‘The Challenge: Total Madness’: Jenna wins epic elimination battle

Too bad it was a women’s elimination on The Challenge: Total Madness this week, because it’s really beyond past the point that Nelson needs to be gone. As mentioned last week, Nelson blew up on Aneesa when he (incorrectly) thought she threw the magnet-collecting, Fast and the Furious themed physical challenge.

This week, Nelson kicked off the house deliberation with what seemed to be a heartfelt apology to Aneesa. It somehow devolved into him voting for Tori to go into Purgatory, saying Jenna would be a layup, and yelling at Kailah that she was the foulest in the house (among some other derogatory terms).

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It got aggressive quickly, and when Bear thinks you’ve gone too far, you’ve gone WAY too far.

Wes put it perfectly: “Nelson is the only man in the world that can start off an apology about being more respectful to women before he calls one of the girls sitting right in front of him a giant slut.”

All of this plays out perfectly for an easy and quick vote for the men of the house next week, so here’s hoping that Nelson doesn’t make it to the Tribunal. We did get this gem of a picture of Nelson and Wes during this episode, however:

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Physical challenge

Thanks to some editing choices last week, we had no group physical challenge this week, just the elimination challenge (more on that in a minute).

Most ridiculous moment

Would you believe me if I told you that someone threw a container of Cup Noodles at another competitor? Of course you would, because it’s The Challenge. During a night out, Aneesa gets annoyed that Nany is flirting with Kaycee (since Kaycee has a girlfriend back home). Aneesa tries to defuse the situation so we don’t end up with another Bear-Kailah relationship-ruining disaster. The result of this confrontation is that Aneesa and Nany get into words both at the bar AND when they return home.

Things devolve quickly. Nany continues to hurl low blows at Aneesa for no real reason, and then the Cup Noodles — which is innocent in this whole fiasco, mind you — is tossed. Luckily for everyone, Nany has terrible aim and misses completely.

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All of it is even more perfect as the episode producers play R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” as they zoom in on the sad pile of noodles on the floor.

When Nany woke up the next morning, she was distraught over what she may have said to her friend. After a teary-eyed apology, Aneesa forgave Nany. All’s well that ends well, unless you’re the noodles.

Episode MVP

An entire plot line of nearly two full episodes revolved around Jenna being “mentally checked out” as a result of her issues with Zach back home. Again this week, Zach asked her to come home to discuss potential infidelity in their relationship two years prior (Jenna maintains no such cheating happened). Instead, Jenna stayed and decided to throw herself into Purgatory to compete for a Red Skull. Her reasoning is pretty good, actually. Rather than just quit and go home, she opts to take on Tori — a strong competitor, mind you — to find out if she’d qualify for the final. If she wins, she knows her shot at competing for a million bucks is pretty good. If she loses, well, then she’s headed home to try and triage her relationship.

This was one of the best elimination challenges in recent memory. Each competitor had to pick up huge bricks, walk them up a ramp, and smash them through a grate so that pieces would fall through to a waiting wheelbarrow. Once the wheelbarrow was full, they would roll them up a little ramp and dump them into what looked like a giant fish tank with a red line marked on them three quarters of the way up. The first to fill their tanks with brick rubble wins, stays in the competition, and qualifies for the final with a Red Skull.

Apparently, this was exactly what Jenna needed with all the drama going on. She cruised to an early lead with a solid strategy and used her height and rage to absolutely obliterate bricks. “Jenna is breaking bricks like they’re Zach’s head,” Aneesa stated in a cutaway. Tori catches up over the course of the competition, making for a photo-finish with Jenna coming out on top. It was this close:

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Jenna stood up for herself, didn’t succumb to Zach’s relationship pressure, and won herself a skull in a tough competition. Hell yeah, Jenna.

Red Skulls

Jenna joins the ranks of Jenny and Dee as women with Red Skulls in the house. On the men’s side, only Rogan has qualified to run the final.

Power Rankings

5. Jordan

4. Kaycee

3. Johnny

2. Jenna

1. Jenny

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