‘The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras’ episode 3 recap: Who was eliminated in ‘A Fatal Era’? [LIVE BLOG]
Tonight on “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras,” the eras must now work together to keep their team safe. A gross feast is prepared, and TJ’s new twist puts two members of each era at risk of elimination. The winners make things difficult for themselves as they struggle to agree on a decision.
This year, the longest-running reality competition series embarks on its monumental 40th season. “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras” features 40 legendary competitors from the series’ 26-year history representing their “Challenge Era” in an epic battle for the ages where legends will collide as they strive to immortalize their names as Challenge 40 Champions and earn their share of the one million dollar prize. As usual, “The Challenge” is hosted by T.J. Lavin.
Here are the contestants still in contention for the Season 40 championship:
Era 1: Aneesa Ferreira, Brad Fiorenza, CT Tamburello, Darrell Taylor, Derrick Kosinski, Jodi Weatherton, Rachel Robinson, Tina Barta
Era 2: Aviv Melmed, Cara Maria Sorbello, Derek Chavez, Emily Schromm, Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, Laurel Stucky, Nehemiah Clark, Ryan Kehoe
Era 3: Averey Tressler, Cory Wharton, Devin Walker, Jonna Mannion, Jordan Wiseley, Nia Moore, Tony Raines, Tori Deal
Era 4: Horacio Gutierrez Jr., Jenny West, Josh Martinez, Kaycee Clark, Kyland Young, Michele Fitzgerald, Olivia Kaiser, Theo Campbell
Below, read our full recap of tonight’s episode, titled “A Fatal Era” airing Wednesday, August 28 (8:00 – 9:30 PM ET/PT) on MTV.
8:05 p.m. — The challengers return to the house and their minds immediately start spinning. Why didn’t TJ send last week’s losers home immediately? What are they doing back at the arena? Could they be returning? Will there be a second chance? The reality is that those castoffs are voting for the remaining players in the game, rating them from 1 to 5 — and those rankings could have a serious impact on who wins this game. Meanwhile, Cara Maria is already miserable, stuck on a team with Bananas and Laurel, two people who clearly don’t want to work with her. On the other hand, she’s got many other friends in the house so she’s still hopeful. Horacio is upset that his girlfriend, Nurys, went home and Michele is trying to keep his head in the game. In another corner, Darrell and Aviv are deciding how they can work together despite being from different eras. They won “The Challenge 12: Fresh Meat.” It’s been 18 years since then, and this is Aviv’s first time back, but they’re ready to make another run together.
8:10 p.m. — As the night goes on drinks start flowing and Brad and Emily seem to be sparking up a showmance in the shower. Emily admits she has a thing for beards and biceps. Another make-out session is happening between Josh and Nia in the pool. The next morning everyone wakes up and heads to their second challenge in Vietnam. TJ explains that today they’ll be working as teams — and to kick things off each era must select two representatives. Era 1 chooses Jodi and Darrell, Era 2 chooses Derek and Aviv, Era 3 selects Tony and Averey and Era 4 goes with Kaycee and Kyland. In “Gladieater,” challengers will race to dragon boats, row around the island, race over to a disgusting feast and finish an entire plate of “Vietnemese delicacies”: Snakes, rats, pig brains, coconut worms, duck embryo, boiled cow eyes and some other disgusting items. Once the feasts are complete, teams must place 40 shields representing each season of “The Challenge” in perfect order. The first team to get it done will win today’s challenge and be the only team safe from elimination. Let’s go!
8:30 p.m. — The competition has started and all teams are furiously rowing around the island. Era 1 is way behind, basically rowing in circles. Era 3 kills the rowing portions and gets to the eating station first, closely followed by Era 4 and Era 2. Disgusting food is being consumed and people are just as quickly throwing up. Era 3 finishes first and now all they have to do is put the season shields in order. Meanwhile, Era 1 has just shown up at the eating station. Era 2 finishes eating and now they’re working on their shield puzzle. Thanks to Tori’s studying, Era 3 wins this challenge and they’ll be safe from elimination. Era 2 comes in second place, Era 3 in third and Era 1 loses. As the Era 3 representatives, Tony and Averey are safe. As the losing reps from Era 1, Darrell and Jodi are going straight into the arena. The representatives from Era 2 and Era 4 will have to plead their case to the winning representatives as to why they shouldn’t be sent into the arena.
8:35 p.m. — Josh is trying to work out a deal with Tony, saying if Era 3 doesn’t target Era 4 this week, they’ll return the favor. Nia wants to take big swings and tells Averey to save Derek. Kaycee is a former “Big Brother” and “The Challenge” champion and she’s putting her squirming skills to work. She also hopes to form an alliance with Era 3 since that is where most of her relationships lie. It sounds like they’re hoping Era 3 will send the Era 2 representatives into the arena. Meanwhile, Derek has another idea. He thinks Kyland is a genius and Kaycee is a beast at Challenge finals. Why wouldn’t they take a shot at those two right now?
8:45 p.m. — In the chamber, Tony and Averey sit down with the losers, Darrell and Jodi, along with the teams up for elimination, Kyland & Kaycee and Derek & Aviv. Everyone makes their pleas to stay. When asked who he’d rather go up against, Darrell says Aviv and Derek. Aviv feels blindsided, because they just talked about working together for the whole season! Darrell admits he trusts Aviv, but the man is trying to survive. Obviously it would be easier to eat Derek & Aviv than Kyland & Kaycee. After everyone else leaves the table, Averey and Tony debate who they want to send in. Averey refuses to say Derek’s name. Averey says all of her connections are in Era 2, but Tony doesn’t think Era 2 will ever have any power in the game. In the end, Tony and Averey fail to come to a consensus and both agree they aren’t afraid to go down into the arena themselves if they have to. Cory is calling Tony selfish, because if the goes into the arena and loses he will weaken their Era 3 team.
8:55 p.m. — The challengers cut loose with a toga party by the pool, but the fun soon turns to serious game talk. Laurel and Bananas don’t understand why Tony refuses to throw Kaycee & Kyland into the arena. Bananas asks Tony if it’s worth throwing his game away to create some alliance with people he barely knows. Tony feels absolutely zero allegiance from Bananas and wants to assert his dominance in this game. Meanwhile, Kyland brings up another interesting point. Wouldn’t it be selfish of Derek to let Averey go into a stalemate for him? She’d ultimately be risking her own game to save his — so how could Derek allow that and still call himself a friend? Turned on by Kyland’s thought process, Nia proceeds to shove her tongue down his throat. Wasn’t she just making out with Josh five minutes ago? Welcome to “The Challenge”! Romance is in the air and there’s some serious DNA swaps going on between Devin and Michele, Olivia and Theo, and Nia and Kyland. Josh starts to feel a little disrespected when he hears people in the house clowning him, and tells Tori he no longer considers her a friend. Now she’s crying. Michele can hardly get enough of this hot tea as she slurps her ramen between them.
9:05 p.m. — It’s elimination morning and things will probably get messy. Emily, fresh out the shower with Brad, confesses her crush on Kaycee and apologizes via the Diary Room to Kaycee’s fiancé at home, Nany. This house is crazy! Night falls and it’s time to head into the arena. TJ asks Tony and Averey who they have selected to compete against Darrell and Jodi. Tony admits they couldn’t come to a decision, so TJ tells them to come down in the sand adding, “Don’t f*** with me.” What a waste of an Era 3 win today. Derek commends Averey for having his back, but apparently doesn’t care that she could go home because of it. Averey tells TJ that she’s pissed and doesn’t think Tony wants to be here. Next, TJ explains tonight’s elimination is an individual game and won’t be played as teams.
9:15 p.m. — In “One Step at a Time,” players will start on a box. They will race as fast as they can to uncover directions. They’ll race back, grab heavy tiles and build themselves a walkway. They can only place one tile at a time and must fill one frame at a time. If they make a mistake, they have to start over. The first one to build their sidewalk with no mistakes win. The men are up first and it’s Darrell vs. Tony. Darrell is relying heavily on players on the sidelines helping him, since everyone appears to want Tony to just go home at this point. Tony reads the directions and gets instantly confused. There are some Era 3 players from Tony’s team who decide to help him as well. It doesn’t work and Darrell spanks Tony, sending the stubborn challenger home.
9:25 p.m. — It’s now time for the women to compete. Averey hopes to survive this contest against Jodi after sacrificing herself for Derek. Having already lost Tony, Era 3 is doing whatever they can to help Averey win. Jodi jumps out to an early lead, but runs out of the colors she needs to complete her sidewalk. She has to change her strategy and opens the door for Averey. Unfortunately, Averey also runs into problems and both women have to completely start over. Jodi gets flustered and says her anxiety is at an “11.” Averey eventually pulls away and sends Jodi home. It’s nice to see Averey pull this one out, but I’m sad to see Jodi go. She really wanted to be there. She’s in tears as she says, “I love this game and I’m really sad to leave.”
9:30 p.m. — Next TJ explains that with winning comes power. Moving forward, if you compete in the elimination and win, you get to choose targets — a male and a female from each era who must win the next challenge. If they don’t, they have a chance of going into the arena. The losing team targets go straight into elimination. The winning team targets go into the chamber. Darrell will select all the female targets and Averey will select the male targets. They select Derrick & Aneesa from Era 1 (Aneesa’s blood is boiling), Bananas & Laurel from Era 2 (Cara Maria is thrilled), Jordan & Nia from Era 3 and Horacio & Jenny from Era 4. Some heavy hitters there! That’s a wrap for tonight.