Yahoo News The Challenge: Ride or Dies gets messy as the team portion of the game begins
Just as predicted, when The Challenge: Ride or Dies split up each pair to make them compete against each other, things got messy. And it was beautiful to watch each player attempt to play for their team while also making sure their former partner was still protected... with the exception of Fessy Shafaat, who doesn't know the meaning of a good team player. Plus, Jordan Wiseley and Tori Deal's relationship drama reached a fever pitch in this week's episode, adding even more fuel to the fire. Let's recap!
After last week's episode saw Fessy and Moriah Jadea picking new teams, Moriah's trying to keep a positive attitude about who she ended up with, knowing you can't underestimate anyone on The Challenge — but everyone else is very clearly aware that Fessy manipulated her and screwed her over to get everyone he wanted. He left Moriah with nothing when it came to picking strong players and the teams ended totally unbalanced. Messy Fessy proves once again he will always make the selfish move and can't be trusted in this game, even by his own partners. The fact that he doesn't realize he still needs to be looking out for his ride or die despite it becoming a team portion just shows how he still doesn't know how to play this game to win.
Both teams have a quick meeting when they get back to the house, and while Fessy's team is cheering about their obvious size, strength, and experience advantage, Moriah's team is decidedly less enthusiastic and quiet about their speed, endurance, and intelligence advantage. But the real intense meeting happens later, when Devin Walker approaches Jordan for a one-on-one outside by the fire about whether or not they're good on a team together, since they don't have a relationship or a good history with each other. Devin knows that the current tension between Jordan and Tori over the Nurys Mateo hookup could spell disaster for them all, so he shows some real restraint and maturity by trying to smooth things over for all of them. He tells Jordan that Tori is still obviously in love with him and to just cut her some slack, because "she's trying." And you know what, it's not bad advice! Right now, this game is still being played in pairs despite the new team dynamic, and Devin/Tori and Jordan/Aneesa Ferreira need each other, no matter how dysfunctional that foursome is.
But Nurys is having a great time revealing she and Jordan spent all night making out, and how much fun they're having together. She's also hyper aware that they need to keep things behind closed doors, because throwing it in Tori's face would not be a good move. But Jordan doesn't think he needs to stop this fling with Nurys or hide anything just to make Tori feel better. It's fair and valid that he feels that way... but only if he hadn't just been telling Tori he still loves her and was cuddling naked with her a few episodes ago. Now he's cuddling with Nurys right in front of her face (literally). The emotional whiplash he's giving her is hurtful and he definitely could be acting more respectful to her if they're both trapped together in this house.
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Listen, I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to do what makes him happy, since she's been acting a certain type of way the past few seasons when he wasn't there. And they're not together anymore, so he doesn't owe her anything. But 1. He wasn't in the house with her when she was hooking up with other guys post-breakup, and 2. Again, he was just cuddling naked with her a few episodes ago! This blatantly feels like he's trying to get some kind of revenge on her, and my heart goes out to Tori in this situation. It's all just so awkward and uncomfortable but at least she's handling it better than anyone expected.
In a truly WTF crossover moment, TJ Lavin announces this week's challenge is inspired by the upcoming Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, so we get a clip from Antonio Banderas talking about the movie and a full-length trailer. We also get a montage of a bunch of competitors playing with cats as Jordan talks about how much he loves Shrek. This is… quite a stretch! But the challenge itself is a simple king of the hill/last man standing competition that heavily favors Fessy's team for their size/strength.
In the men's heat, Devin holds his own against Nelson Thomas pretty well but ultimately loses. Horacio Gutiérrez also puts up a great fight against Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio and actually wins, tying it up. In Jordan vs. Chauncey Palmer, Jordan almost falls and recovers beautifully multiple times before Chauncey finally shoves him off. Kenny Clark knows his own limits, and that he can't beat Fessy in this, so he sacrifices himself — he even says that he might as well "waste [Fessy's] turn" since he'll win against anyone. Of course, Fessy pushes him off easily and then goes again against Horacio, and of course uses dirty tactics (he literally grabs Horacio's throat to throw him off) to win the first heat for his team.
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In the women's heat, Kaycee Clark beats Moriah, Nany Gonzalez gets vicious with Olivia Kaiser but eventually falls off into the water. She actually lands right on her face, and a medic has to pull her out of the water. Things look really dire for Nany, who ends up strapped to a gurney and taken away to get checked out at a hospital. But the show must go on, and Tori and Amber Borzotra pretend to fence before getting physical, and Tori easily throws Amber off. And then Aneesa easily pushes Nurys off, cementing the Pink team's overall win against Yellow.
So now the Pink team is safe (and gets to go the Puss in Boots: The Last Wish world premiere as a bonus), and has to interrogate all four guys from the losing team. It's a guy's elimination! The Pink team wants to keep Kenny in since they know he'll drag down the other team, but none of the women want to vote in their own ride or dies. Tori tries to make a case for voting in Jordan since he's the strongest player, which pisses off Aneesa. Everyone (except for Fessy, apparently) knows they'll likely return to pairs at some point, so while this is a team game right now, they're all looking out for their former partners. It's messy and complicated and I absolutely love it!
During the interrogation, Kenny asks to be the main vote so he can choose Horacio as his opponent, which is a bold move but what else is there for him to do at this point? He's screwed no matter what, and at least this way he has some control over his fate. Devin takes control over his interrogation like a true pro, dodging questions left and right and taking the target off his own back. Jordan just stares them down as he intimidates the hell out of the other team until Tori tries to question his loyalty to her because she doesn't know where they stand, and Jordan doesn't back down. God, I've really missed him on the flagship.
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Later, when they all go out to a bar, Tori looks to the future and realizes if they swing big and pick Jordan, a.k.a. the best guy on the opposite team, as the main vote, every other guy on the team will throw in Kenny against him, and Jordan will come back and want to fire a big shot back in retaliation. Since it's a girl's elimination next, that's not good for Tori (or their team in general). She tries to convince Fessy to throw Horacio in instead, and then has a conversation with Jordan to try and make a deal where if she helps save him this week, then he'll throw her the same courtesy next time he's in power. But he also knows how unlikely it is that Fessy won't take this shot at him and how big of a target he is, so he doesn't immediately accept the deal.
At the elimination, TJ asks Fessy to be the first to vote for who he's sending in, and he literally asks his team what they're doing. Turns out no one knows the plan because... they just didn't discuss it all. Are you telling me they all walked into this elimination without having any kind of conversation about who they're voting for?! Are you kidding me?! Amateurs! Fessy ends up voting for Horacio to build trust with Jordan, and the rest of the team quickly follows suit. Olivia refuses to say Horacio's name and votes for Kenny, but Horacio ends up being the main vote. The other three guys go into the Draw, and Devin picks the safe dagger first. He saves Jordan and throws Kenny in against Horacio, which is best case scenario for the Yellow team.
The elimination, "Breaking Barriers," is a race to the middle of a hallway that's blocked by different materials. The guys have to break through each barrier using different tools, so this requires strength, endurance, and a little strategy. Horacio works in construction/demolition, so he feels good about this, and gets an early lead. Kenny gets stuck on the second barrier while Horacio flies through each one, but Kenny ends up catching up to Horacio on the final door that requires them to unscrew a lot of tightly wound nuts. While Kenny actually makes up some time, Horacio ultimately wins and sends him home. Kaycee runs down and tearfully hugs him goodbye, thinking his game is officially over.
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But wait, there's another twist! After the cast leaves the elimination arena, TJ brings Kenny back out and tells him that he lives and dies by his ride or die. That means if Kaycee stays in the game, he still has a chance. If she's eliminated, then he's really gone from the game. This is a great twist, and not completely unexpected, so I'm excited to see how everyone reacts when they learn about it. However, this also means Kenny's going to continue to get dragged all the way to the end, because come on... you really think Nany's going to allow her team to vote Kaycee into an elimination? No chance!
Other notable moments in this episode:
After her horrible fall, Nany eventually comes back from the hospital and she's totally fine. She just had to get checked out for any concussions to be medically cleared to continue in the game.
While Fessy thinks his team is going to dominate their way to the final, he's totally unaware of the tension that's brewing after Nelson, Olivia, and Chauncey were not involved in any conversations about who they were going to vote in. They're feeling really left out and not happy about it at all. I think we're heading towards a Pink team implosion.
Hey, did you know that Kenny is Kaycee's little brother? I don't think she mentioned it at all this episode.
The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
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