This is what I initially thought, that the editing probably made Hali look better and Debbie look even worse in the challenge, so that they could make her look even crazier (or at least without justification for her craziness).

But if you go back and re-watch, it doesn't bear this out. Sure, they could be playing tricks with editing like cutting out some of Hali's messups, but she doesn't lose all that much time compared to her competitors. While Debbie starts off ahead and then loses time, then loses the whole challenge for them.

So Debbie's crazy talk does appear to be just that - crazy talk.

Lots of talk about Sandra and her handling of JT, but I think it's underrated how she handled Michaela - last season Michaela was in a similar spot and couldn't hold it in, blew up at someone and destroyed things. She even mentions again this time about trying to hold things in, which I was sure was a precursor to her blowing up again. No doubt to me that Sandra told her "look no matter what's said at tribal, you gotta just take it, JT is going, so just be chill".

very good point punker

Apparently they weren't sure if she would in fact go along with it. They were probably scared of JT having an idol, which he did, and that Aubry might tell JT. If JT plays the idol, he can send whoever he wants home.

They had to convince JT and Aubry that Michaela was the target, and they did so convincingly, so much so that JT didn't even bring the idol to TC. It makes it a lot easier that JT is apparently a total idiot.

Varner's incompetence at challenges is definitely part of his charm. At least Sandra has shown that she is decent at puzzles - Varner has demonstrated jack sh*t.

Russel's nephew on his second season when he was about to attempt to murder people until Propst stepped in his way should probably take the trophy. Debbie is certainly weird, though she is semi self-aware of it, but that Hanz guy probably had the crew and staff thinking that he represented the potential end to the series with the way he was acting at the end.

Weird people can add some entertainment value to the show. Potential murderers like Hanz nephew and a lesser extent that fireman Joel guy who dragged a teammate through the dumbest challenge ever add nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQal2ivl9lU

good times

"I hit my head"

"I don't care"

"I know"

The way I remember it they might have been leaning towards Hali but then gave in to Debbie to keep her happy and let her do it. Then Debbie said she wouldn't do it just so she could be in charge. She then bitched the whole challenge saying how she was best at this and best at that. She's an unstable woman.

I loved this part. Chet was the most awesome/awful challenge beast ever.

Yea that Chet & Joel scene was amazing. Lol at quasi-equating Joel with Brandon Hantz and "potential murderers".

Brandon is easily the #1 draft pick for bat**** crazy contestants.

I thought they should have made Aubry the target. Protects them against a JT idol play, and very unlikely Aubry plays an idol. Only problem is if Michaela is on board or not

When they were on the sand by the rock thingy and Debbie yelled in his face about breaking her heart then she turned away and was giggling like crazy, how much of it is an act for TV? Or is she actually mental patient level insane with that laughing?

Put that **** in spoilers.

i wish they showed pre-challenge deliberations every week.

I am not suggesting it is a coin flip if they murder another contestant or not, just that they had the variant of crazy that the producers of the show are not particularly thrilled to see when it manifests, while in contrast the Debbie stuff is TV gold, because it is totally harmless in a physical sense.

There was also a contestant that asked to leave the island (the one that was fixated on Jon Penner) and while usually Probst reacts badly to that, in this case he was very supportive and helpful, and it made me wonder how close she must have been to do something the producers did not want to see on TV.

Some crazy is harmless and good for TV (like Debbie and Phil). Some are just bad cast choices that they survived (pun semi-intended).

debbie's crazy isn't entertaining but just off-putting imo. it's pretty telling they went out of their way to bury her in the edit , i can't remember the producers using a flashback ever before.

brad handled it very impressively with the apologizing and all. hot damn camp life must suck with debbie.

So incredible to think that Brad is back in the exact same situation where he's done absolutely 0 wrong and is still somehow seen as a villain.

Debbie was a powerlifter for 3 years back in high school though!

Agreed! I thought it was a very interesting part of the game. I wanted to see who volunteered for the "hard" stuff and who was trying to coast through the challenge as much as possible (and avoid being blamed for the loss).

I'm sure her time as a deep cover spy also helped. Civil Air Patrol, not so much.

It was absolutely hilarious in her first season how they had her occupation listed as something different nearly every time she was on screen.

and the cameraman helps them find it

I also found this scene intresting and thought they should include them more often. I'd even be willing to give up the 5 minutes per episode of snakes/sharks/stingrays that were filmed at the San Diego zoo.

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I like Debbie. She has the right amount of delusion to be entertaining. Brandon Hantz on the other hand is straight up dumpster juice.