What To Know
- The Challenge‘s latest episode saw the very last member of the OG players ousted.
- The four remaining teams head into what looks to be a brutal elimination ahead.
[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for The Challenge Season 41 Episode 17, “Ten Toes Down.”]
The Challenge started this season of Vets and New Threats with a bevy of the series’ long-timers in the mix, but after Wednesday’s (November 19) new episode, none of the old guard remains in the game… with yet another almost-winner getting nixed right before the final. Sigh.
This time, it was Nany Gonzales, whose social game (and showmance with Will Gagnon) started to fall apart in the last few episodes, and her partner Justin Hinsley getting the ax from the Top 5 teams.
The episode began on a sour note for Nany and Justin. While Yeremi Hykel got a nice note from his former partner Aviv Melmed, cheering him on even after he staked a claim for Olivia Kaiser and left her to get eliminated alongside Will; meanwhile, Justin also got a note from Will, reading him for filth for not standing up to Nany to vote in his favor and accusing him of conspiring against him.
It wasn’t true that their vote against Will and Aviv was planned, of course, so Nany took that very, very personally and aired her grievances against Michael Bradshaw and Cedric Hodges, who she claimed were the actual architects of that decision, for everyone to hear. Needless to say, this didn’t ingratiate her team to any of the remaining vets, even those she’d been aligned with the whole time.
After the daily challenge, “Global Exchange,” put Michael and Cedric into the elimination automatically since they apparently did not know world geography at all, Nany and Justin were sent in with a vote so lopsided that even they voted for themselves. They were ready, they reasoned, and they weren’t scared.
Unfortunately, what they weren’t ready for was the strength of their opponents. They faced Michaela and Cedric in what host T.J. Lavin called “the original headbanger,” which was “Balls In 2.0” and saw both pairs of players facing off in the classic arena at the same time. It wasn’t even close.
“I am still holding onto that vision of me at the top of a mountain at the finish line, and T.J. telling me that I won. One day, it will happen. I still have more work to do,” Nany said after her ouster. After so many times as the bridesmaid, so to speak, we have to wonder if we’ll ever see Nany finish it out on top.
Next week’s episode begins the finale, which will see the players scaling the Andes mountains, doing some kind of canoeing challenge, and engaging in an overnight with a surprise option to stake a new claim. And from the look ahead, it seems like there’ll be some surprising slackers in the game’s final moments.
The Challenge, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV