The Challenge Recap: Think Tank


TRIVIA TIME!  Robb tells Trey that Marie said if she gets hurt, she and Robb are done.  Oh, BTW, for those of you who didn’t watch their season, they were dating by the end of it.  And by the reunion, they had flamed out pretty spectacularly.

Don’t mock guys who are that much bigger than you, Trey.  It doesn’t end well.

Round 1:  Challenge Trivia.  And sure enough, Marie is the first one out (after Sarah breezes through a question about where a season was filmed- a season she was on, mind you) when she guesses that TJ was the host of the first Gauntlet, when in fact that was waaaay back in the Johnny Moseley days.  Although he’s back now for the occasional After Show. 

Next up is Dustin, who is asked what city in Iceland hosted the final challenge last season.  (REYKJAVIK!)  Poor Dustin sadly informs TJ that he doesn’t know any cities in Iceland, and yes, he’s sure.  That’s actually a pretty hard question, it would have been better to just ask what country.  And Dustin’s poor balls suffer through a hard fall as a consequence.

Sidebar #1:  Ok, this is only tangientally Challenge related, so feel free to skip it, but the only reason I knew the answer to this one is because I actually went there in February (early on in the airing of Battle of the Exes, which had its final challenge there).  It was funny, my friend and I stayed in the same hotel as them (Reykjavik Hilton), went dogsledding (although we went at a leisurely pace, not racing), and went on a glacier hike.  But at the time they must have filmed that, there are so few daylight hours that it actually must have been a shorter final than normal.

This is the view from that hotel, although pictures don’t really do it justice.

Sidebar #2:  This is also only tangientally related, so feel free to skip this one too, if you want.  The friend I went to Iceland with (who was also my college roommate) has the weirdest habit of being followed around the world by these shows.  She was studying abroad in Sydney while they were filming the Real World: Sydney.  She said she always used to walk past their house and wonder what it was.  Then she was in New Zealand for a few weeks after that (to be fair, the Challenge didn’t make it to NZ until a year or two later).  She was also in Thailand while that Challenge was airing.  Then, she was in Argentina a few months before Rivals had their final there (not sure exactly when it was filmed).  And then, of course, we were in Reykjavik shortly after they filmed that final.

This is us during our dogsled ride. 

They were the cutest/friendliest dogs ever.  My friend is usually scared of dogs, but even she was petting these guys.  Anyway, I know that was a random (and long) tangent, but I figured if anyone would appreciate that randomness, Gasmii would.  And now I’ll leave you with one last picture:

At one point the back left one pooped, and I had quite the view.

21 Comments

  1. 1
    BarBelle
    Posted October 23, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    I didn’t think Camila was unreasonable during the challenge, just being honest. She needed him to stay down longer. She lost it after, but seriously Big Easy, I get that it was difficult but I think you’ve cemented your status as being an anchor, and not in the super helpful tug of war kind of way.

    He wasn’t in shape in the finale that he cost the vets, and I believe he was mostly responsible for Fresh Meat’s losses here. Quitting in this challenge was the final nail in the coffin.

  2. 2
    jerseyj
    Posted October 23, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    @VA there is some captioning gold here!

    “Well, if that’s not the Frank calling the Dustin gay, I don’t know what is.” and “Yeesh, that must make it rather difficult to shop for pants.” both had me laughing out loud!

  3. 3
    PinkTop
    Posted October 23, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Ditto! Speaking of “the Frank calling the Dustin gay,” I believe next week is the much hyped gay porn confrontation. Can’t wait!

    Loved the sidebars btw. I want to pet one of those dogs so bad, not mid-poop.

  4. 4
    Ed
    Posted October 23, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    Is Robb really that much bigger than Trey or was that a photo shop? Or was Trey standing like 3 feet behind Robb?

  5. 5
    Spring
    Posted October 24, 2012 at 12:39 am

    One thing I don’t get with the Frank/Dustin fight is the argument that Frank can’t use the gay porn stuff against Dustin because he also has sex with men. That’s pretty dumb reasoning. If it was a straight guy calling out Dustin for doing straight porn, would anyone say “Yeah, but you have sex with women too.”?

    Frank is still being a douche(maybe, because I think it turns out that he’s upset because Dustin made some homophobic comments first), but the reason it’s a douchey thing to do is, because if he is unprovoked, it’s just a judgmental low blow attack. I can understand some people saying that Dusting will always be haunted by it, especially when he continues to be on these shows, but he also doesn’t really deserve to have his past held against him for no reason. I guess we just have to wait to see what MTV shows.

  6. 6
    jerseyj
    Posted October 24, 2012 at 5:39 am

    @Spring, I think it depends on how Frank attacks Justin. I haven’t actually seen the clips so I don’t know. If he’s calling him gay because he did gay porn, then yeah, it’s hypocritical. He’d be judging Dustin because of his gayness, not his “porn-ness” (yes I just created a word…add it to your dictionaries :p). But, if he attacks him because of being in porn, then it’s not hypocritical per your argument above. Just my two cents :)

  7. 7
    badgerfreak
    Posted October 24, 2012 at 6:16 am

    I’ve recently discovered this website/recap of gold! Greetings fellow Challenge Fans!

    I have to say that Big Easy really let me down this week. I think he’s a decent guy and would be a great person to hang out with. That being said, I think he’s the downfall of his team, especially this season. Every time they were automatically in the bottom for a DQ or a loss, it was entirely his fault. I feel like there had to have been some editing done because it felt like he didn’t even try. By no means am I saying I could accomplish that task, but come on guy, he hardly even tried, and they were WINNING!

    I just watch Challenges, I don’t watch the actual RW show, so for me, all these people (with the exception of a very few) are new. So I can’t speak to their RW season personalities, but I feel like we’re lacking in personality on the show. There are the few outspoken people, but there are a lot of people that I see on screen and say, “Who is that? Have they been on all season?” I feel like next week we should get some personalities though, based on the conflict that arises.

  8. 8
    thespiral
    Posted October 24, 2012 at 10:47 am

    @ Spring and jerseyj -

    IIRC from the few episodes I watched of Frank’s season, he was extremely conflicted about his own gayness and it came out as some pretty aggressive internalized homophobia. And although he seems to have come to terms with his identity more now, the inner crazy is still there. So I think it’s totally possible for him to both be out and gay, and despise certain types of gayness in others, and see nothing hypocritical about it. He doesn’t get a free pass from being homophobic.

  9. 9
    plockeness monster plockeness monster
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 6:52 am

    I think the cast members were more shocked about Camila’s reaction AFTER Big E quit. Whoever said Easy has a track record of quitting is correct, but Camila didn’t have to be such a fucking asshole. Also, I think she made him cry. I don’t agree w/ him quitting, but I disagree more w/ the way Camila handled it. Geez.

    This episode was boring, but you made the recap entertaining, VA!

    RE the pic of Robb and Trey – holy cow, Trey looks like a wittle baby next to Robb. That dude is f-ing tall.

    I guess I missed the Dustin/Frank gay fight? Or has it not happened yet???

  10. 10
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 7:53 am

    These recaps are running a week behind plock…the fight happened Wednesday night.

  11. 11
    plockeness monster plockeness monster
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 8:23 am

    Ahhhh, that makes sense. Guess I am a week behind too. Thankssssssssss

  12. 12
    caligal
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 10:30 am
  13. 13
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 10:45 am

    “but they replaced the toothbrush.” WTH?

  14. 14
    caligal
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 10:51 am

    @Gypsy….I’m completely appalled. I can’t believe B-M would imply such a thing. If MTV ever lets Kenny or Evan back on another challenge, I will never watch again. There is being a douche, and there is taking things too far. Those two took things so far past the limit, it’s crazy.

  15. 15
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 10:55 am

    @califgal check this out. I don’t think B/M gives a eff:

    Is this not Evan Starkman of Cornell fame?

    http://www.mtv.com/videos/the-challenge-battle-of-the-seasons-ep-1-screening-room/1694779/playlist.jhtml

    I haven’t see the captain around but, I think Kenny has a gf or wife and a baby these days but, I would guess he’s not banned either just busy.

    Gross.

  16. 16
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 10:57 am

    *seen the captain around….she would know more if should can comment that is…

  17. 17
    VirginiaApple
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 11:02 am

    Hey guys! That is so disgusting. I don’t even have time for the rant I want to make right now because I’m rushing to finish some stuff at work. I’m hoping to get this week’s recap done tonight/tomorrow, especially since I’m probably going to lose power early next week.

    When the lawsuit first came out, I was told that I can’t talk about it in the recap, but I can in the comments. So I will probably have something to say in the comments for the next recap. For now, I’ll just say thank you all as always for the news updates and lively discussions. And to all my East Coast Gasmii, batten down the hatches and stay safe!

  18. 18
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 11:09 am

    Be safe VA, we’re expecting the hurrican by Mon/Tues!

  19. 19
    caligal
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 11:27 am

    @Gypsy, it makes my skin crawl, it’s just so disgusting. There is no other word for it. Way to hit a new, all-time low MTV and B-M.

    @VA….why can’t you talk about it in the recap? If it is in the news, it should be fair game, IMO. Be safe!!

  20. 20
    caligal
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 11:29 am

    Oh, and I meant to say, I hope this helps Tonya get whatever help she needs/needed. While watching a crazy train-wreck is fun (I’m looking at you Paula Walnuts), Tonya’s spiral was hard to watch.

  21. 21
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 26, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    @Caligal: I’m sure it’s for the site’s and VA’s protetion. We don’t know how plugged in this site is to these networks and it may have come down from on high that she could not comment for such and such a reason…

    But, I do agree that watching that vid was more than disturbing them seeing them stick up for her after shows how low these people are.

    I’m glad there’s new blood on these challenges…I don’t want to see those people on my screen again.

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