Previously, on The Challenge…
Cara Maria and Laurel fight because maybe they really aren’t friends. Leroy crushed in the elimination challenge… Cara Maria finally sent Jessica packing, but suffered a potentially Challenge ending injury.
This episode opens the day after the elimination challenge. Cara Maria still hasn’t come back from the hospital and the guys are telling Laurel how shitty a friend she is because of her fight with Cara Maria.
CM returns from the house, hiding her hand from the others. She doesn’t want to show her weakness. She finally shows Johnny and tells the audience that she’s broke her hand and it will take a month to heal. Of course, last week we got a glimpse of TJ calling her out due to her injury. Since they showed it in the previews, I’m betting that she gets to stay.
Laurel can sense that CM is mad and probably won’t approach her, so she goes up to CM’s room to check on her. Laurel doesn’t apologize for her behavior, but instead just asks how CM is. This is not acceptable to CM and she tells Laurel their friendship is over.
So the only thing I remember them fighting about is how Laurel would vote CM into the elimination challenge. There must be other, off-camera things that happen right? Is that enough to end a friendship? After some (fake?) Laurel, tears we see the contestants head to the next Challenge. Will CM be allowed to stay?
After consulting the “Challenge Doctor” (is he real?) and going to a commercial break, TJ tells CM that she can stay as long as she assumes any responsibility for further injuring her hand. With $125,000 at stake, CM decides to stay.
Today’s challenge is called “Crossover” and it will be played in guy/girl pairs. The challenge location is separated from a sandbar by a lagoon about a quarter of a mile away. In that sandbar are buried puzzle pieces. The contestants must cross the lagoon and dig up the puzzle pieces and then return to the other side. Of course, there are two sets of puzzle pieces and the teammates will take turns digging them out of the ground. This means they have to cross the lagoon 4 times. It’s not really deep enough to swim in and looks like an absolute son of a bitch to walk through.
Teams:
- Theresa/Zach (who apparently can’t swim)
- Bananas/Nany
- Cara Maria/CT
- Johnny/Devyn (probably the weakest of each sex left in the challenge)
- Laurel/Leroy
Neither Bananas or Nany are confident in their puzzle solving strategy and Leroy is trying to avoid going into the elimination challenge again. TJ tells them to go and everyone complains about how difficult it is to walk through the lagoon with all the mud on the bottom. It really doesn’t even look like they’re moving.
Zach and Theresa are the first ones to the sand bar, followed closely by Nany and Bananas. Third on the island is CT and CM with Johnny and Devyn behind them and Laurel and Leroy bringing up the rear.
CM decides to do her dig first and of course her hand is hindering her performance. Zach and Theresa find their pieces first and head back to solid ground followed by Bananas and Nany. CT is doing a good job cheering CM in, but she really can’t go any faster. Leroy and Laurel find their pieces and take off. Somehow a busted up CM gets to her pieces faster than Johnny and Devyn.
The water movement has given MTV good use of the slow-mo cameras.
Keeping up pace, Zach and Theresa are the first ones to find their second set of puzzle pieces and head back to solid ground to start putting the puzzle together. Bananas is keeping his cool and not yelling at Nany and they are in second place. CT beasts out his dig and they move into third place. (Side note: The term “beast” and various forms thereof are common in CrossFit. I’ve been following a lot of The Challenge contestants on twitter and discover that most of them are fellow CrossFitters. We had a crazy WOD on Saturday that felt a bit like it could have been a form of one of these challenges.)
Despite being in dead last, Johnny thinks he a Devyn still have a chance. And you know what, he’s right. Puzzles are pretty much the hardest bit of this game for these guys. CT is confident in his puzzle skills.
Bananas and Nany come in first place. They are safe from elimination and The Draw. Zach and Theresa come in second followed by CT and CM. Though they are safe from being voted in, they are safe from the Draw.
Now it’s time for some food, drinks and politicking. I wonder if CT gets stuck with the bill again this time. Theresa is buddying up to Bananas and Nany trying to stay in their good graces so they don’t say her name. CM is rightly disgusted by the situation.
The next morning CT is doing the same thing. Bananas tells CT that they have been in the game the longest, but sometimes they need to earn their stripes. I bet he’s going in.
Zach sees CT talking with the winners and assumes that they are discussing voting Zach in. Doesn’t take much for these people to assume that everyone is going against them.
One thing I’ve failed to include in this recap is the number of times CM makes a pun about being past her “breaking point” and then showing her hand. If you drank every time she made a terrible pun, you’d have a nice buzz going on right now.
During the vote Nany and Bananas both vote for CT. Initially Nany votes for Theresa and Bananas votes for CM. TJ asks them to re-vote. Both keep their votes. TJ asks again. No change. He asks again and tells them that if they can’t come to a consensus CT will sit down and Nany and Bananas will go into the elimination round. Ohh… tough rule change.
After a commercial break, Nany changes her mind and votes for CM. Once up in front of everyone, CM and Theresa get into it and TJ has to calm everyone down. Everyone but Theresa and Zach are eligible for the draw. There are so many unnecessary tears being shed right now, it’s ridiculous.
Leroy gets the kill card for the guys and sets up a great elimination challenge. Laurel gets it for the girls, pitting two “BFFs” up against each other.
They never say it outright, but they show the walls meaning tonight’s challenge is the one where you have to punch holes in the wall and climb up to right a bell.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger and we won’t find out who wins the elimination. After this elimination challenge, there will be a location change- looks like they are headed to the Andes Mountains. There are three episodes left (I believe), so it will be interesting to see how they stretch this out.
Knowing this will be posted Thursday when the new episode airs, I say look for my next recap either Monday or Tuesday of next week. Thanks for your patience!
Image via MTV.
