The episode starts with the house returning from last episode’s mission. Shane and Nelson are discussing this week’s Troika, and mention that Zach and Tony are both from “bad rooms.” Shane also asks Brad who he would have chosen if the three were him, Joss, and Britni. We then move to the Orange Room; where Kailah, Kam, and Marie are discussing what to do. Zach, Tony, and Marie ask Sylvia who she would like to go in against, and she says Melissa or Kayleigh. Brad goes to talk to Tony and offers a truce between the two of them. After Brad leaves though, Tony goes to Bananas and Leroy and is clearly less than enthused by Brad’s offer of leaving he and Britni safe for pretty much nothing in return. From these conversations and what we’ve seen in previous episodes, I think we can pretty clearly outline the alliances in the house:

Banana Boat: Bananas, Leroy, Zach, Tony, Kyle

Team Teal: Brad, Shane, Devin, Joss, Victor, Nelson

Dolphins: Kailah, Kam, Sylvia, Marie

Navy Room: Cara Maria, Britni, Veronica, Jemmye, Natalie

This leaves Melissa, Kayleigh, and Nicole Z as floaters; and also omits the obvious couples alliances of Bananas and Natalie, Brad and Britni, Cara Maria and Kyle, and Melissa and Nicole.

The Troika.

Next, we head to the Troika, where Zach, Marie, and Tony have to make their decision of who is going in. They immediately throw in Kayleigh and Melissa as two of the people in. Marie mentions how it is going to come down to her because it is a girls’ elimination. I think the primary reason behind MTV making this season have one single winner was to encourage the genders to be more involved in the opposite genders’ games. This makes sense especially when you consider that a lot of the “Vendettas” between castmates are of people of the opposite gender. However, since they have yet to enlighten the cast to this fact and eliminations are still split by gender for the most part they are much more apathetic to what happens on the other side of the bracket.

Shocked Britni.

The Troika leaves, and the Inquisition is revealed as Melissa, Britni, and Kayleigh. Britni is shocked by her inclusion here and immediately asks Tony why she is there, while Melissa goes to Nicole and asks her for help by talking to Tony and Marie. Britni talks to Jemmye, Veronica, and Cara Maria about getting thrown in, and they say with relationship with Brad she should have seen it coming.

Someone knows how to get on Marie’s good side.

We then head to the Inquisition, where Melissa immediately volunteers to speak first. She stands up and says she should not go in because she put the teams together and if it wasn’t for her they would not have won. Zach mentions (via confessional) that it was more Melissa’s stupidity than anything that put them together. He also asks Melissa how serious she is about Nicole. She kind of dances around the question, saying that their relationship/friendship is between them and nobody else. Marie asks Kayleigh why her and Melissa do not get along, and Kayleigh explains that Melissa has gone after her boyfriend twice. Britni then gives her piece, saying she has no idea why she was selected to go in, and says if they help her out now then she will help them out later.

The calm before the storm.

This takes us to the club scene for the episode. Melissa is seen dancing around with Leroy. While this is going on, Kayleigh is talking to Nicole about how Melissa is just using her and doesn’t care about her. When we return from the club, Kam and Melissa are talking. Kam asks Melissa if she wants to know about her reputation in this house, to which Melissa responds that she doesn’t care. Kam continues to pester her, saying she is in her face because Melissa said if anyone has anything bad to say about her then to say it to her face, prompting Melissa to put her hair up. Jemmye then gets in the middle of the fight, prompting Melissa to start shouting. Nelson, Devin, and Kyle all then to start to try to split it up too, and Kailah starts yelling at Melissa too. The next morning, Melissa is talking to Nicole about what happened the night before and how she didn’t help her at all because she was sleeping. Melissa starts badgering Kam, saying she was bullying her the night before. Kailah and Kam are talking about it still, prompting Bananas to tell them to drop it. When Bananas tells you to stop discussing drama, you know it’s been overplayed. The Troika meets one last time, with Marie saying she doesn’t want to say Kayleigh and Zach telling them to just say whoever.

Oil and Water.

At the Ring, TJ asks Kam what happened and her and Melissa start getting into it again. The Troika unanimously selects Melissa to go in to face Sylvia in the elimination. This elimination is called Oil and Water and entails the girls attempting to grab a ball TJ drops into a pit of water and then attempting to return their ball to their barrel. The elimination starts, and the ball bounces to Sylvia’s side but Melissa is able to squirt it out and then return it to her barrel, getting herself a point. The second round starts, and things start getting dirty. Neither of them can keep control of the ball for more than a few seconds and Melissa is kneeing Sylvia and pulling her by her hair. The ball then falls outside of the pit, causing the round to be a draw. The next round, Sylvia is able to get the ball pretty much immediately and drop it in her bucket for a point. Next time up, the ball bounces right to Sylvia and she is able to return it pretty easily for another point, putting the score 2–1 and match point Sylvia. This time, Melissa gets the favorable bounce and looks like she is about to score. However, Sylvia is able to knock the ball (and Melissa’s shorts) loose and recover it. Melissa tackles and then gets the ball, but then loses it putting the ball right at the edge of the pit by Melissa’s barrel. Melissa tries everything she can to stop Sylvia from getting to her barrel, but eventually she gets the ball and gets to her barrel, giving her the win. TJ dismisses Melissa and the gives Sylvia her choice of grenades. Her options are: Cash — Allowing her to steal $10,000 from someone else (double what Nelson could steal.) Endure — Someone must perform an endurance task before next mission. Order Up — She gets to select the order for next mission. This wraps up this week’s episode, leaving us to find out her decision next week.

Eliminated

Melissa: Melissa was AWESOME on her first season, coming to play but also to start up drama. Her season this year reminded me of an abridged version of Ashley Mitchell’s first season, and I hope to see her in the future. Her decision to pick the teams instead of sitting someone out goes down as one of the all-time bonehead moves in Challenge history though.

Power Rankings

22) Kayleigh (-1): She’s been picked for the Inquisition twice already, it feels like her time may be coming soon.

21) Britni (-1): Seems like she has the whole house coming for her.

20) Marie (-1): It seems like her drama will catch up to her eventually.

19) Victor (-1): Still the easiest target for the guys.

18) Jemmye (-1): While she for sure won’t win, her political game is still running at peak levels.

17) Veronica (-1): Same as Jemmye but with a better chance to win competitions.

16) Kyle (-1): Is flying under the radar but seems to be the only guy yet to commit to an alliance.

15) Sylvia (+8): Impressive elimination win and has a decent alliance around her.

14) Nicole Z (-8): She doesn’t seem to have many allies and didn’t do anything to help out Melissa who desperately needed it this episode.

13) Kam: Being in drama generally isn’t a good thing, but I don’t think anyone is really coming to avenge Melissa.

12) Joss: He could be in trouble if Sylvia comes for him, but the rest of the house does seem to like him.

11) Tony (+3): He’s really come to play this season and had the exact correct approach to Brad talking politics with him.

10) Kailah (+1): She still hasn’t really done much this season, but she has a pretty good alliance behind her.

9) Nelson (+1): Move up based on Nicole moving down.

8) Shane: Has been just enough under the radar this season.

7) Natalie: Had about four seconds of screen time this episode, which is probably good for her.

6) Brad (-2): Maybe I should move him down more, but I don’t see many beating him in elimination.

5) Devin: Brad really seems to have taken the heat off of him.

4) Leroy (+2): Should be able to avoid ay negative attention as long as Bananas is around.

3) Cara Maria: Her name not coming up at all is good for her long-term viability.

2) Zach: Is in a solid alliance and doesn’t have anyone coming for him.

1) Bananas: Stays the top dog for right now.