The Challenge: Rivals – Episode 2 RECAP after the jump.
This week’s installment starts with some good old-fashioned party time. Everyone is getting sloppy when Evan, Kenny, Wes and Johnny – heretofore referred to as Team Meat Head – think it’s a great idea to move a giant stone swan into Mandi’s bed. It takes all four of them to move it, Mandi gets a nice little surprise and then runs to CT for some help. And CT SINGLE HANDEDLY moves it – if that’s not a metaphor for the whole “CT against the world” theme this show has hammered home, I don’t know what is. Also, Mandi wants to bone CT, so look out for that in the not-so-distant future. This also causes Wes to admit that even though his own body “looks like a Greek God”, CT is indeed the biggest and strongest competitor in the game.
Tyrie still likes Jasmine, and visa-verse, so when two Magnum condoms are stolen from Tyler (“Those things are expensive!”), they are obviously found with Tyrie and Jasmine, post-coitus. Jasmine notes that it’s nice having a challenge-boyfriend since she’s missing her boyfriend at home…OK, wait. So Jasmine thinks that after all this messing around she’s actually going to have that boyfriend when she goes home? Well that’s just adorable.
Mike is already boring people with his intellect. God-forbid they have even one intelligent conversation or their head might explode. Davis comments that because Mike is so nice, everyone thinks he’s a big joke, and that’s just not the way it works. Evan says Mike has a lame haircut and that he’ll be looking out the window of a plane REAL soon.
Two things: Being smart and nice are terrible things – if you want friends, it’s much better to remark on people’s appearance and lift heavy things into the beds of others. Also, all this shit-talking on Mike is a very clear indicator that he will in fact NOT be going home soon, but will use that intelligence to probably do very well in the upcoming challenge. MISDIRECT!
This week’s challenge: “Car Crusher” – each team sits in the cab of a track-hoe, one on the lap of the other. One steers the machine while the other steers the bucket. They must use the track-hoe to pick a car out of a line of many, move it across a field, crush it, and slide it under a limbo-like crossbar. If any part of the track-hoe goes out of bounds, if the car is lifted off the ground, or if the crossbar is knocked off, then the team is DQ’d. Because Jonna and Jasmine won the challenge last week, they get to pick the order. And here’s the shocker, everyone is realizing that it’s better to be smart than strong for this challenge – so guess who’s going to have the advantage…
The teams compete in pairs with Brandon-Ty and Johnny-Tyler going first. Brandon-Ty get DQ’d for lifting the car and Ty graciously takes the blame. Fun fact: he the first and only person to own up to his mistakes this whole episode. Johnny-Tyler finish just fine. Camile-Theresa finish with a great time while Mandi-Jenn are DQ’d for going out-of-bounds. And then we get a nice little respite from the competition and are treated to Wes, seemingly out of no where, come up with the “idea” to just completely shit on CT later on that day. His great idea? “Wouldn’t it be amazing to just call him out tonight? Like, ‘You’re a bitch, learn your life, grow up, go get a job.’ Man, that would be AMAZING!” Seriously, and Wes is the one constantly shitting on Kenny for his intellect, huh?
Back to the challenge at hand: Evan-Nehemiah finish OK while Wes-Kenny are eliminated after literally 10 seconds for going out-of-bounds. I have one word for that: HA! Jonna-Jasmine do pretty well, but are DQ’d at the last moment for knocking over the crossbar and Sara-Katelynn are also DQ’d for going out-of-bounds. CT-Adam go next and make it look easy. CT mentions his need to win every challenge because otherwise he will be going into the Jungle each and every challenge. He’s not wrong. Cara Maria-Laurel are another last second DQ on account of the crossbar while Ev-Paula do very well. Paula also wins the award for best line of the night by comparing the track-hoe to a tiger…that is having seizures. At this point I had to rewind because I lost some time picturing Paula riding on the back of a tiger as it goes into epileptic shock. Mike-Leroy are last and Mike uses his mind-muscles to lead his team to a very good time. But is it good enough to win?
The answer is no. No, it is not. Instead, that honor goes to CT and Adam, effectively saving themselves from an almost certain future filled with all sorts of Jungle. For the girls, Eva and Paula just edge out Camila and Theresa to bank $2000. On the losing side for the guys is Wes and Kenny. TJ gets in a good jab at the two of them: “I know you wanted to skate by relying on your friends…not this time.”
At the deliberation, Kenny and Wes are like the Kings of the Castle, just calling out exactly who they would like to see in the Jungle, while thinly veiling their douchebaggery by “graciously” asking Tyrie and Davis if they’d like to just volunteer instead of going through the whole process of voting. Tyrie would rather skip the vote so he can drink instead. A real all-star, that one.
At this point, while I’m not absolutely sure that Tyrie and Davis are going home, I have a pretty good feeling about it. Why? Because of all that stuff with he and Jasmine liking each other all of a sudden. If this show brings in a relationship with secondary characters (because that’s what these people are), it’s to give a bit more punch when one of those two people goes home soon after. It gives the viewer a bit more rooting interest, you might say.
Wes and Kenny are off meditating with Nehemiah, and it’s pretty comical. Then Jonna and Camila start a big to-do for the lamest possible reasons. In a nutshell: Jonna doesn’t like Camila because she thinks that Camila thinks she is better than Jonna and because Camila likes attention – Camila calls Jonna “Jasmine” by mistake – Jasmine yells a lot because she is sticking up for Jonna – Theresa sticks up for her parner and yells back – Jasmine punches a mirror because she is from Atlanta.
At the Jungle: EVERYONE is freaking out because EVERYONE likes Wes and Kenny. If they go home it will be a “bombshell” and “split the game wiiiide open”. And again, thanks to the super-clever misdirect on the part of the editors, we are now privy to the fact that Wes and Kenny will be absolutely safe (see: Mike’s brains v. brawn in the challenge earlier).
The elimination challenge is “Blast Off” – teammates are tethered together, side-by-side, and face their opponents. The are in a circle and at the whistle they must charge at each other and push the opposing team outside said circle. The first to push the other team out three times wins. Tyrie tells us that he used to play college football so he will have the advantage, but we know better. Good luck anyway, Tyrie and Davis!
Round 1: Tyrie comes out strong, but Wes and Kenny take it anyway. Round 2: Wes and Kenny again, this time much easier. We break so Davis can tell us he doesn’t want to hurt his pretty face and then – Round 3: Wes and Kenny pull out the win that was actually decided long, long ago. Tyrie says he’ll miss Jasmine. Jasmine says she will not miss him at all as he was just a distraction this whole time. Ouch, that girl is rough. Finally, just like in the first episode, this one is rounded off with some talk about how everyone dislikes CT and he is an island all by himself forever and ever. And again I will say about all this CT build-up – there is a story line slowly brewing here, and when it finally all blows up, I’m hoping it will be very epic in nature.
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
- Was Mike really talkign about wanting to start a crop-seed business?
- “You don’t roll up on me! I’m from Houston! We don’t play that! You will get cut!” – Jasmine mid-fight.
- Team Meat Head likes Adam just fine and wants to help Adam out. Wait, what? I know you have been coined “Team Meat Head” (by me, sure, but whatever), but guys, Adam is partners with CT, who you hate…how do you plan on keeping any of these promises? Do you know about a secret partner-switching twist no one else is privy to?
- Wes isn’t impressed that Tyrie played college football. He’s good at everything and can beat up every college football player he has ever known, so there.
- They may not have taken first this week, but rookie guys are proving to be pretty strong early on between this and last week’s showings at the challenges…
- ….though it looks like that will change next week based the scenes for next week.
