These old dogs really worried me for a minute. I was really worried that this was going to be a sexless season The challenge. I have little faith!

When the Challengers return to their run-down accommodation after losing eight brothers at an invitational tournament, they are horny and ready to get wild. While Nia and Josh make out in the pool, Emily and Brad get the showers hot. Emily thinks Brad is “really hot” because she has a thing for “beards and biceps.” Personally, I stay away from guys who look like they were hired as replacements for Duck Dynastybut I’m thrilled that Emily can still play the hits after a decade Challenge Hiatus.

The players march into their next daily challenge, where the Eras finally compete as teams. TJ informs the teams that they must each select a male and female “representative” before they begin, with no further context. I sincerely hope they aren’t representing anyone in a legal or governmental capacity—you’d have to know how many seconds there are in five minutes to qualify for that (hint: the answer isn’t 50).

The representatives are Jodi and Darrell (Epoch I), Derek and Aviv (Epoch II), Tony and Averey (Epoch III), and Kaycee and Kyland (Epoch IV). It doesn’t seem like the representatives have any special control over the challenge, such as assigning roles or choosing a strategy, so they seem to be representatives in name only, like your mom making you her “sous chef” to convince you to peel potatoes for dinner.

The daily is titled Gladieater, and after rowing a giant dragon boat around an island, players must eat a range of Vietnamese delicacies, from a snake and rat medley to boiled cow eyes. There’s even “stinky tofu” for the vegans, with a cursive name tag indicating that it’s both gluten and lactose free, as if it were a trendy grain bowl from Erewhon. Once the food has been choked down, players must complete 40 shields of The challenge Logos from each season in the correct order to secure their victory.

Boating stuff is never that entertaining to watch; I have to force myself not to browse the TikTok Shop for novelty glassware instead. The editors could have helped things along by layering a galvanic, Winklevoss-inspired rowing music under the footage of Era I paddling in circles like it’s her first rodeo, but they didn’t.

Era III is first on land, and thanks to Tony The Tank, they maintain their lead during the eating portion. I understand that eating challenges are a central touchstone of the franchise, but I could really, really do without them. No one likes watching a montage of gagging and vomiting.

Tori leads Era III to victory after spending the night before memorizing the order of the seasons by staring at the house’s logo wall. I’m not sure why everyone didn’t start knowing this in Season 40 like they know the Nicki-verse from “Bed Rock,” as this mystery was bound to come up. Probably because unlike Survivors Participants who literally made 3D prints of famous puzzles in the run-up to the show, The challenge The players take pride in being the people they would have beaten in high school, rather than the inexperienced losers who studied for a surprise test.

As soon as the Elders of Era I are finally back on land, CT offers the flimsy “CT Pro Tip” that The challenge“You’d have to be crazy” before you gobble up a duck embryo. Unfortunately, crazy isn’t enough these days. Eras II and IV come in second and third, leaving Generation X to revel in “back in my day.”

We learn that the representatives of Era I, Jodi and Darrell, are automatically eliminated. The representatives of the middle teams must plead their case to the winners of Era III, Tony and Averey, to avoid having to go to the arena.

The Nonstop Strategy is quickly brought upon the house, but Tony and Averey have opposing ideas. For Averey, using the losers of Era II, Derek and Aviv, is a no-go due to her long-standing friendship with Derek. The old Tony may have agreed with this logic, but the new Tony is a disruptive innovator who makes Elon Musk tremble with fear. To make a bold and beautiful strategic move, Tony turns to none other than Josh, the village idiot, and the Dumb and Dumber The duo gets to work and develops a master plan to stop the sheeple.

Their plan is for Tony to protect Era IV, which is likely to become stronger in future challenges (today they came third, so it’s unclear why they’re so sure of this), and for Era IV to protect Era III later. Nothing is more revolutionary than the strategies of your 11-year-old cousin who lets you play The Settlers of Catan every Thanksgiving.

After an uneventful discussion in the chamber, Tony tries to intimidate Averey into giving up, telling her that he is willing to go to the elimination round himself if she doesn’t give in. Averey quickly replies that she will do the same, seeing through Tony’s bluff.

The house goes wild during Greek God Night, where the entire cast, except for Cara Maria in her Rocky Horror outfit (#notlikeothergirls), wearing togas, body glitter, and flower crowns. Bananas sports a blonde bob but still takes herself as seriously as ever, explaining to Tony that he’s putting himself on the sword for people he met a week ago and risking his own game for a move that really isn’t as game-changing as he thinks. Tony isn’t willing to take this sage advice into consideration because he’s still pissed that Bananas cheered for Leroy, his canonical best friend, during the first elimination, instead of him.

The women claim that Tony’s stubbornness stems in part from his male ego, an undeserved entitlement that, as a man, he is the one in power who should make all the decisions. The men of the show famously don’t have the best track record when it comes to dealing with women, and while they’ve improved in recent years – likely more out of fear of being canceled on social media than any actual moral reckoning – the men are still used to having the final say.

It is not a Challenge Party without a meltdown or a make-out session; luckily we get both. While Olivia and Theo and Devin and Michele make out on the loungers, Nia takes her politics to the next level and swaps Josh for Kyland. Sad boy Josh can hear them having sex from the next room, but to make matters worse, he can’t Also hear all his friends downstairs making fun of him for getting cheated.

Josh cries in an episode about as often as an eighth-grader in the cast as the boutique manager in a production of Legally Blonde: The Musical Jr. is choking on her high pitch. He tells Tori that although he loves her, he no longer considers her a friend. Josh, relax. You are on The challengethere’s nothing to do but flirt, work out, and get on each other’s nerves. Michele looks on, frozen in mid-bite of instant ramen, probably the worst food you can eat during someone else’s personal crisis.

At the elimination, when TJ asks who will accompany Jodi and Darrell in the arena, Averey turns to Tony and icily tells him to “go ahead”. She doesn’t back down, so Tony has to explain that the duo couldn’t agree, a major faux pas in The challenge Universe. TJ snaps, “Don’t mess with me,” and for the first time in 19 years I have to think: Is TJ hot?

Averey and Tony sacrifice their immunity and head to the sand to play elimination themselves. Averey wonders if Tony really wants to be there; if he’s so willing to risk his game, maybe he’s just checked out and doesn’t care. The elimination game is called One Step At A Time and is played individually, not in pairs. Players must build a bridge out of heavy tiles of different colors based on a set of rules (e.g. green tiles can only touch yellow tiles). You can only carry/place one tile at a time, and if you make a mistake, you can only remove one tile at a time. So this is one of those games where you have to have the attention to detail of a disturbed but accomplished serial killer.

Much like watching people row a boat isn’t particularly exciting, watching people carry heavy objects isn’t either. And it’s not even really a game of wits; it’s more of a game of “who has the smartest friends?” because it seems like players rely at least 95 percent of the time on their teammates to dictate their every move.

First the men play, and since Tony has pissed off everyone, including his own era, he’s pretty much on his own, with a little coaching from Jordan, who makes him realize about halfway through the build that his entire bridge is wrong. There’s nothing the editors could do to make this match look even remotely close. Darrell wrenches his back and still wins, while Tony fiddles with his tail trying to remember what the color red looks like. “It wasn’t Tony time tonight,” Tony says seriously to the camera.

In the women’s corner, Jodi worries that this kind of elimination is her worst nightmare. I get that; I’d probably need the equivalent of a seven-year PhD program to solve this puzzle. Averey complains that the tiles are too hard to maneuver because they’re “like half (of her) body” since she’s such a “little guy.” Averey was a badass in this episode, but is there anything more annoying than a hot girl modestly bragging about how small she is? When will they finally learn that? no one find this charming or understandable?

Averey and Jodi get by with a little help from their friends, but both make mistakes in the same place while building the bridge and have to start over. Devin and his puzzle brain are crucial to Averey, and she takes the win thanks largely to her ability to listen well.

With winning comes power, but not the kind you want. Averey and Darrell must each choose next week’s representatives/targets from each era, meaning those players have a 50 percent chance of being eliminated. Being forced to name four is a strategic nightmare because now there are four people mad at you, not counting the renegade haters you’ve accumulated over the past few seasons. Darrell chooses Aneesa, Laurel, Nia, and Jenny. Averey chooses Derrick, Bananas, and Horacio, with Jordan volunteering for Era III because you can’t spell Jordan without bragging.