S33.E01: Apocalypse Now

[OnceSane]

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Epic Challenge Veterans meet up with eager Prospects, reality titans from around the globe, to take on the most grueling season yet. However, a twist in the game shakes up the power structure, leaving the players stunned.

Airs February 6, 2019.*

 

*There is an after show following this episode:

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"After the Show"

In front of a live studio audience of super fans, host Justina Valentine and seasoned vets and new prospects will break down the drama of the premiere and share exclusive behind-the-scenes sneaks of what’s to come this season.

[mojoween]

Jesus CHRIST Cara.  Could you be any grosser?

I’m on Chase’s side.  I get that Nany isn’t owned by anyone and she can do what she wants but still.  I can see why he would be put off by it.

Nany did look stunning on the After Show though.

I’m very angry about Whatever His Name Is for breaking his hand.  Josh was GONE! We were rid of him and like a fungus he oozed back in.

I know he shouldn’t, but Kyle still makes me laugh.

CT and Turbo strolling in to the house last, and CT still getting the good bed, was awesome.

Edited February 7, 2019 by mojoween

[Lantern7]

Well, here we go again. Every year, I hope that an upcoming season would be an improvement from the last. Most of the time, I am very disappointed. Last season ended with trashy Smashley lucking into $1 million and most of the other finalist looking to kill each other once the cameras were lowered. Me: "Hey, nowhere to go but up!" And then, with the very first pick of the draft, the one new girl (Natalie/Ninja) whom I have the least problems with . . . picks Paulie. He's done ONE Challenge, he stunk up Big Brother (or so I heard), Natalie had to have heard that he was a walking talking tumor . . . nope. If Natalie wins, Paulie wins. Even if we get the Screw Hunter twist at the end, Natalie probably would share the money, even if Paulie was an absolute prick, using one hand to pat himself on the back, spitting out red-dyed hair into the other. Uggggggggggghhh.

Poor Alan. First of all, do guys named "Alan" do reality shows? Secondly, it must suck to break your arm to get into the game, and then find out it was bad enough to warrant his dismissal. Worse, a "winner" fro Big Brother winds up back in the game. We were out TWO of those assholes, with the bonus that we didn't have to tell the twins apart. But he's back. Once again: uuuuugggggggggghhhhh.

Nice to see most of the vets acting true to form: the women bitch each other out, Wes smiles as he sees that his ego has been successfully shipped to "The Bunker," and CT just walks there without much care. I know he wants to win, but he's done the moving thing too often to sweat it. And he was walking with Turbo. You think they might be cousins?

Amanda? Honey? The way things had broken down, you were going to be ejected from the game because no guy would pick you. Don't bitch about Josh.

Here's the Veteran draft order, in case anybody is interested, or if you're looking back from the finale:

MEN: Paulie (seriously, WTF, Natalie?!?), Johnny, Hunter, CT, Wes, Kyle, Leroy, Zach

WOMEN: Kam, Da’vonne, Cara Maria, Nany, Natalie (Bad one), Smashley, Jenna, Amanda

Whom do I root for? Last time, I was ready to pull for Jemmye & Jenna, but they got bounced way too early.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Lantern7

[UGAmp]

This season looks promising. I’m excited!

I’m so sorry to say this because I do think she’s a cute girl but Nany straight up looked like Michael Jackson in her first talking head. It was startling. Honestly, the lighting for most of the girls during those is awful. They either look dirty (Cara) or their powder was very obvious (Nany). Jenna looked different too. Has she lost a lot of weight or did she have work done on her face?

Cara is just pathetic. It’s just sad at this point. She needs to step away from reality tv for a loooooong time.

Ashley is the worst but I did chuckle at her threatening the guy that she’d pick him as her partner and then drop out of the entire competition. And Davonne’s (I think that’s who it was) SHE STOLE HER PARTNER’S MONEY exclamation after Ashley was selected by her partner was absolutely amazing.

[TiffanyNichelle]

Ugh, Ashley is back. I'm annoyed that she wasn't left as the last pick after her over the top freakout with that one kid. She's so tough and so hard and yet cries at the drop of hat. And if she's so rich, why is she even back? I did love the look on her face when she thought the kid was going to pick her and then instead he picked Cara Maria.

Cara Maria in a relationship on a challenge is the worst. I foresee Paulie cheating on her (cause he's a cheater) with someone there. And I feel like Kyle has completely rewritten everything that happened on the last challenge to make himself the injured party.

The "prospects" are going to be annoying.

ITA, Nany had on too much powder. She looked weird. She was wrong to go from heavy flirting with one guy to literally humping Johnny. I don't think she would be cool with a guy flirting with her and then ten minutes later motorboating his good female friend.

Do Zach and Jenna break up again during the challenge? Because that would suck for Jenna.

[scrb]

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

 

MEN: Paulie (seriously, WTF, Natalie?!?), Johnny, Hunter, CT, Wes, Kyle, Leroy, Zach

WOMEN: Kam, Da’vonne, Cara Maria, Nany, Natalie (Bad one), Smashley, Jenna, Amanda

TJ said everyone would have their individual times measured.

Well the viewers didn't see how they finished until that lineup towards the end.  Of course there won't be any more transparency than that.  TJ will just tell the viewers who won.

This challenge was a crap shoot unless like Leroy, you outwrestle someone for a ball before it rolls all the way down the hill.  Then the puzzle didn't seem that difficult but that one girl was panicking and got eliminated.

The vets were sizing up the prospects based on how they ran and their body build, not on how they fared in this first challenge.

I did like the twist with having the rookies pick the vet partners.  I also hope the UK alliance materializes, to prevent Bananas and some other vets from cakewalking towards the finals.

CT said there would be new alliances.  In this case, the rookies have the same numbers as the vets and some of the vets are recent competitors who know a lot of the people from the Prospects team.  

So there is potential for the vets to find themselves on the outside.  That is kind of how Final Reckoning developed until the producers fixed it to prevent Bananas from being eliminated much earlier than he was.

Looked like Wes and other vets are anticipating that size and strength will be more in play this time than in Final Reckoning.

[RedheadZombie]

Wes and Johnny are fucking morons if they can’t set aside their differences to join forces against the UK people. 

[Eolivet]

Put me in the tent with the prospects, because I, too, am a Challenge newbie. I know all the Big Brother folks, then heard there might be Survivor contestants (did not figure on Survivor Turkey), and wow, I feel like I've walked into a soap opera! I am so lost on all the prior relationships. They need a "previously on The Challenge." I'm sure I'll catch on quickly but there were times I needed a flow chart (or a diagram, like they do on Ex on the Beach).

Speaking of, I already dislike Morgan from Ex on the Beach, so good to see that she's meeting my extremely low expectations of her.

I thought Da'Vonne was pretty clever in her read about how the U.K. people are friends, and that it makes sense to align with them (especially if they have the elusive "numbers").

The first challenge seemed overblown, but maybe I was just missing the play-by-play of Survivor (the puzzle was deceptively simple, but visually there wasn't a lot to it). I'm curious to see how this progresses -- like Survivor challenges on steroids plus Big Brother living on steroids. The previews were amazing, so looking forward to the rest of the season.

(Although "Apocalypse Now?" Really? Calm down, guys.)

[Coco88]

Lost a little of my Jenna like.  The thing she said about being glad her parter didn’t have an accent, bugged.  I know she thinks thinks the world revolves around New York but geez broaden your horizons.  

[Jillibean]

If Cara had taken Paulie into the main room in front of everyone and peed on him, it would have been more subtle. This was an embarrassing display, particularly her telling Ninja Natalie she was being “too handsy.” I feel like what happened with Kyle really did a number on her and made her very vulnerable to this guy who is clearly an accomplished manipulator. 

On 2/6/2019 at 11:42 PM, TiffanyNichelle said:

Cara Maria in a relationship on a challenge is the worst. I foresee Paulie cheating on her (cause he's a cheater) with someone there. 

Do Zach and Jenna break up again during the challenge? Because that would suck for Jenna.

The challenge is weird in that I know the resolution to both those questions/predictions, not from anything related to this specific challenge but just from following social media and seeing articles on people.com, etc. But are they considered spoilers if they have nothing to do with this season and are things that occurred after filming had ended? I feel like it’s going to be almost impossible for me to discuss Paulie on this challenge without knowledge of subsequent events bleeding over. 

Jenna has definitely lost weight, and she’s really not someone who needed to lose weight. She’s still my favorite. I forgive her for the accents thing because she’s just...not that bright, and some people really do have trouble parsing accents. 

Chase obviously has never watched a show with Nany on it if he was surprised by her behavior. I don’t like the way he addressed it with her, though. She had known him for a day. He should have just told her he was out or, if he wanted to try to salvage it, that he was interested but only if she was into HIM with some degree of exclusivity. I felt like instead of that he tried to guilt/shame her. 

My issue with all of these newbies is that they will inevitably be intent on securing their callback, meaning lots of drama for the sake of drama, which is my least favorite kind. A few of them are already firing shots on social media in what seems like a completely transparent attempt to be interesting. That said, I’m most interested in Dee, Ninja Natalie, Ashley C, Theo, and Mattie as competitors. 

Edited February 9, 2019 by Jillibean

[RedheadZombie]

6 hours ago, Coco88 said:

Lost a little of my Jenna like.  The thing she said about being glad her parter didn’t have an accent, bugged.  I know she thinks thinks the world revolves around New York but geez broaden your horizons.  

I like Jenna but she’s really quite dim. I think she genuinely can’t understand them.  She’s that simple. 

[peachmangosteen]

Who is this Turbo person? Like what reality show is he from? He is fine as fuck. Finally, some male eye candy for me!

Amanda and Josh as partners seems like hell on earth. I look forward to seeing where that goes.

[Eolivet]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Who is this Turbo person? Like what reality show is he from?

Survivor! Survivor Turkey, to be exact. Two-time winner, so he's the Sandra of Survivor Turkey (and apparently Survivor Turkey lasts like, six months).

[RedheadZombie]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Who is this Turbo person? Like what reality show is he from? He is fine as fuck. Finally, some male eye candy for me!

Amanda and Josh as partners seems like hell on earth. I look forward to seeing where that goes.

You're not kidding.  They were intimidated by him before the first challenge.

I hope Josh makes Amanda's life hell.  

[zenithwit]

I'm excited that half of this season's cast are fresh faces to the Challenge.  Hopefully this means that we'll finally start to see some new strategy and that 90% of the show will not be rehashing old drama (though I'm not holding my breath on that one).

It's funny how the last place finishers in the first challenge were a Big Brother winner and a Big Brother runner up (from different seasons).   Though I guess it's not that funny since both were considered to have been carried to the end by stronger players.

[Lantern7]

13 hours ago, Eolivet said:

(Although "Apocalypse Now?" Really? Calm down, guys.)

Next episode's title is "Hellraiser," followed by "Casualties of War."

3 hours ago, Eolivet said:

Survivor! Survivor Turkey, to be exact. Two-time winner, so he's the Sandra of Survivor Turkey (and apparently Survivor Turkey lasts like, six months).

Back-to-back seasons. I don't know how the Turkish version differs from the U.S., but consecutive wins sounds impressive. Over here, only a few have made it to Day 39 two straight times.

Edited February 10, 2019 by Lantern7

[luckyroll3]

Oh my gawd, can Ashley go away!  She's so goddamn annoying.  

On 2/6/2019 at 8:25 PM, UGAmp said:

I’m so sorry to say this because I do think she’s a cute girl but Nany straight up looked like Michael Jackson in her first talking head. It was startling. Honestly, the lighting for most of the girls during those is awful. They either look dirty (Cara) or their powder was very obvious (Nany). Jenna looked different too. Has she lost a lot of weight or did she have work done on her face?

Nany's makeup looked awful.  Couldn't her cousin give her some tips before she showed back on the show.  And I definitely noticed that Jenna lost weight.  She looked like she dropped about 15+ pounds, and she did not need to lose any weight.  

On 2/7/2019 at 2:43 AM, RedheadZombie said:

Wes and Johnny are fucking morons if they can’t set aside their differences to join forces against the UK people. 

I'm sorry, but if I was on this show, I would never put anything aside to work with Johnny.  

And because I'm shallow, UK Ashley is kinda hot.  Here's hoping he doesn't turn into an asshole turd, but I won't hold my breath.  

[xfuse]

16 hours ago, Coco88 said:

The thing she said about being glad her parter didn’t have an accent, bugged.

But she said it was because she has trouble understanding some of the other people. It's not like some people from Amazing Race who get to a foreign country and is annoyed that they don't speak English.  Jenna has problems understanding instructions and conversations in English at times so I will not put any blame on her for this one.

[Pixel]

23 hours ago, Coco88 said:

Lost a little of my Jenna like.  The thing she said about being glad her parter didn’t have an accent, bugged.  I know she thinks thinks the world revolves around New York but geez broaden your horizons.  

Yeah, as others have said, she completely made that about her inability to understand accents, and not that there was anything wrong with it. I thought it was kind of adorable, her self deprecation. 

[Coco88]

Maybe I’m just sensitive because my parents are first generation immigrants from India🤷🏽‍♀️

[OnceSane]

Many people have difficulty understanding accents, not everyone has an ear for it.  Jenna's comment didn't bother me as she wasn't saying the fault lied with anyone's accent, the problem was her ear for understanding thick accents.  My dad is a first-gen immigrant from Africa, and as a kid, I used to have to repeat what he said for my friends/teammates.

[crookedjackson44]

Let's have some real fun and bring back Abram as a mercenary or heavy hitter or whatever!

[Zima]

The best part of the episode for me was when Theo(?) called Ashley "Eminem's mom".  Apparently, all kinds of people have been spamming her IG, calling her by that name. 

[luckyroll3]

9 minutes ago, Zima said:

The best part of the episode for me was when Theo(?) called Ashley "Eminem's mom".  Apparently, all kinds of people have been spamming her IG, calling her by that name. 

I wanted to enjoy that moment so much, but it gave her the perfect opportunity to overreact for the camera.

[Lantern7]

7 hours ago, crookedjackson44 said:

Let's have some real fun and bring back Abram as a mercenary or heavy hitter or whatever!

I think he’s done. But it would be fun for him to pop up, look at Kyle, look at Paulie, then amble up to Cara Maria, saying “Good luck with that” before walking away.

[luckyroll3]

19 hours ago, crookedjackson44 said:

Let's have some real fun and bring back Abram as a mercenary or heavy hitter or whatever!

12 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I think he’s done. But it would be fun for him to pop up, look at Kyle, look at Paulie, then amble up to Cara Maria, saying “Good luck with that” before walking away.

I think quite a few of those newbies, including Kyle and Paulie would shit their pants if Abram came walking across one of those sand dunes.

[Lantern7]

20 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

I think quite a few of those newbies, including Kyle and Paulie would shit their pants if Abram came walking across one of those sand dunes.

I don’t think so, but they’d have the same thought: “So THAT’S why Cara keeps a tranq gun on her dresser!”

[MaggieG]

The guy that picked Ashley as a partner (Chase?) is probably the dumbest person on this show. Has he even watched this show? If he did, he would know that Ashley threatens to quit on a daily basis, freaks out at the drop of a hat and blames her partner for everything that goes wrong. 

I'm glad Da'vonne is back, I liked her last season. We'll see how she and Bear work together. I also like UK Georgia, she seems funny.

Cara has been completely dickwhipped by Paulie and it's sad to watch. Did they really need to walk through the entire house to point out all of the places they will have sex? Paulie can't be that good in bed, can he?

I laughed at Kyle saying that Turbo could snap his neck just by looking at him.

I didn't get a chance to watch the after show, did we miss anything?

[peachmangosteen]

5 hours ago, MaggieG said:

Paulie can't be that good in bed, can he?

Absolutely not.

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I didn't get a chance to watch the after show, did we miss anything?

Absolutely not.

[mccartygirl]

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Cara Maria in a relationship on a challenge is the worst. I foresee Paulie cheating on her (cause he's a cheater) with someone there. And I feel like Kyle has completely rewritten everything that happened on the last challenge to make himself the injured party.

Well, the first thing he says is commenting how he wants to partner with that Natalie D...Um, didn't Cara just say you guys are partners in this earlier? Gross. 

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Lost a little of my Jenna like.  The thing she said about being glad her parter didn’t have an accent, bugged.  I know she thinks thinks the world revolves around New York but geez broaden your horizons.  

This and to add..as a Michigan gal, it isn't that bad. Listen, I don't care for winters that much either (and this one hasn't been fun the last couple of weeks) but man! We have great outdoors adventures, hiking, camping, etc and it sounds like she just wants to sit around and party. And there isn't much NY scene here, maybe in the D???? But it's not gonna be like NY. Good luck Zach. 

[Lantern7]

What place did Alan place? I'm asking because I'm wondering how the draft might have been different if he didn't have to leave.

[Coco88]

On 2/14/2019 at 6:17 PM, Lantern7 said:

What place did Alan place? I'm asking because I'm wondering how the draft might have been different if he didn't have to leave.

Alan was the fourth place “Prospect”.  Only boy Ashley, Bear and Theo finished before him.

Edited February 16, 2019 by Coco88

[Rebecca]

On 2/10/2019 at 5:25 PM, Zima said:

The best part of the episode for me was when Theo(?) called Ashley "Eminem's mom".  Apparently, all kinds of people have been spamming her IG, calling her by that name. 

I loved that and it kinda fits!

On 2/10/2019 at 7:46 PM, Lantern7 said:

I think he’s done. But it would be fun for him to pop up, look at Kyle, look at Paulie, then amble up to Cara Maria, saying “Good luck with that” before walking away.

Abe just got engaged, I think he’s totally over Cara and has no fucks to give. He did say he would like to come back sometime, possibly, on a podcast from a few months ago.