T. Green
Rivals II:
The episode begins with shots of the cast working out. Not included in those shots is Aneesa, who is lounging in the pool. Diem gets on her partner for not doing enough to prepare for the challenges down the road, namely, the final. Aneesa doesn’t want to hear it and says she’ll prepare the way she wants to. Diem is concerned that Aneesa doesn’t care enough and that she could cost them down the line. Aneesa believes her and Diem are more rivals now than they were before the show even began.
This week is a guys elimination round and the new mission is called “Blind Leading The Blind”. The type of game where you’re trying to fail the least. Players must navigate through a maze while being tied to their partners and blindfolded. The big catch is that everyone also has electric dog collars on their wrists. The closer they are to finishing the maze, the more shocks they get.
Once again, another struggling girls team fights through their issues and win as Aneesa and Diem complete the course the fastest (I guess Emily and Paula are human after all). The girls loser didn’t matter but it’s noteworthy to mention that Jonna and Nany put one of the most pitiful performances ever and used up the allotted 30 minutes.
For the guys, Johnny and Frank barely edged out their chief rivals CT and Wes. On the other end of the spectrum, Ty and LeRoy had an extremely difficult time. With Leroy leading the way, the team got lost. Once Ty took over control, they went much quicker, but not quick enough as they finished last on their way to the Jungle.
At the house, the girls were looking into Preston and Knight as the easy choice to send into the Jungle. However, Johnny and Frank lobbied for Marlon and Jordan. Jordan was not happy about the “campaign” to get him and Marlon voted in. As usual, Frank denied everything and made counter-accusations at Jordan. Emily actually gave Jordan a stern talking to afterwards, putting the blame on him for stirring up the situation.
Sure enough, Jordan and Marlon did get voted into the Jungle, which was the ideal scenario for the veteran alliance. Jordan continued to gripe about it; Frank blew up again when confronting Jordan. Finally, Johnny stepped and explained the voting situation to Jordan in a more calm, rational manner (complete with his soon-to-be-infamous “all is fair in love, war and challenges” line).
In a Jungle preview, Marlon called out LeRoy to wrestle in the back. LeRoy accepted the challenge and took him down easily. A sign of things to come? Also, I usually don’t make note of the “extra scenes” shown during the commercial breaks, but I felt it was worth mentioning that Ty and Aneesa hooked up during one of those segments after playfully wrestling. Ty was apparently notorious for avoiding the cameras and not doing anything worthwhile, so it was a rare chance to see him in the mix interacting with others.
In the Jungle, the first repeat game was played with “Last Chance”, a physical match resembling an Oklahoma drill. Marlon and Leroy were the blockers for their respective teams, while Ty and Jordan were the runners. The first round begins, and Jordan beats out Ty to the bell by the slimmest of margins. Ty has the proverbial rocket up his ass for the second round and blasts through to the bell first to avoid losing the entire game.
The last round for all the marbles starts up. Ty gets really close to his bell, but is being held down by Marlon. Meanwhile, Jordan finally breaks free of LeRoy and dives to his bell first, winning the Jungle for him and Marlon. Ty and LeRoy are very disappointed but acknowledge that they became closer throughout this game.
Jordan returns to the house as a man on a mission to send Johnny and Frank home. Elsewhere, Johnny is still concerned about Frank drawing unneeded attention to their team with his freak-outs. At this point, all the housemates know that it’s getting down to the nitty-gritty.
