The Challenge Battle for a New Champion: Top Moments from Episode 5

It’s time for chaos.

The Start of a New Cycle

TJ explains that chaos has begun, and this means daily challenges could be played in teams, pairs, or individually — competitors won’t know in advance. This week’s challenge is “Upside Down Whirled” and it’ll be played in pairs. The competitors are strapped into the ends of a propeller that’s rotating on a moving truck. The goal is to collect rings at the top of the rotation, and as they go down, deposit them onto targets. By doing this, they’ll collect points, and the pair with the most points wins. Michele & Asaf go first, and they realize this game is much harder than expected. Some other teams do poorly, like Emmanuel & Berna and Zara & Ciarran, but other teams keep their cool and do well like Corey & Ravyn and James & Nurys, but Corey & Ravyn secure the win after Corey deposits a fat stack of rings on a 10-point target.

An International Betrayal

After winning, Corey & Ravyn are awarded with chaos. They’re tasked with immediately selecting one man to send directly into The Arena, and they quickly realize they have too many allies to make an easy decision. Eventually, they land on Asaf’s name, which is a shock to Asaf. He feels he’s been working with Corey, and he was one of the only people who had Corey’s back. He’s angered and calls Corey a bitch, but Ravyn is also surprised. Apparently, Corey has many people he needs to protect, and half of them aren’t part of the US alliance.

New Ride or Dies

The cast goes to the club, and we start to see people flirting and having a good time. Kyland and Melissa’s relationship is continuing to slowly blossom, but another one is budding. Nurys is starting to get closer with Horacio, and she has him blushing. Olivia is a bit surprised, but it seems this could be leading to something bigger.

Tears for Two

After Corey sent Asaf into elimination, Michele feels betrayed. Not because Corey voted in a US ally, but because she was Asaf’s partner and she’s worried her game is in jeopardy and she could be going into elimination too. Corey admits that he wasn’t thinking about the women, because TJ said it was a men’s elimination, but he knows Michele would do anything to protect him, and now he feels the power from winning is more of a punishment… even though Michele has no reason to truly believe her game has been compromised.

Deliberation Annihilation

The cast gets to deliberation, and they’re treating it as a nomination ceremony. Immediately, Asaf tells the cast not to trust Corey, but Corey feels he never lied. Asaf comes to the realization that Corey really wasn’t as close to him as he thought, but then it’s time to shift gears — Asaf asks the cast to vote for the smartest and fastest guy: Ciarran. A few people say Emanuel’s name, but they’re mostly international players (and James’ new boo Moriah). Eventually, Ciarran gets the most votes and he resigns to his fate and votes for himself.

Jordanimal Returns

The cast gets to The Arena, and TJ tells them that to be a new champion, they have to beat the champions. Out comes Jordan, and his goal is to send one of the contenders home. If he does that, he gets $10,000 from the prize pool. So, Jordan has to pull one of three poles at The Draw: one has Asaf’s name, one has Ciarran’s name, and the other is a wild card. He pulls Ciarran’s name, and the two will play King of the Hill, which means Asaf will remain safe.

A Glowing Failure

The elimination has two ramps, each has three lights and three corresponding buttons. Lights will randomly turn on, and the competitors must race to turn it off by pushing its button. There are three 1-minute heats, and the first person to win two heats wins the elimination. Jordan gets off to a strong start, but then he relaxes. He seems to give Ciarran the first heat, then he lets Ciarran get a 2-point head start during the second heat. However, Jordan manages to score more overall points in heat two, making the final heat winner-take-all. Jordan employs the strategy of waiting by the light and not pushing the button to run down the clock. Jordan proves to be faster and smarter than Ciarran (who Asaf claimed was the fastest and smartest) and steals $10,000 from the final prize.