Challenge Vendettas Finale Recap

Here we are … the final. At last we get to see the best players from Vendettas race against each other for the Challenge champion title. Before the race starts, we briefly see the house the night before the final. Leroy essentially tells Tony that he is a snake who Leroy will be gunning for in the final.

Kyle and Cara are in bed together and Kyle does not want to exert himself too much. He explains how afraid he is of the other guys in the final, considering Leroy and Zach have previously run finals and Tony has been beasting all season. Cara advises him to look for the equalizers, anything can happen in a final and it is the reason why she does not expect to win. Kailah and Nicole both express their desire to beat Cara Maria and Kam jokes that Cara Maria is more like Karma Maria as her grenades keep coming back to haunt her.

The Final

In the morning, they dress in warm clothing for the final and head to a swampy area by a castle known as Kost Castle. The players will be running to three different checkpoints in an obstacle course, heading to each checkpoint while wearing something which influences their running (suit of armor, shackles, etc). The players then find out that Bananas and Melissa have returned as mercenaries, increasing the difficulty for their vendettas.

TJ informs them that only the top four players (two men and two women) will be advancing to the second portion of the final. The rest of the players will be eliminated and relinquish their bank accounts.

First Portion

During the first portion, players are shackled up, grab a token for the first section and race off to the “TorchBringer” challenge, where players grab torches from their own personal bin and race them back and forth to another bin with their name on, roughly a football field’s distance away. The added twist is players can steal each others’ torches on their run back and place it back into those players’ boxes.

Guys Competition

Tony takes the lead to start, Zach following behind, and Kyle thereafter. Leroy is taking his time in 4th and not far behind the rest. When they start bringing torches back and forth, Tony and Zach strike first by stealing one of Leroy’s torches, forcing Leroy to start taking theirs. Leroy goes into straight beast mode, going at a way faster than the other. Leroy ends the torchbringer challenge in second, while Zach and Tony finish third and fourth, respectively. Oh yeah, Kyle blows everyone away in first, because nobody even touches his torches.

As Kyle runs off from the portion, he jokingly yells: “Is Kyle going to win the Challenge?”

Girls Competition

Cara and Nicole are setting the pace for the girls, Kam trails closely behind, while Kailah is at the back of the pack. Nicole falls in a swampy puddle and she feels a crack in her ankle, however, she continues in second place. Cara Maria yells to the others that she will not steal from them if they don’t steal from her, a fair agreement considering the final has barely started. What does Nicole do while in second place with a bad ankle? She steals Cara’s torch and ignites the fury of Karma Maria. Soon after, Nicole falls to the ground in tears, her ankle is sprained and she cannot continue the final. She is eliminated and loses her bank.

Cara finishes first by a huge margin (before Tony). Kam finishes second, and Kailah third.

Second Portion

Players must grab their second token and race off to face the mercenaries. They enter a small dungeon and play over/under with Bananas and Melissa. It’s a best of three match in which they get one card and must decide whether the following card will be over or under. If they win, they get to continue the final, if not Bananas/Melissa choose a grenade to use against them.

Grenade 1: Force the player to drink water

Grenade 2: Force the player to do jumping jacks

Grenade 3: Bury a log in the ground (what the fuck? This escalated quickly)

Bananas plans on inflicting pain to Zach and Tony, and helping Leroy if he can. However, none of the guys lose. Kyle, Leroy, Zach, and Tony arrive in that order.

For the girls, Cara beats Melissa and is safe. Kam arrives and loses 2–1. Melissa pays her back for their fight all the way back in the beginning of the season. She forces Kam to bury a hole in the ground big enough for a log, which I don’t know if you know, takes a decent amount of time. Kailah finally shows up and beats Melissa.

Third Portion

Players put on a suit of armor and race to a pegged sword game/eating challenge. There is a circle with two sides of swords in pegs, players can remove one, two, or three swords for a turn. The game is played between two players, the person with one sword remaining wins. The winner can force someone to eat either hot chocolate, cheese, or soup. The caveat of this portion is you have to wait for someone to catch up to you.

Kyle is the first person at this station and has to wait a decent while for Leroy to get there. They play the game, Leroy wins, and forces Kyle to eat some cheese. Leroy is now in first place for the first time in the final. Kyle eats the cheese and runs after him. Zach arrive at the section and Cara Maria shortly thereafter. Zach yells at her to pull out three swords and says it does not matter who wins because they will drink hot chocolate. Zach wins and Cara drinks some delicious hot chocolate.

When Tony arrives the checkpoint, he realizes he has to wait on either Kailah or Kam. His chances of winning are gone. Kam is burying a log, and this gives Kailah the chance to get ahead for the first time. Kailah is struggling mightily and is only second because of the grenade used on Kam.

They hit a checkpoint where they can remove the armor and get a final sprint to the finish line. This is where Leroy dies out. Zach pushes ahead of everyone and Kyle pulls out all his stops. In the end, the results are:

1 Zach
2 Kyle
3 Leroy
4 Tony

1 Cara
2 Kailah
3 Kam

Leroy ends the season with no money, just how he started. Tony loses his bank of nearly 40k, while Kam loses 19k. Kyle shocks everyone once again, and Kailah makes it through despite a weak performance. Kailah received some major luck to make it to the final portion.

Final Portion

Before they run the final, TJ informs them there will be one gender-less winner. He tells them the pay-outs for each finish:

4th = $5,000
3rd = $10,000
2nd = $35,000
1st = $150,00 (115k difference from 2nd, 145k from 4th)
1st also gets all the money left in the pool from eliminated players…. which is $220,000
Meaning, 1st = $370,000 (325k difference from 2nd, 365k difference from 4th).

The first place male and female get a head-start for the final portion. There is a colored puzzle board that players must learn, then run upstairs to memorize a second board. They must correct the first board. First person to finish it all, wins.

Ironically, Cara won a similar color memorization puzzle on Rivals 2, and Zach famously had an outburst towards Jonna about a color puzzle she could not memorize.

Kyle has bad short-term memory and Kailah is not the best at puzzles, they struggle with this board. Zach and Cara are going toe to toe. Each ask for a check, and each have one piece incorrect. MTV leaves us on a to be continued… Of course!