Wes
Side Story
September 30
It's time for another season of The Real
World/Road Rules Challenge. We've already been through the Gauntlet,
then the Inferno, then the Duel, and then the Island. Now we're ready
to witness the Ruins.
28 competitors arrive in Phuket, Thailand,
where they are divided into two teams, which are then divided into
seperate groups of guys and girls: Champions and Challengers. Those on
the Champions team have won at least one previous challenge...
CHAMPIONS
MEN
Darrell - RR: Campus Crawl
Derrick - RR: X-Treme
Evan - Fresh Meat
Johnny - RW: Key West
Kenny - Fresh Meat
Syrus - RW: Boston
Wes - RW: Austin
WOMEN
Evelyn - Fresh Meat
Ibis - RR: X-Treme
Johanna - RR: Austin
Katie - RR: The Quest
Susie - RR: Down Under
Tonya - RW: Chicago
Veronica - RR: Semester at Sea
...while those on the Challengers team
have never won a challenge.
CHALLENGERS
MEN
Adam - RW: Paris
Brad - RW: San Diego
Chet - RW: Brooklyn
Cohutta - RW: Sydney
Danny - RW: Austin
Dunbar - RW: Sydney
Nick - RW: Hollywood
WOMEN
Brianna - RW: Hollywood
Casey - Fresh Meat
Diem - Fresh Meat
Kelly Anne - RW: Sydney
Kimberly - RW: Hollywood
Sarah - RW: Brooklyn
Shauvon - RW: Sydney
There is $180,000 up for grabs over the
first nine challenges, that's $20,000 per each one. And for the first
time in challenge history, the 20K will not go into their team bank
account. Instead, the accrued money be divided up equally amongst the
players that are left into their individual bank accounts.
Also, the final challenge of the season is
worth $120,000, which will be divided amongst the winning team. Simply
put, if you don't make it to the end, you don't get paid.
If the players are feeling greedy, all
they have to do is get themselves nominated into the Ruins with
someone that has a big bank account. If they go in there and send
their opponent home, he or she not only gets sent home broke, but
their cash will go to the account winner of the elimination round.
For every challenge, there'll be three
guys and girls of each team up for possible elimination in the Ruins.
Once those decisions have been made, they'll carry on with that day's
challenge. The team who wins the challenge not only gets the 20K
mentioned earlier, but their six nominees will be in a position of
power. They'll decide which guy and girl of each team are going to
come into the Ruins and battle it out for survival.
After the teams settle in homebase which
is four stories of beautiful luxurious beach property. Tanya gets
plastered which doesn't bode well for her team. And Wes isn't getting
along with any of his teammates, which include a former fiancé and a
few former best friends, and decides he is going to throw this week’s
competition (and probably as many as he can as long as he's there). We
then go back to Tonya who's hurt by Evelyn's comments about her
personal life. Ev just doesn't understand Tonya as she flips out at
her. Tonya then talks to Syrus and Adam and then tries to tone down
her personality and find a "distraction" before their first challenge.
The teams recieve their first clue on
their mobile devices...
> Who is the weakest link in your chain?
Find out at tomorrow's challenge. Bus leaves at 9:30 AM and don't
forget to wear bathing suits.
Wes then talks to Ev who says that he
isn't permanently going to be on the outs of his own team. Ev thinks
that he has a huge ego coming into this and if he was capable of being
a team player, then he would be a tremendous asset to their team. Ev
then says to Wes that he has not burned those bridges with his
teammates and vice-versa. Ev tells Wes that he has got to swallow his
pride. Wes is using Brad and Danny to get across to their team to make
him know he's throwing the missions to let them know he's their best
teammate despite wearing a different color. If the nomination process
of selecting a name at random out of a hat isn't going to happen, then
Wes is going to throw the challenge so bad that he'll tackle his own
teammates down to the ground. However, Kenny and the rest of the
champions will not bow down to his demands. This may be of some form
of help for the challengers.
Both teams now to go the playing area for
their first challenge, but first they have to deliberate for 10
minutes and then make their nominations for the first elimination
round in the Ruins.
The challengers nominate Diem, Sarah,
Shauvon, Chet, Cohutta and Nick. Then the champs nominate Kenny,
Darrell, Wes, Johanna, Tonya, and Susie.
Challenge #1: Chain Gang
There's a giant rope suspended 30 feet
above the lake. There's a platform at the top of the rope with a gong
on either side. Their goal is to get up to that platform and ring the
gong. And to make this challenge more interesting, their entire team
is hooked up to the same rope. On T.J.'s signal, the player at the
bottom of the rope must unhook themselves from it and climb up past
their teammates to the platform and hit the gong. Then that will
signify the next player at the bottom to do the same thing. One player
at a time is allowed to climb the rope. The team with the most players
on top will win this challenge, the 20K, and a portable DJ mixer for
their iPod.
The challengers go first...
Casey - Failed
Cohutta - Completed
Brianna - Completed
Chet - Completed
Adam - Completed
Kimberly - Completed
Nick - Completed
Diem - Completed
Brad - Completed
Sarah - Completed
Danny - Completed
Shauvon - Failed
Dunbar - Completed
Total: 12 out of 14
The champs now take their turn...
Wes - Disqualified*
Ibis - Disqualifed*
Darrell - Completed
Tonya - Completed
Derrick - Completed
Susie - Completed
Johnny - Completed
Veronica - Completed
Kenny - Completed
Johanna - Completed
Evelyn - Completed
Evan - Completed
Katie - Completed
Syrus - Completed
Total: 12 out of 14
**Wes tried to shake the rest of the team
off the rope. But Ibis unhooked from the rope before he did and they
both fell into the water.
A tie score has been achieved, so it will
be broken by who had 12 players on the platform in the fastest time.
The champs clocked in at a time of 23:44. The challengers clocked in
at a time of...30:12. So despite Wes' attempt at throwing the
challenge, the champs win it.
Back at home base, the players are
chilling out at the pool when Darrell took major offense after Wes
nearly sabotaged the champs victory and later on they nearly came to
blows. Darrell instigated a fight by calling Wes’ girl a w***e (which
is totally inappropriate, Darrell), but there wasn't one as he backed
out.
Because Kenny, Darrell, Wes, Johanna,
Tonya, and Susie are in the position of power, they're sent to a room
where there are placards with the names of the players participating
in the challenge. They'll place names of the nominated guys and girls
of each team in the designated space. Host T.J. returns and the
match-ups have been set. Tonya will play against Diem and Wes will
play against Chet (who has let himself know as the Bowtie Killer) in
the elimination rounds.
Tonya continues to be the target of her
fellow challengers because of being drunker than the others. She's
having a hard time trying to sleep because of their insults. Chet
thinks Tonya has got a lot to prove in this game and she knows she can
pull herself toghether. That's provided Tonya and drink less booze and
alcohol.
Wes gets awaken by the sounds of a few of
the other players partying. But that did little to get a rise out of
him. Johanna wishes Wes good luck although she wants him to lose. Wes
is having a hard time separating the personal relationships from the
game from relationship.
The teams ride on buses that take them to
the Ruins.
Elimination Round: Shoots &
Ladders
This is a fairly simple concept, the
players involved have to build a 20-foot ladder out of bamboo and
climb to the top to ring the gong.
The guys go first, Wes has $1,400, which
is now put on the table. The battle was close the players watching
from the sidelines thought that Chet would win. But sadly that wasn't
the case as Wes came out the winner keeping his money sending Chet
back to the US broke.
The girls then have their turn with
Tonya's $1,400 at stake. She ends up being victorious keeping her
money while the challengers lose Diem.
Back at home base, Danny talks to Wes
about him being the champ's sacrificial lamb. Danny knows Wes will
help the challengers out because he's got no friends on his team
because of him going to throw the challenges. Wes' biggest point was
that doesn't want to screw his fellow teammates over just for the sake
of doing so, he wanted to threaten them with it so that they would
play fair.
Over at another room, the rest of the
champions are discussing why Wes is a miserable person. If they buckle
down, they they know Wes is winning and his ego is to big for his own
good. The champs' team strategy right now is to always to Wes in the
top three and to have him go in the Ruins. According to Evan, Wes came
into the game like a punk and he will go out like a punk. But
according to Wes, his fellow champs know that him throwing the
challenge is going to work. Wes knows his teammates lucky this time,
but the next time, they'll be screwed.
And there you have it, the 18th season of
The Real World/Road Rules Challenge is already underway. And I have a
feeling this will not run short on chaos and debauchery.
To see this episode in this entirety,
go to theruins.mtv.com.
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