Play Smarter, Not Harder

The episode that Challenge fans have been waiting for finally arrived. Tuesday night, The Challenge: Invasion of The Champions had my eyes glued to the TV and excited for next week’s episode.  If drama, love triangles, and kick ass challenges/eliminations arouses you, find a way to watch last night’s episode.

The episode started out in a club, which is great that they can finally get out of the house. Nicole found herself chasing  flirting with both Cara Maria and Laurel. She states in her interview that she wants both of them and that “Laurel looks good, but Cara Maria looks better.” Ouch. I know Laurel has to cringe watching Nicole who’s currently her girlfriend, say harsh things. Nicole is all over Cara Maria, who isn’t into to Nicole, but loves the attention.  So, a rejected Nicole finds her way to Laurel, who feels played, rejects her as well.

A sad, bitter Laurel goes and admits to Amanda that she pranked her by putting chips in her bed sheets. Laurel states it’s at love, that it was just a joke. However, Amanda blows the situation up. Amanda finds herself in a screaming match with Laurel until the CAMILA-nator comes to save the day. At this point, its Amanda against two vets, and her bestie Smashley didn’t have her back because she’s “avoiding drama”. Ashley’s head is in the right spot. Avoid drama, play the game, and win the challenge. Making enemies for future challenges is never a good thing unless their filming for Rivals 4.

The challenge next morning was wet platform with two ropes over 200 ft of water. Each component had to hold on to the rope as long as possible while the platform moved. However, the underdogs and champs were both on the platform together which made things even harder for those who have no upper body strength. The girls went first and as soon as the platform moved everyone fell into the water except for Cara Maria and Camila. Camila then decides to wrap her entire body in the rope avoiding the fact that if something went wrong she could potential kill herself. TJ tells her to unwrap herself. Cara Maria falls into the water first and is upset because she felt that it was unfair that Camila won, making her safe for elimination. However, the only reason why Cara Maria is complaining was because she played harder, not smarter. If Cara Maria used the same strategy as Camila she wouldn’t be complaining. If it was considered ” unfair” , production would’ve DQ Camila.

Back at the house, Laurel and Cara Maria have a heart to heart about their friendship and Nicole. Both of them admit that it’s going to be hard going up against each other in elimination. Cara Maria also admits that her flirting with Nicole isn’t serious that it’s just for fun. She advises Laurel to tell Nicole how she feels.  Laurel finds Nicole and the talk doesn’t go so smoothly. Nicole doesn’t see any fault for her flirting with Laurel and Cara Maria because everyone is single. They confess that they both have feelings for each other, but Laurel says she’s done feeling like she’s being played. This is the first time that viewers have gotten to see Laurel become a vulnerable person and it’s the first time she’s pursued a woman in life. So, it heartbreaking to see Nicole put Laurel through all this. However, we know due to their Instagram’s that they get a happy ending. For Nicole, her worst nightmare is happening…she’ll be forced to only play with one girl. Nicole wants both, but fate didn’t work out in her favor.

The Champs have to play classic challenge games in elimination rounds, which are very physical. So the boys started it off and Darrell has Johnny Bananas shaking. Darrell has won 4 challenges back to back. Johnny Bananas has won 6 total challenges, just sporadically. The game consisted of a ring where players couldn’t step out of, a bin that’s in the middle of the ring, and a ball. The offensive player has to get the ball into the bin without letting the ball hit the ground or go outside the ring. The defense player has to stop the offense player from getting the ball into the bin. The whistle blows and Bananas puts up a fight, but Darrell hits him too hard. Second whistle blew and Darrell was on offense and scored the ball into the bin while an out of breath Bananas is searching for strategy. The third whistle blows and the episode ends on a “to be continued…”.

Annoyingly, we won’t find out who’s going home til Tuesday, but my money is on Laurel and Darrell. Laurel hasn’t lost an elimination, has played with and against Cara, and although she is physically aligned with Cara’s strength  she plays smarter than her. Darrell is one of the best competitors to be on The Challenge and he still plays with agility, strength, and logic very well.