An Era Tradition | The Alabama Take - Compositions, Podcasts, and Miscreants

The Challenge: Battle of the Eras

The Challenge ventures into its fortieth season! Each Thursday afternoon, The Alabama Take provides coverage of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras in the form of recaps, analysis, thoughts, questions, and answers. Find it on the site every Thursday.

In one of the more monumental episodes of this 40th season, “An Era Tradition” begins with the minor fallout of Josh’s inability to keep his word last week when he wouldn’t volunteer to be a target. Soon after, the eras find themselves in a team daily which had the players having to carry a heavy, L-shaped structure through the trees of Vietnam to get to eight sandbags, used balance a beam. The team to balance the bar the first won, which ended up being Era IV, and that put Kyland and Olivia in charge of who faces C.T. and Tina. Era I barely gets the first round of sandbags and it costs them. After drinking, deliberations, and a major blowup between Cara Maria and Laurel, Kyland and Olivia give their votes to Nehemiah and Emily to go into the elimination “Getting Hammered.” There, Tina handedly beats Emily; then Nehemiah gets revenge on C.T. from his Rivals II defeat. Next week’s targets will be Brad and Rachel from Era I, Bananas and Laurel from Era II, Cory and Jonna from Era III, and Jenny and Josh from Era IV.

It’s time to settle it: who is in the wrong these last several seasons of The Challenge, including All Stars. Is Cara Maria a dramatically troubled soul or is Laurel incredibly cruel to her?

Blaine: If there’s a Challenge player I’ve grown to trust of late to use logic over emotion, it’s Kyland, and he hints that there is more to see with Cara Maria, at least this week. But overall, Laurel has been downright vicious to her this season and in the most recent All Stars. I know the word “bully” gets overused now, but this appears to be classic bully behavior: manipulative, persistent, fluctuating from variations of mean, distant, and friendly. I am ready for Laurel to get hers, and I hope with her being picked as a target next week by Nehemiah that it happens. And no, Cara cannot be fully innocent as well as completely normal, but Laurel’s acts are emotionally abusive. The fact that she throws the daily ices that cake.

A lot of confessionals revolved around fear of C.T. What level of dread does he command these days at his age and athletic shape of this season? Is he still one to avoid as much as the competitors claim?

Blaine: I do find it odd sometimes that players don’t acknowledge if another has lost a step, has gained weight, or has not been as formidable as he or she has in previous seasons. I’m looking at Aneesa here, yes. It goes to show how canny C.T. still can be, particularly when he shows up in better shape to combine with his intelligence of the game. Here, I don’t believe it would’ve mattered, but the cast would not have known how athletics or performance would factor in before the elimination. Tina, on the other hand, usually offers more comedy and politics. Not here. She demolished that elimination in a way that none of the other three could replicate. Seriously, how did she do that?!

It was a momentous episode. What’s the effects of these big moments?

Blaine: It may go without saying here, but losing C.T. this early in the season disappoints us all. I suppose we’ll pledge our support to Bananas, maybe, though there are plenty of lovable Challengers remaining. Josh is the next to go, at least from Era IV, and Bananas sends him home. Cara Maria may have to leave to get her emotional stability on track. Laurel does not get eliminated, despite everyone wishing she would. Without C.T., Era I comes to an end sooner rather than later. It’s sad! Eras III and IV will combine in the end.

Confessionals:

I’m not sure how production could change it, but having a way to tamp down the relationship advantage would level the playing field for players like Emily and Aviv who haven’t been on the show for a while. Even the notorious “Vacation Alliance” was mentioned in this episode.
Josh should just admit that he was scared and not try some grand tall tale.
If you've ever moved heavy furniture, you felt the pain of each Challenger this week in the daily.
Hilarious use of editing skills to pair the house talking about how afraid everyone is of C.T. with the footage of him grilling and carrying armloads of food.
If there is more footage of C.T. and Bananas talking about hook-ups, we'll take it.
“Getting Hammered” is as good of a game title as they’ve done in a while.
I was under the impression that only the first round of eliminated players got the karma vote, but here we see C.T. and Emily determining who gets the 1–5 amount of points. Odd that they haven’t shown more, but that could be more of a flashback moment later.
Digging into rumor here, which is why I didn't use this information above, but supposedly there was a lot left out of Laurel and Cara fight, including Laurel bringing up Cara's past abuse by an ex-boyfriend, acting it out in front of her, and security keeping a close eye on Laurel in the following days; Cara had to see a therapist shortly after the fight.