“How is this happening?”—Wes
This question—in addition to going through my mind as I watched Cliff Lee completely smother the Yankees lineup and, even more surprisingly, CC Sabathia struggle slightly against the Phillies last night—was plaguing Wes as he struggled in the elimination against Cohutta.
Eventually, despite all of Wes’ macho talk about sending his girlfriend’s ex home, Cohutta completed what Derrick called “one of the best things to happen in challenge history” and defeated Wes. Apparently, Cohutta was the only one who figured out that the key to the challenge—in which the players had to drag a rope through a short obstacle course*—was not getting your rope tangled up. As a result, Wes got worn down trying to drag his pile of rope and untie the knots, while Cohutta took a pretty decisive lead.
*I don’t mean to denigrate it; it was actually one of the better designed competitions, since it neutralized size and required a modicum of strategy/intelligence.
Cohutta even gave his very simple advice to Kimberly from the stands when it was the girls’ turn, leading to her victory as well. It was a rare good day for the Challenger team.
Wes’s question, however, also sums up what happened in the deliberation to decide who would be sent into the elimination. After the Champions won the challenge—which was also pretty well done by MTV standards—factions of the team decided to send Veronica and Kelly Anne into the elimination. This was done mainly because A) the other Champion girls have an alliance, leaving Veronica out and, B) Johanna doesn’t like Kelly Anne.
So Ibis, Susie, Johanna, Johnny, and Kenny all basically decided this, and the team seemed to go along with it, but then some crazy shit went down. Veronica, realizing she’s outnumbered, says she’ll go in, but wants to get to pick her opponent. Wes agrees because he thinks it’s fair and Evan agrees because he wants to have sex with Veronica. This causes a tie.
I like to think that MTV was completely taken aback by this, having never envisioned a scenario in which six people voting could result in a tie, and they just had TJ Lavin ad-lib a solution. His solution: bring the whole team in, and have each one of them cast a vote for two players without talking to each other.
The result was priceless. The deer-in-the-headlights look on the faces of Derrick and Syrus when they had to cast votes without hiding behind “agreements” and “alliances” was hilarious. Syrus, going first, names Ibis and Kimberly, seemingly out of thin air; either he was actively trying to undermine the Johanna-Ibis-Susie alliance or, more likely, he had never been informed of the plan, and he just named the first two people he thought of.
Either way, enough of the team latches onto this pair to avoid accountability (including that idiot Johnny, who helped come up with the original plan), and somehow Veronica gets to avoid the Ruins altogether. It was a classic moment of ineptitude, rivaled only the performance of the Yankees’ bullpen Wednesday night.
And so we rank:
Eliminated: Ibis (Champion) Wes (Champion)
I was actually starting to warm up to Wes; he was the only one who seemed to recognize the absurdity of what happened during the deliberation.
Probably Going Home Next: Veronica (Champion) Johnny (Champion)
I was wrong last week, but I think eventually Veronica’s going to go in, and who can she beat besides Casey? Johnny seems to be falling out of favor on his team, and the Challengers are out of weak guys at this point.
Very Much in Danger: Casey (Challenger) Sarah (Challenger) Johanna (Champion) Syrus (Champion)
With fewer players, it’s becoming harder to avoid the elimination challenges; I’m not confident in any of these four going into an elimination.
The Top Ten:
10. Cohutta (Challenger, NEW): A big upset over Wes warrants a place in the top ten, but he is by no means secure.
9. Susie (Champion, -1): Unlike Veronica and Johanna, the only other remaining Champion girls, Susie has already been to the Ruins once, so she likely won’t be sent again.
8. Derrick (Champion, +1): He asserted that Veronica has been doing better than Ibis in challenges so far: Is there evidence to back that up?
7. Kelly Anne (Challenger, NEW): Probably won’t get called out, since the Champion girls consider her the best player.
6. Kimberly (Challenger, NEW): Since she won in the Ruins, she’ll likely get a reprieve next week, as Sarah did this week.
5. Darrell (Champion, +2): This guy makes it into the top five based on the falls of Wes and Johnny.
4. Dunbar (Challenger, +2): I’m really anxious to see this guy in an elimination.
3. Brad (Challenger, +2): I predict he sends home Johnny next week.
2. Kenny (Champion, —): There seemed to be some respect brewing between he and Wes by the end of the episode…weird.
1. Evan (Champion, —): He was really proud of being Canadian in this episode, eh? I wonder if he’s excited for the new season of Degrassi. ‘BOUT TO GET REAL!
