Episode 5 is in the books. You likely watched the episode, so I am here break down the specifics of what every player did in this episode. If you want to know about only your favorite players, just jump around.

Here is how I rank the current teams through five episodes:

Tier 1:

1 Paulie & Ninja

They keep winning and are in a league of their own right now.

Tier 2:

2 Cara & Theo

3 Nany & Turbo

These teams also keep winning and performing at a high level.

Tier 3:

4 Hunter & Georgia

5 Kam & Ashley

6 Wes & Dee

Hunter dropped their team two spots based on his poor performance in the recent daily challenge. He needs to go for a run … or many runs.

Kam and Ashley have been quiet this season. Nobody wants to see Killa Kam or the Beast in an elimination. Dee truly impressed me this episode. Honestly, her and Wes could be ranked as high as four. Wes sucks at puzzles and now he has a badass partner who can complement him perfectly.

Tier 4:

7 Kyle & Mattie

They are not one of the top teams, but are clearly better than everyone below them because of how strong Mattie is.

Tier 5:

8 Josh & Amanda

9 Gus & Jenna

10 Bear & DaVonne

I feel like Kyle has been a godsend for Amanda. As long as he is in the house, Amanda will get a hall pass. Gus and Jenna have performed well in the challenges, but nobody fears them in eliminations and Jenna is not on Cara and Paulie’s good side. Bear had such a great political and social situation… he is self-imploding their team.

Tier 6:

11 Leroy & Shaleen

What do you want me to say about this team?

RECAPS

Paulie: He stays on brand this episode, maintaining his hate boner for Kyle. Paulie wins his third consecutive daily challenge. He is good.

Ninja: She has shown a ton of attitude during tribunals. A bit cocky for a rookie, but I love confident women. Ninja values competition and sportsmanship. Watching her stand up for herself against Bear was awesome. I respect Natalie for supporting Paulie by voting in Zach instead of Bear. She can swallow her pride in order to be a good partner, despite having a person in the house that she obviously despises.

Turbo: Did anyone else shed a tear for Turbo when he mourned the loss of JP? Then an additional tear when he told Nany that he was afraid he was starting to be a bother to her? This man is precious.

Turbo was a strong and supportive partner to Nany in the daily challenge as they picked up their second win in a row.

Nany: I had some doubts about Nany’s competitive side since she had poor showings on Bloodlines and Rivals 3, followed up by a three-year absence. But she has proved her doubters wrong. While Turbo has been carrying the team overall, Nany HAD to keep up with him endurance wise in this week’s daily challenge and she beat everyone aside from an American Ninja Warrior.

Theo: Another strong showing from Theo in a daily challenge. His height was an X-factor in this challenge as he was able to finish the tire tower without having to lift Cara Maria or balance her on his shoulders as some of the other teams were doing.

Cara: At the end of the day, Cara is a beast. She aimed to eliminate Zach because Kyle was safe and she managed to successfully do so.

Cara went after Zach during tribunal and elimination voting. I cringed when she called her relationship healthy. This is the same relationship where Paulie had an additional girlfriend on the side.

Zach: This might be my favorite season for Zach. He was so over the entire season and let his inner dickhead fly free. Zach often masks his real personality until he blows up.

The blow-ups happened early and it was refreshing to see him speak so honestly. Saying Cara envisions Kyle when Paulie was on top of her was kinda fucked up. Saying Paulie was banging her for followers … yeah, that sounded about right.

Zach was clearly emotionally defeated when he let Zahida pick their opponent. The most stunning part of the episode was Zach picking Wes instead of Amanda. I think Zach just did not want to live in a world where Amanda sends him home.

Zahida: She was a good partner this season. While Zahida is a smokeshow, I do not see a reason for her to be recast. However, she did have a relationship with Ashley Cain that was completely edited out, but then again, did you know that Cara and Paulie are together?

The biggest facepalm moment of the episode was when Zahida explained that she and Zach took turns doing opposite sides of the puzzle. Easily the worst strategy possible. They had no idea which pieces of the puzzle was for each side. Zach and Zahida made themselves blind even when they were not in the dark.

Gus: He gets camera time every episode. None of it is relevant, but at least he gets it. I’ve been impressed by his cardio this season. He and Jenna were killing the challenge and had a chance to win until they gassed out at the end.

Jenna: We got to see a feisty Jenna this episode. Feisty Jenna is the best Jenna. Watching her stand-up to Cara Maria was awesome. Even though her relationship with Zach is problematic, at least she went to bat for Zach against Cara.

Unfortunately, Jenna’s two major quips this episode were a bit flawed. She said there are plenty of girls that Zach has not been disrespectful to. Which is cool if the baseline is not being an asshole to everyone? The other was saying that Cara should call her when she’s been in a five-year relationship. Well, Jenna and Zach have known each other for five years, but only dated for about three-ish considering their multiple public breakups. Also, Cara was in a five year relationship with Abram.

Bear: I love Bear. He is an annoying twat who I find myself constantly cheering for. I don’t know why, I just do. Calling everyone bums after quitting the challenge broke my brain.

He 100% deserved to go into elimination. Hilariously, it was his social game which saved him and Da’Vonne due to his relationship with Zahida.

Da’Vonne: I felt so bad for Da’Vonne when Bear quit. Luckily for her, Zach was public enemy #1 for two of the tribunal winners.

Wes: He now has 14 elimination wins. He has the most elimination wins of all-time. For reference, no other male competitor has hit ten wins. Wes also holds the relic and guarantees he will be safe next week.

Dee: We finally got to see Dee show off as a competitor. She torched Zahida in the running part of the elimination and solved most of the puzzle for her and Wes. Dee has some sass and swagger.

Josh: He had a much bigger fight with Bear in the pre-season trailer. It is sad to see some of the fights and hookups get cut in half in favor of a daily challenge and elimination in the same episode.

Amanda: Watching Amanda bask in her enemies fighting each other was hilarious. Also, the first week Amanda was not nominated for elimination when eligible was when CARA AND PAULIE both won the daily challenge. And then Zach didn’t call her into elimination.

Hunter: He used to be a good runner! If you noticed, Hunter deflated a bit after Dirty 30 due to his injury. He seems focused on regaining the bulk. The main cost is his endurance. If you have seen photos of Hunter from high school and college, his body composition was vastly different.

Georgia: This was the least Georgia-filled episode of the season. Still a doll.

Ashley: He has amazing confessionals. We do not get enough of Ash. Give us more Ash, MTV.

Kam: Next week seems like a big Kam episode.

Kyle: He took a little too much pride in Zach shitting on Cara.

Mattie: She took the episode off. Having the relic allows you to sleep through the next episode.

Leroy and Shaleen: I believe they are still on the show.