Real World/ Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins - Episode 3

Every week, during a RW/RR Challenge, I’ll write a recap of the new episode with some running commentary. If you missed a week or want to know what happened on a previous episode, an archive of my recaps will be under the News tab in my profile.

Today’s show started with the castmates doing what they do best: Lounging on a boat drinking and having a good time. That was nice of MTV to put everyone on a boat cruise. Too bad it's probably not safe with Tonya still in the cast.

Tonya’s already drunk and trying to climb a ladder up the mast, luckily Derrick convinces her that’s a bad idea and she comes back down. Tonya lets us know that one of the best things about her life is that she can do whatever she wants. This includes vomiting over the side of the boat, then making out with a woman MTV identifies as “random local”. MTV spelled out her name on the screen, but it was pretty exotic and had a lot of vowels and y’s in places I’m not used to.

After a few more video montages of how much fun everyone is having on the boat and a couple of the rookies talking about how they’re strong competitors, we’re back to the house, where Brad, Adam, and Danny are masterminding a Challengers comeback. Adam is saying that they need to get proactive about entering the Ruins and send people who are confident and think they can win. Brad and Danny agree. The three of them decide their going to volunteer to be eligible for the next elimination. Now that they’ve settled that, we’re back to everyone partying and flirting.

Tonight’s spotlight is on Evan and Veronica. Evan admits that he can’t take his eyes off Veronica. Veronica admits that hooking up with Evan would improve her standing with the team. Or as she puts it, “at least, I’ll be less likely to be sent in”.

Susie and Evan are talking the next day about how they can control who gets sent into the Ruins every week. Basically, their core alliance is Evan, Kenny, Johnny, Susie, and Johanna. If they can send in 4 people, who will vote their way, then they’ll be able to make it to the finals. Of course, a major road block for them is Wes.

Wes and Evan are talking over breakfast and it sounds like Wes is trying to make the argument that Evan, Kenny, and Johnny (this sounds like the names of the guys in a boy band. In fact, I’m calling them the boy band from now on, until I can think of an appropriate name for their band.) are the ones victimizing him. Wes is still p---ed about last week’s vote. In the interview he’s saying that everyone on his team is a “bad person”, “not intelligent”, and “cowardly”. Evan just sits there taking his taunts and abuse, until Wes calls him a coward. That finally riles Evan up and he tells Wes that everyone’s problem with Wes is everything’s always about Wes. Wes is unfazed and tells Evan to sit back down to talk to him, but Evan’s had enough and walks away.

I guess Wes wasn’t done though because now he’s in a room with the rest of the Champions team and basically telling them the same thing he told Evan. And like Evan, the other members of the team are telling him that they don’t trust him because only cares about himself. Wes then drops this bombshell: any money he wins is going straight to charity. So if he’s donating his money to charity, how can he only care about himself? Johanna laughs and doesn’t believe a word of it, which Wes says hurts his feelings deeply. Johnny calls out Wes on trying to throw the challenges, when he’s supposedly donating his winnings to charity. Wes doesn’t really have an answer and makes a big speech about how this game and money affects relationships, like his relationship with ex-fiancés.

Afterward, the boy band, Syrus, and Derrick are talking about which 3 guys will be eligible for the Ruins. Johnny thinks it’d be better strategically to send in Evan, Kenny, and Syrus. Syrus doesn’t understand why they’re not sending in Wes. Johnny thinks that it’d be better to save Wes for later Ruins, but Syrus thinks that Wes screwed the team first, so they should send him every time, until he gets sent home.

The next day before the challenge, the Challengers team is deciding who’s going to be eligible for elimination. Danny, Brad, and Adam stick to their word and volunteer to go in. They try to inspire confidence in their team and unveil their strategy of only sending in players who volunteer for the Ruins. They run into a problem when only Kimberly and Brianna volunteer. So they vote for the final spot and Casey gets voted in, against her wishes. Now she’s tearing up a little bit. At the very least, she’s flushed.

(This is something I don’t understand. Let’s say you’re Casey. You’re not coordinated or athletic. You’re scared of everything and are crying through most of the challenges. You don’t like to do anything uncomfortable. Why are you there?? I understand they pay these guys to come on the show, on top of any prize money, and it’s basically a free vacation to some exotic locale... But don’t you accept the price you pay is to do a bunch of things that are designed to make you miserable? These challenges got you new boobs and you came back for more! Stop complaining! You could have to work a real job, like everyone else. Instead you're on a MTV show doing stupid things and drinking yourself to sleep every night.)

On the Champions side, they decide to make Evan, Kenny, Syrus, Susie, Ibis, and Veronica eligible for the Ruins. Wes seems satisfied with himself. As he puts it, “I made a big speech about donating my winnings to charity and my team decided not to send me into the Ruins”. Kenny says they're not sending Wes in because it works better for their rotation this way. (What is he talking about??)

Veronica is disappointed because she “thought the voting would go differently”. Evan voted to send Tonya into the Ruins again, but the rest of the team thought that wasn’t fair because she’d already gone into the elimination challenge. (Guess even Evan couldn’t save Veronica.)

This week’s challenge is called Repo Race. Each team needs designate one person to cross from one point of the beach to another over several obstacles without touching the sand. At the end of the course a sack that the designated player, then needs to carry back to the other end of the couse without the player or the sack touching the sand. The rest of the team will lie on their stomachs to form a part of a bridge that their teammate can step on without touching the ground. If the player touches the sand, then the team will have to go back to the previous checkpoint and start from that point. The first team to get their sack and player into the finish area without touching the sand wins.

Derrick and Cohutta are designated as the players to get the sack and travel back to the finish area. Sounds like reasonable choices and there isn’t any pre-challenge drama, so TJ blows the whistle and players start flopping on the sand for Derrick and Cohutta to walk on. The Challengers team stumbles early as Cohutta touches sand and they’re sent back to the start. Looks like the Champions are off to another easy win.

As they continue through the course, Derrick slips off someone else to fall in the sand and the Challengers catch up. The Champions get to the end of the course first and Derrick climbs up to a short platform to get the sack. The sack is attached to a sign that says the sack can’t touch the sand as he carries it back. Something about the sign trips up Derrick and he’s not sure what to do with the sack. It takes a few moments before Derrick, climbs back down and proceeds to carry the sack back to the finish area. In this time, the Challengers build up a small lead, which gets bigger when Derrick touches the sand again and they need to restart from their last checkpoint. That was all the Challengers needed and Cohutta crosses the finish line for the win.

Derrick is obviously disappointed, as are the other members of his team. Johnny and Syrus are off to the side placing the blame on Derrick. This might come back to bite Derrick in the butt..

The Challengers are jubilant and celebrating like they won the World Series. Everyone’s pumped up, but the reality slowly sets in that they now have to decide which of their team is going into the Ruins. During the deliberation, the team decides to do a closed ballot vote and the person with the most votes goes into the elimination challenge. The vote comes out to be 1 vote for Brad, 2 votes for Danny, and 3 votes for Adam. Adam is going into the Ruins and he chooses to go against Syrus. Adam rationalizes that although he’s known Syrus, Kenny, and Evan for years, he’s closer with Evan and Kenny.

For the females, the vote totals are 5 for Brianna and 1 for Casey (lucky!). Brianna chooses to face Susie. Apparently, Susie is undefeated in elimination challenges, so most of the other females are afraid to face her. This doesn’t stop Brianna though. In fact, that’s precisely the reason why she chose Susie. She wants to make history!

Adam and Brianna go to the Champions room to tell their opponents to get ready for the Ruins. Susie puts on a huge, fake smile and says, “It’ll be my pleasure”. Afterwards, Adam and Cohutta are watching Thai fisherman struggle with their boat engine. Adam is upset that he got voted to go into the Ruins (what happened to being proactive about the elimination challenges??) and wants to change how the voting happened, if he comes back. Adam thinks Danny should’ve gone in because “every single one of them in that room knows that [Adam] beat him in the Gauntlet”.

In his interview, Adam admits that ordinarily he’d be in a disadvantage during the challenges, but says this time he’s feeling stronger and thinks he can do well. Syrus says that while some people think they can win, he EXPECTS to win. Take that, grasshopper!

We get to the Ruins and TJ explains today’s elimination challenge. It’s called Burnout. There’s a big bamboo pole with two round turn handles on either end. In the middle of the pole is a triangle that’s designed to deflect water. On either side of the pole, is a bucket to catch the deflected water. When one of the buckets is filled with enough water, it will tip over and put out the fire for a player. The contestants need to make sure they fill their opponent’s bucket faster to put out their fire and send them home.

The females are first to go. Darrell thinks Brianna has a chance because she has some “street in her”. Brianna is holding steady and is leading for most of the challenge, but Susie catches up and fills up Brianna’s bucket first to put out her fire and send Brianna home. There’s no real drama here. Brianna cries a little bit and runs up the tunnel to go home.

Syrus and Adam get ready for their elimination. Adam is a little apprehensive because this challenge doesn’t take advantage of his speed and quickness. They get started and Syrus gets this look on his face like his eyes are about to pop out. I have to admit it’s a little disconcerting. Usually Syrus looks pretty mellow and laidback, but right now his eyes are bugging out and he’s tucking his lips behind his teeth. He's all eyes, nose, and jaw. (What the hell happened to his mouth?! Syrus has no mouth!!) Adam already looks exhausted trying to turn the pole to deflect water into Syrus's bucket. And it wasn't really close. Adam's fire get doused in water and he's sent packing.

We end back at the house with Veronica and Evan flirting. There's not a lot of innuendo involved. It's pretty much the old, "Hey, so how long do I have to wait until we f---?" I'm not even kidding. Don't believe me? Fine, I'm rewinding the TiVo to give you the exchange verbatim:

Veronica: "Alright I feel like this is a big moment. What's going to happen?"

Evan: "Between you and I?"

Veronica: "Yeah."

Evan: "I can't wait."

(Pointless banter about sunrise or sunset.)

Veronica: "How long do I have to wait for this explosion?"

Evan: "With me? Not long."

So there you go, this week's episode ends with a shot of Evan and Veronica spooning in bed without a lot of clothes on. Stay classy, guys.

Memorable Quotes:

"Veronica sees Evan as the loudest voice on our team and, instead of going to work, working hard, and getting promoted the right way. It's like let's f--- the boss and get a raise that way. And I don't respect that way of playing the game." - Johnny Bananas, explaining what he sees happening between Veronica and Evan.

There's one thing I can kind of respect about Veronica on these challenges. It's that she's honest about what she's doing and trying to make happen. Some of the females hook up with a guy on the show and pretend that their not really using that guy to get them through the challenge. Veronica is pretty honest about that. She's not going out there telling everyone that she's a slut, but she's not putting up pretenses.

"He's one of those guys where there's any thinking or strategy or.. reading involved, it's not his cup of tea." - Johnny Bananas, describing Derrick's shortcomings.

Johnny Bananas getting both of the memorable quotes this week! Good job by him! I was thinking of going with Veronica saying, "Evan's a nice guy. I'm not sure how genuine his compliments are toward me, but he's a nice guy. I like him.", but Johnny describing Derrick getting perplexed by the instructions left next to the sack he needed to pick up and carry, was hilarious and a little sad.

Previews for next week:

Casey is scared of another challenge.. Katie is walking around threatening to hit people with a plunger.. Wes says the boy band is taking things too far.. Oo and Tonya hits Veronica! Sweet!

See you guys, next week! As always, comments are welcome!