The Challenge Vendettas Episode 10 Recap and Power Rankings
We pick up this episode right where the last one left off, with Devin and Bananas chirping each other about going into elimination. After they go their separate ways, Devin goes upstairs to Kailah to ask her to send in Bananas. Kailah says that’s fine with her, but he’ll need to get one of Tony or Zach to hop onto the idea as well. He then goes to Tony and asks him the same thing. Tony doesn’t commit to a decision, but he doesn’t commit to anything. I found it odd that they seemed so set that Zach wouldn’t flip on Bananas. Back on Battle of the Exes II, Zach switched from aligning with Bananas to Wes based mostly on distaste for how being in a Bananas alliance worked, so he would have seemed to me more likely to turn on him than Tony who did so out of absolute necessity last season.
After this we head over to the Troika and due to the deal Tony and Zach made with Kyle and Brad about their whole team being safe; Nelson, Bananas, and Leroy are put up in the inquisition almost immediately. Tony says currently he is stuck between Nelson and Leroy and Kailah feels like she can’t say Nelson because he was the only one not to say her name last week. Zach also mentions via confessional that he would be willing to say Johnny’s name, but feels now is not the time.
Although I didn’t think it should come as a huge surprise considering if you take out Kyle and Brad the three chosen for the Inquisition were the only three options available; but the house was very shocked by the reveal. Bananas went up to Zach to talk about it, and Zach assured him he would not be going in. We head to the Inquisition, where each of Nelson, Bananas, and Leroy argues their case for why they should be safe. Tony says this decision is super difficult because whomever they put in is likely to come back. Nelson says he doesn’t think Bananas is a guaranteed win over Devin and Bananas responds by saying he could beat Devin if he was in a wheelchair. Bananas tells Tony he’s not going anywhere for a while and he has to think about future seasons as well as this current one.
After the Inquisition, Nelson goes back to the Teal Room to talk to Devin. He tells Devin he needs to convince Tony he can beat Bananas in order to get him thrown in. Devin mentions via confessional that it would be beneficial for him to have the Nelson/Kayleigh and Bananas/Natalie relationships to split. Devin then tells Nelson that there is a rumor there has been a series of Bananas/Kayleigh hookups. Nelson tells Britni and Nicole that Kayleigh and Bananas have a secret relationship; and when Kayleigh comes over to ask him about it he says he wasn’t looking for her. Nelson then goes over to Natalie and tells her about the rumored Bananas/Kayleigh relationship. She says she doesn’t care but mentions via confessional she is hurt.
Nelson and Bananas start talking about the rumor at the downstairs dinner table, and Bananas says if he’s barely done anything with Natalie why would he do anything with Kayleigh. He says via confessional that he did make out with Kayleigh, but considering it happened the third night they were there he doesn’t see why it should matter. Kayleigh says Bananas came onto her and she didn’t do anything; and asks Kyle to help her demonstrate. They then have a reenactment of the incident, where Kayleigh demonstrates how Bananas randomly made out with her. Devin explained on the aftershow that he and Bananas played Marie and Kayleigh in a game of flip cup and the winning team was allowed to make out with the losing team whenever they wanted to. Bananas and Devin won, and while Devin never cashed in on his Bananas did and it escalated from there. Back in the Purple Room, Kailah and Jemmye talk to Natalie about the Kayleigh issue, and Natalie says she feels uncomfortable with Kayleigh in the room.
At the club, Kyle talks to Tony about Bananas and says if their alliance makes the final Bananas will for sure win it. He also says now is the time to pull the trigger because if they wait they might not have the chance too. Kayleigh and Bananas are talking, and Kayleigh tells Bananas he needs to own what he did, and Bananas says he won’t own a fairy tale. Kayleigh then goes to sit down by Kailah and Britni and Kailah tells her she shouldn’t sit there and should find another place to sleep for the night. Kailah and Kayleigh then get into a shouting match and Kam pushes Kailah back inside.
After the club, we get back to the house and Kailah, Britni, Natalie, and Jemmye run upstairs. Kailah, Britni, and Jemmye get Kayleigh’s bed and throw it over the railing and follow it up by doing the same to her suitcase. Kayleigh (justifiably) goes ballistic over this, running upstairs to seemingly physically attack the girls before being restrained by Nicole, Tony, and Kyle. Kam and Cara Maria tell the girls they shouldn’t gang up on her like that and if they have an issue they should hash it out in a civil manner one on one. There’s been a lot of information throw around in every direction about the girls’ actions here, but I don’t ever see the reason for throwing someone’s stuff over a balcony; especially when considering the state of mind, they were in they could’ve seriously injured someone. Gus Kenworthy also made a very good point on the aftershow, saying that on the shows when you have a problem with someone you take it out on them through the game not through bullying.
Kayleigh talks to a producer outside the house and agrees to stay in a hotel for the evening. The next morning, Kam and Leroy tell Kailah she would take huge issue if someone did the same thing to her. Nelson and Natalie start talking, and the scorned lovers seem on the way to an alliance. Nelson says he’s 80% sure he’s going in and Natalie says she wants to see him come back.
After this, we finally head to the Ring for the elimination. TJ starts things off by accosting Kailah, Jemmye, and Britni for “bullying” Kayleigh. While I certainly agree there was no justification for the girls tossing Kayleigh’s stuff over the rail; MTV trying to obtain the moral high ground here when they’ve used the clip in almost every single one of their trailers is being ridiculously two-faced. TJ then asks the Troika for their vote on who goes into elimination. Zach starts off the voting with Nelson, and Kailah follows it up with saying Bananas. TJ then asks Tony, who starts by saying Bananas has been his mentor in this game and if he was in his position would make a similar choice. He also says he and Nelson haven’t had the best past, but he’s going to have to wait to get into elimination and his vote is for Bananas.
Everyone is floored by this decision, even TJ looks shocked by it. Bananas mentions via confessional anyone who has wronged him in the past has [aid the price for it; from Cory to Victor to of course Sarah. This elimination is entitled Not So Bright, and entails the competitors looking at a board full of lights. When a switch is pressed, some lights will be lit; others will not. They then have to press a button switching a light from on to off, attempting to make their entire board light up. The elimination starts, and Devin starts out with a strategy. He says he will split the board in six rectangles; and work from there. It’s hard to see who is winning due to the edit but judging by the reactions from the crowd they seem relatively close. However, Bananas keeps messing up a few of the lights and has a few areas where only one light isn’t lit up while Devin has a pretty clean board. Eventually Devin gets only having one light on the bottom right corner left. He switches that one and locks in the board, giving him the win and sending the Banana man home.
The crowd explodes in shock at Devin’s triumph; with everyone giving him props for his achievement. Bananas presses the button one last time to look at his board, and it appears he was only three lights away. Bananas shakes Devin’s hand and is dismissed by TJ. TJ then shows Devin his grenades, which are: Weighted Down: Add weight to anyone you want outside of the Troika. Tied Up: Wrap up someone’s ankles for the next mission. Team Up: Allowed to select the teams for the next mission. I feel like there are two routes Devin can go here. He can either pick Team Up and set up the teams to vote in his favor or approach the Troika and make a deal to make one team super weak by having them put the weakest players on it as well as throwing a grenade at them. After this, Kayleigh announces she wants to leave the game and TJ lets her off easy for the circumstances surrounding the situation.
Quick point on Devin before we get to the rankings. A lot of people have been making comparisons from Devin to Wes. While Bananas, Derrick, and Devin himself have all rebuffed these claims, there are certainly some factors that would lead to someone arriving at that conclusion. Both specialize in psychological warfare, both primarily act at leading a rag tag group of rebels against the Banana Boat, and both are actually very good friends with Wes calling Devin his mentee. However, I think Devin plays the game much differently than Wes did. Devin’s never been near the physical threat Wes was; people forget how much of a force he was on Rivals or The Duel. Also, this particular by Devin is much more in line with how Bananas plays the game than Devin. While both are savants of the house, Bananas thrives in creating drama and exploiting it to his advantage. If you look back to Battle of the Bloodlines, Bananas did basically the exact same thing when he had partner Vinny tell Abram of his then girlfriend Cara Maria’s flirtations with Thomas Buell. A Wes move is more along the lines using political mastery to convince someone to do something in your favor (a la convincing Leroy to not send him on Battle of the Exes 2). While Devin certainly should be a fixture on the scene for years to come, I think proclaiming him to be the next Wes is a bit premature.
Eliminated
Bananas: While he’s going scorched all over social media for weeks now, I thought he was actually pretty gracious in defeat. It will be interesting to see how much power he has when he comes back, with how his alliance flipped on him this season he could be in a much more tenuous position for years to come.
Kayleigh: Not much competitively from Kayleigh this season, and I thought she was actually pretty restrained on the drama front compared to castmate Melissa.
Power Rankings
14) Jemmye (-1): Worst athlete left by a mile.
13) Britni (-1): Decidedly ahead of Jemmye but behind the other girls athletically.
12) Nelson (-1): Probably the most likely guy to be targeted by the Troika next week.
11) Brad (-5): Second most likely Troika target.
10) Natalie: She doesn’t have any really solid allies left with Bananas gone and would be an underdog in elimination with any of the girls ahead of her.
9) Devin (+7): Gains some political equity with the grenades but is still the worst competitor out of the guys.
8) Nicole Z (-1): Has plenty of friends in the Troika but outside of that could see herself in some trouble.
7) Kam (+2): Seems to be in a good political situation and is the third most physically imposing female after Nicole and Cara Maria.
6) Leroy (-1): Will probably be targeted by Devin, and it will be interesting to see if he still allies with Tony after he betrayed Bananas.
5) Kailah (+3): She’s really come alive lately, and we’ve seen how important being in the Troika is to long term success.
4) Kyle: He continues his excellent political game but could be the fall guy for the dominant alliance if need be.
3) Tony: Tony turned MJ/Scottie into LeBron/Kyrie, and it worked out for him. He’s undeniably been the MVP of this season (his performance in the Food Wars mission really swung the house when you look back at it) and is in a great position to make the finals.
2) Cara Maria: If the other girls are smart, they do everything in their power to get Cara thrown into the double elimination next week. If she escapes that, she should be in the finals.
1) Zach: The most physically imposing athlete left and is in excellent political position to make the finals.
