Challenge Double Agents Episode 5 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
Episode 5 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 fifth episode. These will be integral storylines that the fifth episode focused on, and I’ll breakdown why they matter.
If you prefer the traditional recap format, my Podcast partner and I broke down the entire episode. 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 (it would be greatly appreciated).
(If you listen on Apple, a 5 Star rating would be awesome!)
On we go!
10 Fessy and Tori’s Rude Awakening
We saw the house aftermath of messy Fessy’s betrayal of Nelson, and Cory was not happy whatsoever. He called out Fessy for only looking out for himself, and he states that he is not his or Nelson’s friend since a real friend would not have done that. As they argue, people in the house are watching intently as this is the closest thing to TV they have.
Josh becomes involved and attacks Fessy for jumping in and taking his elimination when Josh has wanted a physical elimination; I mean, Nelson would have turned Josh into mashed potatoes, although it’s not important, for argument’s sake. Fessy retorts that he was stepping to save his friend and that Josh is always afraid of eliminations (which is true). Among all the hullabaloo, Tori jumps in to defend Fessy, stating she thought she was looking out for Josh by protecting him from Devin. Which from the outside is technically correct, yet false when you consider her real intent was to throw Fessy a bone. In the process of defending Fessy, she completely throws her partner under the bus after he graciously agreed to put her friend in elimination when he wanted to throw Jay up against Nelson. She and Devin’s beef seemed artificial last week; however, she put the nail in the coffin for any reconciliation after throwing him under the bus. Fessy and Tori came out looking bad after these fights.
9 Itty Bitty (Small) Committee
We have an official alliance with their own name, and I love it! The itty bitty small committee consists of Big T, Amber M, and Gabby (and maybe Amber B). When the scene of them taking the game first starts, Amber B is sitting with them, ad when they name their alliance, she is not there. Considering Big T, Amber M, and Gabby are all 5'1 or under, and Amber B is 5'9, she might be too big to qualify. These girls are intelligent (Kyle attests to this in a confessional), and they are using their numbers to their advantage as they hatch a plan; Aneesa as the house vote, and Tori as the Double Agent vote in the case they win. They target Aneesa since they believe it will be easier to rally votes against her (smart).
What’s funny is that Tori perceives them as gunning for them as strong players, when in reality, it’s because Tori keeps calling them weak, and thus, they are merely retaliating. Gabby and Amber’s confessionals and game-talk impressed the hell out of me. We already know Big T is a great talker/personality, so seeing all three girls shine as a collective is awesome. There’s a real sense of positivity and emotional support among this group.
8 Natalie Out, Ashley In
Natalie had to exit the game due to a personal reason. A source informed me of what it could have been/was. I will not disclose it out of respect to Natalie and since it’s unconfirmed. Nonetheless, it sucks to see her leave this way as so many fans were excited for her before the season, and she won that epic first elimination against Ashley. We’ve now lost 20% of the female cast for non Challenge reasons.
For us to not get a third male elimination (and 4th in 5 episodes), TJ brings Ashley back into the game. Considering this season had multiple alternates, including last season’s Champion Jenny West, it’s a bit shocking they didn’t bring someone else in. As much as Ashley brings to the show, you have to fear that she will get targeted quite soon. A little detail I enjoyed is that even TJ calls her Millionaire Mitchell.
(Update: A US Weekly article was posted where she confirmed that she got pregnant and had miscarriages. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.)
7 The Daily
Last week’s daily challenge was a complete snooze fest; this week was the exact opposite. This is a daily challenge they should use for every partner season from now on. The visuals of this were fantastic, and a whole lot of players came out looking strong. I want to note that the players who competed in Heat 2 had a distinct advantage of seeing the best techniques from players who competed in Heat 1 and had a rough estimate of how long they need to stay up to win.
Heat 1 (sidenote: they put Leroy’s name instead of Lio as Gabby’s partner.)
Jay pulling all his rope out his first and then winning his heat was so impressive. The guy implemented a crucial strategy in that he kept moving/repositioning his legs while keeping his arms relaxed. People don’t consider that when you’re crouching that long and exerting so much sustained force out of your upper body, the muscles in your feet tend to cramp up a ton, and once you don’t have that grip to keep you stable, you fall apart. That’s why Nam (who killed this challenge), despite being much bigger than Jay, eventually dropped Lolo; he was in that same position for such a long time. Gabby had an underrated performance as they finished in 3rd place, even though Lio hadn’t unspooled his 200 feet of rope when TJ hit the button, meaning she was holding herself over the ledge for a decent period. Amber B dropping right as Darrell finally finishes unspooling his rope felt like a horror movie moment.
Heat 2
CT and Big T were built for this daily challenge, a 230lb man holding up a 110lb woman. Her size was a significant advantage in this challenge, and the fact she overcame her fears was endearing as hell. CT supporting her the entire way through was cute as hell. This episode of Bunny and the Hawk was a hit! Josh had a solid second-place performance where he hilariously tried to cut a Big Brother type deal with CT to drop Big T when he was about to drop Nany himself. Kyle’s third-place finish is stellar considering this is one of the few challenges where Kam’s size put them at a disadvantage. Cory and Fessy’s performances were a bit underwhelming.
6 Queen Big T!
CT and Big T beat Jay and Theresa by five seconds to become the Double Agents! Big T made sure to reap all the benefits of winning. She was demanding players to make her bed, bring her coffee to her in the morning, and at night, she had her own VIP section inside the house’s built-in night club. Watching Big T make Tori kiss the ring as Big T’s actively orchestrating for Tori to face her best friend in elimination gave me some mob boss vibes in the best way possible. Big T is a consistent highlight week after week.
5 Tori vs. Amber
In the last two weeks, we saw Tori actively target Amber and rallying others to vote her in as she is the “weakest” girl in the house. Amber then confronted Tori about it and hit her with a gobmsmacker of a line, “I respect you as a competitor, but if you’re going around telling other people that I’m weak and you’re not telling me, then I take that as you being weak.” She clocked Tori with that one, and her facials expressions the entire episode had me dying laughing. Amber isn’t the strongest, yet she is talking game with confidence and from a straight-on perspective. Later in the episode, at deliberation, Tori and Aneesa are talking around the idea of what they want in a rambling fashion; meanwhile, these rookie girls see right through it. It’s refreshing to watch.
4 The Voting
15 out of 22 votes went to Aneesa and Leroy. Kam/Kyle, Mechie/Amber, Lolo/Nam, Gabby/Lio, and Darrell/Amber B voted in unison with the majority. Then five solo votes came from Nany, Ashley, Devin, Leroy, and Kaycee. The trio of Tori/Aneesa/Fessy voted for Amber/Mechie. Theresa, Jay, and Cory burned their votes, and Josh is the only vote I’m unsure of. He either burned or voted for Mechie/Amber.
For Tori and Aneesa, having this many votes against you this early in the game displays that not only does your social game suck, but your physical game isn’t enough to sway votes your way out of fear.
3 Lolo and CT’s side deal
CT cuts a side deal with Lolo where if the elimination looks suitable for Lolo, they will throw her in, the idea being that Lolo would then look out for them. You have to think there’s a small part of CT who is doing that deal so that late in the game, Lolo may try to swap CT in as her partner for the final. Nonetheless, making the most of your limited time in power is always an A+ in my book.
2 Aneesa vs. Tori
Aneesa and Tori becoming close friends is weird to me. Tori is the antithesis of everything Aneesa has represented and supported over the years. Aneesa is someone who Tori would probably call a lay-up if they weren’t friends and has done so in past seasons. Their actual elimination is one I would generally dislike as one player could physically perform better and still lose because their opponent gets luckier when it comes to the panels they hit. That wasn’t the case in the execution of this elimination as Tori shit the bed completely as she was trying to pull down her cart without any momentum and from such a lousy grip position. All the pushups you do and all the miles you run don’t matter if you don’t use your brain and execute proper form.
Kudos to Aneesa for killing this elimination. I think over time, more people will remember Tori crumbling under pressure more than her winning, and that’s not fair. This is her 10th career elimination, putting her second all-time for wins by a female competitor and ties for her third among all competitors ever. She is now a career 10–10 and has been to more eliminations than any other female player. Having a gold skull could give her 6–7 episodes of safety as others try to get the free available skulls, and once those get taken up, Aneesa will have to prep to defend her skull. Not having Tori attached to her anymore should make it easier to navigate the game. In Tori’s case, this is her third season out of five with an early exit and a second in a row. Hopefully, this season is a learning experience, and she re-evaluates how she operates going forwards.
1 The Aftermath
Aneesa took back Fessy as a partner (hilariously), which allowed Kaycee to take Leroy back. It will be interesting to see if Fessy will throw himself in to switch partners again. I don’t expect anyone to steal him since he’s put such a big target on himself. Kaycee and Leroy are over the moon about this since both players like to stay under the radar and make for an amazing wallpaper and picture frame combo.
Devin is without a partner. His sabotaging Tori from the inside was unnecessarily extra and also quietly genius. It is worrisome that there are only two free male gold skulls left, and of those who currently have them (Fessy, Kyle, and himself), he is going to get targeted first due to perceived weakness. The odds are stacked against Devin; however, his overall performance this season has already outperformed my expectations, so anything else he can accomplish from here is gravy.
