Previously on “The Challenge: Total Madness”: Another Tribunal member threw herself into Purgatory, only to come up short as Nany fell to Melissa to give the latter her a red skull.
Bayleigh finds herself as the only girl remaining without a red skull while Josh is figuratively climbing walls trying to figure out how he’ll get into Purgatory next. Ironically enough, Aneesa – who has a red skull already – is being looked at as dead weight by several people. A little after midnight the bunker’s sirens go off for reasons unknown. Host TJ Lavin greets the remaining competitors outside with the intent of grabbing a bunch of stuff and dumping it into the barrels sporting fellow competitors names with the two players able to hold their drum up after a certain amount of time becoming two-thirds of the Tribunal. TJ also announces that one man and one woman will go home tonight because it’s a double elimination day. The race begins and Josh, Nelson, Fessy & Cory decide to focus on Kyle, Bananas & Rogan’s barrels. When TJ gives the one minute warning, the players have to make it back to the barrel site. Unfortunately for Kyle, Nelson & Aneesa, they don’t return in time; thus are eliminated. It’s time for the barrel lifting and arms start dropping.
Fessy and Cory convince Josh to drop his barrel with the promise of him being in the Tribunal. But with one guy & one girl being a part of the Tribunal plus Cory & Fessy working alongside each other, it seems like Josh actually just cost himself a spot in the Tribunal. Cory drops his barrel for a Fessy victory while Jenny ends up as the female winner. Josh figures out what just happened and confronts Fessy. Jenny wants to pick Kyle or Josh considering they don’t have red skulls and could nominate themselves, but Fessy is adamant about staying loyal to Cory. Josh gets the spot via Jenny’s decision and Cory can’t believe it as he’s stood up for Jenny twice thus far. When it’s time for the house nominations, Kyle definitely wants in and his fellow competitors aren’t against the idea. Bayleigh too wants a chance to go in to get her red skull and she gets the opportunity to put her name on the board. Considering someone with a red skull will have to take on Bayleigh, Nelson tells Aneesa ahead of time that she’s the name floating around the most as Bayleigh’s opponent.
The Tribunal decides that Kyle’s potential opponents are Rogan and Nelson while Aneesa and Melissa’s names arrive on the board for Bayleigh’s opposition. While the guys take it pretty lightly, Melissa is definitely frustrated with the possibility of going home after just attaining her red skull. The Tribunal tries to grill Aneesa, only for her to bring up some great points about how her strengths may be imperative in winning a finale. Arriving in Purgatory where two cars sit in the middle of respective rings, Fessy votes for Melissa to take on Bayleigh while Jenny opts for Aneesa. Josh breaks the vote and sends in Aneesa. On the guys side of things, Josh volunteers himself to take on Kyle in “Knots of War”: a game where they have to use a rope to tie around said cars with the goal of making enough knots that the opponent can’t untie them when it’s time to switch sides. The ladies are up first and both do an interesting series of twists before they have to move to their opponent’s car.
Bayleigh makes a little more progress than Aneesa initially, but Aneesa apparently discovers the key knot and stars pulling. Unfortunately Bayleigh is too far ahead to catch up to.
Kyle and Josh take their spots and Kyle’s small stature allows for him to move throughout the care a lot easier than Josh. When the time for tying elapses, Josh’s ropes looks a lot less like knots and more like just a pile of ropes in the car. Kyle makes quick work of Josh’s twists & turns to earn his red skull. Everyone expects TJ to announce the finale is happening very soon, but he doesn’t.
Episode High(s): Scrambling Until the End. Thanks to the way this season’s structured has allowed for a major change in how entering an Elimination Round is a necessity for success. Seeing the expected desperation from those who are on the cusp of not being able to be a part of the finale saw an entire relationship implode. It’ll be interesting to see how crazy it gets come next week with the promise of “Hall Brawl” returning and maybe another double elimination considering there are still a lot of people left.
Episode Low(s): The Repetition. This episode was full of repetitive moments in regards to the physical competition. We’ve seen several moments this season on objects being filled up to hinder their opponents. And the Elimination Round was just a redone version of the same one seen early in the season when CT lost. There definitely is a sense of lacking creativity when it comes to these Challenges coming toward the season’s end (and that includes next week’s “Hall Brawl” return).
Weekly Challenge Winner(s): Jenny & Fessy
Elimination Round Winner(s): Bayleigh & Kyle
Eliminations: Asaf (Episode 1); Jenn (Episode 2); CT (Episode 3); Ashley (Episode 4); Jay (Episode 6); Tori (Episode 7); Jordan (Episode 8); Bear (Episode 8); Kailah (Episode 9); Jenna (Episode 9); Wes (Episode 10); Mattie (Episode 11); Swaggy (Episode 12); Nany (Episode 13); Aneesa (Episode 14); Josh (Episode 14)
Most Embarrassing Athletic Display: Josh. A double whammy for Josh this week. First there was him giving up when it came to holding up the barrel. Though it did pan out in the end for him by getting into the Tribunal, his knot tying skills were proven inferior to Kyle’s while his mental fortitude was definitely put into question as he visibly got flustered with his circumstance. After waiting for so long, Josh put himself in an all in situation and came up short in the end.
Competitor of the Week: Bayleigh. Even though she came up short during the Weekly Challenge, Bayleigh put it all on the line with the hope of conquering either a tough competitor like Melissa or a veteran still yearning for that championship. Bayleigh really proved herself from an endurance perspective and proved that she really has the tools to survive when the pressure is on.
Episode Summary in Five Words or Less: Easy come, hardest go.
