Challenge Double Agents Episode 4 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways

Allan Aguirre
11 min readJan 7, 2021

Episode 4 of Double Agents is in the books. You probably have some thoughts, so let’s compare. Instead of giving a simple summary, I decided to focus on the 10 Biggest moments/takeaways from the fourth episode. These will be integral storylines that the fourth episode focused on, and I’ll breakdown why they matter.

If you prefer the traditional recap format, my Podcast partner and I broke down the entire episode. Here is the Spotify Player, and a link to our Apple Page. Generally, on Apple, the podcast doesn’t show up for the first 24 hours unless you subscribe to the podcast. Above at the top is the YouTube version. If you could, throw us a LIKE and Subscribe (it would be greatly appreciated).

(If you listen on Apple, a 5 Star rating would be awesome!)

On we go!

BONUS 11th Takeaway:

11 Until we meet again, Liv!

Liv’s injury from last week medically DQs her from the game. She didn’t get a proper send-off confessional. Liv is still young and I hope we see her again for a future season.

10 Do Devin and Tori actually hate each other?

I’m sure that Devin and Tori aren’t best friends. At the same time, is it just me, or does their “feud” come off as two people trying to create this rival animosity for camera-time? All of their moves and confessionals in this game have been unnecessarily extra. They almost seem like teenage actors in a high school film who don’t remember they’re on camera and have to remind each other, “oh yeah, we are mortal enemies.” When I was gauging social media during the preseason, these are two players who people were not excited to see, and here they are steering the wheel for a majority of this episode. Even though I’m ragging on them right now, I enjoyed the episode. Then again, if viewers trail off after this week, I wouldn’t be shocked.

9 Big T as the Voice of Reason

Another banger episode for Big T. We got to hear her backstory where she reveals that due to her mom getting sick and passing while being was still an infant, she got adopted by her mom’s sister and relocated to the UK. While I’ve enjoyed Big T on her three seasons, her vulnerability and openness is something I could relate to, significantly as my Uncle raised me as I never met my Dad, and my mom had issues. I’m a bigger Big T fan now more than ever.

Not to mention, the girl had a fantastic confessional look this episode. The blouse she wore somewhat reminded me of a Japanese kimono (in a good way). It looked fancy and comfortable. She also acted as the voice of the people when other competitors were being ridiculous. Such as when Devin randomly decided to go after Amber M after Big T opened up about her past and took away her moment, and when Tori was calling Amber M and some of the other girls weak. Incredibly ridiculous since just last season, Tori got eliminated after throwing herself down to face someone she thought would be a free Red Skull. Big T’s commentary is my live-tweets and recaps before I even get the chance to write them.

8 Devin vs. Amber M (and Nelson)

One of the weirdest squabbles ever. Devin randomly throws shade at Amber M for being fake, which is confusing for many fans as Amber has had the least screen-time of any player this season. What we know of Amber from AYTO is that she’s a bit of a flirt, and maybe Devin sees that and thinks she’s going to use her powers of seduction to get him thrown into elimination. In reality, most people already hate Devin, and Amber exists in her own world. The interaction is bittersweet as their fight put a target on them, especially after Nelson defended Amber the following day; however, it was beginning to look like Amber M was getting the Shaleen Sutherland War of the Worlds 1 edit.

This verbal scuffle also proved that Devin needed someone like Josh to feud to look good, whereas, with Amber, he got shut down pretty quick. Nelson gets a shout-out for being a good partner towards Amber for most of the episode.

7 Fessy The Flirt

In this episode, we see Fessy flirting with two blonde women: Tori Deal and Gabby Allen. Even though Tori was still engaged to Jordan during filming, you could feel that she was ready to jump his lap had she not been. Meanwhile, Fessy’s flirtmance with Gabby was a bit different. You could tell that Gabby is physically attracted to Fessy, not as much when it comes to the emotional side. Her face in her confessionals looked like, “I think I maybe hate this guy, but he’s 6'5 with big muscles, and there’s nothing else to do in this house.” Sidenote: Gabby also has a former porn star (maybe current) boyfriend at home in the UK.

6 The Daily Challenge

In this daily challenge, one player put on a VR headset that allowed them to see in the dark through the lens of a camera on a drone (they were underground in a cave for this challenge). One player with direction from their teammate would then fly the drone through the cave, avoiding obstacles all the way to a computer screen that had a binary code on it. The VR player would memorize the binary code, then match it over next to another board to figure out a four-number PIN (they must get the drone back to the starting point as well).

The only team to complete the Challenge was Devin and Tori. Devin’s loud-mouth is his greatest skill, and he used it to his advantage. From the moment Tori began flying, he gave her clear and direct instructions the entire way. The pitfall that many teams fell into is that they would let their teammates fly the drone and only would direct them once they got close to crashing, which in most cases, would freak out the fliers, resulting in a direct crash. Whoever had the VR set was doing 80% of the work, and those who acted like it was 50–50 failed.

5 Josh vs. Jay

After the daily challenge, people figure that Devin and Tori will target either Josh/Nany or Nelson/Amber as the Double Agent votes following Devin’s fights with them. Josh tries to instigate drama with Jay as he believes that if the elimination is physical, he would like to face Jay as he has 50–70 lbs on him. Jay sees through the mystique, asks Josh to calm down, and talk it through like adults. Instead, Josh continues to get angry and tries to rally as many votes as he can to get Jay/Theresa thrown in; he says it’s because he doesn’t trust Jay is on their side, but you can tell it’s who Josh thinks he can win his Gold Skull against. It’s ironic since last season, Josh had the chance to face Jay in Balls In and opted out.

You could tell Kaycee is getting frustrated by her allies as they control the numbers in the game, yet they can’t seem to chill out. She generally tries to play wallpaper, and Josh and Fessy are like two fire alarms going off simultaneously.

4 The Voting

There were two teams on the table for the house vote: Nelson/Amber and Jay/Theresa. Out of 23 eligible players, 12 votes went to Nelson/Amber, 2 votes got burned on Fessy/Aneesa, 1 vote got burned on Kyle/Kam, and I believe the other 8 votes went to Jay/Theresa. CT/Big T, Jay/Theresa, and Lolo/Nam were the partners voted in sync and in the majority. It seems as though Kaycee was looking out for Jay, as she got her girls (Nany and Amber B) to vote with her, Big T got Gabby to keep Jay safe, and Natalie looked out for her Survivor friend. Aneesa is the stray vote I didn’t expect.

The burn votes and Nam/Lolo’s could have swung this the other way entirely. Tori gets what she wants because she perceives Amber M as the weakest girl in the house and will volunteer herself if it is a female elimination. Then again, during the voting meeting, Nelson pointed that because two girls got injured and 13 men to 12 women split, it’s more than likely a male elimination day, to which he was 100% correct.

3 The Elimination Decision (Scummiest Moment in Recent Challenge History?)

When they arrive at the elimination and see it is Hall Brawl, Fessy goes up to Tori and tells her if it’s a guy’s elimination, to throw him in. TJ refuses to tell Tori/Devin whether it is a male/female elimination. Devin does not want to get rocked by Nelson in a Hall Brawl, and he pleads with Tori to vote someone else in, to which she fairly accepts. Honestly, if Tori actually hated Devin as much as she said so the entire episode, she would have volunteered them and tried to get a new partner. Instead, they call down Fessy/Aneesa since either player should beat their much smaller opponents. Josh gets blindsided by this because he’s been hyping himself up all day to go into elimination, and now his best-friend is stepping in and taking his shot at a Gold Skull. Along with that, Nelson, who views Fessy as his #2 ally behind Cory, gets mega-blindsided as his friend asked to get thrown in against him.

Nelson is such a loyal ally. He is the guy who threw himself in for his brother Cory last season, and here this big fucking goof Fessy deciding that now is his time to get a Skull, yet, not when the mustard boy was acting all big and bold. Sometimes you need to play dirty on the Challenge, and I get that. This was not that moment. If you’re robbing a bank or a casino or the government, it is fully worth it. However, this was like stealing 50 dollars from your mother’s wallet to buy pot. Petty theft is precisely that, petty.

2 Fessy vs. Nelson

Nelson’s loss to Rogan last season was impressive since he weighs 20–30 lbs less than Rogan. This one was holy-shit levels of impressive. Fessy is 6'5, 245 lbs, and runs a 4.78 40 yard dash, making him the fastest guy in the house easily. He was one of the top collegiate tight-ends in the nation. Nelson is a guy who works out a lot and used to be a strip club manager.

In round one, when they make contact, they come to a standstill, with Nelson getting as low as possible. Fessy is about 60% off the way down the hall, yet Nelson continues to dig lower and lower, pushing forward even with his body almost entirely prone. To make matters worse, Fessy decides to play dirty despite having both a 50+ lb weight advantage and a speed/football advantage. He rips out Nelson’s facemask at one point (which should have been a 15-yard penalty) and keeps his muddy hands in Nelson’s face/eyes for a decent duration. Even TJ warned Fessy after the first round, which makes me believe that he was toeing a potential DQ line. He also kept rocking Nelson’s and body against the wall themselves, and even with all of it, Nelson stays in there. When they finally release one another, it comes down to a photo finish with Fessy barely getting it.

Round two is much worse for Nelson as Fessy’s speed wins out as he gets about 75–80% of the way down the hall by the time they physically make contact. He tries his hardest to hold Fessy back as long as possible, prolonging the inevitable. Fessy wins. Everyone watching is proud of Nelson for holding his own, and Fessy has lost a lot of respect over the fact that he had even to play dirty to defeat his much smaller friend.

1 The Aftermath and 3 New Teams

Fessy, already seen as a backstabber, triples down by picking Kaycee as his new partner, dropping Aneesa the first chance he got. Kaycee is annoyed since it limits their voting power as separate teams and puts a target on her. As a physical duo, they are going to be formidable. Leroy now has the option of Aneesa or Amber, and he picks Aneesa, a long-time friend, and they maybe hooked up at the beginning of the decade. Mechie and Amber M get partnered together, and it’s rumored they have been hooking up this season, and it’s not been shown. Together, they weigh as much as Fessy. At least they are a good-looking duo!

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Allan Aguirre

27 years old. I blog about MTV's the Challenge and will dabble into other subjects occasionally. Follow me on Twitter for the occasional bad joke.