Fessy finally has to do an eating challenge on The Challenge: Ride or Dies
It may have taken four seasons, but the producers finally figured out a way to force Fessy to do an eating challenge that he couldn't quit on The Challenge: Ride or Dies. But did it live up the hype? Let's recap this week's episode!
After his elimination win against Nelson, Fessy hopes that the other team is done taking shots at him since they "missed," and wants the target to move on to the seven-time champ Johnny Bananas, but he can't really be that delusional, right? Johnny has real friends and connections on both teams, and no one likes Fessy — even his own ride or die Moriah didn't save Fessy from going into elimination since she could have tied up the vote but cast a burn vote instead.
But back at the house, the real fireworks happen when Jordan and Tori confront each other about Tori's attempts at using their outside relationship as a bargaining chip to save Fessy last week. Everyone's getting tired of their fighting, even Aneesa, because it just keeps going around in circles. On a more serious note, Nany and Kaycee take a moment to celebrate Nany's late mom's birthday while Amber cries while talking to her family back home, so it feels pretty obvious that we're heading towards either a Nany or Amber elimination this week. The pre-challenge focus on their emotional state is a big red flag.
This week's challenge, "Blind Faith," is a relay of four events in which each team chooses which players complete each checkpoint ... but they only get to know a symbol to decide which player does what. It's Jordan vs. Fessy for the "target" checkpoint up first, because Jordan thinks he's pretty "accurate" in just about everything he does, and Fessy steps up just because he wants to go against Jordan. Smart way to pick, Fessy! The target checkpoint ends up being a slingshot, where they have to hit three out of seven targets ... but if they miss any shot, they have to drink a disgusting smoothie. That's right, it's time to see Fessy finally face an eating challenge! Jordan is over the moon about this, while all the women on Fessy's team are going to be pissed if he pulls another Double Agents final quit. I'm just excited to see Fessy finally have to eat something gross and not blame his performance on anyone other than him.
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Jordan and Fessy both miss the first target and while Jordan downs his first smoothie like a shot and pukes immediately. Fessy's a little bit slower in taking it down, but also pukes. They both miss again, and again, and again, and we get a lovely montage of Jordan and Fessy puking like they're expelling demons. This is literally Fessy's worst nightmare and it feels like karmic retribution to see him have to suffer through it. Although it looks like he's cheating a little by just spitting it back out while making an exaggerated puking sound, but whatever. He has to drink a ton of smoothies, and he has no one to blame but himself!
When Jordan finally listens to Devin's advice on the sidelines, he hits his first target, and a few rounds later, Fessy ties it up by hitting his first target too. But then Jordan gets his second and third targets immediately by once again listening to Devin's instructions on where to aim, and the Yellow team wins the first event, stopping their clock. In an incredible turn of events, Fessy has to continue until he hits three targets! This whole challenge is a cumulative timed event, and each checkpoint has to be completed. This is amazing, because now he's forced to continue drinking on each failed slingshot.
Fessy literally cannot hit any more targets, and it gets so painful to watch that even Amber and Jordan are begging Devin to help Fessy with his aim. Devin takes pity on him and helps him get his second shot immediately. Horacio thinks it's a mistake to help Fessy since their team needs the longest lead they can get in this first event to set them up for the overall win, and this could bite them in the butt later on in the challenge. But Devin helps Fessy complete the event, and in the end, the Yellow team gets a 25 minute lead on the Pink team. Devin thinks only a miracle could help the Pink team catch up to them in the other three events, but you never know what's going to happen in a challenge! This was absolutely a mistake — they should have let Fessy suffer an even more embarrassing loss here, because you can be sure he'd never take pity on their team if the roles were reversed.
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The next event's symbol is "puzzle," so Olivia and Aneesa step up for the Pink team and Devin and Nany step up for Yellow. It's an endurance-based tanagram puzzle that involves some running, and Devin and Nany finish the running before Olivia and Aneesa. But Olivia and Aneesa solve the puzzle first, gaining a few seconds back as Devin and Nany get it just a little after them.
The next station is "lightbulb," and Tori and Bananas step up for Pink and Horacio and Amber go for Yellow. It's a memory and endurance combo relay, and Amber and Horacio absolutely smash it for their team, getting it right on their first check. Tori and Bananas finally finish a few minutes later, widening the lead that Yellow has on Pink to almost 40 minutes.
The last event is a running man symbol but it's called "bungee," and it's Chauncey and Kaycee vs. Jordan and Moriah. This is actually a very well-known elimination, where both players are attached to a bungee cord and have to run and crawl to reach a bar and hold onto it for five seconds. It's all strength and endurance, and has nothing to do with actual running, so Jordan and Moriah might have the edge here. Both teams use the same strategy with the women running to the bar first and making the men do all the work in crawling after the bungee is pulled all the way taut, but they can't finish it.
Jordan and Moriah decide to reset and swap positions, where Jordan runs first and Moriah pushes to catch up to him. Kaycee and Chauncey also reset, only with the same strategy as before of Kaycee grabbing the bar first again, but Chauncey grabs Kaycee's foot to pull himself up to the bar and stops their time. Now it's up to Jordan and Moriah to finish before their team's super long lead runs out. This should be a piece of cake ... but Jordan's getting frustrated because Moriah doesn't have the grip strength or leg power to make either strategy work. She keeps losing her hold on the bar, and in the final seconds, Jordan almost makes it to the bar but she lets go again, and in timing out, their team loses the entire challenge.
This is so incredibly disappointing. It's a tough loss for Yellow that should have never happened. If they hadn't helped Fessy hit his second two targets in the first event, I honestly don't think he would have been able to finish that first event for at least an hour (if he even managed to finish it at all). This whole challenge should have been the most epic of the season, but the way it turned out was anticlimactic. Fessy would have lost it for his team, but instead everyone took pity on him and Jordan and Moriah lost it despite giving it their best efforts? Make it make sense. Also, why aren't any of these players more upset about that?! They got zero benefits from helping Fessy because he'll never repay the favor.
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Back at the house, Chauncey breaks down in tears over how his victory means his girlfriend Amber is likely going into elimination. In the interrogations, Nany gives a great speech about why she's here and how Moriah's untested as a rookie, and Amber also points out how Moriah is the only one who hasn't been in an elimination yet. Then Fessy unnecessarily throws his own ride or die Moriah under the bus, giving everyone else on his team the green light to vote for her too. Fessy does not understand what it means to be a good partner, a good friend, or a good Challenger, and this once again shows his true colors.
At the elimination, Fessy and Olivia vote for Nany; Bananas votes for Amber; and Kaycee, Chauncey, Tori, and Aneesa vote for Moriah, sending her into elimination. In The Draw, Nany and Amber only have one option: pull the safe dagger or go in against Moriah. Amber tries to tearfully allow Nany to pull first, but Nany tells her no, and Amber ends up pulling the safe dagger, sending Nany into elimination against Moriah.
The elimination, "I Can See," has players pull a heavy wall up to reveal six scrambled words. Whoever unscrambles all six words first wins. And then TJ brings in his wife to watch the elimination because he says both women competing inspire him — that's a first! It's adorable and I love it.
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The horn blows and Nany gets the first two words before Moriah gets one, and Nany immediately understands the theme for all the words are ride or die, giving her a massive advantage. She's also unscrambling all the words while holding up the wall whereas Moriah is memorizing the scrambled words only to then solve it later, and as TJ whispers to his wife on the sidelines, that's a horrible strategy.
But Moriah soon ties it up and overtakes Nany on the fourth word (devotion), and Nany starts to panic. Once Nany eventually gets the fourth word, Moriah loses a letter in the sand, which slows her down. And though Moriah gets to the last word first, they solve it at the exact same time. Nany calls for a check first, but TJ reminds them both they have to hit a button on the side to officially end their run, and Moriah hits it first. Nany starts to shake, everyone is in shock and feeling horrible for Nany ... but then Moriah realizes she misspelled devotion, so Nany ends up winning.
What a nail biter of an ending — and I'm glad it came down to Moriah making a mistake rather than whoever hit a button first after they both forgot a silly aspect of the way the elimination ends. After a disappointing challenge outcome, I couldn't have handled an elimination outcome based on a technicality. At least we now know that Fessy could only finish an eating challenge on a technicality!
The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
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