Challenge Vendettas Episode 8 Recap: A bloke and a squirrel

The cliffhanger of Veronica’s finger is revealed as a break. Veronica cannot continue the elimination, and thus she is eliminated from the game. It is sad to see her go on a technicality, and it is sad that Aneesa doesn’t get to actually compete to get a real redemption. Instead, they all feel bad.

Next, we get Kam vs Tori.

In the first round, Kam is not ready and Tori scores a quick point. In the second round, Tori looks primed to get another point until Kam puts her down and gives her a push to get a restart. Once the fire is lit under her ass, Kam gets a lot faster, a lot more physical, and Tori is winding down. With Leroy coaching and supporting her on the sidelines, Kam ties up the score and eventually pulls out the win. Kam has beaten one of the strongest girls currently in the Challenge world (not a legend, but definitely an all star). The only disappointing part about this elimination is that it didn’t fully feel like Tori tried her hardest because she wasn’t in the game.

This tweet about her experience is a bit disheartening as it diminishes Kam’s win, and it shows she either didn’t care enough about her role or is a little bitter. Regardless, they are two badass female who had a good match.

Joss vs Derrick

I plan on doing a shot by shot analysis for this match in depth later. This match was one of the most impressive 1 on 1 fights ever. Joss, having never watched the show before, had no clue who Derrick was and how good he was. He expected to steamroll him, which is the biggest strength Derrick had in this.

At the end of the day, this was not a match of big versus small, this was a match of experienced vs inexperienced. Derrick did his first physical-like elimination more than a decade and a half ago. Even though Joss was much bigger than Derrick and in better shape, Joss didn’t know what angles to take when trying to rip the figure 8 out of Derrick’s hands, and it didn’t help that Derrick knew when to jump out of bounds or the perfect angles to have.

This is a match you need to watch multiple times to understand the intricacies of the game. The game was so intense that it went to Sudden Death, instead of best out of 3. After Joss thought he was out of bounds one round, he let go of the figure leading to Derrick stealing it and scoring a point. It sucks to watch such an epic battle end on a technicality.

Joss’s game ends, but the good thing is the loss will only teach him how to play the game, and what it takes to win an elimination. If he was this close against Derrick in his first elimination, imagine what he can do now that he knows what the show is about?

Joss, Shane, and Veronica are eliminated, and they learn that Joss’s 20k is going to the money pot for the final. A truly tragic loss.

Kam wins a grenade with three options:

Grenade 1: Lube up one of your opponents before the next mission.
Grenade 2: Force an opponent to do 30 burpees before the mission.
Grenade 3: Make an opponent compete in the next challenge with flippers on.

Post Elimination

The guys feel relieved to get Joss out of the game as he was their biggest threat in a final. Kyle is still in the game as the only British male left. He has done an incredible job of blending in and getting the veterans to trust him. We may look back on this season as one of the great social games all-time as Kyle has never been a target in this game, yet he yields so much power.

Following her win, Kam is enjoying a bubble bath where she is tended to by Marie and Kailah.

(This is not a graphic that I made, this was actually done by the Challenge editing team.) They discuss who she should use her grenade on. Marie and Kailah want Kam to use it on Cara Maria as she is their vendetta. Natalie comes up to Kam trying to broker a deal after she nominated her for elimination a couple episodes before.

Cara Maria approaches Kam to ask who she will be using the grenade on. Cara attempts to hint to Kam that she is a powerful player in the game and that using the grenade on her would be a poor choice. She tells Kam and later Kyle that anyone going after would have to deal with her asking to see them in elimination.

Daily Challenge

They arrive at the challenge and see a bunch of clunker cars they will be jumping onto. Players will have to jump from the hood of a car onto the hood of another, climb up into the top (that is open), go through the middle and hop onto the next hood). They will do this until they have gone through all five cars. They will play in teams of 4 (one of 5), and it will be raining during the mission. Troika picks the teams.

Kam chooses to use her Grenade on Cara Maria and make her lube up before. Another vendettas is formed. The previous Troika (Kyle, Tony, Nicole) make teams to set themselves up and to have their vendettas fail.

Round 1

Team 1 (Bananas, Nelson, Cara Maria, Natalie) vs Team 2 (Zach, Tony, Nicole, Kailah)

Natalie/Kailah: The first two to attempt this challenge do not do well. Kailah does not even make it to the second car and shows how difficult this will be. Natalie makes it the farthest out of any of the girls as she gets to the second car, makes a leap for the third car (a good jump), and hits the water incredibly hard.

Nelson/Zach: The third jump seems to be the hardest in the game, and they are both able to make it. Zach is a bit faster than Nelson until he smashes the back glass of the fourth car. He is able to pull his way up and finish. Nelson actually finishes first though. They end up being the only two to finish.

Cara/Nicole: Nicole loses immediately. Cara gets to the second car despite being lubed up. However, when she tries to go through the car and get on the hood, all the lube and rain water has her slip off.

Bananas/Tony: The first jump by Bananas is impressive. Then he falls flat on his ass on the second jump trying to go too fast. Tony almost makes the third jump but gets disqualified for grabbing onto the side ropes.

Round 2

Team 3 (Kyle, Devin, Leroy, Britni, Kayleigh) vs Team 4 (Brad, Marie, Jemmye, Kam)

Jemmye/Kayleigh: Both decide to not even try.

Britni/Kam: Britni can’t make the jump to the second car, and once Kam gets on top of the first car, she decides she is too afraid.

Kyle/Marie: Like the others, Kyle can’t make the jump to the third car, and like the other girls, Marie can’t make it to the second car.

Leroy/Brad:

MTV. NEVER LET ONE OF YOUR COMPETITORS BE AT THIS ANGLE WHILE THIS HIGH IN THE AIR AGAIN.

Leroy ends up okay in the end. Brad goes after, and his old white man hops are not good.

You already can tell he’s not making it!

Devin: He goes last and unsurprisingly cannot make it to the third car like everyone else.

Nelson wins the Challenge for his team, and Bananas/Nelson/Natalie become the Troika.

The worst team (Marie, Jemmye, Brad, Kam) has to vote a girl in. Brad and Jemmye vote for Marie, and Marie votes for Jemmye. Kam has to vote for Marie as she is afraid that a tie vote will allow the winning team to pick anyone, and Cara Maria is on the winning team. Marie gets voted in and she tells Jemmye she wants to see her in the elimination.