Battle Of The Sexes 2 (2004-05)

[Lantern7]

I used to recap the show for a reality-based website. BOTS2 was my final season, because of a number of reasons . . . one of them being my increasingly negative recaps. In my defense, I had to deal with one of the worst seasons in Challenge history, as well as Eric Fucking Nies. You deal with that every week and not be negative.

Unlike the original BOTS, BOTS2 was more team-based, where three captains were selected before missions. If a team won, the captains would vote off one of the other players, and the reverse happened with a loss. And unlike BOTS, the results of BOTS2 were more lopsided, with the men winning all but three missions. . . one of those "losses" being thrown for reasons I'll get into later.

The women didn't come up well. Sure, the eliminations of Abram and Mike were shockers, but none resonated as soundly as when the female captains kept scrub Angela (fresh off being a pest on Road Rules: X-Treme) and eliminated the likeable Cynthia (RW: Miami). The most painful boot came when Coral and Tina more or less bullied fellow captain Sophia into voting off Ruthie. Sophia had several breakdowns on Elimination Hill, but none as painful as that one. It sucked . . . you want nice lesbians like Ruthie and Sophia, you get hatchetfaced harpies like Rachel and (later on) Evelyn.

The guys weren't above skullduggery, such as their voting off of Challenge rookie Brad. But then came the penultimate mission, which they threw to force co-captain Arissa in the game for the finale. After their tongue-in-cheek/"aren't we so wacky?" performance, Mark stepped aside to let his buddy Eric join Theo and Dan on the final team. Eric had been insufferable throughout the season . . . gone was the oddly likeable guy from BOTS1. Instead, we had a jackass who kept pimping his special jump rope. During one Elimination Hill ceremony, he raged about somebody stealing it. That provided a few laughs, but not enough. In the end, the men handily defeated the women (Arissa, Coral and Sophia), and each guy got a then-record $60,000. Even with a likeable dude like Dan Setzler winning, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

There's a lot I'm missing, like Steven slapping Shane and getting thrown off, the episode where Sophia's mini-fro went straight, and Ayanna screaming, "I SLEPT IN MY UNIFORM BECAUSE I WANTED TO WIN TODAY!!!" Oh, and drunken rookie Derrick following a frog around and singing to it. What mental scars do you guys take away from BOTS2?

Edited April 8, 2014 by Lantern7

[NichD]

Derrick, a rookie! Were we ever so young?

I mainly remember this season as a total dud, and the moment when the Challenge stopped being appointment viewing. Except for that porny challenge where they had to melt giant blocks of ice, and the guys were all in Speedos, climbing on top of each other and so forth.

[Lantern7]

I forgot about that, NichD. Remember Tonya sticking rocks in her mouth to warm them up? Or the guy-on-guy-on-guy sawing? Then there was Veronica going "Blow and suck! Blow and suck! Use your hands!!" in an interview. I'm amazed my TV didn't explode from the raw sexuality of it all. And if you really want to feel old, that was Aneesa's second season out of ten.

ETA: Apparently, you can only edit your posts after a certain period of time. I found that out because I goofed on Ayanna's quote . . . it was "I SLEPT IN MY UNIFORM LAST NIGHT BECAUSE I WANTED TO WIN TODAY!!!" Man, she ate a lot of crazy wafers, didn't she?

Edited April 11, 2014 by Lantern7

[xfuse]

 

Oh, and drunken rookie Derrick following a frog around and singing to it.

Wasn't he asking it to be his friend because the guys were an ass to him. He was doing good but was voted out before Eric and a few other screw ups. It was why when Gauntlet 2 came around he went against the group making Mark the Captain instead of fighting for it.

I remember some toilet seat stealing and that they didn’t all live in the same house.

[Oholibamah]

Yeah, this season actually had a good cast (I would kill for the return of half these people) but it was so boring. I blame the terrible format of team captains and no elimination round.

 

The only thing I remember fondly is Ibis somehow eating three sticks of butter in thirty seconds.

[Princess Sparkle]

Wasn't he asking it to be his friend because the guys were an ass to him. He was doing good but was voted out before Eric and a few other screw ups. It was why when Gauntlet 2 came around he went against the group making Mark the Captain instead of fighting for it.

I remember some toilet seat stealing and that they didn’t all live in the same house.

He was asking it to be his friend - I can't remember if that was before or after the guys hit him with the golf cart.  Poor Derrick; I've always had a soft spot in my heart for him.  Until the one challenge (the shitty one where they had to raft at the end - the Island maybe?), I felt like he was always willing to stick up for the unpopular person - he was always pretty loyal to Tonya, and he'd pretty loudly insist on keeping someone there who was helpful to the team, but unpopular, over someone who was popular, but terrible at challenges.

 

I have to say, one of my top-five favorite moments from any challenge comes from this season, and that's where Brad is talking to Randy's cardboard cut out after Randy was kicked off.  "Randy, we've got a clue!!"

 

[choclatechip45]

The bad part about this challenge was that it started all the New School vs Old School BS that has gone on in these shows for the last ten years.