Episode 4 : Rolling in the Deep

As TJ put it a few times during the episode - we are halfway home.   Another team bites the dust in the form of Jasmine and Tyrie.   It was an inevitable end for this dynamic duo, highlighted by each's exit interview that really underscored the relationship.  Tyrie, clearly still attracted to Jasmine, spoke of his happiness that they had bridged the gap in their friendship and would leave this game friends.  Jasmine on the other hand was thrilled she never had to deal with Tyrie again.

But lets not bury the lead here, lets talk Animal party.  In one of the opening scenes of this episode that was chocked full of in-house shenanigans we were treated to a theme party thought up by the girls to have every contender dress up as an animal.   There were too many highlights to name, but lets focus here on a few.   First and foremost, I want to say that Cara unsurprisingly was a frightening Zebra and Paula non-ironically a cowardly lion.   But my personal favorite was Dunbar's Dunbar costume.   I think he may have painted on a black dot on his nose, but he was unmistakably a Dunbar.   The other highlight for me was Ty's dancing.   Its impossible to talk about Jasmine and Ty's dancing without referencing African tribes.  I wish it was possible, but its not.    Jasmine was frightening sashaying across the table.

Once again a complete 180 from last episode where the episode was 75% game - this episode was 75% house politics and game play.   A nice balance when we look at the two episodes as a whole.   Before the competition we also got a little Diem/CT interlude.   The trailer for the episode played it up a bit more than it needed to, but it was nice to see Diem and CT be a bit more cordial.  I think "glasses" CT from Rivals came out a little bit in his talks with Diem, but clearly he still has strong feelings for her.  I think he came off much better than Diem and tried to be completely rational.  Also worth nothing that it appears CT might be playing himself into shape while at the house.   He looked a little bit more ripped in these beach scenes.

Onto the Challenge.   It was a pretty standard deal where they are suspended on a log way above the water.  You try to hold on as long as you can as the log moves towards the finish line.  The earlier you fall off the longer you have to swim.   The only caveat was that the log moved without spinning half the way, then it stopped and started spinning at a much slower pace.   I think Johnny, Mark and CT were all kind of onto it - but I thought it was a major mistake for no one to just jump off once the log stopped.   Once it started spinning it was at a much slower pace that you'd think someone could swim faster than.   This was highlighted by Dunbar and Paula.  Dunbar hung on much longer, but when he fell wound up in the same place as Paula.

My personal highlight was Tyrie falling on Jasmine.  Jas had already fallen into the water, when Tyrie slammed into her.  I really think the underwater shot of Tyrie slamming into her was Emmy worthy.  Would be nice for MTV to get off the Emmy schneid with the Challenge- this could be the moment.

I thought competitively everyone performed as we would expect.  But the three highlights were how big of a train wreck Robin is competitively and the surprisingly solid performances of Ty and Camila.  Both really solidified themselves as people to be feared.  Right now those two teams are probably your prohibitive favorites.  TJ gave a pretty rare "Everyone Killed It:", so the group should be really proud of themselves.

The bottom two performers were Mark/Robin - Tyrie/Jasmine, with Tyrie and Jasmine going in.
The two top performers were Ty/Emily and Camila/Johnny.   Camila/Johnny win their 2nd week in the run-off and are our power couple.

After the game we have a little more focus on some house politics.   Johnny talks about the MASSIVE grudge he is holding from The Island four years ago.  Really gives a nice insight into Johnny.  Four years ago, Rachel wronged him.   It had no impact on the final result of the game, he was not voted off the Island and yet he is still holding that grudge.  Say what you will - thats what drives Johnny to be the best.   Johnny discusses it with Mark and Mark backs up his girl Rachel - refuses to throw her under the bus and talks of their long standing relationship, which we've seen time and time again on these shows.

Interestingly enough, Camila tells Johnny that Rachel tried to get her to throw in Mark and Robin.   There was a bit of he-said / she - said when Rachel was approached, but she never explicitly denied it.  Clearly, Rachel/Aneesa need to step up their game - even eliciting that comment from TJ later in the episode.

We have a bit of an interlude with a Club Night.  The always exciting club night gave us very little drama this time around.   The biggest development beyond the Diem dick tease and CT's jerk-off dance move was Ty and Paula getting a little frisky.  I wouldn't have sex with Paula with Ty's dick.   What is he thinking?  For those of you who did not watch RW DC, Ty can NOT hold his liquor.  I bet that makes an appearance before we are all done here.

We go into the Gulag and its Ty/Jasmine vs Aneesa/Rachel.   Terrible job by MTV, already repeating one of the DOME games.  Really boring one too - is it me or is MTV completely mailing it in this season?  Just seems like everything has been hastily thrown together.   Aneesa is the first to go, followed by Tyrie taking a comedic prat fall out of the competition.   We are left with Jasmine against Rachel and of course Rachel wins out.   I give credit to Jasmine for lasting 23 minutes.  She is a solid competitor.

And away we go.  Solid if unspectacular effort from MTV.  Disappointing games, but solid in-house hijinks.

What did everyone think? We'll do a power rankings later today or tomorrow.... so save your thoughts on that for later.

Do you enjoy the house stuff?  Did you feel for Tyrie at the end?  Did anyone else notice Dunbar's Dunbar costume?  Scared of Emily and Ty?