The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Episode 3 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
The 3rd 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 3.
If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:
10 Team Captains
Seeing which players stepped up to be Team Captain for the first daily challenge was intriguing. Most players who took on the captainship role were those whose necks were on the line for that first elimination nomination and avoided it. The first elimination winners from the opening night of eliminations were all able to avoid the role as they felt they deserved a pass. Well, actually, all of them, except Tony. On the surface, I assumed Tony took on this role as he was at the bottom for the Era 3 men, so this was an opportunity for him to stand out and earn some power.
9.5 Gross Food
The rat and the very alive worms that were still moving were the grossest foods they had to eat. Not going into greater detail and I’m not posting pictures of them here because you don’t need to see them again.
9 Hardcore Daily Challenge
The daily challenge was super comprehensive. There was the Dragon Boat portion, which was both physical and all about team communication. Then there was the portion that was all about mental toughness and being able to stomach gross foods. Something interesting about the eating portion is that it seemed like players were only allowed to eat one at a time, which meant everybody had to eat, and if you held your team back, it would’ve reflected on you. Then, they had to organize the seasons in order, which paid homage to the show’s history. This daily challenge was very telling for all the Eras.
Era 3 is clearly at an advantage with Devin & Jordan on their team. Devin has become one of the best communicators and daily challenge strategists in show history. On SLA, his team won most of the dailies because he took a leadership role, and we saw him do similar things on Ride or Dies in both the team portion and his partnership with Tori. Don’t sleep on Devin. Everyone respects Jordan , so having those two guys as leaders is great. I also believe Tori, Cory, Jonna, and Averey are very strong listeners who can take a backseat and put in the work physically. In this specific daily challenge, Tori also stepped up by having all the seasons memorized. If this is going to be a team game the entire way (which it likely isn’t), Era 3 would be scary.
Besides their early crash in the Dragon Boat, Era 2 didn’t do anything wrong in this daily challenge other than they were outmatched by Era 3. The dynamic between Laurel & Bananas and Cara will never be natural — even then, they’re still a strong team when working together. Era 4 could’ve used Michele taking over earlier in this daily challenge because she proved on Battle For A New Champion that she is a good organizer and communicator. It’s weird because, on paper, most people would say Michele is one of the weaker players as she’s never made a Final, but she brings a lot to the table that their specific Era needs.
Era 1 was a fucking mess. Brad didn’t know how to use a Rudder, and CT was going crazy in that boat as if he had a caught scent of Adam King in the wind. Losing Mark really hurt Era 1 because you look at their team… Darrell doesn’t like being a leader, Brad panics under pressure, Derrick is not great with communication, Aneesa is a net negative, Tina has gotten in better shape, but she’s not taking apart daily challenges, and Jodi gets frazzled. So really, if CT or Rachel are not taking charge of their team, they’re fucked, and when you have CT going berserk, it’s going to be a tricky dynamic. When CT is yelling at a team on SLA, all those people are younger than him and will do whatever he says out of fear and respect. Among his contemporaries, they get just annoyed by his frustration. It’s insane that Era 1 comes from the age of Team Challenge seasons, yet they seem like the least capable team despite being filled with legends.
8 Politicking & Deliberations
Era 4 smartly attempted to cut a deal with Tony as they knew Averey was leaning in the direction of saving her friend, Derek. I did find it funny when Tori & Devin attempted to appeal to Tony by saying this isn’t a friend game while trying to get him to save Era 4 as they want to protect their friend, Kaycee.
The deliberation was fascinating as Tony hoped Averey would crumble at the idea of going into elimination, and instead, she held her ground. Kaycee & Kyland tried to cut deals and went into full negotiation mode during the deliberation. Derek attempted to paint going after Kyland & Kaycee as the big move Tony needed to make, except Tony took offense when he assumed that he would be a big move like them later in the game. Sorry to break it to Tony — he’s a small move on this cast.
Aviv has gotten a shocking amount of confessionals this season. Yet, she didn’t speak the entire deliberation — even after Darrell said he’d rather face her & Derek in elimination.
7 A Whole Lot of Fun & Fucking
The Challenge house is a better place when people are having fun. Seeing clips from the Greek Party the house had back in 2003 and then seeing the one they’re having now is great. Also, it gives the player opportunities to show off unique looks and their rocking fucking bods. Additionally, a party is the best way to stir the drink towards getting the showmance & hookup juices flowing. You know what, hookup juices was not the right phrase to use.
Throughout the episode, we saw a handful of hookups. Emily lives in a van, Brad lives in a cabin, the two don’t get to experience many quality showers these days, so they decided they might as well properly appreciate the house shower together. I will say, knowing that Brad & Emily hooked up in the bathroom is funny considering there were only two bathrooms in the entire house for 32 people. I’ve seen these two compete, and their endurance is spectacular, so if the rest of this cast wants to take a shower this season, they better vote them into elimination ASAP. Their showmance is not one I see lasting past this season — I did enjoy Emily transparently saying Brad is hot, so she’s down for the hookup. Emily’s boner for Kaycee Clark was even bigger than her muscles — she had no shame in expressing her emotion for Kaycee even though she’s engaged to Nany. There might be more to Emily as a Reality TV character than I realized.
Olivia & Theo and Devin & Michele also hooked up during the Greek/Toga party. Both of them are couples currently outside the house, and Devin & Michele seem like the real deal based on everything I’ve seen from them online.
We also then got to see Nia…
6 Nia’s Sampling
Look, I’ve been harsh towards Nia when it came to the preseason preview content and last week in regards to her elimination with Amanda. It’s been for two seasons: I’ve been underwhelmed by Nia as a competitor & personality since her return on All-Stars 3 and because I don’t think she represents Era 3 much as she was only on two MTV seasons.
I’m eating crow this week and giving Nia props because I love how she’s mixing it up in the house socially and politically. She was draped around Josh in the pool at the beginning of the episode, and then she’s hooking up with Kyland; all the while, she’s pushing Averey to make a big move and vote him & Kaycee into elimination. Nia is playing the game, making some moments, and having fun.
5 Josh & Tori’s Friend Break-Up
For years, Josh has shown love and undying loyalty toward Tori. Meanwhile, Tori’s been to throw backhanded compliments at him in confessionals. She & Cory were the ones who got him out of bed on SLA while drunk and instigated the fight between him, Fessy, and Amber that led to Fessy getting DQ’d, which hurt his game. On USA 2, Tori was one of two rogue votes placed on him that put him in the last elimination of the season, leading to him missing the Final. Again and again, Tori has been a lousy friend, and so when Josh hears her as one of the people clowning him for Nia hooking up with Kyland — he’s done with the bullshit.
So when Josh confronted her, it was not a dramatic reaction to an isolated incident. There was a build-up to this moment, which is why Josh seemed more tired with Tori than he was angry. We’ve seen Josh exaggerate over the years, but in this moment, he felt done. What sucked to see was the way Tori tried to manipulate and undermine his feelings. Tori quickly went from lying that she wasn’t part of the group laughing at him to shedding tears once she had to be honest. When Josh didn’t immediately accept her apology, she moved into anger, hoping Josh would cave. When that didn’t work, Tori turned the tears back on — respect for Josh for not backing down or overreacting to Tori.
At some point, I assume Josh will forgive her because that’s the type of guy he is and because they share so many friends. It will just be easier on his life.
4 Tony is An Ass & Averey Redeemed Herself
We’re going to attack this section from two angles.
One being that Tony chose to be a stubborn douchebag who became so infatuated with making a deal with Era 4 that he was unwilling to bend to Averey, who was trying to save her friends & make the bigger move by tossing in the more significant threats in Kaycee & Kyland. What I think is so dumb and naive about the move from Tony is the fact that Kaycee has a stronger connection to Devin, Jordan, and Cory — so even while making this deal, Kaycee is likely to still throw Tony most out of any other Era 3 man in the future. Maybe she’d throw in Cory before him, but I can’t imagine a world where Kaycee throws in either Jordan or Devin before him. Likewise, Kyland is a strong player — but in terms of allies, Horacio is the only person he definitively has on his side. If Tony saved Derek, he would then have Derek, Ryan, and Laurel on his side, and the move would do a lot towards building a stronger connection between him and his teammates Jonna, Averey, and Nia.
The second angle is that Tony is actively trying to quit/leave the season without officially quitting, likely so he can keep his full appearance fee, which makes sense as to why he volunteered to take on captainship and was steadfast in forcing a tie between him & Averey in hopes that he’d go into elimination and lose. Averey’s comments in the arena indicate that was what Tony had in mind.
Now, going into Season 40, I was not thrilled to see Averey on the cast as, like Nia, she didn’t seem like a person who represented Era 3 of The Challenge much, and because on All-Stars 4, we watched her pass up multiple chances to earn a Star, including a golden opportunity to face Tina. It felt like scared gameplay that I had no interest in seeing again. Based on what we’ve seen, Averey has no interest in playing that way ever again. Averey stood up for what she believed, was willing to fight for it, and protected her friend, Derek. If you weren’t aware, their friendship is the real deal. During the 7–8-year period when these two weren’t on The Challenge, they were still hanging out all the time and had a genuine bond outside the game. For most of Derek’s Challenge career, he’s gotten voted into early eliminations as people weren’t willing to take a bullet for him, and for once, we saw someone do it, as Averey took that bullet.
3 Darrell vs. Tony
This was a tough elimination to watch. If you did not like Tony’s actions from this episode, it was hard to enjoy watching him struggle/lose because of the indication from Averey & the crowd that he wanted to leave. So, inevitably, Tony got what he wanted.
On top of that, it’s not like Darrell defeated him via an overwhelming performance. Darrell had help from the crowd, and even then, he tweaked his back to where I’m sure it will affect him throughout the rest of this game. Nobody came out of this elimination looking good.
2 Averey vs. Jodi
The rules and set-up of Averey & Jodi’s elimination seemed a tad more difficult, where the puzzle pieces had to be placed in a much more specific pattern. This makes sense because they had already seen Tony & Darrell play the same elimination, so being able to copy what they did would’ve been too easy.
The crowd took over the elimination, and it became a battle of cardio and listening between the two ladies. Jodi is one of the fittest women in Challenge history; Averey beating her in a battle of endurance is impressive. For Averey, this win puts her on a map where she isn’t someone to be taken lightly. I did feel bad for Jodi because there’s a decent chance this is the last time we’ll ever see her on a flagship MTV season, and this was the earliest exit of her Challenge career. Jodi is a beast, a 2x Champion, and even after all the years, is still a great athlete. Her going out this early is a testament to the strength of the Season 40 cast.
1 Targeting Twist
I’m very mixed on the targeting twist for elimination winners. On the one hand, it brings back the Relic twist from War of the Worlds 1, as whoever wins gets guaranteed safety for a week. However, it does paint an even bigger target on players already in danger, as they’ve already gone into elimination. That said, forcing a player to nominate four people is so damn messy, and it will stir the pot in terms of drama. Especially with limited options in each Era, players will have their backs against the wall earlier than expected.
Now I worry that because of this format, so many players might become wallpaper, as 22/30 don’t have to worry about getting eliminated in the next episode. So 70% of the cast can phone in the daily challenge — hell, some might be throwing the daily challenge if they want someone from their Era off the team. If you’re Cara Maria and you can get Bananas & Laurel into elimination, you might as well throw it.
Let’s dissect the nominations. Darrell nominated Aneesa, which he had to do as Tina & Rachel are bigger assets to their team — Aneesa’s entitlement once again shined. He picked Laurel as he’s in the Cara Camp, and Aviv is his former partner. Then Nia & Jenny got picked based on the fact that he knew them the least.
Averey nominated Derrick as the one she knew the least and because he wouldn’t look at her. She picked Bananas because Ryan & Derek are his boys, and if you remember back in the day, Bananas was part of the group trashing her on an Exes 2 aftershow because he was boys with Johnny Reilly. Jordan stepped up for his Era, and Horacio got voted in as likely the biggest target and the person Averey knows the least in Era 4.
I’m already more excited for next week’s episode as we might be getting some messy Laurel & Darrell drama based on the nominations and because we’re guaranteed to get some variety of Jordan, Bananas, Horacio, and Derrick in elimination.
