Taking on 'The Challenge: Battle of the Eras' | "Swinging Era"

Season 40 of the MTV staple The Challenge is past the midpoint and each Thursday afternoon, The Alabama Take continues coverage of Battle of the Eras in the form of recaps, analysis, thoughts, questions, and answers. Find it on the site every Thursday evening. 

In “Swinging Era,” The Challenge: Battle of the Eras begins with some alliance realignment and reassurance as the remaining players enter the house and hash out who has their backs going into the final weeks of play. Josh is still in Bananas’ Angels, but Cara Maria, Derek, and Michele make a new commitment to one another. Elsewhere, Cory kills the memorization game as he rattles off all of the season names in order to Tori. However, the daily is where the episode gets its name. The competitors swing from moving semis to hit twelve targets elevated to cab level all while trucking 55 miles per hour down the highway. It’s a fun daily challenge which sees Michele, Aviv, and Josh doing poorly. On the flip, Derek and Jordan nail every target for perfect scores. The two men finish the challenge in a tie and have to go to sudden death, where Derek goes six for six before Jordan finally misses one. Derek gets the victory and the seat at the deliberation table; Rachel gets the win for the ladies. Bananas can’t be happier as he knows that Rachel won’t send him into elimination although he is a possible choice since he was a target and did not win. Instead, Rachel plans for Cory to face Josh, who came in last this week. Last place for the ladies’ side is Aviv, and she will get next week’s penalty. In the down time before elimination, Cara dresses in drag and becomes “Karl,” Josh tears up again, Rachel and Bananas solidify their bond, Cara makes one feeble attempt to sway Rachel to send Johnny away, which Rachel won’t do, and Cory makes a call to Nelson. Then it’s time for the elimination, a simple race to ring a bell. But as Jordan points out, a bell usually means violence. Josh and Cory, in pads and helmets, are divided by a wall where they swap out on offense and defense each round. The defense has a shorter track in the sand, but he also has a stack of hay bales in the way as an obstacle. The offense starts farther back, but he has to beat the defense to the bell. A ring of the bell on offense gets a point, a stop on defense gets a point, and four points gets the win. Cory either has a dominant performance or Josh displays a lackluster one once again in elimination because Cory wins 4-0 and sends Josh packing. Cory then picks Aviv, Jenny, and Michele as the next week’s set of targets. 

How did you feel about this week’s daily challenge? Was it exciting enough for you, or was it lacking?

Blaine: I liked it. It wasn't exciting, but it provided for good visuals. Plus, with Derek tying Jordan, I was actually curious if Derek could topple him in sudden death. The surprise of it made for a quality challenge.

TD: I thought it was a little weak. It resembled those shallow, themed challenges from the Total Madness/Double Agents/Spies, Lies & Allies/Ride or Dies era, where they seemed more like film stunts than challenging games. I would’ve liked to see a more competitive element, like maybe only having one target that the players had to fight against each other to claim.

That was a pretty dominant elimination performance by Cory. Do you chalk that up to Cory’s performance, Josh’s performance, or the setup of the game itself?

Blaine: Josh has the grace of a bull in a china shop. You have to hurdle those hay bales or at least make two quick jumps: one to get a solid stand on top of it, a follow-up to come off at a distance to make up time. Instead, Josh tripped both times and effectively eliminated himself. Cory's got the basic football skills remaining from college to where this one was a breeze. It ended up being Josh being out-manned and Cory still being a top-notch competitor as long as there is no puzzle involved.

TD: You gotta give it to Cory, man, he played a perfect game. He understood the assignment, as the kids say. He was just faster, stronger, and more athletic than Josh. I would love to see that game between two more evenly matched players; I really like the concept. 

How surprised are you at Derek both making it this far and competing so well this week? Does anyone else surprise you at this point in Battle of the Eras? 

Blaine: Derek is a surprise, and he’s gotten a nice boost from this season’s format since the ladies have so much power over the guys (and vice versa). But he proved this week that he can also perform. He killed that daily, and he’s done quite well throughout. In fact, he’s got a mostly ideal set of skills for The Challenge: he’s good with puzzles, he’s smart, he plays a social game that does not rile anyone, and he has great endurance. He only lacks physicality, which hasn’t played a huge role this season. Would he have survived the elimination this week?  Maybe not against the likes of Bananas, C.T., Jordan, Derrick, Theo, or another with the physical or mental capabilities those guys seem to possess innately. But if Derek had to do something similar like this week’s elimination against Ryan or even Devin, he does stand a chance! No, what surprises me about Derek is that he hasn’t had to face anyone in an elimination yet. One would think anyone left at this point would have battled it out in the sand. That’s also what makes me amazed that Aviv remains. Having been off the show for several seasons, her social game alone makes me think of her as one for an early dismissal. Not yet, though. Then there’s Michele. I never would’ve predicted her to survive more than one elimination. Oh, well. 

TD: Extremely. Derrick has never been on the radar as far as Challenge competitors go. Nothing against the guy, but he just doesn’t move the needle, nor has he ever done anything of note. That said, he’s played about as ideal a Challenge season as you can play – he’s kept his head low, stayed out of elimination, and done well in the dailies. Does he have what it takes to win a final? That remains to be seen. Like Blaine said, physicality would be a big question for Derek, and it’s going to come up at some point before season’s end. As for other surprises, for me it’s less who’s still here and more who’s not here. For a season with such a stacked cast to begin, I would not have believed you if you told me these were the competitors who’d still be around at this point.

Each season, Josh almost makes it to the final, but rarely does. Is his biggest weakness that he’s the most genuine person on The Challenge? And is that what gets him nearly to the end each time?  

Blaine: The more I watch “The Goof,” the more I see why other Challengers like him. He’s got a heart of gold. I believe he’s sincere when he’s trying to be nice to everyone and cheer them on. It also makes for poor game play and he comes off as pure cringe. The best players need a bit of sadism to excel at this, i.e. Bananas’ torturing others for both his delight and game. Josh’s friendliness does offer up a perfect reason why he can make it almost to the end of each season but not far enough: no one wants to throw him into elimination, and when it comes time to do so because no one else is left to choose, he simply does not have the killer instinct to win. Poor Josh. 

TD: No, his biggest weakness is that he’s an uncoordinated goober. Seriously, he really isn’t all that athletic. Did you see him stumble over those hay bales? He generally plays a good political game, as he always seems to hang around for awhile. But, physically, he just doesn’t cut it.

Confessionals:

• Not once, not twice, but three times does Josh cry in the episode! Cory even acknowledges it in the Chamber! Ah, TV at its best. - Blaine

• I’d be interested in hearing a lot more about Bananas being at his worst in that sixteenth season on The Island. - Blaine 

• Speaking of players who get my empathy, poor Nelly T. Man, he was a presence on The Challenge. There’s plenty to be said about his incident, which I’ll leave for others to say, but not seeing him compete on the show any longer is a loss. Was he silly to the point of ridiculous? Oh, yeah. Was he a good player? Most of the time, yeah! Do I miss him? I do. - Blaine

• T.J. gets some fun with the titles: “‘Nother Trucker” makes him laugh (and it was a pretty good one) and “Coming From Behind” as an elimination name gets his goat when Derek and the rest squeal about it. Good stuff. - Blaine 

• Next week’s daily challenge is going to be huge. If Michele or Aviv finish last and have to face Jenny one-on-one, they’re toast. Even if Jenny wins the daily, I don’t like either girl’s chances against the rest of the female competitors in an elimination. - TD

• We’re down to 11 players, so you gotta think T.J. has one more surprise – be it in the form of another purge challenge or a double elimination – up his sleeve to whittle the playing field down before we get to the final. - TD