‘The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras’ episode 4 recap: Who was eliminated in ‘My Trivia Era’? [LIVE BLOG]
Tonight on “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras,” targets change the game as competitors must learn how to play without knowing if they’ll be safe come the next elimination. TJ’s favorite challenge returns in the form of a Challenge history lesson! A questionable sudden death round seeds internal doubt.
This year, the longest-running reality competition series embarks on its monumental 40th season. “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras” features 40 legendary competitors from the series’ 26-year history representing their “Challenge Era” in an epic battle for the ages where legends will collide as they strive to immortalize their names as Challenge 40 Champions and earn their share of the one million dollar prize. As usual, “The Challenge” is hosted by T.J. Lavin.
Here are the contestants still in contention for the Season 40 championship:
Era 1: Aneesa Ferreira, Brad Fiorenza, CT Tamburello, Darrell Taylor, Derrick Kosinski, Rachel Robinson, Tina Barta
Era 2: Aviv Melmed, Cara Maria Sorbello, Derek Chavez, Emily Schromm, Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, Laurel Stucky, Nehemiah Clark, Ryan Kehoe
Era 3: Averey Tressler, Cory Wharton, Devin Walker, Jonna Mannion, Jordan Wiseley, Nia Moore, Tori Deal
Era 4: Horacio Gutierrez Jr., Jenny West, Josh Martinez, Kaycee Clark, Kyland Young, Michele Fitzgerald, Olivia Kaiser, Theo Campbell
Below, read our full recap of tonight’s episode, titled “A Fatal Era” airing Wednesday, September 4 (8:00 – 9:30 PM ET/PT) on MTV.
8:05 p.m. — The challengers return to the house after last week’s elimination with Darrell and Averey having placed “targets” on two players from each era: Era 1’s Aneesa and Derrick, Era 2’s Bananas and Laurel, Era 3’s Jordan and Nia and Era 4’s Jenny and Horacio. We’ll learn more about what being a target means later. Laurel is pissed at Darrell for choosing her and doesn’t understand why he did it. Era 3 isn’t sweating it because they’ve decided to take turns volunteering as targets (let’s see how long that lasts). They’re hoping their lack of drama gives them a mental advantage over the other teams.
8:07 p.m. — Aneesa bonds Jenny and reveals that after the last final she ran, she tore her ACL and sprained her MCL and ankle. Following surgery, she’s been to rehab and began training every day, so she feels more fit than ever despite not having a body like Jenny’s. Jenny is thrilled to be working as Aneesa’s “fitness coach” because, well, she likes her, but also, she knows she won’t be one of Aneesa’s targets moving forward. Meanwhile, Tori and Josh are mending fences after they got into a fight last week. They both apologize and everything seems to be solid with these two now. They’re feeling good about their friendship and the alliances they’ve built. Over in another corner, Horacio admits he’s not in the best mental space after his girlfriend, Nurys, was eliminated.
8:10 p.m. — The players arrive to their daily challenge and TJ explains it’s trivia day! This is TJ’s favorite challenge (and one of mine!) because he loves making everyone look stupid before he launches them off a platform and into the sea. In “Cradled Cranium,” each player will be 30 feet above the water in cradle position. They’ll be asked a series of questions with categories that span “The Challenge.” Each category has 10 questions with varying levels of difficulty (and corresponding points). If a player answers the question correctly, they get the points. If they’re wrong, two players from their Era will drop into the water. The team with the most points at the end will win. That means, even if everyone on your team falls into the water, you could still win if you have the most points. In the event of a tie, they’ll go to sudden death. The Era that loses — well, their targets will go straight into elimination. So nobody wants to come in last. Let’s go!
8:30 p.m. — With everyone suspended above the water, TJ begins his questioning. Below is a quick review of what transpires.
- Jordan answers incorrectly and Era 3 drops Cory and Nia
- Josh answers incorrectly and Era 4 drops Josh and Olivia
- Aneesa answers incorrectly and Era 1 drops Darrell and Brad
- Cara Maria answers incorrectly and Era 2 drops Aviv and Cara Maria
- Tori scores for Era 3
- Kyland answers incorrectly and Era 4 drops Jenny and Kaycee
- Derrick answers incorrectly and Era 1 drops CT and Rachel (CT gets hauled out in a stretcher and ambulance — hope he’s ok — but the game continues)
- Derek scores for Era 2
- Jonna scores for Era 3
- Horacio answers incorrectly and Era 4 drops Michele and Horacio
- Tina answers incorrectly and Era 1 drops Derrick and Tina
- Nehemiah scores for Era 2
- Averey scores for Era 3
- Theo scores for Era 4
- Aneesa scores for Era 1
- Bananas scores for Era 2
- Devin scores for Era 3
- Kyland answers incorrectly and Era 4 drops Theo and Kyland (their entire era is now gone and they’ve lost this challenge with just 100 points on the board)
- Aneesa answers incorrectly and becomes the last player dropped from Era 1
- Laurel scores for Era 2
- Jordan answers incorrectly and Era 3 drops Devin and Averey
- Emily scores for Era 2
- Tori answers incorrectly and Era 3 drops Tori and Jonna
- Ryan scores for Era 2
- Jordan scores for Era 3
- Nehemiah scores for Era 2
- Jordan scores for Era 3
- Bananas answers incorrectly and Era 2 drops Nehemiah and Emily
- Jordan answers incorrectly and becomes the last player to drop from Era 3 (but the score is tied)
- Ryan answers incorrectly and Era 2 drops Ryan and Bananas
- Derek answers incorrectly and Era 2 drops Derek and Laurel
8:35 p.m. — With Era 2 and Era 3 tied at 1,600 points, this game goes to sudden death. Laurel answers correctly and Jordan gets his question wrong, so Era 2 wins this challenge, keeping Laurel and Bananas out of the elimination arena. Laurel can’t stop herself from launching F-bombs at Darrell, who made her a target last week. She accuses the married challenger of soliciting massages from Emily, and now Emily (who is a licensed massage therapist btw) is pissed at Laurel too. TJ reminds everyone that Era 4 lost, which means Horacio and Jenny will be heading into the arena tonight. Who will they face? Either Derrick & Aneesa from Era 1 or Jordan & Nia from Era 3, as decided on by Laurel and Bananas.
8:40 p.m. — CT hobbles back into the house and informs everyone there’s no broken bones or concussion. The beast is back! “The only thing I lost is my dignity,” he assures his team. Later, the teams all head out for a night of partying, which ends up being a night of strategizing. Jordan tells Nia that they should form a deal with Bananas so they won’t target each other this early in the game.
8:45 p.m. — Cory tells Devin that he “smells something funny in the air.” He thinks Jordan threw the challenge because Jordan was at the gender reveal of Cory and Cheyenne’s baby. How did he not know Cheyenne’s name? Devin agrees and they’re certain Jordan has some kind of deal with Bananas. Meanwhile, Brad and Emily seem to be sparking up a romance as they share a private glass of wine in the corner. On the other side of the party, Aneesa is asking Bananas to spare her and Derrick. Bananas says he has their backs, but if Laurel puts her foot down, he’s not “pulling a Tony” and stalemating.
9:00 p.m. — Horacio tells Laurel he’d rather take on Derrick and run the final with Jordan. Laurel agrees — so her and Bananas are clearly on a different page. Later, Era 2 meets as a team and Laurel explains why she feels loyal to Jordan. Nehemiah says no men want to see Jordan in a final. Basically, nobody on Era 2 thinks Era 1 is a threat, but Laurel is sticking to her guns. She says there’s nothing she won’t do for Jordan, and ultimately this decision is Laurel’s and Bananas’. Later, Derrick & Aneesa and Jordan & Nia both make their pleas in the chamber. Derrick has a complete diagram that makes absolute sense why it’s stupid for them to eliminated Derrick & Aneesa at this point, but I don’t know if any of that matters to Laurel. Jordan says, “To have power, you’ve got to be able to win. Who can return a favor to you?” Case closed?
9:05 p.m. — The players enter the arena. Laurel and Bananas reveal that the team taking on Horacio & Jenny are Derrick & Aneesa. Surprise, surprise! In “Pick It Up,” players will reach in a basket and grab a ball. They’ll shoot the ball up into a track, and as it’s rolling down the track they’ll have just seconds to gather as many jacks as they can before the ball makes it to the end. They must catch the ball in order for the jacks they’ve picked up to count. They’ll race over and place the jacks in a board. The first team to gather all 40 of their jacks will win this contest.
9:25 p.m. — This contest begins with the women’s heat. After a grueling battle, Jenny barely edges out Aneesa. Aneesa had her last three jacks, but as she lunged for the ball she juste missed it! That allowed Jenny to finish off her last two jacks and win this contest, eliminating Aneesa from this season by a score of 40-37. That was so close! Next in the men’s heat, it also comes down to the final ball toss in one of the closest eliminations I’ve seen. When the buzzer goes off everyone remains silent because nobody’s sure who won. Eventually, TJ informs them that Derrick pulled off the massive upset and sent Horacio home! Obviously Derrick is thrilled, but Horacio feels completely defeated, as he seems to keep going home earlier each challenge he competes in.
9:30 p.m. — As the winners tonight, Derrick and Jenny will select new targets heading into next week. Derrick will select the women and Jenny will select the men. The targets for the next challenge are: CT & Tina from Era 1, Nehemiah & Emily from Era 2, Devin & Tori from Era 3 and Kyland & Olivia from Era 4. A few feathers were ruffled here, as Devin was expecting Cory to volunteer on Era 3 and Kyland thought Josh was planning to volunteer from Era 4. Shots fired! And that’s the end of tonight’s episode.