Before I get into this blog, I have some bad news. I won’t be able to watch the rest of the season next week. I’m going away on a family vacation and I won’t be able to step aside to watch it. Therefore, I will watch the remaining episodes the following week (I return on July 22).
Also, I should warn you now. If you’re recording episodes ahead of time, then do NOT read the descriptions. I have sadly been spoiled of someone’s elimination by reading the TV Guide description. I was barely able to avoid further spoilers by covering my eyes and moving over to the record button. Yes, FreshTV doesn’t really care about suspense anymore (and that makes me sad). I’m not sure if anyone else is affected by this, but it did for me and yeah…just in case, don’t read the description.
Anyway, Episode Six; the last episode before my week and a half long hiatus. Here’s what happened:
So Dave is preparing this picnic for Sky. I’m just going to assume that Chris’s announcements are abrupt. Any who, Shawn sees it and uses it as determination fuel to profess his love to Jasmine. Meanwhile, Sky is also having lovey-dovey trouble. Sugar comes along and tells her that Dave is really getting around. It turns out that Sugar wants to be a little trouble-maker. After her sociopathic laughter at Ella’s pain in the last episode, I could see this working.
And speaking of Ella, she still has her eye on Dave. After she was electrocuted in the last episode, Dave helped her back up and even slipped on one of the slippers she dropped. Cinderella anyone? So Ella comes and notices the picnic Dave set up and thinks it’s for her. That is until Dave reveals it’s for Sky and this destroys Ella. Looks like the love triangle is over I guess. Okay, to be fair, the emotional turmoil that Ella is left in is quite believable.
Challenge: get a coin from a monkey and put it in a vending machine. And I guess one of the highlights of the season so far (that I forgot to mention in the last blog) is the challenges. I like how they go back to this simplicity yet maintain at least some level of interest. Because of this, Pahkitew Island is already better than All-Stars and ROTI.
Did anyone notice how Chris doesn’t have botox anymore? I knew it was his normal face from the opening, but it’s in the rest of the episode. Did he no longer think that Topher would be a threat? Did he get another operation in a part of his body that’s either covered by his clothing or is so subtle that no notices it? I don’t know.
Sky asks Ella why she’s sad and she tells them about the picnic. Sugar laughs; creating a massive silence. Finally, someone listens.
Shawn tells Jasmine he loves her, but I guess she’s still mad at him and calls it off.
You know, I think FreshTV was trying to subvert the romance plot by setting up two people to be in a relationship only for it to not happen. I’ll credit them for trying to be different, but the execution is kind of…eh. Like I said in the last blog, it’s as if Jasmine was expecting Shawn to not hit her, which is fine (if he did have feelings for her, then the power of love would have stopped him) but at the same time it’s not realistic (whether she heard ‘ZOMBIE’ or not). If Jasmine was expecting Shawn to also throw the challenge, then it would have made them both threats of their own teams. And that’s just selfishness if you ask me.
Why am I still ranting about this?
So the monkeys run off and everyone chases them. Waneyihtam Maskwak’s monkey gets eaten by a bear because…this is a weird island? Meanwhile, Pimapotew Kinosewak’s loses its collar and gets into a crowd of identical monkeys.
But enough of that, we got some evil work to do. Topher crashes into Chris and in the mix-up, Topher ends up stealing Chris’s cell-phone. He then uses it to call the producers to ask for Chris’s age. My guess is that he finds out he’s older than 30 and Topher introduces the idea that they should get a younger host. Oh, so this is how we’re getting our social commentary. Topher’s a pretty sneaky guy if you ask me. Maybe even his plan the whole time! Finally, for the first time in a while, we actually have a motivation to play that’s not just ‘I want dollarz! Huhuhuhuhuh!’ That’s not to say he’s the first person whose goal is clear, but this is definitely one of the most interesting. And I actually hope that Topher wins and goes on to host Season Seven. I’m sick and tired of Chris always winning in the end. How about the villain wins for a change? Sure, you can count Alejandro, but he still kind of loses as well (he lost the money and his mobility (for a while)).
Looks like we get even more trouble with Max and Scarlett as they try to set up a trap. And then they get caught in it. I’m glad it wasn’t immediate though, and at least they caught some of the others. It then turns out that Scarlett is only using Max because he’s pathetic. Fair enough, he really is pathetic and I think someone needs to put him in his place. You can tell because the trap breaks and everyone gets out. Master plan, huh?
Back to Waneyihtam Maskwak, Dave gets bear-hugged and there’s no way to get him out. EXCEPT, if Ella sings. Ella doesn’t want to sing because she’s not in the mood and is also thinking about what Chris said. Don’t worry; if this really is World Tour then you’ll be fine if you break such an arbitrary rule. First Sugar “encourages” her and then the others join on as well until it’s too much and she actually does it.
Oh boy, we’re in the final stretch! This is so exciting! Sugar’s giving a bear the Heimlich (again I don’t know why a bear’s eating a monkey even though I should expect by now this sort of stuff to happen on this show) and Jasmine’s running to the vending machine. But then Sugar gets it out just in time to do some throw trick (she learned in the South?) that wins her team the challenge.
Chris then tells everyone on both teams to come to elimination. Oh my God, you’re doing it!
Max is supposed to be eliminated but is spared because this isn’t World Tour Episodes 3-9 or 11-26. It turned out Chris really meant it when he said no singing. But it’s okay, because we get a pretty cool musical number with Ella as she’s being eliminated. But there is one thing that bothered me about this sequence. Why couldn’t the birds have just flown her off by themselves instead of only flying her to the cannon. However this is a nitpick. I really find this scene to be awesome.
On the whole, this episode is just like Episode One. I really liked the psychology. Topher’s plan sounds really juicy and also Ella’s grief does give this episode some depth in my opinion. Aside from several small things like Jasmine’s continuing grudge on Shawn as well the fact that Ella was blasted, this episode was one of the better ones I have seen not only for the season but from the past couple of years.
And goodbye until a week and a half later.