This season your two reality show enthusiasts, EthologyNerd and I will be recapping the 25th season of MTV’s The Challenge. Not sure what that means? Check out my pre-cap for this season to get familiar with what’s going on. We’ll be doing this email, conversation style because, well, that’s how we want to do it.
Clarity83: Alright let’s see….
So we’ve got 28 of our favorite and not so favorite contestants arriving in Uruguay (yes, the whole country) for the 25th, that’s right the TWENTY-FIFTH season of The Challenge. 14 pretty ladies and 14 hawt guys. Though I will admit to not remembering some of them. Emilee? Theresa? I barely remember Isaac. And despite having Laurel in my top 3 ladies to win, I don’t remember her at all.
They arrive at the center of it all to find our host T.J. Lavin explain this season’s game to them. Free Agents. Every man for himself. Games will be played in teams, pairs and groups, but at the end of the day, you can only trust yourself. Each week, there’s a challenge. Not only are the winners safe from elimination, but they get to pick a guy and a girl to head to the elimination round. Do we have a name for that this season? I must have missed it if there is. BUT, if you’re not a winner this week, you are still subject to head to the elimination round by the Random Draw. This will happen every week until we get to our finalists (EN – how many do you think there will be? 4? 5? what’s the motivation for only 3 if they are guaranteed money?).
There’s some pretty big prize money this year: 3rd place gets $15k, 2nd gets $35k and first place gets $125,000. Essentially there will be 6 winners – 3 girls and 3 guys. T.J. says he’s seen most of the contestants compete before and that has me wondering if he has any say in which cast members get the invite to come on for the season.
I love Jonna’s line about previously relying on other people for money and being on The Challenge to win money so she can pay her way. She’s basically saying “Uh, I’ve been a gold-digger in the past, but now I guess I have to pay my own way.”
And Jasmine telling us that she’s single on The Challenge for the first time ever and that she wants “to be the whore of The Challenge.” Ok Jasmine, you do you.
CT and Leroy (a.k.a. RoyLee) talk about how you have to be ready to go at all times because of the nature of the game. Then some talk about hook ups and then we get CT and Theresa playing a game of strip basketball. Not gonna lie, I was pretty surprised at Theresa’s game. She only lost by one point! Though, what the hell was up with her bra? How you gonna play a game of basketball with a regular bra?
Then we get our first clue ready by Devyn (who is just too prissy for me): Let’s start the season off on a high note and see who the real contenders will be. I know immediately it’s a heights challenge because everyone fucking hates heights.
EthologyNerd: First off, I just want to admit my unabashed bias for the following people: CT, Laurel, Jonna, and Frank. Because, in order: sexy/psychotic, sexy/mean, sexy/rill stupid, sexy in a weird way/the MOST psychotic. Everyone knows that good-looking crazy people make for the best TV! Plus they’re all real contenders historically, and there’s nothing worse than watching your favorite people go home early. MTV knows that. Who are your early picks for top four? Those four are mine, without knowing anything else. While I think that the final SHOULD have four of each sex competing so someone goes home with only the world’s biggest hangover and the low self-esteem they came in with, I think it will still come down to three. Who are your early picks for top four?
Anyway, back to the first challenge. Ugh, Devyn. I wish she were still dating Big Easy. They were the most unlikely and frankly somewhat creepy Challenge Couple ever. Long story short, everyone is divided into two teams. They are gonna run up like a million flights of stairs– CHAINED TOGETHER– then do a puzzle, and then run across a rolling log suspended at the top of a very tall building, grabbing a flag in the middle of it and finishing by ringing a bell. Actually pretty standard Challenge fare; nothing too shocking but still “EXTREME” enough.
Chet and Hurricane Nia are “randomly” picked as captains. (I know way too much about reality shows and am constantly thinking about what’s scripted and what’s not.) On that note, it’s really impossible to tell for the most part who’s picking whom in what order due to editing. I’m not going to read much into it. So they show the requisite debate over which people on which team are going to do which obstacle. Jessica, whoever that is, (do you know who she is?) says she’s scared of heights and then volunteers to do the height portion despite her teammates’ reservations, helpfully setting up part of the challenge drama. I don’t like Jessica already because I have been watching this show for ten years and I consider myself just as much a veteran as Aneesa. Who, incidentally, I find one of the Most Annoying Challenge Members of All Time.
As TJ blows the horn, the teams clamber up the stairs and it is a real clusterfuck. I kept trying to consider the logistics of 16 people shackled together running up flights of stairs and…I mean, I just don’t think you could. People would be falling like dominoes after one flight. I wanted a bit more exposition about the mechanics. I came to the wrong place.
Clarity83: My top 4 are CT, Johnny Bananas, Laurel and Hurricane Nia (I don’t think I can just call her Nia, that girl is cray). Though, I will say I was pretty impressed by Theresa’s athleticism during her on-on-one game with CT. Honestly, I totally forgot about Devyn… and that she dated Big Easy (who, BTW, was the perennial wurst at these things).
If it makes you feel any better, Jessica was just as whiny and annoying on Real World: Portland as you think she is now. I’m pretty sure she cried at least once an episode.
Ok, so Chet’s team makes it up the stairs first. Isaac runs up the ladder to the next roof to unlock a dun dun dun… puzzle! We all know how much the idiots love puzzles. We’ve got Chet the team leader here, so you hope he would take charge and not let his team get to frustrated, but nope. So we’ve got Chet’s team working on this dumb puzzle for so long that Hurricane Nia’s team catches up. And then blows right by. Apparently Aneesa really loves her puzzles. So now we wait for Chet’s team to finish the puzzle.
Lemme back up for one second though. While the Puzzle Crew of Hurricane Nia’s team is working on the puzzle, the Stair Crew goes back to try and block Chet’s Stair Crew. Somehow LaToya, a rookie, gets bonked on the head and hurts herself and pretty much dies.
Ok, so finally Chet’s team finishes the puzzle and now we get everyone all set up to do the next part of the challenge which involves being suspended on top of this 41 story building. The 4 remaining members of each team that didn’t run the stairs or do the puzzle get harnessed up so they can run across a wobbly pole to catch a flag and ring a bell. While 41 stories up in the air.
Only one of Chet’s team members makes it across the wobbly pole while two make it for Hurricane Nia’s team, there by making Hurricane Nia’s team the winners. All 14 of them are safe. The next day Hurricane Nia’s team deliberates. Of course, it’s everlasting debate – who goes first, weak or strong? The deliberation as a team is pointless, as Johnny Bananas tells us, because this team won’t mean anything for the next challenge.
The winning team votes in Chet and LaToya (injured + rookie card went against her) in and Jemmye and Frank get the unlucky cards during the Random Draw. Tonight’s came is called Balls In (heh). There’s a barrel in the middle of a giant circle. The player on offense will have a ball they need to try and get in the barrel. Get the ball in, get a point. There are 5 rounds and the player with the most points wins. The boys are up first. Chet is on offense and he gets the ball in, but no matter. He gets a nasty cut on his chin that would require stitches and instead of playing the game and getting stitches later, he decides to seek immediate medical attention and forfeit the game. Bye Chet.
The girls are up next and this is no joke. LaToya is on offense first. She scores. Then Jemmye scores just as easily. Then they both pick it up on defense and neither scores. Let me just say that Jemmye’s strategy of going low isn’t working. Once you’re on the ground, it’s hard to get back up. They both score during round 3. Then LaToya scores, but Jemmye doesn’t. (3-2) In round 5, LaToya doesn’t score, so Jemmye still has a chance, but then she uses that stupid get low strategy and doesn’t score. And that’s it. It was a hard-fought game, but bye bye Jemmye.
Whew… thanks for sticking with us through this whole thing you guys. Usually episodes are only 60 minutes, but this one was 90. See ya next week! (Er, or in a few days.)
Image via MTV
