Wow, that was a content packed episode of The Challenge. The episode starts in the ring as Bananas is selecting who will face Brad. He chooses Victor, and Tony and Kyle follow suit. The elimination is called Troubled Water and entails the competitors each in their own water tank attempting to empty the water enough to get below a line marked on it, and then breaking the glass with a hammer. First one to break the glass wins.

Troubled Water elimination.

The elimination starts, and the crowd (led by Bananas) seems to favor Brad. Brad employs a strategy of thrusting his body to move the water out of the tank, while Victor simply splashes the water out with his hands. Brad gets the win pretty quickly, and it never really seems like Victor is in it. Thus, Brad is given the option of one of three grenades: 1Time Crunch: add a minute to someone’s time, 2Sit Out: sit someone out of the competition, or 3Blindside: force one player to do the next competition blindfolded.

Bananas explaining the note situation.

We return to the house, where we find another note has been given out. This one says: “I can’t wait to see you get sent home.” Jemmye brings the note to the purple room, where she asks Nicole Z who she thinks did it, who responds she thinks Jemmye did it. They then cut to a confessional of Bananas who responds by saying he’s not sure who could pull off such a heartless prank. They then show (just to the audience, not the cast) that Bananas had his sister write the notes before he came to the house, and then has been distributing them while the girls were gone from their room. While I always assumed Johnny would be involved someway or another, this is a new level of debauchery for him. We then go to just outside the pool, where Cara Maria and Kyle are talking. Kyle asks Cara Maria who she thinks Brad will use his grenade on, and Cara says she is not sure, but she hopes it is one of the girls in the Orange Room. Kyle says he hopes Marie is the target, and he likes her the least of all the girls in the house. Cara says (via confessional) that Kyle is liked by pretty much everyone in the house and has really helped keep the heat off her thus far.

The Puppet Master mission.

This takes us to the mission for the episode, which oddly enough has large pictures of Aneesa and CT’s head at the center. TJ announces at the mission that Sylvia is too sick to continue and has been removed from the game. It’s odd how quickly they brush by it, but they seem to not want to dwell on it. The mission is entitled Puppet Master and requires the cast to divide into two teams and attempt assemble a giant puppet with one of Aneesa’s (Team Green) or CT’s (Team Blue) head on it, and then life the puppet up a rope. They have to accomplish this while being chained together. TJ also announces that the elimination today will be both a girls’ and guys’ elimination. They also announce via TJ voiceover that to shake it up the Troika will be allowed to select teams, which is completely not a shake up as they that did that last week as well. They decide to put themselves on a team with Brad, so he can use the grenade on the other team, and on a team with Shane, so they can throw him in if they lose. I think that they felt the need to put a throw in on the team besides Brad plus the fact that Bananas was helping him in the elimination shows maybe he’s not such a huge target at the moment. I also really hope that they either cease doing team missions, or they switch up how they are selected or else these missions are going to continue to be massively unbalanced. The teams end up as:

Team Green — Bananas, Tony, Kyle, Brad, Shane, Cara Maria, Natalie, Nicole Z, Kayleigh, Jemmye

Team Blue — Leroy, Nelson, Zach, Devin, Joss, Kailah, Marie, Veronica, Britni, Kam

Brad also decides to use the Time Crunch grenade on Kam, meaning Team Blue has to start a minute after Team Green does. Normally, I would always advise using the Sit Out grenade to guarantee one of the spots in elimination is filled. However, since the minute advantage seems so huge in this event I think Brad made the right choice. The mission starts, and it’s clear it will take a miracle for Team Blue to win this. Team Green has Bananas as the leader in the chain and Tony as the anchor; while Blue has Zach as the leader and Joss as the anchor. Green gets all their pieces collected ash two remaining, so they have made up significant time. However, it ends up being in vain as Aneesa is raised and the Green Team wins.

The one time Aneesa beats CT.

This takes us to the most perplexing part of the episode, when the Green Team has to select the members of the team for the Troika while Team Blue has to select a male and female to go directly to elimination. Team Green huddles up first, and Bananas immediately picks out Kyle, Tony, and Nicole Z as the Troika. Shane asks if the people on the team not selected for the Troika re still up for the Inquisition, to which Nicole says yes and that her guy vote will be for Shane. She also says she will never make a deal with Shane, which is odd because she made a deal with him on episode eight of Invasion of the Champions. Despite Nicole admitting she will vote for Shane, he nor anyone else seems to mount any defense for Bananas’ proposed Troika; so, they go with Kyle, Tony, and Nicole Z. People always complain about Bananas running the game, but one of the main reasons he is able to do so is for some reason nobody ever seems to mount a defense against him. Blue Team also has to select which members of their team have to go into elimination, and they vote in Veronica and Joss. TJ announces (via voiceover) that there will not be an Inquisition for this challenge. It would not surprise me in the least if there was an Inquisition the just did not have time to show it, however we’ll run with the assumption that they didn’t have enough chairs at the Inquisition table for all six people.

When they’re all out of peanut butter.

Back at the house, we go right to the Troika. They decide to go through the guys first, and they agree that no matter who the three are Shane is going in. They go with Nelson on their second choice, and Kyle notes that he wants to see what happens to your bank account if you get sent home. For the third, they go with Devin as just essentially a burn vote. They then get to the girls, which they admit will be much harder to select. Kyle says he was planning on targeting the Dolphins room, and specifically Kailah or Marie. However, Nicole Z says (via confessional) that her and Marie are both from Staten Island so there is no way she is throwing her in. They decide as Kam as one of their votes, because they know she will beat Veronica. I’m not sure why they are intent on getting Veronica out, usually it would make sense to throw someone in the person in elimination can beat. They also say that if Kam comes back, she will come for blood, making it even more odd they would choose her. Kyle says he wants to say Marie, and Tony says he will say Marie. Nicole Z responds to this by giving Tony one of the strongest side eyes I’ve ever seen, saying there is now way they are putting two people from that room on the board (?). This seems bizarre to me considering Nicole said before this episode she didn’t trust that room at all and Tony even points out sometimes you have to bear through the Inquisition even though you know you won’t be going in. Eventually they decide on Natalie and Kayleigh as the other two girls.

The Devin-Natalie argument.

After this, we get a scene of the kitchen where Devin and Natalie are talking. Natalie tells Devin she is screwed if there is an alliance because she doesn’t have one, to which Devin responds that claiming you don’t have an alliance just makes it seem more like you have one. Natalie then says she is just being honest, to which Devin responds she is clearly lying. Devin says she is playing both sides of the fence, to which she says she is not (which is clearly not the case, judging by the fact she sought out making deals with Veronica of the Navy Room alliance and Kailah of the Dolphins alliance.) She also claims to not be in an alliance with Bananas, which is also not true at all especially considering she seemed to be the reason why Victor got sent in. While I side with Devin here, in Natalie’s defense she is still learning how the game is different from Big Brother.

Must’ve been a boring day because half the house showed up for the argument.

Natalie then goes to the living room where it seems like the entire house has congregated. Devin and Bananas start yelling at each other, and Bananas remarks that he shouldn’t be picking on girls. For Bananas to say someone shouldn’t be picking on girls is very questionable (see his treatment of women on The Island.) MTV really seems to be building up a Bananas vs. Devin storyline similar to Bananas vs. Jordan on Free Agents; I would not be surprised if it culminates in an elimination at some point this season.

The Mercenaries.

After this, we finally get to the Ring for this episode. TJ starts the Troika voting, and Kyle votes for Shane and Kam; with Tony and Nicole Z following suit. TJ then announces they will be spicing things up; and in walks the mercenaries (or as they are more often referred to heavy hitters); Derrick Kosinski, Jordan Wiseley, Aneesa Ferreira, and Tori Deal. TJ says that in order to remain in the game, the player will have to BEAT the mercenary, unlike previous years where you could just outlast the other player facing them. For those unfamiliar with these new faces, I’ve posted their profiles below:

Derrick Kosinski

Jordan Wiseley

Aneesa Ferriera

Tori Deal

TJ flips a circle to determine who will face who, and the matchups end up as Shane vs. Jordan, Veronica vs. Aneesa, Joss vs. Derrick, and Kam vs. Tori. This elimination is called Crazy 8 and entails the competitors to run to the middle where a metal item in the shape of an 8 will be hanging and attempt to grab it. After grabbing the 8, you must hang it on your post without being tackled outside a marked circle.

Shane really showed his age here.

Shane and Jordan are first, and this one ends up not being much of fight. The first round, Jordan outruns Shane to the 8 and spins around Shane to put it on his pole. The next round, Jordan gets the ring, but Shane is able to tackle him outside the circle; resetting them in the center of the ring. I’m not sure why the reset is with both in the center, but okay. After the reset, Jordan does an incredible move as soon as TJ blows the horn, alligator rolling to wrestle the 8 from Shane. Shane is able to grab him and force him to the ground, but Jordan breaks free and puts the 8 on his pole, getting the win.

Veronica’s finger.

Veronica and Aneesa are up next. The two still have mixed feelings towards each other because of Dirty 30, so this duel has some extra heat with it. At the horn, both reach the 8 at about the same time and hit the dirt. They end up down outside the ring, prompting TJ to call for a reset. However, Veronica calls for a medic and her finger looks severely broken. The medical starts to work on her prompting the credits to roll ending this episode of The Challenge.

Eliminated

Victor: It was an okay showing from Victor this time around, but nothing too memorable.

Sylvia: Sylvia’s always been a surprising competitor, sad to see her go via sickness.

Shane: It was odd to me how much the Banana Boat went after Shane here, especially when Devin is so clearly out to get Bananas.

Power Rankings

19) Veronica (-4): She already was an underdog going into the elimination, and with a broken finger she probably won’t even be able to finish.

18) Joss (-7): Huge tumble for Joss, but if he’s able to beat a monster like Derrick all bets are off the table.

17) Kam (-5): I give her the best odds of beating the mercenary, but she still has a high chance of going home.

16) Kayleigh (+5): Gets the other people are in elimination bump.

15) Jemmye (+1): Losing her right-hand gal in Veronica would not be good.

14) Marie (+5): Maybe I’m underrating her political game, because it seems like everyone hates her but she keeps skirting the Inquisition by hook or by crook.

13) Britni (+4): Everyone seems to be going after rookies for the girls, so she’s clear for now.

12) Devin (+1): Outside of Banatalie, he seems to be on good terms with everyone else in the house.

11) Kailah (-2): Has been quiet but could just be saving it for a late season surge.

10) Nelson (-3): We know he’s a physical monster, but he hasn’t really shown it this season.

9) Natalie (-3): She’s clearly still adapting to the game.

8) Leroy (+5): Falls down based on others moving up.

7) Nicole Z (+1): Playing with her heart instead of her mind will probably cost her at some point, but the fact Bananas selected her in his Troika shows she may have more allies than she lets on.

6) Kyle (+4): While I think he’s gotten a bit lucky with his physical performances thus far, he has played a fantastic social game and it keeps looking better with each passing week.

5) Brad (+9): Maybe I just have irrational confidence in Brad, but it doesn’t seem like Bananas is out to get him and I honestly think as an overall competitor he’s about as good as it gets on this season.

4) Tony (+1): In hindsight, I really should have had him above Leroy last week. He’s been excellent this season.

3) Cara Maria (+1): Cara Maria against the girls is basically the Lebron Cavaliers against the Eastern Conference; no matter the standings until someone topples her she’ll be at the top for me.

2) Zach: Quiet as a mouse so far and hasn’t been brought up for elimination at all.

1) Bananas: I feel like eventually he’ll get got, but he’s undeniably run the game so far.