The Challenge: Rivals Finals Have Been Set

Ever since I started listening to The BS Report, I kept hearing about “The Challenge” and how it should be the “5th Major American Sport” according to Bill Simmons and his buddy “The Reality TV Czar”, Dave Jacoby. So I checked out “The Challenge: Cutthroat” and was immediately hooked.

The Challenge is the artist formerly known as the “Real World/Road Rules Challenge”, that placed teams or individuals from the two hit MTV reality shows against each other, and had a weekly elimination challenge that consisted of a group challenge to stave off being eliminated that week, or face another team to see if you stay alive. It was essentially Survivor before Survivor.

This season’s format was a great one. They put together teams of two people (teams are same sex) that have had a major confrontation on either The Challenge in a previous season, or on their respective show.

This added a great dynamic to the game. Which pair of “rivals” could put their differences aside and work as a team?

If you want to go back and watch the show to get caught up, you can catch all of the episodes leading up to this week HERE.

If you don’t want to know what has happened do not read on….

**SPOILER ALERT!!!!***

Last episode cut off where it came down to CT and Adam taking on Johnny and Tyler for the right to get into the finals against Kenny and Wes and Leroy and Mike.  MTV didn’t lt us down with this final “Jungle” elimination.  “T-Bone” was the name of the challenge and it was the right name.  The playing grid was 2 intersecting half-pipe trenches dug out int the ground.  At the sound of the whistle, each player ran down the ramp with his color ball in hand and had to place it in the holster on the other side.  The key was to make sure you only took your ball and placed it on the other side, and not your partner’s ball.  Everyone had their own color ball to distinguish this.  The 1st team with all 5 balls transferred to the other side for each player would go to the finals.

This was right up CT’s alley.  The dude has to be 6′ 2” and about 215 lbs.  He’s built like white Ray Lewis.  You could see him salivating putting on the protective equipment.  “Choo Choo!!!” he was yelling right before the horn sounded.

The first pass into the T-Bone was no problem for either team, no one collided in the middle and all was good, but of all people, Adam, the smart one, screwed up and took one of CT’s colored balls and had to go all the way back to get his own ball.  CT was ready to kill him.  How could Adam make such a mistake? Luckily for CT and Adam, Johnny and Tyler made the same mistake as well.

As the teams were buzzing each other like fighter jets, you could tell this was going to come down to the wire. CT had gotten all his balls across and Adam was lagging behind. Tyler and Johnny needed just 1 more ball to win the challenge.

CT took matters into his own hands and played a little defense for his team. He knew that Tyler and Johnny were going to be flying down their ramp any second. So he waited for them to come down the ramp and blind sided both of them with one of the biggest hits I’ve ever seen. Football, hockey, lacrosse OR reality TV. BOOM! Tyler was de-cleated into Johnny and they were both laid the fuck out. Adam ran right past them and tied the game up. Adam and Tyler both needed the last ball….Down the ramp they went and collided in the middle. Both struggled to get up the ramp and the rest was slow motion. Tyler is stumbling up the ramp and Adam is being pulled up by CT. Adam gets up to the top of the ramp, but had nothing left in the tank. Tyler pulls every ounce of strength he has left up out of his body, and makes it to the platform to place the final ball in the holster.

Complete shock and awe settle in. CT is going home. Again.

Adam knows he cost them the finals, CT knows it, and so does everyone else. But CT doesn’t pull a “CT” this time. With his head held high, he tell Adam that he did a great job and they walk off the show. What an incredible final Jungle.

So the finals are set. Wes and Kenny, Leroy and Mike and Johnny and Tyler for the guys. Laurel and Cara Marie, Jenn and Mandi and Paula and Evelyn.

The Crew travels to their final destination for Patagonia, Argentina for the finals. After a night Wes talking shit about Cara Maria, then getting served by her, the crew wakes up to Jenn and Tyler getting hit hard with a case of food poisoning. The Medic tells Tyler that he thinks he is unfit for competition and Jenn is on the fence. Both decide to ignore doctors orders and compete anyway.

The 1st leg of the final is a 3 mile kayak trip after they are pulled out into a lake via speedboat. Once the speedboat dropped them off, they had to swim to the kayak. Paula and Evelyn make it to shore 1st for the girls and Cara Maria and Jenn are right behind them.

The episode ended with Kenny and Wes spinning around in a circle in the middle of the lake because they got in to the kayak backwards.

This final looks like it’s going to be epic. I have no idea who is going to win, but if I was a betting man, I’d put my money on Leroy and Mike because they are so under the radar and have no beef between each other and for the girls, Paula and Evelyn.

Tune in next Wednesday night at 10 eastern for what seems like the final episode, but who knows.