This episode starts with the house having a pool party and Devin fully enjoying himself by being in the nude. Leroy’s the only one not so happy, who seems to be unsure of his place in the new house hierarchy. After a quick birthday celebration and Laurel tease with Nicole, we head to the mission of the episode.

The Roamers at the start of the mission.

The mission is entitled This Land is My Land, and has the competitors split into three teams. Each team has to stack up forty-five palates in order to raise their flag. Each team is split into three groups: Fabricators, who stack the palates; Suppliers, in charge of supplying the palates; and Roamers, in charge of supplying the suppliers through a reservoir or stealing from others. TJ also announces this a double elimination mission, which means two guys and two ladies are headed to elimination. TJ then asks Devin which grenade he would like to choose, and he selects Team Up. Devin makes the teams as:

Red Team: Devin Nelson Brad Kam Kailah

Green Team: Zach Tony Nicole Z Natalie Britni

Blue Team: Kyle Leroy Cara Maria Jemmye

Two things I picked up on right away: Green Team is probably kind of screwed since they are in the middle and both teams will likely steal from them, and Devin screwed up making these teams. By putting his entire alliance on one team, he is insuring if they lose two of his alliance members will have to go in. If it was me, I would have set it up as:

Red Team: Devin Nelson Leroy Kailah Nicole Z

Green Team: Zach Kyle Kam Jemmye

Blue Team: Tony Brad Cara Maria Britni Natalie

With this set-up, if Red loses they throw in Leroy and Natalie and if they win Devin, Nelson, and Kailah make up the Troika. If Green loses I’m not sure how stalemates are broken but anyway they go is a win for Devin and while they make an unfavorable Troika they also are probably the least likely team to win. If Blue wins, the Troika is probably Brad, Cara Maria, and Britni (Brad and Britni vote with Devin) and if they lose Tony and Natalie are going in.

The Suppliers at the start of the mission.

Continuing on, the teams set who is in which zone. For Red, Devin is the fabricator while Brad and Nelson are supplying, and Kam Kailah are roaming. For Green, Tony and Britni are fabricating while Zach supplies and Nicole Z and Natalie roam. For Blue, Leroy is fabricating while Kyle supplies and Cara Maria and Jemmye roam. Yet again, I think Red screws it up here by not putting one guy on each stage. Having a guy/girl pair on the roamers would give them a huge advantage compared to everybody else who is using exclusively female pairings. I’m also not sure all the roamers were girls, in my opinion with the ability to steal it seemed like the area where it would be most advantageous to have at least one guy.

The Fabricators at the start of the mission.

With my rants out of the way, the mission starts. Cara Maria and Jemmye start out stealing from Green, and then Blue starts to steal from Red. The teams are all moving pretty evenly, but the other teams seem to hone in on stealing from Blue. Cara starts yelling about it and then points out via confessional that everyone should be stealing from Green since they are in the middle. Red starts to fall a bit behind, and Nelson and Brad seem to really be dying. Kyle and Zach just keep gong though, with Zach in particular showing absolutely no sign of slowing down. The Roamers had been kind of just sitting around watching but they realize they need more palettes and all sprint back. Jemmye starts falling behind Cara before TJ and Leroy start yelling at her to pick up the pace, and Kailah and Kam both seem to be really slowing down. Green gets down to one palette left, and after Tony climbs the stack he raises the flag for the victory. It comes down to Blue and Red and a sprint between Kam and Kailah versus Jemmye and Cara Maria. Cara Maria puts the team on her back and powers the palette over to Kyle, who gives it to Leroy to get second and put the Red Team in last.

Tony climbing up the palates to get the win for the Green Team.

Green Team has to decide the Troika, and they select Tony, Zach, and Natalie only after agreeing on everyone being safe. The Red Team has to select two team members to go into elimination, and Brad and Kam are chosen by everybody but themselves. TJ announces via voiceover there will be no Inquisition. Back at the house, Nelson seems to think he is safe due to Natalie being in the Troika and Devin does as well due to Zach and Tony having helped him out before. Back in the Purple Room, Kyle and Cara Maria are talking when Zach comes in and asks Cara what he would think about her sending in Britni. He mentions how she would clearly save Brad, Devin, and Nelson all over him and even though he made somewhat of a verbal agreement with her doesn’t feel like she did much to help.

The Troika for the episode.

At the Troika meeting, Zach immediately says he wants to put Britni up and Tony and Natalie both agree with that. Natalie says for the other two slots she doesn’t want to put up Nicole or Kailah, so they decide on Jemmye and Cara Maria. For the guys, they seem to immediately decide on Leroy, Nelson, and Kyle as the three for the Inquisition, but Zach also says he and Tony are set on saying Nelson to go in.

Britni talking to Tony.

The Inquisition is revealed, and everyone’s surprised by who is up there. I’m not exactly sure what they were expecting considering there are so few people left in the game, but nonetheless they are not happy. Britni in particular is perturbed, saying loyalty is everything to her and she was clearly not happy about her name being up for elimination. Britni talks to Tony about the situation and asks if she is just a burn vote to which he says he is not sure; and Zach says she is but is also clearly lying. They both say they will give her a heads up if she is going in.

The second round of mercenaries: (L-R) Laurel Stucky, Ashley Mitchell, Frank Sweeney, and Darrell Taylor.

We arrive at the Ring, and TJ asks the Troika who they are voting for. Natalie starts and says Nelson and Britni, saying they are who the team wanted to vote for. Nelson feels betrayed, but he did seem to see it coming. Tony and Zach also say Nelson and Britni; and Britni mentions she was not given the heads up she was promised. As the four competitors get ready to go, TJ announces a twist is coming and in walks Laurel Stucky, Ashley Mitchell, Frank Sweeney, and Darrell Taylor. I’ve posted the competitors profiles below for those unfamiliar with them:

Laurel Stucky

Ashley Mitchell

Frank Sweeney

Darrell Taylor

Not only is this twist pretty unfair already, but the difference in level of competitor one could be facing is also crazy as well. On the girls’ side, while Ashley is certainly a great competitor Laurel is one of the three most physically imposing women to ever be on the show. It seems unfair enough to have to go up against someone not in the game but for one person to have to go against a strong competitor while another has to take down maybe the most dominant athlete of either gender in the show’s history on a coin flip is pretty crazy. Laurel also is Nicole’s ex-girlfriend, and apparently there are still feelings present because Nicole starts crying when Laurel is introduced.

The set-up for the elimination.

TJ announces the elimination is called Yank My Chain, and entails the competitors being chained back to back and running around a circle in opposite directions in an attempt to ring a bell. (I actually just returned home from a Wizards-Timberwolves game where a variation of this was played in between quarters. Unfortunately, the string snapped and both players were hurt quite severely.) There have been a lot of variations played on this game before; such as Looper in Free Agents, Reverse Tug of War in The Gauntlet II, and Force Field in the Gauntlet 3. Usually it boils down to who weighs more, but there have been some exceptions such as Frank Roessler vs MJ Garrett in the Gauntlet II and Nia vs Cara Maria in Free Agents.

Brad versus Frank

TJ flips the coin and announces the matchups as Kam vs Ashley, Britni vs Laurel, Brad vs Frank, and Nelson vs Darrell. I really wish they would have flipped around the girls’ matchups, since this is an elimination based primarily on weight having the mammoth Laurel go up against tony Britni just seems unfair. Brad and Frank are first to go, and Brad gets a pretty big head start and is able to grab a hold of Frank’s bell. Brad is able to crawl his way over to his bell and gets up to it and rings it for the win. Up next is Kam vs Ashley, and Kam seems to have a slight lead. Kam is able to push and drag herself to the bell, and she grabs the win.

Nelson versus Darrell

After this, we head to Nelson vs Darrell. This one actually seems like a pretty even matchup, with the two neck and neck to start. Both come to a standstill and can’t seem to make the other move, and TJ calls the round and tells them to reset. The next round, Nelson gets a bit of a lead, but Darrell isn’t giving in and TJ calls the round again. TJ announces the elimination as a draw, meaning Nelson doesn’t get a grenade but he is allowed to come back into the house. In all my years of watching The Challenge I’ve never heard of a draw being called. While I understand why given the circumstances it was called, to me it just felt like a cop-out and I would have much rather had them just fight it out until one gives in. We get to the last elimination of the night, and it is Britni vs Laurel. They both get about the same spot on the circle, but Britni is immediately thrown to the ground while Laurel stays standing. Britni holds down Laurel for a while, but Laurel eventually crawls over to the bell and dives into it; getting the win.

Britni versus Laurel

TJ dismisses Britni and sends the rest of the Mercenaries home, but Laurel runs up to Nicole before she leaves to wish her luck and say goodbye. TJ presents Brad and Kam with grenades, and their options are as follows: Cash-Allowed to steal a competitor’s bank account; Tied Up-Allowed to tie up a competitor’s ankles for the next mission; and Time Up-Allowed to add time to another competitor. After this, they leave the ring, and that ends this episode of The Challenge.

Kam versus Ashley

Before we get to the rankings, just a quick note on this round of mercenaries. I think the producers really screwed it up this time around. First off, there have been a variety of sources which have stated that each of the eliminations went multiple rounds and had a lot more going than what appeared. In particular with the Britni vs Laurel round, not only did they go for a much longer time than what was shown but Britni was also informed that unlike Nelson; she would not be allowed to stalemate with Laurel and would have to beat her. I have no idea what the rationale behind this decision was, but to not only allow a draw in the first place but then be selective about who it is available to be given out to is crazy. Also, I think their choice of game for the elimination was a complete misfire. As I stated before, most of the time elimination in this vein come down to just weight and nothing else. When they were used in previous seasons, they were done in a way that allowed for more strategy to take place because being in the sand allowed the lighter player to at least dig some holes and hold position until their opponent tired out. In the two upsets I mentioned above, Frank R and Cara Maria both dug themselves into a hole and use that leverage to wait out their opponent they were able to drag them. With the ring and pads used in this elimination, it seemed much more difficult to have any nuance in strategy and it really came down to just pulling your opponent. I would have much preferred a game such as Balls In (Multiple Seasons), Shadowfighter (The Ruins), Ascender (The Duel) or Wrecking Wall (Free Agents) that comes down to a combination of physical ability and strategy rather than mostly what number comes up on a scale. With Balls In in particular, each of the Mercenaries has won a variant of it as some point or another. Frank beat Chet via DQ on Free Agents, Darrell beat Bananas on Invasion of the Champions, Laurel beat Jasmine on Free Agents and Cara Maria on Invasion of the Champions, and Ashley Mitchell beat Ashley Kelsey on Champs vs Pros. That would have seemed to make for a much more entertaining set of eliminations as well as more evenly matched ones as well. With that, we head to the rankings.

Eliminated

Britni: Man did Britni have a rough time this episode. She was told she was safe by her team, was then thrown in, was forced to face Laurel, and had to beat her to stay in a game based on weight to stay in the game.

Power Rankings

13) Jemmye (+1): Bottom barrel athlete and almost cost her team the mission by not keeping up with Cara.

12) Devin (-3): He really screwed up making the teams this episode and is at a significant deficit compared to the guys athletically; but it is notable how his name wasn’t really considered at all by the Troika despite him seeming to me like an choice based on the group’s political allegiances.

11) Nelson (+1): Has the cards stacked against him and not having the grenade could really hurt him.

10) Natalie: This might be too low for someone who has performed as well as she has and is on the Troika but we’re getting into the endgame now and everyone’s a threat.

9) Kam (-2): Getting the grenade should help, but the only people she really seems to have protecting her are Kailah and Leroy.

8) Brad (+3): It will be interesting to see how he uses the grenade. I’ve considered him to be one of the best competitors throughout the season, but he didn’t do great on this mission.

7) Leroy (-1): He somehow still has no money in his bank account, but his name hasn’t really come up for elimination.

6) Kailah (-1): Falls a spot due to other moving up.

5) Kyle (-1): Was actually very impressive this episode, I was surprised by how well he did on the mission. Falls solely due to others rising.

4) Nicole Z (+3): Awesome performance in the mission and has an extremely favorable Troika.

3) Tony: He’s made five of the last six Troikas and doesn’t seem to have anyone gunning for him.

2) Cara Maria: She really showed this mission why she’s the top dog on the female side. This mission really came down to the roamers, and Cara Maria basically beat Kam and Kailah by herself.

1) Zach: Has shown no signs of physical weakness this season and is the presumptive top dog as we move towards the finale.