There is nothing I love more than Challenge day. This year I found myself single on the day of love, but the blow was heavily soften by one of my true loves and passions, the Challenge, coming back with a new episode. The episode lacked the drama and exposition of the first two episodes, but it was made up for by a solid daily challenge and a decent elimination. Plus we are one daily challenge and one elimination away until the Champs invade and the Oasis tickets have all been punched.

The daily challenge: This challenge only involved people who have not punched their tickets into the Oasis and required pairs. It was interesting to see the pairings: Cory and Jenna(“vets” and alliance members), Nelson and Amanda(Rivals 3 partners), Hunter and Ashley(polidicking), Theo and Anika(Real World housemates), Shane and LaToya(queens), and then Anthony and Sylvia(left-overs). Hunter’s massive arms and his experience in the water and hunting allowed him to just beast mode the Challenge, while Ashley’s long limbs and ability to work well with a domineering partner was shown off. Hunter blew everyone out so badly that MTV couldn’t even edit to make it look close. Sidenote: so I don’t think Hunter is on steroids, but I also don’t think Hunter’s not on steroids. The dude is a beast regardless, he’s if you put Zach’s size and frame into Derrick Kosinski’s body. It is always great to have guy like him in the house.

Nelson and Amanda showed teamwork as they had a strong second place finish — having experience matters. I was surprised by how poorly Cory and Jenna did, but they ended up making up for it later in the episode. Anthony and Theo did as expected for Challenge rookies, Anthony a little better than I expected. Shane’s commentary was stellar, and we know he’s a bottom now, so hey that’s a thing.

The nominations: So the best part about the nomination process was how confident the Real World Bad Blood challengers were. Theo is a D1 athlete, and on the ground in a dead sprint is probably faster than anyone in the house. However, the Challenge involves much more than that, you need to swim, you need good balance, and you cannot fear anything. He seemed childish on the Real World, and he showed that he still has a lot of room to grow if he is ever going to do well on the Challenge again…if he is ever invited again.

It was pretty funny and honest when Jenna said she was not afraid at all to face any of the girls left for her to face in an elimination, which makes sense as they are very weak and cannot size her up. Jenna has multiple challenges and elimination experience over them, the only ones that pose a threat — Ashley, Nicole, and Kailah, already had their Oasis tickets. They knew Anika was the weakest so they picked her, but even better was that Anika was happy and ready. She showed good heart and made a great point — if she can’t beat Jenna now, she will never be able to do it. And if they get a puzzle, she saw Jenna as having no chance. It just got more humorous as Cory relayed this info to Jenna and Kailah, and the funniest part was that they suddenly became scared of how weirdly confident she was. The best line of the night was then said by Kailah: “I graduated college and I’m dumb as fuck.” Sneaky good episode.

Elimination: While this elimination was obviously not tough at all from a physical standpoint, and was kind of a cop-out. But doing height challenges like that with nobody else there to cheer you on, and you cannot see others doing it makes it so much scarier than you would think. I remember the first time I climbed up some poles to get on to the roof of my high school. I hate heights and would never prompt myself to do it, but watching my friends do it gave me the strength to not look bad under peer pressure. I got up the poles like nothing and was suddenly jumping from connected roof to roof. If Theo had peer pressure, then he probably would have done the jump. He didn’t and now Cory is going to the Oasis, getting his first elimination win. On the female side, Jenna got her fourth elimination win ever, keeping her record a perfect(4–0). I am not going to dive into the “timer conspiracies” of whether Anika was quicker. Editing is a bitch sometimes, and production might have a hand in it, but do you guys really want Anika there instead of Jenna that badly? What I will say is that Anika was courageous and she had a good first showing on the Challenge. I do not think she will ever be a powerhouse, but she is welcome on another Challenge any day.

Next Week: As it stands, here are the people that have Oasis tickets punched: Dario(AYTO), Tony(RW), Hunter(AYTO), Cory(RW), Nicole(RW), Kailah(RW), Ashley(RW), and Jenna(RW). Remaining left for the final 4 spots are Anthony(AYTO), Nelson(AYTO), Shane(RR), Amanda(AYTO), LaToya(RW), and Sylvia(RW). So out of the 9 underdog males, worst case scenario, there is a 3–2–1 ratio in AYTO-RW-RR, best case scenario is 4–2 AYTO-RW. Are You The One is finally showing what it could do on the Challenge if you don’t take the worst people from it. With the champs coming soon, possibly at the tail end of the next episode, it will be fun to see how it goes and who we end up with as our cast when the game truly starts.