Barstool vs America Episodes 2/3 Recap and Midseason Breakdown

 

"No, I have Never Log Rolled Before If You Have That's Weird"

We are officially now more than halfway through Barstool vs America and boy oh boy what a two-episode run it has been. The blue team has been just absolutely DOMINATING the competition, but did Dana Beers just mess it all up? We are gonna talk about all of that and where I think each of the competitors stands at the mid-way point, but first let's run through what happened in the past two episodes and my takes on the defining moments.

Episode two was a relatively quiet episode, we got some good hungover Glenny Balls content, another fantastic competition entrance from Jeff D Lowe, and ultimately another dominant Blue team win (thanks in part to yellow team captain Joey), and sending newcomer Glenny home. I was pretty bummed to see Balls leave the competition so quickly and honestly surprised to see Nick not go for a bigger target, but Nick once again made the clean blood-free move to get out another guy who wouldn't hold it against him and didn't have a tight-knit partner left in the game to seek vengeance on him. 

Now, I didn't talk a lot about episode two, mainly because I had to save room for the absolute bloodbath that was episode three. Going into the episode, it looked like it was business as usual for the blue team. The yellow team added Hannah, who immediately started rubbing Joey and Keegs the wrong way, and had no connection to anyone in the game besides Alex Bennett. Felt like this was gonna be an absolute snoozefest with no matter who wins, Hannah going home... that was, until Hannah with her back against the wall (whether she knew it or not) went out there and won the individual challenge and turned the game on its head! If Hannah doesn't win this competition then the whole game is different. Paranoia doesn't sink in, Pat doesn't resort to pressuring Alex, Dana doesn't think Pat is being a snake, and Dana sends home Hannah, not Pat, and Dana and Pat don't fight at Rough n Rowdy in three months. But alas that is not what happened... as funny as it may be, Hannah Cook may have thrown the biggest curveball in this game so far, and whether she knew it or not in the moment, totally saved her own ass. Also, side note before we move on, Hannah Cook being draped in blankets and a foil jacket like she just got airlifted out of an Afghan war camp is hysterical, it's then ten times more hysterical when you realize that Marty had done the competition with only half a wetsuit and wasn't even offered a towel when he got out of the water.

Moving on, after the competition on the Blue team bus Pat suggested to Alex that she would be kicked off if she didn't get Hannah to give up her captaincy... what??? Just a wildly miscalculated move by Pat thinking that that would work in his favor. Chemistry was going so good and had Pat just asked Alex to do it without the threat, it probably would have still had the same effect on Alex's actions without Pat risking himself. Nevertheless, Pat is a gamer and a top-tier competitor, and I respect the move but think that it came at just an awful time when nobody had presented themselves as the bottom of the food chain yet on Blue, but if you're the first and only one to fire a shot and stir the pot within the team a little, then obviously you have to watch your back.

Speaking of watching your back, as we got to the team competition both captains gave up power to their teammates (Dana and Joey). I mean what a bozo move by both Pat and Hannah. They not only gave up their safety but they both gave the power/control to the two people who were literally the most at odds with them! They both put themselves in a position where if their team won the competition, they'd go home... by winning... On Pat's end this made a little bit more sense as he was trying to build bridges with Dana (yet still said in every confessional that he did not trust him...) but Hannah on the other hand almost dug her own grave, thankfully for her the Yellow team can't buy themselves a competition win and Blue dominated once again.

Now in terms of the Dana and Pat beef, I don't really think anyone did anything wrong. I like both these guys a lot, and they're both Mass guys, and there is nothing worse than fighting with our own (which is something us Massholes tend to do a lot). At the end of the day, I believe both Pat and Dana would have screwed the other one over at one point or another. There was too much history, and from episode one both of them had trust issues with each other. After that, it was a ticking time bomb waiting for one of them to slightly step on the other ones toes and when Pat threatened Alex it reaffirmed all of Dana's fears about Pat. Was Dana not thinking of the team getting rid of such a strong player? Of course. Was he doing exactly what Pat would have done to him had it been Dana who fired the first shot against Alex? 100%

Now, as we get to the midseason mark I want to breakdown what I think of all the remaining competitors so far, strengths, weaknesses, and their chances to walk away with 10k at the end of this / what could go wrong for them.

BLUE TEAM

Dana: Beers is the new villain of the show now after making a huge power move against Pat. If Blue keeps winning, which they should even with WSD filling in, then this probably doesn't matter and people will get over him blindsiding Pat. However, if Yellow starts winning some competitions Dana might need to watch out for Joey Camasta having the power. Overall, I think Beers is in a good spot, especially if he can convince Alex and Nick he did what he did for the team.

Nick: Nick is in a great position right now. Realistically the only people I could see sending him home are Marty and maybe Hannah (assuming she stays blind to Joey hating her). Nick is so good at these reality shows it's insane, plus now that Pat fired the first shot and Dana fired back, I think good guy Nick is out the door, and much like in the back half of Surviving Barstool, I think we are going to see Nick start to take control in the social aspect of the game in a way that can get him right to the end as long as he plays his cards right across the aisle (and this time no jury vote to worry about once he gets there).

Alex: Alex Bennett has come alive in the past two episodes. After a relatively quiet episode one, Alex has done a great job in episodes two and three at holding her own in the competitions, not letting the guys push her around socially (especially with Pat), and still flying below the radar in terms of threats. And god knows, if anyone could really use this ten thousand dollars, it's Alex Bennett...

White Sox Dave: The king has returned! White Sox Dave is just an absolute electric factory in anything he does and I am sure he will just be a total agent of chaos this next episode. I almost hope he wins captainship because I think he could send home any of the other seven contestants at a whim. In terms of winning? I would put Dave's chances at a fraction of a fraction of one percent. I hope I am wrong because I am shamelessly a huge Cowboy fan, but Dave is gonna rile some feathers whether he means to or not, and I feel like he is gonna be competing for his life every competition.

YELLOW TEAM

Kelly: Kelly Keegs is the scariest person on the planet and I mean that in the best way possible. It's almost hilarious that they even tried to have anyone else get Hannah to give up captainship. Keegs got in there and did in ten minutes what the rest of the contestants had been trying to do for two days. Just an absolute schoolyard bully moment for Keegs, who looked a little too comfortable bitching Hannah out on the spot. I think nobody benefited more from the last two episodes than Kelly simply because I thought she was going to be burnt toast after episode one, but over the last two episodes Keegs has somehow excused herself from the drama (wildly uncharacteristic) and is honestly sitting in a good spot, besides the fact that if Dana gets power, he won't go after Marty, which leaves Keegs as the likely next biggest target on a struggling yellow team.

Marty: Speaking of Mush, his brain continues to amaze me. I figured Mush would have been done at this point either from getting caught doing something stupid, or from separation anxiety from being on a different RV than Dana. However, unlike his hairline, Mush refuses to fall back and has kept himself in the competition without many enemies thusfar. His one downfall is probably being the best competitor on Yellow, but with Dana Beers on the other side, Marty even has a chance to end up with some money if his team loses the competition.

Joey: Joey C is still standing despite wanting to remove himself from the competition rather than spending another day on the RV with Hannah Cook. Honestly, I can't imagine being comfortable enough to call someone I just met a she beast and a pig on camera, but boy am I happy that Joey is. Talk about absolute ruthless. I could see Joey becoming a liability for his team from a competitor standpoint, but I don't think there is really anyone who is going to target Joey as their top priority aside from Hannah Cook.

Hannah: Hannah is in a tough spot. She came in kind of strong, probably not realizing what she was saying on her first day as she wasn't in game mode the way the other contestants had been for about a week by the time she got there. Honestly I hope she stays on for one more episode just because I wanna see the drama with her and Joey build a little more and I think she got the short end of the stick because of a bad first impression.

My pick to win at the half? BLUE with Dana, Nick, Alex, and whoever replaces WSD.