The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Episode 8 Recap: 6 Biggest Takeaways
The 8th 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 6 Biggest moments/takeaways from Episode 8.
If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:
Also, I typically do 10 takeaways, but after 28 years in Southern California, I’m moving to Goodyear, Arizona on Friday and because I’ve been busy packing & running errands, I didn’t have time for the full 10 takeaways. The blog might be a mess, but I still wanted to put one out for the loyal readers.
6 Bloody Mess of a Daily Challenge
I love a movie-sponsored daily challenge because it’s always a good glimpse of what was happening at the time. When we got a Top Gun Maverick daily challenge with a clip of cast members promoting it on Spies, Lies & Allies, I made fun of MTV for not being able to get a big star like Tom Cruise or Miles Teller for it. Except one of the people promoting it was Glenn Powell, who is now one of the biggest stars in Hollywood…and that was only two years ago! Mixing Gladiator 2 and bringing back the Riot Shield daily challenge from Cutthroat was an excellent concept.
Unfortunately, this daily challenge was riddled with format flaws. The first was that the platform they were on was too large, allowing players to avoid confrontation or even get hit repeatedly without worrying about falling off the platform. The daily challenge would’ve been more satisfying seeing one man or team stand tall as the others have been knocked out. Instead, we’re sitting there counting up who is still left. Secondly, the fact the daily challenge winners & losers were based on who had the most total players left was idiotic, especially when a team competed with only two people! The winners & losers should’ve been based on average player time spent on the platform or who had the highest % of their players survive. Era 4 was pretty clearly the most impressive team during this daily challenge, so them getting the win isn’t a shocker (though it’s easy to be impressive when you have the numbers advantage) — Era 1 getting punished yet again was unfair.
One of the big standout on the men’s side for me was Theo and all the hits he took. Theo is the biggest guy in the house, and players used it as their excuse to continuously dogpile on him. I don’t blame Theo for getting DQ’d because there were multiple times where it was 3 v. 1 against him. Someone who deserves slack is Ryan — while I will credit Ryan for actively seeking contact at times, he got wrecked every time he tried and for the betterment, he probably should’ve just tried to play safe. Instead, he got knocked out very early.
When it came to the women’s heat, they did not have the intensity that the men brought, though, in their defense, they all were playing to survive rather than win after the men’s heat. Rachel Robinson dealt some good and took out Averey, Nia embarrassingly ran off the platform trying to eliminate Kaycee, and then we had the Cara & Tori face-off. Anyone who has read my blogs over the past few months can tell I’ve been very pro-Cara, especially regarding all the Laurel stuff. This daily challenge was a tough look for Cara, though. Finally, Cara & Tori got to head-to-head physically, and once they did and Tori was getting the better of her, Cara had to call on Laurel to back her up. Look, if you want to get out of the little sister shadow, you can’t be calling for Laurel for help on Tori, specifically when Cara, over the years when she wasn’t on was on IG Live or TikTok or whatever, alluding to the idea that production was keeping her and others off the show so that Tori could get a win. I know Tori is bigger and it’s probably not a winning situation for Cara, but sometimes you gotta just sit there and take hits 1 v. 1.
5 Hobbled, Hurt, and Throwing Vest
Two things can be true at once. Cory did beat the shit out of Derrick in the daily challenge; so when Derrick said Cory tee’d off on him, he’s not wrong. At the same time, Cory could’ve gone way harder at Derrick in this daily challenge, and if he had wanted to eliminate Derrick, he could’ve. I watched Cory outwrestle and push Fessy out of a ring on USA 2 — throughout this daily challenge, I saw Cory putting in brutal hits on Josh, Theo, etc. Cory is not Mr. Popcorn Muscles anymore; he’s a real physical threat.
The whole interaction between Derrick and Cory was between two guys who were unhappy with their game. Derrick’s injured and his entire team has been taken out. Cory is getting voted in by people he assumed were friends and allies, and each week, his enemy list is getting bigger. These were two damaged dogs barking at each other. Additionally, there’s more history here. On Dirty 30, Cory listed Derrick as one of the three names on his “Hit List” alongside Bananas & CT. In the years after that, Derrick & Challenge Mania have taken many subtle digs and used Cory as a punchline. They don’t do so anymore — but in the show’s early days, Cory and Nelson took a lot of strays. It’s a big reason why, to this day, there’s beef there and why we got this scene with Derrick throwing the vest and then later at the deliberation.
4 The British Get Multiple Hands Bloody
At the beginning of the episode, we saw Kaycee make fun of Jenny’s poor gameplay and lack of connections. It’s an unfair criticism because Jenny wasn’t given the opportunity to appear on 5–6 shows in a row like Kaycee. Kaycee was able to foster so many relationships and bonds. Jenny did her two seasons, put a massive target on her back by winning one in dominant fashion, and then got on ice by production for four years. Yes, Jenny could be better at making friends, but this game is also predicated on history, which she doesn’t have.
Just because you don’t have as many friends as Kaycee and Josh, it doesn’t mean you have to play a worse game. Jenny and Theo took the win and the power from targets and used it to their advantage by holding a “team meeting” to decide whether they should vote for Era 2 or 3. During this meeting, Michele brought up a great point that when Era 3 wins, Era 4 sometimes gets saved, but when Era 2 wins, they know they’re going in. The only problem with Michele’s argument is that she’s in a showmance with Devin, so her argument looks like she’s just trying to help her boyfriend.
When the “vote” ended up 5–2 to save Era 2, Theo and Jenny took that information to Cory & Averey. While there’s still blood on Theo & Jenny’s hands, they get blood on Josh & Kaycee’s, too. Cory rightfully called out Josh for being a fake friend and an ally, as Josh & Kaycee’s votes could have theoretically shifted the numbers. To which, I believe Theo & Jenny were going to vote in Era 3 regardless, but at least Josh & Kaycee wouldn’t have put targets on themselves. Because not only was Cory vocally mad, Devin & Tori were silently pissed that their Vacation Alliance is slipping. Credit to Theo & Jenny for playing the game this week.
3 An Absolute Knockout (Rachel vs. Averey)
Avery looked like a deer in headlights the entire elimination. Credit to Rachel because she got in some big hits, including to the face, on Averey, which left Averey stunned and looking borderline concussed at times. By the time they had to switch roles, Averey looked like she was completely discombobulated — meanwhile, Rachel’s cardio was phenomenal as she was running all across the ring.
I do wonder how both the men’s and women’s eliminations would’ve played out had they reversed who went first. Averey, being the first person on defense, in general, felt like something that hurt her as Rachel was able to learn from Averey’s mistakes. From a physical and mental standpoint, Rachel’s performance in this elimination was awe-inspiring. I wouldn’t ever want to get hit by a punch from Rachel after this.
2 A Boxer vs. A Leaper (Cory vs. Derrick)
There was something off with the editing of the men’s elimination.
When Cory was on offense, he got Derrick cornered and surrounded, where he was able to throw a fury of quick body shots. It looked like Cory nearly took out all of Derrick’s targets in one flurry. This may have been the case because Cory didn’t seem to try as hard as he could’ve when it came to avoiding on defense, knowing how fast he is.
That’s not to take away from Derrick because Derrick had an absolutely gutsy performance on one leg during this elimination. Instead of trying to box, Derrick threw his entire body at Cory, hoping he could nab some targets. It was a brilliant strategy because Derrick was not going to win this elimination by throwing traditional haymakers.
In the end, Cory won the elimination, and I think it’s better for all involved as Derrick’s leg will not be ready for the Final, and Cory has a real shot to win. With this elimination win, Cory is now 10–4 in eliminations and has won 7 out of his last 8. Going 7–1 in an 8-elimination stretch is something only a handful of players in Challenge history have done. While you can poke holes in some of those wins, you can essentially poke the same holes in most Challenge elimination records.
1 A Team Of 1 (New Targets)
The good news is TJ didn’t make Era 1 nominate for the first time this week; the bad news is Rachel is the only player on Era 1 remaining, and they’re not changing the format despite the team consisting of one player left.
With the nominations, Cory drew his line in the sand between the Cara & Laurel as feud as he actively chose to nominate Laurel rather than Aviv. Hilariously, Ryan self-nominated after knowing that Laurel wouldn’t throw the daily challenge with her game on the line — then again, I wouldn’t put it past Laurel to throw herself in to get Ryan out as she’s confident in her abilities in elimination. That actually would be the most fun outcome.
Devin self-nominated after taking off last week as part of the rotation, and Tori always self-nominates when Devin is up to double-pad their protection. For Era 4, Kyland and Kaycee self-nominated, with Kyland taking on the nomination for seemingly the 4th time.
It will be interesting to see what will happen to the game numbers-wise if Rachel fails to win or comes in last in the daily challenge because then there is no man to vote in from Era 1. Could this lead to whatever Era doesn’t win, the male targets default go in, or will we have a number imbalance from then on? We’re down to 10 men and 10 women; now would’ve been a great week to move into a solo or paired format.
