The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Episode 12 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
The 12th 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 12.
If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:
This week was the Mini Final, and I’m going to open this recap by breaking down the placements of players rather than summarizing players running and digging around some dirt.
10 Kyland & Tori Crushed It
As awesome as Kyland performed in his first two seasons, there’s always been a sense of hesitation for me to anoint him as a top contender, partly because he did not face top-notch competition on his original shows. Challenge USA 1 had the weakest male in Challenge history, and Battle For A New Champion was probably Bottom 5–7 All-Time as well; Kyland didn’t make the Final either. So, while his elimination wins have been impressive, we hadn’t gotten a gauge of how Kyland would stack up in a Final against veteran competition until today. I now feel super comfortable saying Kyland is a legitimate top contender for winning. Kyland crushed this Mini Final from both a physical and mental perspective, with Jordan being the only man close to him.
In the three weeks since it’s gone individual, Kyland’s won twice and has a second-place finish. He’s been the top male competitor, and while it’s putting a bit of a target on him — I think Kyland welcomes it. Kyland takes so much pride in the concept of competition that he wants everyone to know he’s a threat.
So many Tori haters in the last few years have said that production has purposefully kept strong women off the show (Cara in particular) so Tori could look strong. Well, they can all shut the fuck up now. Once again, against the strongest female cast in Challenge history, Tori stands on top in a physically intense challenge. Like Kyland, since the game has gone individual, Tori’s won two dailies and finished 2nd in the other. By winning this daily challenge, Tori got to take another shot at Bananas without him being able to retaliate, and she’s completely safe next week as long as she doesn’t finish last in the daily challenge.
What I find so impressive about Tori this season is she’s locked in mentally when it comes to puzzles & memorization games in a way that she never has before. Tori’s always been competent with puzzles but never been a dominant force with them, and it’s why she got purged on War of the Worlds 2. Devin’s puzzle ability was crucial for their win, even on Ride or Dies. She’s grown enough now that she doesn’t need Devin, and we all know Tori is a beast physically. Even if Tori doesn’t win this season, her performances thus far on Battle of the Eras have firmly cemented her place as a Top 10 female competitor in show history, and she’s tapping on the glass of 2–5.
9 Top Contenders
I don’t want to take anything away from Kyland’s win, but Jordan is still the clear favorite to win this season. Kyland gave his 110% all, and Jordan was only three minutes behind him, which made it look like he was getting a typical workout. In total, the two of them raced for less than 70 minutes. While I’m not doubting Kyland’s fitness, what separates Jordan from all other players is that he can keep up the same pace for multiple days, which is what the Final will entail.
Rachel is also a big threat to win on the women’s side, and there is an edit/narrative perspective behind her right now. She finished only 6 minutes behind Tori, and it’s important to note that winning would’ve put Rachel in a position where she’d have to vote in either Bananas or Jordan, two players she’s aligned with/cut deals with. Now, Rachel didn’t throw this daily challenge at all; Tori did so well that Rachel gave 100% and was still just second. Regardless, Rachel is within striking distance, and if Tori gets taken out before the Final or something trips her up, it’s easy to envision a win for Rachel. Plus, it’s not crazy to envision Rachel outperforming Tori or anyone because she is a beast.
I also want to list Jenny as a contender because she is within 12 minutes of Tori and 6 minutes of Rachel. It feels weird putting her on here when the editing tried to hammer home that Jenny’s asthma is an issue, and Rachel mentioned memorization being a weakness for her. Yet, Jenny’s come in 3rd, 1st, and 3rd in these solo daily challenges, even with the edit depicting her struggling. The edit feels like it’s either foreshadowing a Jenny DQ in the Final or her overcoming her asthma issues to win.
8 Middle of the Pack
Cory came in third, but he was 30 minutes behind Jordan — so I don’t feel comfortable calling him a top contender. This Mini Final portrayed why Cory is one of the greatest to never win because he beat everyone except the genuine contenders, and so if Cory wants to win, he needs Kyland & Jordan to get taken out before the Final or for them to get injured/DQ’d during it. I feel bad because Cory’s puzzle and memory skills have improved — just not enough to be on that elite tier. Josh came in 4th — his fitness is impressive, he just lacks the puzzle skills to be taken seriously as a player.
On the women’s side, Olivia came in 4th and had her best performance of the season. She even shocked herself a bit by how well she placed. If you watched Ride or Dies, Olivia was a very good competitor throughout the season, which has made her leaning into the Ladies or Leisure thing a bit disappointing. It was good to see her perform well, and I hope she gets some confidence back in herself as a competitor. I was super impressed by Aviv as she was running on essentially one leg, yet came in 5th. On the other side of the coin, Cara coming in 6th was an eye-opener in a bad way — she and Aviv finished the memory portion at essentially the same time, yet Aviv somehow outpaced Cara even with the bad leg. Cara has to get her shit together. Whereas Tori has established herself as someone who can compete with the best, Cara looks like someone who shouldn’t be in the female GOAT conversation. This daily challenge was a bit of a reminder of why Cara is an 8x Final loser, and when you look at the history of her wins, you will see that she did not face steep competition in the Final.
7 A Dehydrated Banana
From a character standpoint, Bananas can still stir the pot as good as anyone, and he’s still 90% of the competitor he used to be. Today’s Mini Final reflected the 10% he’s missing. When Bananas was in his “prime,” he trained daily, and once the season was around the corner, he’d begin doing two-a-day workouts. What really set him apart, though, was his mental sharpness, where he’d always known shortcuts and would have strategies for mental comps like these. Going into today’s daily challenge, Bananas wanted and needed to win to ensure his safety and, so he started guns blazing and was in the lead early on. Except that type of physical exertion led to him being more drained to where he made a mental error in the memory portion that basically forced him to reset his entire process. In the last portion of the Ride or Dies Final, Bananas made a similar mistake, and by the time he realized it, there was no chance he and Nany would catch Tori & Devin.
I believe in this daily challenge that if Bananas had taken his time and worked to a pace where he wouldn’t overexert himself, he would’ve easily finished in 3rd and probably had a time within 10–15 minutes of Kyland and Jordan. At the same time, Bananas isn’t trying to play for 3rd, which is why he went all out, but it blew up in his face, and instead, he came in 5th. Today’s daily challenge told us what we already knew: if Bananas wins, he’ll need to find a way to get Jordan out of the game before the Final.
6 Bottom of the Barrel
Derek continues to do just enough to avoid any real penalties. He talked about how the memorization portion would be his time to shine, yet he still finished 6th and was 40+ minutes behind Kyland & Jordan. It’s hard not to think Derek is a lay-up at this point. Theo once again had a piss poor performance from both a physical and mental standpoint to where his two-minute penalty didn’t even matter — still, at least, he didn’t come in last. Meanwhile, Michele continues to survive by the skin of her teeth, yet she’ll likely be in elimination next week due to the penalty she received from this week’s daily challenge.
5 So Long, Nehemiah
I was caught off guard by Nehemiah coming in last in the Purge because he’s generally a good competitor. One of Nehemiah’s greatest skills is his baseline competency, where even though he lacks overwhelming strengths, he typically doesn’t have weaknesses that lead to him finishing last in daily challenges. At the same time, Nehemiah has been a total zero in terms of entertainment, and even though he’s had a couple of standout performances this season, including taking out CT, nobody was looking at him as a top contender. This daily challenge was Nehemiah’s chance to emerge as a threat, and instead, he quietly did awful. Which made his exit shocking because Theo, Michele, and Laurel were loudly bad in this daily challenge — meanwhile, Nehemiah struggled in silence and then was out.
Nehemiah took the loss on the chin, and I like the guy, but I don’t feel the need to see him on the main MTV show again.
4 Loser Laurel
As much as Laurel has frustrated and disappointed me with her actions as a human, I’ve never felt the need to take away anything from her as a competitor and have made excuses for her in the past when she’s lost/performed poorly. That changes today because Laurel’s performance and behavior in this purge challenge was embarrassing.
It was clear early on that Laurel doesn’t have the cardio and fitness that the top women on this show have as she was walking rather than running much earlier than her fellow competitors. Even then, though, Laurel could have finished in the Top 7 if she had given her all in this daily challenge. Instead, Laurel was struggling, saw players outperforming her, and then she saw players she believed were below her beating her. So, Laurel, like the toddler that she is, threw a fit. Laurel QUIT. I fully believe Laurel could have beaten Michele if she hadn’t quit, except the reason Laurel quit is essentially what Cara Maria outlined.
That is, Laurel realized she wouldn’t be able to defeat these upper-echelon female competitors in a legit intense Challenge Final. Laurel is terrified of looking bad in a Final. She’s roasted Paulie, Abram, Zach, and Wes all over the coals for some of their Final performances. Laurel does not want to get bunched in with those people, and she doesn’t want anyone to have an elimination or a Final win over her because she does genuinely care about where she ranks all-time as a competitor. Which is why it’s insane that Laurel is pretending online and after her loss here that she didn’t come on with serious intentions to win. Laurel would not have thrown the daily challenge to get Emily out, she would not have thrown Cara into the first elimination on the basis of her being a Final threat, and would not have been a total asshole throughout the show if she didn’t want to win. Actually, she’d probably be an asshole regardless.
This daily challenge performance by Laurel vindicates the people who hated on her All-Stars 4 win, as it seems like she only won the Final because of the Star Twist and the fact it was not anywhere near the intensity level of modern Finals. I’m not going to take anything away from that All-Stars 4 win from Laurel because she did well in the Final that got put in front of her. Still, I will say this — forever, I’ve had Laurel & Evelyn as 1A and 1B for top female competitors all-time, and this daily challenge was enough for me that I’m comfortable with Evelyn at 1 by herself now and Laurel at 2. Evelyn has not competed in this show in 14 years, and I know if you threw her into that desert and told her not to come in last out of 8 women and it’s an individual challenge where it’s all on you, she’s not coming in last, and she’s definitely not quitting. Honestly, I’m mad TJ should’ve called out Laurel for quitting, except I think he was so tired of her that he didn’t want to waste a breath.
3 An Unneeded Deliberation
Last week, I praised Bananas for his ability to stir the pot and make a scene. This week, I’m here to say that I found his exhibition in the deliberation disgusting. Pretty simply, I draw the line at toenail cutting. While I appreciate healthy cuticle care, I’m grossed out watching people cut their toenails. If I don’t wanna watch Margot Robbie cut her toenails, I damn sure don’t want to see Johnny Bananas hob goblin ass feet.
The deliberation even happening was dumb — we all knew Tori would throw Bananas in, and with Jordan being the other option, it was a 200% guarantee.
2 Theo vs. Bananas
From a production standpoint, I loved the idea of this elimination. It involved some strategy and problem-solving while also being physical. Unfortunately, the match-up was terrible for this elimination. There was no shot that Theo would’ve won this elimination, given his size. I don’t want to say it’s completely unfair because, more often than not, being bigger is often the edge in physical eliminations, so there should be some that favor the smaller player.
If Bananas had lost this elimination, it would’ve been a terrible look for him. That said, credit to Theo for performing as well as he did given the game. Ultimately, losing Theo here isn’t consequential because he’s been in the Bottom 3 for men in all of the daily challenges, and it doesn’t seem like he has the puzzle or cardio skills for a Final anymore. If Theo ever comes back on this show, he needs to start training more like he used to when he was a sprinter/runner because cardio is more crucial than how much you can bench press.
With this win, Bananas now holds the record for the most elimination wins on the MTV flagship program, which makes sense as he’s been on the most seasons. I will note that Bananas is on a 6-elimination winning streak on the MTV flagship show, which not many players have ever won 6-in-a-row.
A little random note to add… Had Nehemiah come in 7th rather than Theo, he would’ve been a tough opponent for Bananas to face in this elimination given his frame and yoga background.
1 New Targets & Karma Drama
Bananas nominations were the same as they were from two weeks ago, with Michele, Olivia, and now Cara taking the place of Nia. Had Michele been to one to get purged rather than Laurel, Bananas would’ve been forced to nominate one of his Angels. This is the perfect opportunity to talk about the fact that Laurel gave Bananas only one karma point! When so many people turned their backs on Laurel, Bananas has remained a loyal ally to her, cleaned up her messes, and continually defended her online, only to get the lowest possible amount of points. It’s evident that Laurel views Jordan as her #1 ally, partly because she’s still in love with him and wishes he’ll call her his greatest blessing on The Challenge. But disrespecting someone she calls a friend & ally in Bananas by not even giving him a 2 or 3 is crazy.
Moving on, I think Olivia is dead in the water. She checked out mentally after she betrayed Nurys & Horacio on Season 39. With Theo gone and facing this competition, I think she will check out again. I expect Olivia in the arena next week, but unless it’s a size-based elimination, I don’t envision her winning.
