The episode opens with the outcome of the Cory and Briana being nominated for elimination. Cory feels confident that he will come back and win, though he acknowledges LeRoy is a beast, and Dario is a good competitor. Briana talks with Britni and Ammo lamenting that it is not her fault that Ashley quit, making her a scapegoat as an elimination pick. Tori and Derrick try to be the greatest all time 8th grade couple talking up their love for each other.

My favorite moment is that Briana says she will be trying as hard as she can when money is on the line. What she says what she will do with the money is pay off her students loans (reasonable), maybe a buy new weave (sensible), and give herself bigger lips (a gift for us and for her). I love when someone gives out fun and sensible choices for what they would do with the money.

Things on the side that happened before the eliminations was the house getting into it with Camila arguing about her burn vote on Hunter. Tori says that if she says she is voting for someone, she does it. Camila tries to say that as a rookie she does not understand the game. Which is actually the opposite, Tori completely understands the game from the get-go, while Camila is bad at the game and trying to cover her bare ass after 8 years of playing the game.

The Elimination

This season’s elimination will be taking place in the “Presidio” which is a military fortress. Last season we had the Fortress, so they had to give this a different name. We learn they will be pulling crosses, similar to Rivals 3 and Free Agents, except this season pulling the Double Cross is the goal as it assures safety. The reward and problem of pulling the Double Cross is that you must pick someone from your losers bracket and put them in elimination. It gives you power, but also puts a target on your back.

LeRoy is the first guy to pull a cross — he gets a single. Dario goes second and pulls the Double Cross. Derrick is elated, hoping his AYTO bond will save him. Dario says LeRoy is the only person in the house who he can call a brother and throws in Derrick. On the girls side, Veronica goes first and in her confessional says that she has the intuition of where the Double Cross is. She picks the Double Cross out and throws in Britni.

The elimination itself is called Balls to the Wall. There are two rooms where they are filled with sticks coming out of walls with fire lit balls at the end. The players must break the wall and take out all the sticks from their rooms, and the first to do so, wins. This elimination is reminiscent of the Inferno 3 glass breaking elimination where Abram beat Timmy on a DQ. Or like the elimination from Bloodlines where Mike and Stephen had to tear down a room.

In this elimination, Cory gets to make great use of his upper body as he is able to quickly tear down the poles with ease. Derrick struggles a bit and uses improper form, not using enough speed or leg strength to pull out the poles. From the get-go, Cory was in it to win, while Derrick was trying to figure how to take out the sticks the fastest. Then once Derrick realized he was behind from the crowd he got frantic and lost his cool. Cory proved why he is a veteran and took care of business.

The girls round between Britni and Briana was super close. In the guys round, they had to take down 10 poles, while the girls had to take down 6. It was close the whole way through, with Briana having a slight edge throughout. Britni had the interesting strategy of short quick strokes in order to pop the poles out. Briana tried wedging the pole out, almost like she was trying to shimmy the pole out. They were tied until the final pole, and it looked like Briana would get the win based on how the game was going. She lost because she got too caught up in how Britni was doing, slowed down for a bit, and Britni took advantage of it, she put her head down and won. Briana had an anxiety attack and puked after she was done. It was a good showing by both girls and they each displayed a ton of heart.

Derrick and Briana go to the exile house after their loss, Derrick says if anyone flirts with Tori when he is gone, he will beat their asses.

Odds on who is mostly likely to hook up with Tori now:

1 Tony -500

2 Cory -800

3 Derrick K -1500

4 Jordan -3500

The Daily Challenge

After the elimination aftermath is done, they go to the daily challenge. It is a 10 person Hall Brawl where the game will be played in male and female heats. Players must run down a hallway, grab a ring, then run back down the same hallway and put it on their own side. First team to 5 rings wins, everyone on the team must put in their ring for the team to win. Dario and Kailah are randomly selected as captains for each team. Kailah gets first male pick and goes with Derrick K. While Derrick is a beast, it’s a head scratching pick, unless Kailah is looking to hook up with Derrick, then I fully approve it. With the first female pick, Dario smartly picks Cara Maria, then goes for CT (the obvious first choice), and now they have a Boston trio.

Kailah’s Blue team rounds out to: Camila, Jenna, Britni, Jemmye, Derrick, Bananas, Jordan, Nelson, Tony

Dario’s Green team rounds out to: Cara Maria, Tori, Aneesa, Marie, Veronica, CT, Hunter, Cory, LeRoy

The most fascinating choices were that Dario did not pick Nicole over Veronica. Nicole was his partner on Rivals 3 (where they finished 4th), and someone who would have his back if he picked her, and instead he cuts the bond for Veronica, someone who probably did not even know Dario’s name. Ammo was left out for the guys. TJ reveals that Nicole and Ammo will be in the same bracket as the losers from the Challenge.

Guys Round: Kailah picked a terrible team. They were great male athletes, and she intended for them to make use of their speed. The main problem with that idea is that it was a narrow hallway that the players had to go through, and there was not enough total distance to make the speed matter. With 260 lbs of CT, a giant LeRoy, a 205 lb muscle ball of Hunter, and Dario’s booty, the green team is stacked. They easily beat the Blue team winning 5–3.

What truly kills the Blue team is Tony trying to pull down CT to keep him from getting to go the other side. This would make sense except for the fact that Tony still has not grabbed his ring from the opponent’s side, while CT is only his way back. Tony may be one of the worst mental players in Challenge history, physically he has all the tools, but he never knows how to actually perform in the challenges themselves. Green team wins.

Girls Round: The green team had the three biggest girls in the house in Tori, Aneesa, and Marie, while also being anchored by the super muscular Cara Maria (she’s basically the female version of Ant Man). Their one possible weak link was Veronica (who acknowledged she’s not a physical threat). One of the highlights is that during the Challenge, Aneesa and Jenna go at each other head on where Aneesa locks, loads, and explodes on Jenna, giving her some of her choo-choo. Jenna is devastated from the hit. In 5 seasons, that was the first one on one physical body to body encounters that Jenna has ever had, and she got swamped.

What the game came down to was Britni and Veronica. Veronica scrapped with Britni in the hallway, trying to flip her up like a wrestler at one point. The scuffle ends when a teammate of Britni comes and helps her (still not sure if in this challenge allowed people who put their ring in to go back and help). It’s a nail biting finish with a difference of .6 seconds. The Green Team wins.

Next Week

Jordan, Bananas, Nelson, Derrick K, Tony, and Ammo are up for elimination, a strong group.

Camila, Jenna, Kailah, Britni, Jemmye, and Nicole are also up for elimination, half strong players, half weak players.

MVPs