Dueling Idiots: Week 9

I think we can agree on two things after watching the latest installment of MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel 2.

#1. MTV needs to stop watching other reality shows and stealing their ideas, good or bad. Can’t believe they’re carrying over this week’s duels to next week.
#2. Brad (RW: San Diego) is far too well adjusted to be on this show.

Let’s delve into point #2 first. The main non-challenge drama of this ep occurred when Brad’s fiancée Tori (RR: Viewer’s Revenge) decided it would be a good time to confront Brad about some issues outside of the Duel 2. Yes for some reason she thought it would be appropriate to have it out about Brad’s current off camera employment situation, in front of the cameras. Then the same woman who later proclaims herself “low-drama” stormed out of Brad’s room leaving the engagement ring behind. Your average male on these shows would have punched walls, thrown shit, and yelled a bunch of venomous insults at Tori but Brad just took a step back and calmly addressed Tori and let her walk away. Even my partner, a therapist, was giving Brad credit and that means something considering she said any one of the other nut jobs could be a client for life. There would have been some additional tension about the situation and whether either Brad or Tori were going to quit the show early if not for the editing monkeys at MTV clearly showing Tori taking part in the challenge later in the show.

Speaking of challenges let’s talk on this for a bit. First up, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in preparation for this week’s challenge Evan (Fresh Meat) got tucked into bed by MJ (RW: Philly). Apparently Evan thought that MJ could use the experience since he missed tucking in his daughter back in the states. However, coming from the guy who spent last week reading Eat, Pray, Love and crying in bed, I’m thinking it was more of a comfort needed before the big challenge. When MJ went into kiss Evan on the forehead I thought for a split second Evan was going to meet him lips on and a hot make out session would ensue. Sadly that did not happen, although the tuck in apparently worked cause Evan reigned supreme at the challenge, which emphasized the rarely used mental abilities of the contestants. Having these folks spell 4th and 5th grade words was just priceless and I pray that the producers get as much positive feedback as possible on this event so they repeat in the future. Of course spelling 100 feet in the air certainly adds some additional tension too. It was shocking to see Evan best not only ageless wonder Mark (RR: Season 1) but also Superboy Landon (RW: Philly). On the women’s side, once Diem (Fresh Meat) and Tori quit their antics and crying over the height, Rachel (RR: Campus Crawl) quickly took control and won her 354th challenge all time (approximation but given how many she’s been on that’s got to be close). Predictably MJ and Aneesa (RW: Chicago) were the last too standing after Evan and Rachel started the picking process and that leads us to the Duel itself.

While the choices of MJ and Aneesa were predictable the folks they called out were not so much. MJ chose Brad and the two selected Dual Pole Dancing which would seem to favor MJ. Aneesa completely did a 180 from last week and instead of going after the weakest player, Diem, called out Tori. Tori proceeded to disrespect Aneesa and Rachel and all of sudden it was on like Donkey Kong. The two were thrown into Elevator which was making its debut on the ladies side. It was neck and neck and then, the screen faded to black. MTV this is not Top Chef or Runway. I am not going to go online and try to find spoilers to who won this Duel before next week so stop trying to generate false excitement. On the other hand I will say the preview for next week looks like the finale so I will say they’ve piqued my interest for that since we’ve got 5 people of each sex standing right now and somehow they’ve got to get down to 3 and then 1. So in the end maybe they’ll make it up to us next week, but MTV, don’t make a habit out of this.