The Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras Episode 15 Recap

Recapping episode 15!

-Tunnel daily
-Michele's bday
-Tori's politics
-Aviv v. Jenny
-And more!

Twitter: @ChallengeFanPod

Instagram: @challenge_fanatics_podcast

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
What's going on, everybody, And welcome back to another episode
of the Challenge Fanatics Podcast. My name is Josh Green,
and we are here to break down the Challenge forty
Battle of the eras episode fifteen, the Thinking Thin Era.
You can find us on all social media platforms at
Challenge fan Pod. Find us wherever it is you listen

(00:26):
to your podcasts the Challenge Fanatics. Please rate, review, subscribe
so other Challenge fans can find our podcast. We are
getting down, as Challenge fan favorite Nelson Thomas would say,
the needy greedy of this season. We started with forty,

(00:50):
and we start this episode here with eleven. I am
on my own here today as Austin's brother in law
has returned from employment, so he is spending some well
needed family time with Corey's family and all of that.

(01:11):
So I'm here on my own today to break down
this episode overall, not not the meat and potatoes that
we really had throughout this season. You know, it was
interesting I saw on social media. There's been the we listen,

(01:33):
we don't judge trend, you know for a lot of
different shows, and you know a lot of different you know,
families have been doing it and stuff like that, and uh,
there was a we listen, we don't judge for the challenge,
and I was reading through a lot of fans, you know,
different perspectives and things, and you know, I know a

(01:56):
lot of people are really mad at Laurel, you know,
including myself. But and I don't let me not say
but because the reality is it's still really bad what
she did. However, when she was in the game, I
think we were getting a lot better of a game

(02:17):
and a lot better of the drama that we liked
on the show. I think the episodes have gotten a
little stale lately. I know they did have the second
most viewers of any episode in the entire season, which
is obviously good for the show, But this challenge took

(02:42):
so long in the episode. I want to say there
were at least two, maybe even three commercials to do
this whole daily, and I am not about that. Like
I did like this daily. Let me just say that
I really did. I think they could have done more

(03:04):
to make this more compact, and I just think there
was more, potentially more meat on the bone here to
make this a better episode. But let's get into it.
Corey comes back. He has won his third elimination, you know,
really just has been putting on this season, been pretty

(03:26):
much a man on an island. You know, he had
Nehemiah as a close ally. But like we've said on
this podcast, it really this season on the Battle of
the eras more than any other season. You know, once
it got to an individual game, it really did not

(03:49):
matter who had allies of the same sex, because it
does not matter it truly does it the guys voting
the girls and vice versa. That is what is the
most important in this game. You know, you can be

(04:12):
a girl in this game and have no male allies
and still be there to the end. No, I'm sorry,
be a girl and have no girl allies, my bad,
and still make it to the end. Because as long
as you're in good with the guys, the guys have
the final say. And we have said it many times,

(04:35):
but the one person who is really excelled at this
is Derek Chavez and the whole season, he has really
done a great job at finding his way in staying
safe from elimination. You know, he is friends with the
Bananas Angels girls, he is friends with the the other

(05:01):
side of the house, and he has been a target,
but he has avoided elimination and he has made it
really far in this game, and I think is a
sleeper in this challenge, I really do. It looks like
we're gonna get a big hitter out on this next episode.

(05:25):
And if Derek can find his way to a final,
I don't know him or Kyland might take this home
for the guys. You know, we get Johnny up to
his old Shenanigans. He's pissed off that, you know, car
is building an army here and it's not just Kara
like he obviously he probably knows this, but like there's

(05:52):
a lot of there's a lot of people working on
that other side doing their best to take down that
is in and the Angels. So you know, they're they're
working hard, they're doing a lot of good work and
something that I think they they should be proud of,

(06:13):
you know. And just been so strange to see Tory, Jordan,
and Kara working together, uh and Corey really but the
four of them working together is in like some challenge
fan dream world because the way that Jordan and Tory

(06:34):
were against Carra in War of the World's too the
fact that their ally now like it's it's crazy that
they're working on the same side this season. I mean,
you know, at some point in the game you really
don't have a choice. But very wild thing to see.

(06:55):
Before the Daily we get Michelle and Abiez chatting about
how there's really where to hide and they're hoping for
a challenge that will benefit small people. Almost the perfect
quote to having the episode, because it's perfect foreshadowing for
this daily challenge. I just want to say this. We've

(07:16):
had TJ come into some challenges and come into a season,
you know, in a helicopter or you know, a gigantic truck.
You know, he's coming on a horse, sometimes in the
middle of a final just like some crazy different introductions

(07:37):
from TJ Lavin. But straight up, I love this. I
love how they're all on edge. You can clearly tell
they're walking in They get to like a middle of

(07:59):
a jungle, so random and weird, right, and then TJ
emerges from the tunnel and they're all like scared and
cracking up. I just I really liked this from TJ.
I thought it was something different. You know, he's never

(08:20):
done one of these entrances and it was so hysterical.
I loved it. I really did. I love how TJ's
still having fun with the show all these years later.
So a lot of fun with this. I thought it
was great. And the daily is called tight Quarters. So

(08:40):
we are getting the competitors going down in these tunnels
that they have to crawl through the dark tunnels filled
of rabbits, spiders, bats, and fire ants going through to
do their first of two puzzles. This one is a
relatively easier, uh season forty slide puzzle. You know, if

(09:04):
you've watched these reality shows, a lot of the slide
puzzles have become a thing on these shows, and there's
a certain way that you can get these done relatively
quickly with the slide puzzle. You know, if you're going
to be studying a puzzle to go on one of

(09:26):
these shows, a slide puzzles and not a bad place
to start at all. And then you go through and
then you have to do the second puzzle, and the
second puzzle is Tj'space, which I just you know, for
multiple of these people was so funny because some of
them didn't even recognize TJ. You know, whether it was

(09:49):
because they couldn't flip over the puzzle piece or you know,
it was just a mess, but it was funny, and
you know, it does it breaks it down with a
few different competitors going at a time in the edit.
So it's nice to to see that we get Tory

(10:10):
going first, and uh, you know, we've already discussed Tory
a little bit on this season. She's been in power.
You know, she's she's won elimination and uh, you know
this format of like winning a daily and getting power
is something right in Tory Deal's wheelhouse, and she's hoping

(10:33):
to win again. Here. She does a solid job and uh,
you know, she she does recognize it's TJ. But then
we get Johnny going nets and I really was surprised
because you know, we've had Johnny rocking with the Angels
all season. They've done a very good job in this

(10:57):
game of you know, protecting on another and really making
an impact on this game. We know Johnny's not great
at puzzles, right, and he gets through. He does the
forty slide puzzle way faster than I thought he would,
Like I immediately thought he was gonna just do terrible,

(11:21):
but he actually does some great work and you know,
he gets his way through. Johnny does and he gets
to the second puzzle, and I'm cracking up because at
this point, Johnny has done so many of these press events.

(11:45):
He's friends with TJ Lavin, right, and he doesn't even
recognize that it's TJ. He's having such a hard time
with these two puzzles, the two puzzle pieces. Excuse me.
On the last puzzle out there for what seems like
a half hour, just not knowing what to do at all.

(12:07):
He's got no clue. I was loving it, and he
ultimately decues, and later on, you know, Derek finishes his roundup,
and it's interesting because we don't always get these scenes

(12:27):
of the competitors waiting in between rounds for everyone else
to finish up. We get Derek talking about it. He's like,
I did well. I would have done better if I
realized there were pieces on the other side. And it's
so funny because Johnny's been on the show for twenty seasons.
He's made a career a living off of being on

(12:48):
the Challenge, you know, for all the other spinoff shows
he's been able to do, and all the other shows
on different networks that he's been able to do, the
fact that he didn't think of any other piece, any
other possibility with this puzzle of oh, maybe there actually

(13:12):
is something on the bottom here. I was just shocked.
I could not believe that Johnny didn't think of that.
You know, we're talking about a guy here who Johnny
has seen all the seasons, the different formats that they

(13:33):
can do and everything, and I was just shocked, I
really really was that there was nothing that he could
think of that was going to come up here. It
was really surprising to me at least. And I just

(13:57):
didn't know Johnny was gonna not realize this. You know,
we're he knows all these different h all the different
hacks in these schounders, right, and uh, to not even
think that there could be an opposite I get this

(14:20):
puzzle of each piece was pretty surprising to me. So
he decys there's no chance for Johnny to win here.
We pretty much know unless one of the other guys
does really horrible or does what a Eve ends up doing,

(14:41):
that Johnny's gonna end up getting last place and being
thrown into elimination or excuse me, getting last place getting
the penalty for the next daily challenge. We then see Corey,
Aviv and Michelle are kind of edited together. Everybody is

(15:02):
a bit surprised because Corey is going very fast through
these puzzles. It's kind of been highlighted this season and
it's been shown that Corey I think he finally realized,
like in order to win a season, he's got to
practice the things that he doesn't always practice, right, you know,

(15:24):
whether it's puzzles, math, swimming. And Corey does a pretty
solid job on this daily I would assume he ends
up getting second or third for the guys. Michelle is
doing a good job. She gets the first slide puzzle
very quickly, like most people would think. And unfortunately on

(15:49):
this TJ puzzle, she's having a tough time. It was
interesting a lot of people had a tough time on
this TJ puzzle. I try to give them the benefit
of the doubt, but like there have been so many
daily challenges at this point, and these puzzle pieces for
the TJ puzzle were in a bag. Like as you're

(16:13):
solving the puzzle and you realize it's a face, even
if you don't recognize it's TJ's face, I just don't
know how you don't look at the other side of
the puzzle, right, Like this happened with Ryan when he
went home. I just don't understand anymore. I try to

(16:33):
give these and I do give them the benefit of
the doubt a good amount of the time, but this
time I just couldn't believe it. I really cannot. This
was This was shocking to me. It really was. So,
you know, Michelle struggles a little bit, but she's not
going to get last place because unfortunately, our former guest

(16:57):
and friend of Viv breaks a harrier in the tunnels.
Because she's small, she's able to go through one of
these barriers, ends up crawling all the way through to
what seemed like close to the end. It was kind
of weird how they edited this, so I didn't really
know where she crawls out in relation to the other checkpoints.

(17:23):
But she then says a confessional she's running for like
a mile, a mile and a half, and she ends
up dehewing. But this this is a shame because not
only for a Viv. Right, Like, if you look at
the angels, and I actually did, like what Tori said
in the chamber, I'm just going to bring it up

(17:46):
now because I think the way I edited was kind
of stupid. But if you look at the angels from
a callback, perspective. And I say that meaning a lot
of these people plan their moves based on not just
the season they're playing now. They think about it also

(18:11):
as in, am I possibly going to be on the
season with this person in the future, and could this
move bite them in the back? Could it bite me
in the back? You know? And I know there's challengers
out there who say, I play every season like it's
my last, like I'm never going to get a callback.
And I do think that that's the better way to

(18:32):
play this game, right, like I personally do. But the
reason I'm bringing this up is Aviv was hoping for
a challenge that was benefiting smaller people. This was the one.

(18:54):
Not only that it had two puzzles, and Aviv is
solid at puzzles, like not only was this tailor made
for her not to get last, like this was a
real shot for her to win this one. You know,

(19:15):
I know she's going up against some really stiff competition,
but man, if there was ever an individual challenge for
her to win, this would have been it. And you know,
I brought up the making moves and you know, betraying people.
I think why Tori brought that up is it's unfortunately

(19:37):
true for a Vive right that she's the low angel
in heaven if you will, when Johnny, Johnny's gonna have
to pick right. Let's say, Let's say the angels somehow
made it out alive with this round, right, maybe one

(19:59):
of them wins the day, Michelle somehow gets last, and
then one of them goes in against Michelle and Beatzer
the next round. Eventually, Johnny's gonna have to make some decisions.
You know, the numbers are getting smaller and smaller, and

(20:21):
I think I think people are like wondering who could
be the low angel in the tonempole. And as much
as I love Aviv, it is for Johnny, like I know,
it runs in the back of his head of who
I'm going to be on future seasons with, who do

(20:43):
I need to maintain relationships with? And the reality is
Aviv's a mom with two She this is her first
season in eighteen years. If anything, I see Avive coming
back on an All Star season. I do not see
her doing a flagship again, but there is definitely more

(21:04):
flagship seasons for Bananas, and I could possibly see Rachel
doing a flagship or two more, and Jenny definitely I
could see doing more of the flagship. So I think
this is a tough spot for Aviv. You know, it's

(21:26):
really unfortunate she's automatically going in unless another girl dqus
that doesn't end up happening. Though Aviv goes into elimination.
We get Jordia, Kara and Derek all being edited together.
We got a lot of just solid runs from those three,
nothing really to bring to the table. But then we

(21:47):
get Kylon, Jenny and Rachel going down and Kyland again.
I mean, here's the thing, Like Torri and Kyland win
this challenge. Kyland has been an absolute beast all season.
I think a lot of people when the season started,

(22:10):
and it's crazy to say this because Kyland's won two
or three eliminations this season, but he's taking out Brad
and Durrell again in back to back seasons, or excuse me,
Durrell and back to back. I was just thrilled with Kyland.

(22:37):
The guy has been a beast in the individual portion.
It's been nice seeing him and Michelle be friends again.
On thirty nine they were adversaries, but now they are
locked in together and it's been nice to see and

(22:58):
Kyland has really Kyland's not even a dark horse like
Kyland has done well in all these challenges. If he
finds his way in a final, like, he's a very
possible front runner for this thing. And I it's crazy
because a lot of people thought he may have been
an underdog coming into this. You know, he was on

(23:21):
USA two, he was on thirty nine, So I think
when you look at the board to start the season,
you know, there's not there's not a lot of people
that you're like, hmm, I'm really scared of them, right,

(23:42):
especially when you're looking at someone like Kyland. But as
the season has gone on, he has proven it over
and over and over he's somebody to be scared of.
Are losers in this challenger? Bananas an Aviv a very
tough episode for the Angels. You know, Johnny's gonna have

(24:04):
a penalty going into next week for that daily and
now it is almost confirmed. It might as well be
confirmed with Kyland being the ultimate decider. You know, him
and Michelle have been rocking with each other this whole season,
the whole game there. You know, we know that Kyland

(24:30):
is going to be sending Jenny Weston against Aviv, so
we do get kind of you know, some fun before
the elimination here. I really like this scene where Carl
aka Kara, Dave aka Torri, and Derek are setting up

(24:51):
Michelle's birthday fun. You know, they have Carl go down
and you know, do a lap dance for Michelle, and
then she says we should take this upstairs. And they've
got a cake and wine and balloons and all this
stuff for Michelle, and it's it's really nice and it

(25:12):
seemed like the whole house was celebrating Michelle's birthday. I
know they edited it this way, but there was a
dewed it's seen they uploaded on the Instagram, and it
looked like everyone kind of put their their you know, uh,
machete's down if you will, and uh, you know, we're

(25:33):
we're happy to celebrate Michelle's birthday. It seemed like a
lot of fun and it's a it's a nice time.
You know. I'm a huge Michelle fan. I love the girl.
She's she's the best, and I've been enjoying seeing how

(25:58):
she's been working the game. Right. I think she's been
doing a solid job this season. She's been having to
scrap beat people in elimination. You know, she really has
not had much power this season, and she has done
a great job, and I'm just over the moon happy

(26:21):
for you know, we've discussed this season how it's good
if you're kind of fucked up to say, but it's
good if your opposite gender allies go into elimination and win.

(26:41):
You know, but first if they go into elimination, because
if they win, they will then throw you a bone
and keep you safe the next round. So Johnny, as
upset as he is that he lost the Daily, you know,
once he sees how the cards play out, he's thrilled

(27:03):
because he knows he's gonna be saved no matter what,
whether Aviv wins this elimination, whether Jenny wins, he knows
that neither of those girls are gonna throw her in,
throw him in. Excuse me, Johnny one thirty five With Jenny,

(27:23):
they've been tight allies on every season they've done together.
Johnny and Aviv have built a very good relationship. We've
seen off the show that they're close friends as well,
you know, along with Rachel. I'm sure Jenny is close
with them as well. You know, it's just a little

(27:44):
bit tougher being across the pond, but you know, these
are real friendships, real relationships. But it benefits Johnny's game
quite a bit because everyone wants him in the arena.
But now the only way it's going to happen before
the final is if he gets last place because he's

(28:07):
not a target. So this daily coming up is huge
because he does have the penalty, but he's not a target,
so as long as he doesn't get last. The way
TJ's talking, it seems like when we get to four
and four, we're going to the final. That's what I'm

(28:34):
I'm thinking. I think we're going to the final and
we get four girls, four guys because we're we're going
to be a ten after this elimination here, which is
called well, we'll get to that. We see Corey and

(28:54):
Kylon talking and I was very I was like thinking
thinking back, and it's when Corey first said it. You
know the fact of like Nehemiah being the last black
male winner on the Flagship, and you know that was

(29:15):
season fifteen of the Gauntlet. You know, John A's won
All Stars a few times, you know, of course being
a black female, but you know Durrell won all of
his before the Gauntlet three. And it's it's wild, you know,

(29:36):
the challenge is such diverse casting. It's always you know,
given its flowers for all the incredible diversity of you know,
sexual orientation, race, gender, it's just so surprising that a
black male has not won the game since Neamayah and

(29:59):
the Gauntlet three, and Corey talks to Kyland about how
he wants it to be one of them winning the season,
and you know, I think it very well could be.
Corey's been knocking on the door for season after season.
You know, he's made so many finals and he just
hasn't been able to get it done. But we've been

(30:21):
getting a lot of foreshadowing about his puzzle ability. You know,
I am still nervous for him about the math. He
has always notoriously been rough with math, and a lot
of these finals lately have been involving math. So I
am worried for him if there is math involved. You know,

(30:44):
now we get a viv calling home before the elimination.
You know that edit's a little top because we have
seen it. At least it's my opinion that when someone
talks about, you know, all their people at home or
what they're going to do with the money, it is

(31:06):
like the kiss a death unfortunately, because for the winner
and for people who go far in the game, Like
we already got Aviv's family and you know her why
and everything earlier in the season, and I think people
realized with how well ingratiated she was, that she was

(31:26):
going to go really far this season. But to Eric now,
right before she's about to go in against Jenny, it's like, a,
I don't know about that, Like this does not look
normal to me, at least to me. But it was
very sweet. It was a nice scene. A Viv call home,

(31:49):
shout out to Aviv because her man is fine, very fine,
wonderful family. The elimination is called Iron Triangle. It is
a Viv against Jenny. There is a circle around this

(32:13):
metal triangle. They have to get a ten pound medicine ball,
throw it over the triangle and the ball has to
fall inside the circle otherwise it is dead. And unfortunately
everyone saw this cage, they knew it was going to
be physical. It's a shame because Rachel describes it inconfessional,

(32:38):
and I think she describes the best. This is a
it's a slow car crash. Unfortunately for for you know,
the friends of a Viv. I think for everybody right,
because of Viv's just someone that you don't have a

(33:00):
wall towards and real tough seeing Jenny get her away
in this and it's not it's real tough as in
we're fans of Aviv, right. You know. Aviv's someone that
I was really happy to see back on the show,
you know, a fellow juice, so like, definitely have that

(33:22):
kindred spirit, and I'm very proud of her being able
to get this far in the season. Ultimately, Jenny just
outpowers during this elimination, gets the ball and we have
like a banana ct backpack flashback after Jenny goes up

(33:44):
one oho, Aviv's like jumping on her back and it's
very reminiscent of this Banana's backpack moment. And you know,
of course they already aired it because they love to
do that, like many people mentioned, but Jenny wins. There's
no drama with the target picks because there's no other options.

(34:09):
Kailand won the Daily, so he can't be picked the
one person who threw Jenny in multiple times. So not
only was it clutch for Kyland to win the Daily
to have power, it was clutch for Kyland because he's

(34:32):
one hundred thousand person going in here. If he doesn't win,
there is no way he doesn't get picked. In fact,
you know, unfortunately for Derek Chavez, I think he punches

(34:53):
a ticket to the final if Kyland doesn't win this
Daily Challenge, and I mean that because I think Jenny
does Kyland, Corey Jordan, and then Derek's safe as long
as he doesn't get last next week, which I mean
this is going to be a dog fight in the

(35:15):
Daily next week. You know, on the girl's side, we've
got Tory, Kara, Michelle, Jenny and Rachel as the five,
one of them automatically going in and then or excuse me, no,

(35:37):
the girls won't be going in next week. But those five,
one of them is going to be getting a disadvantage
in the Daily for one of them to go in
the final. But for the guys, it's Derek, Corey Jordan,
Bananas and Kyland, and you know, Kyland as long as

(36:00):
he doesn't get last place, and the same thing for Bananas.
If Bananas and Kylin, if neither of them get last,
they're not going in. And I don't see them going
to a final. I know they've done it in the
past where they go to a final with two or

(36:20):
three on each side. They're not doing that. They're just
not the way they've talked about this final. I really
think they're going with four men, four women. So as
long as Kylon and Bananas do not get last place,
they're going to the final. And then it's going to
be depending on how this Daily shakes out, some combination

(36:45):
of Derek, Corey Jordan in the final male elimination of
the season, which is just I just I hope everyone realizes,
regardless of the fact, because here's the thing, like, yes,
we've seen Corey and Jordan much more than Derek Chavez,
but do not count Derek out. Just don't. He has

(37:09):
shown it time and time again this season, He's shown
it on All Stars. Just do not count him out.
Bottom line. So, I think it's going to be a great,
you know, end to this season. We're going to find
out next week which four move on. I think it's
going to be moving on to the final. We've got

(37:30):
so many confessionals about the possibility of the final coming
up very close. I think this is the last Daily
challenge for the guys and then the girls. The next
episode I think is going to start with the girls
Daily Challenge, then maybe their elimination, and then you know,

(37:50):
we'll start the final in the last half hour of
that episode the following week on episode seventeen, because next
week will be sixteen. Maybe they'll do the last guy
a girl elimination all next week. Who knows. But we're
getting very close, we really are. So I'm very excited,

(38:15):
you know, TJ at the end mentions you know, hey,
we're ten is too many people, so we've got ten left.
It's going to be really fun. I'm looking forward to
it all. We will be back next week to break
down the next episode of the Challenge forty Battle of
the Eras. Hope you all have been enjoying the season

(38:37):
and hope you all have a great week. Thanks