DC WRAP: The Challenge Vendettas - #Banatalie

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

As we you segue way back into the weekly grind, something to cheer about this Monday is that tomorrow, there's a new episode of The Challenge Vendettas airing. Last week saw another twist being revealed to the group in those who win elimination get more power than ever, plus a popular symbol these days being the theme of the week's mission, and two romances emerge as the house is getting fully settled into this game that keeps on changing by the minute.
   Coming up, Things to Know will recap the past two episodes, plus we'll look at that twist and two others which will sure make this game much more interesting than it was at this stage in the early part of Invasion. And what happens when Sparta meets a duo who goes on a heist? Stick around after the episode coverage on ExtraTime as a man with abs for days meets the stars of one of the first big movies of the new year which dropped this weekend.  All that is ahead.

 THINGS TO KNOW 

VENDETTAS - EP's 2-3

● BUBBLE BATH: First, the week 2 challenge sees the competitors got for a bath during a time where the only place to do that in January is either in Florida or in Australia where it is summer right now. Here, they will dive into a pit of wet foam, grab balls and climb up the slide which is a bit slippery like many of you are going through the snow. They'll put the balls into the basket with the goal to get to three and finish. In this guys elimination week, the girls struggle a bit with half of the field finding this to not be an easy one as it seems, but Britni proves that her rookie Dirty 30 season was no fluke as she takes the win, followed by Cara and Nicole. The guys' round moves along much quicker as Bananas bounces back from his poor Week 1 showing to win (and ultimately take Champs vs. Stars), followed by Kyle following Joss' Week 1 win by placing 2nd, and then Brad.

● TROIKA & THE RING: The three guys then form the Troika, who then choose their three choices for the cut to face Nelson in the Ring, after he finished last in a battle with Leroy to gain safety. Before nominations take place, Cory has a feeling that he might be nominated as does Devin, and word is that because of Bananas' ways anything can happen. Indeed in the deliberation room, Bananas does pick Cory, Brad opts for Tony, and they pick Victor on the premise that he won't make a dent to this game.
   Then comes the Inquisition dinner where Tony gets annoyed by the demeanor of the guy whose Twitter beef brought him back to this game, while Cory starts a rumor that five of the guys are on a mission to send him home early, though that rumor gets shot down. They and the rest of the group then go on the town to a local bar, where Cory and Nelson meet Kyle and before he goes and closes the deal with Cara, tell him that if he says Tony's name they'll be with him. And at that chamber, Bananas decides to go with Cory, and Kyle casts the deciding vote for Cory as well.
   For that elimination battle... it turns out to be as nothing more than a dud. Yes, it does involve the national pastime of Spain in the sport of soccer, or of course fútbol. But the brand of football for this first installment of The Ring won't make a case for Cory or Nelson to have a training session with Ronaldo at Real Madrid or Messi at FC Barcelona in the future, as a six-round shootout sees neither get the breakthrough goal, and Nelson comes away with the win to up his elimination mark to 6-1.

● MEET MELISSA: As Kyle tries to ask Nelson why he turned his back on him in the vote, Melissa is starting to make waves in the house. First, she and Britni go skinny-dipping in the pool and the Liverpooler asks Nicole to join in... and it then turns into a trip inside into the bathroom where they get to enjoy each other's company in a fun way as the Staten Islander is enjoying the single life again. This instantly attracts everyone's attention as Mel's flirting with Nic might help her along the way... but then she cuts her foot when she and a glass bottle meet while dancing on the floor, and it brings her to the next elimination as she can't compete in the week's mission over the water.

● HASHTAGS & BA-NATALIE: In that challenge, the players place hashtags on the posts of their opponents, where after four of them are placed on four different posts their time will stop, with the top guy and girl splitting $25,000 in four heats. In this guys' off week, this is a challenge that Victor is used to from his BB experience due to those HOH competitions emphasizing speed and balance and it's no surprise that he takes the win in his heat. But in the other male heat, it's where the man who wins shines when Devin proves that what happened last season was just a flash in the pan in him winning fastest guys honors, followed by Bananas who joins him in the Troika.
   In this girls elimination week, this challenge also gives favorism to the Big Brother world as Natalie relies on her gymnastics background to absolutely fly through to eventually notch top female honors and TJ's "You Killed It" seal of approval. In the other girls heat, Sylvia surprises everyone when she wins that heat, but perhaps the most startling part of this challenge comes in that first heat when, on her way to 2nd, Nicole pushes Alicia off the platform... one of the few falls we saw here.
   Since this all began, we have seen Bananas and Natalie flirt in his new life as a single man. In week 2, he talks to her about all the vendettas that brought him here with the hope that this will help him through this tough game, all as Victor shows concern that Bananas will target him now that she's getting close to the champ. After her win, Natalie's talks with Veronica and Kailah turns up to be a bit awkward as they think she's overplaying this game, and when she, Bananas and Devin deliberate they all agree to put Alicia in, plus pick Kam and Kayleigh for that rookie purpose. Big D comes to the realization that Natalie isn't playing this game as she should in being the nice girl, and their dinner with the nominated players sees things get tense with the girls. We'll see tomorrow night.

 STRATEGY ROOM 

VENDETTAS: HERE COME THE TWISTS

At certain points during each Challenge season, we at DCBLOG will unlock the keys to a place we like to call the Strategy Room, and take the opportunity to discuss the game as it stands right at this point. But unlike other sites which does this each week and true to the supplementary nature of this site, we won't be posting our first power rankings until the halfway point of the season, and it's only when we arrive at the starting line of the final much later on that we'll predict who should win.
   But something that was left out of that Things to Know section above is one that's worthy of being discussed on its own. Every Challenge season, each AYTO season, and recently on Real World, there are those Twists: something so big, so out of left field, so jaw-dropping that it quite literally changes the game and puts everyone on edge. From stealing all the money from your partner to having your exes come to the house to potentially losing money for blacking out, we've seen about everything.
   Last year, we saw the Champions rain on the Underdogs parade, then saw TJ tell the Dirty 30 that they were playing for $1 million like Ryan Devlin and Terrence J. have done on AYTO. After we saw the bank account reintroduced to this game after both many years and it being used on Devin's Second Chances win, we've got not one, but three major twists that will sure set the tone for the rest of the season and continue the plot of dirty gameplay we saw last year.

● TROIKA: For the daily challenges this season, the goal will be of not just finishing first and winning safety as well as netting $12,500 for their bank accounts, but rather it is of finishing in the top three each week. Those who do will join the trio known as The Troika, and they will have control of the game, who will then meet behind closed doors to deliberate and eventually nominate the three players who will be up for elimination to meet the one who finishes last in the week's challenge depending upon whether it's a guys' or girls' elimination week.

● INQUISITION: For those three players whose status are then revealed upon the players exiting out of the deliberation room like jurors ready to deliver their verdict in a murder case, the nominate players will then meet with the Troika at a dinner called the Inquisition. There, the players who are chosen will then get to petition to the power trio for safety and make their case that they should stay in the game and, in Cory's case, try to sway the vote away to someone else. It will make the dinner dates we've seen in past Challenges feel like kids' play compared to this part of the game, all before the Troika reveals who their pick is in a vote in the Ring before the elimination.

● GRENADE: The last time the word grenade popped up in the MTV vocabulary, it was on Jersey Shore... now its definition has been expanded a bit in that book. As much as the Troika gives a solid amount of power to those who win in the weekly challenges, the Grenade will offer incentive for those who win the eliminations a chance to answer back in a big way. Three options will be offered to whoever holds the grenade after winning in the ring: 1) they can take $5,000 from any player with money in the bank, 2) they can become part of the Troika after the ensuing challenge, or 3) they can send anyone straight into the Inquisition.

To me, I really like these twists. As we've seen in these first two weeks of them being in use, this will surely change the game and put everyone on edge because everyone came to this season with a vendetta and now if they win in elimination they will definitely put their enemy on alert to possibly face the music. The players will be focusing on not just trying to win money for their bank and stack up all the winnings like Devin did down under last year, but also try to get into the Troika and hold power because, after all, it's nice to be the one who can control the game.
   But this also makes the choices of these players much more magnified because if the one they put into the ring wins and returns to the game, then they will definitely feel the heat and that is something that we will keep our eye out all season. That's definitely the most intriguing part of this twist in seeing someone get their revenge right on the spot in this game and will surely make those dinner nights all the more juicy.

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 #DCExtraTime GRAM SCAN 

DEN OF THIEVES MEETS THAT AYTO STUD

Awards Season in Hollywood is already in full swing as the Golden Globes took place two weeks ago as this year's gala took on a more serious tone than usual. This comes as #MeToo and #TimesUp has become everywhere after many a career in entertainment and media were shot down in flames by sexual harassment charges. The Critics Choice soon followed, and last night was the Screen Actors Guild Awards as the ones who bring us the very best on our screens honored their own. Of course, the Oscars and the Grammys will soon follow, which brings us to this bit of ExtraTime and two guys who've won awards and now are in the same film together.

In a movie year which will see another chapter in the Star Wars saga, a sequel to Jurassic World and several Marvel films drop over the next 12 months among others, this weekend the year's first high-profile movies arrived in theaters. One of them is Den of Thieves, a heist action thriller starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as one of three highly-sought after criminals intent on robbing a Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Los Angeles, and Gerard Butler as a top County Sheriff Deputy aiming to stop him and the thieves in their treks. Ice Cube's son OMG also stars in the film after playing his dad a few years ago in Straight Outta Compton, as will Liev Schreiber's half-brother Pablo.
   Den of Thieves comes almost fifteen years since 50 arrived in the big time with "In Da Club" and Get Rich or Die Tryin', which made him the top dog in hip-hop surpassing his mentor Eminem. He then expanded his empire to include film, TV including Power on Starz and MTV's The Money & The Power, and now calling Mike Tyson's old mansion his home. Last week, Power won Outstanding Drama Series at the NAACP Image Awards, and 50 got to spend time with Steve Harvey when the man infamous for that Miss Universe blunder celebrated his birthday on his daytime talk show. And as the film drops, the legendary beef between 50 and Ja Rule has been reignited.
   The Scottish-born Butler has been acting since the '90s including a small role in James Bond's Tomorrow Never Dies, but him appearing in a Tomb Raider film with Angelina Jolie, The Phantom of the Opera, How to Train Your Dragon and 300 saw him gain much recognition. This includes his only major award in his house: that always precious golden popcorn bucket in an an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight in 300.

The last time we saw Michael from Are You The One? Season 6 was last month on the reunion after that Patriot-esque comeback and after he got to once again come face to face with his match Keyana and the ones he hooked up with. Continuing a streak that saw him hang out with Fergie during AYTO premiere week followed shortly after by having a workout with Neil Patrick Harris -- and straight off of what went down in New Orleans, Michael once again got a call from Bravo's Andy Cohen to hang out in his clubhouse for Watch What Happens Live.
   Along with hanging out with Steve, Mr. P.I.M.P. and Gerard got to talk to Andy about Den of Thieves and also was asked about where the Scottish actor had sex at, thoughts on Jay-Z's latest album and the half-million offer 50 got from the President. Michael (extreme right above) fittingly captioned on Instagram, "THIS IS SPARTAAAAA!", while his friend who tended the bar behind them on the set, Sean (on the left), added, "If you zoom in close enough, you’ll notice that I accidentally touched Gerard Butler with my exposed nip 😐 sorry about that Mr. Spartan... on another note, wassup Fiddy 💎💸 #WWHL".

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And on that note of seeing that stud having his shirt off when it's really cold outside, that will bring our WRAP for this week to an end. There is more to be had from The Challenge week that was, and here's where you can find more discussion from the webcast world as well as some articles too.
● As they continue covering this Vendettas season as only they can, Challenge Mania with Derrick K. (@DerrickMTV) & Scott Yager (@AShotAtYeger) kept bringing the goods when they were again joined last week by two big guests. First, after his girl joined them a week earlier, Dirty 30 champion Jordan joined the duo to discuss the road that brought him from the Portland Real World house to beating the Bulldog on Challenge XXX. Then, fellow Road Rules alum Veronica hopped in to chat up about her return to Challenge world, working behind the scenes in reality TV and everything else in her comeback year. Check out those interviews and so much more on Podbean and iTunes, and follow the guys on Twitter for info on their next shows.

● Following last week's episode, Drew Scott and his newly-titled Reality Bites Podcast with friend Lowell welcomed Marie and Kayleigh as they discussed this season through three episodes. But they were hardly the only girls the hosts got to talk to as that all-time Queen herself, several-times vet and The Miz's fellow Real World Back to New York roommate Coral Smith joined the pod to discuss her Challenge career in a two-part special. Listen to those and other podcasts at teamdss.libsyn.com.

● Another controversial Challenger and Real World'er, Frank from Back to San Diego, joined the Hedrich Files and their Rotten Bananas Podcast as discuss life after MTV and his MTV career including what happened on that Rivals II reunion. Listen to their chat on SoundCloud, plus him talking to The Brain Candy Podcast's premium offering on Patreon, where Susie & Sarah talked last week to RW Austin's Johanna.
● For the lady who has to see her ex on this Challenge, Brad's ex Tori Hall joined Reality Steve to discuss what happened to their seemingly perfect marriage after their Cutthroat win and everything else you want to know from her. Check out that interview on RealitySteve.com - the first with any webcast, plus her exclusive interview with US Weekly from over a week ago and the other side of the story with Brad talking to the Chicago Tribune.
● The bible of everything pop culture, Rolling Stone magazine, got to interview one of the patriarchs of MTV reality TV, Challenge and Real World co-creator Jon Murray, on the enduring success of The Challenge plus he gave a hint about what the future for the reality original. Check out that interview there plus posts on Real World from during Ex-Plosion and an appreciation of Floribama Shore after its successful first season.

● Check out Rob Has A Podcast with host Ali Lasher (@LashTweets) and, subbing for a vacationing Brian Cohen, Johnny Langan (@JLangs22) as they discussed last week's episode which you listen to on RHAP, plus check out the latest Challenge recap from Ace Nichols (@AceNichols33).

● And lastly, Andrew Kirk (@CSUGradAKirk) was joined once again but for just a brief time by Marie as they discussed the first three episodes of this season on his YouTube channel, including an exclusive bit of tea that you gotta check out. Because of matters and her being sick, they will resume their chat in an expanded webcast at a time to be determined.

Speaking of Andrew, as you know I have been promoting our long-promised 2017 Reality Debrief since last month and even before that. If you checked out his Periscope, he's been busy with other things outside the Trifecta and haven't been doing much... hence, it hasn't been posted just yet along with the supplemental 2017 Awards. But that doesn't mean that post will be dead, and never have I had to cancel an entire post because of its lateness of being posted well past its intended deadline or having something else take precedent.

   Because of this, as I announced on Twitter over the weekend, I will be moving the Debrief to the first weekend of February while most of our attention will be on the Super Bowl. But we do promise it will be posted... there's a lot that took place last year and it is more than worthy of being discussed before we finally put a bow on 2017. Our hope is that this doesn't get pushed even further but we would never cancel it altogether because we would never leave that year without reviewing it. So, as we say, "Bear with us"… we'll have it all covered for you then.

As for right now, we'll be back on here next week, or at best on Friday night for posts in relation to tomorrow night's episode, with a bonus ExtraTime on Johnny Bananas and his Special Olympics friend Matt to come during that wave, but as always the schedule is subject to change due to the ever-changing nature of the blog business.
   If you're new to this site, be sure to bookmark DCBLOG for our distinctive and incisive look at the MTV Trifecta from our exclusive Pulse of the episodes to our ExtraTime stories and our reviews of the episodes. Make sure to share our links on your favorite social media platforms to help spread the word to your fellow fans and let them sample our outstanding content and one-of-a-kind look at your favorite shows. And let yours truly know about my work by dropping a line at @DC408Dxtr, in the comment boxes here and via email.
   For now, that is how we see it Inside the MTV Trifecta. See you tonight for Siesta Key on DCNOW at @DC408DxNow, tomorrow for Vendettas, and of course Thanks and see you then.

- I AM DC