The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet 2, Episode 11 - Pulling Your Weight

Last week on The Gauntlet 2: The Rookies won yet another competition with “Buck-A-Neer,” upping their win streak to 6-3. Derrick defeated Syrus in the Gauntlet, taking out Beth’s last friend.

Brad, Mark, David, and Timmy are all discussing the Veterans’ losing streak. Timmy says that this has never happened to him, and that he always has been on a wining team. Mark says that any guy they lose makes them weaker and any guy the Rookies lose makes them stronger. I don’t follow, but Mark has never exactly been the wisest member of the Veterans.

Brad thinks Beth is a cancer. He says she always tries to get drama going. Well, it’s Beth. You should expect no less from her. But then, Brad isn’t the smartest kid goin’. David tells us that Beth wants respect, but he doesn’t hear her. He continues saying that she needs to speak up if she really wants this respect.

Timmy comes to the conclusion that one of them is going to have to bang Beth. [Assistant Editor’s note: Sadly, they cut out a scene from the preview where David asks, “How much of the prize would you guys cut me?”]

Beth and Kina discuss being team captain. Is it bad that Beth is the more likeable of the two? Beth thinks she has proved that she is an asset to the team, so she is wondering what she has to do to prove it to them. She tells Kina she feels dirty, ugly, and sick thinking about it and it makes her skin crawl. But remember, Beth is never one for drama.

Cara tells Susie that Kina has been ignoring her. Susie explains that the four other girls on the team - Kina, Jillian, Ibis, and Jodi - are a complete unit and isolate her and Susie. I see, the four girls from Road Rules: X-Treme are the ones banding together and forming an alliance. Especially with Kina, Jillian, and Jodi, they will now be known as the X-Treme Bitches. (If you can think of a better name, email me!) Ibis isn’t so bad, but she’s guilty by association. Susie says the more she and Cara bond, the more the X-Treme Bitches shun them. Kina says that Susie and Cara are good competitors but they isolate themselves all the time. By isolating themselves, what Kina means to say is they are ignored by the X-Treme Bitches.

Timmy is wearing one of those beach cover-ups for a woman that is a big long T-shirt with a picture of a voluptuous woman’s body on it. It is also accompanied by a wig of a very fetching mullet. He says it’s a women’s Gauntlet today so he has to think like a woman.

The mission site. T.J. explains that this mission, known as “Pull Me,” has a platform suspended 20 feet in the air over water connected to a long rope. Each team has to split into two group. One group will sit on the platform while the other has to hold them up in the air for the longest time possible. The teams will switch off, and after the 30-minute mark each group will have to take their anchor player out of the pulling side.

It is a female Gauntlet day. The winning female team captain (Beth or Kina) will receive a year’s supply of free movie tickets from Fandango. That could save a lot of money. The loser will go to the Gauntlet.

Julie says she is so sick of losing and if they lose today, she’s going to lose her mind. And the reward for using the word “lose” the most times in one sentence goes to... Julie of Real World New Orleans! She was going to get a prize but she decided to lose instead.

Both teams strategize and figure that they need to divide their weight evenly.

The Rookies begin heat one. Their anchor is M.J. and he is followed in order by Alton, Jeremy, Jodi, Susie, and Jillian. Alton thinks that their players are stronger and lighter. I think that has a little fuzzy math in there, especially since the Veterans don’t have Syrus anymore.

Ibis comments that M.J., Alton, and Jodi are in visible pain. Mark says that anyone who knows Tug-O-War knows that you never rely on your hands. He says it is all about locking your body into positions with the rope so it seems as if your hands are doing no work at all. Since Mark has done approximately 57 challenges, I’d bet on there being a few with a Tug-O-War base. The Rookies let go at 11:11.