‘The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras’ episode 12 recap: Who was eliminated in ‘The Era of the Purge’? [LIVE BLOG]
Tonight on “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras,” the Challengers get their first taste of what a final could look like while battling to avoid being purged from the game. One Challenger tries to put the final nail in the coffin for their foe.
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
Era 3: Cory Wharton, Jordan Wiseley, 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 “The Era of the Purge” airing Wednesday, November 6 (8:00 – 9:30 PM ET/PT) on MTV.
Heading into tonight’s episode Michele had made Bananas, Jordan, and Nehemiah targets. While looking at who’s left in the game, Michele, Olivia, and Kyland discuss bringing Cara Maria into their alliance because at this point she’s kind of a floater. Cara Maria has no solid friendships in this game. Their top concern is figuring out a way to eliminate Bananas’ Angels: Jenny, Rachel, Aviv, and Laurel.
Rachel reveals in the confessional that she may not want to win the next competition. She has no interest in deciding which of her three alliance members will face elimination. With girls safe this week, why would she want to make that call? She tries to advance her place in the house even further by reaching out to Kyland, saying even though they’ve been playing on opposite sides of the house, they could benefit each other at the end of the game.
Aviv reveals she was injured in the last daily challenge. She’s concerned about what this means for her and hopes today’s daily challenge won’t require much running. Even though it’s a men’s elimination, the female that loses will have a disadvantage in the next competition. Unfortunately for Aviv, this week’s daily challenge is a mini-final. It’s also a purge! That means the last-place man and last-place woman will be automatically eliminated. The second-to-last-place man will go into tonight’s arena and the second-to-last-place woman will have a penalty in next week’s challenge. Let the games begin!
In “Duned,” players race to Checkpoint 1 and dig in the sand to find a key. They then race to Checkpoint 2, where they unlock paddle boards. After paddle-boarding down a river for one mile, they’ll race up a hill to Checkpoint 3. There, they’ll complete a memory game and sprint to the finish. The first man and woman to cross the finish line will guarantee their safety and sit at the head of the table during tonight’s chamber. As the last-place finisher last week, Theo has a two-minute penalty.
Jenny is the first female to find her key and Bananas is the first male. More quickly follow and begin their paddle board excursion to Checkpoint 3. Bananas arrives first, followed by Tori for the women, who passed Jenny in the river. Players start arriving at Checkpoint 3 to compete in the memory game. The heat is starting to impact the Challengers and everyone is still working on the puzzle 45 minutes into this mini-final. Kyland completes the puzzle first and takes over first-place for the men. He’s followed by Jordan in second place, with Tori leading the women. Rachel notices that Jenny can’t run more than half a mile without using her inhaler, noting she’d be great to have in the final.
With a final time of 1:06.46, Kyland wins first-place for the men. Below is the full order of finishers .
Men
1. Kyland
2. Jordan
3. Cory
4. Josh
5. Bananas
6. Derek
7. Theo
8. Nehemiah
Women
1. Tori
2. Rachel
3. Jenny
4. Olivia
5. Aviv
6. Cara Maria
7. Michele
8. Laurel
Nehemiah and Laurel have been purged from the game. The competitors couldn’t cut it in this mini-final and Laurel especially looks ready to book her flight home, calling the challenge “torture.” Nehemiah going home hits Cory the hardest because he was really Cory’s only real alliance in this game. Meanwhile, Theo will head straight into elimination and it’s Tori’s decision to put him up against Bananas or Jordan (since Nehemiah is already gone). I think we know where this is heading.
As expected, tonight’s elimination arena is Theo vs. Bananas. They’ve faced off in an elimination just once before, with Theo coming out on top. Will Theo remain undefeated against Bananas? Or will the previous champ even the score?
In “Cramping Out,” players will strategically place eight poles through their opponent’s cylinder, making it more difficult to get through. Next, they’ll race through the cylinders and play a game of Hi-Lo with TJ. If they win, they’ll get to add two poles to the cylinder and the loser will add just one. They’ll keep playing this game until someone can’t get through their cylinder. Bananas should have a huge advantage in this game because Theo is about seven or eight inches taller than him.
We watch this elimination play out for about 20 minutes. Eventually, Bananas takes the win. Luck just wasn’t on Theo’s side tonight. Bananas names Olivia, Michele and Cara Maria as targets for next week.