The Challenge Battle For a New Champion Episode 13 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways
The 13th Episode of The Challenge Battle For a New Champion 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 13th Episode.
If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:
10 Counteralliance
I’m happy to see Horacio, Kyland, Ravyn, and Zara uniting to create their own alliance to try and combat the majority, as it’s something that’s been missing in recent MTV seasons. While there was a rookie alliance early on during Ride or Dies, the veterans quickly squashed it. Meanwhile, Spies, Lies & Allies was on absolute cruise control for the Vacation Alliance.
We haven’t seen a good back-and-forth between alliances since War of the Worlds 2. Then again, it was more Cara Cult’s dominating a majority of the season. The bar is low. If this new “underdog” alliance of physical superstars can pull off some wins and make big moves in the next few weeks to shake up the game, then Battle For A New Champion might be our first season since WOTW 2 that ends strong rather than feeling dragged out. I’ve liked this season and think if a few dominoes fall a certain way, then we might be looking at the best post-pandemic MTV Challenge season.
9 Sabotaged
The goal of Jay & Michele’s alliance going into the daily was to make sure that Kyland & Horacio didn’t win. Michele did her part as she and Asaf threw the daily challenge to guarantee Horacio would lose.
Ed had a superb performance in the daily challenge to get the win for himself, Corey, Berna, and Olivia.
Corey, Ed, and Berna wanted to make the big move by directly nominating Horacio for elimination. Outnumbered, Olivia didn’t even put up a fight. Which I found curious as Olivia could have said, “Let’s throw Kyland in.” since they’ve all already voted him in before, he’s a massive threat, and then she can let the house do the actual dirty work of voting in Horacio. Maybe they were considering that Nurys would’ve fought much harder for Horacio in a House Vote than she would’ve fought for Kyland and might’ve been able to flip some votes in that case.
8 A Very Eventful Night At The Club
So much stuff happened in the club tonight.
For starters, we had a scene with Jay & Colleen. Colleen basically asked Jay: “If you can’t prove to me that I’m not at the bottom of the alliance, why should I help you in any way?”
Jay tried to cop out by saying Ravyn & Zara would get thrown in before her, except Colleen quickly noted, what if they do win (again)? To which Jay had to admit she’d be getting voted in (again). In this scene, Jay felt like a pyramid scheme scammer who got backed into a corner and now that his usual tricks don’t work, he has no idea what to say or do.
After that, we saw Jay get heavily into Olivia’s ear. During this scene, Jay went into Horacio so hard in a way that he would never speak to Horacio to his face. Hell, when Nurys got involved and had a sound argument that Horacio’s won more challenges than all of them and never thrown any of them in; Jay shriveled up at both the logic and the confidence Nurys came at him with. Rather than get into it, Jay tried to act like Nurys was blowing up on him by saying he wasn’t going to yell with her, when if we’re being honest, Nurys was using Amanda Garcia’s whisper voice. There was no yelling in that conversation. A raised voice in a loud club? Yes. In reality, that was Jay’s attempt to get out of an argument he didn’t want to lose.
7 Horacio & Olivia Finally Talk
After a couple of weeks of Olivia talking about Horacio to everyone but Horacio, we finally got to see them talk in the club. Olivia brought up the fact that people say he’s been a lousy friend and doesn’t care about her, and to me, Horacio pretty effectively asked: well, do you believe them?
It’s one of those questions Olivia needs to ask herself. Do you trust a guy like Jay, who is in everyone’s ear 24/7, or the silent guy who was by your side for an entire season? If Olivia picks Jay, I don’t blame her because Jay plays and operates more in a style that is in lock-step with Olivia. Except when discussing actual trust and loyalty, Horacio would take a bullet for Olivia.
6 Jay vs. Kyland
When Jay heard the news from Moriah & James that Kyland and his side were planning on voting him into elimination, he tried to confront them and was hoping to spook them. Kyland, Ravyn, Horacio, and Zara didn’t look flustered. They politely responded that the move was a response to Jay and his alliance putting all of them into elimination multiple times now. With logic put in his face again, Jay got flustered and looked weak despite holding the most power in the game.
It was a weird and unnecessary showing by Jay, where if I were in his alliance, I would feel less safe with him, and he doesn’t seem as stable as before.
Shoutout to Moriah for using all of this to put her and James in a better scenario. After questions about Moriah’s loyalty to the alliance a month ago, she’s positioned herself where Michele & Olivia need her because they don’t know what’s going on with Nurys. Meanwhile, she’s not the head of the snake for possible targeting like Michele or Olivia will be. At this point, Moriah is in the power alliance and straddling the middle to where she won’t get targeted; it’s the perfect place to be.
5 All About Jay
A lot of this recap is about Jay. Congrats to Jay; he is a main character! Jay is a unique character Challenge history. I don’t think there’s even been a guy Jay’s size who has ever run a Challenge house. The closest is Wes on Exes 2 when Wes got super skinny. Even then, though, there was a clear difference: Wes was coming off a Rivals 2 win and was already a 2x Champion.
Before this season, Jay was a guy who had never gotten to the halfway point in a game. Which isn’t indicative of the player Jay is. Jay is fantastic in daily challenges — he’s an intelligent problem-solver, a great swimmer, a climber, and has good cardio. Again, though, Jay never made it to the halfway point in part because of some poor strategic misplays, but also, when you’re a smaller guy in The Challenge house, it’s hard to get respect.
Now, Jay is at the top of the pyramid, and it’s a big adjustment. I don’t want to say Napoleon Complex because he’s not a mega-short guy. However, there is always the fear that you can face a bad player like James, and they can beat you if it’s a backpack elimination. When you’re Jay’s size, the concept of your game ending in an instant is always possible. This is why Jay feels like he is on high alert so much because he knows this is a golden opportunity; he might never be in this position again, so he has to seize it.
I will say, Jay is beginning to feel like Wes on Fresh Meat 2 to me. We had all the numbers against Kenny for once, and then things began to crumble as Kenny & Laurel won every comp. Will Kyland & Horacio be Kenny & Laurel to Jay this season?
4 Is Nurys Saving Her Season or Throwing It Away?
The scene between Nurys & Jay before the deliberation was great because their relationship dramatically changed from the beginning of the season to now. They’ve been friends for 5+ years and came into this season as part of the “Fantastic Four”. At no point did Jay ever think Nurys would say his name, and then we had a scene where she told him that choosing between him and Kylad would be difficult. Credit to Jay, as he tried his best not to blow up.
Nurys is a fascinating character who is playing a complicated game. Currently, Nurys is trying to play the strategically smart, emotionally protect those she cares about, and entertaining from a TV perspective.
Coming into this game, Nurys had an easy opportunity to be at the top alliance and steamroll this game politically as the vacation alliance had in the prior season. Except Nurys is a true fan of The Challenge, and I think she doesn’t like boring shows. I think there’s part of Nurys who sees Horacio & Kyland, sees how Jay & Michele are operating and knows that flipping sides and making the show more interesting could build her star character more than coasting to the Final. All that said, Nurys is an intelligent player and competitor, so she’s at an impasse in what she wants to do. If Nurys makes a big move, it could change the trajectory of her Challenge career, similar to how Kailah purging Cara Maria on Dirty 30 skyrocketed her relevancy.
Nurys is one to watch.
3 Deliberation
We saw the counter-alliance mount their attack at the deliberation as Horacio, Kyland, Zara, and Ravyn tossed the first four votes onto Jay. Then it got to Nurys… If I were Nurys, I would’ve physically fought whoever was sitting at the end of the deliberation couch to be the last vote.
Nurys was in an undeniably tough spot where, as much as she wanted to protect Kyland & Horacio, she entered this game with Jay and the Ride or Die ladies. As much as Jay’s recent action and words probably made Nurys want to pull the trigger and toss him in over Kyland, a vote for Jay would be an attack on so many other people that would jeopardize her game. She chose to burn her vote on Emanuel, which essentially guaranteed Jay’s safety.
The next vote was from Colleen, and after all these confessionals talking about wanting to make a big move and being tired of being at the bottom of the big alliance, she chickens out and casts the first vote on Kyland. She says because they don’t have a majority, it’s a dumb move to vote for Jay. Except it would’ve been 6–5–1, which meant all it would’ve taken was one rouge vote, and Jay could’ve gone in. At the very least, if Colleen votes for Jay, it draws a line in the sand that shows Horacio/Kyland/Zara/Ravyn that you ride with them and that they’ll fight for you. Colleen is now in the same position where she’s at the bottom of Jay’s alliance, AND the outsider alliance has no reason to trust her.
2 Hoping Brad is okay
The last time we saw Brad on The Challenge was on All Stars 3, where people called him Bionic Brad because he was an absolute hulking human being. When Brad came out, he looked 30 lbs lighter and in rougher shape (comparatively). Brad’s veins were still popping, and he’s still got muscles and abs…. Still, it was jarring to see Brad look that way when he had looked to be in the best shape of his life recently.
If you don’t follow Brad on social media, he had some cryptic dark posts on Instagram some months back. Since those posts, it seems like Brad has gotten some help from friends and family. He and his ex-wife Tori have been publicly at each other’s necks for over half a decade since their divorce. They follow each other on social media again, which to me was a sign Brad was struggling because hell froze over for them to be at a point where they’re friendly and civil again. Brad showed up to a Challenge Mania recently, and based on everything I’ve seen lately, he seems to be in a happier and healthier place! Which makes me happy because Brad, at his core, is a good dude.
On paper, I love them bringing Brad in as a mercenary because he is a legend who truly has a passion for The Challenge. Sadly, he wasn’t looking the best, and it wasn’t his best showing.
1 Kyland vs. Brad
While there were some small strategic elements to the elimination — it was essentially a climbing/endurance game. Kyland blew Brad out of the water. The concept of lapping someone in an elimination like this is crazy, and the fact that Kyland beat Brad by a final score of 10–6 is unbelievable. Immediately, everyone in the crowd knew Kyland had it in the bag; it was that much of a blowout win.
While Brad isn’t anywhere near his peak shape, and Darrell’s elimination wasn’t something he was particularly built for, they’re still champions with decades of experience. Kyland beat both of them decisively. In doing so, Kyland joins Killa Kam in the super exclusive club of cast members to have won 2 mercenary eliminations! Regardless of the final outcome, I would say Kyland’s already had a successful season and should be a lock for future seasons, especially considering he’s brought some drama and a showmance to the table.
