As The Challenge: USA, Episode 9 opened, the cast enjoyed a nice cruise on the water with food, drinks, and dancing. An alliance called the Fab Five was revealed, which included Sarah Lacina, Desi Williams, Cashay Proudfoot, Justine Ndiba, and Cayla Platt.
Sarah’s group was targeting Big Brother allies Angela Rummans and Alyssa Lopez. Angela said in a confessional that Sarah needs to qualify for the final before calling herself “fabulous.”
Ben Driebergen met with Alyssa and Angela as they talked about what Sarah was up to with the other women. In his confessional, Ben said he trusts Sarah but doesn’t trust what she’s doing.
“If he makes a messy bed, he’ll have to lie in it, and I will not lie in it with him,” Sarah said in her confessional regarding Ben working with the Big Brother women.
Other cast members talked about what was happening as the final was approaching. Footage showed conversations between Sarah and Cashay as well as Justine and Desi.
Another scene had Danny McCray talking with Domenick Abbate. Danny still needed to get to $5,000 to be eligible for the final. Dom said he felt good about his connection with Danny and that he wouldn’t “BS him.”
Daily challenge features sabotage plan
The competitors walked onto a playing field inside Rossi football’s 60,000-seat stadium. TJ Lavin introduced them to a daily challenge called Collect Four, a giant version of Connect Four. They had to race into the stands to find their specific colored tokens, then bring them back down to the field where they had giant game boards.
TJ said the flipside of each token was black, and they could use them to block another player’s attempt to get four in a row. The first man and woman to line up four tokens in a row would be the daily challenge winners.
During the daily, Angela and Alyssa Lopez started working together to block Sarah from winning. Sarah began telling various castmates, including Justine, Dom, and Ben, what was going on in an attempt to get some assistance.
Cayla started helping Sarah and putting tokens onto Angela’s board to block her from winning. Dom helped Danny out by blocking David Alexander, who was moving through the daily event relatively fast.
Danny won the daily challenge for the men’s side, finally qualifying himself for TJ’s final. He said his wife Kiki would be happy with that since TJ spoke to him about winning. Desi was the winner for the women.
Angela and Alyssa pulled off their plan as they blocked Sarah Lacina, and she finished in last place for the women. Sarah was still optimistic that Danny and Desi would allow her to choose her opponent for The Arena.
Winners had tough decision about elimination
Danny and Desi met with Sarah about her options for the elimination. She said she was confident in going against either Angela or Alyssa. Danny suggested that Cashay would be another option, but Sarah and Desi didn’t like that idea.
After Sarah left the meeting, Danny filled Desi in on the fact that Angela and Alyssa were working with the Survivor men and women. It was a bit of a lie because the original plan never included the Survivor women. Desi wasn’t aware of any of it and told Danny she didn’t trust Angela.
Later, Danny told Dom that Desi was upset about not knowing the plan. Sarah told Desi she didn’t want to face her ally and friend Cashay Proudfoot in elimination. She wants who she wants in elimination.
Later, when the cast went to the bar, Alyssa tried to talk with Sarah, telling her she had nothing personal against her. Sarah said there was no reason to have a game conversation now and that she told the winners she wanted Angela or Alyssa. Dom spoke with Desi about getting to the final and going with the plan.
Sarah gathered her Fab Five allies and told Desi she needed to take control with Danny about sending Alyssa or Angela into elimination.
Who went home from The Arena elimination?
Ahead of The Arena, Danny told Desi Williams that Angela was off the table as an option. That left Alyssa and Cashay as the choices for the elimination.
Danny met with Dom ahead of the decision to ask what he thought the rule would be for the two winners disagreeing on who to put into elimination. That made it seem one wanted Alyssa, and the other wanted Cashay to go into elimination.
Ultimately, Danny and Desi decided to send Cashay back into an elimination for her second time of the season.
At The Arena, they had to compete in a game called In a Roll. It involved two giant steel wheels connected to a 300-foot rope and a ball in the middle of The Arena. The competitors were inside the wheels like hamsters and had to race to get the ball first.
The first competitor to win two of three rounds was the winner, taking all the losing player’s bank account money. Sarah easily took two rounds in a row to win it, officially qualifying herself for the final.
Cashay said goodbye to her castmates. In confessional, she said she is leaving a “better woman” than she showed up. She also was happy her story on the show wasn’t just about her and Cinco Holland’s past relationship.
Sarah returned to the group and celebrated her win. During a confessional, she vowed to keep coming back until Angela, Alyssa, or both were gone.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.