S31.E14: Vendettas Never Die

[OnceSane]

Quote

With $500,000 on the line, the eight finalists compete for their share of the big money; two mercenaries return to make their road that much harder.

[Calm81]

And the finalist had better not blindside Leroy by winning the money. I don’t care to watch another bitchfest about contestants playing a game. ?

[Lantern7]

Dumbest finale in recent memory. No mountain-climbing. No epic miles-long courses. No, we get about 1.5 miles, stupid games, and playing Card Sharks with the Mercenaries where the only skill is guessing shit. And Johnny, sooooooo hellbent on settling scores with Tony and Zach, comes up empty and unable to lob Grenades. Stupid end to a stupid season.

Also, Nicole sprains her ankle, knocking her out of the game, and probably opening  slot for Kailah. Okay, we'll never know what would've happened. The sad thing for me is that she looked to be in obvious pain, and she's going to get a mountain of shit from people thinking she quit. We didn't see Teege officially eliminate her, and I'm guessing he'd understand. Once again: I get the hate for Nicole, but I don't get that level of hatred. Basically, everybody has a ceiling for deserving shit, so there's always a limit. Sadly, that includes Johnny. I'd be horrified if he was forced to play Jason Todd to Sarah's Joker, but I love the idea right now.

Leroy and Tony Two Kids come up short yet again. I'd tell 'em to pack it in, but Aneesa is still popping up, so there's no limit as long as you don't fight and/or piss off TJ. "KIller Kam" gets the boot as well. The final mission: going back and forth to solve a memory puzzle. Seriously underwhelmed. I mean, awesome that we don't get forced pairs, and some poor girl didn't get stuck with Zach in an endurance run, but . . . if MTV ever said "fuck it" and pulled the plug? I don't think it would be a bad thing. I'm willing to punch anybody who thinks The Amazing Race doesn't deserve to go on, but I reckon The Challenge has long past its prime. And we got another season AND "Champs vs. Stars"!!!!! Oy vey . . .

[mojoween]

I’m sorry Nicole got hurt, but a finale without having to listen to that voice is always welcome.  Also watching her thirst all the fuck over Melissa would get super old super quick.

Bwahahaha Tony didn’t make the finale.  I didn’t really understand the whole point of the swords in the barrels and stealing your opponents swords but who cares?  It helped Tony get bounced.

[SophiaPehawkins]

The finale didn’t seem that impressive, but I kind of like how straight forward it was. Kam really fucked herself up by picking higher on the jack. Did she not understand the game? It was pretty much a given for everybody. Digging a hole and burying that log pretty much guaranteed she wouldn’t be top two. I don’t want to say I’m unimpressed with Leroy, but damn. He let Kyle and Zach pass him on that second to last lap. 

Hoping Cara can pull this out. It’d be nice to have a female winner after a season dominated by men.

[Marley]

Ha so glad Leroy got booted. He was ahead too near the end and then just fucked it up. I love how he cried to Bananas as soon as he could about ppl fucking him over. Wah wah bye Leroy.

Tony got too cocky.

Kam has always been nothing special See ya!

Did Zach really say that if he won he would never have to work again in his life? $370K is a nice chunk of change but I def wouldn’t call it retiring in your 30s money lol.

[Adultosaurus]

5 minutes ago, Marley said:

Ha so glad Leroy got booted. He was ahead too near the end and then just fucked it up. I love how he cried to Bananas as soon as he could about ppl fucking him over. Wah wah bye Leroy.

Tony got too cocky.

Kam has always been nothing special See ya!

Did Zach really say that if he won he would never have to work again in his life? $370K is a nice chunk of change but I def wouldn’t call it retiring in your 30s money lol.

I think Zach has a really low expectation of managing his life.

[Spencer Hastings]

This season is so bad that I was actually rooting for Zach to pull ahead. Gross.

[RHJunkie]

I don't understand why Johnny was talking so big when he wasn't in completely control of the game. The challengers had some control over what happened to them. Melissa was lucky that she got to use the grenade at all. With the way the guys were going, It did cross my mind if they fixed their cards to make the guys more competitive, lol. 

There's a good chance that Kyle wouldn't have qualified if the other guys weren't so into their egos that they were striking each other and not paying attention to the fact that Kyle was stealing their wood pieces and putting them further behind while he got ahead. But kudos to him, he could have given up or gave in to his tiredness or but he pushed through and seemed to surprise even himself with his level of endurance. 

Tony being the only one to show up with his knight gear on is just a testament to him giving up. He may have been out of it but he could have still given his all (who knows what could have happened to the others along the way). Unless this was his best, in which case, it doesn't matter how much he politicks during the competition, he'll never make money in the finals if he can't even be semi-competitive when he gets there. 

Was Kailah and Kam really that close at the end? Kam would have easily advanced had she not gotten the grenade thrown at her. Kailah was lucky. 

Zach, you really think you're going to survive with no job just living off of $370K? LOL

I didn't realize they were going to cut the ending short and do the reveal at the reunion which I'm thankful for. I was looking at the minutes left and was really worried that they would try to make tonight a cliffhanger and then stretch out the next episode into 40 minutes of flashbacks and them solving the puzzle. Really curious ti know what triggers Cara at the reunion. Unless it's getting called out for her vote against Leroy but I'm not sure that would make her cry. 

[scrb]

After taxes, it would be 200-250k?

Depends on where you live and lifestyle.  Wouldn't last long in high-rent places like Manhattan but could last awhile in places like the Midwest.  Not for the rest of your life but several years.  Would be dumb to quit working though, better to have it as nest egg.

But it's certainly a big step up from any previous challenge, what one winner could walk away with.

Maybe instead of staging an elaborate final challenge with helicopters and such, they decided to throw the money into the prize pot.

So this challenge and Dirty 30 really boosted the winnings.  They should have steady stream of willing competitors.

[CheetaraThunder]

Why would Nicole try so hard to sabotage Cara when she feels like she could outright beat her in endurance? Leave that shit to Kam and Kailah, who would benefit greatly from that shit. And, Cara was even doing that to her, so stupid all around.

I don’t wish injury on someone, but Nicole...don’t care. Especially, with how she came off in the aftershow. Such a despicable human. Laurel deserves her.

 

Rooting for Cara to win, especially if she makes Zach second place ?.

[snarts]

Quote

Stupid end to a stupid season.

About sums it up for me. 

Are they trying to get me quit watching?

[NickPappagiorgio]

This final was far easier than any of the recent previous ones have been. It had to be less than half a day, since it started and ended in absolute daylight. The puzzle was underwhelming as the determining challenge. 

Love that Tony left with nothing. The producers really are mean to these people. They could’ve just had the prize be 150k on top of your bank, but I guess they now factor in that the audience tends to need comeuppance for multiple players at the end of each season.

Oh, Kyle. Leroy and Tony are known for sucking. Beating them does not make you awesome.

Bananas/Melissa was stupid, and slanted. I would’ve preferred if each had to face their vendetta they had at the start of the season to test if amends had been made/respect earned. So it would’ve been Nelson/Rogan/whoever was against Zach and Leroy; and Marie/Alicia/Shane/maybe Britni or Jemmye for Kailah? But I guess they wanted it to be Cara/Nicole for the girls and Leroy/Kyle for the guys who won. That might be a worse finish than what actually happened, so maybe production should stop trying to rig this shit since they appear as incompetent as the contestants. 

Really tired of Cara. She is totally played out, drama-wise, and is almost too much of a ringer on the girls’ side. Unless Laurel is there (which I am NOT encouraging!) there’s really no one who can confidently face her.

[notcreative enough]

7 hours ago, CheetaraThunder said:

 

I don’t wish injury on someone, but Nicole...don’t care. Especially, with how she came off in the aftershow. Such a despicable human. Laurel deserves her.

I don't watch the after shows what did she do?

[TiffanyNichelle]

Johnny's role as a mercenary was just a lame way to get him back on the screen during a finale. He did nothing and had no impact on the finale for any of the guys.

Nicole choosing to mess around with Cara Maria's bucket and thereby spend more time tied up with chains on a busted ankle was a dumb move. What a waste of time. I loved Kyle (the easy layup, lol) just sprinting past the guys while they wasted time sabotaging each other. I like how he takes it seriously but not that seriously. 

I hate that we have to sit through another two part reunion just to find out who wins. I need my Tuesdays at 9 back.

[Calm81]

I didn’t care for this season, but I’m totally rooting for Cara to come out the winner. Kaylaih got lucky that Nicole got hurt and Kam didn’t play cards right.

Puh-lease Cara, get that purple dot. 

Edited April 4, 2018 by Calm81

[luckyroll3]

This was the stupidest final I have ever seen.

First off, did they need to bring Johnny ( and Melissa) back for the whackest mercenary jobs ever?  Really, dealing cards???  Also, he was super riled up talking about taking people down when he was only. dealing. cards.  Who ever came up with that idea should be fired.  And he also annoyed me because he kept cutting Teej off and stepping on Teej's lines to make sure he was the loudest.  

What would have been more interesting is if there were 2 grenades at every station that the top 2 people would earn and have to use, generating some sort of penalties at each stage.  

I wasn't sad to see Nicole go.  

Kyle did a great job staying under the radar and taking an early lead.  I'm still laughing at how none of the guys realized that he was stealing their torches!  Dummies!

I'm hoping that Kam has never played Hi-Lo before, because really, a high on a Jack???

[RHJunkie]

I do agree that the finale was supremely underwhelming. Given that we've seen finales that have gone two days and varied among timed events, group activities, solo activities, etc. I feel like regardless of who wins, it'll be undeserved compared to other winners. Not saying that the finale was a walk in the park, but this show has set a precedent when it comes to finales and it has fallen quite far from its mark this time around. However, I suspect that the competition workload was easier because they felt they had to make it an even playing field given that there would only be one winner. I already knew that a puzzle would play a big factor because puzzles are a great equalizer, however, they could have had a rigorous day 1 and half of day 2 and then the competitors reset for the puzzle with the same advantage to the first guy and girl getting a head start with the puzzle.

Kyle is smarter than a lot of people think but he's a scheming kind of smart so I don't think he's a frontrunner for the puzzle. I wouldn't put Zach or Kailah in the smart category, at least not when it comes to puzzles. That leads me to believe that this is Cara's to win.

[Jobiska]

Confused by Zach and Cara Maria each being told they had "an error" (and at least CM voiced-over that she had one wrong).  If they removed the colored dots from the board, and replaced them in their correct spots, wouldn't they have at least two switched?  But the camera only zoomed in on one each (and I'm afraid Zach will get it because his was near the top and hers near the bottom, and I think the natural tendency would be to start from the top to recheck).  Oh well, I guess we're lucky they showed us any hints at all, given the history of this show not telling us all the details about finals progress.

[UGAmp]

16 hours ago, RHJunkie said:

Tony being the only one to show up with his knight gear on is just a testament to him giving up.

I wondered about this too. Because I think he and Kam were both still wearing their knight gear. Was it the equivalent of Phil showing up in the middle of a leg on the Amazing Race to eliminate the team who is obviously out and there’s no point in completing the task? Did either of them run to get the final token or did a producer just tell them to go straight to the finish line because they were out. Or are they just idiots and ran that last leg with their gear on?

I miss the finals of yesteryear. Climbing mountains, staying up all night standing on a small space, eating pig guts, running 13 miles. Come on Challenge. Step up your game. 

[luckyroll3]

1 hour ago, UGAmp said:

I wondered about this too. Because I think he and Kam were both still wearing their knight gear. Was it the equivalent of Phil showing up in the middle of a leg on the Amazing Race to eliminate the team who is obviously out and there’s no point in completing the task? Did either of them run to get the final token or did a producer just tell them to go straight to the finish line because they were out. Or are they just idiots and ran that last leg with their gear on?

They never made it to the last leg.  You had to get to the area where you could ditch the armor, then run to get the next token, then run back to where the gear was dumped to cross the finish line and see Teej.

[RHJunkie]

2 hours ago, UGAmp said:

I wondered about this too. Because I think he and Kam were both still wearing their knight gear. Was it the equivalent of Phil showing up in the middle of a leg on the Amazing Race to eliminate the team who is obviously out and there’s no point in completing the task? Did either of them run to get the final token or did a producer just tell them to go straight to the finish line because they were out. Or are they just idiots and ran that last leg with their gear on?

I miss the finals of yesteryear. Climbing mountains, staying up all night standing on a small space, eating pig guts, running 13 miles. Come on Challenge. Step up your game. 

We didn't see a checkpoint where the competitors took off the gear (unless I'm totally blanking on this). It's possible that production told them to keep going with the gear on for effect and it would have made no difference to the race because they were too far behind. Leroy had his gear off but I'm under the impression that he was trailing not far behind so it would have made sense that he would take off his gear as soon as he was able to so that he can gain whatever leverage he could in a sprint to the finish. It's a shame that Kam didn't make it to the second part. Kam is loud and confident but she's backed up her talk all season long. If she had made it to the puzzle, I would be less confident in who I think won the finale. 

[scrb]

Again no transparency about rules.  How many weeks did they have them bank money without telling them that they have to get to the final stage?

They didn't outline how many people would be in the Finals either.

They could just make shit up as they go along.

Only other reality competition I watch is TAR and they'd never have these fluid rules.

Edited April 5, 2018 by scrb

[dangwoodchucks]

I’m chuckling because yet another Challenge has a larger than normal prize, and yet again John won’t be winning (or stealing) it. Bwahahaha

BMP definitely had their B team working on this challenge. The daily challenges were mostly retreads or just ridiculous (jumping from one slippery car to another, what could happen?), but the final was so underwhelming. I don’t even know wth that sword game was about. This final made the one on Bloodlines look brilliant.

[scrb]

On 4/4/2018 at 8:45 AM, TiffanyNichelle said:

Johnny's role as a mercenary was just a lame way to get him back on the screen during a finale. He did nothing and had no impact on the finale for any of the guys.

Nicole choosing to mess around with Cara Maria's bucket and thereby spend more time tied up with chains on a busted ankle was a dumb move. What a waste of time. I loved Kyle (the easy layup, lol) just sprinting past the guys while they wasted time sabotaging each other. I like how he takes it seriously but not that seriously. 

I hate that we have to sit through another two part reunion just to find out who wins. I need my Tuesdays at 9 back.

I think they probably had Bananas and the girl hang around after they were eliminated, so that it would be easy to fly them to Prague, rather than fly someone in from the US.

The girl is from the UK so she could easily fly over to Prague even if she went home.

[Unclejosh]

Based on the single winner format, the winner will be right under Bananas is total prize winnings from the challenge I believe.

 

I have always and still continue to HATE the huge disparity between the first place and other finishers. I mean a lousy $5K for potentially coming a few seconds behind the first place winner who gets over $370K?  They could have had the last place get 25K, the 3rd place get 50K and 2nd place get 75K and first place would still get like triple the 2nd place finisher.

[Neveragain]

I love this show, it's been my guilty pleasure for so many years....but these last few finals have been awful. This one is the worst ever.  So underwhelming that it kind of ruins the whole show.  I can't get invested if the end result is basically decided by a game of high low, with pointless limp threats by Johnny on top of it.  What a letdown. And I was rooting for Kam to get in the top two, she deserved it, now stupid Kailah is in there because of a dumb guess by Kay which potentially cost her a third of a million dollars. Based on a game of high low after all the physical and mental challenges?  It's stupid and so deflating.  I'm annoyed 

[Mean Machine]

I couldn't help but notice that Nicole's ridiculous accent practically disappeared after she got injured.  Even in her camera interview when she was tearing up talking about it, she sounded like a normal person.  Always suspected she was embellishing the accent for a character she plays on TV, and this pretty much confirmed it.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Her accent sounded especially obnoxious and almost not understandable on the after-show. Honestly, every time I hear her talk, I feel like I'm losing brain cells. 

I'm pretty sure her sisters speak much more normally from what I remember seeing of them in clips during RW (she's a triplet). 

And I couldn't help but laugh while she was crying and her eyeliner/mascara was smeared on her face.

[Cherry Cola]

6 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Her accent sounded especially obnoxious and almost not understandable on the after-show. Honestly, every time I hear her talk, I feel like I'm losing brain cells. 

I'm pretty sure her sisters speak much more normally from what I remember seeing of them in clips during RW (she's a triplet). 

And I couldn't help but laugh while she was crying and her eyeliner/mascara was smeared on her face.

My husband said he thought her accent sounded fake when I watched the aftershow.   Funny, that he wasn't the only one! I hate hearing her talk.  

[neenyah]

On 4/4/2018 at 9:45 AM, NickPappagiorgio said:

This final was far easier than any of the recent previous ones have been. It had to be less than half a day, since it started and ended in absolute daylight. The puzzle was underwhelming as the determining challenge. 

Love that Tony left with nothing. The producers really are mean to these people. They could’ve just had the prize be 150k on top of your bank, but I guess they now factor in that the audience tends to need comeuppance for multiple players at the end of each season.

Oh, Kyle. Leroy and Tony are known for sucking. Beating them does not make you awesome.

Bananas/Melissa was stupid, and slanted. I would’ve preferred if each had to face their vendetta they had at the start of the season to test if amends had been made/respect earned. So it would’ve been Nelson/Rogan/whoever was against Zach and Leroy; and Marie/Alicia/Shane/maybe Britni or Jemmye for Kailah? But I guess they wanted it to be Cara/Nicole for the girls and Leroy/Kyle for the guys who won. That might be a worse finish than what actually happened, so maybe production should stop trying to rig this shit since they appear as incompetent as the contestants. 

Really tired of Cara. She is totally played out, drama-wise, and is almost too much of a ringer on the girls’ side. Unless Laurel is there (which I am NOT encouraging!) there’s really no one who can confidently face her.

I don't know how the entire cast left Kyle to win. Despite their personal vendettas, as CT said in his special episode a while back (paraphrased) "If we're going to fight for money, I might as well do it with someone who's been doing this for a while and put in the work like me. (referencing John)" Why not at least take out the people who havent faced years of embarrassment from MTV then battle each other? They just humiliated themselves once again, but let this greasy dirtmurt take their money. It's not like Kyle ever gave off layup vibes. He may not have won a bunch of daily challenges, but he certainly wasn't some easily eliminated weakling either. This is the vets' stupidity and they deserve to lose to him. 

John's shit talking when all he did was flip cards was hilarious. Has he pissed off someone in production? He's no longer a winner shoo-in, they haven't given him some secret pass to get back in the game in a while, and now they mock his braggadocio with having him "lose" to every competitor that came in (you cant tell me those cards weren't stacked). LOL I can't wait to see him lose again. I just hope it's to Wes/CT (or even Cory/Tony if those two don't come back) again. It's time for him to get a real job.

Also sick of Cara. She is so entitled and bitchy. It's all a game until someone turns the tables on her, then it's a personal offense. She's becoming Bananas 2.0. I need Emily (can't stand Laurel, don't want her back) to come in and take her down. Maybe even Cooke (but I doubt she'll return) could do the job. If Kam works out in the off season and manages to fortify the dummy/AYTO alliance, maybe she could do it. I'm just sick of dirty, sweaty, greasy, stinky looking Cara on my screen acting like a victim then crowing like a victor over something she had absolutely nothing to do with, like Nicole's injury.

On 4/4/2018 at 4:54 PM, Jobiska said:

Confused by Zach and Cara Maria each being told they had "an error" (and at least CM voiced-over that she had one wrong).  If they removed the colored dots from the board, and replaced them in their correct spots, wouldn't they have at least two switched?  But the camera only zoomed in on one each (and I'm afraid Zach will get it because his was near the top and hers near the bottom, and I think the natural tendency would be to start from the top to recheck).  Oh well, I guess we're lucky they showed us any hints at all, given the history of this show not telling us all the details about finals progress.

This confused me too. They didn't have a pool of colored chips at their feet to be able to replace only one, so how could a competitor have only one chip out of sync? It would have to be switched with something. They're getting really sloppy with editing their cheats. 

 

eta: Give it up Leroy. No one has ever believed you have what it takes to win a final. Even on this sorry ass excuse for one, you didn't stand a chance. Just focus on barber school. 

Edited April 8, 2018 by neenyah

[Steph619]

I'm hoping Cara won this. I know I'm probably in the minority in liking her, but I think she's a great competitor and it would be cool to see a woman win it all. 

I liked this final except for the fact that we probably won't find out who won until two weeks from now. I also didn't think it was fair that the people that didn't make it to the second stage of the final left empty-handed. They should've at least been able to keep what they won up to that point. I also would've been fine without Johnny's cameo.

I can't stand Nicole, but I felt bad she sprained her ankle. She was annoying on the aftershow though coming after Cara to make herself look good in front of Laurel.

[Peper81]

On ‎4‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 2:18 PM, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Her accent sounded especially obnoxious and almost not understandable on the after-show. Honestly, every time I hear her talk, I feel like I'm losing brain cells. 

I'm pretty sure her sisters speak much more normally from what I remember seeing of them in clips during RW (she's a triplet). 

And I couldn't help but laugh while she was crying and her eyeliner/mascara was smeared on her face.

Makes you wonder why Aneesa didn't call her out for her accent like she did Cara Maria.  I too thought her accent was way worse on the after-show.  I thought she needed subtitles it was so bad.

[RedheadZombie]

On ‎4‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 6:16 PM, UGAmp said:

I wondered about this too. Because I think he and Kam were both still wearing their knight gear. Was it the equivalent of Phil showing up in the middle of a leg on the Amazing Race to eliminate the team who is obviously out and there’s no point in completing the task? Did either of them run to get the final token or did a producer just tell them to go straight to the finish line because they were out. Or are they just idiots and ran that last leg with their gear on?

I miss the finals of yesteryear. Climbing mountains, staying up all night standing on a small space, eating pig guts, running 13 miles. Come on Challenge. Step up your game. 

Seriously.  This final was so easy they didn't even have to wear the water backpacks to avoid dehydration.