It’s only a matter of time before MTV’s Stranded with a Million Dollars is down to only two Millennial competitors. The #MeanGirls alliance is dropping like flies.
It’s a total score for #TeamMakody. Karma is wreaking havoc on Alex’s alliance.
I talked to Cody about tonight’s episode, and you know he has some strong opinions.
“Makani is Buddhist, and she’s big on Karma. I say I’m in control of my own fate. But when Eilish bounced, she was such a b***h the entire time… but she didn’t seem like she was going to quit. She called Makani a hippie b***h. Karma’s a b***h. And Karma just bit your a**!” Cody laughs.
Eilish flared out after 22 days and 7 hours with a hot appendix.
“The odds of your appendix bursting in the 40 days when you’re out on a survival challenge for money,” Cody gives full credit to Karma for taking out one of his least favorite people.
But she’s not the only one who quit! Let’s back up. I’m wayyy ahead of myself.
It’s Day 18, and Alonzo and Gina have already been around a lot longer than anybody expected.
“I’m hoping for a big game changer because we’re in a lock, yo. Four on two,” Cody says.
All decisions about spending the group’s money are made by majority vote.
As long as Alex’s #MeanGirls alliance outnumbers #TeamMakody, the Millennials are going to keep burning through money eating pizza and burgers.
Nobody is thinking about how much money will be left for those who finish the challenge, probably because several of them don’t think they’re going to make it to the end.
“The hardest part about being out here is everything,” Gina whines. “If I wasn’t with Eilish, I would have flared a long time ago.” #Foreshadowing
The journey to the next camp is the most interesting yet.
The map gives two different routes, and the option to split up and go whichever way they want.
“We really need them to self-evacuate, but they’re not going to do it in front of us,” Cody tells Makani. He says they’ll go whatever way the #MeanGirls don’t go.
Cody volunteers to take the longer route, and Alex’s alliance agrees.
#TeamMakody puts the hustle on, and beats the other alliance to the campground by a lot.
Watching Alex’s alliance tackle the “difficult” route was hysterical.
Gina falls on her face in the river early in the walk. And it’s hilarious.
Alex doesn’t find her all that funny.
“Gina worries me, just with how much she struggles. She could cost us $100,000,” Alex says.
She can’t handle the hike at all. Her teammates literally drag her through and up parts of it.
Alex’s alliance spends most of their hiking time worrying about whether #TeamMakody is ahead of them.
Cody is disappointed to see all four competitors arrive at the new campsite, but at least they made it in under the wire to collect the next $100,000.
At this point, there’s $314,750 left – just over $56,000 per person if they all finish the 40 days.
That’s when Karma, who is seriously irritated by the way the #MeanGirls have been treating Makani, steps in to get her revenge.
At some point, the laziness that they’ve demonstrated had to come back to haunt them. But this was a massive dose of Karma that was better than anybody expected.
“Is this fresh water? Did you taste it?” Gina asks, as she’s drinking from a water source they’ve just found, without boiling it or taking any other precautions.
Eilish says she knows they’re not supposed to drink just any random water, but she doesn’t take any time to boil it.
“That’s a gamble I’m willing to take,” she says. #DontQuitYourDayJob
But Karma isn’t just sneaking up on Eilish, she’s got Alonzo in her sights, too. And he’s a bigger wimp than Eilish.
His day began badly because he was lazy and left his clothes on a rock too close to the water. During the night, the tide came up and took away some of his clothes, and buried some in the sand. He cannot find his socks, and that could be deal breaker.
His tummy hurts, too.
He lays in the tent moaning.
“It sucks, this is brutal. I don’t know what’s going on but it’s not feeling good,” Alonzo won’t make it through the episode. He was ready to quit before he felt sick.
“He’s walking around like he’s about to die and stuff. Now we got a game,” Cody says.
At group buy time, the #MeanGirls spend willy-nilly again.
“I could go for another fully loaded pizza,” Alex says. “And Alonzo needs socks.”
But Alonzo won’t last long enough to get his $2,000 socks, paid for out of the group kitty.
Alex calls and requests a medic.
“I do hope that whatever Alonzo has is contagious. And hopefully the whole tent gets it,” Makani says.
Hilarious because she’s usually the nice one.
The medic says Alonzo doesn’t have a fever or blood sugar issues (no shocker there – he’s been eating pizza on a regular basis). The medic tells him he can stay and ride it out for 24 hours.
“What’s my second option?” Alonzo has no interest in staying.
“I want to go,” he says. Saw that coming.
And with that, Team #MeanGirls is down to three. Bahaha!
There are tearful goodbyes as Alonzo is carried off.
“Pretty ideal timing, I think,” Cody says.
Alonzo lasted 21 days and 7 hours.
“That was very unexpected. I thought Gina was next in line,” Makani says. Me too.
Then Eilish wakes up with a tummy ache.
“I can muscle through this. I know I can,” Eilish isn’t a wimp, so she has a better shot at it than Alonzo.
Production throws Eilish a bone, and gives her the next Temptation. But she’s too sick to enjoy it.
She keeps wondering if the water could be making them sick.
Cody told me that Alex’s alliance wasn’t using safe water practices at all.
“The layout of that camp – there’s a little creek that flows into the ocean. It’s super f**king muddy in this location. And it’s a b***h to get to the top of the creek. At the top of the creek is a little waterfall,” Cody says.
“I even told Makani you’ve got to go up there. I know it sucks. You don’t want to be risking drinking dirty water,” Cody says.
He said that nobody in the #MeanGirls alliance put in the effort to get to the waterfall, but rather, drank directly from a much dirtier little pool at the bottom, resulting in a lot of stomach discomfort, and Alonzo’s flare out.
There’s a huge rainstorm, and the day couldn’t be more miserable for Eilish’s Temptation.
It’s set up under a pop-up tent in the pouring rain. She and Alex look cold.
They take the $5,000 option so they can drink water they know is safe, but Eilish doesn’t feel up to eating much.
By nightfall, Eilish is pooping her brains out, and she’s got a headache.
“Like I wanna try to stick it out but now I think it’s too far along,” Eilish says.
She asks to see the medic.
“In the unlikely event you don’t come back, you need to say your goodbyes,” the medic tells her, after a brief exam.
Everybody’s worrying and speculating overnight. Except Cody. He slept through her evacuation. Bahaha!
“It’ll be interesting not controlling the group buy,” Alex says.
“How are we going to get food or anything,” Gina whines.
Now that there are two of them in each alliance, nobody can vote to buy something without both group’s approval.
#TeamMakody SHOULD be able to starve them out, if production doesn’t keep offering a hand to the weak ones.
“If she’s not coming back, everything will change,” Makani says, not unhappy.
The next morning, Eilish calls them on the sat phone and tell them it’s her appendix. She’s out for good.
“Don’t let Cody and Makani win,” Eilish signs off with Alex.
Gina and Alex look absolutely devastated in the wake of her departure.
“I’m with you til the end,” Alex tells Gina.
I asked Cody if he really slept through the drama of Eilish’s evac.
“It’s like I woke up and it’s Christmas! I woke up and Eilish is gone, and I’m just like Oh My God – I’m set. It’s day 23, and we’re down to four. Yeah, I slept through it,” Cody says.
“Christmas came early for Mr. Thrive,” Cody couldn’t be happier.
Next week, Gina almost drowns during the journey, and Alex is ready to quit.
Then Cody turns Lord of the Flies and gives some grief back to the Alex and Gina, who have been so incredibly awful to Team Makody for so long.
Rumor has it that Metal Flowers Media is about to start casting for Season 2 to air in July, but there’s nothing on their website yet.
Things we’re left wondering
What kind of reality challenge show offers to let contestants come back after they’ve been on a medevac?
What EXACTLY are the rules of this show? It really seems as if production may be making things up as they go along.
Where are the other challenges? There’s been reference to other things, but we’ve only seen the one. Why?
Stranded with a Million Dollars airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on MTV.