The episode opens with Zach and Zahida leading the house as they return from elimination. Jenna tells Zach that Cara said Kyle was cheering for Johnny. Kyle says he was cheering for both (Jenna later confirmed this).

Paulie swinging the beam.

We head to the mission for the episode, entitled Fallout. The mission has one member of the pair swing a beam back and forth while their partner jumps onto the beam. They then have to move around the beam and hit a bell. Fastest three teams to hit the bell win. Pretty standard Challenge fair here.

Turbo jumping for the bell.

For a quick mission recap; we’ll give how everyone did. Da’Vonne, Shaleen, Amanda, Kam, Negrotti, and Gus all missed without jumping at the bell. Wes, Julia, and Kyle all got very close but just missed the bell. Theo, Zach, Ninja, Turbo, and Georgia all hit the bell and were eligible for the tribunal. Georgia in particular I thought was impressive, as she was able to pull herself up the beam after mistiming her jump; and swung around and hit the bell.

Georgia pulling herself up the beam.

TJ calls the competitors together and announces the tribunal as Paulie/Ninja, Hunter/Georgia, and Nany/Turbo. TJ also announces that this will be a double elimination, with two teams going home. Not sure why this was really necessary here, but you never know what to expect from The Challenge producers.

Paulie and Kyle fighting in the tribunal.

The initial tribunal meeting commences; with Hunter/Georgia putting up Amanda/Josh, Paulie/Ninja picking Kyle/Mattie, and Nany/Turbo picking CT/Julia. Paulie/Ninja’s decision was pretty cut and dry, but it was surprising to see Nany go after CT and I thought Hunter might make a move at Leroy. The tribunal ceremony starts, with CT/Julia first up. Not much to see here, just CT and Nany trading words for a little bit. Then we get to Kyle/Mattie; which gets much more animated. Kyle threatens to Paulie to come down and talk to him to his face, and they go head to head (literally). Some producers get involved who split them up and move Kyle out. Amanda/Josh come in, and they are not pleased. Amanda starts yelling at Hunter, who yells back, and then Josh starts yelling, and then it ends.

Georgia and Kyle fighting over the vote.

After the tribunal, we learn the cast is having a costume party. Cara overhears Zach dragging Cara to Kyle. Cara says her relationship with Paulie is the happiest one she has ever been in; and admits she loves him. After this, Georgia and Kyle get into it a little bit when Kyle asks who Georgia will vote for. Georgia says she is deciding between CT/Julia and Kyle/Mattie. Kyle does not take kindly to this and says if she votes for him, he will come for her this season and from then on forward. Never letting go of an opportunity to go at Kyle, Paulie overhears this and starts barking at Kyle. The two go head to head again before production splits them up while Natalie and Cara are yelling at them. The whole scene turns into a complete madhouse with Kyle, Paulie, and Cara all having to be restrained by multiple production members.

The tribunal at the elimination.

We head to the Killing Floor for the elimination for the episode. TJ goes to the tribunal for votes. Hunter and Georgia both go for Amanda/Josh; Paulie and Ninja vote for Kyle/Mattie; and Nany votes for CT/Julia. Turbo asks TJ what happens if he votes for a tie, then goes on a speech about how crazy The Challenge the is; but it’s pretty hard to understand what he is saying. I felt bad for the guy, the producers and TJ kind of dragged him here. Eventually, he says he is loyal to Amanda, so he votes for Kyle/Mattie. Da’Vonne did mention even the Tribunal has to bring their competitive gear with them, so it is possible they could be thrown in.

Kyle and Mattie looking at their competition.

TJ tells Kyle/Mattie to pick their first opponent for elimination, and Kyle says he doesn’t want to call out Cara because she saved him at the end of Vendettas which allowed him to get to the final. He decides to go against Negrotti and JP. Natalie flips out because she thinks they picked them just because Negrotti is small. I took issue with this for a variety of reasons. One, being considered weak and getting called out for it is pretty par for the course for The Challenge. This isn’t boxing, they don’t have weight classes and if you prioritize emotional decisions over what is best for you it is not going to work well. Secondly, Kyle/Mattie calling out JP/Negrotti makes a ton of strategic sense. Negrotti is aligned with Cara and Paulie, so she is clearly not working with Kyle. Plus, Kyle and Mattie have a ton of connections to other teams. There are multiple teams with UK connections (Da’Vonne/Bear, Wes/Dee, Kam/Cain, Cara Maria/Theo) that Kyle would not want to call out, and there are other teams (Jenna/Gus, Leroy/Shaleen) they seem to have some alliance with. Once you narrow those down and also exclude the immune teams, there are really only three teams left: CT/Julia, Amanda/Josh, and Negrotti/JP (who were coincidentally the other two teams chosen by the tribunal and the one they picked for elimination).

CT is not pleased.

After Negrotti/JP are selected, TJ says they get to pick another team for elimination, so it is a three-way battle. JP says to be the best you have to beat the best and calls out CT/Julia. CT is not pleased with this decision at all, while JP seems to see it more as calling out his idol for elimination. TJ announces that the women and men will compete separately, so there is a possibility a new team will be formed if different pairs win each round. The elimination is called Ring Tossed and has the competitors each grab part of a ring. There are three rings, with each player having a hand on two. The first player to gain sole possession of two rings wins, while the other two are both eliminated.

The female round of the elimination.

The female round is first. Mattie is basically as big as Julia and Negrotti combined, so she’s the easy favorite here. Mattie is dragging Negrotti and Julia around the floor immediately and is able to rip the ring away from Negrotti, before pulling it off of Julia; giving her the win. Male round is next. And Kyle keeps dragging the group to the floor while CT tries to roll them over. Eventually, Kyle spins around to get the ring off of JP. After that, JP focuses on CT to try to force a draw and this allows Kyle to box out CT and get the ring off of him as well.

The male round of the elimination.

This eliminates Negrotti/JP and CT/Julia. Crazy to have Johnny and CT gone in episodes two and three, but I guess that is where we are in The Challenge. Sad to see CT go, but I was happy with no switching of teams. It would have been annoying to have one double alumnus or double prospect team, and having to switch around partners mid game would have really screwed up the Fantasy game. This also keeps the Paulie/Kyle feud around; which is good with Johnny vs. Wes having ended.

Eliminated

Negrotti/JP: They were around for three episodes and were absolutely invisible. Strange season from these two, although I do feel bad for JP, he seemed to have a bit of a culture gap with the whole CT incident.

CT/Julia: We’ve seen ten Challenge championships walk out the door the first three episodes. Crazy start to the year, and you have to think CT might regroup a bit before returning.

Power Rankings

12) Amanda/Josh: Getting called out is not good, and unless they pivot to some sort of strong alliance they could be in big trouble.

11) Leroy/Shaleen: Leroy seems to be on the edges of the Kyle/Zach/Jenna group and they have been dismal in the missions so far.

10) Da’Vonne/Bear: They have a ton of alliances, but it is difficult to see them winning and could get called out just because they aren’t particularly intimidating.

9) Zach/Zahida: Zach seems caught between a few places here. They have the British connection, but if Paulie/Ninja get power with them being unable to go at Kyle they could be a target.

8) Kyle/Mattie: Most interesting pair at the moment to me. Being MTV UK immediately you some allies and they will be a problem in eliminations, but as long as Ninja/Paulie keep winning they’ll keep being brought up for the Killing Floor.

7) Jenna/Gus: It seems like Zach and Kyle are bigger threats and outside of Amanda I don’t really see anyone coming for them immediately.

6) Kam/Cain: Six through four is super close, but Kam didn’t look great in this mission and the top of this cast is loaded.

5) Cara Maria/Theo: Falls due to circumstance more than anything; although if the right team takes power or gets called out, they could be in trouble.

4) Nany/Turbo: Turbo looks outstanding and while Nany going after CT was strange is also shows how many strong connections this team has.

3) Paulie/Ninja: Two straight tribunals show a well-balanced team; although their alliances I think are still in question.

2) Hunter/Georgia: They have looked like maybe the best team competitively so far. Hunter could be the best guy remaining and Georgia is an athletic freak.

1) Wes/Dee: The king stay the king.

Extra Notes

· Lots of crazy stuff behind the scenes so I’ll try to keep it brief. Last week, apparently Johnny, Kyle, and Theo taped up Amanda’s head because she was yelling too much. It got really bad and Da’Vonne and Theo had to talk Amanda down from leaving. Check out Da’Vonne’s coverage of it on YouTube here.

· In other strange happenings, there was some sort of glitter incident between Negrotti and Zach. Details are still being uncovered, but from what we know Negrotti poured glitter all over Zach’s bed and Zach breathed it in and almost went to the hospital. Negrotti got fined $1,000 for the incident.

· Ninja did a podcast with Challenge Mania earlier this week. Good episode and lots of good content, one part I found interesting was she said Georgia runs ten miles a day. Really shows the depths of how good this rookie class could be.

· Make sure to check out our survey of the top female competitors. Make your voice heard!

Fantasy Scoring