Taking on 'The Challenge: Battle of the Eras' | "Trust In Your Era"

It's a season for the ages! The Challenge ventures into its fortieth season, and each Thursday afternoon, The Alabama Take covers The Challenge: Battle of the Eras with recaps, analysis, thoughts, questions, and answers.

“Trust in Your Era,” the seventh of the season, exposes the complexities behind some of the cast’s relationships, affecting not only how players will vote for eliminations but also who will become targets. The opening scene features Rachel reaching out and playing politics, which she continues for much of this episode, as Era I is down to four competitors. She asks Nehemiah to consider a bond, but he never commits. Soon after, it’s Devin’s drag birthday party, some smooching between him and Michele, and a reveal that the two are practically “Facebook official.” Just before the daily of the week, Darrell pep talks Derrick, hurt knee and all, because Darrell’s back is fine now. Yet the daily is Darrell’s worst fear: heights. The teams use four random players – with T.J. actually pulling the names out of a bag on screen this week – jump off the side of a helipad, attempt to grab a flag, get pulled up by the remaining three players, and attach the flag to a box. Once all flags are retrieved from the jumps, the players can open the boxes, get the puzzle pieces, and take them to their teammates uninvolved with the heights. Both time and the flags play a role as the era with the fastest time wins, but a special flag can shave time off. It’s of note that Darrell has never jumped off of a building in any episode of The Challenge, but he manages to garner the courage to do it here and with aplomb, grabbing two needed flags. Because Era IV struggles to retrieve Josh, they are the losers, and that puts Kyland and Michele into elimination. The other choices come down to Darrell and Tina or Nehemiah and Aviv; it’s Jordan and Nia from Era III, the winners of the week, who make the hard choice of who goes into the Coliseum. A quick bar scene emphasizes the complexities deepening from this season: it’s not just who gets picked for elimination each week, but why some are not volunteering for targets. In the sand, though, Michele beats Tina in a game of claustrophobia, sliding metal poles out of the way to read numbers for a math equation and enter into the next small chamber until the final of these cells. Tina fumbles the addition and subtraction and can’t produce an answer as fast as Michele, which makes Devin happy. For the guys, it’s a helluva game that has Darrell out of the chambers first, yet unable to calculate unless he swipes the sand a ridiculous amount of times. He cannot beat “The Calculator” though, as Kyland sends him home and goes up 2-0 against Darrell. Next week’s targets are Derrick and Rachel from Era I (duh!), Derek and Cara Maria for Era II, and Cory and Averey from Era III. Theo and Jenny from Era IV are the last to be picked, and it should leave viewers wondering how Kaycee and Ryan has managed to avoid targeting, though Johnny comments that the latter is dead weight. 

Major cracks are beginning to show in a couple of teams. Do you foresee the aggrieved parties participating in some sabotage in the near future? Or will the game naturally solve these problems?

TD: The one thing that stood out to me in this episode were the disgruntled players, like Jenny, Cory, and Bananas. Jenny is legit pissed for being the target a third straight time. Cory is annoyed that Devin didn’t step up when it was his turn to be Era III’s target. Bananas is perturbed that Ryan has yet to be a target, and when you add that to the fact that Era II isn’t exactly killing it, well that makes for a very dangerous Johnny Bananas. I think we’re really close to him making some political moves and shaking things up in a big way.

Blaine: It’s not just Era I who slips a little each week, is it? Perhaps that is the design of the targets, of which I’m no fan of having. And Devin, Ryan, and Kaycee should have stepped up this week to volunteer. Once that’s what the team is doing, you have to play your role. You think C.T. would’ve asked to be a target if he didn’t have to do it? I would want someone off of my team immediately if they did play by my era’s ground rules. Like them or not, it’s unfair to Jenny, Bananas, and any others who’ve had to put themselves at risk more than once. 

Darrell finally jumps off of a building! Jordan almost cries during deliberation hearings! Tina is half-Vietnamese! Kyland now is 2-0 against a four-time champion! All of which happened in this episode, but what’s been the biggest surprise this season? 

TD: For me, it’s the dominance of the younger Eras. We’ve talked about how Eras I and II are past their prime, but still dangerous because of their experience and close-knit relationships with each other. That has just not been the case this season. Era I is down to two members, and Era II has some serious infighting going on. Eras III and IV are by no means well-oiled machines, but they are running this game right now. 

Blaine: I’ve been shocked that there isn’t a better structure to this season. It is almost too complex for its own good. It has to be hard to plan, but this season seems as if production couldn’t account for all the possibilities that would arise, yet having an era with only two players left needs addressing. And along the lines of TD’s argument, the fact that Era I has been defeated so easily time and time again is not only disappointing but eye-opening. Does production look at revising All Stars now? 

How much weight do you put on Bananas’ claim that Ryan is skating by when not only has he used a similar strategy during his Challenge career, but there is also Kaycee and Averey who have not done much. Which player is getting an unfair shake overall this season?

TD: I mean, Bananas gonna Bananas, right? His whole game is lies and deception, and part of that is doing the exact shit he calls others out on. But, he isn’t necessarily wrong, either. I think Jenny has a pretty solid case, being nominated as target every week. Overall, though, I don’t think anyone is getting totally unfair treatment. The game is the game, and while teams might have some sort of “next man up” agreement when it comes to targets, they’re not obligated to act accordingly, as we saw with Devin and Cory this week. This is what makes the karma points so interesting, and I really can’t wait to see how they impact the game.

Blaine: Sure Johnny's applied such a strategy throughout the show, but he hasn’t this season, whether due to agreeing to volunteer or being picked as a target. Since he has been a target, his point is valid. Ryan, Derek, Averey, Kaycee, and Devin should play fair – and Derek and Averey do this week – but as TD said, The Challenge ain’t about fair. And that’s why we watch. Bananas calling people out this season, be it Devin with Michele or Ryan, is why I think he’s not only great in competition but also good for TV. I can’t account for how far ahead he thinks, but he knows mind games are involved. I can’t wait to see if he has gotten into these players’ heads. That said, I would’ve also loved to see Tina return to unleash her anger in some way. 

Confessionals:

• “Keep it moving,” says Darrell to the players coming to apologize. It’s hard not to love Darrell. - Blaine

• A lot more should’ve been made about Darrell finally jumping off a building in the show’s 40th season! - Blaine

• The strategy for Jordan and Nia this week wasn’t sound to me. I would’ve saved Era I from elimination: they’re decimated and should be easy pickings whenever you want, especially with Derrick’s questionable knee. You take down a strong era while you can. - Blaine

• The real shame in watching Darrell get eliminated wasn’t that we were watching an all-time great fail due to being past his prime but that he seems to lack the confidence that made him a legend in the first place. - TD

• The unbalanced teams are a problem, and not just for Era 1. I think it makes for bad competition/television that we’re gonna watch a team of 2 compete against teams with 4x as many players. It’s just dumb. - TD