The Challenge Final Reckoning Episode 8 Recap and Power Rankings
The episode opens with Angela and Faith about to take on Hunter and Ashley in elimination. The elimination is entitled “No Slack” and has each competitor tethered to their partner inside of a box, separated by three walls between each member of the pair. The member in the back of the pair has to punch through a wall so the member in the front has enough space to begin punching their wall. First team to get the member in the back through all the walls and ring the bell wins the elimination.
The elimination starts, and Faith and Angela actually start out with a bit of a lead. Hunter is destroying his walls in seconds while Ashley is lagging behind. Angela is blowing through walls super quick as well, while Faith isn’t doing as well. The girls have a bit of a lead but then Faith hurts her finger and starts to struggle mightily to punch the wall. This allows Hunter and Ashley to catch up and get to the bell winning the elimination.
After the elimination the house starts to react to the entry of the new competitors to the house. Hunter starts taunting Johnny and then chest bumps Nelson while Ashley gets mugged by the Lavender Ladies. For those not in the know, the Lavender Ladies are officially Shane, Amanda, Ashley, and Sylvia and are so called because of the color of the room they shared on Invasion of the Champions. That group has members in four different pairs of the house and once you combine them with the Dolphins (an alliance formed on Vendettas with Sylvia, Marie, Kam, and Kailah as members) they now have six different pairs in the house. Before they leave, Jozea and Da’Vonne tell Angela and Faith to ally with Paulie and Natalie so if one of them pulls the Double Cross the other can go in and come back.
At the main house, Bananas decries his unfortunate position in the game while Ashley finds a bed to stay in. Ashley eventually decides on Faith’s bed, which is a shocking coincidence because in the other room Brad and Bananas are taking bets on how long it will take Ashley and Kyle to sleep together. It turns out whoever has the under would take home the cash because that night Ashley and Kyle are talking and end up in Ashley/Faith’s bed. Ashley laments the fact (via confessional) that Faith probably won’t be her biggest fan but doesn’t seem to have too many regrets.
After this, Shane and Da’Vonne start talking amicably and Shane apologizes. However, both admit via confessional that this apology was not entirely sincere and don’t think much of it. Da’Vonne goes to talk to Jozea about the incident and both agree to never trust Shane and move on.
The house heads out to a winery where the couples all get together and mingle. We get a brief glimpse of Joss and Amanda who have been absolutely invisible so far before Bananas and Cara start talking about the Lavender Ladies and making fun of them for having a name for their alliance. I honestly really appreciate the group having a name, so I can more easily keep track of who is with who, but I can see where they are coming from.
On the bus on the way back, Shane starts bothering Cara about not hanging out with them and especially for hanging out with Bananas. Bananas calls Shane over and the two of them start arguing again. Nelson and Tony aren’t happy with their partner’s antics, but things get taken to a new level when Shane puts on his hair re-growth helmet and continues to escalate the argument. I can never get a good gauge on how these two really feel about each other and part of me thinks their constant bickering is primarily motivated by creating a spectacle for the show.
We head back to the Redemption House where TJ brings the group back to the Surveillance Room. He ends up playing the clip showing Kyle hooking up with Ashley. At this point, it seems like the room is only going to be used to show fights and hookups, which is kind of disappointing but what one would expect anyways. Faith is clearly upset by this discovery, but she resolves to not let it bother her too much.
The next mission is entitled Don’t Push Me Around and has the competitors split into two teams (Yellow and Orange) and play essentially a mix of Rugby and Capture the Flag where each team has to retrieve a ball from the other team’s side of the field and bring it back through a set of revolving doors to the other side to gain a point. First team to two points wins. The winning team will then vote on a pair within their team to become the power team. The Yellow Team consists of Shane/Nelson, Joss/Sylvia, Tony/Bananas, and Da’Vonne/Jozea. The Orange Team has Brad/Kyle, Hunter/Ashley, Cara/Marie and Zach/Amanda. Kam/Kayleigh are allowed to select a team and choose Team Orange.
The mission starts, and it is clear not everyone is giving 100% effort. Shane in particular is not having it as he basically proclaims to everyone he is not working for the Yellow Team. He goes and sits on the side by himself as the rest of his team plays. The mission is super physical, but Yellow is clearly outmatched as Amanda is able to cross the midline and get a point. The next round, Shane is literally waving Kam over to get through the revolving doors. They have to work for it for a little bit, but Hunter is able to cross the midline to get the winning point for Orange. Yellow (outside of Joss/Sylvia) is livid with Shane for throwing the mission but he could not be happier with himself.
People forget that back on Vendettas, Shane got screwed when he helped his team win a mission and then got stabbed in the back with the Troika voting for him to go into elimination. While I would have loved to see this mission actually played the way it as supposed to, I’m happy Shane and Sylvia did what they did if for no other reason than hopefully it will cause the producers to rethink structuring missions in this way in the future.
Orange then gets to select a Power Team, and they choose Zach/Amanda as their power team. After that, we get to the credits and will have to wait until next week to see who goes into elimination.
Extra Notes
o Two equalizers came into play in this episode, with the first being in the elimination. Hunter and Ashley were given a much shorter leash as well as harder walls to punch through for Hunter. The second was in the mission, where each gender was only allowed to tackle players of their gender.
o While it was obvious Shane was throwing the mission, apparently Sylvia was as well. This caused extreme problems for Yellow as once you brought the equalizer into play that meant when a girl had the ball only Da’Vonne was allowed to tackle them.
Redemption House
4) CT/Veronica (-1): I don’t think any team really wants to see them in elimination which means they probably won’t be taken in.
3) Angela/Faith: Natalie/Paulie would probably bring them in but I would pick their opponents in that matchup.
2) Derrick/Tori: Tori gives them a chance against any of these matchups but it’s not like she has been carrying the pair to success thus far.
1) Natalie/Paulie: Natalie hasn’t done well this season but her previous potential keeps them up here.
Main House
9) Da’Vonne/Jozea (-1): They seem like a lock for elimination.
8) Kam/Kayleigh (-3): This may seem odd to drop them so much but the more I’ve thought about it I think her power move is going to cause some problems for them despite its success.
7) Cara/Marie (-1): Still in a good political situation for the time being but I’m not convinced the Lavender Dolphin alliance wants them around for the long haul.
6) Tony/Bananas (-2): These two fall by a lot because they haven’t been the dominant team one might think and with another powerhouse entering the game I think they could be going in soon.
5) Nelson/Shane (+2): It really seems like we are building to a Shane vs. Bananas showdown and it it will be interesting to see how that goes.
4) Ashley/Hunter: These two could have been even higher but being a new team could cause some to hold resentment for them.
3) Joss/Sylvia: I really wish there was betting for The Challenge, so I could just hammer whatever odds these two were to win. Joss could be the top athlete in the house and these two have connections to the Lavender Ladies, Dolphins, and English alliances putting them in an excellent position.
2) Zach/Amanda: They’ve been winning lately but I’m still waiting for them to be at each other throats.
1) Brad/Kyle: Kyle’s romantic conquests could eventually come back to bite them but for now they stay at the top.
