We start the episode with an elimination, which is becoming pretty familiar at this point. With a choice between Victor, Shane, and Devin — Johnny Bananas sends Victor into elimination (because Victor is gunning for him, and because he’s aligned with Natalie). Tony and Kyle follow suit, choosing to not shake things up.

Victor vs Brad

It’s Brad’s first elimination in a decade, and Victor’s first elimination ever. In the elimination, players are placed in a tank of water and must swing back and forth or do whatever it takes to remove half the water from their tank. When they hit a hash-line, denoting the halfway point, they must break through the bottom of the tank, releasing them and the water for the win.

The games begin and…If you were doubting Brad’s abilities after an eight-year break, he showed out in that elimination. His hips went non-stop and showed that his work-outs (i.e. sex) with Britni has been good training. Now, everyone knows Brad can lay it down in the bedroom and elimination ring.

Victor is eliminated, leaving Brad, Britni, Bananas, and Natalie all happy.

Brad gets three grenade to choose from for his win:

1. Add time to an opponent in the next challenge.

2. Sit a person out of the next challenge.

3. Make a person perform the next challenge while blindfolded.

Post Elimination House Shenanigans

NoteGate continues as Jemmye finds even more notes. The girls remain floored and confused about who the culprit could be. We then find out that it’s been Johnny Bananas all along.

How did he do it? Simple, before the show he had his sister write generic mean shit on pink sticky notes. He decided to use them whenever he could to stir the pot in the house. It’s insane how much Bananas care about this game. If he loses, remember this. There’s a small scene between Kyle and Cara Maria where he talks shit about Marie. Cara Maria is impressed with how well Kyle has played the game so far, due to his social connections..

The Daily Challenge

We discover that Sylvia has gone home due to her sickness. Considering she won an epic elimination, they make a very little of this, and it’s unfortunate as hell. With 20 people left in the game, the next challenge is a team mission where two teams will face off in a race/puzzle. Puzzle pieces are spread across a giant field. Players must retrieve all the pieces and bring them to the puzzle zone. They must put together the puzzle and form a giant dummy/puppet with either Aneesa or CT’s heads. The one major catch is they will be doing this mission while shackled together. TJ surprises them by announcing that it’s a double elimination day, meaning both guys and girls will be going into elimination. Last week’s Troika (Bananas-Tony-Kyle) GETS TO PICK THE TEAMS. Kyle comes up with the idea to place Brad and Shane on their team because Brad will be forced to use his grenade on the other team. And by picking Shane, if they lose, they can vote him into the elimination ring. Bananas and Tony are shocked by how intelligent Kyle is despite his dumb appearance.

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

Blue Team: LeRoy, Nelson, Zach, Joss, Devin, Kam, Britni, Kailah, Marie, Veronica

Brad uses his grenade to force the blue team to wait a minute before they can start the mission. This mission is anti-climatic as it’s only watching two teams run around and put together a puzzle. The green team wins due to their one-minute advantage, and it seems as if the blue team would have won had there not been a time penalty. Good move by Kyle.

After winning, the green team has the power to decide who the Troika will be. Bananas forces a Troika of Kyle, Tony, and Nicole down people’s throats. The losing team must vote a guy and girl into elimination. Despite Devin, Joss, and Nelson’s efforts, nobody wants to vote in LeRoy. The vote ends up Joss 7, and LeRoy 3. For the girls, seven people default vote in Veronica, thinking she is weak. Kailah, Marie, and Kam all garner one vote. Veronica and Joss are going into the elimination ring.

Nominations

When they arrive in the nomination room, Nicole wants Shane nominated and everyone agrees. They struggle to find two additional people, eventually agreeing on Nelson and Devin. For the girls, they all agree on nominating Kam. Kyle wants to nominate Kailah and Marie, but those are Nicole’s two biggest female allies so she rejects the idea. The other two nominees are later revealed to be Natalie and Kayleigh (both pawns).

After being nominated, Natalie is afraid she could be voted into elimination. Devin decides this is the right time to interrogate Natalie about her game. He attacks her for being fake and trying too hard to be nice to everyone when in the Challenge you have to be open about your alliances. Natalie doesn’t know how to fight back so she accuses him of “bullying”. Later when Devin goes at her again, Bananas gets angry and yells at him for picking on a girl. The same man who picks on females as his day job.

Elimination Again

In anticlimactic fashion, Shane and Kam are voted into elimination to face Joss and Veronica. It is then, that TJ brings on the “Mercenaries”.

Derrick, Jordan, Tori, and Aneesa are here to face the players in elimination. If they win, the players in elimination are going home. TJ flips a coin to decide the match-ups. It is:

Shane vs Jordan (5 elimination wins)

Joss vs Derrick (8 elimination wins)

Veronica vs Aneesa (8 elimination wins)

Kam vs Tori (1 elimination win, 2 if you count CvS)

The elimination is a race for two rings in the form of a figure 8. They must wrestle it from their opponent and run it back to their side. First player to two points wins.

Shane vs Jordan

Shane notes that he’ll be facing a celebrity crush. In the first round, Jordan flat out beats Shane to the ring, and pulls a spin move on him to score the first point. It’s evident that Jordan is WAY FASTER than Shane. They have another round which ends in a tie, and then a third round which ends in Jordan beating Shane. Shane loses this elimination because he’s not a physical player, and more than anything, he’s old and not a traditional athlete. Seriously, Shane is not a “sports” person. He is a person who swims, runs, and does cross-fit, but he’s not a football or basketball player. In those sports, you develop skills of anticipation and learning how to sprint of your first step. Jordan is not only younger and faster, but he gets his first step on the ground sprinting before Shane even gets going. It’s sad to watch Shane go as he’s a very well-balanced player who brings a ton of drama into the house.

Veronica vs Aneesa

The first round between these girls ends in a muddy draw. It’s crazy to think that in both Seasons 30 and 31 there have been eliminations consisting of Veronica and Aneesa when they both were on the early seasons of this show together.

After the first round, Veronica has a messed up pinkie, which is implied/revealed to be broken. Veronica was definitely not the favorite in a physical elimination against Aneesa, and this broken pinkie will not help at all.