The Challenge Final Reckoning Episode 15 Recap and Power Rankings
The episode opens up where the last one ended, with Marie and Cara preparing to take on Nelson and Shane in elimination. There’s some chirping going on before it starts, with Marie and Shane both threatening to blast the other one on Twitter. TJ then announces the name of the elimination, entitled Meet Me Halfway. The pairs will start on opposite sides of a guinea pig style maze; and have to punch their way through various walls in an attempt to find a box. Both members of the pair have a key, which will unlock the box. They then have to take the contents of the box and find their team bell, and after ringing that they will walk away the winners of the elimination.
The elimination starts, and Nelson gets through his first wall with such ease he makes it look like butter. Outside of an initial struggle with some saran wrap for Marie, everyone is moving pretty quickly through the walls. Shane reaches his box first and starts calling for Nelson. Nelson gets there soon after and they open the box and head for the bell. Just as they are leaving, Cara arrives at her box and upon seeing Marie not there yet punches through some more walls to try to find her. Cara is able to reach Marie (who somehow managed to get blue all over half her face), but just as they do Nelson and Shane ring the bell to emerge as winners.
TJ dismisses the girls and sends them on their way to Redemption. At the Redemption House at the moment though, Amanda and Zach meet up to have a discussion about their differences. Zach accuses Amanda of not trusting him when he had her best interests in mind. Amanda says she wishes she could have come to Zach earlier about breaking the tie instead of acting in such an instantaneous manner. Zach says Amanda wanted him to be a pawn, and if they had gone with Bananas and Tony they would have had a clear ticket to the final. Zach says that she needs the money more than anyone from her side and if she can’t work together to play a cohesive game he doesn’t want to be here. Amanda says she would want to play with Zach to, but she needs to have some input in alliance decisions. Amanda leaves the conversation and things seem as bad as ever as Zach turns to the camera and asks if she is not the most horrible person in the world. I actually thought Amanda was pretty amicable here, but it seems like these two have breached the point of no return.
Cara and Marie then come in, and the Redemption House explodes from their arrival. Cara says she isn’t here to play politics and wants to just bring Kam and Kayleigh in with her if she pulls the double cross. Kyle is not happy about this and tells Cara that she shouldn’t bring Kam and Kayleigh because they are working with the Lavender Ladies and would be another number for the other side. They especially are linked to Joss and Sylvia, who would not seem to be very happy with Cara and Marie at the moment. Kyle may be right in this instance, but it is what he says next that causes problems when he tells Cara that he never liked Kayleigh and she is way too into Nelson. Zach receives some medical attention for his wound, before we head upstairs and see Cara talking to Kam and Kayleigh. Cara tells Kam and Kayleigh Kyle told her not to pick them. Kayleigh obviously is not happy about this, and says she has no problems going up against the pair. This is a really odd move from Kyle, especially after Kam orchestrated the plan a few episodes back purposely to protect them.
We head to the Double Cross, where TJ is waiting for the pairs and tells them there will be two pairs who draw the Double Cross, and four teams in total who play. Natalie and Paulie are first, and they pull a single. Kam and Kayleigh are next, and they pull a Double Cross. Brad and Kyle are up next, and they also pull a Double Cross. Kyle and Amanda go crazy, and everyone heads back to the house.
Once they get back to the house, Kam and Kayleigh confront Kyle over insulting Kayleigh and saying they didn’t want them back in the house in front of everyone. Kyle initially denies it, but after Marie tells them he is lying Kyle admits it and starts fighting with Kayleigh. Brad gets in the middle of it and starts going at Kayleigh, saying she is always insulting people without reason. After the argument, the Redemption crew heads out to the bar where Kam hatches a plan to choose Natalie and Paulie in the hopes that Brad and Kyle would select Cara and Marie and both the all-girl pairs had a chance of getting in. This also of course means there is a chance neither of the teams get there, but they seem to view that as a worthy trade-off.
Back at the main house, TJ sends them a message saying to get ready to head to Armageddon. He also informs them of the Double Double Cross, which is good news for Johnny as that is a chance to swing the numbers more in his favor. He and Nelson start going at it about who has had more help from the additions of teams late in the game. Bananas also mentions how every team currently in Redemption has been backstabbed in some way by the Lavender Ladies, which I’m not sure is exactly accurate considering Kam and Kayleigh lost in a Purge mission and Amanda and Zach threw themselves in.
We get to Armageddon, where TJ reveals that Zach will no longer be allowed to compete due to injury, so he and Amanda are sent out. Interesting to see them go out with such a whimper, but it is appropriate considering how they landed in the Redemption House. After that, we move to the decisions for Kam and Kayleigh and Brad and Kyle. Kam opens with saying this game is about Vendettas and she is going to let her partner battle it out with her Vendetta and that Cara and Kyle have a Vendetta, so they should go against each other as well. Brad and Kyle immediately say they will not select Cara and Marie and tell Kam and Kayleigh if they want Cara and Marie they should select them. Kam makes the point that Kyle owes Cara from saving him last season, which would make sense although one of the two people she saved Kyle over was Brad. Kam eventually relents and goes with Cara and Marie; upon which Kyle immediately says he would have chosen Cara and Marie.
The boys and even Kam seem to laugh it off, but Cara is not happy about the manipulation which comes off a tad hypocritical since the girls were basically trying a similar but more elaborate Jedi mind trick on him. Brad and Kyle choose Paulie and Natalie on the premise of them being easy competition, sending Da’Vonne and Jozea home. Shame to see these two go, they had been a surprisingly resilient team and continually defied the odds to stay in the game.
We get into the eliminations, entitled That’s The Ticket. There are two large round structures filled with balls with numbers on them, similar to an oversized bingo wheel. Each pair will have one player in the structure while the other spins the structure of the opposing team. The teams will have five numbers they have to pick out from the balls. First team to get their five numbers wins.
The first matchup is Kam and Kayleigh vs Marie and Cara; with Kayleigh and Marie inside the structures. The elimination starts, and both girls are being flung around inside the structure. The Lavender Ladies are cheering for Kam like crazy, which you know has to bother Marie that much more. Marie gets put to a lead at 4–1, but Kayleigh is able to catch up. The girls end up tied 4–4, before Marie is eventually able to pull the last ball and get the win.
We then head to the second round, where Kyle will be spinning Natalie and Paulie will be spinning Brad. Immediately off the bat this seems like an awful idea as Kyle spins Natalie around as easy as if he is tossing a toddler in the air and she is unable to do anything from inside the structure. Natalie is covered in plastic balls and only is emerging from them every few seconds. However, Brad is unable to capitalize and struggles to find the balls as well. However, Kyle slows down, and Natalie is able to start gaining ground, and they also end up in a 4–4 tie. Natalie eventually finds the last ball and puts it in, getting the win for Paulie and Natalie.
The girls (and Johnny) all swarm Natalie after the win, who is really bruised up from the event. Kayleigh still is not happy with Kyle and Brad, and starts arguing with Brad prompting Nelson to also join in before the episode ends.
Extra Notes
· To my knowledge, there were no equalizers used for any of the eliminations in this episode. This was another situation where they could really have helped out, as the girls were clearly overmatched in the initial elimination and Natalie severely bruised in the last one. The only thing that would come close to being an equalizer was Kyle was told he had to slow down spinning Natalie around.
· There will be an article released on the new season of The Challenge filming now. But I am still awaiting some confirmation on some aspects of it before release.
Disqualified
Amanda/Zach: Disappointing but appropriate end for these two, and the game will honestly be a lot less interesting now that they are gone.
Eliminated
Da’Vonne/Jozea: Easily the most surprising team this season, coming out of Champs vs. Stars literally every cast member called Jozea one of the worst competitors of all time. He had a much improved showing this time around, and Da’Vonne had a better year as well.
Redemption House
2) Brad/Kyle: Redemption House power rankings are really just pulling names out of a hat, Lam/Kayleigh would seem to have more friends in the house currently, so they are on top.
1) Kam/Kayleigh: Disappointing to not get back in the house, but never count out these two and their political abilities.
Main House
7) Cory/Devin: Although they are in the stronger alliance at the moment, they are so clearly at the bottom and underwhelming in competition they are last.
6) Natalie/Paulie: Natalie has been competent in daily missions, but it will be interesting to see how they play politically.
5) Cara/Marie: Hunter/Ashley apparently preferred targeting these two over Tony and Johnny, so it will be interesting to see if they are the first to go instead of Johnny/Tony.
4) Johnny/Tony: If Johnny and Tony can pull Paulie and Natalie in with their alliance and one of their three teams can get a win, they could really change the dynamic of the game.
3) Hunter/Ashley: They might be the best team on paper left in the house, but I have not been impressed with their performance thus far.
2) Shane/Nelson: Impressive win for them but they seem to be the primary target of Johnny’s alliance.
1) Sylvia/Joss: No reason for them to move down, so they will not be.
