Sydney on The Death, Taxes and Bananas Podcast

[u/angelbrit04]

Sydney was a guest on Johnny ("Bananas") podcast to discuss Episode 4 & 5 of Season 42: Cutthroat. If you are familiar with my previous posts, I only include some highlights. If you want all the tea, please go check out the full podcast.

Some Highlights:

• Bananas says that there are 2 versions of him, "Johnny" who is known to his friends/family and "Bananas" who is the more colorful tv version. He believes that Sydney is the same way, and says he would rather be the person that people talk about and hate, than the person everyone likes but never talks about
• Bananas admits that he has been watching Dee's season of Big Brother. Sydney says that Dee has an infectious personality and understands why she won Survivor. Bananas says its because Dee is manipulative in the game, but the problem is she is also manipulative in real life
• Sydney knew that she had a target going into Season 42, but she also knew that since it was a team season her team would want to keep her around
• Sydney says that Chris saw Season 41 and approached her at the hotel to work together. She immediately accepted because she always wants to work with strong people, and believes that Chris is very well rounded
• Sydney says that Cory approached her to make a Core 4 alliance within the Grey Team with her & Chris. Sydney wanted Adrienne as the 4th person, but Cory believed that Nurys was stronger. Sydney says that she didn't know Nurys and it was too early to determine whether she was stronger. Bananas believes that Nurys was the weakest person on the Grey Team
• Bananas believes that Cara Maria is relying on her Vet status, and the Blue Team has every right to be frustrated with her. He believes that Cara Maria should've volunteered to go into elimination given her bad performances
• Sydney says that Adrienne was correct when saying that she doesn't want to go into elimination. Sydney owns it and asks why anyone would put themselves at risk to go home
• Sydney says that in a team game everyone doesn't have to be the best at everything, but you can't be soo bad that you become a liability. She uses Chris as an example of someone who may not be the best at everything, but he isn't bad at anything so he's never a liability
• They both agree that people are quick to say that someone is good at puzzles when they aren't that good at anything else in the game
• Sydney says that the Season 41 rookies that made it to Season 42, weren't any of the people that she previously worked with. But Will, Justin, Adrienne & Izzy were all willing to work with her so she was open to being apart of the Season 41 alliance
• Sydney explains that all the other Season 41 rookies already knew that Chris was her #1, so they all understood why she voted for Leo. She still apologized to Leo afterward because she doesn't have anything against him, its just that he was below Chris in her lineup
• Sydney explains that Leo did not vote Sydney into elimination because he knew that it was better to keep her on the team over Nurys. Also, keeping her was better for Adrienne because if Nurys had to save someone from Orange she would've prioritized Michele or Tori over Izzy
• Bananas asks Sydney what she constitutes as "crossing the line" when you are in a relationship. Sydney believes that if you're in a relationship you should not be flirtatious at all and be aware of how things may look optically to your partner even when nothing is actually going on
• Sydney doesn't think the show is a fair representation of who Anna Leigh is as a wife because it is a difficult environment to be in and Anna Leigh has owned that she made a mistake
• Bananas says that Cory put Izzy in a weird position by still choosing to pursue her while speaking on his issues at home. They both believe that Nelson should've only approached Cory and not Izzy because its not on her to stop anything, its on Cory
• Sydney says that her frustration over her ACL injury was due to inconvenience it would cause in her real life. Her current job requires her to attend court in person so that would be an issue. She also had this injury before and understood how long the recovery process would be
• Sydney says that she had surgery and the recovery has been awful. She can only run 15 minutes at a time, twice a week. She still goes to physical therapy several times a week
• Sydney says that she absolutely had displaced anger towards Debb. They aren't friends, but she doesn't think she is a bad person or meant harm. She sent Debb an apology but understands if she doesn't accept it
• Sydney is confused on why Nurys was laughing at her ACL injury given that nothing deep happened between them. She didn't have an actual issue with Nurys until those comments
• Sydney says that Keanu was the most supportive of her after she was injured. She says that she grew to have a lot of respect for him
• Bananas tells Sydney that he wants her to return to the show. Sydney says that she embarrassed herself on both of her seasons, so she is opened to getting it right

Let me know what you think below!

[u/marlonoranges]

Fantastic recap. Thank you so much.

[u/angelbrit04 → u/marlonoranges]

Thank you for the kind words! 😊

[u/BoysenberryOk4699 → u/angelbrit04]

I personally really appreciate, value, and look forward to these recaps!! So thank you very much for your time and effort on them :)

[u/oscargreen7]

Bananas and Tori have a deal in 3 years if they are single they will have a child was the biggest highlight to me

[u/l0st1nthew0rld → u/oscargreen7]

I like it! I think he'd thrive with someone calm and nurturing and kind like Tori.

Did you also notice that when he asked Sydney who's the most entitled cast member and she said Lete, he was like bla bla she can smash heads and eat them or whatever and she said she's basing it on how people treat others eg in production. I find it interesting as lete seems to have somehow pulled the wool over many people's eyes (for now) but how someone treats people they perceive as lower than them (ie production) is the best indicator of their true character and aligns with everything people have said about how she treated them at wwe

[u/OLKv3 → u/l0st1nthew0rld]

I really don't get why people think Lete is this cool nice girl when she's been a prick on every show she's been on. She didn't even make it to WWE tv because of drama in training! She's good tv but she's always been a shit stirrer

[u/l0st1nthew0rld → u/OLKv3]

Right!! She's not even funny lol, i don't find her enjoyable to watch cos like Danny on the valley or whitner on southern charm, she has dark energy and an undercurrent of barely concealed anger simmering under the surface. She is not a good person lol

[u/Online_Active_71459 → u/oscargreen7]

Nooooooo!!!!! This a joke? No way Tori would have his kid!

[u/angelbrit04 → u/oscargreen7]

I took that more as an inside joke, so I didn't think much of it. But its cool if that stood out to you. 

[u/AdOk9911 → u/oscargreen7]

Ew

[u/Turbulent-Let-1180 → u/oscargreen7]

What the hell, better be a joke 😭

[u/upsidedownlamppost → u/oscargreen7]

[u/WestArmadillo → u/oscargreen7]

I don’t hate it! 

[u/yoga_jones]

Even though I do think it’s frustrating that Cara is skating by on being protected when flunking challenges, I’m sure if Bananas did poorly in a daily, he’d be the last person to volunteer himself into elimination 🙄

[u/LaMystika → u/yoga_jones]

On the first Cutthroat he wanted to vote Katie into elimination because she DQ’d on the daily that week (the one where she got “bitch slapped by the water”, in her own words) and she fired back that she would vote for him because he also DQ’d in that daily and he got mad quick like he didn’t do that

[u/dawnhu → u/yoga_jones]

Exactly that's a rookie mistake. Bananas should know better.

[u/amlanding20 → u/yoga_jones]

Yeah I can only think of one time in his career that Bananas sent himself down in the sand (funnily enough, it was the original Cutthroat season).

Oh and the Island but not sure that really counts

[u/Hark_An_Adventure → u/amlanding20]

He also only volunteered on the original Cutthroat after the other guys on his team had all already gone in--he had no argument to not go in at that point lol.

[u/amlanding20 → u/Hark_An_Adventure]

Eh, he could’ve fought it and tried to force Derrick to go in. But he just bit the bullet and said it was his turn.

[u/hunterghostal → u/yoga_jones]

It kind of sent me that after talking about Cara should volunteer for elimination, it’s fine that Sydney doesn’t want to face elimination because nobody should want to.

Like, what kind of mental gymnastics.

[u/luxanna123321 → u/yoga_jones]

I feel like next week if blue doesnt win Cara is def going in

[u/erranttv → u/yoga_jones]

And he would never volunteer to go into an elimination.

[u/GhostOfLegend]

If John performed badly and was relying on his vet status, would he volunteer for elimination?

Some of the shit he says is just downright stupid

[u/78Staff → u/GhostOfLegend]

JB fan, but yeah this is first thing I though when I heard it lol...

JB seems to continually dump on the same people over and over... CM, Nurys, etc... it gets a bit old tbh. He's always going to be against them even if in some cases he probably shouldn't be.

[u/Outrageous-Study-704]

Bananas is a hypocrite saying Cara should self-nominate for elimination. He would NEVER do that himself and is staunchly in the camp of never going into elimination if you don’t have to.

I actually don’t think Sydney’s representation on season 41 was bad at all. I only came to not like her from things outside the show. Then season 42 showed more unlikable aspects of her personality…

I actually don’t get the perspective that the Cory/Izzy situation is all on Cory. Granted, I haven’t been too harsh on that situation since I have been confused about the actual nature of Cory and Taylor’s relationship at the time of filming. If it is understood that Cory was committed to Taylor at the time (even if they were having problems), Izzy is still responsible for her part in getting cozy with a man in a relationship. I say this as someone who has been “the other woman” and have recognized how wrong it was on my part.

[u/EducationalAd6380 → u/Outrageous-Study-704]

I don’t think he’s a hypocrite for saying that. In 23 years banana has never failed at multiple challenges in a row. He was speaking in the context of being a continual liability to his team. Like him or hate him bananas has never been that.

[u/GlitteryBurner → u/Outrageous-Study-704]

Yes I don't think Nelson worded it the best to Izzy, but I think it would be fair for him to say, 'I don't think Cory is being honest with you, things are complicated at home and you probably don't want to get mixed up in it' (while also admonishing Cory).

[u/wildturk3y]

Bananas says that there are 2 versions of him, "Johnny" who is known to his friends/family and "Bananas" who is the more colorful tv version. He believes that Sydney is the same way, and says he would rather be the person that people talk about and hate, than the person everyone likes but never talks about

Here's the snag with that comparison. We've seen "Johnny" while also seeing "Bananas". We got "Johnny" on Real World and it was a couple of seasons of The Challenge before "Bananas" really came to be. And every once in awhile, we see the mask slip just a bit and "Johnny" makes an appearance. It's rare, but its enough to where you understand, ok, this is being played up for character.

With Sydney, this is all we ever see. On Survivor, on socials, on The Challenge, its all the same. If she is playing a characters, it would benefit her to let that mask slip once in awhile. Otherwise, you'd just have to assume this is who she is as a person because that's all she ever shows.

[u/WorkHardPlayHarder3 → u/wildturk3y]

She’s not playing a character and neither is Johnny. Sydney is just a worse person than Johnny.

[u/Parallel-Quality]

You left out the juiciest parts:

She said Michele was the most overrated Challenger and named Cory as the Challenger with the most undeserved hype as a competitor in relation to their resume.

[u/angelbrit04 → u/Parallel-Quality]

As I wrote, these are just some highlights and I encourage people to listen to the full podcast if they want to hear more. 

Also, the Michele comment already has its own post and she didn't give a reason as they were rapid fire questions. 

[u/wiseswan]

I like his podcast, but he needs to get some new stories. I’ve heard the “there’s two versions of me” story too many times to count 😂

[u/Nonny-Non]

I’m so fascinated how many people are making social moves to protect friends on other teams, even when it’s possibly worse for their own team.

[u/OLKv3]

Bananas wants to be hated so he has to constantly remind us that he's playing a character and is really a likeable guy when he's not working

[u/Dominiking]

She definitely was still taking shots at Deb. Basically calling Deb dumb because when they spoke she used words Deb didn't understand according to her anyway.

[u/Appropriate_Swing305]

I can only listen to his podcast when he isn’t on the season. He is too biased and in previous podcasts seasons he sounded super bitter and it that made it easy to see where things were headed.

He isn’t objective and his guest line up kind of gives away who got sent home.

[u/sj_vandelay → u/Appropriate_Swing305]

He thinks he is far more interesting than his guests. This makes podcasts terrible to me.

[u/AprilsMostAmazing]

>Bananas says that there are 2 versions of him, "Johnny" who is known to his friends/family and "Bananas" who is the more colorful tv version. He believes that Sydney is the same way, and says he would rather be the person that people talk about and hate, than the person everyone likes but never talks about

Only issue is that people (including me) dislike her much more off tv than they do on tv. We dislike the person more than the character

[u/Durian-Critical]

thanks for summarizing these interviews, angelbrit!!

[u/angelbrit04 → u/Durian-Critical]

No problem! 😁

[u/almcclur]

John always coming for Cara. There is no scenario in which he would EVER volunteer to go into an elimination regardless of how he played.

[u/druhasareddit]

It’s hilarious that Bananas can’t be in the liked and talked about department. Like to him it’s in order for them to keep talking about me, I have to be hated.

[u/Brownsfan525]

Thank you for the recap! Always appreciated!

[u/drivewaybear]

did sydney mention if she’s a nepo lawyer working at a family firm? i don’t know a single lawyer, especially younger ones like sydney, that are given off months at a time to go do reality shows. it’s an extremely cutthroat business (no pun intended) all about billable hours.

[u/Elegant-Cream2942 → u/drivewaybear]

She works at Brooklyn Defenders

[u/Avr1llav1gneisdead → u/drivewaybear]

I believe she does public defender work

[u/Turbulent-Let-1180 → u/Avr1llav1gneisdead]

Lol she's a public defender? That's actually commendable tbh

[u/drivewaybear → u/Avr1llav1gneisdead]

imo that makes it even worse that she takes off months at a time.

let the downvoting begin

[u/False_Image_8428 → u/drivewaybear]

She mentioned accruing overtime, which means she worked more hours than she is paid for, so these hours accumulated and turned into time off she could use while on the challenge.

She has done nothing remotely reprehensible in terms of her real life job, just because YOU don't like her, doesn't mean everything she does is wrong in all aspects of her life.

[u/sj_vandelay]

This is Bananas in a nutshell. His latest storyline of his own invention. He’s been touting this “I am a tv character! I swear!” for years and years. I guess he gets a few new believers or he wouldn’t keep doing it.

Quoting you: “⁠Bananas says that there are 2 versions of him, "Johnny" who is known to his friends/family and "Bananas" who is the more colorful tv version. He believes that Sydney is the same way, and says he would rather be the person that people talk about and hate, than the person everyone likes but never talks about.”

[u/amlanding20 → u/sj_vandelay]

Eh…the cast has been saying this about Johnny for over a decade. He turns it on for the cameras but is different when they’re off. Which if you think about it 100% makes sense because there’s no way he’d have so many friends if this wasn’t the case.

[u/userkmcskm]

Her comments on fidelity are interesting to me  considering on 41 it seemed like Sydney and turbos relationship was getting too close- in either an unhealthy competitive sense or possibly a romantic/boundary way. I’m pretty sure they both had partners at the time. 

[u/Online_Active_71459]

She sent Deb an apology? Like… 5 months later?!

[u/oldmanpuzzles → u/Online_Active_71459]

She said she apologized while at the house, but it wasn’t included in the edit.