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

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. 

Deep in this season with the twelfth episode, “The Era of the Purge” begins with conversations about the three targets of the week, Bananas, Jordan, and Nehemiah; Cara Maria thinking aloud on whom she aligns with now; and debates on if Olivia has bothered Theo’s game this season. Soon after, it’s time for the daily challenge, which is not a mere daily, but a mini-final. Cara attempts to guess that it’s a double elimination, but T.J. corrects her to let her know that it’s a purge: the last place for both men and women goes home immediately. The second-to-last place for the men this week becomes the immediate competitor in elimination; the same position for the ladies gets a penalty next week. In the mini-final, players start in the dunes of Vietnam, which I did not know existed. They are to hit all the checkpoints: rush to a spot, dig up a key for a locked paddle boat, race to the boat, unlock it, paddle a mile down the river, run to a memory puzzle scaled large by boats that hide various season posters that correspond to numbers, solve it by matching cards with the numbers at a table many yards away, then race to the finish up an especially large dune. Kyland gets the win for the men with Jordan not far behind him. Tori wins for the women, which spells doom for Bananas. On the flip of it, Laurel gets disgruntled during the memory game and opts out; she quits for the entire season and goes straight home. Michele comes in next-to-last place and gets the penalty for next week. It looks as though Theo’s penalty from last week may cost him, but he beats Nehemiah, who plays through only to finish last. It’s goodbye to Laurel and Nehemiah. From there, the elimination is all but set, so Bananas clips toenails and trims nose hairs during the time in The Chamber, which Tori, Kylan, Jordan, and Theo find simultaneously funny, infuriating, and disgusting. Of course Tori picks Bananas as they have beef this season despite being friends at one time, and the elimination, “Cramping Out,”  is an odd, mish-mash of a game: Bananas and Theo start with a pentagon-shaped cylinder that they are to crawl through in under a minute, but each player gets to place poles throughout the structure in order to make it slow and difficult to maneuver. Once through, they play a game of high-low with T.J. If the player wins, he gets to add two more poles to the cylinder. If not, he adds only one. They continue this until one of them doesn’t make it in the minute allowed, which gets shortened to thirty seconds after thirteen rounds. Bananas finally wins, though Theo fights right until the end with this 6’6” frame and long arms and legs. Bananas picks his obvious targets for next week: Olivia, Michele, and Cara Maria. 

Johnny Bananas is famous for his ego. Why hasn’t he turned it on in his last three appearances on The Challenge? 

Blaine: He’s playing with mostly legend on top of legend here (in some cases, that’s pretty literal!). He’s feeling more heat from everyone this season than he has of late. And I’d bet that coming fresh off of playing other reality games – The Traitors and House of Villains – he feels he has a reputation to uphold! There are other ideas floated online, too, that he saw that the season was stagnating and decided to up the ante. Put it all together with a possible eighth championship, and it could be a Bananas performance for the ages. 

TD: It could be as simple as he wasn’t winning at the clip he used to. His previous title was five seasons ago on Total Madness, and before that he had a seven season drought after his infamous Rivals III win with Sarah. CT won the three seasons surrounding Bananas’ last win, inching closer to his overall championship total and re-inserting himself in the Challenge G.O.A.T. argument. Maybe it was this season’s cast, the level of competition jumped up and Bananas brought his best game. Either way, love him or hate him, prime Bananas is good for the show.

How much does Laurel’s exit, specifically the way it happened, affect your overall opinion of her legacy within the show’s history?

Blaine: If you go by this season alone, she’s not great. She got by on aligning with some players and avoided big mistakes when she had a target designation. There’s no disagreeing with Cara Maria on how she did. Laurel did not have it in her this season. If she doesn’t come back on the show again, it really colors how you view her overall, as much as that’s not fair. She did win The Challenge: All Stars and its fourth season, which was the most recently televised. She can come back and fix the tarnish, but she needs to do so in better shape and with a better attitude. 

TD: Tori called her the greatest female Challenge competitor of all time, and while I disagree, Laurel is certainly in the discussion (for my money, it’s Evelyn). I think Cara Maria absolutely nailed it when she said Laurel came in out of shape, and didn’t want to embarrass herself in the final by gassing out. In most any other season it might not be as big of a deal, but in a season that’s supposed to weed out the best of the best, it definitely stands out a lot more.

The play within the play during elimination was Josh and Michele’s bickering. Michele sniped at Josh for cheering on both Theo and Bananas. What’s the deal? 

Blaine: Michele acts as though she can control certain players, which she absolutely did in The Challenge’s season prior. So what if Josh cheers on both men? As Josh pointed out, he wasn’t giving pointers to either of them, so it makes zero difference. This is the downfall of Michele as someone to root for. She tries to take control of everything and everyone even when it doesn’t matter or when she clearly should not.  

TD: It was Josh, or maybe Cory, that pointed out that Michele’s most annoying trait is that if you do anything that she doesn’t agree with, she instantly reacts as if you’re against her and are trying to destroy her. It’s nauseating. While it’s true Josh often tangles himself up in too many alliances or deals, there are plenty of people who loudly cheer for both competitors in the spirit of good sportsmanship. I can’t remember anyone’s stock falling for me as much as Michele’s has this season. She’s insufferable. I need to go back to past season’s write ups and see if I’m misremembering, but goddamn someone please send her home and get her off my TV.

Time for a quick power ranking of the remaining players. Give us your top three men and women.

Blaine: Hard to go against Bananas right now. He’s playing the exact game he wants and he’s won two eliminations. Jordan won’t ever get low marks from me; he’s second. And Kyland kills it every week. When it comes to the ladies, Tori is having a season of her own and amongst the legends, no less. Rachel, even as a team of one for a couple of weeks, fended off everyone who came after her and survived. For third, it’s not Jenny like I’d initially thought it would be. Her endurance looks like a huge factor. I’ll slot Olivia here. Now that Theo’s gone, she can focus. Remember, she made the last leg of a final in her first appearance. She’s lost some of her athleticism since then, but Cara isn’t playing her best, Michele’s running on fumes now, and Aviv is all but playing injured, though I debated putting her here in third. 

TD: For the ladies, it goes Tori, Jenny, then Rachel. Tori has not only the physical tools, but the alliances necessary to make the final. Jenny is just a bad ass. I almost put Cara Maria third, but we haven’t seen her run a final in a long time. Rachel seems incredibly motivated and is in phenomenal shape. I really hope it comes down to these three, it’d be great viewing. On the guys’ side, Bananas has to be up top for me, even with the massive target on his back. Jordan is next, because if he gets to the final he has the physical edge. Third is tough, but I’ll go with Kyland. He’s got momentum on his side, even if he’s a little too confident for someone without a title.

Confessionals:

• Good riddance to Laurel. Hindsight sure does make her showing this season look lazy af. The only energy she expended was to berate Cara. She couldn’t even win me back with her animal love in the end. - Blaine

• Aviv and Derek still being here is something. I’m not sure what it is, but it surprises me they’ve made it this far. - Blaine

• I didn’t realize Jenny needed an inhaler although she’s a champion. That’s a big thing not to know! - Blaine

• Like Blaine, I’m not sad to see Laurel go. She is just so unlikeable, and if she’s not in great shape she isn’t even a good foil to root against. - TD

• I was very pleased with the setup of the mini-final/purge. It was challenging, raised the stakes, was good TV, and accomplished its mission without giving away too much. - TD