Challenge War of the Worlds 2 Episode 3: 10 Biggest Takeaways

Episode 3 is in the books and I decided to focus on the 10 Biggest moments/takeaways from the third episode. These will be integral storylines that the third episode focused on. I’ll breakdown why they matter for the season.

Honorable Mentions:

• Paulie and Josh’s relationship
• Zach being a voice of reason?
• Lack of exposure for the UK females
• Nany not getting any story-lines
• Potential Turncoats

And now to the 10 that made the cut:

10 CT and the Bad News Bear(s)

Watching CT talk to his team at the nomination ceremony reminded me of Walter Matthau telling the Bad News Bears to look on the positive side. Even though CT is frustrated being on the losing side, he probably has an easier go of things on Team UK. He has a good relationship with Team USA, is allowed to be a mouthpiece for the UK, and does not have to worry about all the males trying to assert themselves on Team USA.

Him getting frustrated with Bear while attempting to remain political was one of my favorite moments. It was a total dad move.

9 Leroy is playing the game

As a long-time Leroy fan, nothing is more disappointing than watching him lose season after season due to his passive gameplay. Seeing him play the game politically and forging relationships to further himself is almost like watching a clumsy kid pour a glass of soda from a full 2-liter bottle without spilling. After all this time he’s finally learned and is playing the game!

I’ve always thought Leroy would be a fantastic Big Brother player because he’s an incredibly good friend to have in the house. He is kind, social, the house barber, and can mesh with almost anyone. The skill of listening is the most underrated ability in our society today. Paulie, Bananas, Wes, and many others are trying to hype themselves up and use their mouths to win, while Leroy can easily use them by being a good listener by their side.

8 The US Women are Superstars turned into background characters

Laurel is maybe the most dominant competitor in Challenge history. Ashley is a two time Champion and all-time money winner. Cara has the most Final appearances ever (tied). Ninja essentially won her rookie season. Tori, Kam, and Nany are all finalists who have earned their stripes. Sadly, the story-lines all seem to revolve around the male competitors, and those female story-lines are always adjacent to which male these women are hooking up with.

It’s a bit annoying to watch a kick-ass bunch of women play second fiddle to a group of males we’ve seen over and over again.

7 Johnny Bananas is still grumpy

Last week, I noted that Bananas had lost his charm a bit as a personality. As he’s lost his power in the game, he has become increasingly negative without any of the positives he used to have. Even though I disliked Bananas, he was able to make me laugh consistently; and he made solid game observations. In 2019, he’s just angry and has become a person cosplaying as Johnny Bananas. He is over the moon about Wes getting eliminated; however, it hurt his team, and in the grand scheme of things, only put Bananas lower on the totem pole.

His team will expect him to be involved in the blind-side. The male side is so strong that he’s not looked at as a top contributor either. He needs to think about the bigger picture and play the social game.

6 Idris is not backing down

As a Challenge rookie, you can be passive and let the house take advantage of you, or you can step-up and make an impact. Idris wanted to be the speaker because he wanted to have power, and he wanted to let everyone know he’s playing the game. We’ve seen players blame the house for their failures, but Idris is attempting to get ahead of the game. The Challenge is a dirty game, and Idris would rather get the blood of others on his hands before his own.

5 Cheating

Remember the Invasion of the Champions final when Nicole and Cory were unable to do the math to unlock a key and wanted to lift the entire structure that the key and lock were on? That’s what Theo did in actuality. Team UK had the time to figure out how to unlock, and instead, they ripped the locks off guaranteeing themselves a loss. Team UK is now finding ways to lose, rather than winning.

It was almost like watching a New York Jets game.

4 Theo vs. Rogan

Is anyone else shocked that nobody on Team UK was upset with Theo cheating during the daily challenge? I was somewhat expecting there to be some blow-back.

I will say, the fight that occurred between Theo and Rogan following the nomination ceremony was one where my brain wanted to see them fight because I didn’t know who would win. Rogan is a ball of muscle similar to Hunter, while Theo is a lean former pro athlete. Theo making fun of Rogan being a sloppy drunk who couldn’t handle a beer had me dying. Likewise, a drunk mumbling Rogan saying Theo couldn’t handle a glass of pinot grigio had me equally dying.

Every moment Rogan exists on this show reminds us we can’t close the book on some early exit competitors because they can end up having an impact.

#3 Josh is here to play the game

Was Josh voting Wes into elimination a bad move for Team USA? Absofuckinglutely. Was it a good move for Josh? 100%. This move helps Josh because it gives him an incredible standing with the UK team. The UK team has no reason ever to target Josh as he’s not one of their top competitors and has now helped their team socially and politically. Likewise, Josh is the WORST player on Team USA. When it comes to almost any facet of the game, Josh is on the bottom of the totem pole. However, being on the bottom has its perks. It’s easier throw tomatoes at someone sitting on a pedestal when they don’t see it coming, and that’s what Josh did.

He may not get far in this game, but he made a name for himself by knocking Wes off his pedestal. Most of his team dislikes him now, but Josh will get cast for next season without question. The only bad part about his move is Georgia got turned on by Bear winning the elimination, and now he’s pushed her back into his arms.

#2 Laurel’s self-sabotage

Whereas throwing in Wes was an excellent move for Josh, it was a devastatingly idiotic move for Laurel. I understand she did not like the way Wes was playing the game, but the way he was playing it, Laurel would never have to worry about her fate. Laurel is the best female player on Team USA, and she might be the greatest Challenger ever. Wes would never have targetted Laurel because he understands her value as a competitor. However, her move was essentially ego-driven. By blind-siding Wes, she blind-sided her team. If you look at the entire female section of the team when Laurel and Josh vote, they are not happy with this move at all. Losing a great player hurts, but being unable to take out a strong UK cast member potentially hurts even more.

Not only that but what if Theo eliminates Bear and joins Team USA to make them even stronger? Laurel made the wrong move and has aligned herself with one of the weakest players (Josh), the biggest social pariah (Bear), and the RadioShack of the season (Bananas). As I mentioned, the women on Team USA are good, so good that losing Laurel wouldn’t be as massive of a loss for them as it would in past seasons.

1 Wes lost to Bear LMAO

Wes knew before the elimination that if he won, nothing would come out of it. If he lost, he’d have to deal with being voted in by Josh and eliminated by Bear, two of the weaker males on the cast.

Last season, Wes was able to come out of the woodwork and outlast all the other legends by evolving and becoming the best version of himself as a social competitor. He lost this season because he devolved into an older version of himself, while his body is not ready for top-level physical competition against those who make the physical portion their life. I hope this loss propels Wes into realizing what made War of the Worlds so successful for him.

This episode was a massive win for Bear as he hooked up with Laurel, has Georgia ogling him, and eliminated his rival Wes.

Did anyone else find it ironic that in the week where Wes focused on pushing a more connected Team USA agenda that he got eliminated? In the two previous episodes he was scheming and playing with Team UK, yet ultimately trying to do what’s the best for Team USA is what got him in trouble.