DC WRAP: Are You The One? S5 - Episode 3

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

Welcome on back to DCBLOG as we continue looking at Episode 3 of Are You The One?. Yesterday, we brought you the 'Pulse of the episode as Tyler became the latest heartbreaker in the house, plus an awkward date take place with Joey, Carolina and her new crush Ozzy after the Brazilian hooked up with the Costa Rican after blacking out with the former. And the cast fought their way back from the disaster of the Week 2 matchup to garner four beams at the matchup.

   Because of our focus on our preseason Challenge posts, we'll be scaling back on our AYTO Wrap posts in tabling our Things to Know episode recap to an extended one next week. But ahead, we'll have the particulars of Week 3 and take a brief trip to the Strategy Room to see what the cast might do this coming week in the quest for the cash. Then after the fantasy scoring, we'll let you in on the newest romance taking place with two fairly recent Trifecta alumni. Join us next.

 STRATEGY ROOM 

AFTER THREE...

Nothing can decimate the vibe in the Are You The One? house like what Team 22 endured last week when they garnered a blackout. Even more crushing: they lost $500,000 of their $1 million jackpot, instead of $250,000 the past two seasons as the penalty is now half their pot. There have been five times that a cast didn't pick up a single light at a matchup ceremony, and in all instances the group got back up and won the cash.
   This week - and in spite of the love squares and awkwardness that happened in the house, the cast got four beams and up two over how they began this season two weeks ago, and as you can see from our chart below - three of the picks were from Week 1. Tyranny & Osvaldo, Kam & Eddie, Gianna & Ozzy and Casandra & Jaylan picked each other the first time out, and after the train wreck we had last week it's a good bounce back as they went back to what worked that week.
   Because only two of those matches worked that first matchup, there's still in essence eight beams to work with, and the cast has to see among these four Week 1 pairs who the two might be, plus see who those two new beams are as well. My guess is that Kam & Eddie should be one of them, and I feel they should stay together at matchup until they get sent into the Truth Booth and see if they head to the Suites. Other than that, there's no idea of who the three others might be, but they can sleep easy knowing they're back on track.

WEEK 3 (Girls' Pick)

Kathryn & Joey

Tyranny & Osvaldo

Casandra & Jaylen

Kam & Eddie

Shannon & Tyler

Carolina & Hayden

Gianna & Ozzy

Alicia & Mike

Taylor & Michael

Kari & Andre

Hannah & Derrick

►FOUR BEAMS

Italics denote repeat pick from week 1

Now, the result of my only Twitter poll from back on Wednesday:

Did the house botch the chance to make a 
Truth Booth Trade after their Week 2 blackout?
● YES, should've taken 150k    53% 
● NO, it was a wise choice       47%
  OUT OF 17 VOTES

As for the Truth Booth Trade-In, did the cast make the smart decision to stick with Ozzy & Carolina? Given that after what the house had to endure, it would've been the desperation play to take the cash, but do give the group credit to take that gamble on them and see if the lights had their way - which may have not but was a wise choice. In the end, they should've taken the money because they needed something good after the Week 2 events.
   At the quarter-mile pole, Team 22 are on pace with Seasons 4 with four lights, ahead of both Seasons 2 and 3 who had three and Season 1 who had two after 3 weeks. Entering week 4, Season 5 now have something to work with. Their assignment coming into this should be of figuring out which two of the week 1 beams are correct, and who the two new ones are. Who knows? The right week could put the cast in a position no cast has ever been after four weeks: none of the four previous casts have been at five lights or better before the season's halfway point. And if they can get a Truth Booth match, they could be on the way to closing matters fairly early.

 FANTASY TRAX

Now, the first look at the Fantasy Scoring from MTV.com...

►WEEKLY POINT SCORERS
   1. CAROLINA: 90 Points
   2. OZZY: 55 Points
   3. JOEY: 50 Points
   4. KATHRYN: 40 Points
T-5. HAYDEN and KARI: 20
T-7. Three tied at 5 Points 

►TOP 10 TOTAL SCORERS
   1. CAROLINA: 100 Points
T-2. ANDRE and JOEY: 70 Points
   4. OZZY: 55 Points
   5. ALICIA: 50 Points
T-6. KARI and KATHRYN: 45 Points
   8. HAYDEN: 40 Points
T-9: Three tied at 25 Points

►THE WEEK'S NOTABLES
● CAROLINA: Carolina earns 90 overall points: 40 Competition points - 15 for going on the date with Ozzy, an extra 5 for winning the getaway challenge, and 20 for being chosen for the Truth Booth, plus 15 Romance points for hooking up in the pool with Ozzy. She also earns 15 Drama points for being called a thot/ho, and 15 more for crying three times (5 each)...taking her to the top of the overall points standings at 100 points.
● OZZY: Ozzy earns 55 overall points: 40 competition points and 15 romance points for all the above reasons with Carolina.
● JOEY: Joey earns 50 overall points: 20 competition points - 15 for going on the date with Keri and 5 for winning that challenge. He also receives 15 points in both the romance and drama categories - hooking up in the confessional with Kathryn, and having a meltdown after yelling at Carolina. He's tied with Andre with 70 overall points, best among the guys.
● KATHRYN: Kathryn earns 40 overall points: not only for the Joey hookup above but 20 competition points - 15 for going on the date with Hayden and 5 for winning that challenge, and another 5 for crying after their blackout.

● 20-Pointers: Hayden and Kari earn 20 competition points for their related challenge & date wins with their respective partners.
● Others: Gianna, Shannon and Taylor earn 5 competition points for crying.

•     •     •

 #DCExtraTime 

EXCLUSIVE: HERE'S ANOTHER COUPLE...

Part of what makes DCBLOG's MTV coverage unique is that we strive to bring you stories from this world you won't find anywhere else, or at best beating other media outlets to the story whenever something that might come up takes place. This week provides us a chance to let you in on something that's brewing among two recent MTV alumni and once again tells you how small the world of the Trifecta community really is at just short of 500 overall former & current cast members.

   Before episode 3 on Wednesday, we brought you the words from Are You The One? Season 4 perfect match Cameron and Mikala after their breakup last week that left their fans heartbroken and with a lot of questions. And after seeing Stephen, Julia and Tori go through postseason romances of their own after leaving Hawaii last summer, another member of their cast has now settled down... in a big way and with a member of the most recent Real World season.

On our 2016 Debrief, Andrew Kirk and I discussed a little bit about Giovanni, who we saw have a good vibe early on but then evolved into what we've seen the likes of Devin, Layton, Tyler of this season, Bananas, Jenna of RW Go Big and Peter on Bad Blood among recent examples: the unaccustomed role of becoming in the public's eyes the least-liked members of their cast. Early on, we saw him play Kaylen after they discussed the possibility of getting married at the second matchup, then get close to other girls in the house to make the L.A. resident feel jealous. On this week's After Show, we saw Kay for the first time since the finale and where she and host Terrence J. also discussed some of that chaotic relationship. And if things on the grapevine are right, we might hear from them again soon.
   As those two were discussing him on that stage with Joey and Taylor, at the same time Gio was in Chicago sparking the Trifecta's next crossover relationship, fueled by some affection he showed to her on Twitter. This week, the Wolf traveled from his home base of Connecticut to the second city of Chicago as he had the chance to meet Jordan from Real World Bad Blood. Most recently there in Seattle, she got to know AYTO Season 3 alum Mike and they were the closest in the house until his departure after finding himself under the microscope following racial remarks midway through the season. As we all know, Mike flew home to New York and instantly became romantic with Gio's castmate, and the girl who murdered him in the famous house rap battle - Tori. They stayed together until just after that Real World season began airing and her finding out about Mike's romantic ways.
   In recent weeks, Gio tweeted his affection to Jordan and upon them meeting in Chicago he posted on Instagram, "Golden Barbie ❤️." On there - for which we've embedded a video of them kissing by the Chicago river, a very interested castmate who had just gone through that other Bad Blood/Beam Team relationship of her own, and ironically was dating the man who had just cheated on her, was over the moon about it:
- @tori_deal: "I'm fucking dying If this was a tweet I'd retweet the shit out of it 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 😍❤😍❤"
- @jordiedanielle: "🙈😘 😘😘😘"
- @itsall_abouttee: "❤️❤️❤️ I'm so happy you're happy friend ! Y'all look so good together !"

Golden Barbie 😏

A video posted by Giovanni Rivera (@ftwgr) on Jan 25, 2017 at 11:51am PST

And just as he did with Kaylen during his AYTO season, this part-time musician showed his musical affection for Jordan by creating the following track on Instagram. As always, stay tuned to see where this relationship goes and make sure to give us credit. Of course, you saw it here first at DCBLOG.

T & 'RI - REUNITED (and Featuring Nicole)

Twitter @TeaTimeWithToya

Finally, tomorrow DCBLOG will kick off our coverage of The Challenge: Invasion with our season preview, the first of three preseason posts to come your way here as we lead to February 7th. Of course, expect us to cover this new Challenge from head to toe and everything in between in our unique style and essential mix. But to take us there to that new season, this past week three Underdogs got together for some advance hangout time.
   As discussed in that aforementioned Debrief, a group of people Andrew & I often cite as key in our development as fans of the MTV Trifecta, and now those who cover them for this site and his webcasts, are the cast of Real World St. Thomas. The both of us still have fondness of our first summer covering the MTV world together back in 2012, and while that Real World might not have been as drama-filled as most other seasons, the fan friendliness of Trey, Robb, Laura, LaToya, Marie, Swift and Brandon really made the season and allowed us to earn those early stripes. The day of the premiere of June 27th was, of course, my first day on Twitter and the day after was when Andrew began doing regular webcasts when Toya joined him and Trey called in to surprise her.
   It's obviously no secret that we are anticipating Team St. Thomas' return to our TV screens this winter, and someone we're also forward to watching is another Staten Islander - Nicole, who we saw on Skeletons two years ago and has that good vibe as well. And as the trailer dropped back on Monday, Marie, 'Toya and Nicole all got to hang out for the first time since filming that season, and their photo is located above. All three will, in a way, be subjects of blog posts we have planned for this new season that I'm beginning to work on in prep for this season.

▪   ▪   ▪   ▪   ▪

And that will do it for this week's AYTO posts - again truncated this week. As you all enjoy this Sunday Funday, there are plenty to discuss across the Trifecta, and here's a sampling...

● Check out AfterBuzz TV and their MTV podcasts including Are You The One? After Shows, where so far Andre, Ozzy, Taylor and Hannah have joined the panel to discuss everything going on in the house. Check them out at AfterBuzzTV.com.
● Earlier this month, Candy Dish - a podcast that usually discusses my mom's favorite show of The Bachelor - got to talk to Devin from AYTO Season 3 and Rivals III, or as they like to call him "MTV's most lovable jerk," as they discussed those two seasons and his thoughts on the new kids. Check out that podcast here.
● Fans like you help fuel the conversation of these shows, and two fan podcasts have been created by two duos who are fans of Are You The One? The Truth Booth and The Perfect Match Podcast.

● For those of you Challenge fans, this past week The No Quitters Podcast completed the JEK dynasty triple and chatted it up with Evan and Kenny as they discussed their Challenge history and what's ahead on this upcoming season. Check out that interview here, as well as the chat Bananas had on that site after Rivals III.
● For the other side of the story, the Kickin' It Podcast featuring Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan talked to Sarah about what happened at the end of that last Challenge and all else, which you can listen at this link.
● And lastly, check out the MTV RHAP with Brian Cohen, Ali Lasher and Adam Buongiovanni, where any combo of the three discuss Are You The One? and soon that new Challenge season, all at RobHasAPodcast.com.

With our usual reminder to follow this site for all things MTV Trifecta, later tonight DCBLOG will kick off our Challenge Invasion coverage with our season preview post of looking at the cast and what to expect, along with a 'Pulse Extra too. That's just the start to our preseason coverage of that new season, with our Who Are These Newbies? look at this season's rookies and returnees, and our Strategy Room discussion also to come in the next week or so
   It's not too early to send in your questions for our next discussion or suggestions of who I want to bring on - or to also reply for my Forum discussion series during the season, which you can do so on Twitter @DC408Dxtr and using my own hashtag for all related Challenge material: #DCChallenge.

   And this is a big sports weekend as this is being posted here with lots of events too many to mention, and tonight I plan to do live tweets of some of the events on DCNOW @DC408DxNow, the live tweet hub for yours truly. And be sure to follow me on all of my social media platforms.

Thank you for joining us for this week in AYTO, and make sure to rejoin us tonight when our coverage of the MTV Trifecta continues on DCBLOG. Until then, enjoy your Sunday.

- I AM DC