Takin' on 'The Challenge': The Beginning of the End

Season 39 of The Alabama Take's favorite thing -- next to college football -- continues with Battle For a New Champion! This season is all about finding a first-time Challenge champ. This week TD is riding solo, so he'll recap the episode while highlighting what he thinks are the most important bits. Spoiler warning ahead!

We get started right away this week, as T.J. interrupts the cast's night at the club to let them know they are all finalists. At dinner, every finalist gets a letter from their family, which leads to A LOT of tears. Look, I love my wife and child, but the crying is always too much for me. When you sign up for this, you know you're going to spend 6-8 weeks away from home. Yeah, two months is long stretch to be away from your loved ones, but again, you signed up for this. If it breaks you that much, don't do it. Who knows, maybe I'm just a cold-hearted bastard.

We move onto the final, where T.J. explains how it will mirror the season. As far as prize money goes, third place gets $36k, second receives $70k, and the sole winner gets $250k. To begin, there will be a "control" stage, where the finalists work together. Then there will be a "chaos" stage, where they will work in rotating pairs. Lastly, the "conquest" stage will see them compete as individuals. I'm always a big fan of the final calling back to the season as a whole. Like a course in school, the final should be comprehensive, not a standalone thing unrelated to your experience throughout the season. ss

T.J. explains the "control" portion: the finalists are chained together for a run through an abandoned fortress, where they must collect ropes and make their way back to use the ropes to complete a puzzle -- but not before drinking a lovely "energy" drink comprised of tuna, beets, and mayo. The kicker here is if the finalists don't complete the challenge in 60 minutes, T.J. will take away $16k from the prize pot. I love this! Stakes are important, it would feel empty if they just had to work together for a stage without any consequence.

They fail the "control" phase in the alloted time, losing the 16 grand (which actually only changes the second and third place payouts). This was largely due to Corey screwing up by dropping a portion of his rope, having to go back and retrieve it, leaving the groiup only two minutes to complete the puzzle. That's a shame.

Before they move on, T.J. informs them there'll be an elimination. I anticipated there'd be one, as seven seemed like a large number of finalists. On the spot, the finalists must vote one person into elimination. Corey gets voted in, with only Emanuel and Colleen voting against (they both picked Nurys). He gets to pick his opponent, and chooses Jay. Admirably, Corey chose not to select Nurys, as she is the only finalist to compete in eliminations this season. Corey promptly send Jay home, eliminating our least favorite contestant.

In the "chaos" phase, there will be five checkpoints, at which point the pairs will rotate so that every finalists works with each other at some point. The important point here is that each individual will be timed, and the finalist with the best time will be given some power at the end of the phase. The story after the first checkpoint is twofold: Emanuel and Colleen smoked the other two pairs, and Berna is already crying and on the verge of giving up.

At the second checkpoint, Berna bounces back to claim first place with her partner Emanuel. Corey and Colleen take second, while Nurys and Moriah time out. Not good for their individual overall times, particularly with Emanuel taking first place in the first two checkpoints. Nurys times out again on the third checkpoint, this time with Colleen as her partner. Emanuel finishes first for the third straight time, bringing Moriah along with him.

At the fourth checkpoint, Emanuel's streak ends when Corey and Moriah finish first. When Berna fails to finish the delectable food T.J. had prepared for them, she and Colleen time out. The final checkpoint begins with another tuna, beet, and mayo energy drink. Berna and Nurys finish the final checkpoint first, with Emanuel and Corey finishing second, and Moriah and Colleen timing out.

Emanuel wins the "chaos" stage with the best overall time, and his reward is selecting one other finalist for elimination. His selection... will be revealed next week. The Challenge has the art of the cliffhanger mastered. His selection for elimination will be crucial. Will T.J. once again allow the selected finalist to choose their opponent, or will he bring back a champion to compete?

Overall, this was a pretty solid start to the final. There were callbacks, twists, and we said goodbye to Jay, so I give the episode an A+! It doesn't seem like Emanuel will get any kind of head start for the final phase, so the playing field should be level for the five remaining finalists.