The Challenge Retrospective Part 3: Battle of the Sexes

Episode 1/2 are interesting, a lot of drama off rip, unfortunately not a lot of it is fun drama, Dave is randomly proud of being the first person booted out of reality tv history, which is funny. The problem is that Puck was spitting on people, which is gross as all get out btw, Jesus Christ Puck. Now Puck is hard to talk about considering what happens with him like, post-show, but for this retrospective I'll be sticking to the show's perspective and even then, Puck is so horribly unlikeable. Dave not being respected and feeling like the spit was a racial attack is very valid from him and it pisses me off that the whole cast defended Puck and then Dave left instead, like way to already make a toxic atmosphere, good work. Dave deserved better honestly. With the challenge underway, it was clear Julie was the target for the women but also considered Emily. However, they voted off Julie despite the fact she was one of the strongest, which is an interestingly terrible move made mostly by Melissa. Episode MVP: Melissa Episode 3, the men immediately believe that booting Julie was the dumbest decision the women could have made and then decide to always boot the man with the least number of points, which makes this season a completely dull experience at first to be honest with you, notably for the men. The Challenge was fine, but Laterrian is at the bottom, who was a huge bright spot for the men, so not only is it a boring strategy, but we lose one of the better male characters off rip due to that. The inner circle for the women basically just ice out Beth, even when people on the team vouch for her, which is a dumb strategic decision, but good TV. Ruthie saves Gladys despite the fact Gladys is basically useless in most challenges. We lose Beth and Laterrian, in my opinion, it's a huge loss to the season as a whole as Beth is always great TV and Laterrian was one of the few men to be actually interesting on the show. Episode MVP: Ruthie Episode 4 and we see a bunch of funny stuff with the men planning a wedding. Puck is being weird and always is and his comments about "Making her cry" age even worse knowing he's an abusive POS outside of the show, like I'm sorry, how was this man popular? The men win again, shocker. I do find it funny that the women didn't finish for so long that the men helped them finish, which is amusing. We lose Gladys and Eric. Honestly if they were more interesting, this would be a loss, but I'm sorry they were so boring this season. And this "boot the people on the bottom of the points" mentality is already rubbing me the wrong way. Episode MVP: Ellen Episode 5 starts with Ayanna and David being friends, Puck is unfortunately with his family, so yay more Puck content... I love seeing Ellen bash Puck, she's so real with all of her comments. The challenge was actually really good, seeing David work hard to try to save himself was interesting, but once he fell behind, it was obvious who was gonna go home. Puck tries to fight with Ellen, who ignores him, good for her. Amaya told Ruthie about her cousin's unfortunate passing. Veronica does not want to send home Jisela, since she was the only one who supported Veronica, but despite this: David and Jisela go home. We get another Ellen and Puck fight with Puck saying he's going to kick her ass ONCE AGAIN, HOW IS THIS MAN ALLOWED ON TV? David was boring and only notable because he gets screentime here to set up his boot and Jisela was even less notable but at least had that bond with Veronica. Episode MVP: Ellen Episode 6, Dan starts talking about how the men don't stand up to Puck because they're scared of him, honestly, I'd be scared of a crazed, spitting guy who constantly talks about wanting to beat up Ellen, but it's so pathetic that they don't do anything at all, and the fact the cast stood up for him on day 1 is becoming more and more of a thing I CANNOT STAND on this season. We have the wedding this episode, I don't care, I'd rather eat a cactus than listen to more of "Buhhh- buhh- but Puck's a good guy ;-;" I'm over it. Blair tries to talk to Puck and settle the drama, but Puck is not responsive to that idea. Good for Blair for standing up for Ellen. Anyway, the wedding was well done and makes for an interesting episode, if only it wasn't a horribly unlikeable person getting married, whoopity doo. Episode MVP: Blair Episode 7, the drama starts off, with Ellen and Rachel arguing about the pairs. Tonya steps up to be paired with Amaya. The challenge was fine. Tonya is a very angry because Amaya did so poorly that Tonya went from the middle of the women in points to the bottom because of her terrible performance. This starts Tonya's downfall. We lose Yes and Amaya, Ellen is no longer in a good spot with the women, which is stupid but whatever it's not my call. Tonya is trying to work with Ellen to save her. Yes was not notable at all, Amaya was a bit better but not terribly notable. Episode MVP: Tonya Episode 8, Rachel is negative all the time and continues to annoy the cast with her constant negativity. I will say, she is completely right about the women, why would you want to stay if you only want to be here for a week more, and this will come back later so this is foreshadowing. The Challenge was pretty funny, I liked it. Dan works hard to try to stay but he's clearly on the bottom. Ayanna strategically throws the challenge to let Ellen win, which was really interesting gameplay. Ellen speaks to Ayanna about what to do but despite Rachel being a strong performer, they're just fed up with her attitude. This is my mind, is when the women lost the game. The guys boot Dan, which is a shame as he was probably the funniest man. Episode MVP: Rachel Episode 9, Puck's wife has visa issues, Puck gets a machete like a SLASHER VILLAIN but thankfully leaves. God THANK YOU FOR SENDING PUCK HOME, THANK YOU. Puck quits. And let me just give my thoughts on Puck now, I have never seen such an unstable man be consistently shown to be violent and temperamental, yet nobody calls him out on this. He is by far, and I will show this in the ranking of every era player my least favorite ever to be on the show, he's so unlikeable to the point it's genuinely disgusting. The challenge was fine, Tonya gets saved and Emily really wants Veronica out, but the women target Aneesa instead. Dan gets booted again, shocker and Aneesa goes. I already talked about Dan. Aneesa was pretty forgettable on this season, but she will have far more notable seasons later. Episode MVP: Emily Episode 10, Emily and James are enjoying their time in Jamaica together. The trivia challenge was a weird idea; I don't like the idea of strip trivia, feels exploitative. James initially didn't want to play but changed his mind when being convinced by his team, which was kinda lame of him to bail on his girlfriend like that. Emily dropped to the bottom for not participating and blames her boyfriend and the women for playing. She won't take accountability, which is kind of annoying, even if I get her perspective. Veronica wants her revenge on Emily, but Tonya gets voted off alongside Jake. I can't say a single thing about Jake, he was boring. As for Tonya, she was so likeable and a great underdog Esque figure on this season, who was a voice of reason. Now knowing her future seasons, this will not last at all, but it was an interesting way for her to begin her run on the show. Episode MVP: Emily Episode 11, the women bash Veronica for being rude like Rachel before her. Phase 2 of the season begins with everyone against eachother, no pairs. Eric dedicating his win to his sister was kind of a nice moment. Shocker for the inner circle, the same people win over and over for the men. Christina and Theo get voted off; I barely remember a thing about either of them. Episode MVP: Veronica Episode 12, Emily is insecure about Veronica and James having done it in the past. Making it clear what the narrative of this episode will be. The challenge was fine, but mostly boring. Emily heavily rallies to send home Veronica. The inner circle does not agree but once Emily threatens that the entire team agrees, she manipulates the inner circle into voting off Veronica. Jamie tried to save her, but it didn't work. Syrus also went home, but he wasn't a huge part of this season, one of the better male characters but honestly with the women carrying the season so much, he's not that notable to me. Veronica on the other hand, what a star of the season, I really enjoyed seeing her being a lot more villainous and cutthroat this time around compared to her prior season when she went home first. Episode MVP: Emily Episode 13, the women think the challenges are unfun, yep, it's true. Anyway, the guys decide to plan to target Ayanna and when the women get fed up with Ayanna, she just asks to go home. I liked Blair a lot, seeing him somehow get towards the end was fascinating, I wish he did another season, I also really respect him for standing up to Puck and defending Ellen. Ayanna is such an insane character this season, her downfall is interesting, it's a shame she basically gave up at the end. Episode MVP: Ayanna Episode 14, Shane wants to leave. The vote outs are boring, as it's supposed to be Genesis and Eric, but Shane makes a crazy play: he saves Genesis with the life saver, which honestly is probably one of my favorite moments on the season. The women end up voting out Anne after she basically asks to go home. I hate this asking to leave stuff, my god. Anyway, to talk about the boots: Eric and Anne were fine, but mostly just baseline fine characters. Episode MVP: Shane Episode 15, the challenge was interesting, with the men winning. Antoine saves Shane after Shane and James tie in their scores. James was mildly annoying, a bit of a rude brash dudebro kind of person. But he did have his interesting relationship with Emily. He has personality, but him never coming back isn't a huge loss in my mind. Emily quits because her boyfriend went home, but tries to justify it as saying her sister needs her, which is just a load of barnacles. Emily was such a great character and the mess she caused was great, she's always been a great character across her run on the show, but I think her just quitting here is pathetic. Episode MVP: Emily Episode 16, Genesis was spared last episode, she desperately needs to perform. The Challenge sucked, Ruthie getting DQ'd did not matter. Genesis and Shane are voted off. Shane felt so over the game and elected to not let his team save him again and went home. Genesis had a really interesting run but was a mostly fine character aside from her strong storyline. Shane was very memorable due to his downfall across the season. Episode MVP: Genesis Episode 17, the penultimate challenge is fine with Ruthie winning a car and the challenge for the women, good stuff Ruthie. Melissa and Antoine go home due to not being in the inner circle. Melissa was really fun, got into drama, had a lot of personality, absolute travesty she never came back. Antoine's culture clash with him not being American was interesting, but he was mostly just fine. Episode MVP: Ruthie Episode 18 is the final; the men win which is predictable. Let's talk about the finalists starting with Lori, who I forgot was even on the season until the end. Ellen was arguably the main character of the season. She is by far my pick for the MVP of the season. Ruthie finally figuring out the strategy was interesting, and her run was one of the better runs across this season, even if she's not the best personality overall. Colin was boring aside from being injured. Jamie was really interesting, probably my favorite male character of the season. Mark Long was not notable, which is wild considering what a face of era 1 he is. I just gotta be honest, this season was so hard to get through, I think the drama is better than the first four seasons, but so much of it ends up being icky, notably the first half with Puck. This was both the best season and worst season of the era to me, and it's gonna be hard as balls to rank it on the era 1 rankings. Cast: 2/10 - the women carried, the men were mostly all mediocre-trash characters. Gameplay: 3/10 - Way more interesting than anything before it on the women's side, the lifesaver with Genesis is a highlight of the gameplay but the men's tactics made this season dull, so 3/10 seems fair. Drama 4/10 - When the drama isn't icky, notably in the second half of the season, it's the best drama we've gotten from the show by a longshot, but when it's bad, man is it terrible. Challenges: 2/10 - So many were boring because the men just won them over and over, with Ruthie's win at the end being one of the only victories for the women. Overall score: 11/40, subject to change once I compare it to the rest of the era. And that's all for Battle of the Sexes, tune in next time for THE GAUNTLET.