On this episode of The Challenge, Big T cements her breakout season, winning an elimination against Aneesa and stealing the final Golden Skull of the season.
However, despite this moment of triumph, TJ reveals one more element of this season. Even though all ten remaining contestants have Golden Skulls, there will be one more Double Elimination before the final—meaning that Big T is not yet at the finish line.
Skyfall
The main challenge this week is “Spy Dive.” In pairs, each team needs to take turns completing a tandem skydive, where they must look at and memorize a 9-colour combination as they fall.
After they land, the teams need to run half a mile to the puzzle station, where they must put in their solution to the puzzle. The team that puts in the correct combination the fastest wins and becomes the Double Agents.
The teams all drop to the sound of Kenny Rogers’s “Danger Zone.” The highlight of the challenge is Big T’s face as she looks in fear while she sits next to the door, preparing to skydive onto the Icelandic soil.
For the long-term Challenge fans who know this show’s luke-warm reputation with health and safety, the fear is much more understandable. Some highly avoidable injuries that have occurred on this show that would’ve dissuaded me from jumping out of that airplane include:
- Jordan breaking his leg during the skydiving portion of the Dirty 30 final (and somehow winning it anyway).
- The injuries that occurred (and edited out) during the “Car Crash” challenge on Vendettas.
- The “Dirty Laundry” challenge on Rivals III that seemingly was conceptualized by a horny 13-year-old and (allegedly) gave every girl on that cast a UTI.
Despite this, everybody makes it out of the skydiving portion in one piece and without any broken bones. The skydiving provides some great CT-being-proud-of-Big-T moments, which would’ve been good if not immediately followed by the running portion.
The running portion of the challenge quickly proves that Kam and Kaycee are the strongest runners by far on this cast, which for The Challenge newbies, is what comprises 95% of the final, cementing their position as the clear frontrunners.
For the rest of the cast, it is more of the same. CT mopes about not having a strong female partner. Kyle schemes about trying to eliminate Aneesa. Fessy takes the first opportunity to speed ahead of his partner.
TJ announces that Kaycee and Leroy outran Cory and Kam, giving Kaycee and Leroy the win as Double Agents.
Pointless Fighting Never Dies
With Big T being the presumptive House Vote as the one girl without a Golden Skull and Amber B being the Rogue Agent, one of the veteran girls’ alliance needs to go into elimination.
At an 80s themed-party-slash-fashion-show montage, Cory and Big T kill it while Fessy wears a neon tutu, as people did in the 80s, I guess?
The girls agree that Leroy and Kaycee should send Aneesa and Kyle into elimination, as Leroy is closer to the other women in danger. Going into elimination in the presumptive last round before the final (again) leads to Aneesa Eeyore-ing throughout the party, only to be interrupted by Fessy getting into a pointless fight with CT.
CT and Kyle then call out Aneesa at elimination, as they believe Aneesa to be Big T’s best chance of beating at elimination, leading Aneesa to be isolated from the rest of the cast.
From The Crater, With Love
TJ reveals at the Crater that Big T will face Aneesa in Operation Fire Escape. When it comes to the elimination, Big T unexpectedly takes an early lead and figures out how to move, successfully finishing the challenge before Aneesa gets much ground.
Aneesa is then tearfully eliminated for her sixth time in The Challenge history (after Total Madness, Battle of the Bloodlines, Rivals II, The Inferno III, and The Duel), in what-she-believes-to-be the last female elimination.
Kyle attempts to get Big T to steal Fessy from Nany, which would break up the majority alliance into different pairs to avoid them being able to nominate CT/Big T against Kyle/Amber B in the subsequent elimination. Yet Big T decides to “ride it out” with CT due to the likelihood that the final would be next.
However, as mentioned, the episode ends with TJ revealing that there will be one more elimination per gender before the final.
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