TUF 4.5

Yeah, I could have posted this sooner. But I didn't.

Major Points

• With the drama of the Jeremy Jackson eviction out of the way, Team No Love now has an opportunity to replace their libidinous teammate with one of their defeated comrades. Rather than a dramatic decision making process, which I'm sure is what Dana and the producers wanted, TNL instead chooses to flip a coin to decide between Willie McGinest Pete Spratt and Rich Clementi, the man whose tattoo provided TNL with their name. Clementi loses, thus raising the question of whether his tattoo means he doesn't love anyone, or nobody has any love for him.
• Shonie likes to swim. Unfortunately, Shonie's overactive creativity has now inspired him to attempt the construction of a "floatie" from discarded plastic bottles. Naturally, Shonie decides the best way to do this is to throw all the bottles into the pool. Evidently, despite his artistic nature, Shonie has not heard of planning or design. After much debate over the bottles, which involves other people clearing the pool of them, only to have Shonie throw them back in, Shonie finally constructs his floatie. By filling a garbage bag with bottles and floating on it. Given that Shonie took all the bottles out of a garbage (possibly, hopefully recycling) bag in the kitchen, I can't help but think there were a number of unnecessary steps in the whole process.
• Shonie also doesn't sleep much. So naturally he plays pool, one of the quieter pastimes, at 3 am. Basically, much of the non-fighing aspects of this episode revolved around Shonie being annoying. And yet, there was no urine or knifeplay involved.
• Pete Spratt is considering not fighting, and instead allowing Clementi to fight. This due to Spratt's lack of faith in his abilities. But Clementi continues to suffer a paucity of affection, and Spratt chooses to return to the competition. I think this is a good move by Spratt, as it keeps him in Dana's good graces.
• TNL headfakes choosing Matt Serra to fight this week, then goes with TNL's Mikey Burnett versus TM's Din Thomas. They figure Din will be weakened by the staph infection running rampant in the house. But certainly not from the mats!
• Din's recap recaps Din. Mikey Burnett's is much more interesting, as he is a pre-Zuffa fighter, so UFC gets to do their "no rules, no weight-class, underground" spin on UFC history. Mikey does have a good line, saying the UFC was "more spectacle than sport." Sorry Mikey, spectator sports are, by definition, spectacle.
• Din beats Mikey. Fairly handily too. I hope Mikey gets another chance, maybe as another Ross Pointon kind of fighter. You don't expect him to win, but you know he'll show up.

The Good

• I like Din Thomas. He's got a good chance of winning this thing.

The Bad

• The UFC history spin. Look, I'm not an expert on UFC history, but I know a bit. And watching them spin the UFC history this way is annoying. Its right up there with Vince McMahon and his "smoky bars" history of professional wrestling.

The Ugly

• Why do the fighters still do a walk/van ride of shame? Aren't they all still in the house? Did they make Mikey Burnett drive back the house alone, while the rest of the guys came in another van? Isn't that a waste of gas? For this, kids are getting killed in Iraq?

This episode didn't particularly capture my attention the way past episodes have. Maybe it was just being tired, or dreading my first tutorial the next day. I'll find out tomorrow night when I watch 4.6. At least I'm sure it will be better than ER.