S26.E03: Love Sick

[fredj]

I could see her not wanting CT to know while they were filming this season.  Because she clearly wanted this to be her chance to go out there and kick some ass and have fun before going back into treatment.  If CT knew, he wouldn't have been able to focus on their performance as a team, and she wouldn't have been able to have the lighthearted fun moments with him that she obviously enjoyed.  If Johnny knew not only about her cancer being back, but also why she didn't want anyone else to know, I could see him respecting her wishes and just going out that night and acting like everything was normal, for her sake. 

 

On another note, and I feel bad for thinking this, but the edit we've gotten of Knight so far, I can't help thinking "if this is what they've chosen to show us, given the hindsight that he died before the season started airing, what kind of ass must he have been?"  I mean, he's just so awful to Jemmye.  I don't like her much, but I feel bad for her.  She obviously loved the guy at some point and still cared about him, despite their issues.  And this show is going to pretty much represent some of her last memories of him.  It has to be rough to watch him being such a shit, both to her face and in his talking heads.  

 

Also, watching all of the performances from each team, I think that there's a certain advantage in an Exes season to being paired with someone you hooked up with (as opposed to having a real relationship that eventually blew up).  Johnny/Nany, Wes/Theresa, and Jordan/Sarah are doing better in part because they're all good competitors, but also, in part, because they're not dealing with the kind of baggage that teams like Johnny/Averey and Knight/Jemmye are dealing with.  Like that little exchange between Jonna and Zach, where he said he was confident they'd do well, and she immediately thought he was being sarcastic and dissing her.  It has to be hard to perform as a team when you instinctively distrust your partner's motives or just plain old don't want to deal with them.  CT and Diem were kind of an exception to that, but, they've also had the benefit of a lot of time having passed between their break up and being paired as exes, and they've clearly gotten to a point where they don't focus on the bad parts of their relationship and breakup and just trust and love each other.  Most of these other former couples are clearly not there yet. 

 

A lot of cast members said that the only thing jemmye and knight did the entire challenge was fight, that they never got along not even once, even jemmye admit it before knight died. In all I think they are giving the best clean edit to knight, and they are avoiding to show him being more disrespectful to jemmye. If they really don't have a knight/jemmye cool moment, or even knight being a good guy, without showing him drinking, i don't think they have much material to work with.

i feel thats the main reason on why they are barely showing him this time around.

 

I think none of the couples that date on real life are interested on at least get along to win the money, they guys seemed annoyed with the girls, specially zach towards jonna, he was the one who dumped her yet seems that he has more hate towards her than jonna to him.

[laschifosavita]

According to Zap2It, some members of the cast knew and some didn't.  Bananas and Nany are just the only two quoted in the article.  I don't think they usually send the entire cast to do those things, and I'm sure some people didn't want to talk about it.

[choclatechip45]

It wouldn't surprise me if CT didn't know, but Johnny did. I remember a scene in Rivals 2 were Johnny is complaining about Diem taking CT back after everything he did to her and Paula was agreeing with him.  What if that was the reaction that most of Diem's family and friends had? I remember an interview after Rivals 2  and she said she was surprised about all the hate she received on social media about hooking up with CT again. Diem seemed like someone who really cared what the audience/her fans thought of her.

Edited January 23, 2015 by choclatechip45

[jmonkey]

Man, that was tough. I'm not a crier, but I welted up. I almost shed a tear when CT carried a weak Diem out to the couch. It was hard seeing Diem like that. I've always admired her strength and will on these challenges. I obviously knew of her cancer struggles, but she had always been in remission with a plethora of energy whenever I watched her. It was difficult for me to comprehend how Diem kicked butt on that very physical high wire challenge in the first epsiode only to barely be able to move a few days later. To see her like that was just heartbreaking and it sent me back to my own mom who lost a battle to cancer and deteriorated quickly as well.

 

I don't imagine we'll see CT on another challenge, but I just got to say that the most enjoyable part of watching this show for me has been the metamporphosis of CT into Chris. I didn't always like CT. Frankly, he was a punk in earlier seasons of the Challenge. That is until he met Diem. Diem softened him, let him reveal his sweet side, and made him more likeable to me. I guess love does that to people. If they were romantically involved or not is irrelevant because they were soul mates who were made to impact one another. They had such a deep bond, and it was a beautiful thing that we had the pleasure of witnessing. Chris is a special individual and is as solid as it gets. I hope he continues to stay strong despite all that he has been through.

 

I can understand the producer's trepidation about CT going to the hospital drunk and kudos to them for at least getting him a phone to talk to Diem. I bet the producers were scared to confront CT given his history, but they handled it well and so did CT. It was really sweet of him to make that care package for Diem and have the whole house sign it. I bet Diem appreciated receiving that at the hospital.

 

On to this trivial game, the AYTO and Ex-plosion kids can't get off the show fast enough for me. I like Jordan and Sarah throwing Adam and Brittany in. At the dome, none of the other competitors watching seemed to really care who won one way or the other. There was no tension in the gallery. In fact, they were making jokes about how idiotic the AYTO kids were playing the game. And they were right. 3 minutes to eat 7 brownie squares? That was such a stupid bet. I could chestnut 20 brownie squares in 3 minutes on a typical Tuesday night.

 

Kudos to Leroy and his Youtube swimming lessons. That paid dividends since he and Nia came in 2nd to last. I'm sure the tips he got are what got them over the hump.

 

Now that Diem and CT are out of the picture, it really is a toss up for who wins this thing. Bananas can't win again, can he? I really hope he doesn't. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks they made up a relationship with Nany so that Bananas could have a decent partner. Otherwise they would've had to bring back Casey for him. Of course I can believe that Nany and Bananas had a fling because Nany has really bad taste in men (Cohutta excluded). Adam Royer, anyone?

 

I like Wes and would like to see him win, but he's partnered with Theresa who I loathe. Leroy is cool, but I can't stand Hurricane Nia. Jordan and Sarah are a little too smug for me. I thought it was funny that they had their strategy written out on paper and that Sarah is already on the 8th episode. It would be nice to have new winners and would be great for Sarah who has had a string of bad luck with lame partners in the past. Now with CT and Diem gone, I guess I'll just enjoy the competition without a rooting interest as long as it's not a AYTO or ex-plosion couple.

Edited January 23, 2015 by jmonkey

[choclatechip45]

Didn't Diem's friends say they weren't together? Why would her friends lie? I think they both cared about each other and when they were together it might of seemed they were  a couple. I just took a look at Diem's instagram and I don't see any photos of them together.   I don't think they were officially together.

Edited January 23, 2015 by choclatechip45

[Stinger97]

I've deleted the last three posts because of their tone. If you cannot abide by the rules of being respectful toward your fellow posters, please refrain from posting at all. 

[jmonkey]

A lot of cast members said that the only thing jemmye and knight did the entire challenge was fight, that they never got along not even once, even jemmye admit it before knight died. In all I think they are giving the best clean edit to knight, and they are avoiding to show him being more disrespectful to jemmye. If they really don't have a knight/jemmye cool moment, or even knight being a good guy, without showing him drinking, i don't think they have much material to work with.

i feel thats the main reason on why they are barely showing him this time around.

 

I think none of the couples that date on real life are interested on at least get along to win the money, they guys seemed annoyed with the girls, specially zach towards jonna, he was the one who dumped her yet seems that he has more hate towards her than jonna to him.

That's the sad part about watching this. I get the impression that Jonna and Averey would take their exes back in a heartbeat if either Zach or Johnny R. wanted to get back together with them no matter how much they get badmouthed by their partner. I can't say that about any of the other ex-couples.

 

I guess the AYTO exes, Adam and Brittany, are making out, but I think that was more of a celebratory, drunken hookup than the rekindling of a relationship. And I don't care about the AYTO kids anyway. That tension that Johnny R. and Averey and Zach and Jonna have would be difficult to overcome even if there's a primary focus on the money. Jemmye and Knight have a lot of tension too, but, at least, they totally hate each other, so there's no unresolved feelings there. I also detect tension between Nany and Bananas, and I'm unsure why if they just had a casual fling.

 

There's no question that this tension makes it difficult for the above teams to work together, and I think the couples who merely hooked up once i.e. Wes and Theresa, Jordan and Sarah, and Leroy and Nia, obviously have a tremendous advantage over the couples who can barely look at each other.

Edited January 23, 2015 by jmonkey

[yogi2014L]

I don't think there is any way that CT didn't know about Diem's cancer if other people knew. Not possible. He had to have known.

 

His talking heads ( now that we know that Diem knew she had cancer) were probably to help keep her 'secret'/ be positive. Kind of one of those things were if you say it out loud you help convince yourself that its true.  Also she likely asked him not to say anything so he was playing along.

 

A lot of cast members said that the only thing jemmye and knight did the entire challenge was fight, that they never got along not even once, even jemmye admit it before knight died. In all I think they are giving the best clean edit to knight, and they are avoiding to show him being more disrespectful to jemmye. If they really don't have a knight/jemmye cool moment, or even knight being a good guy, without showing him drinking, i don't think they have much material to work with.

i feel thats the main reason on why they are barely showing him this time around.

I also agree they are trying to show him in a good light and probably didn't have much of that. We already have seen him being rude to Jemmye and that was like his only screen time. I don't blame her for not watching

That's the sad part about watching this. I get the impression that Jonna and Averey would take their exes back in a heartbeat if either Zach or Johnny R. wanted to get back together with them no matter how much they get badmouthed by their partner. I can't say that about any of the other ex-couples.

Oh I think so too! I think Averey still is hung up on Johnny. Jonna knows Zach is probably the best she is gonna get Their dynamic is so weird. I don't get them. I want to know why he broke up with her

[Never Again]

I don't think there is any way that CT didn't know about Diem's cancer if other people knew. Not possible. He had to have known.

 

His talking heads ( now that we know that Diem knew she had cancer) were probably to help keep her 'secret'/ be positive. Kind of one of those things were if you say it out loud you help convince yourself that its true.  Also she likely asked him not to say anything so he was playing along.

 

Maybe, but I just can't see it. His smile was too genuine, he seemed so sincerely happy and relieved after he spoke to her on the phone from the hospital. And he was making jokes about her absence, like she's having some fling out there and not really in the hospital. I found it adorable. If he was acting, then he is in the wrong industry, because that's some Oscar-worthy stuff he's got.

Also, I get what you are saying about the talking heads but remember those are not addressed to the castmates, those are addressed to us. And they air when the show airs, which is months in the future from when they are taped. If he were merely keeping any secret of hers he would be playing along with that to the others, but in the TH he would have understood that by the time the show aired the audience would know that the cancer had recurred.

[Unclejosh]

If any of you watch the AfterbuzzTV cast interviews, Roxy had to sit between Johnny and Avery at Avery's request because she refused to sit next to Johnny for the interview. Johnny could not have cared less about where he sat.  To me that signals that Johnny is over it, dunzo and moved on. Avery is still harboring feelings and is clearly not over it.

[jmonkey]

I don't think there is any way that CT didn't know about Diem's cancer if other people knew. Not possible. He had to have known.

 

His talking heads ( now that we know that Diem knew she had cancer) were probably to help keep her 'secret'/ be positive. Kind of one of those things were if you say it out loud you help convince yourself that its true.  Also she likely asked him not to say anything so he was playing along.

 

I also agree they are trying to show him in a good light and probably didn't have much of that. We already have seen him being rude to Jemmye and that was like his only screen time. I don't blame her for not watching

Oh I think so too! I think Averey still is hung up on Johnny. Jonna knows Zach is probably the best she is gonna get Their dynamic is so weird. I don't get them. I want to know why he broke up with her

According to Zach in a TH in the first episode, he woke up next to Jonna one morning, was repulsed by what he saw, left, and didn't talk to Jonna for 2 years after that. That might not be the real reason they broke up, but it sounds consistent with the Zach jerk that I've been watching. Despite Zach doing this, Jonna said she still loves him. I don't think she really got closure with that relationship since Zach ignored her. It's not like she and Zach got into major fights that led to a breakup. Zach just wouldn't talk to her and that left feelings unresolved for Jonna.

 

I think the same can be said for Averey. She seems to really want to get Johnny R. to understand that she didn't cheat on him and he won't give her the time of day. She thinks that if he understood that she never cheated on him that they could continue their relationship. It's not so much the breakup that seems to bother her, but rather the breakup over false pretenses. She won't get closure because Johnny R. won't talk to her about it anymore. Given their disconnect, I think their problems are much larger than 1 alleged cheating incident.

Edited January 23, 2015 by jmonkey

[choclatechip45]

I don't know if they still do this, but I remember Lori mentioning in her BOTS recaps that some of the cast members had their THs filmed after the season ended because the tans they had disappeared. Some of CT's THs could of been filmed while he was in the states to fill in missing footage. We know he was in NYC visiting Diem at the hospital so maybe he dropped by the studios to film something after he came back to the states.

[KerleyQ]

That's the sad part about watching this. I get the impression that Jonna and Averey would take their exes back in a heartbeat if either Zach or Johnny R. wanted to get back together with them no matter how much they get badmouthed by their partner. I can't say that about any of the other ex-couples.

 

 

Absolutely.  It seems like you can practically see the "take me back" fumes coming off of Averey.  And as for Jonna, she's willing to kiss a guy she's clearly not remotely attracted to just because Zach is hanging around with that guy's ex.  

[lilabennet]

Jonna and Averey are both hard for me to watch.  I just want to ask them: Where is your pride?

 

I might be able to understand checking your dignity at the door for a Mr. Darcy, but for Zach and Johnny???  Yikes.

[Watermelon]

Zach is cute. Zach is REALLY cute. But there is no way I'd be mooning over the dude who left me for no reason.

 

Actually I'm not mooning over any dude at all, but you get my gist. 

[choclatechip45]

The sad part about Jonna not being over Zach is that they only dated 3-4 months max. BOTS2 finished filming in the middle of July and they were already broken up when the reunion was filmed in December.

[gunderda]

 

On another note, and I feel bad for thinking this, but the edit we've gotten of Knight so far, I can't help thinking "if this is what they've chosen to show us, given the hindsight that he died before the season started airing, what kind of ass must he have been?"  I mean, he's just so awful to Jemmye.  I don't like her much, but I feel bad for her.  She obviously loved the guy at some point and still cared about him, despite their issues.  And this show is going to pretty much represent some of her last memories of him.  It has to be rough to watch him being such a shit, both to her face and in his talking heads.  

 

Also, watching all of the performances from each team, I think that there's a certain advantage in an Exes season to being paired with someone you hooked up with (as opposed to having a real relationship that eventually blew up).  Johnny/Nany, Wes/Theresa, and Jordan/Sarah are doing better in part because they're all good competitors, but also, in part, because they're not dealing with the kind of baggage that teams like Johnny/Averey and Knight/Jemmye are dealing with.  Like that little exchange between Jonna and Zach, where he said he was confident they'd do well, and she immediately thought he was being sarcastic and dissing her.  It has to be hard to perform as a team when you instinctively distrust your partner's motives or just plain old don't want to deal with them.  CT and Diem were kind of an exception to that, but, they've also had the benefit of a lot of time having passed between their break up and being paired as exes, and they've clearly gotten to a point where they don't focus on the bad parts of their relationship and breakup and just trust and love each other.  Most of these other former couples are clearly not there yet. 

 

I was googling when I found out that Knight also passed and to see what was up with that.  From that I came across an article that stated that MTV had to re-edit the season to portray Diem and Knight in the best way possible. So I'm sure Knight is getting as positive of an edit as they can do. 

Edited January 29, 2015 by gunderda

[ogwu]

Diem family slated on her own funeral program that she was 32 which she actually was 34,withholding info from the public was personal choice for diem which the family respected.Diem kept her private life private .Her best friend alicia quarles refer to CT and diem as on/off, actually in the eonline articles, they keep refering to diem as CT's girlfriend, same publication her best friend works for. If checked CT's sister instagram diem is consistently liking and commenting on CT's nephew pics.If you checked both diem's sister instagrams you see CT vacationing with her family in steamboat, CO for xmas in 2013 and for her father birthday in the bahamas in july 2014. Also all three of diem's siblings follow CT on instagram, after her hospitalization to her death they might have been off,but prior to that they were together.

Didn't Diem's friends say they weren't together? Why would her friends lie? I think they both cared about each other and when they were together it might of seemed they were  a couple. I just took a look at Diem's instagram and I don't see any photos of them together.   I don't think they were officially together.

Diem family slated on her own funeral program that she was 32 which she actually was 34,withholding info from the public was personal choice for diem which the family respected.Diem kept her private life private .Her best friend alicia quarles refer to CT and diem as on/off, actually in the eonline articles, they keep refering to diem as CT's girlfriend, same publication her best friend works for. If checked CT's sister instagram diem is consistently liking and commenting on CT's nephew pics.If you checked both diem's sister instagrams you see CT vacationing with her family in steamboat, CO for xmas in 2013 and for her father birthday in the bahamas in july 2014. Also all three of diem's siblings follow CT on instagram, after her hospitalization to her death they might have been off,but prior to that they were together.

[CorgiNarnia]

I was against the AYTO kids on principle. If the producers want new blood, then do Fresh Meat III. Now, I'm finding them a bit more likeable now that we are seeing their personalities. I think I can accept Adam and Brittany because at least they are athletic, but at the same time, I don't want producers to do this again. The Challenge is for Real World people, not all MTV people. The performance of the AYTO couples on this Dome was a joke. The food wasn't even gross. I was expecting Round 3 to be something disgusting, and there needs to be a minimum bid so the person doesn't get away with eating just a few bites of something.