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Episode 7 Recap – The Holes We Dig For Our Partners

Joseph Hadaway recaps all the latest action.

Photo: MTV

Leroy lives up to his girlfriend Kam’s threats to target Jay for his betrayal in the previous episode, electing to send himself into elimination against the former Survivor star. Then, after an impressive elimination performance from both competitors, Leroy comes up victorious, eliminating Jay and earning Leroy his Golden Skull. 

No Effort, No Pride 

Jay and Theresa start the episode by being confronted over their decision to send Kam into elimination last week. While Theresa attempts to deflect the blame and bring up other targets, it is clear that the house is deadset in making Jay and Theresa their targets. 

The mission is then revealed to be Aerial Takedown, where players will need to hold onto a bag of cargo held up by a helicopter flying over a lake. The pair with the longest combined time holding on without dropping or being forced off by an opponent will win and become the Double Agents.

Kaycee wins the first heat as she is quick to overpower Big T, Aneesa, Kam, and Nany, cementing her status as one of the strongest women on The Challenge. 

However, the second heat is a sham, with all five men refusing to move due to the fears of falling and first-mover disadvantage, leading to producers deciding to disqualify all five of them. 

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Photo: MTV

Similarly, Theresa is able to convince three-of-her-four competitors to throw the challenge to her. This leaves Amber B as her sole resistance, though Theresa ultimately wins anyway. 

This meant whoever did better between Jay and Leroy in the fourth heat would become the Double Agents. Knowing this, Jay and Leroy are quick to oppose each other, while the other three men just attempt to hold on. However, this leads to a stalemate, ending the heat with another five disqualifications. 

It’s then revealed that Kaycee beat Theresa by one second, giving the overall win to Kaycee and Leroy.

No Fighting, No Camera Time 

Back at the club, Amber B becomes a character in the show for the first time this entire season, as Theresa is angry at her for costing her the win. This leads to the rookie girls largely severing their ties with Theresa, making Jay an even easier target for the house. 

Devin and Kyle realize that somebody is fighting and potentially getting airtime without them, so they decide to yell at Fessy and Josh, successfully baiting a reaction from Fessy. 

Security is then forced to split them up, with Josh, for the first time in his five seasons of reality television, attempting to talk somebody out of a pointless fight. However, Josh quickly realizes this is out of character and fixes it by throwing water in Devin’s face and shoving him, getting security called a second time. 

This creates a target on Devin & Gabby, potentially giving Jay a chance to avoid elimination. However, at deliberation, Theresa attempts to flip the vote, only to get into fights with Kam, CT, and Darrell, ensuring that the majority of the house voted for Jay & Theresa, with them being voted in by a vote of 12 to 6 to 1. 

At the Crater, TJ gives the cast one final warning, foreshadowing a future violence-related disqualification. TJ then announces that all of the men who were disqualified from the challenge will also have their votes voided. However, this changes nothing as Jay & Theresa are still voted in by a margin of 7 to 4.

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Photo: MTV

No Risk, No Reward

With Jay & Theresa formally announced as the compromised team, Leroy needs to decide whether or not to volunteer against Jay in an attempt to win a Golden Skull. 

The set-up for the elimination is clearly Operation Fire Escape, the first elimination of the season. In Operation Fire Escape, both competitors are bound by their arms and knees and hung over a pole. Using their momentum, competitors must swing their way from one end to the other and back; the first person to do so wins. 

On the one hand, Jay fits the perfect physical archetype for this challenge. It tends to favour the lighter competitor, and this elimination is infamous in The Challenge history for producing upset eliminations. On the other, Leroy has won this exact elimination before, and knowledge on how to navigate this challenge is a massive advantage over Jay.

Due to this advantage, Leroy decides to volunteer himself for the elimination. Jay quickly gets a handle on the challenge, keeping up with Leroy when going up the pole, making it neck-and-neck for the opening part of the elimination. However, Jay falls behind when it takes him an extra few seconds to change directions, which is enough for Leroy to take advantage and win. 

TJ mentions that Leroy completed the challenge in less than one minute, saying that Jay put up his best effort before sending him home. The episode ends with Leroy electing to keep his partner Kaycee, leaving Theresa to partner with the Rogue Agent Cory, as the preview promises another very physical main challenge.


Written by

Joseph Hadaway

Joseph Holopainen-Hadaway is an Australian/Finnish/Filipino (long story) business graduate, who currently lives in London despite studying a law degree in Sydney (longer story). A life-long reality-tv fan with hot takes on everything from Santas in the Barn to Beauty and the Geek Australia, he has been a superfan of The Challenge and Survivor for nearly a decade. You can follow him on @josephhadaway on Twitter or @ilosttheway on Instagram.


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