BY DC CUEVA
■ @DC408Dxtr @ TW / IG / YT
Because this blogger was whisked off from his usual post of blogging on MTV reality TV to the world's greatest sporting event in the Olympics and last month's Winter Games in South Korea, it was only last week that DCBLOG finally got caught up on all the missed time working on posts covering the episodes that went down while I busy binge-watching the Games. And because of that and the usual format of episodes being backlogged a bit due to so much drama taking place - it's only here & now after all that we have seen in the past month on this show that we are reviewing the episodes and everything that's transpired during this time in Spain.
Ahead, and instead of the traditional Things to Know recap of just pointing out a few notable items from the week's episodes, on this Midseason Review we'll count down our five biggest moments of the past five episodes from Episodes 6 through 10 -- 1-on-1 battles, controversy and all, plus reveal our latest power rankings. It's all ahead as our trip Inside the MTV Trifecta continues.
THINGS TO KNOW: Top 5 Moments
VENDETTAS WEEKS 6-10
5 TONY'S EMERGENCE: We begin with a story that emerged midway through last season and has turned someone once called "the worst competitor" in the current crop of Challengers into one who's now a force. Back in Week 4 when he smoked everyone eating anything given to him at the hunger games, we discussed how a trip to the Dirty 30 Redemption House changed the fortunes of Tony... he has only since improved to the point where his old self has been left in the past and the momentum has been full speed ahead. The death-defying water challenge in Week 6 sees him put up a strong night that helps his team win that week and go into the Troika. The same thing occurs the next week in him being part of the winning side in the team puzzle the following week, and then channels his inner David Beckham by scoring an impressive strike in the soccer challenge to gain yet another Troika, which set the stage for last week's biggest moment... more on that shortly.
4 WHO WROTE THE NOTE? In Week 6 while Sylvia, Kam, Kailah & Marie were complimenting Syl's elimination win that turned out to be her swan song, things turn to a pink note containing some explicit info. The house begins to ponder, "Who Wrote The Note?" -- was it Marie who also had a second note pop up later on? Was it Shane despite him being shuteye when note #1 was left? Could it be Cara or Britni as a way to start some drama between their Blue room where they reside and where the first four above call home in the Red Room? Or perhaps, was it Bananas... or someone else? The following week -- and with plenty of viral promotion, the search rages on when Jemmye discovers more notes and the girls, like all of us, get floored a bit and find themselves as confused as we are. In the end, it is indeed Bananas who is the culprit, but it's something that went down before the show when his sister wrote them and used them as a way to stir the pot.
3 DEVIN vs. BANANAS: After the Week 9 soccer match, the losing Green Team had to vote one of their own into last week's elimination. After throwaway votes and the like, it came down to Kayleigh where common sense would say that she would vote for Bananas to go in because Nelson is part of Devin's AYTO alliance. But in a total head-scratcher and after she reveals Bananas as someone she can trust more in the game -- and with what would come out soon enough, she casts the deciding vote for Devin much to Nelson's surprise, and he tells the Troika that all he wants is a duel with Bananas in the Ring. The two have it out afterwards where Bananas tells Big D to not be a bully to the women like he was on his MTV debut, as things begin to ramp up towards a potential showdown.
Devin goes around the house to campaign for everyone to plead for Kailah, Tony and Zach to make Bananas one of the three candidates to be voted in, and the campaign succeeds in him being one of those three, joined by Nelson and Leroy - the ladder having not won a single challenge up to now... Bananas is surprised when he finds out about it, and Nelly and Big D enjoy his reaction to it. At the Inquisition table, Nelson makes note of Bananas & Leroy being aligned for as long as they have, as well as if this game would be a physical one any of the three would stand a chance, especially if his colleague beats the champ. The takeaway from this meeting is when Bananas tells Tony that if he says his name in the voting process, then he should watch his back like what happened to Sarah.
When the time comes, Leroy gets to sit back as Zach and Kailah vote in Nelson and Bananas, respectively, which leaves it up to Tony to cast the deciding vote. Beforehand, he says he's always looked to Johnny and takes note of Nelson being his Vendetta... but he feels that the game is more precedent than anything else in this environment and has to look out for his game: vote goes to Bananas and Devin's wish is granted for a game of memorization that takes Lite Brite to a grown up version and one of strategy that always equalizes things more than a physical game could.
For Bananas, he's always been one who's more speedy and looks to this game more straight-forwardly, while Devin sees the board as six separate sections which slows down in time but makes it more intricate. As their battle plays out, no one knows for sure who's winning, but for four-fifth's of the way Bananas appears to have proven that experience beats youthfulness. But his approach of going out fast and early begins to tire out enough for Devin to get back into contention. Big D's way of trying to figure out the last two columns of connecting them in a parallel line proves to be the difference, as he wins by just a few percentage points over Bananas. Tony fives the guy he granted his wish for this to happen, as "Slam Dunk" is redefined in the vocabulary and he gains a rival too.
2 BULLYING TAKES OVER: Those who watched Dirty 30 were exposed to the kind of things that will make people upset when something appalling takes place that leaves a sour taste in our mouths. The latest chapter of deplorable behavior comprises our #3 item that took place last week: in trying to get a leg up on his Vendetta and having bottled it up for some time, Devin tells Nelson that he was Bananas make out with Kayleigh, which leaves Nelly stunned and he begins to tell the girls about this rumor, including to the first one he tells in an upset Natalie, and then to Cara who confirms the kiss.
The ladies are left with shock on their faces, but they also come to the realization that Kay voting for Devin instead of Bananas is a strong point, which the champ feels are just shots at him to get voted in. For two who had a connection early on, Kay gets in Nelly's face about what went down, while Bananas goes to the guys and says that rumors are just rumors and shouldn't have any bearing on if he should go in.
When they go out, when Kay wants to sit with Kailah, Britni and a disturbed Natalie, the request isn't granted and Kailah begins to plot against the Welsh native by forming a group of mean girls to get at her. Upon going home, Kailah, Britni and Jemmye decide to go all in by bringing up Kay's bed and luggage down to the bottom floor from the staircase, and Kay responds by removing her heels and going up the stairs to get into it physically... only Nicole and Kyle have to prevent that from happening.
No doubt, words are being exchanged between them from a distance, and Kam goes up to Kailah to not turn this into quite literally a Bad Girls Club episode and gang up on her, but instead do this individually. Cara, Kyle and Leroy join Kayleigh to condemn the bullying actions of the girls, and that what Kailah, Jem and Britni did to avoid being branded as mean girls isn't cool.
And after going to the hotel for the night and then watching that elimination, Kayleigh announces that she is quitting because of the mean girls' actions... TJ Lavin takes no offense to it and lets her go off without any drama and him becoming a enraged dad to the bullying party... but not without the season's biggest house drama taking place.
1A MERCENARIES INVASION: Besides epic showdowns and big time drama, every Challenge season has twists and turns that you only can imagine in your dreams but you can always expect the unexpected to go down every week. That represents our top midseason moment of this Vendettas season, and which harkens back to what is no doubt the most famous moment in Challenge history: a man who wasn't on the Cutthroat season and one who hadn't been on a Challenge since slugging Adam on Duel II, CT deciding to treat Bananas as his own backpack when he came out of nowhere and left the Czech Republic with everyone having stunned faces upon leaving the Gulag that night. And this is so big of a deal, we're splitting this into 1A and 1B.
Week 7 sees TJ drop a bomb on the players when he announces that the week's challenge is a double elimination with one guy and one girl to be sent packing. After the puzzle challenge, the losing team must vote a guy and girl in, and they turn out to be Joss and Veronica. The Troika of Tony, Kyle and Nicole later concur in the deliberation room to vote in three guys and three girls: Shane, Nelson and Devin are named for the men, and Kam, Natalie and Kayleigh are named for the women. And Devin uses the Interrogation as a way to get into Natalie's head and rip her for playing it up to everyone in the house and just being nice to everyone when alliances are what everyone should worry about in the political game. When she tries to get back at him just by accusing him of bullying, Bananas then gets annoyed by him picking on his girl.
When they arrive in the Ring, it's no surprise and without any climax that after much dealing and ripping in the house that Shane and Kam are voted in, and everyone assumes that they would be the opponents for Joss and Veronica and the field would be trimmed by just two people. But then, TJ tells everyone that they won't be going one-on-one with each other and instead, they would be facing the Mercenaries. Definitions of that word: "a soldier hired to serve in a foreign army," and "a person concerned primarily with material reward at the expense of ethics."
In what will be the first of two such moments like this -- the other taking place tonight, Dirty 30 champion Jordan, his girl and last season's bronze medalist Tori, the man he defeated in the final Derrick, and Aneesa will face them in elimination. If they win their battle, then the players who are in the elimination go home in a race for two rings that form a figure 8, and whom they must wrestle it from their opponent, run back to their side, and be the first to reach two points and win.
Because Shaun White was ready to take for this 3rd and final run that ultimately gave him his 3rd Olympic gold medal at the same time this was going on, I actually tuned out when this elimination began and didn't catch the first half of this battle. But by the luck of the draw, first to go is Shane in taking on Jordan and while the Road Ruler notes that he's facing a celeb crush, competitively it turns out to become nothing less than an exhibition game as Jordan proves why he smoked everyone in the Dirty 30 final in sweeping away Shane.
For the first female matchup in Aneesa & Veronica - and things still be fresh from what happened on last season's reunion, Veronica suffers a pinky injury in the first round, and has to concede. For the other female battle, Kam is matched up against Tori and it's no surprise that having done two of these (Champs vs. Stars recently) that Tori goes out in front quickly. The blonde appears to perhaps close the door on the Queen until the Season 5'er puts her down and gives her a push and not score. Along with getting some coaching from Leroy on the side, that turns out to fuel Kam as she gets into her groove in being faster and physical and tiring out Tori in tying and then winning the battle.
1B JOSS v. DERRICK: But those three matches amount to merely undercard bouts to what turns out to be the main event once the dust settles. For someone who haven't heard of The Challenge as MTV's overseas channels don't air the show, Joss has absolutely no idea who Derrick is, and of how good he has been since we first saw the Bulldog a decade & a half ago. The Brit feels that given his size, he would smoke him, but instead of this being a matchup of some big and strong and someone small and just as strong, it turns out to be, as we saw above with Devin and Bananas, a battle between experience and inexperience, and heart and will, and as it turns out, endurance.
For Round 1, when the horn sounds Derrick goes off like a cannon and Joss tackles him while he's still in the air and when the Brit tries to get the figure off of him, the Bulldog tugs it in long enough for his overseas opponent to take him out of bounds. Round 2 sees the differences between them be put out there: Joss might be big, but Derrick has the ability to churn things out for the long haul and while that too also ends in a deadlock, D is the more energetic one in him trying to curse him out.
Round 3 sees Derrick continue to hold onto the figure while also being on the ground, which then sees Joss get up and drag him along and does what he can to rip out the 8 but then they find themselves on the ground again and like the first two, no one manages to get the first point. The 4th round sees them try again to see who can swipe the figure away and it appears Joss might get the breakthrough, but Derrick again pulls him out of the ring to keep the battle scoreless.
After an uneventful fifth tussle, the 6th one sees Derrick decide to do what CJ did in his battle with Zach on BOTS2 to get low, but Joss spots him in going for his leg to take him down and keep this thing at 0-0. Despite how brutal this match is going and how it long it's taking, Round 7 sees Joss sweep that leg and bring Derrick down to where he's dragging him along, and finally the Brit is poised to finally get a leg up on Derrick... only for the Bulldog to tackle him for another restart.
Tired like everyone else in the Ring, with safety becoming an issue at this point, and with Derrick's face being all muddied up, the game then shifts into Sudden Death mode: first to score takes the cake. Joss outsprints a jumping and desperate Derrick for the ring but despite that, once again things are still tied at nil apiece... which still stays that way for a 9th Round that doesn't even make air. In the 10th, Joss again makes his play but again Derrick forces a restart as a gash appears on his eye.
With tired legs starting to show up, Round 11 sees this go appear towards Joss' side of the ring and it appears both he and Derrick are out of bounds and they would go into a 12th round. Instead, a mental error by Joss sees Derrick take advantage of that, grabbing the figure and scoring on the other end to take the win, 1-0... a technicality deciding what was otherwise an incredible battle that adds to Derrick's Challenge history and gives Joss much more respect than he had going into this season.
For a more detailed breakdown of Joss vs. Derrick, check out the Allan Aguirre's blog on Medium.
POWER RANKINGS
TOP 6 AFTER 10
Without further ado, here's our latest power rankings... further explanations on why will be offered in the short term.
MEN
1. TONY
2. ZACH
3. DEVIN
WOMEN
1. NICOLE
2. CARA MARIA
3. KAM
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
And after all of that, that is all for this week's trip Inside the MTV Trifecta and The Challenge Vendettas. A reminder that we'll be along in a couple days with an acknowledgement of some life-changers that took place with not one, but FIVE members or alumni of Team MTV that took place this past weekend. We'll be back on here this weekend -- St. Patrick's Day weekend in fact -- to cover tonight's episode as well as this week's return of Winter Break Hunter Mountain, which now airs on MTV2 on Friday... now coinciding with when our weekly episode coverage begins.
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Again, enjoy tonight's Challenge and join me over on DCNOW at @DC408DxNow and join the chat at #DCChallenge. Thanks and talk to you all then.
- I AM DC
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