The Challenge All Stars 3 Episode 7 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
Episode 7 of 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 7th episode.
Above and Below is the podcast recap in case you prefer to watch/listen.
10 KellyAnne and Roni’s Awkward Ass Conversation
At the beginning of the episode, we see KellyAnne extend an olive branch to Roni after all this time because she knows Roni is the member of the Treehouse least likely to call her out and because she sees Roni as a threat. Except KellyAnne comes into the conversation so willfully unprepared and without anything to offer up that it leads to one of the most awkward encounters I’ve ever seen on The Challenge. Roni didn’t want to insult KellyAnne, yet, she also wasn’t going to go against the alliance she’s been a part of the entire game who are partially responsible as to why she made it to the Final-6 without seeing an elimination.
Their interaction felt like KellyAnne was an Herbalife saleswoman who knew her product was bullshit and that Roni was just too polite to shut the door on KA’s face immediately.
9 A Big Win For All Challenge Fans
As a known supporter of Pride, I loved watching Veronica’s call with her girlfriend and talking about her life at home. The most interesting nugget Veronica revealed is the fact her girlfriend grew up watching The Challenge! Imagine going from watching the Challenge to dating one of the most iconic women in the show’s history? Talk about living the dream. Veronica’s girlfriend Alexis is inspiring Challenge fans around the globe that one day they may be as lucky.
8 Brad’s Self-Sabotage
Even though Brad is a beast, he is only a 1x Champion due to a lot of bad luck and a ton of self-sabotaging. This week, he took luck out of the equation and used self-sabotaging to his advantage. The assumption going into this week was that he would use the sabotage on Jordan as Brad’s the 3rd member of both the alliance with Derrick/Mark and Wes/Nehemiah. Except if he uses the sabotage on Jordan, it gives Jordan ammunition to call him into the elimination arena. Seeing that it was the Trivia daily challenge and knowing he was unlikely to win, Brad using the sabotage on himself was genius because it didn’t create any unnecessary enemies.
KellyAnne used her sabotage on Veronica, which was a logical move as Veronica is the most cerebral Treehouse member. The stank Veronica put on her: “Fuck off, KellyAnne,” did get a hearty laugh out of me.
7 Trivia Time
The women’s heat should have been a good battle with the 3 Treehouse women going against the 3 Non-Treehouse ladies. With Veronica having a strike going in, the non-Treehouse women had an edge. Instead, Jonna, KellyAnne, and Nia all whiffed on their opening questions. At the same time, Roni, Kailah, and Veronica knocked theirs down to first knock out KellyAnne and eventually guarantee a Treehouse win. Veronica did not get a single question wrong and picked up an impressive solo daily win late in the game and her third Authority this season.
On the other side, the men’s heat was almost like a chess game (between checkers players). None of them wanted Jordan to win, and they also didn’t want to be the first person to actively target Jordan because they didn’t want to be his elimination opponent either. Luckily for Derrick and Nehemiah, they could take shots at one another. We saw Wes purposefully miss his first question as he wanted someone else to create waves before he did; hilariously, Wes still ended up being the first and only person to take a shot at Jordan.
A dash of luck and a clutch Mayflower pull from Derrick led to him pulling off a trivia win, something he definitely didn’t expect. It was a crucial win for Derrick, as I think there is a decent shot he would have gotten called into elimination otherwise.
6 Best Trivia Answers
Let’s talk about some of the worst/best responses:
Jonna — Lion King instead of Tiger King as a top Netflix show; in her defense, I overeagerly said “The King’s Gambit.”
Brad — Lance Armstrong instead of Neil Armstrong.
KellyAnne — Saying Tiger instead of Cheetah as the fastest animal was not egregious on paper, but wild that KellyAnne thought two of the first three would be “Tiger.”
Nehemiah — Picasso instead of Van Gogh as the artist who cut off their ear.
Jordan — Area 51 being in New Mexico rather than Nevada. He 100% thought Roswell was Area 51.
Correct Answers:
Kailah — She knew Celsius’s freezing point because she moved to the UK and had to learn their units of measurement. Kailah kept overcooking her lasagnas her first month in England.
Wes — The most impressive pull of the episode was him knowing Kylie Jenner was Forbe’s quickest self-made Billionaire.
Veronica — The editing during her Biggie Smalls answer was perfection.
5 Low-Key Party and Veronica’s Toe
The game feels super serious at this point, so watching the players make an effort to have a low-key party night was appreciated. They didn’t dress up or do anything crazy, but they looked like they had a good time despite all the bad blood and nerves in the air. Nehemiah knew his name was on the chopping block and decided that if he talked to Derrick, it could only make things worse, knowing how their interactions go. It was a hilarious level of self-awareness.
The biggest takeaway was after the party when Veronica’s toe looks fucked up after she slips walking down the stairs excited for pizza when she doesn’t even like pizza. Considering I burned my finger with plain steamed rice last night, I get it, Veronica, I do.
4 Swinging Big
It was expected that Veronica and Derrick would vote in KellyAnne and Nehemiah into elimination as their enemies. Once in deliberation, the two decide to pull up their bootstraps and swing by putting in their biggest threats in the Final and the Exes 3 power couple: Jonna and Jordan.
When they get to the arena, Jonna calls out Roni, stating she’s one of her biggest threats. Truthfully, I think Jonna saw Kailah as stronger than Roni; however, it’s good to throw respect on your opponent’s name, where if you lose, you lost to a strong player, and if you win, you just beat a strong player.
Jordan makes a speech about the battle of Hercules and Antaeus for his reasoning as to why he’s calling out the Godfather. It is absurd and a terrible look if you lose and still a weird look if you win.
3 Jonna vs. Roni
Going into this elimination, Roni had gone 2.75 seasons without ever getting eliminated, and Jonna had gone 2.75 All-Stars seasons without ever getting eliminated. Let’s start by noting that Roni was impressive during the physical part of this elimination. Roni is a legit athlete in great shape and outpaced Jonna during the opening portion.
Unfortunately for Roni, Jonna solved the puzzle so quickly that I wondered whether my TV lagged out and skipped a few minutes ahead. It was a dominant puzzle performance by Jonna, and she showed why everyone in the game fears her in a Final. It wasn’t a bad shot taken by Veronica because if the elimination were purely physical like some others, maybe Roni would have taken down Jonna.
Roni’s losing confessional hit hard because she was open and honest about the fact that she might never get this opportunity again with her work and home life, and she was just grateful for the chance to come back.
2 Mark vs. Jordan
They scaled up the weight between the men and women a drastic amount because 230 lb Mark was not having an easy time. The fact that Jordan had to take specific pulls/holds one-armed at times was ridiculous. Jordan continues to amaze me every season he does.
I’m so used to watching Jordan overcome adversity and pull off the impossible in order to win eliminations that the moment he was able to get his puzzle pieces, I assumed he had the elimination in the bag. Puzzles are the great equalizer, and both these men struggled equally. Eventually, Mark put it together, and he pulled out a massive elimination win. Mark getting this win is a testament to how random The Challenge can be and the fortitude of this male. In the last four weeks, we saw Mark beat Jordan in a Puzzle, Derrick beat MJ in a puzzle (maze), Wes beat Yes in a game of endurance/strategy, and Jordan beat Darrell in a weight-based game that was heavily endurance based. For every single one of those match-ups, the player who lost was probably the favorite in those specific types of eliminations.
The Celine Dion song was an excellent touch to end the elimination. Kudos to the men in this game for successfully taking out Jordan, Yes, and Darrell, the three biggest Final threats. Going after the best players doesn’t sound like rocket science until you watch the main show.
1 Where Do We Go From Here?
Let’s talk about what can happen with the final daily challenge outcomes.
If Wes or Nehemiah wins the daily, they will throw Derrick into elimination, and Derrick will call out whichever of the two isn’t safe.
If Derrick or Mark wins the daily, they will throw Wes into elimination as their biggest Final threat, and Wes will call out whichever of the two isn’t safe as Brad/Nehemiah are his brothers.
If Brad wins the daily, he probably tosses in… Nehemiah? Nehemiah would likely call out Derrick.
Right now, it’s looking like Mark and Brad are guaranteed spots in the Final regardless.
On the women’s side, they are making it seem that either Nia or Veronica will be taking a Medical DQ in the game. Losing one of them at this point in the game is a bummer, not even mentioning that we already lost two women to injury this season. Let’s talk about potential outcomes.
If Veronica or Kailah win the daily, they will likely throw in Jonna, and Jonna will decide her opponent based on how the elimination looks/who is available. If it’s physical, she’ll take Veronica or KellyAnne; if it’s mental, she’ll take Kailah or Nia.
If Jonna wins the daily, she will put in Kailah, and Kailah will pick KellyAnne.
If KellyAnne wins the daily, she will put in Kailah, and Kailah will pick Jonna if it’s physical and Nia if it’s mental.
If Nia wins the daily (likely isn’t based on the trailer), she will put in Kailah, and Kailah will pick KellyAnne.
Essentially, no woman has a clear path to the Final as it stands.
