Last week America’s Toughest Jobs took on the seas of Deadliest Catch and this week another Discovery Channel favorite is visited: Ice Road Truckers. The twelve remaining contestants remained in Alaska for the task and after getting their permits to drive 18 wheelers the challenge was off. With only six big rigs for the job, the twelve were split into pairs with two in each truck. One would drive 250 miles to Anchorage Alaska while the other would take over the remaining 250 miles the next day.

With the first six on the road half had problems. Rommel started it off early by stalling out as the trucks pulled onto the road and continued that streak while going up one of the many Alaskan hills. Bryce also had some trouble on the hill but his problems were going down. Since the hills are so steep, breaking wasn’t an option so the truckers had to downshift to make the decent. With over 10 gears to choose from, some of the drivers were finding it difficult to pull off these shifts, one of them being Bryce. Chris had the hardest drive though, stalling not once but several times on two different hills. His driving was so dangerous that his supervisor pulled him from the drivers seat and allowed his partner Phil to take over for the rest of the drive. Phil, along with Rie and Eric, did great at the drivers seat and showed how ice road trucking should be done.

After a nights sleep, which happened to be in the bright Alaska night, the next six drivers were ready to take the reamining 250 miles which were much worse then the first. The six driving this time faced a blizzard, unpaved roads and several avalanche warnings. About a quarter way through the drive the cast pulled up to a newly crashed truck and it made them all think just how dangerous their “job” was. It caused little paranoia though as most of the second round drivers did well. Sandy once again shined as she proved it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman doing the job and Phil once again showed his success at the wheel. The only one with problems was Amy, once again. She was horrible at crab fishing and it was obvious she wouldn’t fair well here. Although she did well pre-hills, she almost killed Rie and herself by not putting the truck in gear doing down a steep and curvy hill. Her supervisor almost pulled her from the seat but luckily she got the truck in gear last minute. Chris also had a second chance to prove himself to his supervisor but after sleeping most of the way while Phil was driving he learned very little. With his big mouth open, Chris drove well his second time but berrated his supervisor in “his truck” which sent Chris packing. His supervisor was so heated from the argument that he kicked him out of the truck all together, forcing him to drive to the finish point with the boss and Josh, the host.

When it came time to name the bottom four Josh asked the truckers who they thought should be in there. It was kind of pointless to do so though, if you ask me, since they only got to see how their partner drove. After asking Rie who should be in the bottom four, she chose her partner Amy since that’s the only person she could evaluate. Amy didn’t take it too kindly though and when the weakest four were announced, Rie leaned in for a hug but Amy wasn’t having it. She couldn’t deal with Rie’s flip flop of friendship and “call out” but hey the producers basically asked for it. Since I got ahead of myself let’s just say the bottom four now. Rommel, Bryce, Amy and obviously Chris were chosen to compete to stay in the game. What they had to do was back one of the trucks up to gate without hitting any cones. They then had to remove the hydraulics, pull out the pin connecting the truck to the freight and then pull the truck through the finish line. The slowest to do so would go home and would not be able to compete in the next job.

Bryce started things off but not so well. It took him two tries to back the truck up and after hitting a cone his time went up by a minute. In the end he did finish though and Rommel was up next. Rommel did well, by not hitting any cones and perfectly lining up his truck he beat Bryce’s time which ensured he would stay in the game. Crazy Chris followed Rommel and showed his lack of trucking skills once again. After taking several attempts to get the truck lined up with the gate and hitting two cones, Chris finally finished with a time well over Bryce’s, meaning it was up to Amy to either send herself home or send Chris home. With a stellar move into the gate, Amy was sure to do well but her bad luck continued as she couldn’t pull the pin out, disconnected the freight car. Her lack of strength showed once again and with her time going past Chris’, Amy was sent packing and told she would not be moving on to the next job.

Next week its gold mining time! It doesn’t seem THAT hard but hey, I guess if you get swept away in a river like one contestant is rumored it, it just might be the toughest one yet!

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Last weeks Mole left us with some things to ponder. Like would Nicole really kill Paul in sleep and could she REALLY do it without leaving DNA evidence? The answer to both these questions is no as Paul was still alive come the next day. Good thing Nicole didn’t go through with it though since now we get to see her and Paul continue their feud! The next morning everyone, including Paul, awoke and Nicole’s tirade was the talk of the town. Paul wanted to use it to his advantage and Ali ate it up. She finally spoke for once and let us know that her hatred for Nicole is growing along with Paul’s. It seems the cliques are starting early and we learn about a new coalition that’s apparently been on for the past two episodes. Mark, Bobby and Clay are now in a coalition to share information on who they think is the Mole. Of course it won’t last long though as we soon find out.

In the first mission the players are forced into two sides, the “Can’t Trust” and “Blindly Trusts” groups. They then had to pair up with someone from the opposite side, creating five teams of two. The mission was fairly simple yet risky. Each pair would luge down a metal track with the person in the front blindfolded. The person in the back had to yell out pictures of fruit that they saw and the person who was blindfolded would then have to pick out those fruits in put them in order. For each fruit they got right, $2,000 would be put into the pot. They had strict orders to not talk after they passed the finish line but of course that wasn’t the case for some.

First up was Bobby and Clay. Bobby was the one yelling out the fruit and seemed confusing as he didn’t yell out the colors right away. They got 5/7 right but talked after crossing the finish line so they got no money. Next up was Ali and Paul who got a legitimate 5/7 for the team. Victoria and Craig broke the “no talking” rule as well and lost $14,000 as they got all seven fruits right but broke the rules. Kristen and Mark were the first to get all seven right and actually keep the money while Alex and Nicole had an interesting ride. She yelled out “green apple” twice which put Alex off by one for the fruit selection. This gained them one point and made everyone wonder how she could screw up so badly.

That night the coalition between Bobby and Clay/Mark ended. Clay and Mark now believe Bobby to be the mole and want nothing to do with him. Although they say they will talk to him if he comes to them, they won’t go to him for anymore information. The day the crew heads out for a nice spa retreat. Of course they all thought something was up but it seemed legit… at first. They spent some time in the pool and hot tub and then some time getting massages. Of course John showed up to screw things up and start their next mission.

Once again the players were split up. Kristen, Victoria and Ali made up one team, Bobby, Craig and Nicole another and the last team consisted of Bobby and Alex. Once Mark and Clay found out what the challenge was they dropped out because they had too much “pride” apparently. John then filled them in on the mission, they had to walk around Chile in their underwear looking for a shirt, tie and pants for the guys and a two piece shirt and skirt/pants for the girls. Alex and Paul had the easiest time once again thanks to Alex’s knowledge of Spanish. They quickly found shirts from cab drivers and pants from a few Americans. Kristen, Victoria and Ali had the hardest time it seemed. They couldn’t’ find any clothing for the longest time and Ali even almost quit. This put suspicion on both Kristen and Victoria but they kept moving and eventually got lucky enough to get fully dressed for dinner. In the third and find team was Nicole, who found her clothing faster then anyone, and Bobby and Craig. The two guys had a hard time finding clothing but once they want the laundry mat with their real clothing they were all set. Since 8/9 people made it to dinner they claimed an extra $40,000 for the pot putting them at $129,000 for the entire game.

That night at the pre-quiz dinner things got pretty heated. It all started when Paul said that Mark was playing the game hardcore and the two then went at it for a bit. Bobby, Craig and Nicole then barged in and Nicole’s statement from the last execution came into play. Of course she played the ‘nice’ card, which angered Paul a bit, but he had different plans. He wanted to get everyone heated before the quiz in hopes it would screw up their chances for a green thumb.

At the execution something interesting happened. John offered everyone $20,000 to leave the game right then and there, nobody bit the bait. Three people were then shown to be safe and another $10,000 added to the bribe. Ali was the first to take the $30,000 and walked out of the game. Funny thing is they all thought they were safe since she left and Bobby even said he wouldn’t take the money. John then came back and let them all know someone else was still going home. Bobby was then shown to get the red thumb and his words came back to bite him. Did Paul take out his biggest enemy by causing a ruckus at dinner? Who knows but something got to Bobby. That takes two more out of the game and puts us at the final eight. Next week it seems the drama continues as Mark’s crazy side is revealed, probably thanks to Paul.

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Is it just me or is Paradise Hotel 2 one of the craziest shows on TV right now? I mean seriously, they fight over the smallest things….. oh wait that may be because of all the alcohol they swallow down. On the latest episode both sides of the hotel are up in arms as a girl is about to be sent packing. At Pandora’s Box Charte gets the biggest bashing as everyone comes out to tell her she is the biggest instigator, or to her ‘communicator’, in all of Paradise. Nothing more really comes out of it outside the meeting but was still fun to watch!

As everyone decided who should be sent home it all came down to Charte. The guys went to Stephanie, who they thought would be the sole vote off, to try and get Charte to go. Amanda then came in to screw up the plans as usual and let everyone know things were changing with a surprising ‘twist’. The girls could not choose their old roommates to sleep.. I mean room with and Stephanie would also not have the sole vote as they expected. It kind of threw everyone into a tailspin since well two of the guys, James and Raheim, are falling over the same girl. They once again argued since James simply kissed Lauren which apparently is illegal in Raheim’s eyes.

When it came down to the elimination it was pretty obvious who would go. No matter who Charte chose, as long as the last girl to go chose that guy as well she would have went. It was set up like Tanya, the girl attached to Mike, would go. It ended up she went with the plan and just chose who Charte chose and Charte was then sent home in a very casual manner. I with the eliminations were as exciting as the rest of the episode so thank god they are only once every other week.

Next week another ‘twist’ is brought in as a new guy apparently isn’t brought in as expected. I hope they aren’t dropping the ‘new person’ thing so soon since it’s the cause of all the drama lately.

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