The Challenge All Stars 3 Episode 5 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
Episode 5of Challenge All Stars S3 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 the 5th episode.
10 KellyAnne is down bad
I’ve always been a fan of KellyAnne and have stood by her through some questionable choices. Watching her have breakfast and politic with Beth as her #1 ally was a painful viewing experience. I would never wish that on my worst enemy.
9 Wes is a Great Salesman
Wes knows he isn’t the most trustworthy guy in the house, so he doesn’t try to sell people on himself. Instead, Wes sells people on a plan that includes him as a plus one. When he pitches to the remaining men that they go after Yes and MJ as the reigning champs and Jordan as their biggest threat, the other men can’t help but listen and eventually agree. Sometimes in politics, it’s not about being the most liked, it’s about getting the most voting power on your side, and Wes was able to get four other men to align under the same umbrella.
8 New Format
We got new rules. It’s no longer 3 winners per gender in each daily challenge, it’s just 1 winner from each side who will decide which man and woman go into elimination, and there is no longer any penalty for coming in last place (for now, at least). The person who gets voted in by the Authority gets to call out any unimmune opponent Duel style. Dropping from 3 to 1 is a natural progression as the Final quickly approaches. As much as I don’t like that we lost the Last Place penalty, the X-factor of the Duel call-out makes for a much more fascinating game as it forces people into making moves that will get their hands dirty.
7 The Godfather Gets Gifted The Win
Brad chooses to use his sabotage on MJ again, and Wes pitches for the men first to take out MJ & Jordan and, from there, work to give Mark the win. Wes pitches a Mark win as a win for he, Nehemiah, or Brad could lose trust in Derrick/Mark, and a win for Derrick would give the Treehouse too much power.
The daily challenge itself was a farce where the only person of interest was Brad because he felt uneasy about gifting Mark the win when he had MJ breathing down his neck. The fires of the Wes/Yes flame got stoked as well. The best part of the daily challenge was the addition of Soulja Boy to the soundtrack.
6 Treehouse Stays at the TreeTop
Kailah used her sabotage on Beth because I think she figured she’d rather have Beth as an enemy right now than KellyAnne.
The women’s heat should have been a better battle as it was 4 Treehouse women against 4 non-Treehouse women. Sadly, there was little cohesion and strategy from the non-Treehouse women, so they got picked off one by one. Kudos to the Treehouse for working so efficiently to where it was all four of them left in the end.
Sylvia took home the win, her second first-place finish this season.
5 No Partying Only Ultimatums
The new elimination format had everyone shitting bricks. Nobody could have fun at the club because they were all schmoozing for information, trying to find out who would call out who if voted into elimination. MJ gave Mark an ultimatum: if he goes in, he’s calling out Mark’s ally Brad. To which I must note, the Brad/MJ rivalry is one of my favorite storylines. MJ continues to call out Brad for being too personal/childish about it when he’s the one who started and continues to instigate drama on his side as well. I’m shocked there was no reference to the last time MJ called Brad out into elimination; it ended in MJ getting sent home.
Kailah was worried that Beth would call her out if Sylvia put in Beth, which led to a plot twist once we saw Sylvia/Mark as Beth where her head was for the call-out.
4 Beth is a Bad Person, and Jonna/MJ set the record straight
Beth tells Mark and Sylvia they need to vote for Jonna as she’s a bad person who is cheating on her husband with MJ. Jonna hears her name get dropped and steps to Beth. Beth says it’s a game, and you have to do whatever, which is total bullshit considering how butthurt she gets if someone comes sideways to her.
Watching Jonna and MJ having to look directly at the camera and say they are not having an affair felt awkward. It definitely couldn’t have been an easy moment for them or their families at home. Inevitably, they had to get this out of the way, considering all the internet rumors and the way certain cast members have hinted in the past. The worst part about Beth saying it is you know she knows the least of everyone in the house and took one off-hand comment from someone and turned it into something to get a storyline and attention.
Seeing the way Beth is acting, Jonna bites the bullet and volunteers to go into elimination so she can call out and maybe earn some goodwill with the Treehouse, where they might give her a free pass for the subsequent elimination or two.
3 Wes Put All His Chips on the Table
When Brad tells Wes that he is uneasy with the way the daily challenge went down and how he’s afraid he might go into elimination because of it, Wes puts his money where his mouth is. Wes realizes Brad kept him safe for multiple weeks and that to build even better trust with his alliance, he will take one for the team and try to go after one of their significant threats in Yes. Looking back to Fresh Meat 2, Wes played a scared game where he treated his alliance members like pawns. After all these years, he’s playing like someone who knows he has to put himself on the front line to make everyone feel like a King.
On paper, going against Yes isn’t a terrible choice either, as he had no prior elimination experience, and Wes actually outweighs him. It’s a calculated risk.
2 It’s pronounced Jonna
When I first saw this elimination in the trailer, I assumed it would be a simple endurance game. Nope, the elimination involved a lot of strategy, a human element of being able to read your opponent, being able to take some physical hits, and then throw in a lot of cardio/endurance.
Jonna was kicking Beth’s ass in this elimination. She had the cardio element and the strategy side down. Instead of taking the loss normally, Beth decides to blame MJ and the crowd, calling them cheaters again in the process. Beth went down in a weak fashion and tried to bring down others with her. At least quitting is on-brand for Beth. Jonna picks up her first elimination win since Free Agents, and her All Stars record is now a clean 1–0. With the way the game is set up, Jonna will likely see another elimination this season.
1 The Battle of the Es’s
Holy shit, what an elimination. Yes and Wes — the two smartest guys in the house got to go toe-to-toe in an elimination that involved a lot of strategy, cardio, and basic human instincts. We saw a great competitor completely dismantle an elite opponent for the second straight week.
Yes has always been the guy who keeps a calm demeanor and thinks quickly on his feet to figure out the best strategy possible. Except Wes has been poking him non-stop for two weeks to the point that we didn’t get cerebral Yes. We got a gung-ho Yes who wanted to kick Wes’s ass. Getting Yes worked up was a win for Wes as he had him in the palm of his hand the entire time. Yes got way too emotional, and as the elimination was going, he was pushing the pace and talking shit to show bravado (a very Wes-like move, hilariously enough). All the while, Wes is just listening in, waiting to hear Yes’s voice to find the right moment to punch him back. Wes played the elimination perfectly, almost like a highly technical boxer, positioning himself to where he’s taking no damage, not letting emotions get the best of him, and chipping away at Yes. The moment Wes felt the momentum from the crowd, he went for the knockout punch and won pretty dominantly. Looking back, Wes played a Yes Style, and Yes played a West style in this elimination.
In spin-off seasons of the Challenge, Wes is a career 6–0 in eliminations, which is ridiculous as he’s the guy who famously went 8–0 to start his career. It’s a massive win for Wes as it cements his place in his alliance, and now one of the biggest Finals threats is out of the game. For Yes, this was a tough loss and was a real “welcome to the Challenge moment for him.” The elimination arena is a different beast, and as much as Wes can seem like a con-man, the guy is legitimately intelligent and savvy. I think against other people, Yes outsmarts them, but he put his heart too much into the game and got lost in the sauce in this elimination. While Yes didn’t win, at least TJ said he’s his favorite human in Challenge history.
I’m giving the episode a 9.3 out of 10.
