Finisher

And you saw how ocd control freak responded when they showed Josh's farewell messages. Like how dare Josh try to win the game! So cowardly!

Fuck Paul and fuck the show for basically ruining the season because Grodner has an inexplicable hard on for that smarmy weasel loser.

buckeyes8604

I'm glad Paul lost and wasn't rewarded for how he played. He had the season handed to him by production and still blew it. I hope he never comes back.

I don't like labeling juries as bitter and saying they made a bad decision. The problem isn't with the jurors. It's the responsibility of the players in the F2/F3 to win them over during the game, when they vote them out, and at the end answering questions. I had no problem with Russell losing both seasons of Survivor he did for the same reasons. It's not a flaw, it's the whole point of the game.

If Paul had been honest in his goodbye messages, not continued to talk down people after they were evicted, and been more open answering the final questions he would have won easily. It sounded so rehearsed. He didn't even watch last season or spend any time learning jury management. You can be a mastermind and not have people hate you on the jury. Derrick did it perfectly.

Or he could have just brought Raven to F2, since no one was voting for her.

fujishig

That's the thing. If you play with idiots, you can manipulate them, but they're not going to be able to understand how good of a game you played because, well, they're idiots. Some of them aren't even able to admit how they had been manipulated.

I understand the argument about the four weeks thing, which absolutely screwed Cody over, but how are you going to vote for the guy who rode the coattails of the opponent. Heck, how are you going to vote for the guy that, every opportunity he had, banged pans in your face and called you out, then went crying when things didn't go his way. Sure Paul was behind that, but to my knowledge Cody and Mark didn't know that for sure.

I guess it's still better than Christmas winning.

edited to add: I just saw that in his interview Kevin said he had been pressured into a pact in the jury house to not vote for Paul no matter what, and that he went against it. And that apparently it's something Cody orchestrated. Revenge indeed.

dolphinboy

Cody is/was worse than Raven and that's really saying something. What a really terrible cast this was. I think Paul played better than Josh but the 4 week advantage thing really bugged me. It wasn't like Paul came up with that idea so I might have felt really bad for him if he hadn't been such a jerk. I do think some jurors can be way too bitter but Paul's social game was awful and it cost him bigly.

magiccmom

Here's the thing....

You F**k with everyone in the jury house, they might just come back and f**k with you. That's how it works. You also have to make them want to vote for you.

Worst season ever, first season I wanted no one to win.

Match

Glad Paul lost and the ending was the best of this horrible season.
He will be probably be on other CBS reality show soon.

Here's a good laugh.
https://www.gofundme.com/4gpgrt4

T-bone22

Check out this interview by Rob C. with Raven. It's so hilarious... she is oblivious that he is fucking with her.

DWilson

That wasn't much of a pact if the vote's that close, and this is the one time that Kevin didn't go along to get along? Apparently, the pressure was just to agree to something (that you don't really mean ) just to get them off your back, which is the same excuse Jason used for saying he was going to rape Kevin's wife.

fujishig

The pact was Cody, Elena, Mark, Alex, and Jason. Kevin was pressured into it but didn't go through. Raven and Matt, well, they're delusional. And Xmas wasn't in the jury house. And that was the 5-4 vote.

Funny, if the jury was segregated from each other I think Paul wins handily. Jason would still be mad at Alex and have no clue. I wonder if the fact that Paul never went to the jury in his first season did him in, because he played so hard to keep them close to him instead of just being honest in the goodbye messages. Or, like I said before, maybe these sheep are just sheep and there was no reasoning with them. Certainly it doesn't feel good to be made a fool out of, and we've seen on both this show and survivor that people won't value gameplay over that.

They should do a follow up a week after the show and get feedback from the houseguests after actually watching the season.

DWilson

And these days we're told that the juries on "Survivor" usually have their minds made up before the final TC. Segregating them would keep it more pure, but it lessens the potential drama.

Chrisedge

I think Paul lost because of his final speeches. Every time someone left the house, you could see him slide up and try an explanation. He should have completely owned what control he had, right from the beginning of the questions that were asked. He dodged and only when he got his "final" speech in, did he start taking ownership. He should have come out blazing, that I controlled everything, everyone one of you is probably mad, but that was my game. And he should have been apologetic to Alex, as that might have gained a bit of sympathy.

Bill Needle

Completely agree with all of this.

Paul got to the end via special protections and manipulating a mentally challenged man-child. He is an insufferable ass and I am elated he lost. As much as I can't stand Josh, at least he can't understand the implications of his actions. Christmas was a self-delusional do nothing. Every time she took credit for her amazing competition wins that were all thrown to her I could only shake my head in disbelief. What a dreadful season, save for Cody. He was the only one who had anything interesting to say...probably because he didn't run his mouth non-stop until he actually had something interesting to say. I guess he is considered weird for that, and also for not shouting every sentence he utters.

DWilson

The Hollywood Reporter says Cody and Jessica will be competing together in the next Amazing Race.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...oining-1043557

Strapped4Cash

I feel like Josh was the winner that Grodner deserved. Maybe this'll encourage her to plan the next regular season differently? 20 weeks of safety for Paul maybe? Who wouldn't find that compelling?

While they definitely have their flaws I'm interested to see what happens. Thanks for posting.

fujishig

I dunno, ratings were up, Paul (and the season) got even more notoriety because he didn't win, and somehow despite being utterly hateable their first few weeks in the house, they got a semi celebrity couple in Cody and Jessica (mainly because everyone else in the house were worse, and they became the underdogs despite being bullies themselves).

Strapped4Cash

Bringing up the ratings is fair, though personally I don't pay attention or care. If they want more of it though then of course they can repeat this again. Maybe it honestly would work even better for them a third time?

As for Cody and Jessica then I'm not at all surprised by their popularity. Different viewers seem to focus on different attributes, but among the things I see in their favor:

Cody is a military veteran (and seems an impressively credentialed one at that).

Some find Jessica to be very attractive and she was completely loyal to him even when he screwed up so badly (which I imagine some appreciated).

They both seemed quite determined in their convictions, no matter how much trouble it caused them, and didn't back down from their positions.

Among those positions was trying to get rid of Paul, which I would guess some viewers very much wanted to see.

They stood up to Josh, who I would imagine that some thought to be a bully and others might not have respected due to his post-fight emotions.

Some of their actions that viewers might find most egregious never made it on the show.

Meanwhile, I personally thought that Cody had some good ideas, but then utterly failed to convince his "team", or even inform them of his thinking, much less try to get them onboard. He definitely had an interesting contrast in that, which exposed a lack of social awareness (at the very least) which some viewers might have found to be honest, or even relatable.

Bill Needle

Cody's problem came early on when he vastly overestimated the other contestants by assuming they were of at least below average intelligence and had an interest in winning this contest they were in. Once he realized they were preoccupied with marveling at what amazing and interesting people they must be because they were now on television it was too late. After that he didn't see any point in being a big phony and had too much self respect to prance around begging for camera time like the other attention whores.

It will be interesting to see him compete on a show where relying on the whims of others (aside from Jessica of course) is not required and you can win based on your own merits.

Finisher

Cody executed a perfect blindside on Paul and the game cockblocked him. Simple as that.

Have found recent seasons of Amazing Race unwatchable but will absolutely watch and enjoy the hell out of Cody and Jessica.

Josh-da-man

Cody made two critical errors:

1. He came on too strong, too quickly. The alpha-male types who try to take charge early in the game get cut down. They either get ganged up on by the outsiders, or production will sabotage them (Jessie CDT'd by Jeff in 11).

2. He went after Paul too quickly. Production would (and did) go to extreme lengths to keep the sole veteran in the game.

Josh-da-man

I wouldn't mind seeing Paul and Xmas on TAR. Paul constantly brags about how well-traveled, so it would be interesting to see him in action on the road.

GuessWho

#ElenaExposedParty

T-bone22

AaronHernandez

Would be shocked if Kwanzaa is ever asked back. I'd outright say she is the biggest flop of the season besides cereal guy.

DWilson

Supposedly, some in production didn't like her or her attitude and occasionally it would be reflected in the "Info Crawl" at the beginning of After Dark.

fujishig

Don't forget Alex. Or BB mastermind Raven (who I guess didn't have far to fall, I mean we learned in episode 1 that she's a real life ghostbuster).

I'm not surprised by Cody and Jess's popularity because, as I said before, they were the underdogs, and as such their games changed from being the in crowd bullies to being the downtrodden love story. I think if they had control of the house for longer they would have been much more hated.

You can't bring up Cody's mistakes without also bringing up that Jess herself had HoH and still didn't put up Paul or his minions, and sent non entity Ramses home instead. This may be the second dumbest nomination, with the winner going to Alex (who admittedly didn't have much time to think but cmon, you know for sure Kwanzaa just voted your BFF out and you somehow think Kevin, the dude who has been on the block the whole time and can't vote, is the mastermind behind this? And then you can't even get him out anyway).