We have our winners. We have more losers. And we have a little bit of drama that we’ll talk about for hours. These are the most important things that happened on the season 40 reunion.
Who showed up?
Host: Maria Menounos
Era 1: Aneesa, Brad, Darrell, Derrick, Jodi, Rachel, Tina
Era 2: Aviv, Bananas, Cara Maria, Derek, Emily, Laurel, Nehemiah, Ryan
Era 3: Averey, Devin, Jonna, Jordan, Nia, Tori
Era 4: Jenny, Josh, Kyland, Michele, Olivia, Theo
The Winners Circle
Per usual, we open by talking to the winners. Tina chimes in to say Jordan wasn’t a worthy winner because he’s a manipulative player, but really, this is a tongue-in-cheek comment because Jordan partially led to her elimination. Rachel also says she’s happy to share the win with someone in Era 4, but the conversation then flips to Michele. She’s upset by her loss, but she gets a lot of praise from her fellow competitors, including Laurel, who noticed her development as a player.
Target question (people who were targeted get the chance to send a hard-hitting fan question to one of the people who targeted them). Michele: Who’s the most overrated Challenger? She said CT, to much criticism.
Summoning the Devil
Target question. Devin: Is he still a fan of Amanda, who he once said was fiercely loyal? He said no, because she crossed a line by targeting people he loves (Michele and Tori).
Then, Amanda came out, dressed as the devil.
Amanda isn’t super surprised by Devin’s comments because she questioned Devin and Michele’s relationship. Devin confirmed this was his reasoning, but Michele stated that she’s never felt more comfortable in a relationship than she does with Devin.
Battle of the Betrayal
Cory calls into the show and talks about betraying Amanda. He says he made a deal with Nia (who lost the Era Invitational) and Nia didn’t want to vote in Averey. But, Amanda was surprised because she made a literal handshake agreement to work with Cory for the sake of Nelson. When Amanda got home, she told Nelson what happened and he was upset.
Tori and Josh are cool after their argument on episode 3, Josh admits he overreacted.
Tina confronted Nia and Jordan for voting her and Darrell into the Arena on episode 7 and how Nia delivered the news. Nia was smiling, was really nice, and hugged Tina, so Tina thought she was going to be saved. Nia admits there was no way she’d vote in Nehemiah, so Tina and Darrell were the only options, but Nia was especially mad because Tina rehashed the drama on Twitter months later, which Tina openly admits to.
The Love Era
Olivia and Theo are still together, and Theo got his visa, so they’re able to see each other. Olivia also confirmed her tattoo is real.
Devin and Michele are also still together. Michele said that their relationship was a “slow burn,” and she caught feelings first. Devin feels he’s not the marriage type, but if there was anyone he’d marry, it’d be Michele.
The Bananas Interjection
We revisit Bananas warning Michele about Devin potentially using her for the game. Bananas said that he planned to work with Devin pre-season, but Devin put an expiration date on the alliance. According to Devin, Bananas said he had other things going on in his life and he was going to “check out” of the game three weeks into filming, which clearly wasn’t true. Bananas denies this, but Devin feels he caught Bananas in a lie, so Bananas tried to get revenge by sabotaging Devin through Michele. Bananas agrees to apologize if Devin apologizes first. On season 38, Devin tried to drive a wedge between Bananas and Moriah because he thought Moriah was using Bananas to advance her game. But, Devin doesn’t apologize, because he really thought Moriah was using Bananas and he doesn’t believe Bananas was genuine when warning Michele. However, both men agree to move on from this drama.
Era 1’s Demise
Era 1 was the first team to really crumble, but Rachel claims they’re still the heart and soul of the franchise because she got so many karma points. However, Aneesa feels betrayed by Rachel for not saving her during the Era Invitational. Rachel said that Aneesa finished significantly behind Jodi in Light It Up, and it would have sent the wrong message to the team to save her. Aneesa is still upset because Rachel told her she’d be saved, and leaving the decision up to CT was a back-handed way of putting Aneesa into the elimination.
Target question: Bananas: If he could keep one angel, who would it be? He says Jenny because of their victory on Total Madness — but he can’t pick which angel has the best feet.
The Tori Story
Bananas and Tori discuss their alliance falling apart, and Bananas said Tori had a bad strategy because she kept voting him into the Arena, he’d win, and he’d protect his “Angels” like Jenny, Aviv, and Rachel. In turn, this allowed a lot of strong women to get to the final, and that made it possible for Tori to get fourth place. Tori claims she wasn’t thinking that far in advance, and she wanted to protect her friends, so this season was a victory in that sense. In reality, Tori likes Bananas and she wants to remain friends despite their feud this season.
Cara and Laurel Revisited
Maria asked Cara Maria why she got involved with Laurel and Michele’s argument this season, and Cara Maria said that she saw Laurel talking to Michele and she didn’t like the way Michele was being treated. But, Laurel said the conversation with Michele started the night before, and it felt like Cara Maria was lurking to interject. Regarding the larger fight when Cara Maria was dyeing her hair, Laurel walked by and asked what she and Michele were talking about. Cara Maria told her, and the situation exploded. They didn’t talk about details from the fight at the reunion, but Laurel says she wishes Cara Maria peace and happiness. Cara also wants to move on, but she wants to remove the narrative that she and Laurel are “sisters.” Cara said she’d do another Challenge season if Laurel was there, but Laurel isn’t so sure she’d do another one with Cara.
Vacation Alliance Attacked
The Vacation Alliance discusses their strategy, and Rachel feels the alliance’s members think the whole game revolves around their relationships. Bananas wonders why Josh has so much power, and why so many things were dependent on his opinions. Bananas feels Josh is the “fall guy,” but Devin says that Josh’s membership in the Vacation Alliance is under review. Cory doubles down on Josh’s fakeness, and Josh says that he feels uncomfortable with his relationship with Cory because Cory says too many things about him online.
Then, we see footage of Josh and Laurel’s drunken make-out session, but both of them insist that they’re just really good friends — because that’s what friends do, make out.
Target question: Josh: If he had to throw Rachel or Tori into an elimination who would he pick? He says Tori, and she agrees because she threw him into an elimination in the past.
Angels Assemble
Bananas implies Tori created the “Bananas Angels” alliance, stating that his friends united because she was opposing Bananas in the game. Tori gets slightly annoyed when Jordan agrees with this, but she insists that the Angels were strong players she needed to target. Rachel seemingly agrees with Tori, praising the final four girls and stating that none of them skated by this season.
Then, we get to the feet. Bananas claims his allies all just so happened to have good feet, and Michele says that her argument with Aviv happened because she was annoyed with Bananas and she got caught in the crossfire. However, Devin thinks the rounds of footsie are not just fun and games, and if Michele was tickling toes with Bananas on a bus, he’d leave that relationship.
Femininomenon
This season had a lot of badass girls, and Cara Maria praised the intensity of them. Jodi wished that she stuck around longer, and Jonna said she was honored to be invited, but she was struggling internally (she didn’t go into specifics) this season. All of the girls speak to how exciting it is to be part of a franchise that elevates women, even the devil is a woman this show — thanks, Amanda.
Target Talk
Jordan talks about the rotation on Era 3, and Jonna says she never agreed to this. Devin disagreed, but Amanda defended Jonna. As a viewer, it’s boring to have a rotation and it takes power away from the Arena winner. Ryan also says he didn’t want to volunteer to be a target because Emily discouraged it. The one time she volunteered, she went home. Emily says you can’t prepare for people throwing challenges, and Laurel mocked Emily by fake crying. She also called Ryan the worst player on the Era 2 team, but when Cara Maria questioned Laurel’s poor performance — intentional or not — Laurel deflected and said “I’m sorry I’m on The Challenge baby, you can’t change it.”
Tony FaceTime
Tony calls in to talk about his infamous stalemate and claims he was not intentionally trying to go home. He said he wanted to protect Darrell, Jodi, Kyland, and Kaycee because having four allies is better than having two allies (Averey and Derek). Tony insists that if he was successful and won the Arena, he’d come back with four allies and it’d be reframed as a smart move. Amanda calls Tony out for wanting to leave and be home with his family for Easter, but he denies this and tells the haters to kiss his ass.
TJ’s Turn
TJ calls in to celebrate 40 seasons. Bananas says that TJ’s approval is better than anything else, so naturally, we see a clip of Bananas failing at the puzzle during Tight Quarters. Then, TJ confirmed that CT is not overrated and Michele is wrong.
Getting GOATed
Maria claims that they wanted to settle the debate for Challenge GOATs, so they polled the cast members and the audience at the reunion. Rachel and Jordan win the titles, and the cast sends their praises, especially Laurel who calls Jordan an inspiration for performing so well with one hand. Tori also calls Bananas the GOAT of showmanship, because Bananas’ ego is clearly hurt by not receiving the title.
Devil Antics
We dive into some of Amanda’s saucy social media posts and she addresses them on the stage.
Amanda calls out the vegan options, saying that eating gross foods was a fun part of the show and the vegan dishes take that away.
In a press interview for season 40, Amanda called Michele sneaky. Michele said that everyone in this game is sneaky sometimes.
Amanda feels that she didn’t belong on the Era 3 team and she would have been a better fit on Era 1 because she likes those people more. She felt Era 3 was missing some core people, like Ashely and Nelson, and called out Averey for not having done the show in so long.
Target question: Jordan: He took a “jab” at Era 1 on IG Live saying that people on the team were just trying to revive their Challenge careers. Who was he talking about? He gives a back-handed answer and says all of them… except Aneesa.
The Tori Maria Friendship
We look at Tori and Cara Maria’s relationship and how it’s evolved over time. Tori claims Cara Maria taught her the game on Dirty Thirty, and then their relationship got strained, but when Cara Maria returned this season she was vulnerable and reignited their friendship. Bananas says the rivalry started because Jordan proposed to Tori, and Paulie wanted to make that move on War of the Worlds 2, but Tori laughs and denies that. Cara Maria claims that Tori gave her a gift this season by eliminating her before the grueling final, so Cara gives Tori a gift. It’s a sequined pillow of Cara as her drag persona “Carl” with the message “You’ve been unblocked.”
Then, Tori, Cara Maria, and Derek dress in drag and bring out cupcakes. Bananas gives a faux toast, and that’s really it. After 21 episodes, Battle of the Eras is now a bygone era.
Stop Being Polite 