The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Episode 19 Finale Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways

The 19th episode of The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras 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 Episode 19.

If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:

10 The Ridiculousness Of Karma Points

Karma Points is such a bullshit concept for so many reasons, but the biggest one is that the players were kept in the dark about it and never informed how it worked. Yes, TJ kept saying how you treat people matters, but how could the players know this is how it would play out? Secondly, are you then asking people to not actually play the game? This format required players who went into elimination and won to target people, meaning they created enemies who would likely not give them good Karma Votes. So, what are they supposed to do in that scenario? They’re cornered in and already fighting for their lives, so punish them even more? It’s nonsense. Add in the factor that so many of these players have long-tenured histories with one another which then skewed the votes. So, does it matter how you treat people, or is it a popularity contest? I don’t know; none of this shit makes sense. And it fucking sucks that someone was able to jump from 3rd to 1st because of this dumbass twist.

Also, it seemed really “convenient” that the Karma Votes were worth double all the other checkpoints, which led to a tie between Rachel and Jenny. I love Rachel Robinson and think she’s a beast; however, I never want to see a Karma Vote again.

9 An Honorable Last Place Finish

Among players who have finished a Final, Kyland objectively had one of the worst Final performances in Challenge history. He finished last in 5/7 checkpoints and never placed higher than third. The Karma Points hilariously put him within striking distance of Bananas, which again reinforces how dumb Karma Points are. Kyland even said he was glad he didn’t steal 3rd Place from Bananas because his performance wasn’t worthy of it.

I’ll say this: I walked away impressed by Kyland from this Final because he was so out of his element in the water. Kyland basically got repeatedly punched in the face for two straight days during this Final, and yet he didn’t quit and just kept giving his all. And while he was nowhere near good enough, he wasn’t crying or quitting like others in position have — instead, Kyland persisted and even helped Michele & Rachel during the Final because he knew they had chances to win.

Knowing Kyland, he will take this loss as a learning experience and will be practicing his swimming for future seasons.

8 Tori’s Terrible Time

Throughout Day 1, everything was going wrong for Tori, and she was keeping a positive mindset…until the coins broke her. Tori stayed up so much longer only to come in last place. I’ll note this…Tori being 984 coins leads me to believe she either skipped a number in her counting or flipped two digits in sleep deliria. In this scenario, Tori would’ve only been 16 coins off, and in that world, Tori would’ve won the portion. Instead, Tori fell behind in a way that set her back for the rest of the Final. Interestingly enough, based on checkpoints, Tori performed exactly the same as Rachel did in this Final besides the coin portion. So, if you think Tori performed terribly, well, she essentially physically performed just like one of the season’s winners. Which is more telling about the flaws of this Final & format.

This was such a weird Final to watch because we know that Tori is an above-average swimmer based on her past seasons & performances, and she kept giving her all throughout this Final. Her coming in 2nd & 3rd in two portions on Day 2, where she came from behind and passed people up, directly changed the outcome of this season. Ultimately, Tori just wasn’t as good of a swimmer as Jenny & Michele (neither was Rachel). Yet, we walk away from this Final where Tori clearly came in 4th, and it’s a weird outcome because she was far and away the best competitor all season.

7 Bananas Own Personal Victory

The funniest and most relatable moment during Day 2 of the Final was when production forced Johnny Bananas to stay awake for an additional thirty minutes when he was ten coins away from finishing the coin challenge. Bananas’ face when he got rejected by production looked like a man who was ready to jump overboard…and yet…I get it! In this modern world, there are so many dumb little inconveniences like this one that ruin our days. I recently went to a mini golf place where they had multiple bartenders doing nothing, and when I went to order a drink, they told me I had to download their app and order off my phone. It blew my mind that instead of just handing them my credit card, I had to go through a ten-minute process to order a vodka Red Bull. That was Johnny Bananas in this moment, except multiplied by a billion because he had just been forced to swim a marathon and then got told he couldn’t rest for even longer.

After the coins, Bananas fully checked out of the Final as he knew he wasn’t catching Jordan and that the Karma vote wouldn’t be on his side. Season 40 marks Bananas third consecutive Finals loss, which is significant to note as Bananas had originally only lost twice in his first 9 Finals appearances and only once after his first Championship. Bananas is no longer the Final threat that he once was, and while he’s still an elite competitor — he’s clearly beatable. That said, you still shouldn’t let him get to a Final.

In classic Bananas fashion, he quickly overcame his loss and made the women’s results about himself. He was glad his angels Jenny & Rachel won but was much happier that Michele & Tori lost.

6 Derek’s Silver Medal

If you told a casual Challenge fan before the season that Derek Chavez would beat Johnny Bananas in the Season 40 Final, they probably would’ve asked: “Who is Derek Chavez?” Half-joking aside, Derek showed up in this Final and beat the 7x Champ cleanly. Derek was a guy who sat on the sidelines and got called for so many seasons, yet they kept getting left off the official casts. He was the first or second boot on three out of his first four seasons, and even before this season, Derek had never truly competed in a legitimate Final. So, to come in 2nd Place on a season with such a stacked cast proves that Derek more than deserved his spot on Season 40 and that he’s not one we can underestimate anymore. Also, Derek played an excellent social game this entire season and then, to no surprise, crushed the Karma Vote.

I’m happy for Derek, and he lives only 40 minutes away from me, so hopefully, he can buy me a drink with the 75k he won.

5 A Stolen Second Place Finish

In one sweep, the Karma Votes not only stole 2nd Place and 50 grand from Michele, it made the overall loss hurt even more as it put her only one point short of the two women who tied. Michele crushed this Final; she won two portions and came in the Top 2 in 5/7 checkpoints, which was more Top 2 finishes than Rachel & Tori combined. It’s not fair that Michele had to fight her way through three eliminations and then got punished even more by being forced to name targets multiple times, negatively affecting her Karma points. Similar to Jenny, Michele didn’t have pre-existing relationships with as many people on this cast and thus got punished for being part of Era 4. This Final was bullshit because it shows you can’t even be an underdog, scrapping & clawing to survive, then have the performance of a lifetime, only to then get knocked down because someone who got eliminated 15 weeks ago didn’t like you.

I’ve loved Michele since Survivor, and I never seriously thought she would be a Challenge threat against such strong women like these. To see her getting 2nd Place stripped from her grasp stings. Michele, having two watching two people hug and celebrate a win hurts. It is crazy to think that had Michele done better in one checkpoint of the Final; we could’ve theoretically had a three-way tie for first, which, in that case, production would have likely changed how much the karma points were worth. Michele keeps improving each season, yet I’m unsure if she’ll ever win this show. The actual window of opportunity for players to win is few and far between. Nelson was within two minutes of winning Invasion and was never close to winning again. I hope it’s not the same for Michele — at the very least, I hope she’s earned the respect of fans because she has a whole lot of mine.

Sidenote: It was hilarious watching Michele lose at quick math four times in a row, including to Derek, who gave her a good 5–10 seconds before he took the win for himself. It was then even more badass seeing Michele outswim three people who beat her to get 2nd Place on that checkpoint.

4 The True 1st Place Woman

Jenny won 4/7 checkpoints during this Final and finished 2nd in another. She dominated this Final, and had she figured out how to use a “sea scooter,” Jenny would’ve won regardless of the Karma Votes. Straight up, I was not rooting for Jenny going into or during this Final, yet I can’t help feeling annoyed that she has to share the title of winner of this season with someone who frankly was not close to her in this Final. Maybe I shouldn’t be annoyed because Jenny took the results in stride and seems to be a great sport about the matter. If anything, fans will likely be infinitely more annoyed than Jenny.

Moving on from the Karma stuff, Jenny still won this season, and by doing so, she’s the first woman on the MTV Flagship to win back-to-back appearances since Sarah Rice on Exes 2/Rivals 3. Jonna won back-to-back with All-Stars 2 & 3, and Kaz won Challenge UK & World Championships recently as well. Jenny has joined an elite group of players, and winning 2 out of her first 3 seasons is something we haven’t seen on the flagship show in a long, long time…I think Jodi was the last player to do so, as she won Gauntlet 2 & Duel 1. Someone might need to fact-check me on that.

Congrats to Jenny, and I hope she buys herself some good vapes with her 237.5k dollars.

3 A Highly Controversial Win

I want to open this portion by saying that if you go through the history of Challenge seasons, there have been so many outcomes where people who deserved a win for the season they put on, did not get it. On Dirty 30, Cara Maria had her best career run in daily challenges and came up short against Camila in the Final. On Fresh Meat 2, Kenny & Laurel went on a historic tear and then got edged out by Landon & Carley. Even last season, Nurys won all those eliminations and showed so much heart, only to lose to Emanuel. Just because they didn’t win the Final, it didn’t mean their overall seasons weren’t deserving of a win. Well, here we have an interesting outcome where Rachel was literally on a team of one at one point, fought through multiple eliminations, and then played one of the savviest political games we’ve ever seen to coast to the Final in the individual portion. If we were playing Survivor, Rachel had a season that seemed win-worthy, and there was a narrative behind her. So, for that reason, Rachel is not a completely undeserving winner.

Objectively speaking about the Final, Rachel only finished Top 2 in 2/7 checkpoints, and the only one she won was the coin counting. At best, Rachel’s performance among the women was middling. The fact that she could jump from 3rd to 1st because of the Karma Votes is genuinely insane and frustrating. When Rachel said she couldn’t imagine a better story/ending than her and Jenny sharing 1st, I rolled my eyes because I could imagine a million better stories. This episode felt like The Game of Thrones series finale all over again. I’m not mad, Rachel ; I’m just angry at production.

With this win, Rachel joins Evelyn Smith and Veronica Portillo as the only 3x women’s Champions in Challenge history! She also gets a win that is 16 years removed from her previous one, which is a record for the flagship MTV show.

2 The GOAT

A couple of Jordan quotes made me laugh during the Final. One was him highlighting that he didn’t come into this game with any “pre-game” alliances. Like, okay, Jordan, you didn’t text anyone coming, but there are certain players you never take shots at and never shoot at you. Additionally, Jordan had the undying loyalty of every woman he’d ever slept with in that house (except Jonna). Laurel would decapitate Johnny Bananas on the reunion stage in exchange for seven minutes in heaven with Jordan again. While he didn’t have a Vacation Alliance, Jordan was well-protected. Actually, via Tori, Jordan had pretty decent protection from said Vacation Alliance as well.

It also made me chuckle when Jordan said he wouldn’t believe you if you told him after Rivals 2 that he would be a 5x Champ. That’s total bullshit. In real life, Jordan walked onto the next season (Free Agents) like he was the King of The Challenge and was arrogant. Rivals 2 Jordan fully would’ve believed he’d be a 5x Champ if you told him! Now that I think about it, I’m a little mad that Jordan acted humbly throughout this entire Final…because he pulled off one of the biggest blowout wins ever and should’ve flexed about it more! Jordan was 1st Place in 6/7 checkpoints and finished 2nd in the other (coin counting). Nobody was even close to him in the actual Final, and he deserved that win.

I’ve claimed that Jordan is the greatest competitor in Challenge history since 2019, so I feel even more vindicated now in 2025. Jordan’s won 5 Titles in 10 seasons (including All-Stars 3 & World Championships). He’s proven to be able to earn the title of Champion under such different circumstances and formats as he’s won twice as an individual, twice as a pair, and once as part of a team. Jordan’s won the historic 30th and 40th season, won the stacked World Champions season, and he’s the only player to win three straight appearances in the last twenty MTV seasons. Jordan has also won 12 eliminations (10 on the MTV show), which puts him in spitting distance of the all-time franchise record. On top of all that, he’s been winning all his Finals in blowout fashion.

I’m not going to explain the entire math behind it either, but if you add up the statistical likelihood of all the seasons Jordan’s been on, the average player in his position is expected to have won 0.807 seasons. A regular player would not even be fully expected to have 1 Challenge Championship after his 10 seasons, whereas Jordan has 5. Mathematically, Jordan is performing 519% better than an average challenger, and let me tell you, nobody else in Challenge history is fucking close to that number. The guy is on another level, and he does it with flair.

1 Final Thoughts

The season got dragged down by its format. Switching from double to single eliminations slowed down the season massively, and the fact that the men weren’t allowed to take shots at men and the women weren’t allowed to take shots at the women hurt the show. If I were giving out awards, I’d name Bananas and Tori as the MVPs of this season because they brought the most to this show storyline-wise, which makes their 3rd and 4th place finishes hurt the overall season. If either had won, it would make the season much better. Some easy fixes could have made this season elite, and instead, it got super boring for the last eight to ten weeks. All in all, we’re done, and I appreciate everyone who reads my blogs and listens to my podcast.