Takin' on 'The Challenge': Dancing on My Own

Our first episode post-split gave us a physical daily where, unsurprisingly, Team Faysal won easily. However, cracks began to show when it came time for them to pick someone from Team Moriah to go into elimination. In The Zone, Horacio took out Kenny. We learned that winning team would pick one member (with genders alternating each week) of the losing team to go straight in, with the rest going into the draw. Afterwards, T.J. gave us the latest surprise in a season full of them.

Question 1: This week's daily challenge objective was to throw your opponent off of a platform, and quite frankly, the displays were pathetic. Have these people never heard of "low man wins???"

TD: Yeah, this was not a fun daily to watch for me. Too much hand fighting, not enough wrestling. Go low, grab ahold of your opponent, and that way at least you take them with you if you get thrown off. The whole idea is to have a low center of gravity.

Blaine: Anything that builds up Faysal's ego is a bust. A continuation of the daily challenges with blends of brains and brawn would've been better for the first week as split teams. It ended up being entirely too one sided, particularly with Jordan even performing poorly. But the bonus was getting to hear T.J. say "Puss in Boots" about four times.

Question 2: There was a very weird tie-in to Puss In Boots on this week's episode, with the challenge being vaguely related. Say The Alabama Take sponsored a challenge, what would the event be?

TD: While I love a good banger like hall brawl, it really limits the possible field of winners. I'd go with a scavenger hunt of some kind, mixed with an endurance run/swim.

Blaine: I like TD's endurance idea, but I'm going with a special form of trivia where they have to fun a half mile before or after answering some questions.

Question 3: We figured there would be another twist of some kind with the format, and we got it this week when T.J. brought back Kenny after he was eliminated, and told him that as long as his Ride or Die Kaycee stayed in the game, he too would still be alive. What do you think about this twist?

TD: I was wondering how they would still incorporate the "Ride or Die" theme after splitting up the duos, but I didn't see this one coming. It's pretty interesting, and something they haven't quite done before -- it is similar in a way to the redemption house of past seasons, but we don't yet know how or when the eliminated players will get back into the game.

Blaine: It caught me by surprise, holds my interest, and could be big going forward. I do question if we are to see the eliminated partners or we're just supposed to be thinking about them from time to time. Perhaps they'll pop up in the occasional confessional. Poor Kenny, though. He seemed to kind for The Challenge. It was a shock he made it that far.