The Challenge Vendettas Episode 4 Recap and Power Rankings
This episode starts with a club scene after last episode’s Inquisition. The Brits are getting busy, with Kayleigh going after Nelson and Melissa receiving Nicole’s advances. The morning after, Britni is talking with Brad by the pool and he asks her who she is close to in this game. Brad says (via confessional) that he is not sure their games overlap but they are going to try.
As they are packing for the elimination, Kayleigh mentions to Alicia she really wants Melissa gone. At the ring, the troika (Devin, Natalie, Bananas) are asked their decision for who is to go into elimination. All three vote for Alicia, making Kam very happy. The elimination is called Chain Reaction and entails the competitors to climb a ladder they construct themselves by attaching the bars to the chains going up the ladder. Melissa seems much calmer at the start while Alicia is panicking. The crowd seems to be heavily favoring Melissa, particularly Bananas and Nicole Z. Melissa is ahead the whole way and wins comfortably over Alicia. TJ then introduces the available grenades to Melissa, which are: Team Up — She gets the ability to choose who the teams for the nest mission; Money Hungry — She gets to force a competitor to drink a liter of cream before the next mission; and Sit Out — She gets to choose one competitor to sit out of the challenge and go straight into elimination. These grenades are already way better than the choices Nelson got but it gets to be an even better situation for Melissa.
This takes us to the titular event of the episode, Pizzagate (not at all affiliated with Alex Jones or Comet Pizza and Ping Pong.) The whole issue started because Marie takes a box of pizza as well as some additional slices to her room, which Brad verbally objects to on account of there being a group of people outside who have yet to have any pizza. Cara Maria seemed to agree with Brad, while we then cut to a shot of Leroy, Zach, and Bananas talking. The three all say Brad is crazy, and Leroy is tired of seeing him and Britni together and they need to get them out of the house. After this, we go back to Brad and Britni who are having some alone time together downstairs. Marie decides to get in on the fun, throwing approximately four pizza boxes on the two. Then things really start to get personal, with Brad saying Marie is broke and Marie saying Brad doesn’t take care of his kids. Based on the way the conversation shifted I think there may be something that was edited out that we did not see, but from what we saw I tend to lean towards Brad’s side. Marie was the initial one to raise her voice and continued the argument when it appeared to be over which are generally the ways I assign blame, but again we didn’t see the discussion in its entirety so its hard to play moral judge here.
This takes us to the mission for the day, which harkened back to memories of the Hunger Games mission from Battle of the Seasons (2012). TJ announces this mission is called Food Wars and will be played with seven teams of three and one team of two. He also says he will ask a question, after which whatever team buzzes in first will be able to answer. If they get it right, they win that question and will then be able to select one other team to be safe from eating while every other team has to select a member to consume a food of the winning choosing team’s choosing. TJ also announces today that the mission will be worth $24,000 and is a genderless challenge meaning either gender can go into elimination. He then gets around to asking Melissa which grenade she would like to pick, and she chooses Team Up, allowing her to select the teams. I found this to be a baffling decision, considering she could choose Sit Out, select a male, and prevent herself from being available to go into elimination but I’m just an observer so what do I know. Melissa picks the teams as:
Team 1- Melissa, Devin, Shane
Team 2 — Leroy, Britni, Kyle
Team 3 — Bananas, Kayleigh, Cara Maria
Team 4 — Brad, Joss, Sylvia
Team 5 — Veronica, Jemmye, Nicole
Team 6 — Tony, Marie, Zach
Team 7 — Natalie, Nelson, Kam
Team 8 — Kailah, Victor
The mission starts, and the first question asks what the capital of Spain is, and Team 3 buzzes in. I have no idea why Melissa would put her “Vendetta” with the top guy and girl in the house, but alas she did. Bananas asks Kayleigh what the answer is, and she responds with Portugal at first before Bananas corrects her and she changes it to Madrid (apparently the British education system is about as bad as the American one.) They get it right and select Team 2 to sit out while everyone else has to send someone to eat Rotten Cheese. Shane, Sylvia, Nicole. Tony, Nelson, and Victor all step up for their teams. This goes horribly for pretty much everyone involved, except Tony. Tony is the only to finish, while everyone else vomits their way to not making the time limit. This limits the field for the next question to Team 2, Team 3, and Team 6. The following question asks which person did people say makes the worst boyfriend between Cory, Nelson, and Tony. Team 3 buzzes in again and Bananas says Tony. This proves to be the correct answer, but Tony seems to be aa bit shaken up by it. He volunteers to go again for his team, and Leroy goes for Team 2. This round, Team 3 selects marshmallows to attempt to help Leroy win. Tony ends up pulling it out, keeping Team 6 in the game.
TJ says for the final round there will be just an eating race between one player from each remaining team. Team 3 sends Cara Maria and Team 6 sends Tony, while TJ selects a Bowl of Mayonnaise as their food. The round starts, and Tony jumps out to a lead. After about being two thirds the way through, Tony vomits, seemingly giving Cara the advantage. However, Tony powers through and comes out with the win for Team 6, putting Zach, Marie, and himself into the Troika. TJ also announces that since so many teams tied for last place, the winning will get to select a losing team who will vote on who goes into the Ring. Team 6 selects Team 4 (Brad, Sylvia, Joss) to be up for elimination. Brad immediately says Sylvia, which Joss agrees to sending Sylvia into the Ring. Sylvia is understandably not happy about this, considering she volunteered for her team to eat, but her cries fall on deaf ears and she is in elimination. I thought this mission in concept was intriguing but in practice the only thing that made it palatable. I have no idea why they didn’t do a loser’s bracket to determine the last place team and I think it would have worked much better to abolish the teams and have everyone give an answer to a question and those who got it wrong eat.
Back at the villa, Kailah is comforting Sylvia who is wrapped in a blanket and is also sick. I’m not really sure when Kailah and Sylvia became such great friends (they really seemed not to like each other on Invasion of the Champions.) Kailah recommends trying to go up against Britni on account of her not being that good. Britni won two eliminations last season and is tied for the most money of any female right now, so I think this is motivated much more by Kailah’s rivalry with Britni than anything else. Britni also happens to walk in as the two are talking, adding some additional awkwardness to the conversation and wrapping up the episode.
Eliminated
Alicia: Maybe a good personality for the future, but obviously didn’t have much time to shine this season.
Power Rankings
23) Sylvia (-7): Having episodes end before the competitors in the elimination are even announced has really screwed up these rankings, but Sylvia does not seem to be in good elimination condition.
22) Melissa (+2): Being a rookie, being injured, and picking teams is a good set of excuses to be thrown into elimination.
21) Kayleigh (+1): Marie seems to like her but she also is a rookie yet to go in.
20) Britni (-7): MTV seems to want us to think she goes in, color me skeptical however.
19) Marie (+1): Stays safe for this episode but also put a target on her back.
18) Victor (+3): Moves up based on other people going down.
17) Jemmye (+2): Didn’t do much, doesn’t move much.
16) Veronica (+1): Her and Jemmye should just get the same default explanation from now on.
15) Kyle: Cara did explicitly say she was trying to protect him, so that’s good I guess.
14) Tony (+4): Got the hero edit this week, but he really does seem to be in the right mindset.
13) Kam (+1): Already striking fear in the female competitors but I’m not sold on her current alliance.
12) Joss (-1): Helping throw Sylvia under the bus could have bad effects, but he did seem to confirm his status as a Brad ally.
11) Kailah (+1): Gave Sylvia some bad advice but it shouldn’t have a negative effect on her game.
10) Nelson: Seems to be striking up a relationship with Kayleigh, hopefully people don’t take as much exception to it as they did Brad and Britni.
9) Nicole Z (-2): She’s a dominant athlete but she hasn’t shown to have any allies.
8) Shane: Didn’t do anything besides throw up a bunch so stays put.
7) Natalie (+2): Alicia going home is good for her and Kam being happy with her now is good too.
6) Leroy: Is in a solid alliance and is one of the least disliked guys in the house.
5) Devin: Brad seems to be taking some of the Bananas heat off him.
4) Brad (-2): Got the heel edit this episode but I trust him to be able to weather the storm for a little bit.
3) Cara Maria (+1): Has been quiet so far but I still don’t see any of these girls topping her in an elimination.
2) Zach (+1): In the Troika and has been getting an edit very similar to Jordan’s last season.
1) Bananas: The king stay the king.
