The Challenge: Vets & New Threats Episode 10 Review —A War Brewing

To be honest, this was probably my least favorite episode of the season. I don’t think it was bad, but the competitions weren’t good, and there wasn’t anything that exciting going on in the house. But given how good the rest of this season has been, a single episode miss isn’t that big of a deal.

For this review, I’ll simply go through each section of the episode and comment on everything that stood out to me; the highlights, lowlights, comedic moments, stupid moments, and fantastic quotes.

Trivia and Stairs

Trivia is back! And of course, with a bit of a twist. Through the entire Challenge, each person must keep balance on a tiny StairMaster, and if they answer questions incorrectly, that StairMaster speeds up. I actually really like this addition, but I don’t think it was executed that well. The StairMaster was too difficult to balance on, and the Challenge became no longer about trivia, but rather one’s ability to balance.

When the Challenge started and I realized it was going to be done in multiple heats, I let out a loud sigh. This is not the type of Challenge for multiple rounds. Then when I counted how many people were competing in the first heat, I realized that it wasn’t just going to be two heats, but three! So not only is the format of this Challenge wonky, but it’s going to take a long time too.

To give one more complaint, they took away all the humor of a classic trivia Challenge by the way they formatted this. The questions were all multiple choice, erasing the possibility of crazy stupid answers, and even if someone did guess something really dumb, they’re not even saying their answer out loud because they’re just writing it down on a screen. Also because they’re writing it on a tiny tablet while walking uphill at a fast pace with nothing to balance themselves, that led to many of the “letters” written down to basically be unintelligible, which I did find funny. They might as well have not even asked trivia questions and for this Challenge to just have been try to stay on the StairMaster for as long as possible.

The Challenge starts out with CT struggling. He can’t stay balanced on the StairMaster, and so is holding onto the screen in order to stay on, to which Yeremi remarks how, “My dude is holding onto that like it’s a cheeseburger.” Holding on to the screen is against the rules, and TJ repeatedly tells him and others how they are not allowed to do this, but it also doesn’t actually seem like there’s a punishment for not listening. Anyway, CT falls basically immediately.

At the end of round one, Will and Nany fall off last and it seems like they were up there for a while, and then it says how they got three and two questions correct respectively, so they were basically just up there doing a whole bunch of nothing.

I did like how the one time this episode where Gabe gave Jonna any respect was when he said how he thinks she’ll do well in trivia, cut to Jonna being like “ehhhh”. Jonna is forced to jump off her steps because while illegally holding onto the screen, she breaks it and it falls off into the water. I can only imagine how long it took for the producers to retrieve that screen, reattach it to the StairMaster, and be ready for the third heat to begin.

I wasn’t pausing to see people’s answers for every question, but I did look at what people said for the “What was the first year of the 21st century?” question, and Aviv put 1961. That could’ve been an all-time terrible trivia answer, except we weren’t even told it happened.

Justin falls after answering at least like 7 questions, very possibly more, and he got zero correct. Not even randomly guessing just one question correctly is honestly pretty impressive.

Sydney lasts the longest in round three, never falling off the steps and making it through all 18 questions, which is another very impressive performance by her. We get a mini montage of her getting questions correct, but she also did get just 11 out of 18, slightly over half, which is still very good, but the more impressive aspect of this was her endurance and ability to keeping walking that long. In fact Michaela actually did even better in the second heat, as though she didn’t stay on as long, she got 12 answers correct.

Not to be Mr. Conspiracy, but, the person who did last the longest in each round all used the same StairMaster. I think there’s something to be said about the fact that some of the machines could’ve been much more stable than others, and that the one Nany, Michaela, and Sydney used was the most secure and least wobbly.

The same way CT fell without getting a question correct, so did Tay. Which means they are the losing pair and will be going straight into Elimination. Even with Sydney’s heroics, her and Turbo don’t even make the top three, and the overall winner is Michaela and Cedric.

The US Women Are In Control

Though word spreads for Jonna and Gabe to be the team voted into Elimination, Michaela explains how its more advantageous to keep them around, and vote for another pair from the Downstairs Closet Alliance instead, specifically Theo and Adrienne.

Olivia and Will discuss how they would like to see Dee and Derrick go into Elimination as they are a team floating in the middle. In every confessional from Derrick, he has made it apparent that he intended to be allied with Olivia and that whole alliance, but that has clearly not been understood by the rest of the house as they seem him playing the middle. Honestly, him floating in the middle has been a good strategy and very beneficial for him, but I’m not sure if he’s doing it on purpose.

CT and Tay decide that the matchup that gives them the best chance of returning to the house is Leroy and America, and go around campaigning their names. Its worth a shot I guess, but Leroy is too connected to the main group in power for that to happen.

“You make everything an issue!”

Aneesa confronts Nany because she feels that Nany should be taking her side after her fight with Ashley, and isn’t happy that Nany and others are acting like nothing happened. Nany doesn’t want to get involved in the drama between the two of them, probably doesn’t feel as if Ashley actually said anything that bad, and is also much better friends with Ashley, so no, she’s not going to cut off Ashley in your honor Aneesa. Nany’s reaction to what Aneesa was saying may have first came across as an overreaction or that she was making a big deal out of something little, but I think what was really the case is that she was just so fed up with dealing with Aneesa that this was the final straw.

Her yelling at Aneeesa, “You make everything an issue!” is a perfect quote that just represents how tired Nany is of dealing with this type of interaction that likely happens much more often than is shown in the episodes. After Nany attempts to walk away from the situation, the conflict almost becomes physical, to the point where a massive security guard comes in and tries to move Nany away from Aneesa, to which Nany actually pushes that security guard farther than he did to her.

Leo helps escort Aneesa away from the situation, which is just funny because it’s a 24 year old being the one to de-escalate the fight of a 44 year old. Aneesa packs her bags and finally leaves her bedroom with the other US vet women, and now officially stops pretending to be in their alliance. Though I’m sure when she’s voted into Elimination by them later on this season she’ll still feel betrayed.

First Team Nomination

Before getting into the voting, TJ announces another twist. Before any vote, someone can choose to “Stake a Claim” on someone else in the house who they would like to become their partner. The person who made this claim and the partner of the person they are trying to steal will do some mini competition, and if the challenger is successful, the partners are switched. If the challenger fails, then they and their original partner will go straight into Elimination. This is a bit complicated, but I really like it. Whatever episode this happens in will surely be a really good one, and I’m very excited for it to happen. I hope it happens frequently honestly to keep things constantly changing.

Now the actual vote. The Closet Alliance is in rough shape, as the only people they have at this point are Olivia and Will, Theo and Adrienne, and Aneesa and Jake. The teams that were in contention to be nominated are Dee and Derrick, Leroy and America, Gabe and Jonna, and Theo and Adrienne. Dee and Leroy are too connected at this point to get the most votes, and Jonna and Gabe are being reserved for later on, which means Theo and Adrienne receive the most votes and will go against CT and Tay in Elimination.

Adrienne is very upset at Leo for voting for her and Theo, and says that their friendship is over. This wasn’t very impactful for me because I had no idea Adrienne and Leo even knew who each other were prior to this interaction.

CT talks about how in his previous seven Challenges, he won four of them. Which sounds great, but isn’t true. In his last seven he actually won three, which is still insane! In fact if he had the correct stats he could’ve made his recent history sound even more impressive, as in his last five seasons he’s won three, and in his last nine seasons (including the Champs vs Stars, which does count!!) he’s won five times! Incredible numbers.

Bad Elimination

The matchup of CT and Tay vs Theo and Adrienne is pretty good, and should be competitive in whatever the Elimination game is, which it was. But unfortunately, this particular Elimination had such little competitive energy to it. Each team has a cannon, a set of balls, and targets. Whoever knocks down the most targets with their set of balls wins. But, the person who is actually shooting the balls is blindfolded and must rely on the instructions of their partner.

This Elimination ended up being CT vs Theo, as they were the ones who actually knew what was happening and were in full control of every part of the game. Tay and Adrienne’s roles were completely useless. For the first pair Elimination of the season, this literally did not require multiple people.

Sydney gives a great quote where she says how, “The best for my game would be Theo and Adrienne going home, however, if Tay wins another Elimination as such a mid competitor, I would be kinda annoyed just on a personal level”. I wouldn’t use the word annoyed but I do agree with her sentiment there.

The Elimination takes shape with Theo and Adrienne getting off to a quick lead, CT and Tay making a comeback, then slightly passing Theo and Adrienne to take the lead. But, CT and Tay run out of balls, and with the few left that Theo and Adrienne have, they manage to score a few more and re-take the lead for the win. A decent story for an Elimination, however, it was very slow and so there wasn’t that much excitement. After CT and Tay finished shooting all their balls, we see them nervously watching Theo and Adrienne, except only CT was actually watching, because while Tay was facing that direction and standing next to CT, she hilariously still was wearing her blindfold.

Last season CT went home from an Elimination against Nehemiah where they took nails out of a board, and then hammered them back in a different one, and now goes home from an Elimination in which he’s with a partner shooting balls at targets. For someone who is genuinely great at pretty much every aspect of this show, and still very good even when not in good shape, for him to be put in these types of Eliminations and then go home from them feels so anti-climatic and lame.

Moving Forward

Olivia’s Closet Alliance has lost another member with Tay and CT being Eliminated, and it looks very likely that the remaining members of that alliance will be seeing the Elimination Arena very soon, especially Theo and Adrienne again. Unfortunately it is much easier to predict who will be voted in and who is more likely to go home because of the rigid partnerships, which I don’t love and definitely think is a downgrade from the first half of the season. But, my issues with this episode were less about the simple political gameplay and more about the poor quality of the Challenge and Elimination, so hopefully those things are improved upon next episode and in the future.

Winner of the Episode: Gabe, who now gets the opportunity to switch his partner and finally perform well

Loser of the Episode: Gabe, who now will prove when he tries switching partners that his poor performances are actually his own fault

-Beckett Hennessey