The mercenaries are out, and the captains have a clear path to the final — or do they?
Fast Track to the Challenge
The cast heads straight to the daily challenge called Feed It Through. It’s played on the beach at night, and there’s a wire track in the sand. Each team needs to navigate three plates through the course, one by one, and stack all three on a post to win. Of course, it’s a messy track with booby traps and tricky turns, so it won’t be easy — especially because the players are blindfolded. The game really boils down to trust and communication, and both teams start fairly composed. But the Orange Team takes an early lead and places their first plate. Then, they immediately struggle to navigate back to their base and start moving their second plate. By the time the teams are moving their third plates, they’ve sustained many bumps and bruises, but they’re neck-and-neck. In the end, the Orange Team pulls ahead, which just means Tori gets the final say in which Grey Team girl goes into The Arena.
Orange Orchestration
Because the Grey Team lost, Adrienne will nominate one girl for the Arena while the remaining four will vote on the other nominee. Bananas has come to terms with the possibility of his fling, Lete, going into elimination, but he needs to prioritize his game. Meanwhile, Tori is trying to give Michele her best chance of winning the Arena, so she tries to convince Lete and Cara Maria to reach a stalemate, keeping every girl as a potential nominee. This would give Michele the greatest chance of winning in The Arena, but Lete doesn’t want to be manipulated by the Orange Team.
Team Strength
Tori spends all night and day speculating about the Arena, which Anna Leigh overhears and gets angry about. She eventually finds herself poolside to chat with Will, and she talks about how valuable Michele is to the team. She says she doesn’t want to lose Michele, and Will responds that he’s more valuable to the team and he needs to protect his spot in the game. Tori admits he’s an asset, but Will’s macho talk might be more than strategy — he may have developed a crush on Tori.
Bananas Panty Raid
The cast enjoys a day on the beach, and on the bus ride home, Anna Leigh sits next to Bananas. Lete sees that Anna Leigh was “all over” Bananas, and she’s upset because Anna Leigh violated “girl code” by touching Bananas. Tori concocts a plan to stir the pot to get Anna Leigh thrown into elimination. She tells Lete that Anna Leigh took a pair of Bananas’ underwear and put it in her backpack. Eventually, this rumor spreads, and Will grabs Anna Leigh’s bag. Inside is a pair of Bananas’ underwear, which Anna Leigh is allegedly surprised by, but she thinks one of the boys planted them in her bag.
Broke Trust and Girl Code
After finding Bananas’ underwear in Anna Leigh’s bag, Lete confronts Anna Leigh for being a bad teammate because she touched Bananas. But she throws some low blows, accusing Anna Leigh of being so insecure in her marriage that she needs to seek sexual validation somewhere else. Anna Leigh denies this, but she calls Lete selfish for allegedly making the whole cast wait so she could suck Bananas’ banana in a spa. Lete denies this, but she insists that this conversation isn’t about Bananas, it’s about “girl code.”
Rookie Mistake or Revolt
The Grey Team gets to deliberation, and Adrienne nominates Anna Leigh. She says that this is a bad move because it keeps Cara Maria, a liability on the team. Anna Leigh and Cara Maria bicker, but Anna Leigh insists that Cara Maria hasn’t done anything impressive this season and she’d rather run a final with Lete. Cara Maria tries to defend herself by bringing up her past elimination wins and Challenge championships, but Anna Leigh doesn’t care. She feels Cara Maria has been unimpressive this season, and she doesn’t care that she’s a rookie. Unsurprisingly, Anna Leigh votes for Cara Maria, but Lete follows her. She doesn’t want to feed the Orange Team what they want, and sending in Cara Maria disrupts their assumptions. Cassidy follows this, and Cara Maria becomes the second nominee.
Captain’s Choice
After Cara Maria is sent into elimination, Michele and Tori confront Lete. Michele claims that Lete is too comfortable, having never gone into elimination, and Tori claims voting for Cara Maria was a bad move. It seals Anna Leigh’s fate because Tori will most likely protect her friend, Cara Maria. Clearly, the two girls are upset that they couldn’t predict the nominees, so at The Arena, Tori sees a physical game. Tori throws her own wrench into the saga: she steps up to save Michele, becoming the Orange Team nominee, and unsurprisingly, she chooses Anna Leigh as her opponent.
Back Up Off Me Again
The Arena game is Back Up Off Me, made famous on the first Cutthroat. Except this time, there are no chains or barrels—just get your opponent out of the ring. When the horn sounds, Tori wiggles a few inches forward, but Anna Leigh is scrappy. At one point, Anna Leigh gets to her knees and crawls a few inches with Tori on her back. For a few seconds, Anna Leigh is in the lead, but Tori seems to develop a strategy. She tries to roll to her knees and roll Anna Leigh forward. Occasionally, she crawls slightly forward, but she realizes this will be a “game of inches.” Tori slowly crawls, pulls, and digs her way through the sand, and she takes the win, even though Anna Leigh put up a tough fight.
see ya anal