This week’s contest used Kentucky rifles, which are flintlock rifles firing blackpowder. Most of the shooters had never fired one and had to get used to the delay between pulling the trigger to spark the flint, burning the ignition powder, and setting off the main charge and sending a bullet downrange.
Collusion Club
After practice Adam and Chris told Caleb about their four man voting bloc with Ian and Tara and their plan. They wanted to get rid of Blake and J.J. – two of the strongest shooters – during the flintlock competition, where they were liable to be at their weakest. Caleb told them he wasn’t comfortable playing politics, preferring to compete based on skill.
Ultimately, Caleb told Blake and J.J. about the plan. When confronted by Blake and J.J., Adam claimed that the idea of getting rid of Black and J.J. was one of many plans discussed. We only get to see what the producers of the show choose to show us, but we didn’t see that in the footage that aired, so it appeared Adam was lying.
With his plan revealed Adam flipped, to put it mildly, calling Caleb a rat fink. His rage at Caleb seemed to be more based on having his hand shown and not any concept of honor or fairplay. He was after all colluding with other players to get rid of his team’s strongest members – I don’t think that’s what they taught him in the Marine Corps.
Adam seemed to think that the first rule of Collusion Club is “don’t talk about Collusion Club.” Seeing as how Caleb was never in Collusion Club and never asked to join, I don’t think Caleb did anything wrong.
I don’t think Adam did anything wrong in setting up a voting bloc. Like it or not, that’s how these shows play out and that tends to heavily influence who wins the grand prize.
Having said that, Adam is now my least favorite person on the show. He was trying to win based on voting strategy rather than skill and when found out he called someone else’s honor into question. Worse, he showed the same kind of unmanageable, poisonous anger as Bill.
I’ll also fault Adam and Chris for making a strategic error. They had a four person voting block on a seven member team. Simple arithmetic tells you they didn’t need Caleb. They could have avoided this whole mess if they hadn’t tried to recruit Caleb to Collusion Club.
Team Challenge
At the team competition red team beat blue 4-zip. Caleb missed the 125 yard target, which would have put the contest into overtime. I was a little mystified as to why they chose Caleb for the longest shot when he’s mostly a pistol shooter. Blake, J.J., or Kelly would have been the logical choices.
LATER: Caleb says he volunteered for the long shot because he had done so well in practice. During the contest the rifle they had been shooting became unreliable, so the producers switched to a different rifle, which may have thrown him off.
Elimination Vote
At the elimination vote the vote tally was Caleb 4 votes (Adam, Chris, Ian, and Tara) and Adam 3 votes (Blake, Caleb, and J.J.). Ian said he was voting for Caleb because he missed his target, Tara didn’t say, and the rest of the votes boiled down to the Adam-Caleb feud. I noticed that the votes for Caleb all came from the voting bloc Adam and Chris told Caleb about at the beginning of the show. If they stick together they can send Blake and J.J. to every future elimination round.
Compare and contrast Ian’s “no I in team” speechifying from the previous week’s episode with the voting bloc we found out about this week. That’s how fast things change on these elimination shows. Expect more shifting of alliances as things unfold, with big changes after the teams dissolve and competition goes 1-on-1.
Elimination Challenge
The elimination challenge used Winchester 1873 rifles to shoot a rope. I was very sorry to see Caleb lose the challenge. As a fellow blogger he was the one I was rooting for to take home the grand prize. I hated to see him go, and I especially hated to see him go under these circumstances. Caleb, you went out with your head held high. Congrats, guy. You lost the contest but you were the better man.
Previously – Top Shot: “Friend or Foe”
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Of all the episodes to miss!
I understand why they needed Caleb for their plan. They wanted to send both JJ and Blake to elimination, to ensure that one or the other would be gone. Without five of them working together to put those two in elimination, it could have been any of them against either JJ or Blake.
I don’t like their plan. But I understand it. I also felt the same way about Adam’s reaction. Someone with an ego like that has to avoid admitting fault at any cost.
Laughingdog is precisely right here. Exactly what I was thinking. Would Adam want to face, Blake or JJ?
Also, my own psych evaluation of Adam is similar. He is fundamentally unable to believe he is at fault, and attempts to divert attention from what he did- and was doing.
When they send up Blake and JJ against each other, they won’t know what hit them, as the remaining ‘ace’ comes after them with a vengeance.
Ian is the puppetmaster. He sends Adam off to do the dirty work and if it blows up, like it did, his hands are clean.
I thought it was very clear why Tara voted for Caleb. She was part of Adam’s voting block. And while she talked a lot of talk about testosterone. She was fully a part of Adam’s game. And I hope she goes down for it.
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