Challenge War of the Worlds 2 Episode 7 Recap : 10 Biggest Takeaways

Episode 7 is in the books and I decided to focus on the 10 Biggest moments/takeaways from the seventh episode. Since you’re Challenge fans reading this, I figure you likely have watched the episode already. These will be integral storylines that the seventh episode focused on. I’ll breakdown why they matter for the season.

Honorable Mentions:

• Idris’s passivity
• Is Dee too in her feelings?
• What’s going on with Esther and Kayleigh

10 Leroy is a boss

Last week Leroy stepped up as a leader for his team. This week, he remained a steady hand, leading the ship. When Zach splashed Ninja, Leroy was the first to tell him to stop. Leroy also held Jordan back/protected him a bit.

It’s refreshing to watch Leroy lead a team. One could argue that Leroy was likely one of the worst individual males on Team USA going into the season. He has easily been one of their most vital team members in terms of working within a team.

9 Ninja is a pariah

I am very 50–50 when it comes to Ninja. She is a strong woman who can compete at a high level as she was the top female finisher from War of the Worlds and even eliminated Hunter last season. However, she gains the ire of her team as she’s not great with communication, and has multiple weaknesses that her strengths do not make up for. While Ninja can use her abilities to strive in an individual competition; they are not significant enough to make a difference in a team setting. When other players have similar strengths, all they notice is your weaknesses.

I felt terrible for Ninja when Zach splashed her. I also laughed once, so I am also going to hell.

8 Misplaced confessionals

When Jordan gave his confessional about not wanting to live in a disgusting germ-filled house, MTV ran a confessional of Cara and Kam in succession, shitting on Jordan as a human being. Cara and Kam have a distinct distaste for Jordan (especially Cara). Although, because this confessional came from any time during the game, it was likely not regarding Jordan’s sanitation issues.

Likewise, Josh had confessional where he talked about Georgia maybe still liking Bear, wherein the scene, he is watching them cuddle. MTV was all over the place this episode.

7 Kyle is a bit of a crybaby

Kyle was spoiled to start his Challenge career. He had an immaculate rookie season where his vendetta was the first player eliminated, he had multiple girls throwing themselves at him, and he formed a friendship with the veteran males quite quickly. Kyle also had a relationship with the strongest female player. He skated to the final based on his stellar social game.

It’s annoying to watch Kyle play this game. He is entitled and is expecting the game to go his way despite him not taking the actions to make a difference. A smart Kyle unites him, Idris, and CT as an alliance against the two pairs of best friends. Instead, he complains about Rogan not going to elimination, but Kyle didn’t see an elimination during his rookie season either.

6 CT is frustrated

Visibly, CT looks weathered this season. He never wanted to be on Team UK. His team keeps losing even with Team USA continually fighting. I honestly would not be shocked to see CT volunteer himself for elimination to switch sides.

CT has always been more aligned with Joss and Rogan, but he said he’s a floater. It seems weird for CT to pick Joss and Rogan to stick with as they are so different from him as a competitor. Theo’s skirmish with CT from the previous male elimination day may have pushed CT more firmly to the Rogan and Joss side. Regardless, it’s a weird season for CT.

5 Georgia

I liked Georgia in her first season. She was a great competitor, had funny confessionals, and made questionable choices that were entertaining. This season she’s just problematic. Georgia is emotionally using Josh, hooking up with Bear (who she knows doesn’t care for her), and is throwing a fit because the game is not going her way. She is telling Team USA to vote Rogan in because he’s a coward who needs to prove himself, yet, it’s her fault for not attempting to garner more votes onto her alliance’s side first. Not only that, but she is in literal tears whenever any of her friends are in elimination.

Georgia is a child. Similar to many other competitors, her ability in the challenges only enables her bad habits.

4 Rogan has more lives than a cat

Every single week there’s a guys elimination, Rogan’s name has been on the chopping block, and every week he has avoided going in. You might call him a coward, but had he been voted in this week, he likely would have been forced to face his best friend, Joss. Either he goes home, or he loses his #1 ally. Rogan begged for Idris and CT’s votes, and while you can see that as weakness, that is playing the game.

Earning your stripes is cool and all, winning money and making it to the final is way cooler. The best way to never get eliminated is by never going into elimination.

3 Tori and Jordan’s relationship

When Jordan is alone with Tori, we see a vulnerable and honest human being. You can tell Jordan is physically shaken up from the lifestyle of a Challenge house. Even if you hate Tori and Jordan, you have to respect their relationship because these two legitimately love one another and would die for each other. They have fights, yet they fight because they care about each other’s best interests as well as their interests as a couple.

So many Challenge relationships are one-dimensional. When I look at Dee/Rogan and Cara/Paulie, I wonder to myself, “do these people actually care about each other?” Meanwhile, it is intrinsic when it comes to Tori and Jordan. Tori is generally friends with everyone; however, she’d rather face the entire world with Jordan than without.

A great moment from the episode is their talk following Tori’s riverboat trip with Turbo. Jordan swallowed his pride and listened to his girlfriend because she saw how much it mattered to her that he apologized.

2 Jordan and Turbo are the same with different awareness levels

Turbo and Jordan are two extremely talented individuals who seem to be able to succeed at whatever the Challenge throws them. They both also seem to have a flair for showing off at times. Jordan is a dick. He is an admitted dick. Jordan does not have the patience for incompetence as he has succeeded his entire life despite having a disability. While Jordan pushes his team hard in challenges, he is not lying when it comes to the success rate. Jordan has made the final in 3 out of 4 seasons and won twice in incredibly difficult formats. He was an idiot for yelling at Turbo and speaking to him in a condescending matter.

Turbo is a bit of a hothead who kind of views himself as a superhero figure. Turbo plays the edit incredibly well. When someone pushes his buttons, he blows up. Turbo kicking the relic after Jordan had already put it back up once was such a dick move, but he played it off as it being Jordan’s fault. Then he attacked Jordan for yelling at him and was sprinting to get over to Jordan after security and challengers were holding him back. It is ridiculous Turbo wanted an apology for yelling at Jordan after attempting to assault him. Jordan was right when he said, “apologizing will only boost his ego.” Just because Jordan is a dick, it does not mean he cannot suss out when other people are as dickish. Turbo is so used to being told he’s right, that he honestly cannot handle someone having an edge, especially someone like Jordan.

My favorite line of the episode is when Tori tells Jordan, “you can’t just yell at people,” and Jordan smiles and retorts, “yeah, you can.” It was such a smart-ass response.

1 So Long Bear!

Bear did not expect to be facing Joss, and Joss did not expect to go in. Another great moment from the episode was the second Joss’s name gets voted into the Proving Grounds, he drops his jacket because he realizes “oh shit, it’s go time.”

It was one of the most epic hall brawls in Challenge history. Not only did they make the players run through five hallways, but it was a best of five series as well. After the third round, I assumed Joss had won. Joss beat Bear in the first round quite quickly. In the second round, Joss got a considerable lead on Bear in the run and was getting the second point until Bear tripped Joss, forcing him to fall twice and allowing Bear to get to the second point. One of the biggest reasons you never want to go into elimination is because a small incident like tripping could end your time on the show. Joss’s legs were blown out after the first two rounds. He won the final two rounds using brute strength. Over time, Bear could not physically take any more hits from Joss.

Joss is now a career 3–1 in eliminations. While Joss’s alliance on the UK has the numbers for him to avoid any vote out if his team were to lose the daily challenges; he is now the target for Team USA when they win challenges (which is often). It would have been smart to join Team USA as both Jordan and Paulie’s alliances would welcome a new number to their group. Surprisingly, Bear has not been a big player this season despite going into two eliminations early. He did not have any game strategy, always got voted in because of his lack of politics, and lost anticlimactically. Even though Bear got the point in the elimination, we all knew Joss was winning. At least he got to enjoy some cuddle time with Laurel and Georgia.