The Challenge: USA Recap: Another Vet Hits the Sand, as Survivor and Big Brother Continue to Dominate the Game
In the last installment The Challenge, the MTV players were ganged up on and forced to go head-to-head. This week, one legend of the game turns on his own, leading to explosive drama, and one hot and bothered Banana.
Following Jonna’s exit (read our Episode 2 recap), it takes Tori and Amanda about two-and-a-half seconds to start going at it. Tori says she was hoping they could’ve worked together since there aren’t many MTV players around, but Amanda starts yelling that they’re not friends and will never be friends. Sigh. (Maybe one of the Big Brother players can teach Amanda that you don’t need to be friends to work together in a game for half a million dollars.)
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Desi breaks down the Secret Garden alliance which includes herself, Chanelle, Tiffany, both Alyssas, Michaela and Michele. She says the rookies there aren’t afraid to take big shots and their guns are pointed squarely at the veterans.
DAILY CHALLENGE | In “Capsized,” teams must swim to a boat and purposely capsize it to reveal an answer key. One at a time, they must swim out to a set of buoys and grab a set of flags. Collect all of the flags, hang them up on the mast in the correct order, swim back to the dock in the fastest time, win the challenge.
Red goes first and they don’t do as well as expected. Tiffany struggles with the swimming, while Michele makes a sizable memory blunder. Blue divvies up the memorization into quadrants which seems to quicken their pace and minimize the amount of boat flips needed. As for Green? “It’s like a scene from Titanic,” says Bananas of the chaos that ensues.
TJ reads the results: Green got 19 flags correct, while Blue and Red got all 20 right. But Blue gets the job done the fastest, so they’re the ones safe from elimination.
NOMINATIONS AND VOTING | Cory, feeling like he’s on the bottom of the Vet alliance, surprisingly votes for Amanda and Bananas, who ultimately become the group’s picks despite Tori’s opposition. Bananas throws a temper tantrum, and you know what? I love to see it! Is it a little unfair that the CBS players significantly outnumber the MTV Vets. Sure. But Bananas has played on a bajillion seasons, which also has its advantages. Gone are the days where scared little rookies won’t take big swings, so if Bananas wants to stay, he’s gotta go down in the sand and earn it. Cry about it, Johnny.
I do get his frustration with Cory and Faysal, though. But didn’t someone once say, “All’s fair in love, war and Challenges“? (Hmm, who was that…) Bananas once again rewrites history to suit his game. Does that make him the best to ever play or the game’s biggest hypocrite? You decide, and let us know in the comments! Maybe both things can be true.
THE ARENA | The results of the secret vote are as follows: Josh gets two votes; Tyler, three; Chanelle, one; Paulie, three; and Monte, five. TJ pulls a name from the Hopper and… Paulie is picked to face off against Bananas.
“There’s no coming back from an elimination loss to Paulie,” Bananas tells us. (Gee, promise?)
In “Fire & Ice,” both players stand on a block of ice with one arm raised in the air. That arm is connected to a giant barrel of fish guts. If they move their arm, the barrel spills on them and they’re out. But players can also throw bean bags at targets. If they connect, a set of torches begins to melt the ice underneath their opponent, making it harder to stand and keep one’s arm level.
Both men have no problem connecting with the targets, as the flames flip-flop back and forth. Bananas throws all of his bags, giving Paulie the last shot… and he misses! From there, it’s a game of endurance, but after 38 minutes, Paulie’s barrel bathes him in fish guts and Bananas takes the dub.
But will he defect? Find out Sunday!
So were you rooting for the Banana Man or Paulie? And what are your thoughts about Amanda? Light up the comments!
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