Double Agents – Mid-Season Thoughts

Hello out there!

It’s been a fun and enjoyable season with a lot of strategic planning and good challenges in front of the beautiful Icelandic backdrop. Unfortunately, MTV has kept the episodes at an elongated 90-minute run time even as half of the cast has been eliminated, quit, left for injury, or been eliminated again after coming back because someone left for injury.

Thoughts from a fan perspective:

• The editing this season has been awful. The most recent example was cuts to Darrell one piece away from solving the Tena gram and then continuing to show him and Devin try to solve the puzzle in what we now know was not a chronological sequence. The sport of the game is lost with this choppy editing. CT seemed to solve his puzzle quickly, but we didn’t get to just see him do it in “real time.” Leroy seemed really fast upside down on the pole, but we can’t be fully impressed because we didn’t just get to watch him shimmy and scoot to the end in back as one shot.
• Now that we see old seasons on streaming services, isn’t it amazing that we used to get the trifecta of terrific (challenge, drama & deliberation, elimination) in merely 30 minutes! Really makes you feel like seeing a conversation at the gym between Leroy and Kaycee about how well they are doing is fluff and/or foreshadowing that they will win it all.

Thoughts from a fantasy points perspective:

• T.J. is back on “You Killed It”! Yay!
• Because Smashley (the first to be eliminated) came back, no one was a total bust with 0 points for the season.
• Where is all the hooking up? Did Kam & Leroy only agree to do the season if MTV didn’t show them doing the coitus? Has Nany lost her groove?
• We eliminated -100 for quitting and Lolo deserved that. Lio didn’t. So I guess it’s a wash.
• Fessy and Aneesa won the first two challenges, and haven’t won since. They were so close to the winning three challenges in a row bonus, missed it, and no one has repeated consecutively since.
• Fessy is still leading the points by player with 170.

See the points by player breakdown so far below:

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Double Agents: Ep 1

Yes, give me that “Blue Monday” New Order song from my birth year to play to me and start this season.

We’re playing for $1 million, according to our trusty host T.J. Lavin, introducing us into “Mission Discryption” challenge 1. Run up to the hill, get the code, bring it back down. Good luck with the crashing into each other…. GO!

Lolo smokes the girls to get to the baton code thing, but did she memorize the pattern properly? Very quickly this comes into a girls heat of who can read the rubber band color order the best and plug it in the right way. Aneeesa ends up winning (10 points).

Guys heat is a pile on/crazy mess, but the rookie finalist from last season, Fessy wins (10 points).

Aneesa is deemed the top agent, because she finished fastest, so she gets first pick at her pairing of “double agent” and chooses who i think is the overall #1, Fessy.

Quickly, T.J. says, “go ahead and stand next to a partner.”

And we get:

Cory & Tori (thank you , more rhyming names, please, Theresa & Jay, CT ducks Kam, Nany & Kyle pair up, Nicole & Devin pair up, Wes grabs Natalie, Darrell grabs Amber B., Lio goes with Gabby, Josh grabs Kam, Leroy goes with Kaycee, CT scoops up Smashley, Big T ends up with Joseph, Lolo goes with Nam, Amber M. & Nelson end up together, and Liv pairs up with rookie Mechie.

Now the rules are laid down: Elimination winners get skulls. Only 10 skulls are available. If you get a skull, you gotta hang onto it.

At voting, CT gives me Jesse Pinkman, vaguely recommends the rookies and then the individual voting begins. Wes, Smashley and other vets go for rookies Gabby & Lio, while Kam, Cory, and many rookies aim at CT & Smashley.

Aneesa & Fessy (the tribunal?) see the “votes” and then leave.

At the elimination “crater” we see that CT & Smashley are “compromised” agents. Fessy & Aneesa deny themselves the opportunity to play for their win against the champions and they instead opt to send Wes & Natalie into elimination…. but it’s a female elimination, so it’s the girls playing Operation Fire Escape.

It’s close, it’s tough, but the rookie Natalie wins (25 points).

As a winner-winner chicken dinner, Natalie gets to choose whatever partner she wants. Will she stick with Wes? Will she grab CT? Will she go for someone else????? Ahh!!!!!!

Double Agents Scoring System

We’re back!

Kind-of.

We Have Been Finally Reckoned

War of the Worlds logo

Sorry, friends, we will not be running a fantasy league, posting scores or blogging about The Challenge Season 33: War of the Worlds.

THE CHALLENGE FINAL RECKONING – Reunion Part 1

The Challenge Final Reckoning – Zach, Amanda, Shane, Nelson, Kam, Smashley, Hunter, Bananas, Tony, Jozea & Da’Vonne – Reunion Part 1

As I wrote after Vendettas, I hate this two-part reunion format. I watched the season. I don’t need any recap stuff. Every argument brings out the trashiest aspects of the whole show.

THE CHALLENGE: FINAL RECKONING – END OF SEASON STATS

The end of the season that talked about itself as the final, end of an era, completion of a trilogy within a series, an excruciatingly long season riddled with apocalyptic-terms IS OVER.

THE CHALLENGE: FINAL RECKONING – EPISODE 20 – FINALE BREAKDOWN & SCORING

To open the finale we are reminded that the winning team gets $1 million, and winner from the winning team can steal the money. Paulie tells us, “we all know how that went last time,” but of course MTV continues to waste time in a long, drawn-out season by showing Bananas choosing to take all of the prize money from Sarah.

The Challenge Final Reckoning – Paulie & Natalie in Copter Drop – Ep20 Finale

THE CHALLENGE: FINAL RECKONING – EPISODE 19 – BREAKDOWN & SCORING

The Challenge Final Reckoning – T.J. Loves Trivia – Ep19

This episode opens with the cast walking up to a challenge. Alright, Final 5 teams – LET’S DO THIS!

THE CHALLENGE: FINAL RECKONING – EPISODE 18 – BREAKDOWN & SCORING

We return to Redemption House drama. Kayleigh welcomes Nelson to the house by asking him if he’s been snuggling with Natalie.

The Challenge Final Reckoning – Bananas Yelling at Shane Out of the Window – Ep18

THE CHALLENGE: FINAL RECKONING – EPISODE 17 – BREAKDOWN & SCORING

The Challenge Final Reckoning – Natalie’s Chin is Still Bloody – Ep17

If you like watching footage of the cast out at night and the Redemption House, you’ll love this episode.