The end is getting very close, but we still have too many people.
The Flames and the Furious
The cast shows up to the daily challenge, they see a car, a cliff, and a Burger King sponsorship. The game is called Fire Plunge. The cast gets into a flame-grilled car, and they need to solve a puzzle to “hot wire” it. They’ll then drive the car off a 300-foot cliff, get ejected into the water, and swim 500 meters to stop their time. Bananas, who lost the previous daily challenge, receives a 30-second time penalty. Jordan goes first, and the puzzle doesn’t take him a long time (though it appears to just be a guessing game). Jordan’s a triathlon athlete and he sets a very strong time, then Rachel goes and sets a strong time for the women. The other eight players know they’ll have to hustle if they want to win.
2 Slow 2 Win
The game continues, and Derek really struggles to hot wire his car. Then we see Cara Maria go, and she solves the puzzle quickly, but she swims slowly — almost comically slow. The rest of the cast finishes the race with Cory and Tori putting in a solid effort, but Kyland’s slow swimming showed one of his biggest weaknesses. In the end, Tori and Jordan get the win and a surprise $5,000 prize from Burger King. Meanwhile, Derek and Cara Maria come in last. Cara will get penalized at the next challenge, but there won’t be a Chamber because Cory defaults to the second Arena contestant.
A Feast Fit for a Favor
The cast receives a feast from Burger King, and while vegan Tori is hoarding all the fries, Derek and Cory are faced with the reality that they will be facing each other in The Arena. Neither of them wanted to end up in this situation, but they both have their own motivation to want to win. However, Jenny is really hoping Derek is victorious because he owes her a favor. She kept him safe when she could have sent him into The Arena episode 8, and she hopes he’ll repay the favor if he returns from elimination.
Derek’s Motivation
The cast returns from the club, and Derek jokingly says he’s going to cry because he’s going into elimination tomorrow. His friends Cara Maria, Tori, and Michele don’t want him to feel alone, not just because of the elimination, but tomorrow would have been Derek’s younger sister’s birthday. If you’ve seen All Stars 2, you’ll know that his sister committed suicide before he left to compete on that season. So, this day has sentimental value to Derek, especially because his sister loved watching The Challenge with him.
No Good Deed Goes Untargeted
Jenny asks Derek if he’ll make her a target if he wins in The Arena, noting that she saved him when he could have faced Derrick in episode 8’s Arena. While Derek did want to repay Jenny, it’s a no a this point. He can only keep one girl safe from having a target, and he also owes Michele a favor. Plus, she’s been working with him throughout the season, and Cara Maria’s had his back since episode 1. So at this point, Jenny’s going to be out of luck, even though she helped out Derek weeks ago.
Slow, Steady Cinder Blocks
Derek and Cory head into the Arena and the game is called Closing Time. The competitors must crank a wheel to open a gate. They’ll race through the opening before it closes and retrieve cinder blocks and transport them to another platform. Those blocks will be stacked and used as puzzle pieces on both the sides and the top of the stack. Immediately, Cory has the strength and speed to move the cinder blocks, but Derek is being methodical and moving pieces in groups that go together to make solving the puzzle easier on the second station. Cory appears to be in the lead, until the audience grasps Derek’s strategy. They realize he’s slowly crawling toward completion while Cory is just making a big mess that he’ll struggle to solve. This proves to be Cory’s downfall, because after a long effort to move and rearrange blocks, Derek’s methodical strategy allows him to win.
A Target and Location Shake Up
After his win, Derek is tasked with picking three targets. With Tori off the table, it’s easy for him to pick Jenny and Rachel. However, Cara Maria volunteered herself to get the third target. So Michele is blessed with immunity, so long as she doesn’t get last place on the next challenge — and that challenge won’t be in Vietnam, though the new location is yet to be revealed.
Stop Being Polite 