The Challenge Spies, Lies & Allies Episode 12 Recap & 5 Biggest Takeaways
Hi there. Lately, I haven’t been posting as much content, and it’s in large part due to a bit of mental health funk I’ve been in. I wasn’t planning on posting a recap tonight, and then my brain told myself I’d be more upset if I didn’t post a recap. So I decided to meet somewhere in the middle.
Here is my Episode 12 Recap, put into 5 Takeaways instead of the normal 10. Next week will go back to a full recap & podcast. I hope you enjoy & understand.
Emy is the Vet Alliance’s MVP
You could make an argument that Emy might be the most crucial player to the Veteran Alliance this season. The Vets have manipulated and used Emy as a tool to enforce their strategies, making use of her raw physicality and volatile emotions. In Episode 1, she was the one that “exposed” Michaela’s list, which made it easy for the entire house to target one of the strongest female rookies from the jump. Later, they got her to volunteer for her second elimination of the season. She took out a solid rookie in Esther and then got her to steal Uncle CT in a move that made in part to sabotage a physical powerhouse Berna by partnering her with Hughie. Here we are again, at a point in the game where there are literally only two female rookies left, and the Vets have found a way to pit Emy against Bettina. Amanda did a fantastic job of stoking the flames of the fire by telling Emy that Bettina said she would pick her for elimination if it were a puzzle. While some may not like Amanda’s methods, she was a great pot-stirrer to what was a dull episode, and she kept herself out of elimination.
The Vets are running a pyramid scheme with fake incentives, and their #1 buyer and seller is Emy. They have sold her on the idea that she is one of them, as long as she does all their dirty work.
Emerald is Running Away With It
Kyle put up an all-time embarrassing performance by taking a stiff-arm from Josh and then allowing the Goof to transfer his bags with essentially zero resistance. All the goodwill Kyle earned with his Pole Wrestle win last week is down the drain, and Ed has to be equally upset that he got dominated by the guy who let Josh run over him. Emerald won this daily challenge on the back of having a numbers advantage and having the bigger, stronger, more athletic females.
Have to give a shout-out to Big T; she held down Ashley when playing defense and tried her best at holding on to her weights on offense when Kaycee was going at her. Emy also did an excellent job playing 2 on 1 defense against Amanda & Bettina. Additionally, Amanda actually threw a clean kick-return block on Emy at the beginning of her team’s offensive run so that Bettina could score. Ruby Team trying to have Logan play quarterback due to his hamstring injury was hilarious, and the throw going over the line leading to it not counting was the most Young Buck moment ever.
Important Kaycee Stat
Daily Challenge Win Ratio is a Stat that accounts for how many wins a player achieves divided by their expected wins based on the field they were competing against. Coming into this season, Kaycee Clark had the highest Daily Challenge Win Ratio of any player to have competed in 30+ Daily Challenges. With her fourth daily challenge win this season and her third in a row this week, Kaycee’s Ratio is now 200.6%, meaning that Kaycee in Daily Challenges, is statistically twice as good as the “Average” player. For reference, the Female with the second-best daily challenge ratio ever is Laurel, whose total is 146%. Evan is the first place male with a ratio of 181%. What Kaycee has strung together over the last three seasons is so crazy impressive.
Elimination
Let’s be frank, Bettina did not even try. She was mentally checked out, felt everyone in the house was against her, and just basically opted out without technically quitting. It sucks because Bettina had a killer elimination performance earlier this season where she showed a lot of heart and ingenuity. It did not help that the crowd was on Emy’s side, Sapphire hoping she would switch to them, and Emerald knowing that she wouldn’t infiltrate their side. Not trying to diminish the win on Emy’s part because she got the elimination motion quickly and used her strength to her advantage.
Emy is the first rookie to win three eliminations in a season since Kam on Vendettas and the first player to do so since Theo on War of the World 2. She picked to be on Team Sapphire to reunite with Uncle CT, and Amanda shifts over to Team Ruby.
Building Towards a Final
As it stands, it is hard to envision a winning path for Ruby unless it is a 2-person team running the final. Logan will likely go into the subsequent elimination. He will probably pick Nelson as his opponent, as Logan did call him the easiest opponent when game-planning with Ed last week.
Team Sapphire, as it stands, is built well for a final if Emy can hold up, we know CT & Ashley have won before, and Kyle has been the 2nd Place Male on two different seasons. Emerald has been dominating thus far, and while they carry extra weight in a final, they stand to get stronger, specifically on the male side of the game, where you could replace one of your weak spots (Josh).
