Dec 17, 2020
Challenge Double Agents Episode 2 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
Episode 1 of Double Agents is in the books. You probably have some thoughts, so let’s compare. Instead of giving a simple summary, I decided to focus on the 10 Biggest moments/takeaways from the first episode. These will be integral storylines that the first episode focused on, and I’ll breakdown why they matter for the season.
If you prefer the traditional recap format, my Podcast partner and I broke down the entire episode and talked through each pair in way more detail. Here is the Spotify Player, and a link to our Apple Page. Generally, on Apple, the podcast doesn’t show up for the first 24 hours unless you subscribe to the podcast. Above at the top is the YouTube version. If you could, throw us a LIKE and Subscribe.
Onto the recap. Honorable Mentions:
- Edited out Amber’s
- “Scared Game”
- Kyle’s puke
10 Natalie’s Choice
We opened the show following up on the cliffhanger from last week. Natalie chooses to keep Wes as a partner, which is a seemingly terrible choice as Wes was the reason she got voted into elimination and will continue to put a target on her. Natalie could make her and Wes stronger by picking a new partner and remaining aligned with Wes politically/socially by spreading their votes. At the same time, their duo should be formidable.
9 A Much Slower Paced Episode
They threw a ton of action at us last week. We got a daily challenge, 15 new pairs formed, and everyone colluded to force a monolithic CT/Ashley vs. Wes/Natalie first elimination, and then all the twists followed. Most fans loved it because it was action-filled. Based on my Twitter, there were mixed feelings about the episode, some saying it was boring. I’ll admit that I preferred this week’s episode because we saw more individual confessionals, politics and got a better feel for how people are playing the game. Last week’s episode lacked depth, whereas this episode was all depth. Yes, it was meandering at times and felt long from a viewing perspective, yet, it wasn’t empty like Total Madness and War of the Worlds 2, where they were stretching to hit the 90-minute mark.
8 The Daily Challenge
In this challenge, players had to swim out, grab a block of ice, swim back to shore, break the ice, grab a capsule inside the ice, and then place it in a team’s station. Once a team has three capsules inside their station, they get eliminated from the daily challenge. It’s similar to the Ring game from Duel 1 that Diem is known for. Generally, daily challenges like these are not great because players in the minority have no shot of winning. Wes and Natalie might have been the fastest swimming team, and they were out first. However, early in the season, it is a fun daily challenge because it exposes allegiances and enemies. Fessy is connected to three teams with Big Brother players, Team Young Bucks, and Jay. Due to that, he was able to win since there was a large majority of teams who weren’t going after him and Aneesa.
Nelson and Cory watching Fessy not get targeted at all is eye-opening. In this daily challenge, we saw Gabby and Mechie struggle the most. Mechie had to get medically removed due to a mix of not being great in the water and the water itself being freezing cold. That cold water is a killer.
7 Fessy Power Hour
He very much feels like the big man on campus right now. Fessy won two straight daily challenges, is politically connected to half the house, and the whole house wants Wes and CT out. Add that this man is now single and is dancing/unbuttoning his shirt for the girls in the house proves the man is living his best life. He has drawn the interest of rookie Gabby on the show and is currently vacationing with Tori Deal, two blonde girls who had boyfriends at the time of filming.
This edit makes me think that we are going to get an epic Fessy collapse at one point. We already see the beginning of one at the end of this episode, and we’ll talk about that more at the end of the recap.
6 Darrell and Nelson killing the commentary game
Darrell is one of the funniest all-time challengers. Saying that Wes isn’t a big baller since actual ballers don’t talk about how much they make, and his commentary about Nicole Z last week have been two of the funniest moments this season. As great of an all-time player that he is, I prefer Darrell as a talking head/commentary man.
Meanwhile, Nelson’s corny ass has me dying laughing every week. Last week he gave himself the nickname Double Nelly T, this week, it was Scuba Nelly, and I could only imagine what he is going to call himself next week. His confidence before the daily challenge after going to the hospital last season for hypothermia was hilarious. Nelson is the actor who can do comedic relief and take on a major character role if necessary.
5 Lolo’s love for Nam
On Social Media, people always half-jokingly tweet that they’d be willing to risk it all to hook-up with someone who uber-hot, etc. Lolo Jones is the complete embodiment of those tweets right now with her interest and attraction in Nam. Can you blame her? The man’s body is ridiculous, and he’s such a charming fellow. Nam is the type of man you wait 38 years to have sex for. Part of me fears this could create problems for them as Nam seems to prefer to be friends/partners, and Lolo may actually fall in love with him.
4 Wes applying for the job of both Janitor and CEO
Understanding that he has a massive target on his back, Wes pitched to Fessy, Cory, and Nelson that he is someone they can work with politically. He told them he is willing to be on the bottom of their alliance and be the janitor of their company, as long as it means they don’t gun for him too early on as they did in Episode 1. It’s a groveling type move, that I can’t be too harsh towards because he is trying, whereas some people give up in his position. Hilariously, once Wes feels that Fessy and Cory are maybe willing to listen to his offer, he completely oversteps by saying he could be their CEO and be the strategic guy calling the shots for them. Wes tried to pull a Robert California, and it was not pretty.
In January, I had a job interview one morning for an entry-level position for a media company. A couple of hours later, I was interviewing for the head of marketing at a company that sells credit card readers. So I guess I can relate to Wes in a way.
3 Killa T and the Assassination of Jacob Allen
From the moment Big T cut her first confessional about John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith, you could tell they were not going to last long. They were never on the same page. Big T is someone who embraces everything on the show and goes 110% all the time. Joseph does not bring the same energy at all. For differences between the two, Joseph got caught sleeping in the club, then the two voted for different people for the first elimination (Big T is one of the few not to vote CT and Ashley in). Once Big T learned about the twist that you could switch partners, you could see the wheels turning in her head that having Joseph go into elimination would not be a bad thing.
Joseph’s ultimate blunder was telling everyone he wanted Wes in elimination, but doing so before the house vote, rather than privately asking Fessy and Aneesa to make him the Double Agent vote. Natalie took advantage of this during the house meeting and knocked Joseph down a peg, helping Wes avoid being the public vote nominee.
2 Kyle vs. Joseph
Kyle ended up being the Double Agent vote since he voted for Joseph and Big T and then lied to everyone in the house about his votes, including right to Fessy’s face. It proves that Fessy and Aneesa didn’t tell anyone that the Double Agents know where the individual votes went. In theory, Kyle voting in Joseph to save Wes does make sense for his game as Wes will always be a bigger target than him. It was his actions and manner that got him thrown into elimination. However, Fessy and Aneesa making this choice is a bit non-sensical as now their alliance has two enemies in Wes/Natalie and Kyle (CT as well, I think).
The elimination between Kyle and Joseph was a variation of Pole Wrestle using a giant ring that is more dangerous than a pole. It allows the players to hook their shoulder into the ring for better leverage/grip but could lead to torn shoulders. Joseph puts up a solid fight with the power of mustard behind him. It was reminiscent of Choji from Naruto eating a Yellow Food pill to multiply his power. Unfortunately, Kyle put up a pretty dominant 2–0 win even with mustard’s power behind Joseph. Sadly, Joseph didn’t bring the Red Chili Food pill that could exponentialize his power by over a hundred. After Kyle waiting till the end of last season, he is the first male to get his skull this season. People will make fun of Fessy for not going into an elimination he’d easily win, although having a skull in this game will put a target on you for the rest of the game. It’s much better to attempt to get yours later in the game and try to face the weakest skull-holder.
1 Three New Pairs
After getting introduced to 15 pairs last week, we got three new ones to end the episode this week. Kyle decided to shake up the game by taking Kam as his partner, which is the move I suggested for Natalie last week in that she should take Leroy. Now, if Fessy guns for Kyle, he is somewhat gunning for Kam since they are partners. While the eliminations have been individual thus far, I think we can all agree that we’re waiting for the moment that we’ll be getting either a co-op or a double elimination where both players have to go in. It could be the next once as we just had a Female-Male cycle. Great move by Kyle, especially considering he and Nany both had buyer’s remorse about one another. Kyle and Nany, two people known for hooking up, immediately regretted their partner’s choice is symbolic of something.
Kyle taking Kam allowed Josh to pick Nany as his new partner. Nany and Josh are good friends, and Josh is a supportive partner, yet, I can’t help feeling that Nany slightly downgraded. She prefers Josh, which matters, and Josh is thrilled to have Nany as a partner. Kyle and Josh’s choices meant that Big T’s new partner is CT, one of the all-time swindles in Challenge history. Big T turning Joseph into CT is like when a 7-year-old sees a 13-year-old playing with Pokemon cards and brings out their own, only for the 13-year-old to rob the 7–year-old of their most rare cards. Or, for ordinary people, it’s like Jesus turning water into wine (I hope it was a nice chianti). On CT’s side, Big T is someone who will try their best, has some social connections (mostly UK girls), and also lowers his perceived threat level. Wes’s threat level with Natalie as his partner is at an all-time high. CT and Big T can go under the radar and will be a fun team to cheer on.
