Season 39 of The Alabama Take's favorite thing -- next to college football -- continues with Battle For a New Champion! This season is all about finding a first-time Challenge champ. Every week, devotees to The Challenge answer questions. Spoiler warning ahead!
This week kicked off with Nurys returning to the house and promptly telling everyone to go fuck themselves, as she should've. Then we got to see Olivia throw a pity party for herself, while Jay, Emanuel, and Moriah had a dance party over Kyland and Horacio's eliminations -- with Moriah's ass taking center stage. All of that happened in, like, the first 90 seconds. Berna won this week's daily challenge with ease, while Michele was the unfortunate loser who got sent home. After an extremely heated selection process, James, Olivia, and Nurys were sent into elmination.
Question 1: Put yourself in Nurys' shoes for a minute and tell me how you'd react in her situation. Do you, like her, give everyone the big "fuck you" or do you forgive and forget in an effort to survive?
TD: I mean, it's easy as a viewer to say do the smart thing and play the strategic game... but that's not me. I'm coming back in scorched earth mode, and doing my best John Wick impression for the rest of the game. It might result in being thrown back into elimination, but I'm very much a "go down swinging" type of guy. Particularly this late in the game. If it were earlier, it'd be easier to forgive and play the long game.
Blaine: I admired her style. She could’ve come in and pretended by acting as if all is well now. There was likely no sense in it. With so few remaining now, she would have to think she was low on most of their voting anyway. I loved her confidence in going back into elimination now that she won it. And you know what? It worked.
Question 2: Copying successful strategies is a hallmark of The Challenge, so why didn't anyone mimic Berna's strategy in this week's daily?
TD: Because the cast is full of morons this season. I understand there would be a lot of focus needed while competing in this week's challenge, but take a second and look over and study her strides. Or hell, after the first round, figure out what she did and do the same thing. I feel like in past seasons, with stronger casts, this is one of those games that would go on forever and turn into an endurance race because everyone would've switch to Berna's small stride strategy.
Blaine: I am pretty sure Moriah had her shorts up her ass. Oh, wait. Not that strategy? It did seem that James adopted it to a degree as he was running with small steps on the wheel in the second heat. It didn’t help him any in the long run. [Insert gif of Moriah holding a mug and longingly looking out the window.]
Question 3: Has Nurys gone from background character to biggest fan favorite in recent Challenge history?
TD: She certainly has for us here, anyway. Combine that with Jay's fall from plucky upstart who scored the biggest elimination upset in history when he beat CT, to sniveling snake shit head and you've got some good drama brewing for the final.
Blaine: When you put someone up against the most reviled and childish set of competitors, it’s easy to become a favorite. That’s not to take away from Nurys. She had charm this season, and her relationship with Horacio showed how kind she can be. I certainly am a fan of Nurys. But who would you root for now anyway? Corey? Moriah? Colleen? Emanuel? Berna? There just isn’t anyone worthy of a champion’s title than Nurys as the rest have completely made it to the final untested.
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