Welcome back to the Challenge War of the Worlds! This season, I am breaking down what happened to each player in the episode. If you only care about 3–5 people, this is perfect for you. If you have no idea who Shaleen is, neither do I. The good thing is that as the season advances, we will have less players to deal with.

I am assuming you all watched the episode because y’all are big enough Challenge fans to read a recap about it.

Episode 2 had a daily challenge where players had a 5-minute tug of war against an opponent of their choice. The veteran players who finished the best in the draft had first choice of their opponents. There were three winning teams (Bananas/Morgan, Josh/Amanda, Theo/Cara).

I ordered the players based on the order teams were picked.

Paulie: A quiet episode for Paulie’s standards. He picks Kyle as he wants to dominate Kyle all season — didn’t go well for him this episode.

Ninja Natalie: We heard nothing from her.

Kyle: He was cool with Paulie picking him. Kyle had 15 lbs on him at least. He stated Paulie and Ninja are the best team this season. Not sure if that’s true, but it felt weird to hear Kyle say it.

Mattie: When Kyle mentioned they would have a naked hug in the shower if they win, Mattie did not seem too disappointed by the idea.

DaVonne: She chose Jenna stating it would be a fair match for their teams size-wise. I think it was because she thought Jenna/Gus were beatable. When Amanda dropped her “bomb” later in the episode, DaVonne wanted to run away from any potential drama. It felt like she knew it was true too.

Bear: No Bear this episode.

Jenna: She knew Amanda would be gunning for her and Zach. When she decided to tell Amanda to shut up, she did not expect Amanda to drop the bomb. I feel bad for Jenna because she essentially apologized to Zach for cheating on her. And yes, I mean cheating, going on a dating app unbeknownst to your partner is actually worse than having a drunken kiss/hookup with someone, because you’re sober and scrolling through an app looking for someone. It’s even worse to hear Jenna say she knows 100% that Zach wouldn’t cheat on her, when he has in the past and we know he did when Jenna filmed Rivals 3.

Gus: No Gus this episode.

Bananas: He killed the first challenge and beat his rival Wes. His exorcism of Amanda was lacking considering he couldn’t make a better cross. Bananas tried to punk Hunter by saying he has not won anything, but Hunter has gone farther than Bananas in every season they’ve done. He did get into it with Amanda and took joy in throwing her friend Hunter into elimination. So far a good run from the 6x Champ.

Morgan: Amanda hit the nail on the head when she called Morgan a follower. Based on her aftershow appearance from the first episode, she is riding the Banana hard. That’s a good partner, but at the same time, you kinda wish she made a name for herself. Especially considering she’s one of the few rookies to get camera time.

Wes: Tough look for my guy Wes. He lost to Bananas after a bad performance in the preseason challenge. Wes showed his political prowess by revealing he had a preseason alliance made with Hunter. They planned for Hunter to call out Leroy for an elimination. Hunter had other plans. Bad start for Weston.

Dee: Besides Wes mentioning her amazing quads, we got no Dee this episode.

Kam: She picked Ashley M and Chase. Smart choice because Kam is stronger than Ashley, bad choice because her partner and Chase are probably a stalemate.

British Ashley: Best confessional of the night is Ashley making fun of Bananas/Hunter fighting over past drama. He is so right, and yet so many Challenge fans use these past seasons for vindication of current arguments. Let’s live in the present!

Millionaire Ashley: She stayed quiet for most of the episode which is hilarious considering her former partner (Hunter) and her best friend were fighting. When she was forced to advocate for why she should not go into elimination, she did an okay job by mentioning Hunter is strong and she didn’t start drama. Ashley is friends with Josh as they met at an event before the season. This meeting may have ended her season early because Josh voting for Hunter instead of her to go into elimination allowed Hunter to pick her team. If Ashley gets voted in, then at least she gets to take her shot. She did her job in the elimination round, and while she could have stopped Georgia in the final round, she at least broke even.

Chase: I don’t think Chase got a confessional until he was called out into elimination. It does not hurt your reputation when you lose to a beast like Hunter. However, being the only player to get the ball to bounce their way in the elimination and not get a point is not a great look.

CT: He picked JP and Natalie which makes sense because they are small. After the challenge the only time we see him is when Amanda/Nany are getting into it and he simply states “don’t fight”. Old Man CT is not here for the bullshit.

Julia: No Julia this episode.

Natalie: Still hasn’t had a confessional this season.

JP Him either.

Nany: She had a cute scene with Turbo after becoming partners. Nany keeps asserting that she is here to win this season. She picks Amanda and Josh which makes sense as Amanda is small and Josh does not look super strong.

Turbo: His scene with Nany was cute.

Amanda: This was a very Amanda-heavy episode. She won the daily challenge (Amanda has some baby guns) with Josh and that give her another day in a house where she is public enemy #1. She enjoyed being able to curse out Zach during the tribunal as she was safe.

Amanda fought with Bananas, Nany, Jenna, Zach, Leroy, Morgan, Cara (kinda), and Hunter (who she was defending). Her fight with Morgan turned into something with Nany, which turned into the Bananas/Hunter debacle, which fused into a fight between Amanda/Hunter against Bananas/Leroy. Even with Hunter still mad at her from the Final Reckoning reunion, Amanda stayed loyal to her him, which leads to her blowup with Jenna. When pressed by Jenna, she revealed the fact that Zach had been on Bumble after getting eliminated on Final Reckoning. Not quite the bomb we expected, but it was true.

Josh: Holy shit, Josh at the very least tied Turbo and possibly beat him! Wow! Him picking Hunter to go into elimination was a smart move because tying the vote 2–2–2 could have resulted in him being in elimination somehow. The problem is Hunter is going for him now, and everyone is going for Amanda.

Zach: Picking Leroy to face in the challenge was weird because he and Leroy are pretty evenly matched when it comes to strength. While he was nominated for elimination, he was safe because two of his allies had also won. I still cannot believe Zach tried to use the excuse that he wanted to see if the app still worked. Zach also reads playboy for the articles.

Zahida: We saw her talk during the tribunal! Congrats on camera time!

Leroy: In these first two episodes we have seen a much more engaged Leroy. He kinda seems annoyed by the fact that he has not won and is beginning to lose the clout he used to have during the Free Agents/Exes 2 time. He could also be realizing that the gravy train might stop if he cannot keep up with the drama of modern competitors.

Shaleen: Who?

Cara Maria: She wins the challenge and it is no surprise she beats Georgia with her massive guns. Cara is an instigator this episode, she is clapping during the Hunter/Leroy fight and gives Johnny her t-shirt to annoy Amanda. Cara should embrace the fact she’s all about the drama.

Theo: At the very least he tied Hunter! Big win for the Brit. Back to back top 3 finishes for him!

Hunter: One of the funniest moments of this episode is when Hunter told Georgia he usually tries to stay under the radar. Twenty minutes later, Hunter is shirtless, and breaking a railing trying to hop over it in order to fight Leroy. He fought with Bananas, Leroy, and Amanda in this episode. At least Hunter made a pregame alliance with Wes, the only smart move he’s made.

His elimination win was impressive. Hunter took Chase down, ripped the ball out of his hands, took Chase’s helmet off his head, and forced a restart where Chase couldn’t keep up with his speed. His little “she stole from me, stole from my family, she stole from my sister” rant was a bit weird, and him crying after winning the elimination was also pretty weird. At least he got his revenge.

Georgia: I really like Georgie. She’s cute, funny, and is really giving it her all. Watching her pull out the win this episode was super cool to see from a rookie.