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

The big season 40 for the MTV staple The Challenge. Each Thursday afternoon, The Alabama Take sinks their teeth into the 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. 

Soon after more of Jenny complaining about being a target for another week and Bananas threatening to join Ryan in a new bedroom, Kaycee confesses like a thirty-year vet that Jenny needs to hush her mouth. It’s because Jenny hasn’t talked game to anyone in the house. From there, the show gets viewers into the ad-supported daily for the week, which is sponsored by the film Gladiator II, and somewhere Adam Morrow shouts for joy. In the best daily challenge of this 40th season, the Eras compete in men or women rounds with the goal of knocking as many of the other eras’ players into muddy water. The Gladiator connection comes in the form of large shields, which were too reminiscent of SWAT teams, which the competitors use to shove each other violently. The era with the most players left in twenty minutes wins, which is Era IV mostly because Jenny takes it to the ladies. Jenny and Theo are now the judges and jury for this week’s elimination and must decide on the pair of Cory and Averey from Era III or Derek and Cara Maria of Era II. Of course, Derrick and Rachel are automatically in the sand, because Era I. After more than one verbal spat with one another, Derrick gets  his wish and faces Cory in the elimination, which means Rachel faces Averey. The elimination – a bout of blind boxing with punching powdered paint balloons off of an evader who is also adored with bells and squeaky shoes – has Rachel pummeling Averey for the win and a close match between Cory and Derrick. It comes down to a tie, so Cory’s victory comes with getting it done faster. Cory does give Derrick respect on giving it his all with an injured leg. Next week’s targets are now Kyland and Kaycee in Era IV, Devin and Tori from Era III, Ryan and Laurel in Era II, and finally, Rachel, all alone in Era I. What now? 

Might as well start at the end. What to make of maintaining targets with Era I down to only one competitor? And of the elimination this week?

Blaine: The show looks a little absurd, so they better have something planned that’s big. Otherwise this’ll be a failure of looking ahead. Do the karma points come into play as early as next week? And what about the karma points for those who are eliminated? I’m as in the dark as anyone, but Rachel is as good as any player left, man or woman. What a feat for both her and the show if she can get a win out of this – or even a place in the final. She dominated that elimination and was the 9th oldest player in the season as a whole. (As of now, only Bananas and Ryan are older.) It’s hard not to root for her! I do feel sorry for Derrick. Without the injured leg, you have to think he would’ve beaten Cory. I can’t help but love it when players fight and argue all episode and then show respect to one another when it’s all finished. It was a good episode!

TD: We’ve been saying the format is going to get problematic, and this week was a shining example of why. The goal of the daily was to have the most remaining players — in what world does a team of two people stand a chance in that game? It’s absurd there wasn’t a format change planned for this scenario. Derrick, of course, fought until the bitter end, but how the hell does Rachel figure to even be competitive in the daily next week?

Did Josh manage to make a good point by explaining to Cory that Theo wouldn’t change his mind anyway in the shady bit of team voting? Is Cory in the right to be as pissed with Derrick and Josh this episode? 

Blaine: Oh, emotional Josh is always the best Josh. He’s due for a cry! Cory almost had him there! It didn’t take Cory and Devin long to see through the fake vote Theo and Jenny tried. Kudos there. Cory and Josh have a history, so yeah, maybe some anger happens when friends let friends get thrown into elimination. But Cory’s initial blow up and Derrick’s reaction were too much, too soon. It at least leads to a good, heated moment between them in The Chamber. When it comes to Theo, I always think he’s going to do better than he actually does. He looks imposing and I like him most of the time. Weird how his size doesn’t translate to more victories. 

TD: I’m of the school of thought that people on this show lose sight that they’re in a competition way too often, and that leads to these dramatic blow-ups that strain or even end friendships. Maybe 0.02% of the time there’s a legitimate reason, like when Sylvia voted against her Real World roommate Tony on Invasion of the Champions. So, Cory had every right to be upset, but probably not at the level he was. Then again, I’d be upset if I was thrown into an elimination against Derrick, then man is a wolverine in the pit. Cory was extremely lucky to win, and I definitely believe Derrick would’ve won without a hurt leg. I will never concede that Josh made a good point, I just won’t.

What did you make of Averey’s “strategy” in elimination?

Blaine: Going first always sucks, but lord have mercy, Averey. Do something! That was brutal and like someone in the cast said, “hard to watch.” I don’t always know if Averey is cut out for the more physical aspects of The Challenge. She was one of the early members I questioned as being cast among this crew of legends. Alas, she’s home now. And it’s not that she deserved a beating, but come on, girl. Derek didn’t have any business throwing himself in for you in that deliberation. That was a dumb expectation. 

TD: I loved how you could just feel how uncomfortable the cast was watching Rachel just bludgeon poor Averey. At one point you had to wonder if the red was the dust or blood spewing from Averey’s head. "Deer in the headlights" doesn’t do it enough justice. You know that scene in the original Jurassic Park where the lawyer is hiding on the toilet when the T-Rex knocks down the bathroom, and there’s that ten seconds or so where they just look at each other before the Rex devours him? That’s what this reminded me of. Except poor Averey was blindfolded. Absolutely zero survival skills.

Let’s do a temp check - who are your favorites going forward? Do you have any predictions for the next big shakeup in the game?

Blaine: I was wondering if a draft of some sort is in store, but I’m also baffled on how karma points will play. It does seem that those are for the final somehow. Bananas has held strong despite being the first man out of the daily this week. I’m all for Laurel leaving soon and the fact that she’s a target again brings me joy. Of note is how Kyland has not been the center of attention for any good or bad reasons; that could help, yet I don’t like his odds in the coming week with that sleeve on his bicep. It could spell an elimination for him. I believe that if I had to bet, my money would be on either Jordan or Jenny to win it all. 

TD: This kind of win could definitely propel Cory to go on a run, provided he doesn’t trip himself up. And that’s kind of the key, isn’t it? For years now, Cory has been a stellar competitor, growing from annoyance to legit competition to someone who should make the final every season they appear. It certainly sucks he doesn’t have Nelly T by his side, but the opportunity it right there for Cory, he’s just gotta play smart. Bananas has been too quiet, as well, and the rest of the cast is just being plain dumb letting him lurk in the shadows. They did well getting heavy hitters like C.T. and Darrell out, but they’re just ignoring the guy who literally has the most Challenge titles. It’s bewildering. As for the game itself, there has to be a team shakeup coming soon, right? The tease didn’t offer much hope, but the teams are going to start eating themselves alive, so why not just go individual? 

Confessionals:

• I’m in shock that the producers never thought of this: the deciding pair should be able to send in either one of the men or women that are up for elimination rather than having to pick them as a pair- Blaine

• Yeah, Ryan is legitimately ticked at Bananas and vice versa, but I laughed at the semi-playful way that Ryan reminded Bananas of what a dick he is. - Blaine

• This was perhaps the funniest episode with Derrick saying that he’s not playing a scared game but a “don’t give a fuck” game. - Blaine

• I don’t know why, but T.J.’s “alright” after Jordan and Derrick’s argument before elimination had me rolling. It had big “thanks for wasting our time with that, there’s 1 minute of our lives we’ll never get back” vibes. - TD