Came down to three for the final two challenges. Gunny, Chris, the good old Mississippi boy, both ex-Marines, and George, the Air Force sniper from Noo Joizey.
Gunny, early forties, was a pistol guy, slabside expert, but fairly good with any handgun. George, twenty-something, who taught at the USAF sniper school, the best with a long gun. Chris, from Mississippi, shot a mean bow and was the best shotgunner.
Penultimate challenge, they got to choose their weapon from a half-dozen, and their target and range.
All along, I figured George was going to come up the winner. He was consistent, usually at or near the top, and good with a variety of weapons. He was also a big, muscular, arrogant, and cocky kid, and I was rooting against him for that. He was good, knew it, said so loud and repeatedly, come to kick ass and take names, self-centered, and it all irritated me. Plus he could bench two of me, and curl more than one of me ...
Host asked them what they'd do with the hundred grand if they won. Chris and Gunny said they'd put their kids through college. George offered he'd buy a couple new guns every month.
In the elimination, Gunny scored enough points to guarantee he'd be in the final challenge. Chris missed shots, and it looked as if he was going home. Chris was down a point, two rounds left to go, all George had to do was hit one of two. So he picks a .357 Magnum revolver, the largest target there, a chalk board, and sets it up at twenty-five feet. These guys could step up there blindfolded and hit that, seriously.
George shot. Missed. Said, "Oh, my God!" but with a hint of a grin.
The son-of-a-bitch tanked it on purpose.
The host said, "What just happened here?"
Chris made the shot, they were tied, so it went down to the last round. Civil War era Sharps rifle, a dinner plate.
Chris shot first, hit.
George shot. Missed again.
On purpose? A sniper? Oh, yeah, I could have made that shot without my glasses.
So the arrogant, self-centered kid tanked on purpose to give his good old boy buddy a chance to win.
And Chris did win.
I didn't see those thrown shots coming. And I hated having to revise my opinion of George, but I did.
Of course, the producers set it up that way. Gave me a reason to root against George, and kept at it going all the way through, then caught me flat-footed with his reversal of character when he shifted into unselfish mode at the end.
Hokey as the show is, that was clever.
5 comments:
George was the best part of that show. The internet cries of outrage have been INsane for the past few weeks (FaceSpace and History channel message boards).
Loved the ending. The post-show interview bits were all pretty good as well.
And it sure looked like the nicest dude in the competition won.
Huh. Internet ate my post I guess.
I thought George was about the best part of that show start to finish.
And the internet rage over his (edited) behavior has been VERY intense for the last few weeks.
My favorites being when they refer to him and other cast members and a clique of high school girls...and loudly decry their even thinking to dare question other peoples service to their country....before making fun of the contestants names and military service.
Hilarious and bizarre.
My Blogspot spam filter has gone bananas, sorry. I just figured out where it was -- I didn't use to have one, apparently -- and it has grabbed half a dozen posts. I've un-spammed them, but if something doesn't show up, that's probably where it is.
As for George and the clique, yeah, they were knocking hard on Jamie, the Navy guy, and he was regularly outshooting several of them. If you know they made a deal going in, that makes a difference than if you think they were just pissing on him because he wasn't playing their game.
It wasn't based on performance, but on croynism, and while that's how the world often works, it doesn't seem fair.
I didn't follow anything on the net about all this, but that's part of the intent of these shows, to stir the watchers, and they seem to have that down ...
In theory, it shouldn't matter if you keep sending the same guy to elimination, since, if he's the best shooter, he'll just keep knocking guys out, but that's in a theoretical world.
Indeed the editing, and responses to the editing, those were nearly as fun as the shooting parts. Well....almost nearly as fun.
The Jamie bit was strange, seeming to vary from "Nobody likes him" to "He lies about being in combat" to "He was unclear on his exact job in the Navy" while at the same time seeing a lot of "Me and George got along great" and "Me and Ashley have talked quite a lot since we were both in Afghanistan" and so forth from Jamie and others.
I also wonder, clearly performance on the range is crucial...but this is a reality show....with\about shooting. So then 'Playing the game' is also...making friends ("allies") and such as well, which might not be fair either, some folks don't hit it off, some folks have a bad day at the range....
Been interesting to hear some of the bits that have slipped about from the competitors.
A lot of time spent riding in blacked out vans, and waiting in vans, practicing w. one gun\ammo combo and being given a different gun\ammo for the challenge. The duration of the practice sessions (often seeming to be about 30 minutes, split between 4-6 folks on a team).
Season 3 filmed\filming now, Season 4 casting....nice to see some shooting related stuff in the mainstream media I think.
And apparently, you can't turn the spam filter off, so Google says, and making that an option would cost too much. Which even a computer no-nothing like me knows is bullshit. But it's their toy and it's free, so I'll just have to check the filter regularly and see if it is trainable.
Post a Comment