY early season when that one lady (was it Beleu?) brought her kid to the Challenge house?

Yes! It was Belou. Battle of The Seasons is probably still my #1 season.

[realitytvfan1017]

On 6/12/2024 at 2:26 PM, bunnyface said:

To Be Continued.  Dang it.

I do like that they can't see what the others are doing.  That's always been a big thing for me; the advantage that later players get by watching the first ones.  That they all go in blind (and can exaggerate or downplay what happened) is good game play.

I can’t stand those to be continued things. 

21 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Well, at least Adam won't win. I get the lack of appeal for Nicole, but Adam has the timeless suck about him.

I'm at work and I don't have much time (or manual dexterity for a phone keyboard). I think the additional two stars twist was bullshit, even with the irony that either Derek or Laurel will be getting eliminated. Also, shouldn't there have been a penalty for touching the rod to the star? It's not much of a challenge to bull through and take the zaps. If Laurel didn't get shocked, shouldn't she have bern rewarded for taking her time?

Steve FTW, but I expecting Cara Maria or Leroy to get the big win.

I’m happy Adam is out. He was acting like such a baby. Doesn’t he know what’s this game is about. Id be happy if any of those three win. 

18 hours ago, Stinger97 said:

An unpopular opinion, but I don’t really care that Adam may have had a relationship back at home while he and Avery were making eyes at each other in South Africa. I wasn’t dating either of them, so … *shrug*.

Good on Flora for recognizing that it didn’t make much sense to put herself through the pain of the mini final since she knew she was never going to win. We all know TJ hates quitters, but why do something that you know is futile and might eff up your body even more? 

The stunt car challenge was super cool, but I have got to wonder what production’s insurance premiums are. 
 

I was happy to see Flora go. I was sick and tired of her complaining about Cara , who worked very hard to get her star and what did Flora do?

[realitytvfan1017]

11 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I think TJ bringing out two more stars at the end was bullshit. Eight people usually make it to the finals so I would have just preferred they compete for 8 stars from the start.

It takes the fun out of having a "qualifier" like a star (or skulls) if people can just sit around and not take the necessary risks to get one, and yet still have a chance.

The car challenge was cool. It looks so fun! It seems appropriate for a daily challenge rather than a final but ok...

I'm rooting for Leroy, Steve, Veronica or Derek (assuming he doesn't get eliminated). If it comes down to running a few miles, I know Veronica doesn't really have a shot but it would be such a hilarious win.

Ace was willing to risk it all taking all the shocks. Veronica not reacting at all to getting shock... interesting.

I don't blame Flora for quitting. She seems like she had a great time, enjoyed the experience, and that's what she really came there for.

I have questions

Agreed, don’t like the addition of the two stars in the end because it makes the earn the star component less important. I didn’t think it was fair. i want anyone but Nicole or Laurel to win. 

[aghst]

Well they did earn the stars.  They all had good chances to win the star.

It didn't favor bigger players like a lot of the elimination challenges.

That is how Derek beat the bigger Adam whereas if they had to go through something like Hall Brawl, Adam would have beaten him.

 

[AncientNewbie]

On 6/13/2024 at 1:18 PM, bunnyface said:

I don't know anything about Veronica's background, but like Ace (?) said, if you grow up on a farm with electric fences, you get used to it.  

As a kid I used to grab the fence as a way to scare my town-living friends when they'd come visit. Was never really a problem, except that one time I was jogging across the pastures and tried to duck under it and hit my head. That knocked me back. 

I think that shock challenge was a little microcosm of what I love about this show...these people are usually a mess, but they think it out, power through or weirdly collapse under the oddest pressure. 

[Stinger97]

2 hours ago, aghst said:

Well they did earn the stars.  They all had good chances to win the star.

 

Agreed. I didn’t have a problem with those two last minute stars becoming available. Avoiding elimination on the idea that there would be more paid off for some (Laurel) and didn’t for others (Ryan). Either way going into elimination up front or waiting for a potential extra star was a gamble. 

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, aghst said:

Well they did earn the stars.  They all had good chances to win the star.

3 hours ago, Stinger97 said:

Agreed. I didn’t have a problem with those two last minute stars becoming available. Avoiding elimination on the idea that there would be more paid off for some (Laurel) and didn’t for others (Ryan). Either way going into elimination up front or waiting for a potential extra star was a gamble. 

I don't think there should have been "more" left. If there were going to be 8 stars ultimately, I just would have rather the 8 stars been in the game from the start.

I think the idea of having stars is to give the players a sense of urgency. To me, part of the concept of the stars is so that players know that there is a limited opportunity to get these stars. Get one while you can. It was supposed to incentivize people to take some risks. That's part of the "thrill" of these stars.

Every player had a chance to get a star. This was basically a purge challenge just to get down to 8 finalists. Even those that never took the risk of going into elimination ultimately had a chance to get a star... so then, what was the point of instilling a sense of urgency? Now, it looks ridiculous that people volunteered themselves into elimination. It makes the risks that others took earlier in the game seem kind of useless now. It now seems no different than a season without stars.

Edited June 14 by AntFTW

[aghst]

They change rules all the time, switch the types of games from team to single contests in the middle and back again.

Or they throw in the double elimination sometimes or people go home because of injury and nobody is eliminated that week but other times, people go home injured and they have an elimination anyways.

It's the nature of this show.

So if they planned to have 8 finalists all along and decided to change the way the final 2 finalists were determined, that's their prerogative and if viewers think that's BS, they can switch the channels.

[AntFTW]

28 minutes ago, aghst said:

They change rules all the time, switch the types of games from team to single contests in the middle and back again.

Or they throw in the double elimination sometimes or people go home because of injury and nobody is eliminated that week but other times, people go home injured and they have an elimination anyways.

It's the nature of this show.

I understand that. This one change just made a huge part of the season kind of useless.

[aghst]

Did the player know it or suspect it?

They probably thought there wouldn't just be 6 players in the Final, based on previous Challenge seasons.

So they probably calculated and planned accordingly.  The ones with the Stars didn't seem too showed that there would be a free for all challenge to award 2 more stars.

Nor do any of them seem particularly upset.  Cara commented on Laurel getting another chance but it was more of "if I can beat Laurel in the Final, it will be a big deal for her."

She didn't complain that Laurel got another chance to get into the Final when the producers sprung this last-minute surprise.

 

 

[peachmangosteen]

3 hours ago, aghst said:

So if they planned to have 8 finalists all along and decided to change the way the final 2 finalists were determined, that's their prerogative and if viewers think that's BS, they can switch the channels.

People can criticize shows and still watch them.

As long as Laurel or Nicole doesn't win, I'm good. I feel like I usually don't want the majority of the people who are in the final to win so having only 2 to root against is a win.

[AntFTW]

17 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

People can criticize shows and still watch them.

We call BS on The Challenge all the time. I don’t see why that tradition should change today.

All of the countless allegations of producer shenanigans and manipulation we have on this forum, and despite that, all of us still tune in to watch.

[LaurelleJ]

I was torn on the extra stars. I feel like I always knew that they would have two extra stars at the end and felt it coming from a mile away. Maybe that was just wishful thinking though because I think it would have sucked for someone to keep their star safe until all the way at the end where someone could take it. Then I liked that even if you ended up getting blocked from trying to get a star, you never won to throw yourself down, or kept landing in the middle group you still had a chance to fight to get a star.

Poor Flora, I loved seeing older challengers competing. The all stars is skewing younger, don't think I necessarily like that. Should they make the rule that if you compete on Allstars, you aren't going back to the full challenge?

Leroy is off to a good start. Him screaming after the challenge was over was hilarious. Veronica was scary. This is another challenge where I'm not necessarily rooting for someone, but rooting against a winner. I would like to see someone other than Cara, Nicole, and Laurel win. I guess I'm rooting for Leroy or Steve to win. 

[AntFTW]

14 hours ago, LaurelleJ said:

I was torn on the extra stars. I feel like I always knew that they would have two extra stars at the end and felt it coming from a mile away. Maybe that was just wishful thinking though because I think it would have sucked for someone to keep their star safe until all the way at the end where someone could take it. Then I liked that even if you ended up getting blocked from trying to get a star, you never won to throw yourself down, or kept landing in the middle group you still had a chance to fight to get a star.

I think that's just a part of the game. If you get blocked, figure out how to get unblocked. Seeing people fight their way out of a hole is part of the fun in watching. If your star gets stolen at the last minute, you should have won to keep it safe. For me, that's the fun part of watching, watching people have bad luck at the most inconvenient times.

I would have loved to see Adam's star get stolen last week and never get a chance again to win a star.

I would have loved to hear TJ say "I've been telling y'all all season to go down into elimination and get a star. Instead, you kept voting in Steve... so bye" or something like that.

14 hours ago, LaurelleJ said:

Leroy is off to a good start. Him screaming after the challenge was over was hilarious. Veronica was scary. This is another challenge where I'm not necessarily rooting for someone, but rooting against a winner. I would like to see someone other than Cara, Nicole, and Laurel win. I guess I'm rooting for Leroy or Steve to win.

I feel like Steve is being underestimated. I could be wrong but I assume there will be some long runs in this final, and he seems like he'd do well.

Edited June 15 by AntFTW

[LaurelleJ]

12 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I would have loved to hear TJ say "I've been telling y'all all season to go down into elimination and get a star. Instead, you kept voting in Steve... so bye" or something like that.

THIS! That would have been hilarious!!!

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I could be wrong but I'm assume there will be some long runs in this final, and he seems like he'd do well.

I feel like maybe there won't be. TJ has emphasized so much that 'anyone can win,' and a long run isn't a comp that really fits those perimeters. The ones they've had so far in the final do so I expect more like this tbh. Although, the 'anyone can win' thing could just be bullshit lol.

[Jobiska]

23 hours ago, realitytvfan1017 said:

I was happy to see Flora go. I was sick and tired of her complaining about Cara , who worked very hard to get her star and what did Flora do?

Agreed.  And when she said Cara needed a spanking (IIRC?) and then this ep they flashed back to Cara commenting about attaching a battery to her nipples(?), probably Cara would have enjoyed it anyway!

[aghst]

Previous All Star Finals have had long endurance segments but not as difficult as those in the regular season Finals.

[AntFTW]

On 6/14/2024 at 11:13 AM, realitytvfan1017 said:

i want anyone but Nicole or Laurel to win. 

I'm actually rooting for Cara to lose. I'd like to see the "favorites" lose, which I think are Cara and Laurel. Everyone else seems to be underestimated.

I'm also rooting for Nicole to lose because she has annoyed me all season. ☺️

Edited June 16 by AntFTW