‘The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras’ episode 10 recap: Who was eliminated in ‘A New Era’? [LIVE BLOG]
Tonight on “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras,” the game takes a huge turn as the Challengers must now work as individuals to claim victory, while still repping their era. A hot and grueling challenge has one person seeing double and another wishing they could use it as an excuse.
Here are the contestants still in contention for the Season 40 championship:
Era 1: Rachel Robinson
Era 2: Aviv Melmed, Cara Maria Sorbello, Derek Chavez, Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, Laurel Stucky, Nehemiah Clark, Ryan Kehoe
Era 3: Cory Wharton, Jordan Wiseley, Nia Moore, Tori Deal
Era 4: Jenny West, Josh Martinez, Kyland Young, Michele Fitzgerald, Olivia Kaiser, Theo Campbell
Below, read our full recap of tonight’s episode, titled “A New Era” airing Wednesday, October 23 (8:00 – 9:30 PM ET/PT) on MTV.
Even though this is now an individual game there are still targets. This week they are Rachel (Era 1), Aviv (Era 2) and Jenny (Era 4) for the women and Derek (Era 2), Ryan (Era 2) and Johnny Bananas (Era 2) for the men. Tori really lit the Era 2 men up after she won last week’s arena. Bananas says Tori has “awoken the sleeping dragon.”
Tori says she feels a fire inside of her now that two of her closest allies (Devin and Kaycee) were eliminated. Ryan says Bananas has grown on him a little bit, but questions why Tori would name him and Derek as the other targets if she really wants Bananas to go home. Why not name someone like Theo a target? A person who has actually sent Bananas packing before. Rachel and Jenny aren’t surprised to be targets. Once again, Josh makes it about himself and says he’s crushed that they lost Devin and Kaycee. Now he says he plans to look after Tori for the rest of the game, which is probably bad news for her. Josh can’t keep his word about anything. It’s no surprise that Josh quickly goes running to repair his relationships with Bananas and Rachel. Another new alliance for Josh? Probably. The guy has so man IOUs at this point I can’t even keep track.
Jordan pulls Michele and Olivia aside, telling them the longer Bananas is in the game the more momentum he gets. It’s a rich statement coming from a man who’s probably the true biggest threat in the house. Nevertheless, Michele and Olivia are buying what he’s selling. They plan to launch a plan on Bananas and his “angels,” including Rachel, Aviv, Laurel, and Jenny.
The next day the Challengers arrive at the daily challenge. TJ reveals he’ll flip a coin to decide if it’s a men’s or women’s elimination day. The coin flip reveals a men’s elimination will take place tonight. Whichever woman loses today will have a penalty in next week’s challenge. Tonight they’ll play “Fire Away,” where players gather balls, fill a cylinder next to their name, and then solve a puzzle. It sounds straightforward, but it’s blazing hot outside and the players are struggling. Bananas accidentally puts two balls in Jordan’s cylinder instead of his own. When he asks TJ if he can get them back TJ just laughs, haha. Love that TJ cackle. Jordan ends up winning for the men and Tori is the women’s winner. They’ll decide who faces tonight’s loser in the elimination arena.
Ryan did his puzzle completely upside down so they were all black pieces instead of the number “40,” so he gets last place. He’ll head straight into the arena this week. The women are still working on their puzzles, but it doesn’t matter, they’re not facing elimination. Still, the heat is getting to Michele and she’s starting to get light-headed. Her hands go numb and eventually she needs a medic. She starts to question if she’s capable of continuing on in this game. After Michele recovers, her head is back in the game, but she will still have a penalty next week for getting last place.
Back at the house, the men enter the chamber where Jordan and Tori will decide who faces off against Ryan in tonight’s elimination. If they can help it, Ryan and Derek will avoid facing off in what they call a “Battle of the Gays.” They’re best friends and if one can’t succeed, they both hope the other does. Bananas seems prepared to go into battle, hoping he can emerge victorious and unleash his wrath on next week’s targets. As expected, Jordan and Tori decide to toss Bananas into the arena. Jordan plays it off as being Tori’s decision — and it doesn’t really matter because the women control the men’s fate. Bananas can’t directly target Jordan himself.
At the bar, Rachel and Tori are coming to an understanding that they’re probably the strongest women competing. They form some sort of alliance in hopes of acting like liaisons for each other. Through Tori, Rachel would like to make inroads with Jordan. Rachel is playing a killer social and physical game this season. Tori would like Rachel to help her out with Bananas, but that might be a lost cause at this point. Tori doesn’t think she can look at Bananas the same after he did Devin “so dirty.” Regardless, if these two come together it would be one hell of a power duo.
The next morning Rachel makes a pact with Jordan to work together moving forward. Next, Tori makes a deal with basically every guy in the house who support her decision to throw Bananas in the arena. I love this game play from Rachel and Tori tonight! Kudos!
Tonight’s elimination arena is called “Killer Quads.” Players will drive quads (basically four-wheelers) around a track. They’ll start on opposite ends, trying to catch their opponent on the track and snag their ribbon. The first player to do this two times will win tonight’s arena. They really dragged this elimination out, but after what felt like an eternity, Bananas did win this by a score of 2-0. Drunk with power, Bananas is devastated when TJ reveals that he can name any three women as targets EXCEPT for the winner of the daily challenge, Tori. Tori laughs hysterically and shouts, “Kiss my ass!” Bananas then continues his vendetta against Devin by naming Nia, Olivia, and Michele as targets.