During a recap of the previous episode, host TJ Lavin revealed it was down to 12 teams. In the last installment, Jodi Weatherton and Benja Alfonso defeated Nia Moore and Rodrigo Cascon in elimination.
During a confessional, Jodi and Benja said it’s “time for a change” since Argentina always goes into elimination.
UK winner Zara Zoffany talked about having dyslexia, and she’s been “brain training.” She said she felt confident with Wes Bergmann as her partner, though.
Darrell Taylor spoke about him and Kiki Morris staying under the radar early. Grant Crapp and Emily Seebohn discussed having strong allies in Sara Lacina and Danny McCray.
Kiki was walking around complaining about how messy the place was. Grant said he was worried about her acting foolishly regarding the game and being part of Team Australia.
Wes talked with Jordan Wiseley about the same two teams going into elimination again, suggesting they keep a third team in mind. Jordan brought up a rift between Kiki and the Australians.
In confessional, Jordan told his partner Kaz Crossley they needed to work with Wes to get Team Australia out.
Several of the USA’s MVPs want control of the World Championship game
Bananas said in confessional there would be a point when things got heated as far as elimination votes. Danny and Sarah had a side conversation about taking control of the game from the Legends.
Danny said he’d prefer seeing new people reach the final, including himself, Sarah, Troy Cullen, Emily Seebohn, and Grant Crapp. Sarah was surprised Legends were “scared to play the game.”
Kaycee spoke with Justine Ndiba about what it’s like to be on The Challenge without girlfriend Nany Gonzalez and how it’s “different.” Kaycee said they want to start a family, so winning the money would help with kids.
They showed The Challenge: USA footage about Ben Driebergen possibly bringing some previous alliance issues into this game.
Ben and Bananas had a side conversation about being on the same side. Ben said he wasn’t bringing baggage from the USA spinoff. Bananas said he has a past bad reputation but is loyal unless someone does him dirty.
The Challenge competitors go Flying Around
Flying Around featured four giant excavators on a field. One of each team’s members was in a harness connected to the excavator, which swung them around in a circle.
The other team member threw giant rings from a station to their partner, who had to catch and toss them into a bin in the middle of the playing field.
Each team had 50 specific color rings to score as many as possible in the middle. The team to get the most would be the event’s winners, with safety from elimination and the power to choose who goes into elimination.
TJ added a twist before the daily. Every player had to consume a giant smoothie within two minutes, and they weren’t allowed to throw up. There were point deduction penalties with that.
Wes told Zara to stop drinking after a few sips. The other three teams with them all downed theirs.
Wes and Zara had five points deducted from the final score. That hurt them because they struggled with Zara tossing rings up to Wes. Justine and Bananas set the bar high with 14 total rings compared to three for other teams in their heat. Wes and Zara had negative points.
Theo and Sarah threw up some of their smoothies in the second heat, so TJ said that was two points off. They finished with 10 rings for an eight-point score, the same as Yes and Emily.
In the final heat, Amber Borzotra admitted in a confessional she’d been sick for several weeks. Troy encouraged her to drink all her smoothie, but she couldn’t and threw up, taking seven points off their score.
TJ Lavin revealed the two bottom teams were Wes with Zara and Ben with Kaycee, but UK’s Wes and Zara finished last due to the negative score. The two top teams were Darrell with Kiki and Bananas with Justine. TJ announced Kiki and Darrell won.
Deliberation brings chaos among the cast ahead of elimination
Bananas talked strategy with Kaycee and Tori, suggesting now was the time to take a shot and send another big team against Wes and Zara. Bananas felt they should target Jonna and Grant or Emily and Yes to break up the Australian alliance.
Danny talked to Ben about sending Jordan and Kaz into the elimination. Danny brought up that earlier, Grant volunteered for him and Jonna to go in too. Danny said it would guarantee “one of the best players goes home.”
Footage showed Bananas telling Jodi that it was smart for her to work with them so they wouldn’t go into elimination again. In confessional, Jodi she said she’d be on the bottom of that alliance and sent in as soon as they could. KellyAnne tried to convince Jodi to vote Bananas’ way too.
KellyAnne said in confessional she couldn’t get over Jonna lying to her ahead of a previous elimination decision. Jonnna spoke with Emily, saying she felt she and Grant were going in. Emily assured Jonna that Kiki wouldn’t put an Australian into elimination.
At deliberation voting, Danny was surprised by how Ben voted after they’d discussed it earlier and seemed to have a plan. Grant called out Ben for whispering to Kaycee and suggested he was acting shady to manipulate Troy and Amber.
When it came time for Tori Deal and Danny’s vote, Tori told Danny that Jordan and Kaz were tied with Emily and Yes. She said they couldn’t burn votes, or they might go into elimination if it was a tie. Danny threw out two random teams, and Tori was shocked.
In the other room, the monitor Wes, Zara, Darrell, and Kiki were looking at said “Stalemate” on it rather than two teams up for elimination. Bananas got upset in deliberation, and Grant commended Danny in confessional for keeping his word.
TJ invokes stalemate rule for The Challenge: World Championship
After deliberation was over, Wes asked some castmates what had happened. Wes wished he could’ve seen who “s**t the bed” with politics.
In another room, Sarah and Emily joked about Tori and Jordan’s previous engagement during The Challenge. In confessional, Sarah suggested they think that former engagement is supposed to trump everything else in the game, but it didn’t match what all MVPs wanted for voting.
Kiki spoke with Amber and Troy about how Emily and Grant seem to be trying to call the shots. Troy revealed to Kiki that it was Emily’s idea to send her into the season’s first elimination. Kaycee spoke to Ben about keeping it calm and not stirring things up with other USA MVPs.
Everyone went to The Arena, where TJ was wearing a suit on the ground level. He congratulated Darrell and Kiki for winning the daily challenge.
He called out Wes and Zara as one of the elimination teams. TJ revealed he didn’t have two teams tonight as elimination options, so he invoked the stalemate rule.
TJ announced that winners Darrell and Kiki could choose a team to send down for elimination. The episode closed with a cliffhanger as they were about to select a team.
The Challenge: World Championship episodes arrive Wednesdays on Paramount Plus.
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