This week’s episode of The Challenge: Vendettas kicks off in the Ring where last week left off. The Troika, Bananas, Tony and Kyle, have to choose whether Devin, Shane or Victor will go up against Brad in the elimination round. Bananas leads the charge and gets the trio to vote for Victor, who he thinks will be the biggest competition later on. In the challenge, the guys have to use their bodies to splash water out of a giant glass tank, then hammer themselves out of the bottom.
Brad pulls out the victory, sending Victor home. Obviously, Britni is thrilled, as she and Brad have been a romantic item all season long. Along with the win, Brad also gets a grenade, which he’ll be able to use at the next challenge. His options are: Time Crunch (the ability to add seconds to anybody’s time besides the Troika’s), Sit Out (the ability to choose someone to sit out at the next challenge) or Blindside (the ability to make someone complete the challenge blindfolded). Unfortunately, before the next challenge, Sylvia is sent home for medical reasons, leaving one less person in the game.
For this week’s challenge, the competitors are split into two teams. They’re tasked with collecting puzzle pieces and building giant puppets of Challenge vets, CT and Aneesa, while chained together. The winners get $25,000, and amongst themselves, will choose their three strongest competitors to form the Troika. However, the losers will face a double elimination — a guy AND a girl will be automatically sent to the Ring.
As the Troika, Bananas, Tony and Kyle get to choose the teams. They put themselves with Brad, to not fall victim to his grenade, and Shane, to use as a safe person to potentially vote in if their team happens to lose. The Green Team consists of those five guys, along with Kayleigh, Nicole, Cara Maria, Natalie and Jemmye, while the Blue Team is made of Leroy, Nelson, Zach, Joss, Devin, Kam, Britni, Kailah, Marie and Veronica. Brad uses his Time Crunch grenade, giving his team a one minute head start.
The Green Team wins, and Bananas takes the reigns to choose Tony, Kyle and Nicole as the Troika, while the Blue Team picks Veronica and Joss as their picks to automatically head into elimination. Now, the Troika has to choose three guys and three girls to potentially go against Veronica and Joss. This week, there will be no Inquisition for the picks to make their final pleas — instead, the Troika will just make their decision ahead of the elimination.
Tony, Kyle and Nicole choose Shane, Devin and Nelson for the guys and Kam, Natalie and Kayleigh for the girls. Their final picks are for Kam and Shane to go against Veronica and Joss. Theres another twist though: Fierce Challenge alum, Derrick, Jordan, Tori and Aneesa, now known as The Mercenaries, show up to the Ring to compete against the four Vendettas challengers. The match-ups are Joss vs. Derrick, Shane vs. Jordan, Kam vs. Tori and Veronica vs. Aneesa, who are Vendettas themselves after last season.
Jordan beats Shane fairly easily, sending him home. Then, in Veronica and Aneesa’s first heat, things get physical, and Veronica injures her finger. We’ll have to wait until next week for the rest of the results, though, as the episode ends with medics tending to her.
Oh, and YES — the answer to “who wrote the note?” is finally answered this episode. In case you forgot, last week, mysterious messages began appearing on Britni’s bed, accusing her supposed allies, Jemmy, Cara Maria and Veronica, of talking s***. The challengers never discover who left the messages while in the house, but in a confessional, the ultimate pot-stirrer, Johnny Bananas, reveals himself as the culprit. In fact, he planned the drama so far ahead, that he had his sister write the notes before the show so they’d be in female handwriting. Let’s be real — it’s pretty genius!
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of this week’s episode of The Challenge?