The Challenge Vendettas Episode 12 Recap and Power Rankings
This episode picks up with Natalie “apologizing” to Nelson for betraying him in the last Troika. It can be hard to take Natalie seriously sometimes because she gives off an aura of being insincere, but she didn’t really have a choice last Troika and seemed more genuine here than she had in other scenarios. This mission was entitled Spanish Treasure and had the cast split into two teams. Each competitor on the team has to go one at a time to swim over to retrieve a ball. The competitor then had to place the ball into a net attached to a treasure chest, elevating it slightly. Once the chest is brought up to the surface, the team is allowed to bring it back to shore, ending the mission. He also says the Troika will be given a Burger King Vacation for winning, which when you have a crowd of fitness addicts like these people I’m not sure how much that means to them.
Before the mission starts though, TJ asks Kam and Brad how they wish to use their grenades. Kam says she wants to use the Time Crunch grenade on Cara Maria, adding a minute to her team. However, before he makes his decision, Brad asks the insightful question of whether the player given the grenade can still be placed on his team. TJ says yes, and Zach and Tony instantly say they will put Brad on their team. Brad then gives the Tied Up grenade to Kyle. TJ then announces Kyle would not be allowed to participate in the competition. This kind of flew under the radar, but it infuriated me. If they wouldn’t be able to participate in the mission, why wouldn’t they just entitle it the Sit Out grenade instead of the Tied Up? They clearly know which mission is coming up next by their use of the Team Up grenades for team missions. Just another negative point in what’s been a disaster of a season from a format perspective.
This takes us to the epitome of what’s been the most prominent example of poor formatting this season, the Troika being able to make the teams. Tony and Zach are laughing as they do this, and the teams end up being:
Team 1-Tony Zach Brad Devin Natalie Nicole Jemmye
Team 2-Leroy Kyle Nelson Kailah Cara Maria Kam
Natalie didn’t really have much voice here, and her bestie Nelson was thrown on the bad team without much pushback from her.
The mission ends up being a complete blowout, and legitimately looked like 2007 New England Patriots playing a college fraternity in a game of football. Team 1 does this in fifteen minutes, and Team 2 is unable to get a single ball in the net. It is notable that this mission theoretically gets easier as you go because as the net gets elevated the less the person has to dive to get the ball in the net. TJ then asks Team 1 who will form the Troika, and Zach instantly starts campaigning for Tony, Natalie, and himself to be the Troika again. Brad says he also wants in, based on providing the grenade as well as going first. Tony then asks if it is okay if he, Zach, and Brad are the Troika. Jemmye asks if they will for sure put in the three girls on the losing team into the Inquisition, to which Tony says yes. I’m not sure how that would be possible as one of the losing girls has to go into elimination by default, but nonetheless they go along with it and Tony, Zach, and Brad are the Troika.
Now TJ asks the losing team to vote to send one girl into elimination. Leroy, Kyle, and Cara Maria all vote for Kailah; while Nelson, Kam and Kailah vote Cara Maria. With the tie, TJ has the voters go again and the same result is produced. This leads to the Troika having to vote someone from the losers into elimination, and they unanimously vote Kam to go in. The interesting thing about this was after the Car Crash mission Kam flipped her vote to avoid this exact scenario and was reprimanded for it. Maybe she knew what she was doing the first time.
After a brief trip sponsored by Burger King, we get to the Troika. Tony opens up by immediately putting up Cara Maria and Kailah, and then following it up with Natalie. Tony says Natalie has a lot of money he would like to see go back in the pot, and she’s a rookie without many strong ties left in the game. At the Inquisition, Burger King has decked out the table with food and the three girls arrive. Cara starts off by talking up her final record. She makes the point she would be an excellent partner in a final and would be a boon to whomever she would be partnered up with there. This is something that has always bothered me in individual seasons and was of particular concern last season. I have no idea why it is considering if there are partners for the final and it is the usual three participants of each gender, Cara Maria has more of a chance of being partnered against one of the members of the Troika than with them. From that logic it should play minimal to no concern in choosing which girls to protect, however it has seemed to the last two seasons. It also shows one of the flaws of this season, with the cast not knowing about the one winner twist and not really caring about what happens on the other gender’s side of the bracket.
After Cara’s piece, Kailah says they should keep her in over Natalie because she is stronger. Then Natalie starts by saying she is strong too, and then the two really start to get into it. It’s hard to make out exactly what they are saying since they are shouting so much but Kailah does make a good point when Natalie says she wants to work with the three members of the Troika when she has had all game to try to work with them but now wants too because they are in power.
After this we head to the Ring, and it appears to be some sort of trapezes themed elimination. The Troika votes and all unanimously say Natalie, again reneging on the promise they had made earlier. TJ says the elimination is called Spanish Torture. It entails the girls to be connected to two lines (one above their head and one at their feet) and then use them to shimmy down the line and ring a bell at the end. First person to do so remains in the game. The elimination starts, and Natalie gets an early lead. She seems to be coasting to an easy victory, especially when they hit where the lines cross in the middle and Kam gets flipped upside down. However, Natalie soon gets flipped as well and the tides start to turn. Kam slowly makes her way past Natalie, who starts getting really flustered. Kam is able to get all the way to the bell, ringing it and sending Natalie home.
TJ dismisses a crying Natalie and then addresses Kam. The grenades for Kam are Cash-Steal someone’s whole bank account, Endure-Make someone do twenty burpees before the next mission, or Time Crunch-add a minute to someone’s time for the next mission. He also says the cast will be heading to the Czech Republic after next mission, to which everyone responds with glee.
After a five second scene at the house with Kam and Kailah, we get right to the next mission. The mission is entitled Help Me, Rhonda. Competitors each have to race one mile up a hill to a bridge, where they then have to zipline across a chasm. They then have to run through the city for a while before rappelling down the side of a wall and then running to the finish. TJ announces the fastest male and female will split $25,000; while the slowest of each will be eliminated immediately. TJ then asks Kam which grenade she would like to use, and she pretends like she is planning to throw it at Cara before deciding to just take Devin’s cash. I personally would have thrown the Time Crunch at Jemmye, but I can see why she wants the cash.
We’re not shown much of the competitors on this mission; just a few quick clips interspersed with confessionals from them. It seemed like Jemmye, Kam, Devin, and Kyle struggled the most. The episode cuts off right before we here the winners and losers, ending this episode.
Eliminated
Natalie: Great rookie season for Natalie. She still needs to adapt a bit more to the game of The Challenge, but it’s great to see another strong female enter The Challenge scene.
Power Rankings
12) Jemmye (+1): She’s actually had a surprisingly decent season from a competitive standpoint, but she’s the easy pick to get last for the girls here.
11) Devin (+1): The guys’ loser is much harder to pick than the ladies, I’d say Devin is most likely just from a simple athletic standpoint.
10) Kyle (-5): I considered putting him below Devin, he really seemed to struggle here.
9) Leroy (-2): He’s the only guy outside of Devin and Kyle that I can see losing.
8) Kam (+1): She’s probably the most likely to lose besides Jemmye.
7) Nelson (+4): He didn’t look great on the run and has really had a down season overall; but he’s in a solid position right now.
6) Kailah (0): Similar to Nelson, has had a down year competitively compared to her expectations but is in a good spot.
5) Nicole Z (-1): This mission was right up her alley, but I still have no faith in her running a final.
4) Brad (+4): Has had an unheralded season physically and if he gets to the final I could definitely see him winning.
3) Tony: Has been untouchable lately, I still have reservations about his performance in a final.
2): Cara Maria: She didn’t look great in the swimming mission, but she seemed to have no problems with the run and her experience in finals should really help her out.
1) Zach: The top dog for a while, Zach’s shown no signs of slowing down and is the current odds-on favorite.
