6 Seasons: Fresh Meat II, Cutthroat, Rivals, Rivals II, Free Agents, Battle of the Exes II (2nd place)

2–6 Elimination Record

9 Challenge Wins

Daily Challenges: 8/10

Eliminations: 7.5/10

Finals: 8.5/10

Politics: 6/10

Until her last two seasons, Theresa was nothing more than a player with a lot of potential who was never quite able to break into the upper-echelon of female competitors.

She went her first four seasons without making a final, racking up a putrid 0–4 elimination record. She had just one daily challenge win in the first three partner seasons she competed on, and the win was handed to her and Jasmine in the Frog Smash mission on Rivals II when nobody tried to knock them off the platform.

But Theresa had some bad luck early in her career. She got weak partners like Ryan on Fresh Meat II (where she was the fourth female drafted after Cara, Laurel and Mandi) and Jasmine on Rivals II. She had Tina throw her elimination to Tori on Cutthroat, and had to face Laurel/Cara in the second female jungle with Camila on Rivals.

Theresa finally came into her own on Free Agents, shocking many when she defeated Camila in the Looper elimination. But Free Agents also exposed Theresa’s biggest flaw — her bad political game. She rallied the house to get Laurel thrown into the fifth elimination, but chickened out and burned her vote on Jasmine, causing mistrust in her own alliance. It came back to bite her the very next episode, when she was voted in by one of her biggest allies Devyn.

Theresa managed to stay out of elimination until the end, winning three daily challenges throughout the season, including the Dug Out mission with Nany. But she fell short of making the finals, losing to her chief rival Laurel in Puzzle Pyramid.

After a strong Free Agents season, Theresa had undoubtedly her best season on Exes II. Being partnered with Wes took the responsibility of playing the political game out of her hands, although she did make the best political move of her career in the first episode of the season, convincing Wes to throw in Dustin/Jessica instead of Bananas/Nany, delaying the inevitable war between Johnny and Wes.

Competitively, Theresa and Wes were one of the best two teams throughout the season, earning the Power Couple three times, but their game was undone by Bananas/Nany coming back into the game.

After they lost their elimination to Leroy/Nia, Theresa got one of the luckiest breaks in Challenge history, getting to replace Nia for the final elimination, where she took out her rival Nany and advanced to her first final. But she and Leroy fell short in the final, ending Theresa’s promising career.

While I wouldn’t say Theresa was ever an elite competitor, she was in the upper-middle class of the girls on every season she was on. She was one of the top four girls on Free Agents with Laurel, Cara and Nany, and she was at least second-best on Exes II, almost neck-and-neck with Sarah for number one.

It might sound strange to say for someone who was on six seasons, but it felt like we just didn’t get to see enough of Theresa (although I can’t say I miss that thick Wisconsin accent too much). She had a lot of breaks go against her early in her career, but she shined when she got to compete individually and when she was given a good partner in Wes.

If Theresa had continued coming on the show, I think she would have made a few more finals, although I’m not sure if she would have ever gotten a win.

Unless she had some amazing relative she could have brought out for Bloodlines or had somehow gotten paired with a rival like Jordan or Laurel on Rivals III or Final Reckoning (even though those two weren’t on either of those seasons), I just don’t know what season she would have actually won.

But I think Theresa is a victim of competing in a tough era of the show and having a lot of bad breaks go her way, and when she got the right opportunities she proved she was a top-tier competitor.

Rankings

25. Tonya Cooley

24. Holly Shand

23. Ruthie Alcaide

22. Theresa Gonzalez

21. Jenna Compono

20. Jillian Zobroski

19. Diem Brown

18. Tori Deal

17. Dee Nguyen

16. Kam Williams

15. Jenn Grijalva

14. Tori Hall

13. Jodi Weatherton

12. Ashley Mitchell

11. Veronica Portillo

10. Paula Meronek

9. Susie Meister

8. Coral Smith

7. Rachel Robinson

6. Sarah Rice

5. Camila Nakagawa

4. Emily Schromm

3. Cara Maria Sorbello

2. Evelyn Smith