Wow! This episode was a doozie. The editing team decided to pick up the pace like, yet somehow we still did not manage to see a challenge and full elimination in one go.

The episode opens with an awkward scene of Tori dressing up as “Raj The Fortune Teller”.

She is joined by Marie, who plays her mute dancer, Fellini. It was weird. Maybe it could have been funny, but it was not properly introduced. MTV put in this scene to showcase a bit more of Tori and Marie.

The following morning, in the kitchen, Jordan is upset over an open bag of bread, and five open jars of peanut butter and jelly. He keeps repeating some statistic that at least one jar should be closed. He goes outside and yells at everyone having fun at the pool, saying they’re slobs who need to step up. Again, foreshadowing.

The Daily Challenge

We arrive to the setting of our daily challenge. They are going to be doing a beach obstacle course in pairs picked by Tony and Jenna (Redemption Winners). They’ve given a ton of power to people who have already been eliminated. Jenna picks Johnny Bananas as he is her best guy friend, while Tony chooses Tori (the biggest girl). While picking the teams, they decide to look out for the veterans. Here were the pairs:

CT and Cara

Jordan and Kailah

LeRoy and Camila

Derrick and Aneesa

Nelson and Veronica

Hunter and Marie

Cory and Britni

Dario and Nicole

Ammo and Jemmye

Interesting tidbits: Tony doesn’t want Nelson to win, so he makes Veronica his partner. Jenna gives her friend a good partner. Aneesa thinks Jenna is trying to bring her down by partnering her with 3x Champion, Derrick. Camila considers LeRoy a weak player — while he does coast sometimes, from a physical perspective, he is one of the biggest heavyweights. Also, putting CT and Cara together is crazy. Putting one of the strongest guys and strongest girls on the same team is insane.

Step 1: Wrangle in a giant chest connected to a giant rope. Unlatch the chest.

Step 2: Carry the chest over to a horizontal pole about 3/4 feet above the sand. Then create a hole big enough to get yourself and your chest passed.

Step 3: There is a bridge where the chest is placed on top, then players must find a way to push/carry the chest to the end of the bridge, from underneath it, then take it to the next portion.

Step 4: Hurdle a set of walls that while carrying your chest.

Step 5: Break open the chest with a hammer. The chest contains a flag that players must hoist up a pole. First team to do so wins the heat and is safe. Bottom two teams of each heat are going to the draw.

Heat 1: Bananas/Jenna, Tony/Tori, CT/Cara, Jordan/Kailah, LeRoy/Camila, Derrick/Aneesa

The two heats are divided based on the order in which Tony/Jenna picked the teams. They thought they were appeasing the veterans, and instead they pitted them all against each other.

CT and Bananas are first to pull their chests in, showing what years of grip strength can do in a mission like this. The pairs stay around the same pace. They separate into three groups making holes: Tony-Tori-Bananas-Jenna, CT-Cara-LeRoy-Camila, and Derrick-Aneesa-Jordan-Kailah. CT is a monster in this mission, and he quickly creates a hole with his bare hands. He did something similar in Rivals 1 with Adam, against Wes and Kenny. After being the first team to get their chest through, CT and Cara are nice enough to help LeRoy/Camila get their chest through and help them up.

When Kailah/Jordan see that their opponents’ hole is done, they move over and slide through, followed by Derrick/Aneesa. As CT/Cara hit the bridge, CT struggles as his fingers are too big to get a proper grip. Eventually they find a rhythm as Cara lifts the chest, and CT pushes it. Meanwhile, Bananas/Jenna and Tony/Tori finally realize that they should stop digging and go for the hole already made.

Things we find out are that Jenna has fat fingers and Johnny has baby hands. Cara and CT destroy the competition and finish in first. LeRoy and Camila follow suit in second. Derrick and Aneesa’s chest is caught in the bridge, and Derrick is not able to get a good enough grip to push it through. Kailah/Jordan finish in third (she thinks she and Jordan work well together), Bananas and Jenna finish in fourth. Derrick/Aneesa and Tony/Tori end up in elimination — first time that Tori has ever lost a Challenge (Tony is that bad).

Heat 2: Nelson/Veronica, Hunter/Marie, Cory/Britni, Dario/Nicole

This is almost like a JV volleyball game. Hunter cockily says that he is the strongest guy (not sure if he meant in that heat, or in the house). Either way he showed out.

When the players pull in their chests and run it over to the trench, Nicole does not even help Dario. Everyone decides to dig the same hole. It’s dumb because the person who gets through first is bound to win. If you don’t dig the same hole, you will be at the back of the pack. Showing some smarts, Cory decides not to help at all, why break a sweat?

Nelson gets through first, Hunter follows, and Cory pulls a great sneaky move and switches Dario’s chest with his own, while Dario’s back is turned. Dario pushes through Cory’s chest and has given them the lead. For some reason, Dario can’t get his chest through the hole on the second attempt. He and Ammo finish in the bottom two stuck at the second station. Nelson and Veronica win, with Cory/Britni and Hunter/Marie being the best of the worst.

Night at the Club

When at the club, a few people are dancing very closely — Britni/Nelson, Jemmye/Hunter, and a Kailah/Jenna/Jordan trifecta, having fun. Jemmye says Kailah and Jordan spend a lot of time together for two people that are both in relationships.

After the night out, a rap battle ensues on the bus ride home. Things quickly get ugly when Jordan’s rap includes a line saying Jemmye has a down syndrome face. Not cool at all. The whole bus goes silent and then start going at Jordan. When they get to the house, people try to console Jemmye while also talking shit to Jordan. Aneesa is absolutely right going after Jordan, however she makes about her too much. At the end of the day, Jordan really fucked up and he felt terrible about it.

Deliberation

Cara is intent on throwing in Marie. She wants players who will not throw in strong players (Cara is a strong player) to stay. Veronica would prefer to vote in a strong player (Kailah), however, with CT having Cara’s back, she doesn’t have the power to do so. The girls agree that Jordan is the easy vote, with CT throwing out Cory’s name and Nelson throwing out Tony’s.

The Vote

4/4 votes for Jordan. 4/4 votes for Marie.

The Draw

Dario goes first and pulls a single cross. Tony goes second and pulls a single cross. Derrick goes third and pulls the double cross. He picks Ammo to go into elimination. Not the worst move, Ammo has probably shown more than Dario and Tony this season.

On the girls side, Jemmye goes first and pulls a single cross. Aneesa goes second and pulls the double cross. She picks Tori to go into elimination for the sole reason that Tori is a strong competitor. Any other excuse is BS.

The Elimination

The rules of the elimination are that you and your opponent have patches on your back, knees, and shoulders, you must try to rip off all 5 of your opponents patches. The game is played in individual rounds. And of course, with it being the “Dirty 30”, the twist is, you’re blindfolded.

Ammo v Jordan

This round is INTENSE. Competitors tweeted that this elimination went on for over an hour. Jordan got the first point. After that happened, Ammo was geared up and realized how physical these eliminations could get. While Jordan was focused on putting hits on Ammo, Ammo was able to steal 3 points, one where both pulled a patch off each other. They had to slow-mo cam to find out who got it. Once he went down 3–1, Jordan had no regard for Ammo’s health. He took it to him physically. With hit after hit, Ammo fatigued. It was his first ever physical elimination. Considering most physical eliminations are short bursts and don’t go for an hour, Ammo got beaten down after a strong start, Jordan wins 5–3. In his first season, Ammo showed more heart than Tony, Dario, or Cory have in the 12 combined seasons between them.

When the elimination ends, he passes out. It was a PTSD-related anxiety attack. If you want to know more about it, or help Ammo, here is the full story:

Next week we get Tori vs Marie, aka Raj vs Fellini.