@DC408dxtr
It's the first Monday of November - which also happens to be my birthday month too and it's happening in less than two weeks from now. But, it also means tonight is episode 5 of Are You The One? II in Puerto Rico. Now if you're a regular DCBLOG visitor and check out my SocialPulse diaries, then you've noticed that I didn't include episode wrap-ups for either episodes 3 or 4 from the past two weeks. That's because of me being into the World Series, the start of the NBA season and Thursday's premiere of Slednecks, and because I didn't want to get back-tracked in posting the articles in having to compile the complete twitter journal and then struggle to write an episode wrap after while I'm caught up in Giants mania, that's where this comes in.
When we last did theWRAP for AYTO, it was episode 2 and that was where we found two of the singles catch themselves in a love triangle. We found out some valuable and juicy scoop on some of the housemates, and that girl who entered the house as the last one in was finally put into the truth booth, but after all that, #Team21 was still in tact. What we didn't know at that time was something crazy was about to start happening.
For episode 3, tears were abound when Shelby decided to being to an end that aforementioned love triangle of her, Nathan and Dario. The Brandon & Christina Show would begin to ultimately become Brandon & Christina featuring John as the law student looked at potentially becoming another triangle. And the house found out there's someone with a vCard living in Puerto Rico.
For episode 3, tears were abound when Shelby decided to being to an end that aforementioned love triangle of her, Nathan and Dario. The Brandon & Christina Show would begin to ultimately become Brandon & Christina featuring John as the law student looked at potentially becoming another triangle. And the house found out there's someone with a vCard living in Puerto Rico.
And then last week in episode 4, we saw a drunken mishap threaten to bring down the house's strongest couple, while Anthony take a shot at one part of a house triangle and John made his move on Christina. And after receiving the best news they've gotten so far, they are then dealt the most brutal hand the show has ever given in its short life.
And after theWRAP of what might be, other than the season 1 finale the best episode of the two seasons of AYTO, we'll elaborate on a key talking point in Puerto Rico, and talk about who from this show could make an impact on what many call the "5th major pro sport." Join me after the jump as we recap episodes 3 and 4 of Are You The One?.
theWRAP: Episode 3
We'll start things off with Episode 3, and after what happened at that last matchup where they were stuck at two matches, Jenni has been in a triangle with Layton and Jessica. But is it about to follow in Scali, Jacy. John and Simone and become a love square? She is crushing on Anthony and it may go towards the route. Brandon lets everyone know that couples who have been close the most since this began, Pratt/Paris & Briana/Curtis, are matches isn't that high, and that leads to Mr. "Do What You Love" to fire back and also say that Brandon himself also has spent time with Christina.
The week's getaway challenge brings about memories of watching trivia on The Challenge and TJ Lavin having his way with the competitors in lots of laughs. Here, it's "Lick-tonary, aka Pictionary but instead of drawing by hand, the contestants are using their tongue to draw pictures on food pastes. By taking care of their picture in a Usain Bolt-like 5 seconds, Christina & John take first place, followed by Brandon & Alexandria and Layton & Ashley; Big Country also let his chance to pair with either Jess or Jenni slip away. Garland got out of jail in trying to draw a hamburger with anchovy paste, which got a lot of laughs from the group.
Over the summer while you were watching Big Brother, I was intrigued by Virgin Territory and the stories of people who tried to keep that vCard. In this episode, the house would find out that there's someone who not only hasn't had sex, but also abstaining from having any of it until marriage. While by the pool, Ashley revealed her virgin status to the group when she was asked about her ring, which was a purity one. Everyone else is surprised, with G thinking she's not a virgin. That also led to a bad response from Pratt, but other than that everyone else takes the news well.
At the beginning of this episode, Shelby & Nathan got to sit down to get his take on what happened when her & Dario kissed at the matchup. He told her that he would move to Kansas where she calls home and she recommends he should find the girl he doesn't need to make adjustments to make any girl the one. He takes it more as an insult than a good piece of advice, followed by him boasting about the hottest girls he's gotten since he was 13 because of "adjusting."
Later after the challenge, Nate gets closer to Shelbs by cornering her, blocking her sides with his arms and tells her some confessions from his heart like, in a slurred and weepy drunken voice, "I wanna be the guy you want" and "I don't wanna be alone." She responds by telling him to stop and needs time to take time for himself. And once Dario comes over from behind the door after listening to their dialogue that Nate backs off from Shelby and D puts his arm around her.
When Christina & John, Brandon & Alexandria and Layton & Ashley ride off on a mini-boat to Icacos for their date, after what happened to him in causing Briana to get a nosebleed early on, John finally makes his mark by hitting his mark with Christina in making sandcastles and then kissing in the water. Brandon meanwhile is hanging out with Alexandria but feels he's not a match with her. When Big Country and Ash talk about religion, he gets the sense that while she might be the kind of girl he should go for, on the level of pursuing her, she's not the one.
For our fellow Challenge fans, you probably know the story of competitor Brandon being was sent into elimination at every opportunity during his time on Cutthroat, which explains the game play of the house in being desperate for something. You could say the same thing for his namesake and fellow Vegas resident in Puerto Rico, when Brandon was again sent into the truth booth for an unprecedented 3rd straight week and again didn't come out a match w/ him and Alexandria.
Nonetheless, he and Christina continue to go head over heels for each other. And while they head over to enjoy some time k-i-s-s-i-n-g, John then interrupted them, which leads BDN to call him lame but then Team Eleven then hangs out with John. Meanwhile, Anthony is continuing to complement Jenni, including what's called "negging", which then Jen falls for him and they find a vibe, which Layton then immediately finds out about.
At the matchup, which Jasmine explains the group is focused on "hearts over heads," the rotation saw the guys choose and as it turns out, it's more of the same mix of random and established pairs. And the pecking order is: Curtis/Briana, Nathan/Jessica, Brandon/Shelby, Pratt/Paris, Garland/Alexandria, Dario/Ashley, Alex/Jasmine, Anthony/Jenni and Layton/Ellie. And Tyler was, as was the case in the first matchup, left unmatched.
The result: the group notches three matches...it's still a long way off but finally some progress. What they didn't know then was there was about to be two game-changing moves forthcoming.
The week's getaway challenge brings about memories of watching trivia on The Challenge and TJ Lavin having his way with the competitors in lots of laughs. Here, it's "Lick-tonary, aka Pictionary but instead of drawing by hand, the contestants are using their tongue to draw pictures on food pastes. By taking care of their picture in a Usain Bolt-like 5 seconds, Christina & John take first place, followed by Brandon & Alexandria and Layton & Ashley; Big Country also let his chance to pair with either Jess or Jenni slip away. Garland got out of jail in trying to draw a hamburger with anchovy paste, which got a lot of laughs from the group.
Over the summer while you were watching Big Brother, I was intrigued by Virgin Territory and the stories of people who tried to keep that vCard. In this episode, the house would find out that there's someone who not only hasn't had sex, but also abstaining from having any of it until marriage. While by the pool, Ashley revealed her virgin status to the group when she was asked about her ring, which was a purity one. Everyone else is surprised, with G thinking she's not a virgin. That also led to a bad response from Pratt, but other than that everyone else takes the news well.
At the beginning of this episode, Shelby & Nathan got to sit down to get his take on what happened when her & Dario kissed at the matchup. He told her that he would move to Kansas where she calls home and she recommends he should find the girl he doesn't need to make adjustments to make any girl the one. He takes it more as an insult than a good piece of advice, followed by him boasting about the hottest girls he's gotten since he was 13 because of "adjusting."
Later after the challenge, Nate gets closer to Shelbs by cornering her, blocking her sides with his arms and tells her some confessions from his heart like, in a slurred and weepy drunken voice, "I wanna be the guy you want" and "I don't wanna be alone." She responds by telling him to stop and needs time to take time for himself. And once Dario comes over from behind the door after listening to their dialogue that Nate backs off from Shelby and D puts his arm around her.
When Christina & John, Brandon & Alexandria and Layton & Ashley ride off on a mini-boat to Icacos for their date, after what happened to him in causing Briana to get a nosebleed early on, John finally makes his mark by hitting his mark with Christina in making sandcastles and then kissing in the water. Brandon meanwhile is hanging out with Alexandria but feels he's not a match with her. When Big Country and Ash talk about religion, he gets the sense that while she might be the kind of girl he should go for, on the level of pursuing her, she's not the one.
For our fellow Challenge fans, you probably know the story of competitor Brandon being was sent into elimination at every opportunity during his time on Cutthroat, which explains the game play of the house in being desperate for something. You could say the same thing for his namesake and fellow Vegas resident in Puerto Rico, when Brandon was again sent into the truth booth for an unprecedented 3rd straight week and again didn't come out a match w/ him and Alexandria.
Nonetheless, he and Christina continue to go head over heels for each other. And while they head over to enjoy some time k-i-s-s-i-n-g, John then interrupted them, which leads BDN to call him lame but then Team Eleven then hangs out with John. Meanwhile, Anthony is continuing to complement Jenni, including what's called "negging", which then Jen falls for him and they find a vibe, which Layton then immediately finds out about.
At the matchup, which Jasmine explains the group is focused on "hearts over heads," the rotation saw the guys choose and as it turns out, it's more of the same mix of random and established pairs. And the pecking order is: Curtis/Briana, Nathan/Jessica, Brandon/Shelby, Pratt/Paris, Garland/Alexandria, Dario/Ashley, Alex/Jasmine, Anthony/Jenni and Layton/Ellie. And Tyler was, as was the case in the first matchup, left unmatched.
The result: the group notches three matches...it's still a long way off but finally some progress. What they didn't know then was there was about to be two game-changing moves forthcoming.
theWRAP: Episode 4
Last week was the best overall episode that I've seen of Are You The One?, and when you have a roller coaster ride of emotions as broad as that one, it's why it's now my favorite show of the moment.
Since this thing began, a group that has been joined at the lip from the opening bell has been Pratt and Paris. Given what happened to Shanley & Chris T. in Kauai, there was concern that both have been wasting the entire time of the whole house in not giving others in the house a try. And after doing trick or treating with the house in the first episode, we didn't know at the time that the formula would have it right unlike what happened to Cranley. But they don't know, science had it right.
Elsewhere, the various love situations continue on. First, there's the triangle between Brandon, Christina and John, where first Brandon falls for Team Eleven, then John goes to her, and she's liking the attention she's getting from both guys. And for the square, Jessica-Layton-Jenni-Anthony is getting somewhere with Jess proclaiming her love for Big Country. Both of them head to the Boom Boom Room and then Layton still laments his affection for Jenni. Yep, it's complicated.
There's also something brewing between Jasmine and Garland, sharing a brief moment in bed doing talking only and sharing relationship details. She's not been in a relationship in four years and, as was written in my preview, has a routine of having friends with benefits. For him, his last romance was almost a year earlier after he cheated. And with both soft spoken and honest, could they be a match down the road?
This week's Challenge brings a water slide, blocks and a game of numbers to the fore with "Slip It In." With only the girls taking part in the game, the objective is to slide down a Slip 'N Slide, grab blocks with numbers on them and place them next to the guys and the number of girls they've dated. We found out some very interesting numbers in the amount of girls the guys have met with . The low number is 9, and it goes to Layton. The highest number is 100, that belongs to Garland. And for the "too many to count" category...it goes to Nathan, and he says he can't count above 10.
For Jessica & Layton, Paris & Pratt and Jasmine & Garland, their Getaway Date reward is a day at the beach and also trying out something I had never seen before but it would be so rad to try it out, and that would be jet boarding along with shoreline. It's water flying that was invented some time ago and now getting its first big exposure on here. They obviously enjoy going on this new thing, and I'm sure there's some friends up in Alaska who I met last Thursday who would want to try it out.
Since this thing began, a group that has been joined at the lip from the opening bell has been Pratt and Paris. Given what happened to Shanley & Chris T. in Kauai, there was concern that both have been wasting the entire time of the whole house in not giving others in the house a try. And after doing trick or treating with the house in the first episode, we didn't know at the time that the formula would have it right unlike what happened to Cranley. But they don't know, science had it right.
Elsewhere, the various love situations continue on. First, there's the triangle between Brandon, Christina and John, where first Brandon falls for Team Eleven, then John goes to her, and she's liking the attention she's getting from both guys. And for the square, Jessica-Layton-Jenni-Anthony is getting somewhere with Jess proclaiming her love for Big Country. Both of them head to the Boom Boom Room and then Layton still laments his affection for Jenni. Yep, it's complicated.
There's also something brewing between Jasmine and Garland, sharing a brief moment in bed doing talking only and sharing relationship details. She's not been in a relationship in four years and, as was written in my preview, has a routine of having friends with benefits. For him, his last romance was almost a year earlier after he cheated. And with both soft spoken and honest, could they be a match down the road?
This week's Challenge brings a water slide, blocks and a game of numbers to the fore with "Slip It In." With only the girls taking part in the game, the objective is to slide down a Slip 'N Slide, grab blocks with numbers on them and place them next to the guys and the number of girls they've dated. We found out some very interesting numbers in the amount of girls the guys have met with . The low number is 9, and it goes to Layton. The highest number is 100, that belongs to Garland. And for the "too many to count" category...it goes to Nathan, and he says he can't count above 10.
For Jessica & Layton, Paris & Pratt and Jasmine & Garland, their Getaway Date reward is a day at the beach and also trying out something I had never seen before but it would be so rad to try it out, and that would be jet boarding along with shoreline. It's water flying that was invented some time ago and now getting its first big exposure on here. They obviously enjoy going on this new thing, and I'm sure there's some friends up in Alaska who I met last Thursday who would want to try it out.
As it's now November, viewers are awaiting the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show coming up soon. The ladies decide to have fun by throwing a Lingerie Night party in the house, and that means music, dancing and scantily outfits...oh, and yeah, more drunkeness. Paris kisses John, which then leads to Pratt becoming dismayed by watching them dance by drinking his Pratt juice. He doesn't react very well to this and then they get into words in their room. Paris cries and apologizes, while also mentioning her commitment issues.
This all comes before their getaway date, and while the rest are enjoying flying above the water, Paris admits to having cheated before but didn't feel bad about it until now. With that in mind, Pratt decides to give Paris another shot though he's also being cautious. Because of the events they encountered, and with no Brandon to worry about this time nor any house scheme, they get the clear choice to get voted into the truth booth. And once they get in, and slightly earlier than was the case in Kauai, they become the first Perfect Match.
Then comes the Matchup, and there's plenty of optimism over how the group could translate their first perfect match into better news in their quest for the cash. After all, when the season 1 cast garnered their first match in Dillan & Coleysia, it swung the floodgates open to the originals' run to glory. So first up, Ellie picks Brandon over Anthony based on him being close to Jenni. Brandon shrugs it off and takes it well, and he's comfortable he'll continue to hook up with Christina. This leads host Ryan Devlin to question whether they can get separated or not.
When Briana chose Curtis once again, many including me suspected that they would be the likely candidates of being the Amber & Ethan of this group and be the ones most likely to stay together after the show. Jenni goes with Anthony, Tyler w/ Alex, Shelby w/ Dario, Alexandria w/ Nate, Jasmine w/ Garland and Jessica w/ Layton. And in the 11th girl vote, Christina chooses John, then he picks her over Ashley, and Ash is excluded.
So what happened? It's probably the equivalent of getting a bad beat in the game of poker when a player loses to a better hand though his hand was an excellent one. The one beam representing the perfect match of Pratt & Paris would be the only one that was lit up, and there were no other beams that were lit up as well. With no new matches, this meant that all the nine other couples incorrectly guessed their matches and everyone learned together that they're not a perfect match.
It left all of our jaws dropping, most especially everybody on that patio. There would be nothing but tears, lots of emotions, and the censors' thumbs getting hurt by blocking out those cuss words.
This means that budding perfect couples like Jenni & Anthony, Shelby & Dario, Jessica & Layton and most heartbreaking of all - Briana & Curtis were all gone in the snap of a finger. That's one of the most-shocking things I've ever seen in the 16 years I've been following Team MTV.
So what happened? It's probably the equivalent of getting a bad beat in the game of poker when a player loses to a better hand though his hand was an excellent one. The one beam representing the perfect match of Pratt & Paris would be the only one that was lit up, and there were no other beams that were lit up as well. With no new matches, this meant that all the nine other couples incorrectly guessed their matches and everyone learned together that they're not a perfect match.
It left all of our jaws dropping, most especially everybody on that patio. There would be nothing but tears, lots of emotions, and the censors' thumbs getting hurt by blocking out those cuss words.
This means that budding perfect couples like Jenni & Anthony, Shelby & Dario, Jessica & Layton and most heartbreaking of all - Briana & Curtis were all gone in the snap of a finger. That's one of the most-shocking things I've ever seen in the 16 years I've been following Team MTV.
DC's View: Is It Panic Time?
So, after being given cause for celebration in getting their first match, they were then given a gut check when Pratt & Paris turned out to be the only beam at the 4th matchup, and got no new lights. It's the first time in the show's short history that the group went light-less in a matchup ceremony and left the couples in ruins. And the amount of matches they've garnered have gone nowhere: two the first two weeks, three last week and now only one this week.
Do I think it's time for Team 21 to press the panic button? Yes, most definitely, it's very obvious. Aside from Pratt & Paris who are now off to the Honeymoon Suite, the remaining housemates now get a fresh new start in going back to square one just as they entered the house four weeks ago. That means, as seen in the EP4 SocialPulse, free Truth Booths and free Matchups.
They now realize that if they want to go all in, they all have to split up with who they have right now just for the sake of game-play. All they need now is to come up with a new strategy in who they think is their new match and do not pick the players who they picked this week. They don't need to do what they did with Brandon in sending players in consecutive weeks unless they're confident that they're part of a triangle. And now by them getting together with totally new people, it will help their chances.
They now realize that if they want to go all in, they all have to split up with who they have right now just for the sake of game-play. All they need now is to come up with a new strategy in who they think is their new match and do not pick the players who they picked this week. They don't need to do what they did with Brandon in sending players in consecutive weeks unless they're confident that they're part of a triangle. And now by them getting together with totally new people, it will help their chances.
When we first found out of the new twist of Christina moving in as a double match, we all looked at the season 2 group's path as much more difficult than the season 1 cast's relatively free ride to the jackpot. Something I admired about the originals was that they better strategized the game throughout the season where Brit, Dre, Ryan and Simone all kept track or had a sense of who was paired up in the challenges, truth booths & matchups. When you look back at their path to greatness, only one time did they step back in their matches: 4 in week 2 to 2 in tries 3 & 4; and they went nowhere but up the rest of the way on the way to the cash.
My hope was that this group would follow in the dream team's footsteps and become immortals. Now, this bad nightmare has come true and now they need to go back to the drawing board and pick new people entirely. And they've got six tries left to make this happen, and they'll need all of them now after getting this brutal bad beat. And they need to also strategize more and go from choosing with the hearts to their heads to working as a whole unit, something that helped the season 1 cast in their win.
If the originals can come back from being knocked down early on in having low number of matches early to ultimately get back up and win the title, then Season Two can look to that as inspiration, along with having their first perfect match too - they finally have something to shoot for. If Team 21 can make this relatively impossible dream happen, that March moment will have some company in my favorite MTV moments and favorite overall moments of 2014 along with what happened last Wednesday. Let's hope they do exactly that.
The Crossover: Season 2 Update
As we told you here back in August, there's been a drumbeat among those in the MTV community that those from the first season earlier this year may crossover into future seasons of The Challenge, and we can tell you that it will be the case. A few from the season 1 cast have been socializing with Challenge big names in social world, and we should get our first glimpse of Challenge 26, potentially Battle of the Exes 2, right around the Super Bowl. So this poses the question: who from Are You The One? could potentially crossover and become a Challenge regular?
Well, there's similarities between both Are You The One? and The Challenge where there's challenges every week with a reward going to the winner(s). Whereas on the ladder winners get immunity & voting power, AYTO challenge winners get a glamorous date and time away from the house while the house deliberates their truth booth fate. And in an effort to keep the show going and nurture a new generation of challengers to make up for an increasing amount of veterans moving on to bigger & better things away from the cameras, The Challenge now has plenty of new faces to fill the void thanks to AYTO.
We kick off with the originals, and if you saw season 1, then you saw some new potential on who could join Bananas and company. Dre looked after his football and hoops background to help him win the most challenges in Hawaii, while Joey also had broad athletic experience and him being a trainer that kept him a consistent top finisher. There's Adam, who's also fitness-aware, and also won a few challenges too. And Wes, Dillan and a few others could also factor in joining the fraternity.
For the girls, Jessica was a consistent top performer in the challenges and was even short listed on a MTV show blog post on this very topic. Shanley and Kayla also performed very well to finish in the top 3-4 during the season. Brittany might have New England's rich RWC tradition on her side in CT, Cara Maria and co. helping her fit in. And for entertainment, my friend Andrew in his post believes Scali and Chris T. could spice things up with humor, as will Simone & her feistiness too.
For season 2, it's still early to single out who could the best candidates to leap into Challenge land, but four on this group have an athletic background, and three are former football players. Layton was a QB in high school before heading to Kayla's alma mater Ole Miss where he transitioned to a TE and then played professionally over on Europe. And to think that with all those tattoos and him crying after Shelby left him, you probably won't believe that Nathan was a HS football player one time in Kalamazoo, where he was a punter and receiver. And Anthony also was a HS football player too, while the forth, Dario, is a baseball player. We can't forget about Brandon who's been on the podium in all three previous challenges, as well as Christina who's also been part of the winners circle too.
To those AYTO fans who follow The Challenge on the same level as me, be lucky we've got this new show to add to our menu. And to those who are doubting this upcoming CHAL26 twist, don't be mad that MTV is doing this. People like Paula, Chet and Jasmine are stepping away from The Challenge for bigger & better things, and if you don't know when Fresh Meat III will come on soon, why not bring the Are You The One? casts along to bring new talent and fans to the show? There's a lot of new talent coming our way, and it has the approval of me and other fans who follow this trifecta.
Well, that's a wrap for our recap of episodes 3 and 4 of Are You The One? Season 2 from Puerto Rico. And if the buzz is right, we have plenty more to anticipate and we're almost at the halfway point. To follow the live tweeting of tonight's episode - that's if you live on the west coast, be sure to join me tonight at 10PM PT on the live twitter home of this fan, DCNOW at @DC408DxNow. In addition, DCNOW is where I'm live tweeting the hilarious new series Slednecks, the opening weeks of the NBA season and more. And last Wednesday, I had one of my busiest twitter days ever when the Giants won Game 7 in KC with the play-by-play and reaction to sports' newest dynasty.
For here, later this week after we give viewers here and worldwide the chance to sample episode 4, we'll have the twitter blow-by-blow on the must-read DC SocialPulse diaries. I also took a Look at Slednecks and Buckwild just before their premiere last Thursday, and later this month coverage of Real World Skeletons will start up. And of course, follow my primary twitter hub @DC408Dxtr for tweets, chats & alerts; and Instagram at the same handle for pics.
Until we meet up on DCNOW for episode 4 at 10PM PT, thanks for reading and talk to you then.
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