The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Episode 5 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
The 5th 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 5.
If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:
10 Michele Joins The Bae-cation Alliance
After politically running Season 39 and her messy gameplay on Ride or Dies, Michele gained a bit of a reputation among vets online as someone who shouldn’t be trusted. Additionally, we saw players like Laurel & Cara show an active distaste for Michele during their mercenaries appearances on S39. Facing a stacked cast and with multiple potential enemies, I thought Michele was going to be an immediate first boot.
Well, Michele’s blown away my expectations because, after this episode, she remains the only player on S40 who has either never gone into elimination or been a potential elimination target. On top of that, Michele has formed a genuine showmance & relationship with Devin Walker that is furthering her game. Devin is one of the most connected players in the house, and Michele gets protected from multiple angles by having him on her side.
9 Vacation Alliance
Fans have been complaining about the Vacation Alliance for three years now and it was great to finally see them say the name out loud on camera. We saw players try to underplay it, and then Tori fully owned it in her confessionals.
As much as I’ve whined and complained about the Vacation Alliance — if someone made fun of me and part of the joke/insult was that I go on vacation with my friends, I’d feel pretty good about my life. Obviously, as fans, we’ve mostly complained about how these underwhelming and fake characters have dominated seasons, leading to a boring show; still, if I were them, I’d own it. I did find it comical that Josh, of all people, mentioned that they dominate season after season, yet how many Finals does Josh have to show for their dominance?
8 The Daily Challenge
With all the messy GoPro footage, the daily challenge felt like a clusterfuck to watch. I wish I could tell you what the right strategy for this daily challenge was — except we didn’t get much insight during the challenge from the team that won (Era 4).
Most of the attention was on Era 1, who once again could not communicate, and being down to six players, they were at a massive disadvantage when it came to lifting their beams. I did enjoy seeing Tina & CT’s blowup because their anger came from a place of passion — they both yelled, they both were frustrated, and they both apologized.
The dysfunction of Era 3 was also on display. Jordan is typically a strong leader and comp strategist, except this time around, Jordan felt more like a nuisance to their team as his frustration and temper flared up. If Era 1 had not been such a mess, Era 3 would’ve been in real trouble.
Era 4 needed a win after two subpar daily challenge performances; their physical strength as a team shined in this challenge. Theo, Josh, Kyland, Jenny, Olivia, and Kaycee all have the builds to carry large amounts of weight. It would’ve been interesting to see how close it would’ve been if Era 2 had all its members giving their all.
7 Laurel Takes A Break During The Daily Challenge
I’m going to spend most of this blogging shitting on Laurel, and before I do, I have to say…Laurel voting Cara into the first elimination and then throwing the daily challenge this week to get Emily Schromm into elimination is cutthroat and strategic gameplay that I respect. If Laurel’s ever had a weakness on this show, it’s cardio. Throughout All-Stars, Cara was dusting Laurel in all the heavy endurance-based challenges, and had it been a more traditional Final, Laurel likely would not have won.
If Laurel’s goal is to win Season 40, taking out the biggest threats through any means necessary is the way to play the game, especially when there are so many strong players on this cast. A player like Wes Bergmann schemed and took risks on All-Stars 3 to get the biggest threats out before the Final, and now Laurel is doing the same thing on the women’s side.
The only problem with this gameplay is Laurel’s behavior and inconsistency. One moment, she’s diminishing Cara’s abilities as a player, and then she’s saying she’s afraid of facing her. Laurel will take shots, throw shade at Emily, and then not look her in the eyes/have a real conversation with her. Not to mention, Laurel goes off the hinges when anyone reciprocates a tenth of the energy she gives them. Objectively, Laurel is playing a smart game; it’s just all the other stuff that overshadows it.
6 Devin puts Nehemiah in a body bag
Something I’ve appreciated about Nehemiah since All-Stars 2 is he actively plays the social & political game pretty hard. On All-Stars 2, he vocally led the King’s Palace, and on All-Stars 3, he actively stayed under the radar while fostering relationships and cutting deals. Nehemiah won’t lie down and play a passive game, especially if he feels he’s in danger, which is why we saw him try to cut a deal with Devin. Unfortunately for Nehemiah, the main MTV show is an entirely different world from All-Stars. Devin enters this game with so many pregame deals and allegiances, and he’s mastered this game politically & strategically. So when Nehemiah pitched a deal to Devin, Devin didn’t hate the idea of it; he just couldn’t commit to it because he has so many other obligations in the game.
In that deliberation, Devin bodied Nehemiah, and while Nehemiah’s fate was sealed before the deliberation, Devin put the stamp on it, and from here, the game will be tough sledding for Nehemiah.
I had hope for these two as potential allies as they’re both best friends with Wes. They would’ve been a great partnership this season as they’re both strong players who are not perceived as the biggest threats yet could do real damage.
5 Michele & Laurel Awkward Encounter #87
Let me open this portion by saying that Michele needs to stop wasting time & energy trying to appease Laurel. Michele is an incredibly forgiving people pleaser who wants to be friends with everyone and is willing to see the good in everyone. With Laurel, Michele just wants the bad vibes to be over, as she’s tired of walking on eggshells around her. Unfortunately for Michele, Laurel’s opinion of her has been made up for a long time, and there’s no world where Laurel will show her authentic kindness without an ulterior motive.
That said, it’s weird how unforgiving Laurel is towards Michele. Maybe if Michele wasn’t so eager to fix things, then it would’ve happened naturally. Still, remembering how this started, on Ride or Dies, Michele & Jay had to nominate four teams for elimination, and Laurel was not the intended target the first time they were nominated. It was shitty for Jay to nominate Jakk after the two had formed a friendship — even then, Laurel & Jakk weren’t likely to go in had Laurel not been as cantankerous towards Michele as she was. Michele was playing sloppy on Ride or Dies, but there was no personal attack on Laurel — Laurel was the one who made it personal and continues to do so. It’s ludicrous that Laurel called their tiff/relationship one-sided. During her mercenary appearance on Battle For A New Champion, Laurel singled out and shaded Michele by referring to her as “Purple Jacket.” At the reunion for Season 39, Laurel attempted to diminish the game that Michele played without being one bit aware of how well Michele was running things, and had it not been for that last purge, she would’ve had an excellent shot to win the season. The only time Laurel showed any “kindness” towards Michele was to shit on Callum Izzard during that reunion. That wasn’t genuine care for Michele, though; it was an excuse to shit on Callum and insert herself.
4 Cara Maria & Laurel’s Big Blowup
Having seen the trailers and being aware of spoilers/rumors, I felt like I was watching a horror movie when Cara walked in during that scene between Laurel & Michele. I wanted Cara to turn back and avoid the fire. Instead, we got the big blowup, well…Kind of.
From all indications I’ve been given from reliable sources, including cast members, what we saw from the fight between Cara & Laurel was not even close to as brutal as it actually was. What I’ve heard/read/been told is that some of Cara’s past abusive relationships were brought up, and Laurel weaponized information she was privy to from when they were friends to hurt Cara. This is why Cara went from laughing/staying tough through the verbal punches to sobbing hard and in pain. There are also rumors that it got so bad that Cara Maria had to be removed from the house for a bit to get some psychological help. Then, even more curiously, Bananas & Cara recorded a podcast in The Challenge house when news of this encounter between Laurel & Cara hit the spoiler sphere.
Now, why did we get a watered-down version of events? Well, it could be a few reasons. There’s a possibility that Cara didn’t want all of the events to get aired to keep certain triggering parts of her life away from the public sphere. There’s a chance that because the names of former cast members would’ve been aired out, MTV didn’t want to deal with possible legal ramifications. There’s also a real possibility that MTV wants to preserve Laurel as a cast member, and if it had been fully shown, there would’ve been a sea of angry fans wanting her removed from the franchise, similar to Camila, Dee, and others. From everything I’ve been told, Laurel got off easy.
What I can talk about directly is what I saw from this episode. Cara did bring the heat to Laurel first — except she did it in a way that spoke up for herself and others. As annoyed as Cara was with Laurel’s behavior towards her, it’s something Cara can deal with; what annoyed her was seeing Darrell, Emily, and specifically Michele get caught up in the same Laurel cycles that she’s been in for 15 years.
When confronted by Cara, Laurel flew off the handles and accused Cara of doing every single thing that Laurel was actually doing/had done. Laurel kept referring to Cara as a teenage girl — except if you remember the last episode when Darrell got into an argument with Laurel, Laurel became a toddler who kept repeatedly saying, “You looking stupid” in a 12-year-old voice. She kept saying Cara was yelling whenever Cara slightly raised her voice in what was a tense situation, and yet, Cara’s voice was nowhere near Laurel’s voice when Laurel screamed her lungs out in front of everyone during that famous All-Stars 4 deliberation. Calling out Cara for “yelling, referring to her as childish, and using the dumb “finger-pointing” metaphor were all distractions by Laurel to avoid having to actually converse like an adult, and when she couldn’t do that, she went below the belt in typical Laurel fashion.
Did Cara start it? Yes, but it had been bubbling, and Laurel took it to a level that humans shouldn’t. One of the biggest things that spoke volumes was seeing Cory & Devin’s faces during the Cara & Laurel fight. Cory had someone say they could buy his family, has had his girlfriend spit on, and he looked more disgusted here. It made me chuckle that Theo had to console Laurel, and if you look closely, you will see that he was just there to cook his dinner.
3 They All Fall Down
When I first watched the elimination between Tina & Emily, I was so impressed and astonished to see Tina take down all those nails with ease. I love Tina and think she’s proven a clever competitor multiple times over the past couple of decades. As I rewatched the elimination, it is confounding how swiftly the nails were falling out of Tina’s walls compared to everyone else — even when others used the same strategy as her and when you had someone like CT, who knows his way around a hammer.
You could watch this elimination through two lenses.
The first lens and the one I’m choosing is that Tina kicked this elimination’s ass, and she should be able to hold her head high because she became the first player in Challenge history to take down Emily Schromm. While watching the elimination, I was amazed by her level of focus. In the portion where she had to put the nails back into the wall, she had the nails in her for easy access to quickly put the next one in. Her body also looked stellar; you could tell she’d put in so much work during the offseason. I’m picking this narrative because after everything from this episode, this elimination and seeing Tina’s reaction made me smile, and it’s nice to smile sometimes.
The second lens is that production fucked up. I don’t even want to say that production rigged this elimination for Tina because it doesn’t make sense that they would want Emily out when they’ve spent years trying to get her back on the show and when Emily is in the mix of drama with Laurel. It would not shock me if production had that wall set up for CT to look like Godzilla, and then they realized after that they mixed up the walls.
Going into this season, Emily was regarded as a Top 5, and for some Top 1–3 female competitor all-time, and for her to get eliminated and it not be a bigger deal because of all the Cara/Laurel drama is crazy. Hell, even during the elimination, Laurel’s loud cheering took some of my attention and exaggerated reactions from the crowd. It was very telling how Laurel kept reacting loudly and hoping to talk/vibe with others, yet nobody really interacted with her.
2 An Unceremonious Upset
CT worked in construction for much of his life and spent a good amount of time in the 2010’s flipping houses. If it was not going to be a headbanger or a puzzle, this elimination would be the closest possible thing up CT’s alley. Nehemiah did not like his chances going in, yet he remained calm and persistent. We saw CT get slowed down a bit by trying to use the Tina method at the beginning of the elimination, only to set himself back. The two men were neck and neck for almost the entirety of the elimination, and it was funny seeing how damaged CT’s wall was from him violently trying to take down his nails. In contrast, it felt like Nehemiah was picking single grains of rice with a chopstick.
In the end, Nehemiah pulled off the win cleanly — when he hit the buzzer, CT looked stunned, and it took Nehemiah a minute to realize he had beaten CT. We’ve seen CT angry & frustrated following elimination losses in the past — in this elimination, he seemed content. There was nothing for CT to be mad about because the elimination was up his alley, and he was still lost. The loss also came against Nehemiah, an opponent CT respects and has no ill will towards. It’s unbelievable to see CT go out so early and unceremoniously as he’s been such a massive figure this season with his CT Pro Trips and because… it’s CT…He was coming into this season off back-to-back wins from Double Agents & Spies, Lies & Allies.
For Nehemiah, this elimination firmly cements his legacy as a Top 20–25 Challenge competitor. It bothered me that Nehemiah kept referring to Rivals 1 as his last Challenge appearance when he’s probably been the most prominent male character on the All-Stars spin-offs. Had it not been for the All-Stars spin-offs, Nehemiah wouldn’t even be on this season, and yet no reference is given to these seasons, except on rare occasions. Nehemiah is a Champion with 3 Finals appearances who owns the only elimination win over Kenny Santucci; he dominated Derrick Kosinski in a Pole Wrestle and now has a clean win over CT. If you’ve watched The All-Stars spin-offs, it’s been clear that as a competitor, Nehemiah is firmly among the ranks of the Derrick’s & Brad’s. I’m not saying you should rank Nehemiah above them all-time, but Nehemiah is not far off.
It does suck that this Laurel & Cara drama has overshadowed both eliminations — because Nehemiah beating CT would be a headline episode moment on almost any other season.
1 New Targets
We lost CT & Emily Schromm this week and still have a stacked line-up of targets for next week’s eliminations.
Rachel was the default nominee from Era 1 as the only eligible woman. Nehemiah nominated Laurel, citing the drama she’s brought to the team, and in response, Laurel took offense and said Nehemiah doesn’t know how to play the game. Which is fucking crazy to say, considering Laurel threw the daily challenge that led to Nehemiah having to face CT in elimination. Jonna refused to self-nominate despite her team expecting it. I don’t blame her because most of her Era 3 teammates are strongly connected to Era 4, so with Jonna already feeling like an outsider on her team, self-nominating might not be in her best interest. Sadly for Jonna, Nehemiah still nominated her, and now Jonna’s teammates are mad at her when she has a target on her. Jenny got nominated by Nehemiah, and while Jenny was upset with the nomination, it made logical sense that she was the one who nominated Nehemiah as a target. We’ve now hit the petty phase of the game where people are going tit for tat with one another, which is going to allow some people to cast. Hilariously, on Era 2, Aviv is now out of the crosshairs with all this Laurel & Cara drama.
On the men’s side, Brad, Josh, and Cory all volunteered as the only men from their teams who have not been a target yet. The only non-volunteer choice was Tina nominated Bananas, citing her friendship with Derek & Ryan taking priority. Bananas will be fighting for his life because I wouldn’t be shocked if Cara & Ryan threw the daily challenge to get back at Laurel.
