The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 Episode 17 Recap and Power Rankings
We’ve now reached the final of this season of The Challenge, and it’s about as stacked as any in history. We pick up where we left off last week, with the pairs competing in the Donation stage. Derrick and Cara Maria wee first in terms of total rock count, but Jordan and Camila were ahead in pace with CT and Tori in third but not by much. Jordan and Camila finish first with Derrick and Cara Maria seconds behind them and CT and Tori in third. It’s hard to say how far behind CT and Tori were, but it seemed like at least a minute or so.
The second stage is called “Bola on Over”, entails throwing a bola onto a pole shaped like the Indiana Hoosiers logo. With each missed attempt, you must take a shot of fermented llama’s milk. Once you wrap the bola around the pole, you have completed the stage. The winners of the last round also gain the ability to give one pair an extra bola to have to use. Jordan and Camila give the extra bola and the pairs start. It’s a real struggle at first, as everyone keeps missing and the llama milk looks horrible. CT gets the first bola, but still has one more to go. Jordan gets it next and he and Camila are done. Derrick and Cara Maria are not doing well, and Tori gets it next ending her and CT’s time. Derrick nails it the next time around though, finishing for he and Cara Maria. It’s hard to say how far apart everyone finished, as the producers’ can edit it to make it seem like the pairs finished much closer than they actually did or much longer. However, by Derrick’s wording it seems like he and Cara Maria were right behind Tori and CT but a while behind Jordan and Camila.
The next stage is entitled “One Track Mind” and has the winning pair split up and pick new partners. Camila picks CT and Jordan picks Tori; leaving Derrick and Cara Maria still as partners. Each pair has to grab two bags of puzzle pieces and then complete a puzzle for their time to be stopped. As they are running to get their pieces, Camila is out ahead of everyone followed by CT, then Jordan and Tori, then Cara Maria and Derrick. Cara Maria and Derrick put in the extra gear and get their bags first and get to the puzzle, a modified version of Sudoku, a while ahead of everyone. Derrick is abysmal at puzzles, so Cara Maria is going to have to shoulder the load here. Tori and Jordan get there second, and are followed closely by Camila and CT. Cara Maria gets their puzzle checked first, but she has two pairs of numbers that are out of place. CT and Camila get the next check and their puzzle is correct, getting them first place. Jordan and Tori are next up, and their puzzle is also done. Derrick and Cara Maria are next, and they get it right this time and are done. Again, due to editing, it was impossible to tell how far behind everyone was but since the puzzle itself didn’t seem to take too long I don’t think it was that much. I don’t want to sound condescending, but this puzzle seemed stupid easy. They literally only had to make sure no numbers were in the same line, which could not have taken very long. Then again, I haven’t been running for miles at a massive elevation so it’s probably not as easy as it looks.
The next stop is a mini Double Cross. The person who pulls the Double Cross of each gender gets to add a five-minute penalty to another person of the same gender. Camila and Cara Maria both pull singles for the girls, giving Tori the double cross. She gives the five-minute penalty to Camila. For the guys, CT pulls first and gets the double, and gives the penalty to Jordan. The next stage is called Totem Recall, and everyone runs this part individually. Each person must find an emblem that will allow them to complete the design of a totem pole. Jordan gets way out ahead of everyone, with Derrick in second. His time stops when he reaches a set of helmets and harnesses, and in sets of three they have to climb up a rocky mountainside. Derrick gets there second with Camila in third. Tori, Cara Maria, and CT finish in a pack behind them. Since they finished first; Jordan, Derrick, and Camila will take part in the first climb.
Derrick and Jordan get to a hot start, rocketing up the mountain. Instead of Camila, the hottest thing on their trail is actually a few dogs who have decided to join them in the climb. Jordan finishes first with Derrick a few seconds behind him. Camila is about a third of the way up the mountain when her rope gets tangled. D=She starts complaining that it is pulling her down, and she can’t get up. The rest of the cast seemed like they couldn’t care less at this point, but it did look like her rope was caught on something. She starts freaking out in typical Camilanator fashion, but is eventually able to pull herself together and get up the mountain. She’s hyperventilating as she is moving up, but she eventually pulls herself together and reaches the top. When she reaches the top, she’s obviously looking for some comfort but all she gets is Derrick telling her she has sand in her teeth. CT, Cara Maria, and Tori are next, and they are pretty evenly matched. The rocks clearly were not intended to hold someone CT’s size, as dust and pebbles fly off every time he moves. Tori seems to get stuck as she’s moving up, and while she’s not moving CT and Cara Maria finish. Even though she really seems to be struggling to find her footing, eventually she is able to finish the climb. Again, it’s impossible to say how far behind everyone is but if I had to guess Jordan > Derrick >> CT and Cara Maria >>>Tori ≥ Camila.
Once the climbs are finished, the time starts up again. Jordan is first to the blocks, followed by a dog and then Derrick. Camila arrives next, with CT close behind (also with dog.) Cara Maria is fifth with Tori in sixth. As they are coming towards the end, Jordan notices a totem pole. Being an experienced Challenge veteran, he recognizes this will probably come in use later and memorizes the order of the images. Jordan arrives at the rest of the puzzle pieces and starts building his totem. Derrick is next, and sees Jordan’s totem and copies it. Jordan finishes first, with Derrick a close second. CT finishes next, getting third for the guys. Camila gets her totem wrong and has to go back to the first totem. Cara Maria finishes next, but before she knocks it down Tori is able to memorize the pattern. Camila runs back just as Tori is about done and finishes only a few seconds after Tori does.
The competitors approach the next stage, where they are greeted by explosions surrounding a house-like tent. This stage is called Smoke House, and again has the winning pair pick partners first. Pairs must run into the house and feel around to find a word attached to a wall while being surrounded by smoke. Once you find the word, you have to write the found word on the board ending your time. Cara Maria picks CT and Jordan picks Tori, leaving Camila with Derrick. Accompanied by DMX’s “Party Up in Here”, Jordan and Tori go first. They have little flashlights, but there is so much smoke it has little effect. It seems like Jordan finds all the letters while Tori finds none and they finish in forty seconds (thanks for finally giving a timer MTV) and set a strong pace for the rest of the pairs to follow. Cara Maria and CT are next, and work in unison to finish in fifty-nine seconds. Camila and Derrick are next, and finish in sixty-four seconds. Camila gets really angry as she found all the letters and Derrick didn’t do much. Derrick says he wanted to stay out of her way to avoid pissing her off, and Camila gets really offended by this saying people should care about winning not she reacts. While it’s easy to look at this as a reflection on Camila, I think it’s more about Derrick. All of the challenges Derrick has won have been team challenges, and he’s always been the Charlie Kelly to Kenny’s Dennis Reynolds. Since all of his challenge success has come from doing the dirty work while other people are the brains, he’s probably still not used to being a contributor to puzzles and the more mental parts of The Challenge.
They arrive at the next part, which is a campground that looks like it will be their sleeping area for the night. They read a sign which says the winning pair (Tori and Jordan) from the last stage gets to pick one person each to sleep outside instead of in the tent. After being shocked by this Jordan and Tori reluctantly choose Derrick and Camila to sleep outside. Derrick and Camila are outside next to the fire, and appear to be breathing heavy from the altitude and cold. This seems like a situation that would have been perfect for the Double Cross. All of the events so far have been pretty close (we think), and it would be dumb for the whole show to be decided by random chance.
After waking up, they get to a flat made entirely of salt at 14,000 feet elevation. Their last stage, called “Going Out With a Bang”, entails putting on a bevy of safety equipment, so you know it’s going to be dangerous. Each person has to hold a Krazy Karpet-esque sled as they are pulled by a truck going top speed on top of the salt. Once the truck stops or the person falls off, they have to run to the end where the final will be complete. They are going pretty fast, and the producers decided it would be a good idea to shoot fire at them as they were going. While you would think they used proper safety measures for this, considering how the skydive went I’m not so sure. All of them were able to hold on the entire time as the truck stops, and they start to run to the finish. Jordan starts to pull away as they run, and Derrick looks injured as he is moving. I think that sleep outside might have really hurt him. Jordan is in first by a country mile, with Camila next, then Tori, then Derrick, then Cara Maria, then CT. Evoking images of Greg Jennings (NFSW), Jordan finishes the run first. Camila, Derrick, Tori, and Cara Maria finish in a cluster in that order, with CT bringing up the back.
At the end, instead of telling the competitors who won, TJ says he won’t tell them who won, and isn’t telling them until the reunion. While initially disappointed eventually they appreciate the humor of it and walk off together as an explosion goes off in the background. By the looks of the reunion, it seems like everyone is there except Camila so it should cover everything that happened on the season. A lot of people had a lot of problems with this finale, but I liked it overall. It tested a variety of skills and each competitor seemed pushed super hard. The only issues I had with it was for a lot of competitions it was impossible to tell how far apart everyone finished and I would have liked a few more stages (like an extended eating section and a swimming section) since the prize pool was so big. I did enjoy it overall though, and was a good cap to an excellent season of The Challenge. Instead of the usual power rankings, I’ll give my best guess for how each competitor finished.
Females:
3) Tori: The girls were extremely close the whole time, but it seems like Cara Maria finished farther ahead of Tori on the events she beat her in than Tori did in the events she finished ahead, so I’ll put Tori in third. Really impressive showing by Tori though, she was able to keep pace with two top competitors and didn’t die like a lot of rookies do.
2) Cara Maria: While I feel like she got second, it seems like the elevation really got to Cara. We’ve seen before that the more muscles you have, the harder it is in elevation; and being one of the most musclebound females in the show’s history, it probably hurt her here.
1) Camila: Say what you will about her personal transgressions, it’s hard to argue Camila’s been the top female on the season. She won six challenges and two eliminations on the season, and was the best female performer on the final.
Males:
3) CT: Overall a great season from CT, but it doesn’t look like he will win. He actually did better on the final than I thought he would at his current size, and he looks like he is in much better shape than on Invasion of the Champions or Champs vs Pros.
2) Derrick: One of the more likable people on the show, it’s hard not to root for Derrick as he runs for his son. There were definitely sections of the final where he could have been better and he really looked hurt on that last section, but still a good showing from the vet.
1) Jordan: People have been quick to crown Jordan the winner, but I’m not so sure. Derrick was right behind him on most of the stages, and that five-minute penalty could be huge. Either way, this was a stellar performance from Jordan and he certainly deserves the win.
