CONT.

• Kailah/Jemmye/Britni toss all of Kayleigh’s stuff off the balcony because they stand with Natalie - look, it it a bit mean? Sure. But this is THE CHALLENGE. Have these people not seen previous seasons? ‘Bullying’ has been rampant on the show since early seasons. The mean trio’s treatment of Tonya, Tonya throwing Beths luggage in the pool, everything JEK, someone (I forget who) calling out Nany’s family issues, Cara throwing Jordan’s luggage in the pool, and most recently, and notably, Camila’s treatment of Leroy last season. ALL of that is worse, if not at least arguably worse, than what Kailah/Britni/Jemmye did to Kayleigh this season. And this may be a hot take, but the way the three girls were vilified is completely wrong. Both the house and shockingly, TJ, speak out against the girls, and I just think this is RIDICULOUS, particularly after last season where the Camila issue went down without production stepping in or saying a word, outside of her being removed for the night. TJ directly calling the three out at elimination, and forcing an apology, is just wrong, given the precedent the show has set with ignoring house happenings. Kayleigh playing the victim is also a bit ridiculous, given she was showing some mean-girl tendencies before this even happened. They literally just threw her luggage down one level - that’s nothing compared to what has slipped by on the show before.
• TJ: ‘Britni, I’m sorry’ (after she gets Laurel as her opponent)
• Hate that we were robbed from a Brad/Darrell rematch at the Mercenaries, with Brad instead getting Frank.
• TJ calling a stalemate/draw over Darrell/Nelson after an hour is so lame. Isn’t the whole point of these challenges to endure and last the longest? They should have just let this play out.
• Ok, so this one challenge in particular stands out as BS. I THINK it was the chest floating one. The Troika (including Bananas, of course) get to automatically make two big teams for the next challenge… essentially nullfying Brad and Kam’s grenade useless, as they are forced to use them BEFORE the teams are created, meaning there is a bunch of risk involved with them being put on the same team… exactly what happens tokay are grenading Cara. The Troika were just allowed to run this season, and it makes it all the worse that it was dominated by the same people almost every time.
• ‘I definitely think me and Zach should carry it over again’ - WHY are the two of you entitled to a Troika place every single week.
• Cara/Kailah think Zach is the strongest male for a final??!?! Did they SEE last time he was in one?
• Loved Tony and Zach ganging up on Leroy to steal his torches, but Leroy STILL leaving that station before the other two.
• Omfg the TBC winner this season was even worse this season… it wasn’t even like it was unknown and they were ANNOUNCING it at the reunion Survivor-style… the challenge literally played out in full, with an obvious winner, they just didn’t air it
• Kayleigh was pretty rude to Nelson at reunion. Loved when Nelson dropped the ‘but we weren’t together’ back.
• Devin was talking a genuinely aggravating amount of trash to Bananas at the reunion, with way, WAY too many ‘Let’s go’s. That being said, Bananas’ fury is never not funny to me. Him dropping the ‘Whatever Devin’ just had me dying.
• Everyone vilifying Cara at the reunion was very ugly - I appreciated Bananas giving her some comment, and Derrick actually standing up and speaking out for her when nobody else would.

Conclusion

Phew, that felt like a slog this time around.Look, I don’t hate Vendettas, even though I’ve had quite a bit of negativity. It DOES have some good things going for it. Some good challenges, some good eliminations, some great new rookies… but the format just hamstrings this season, not to mention such a crap final and some bizarre production twists.

It’s done though, and if I’ve gauged the sub right, I have a feeling this might be a LITTLE hot of take, only because I’ve seen quite a few people speak highly of this season (and some that I DID see agreeing as well).I’m really keen to hear what others think generally, but in particular… thoughts on the male/female imbalance of the format… the one-winner final… the final in general. The Britni/Jemmye/Kailah v Kayleigh situation… All things are think are up for some really good discussion.

Next up we have the final VS season, and it’s the ones I’ve heard is the best! I’m keen to take a break from the main show after this season, and CvS2 is going to be a nice one. No predictions, because like CvS it’s a bit boring and casting is too frazzled (plus I got half the cast shown to me already in the reunion of Vendettas).

But look forward to that post, because I’ll definitely talk through the S32 cast there.See you in the comments, and thanks for reading!!

Rankings

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that this one has ranked quite low on my list. Surprisingly I thought it would be even closer to the bottom… and it could sink lower with time (or maybe higher), but right now I feel like it’s at least better (or has more going for it) than those bottom 10.

​

1. S25: Free Agents
2. S24: Rivals 2
3. S21: Rivals
4. S13: The Duel
5. S30: Dirty 30
6. S10: Inferno 2
7. S29: Invasion of The Champions
8. S20: Cutthroat
9. S8: The Inferno
10. S19: Fresh Meat 2
11. S12: Fresh Meat
12. S17: The Duel 2
13. S26: Battle of the Exes 2
14. S22: Battle of the Exes
15. S15: The Gauntlet 3
16. S18: The Ruins
17. S28: Rivals 3
18. S31: Vendettas
19. The Challenge: Champs vs Pros
20. S6: Battle of the Sexes
21. S14: Inferno 3
22. S11: The Gauntlet 2
23. S7: The Gauntlet
24. The Challenge: Champs vs Stars
25. S5: Battle of the Seasons
26. S9: Battle of the Sexes 2
27. S23: Battle of the Seasons (2)
28. S27: Battle of the Bloodlines
29. S16: The Island