On episode 4 of Battle of the Eras, Derrick faced Horacio in Pick It Up, an elaborate game of jacks with 40 pieces. It was a close race — so close that TJ blew the horn and the audience didn’t cheer for a winner because they didn’t know who won.
At least, that’s what the edited episode wants you to believe. In reality, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the winner.
Astute viewers noticed that Derrick’s board had an empty hole on the upper right corner.
So, it appeared that Derrick’s board was incomplete when the horn was sounded. But, upon further inspection, we can see that the 40th piece wasn’t absent from the board, it had just fallen down and latched onto two jacks on the second row.
Despite the fact that Derrick had all of his pieces, some competitors are still crying foul. For starters, Jordan stated that production’s rules required all of the pegs to be in their holes. He also said that the referees helped Derrick put the pieces back onto his board after he knocked some off — if the placement of pieces didn’t matter, why put them back?
Of course, Horacio’s girlfriend Nurys also jumped to his defense. While she wasn’t there, she reiterated that production required cast members to pick up their own pieces. She also stated that Jenny called out production for their blunders.
Nurys also joined Nia, Nehemiah, and Devin on an Instagram Live where they discussed Derrick’s victory, and Nehemiah stated that they had to wait a long time for the winner to formally be announced. Nia also says she felt Horacio was robbed, and Devin seemingly agreed with her. During the discussion, they also revealed that production helped Derrick and Aneesa pick up pieces, but they never helped Jenny or Horacio.
Then, Devin discussed the fact that Horacio’s ball got stuck in his chute at one point, a fact Kyland also posted about. This cost Horacio time (Kyland estimates more than 25 seconds), and Horacio paused during this moment. However, Kyland did reveal that Derrick eventually stopped once he noticed that Horacio wasn’t proceeding, but this still cost Horacio some time.
These blunders seem to build a narrative that Horacio was treated unfairly by production, but some people have defended Derrick. Emily tweeted that TJ stated that all pieces had to be on the wall — not in their holes. She also responded to a tweet showing Derrick did have all of the pieces in the right holes at one point, but the 40th piece seemingly slipped out.
Rachel also confirmed that production had to fix Aneesa’s pieces, not because she didn’t place them in their holes, but because the wall was poorly designed and they kept slipping out. This implies that Derrick’s piece fell because his wall wasn’t built correctly.
So, what does Horacio think about this situation? Well, he’s understandably upset, making his retirement announcement more understandable.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he confirmed that his ball was stuck in the chute at one point and TJ tried to blow the horn to stop the game, but his horn wasn’t working. So Derrick got to make progress for a few seconds.
However, the biggest surprise is that Horacio called for a check at one point and TJ blew the horn and said he won.
Horacio did confirm that the boards were not stable and his jacks also fell, but he picked them up. He then reveal that Jenny confronted producers because she thought the outcome wasn’t fair, and apparently other people defended Horacio, but he didn’t give names.
Ultimately, this is another elimination that was poorly designed, so the loser has every right to feel bitter. While it’s reasonable for production to make adjustments for unstable boards, it seems unfair for them to accommodate Derrick’s faulty equipment (his board) but allow Horacio to lose time when his equipment (the ball and chute) were jammed.
It’s sad to see Horacio leave in this fashion, but at least we know his heart was in the game. And this doesn’t detract from Derrick’s efforts. He put in a solid performance — it just would have been much sweeter to see him win without all of these variables.
Receipts:
Stop Being Polite 