S40.E05: An Era Tradition

[AntFTW]

Quote

An exhausting challenge leaves an era questioning one of their own, while another era can't get on the same page; a long-standing rivalry between two teammates comes to a head and erupts; champions collide in a nail-biting elimination.

Air date: September 18, 2024

[AntFTW]

Tina dominated in that elimination! I am happily surprised.

I like those chancy types of eliminations that don’t depend on someone being a bulked up athlete or gymrat to win, and I think this season's elimination games have mostly been good. They could have still saved the Hall Brawl for another day.

Laurel was not giving it her all in that daily. She tried to handicap her team, which put Nehemiah directly at risk, so she can't be mad and say he's stupid for making her a target. Should have thought about that when she was intentionally not helping during the daily.

That altercation between Cara and Laurel, I thought I would have felt bad for Cara but it looks like Cara started it from what we were shown so I don't feel bad.

Edited September 21 by AntFTW

[Lantern7]

Man, what a shitshow. The oldest school loses again, Laurel doesn’t give it 100, and Emily and CT are run out of the game in shocking upsets.

I’m on a Challenge group on Facebook. We were commenting on the episode as it aired, and someone posted a little extra. I’m putting it in spoilers because I can’t be sure how accurate it is.

Spoiler

Imma just drop the bomb. Since production gave Laurel a cute edit. Laurel actually went as far as to bring up Cara Maria’s abuse at the hands of Abram and Kyle and weaponized that against her in the argument. Cara actually had to leave the house for a bit for therapy. There’s a line you don’t cross. Laurel is human scum and she be banned. Period.

I don’t have a strong opinion about Cara Maria either way . . . but if that is true, Laurel crossed the line. If it’s not true, Laurel is still a bitch. Seriously, someone bring in female firefighters. That’s her only known weakness.

Who would have guessed Tina was a regular at Home Depot? Damn.

[bunnyface]

Another episode, another week of me saying I hate Laurel and I hope she dies a horrible horrible game death.   Just talking game here, no real life threats.  I can totally see Laurel going as low as the spoiler suggests.  She's just got a black soul and and is so insecure she seems to dislike anyone who can equal or best her.  No raising up other queens with that one.

[mojoween]

Well my interest in this season just plummeted precipitously.  Goddamn.

Laurel has a black soul and also has no idea how to dress in a flattering way.  Cara Maria did insert herself unnecessarily into Laurel’s discussion with Michele, but fuck Laurel.

Throwing in Devin seems like it would have been smarter than Nehemiah, but I guess they got CT out so it worked.

[angelamh66]

Laurel sucks. Her treatment of people like Cara is just heinous. I also had to laugh when she said Cara was rallying people against her to get ahead in the game and she doesn’t respect that. Ummm isn’t rallying people to support you how literally everyone plays this game?

And speaking of alliances… oh Josh. Poor dumb Josh. When he said people are jealous because the vacation alliance dominates the game I laughed. Yes sure… members of that alliance have done well but there’s no alliance powerful enough to prevent Josh’s inevitable meltdown. 

[Lantern7]

Cute moment . . . Theo poolside getting ready to pop champagne, and at least two people near him are ducking.

[WInterfalls]

I'm so sad to lose CT so soon. I did appreciate that after he and Tina argued after the daily he immediately apologized to Tina and she apologized back like siblings. 

Laurel and Cara are NOT like siblings no matter how many times they tell us they are. From accounts I have seen from other castmates and supposed insiders Laurel went WAY over the line. She is and always has been completely unhinged. Go back and look at the faces of other challengers and you can the disgust on their faces. 

Also Laurel threw a daily so that Nehemiah and Emily would be thrown in and she has the nerve to be upset he targeted her? You already showed him he's not important to you so why on earth should he protect you? 

Edited September 19 by WInterfalls

[WInterfalls]

Here's Cara's response for anyone interested. I don't think Cara is the best person in the world but I don't think what Laurel is anywhere near being in the right here. 

 

[AntFTW]

23 minutes ago, WInterfalls said:

Also Laurel threw a daily so that Nehemiah and Emily would be thrown in and she has the nerve to be upset he targeted her?

I KNOWW!!! That's ridiculous! It felt like an insult to my intelligence. They could have won the challenge that would have saved Nehemiah, but Laurel slowed them down and they caught her. She can't be mad that Nehemiah threw it right back at her when he got power.

27 minutes ago, WInterfalls said:

Laurel and Cara are NOT like siblings no matter how many times they tell us they are. From accounts I have seen from other castmates and supposed insiders Laurel went WAY over the line. She is and always has been completely unhinged. Go back and look at the faces of other challengers and you can the disgusted on their faces.

I believe all of it too. I believe Laurel said all of the worst shit about Cara she could have thought of. I absolutely believe Laurel said some things that hit below the belt and likely brought up a lot of the traumatic things Cara went through since they've known each other. To me, that tracks.

The only thing I fault Cara for is that it looks like she started the altercation from what was shown in the episode.

[WInterfalls]

6 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I KNOWW!!! That's ridiculous! It felt like an insult to my intelligence.

Right? It's one thing when she's gaslighting Cara but it felt like she was trying to gaslight us too. Going back to that too. She says early in the episode that Cara just can't get over her throwing her in and then in the same episode tells Michele that she can't be nice to her because she threw her in 3 seasons ago. 

7 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

The only thing I fault Cara for is that it looks like she started the altercation from what was shown in the episode.

That's certainly what the episode made it look like Cara's explanation paints a different picture. Who knows which is completely correct? Regardless Laurel is off the rails. She is a bad person full stop. She is a bully and always will be. I will never enjoy seeing her on my screen. 

[AntFTW]

4 hours ago, WInterfalls said:

Right? It's one thing when she's gaslighting Cara but it felt like she was trying to gaslight us too. Going back to that too. She says early in the episode that Cara just can't get over her throwing her in and then in the same episode tells Michele that she can't be nice to her because she threw her in 3 seasons ago. 

You're absolutely right! I didn't even connect those dots.

To go off track for a minute about the Laurel and Michele thing, Laurel threw something on Michele saying she thought Michele was Averey... and before that moment, I honestly forgot Averey was even on this season.

Edited September 20 by AntFTW

[WInterfalls]

26 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

and before that moment, I honestly forgot Averey was even on this season.

Same

[AntFTW]

I forgot to mention that Tina cracked me up this episode when the daily had finished, and she told CT "BOB AND WEAVE BITCH!" 😂

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, WInterfalls said:

Here's Cara's response for anyone interested. I don't think Cara is the best person in the world but I don't think what Laurel is anywhere near being in the right here. 

 

Why did they fall out in the first place? I never understood why they don't like each other anymore. Was it something having to do with Nicole?

[WInterfalls]

15 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Why did they fall out in the first place? I never understood why they don't like each other anymore. Was it something having to do with Nicole?

At best they've been frenemies I feel like for awhile. I would say it goes back to Free Agents when Cara thought of them as great friends, but Laurel threw her in the elimination where Cara broke her hand. At the reunion she presented Cara with a gift to try and repair their friendship, but I think it was at that point it was pretty clear they would never truly be friends. I think Cara has typically been open to it but Laurel has never prioritized their friendship over anything she wanted. And I'm sure Nicole wanting Cara first didn't help matters. 

Also I was listening to some podcast and one of the podcasters made a couple of great points about that Rivals clip. 1st he said if your going to show the Rivals clip show the whole thing in where it became clear that Laurel couldn't get Wes to cower from her she turned her attention to Paula who she knew had insecurities she could exploit and make cry. And 2nd Cara was her partner she needed Cara to be able to perform so defending her and building her up would only benefit Laurel. 

Also I was really happy for Tina for killing that elimination. She was a totally badass this episode. "Bob and Weave Bitch" 

[AntFTW]

Some bus drama between Theo and CT 🫢

 

[AntFTW]

2 hours ago, WInterfalls said:

At best they've been frenemies I feel like for awhile. I would say it goes back to Free Agents when Cara thought of them as great friends, but Laurel threw her in the elimination where Cara broke her hand. At the reunion she presented Cara with a gift to try and repair their friendship, but I think it was at that point it was pretty clear they would never truly be friends. I think Cara has typically been open to it but Laurel has never prioritized their friendship over anything she wanted. And I'm sure Nicole wanting Cara first didn't help matters.

I do remember Free Agents where you started to see that crack in their friendship, but it seems like they made up.

But they were cool coming into Invasion. As far I recall (... vaguely recall), they no beef coming to Invasion. They talked about how close they were during the season and how Laurel moved to Montana, where Cara lived at the time. Then, by the time of the reunion they are at each other's throats, and it just never recovered from there. That's what makes me think it had something to do with Nicole.

2 hours ago, WInterfalls said:

Also I was really happy for Tina for killing that elimination. She was a totally badass this episode. "Bob and Weave Bitch" 

They really should have named the episode "My Bob and Weave Era"

Edited September 20 by AntFTW

[WInterfalls]

39 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I do remember Free Agents where you started to see that crack in their friendship, but it seems like they made up.

But they were cool coming into Invasion. As far I recall (... vaguely recall), they no beef coming to Invasion. They talked about how close they were during the season and how Laurel moved to Montana, where Cara lived at the time. Then, by the time of the reunion they are at each other's throats, and it just never recovered from there. That's what makes me think it had something to do with Nicole.

I am, of course, just going off what I've seen on the shows over the years. I remember being hopeful at the Free Agents reunion that Laurel was actually remorseful for hurting Cara and they would mend their friendship. Now looking back I think it's all part of the never ending cycle of narcissistic abuse and love bombing that Laurel does. Honestly, I think Cara's pattern of past abusive relationships are part of why she continues to try to make something work with Laurel.  I'm not sure if there is one thing that caused the final split other than Laurel continuing to Laurel and Cara would no longer accept the abuse. 

[LaurelleJ]

This episode and season cements the fact that I will never be team Laurel again. What a nasty person with a nasty spirit. This is a game, she has taken it way beyond that. Even though production did Laurel a huge favor in her edit, maybe it was also beneficial for Cara too because she doesn't have to have those awful thigns about her aired and she doesn't have to relive it in footage. Laurel was also trash for throwing the challenge so that Emily would be at risk. If Emily had done that, Laurel would have burned the house down. The nerve for her to get upset at Nehemiah for throwing the target at her, when she was part of the reason he was down there in the first place. 

I really like Devin, and I really don't care for Michele. This pairing is weird. 

So sad to lose CT. On a season that is supposed to be epic, his early departure is sad. My first thought when I saw all the nails fall quickly on Tina's board was that it was rigged, but everyone is giving her props, so I can too.

[peachmangosteen]

What did Cara say that made Laurel be all, 'Never say that about me!' or whatever? I rewound a couple times and I don't hear Cara say anything. But now hearing how that argument really went down, it's obvious they just did a hatchet job with the edit, which made it hard to follow.

[Jobiska]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

What did Cara say that made Laurel be all, 'Never say that about me!' or whatever? I rewound a couple times and I don't hear Cara say anything. But now hearing how that argument really went down, it's obvious they just did a hatchet job with the edit, which made it hard to follow.

Oh yeah!  I didn't catch it either (sorry!) and wanted to know but couldn't bear to rewind to see more of the fight than I needed to.

 

[aghst]

On 9/19/2024 at 1:37 PM, WInterfalls said:

I'm so sad to lose CT so soon. I did appreciate that after he and Tina argued after the daily he immediately apologized to Tina and she apologized back like siblings. 

CT is a long ways away from the last time he appeared on the show.

Few years older and probably 30-40 pounds overweight.

 

On 9/19/2024 at 1:37 PM, WInterfalls said:

Laurel and Cara are NOT like siblings no matter how many times they tell us they are. From accounts I have seen from other castmates and supposed insiders Laurel went WAY over the line. She is and always has been completely unhinged. Go back and look at the faces of other challengers and you can the disgust on their faces. 

Also Laurel threw a daily so that Nehemiah and Emily would be thrown in and she has the nerve to be upset he targeted her? You already showed him he's not important to you so why on earth should he protect you? 

 

Not to excuse Laurel's horrible behavior but Cara kept getting in her face.  Why not disengage?

Obviously the show wants this loud drama but why keep up with it instead of disengaging?

Era 1, not only are they much older, they didn't try to be especially fit for this season, though Tina and one or two others said they trained a lot.

They had no chance in the Daily.  The younger teams just powered through it and even if the older challengers figured out some more efficient way, which they thought they had by lifting the wishbone vertically, they just couldn't keep up.

Elimination favored Emily and supposedly CT but I guess youth and energy made up for lack of technique.

 

 

[jsm1125]

Why is Nehemiah/production pretending that he was never on All Stars 1-3? He kept saying in confessionals that he was eliminated by CT on his most recent challenge prior to 40. Yet Laurel, Cara and Jonna are on camera acknowledging their All Stars appearances. 

Edited October 1 by jsm1125

[AntFTW]

55 minutes ago, jsm1125 said:

Why is Nehemiah/production pretending that he was never on All Stars 1-3? He kept saying in confessionals that he was eliminated by CT on his most recent challenge prior to 40. Yet Laurel, Cara and Jonna are on camera acknowledging their All Stars appearances. 

It’s the one that haunts him the most. 😂