Every week, I’m going to rank the players based on their impact in the episode. These rankings are going to be completely subjective (so please don’t spend too much time critiquing them) based on my feelings of how entertaining the characters were, how they did competitively/politically, and how the episode impacted their overall game.

I’m going to keep running totals to determine who has the best season on War of the Worlds 2. The winner of this prestigious championship will be awarded the grand prize of nothing.

Let’s get to it.

RANKINGS

20. Turbo- It looks like the only way Turbo can be taken out is by the Challenge Gods.

Turbo was ejected for his confrontation with Jordan and the security guards, and for it being his second offense after his previous altercation with Jordan.

It’s a pretty weak ejection in my opinion. He didn’t throw any punches, he didn’t put anyone in danger, he just got in Jordan’s face and had to be taken away by security.

The show has been cracking down much harder on physical violence recently, as evidenced by Nelson getting thrown out for his whiff on Derrick on Dirty 30 and Melissa and Kailah getting kicked off for a fairly tame fight on Final Reckoning, but this was even lighter than both of those.

Now, we don’t know everything that happened, and their have been some rumors that he told production he would harm Jordan if he were put back in the house, which would give them no choice but to remove him from the game.

I really hope we see Turbo again. He’s never going to be the leading man of a season, but he’s good for some hilarious confessionals, and the dude is almost like a real life action hero.

The language barrier is always going to be an issue for him, and it’s clear that he doesn’t really understand the finer points of the political game.

But I think he’s a great secondary character for the show, so I want to see him get another shot.

19. Ninja- It’s kind of bizarre how Ninja has been consistently dragged by several castmembers as a competitor this season, considering she’s just one season removed from one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time.

I don’t think Ninja is the worst female on the US team, but I can’t say it’s not enjoyable watching people constantly talk shit on her.

18. Jenny- She got to be in the tribunal this week, but we still didn’t see much from her once again this week.

17. Josh- I have no idea what Josh thinks he has accomplished to say that Leroy — a three-time finalist — is the worst player on the US team, but that laughable comment puts him near the bottom of my rankings.

16. Theo- He has seen all of his best friends go home, and now Jenny is the only person left from his original alliance.

If I had to bet on the next elimination matchup, it would be Theo vs. Jordan. Theo is almost a lock to be thrown in by UK if they lose (unless they finally decide that CT will be too much of a burden in a final), and I think the US will throw Jordan in even if they win.

15–14. Drogan- The UK power couple continues to be in a dominant position, but didn’t have much to do in the story this week.

13. Ashley- A pretty quiet episode from Ashley after topping my rankings last week, but she avoided staying out of the elimination despite Team UK seeming to unanimously agree to send her in.

12. CT- I liked how CT acted like taking his shirt off for the challenge was a big deal, like it was Diem taking her wig off on The Duel or something. We all know your fat bro, just embrace the dad bod.

11. Jordan- He saw his rival Turbo get sent home, but any chance of gaining control on Team US went out the window for Jordan this week.

With Tori now on Team UK, Jordan’s going to do everything in his power to switch sides.

10. Georgia- It was a sad ending for arguably the biggest hero of the season, as Georgia suffered her first elimination loss at the hands of Tori.

Georgia didn’t do much wrong this season, and definitely didn’t deserve to be thrown in three times. She just found herself on the wrong side of the numbers and could never recover.

Georgia continued to establish herself as a future star of the show, and I have no doubt we’ll see her many more times.

9. Nany- As someone who has been watching Leroy and Nany on my TV since 2011, seeing the game get in the way of their friendship this week was tough to watch.

It’s understandable that Nany feels a bit betrayed by Leroy, since he could have easily come to her side this week and voted in Ninja. But Leroy is playing his own game, and feels it’s smarter to be on Paulie’s side, so he voted in Tori.

Now honestly, Nany should feel incredibly fortunate to have stayed out of this elimination. I thought after the US lost that the matchup would 100 percent be Tori vs. Nany, but she was able to escape the Proving Ground.

It’s a borderline miracle Nany has stayed out of elimination this season, considering she’s clearly been the worst girl on the US since Faith left. Ninja, Laurel and Tori have all seen eliminations, while Nany has skated by.

8–7. Joss and Kayleigh- I’m ranking them this high because they were a fairly big part of this episode (which hasn’t happened much this season), but I have to say they come across as puppets on the US team’s strings.

Throwing in Georgia was a clear sign that they care more about keeping their alliance intact than actually winning the game.

If you squint hard enough you can understand the logic, but I really don’t see this working out for them.

I thought for sure they would throw in Nany against Tori, guaranteeing that someone in the opposing US alliance would go home. And if Tori won, she would come to the UK side, which would make them stronger and the Joss/Kayleigh alliance would still have a 5–3 numbers advantage.

Plus, Kayleigh would have a buffer of Tori, Georgia and Jenny to throw in before she would ever have to see an elimination, while now she only has two girls below her in the pecking order.

The only rationale is that they were afraid that Jordan would also switch besides, and they could maybe swing CT over to have a 5–4 advantage.

If I had to guess Kayleigh’s real reason for putting in Georgia, it’s purely because she doesn’t like her (for reasons that are unclear). It hardly took any convincing by the US team to get her to throw Georgia in, as it’s been her season-long quest to get her out.

For Joss, I think it’s pretty clear at this point that the dude just can’t think for himself. As Bananas put it, he had his balls in Sylvia’s purse during Final Reckoning, and this season he just does whatever Rogan and Kayleigh tell him to do.

Like Theo said, he has the spine of a jellyfish.

6. Kam- It must be nice to have someone on the other team who just does whatever you tell them to do, but that kind of seems to be Kam and Kayleigh’s relationship. Kam has done a great job this season simultaneously keeping her alliance strong and making the UK team weaker.

She also now seems to have Leroy in her pocket. I’ve always been a big fan of Kam’s political game, and she’s playing another great game this season.

5. Zach- He had the two funniest lines in the episode, saying Turbo is one step above a caveman, and when TJ pick Ninja’s name giving her the wa wa wa.

He couldn’t get the numbers to his side, but Zach’s one-liners remain one of the highlights of the season.

4. Tori- Well we finally have our first person to choose the turncoat option, and it was Benedict Tori.

Whatever decision Tori made, she was pretty much in a no-win situation. She would have continued being sent in on the US team, and she will almost certainly be thrown in if the UK loses on a girls day.

She might have to win out in eliminations just to make the final.

Still, I can’t fault her for getting off of the toxic US team, and if Jordan is able to jump ship too then it’ll make the game much more interesting.

3–2. Para- I feel like a broken record at this point because I feel like I say the same thing about them every week, but here it goes again: Paulie and Cara suck, but they are playing an astounding political game.

The move to get the UK to throw in Georgia was a brilliant move for Para.

It guaranteed that someone who wasn’t in their alliance would be going home, and at the same time guaranteed that the UK wouldn’t get that much stronger by having Tori join and Georgia still there.

Although losing Tori is a blow for the US’ strength, at least with Georgia gone they are more or less the same competitively.

Something else I found interesting about this episode was how the show made a point to include Nany’s confessional about how when she looks at Cara, she sees sadness, and that she thinks Cara needs a break from the show.

I don’t know if there’s ever been a confessional in Challenge history where a castmember openly said in a confessional that another castmember needs a break, and for it to come against one of the show’s golden gooses is pretty surprising.

It’s more interesting knowing that (spoiler alert for season 35 casting) Cara is finally taking a break next season, which kind of makes me think that this is BMP’s way of agreeing that Cara needs a break.

1 Leroy- I never expected Leroy to become one of the stars of this season, but here we are.

After 11 seasons on the show, Leroy is going to do whatever it takes to win. While he had the chance this week to switch to the side that most of the audience is rooting for (Nany, Jordan, Tori, Zach and Josh) but he stayed with the Cult of Cara.

And who can really blame him? Staying with the Para side makes the most sense for him. Siding with them ensures him the numbers on the UK side and it makes him Paulie’s number one guy, while on Jordan’s side he would have been at best third in the pecking order.

Plus, who is Leroy even really friends with on Jordan’s side other than Nany? He can’t stand Jordan, he knows Zach plays a sketchy game and who in their right mind wants to be associated with Josh?

I don’t really believe in winner’s edits on The Challenge, but if anyone’s getting it this season it’s Leroy (although I also thought he was getting one on Dirty 30).

It’s hard for me to imagine a scenario where he has to go into an elimination any time soon, so this could be the first time he goes an entire season without having to go in since his rookie season, Rivals (not including when he had to leave due to his cousin’s injury on Bloodlines and his own injury on Rivals III).

I loved when Leroy ran down the list of how everyone on Jordan’s side sucks. Nany never runs (although that seemed to be inaccurate), Zach died in the Free Agents final, Josh is a crybaby and Jordan would get smoked by Leroy in a physical elimination.

I wish he would have just gone after the whole team.

Ninja, how does it feel to be the most hated person on a team that has Cara, Paulie, Zach, Ashley, Jordan and Josh?

Tori, your singing is just okay.

Kam, please stop screaming when you talk, I’m right next to you.

Paulie, you think you’re the best competitor here, but you lost not one, but TWO eliminations to Jozea.

Cara, you are not a pirate!

Ashley…you’re cool.

Stray Thoughts

As much as I don’t like the side that’s running the game right now, it’s pretty hypocritical for the minority side to rip the power alliance. They try to say that the Cult of Cara is playing a dirty game, when they would be doing the same thing if they had the numbers. It’s pretty laughable that Jordan tries to act like Paulie’s side isn’t looking for the best interest of the US team when he’s trying to protect Nany over Ninja.

One of the more interesting aspects of this episode was hearing how the cast viewed some of their teammates as competitors. Obviously there was some bias involved, like when Jordan and Zach tried to say Nany is a better competitor than Ninja. But Paulie seemed to say that Tori was the strongest female on the US team, which is a borderline shocking thing to say about a girl who has one third-place finish on her resume, on a team that has a pair of two-time champions.

I always love a good ball-in-a-pit wrestling match, but the challenge design of Incoming was flawed. Whichever team had someone get eliminated in the first round was basically screwed, as the other team had the numbers advantage. It resulted in two predictable wins for Team UK.

Blockbuster was a pretty unmemorable elimination. It’s not super exciting to see people just try to push blocks in for 90 seconds.

The music choices on this season continue to be excellent. I loved hearing These Boots Are Made For Walking while the competitors were walking back from the challenge covered in mud.

Episode Grade: B-

Season Standings

32. S̵e̵a̵n̵ (1)

31–30. F̵a̵i̵t̵h̵ ̵a̵n̵d̵ ̵Z̵a̵h̵i̵d̵a̵ (6)

29. B̵i̵g̵ ̵T̵ (32)

28. N̶i̶c̶o̶l̶e̶ (67)

27. W̵e̵s̵ (76)

26. L̶a̶u̶r̶e̶l̶ (97)

25. E̶s̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ (103)

24. B̶a̶n̶a̶n̶a̶s̶ (131)

23. Kayleigh (136)

22. I̶d̶r̶i̶s̶ (138)

21. Jenny (142)

20. Ninja (151)

19. Joss (156)

18. T̶u̶r̶b̶o̶ (168)

17. Nany (173)

16. Kam (175)

15. B̶e̶a̶r̶ (181)

14. Josh (185)

13. Theo (190)

12. Cara (191)

11. K̶y̶l̶e̶ (197)

10–9. Zach and Leroy (200)

8. Paulie (204)

7. Tori (207)

6. Ashley (221)

5. Dee (231)

4. Jordan (232)

3. Rogan (244)

2.CT (248)

1.G̶e̶o̶r̶g̶i̶a̶ (256)