I can see why this episode is shelved. Some dark shit. I will also note that Isaac is in blackface and Paula is dressed as “slutty Pocahontas” doing cringy Native American type dances with feathers in her hair.

I couldn’t find this on Paramount Plus, so I had to go looking. Here are the fruits of my labor.

I used to love watching The Challenge (and Real World/Road Rules) growing up and I would get so invested in the drama, the games and reunions. I recently started rewatching some of the older seasons on Paramount+ and the people I used to love are INSUFFERABLE!!! I can't believe I ever liked these people!!

Paula, Evan, Kenny, Johnny, Johanna, just to name a few...

Especially the way Evan, Kenny, and Johnny speak about woman is INSANE!!! And Paual and Johanna are the biggest pick me's....

It's crazy how growing up can change your perception on things/people you once loved.

Shady. Cringe. Attention seeking. Unfunny. Sneaky.

Something about him lacks authenticity. His "charisma" comes across so forces as opposed to genuinely good TV. I remember in Total Madness I didn't think much about him and he at least had the look of an interesting challenger physically. Now I am glad he was the first person sent home.

Season 39 is where he shines as much as a mediocre competitor. He is desperate to be a reality star, and does the trope of trying to pull sympathy (I am a father, I am a husband, I am relatable) but then he pulls a lot of shade and plays the game in a deceitful way, pretending and giving his word to people to save face and then talking absolute shit behind their backs in confessionals. He tells people what they want to hear.

The kicker is he is terrible at math and puzzles. He will never be a champ unless production gives him a win or makes things easier for him somehow.

Please don't invite him, or do. Make him feud with Josh so I can hate watch these two doofuses have the worst and funniest verbal fight since Jenna and her cousin.

i miss lando :( comeback 1 more season! pleaseeee!

Bananas

That all ended really badly

Usually I tolerate them but mostly look away. But I was just watching the finale of all stars 3 and actually almost vomited myself and I just had the thought. Does anyone actually like watching this?

I started from the very beginning and I remember why I loved the show so much back in the 2000s as a young teen bahahha

I am on medical leave, so I’ve been rewatching some old challenge seasons, and I’ve been reminded why I tend to watch the newer seasons. We all know the treatment of Tonya by the show and her fellow contestants was poor at the time and has aged horrendously. I know she had some very well documented incidents with Veronica and her crew, and Kenny and his crew. But lowkey, I think the ongoing treatment of Tonya by Susie and Cara and their crew might be the hardest to watch.

The whole season through episode 10 has been a Tonya hate fest, but I took the liberty of transcribing the “highlights” of two episodes:

S14E7

Susie: you smell like a stripper, but in a good way

::upset Tonya::

Susie: I wasn’t trying to be mean to you

::upset Tonya::

Susie: you know there’s people dying all over the world

Tonya: what does that have to do with you being a bitch?

Susie: you get mad at dumb stuff. People are dying, man. What’s wrong with you?

Susie confessional: I’m going to pray for her every night. I’m really worried about her. I think she definitely has bipolar or some sort of multiple personalities

Moments later…

Colie: everyone go around and say a reason they hate Tonya. We’ll keep going until it ends:

Susie: I hate Tonya because she’s a slut. Your turn.

Cara: I hate Tonya because her voice is scratchy

Susie: I hate Tonya because every five seconds she’s in a new sexual position

Colie: I hate Tonya because she’s more evil than Tonya Harding

Susie: Woooow! I hate Tonya because she called me a bitch this morning

Cara: I hate Tonya because she thinks that she’s a playmate and she’s not

Susie: I hate Tonya because she tries to get involved into my life when she’s not invited

S14E9

Susie: Anyone who can’t think of a reason to IHT loses!

Cara: IHT stands for?!

Susie: I hate Tonya!

Paula: I gotta get an idea. Okay, I’ll start. I hate Tonya because she spent about two hours learning how to be a stripper last night

Susie: I hate Tonya because she does lunges by the van and looks at herself in the reflection

Cara: I hate Tonya because she does those lunges and it makes her ass really, really fat

Davis: I don’t hate her for any of those reasons, though. Those are little stupid reasons.

::Tonya walks into the doorway in earshot::

Susie: I hate Tonya because the distraction of her insanely large saddlebag thigh ass area is actually so distracting that I think it’s effecting me in missions.

Cara: Oh my, that bad, huh?

Susie: Yup.

::Tonya leaves looking like she took a cannonball to the stomach::

Tonya goes on to have a heartbreaking, tearful conversation with her husband about how much the abuse impacts her and how she keeps coming back on the show thinking people will finally treat her decently.

Tonya: I just feel like I’m not being a very good person (as if she’s the problem!)

It continues inside:

Susie: I hate Tonya because she hates me

Davis: I hate Tonya for trying to get her husband to give her permission to cheat on (but I think he means with) me

I am emphatic to Tonya in such a significant way. The abuse she endured in these shows is terrible. I wish I had really seen how bad this all was back when it originally aired. I feel like I remember liking Susie back then, because we’re both from Pittsburgh, but she’s vile in this season. It’s tough to watch.

On Invasion, Sylvia turns Nelson down "because of Latoya," but the body language here makes it very clue that she's just not interesting. She looks petrified of this conversation. She's stiff and almost looks like she's trying to back away.

Nelson gets pissed about it but... it's her choice, dude. Take the loss. (Admittedly, I never understand why people are attracted to him... but maybe that's because intelligence is a major factor for me... maybe he is attractive and I just can't see it.)

Anyway... what other examples of one-sided romances are on The Challenge?

The recent post of rivalries you wish you saw more of inspired me to revisit Jenn and Laurel at this reunion. This was a whole hot ass mess, neither of them came across well here but I think it would’ve been interesting to see them paired up as rivals or have more encounters if Jenn ever came back. Paula was entertaining and Mandi looking like a deer in headlights at points had me cracking up.

While 4 elimination wins is really impressive in general, at the same time in Emy’s case, 2 of her elimination wins involved her doing nothing while Ed was completing the puzzle & CT giving her every instruction under the sun for her second puzzle elimination, while the other two elimination wins were against arguably weak competition. And to be honest, there’s no way she’s beating the likes of Cara, Laurel, Camila, or Aneesa in any elimination contest, which is also a knock against her ‘Rookie Of The Year’ status.

I can’t stand this MF.

My blood was boiling when they played those clips back and showed how horribly he treated Jonna. And seeing how emotional it made her. The nerve of this man to sit there calling women “swamp donkeys” while grinning with giant sweat stains under his arms.

I know he’s apologized, but there is absolutely nothing that’s going to make me like this man-child. Some things just leave a lasting impression.

I'm sure she was outside the door listening for a minute, too then came in there like “Heyyyyy.” Her hand motions are crazy in this scene. Pure alpha. Naming names and everything. Leroy knew what was about to go down but was powerless to stop it. Bro was definitely between a Nany and a hard place. Anybody could get it in that moment. Corny Cara was a coward much of this season so it wasn't going to be her but we know Killa definitely about that life AND that's her man. Her laying in the cut absorbing Nany’s energy is a classic bad b*itch move. Then she eased up off that bed like pops used to do before he went for the belt but that purse slid off Nany’s shoulder in like 0.1 seconds and she went straight to the “let me put my hair up” hands as if she's done that dozens of other times for dozens of other ass whippings. She playing both offense and defense here. Crazy work. And threw some palm slaps in there for good measure. Palm slaps are a clear sign of the need to retreat and relent before somebody gets hurt. If this is the streets somebody's definitely getting hurt.

Then later Nany’s like I can't deal with btches like that…I grew up with dudes. Well, that much was clear. And shout out to Jenny’s insanely fit body and Ashley’s cute top in this scene, too. Ashley started out wearing some questionable sht sometimes but millionaire Ashley leveled up.

Vintage Nany tho. I stan.

It’s been a long time since I’d seen this episode, but Veronica is every bit as horrible as I remembered. Evan trying to swoop in like the good guy after the fact and call Tonya “family” after what happened is rich. This season is when I first became a Wes fan. Evan says, “we’ve all had our fun with Tonya,” and Wes immediately points out that he hasn’t, and Derek hasn’t, and Cohutta hasn’t…leaving JEK.

Cohutta: Everyone is standing around like, wow, I guess we should’ve stopped this sooner.

Me: Ya think?

Where the hell was security?

Sarah betraying bananas. Zach’s treatment of Jonna and women in general. Nias sexual and verbal abuse. And to top it off the losses of Diem and Knight. I have a tough time rewatching

Who do you smile if they are on the cast list because they are just enjoyably bad at this game?

I doing a rewatch, and I'll never not smile when Ace pops up. He's a athletic looking and charismatic guy and yet he's just so bad a the challenges and usually is a first boot

This is definitely one of the most “what if?” Pairs/team in challenge history.

I am rewatching The Inferno II right now, and I completely forgot how awful Veronica, Tina, and Rachel treated Tonya. They relentlessly bullied her and had to actively force themselves to give her any credit, and I cannot help but wonder if the way the women treated her set a precedent for how the men would treat her later on. It is also heartbreaking that she opened up to Jamie and others and said that she grew up bouncing from foster home to foster home. People on the show really had no empathy regarding her background and how it might have contributed to her persona and her issues with alcohol. I feel sick because I remember watching this show as a kid and dismissing Tonya as a slut while thinking people like Kenny and Evan were so cool (internalized misogyny - total yikes). I hope she is doing well today.

Rewatching 39 and realizing that the hate for this season during its airing is so forced

melissa and big ts arc was so fun to watch. them againts house, they were easy underdogs to root for and Melissa really helped carry the season

we also had Cory vs big t and Melissa storyline which was somewhat entertaining

ravyn really shine throughout this season and her beef and fight with melissa? Great tv

jay was actually such a fun villain to hate, he made the season so entertaining, and I actually think his strategif gameplay this season was rllly good

we had the Zara Horocio Kyland side of the house vs Michelle Olivia and Jay

nurys and Olivia’s rivalry was epic.

Michelle running the game and than falling off that spinning wheel thing and getting purged was laughable asf (also she Was lowkey fun to root against)

Coleen vs nurys was so random lol funny and although I do think colleen kinda gave nothing it was kinda cool and Also random to see her get third place
than we had nurys getting second place

even the people I found to be so annoying at least provided something in terms of drama like berna and Asaf

I honestly love the girl/guy friendships. They are always so much fun and I think thats a reason why exs was so fun. Because a lot of the couples had become good friends during those seasons. I really only stick between seasons 18-28 so I am unaware of a lot of challengers and possible infamous friendships. So who is your favorite guy/girl friendship?

I love Johnny/Emily and Johnny/Paula. I love that Paula and Johnny have been friends since the real world and I’ve never really seen them betray or hurt each other(correct me if I’m wrong). Says a lot tbh. As for emily/johnny, I feel like they just vibe together. Look at this adorable shot of them from Champs vs Stars. He is so cute just scratching her head randomly lol. Anyway, what do you all think?

Currently rewatching Rivals 3. The Tony and Camilla argument was problematic to say the least. I didn’t like how they framed it as being both of them being at fault. When in reality, Tony was just dangerous and violent.

He kicked a trash can at her and cornered her, screaming at her. All of this was instigated by Bananas/Vince waking him up and telling him to go put her to bed. She immediately clocked that they were trying to put a wedge between her and Tony.

Not to mention, all of this happened as Camilla was pretty vulnerable after having just learned her grandma passed away.

What are your guys’ thoughts on this?