The Challenge
My Trivia Era
Season 40
Episode 4
Editor’s Rating
Photo: MTV/Jonne Roriz
Is this a Challenge house, or 17th century Puritan Boston? After the elimination, this cycle’s “targets” arrive back at the mansion Hester Prynne-style, donning Planet Fitness Purple armbands that designate their shameful status on the chopping block for all to see and mock.
If I were a betting lass, I’d wager that the pre-selection of targets will lead to a record number of thrown challenges. When you have zero risk of getting sent to an elimination win or lose, what’s going to motivate you to run up a mountain with a 100-pound bowling ball strapped to your back? You’d be lucky to even get me out of bed.
The twist has the house in a tizzy, and after a weak Godfather impression, C.T. shares the C.T. Pro Tip: “Don’t do anything drastic when the game changes.” We know, man. Your whole game for the past 25 years has rested on doing nothing.
Tori and Josh sit down to hash out their feelings after Josh’s “Don’t call me, don’t come by my house” speech from Toga Night. He apologizes and says the way he spoke to Tori was “so out of pocket.” We don’t see any words of remorse from Tori, which may have been an editing choice, but I’d believe it. For now, the alliance of Josh, Tori, Devin, Kaycee, and Aneesa is back on solid ground. I wish they named alliances more often on this show. This one could be called “Are You My Big Brother?”
The daily challenge requires the teams to trade their six-packs for thinking caps, which only ever ends in Chernobyl-level disaster for these Philistines. It’s trivia, and as expected, if a team answers a question wrong, two members will fall 30 feet into the ocean, immediately conjuring T.J.’s SpongeBob x Blumhouse cackle. This game, titled Cranium Cradle, uses a Jeopardy!-style board of Challenge-themed questions, with categories like “throwdowns,” “hookups,” and “geography,” and corresponding difficulties from 100-400 points. It’s logical that production would keep the questions franchise-focused for a milestone season, but it’s, unfortunately, so much less fun for the audience. I’d rather see the cast struggle to spell “rivalry” or guess that the national language of Australia is Dutch.
The team that accrues the most points at the end of the game wins, but all four Eras get off to a rocky start, even while playing it safe with 100-point questions. There’s no way the Era I Elders can even remember what they had for lunch today, and the Era IV teenyboppers have fried their brains with TikTok. But to be fair, I was stumped by most of these, too, and I’m the type of nerd who has a signed photo of Bananas taking the money from Sarah hanging on their fridge. When Derek fails to recall who competed in the first-ever Hall Brawl, C.T. gets ejected and takes a gnarly fall, yelling out for help. Medical swoops in to bring him back to shore, and he’s carted away in an ambulance because it’s not trivia without the risk of a traumatic brain injury.
Era IV celebrates like they just won the Super Bowl when Theo correctly identifies the three colors of the Colombian flag for a whopping 100 points. Unfortunately, that’s not going to cut it, and Era IV comes in last, meaning Horacio and Jenny will head straight to the arena. After Era I falls, it’s a quiz-off between Eras II and III. Jordan is the last player standing for his team, while Era II boasts close to a full bench. Naturally, he goes on a heater but falters in identifying Jonna’s first competition show before appearing on The Challenge (it was Endurance, the iconic Discovery Kids where teens competed for a vacation to the Amazon Rainforest, which she won). He leaves his Era with 1,600 points, tied with Era II.
Just when you think it’s over, Era II gets their next two questions wrong (sorry, no one watched Asaf on So You Think You Can Dance), which means the game now enters a round of sudden death. Jordan and Laurel, who are both targets, serve as representatives for their teams. After Laurel answers her question correctly, it’s up to Jordan to keep Era III alive. He’s asked to name Devin’s partner from Rivals III, and after a big show of “it’s on the tip of my tongue,” he incorrectly answers Sylvia.
Cory is immediately sus. The correct response is Cheyenne, who happens to be Cory’s baby mama, and Jordan also happened to attend their gender reveal party. You don’t start a cotton candy-colored forest fire with someone and then forget their name. Jordan basically confirms in a confessional that he threw it on purpose by mischievously giggling through his testimony like the Pillsbury Doughboy post-tickle. It’s not totally clear what the strategy was, but since we know Laurel, Bananas, and Jordan are working together, maybe they thought it was safer for Jordan to lose so they could guarantee both teams stayed out of the arena, whereas Nia could have pushed more heavily to throw in Era II and/or forced a stalemate.
Despite allegedly winning by default, Laurel has to perform the most obnoxious touchdown dance since Randy Moss, shouting “fuck you, Darrell” and then accusing him of targeting her instead of Emily because Emily gives him extramarital massages. In a confessional, Darrell gives her the very Trumpian nickname “Lingering Laurel” because she always tries to insert herself into conversations and needs to “shut the fuck up.” Not sure that that one’s gonna stick, but I appreciate the sentiment.
That night, the cast gets to hit the Vietnam bar scene, where Bananas tries to preemptively deflect smoke on the elimination decision, telling Aneesa and Derrick that it’s essentially Laurel’s call because her relationships with Jordan and Horacio trump his history with the Era I team. If she puts her foot down, he’s not going to risk a stalemate, but Aneesa and Derrick should be wary of this feigned passivity — like, let’s be for real, when has Bananas ever not manipulated a situation to get his way?
The next day, Derrick draws up a game plan with Darrell and C.T., who has lumbered back into the house despite being “a little tendah” from his fall. Darrell, on the other hand, can’t even sit down after wrecking his back in last week’s elimination round. The kids are not alright, people!
And speaking of kids, there’s something about this episode that feels, as Taylor Swift once said, “so high school.” Era II calls a private meeting ahead of the Chamber because not everyone is feeling included in the decision-making. Uhm, because you’re not?! Bananas and Laurel are two of the most aggro players in history; do you think they’re about to cede an iota of power or control because Nehemiah feels left out? Maybe he should ask guidance counselor T.J. to give a speech on the toxicity of cliques before the next daily.
Like a solipsistic cheerleader, Laurel won’t entertain any and all cogent arguments about selecting Jordan and Nia in the hopes of weakening the more competitive Eras because she and Jordan used to date, and he’s done right by her during past seasons. She says, “I am willing to do anything to save him in this game and anything for him in this game,” which feels psychotic. Jordan must really be all that and a pack of cigarettes, because both Laurel and Tori protect him as if he’s their shared sister husband and not actively dating a 26-year-old Sydney Sweeney lookalike.
In the Chamber, Derrick jokingly asks if he can approach Bananas and Laurel before presenting them with a scroll containing his plea for exemption. It’s not super clear what all his scrawlings really say beyond his closing argument: Era I is “on life support. We need a doctor.” The power couple pretends to consider this thoughtful PowerPoint presentation, but it’s all just a formality, like when your boss “hears out” your petition for a raise with no intentions of ever submitting it.
The elimination is called Pick It Up, and bear with me because it’s a mouthful. Two tall bamboo track structures are positioned in the sand, with 40 jacks per player scattered underneath them. To begin, the players will shoot a ball into their track, and as it rolls down, they collect as many jacks as they can before it falls — they’ll need to catch it, or none of the jacks in their hands will count. With the ball and the jacks secured, they’ll then place those jacks into a giant board, and whoever gets all 40 inserted first wins. In other words, non-stop running and time management, my personal nightmare.
The women go up first: a showdown between new besties Aneesa and Jenny (ICYMI, they had a heart-to-heart about body positivity and protein shakes). Ironically, despite professional bodybuilder Jenny’s offer to help Aneesa train, it takes Jenny about 200 tries to get the ball in the track while Aneesa easily cruises through her first few rounds of jacks.
Once Jenny gets the hang of the mechanics, she maintains a slight lead for most of the game until she completely gasses out around her 36th jack, hyperventilating in the corner while everyone complains that she doesn’t have that dog in her. Her moment of weakness opens the door for Aneesa, who retrieves her final three jacks first, but fatally misses the last ball catch she needs, so Jenny is able to recompose herself and finish the job. Firstly, I got got by the Aneesa underdog storyline that I previously lambasted — I did underestimate her, and she did prove me wrong, dammit! Second, Jenny’s performance should have her super worried; yes, she’s a beast and a champion, but when you can’t keep up on cardio with Aneesa, you’re not making the best case for yourself as an asset in a final, in the event that it’s run in teams or pairs.
Horacio is the favorite to win for the boys, but Darrell counters that Derrick is built for this challenge because he played lots of sports in high school … 25 years ago. I also did gymnastics in kindergarten, but I don’t think that means I could beat Suni Lee in a handstand competition. Horacio’s been acting checked out since Nurys got sent home, and he says he’s only staying motivated for the sake of his bro, Kyland. What about your bank account? I’m sure the guy does well for himself, but he’s really so emo that a million dollars can’t perk him up? This is why they needed to make the prize two million, like Survivor did for Winners at War — all these dodos are making too much money from MuscleTech Protein Powder ads to care.
When Horacio misses a crucial catch, T.J. shouts, “It’s Derrick’s game to lose!” and Derrick spider-monkeys around the sand, collecting a whopping five jacks. By overdoing it when he doesn’t need to, Derrick misses the ball catch and blows his lead. When Derrick has 37 jacks and Horacio has 39, it all comes down to one final ball toss, and each guy executes it flawlessly, placing their final jacks simultaneously. It’s so close that it’s not clear who finished first until they review the tape, and T.J. announces that Derrick took the win by a hair.
This time, when T.J. asks winners Derrick and Jenny to make their target selections, we start seeing more volunteers, with the idea being that everyone will take a turn — this is probably better for overall team morale, creating less animosity and resentment. The self-appointed targets are C.T. and Tina, Emily, Tori, and Olivia.
You’ll notice that the women of all four Eras put themselves up, but once C.T. started off nominations for the men, all those alpha male egos went dead silent real fast. Jenny selects Nehemiah, Devin, and Kyland. Josh had previously made a big show about how he would take one for the team this round but changed his tune when he found out he could get pummeled to death. It looks like Darrell and his blown out back have company; being spineless is all the rage.
