Challenge 37: Spies, Lies and Allies (Aug 11, 2021)

**Vil** · 2021-08-27 03:33

I had to look it up to see that Emanuel's paired with Kaycee. Considering she's not getting stolen left and right, that's not a bad place to chill and want to try to fade into the background.

As for the rookies/votes in general, this is how screwy the votes have been (1st vote was unanimous):

Spoiler: show

**Vil** · 2021-09-01 20:40

Seems like a good time to post this again:

Known for his showmance with Haleigh Broucher and being clueless, Fasyal was a member of the crumbling FOUTTE alliance, was blindsided and left out of nearly every vote, and never knew what was going on. Throughout the season he was attracted to Haleigh, and while Haleigh initially rejected his advances she eventually accepted and the two became a couple. He was often manipulated by his close ally JC Mounduix. After becoming the HoH in week 8, he was manipulated by JC into targeting his ally Scottie Salton. Scottie was evicted under his HoH. However, this was fatal as the following week both he and Haleigh were betrayed and nominated, and he was evicted in a 4-1 vote. He came in 9th place and became the third member of the jury.

Then again, Ambore's confessional midway through her talk with Kaycee was as bad as basically anything she said last season. It's not about saying that she was willing to put stuff behind. That's fine. But being all excited about that alliance. Come on. Fessy being so worried about her is so moronically Fessy.

That elimination? What the hell, dude. CT giving the "a veteran chimes in with general advice during an elimination" clearly means that Hughie is going to lose it for them... and right on cue, he drops the key. But they still win?

This may have been a good week for me scoring-wise, but terrible for me going forward. I'm going to need Ashley to hook up with Kyle again out of revenge for Nelson hanging out with Berna.

Devin's really playing well this season. Josh looks like a goddamn master strategist when there's still Fessy in the room.

**Byrd** · 2021-09-02 00:49

Great episode.

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Scoring - so much scoring:

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Challenger Scores to Date:

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Standings:

Spoiler: show

**Vil** · 2021-09-02 01:17

Hughie also voted for himself again this week, right after being yelled at by Ashley for doing that. He's not a waste of space, but is a moron. Even his first comment in the deliberation thing, he's like "well, if that's how it is, whatever". This apathy from people like him is why it is how it is.

At least there's the potential fallout from this, even though it centers on two of my least favorite people in the cast. I think there's a lot of potential in Michele and Corey, and it would have been nice to see what they'd be capable of if they were able to get fresh partners here. Maybe next season.

Also, Amber and Hughey "absolutely" killed it. My team is dropping like flies, so damn right I'm going to fight for their points.

**Moss** · 2021-09-03 19:40

The whole Kaycee/Amber convo was so cringe. Crazy to me that Amber can be that naive. "Fessy has a good heart... He's changed so much..." wtf? The guy is a dickhead lol

Kyle pulling the switch on Devin was kinda dumb but forgivable, I thought Devin's public hissyfit made it look WAY worse

Hughie is afraid of heights... so Ashley decides to put him up there and then berate him the whole time? wtf?

Fessy throwing amber in was so hilariously stupid. He's such a perfect heel for this show because he's a good competitor but soooo cocky and unlikable, and has a very special lack of self-awareness and overconfidence in his own politicking. What a combo

Originally Posted by Vil

Also, Amber and Hughey "absolutely" killed it. My team is dropping like flies, so damn right I'm going to fight for their points.

This

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**Xno Kappa** · 2021-09-03 20:10

It’s pretty crazy when Josh is the voice of reason in an episode lol.

**Vil** · 2021-09-03 21:29

Hughie is afraid of heights... so Ashley decides to put him up there and then berate him the whole time? wtf?

The other way around would have likely been a different sort of disaster, but agreed. Imagine her losing her mind because of him asking her to repeat/slow down.

I think the general thinking was that if they thought both would be capable of doing the aerial part, they were keeping the "smarter" or "puzzle" person on the beach. CT, Devin, Esther, Ed, Ashley, Josh, Emanuel, Nelson's partner all were on the beach. Some of the others were probably negligible either way.

...then there's Amanda in the air and Kyle on the beach which sounds like Kyle just wanting to be lazy and Amanda thinking it's not worth the fight.

It’s pretty crazy when Josh is the voice of reason in an episode lol.

Helps when he's the main opposition voice against one of the dumbest moves in Challenge history. If you take away that single moment from Kelz in that deliberation, Josh has been shown quite well the whole season. His strategy is bland and nothing new, but he's level-headed and hitting the right notes so far.

**Vil** · 2021-09-08 21:20

New worst episode of the season? The only good part was Gabo asking for Mike "The Situation" to hear his prayers. I don't think I need to see the guy again, but just for the absurdity of that, Gabo probably is in my top half of the rookies now. The main challenge was actually great, and I laughed at the whole "math outta nowhere", but this episode was laaaaaame.

I always feel like they shouldn't be allowed to spam "checks" on things like this, but I can't remember someone doing it as bad as Logan did there. Maybe not something as extreme as having to climb to the top, but at least a cooldown... or a penalty for being incorrect. Then on the flip side, you've got the girls screaming for Gabo to ask for a check and he's like "yes, I'll go up the rope and check".

There's dead wood and the season desperately needs a jolt, but I also just want Hughie and Emy to get the hell out of there. I can't believe that buffoon tried to make that deliberation all about himself. With her, I wanted to wait a few episodes before really making my mind up about her, but she's just so sour. They deserve each other.

**Byrd** · 2021-09-09 01:18

Live trivia is actually available here in town, and I had to go try. So got to this late, and got really drunk. Watched episode and scored, but still pretty druncking funk. Will post tomorrow eve.

**Byrd** · 2021-09-09 21:10

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Scoring:

Spoiler: show

Challenger Scores to Date:

Spoiler: show

Standings:

Spoiler: show

It's interesting that I have the most players left in the game, and am clearly in last place. We'll see if that changes.

**Vil** · 2021-09-10 05:28

Was really drunk by the end of the episode

Lucky you.

One thing I thought about yesterday was the rookies' choices for new partners. On the surface, picking Devin and Nany makes a lot of sense. There's a good chance at potential cover while you're paired up with them. However, this is the one thing that these dummies seem to understand, so it's not even that stable a thing since they'll potentially just get stolen and then who knows who you may end up with. Still, they're two of the people in the safest spots and you're just not going to be voted in by the house.

In the meantime, they've completely left the two vet-vet pairs untouched. I think it's just Kyle-Amanda this whole time, which is insane... and the more recent Ashley-Josh pair. They've been making picks that result in the odd rookie-rookie pair left standing when if they had just had picked from those pairs, then there would be no rookie pairs (in the following round). It would be one thing if those were all bad choices of partners, but none of them are.

All in all, I think I'm getting partner swap fatigue and this season is still young. It's partly due to it being the same thing as last season which had the same cast. Except this season, it's double the amount since last season only had the single eliminations. The season is like 1/3 done and this increased volatility isn't really paying off at all. Last season, there was the smooth move where Kyle chose to pair up with Kam, but there's nothing like that this time and it wouldn't even matter since they can just send an individual in on the back end. Something I'm missing from set teams is some sort of team identity. I can't even remember who most people are paired with now because it doesn't seem to matter.

**Byrd** · 2021-09-10 12:36

Originally Posted by Vil

All in all, I think I'm getting partner swap fatigue and this season is still young. It's partly due to it being the same thing as last season which had the same cast. Except this season, it's double the amount since last season only had the single eliminations. The season is like 1/3 done and this increased volatility isn't really paying off at all. Last season, there was the smooth move where Kyle chose to pair up with Kam, but there's nothing like that this time and it wouldn't even matter since they can just send an individual in on the back end. Something I'm missing from set teams is some sort of team identity. I can't even remember who most people are paired with now because it doesn't seem to matter.

I'm with you. I don't really know who is in what pair. Fessy/Esther, CT/Berna, basically because they've won the last two weeks. Everyone else kind of blends together, and even if I did know, there could be two entirely new teams next week. Even once the rookie-rookie teams are all gone, only the vet on the team that loses the house vote will be in the elimination. Three out of the four people in the elimination are going to be rookies until they are basically all gone. It feels like a Pagonging in the Challenge.

**Headspace** · 2021-09-13 21:59

Brutal week for me

**Vil** · 2021-09-15 20:43

Originally Posted by Vil

New worst episode of the season?

Yeah, about that...

"It's boring in this house" - Cory Wharton

With the way that ended, I understand an idea of two 60 minute episodes and cutting it there. Still, it's lame and they could have easily done that about 30-40 minutes into the episode though. Oh but they had such great content before the party scene:

-A "date night" where the two people who entered the game as an established couple talked about the freaking game
-A challenge that had THREE commercial breaks and maybe was ok as a competition, but was very bad for tv.
-An advertisement for a castmate's terrible song

I've never been an Amber fan, but that club scene it felt like two mean girls in the corner. Then Big T joining the chorus later, when she's the one who threw a fit last season about her partner being excited about getting to pick the perceived best player in the game? If Berna and Esther want to talk about someone going on about their persona that they're nice, they ought to be looking at Big T too. I get that Amber doesn't mesh with some of these people, but the reaction just seems more than is warranted.

Tori actually called Kaycee of all people "unpredictable". Even if that was a misplaced confessional from after the fact and Kaycee does something "unpredictable" here, that doesn't come close to tipping the scales based on all the data points on Kaycee.

**Byrd** · 2021-09-16 01:51

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Scoring:

Spoiler: show

Challenger Scores to Date:

Spoiler: show

Standings:

Spoiler: show

Had some turnover in the standings this week.

**Byrd** · 2021-09-23 01:01

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Scoring:

Spoiler: show

Challenger Scores to Date:

Spoiler: show

Standings:

Spoiler: show

**Vil** · 2021-09-23 11:22

I rewatched the ~20 minutes of content from the previous episode before watching this. Disagree on Esther having good points. She did have "points" which is probably more than most people usually do, but they were not good arguments or blatantly incorrect. The people that have these issues all have the Fessy bias too. If there were neutrals like say... Kyle or Devin chiming in one way or another, that might be meaningful. However, the issue should be over with now. If any of them just say that she's irritating or they simply don't click with her, fine. It's basically a situation like Kendal last season. Don't try to make it bigger than it actually is, or distort the situation so much that you're assigning the blame on the wrong side/making it something that it's not.

At least they booted Fessy over this. I don't like rooting against him as a villain, because Fessy just sucks at that too. Some might call this a soft dismissal, but it's about on par with Nelson's a few years ago.

Kind of over Cory. Yes, Josh needs to control his emotions better, but this guy is basically there doing the "it's a prank, bro!" and acting like the stuff was about pizza. Didn't Cory go running to the other side of the house to find Josh after drinks had been thrown? I guess Cory couldn't manage to pretend to be mature for a third season.

Berna's journey continues to be incredibly negative. It's kind of comical at this point but also dirty as hell. Even though I find Emy extremely annoying, I found myself rooting for her when that matchup was made. Berna losing her best friend, then having her partner stolen was just too good an option.

Rage Cage sucks, but at least it's not Hall Brawl, right? It's uh... even narrower and the bell was raised up a couple feet!

Also, as enticing as it may be to partner with CT, like... when will one of these people stop this cycle?

**Moss** · 2021-09-23 11:50

I saw on Reddit that Wes tweeted that the girls only talk shit about amber because she won last season and they're jealous. It seems like one of those situations where you decide not to like someone so then you let every little thing they do get you worked up. Grow up ladies

I've really soured on Berna the past two episodes. Constantly trashing Amber and I can't give anyone who willingly dates Nelson much credibility

I love rooting against Fessy but was surprisingly a little bummed to see him go out like that. Also found him to be slightly sympathetic for the first time when he was apologizing to Josh and crying in confessional. I hope he comes back so I can keep rooting against him

Is it me or has this season been much more rookie focused for a longer period than normal? Maybe the rookie roster was larger than usual but I feel like almost none of the veterans have had to sweat the entire game so far. There are always people like Nany that can cruise for most of the game because they have friends, but it seems even more pronounced than usual and doesn't make for great TV honestly

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**Xno Kappa** · 2021-09-23 12:04

The wifey and I feel the same way about Berna. She’s become pretty bad the last few episodes to the point where we were actively rooting for Emy.

Esther was wack too. She was pretty much one of the catalysts early in the season for the rookies to cannibalize themselves and low and behold, she’s immediately knocked out the second she lost her shield in Fessy.

**Vil** · 2021-09-23 12:52

Is it me or has this season been much more rookie focused for a longer period than normal? Maybe the rookie roster was larger than usual but I feel like almost none of the veterans have had to sweat the entire game so far. There are always people like Nany that can cruise for most of the game because they have friends, but it seems even more pronounced than usual and doesn't make for great TV honestly

Yeah, it's a testament to how poorly (collectively) the rookies are playing. They had a small majority to start, something like 19-17 I think, but it's not even that they didn't take advantage of the majority, it's that almost every decision is terrible and perpetuates the position. The casting wasn't bad, it's just that they eliminated basically most of the ones with potential as actual "players". Jeremiah/Priscilla/Bettina - Fodder that are there around the midpoint. Emy/Hughie are simply trainwrecks. I'm not sure how good Logan's English is. So that leaves Berna, Ed, and Emanuel. I could see at least one of those guys making a deep run and they've tried to keep them relevant even when they're not in focus. Berna, I have no idea what they're doing with her, but until CT said something like she's got all these ideas I considered her more "competitor" than "player".

What I wonder is if they'll send the Brinks truck to Bananas/Wes/et al. to at least try to generate some interest in next season with how down this one has been (so far). Maybe it rebounds in the second half though. Lot of times, they'll have people making a deep run kind of quieter in the first half to not burn out the viewer, but it's like the entire vet population unless directly caught up in this moronic BB schism.

Thread: Challenge 37: Spies, Lies and Allies (Aug 11, 2021)

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