The episode opens with Sylvia returning from elimination. Her room is ecstatic she returned, but she still seems to be reeling from the effects of being sick. Meanwhile, Nicole is still reeling from losing love interest Melissa, but something tells me she won’t be disappointed for long. The next morning, Nelson and Kayleigh wake up together. We haven’t their relationship nearly as much as some of the other ones in the house but that could just mean they’ll be around for a while.

What are the chances this is just a production member?

After this, we go to the Navy Room where Shane is sleeping on the floor while Jemmye, Veronica, Cara Maria, and Britni are in their beds. We see a blurred figure drop off a note in the room while Shane is shouting hello asking who is there (here is a link to the clip of it). Shane later recaps the situation to Jemmye and Veronica, who were sleeping while this occurred. The note says that the girls are talking about Britni behind her back. They immediately assume Marie as one of the top suspects. Over in the Pink Room, where Kyle, Leroy, Bananas and occasionally Cara Maria reside; Veronica brings the note to the attention of the people in there. Cara Maria suggests Shane as another potential suspect, since he and Marie are the only people in their room often. Leroy suggests Jemmye as another potential option, just because she always plays a very mental game.

The Teal Room alliance.

Devin is giving a pep talk to Nelson, Shane, Brad, and Victor; and says it doesn’t matter how long they last because if Bananas goes to the final he wins. He also says that if they don’t band together now, they’ll just be picked off one by one. Considering Johnny’s performance in the opening endurance Challenge I’m not sure how true that is anymore, but it definitely seems to be a good idea to get Bananas out of the house. The next morning, Bananas and Leroy are talking with Marie and Nicole and Bananas mentions that most people seem to think it was Marie. Marie approaches them and tells them she did not write it and mentions (via confessional) that she thinks it was Cara Maria.

Brad during the mission.

After this, we finally get to the daily mission for the episode. TJ announces Sylvia and Natalie both are currently too sick for the mission, and as a result Sylvia’s grenade is a dud. The mission is called Gasping for Air, and entails the competitors splitting to four teams and having to swim fifteen feet underwater moving a ring down a pipe. The team that moves their rings the farthest distance wins. The teams were as follows:

Team 1: Brad Kam Kayleigh Marie Nelson

Team 2: Britni Cara Maria Joss Veronica Victor

Team 3: Devin Jemmye Leroy Nicole Z Shane

Team 4: Bananas Kailah Kyle Tony Zach

Now, during the episode it was said (via TJ voiceover) that the teams were chosen randomly. However, after the mission it was revealed by multiple sources that in actuality the previous Troika (Marie, Zach, Tony) made the teams, with the intention of Marie’s alliance throwing the mission and forcing Brad into elimination. This makes a huge difference, and it really bothers me that they wouldn’t show this. While it was a good move by the Troika who clearly don’t seem to be big Brad fans, it also is ridiculously overpowered and if it continues from here on it could result in the game being extremely slanted in favor of the Dolphins/Banana Boat. I’m also not entirely sure why this wasn’t just an individual mission but maybe they didn’t want to have to deal with breaking all the inevitable ties (although they easily could have added a time constraint.)

Tony during the mission.

The mission starts with Team 1 and Team 2 going first. Brad dominates for Team 1, going all the way to the end of 150 feet, but Marie is the only other person who moves the ring at all and even she only went five feet. For Team 2, Victor maxed his ring and Britni got to 35 feet but everyone else recorded zeroes. For Team 3, Shane maxed out his ring and also relayed the strategy of just pulling yourself once you get to the bottom and not swimming. Nicole and Jemmye also put in good performances, with Nicole being the best female reaching 80 feet and Jemmye getting to 40 feet. Team 4 was the clear winner though, with Bananas and Tony (who didn’t even use the breathing stations) maxing out and Kyle, Zach, and Kailah all doing decently as well. Bananas, Tony, and Kyle comprise the Troika due to being the top three finishers on their team. Team 1 is the losing team and has to vote one of Brad or Nelson into elimination due to it being a guys’ day. Everyone votes Brad in, who despite being the only one to perform really at all for his team got hit by the horrible voting format after taking advantage of it last time around. I think the producers have really screwed up the format this season. Combining the genders in the way they have doesn’t make any sense since eliminations still aren’t mixed and for this mission in particular the format was set up so easy to rig for whoever was choosing the teams it might as well have been a choose your own adventure book.

Brad gets a lot of heat for being crazy, but he was calm as could be when he was thrown in.

Anyways, we return from the mission and Leroy and Bananas are talking to Brad about how he swam the max distance for his team but despite that the whole team voted for him to go in. Brad says he knows it’s part of the game and is actually somewhat excited to go in and get a grenade on his hands. Other people seem to feel differently, but I’ve been very happy about Brad’s return thus far this season. He clearly knows how the game has played, came to win, and although he probably showed his cards too early (I think playing the game the way Jenn did on Fresh Meat II would have really worked out for him) his political style has at the very least been very entertaining to watch thus far.

Natalie seems to be the one person who can really influence Bananas.

We also get another glimpse of Sylvia, who is clearly still very sick and seems to be foreshadowing an early exit coming soon. Kyle is seen talking to Devin and Victor about the upcoming Inquisition, and says he knows Bananas is coming for the Teal Room (Devin, Victor, Brad, Nelson, Shane, Joss). Kyle seems to be playing a very good social and political game so far, being a trusted member of the Banana Boat but not putting himself at odds with the Teal Room either. Victor mentions to Kyle that he thinks Joss is the smartest throw in, and Kyle seems to agree. We then jump to a different part of the house, where Natalie is talking to Bananas. She mentions that Victor thinks he is running this game and they should blindside him (Oh Natalie, bringing in the CBS terminology.) I haven’t seen any indication of Victor thinking he is running this game, and he seems to me to have mostly been a wallflower thus far.

The Troika.

At the Troika deliberation, Tony starts off the conversation by saying they should put someone in to beat Brad. Kyle wants Shane in and Bananas wants Victor, and the others agree on account of Shane being annoying and Victor being too nice. Bananas mentions Devin for the last spot, but also says he thinks Victor is a much bigger threat on account of him being smart. Tony wants Nelson in, but Bananas says Nelson won’t beat Brad in anything that’s not smashing your head against a wall. I think that’s crazy, out of the guys in the Teal Room I think Nelson is clearly the one with the best chance of beating Brad, he actually has more elimination wins than he does, and it seems kind of suspicious to me that Bananas won’t throw in the people that seem to have the best shot of taking Brad down. They end up selecting Devin for the third spot, so the Inquisition is Devin, Victor and Shane.

The Inquisition.

At the Inquisition, Bananas tells the three that whoever gives them the most information won’t go in. Shane starts it off by saying that he is in a room full of people that are definitely gunning for Bananas, but when asked who specifically Shane responds with “these people” motioning to Victor and Devin. Victor starts talking, and he just says he’ll stab him in the front not the back which is not the response Johnny was looking for. Devin tells Tony and Kyle they aren’t gunning for him, at which point Tony goes off on a tirade calling Kyle Dennis Rodman, Bananas Michael Jordan, and himself Scottie Pippen. I’ve always seen Bananas as more Bill Russell than Jordan and the only fitting part of the comparison really is the tattoos on both Kyle and Rodman.

The Navy Room after the second note.

After the Inquisition, we go back to the Navy Room where the note dropper strikes again. This one tells Britni “You are getting played and don’t even realize it.” Marie is seen standing suspiciously outside the room, and the girls seem to recognize the note as Marie’s handwriting. The girls all seem to believe Marie did it at this point. Marie returns to her room and tells them there, and they all seem genuinely surprised by it. Marie thinks it is Cara Maria or Britni and they’re doing it to turn everyone against her.

This relationship seems much more natural than Banatalie.

After this, we head to the club. Bananas and Kayleigh seem to be flirting, which is especially noteworthy since each already is tied to someone else in the house. Shane sees Victor talking to some members of the Troika and feels the need to blow that situation up. Shane starts yelling at Victor and seems to be either just trying to draw attention to him or is just intoxicated. Either Devin is sitting very pretty letting the two of them has it out.

The Ring.

We then go the ring, where we see two water tanks each on top of a separate cage. TJ then asks the Troika who they are sending in, and just as Bananas is about to give his answer the episode ends, and it looks like we will have to wait until next week to find out.

Power Rankings

22) Victor (-3): I get the strong feeling he is going in and I can’t see Brad losing to him.

21) Kayleigh (+1): Probably the weakest competitor in the game and throwing her in would be the move that makes the least waves.

20) Sylvia (-5): I get the impression she could be sent home for sickness soon.

19) Marie (+1): She seems to be the common suspect for the note so if the Navy Room holds the power she could be the one in.

18) Shane (-10): He’s up for elimination and the fact he went in over Joss or Nelson is alarming.

17) Britni (+4): If the note fractures the Navy Room, she sees to be the one who would suffer the most.

16) Jemmye (+2): She’s playing a great social game and has been a surprising competitor so far.

15) Veronica (+2): Moves up based on others moving down.

14) Brad (-8): I really think he beats whomever is thrown in against him, but he is in elimination, so he moves down.

13) Devin (-8): It would be shocking to me if he goes in but at the very least he’s higher on Bananas’ hit list than Nelson or Joss.

12) Kam (+1): Was invisible this episode but did not perform well in the mission.

11) Joss (+1): The fact he wasn’t thrown in is mind blowing to me.

10) Kyle (+6): Seems to be in a great situation, is part of the Banana Boat without angering the Teal Room.

9) Kailah (+1): For whatever reason got no note blowback but she still hasn’t been impressive at all this season.

8) Nicole Z (+5): I think she’s the most likely note culprit based on the previews, but nobody is expecting her and has been the best female athletically.

7) Nelson (+2): Has been flawed athletically but isn’t on Bananas’ radar.

6) Natalie (+1): Her sickness was very odd, but it seems much less worrisome than Sylvia’s.

5) Tony (+6): Has been fantastic this season and if they keep letting the Troika set teams he could be good for a while.

4) Cara Maria (-1): Hasn’t been great this season but her pedigree keeps her up here.

3) Leroy (+1): Hasn’t been great athletically but has been skating thus far.

2) Zach: Might be in the best political situation in the game.

1) Bananas: I think his position is more tenuous than most, but he has undeniably ran the game thus far.