Challenge 38: Ride or Dies

**Vil** · 2022-12-21 20:32

"So Kaycee, are you sad about Kenny leaving?" "I mean, he's my BROTHER." Not sure that answers the question Kaycee, but nice try at feigning feelings and cycling through your automated responses.

You know on Survivor when people are losing their mind sobbing over someone getting a medevac the first week? I always find that ridiculous, but I think there's something there where they're more isolated in potentially some adverse conditions and all that stuff. Here, it's like they're on vacation and someone flew home the day before. Big deal.

Trivia needs to be put out to pasture. The phony TJ laughing, the confessionals, comments, and flashbacks about it. A buzzer that does nothing. A wasteland of a setting for that just to have extended segments where they're just spinning and farting. I just assume that some people threw that challenge so much that they ran out of questions. Some nerds out on the internet are probably crying about order of operations, but a math question? They really just wanted it over with at that point, huh?

I'm surprised they didn't try to keep covering for these phony ass pairs. Nobody believed that Faysal and his partner knew each other, and there's no evidence of anything with Jordan/Aneesa through a decade of him being on this show. The existence of some of these teams makes me appreciate some of these teams that I have questions about, but at worst fake it well/have chemistry.

Any other show, an unbreakable duo like Kaycee/Nany would be targeted so hard, but anybody that would be willing to do that would be upended by production protecting their investment somehow.

"Watching Amber I know she works best when she's pissed and she's..."

Say the line, Chauncey!

"BLINDSIDED"

New twist on the elimination. Not sure if that makes it better or not. Just adds another awkward shaped object that people are getting slammed around with.

People have touted Horacio as the rookie of the year but Olivia > him and Nurys >>>> both of them. Dude has been a great athlete, but he's a 0 outside of that, whereas those two ladies completely outshined him to this point. Disappointing to see Nurys go here. She was the best person on that team.

**Byrd** · 2022-12-21 23:33

Thoughts:

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Scoring:

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Standings:

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Challenger Scores to Date:

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**Vil** · 2022-12-22 00:17

So Faysal's team got 1 more question right after being asked 1 more question. That's hardly fair. Fucking game.

In the year 2022, I have 0 reason to believe that challenge worked how it was presented. The only things that I do trust are that they were asked trivia questions, Nelson got multiple ones correct, and that Faysal's team hit a point total that may have been 5. Anything else, like the amount of questions asked/goal/lead/score at any point I'm not going to bother trusting.

**Xno Kappa** · 2022-12-28 20:33

What the fuck was that ending lmao!?

I had to double check if Nelson had passed away after the filming of this season and I somehow never noticed. Is he getting his own show? This season has been so oddly fixated on him lol.

**Vil** · 2022-12-28 21:19

"I still consider Moriah my ride or die." - Faysal "Kaycee is my true ride or die" Shayfat
"You never asked me to do anything." Yikes. That she doesn't call him out for that immediately, I don't even know. She and Amber should be best friends. I get that Moriah has nobody else, especially on the other team except Bananas (lol), but still.

I think that Chauncey has completely coopted Amber B's (the B is for blindside/d) favorite word. She seems to be reverting to her other favorite "my man".

The challenge was fine, but might have been better if it were easier to miss? People could fall off, but it was going so slow that even Nelly spinning out of control hit the smallest one. A zipline thing might have worked, though this show is obsessed with unnecessary machinery, so we get this. "2 second difference" "rewatching the tapes" Yeah, more like deciding which team production decided would win this episode.

At least they picked the right team to declare the winner, because Horacio beating either of those two would have been a bad result for any hope of balance for the near future. This the point when I'm rightfully concerned a bit because there's 4 guys vulnerable and the 3 that I don't have are the 3 guys on the poster.

Interrogation again remains pointless in this phase. The only real important part seems to be the team discussion before/after the "interrogations" happen. Congrats to Devin putting in all that work of several handwritten pages to present the obvious plan that they would have done anyway. Not sure what % of that is him realizing it's a tv show or his need to feel like the smartest man in the room, but they've got 90 minutes to fill and the main challenge itself seemed to go by fairly quickly this week. The more time he spends with Tori, the cornier this guy gets. Speaking of Tori, I'd have taken her side with nearly all this Jordan stuff, but what the hell was that? And then what the hell was that from him?

Pulling the spears alone would have been fine as an elimination, but Faysal has like a 100% record for facing eliminations that at worst favor him a little bit. Goo Goo Dolls for Nelly/Olivia and I'm there thinking "Will Faysal try to swoop in and comfort her next week?" Maybe he'll hook back up with Tori. I encourage either... or both.

Nelson getting called back for TJ/Nurys, that's cold. TJ had his Jeff Probst attempts earlier in the season. Now the man is trying to be Phil Keoghan? You're not getting an Emmy, man. As much as I liked both of them this season, at least there wasn't another twist thrown in there. Those two and Jay/Michele really fumbled their power. Really unfortunate.

**Byrd** · 2022-12-29 19:04

Thoughts and Scoring for now, will update spreadsheets and standings later:

Thoughts

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Scoring:

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**Byrd** · 2022-12-30 01:08

Updated for Standings:

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Challenger Scores to Date:

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**Vil** · 2022-12-30 07:49

Headspace having like 2.5 months between losing his 1st and 2nd player is a hell of a run. That's a serious amount of survival points.

**Vil** · 2023-01-05 04:48

This "not eliminated yet" twist being such a dud is kind of amazing. Two actual stars of the season are gone during this phase, and the two most forgettable people this season hanging on. I get that it's more about giving their prize ponies a shot, but I just think back at some of the redemption houses in the past and this one is a snoozer.

Moriah not knowing that Faysal would go in, idk. This was a time that I appreciated Bananas sticking his head in someone else's business, because I don't mind people messing with Faysal like that. I would believe that she was just messing with him after how he's been since they were dividing up teams. I'd also believe that Bananas told her after the fact what had happened before with a tie and the confessional they showed last week was filmed after that.

Didn't need the extended cut of the puke montage and TJ's laugh. This is what happens when they've got 90 minutes to fill and nothing to really cover in terms of scheming, I guess. How many people are half-assing it in challenges when they're not on the line? Devin kind of went there in that confessional, but I wouldn't be surprised if others as blatant about not caring when it's not their "day".

Amber's emotional turmoil over pulling a dagger when she wouldn't even have to choose someone to save. It's stuff like this why everyone is always annoyed by you. Don't give them more reasons.

Did Moriah try to take a dive in that elimination? How the hell are you going to need to go back to check the letters when you already have FRIENDS on the board? The added twist of "you've got to hit the button". Since when do they have buttons for something like that?

**Byrd** · 2023-01-05 15:48

Episode 13 Thoughts:

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Scoring:

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Standings:

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Challenger Scores to Date:

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**Vil** · 2023-01-05 17:47

Faysal is just not quite shitty enough to portray the role of a villain, but he's certainly not a great dude.

Absolutely. But the thing is, if he leaned into it a little bit, it'd make a big difference. Rogan's one of the best examples from recent years about how it could be.

**Byrd** · 2023-01-12 00:08

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Scoring:

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Standings:

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Challenger Scores to Date:

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**Vil** · 2023-01-12 10:38

I'm at the point where I actually view Faysal as a comedy character. Yes, he's one of many people who need to have forced breaks from the series (probably middle of that pack for me) but viewing him this way has helped make him more watchable. A few seasons back (Double Agents, I think?) it was a running gag on the show that pretty much everything he said was wrong/proved wrong eventually. Here, he's a different kind of goof. You can look at the body language/reactions to the three partners showing up, but it's impressive how conceited the guy has been over the course of this season.

"If we have to compete together, then I like my chances."
-Narcissus, himself. I forget if that line was with her standing next to him, but it wouldn't surprise me if she was.

Lots of mixed feelings on that episode. Yay, a night challenge. Oh, it being at night isn't really that big a deal. The challenge itself was fine, but the way they worked it was screwy. This is a challenge like many that probably would have been better if done as the first challenge in the phase.

I've been pretty against many of "the classics" but they found a way to make Hall Brawl work this season and this was one of the better iterations of this elimination too. I think I had a similar reaction to Byrd about the dead ball call. Even Horacio's confessional during that, I assumed that him talking he was going to use his feet to kick the ball out of the ring, but maybe the rules like always were not explained well on tv. Also, are they "safe" once they get in the small ring?

The redemption challenge + the upcoming one both good ones. Kind of wish that the first one was just an eliminator and the 2nd one was to win back, but it's The Challenge, so have to do anything to possibly bloat the episode count, even when the season is running on fumes. That was episode 14. Nelson and Nurys are the only two people to have been eliminated since episode 8.

Going back to my initial point, I had a thought last night that it's wild how they depict that guy as "me me me". Then it hit me. Would they have the steal at the end of the season? All this to set up having the money taken from him, or for him to take the money and finally just him realize his potential as a Challenge villain? idk, hard to look past the concept of them gifting someone a lifetime achievement award this season, even if Bananas seems kind of quiet this season if he's winning again.

**Xno Kappa** · 2023-01-12 18:41

Holy shit at the juke moves by Horacio lol. I’m so glad him and Olivia are back together. Gonna be rooting for them to win it all.

Fun episode when it wasn’t focused on the contrived drama between Tori and Jordan. Seriously, enough MTV.

**Vil** · 2023-01-12 21:11

The drama went from "ok, she actually seems like a human being this season" to "enough about it". Having the same people that play the same game, this is all they can scrounge up for filler.

But the problem I've had with it as this season has gone on is that even though they can talk about how recent it is for them, it feels like it was a decade ago when they were a couple on this show. That's probably due to having like 3 or 4 spinoff seasons plus the 2-3 regular seasons in between.

**Byrd** · 2023-01-13 12:25

Initial All-Stars 4 cast list out, although still subject to change.

Very excited for this, great list. A lot of people I am excited to see, nobody I'm annoyed to see, plus my #1 all time Challenge crush:

5/10 NSFW:

Spoiler: show

**Vil** · 2023-01-13 19:33

That's exactly who I thought it was going to be (and I hadn't seen a list before clicking that).

Besides her, I'm here for Ace's redemption (that likely won't happen).

There's a lot that I don't want to see. Some I just don't want to see at all, some I've seen enough of recently, and others it's just "go do the main show, ffs"

Oh, and TJ. He's probably most tolerable on this specific show, but get rid of him or have him do these exclusively.

**Vil** · 2023-01-18 20:56

Faysal's stubborn insistence on sticking with that "but remember that time when you didn't protect me?" thing is actually impressive. My dude is going to keep that in his back pocket forever, and he plans to use that hook any time he can with belief that it has infinite uses.

Safety aside, this bus thing is a cool concept. Plus it's one where going early isn't as bad as it can be in others. I'd still want to go first because you know that bus was disgusting by the end. No way were they cleaning that.

Bananas was going to win that anyway. It's that time of the season where he will actually try, plus this memory/color thing is right up his alley.

Cool twist on reverse tug of war, but maybe not for this matchup. Oof. Poor Amber.

"I don't have a strategy coming into this." Oh well. 6th place team is pretty good for your rookie season, Chauncey.

As decisive as that was, at least it wasn't people trying to massive holes for hours and them trying to edit that for a tv show.

There's still going to be an obnoxious amount of references to Kaycee whenever Nany speaks, I'm just glad one of the gameplay roadblocks is removed. Tori-Aneesa is basically the same thing, but at least that's just two teams rather than tying up half the house.