Takin' on 'The Challenge': Two Lungs, One Heart, Can't Lose

Season 39 of The Alabama Take's favorite thing -- next to college football -- is here! This season is all about finding a first-time Challenge champ. Every week, devotees to The Challenge answer questions. Spoiler warning ahead!

Another week where the cast finds it hard to work together, costing them money in final prize pot. A good portion of the episode was centered around household politics, and in the end James sent Chauncey home.

Hey guys, TD here, I'm going it alone this week, so I'm just gonna hit on a couple of points from this week's episode, which was pretty tame all things considered. Once again, the cast struggled in the daily challenge, and only banked a meager amount of money for themselves. It certainly doesn't look like the cast as a whole is going to be able to iron things out and add any significant amount of money to the final pot, at least not for a few episodes. They're is too splintered at the moment, as alliances have been formed with elimination in mind and they're bleeding over into the daily challenge. I don't think they'll succeed until they get a collective sense of what's at stake, and gain a sense of urgency when it comes to banking money. The question lingering above it all is exactly how long they'll have to earn money, and will they gel as a group in time?

Outside of the competition, not much of note happened. A lot of the social scenes are still laden with game-related conversations and strategic meetings. This is something we've become pretty accustomed to in recent years; but, I've been rewatching some older seasons lately (around seasons 10-15), and the difference between non-competition scenes really stands out. It should be first be said that the drinking in older seasons was irresponsible, and it's good that MTV/the producers addressed that and it's apparently been fixed. So, it's ok that every scene that deals with the cast outside of challenges/eliminations isn't a drunken shitshow. But, what I miss is the creative fun of the old casts. Fashion shows, costume parties, those folks didn't need some shitty nightclub, they made their own fun. Is this because there isn't as much alcohol involved anymore? Or is the current cast just lacking in the personality/creativity department? Hard to tell, really.

Other than that, there's not much meat to chew on. It's too early to really get a sense on who might be favorites to win it all. My gut feeling is a someone like Horacio, who came damn close last season. In fact, if not for Olivia's injury, I think those two would've won the Ride or Dies final. If not him, I'm not sure who has the biggest political clout to make their way to a final, combined with the physical traits needed to win it. I can say with certainty that I agree wholeheartedly with Melissa and Big T that James absolutely does not have the endurance to survive a final.