Live Blog: Gauntlet III Finale

10:05 – Does anyone like Frank? His promises to Adam were a joke and Adam is stupid for trusting him. Everyone knew Adam was going into the gauntlet, and most probably expected Danny to go in against him.

10:09 – This whole season, I've thought about Ball Brawl and how one of the competitors should just let the other one use all their energy to get the first three balls because it makes no difference if you get them or not. Finally Danny figured this out. Is it just me, or were all these gauntlets pretty lame? Oh well. I guess Danny's strategy didn't matter much, he just lost.

10:13 – So the final teams are set in stone. The rookies seem to have the stronger team regardless of the player amount. The veterans have Eric, and as much as he claims he's going to give it his all I seriously doubt it.

10:17 – It's a little late for a Veteran's team meeting. Eric tries to defend himself and swears that he's not going to quit. He claims hes going to punch medics in the face if they tell him he can't go on. I seriously doubt that too. Judging from the previews though, he's going to go down somewhere. We'll just have to wait and see exactly where.

10:19 – CT claims he doesn't like the person he's become in the house. Uh.. hasn't he been this way every time we've seen him?

10:21 – The beginning of the end is here, and everyone's wearing spandex.

10:27 – Evan lands on shore, Eric is far behind. CT “encourages” him, but there really is little hope. I see defeat in the Vet's eyes. The Rookies take the lead, this is something we haven't seen in a very long time. This is incredibly uplifting for the Rookies. The light at the end of the tunnel has got to be shining now that they see how much of an advantage it was to keep Eric around.

10:29 – Eric looks like he's about to die. The Vets finally take off towards the next challenge, but Eric is looking a little uneasy about everything. He doesn't have enough energy to put his shoes on, and he's got about 2 more miles to endure.

10:31 – Chain, chain, chain. Chain of fools. That's all I can think of when I see the Vets locked up together taking off down the trail. Apparently it ain't easy bein' Easy, because now he really looks like he's going to die as his team literally pulls him along.

10:37 – The Rookies are caught up, literally, on their crank. What luck. Fortunately their previous lead left room for this kink to be solved. The Vets are close behind, but Eric starts stumbling more than before. Could this be the end for the Vets? If Eric falls, he's going to be an anchor – which just happened.

10:40 – Big Easy went down. Now, when I say he looks like he's about to die I mean it. His eyes look insane. His breathing is heavy. He's down for the count. Earlier, he claimed he was going to punch the medics in the face. I don't think he's got the energy for that now.

10:44 – Medics, who are not being punched in the face, carry Eric off. The Vets continue to argue about the situation, the Rookies continue to win the race. In the beginning, TJ made it clear that every man had to finish the race. Eric will definitely not be finishing. Will this cost the Vets their win?

10:51 – The Vets catch up. This shows how much better of a team the Vets really are. They were pretty far behind because of Eric then spent time having Medics come tend to him. They had more players to get across the pulley obstacle and still, they catch the Rookies. Hands down, they have the better team.

10:53 – The Vets dig up their flag and begin to raise it for the win.

10:54 – Where's Easy? The Rookies are confused. I'd be too if I spent the entire challenge trying to keep him in the game and now at the end the Vets don't have him attached to themselves.

10:55 – TJ lets everyone know someone got left behind. I wonder who? The joke's on them. See ya, Vets. The Rookies win by default. Paula puts it best, “We're angry, and bitter, and poor.” Yup. Eric should hang his hat up now, because he'll forever be known as the guy who couldn't make it through the final challenge.

10:56 – Victory part two. Rookies raise their flags. I hoped the Rookies won, however I had my doubts. Without Eric the Vets would have blown them out of the water just like they did on the last third of the final challenge. The Rookies didn't have the best team, thats for sure, but they worked at a strategy that benefited them in the end. After all, these challenges aren't about making friends for life, they're about winning money and playing a game.

Grandma On The Gauntlet

It is no hidden fact that Beth is old, a good amount of the cast even jokes that her date of birth dates back to the dinosaurs. Last week she was eliminated by Coral who also made fun of her age. Coral did not want to “get beat my her grandma.” You'd think that a comment like that would come from someone considerably younger than Beth, right? Wrong.

As I recall from Coral's Back To New York season, she was one of the oldest. She's now 29. Beth is 39. In reality TV, they're both almost too old for VH1 even, but for Coral to call Beth a grandma is just kind of ridiculous. Nearing 40 is probably a little old for these challenges, but nearing 30 is not really too much farther behind. Beth was definitely no weakling when it came to stepping up. Coral on the other hand, was “bit by a spider” and bailed out on the final mission several challenges ago.

Although I love the I-don't-wrestle-I-beat-bitches-up Coral, I'd probably take the Grandma over her when it comes to winning $300,000.

Less Is More

On MTV's Gauntlet 3 the score is something like 5-1, Veterans. They are handing out verbal, physical, and mental ass whoopings to the Rookies, however I don't think they realize that this is somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

Less is definitely more in this case. While the rookies are probably going to need to step it up a little, they have already had the advantage of “less is more” by winning their only challenge due to the number of people on their team. Less people in the end means less dead weight you have to carry, less screaming at your slow team you have to do, and more money to split between the remaining members. The Vets are too “proud” of their wins. They have realized now that they need to start throwing missions to lose some players, but the challenge is almost half over. We can watch tonight and see how everything goes down, but I think everyone who watches the show has a pretty good idea already.

If they Vets start a mind game the war will be within the team and not within the final mission. No matter the score of the pre-games, the Rookies will undoubtedly crush the Vets if they can't pull together as a (larger) team and get the job done.

Over the Border and Through the Sand, to Puerto Vallarta We Go

The Gauntlet has moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and is crazier than ever! This season, teams are split into Veterans and Rookies. Team Veteran consists of old school players such as Mike, Coral, CT, and Katie and are pitted against the Rookies, some new kids who no one really recognizes, to win an incredibly handsome (I'm talking suit-and-tie-handsome) $300,000 reward.

The Vets seam to be pretty stacked, in my opinion. Everytime I see the Rookies team, I'm constantly asking myself, “Who are these kids?” Except for Brooke. Everyone remembers Brooke.
The first mission, an old school game of tug of war, resulted in a winner takes all of the beds type of reward, and most likely set the tone for the rest of the competition.

While the challenges are definitely intense, I think the “interactions” between cast members are going to be unbelievably noteworthy. Alliances will form, hearts will be broken, and one team will walk away with the grand prize.