Previously on The Challenge…
Devyn proves that she truly is useless. Is Zach drowning?
Ok, so before we go any further, let’s review the final 6. For the boys we have: Zach, Johnny Portland (a.k.a. Johnny Reilly) and Bananas. Representing the ladies are: Nany, Laurel and Devyn. If we look back at my Challenge Pre-Cap, I got half of the final contestants right (Zach, Bananas and Laurel). Frank was (questionably) taken out by pneumonia and the other two just weren’t as strong as I thought they might be. Hats off to Johnny Portland and Devyn for making it to the end. Those two were not even close to being on my radar for being in the finals.
At this point, everyone that’s still left in the game is a winner. All you have to do to collect your money is cross the finish line. First place gets $125,000, second gets $35,000 and third gets $15,000. 15k is not a bad paycheck for maybe 6-8 weeks of work, even when you factor in that Uncle Sam will take about half of that.
Back to it, when the show ended last week (ok, like 10 days ago, please forgive my tardiness) Devyn was being rescued by the Challenge Rescue Boat and Zach was trying not to die.
As a reminder the first three stages have our finalists paired up and the last two will have them rolling solo. Everyone’s times will be added up at the end and places will be determined by total time.
As expected, Bananas and Laurel finish up the kayak stage first, followed by Nany and Johnny Portland. Eventually Devyn and Zach make it to dry land in third. This stage is now over and it’s time for a partner switch. For the 2nd part of this challenge, the contestants are running a 10k up the mountain. Once they reach the top of the mountain, there’s a puzzle (OF COURSE) to solve at the end of the trail. Our new pairs are Johnny and Laurel, Nany and Zach, and Bananas and Devyn.
Bananas is struggling with Devyn as she is the least athletic of the finalists, but he is doing everything he can to encourage her. This includes giving her a piggyback ride up this mountain. Johnny and Laurel reach the end of the trail first. The puzzle is stacking tree trunk pieces that have cities from the west coast of North and South America from southern most city to northern most. Nany and Zach make it up to the end second, but neither have even heard of very many of these cities, let alone do they know where they fall on a map.
Bananas and Devyn reach the end of the trail last. Though they might not know where the cities are actually located, Bananas uses context clues to solve it. The puzzle pieces were once one tree. Instead of trying to figure out where the cities are located, Bananas says they should match up the pieces from how they are cut. The other two teams let their 30-minute time limit expire, but Bananas strategy is a winner and they solve the puzzle before their time is up.
Next stage, new partners. TJ tells everyone that the next part of the challenge is narrow and that for safety measures they are going to have to stagger everyone’s starts 15 minutes apart. Zach and Laurel start first. Zach is hoping to ride Laurel’s coattails to first place finish for this stage, but he immediately starts to complain about the air being thin this far up the mountain. Not a good sign.
Nany and Bananas are next and she’s hoping to step it up this round. Surprisingly, Nany is giving Laurel a real run for her money. Johnny Portland and Devyn take off, but she barely makes it 100 meters before she’s gassed.
As Zach and Laurel reach the toughest part of this stage, he starts to complain about his whole body cramping. He can barely open his hands to grip, how will he make it up this rock? They are scaling this mountain and it’s nearly completely vertical. Zach begins to have a breakdown because of his cramping. Laurel has to do everything but carry him up the mountain. He declares that he’s dying no less than 10 times. Eventually his stalling hurts them and despite the 15 minute later start, Nany and Bananas have not only caught up to Zach and Laurel, but they pass him.
Zach is being difficult to deal with and it’s amazing to me that Laurel just doesn’t kill him right there. He’s hurting her chances of her first Challenge win. After Nany and Bananas reach the top, Bananas is pushing Nany to go faster. Sure, she’s going to beat laurel in this stage, but now is the time for her to pick up the pace and make up any time she might have been behind Laurel in the other stages. Zach and Laurel complete the 3rd stage in second place followed by Devyn and Johnny.
Now at fourth stage, everyone is working by themselves again. The last stage of the day is riding a stationary bike for 25 miles. 25 miles? Easy peasy. This is the last thing the contestants need to do before they can eat a good meal and get some rest.
Bananas and Johnny Portland are neck and neck. Zach is still fighting cramps. Bananas finishes the bike first at 61 minutes. The tasks are starting to get to Nany and she jumps off the bike and complains to a producer. He tells her she can take a break, but she will still have to complete the 25 miles. Get back on the bike, Nany! Laurel wants you to waste any lead you may have gained over her during the third stage! Portland finishes the bike second, followed by Zach, who knocks the bike over when he gets off, then Laurel, then Nany. At this point, the only one left is Devyn, who seems to be peddling slower than someone who just learned how to ride a bike. At one point she stops and it looks like she might just fall asleep on the bike. Eventually at 1:35 am, 2 hours and 43 minutes after she started the bike, Devyn finishes. She joins the rest of the contestants for some rest in the tent.
A mere 4 hours later at 5:30 a.m., TJ comes to wake everyone for the second day of the final challenge. Zach can barely move and doesn’t know how he’ll complete climbing the volcano. Even Bananas, who has seemingly dominated most of this challenge is sore. The only thing to do today is to climb the volcano. TJ reminds them that if they don’t finish, they don’t get paid.
Bananas takes an early lead, but Johnny Portland is right behind him, motivating him to keep moving. Zach is still in a lot of pain from the previous day and he eventually stops and questions whether or not he’ll be able to finish. At some point, Portland overtook Bananas and completes the hike first. About 32 minutes later, Bananas finishes the course. Laurel and Nany are separated by maybe 30 feet. Laurel is giving it all she’s got, but Nany is right behind her. The finish their climbs 4 seconds apart. It will be a close call between first and second for the ladies.
It’s sad to see Zach struggling so hard here. I had high hopes for him, but it seems all his muscles aren’t doing him any favors right now. Still screaming in pain from his cramps, he completes his climb. All that’s left now is Devyn. She’s the least athletic of the bunch, so it’s not really a surprise to see her struggling. But I think the end of this challenge is more mental than physical. Four and a half hours after she started, Devyn completes the final challenge. Everyone gets paid! Yay!
The group makes their way back down the mountain to meet TJ and see where everyone placed. My question here is how the fuck do they get down? I really hope there’s a helicopter around the bend that whisked them away.
Devyn and Zach come in third place. The times must not have been that close because TJ doesn’t mention it, but Bananas beats Portland for his record breaking 5th Challenge win. Bananas was first featured on Real World: Key West in 2006 (filmed in 2005) at the age of 22 and has pretty much made a career out of being on and winning these challenges. I think at some point, I didn’t care for him very much, but I loved the way he played the game this time. I think being a Free Agent was really good for him.
TJ tells the contestants that there was only 9 minutes that separated Laurel and Nany, but Laurel takes the grand prize. For someone who I didn’t think would make it halfway, I must say that Nany really surprised me. I hope she can continue to be a force in challenges to come.
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Thanks to everyone for your readership this season! Thanks to EnthologyNerd for helping me out the first half of the season. I could not have done this without you! I cannot wait for the next one, which if you listen to this podcast below, Johnny Bananas hints may be sooner rather than later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vKRUaqf5pI&list=PLklUd1gGvFl55AkOOwMDeQxWlEuAAbpzs
Image via MTV.
