The Challenge Final Reckoning Episode 14 Recap and Power Rankings
The episode opens with the house returning from the previous night’s showdown. Zach has left a note for Tony wishing he and Bananas well in the future. Johnny expresses that although he and Tony didn’t have to see elimination, just about everything else that could have gone wrong did the previous night. In the other room; Hunter and Nelson are celebrating with Cory over the return of their alliance. The numbers certainly seem stilted in favor of the anti-Bananas crew, but they still have to beat the Banana before they can throw him in.
Cory and Devin are outside the pool, and we get a recap of their current situations. Cory has a kid with Cheyenne Floyd from Are You The One? Season 3 now; so, he has joined the ever-growing Challenge dads club. Devin on the other hand tells a much more somber story of how he was originally going to be on the primary cast, but his father passed away and he had to go home. Luckily, he got the call to come back as a mercenary and has now rejoined the cast.
The Lavender Ladies (plus Marie) are outside talking about the previous elimination; talking about how awful Johnny is and how you need friends to continue in the game. They get to talking about who goes in next, and they all agree on Johnny. However, Sylvia makes sure to point out to Marie that Cara is loyal to the Banana which means they have a target on their backs too. After sensing an awkward situation oncoming, Sylvia and Shane head inside leaving Ashley to hash things out with Marie. Ashley tells Marie she has the “Devil” as her partner with “Satan” as her best friend so should expect to go in next. Give Ashley credit for being straight up with Marie, but this also gives Marie some time to cause commotion before nominations start.
We move from the Main House to Redemption House; Da’Vonne and Jozea enter to some excited faces (namely Natalie and Paulie). The faces shift from excitement to shock however when Amanda and Zach follow them in. They explain how Zach threw themselves in when they couldn’t decide who to throw in and then lost to Devin and Cory. There is an uneasy tension between Amanda and Zach, but they stay calm for the moment.
We head over to the mission for the day, entitled What Goes Up, Must Come Down. The mission has the pairs race up a flight of stairs, complete a puzzle, and then rappel down the side of the building. The team which does this in the shortest amount of time wins immunity and the power vote. Cara and Marie have to unlock a padlock to open the stairs since they came in last the mission before. Cory and Devin are up first, and they get up the stairs in relatively short time. They complete the puzzle quickly too and start to rappel down. This is where they start to experience some issues though, as Cory is doing pretty good but Devin seems to really struggle. Devin crawls down the building as Cory finishes when he still has a third of the way to go, really hurting their time.
Ashley and Hunter are up next, and Ashley is not enthused at all to be going. She really seems to struggle getting up the stairs and the puzzle doesn’t go much better. They have some disputes over what colors are what and Hunter seems to have a real tough time describing the colors in a way Ashley can understand. The rappel down does poorly too; as Hunter does very well while Ashley really struggles getting to the bottom. Cara and Marie go next. They get through the lock pretty well and do okay getting up the steps as well. However, the puzzle does not go well as Cara and Marie’s communication issues come up again. However, Marie DEMOLISHES the rappel down the building and seems to go twice as fast as Cara. They’re clearly not in the winners’ circle; but do a solid job anyways.
It’s Nelson and Shane’s turn, and they demolish the climb up the stairs. They do a good job on the puzzle and rappel down too, making them clearly the team to beat. Sylvia and Joss are next, and they are doing a good job all-around. They get a solid time, but still seem to be behind Nelson and Shane. Tony and Bananas are last to go, and here is where things get interesting. They do a great job on the stair climb, but as they start work on the puzzle the entire rest of the house (sans Cara and Marie) start shouting colors at them in an attempt to throw them off. It’s a little bush league, but it’s also The Challenge so you expect these things to happen. It seems to work to an extent, but Tony and Bananas power through and make decent time on the puzzle. They then race down the building, netting them a time that should be able to compete with Nelson and Shane.
We head to the lineup for the mission, where Nelson and Shane and Tony and Bananas are revealed as the top two teams to nobody’s surprise. TJ then tells the crew that Tony and Bananas are the winners, leading to the most unenthusiastic applause in Challenge history. This puts Cara and Marie in the vulnerable position though, making them target number one.
Back at the house; Ashley, Sylvia, Shane, and Marie are playing cards when Marie wants to discuss what the alliance is going to do. Sylvia says she doesn’t want to talk game to which Marie takes issue with. Marie then goes to Cara and Johnny to tell them that the alliance plans on voting them in. They go to the bar later that night, where things don’t go any better for Marie. She and Ashley start to fight, followed by a dust-up with Shane. She then goes to argue Sylvia some more, which is where things really get heated. Sylvia refuses to talk game with Marie and starts yelling at her by the bar.
The fight continues at the house where Marie and Sylvia really start to get in each other’s face. It’s essentially the same argument of Marie wanting to talk game and saying Sylvia is supposed to be her friend; while Sylvia has no interest in talking anything about the game in its current state with Marie. The confrontation culminates with Sylvia headbutting Marie before security gets between them. One thing about this argument is how Sylvia seems to couch “not wanting to talk game” with wanting to just enjoy herself. However, Sylvia has every reason to not want to talk game since nothing good can came out of it for her. She stands as safe right now, and the only thing talking game could do is bring her down into the position Marie is in.
Nominations are up next, and they go completely as expected. Tony and Bananas vote for Ashley and Hunter due to nobody seeing it coming, which I’m not sure what that does really. Ashley and Hunter, Nelson and Shane, Sylvia and Joss, and Cory and Devin all vote for Cara and Marie. We then get to Cara and Marie’s vote, where they run through the Lavender Ladies alliance trying to figure out which one to send their futile vote towards. As Cara talks down Shane for hurting Marie, she accidentally slips that she considers Marie a friend. The girls cry and hug it out, and Cara tells Marie she’s sorry her friends turned on her the way they did. They’ve clearly come a long way to get to this point; and seem to have come to an understanding of each other.
We head to the elimination, which looks like a supersized version of those mazes gerbils run through. The votes are revealed, and Cara and Marie are set to go to elimination, with the rest of the house outside of Tony and Johnny having voted for them. The girls debate who they want to go against, before selecting Nelson and Shane to join them in Armageddon.
Extra Notes
· It was a bit surprising there wasn’t a whisper of discipline for Sylvia for her headbutt, but Marie herself stated that after watching it she didn’t feel it was necessary. One thing to note though is that it was surprising to me Sylvia wasn’t at all willing to listen to Marie. Sylvia was in a pretty tight alliance with Marie last season, and if they along with Johnny and Tony had voted for Devin and Cory they could have gotten them to go in instead. I can understand why Shane and Nelson and Ashley and Hunter wouldn’t want to do that due to the Young Buck connection; but there definitely was a path there.
· In the elimination last episode, the equalizers for that elimination weren’t as clear as previous episodes. Devin stated in an interview with the Smashing Heads Podcast that the equalizer was the type of S-Ring the pairs had on their medallions. Devin and Cory had two S-Rings for all their medallions, while the other pairs only had that for half of them. The medallion closest to the side Amanda and Da’Vonne were on had two S-Rings, which is one of the reasons why they couldn’t get it off.
Redemption House
5) Da’Vonne/Jozea
4) Paulie/Natalie
3) Kam/Kayleigh
2) Amanda/Zach
1) Kyle/Brad
Nothing changed here, so rankings stay the same.
Main House
6) Cara and Marie: I actually think they will win the elimination but due to future potential Nelson and Shane are barely ahead.
5) Nelson and Shane: It had seemed like Nelson and Shane were going to meet their maker eventually, and perhaps now is the time. If they can get out of it though, they are as balanced as any team in the game currently/
4) Devin and Cory: It feels weird having them above Nelson and Shane for the time being as they are essentially a worse version of them, but that’s how it shakes out for the moment.
3) Tony and Bananas: While they have been the best of any of the teams in the game at the moment, they also are in the worst position by far and figure to be going in next time they lose.
2) Ashley and Hunter: They make it to number two based on alliances and previous performance, but these two have been shaky so far. Their communication ahs been abysmal, Ashley seems to be in worse shape than she was on Invasion, and the edit has been poor for them thus far.
1) Sylvia and Joss: Number one again, there has been no reason to take them off the top spot.
