The Challenge Spies, Lies and Allies Midseason Trailer Breakdown

I will be breaking down the midseason trailer of the Challenge Season 37 Spies, Lies, & Allies as I do every season. There are no spoilers in this article that you won’t figure out by watching the trailer super slowly. YES, there are spoilers, but they are spoilers via inference and analysis. Essentially, if I see something with my eyes in this trailer, it is not a spoiler. Above is the trailer in video from.

WARNING: I copy-paste that opening to every trailer breakdown I’ve done the past few years, except this trailer breakdown is exceptionally packed with spoilers if you take a minute to watch closely. This might be the juiciest trailer breakdown I have ever done, however, if you don’t want to be too inundated with information, veer away. Now, if you are choosing to continue, let’s jump into the breakdown.

(BTW, if you are a Survivor Fan, I’ve been doing Survivor recaps this season, and I think they might be better than my Challenge stuff.)

https://theallanaguirre.medium.com/survivor-41-episode-4-recap-10-biggest-takeaways-1e6f8c06eb3d

The trailer opens dramatically with CT carrying weighted bags in a football style as he tries to hit a juke either on a cameraperson to look cool for the trailer or on an opponent coming at him. Based on the trailers, this is a Rugby type where players are trying to transfer as many bags as possible to an endpoint; meanwhile, the opposing team tries to defend them. Additionally, there seems to be smoke and some obstacles thrown in to make the challenge more difficult. You can also notice CT is wearing a Blue Arm Sleeve as he is part of the Blue Team.

We then get a rushed look of four women scrapping in the middle of a cloud of smoke. Usually, these women get called smokeshows rather than being part of one.

The next few stills are particularly interesting. You can see Amanda trying to play defense on Nany, and you can tell Amanda knows she is in for an uphill battle based on the huge smile she has on before she attempts a tackle. In the background, you can see Bettina trying to defend Kaycee, which I will be crossing my heart and praying Bettina does not get hurt. The big spoiler is in the second picture…

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Nelson is wearing a Red Sleeve, indicating he either switched teams after winning an elimination or was bumped off the Blue Team through someone else winning. If you notice, it is Nelson, Logan, and Cory in Red, meaning Kyle’s wish of being off the Red Team has come true.

Then we see Tori tackling a Red Team player, who I assume is Emy, and the trailer then puts on a Black & White filter as they pan out from the daily challenge to cut to some melodramatic music.

Also, get ready for more spoilers.

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Big T, Amanda, and Kyle pose similar to people who have gone into elimination this season, which makes me assume these three are prepping to go into battle. Big T will go in as she is on the bottom of the Vet Totem Pole, and she is likely one of the weakest female competitors left and thus, has a solid chance of getting called out. Kyle does not have a great relationship with any of the males outside of Devin and maybe Logan at this point, so him going into elimination makes sense. Amanda has formed solid social bonds; however, she weighs under 110 lbs, and if it looks like a size-based game, she might draw the short straw.

There is a scene of Tori in full pads and helmet yelling out, “YOU BITCHES DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS!” I assume this is a headbanger challenge that we will talk about later in the trailer, but not the one that opened the trailer. I say this as Tori has a Red Sleeve instead of the Green one from earlier (her current team status). Either she won an elimination, or someone took her spot on the Green Team. There is also a comically large TNT detonator to play into the Spy/Bomb theme of the season. If there is anything Challenge fans have been asking for more of this season, it is unnecessary explosions.

Curiously, Kyle is next to her, which makes you assume that he is on the Red Team, a whole can of worms onto itself, considering one of the spoilers from above. Technically, you cannot see whether or not Kyle has a Red Sleeve or Stripe on, so maybe he isn’t on the Red Team, though I assume otherwise.

Spoilers escalate even more…

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CT seems to be cursing someone out in the same challenge Tori is. My guess is that people are getting heated because two teams may be teaming up on one. Maybe there is some double-crossing afoot. Or perhaps someone spoiled the ending of The Good Place, and CT was just a few episodes away from finishing the series before leaving for Croatia; I take CT for a big Ted Danson guy.

What is fascinating about this shot is CT, Logan, and Emy all have Blue Sleeves on. As mentioned above, Logan and Emy were both on the Red Team in that challenge at the beginning of the trailer; thus, they both maybe win an elimination and switch things up (would be Logan’s 2nd elim win and Emy’s 3rd). Either that or the three teams become two teams because the amount of sleeve differences we have seen at this point is massive.

There is a behind shot of Devin stuffing loads of money into a duffle bag. Based on the tattoos in the scene, the other hands are Kyle’s. This could be what the players are carrying in the opening challenge from the trailer. It could be something completely different; I assume that the daily winners are those that bring in the most amount of money.

We get more Devin with a scene of him at the club telling Amanda that she cannot manipulate him. Devin and Amanda did AYTO 3 together, they got plastered drunk every day in the Redemption House on Dirty 30, and nobody defended him more during the Final Reckoning Reunion than her. An interaction like this forces me to believe Amanda is trying to sway Devin into not voting in Nelson or Ashley into elimination, as their relationship is quite close. If Devin were to vote Amanda into elimination, I would probably pass out…and then I’d wake up from the smelling salt that is Devin’s body odor.

Sidenote: Devin might be the 2nd Best Male Vet at this point. He has the political game on lockdown and all the other Male Vets are idiots.

Elimination Spoiler incoming:

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Bettina seems to be competing in an elimination where she is swinging a rope. It could be an elimination similar to what Nelson & Dario and Jenna & Sylvia played on Invasion, where they had to find a rhythm when swinging a rope to smash some skulls.

We see Emy crying and asking for her momma (Big T sits next to her). Then you see Nelson & Amanda descending into water inside a fake plane, which the trailer then shows players breaking out from. My guess is Emy is terrified by this incredibly claustrophobic-looking daily challenge, and I believe this is our Episode 11 daily challenge as the people you see in the photos are on the same teams they are currently on.

There is a dramatic scene with Kyle threatening to end his friendship with Devin if Devin votes him into elimination. It is not an editing trick where he isn’t saying this to Devin because Kyle has no other friendships in this game where he would feel the need to say this. Which leads me to believe Devin and Kyle go far into the game as they have to somewhat be close to the end-game at this point because I don’t know what circumstance Devin would even consider voting Kyle in.

An explosion occurs during a daily challenge, the same one where CT and Tori were talking shit earlier. You can see Nelson and Big T wearing Red Team Sleeves, and based on Nelson’s face; I don’t think their team won. You see helmet footage of Tori (Red Sleeved) getting ready to tackle someone, only to get absolutely trucked, which is hilarious considering she said nobody wanted a piece of her. You can see Emy with a Blue Sleeve trying to avoid the traffic jam Tori has created, meaning a Green Team member likely put the hit out on Tori, my guess being Kaycee, although, if anyone else did it, that would be pretty great.

Looking at the fact, there are three people in that barrack explosion picture (Nelson, Big, T & a 3rd individual), and then Tori separately on the ground; my brain thinks this could potentially be a daily challenge with only six males and six females left in the game. They ran a similar daily challenge at this exact point in the game on Free Agents (6 men and women left), except in separate male/female heats.

A sound byte of an angry-looking CT saying: “If there are any sudden moments, I am going to bite him.” This one is a smokescreen to me because CT has an excellent chance to coast on through to the final based on the new elimination format. Maybe he is angry because someone spoiled to him the ending to Harry Potters & The Deathly Hallows. I take CT for a big Neville Longbottom guy.

CT was probably making a joking confessional about this challenge where players have to rip something out of a snake aquarium.

Swimming.

Cory tells Devin and Nelson that he plans on throwing the mission and that they have to come through. Cory does not believe in the Red Team’s ability to win, so he is simply “throwing it” as a means to keep his friends happy and to potentially keep him from being the house vote again.

There is a shot of a player falling headfirst into the water during a challenge. Then we see Nelson & Kyle getting into it, and I am guessing this is after an elimination. They are both in their Challenge gear, the windows outside look dark at night, Nelson has a jacket on, and Emanuel has his street clothes with a jacket on as well. This means Emanuel, and likely the Green Team, won another daily challenge, forcing these two guys to be eligible for elimination.

Based on everything we have seen in this trailer, my guess is either Kyle or Nelson won an elimination and took each other’s respective spots on the Blue/Red Team. Kyle is likely the one who won an elimination as he hates his current status on the Red Team.

Players compete in a daily challenge where they have to dive into a body of water, go underneath and untie a plethora of rope. You can see Emanuel trying to reel some rope in; in the following picture, CT, Kyle, and Emy are diving in, and then some other action shots.

Either Kyle or Emanuel (I think Emanuel) is playing in an elimination that looks to be a tug of war except the rope is on fire. It could be an elimination similar to what Jordan & The Goof played on War of the Worlds 2. Based on the fourth image, I think the players might be standing on a wheel type structure, which would make this elimination exponentially more difficult.

There is a quick shot of a player letting go of a rope that sends a giant beam towards the sky in which there looks to be some breakable items at the top of a structure production built. I believe this is the elimination Bettina is playing in that I mentioned above, and it is similar to the Invasion elimination I compared it to. Another elimination you can compare to is the game Wes & Nany beat Nate & Christina in on Rivals 3.

Kyle is in the sand in a headbanger elimination.

Generic TJ Lavin Quote + Generic Tori Deal Reaction Face = an MTV Challenge Trailer.

Emanuel and Nany pictured as well.

A male player (I think Devin) falls from the sky in what I believe could be the trivia challenge as we have not gotten one this season yet. He is holding on to a fake electrical plug, it detaches, and he falls into the water. Pretty epic.

Edit: It is not the Trivia Challenge, I went through my Trailer Breakdown from before the season, and it is this daily challenge where players are jumping from one beam to another as water gets shot at them (likely by another team). Also, Big T takes a vicious fall in this challenge, brought on by it seems Emanuel and Devin.

It looks like they brought back the Frog Smash challenge from Rivals 2. Logan (Red Sleeved) tries to race through a platform with Kyle and Emy (both Blue Sleeved) tossing giant Socker Boppers at him, and they succeed in thwarting his efforts as he wipes out and falls into the water.

Tori Deal hops out of a helicopter and into some water.

The trailer ends with Nelson dramatically telling Cory, “nobody remembers elimination wins, everybody remembers Champions.” A bit funny as MTV made their most recent female Champions (Amber and Jenny) alternates the season right after they each won.

QUICK NOTES

The people we see most prominently in this trailer are:

• CT
• Devin
• Kyle
• Nelson
• Logan
• Emy
• Tori
• Big T
• Amanda

People we see a decent amount:

• Cory
• Emanuel
• Kaycee
• Nany
• Bettina

People we basically don’t see:

• Josh
• Ed
• Ashley

If you enjoyed the article and want more Challenge content, here is a fun video of me Ranking the Weirdest Showmances in Challenge History. Have a great day.