The Challenge: Vets & New Threats Episode 13 Review — They Are Like Cockroaches

In an episode that was pretty straight forward in the results, and wasn’t nearly as dramatic as past weeks, we still have a very solid addition to the season. As we move farther along and get closer to the Final, each episode also has a layer of importance to it that I can feel and definitely appreciate.

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.

Initial Scenes

Before the Challenge starts we get a bunch of scenes that I didn’t find particularly interesting. Theo gets another confessional in which he talks about the opposing alliance, and once again names a slightly different group of people. There are some phone calls home, highlighted by a random Ryan Kehoe appearance and of course the big star: Jake’s Dog Lenny. Then there is a scene in which Michaela tells Will he should consider Staking a Claim on someone and leaving Olivia, which is an interesting move on her part because who would Will actually switch to? His options are either already in Michaela’s alliance and happy with their partner, or Aneesa.

Finding a Locked Box in a Hay Stack

This week’s Challenge is quite simple, teams must run back and forth collecting hay barrels that they’ll use to stack up to reach a key. After doing this twice, they’ll unlock a box that’s hidden in their remaining pile of hay barrels with those keys. Right off the bat, just as Theo points out, this Challenge is made for him and Adrienne to win. Something that involves strength and being tall is an advantage? Immediately we see Theo seem to easily carry two hay barrels by himself, which also gives them a huge advantage over other teams, like Leroy and America, that are carrying one total. Will says that carrying more than two barrels as a team will just tire people out, and that if they stick to one each, they’ll be in front. Let’s remember this for later on when they are in fact not in front.

Jake has the idea to get the key on the side of the course that no one else is as a way to psychologically mess with all the other teams. He believes this is an absolutely genius plan, manically laughing in his confessionals, which, sure. I agree that going for the one farther away at the beginning is smart because you have more energy when you’re running the farther distance, but that wasn’t even his reasoning. This is like when he was one of the main contributors to Gabe Staking a Claim, it’s like you’re doing something smart, but you’re not even doing it for the right reason. #accidentalsuccess

Theo and Adrienne are the first to collect their first key, and them winning this Challenge would obviously save them from being voted into Elimination and cause calamity in the house, so I was rooting for that to happen. Unsurprisingly Leroy and America are amongst the last group of pairs to collect their first key, but very surprisingly Aviv and Yeremi and Turbo and Sydney are also at the bottom. Both of these men were carrying two barrels, and so I’m really not sure how that happened. I think Yeremi and Aviv just realized they needed to try a little harder in the second half of the Challenge, and ended up being fine and finishing in third.

Nany and Justin realize that stacking their hay barrels sideways makes the towers higher, and therefore they don’t need as many. What likely happened was Theo knew that he and Adrienne had taken more laps and collected more barrels than Justin and Nany had, and so felt comfortable doing one last trip before getting the key, thinking they were safely ahead. But, Justin and Nany were closer than he thought, grab the second key, and run back and unlock their box to take the win. Theo was shocked that he somehow didn’t win this Challenge, and he and Adrienne both probably realize as soon as they’re done that they’re going back into Elimination. Crazy enough, this is Adrienne’s fifth second place finish in a Challenge this season.

Will is not happy with Olivia throughout the Challenge, as he sees Olivia’s performance as not living up to what she says she can do, or what he’s seen in the past. At this moment I’ll remind everyone of Will’s strategy to not carry two hay barrels, aka, the strategy all the teams that finished at the top used. Will then basically says how Olivia is someone who needs encouragement and positive reinforcement, rather than tough love, which he then says he will not give her. Another really great winning strategy there Will, let’s purposefully not do the thing that will lead to more success.

The final two teams are Leroy and America and Turbo and Sydney, and the finish is as tight as it could possibly be. Both teams grab their last key at just about the same time and are in a race back to unlock their box. Though Turbo and Sydney get to their stack of hay barrels faster, we see Leroy and America uncover their box first, and I’m thinking, wow, Turbo and Sydney really lost that’s crazy. But somehow Turbo and Sydney managed to finish uncovering their box and opening it before Leroy and America put two keys in a lock. So Leroy and America will be going straight into Elimination, which is the less entertaining result because a Theo vs Turbo Elimination would have been great.

Nomination Conspiracies

At one point while Cedric and Will are talking outside, Michaela pops her head into the conversation and sounding very alarmed talks about how they need to get Yeremi and Aviv out. This was super random and completely came out of nowhere, but is very telling for when that alliance needs to vote someone in from their own group.

Jake tries convincing Leo at the bar to vote for Turbo and Sydney rather than Theo and Adrienne. While earlier in the season Leo was Mr. Big Moves and all on board to take out threats, he has been calmed by Ashley and understands that going with her alliance is the smartest thing to do. At this point I don’t think it would be smart to flip as it could lead to just being voted in over and over, but, after this episode, I do think there is a very strong case for a team like Ashley and Leo to switch sides. Obviously because of Ashley’s friendships I highly doubt that will happen, but if they were truly playing to win, I don’t think they could deny that running a final against Theo and Adrienne, Olivia and Will, and Aneesa and Jake is much more appealing than running one against Michaela and Cedric, Aviv and Yeremi, and Turbo and Sydney.

Nany talks about how in past seasons Theo was always so cool, but how this season is different, of course probably completely unrelated to the fact that you’re now not in the same alliance as him and are trying to throw him in Elimination every week. To this Will responds, “Women will do that to you”, which is the exact thing that the worst person you know would say in that situation. I talked before about how Gabe is a first ballot Hall of Famer in grumpiness, and Will is just about right there as well.

The vote for Elimination is an easy 4–3 with Theo and Adrienne getting selected. Turbo gives an overly rehearsed speech that would make Johnny Bananas proud, and Theo looks as if he’s just sick that he’s beefing with a toddler. With how obvious it was that Theo and Adrienne would be getting nominated, I’m surprised there was no talks of either of them Staking a Claim, but after two Elimination wins together against probably stronger opponents, maybe they were just very confident about going against Leroy and America.

Tangrams and Nausea

For the Elimination, each pair must solve two tangram puzzles while spinning around on a big wheel, forcing them to have to constantly switch which of their puzzles they are solving. I actually really liked this Elimination and thought it was a good test of obviously puzzle skills, but also teamwork. My initial thoughts were that while the contraption would be spinning, they’d get like 20 seconds at the puzzle to make some progress, and then once the Elimination started and I realized they never stop spinning, I was like oh, so this is…impossible.

The idea of doing a puzzle with another person and each of you having control over moving pieces back and forth sounds extremely difficult in itself, and when you add in the fact that they were barely able to even move a piece per spin made this just so extremely difficult. In fact, too difficult, which the producers realized eventually.

I’m a big fan of how in the background of lots of Challenges and Eliminations Will is just constantly yelling out random things that are definitely extremely annoying to whoever is competing. We got a good, “Speed it up!” during the Elimination that I found to be quite funny.

Leroy says how if he had an hour to sit in front of the puzzle, he could probably get it done, which is a huge improvement from where he was in the past when he probably would’ve needed at least two. Unfortunately since he has two seconds to solve the puzzles, I don’t think he was getting much done.

Theo and Adrienne finish the first puzzle all of a sudden, and Leroy and America are no where close to finishing either of theirs. The best strategy, as Michaela points out, would be that each of them solely focuses on their own puzzle and not interfere with the other, because they just kept undoing and redoing each other’s work over and over again.

After 45 minutes of the Elimination, the rules change, and they are given one minute to be stationary at a puzzle before the wheel spins. Immediately America solves one of the puzzles, and it looks like this change really gives her the advantage as the best person at puzzles in the Elimination.

Michaela and Turbo’s “USA! USA!” chant was absolutely hilarious and I was genuinely laughing when they randomly just cut to that mid-Elimination.

Theo basically uses Adrienne like a remote control and finishes their second puzzle to win the Elimination, marking their third win of the season. Though they are old, and many would say washed, defeating all of CT, Derrick, and Leroy in Eliminations is supremely impressive, and doing that in one season makes it even better. The Eliminations that they have won have been very diverse as well, one that was physical, one that was a puzzle, and one that was very skill based. And even with all of that being said, I’m still really not sure if Adrienne is actually any good.

I still wouldn’t say that Theo and Adrienne are the favorites in the majority of Eliminations going forward, and typically you can only win so much in just one season which makes me think their run won’t go on for much longer. Theo moving to an 8–2 Elimination record, with losses against only Jordan and Bananas is extremely impressive, but they’re still very likely to continue going into every Elimination from here on out so I suspect that record will change.

Leroy and America going home doesn’t make too much of a difference to the game. They were never close to winning a Challenge, and I doubt could have even made the Final this season. It was inevitable they would eventually come in last place. I don’t dislike when Leroy is on the show at all, but I do think there are people who are much more interesting and much more willing to be chaotic that I would rather see back.

Moving Forward

Next week if teams from the majority alliance win and lose the Challenge, meaning all three teams from the Closet Alliance are left in the house vote, then we would likely see a 3–3 tie. Which means either one of the teams from the big alliance could switch over, maybe to get Turbo and Sydney voted in, or, we’ll see the return of TJ’s special coin to make a very important decision. Either way, I think next week will be a really good episode.

There’s only eight teams left, and with I would assume four teams making the Final, we’re really getting down to crunch time where emotions will heighten, and decisions will become more crucial than ever, and while the ends to seasons can often be a bit of a bore, I think this one is shaping up to be quite the opposite.

Winner of the Episode: Every young child with a hay allergy who has been taught it’s possible to overcome adversity

Loser of the Episode: USA

-Beckett Hennessey