T. Green
We start off the episode with Theresa and Devyn settling their differences from the previous voting snafu. The two still had plans of taking Laurel out down the road. While mingling at the bar, Devyn and Johnny Bananas were developing an unlikely partnership of sorts. Devyn knows that’s she’s not a great physical competitor, so she has to fly under the radar and play the politics game to keep alive her chances.
The Johnny Bananas and Jordan beef resumed on the van ride home. Jordan was annoyed by Bananas and his crew partying loudly, so he told him to shut up. But this time, CT stepped in for Bananas and started jawing back at Jordan. Jordan knew he had drawn the ire of some established veterans, but he wasn’t going to allow them to get inside his head.
This next challenge is the highlight of every season for some people, the trivia challenge. This one is called Smarty Pants, and it’s the first true individual game of the season. You answer two questions wrong, and you get dumped in the water below. The first four guys and first four girls to be eliminated get sent into The Draw. Plenty of hilarity was to be had here, too much to cover completely. So, what are a few of the things we learned from this game?
-Johnny Bananas thinks the Australians speak Dutch
-Zach apparently has a strong working knowledge of Disney princesses
-LeRoy needs to brush up on his U.S. presidents
-CT must’ve missed the day in school when the American flag was discussed
-Cara Maria does not know what a continent is, while Aneesa does not know what a country is
-Aneesa also confuses pentagons with hexagons
-Any question involving Canada is bound to be answered incorrectly.
-Girls are much better spellers than guys.
-Devyn knows her MTV history (good thing, since they’re paying her bills)
The winners (kinda by default) were Zach and Devyn, giving them responsibility to vote for the elimination participants (by the way, TJ had one hell of a time moderating the event). Zach did not think very highly of Swift, so he sent him in. Devyn had more of a complicated decision. Out of the eligible girls, Laurel was the only one that she did not have ties too. But Laurel was the last girl you wanted to anger. Devyn gave her a chance to say her piece. Laurel pointed out that Theresa backstabbed the other girls on the last vote and would likely do it again. She also told Devyn that she was one of the last girls she was gunning for. Devyn finally decided to vote for Theresa, which was probably the smarter play.
For this elimination round they brought back Looper, which is basically tug-of-war on steroids. Jordan pulled the guys kill card, but it didn’t phase him, as he was eager to step in and prove himself. Swift displayed some confidence now and throughout the episode, to the point of seeming cocky. The girls kill card was selected by Camila. This marked perhaps the first real turning point in the game, as two strong female competitors in Camila and Theresa had to square off against one another.
The guys went first. Some thought it would be a good, competitive matchup, but it turned out to be anything but that. Jordan used his speed to get into an advantageous position. Swift was already being pulled back before he could grab the other rope. He just could never gain any traction on the sand and reverse the momentum. It wasn’t long before Jordan rang the bell to win the match. It should also be noted that Jordan pulled this off with just one hand.
The girls elimination was the real main event. Both of them got to the rope at the end, and were locked in a stalemate for awhile. Theresa was pulling as hard as she could, but Camila would not budge from her position. Camila was not making any effort to move towards the bell though. In fact, she started breaking down emotionally. This was very odd for a person who had won Challenges and had been as tough as almost any girl ever in this game. She seemed to be on edge the entire episode however, so maybe something mentally was holding her back.
Finally, Camila gave up and let go of her rope, allowing Theresa to move that extra bit more that she needed to ring the bell. Theresa put the other girls on notice that’s she coming for each and every one of them. We’re now past the halfway point, so the game is only going to get tougher from here.
