After Beth had given me so much hope last week, she sort of reversed her idea of vigilante justice in favor of a slightly more mellow approach. She just left. She literally packed up her bags and went home. Some people are going to speculate that this was the work of the producers. I have to admit, Beth's departure was sudden, and she was kind of dodging the question about why she wanted to leave (she felt her property wasn't safe). Then again, she did say her best friend on the team was Karamo, so it's easy to understand just how detached from the rest of her team she must have felt.

As soon as Beth was gone, we were able to get an idea of what people really thought about her, and the verdict is that they talked about her in the same way. Didn't matter if she was heading to the airport or was sitting right next to them, they really didn't have very many good things to say about her.

I agree with much of what they said, but there are a couple of things that you have to understand. First, it really sucks when almost your entire team hates you, and to make matters worse, nobody is trying to defend you. Even if you don't like somebody, it's very rare to wish harm upon them or want their property to be destroyed. Second, the guys were talking a lot about how Beth talked a big game, but didn't have anything to back it up. Well, what the hell was she supposed to do to back it up fellas? Steven barely smacked Shane last year and he was eliminated. If Beth had tried to back up any of her tough talk, she would have been gone anyway.

With all that being said, it is very weak to simply leave the show. Beth, for the love of God, will you please just say no when Bunim/Murray asks you to do this shit next time? Luckily, the people we are left with are going to be good for just as much drama. One thing we can always count on from our Real World/Road Rules reality stars is the utter disintegration of any sort of logic abilities whatsoever.

The reward challenge was called "Shirt off my back". The teams had to don some clothes and swap these clothes with the person next to them. The challenge part of this competition was this all had to be done while trying to keep your footing on a balance beam that was suspended over the water.

Overall, the task was not that difficult, and was basically the type of activity we have come to expect. Although there could have been some strategy involved, the biggest advantage either team would have would be a sense of teamwork. In fact, the thing that seemed to be giving people the most trouble was the little speedos that the guys were forced to wear underneath their trunks.. We haven't seen such gratuitous displays of superfluous man crotch since, well, since any episode of the Amazing Race this season, but you get the point. These outfits left little to the imagination and just for good measure, Mike pulled his up a little hihger than everybody else and gave himself a thong. Hey, at least he didn't give us the fruit bowl, right?

Anyway, the Good Guys are clearly the team with better team chemistry, even if they haven't been able to turn that chemistry into domination in the challenges. Still, they really haven't been out of any challenge, and it's not hard to imagine that had things been a little different, they would have had the 3-1 lead in competitions. What did the bad guys have? Veronica admitted that she was very good at taking off her clothes, and it's probably safe to assume that Tonya would have some of that same skill.

While much of this might sound difficult, both teams handled the challenge with easy. The balance beams were shaking, but it seemed like a nice methodical approach was going to work. In fact, the only person to actually fall off of the balance beam was Dan, and he did it on purpose. No, he didn't try and pull a Beth and sabotage his team, it was part of the strategy. See, the players had to lineup boy/girl so when you put on your clothes you would be wearing something from the opposite gender. For the people on the either end of the line, they would also swap

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Posted by J-Unit on April 4, 2005 7:50 PM