'The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2': 4 things we learned from the first part of the final
A look at the first part of a brutal final.
When we last left MTV’s reality competition show The Challenge, rookie Turbo ended up winning $1 million after a brutal final.
This season? It’s the sequel: War of the Worlds 2, which pits a British team against a squad from the United States, although there are some twists that involve some “free agents” joining both sides.
As always, we task our resident Challenge expert Charles Curtis to power rank each of the competitors after each week. Here’s his take after the 14th episode.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
This week: We saw part one of the final, which already looks super brutal. The UK has taken a lead and one member of Team USA may need to bow out.
Instead of power rankings, let’s break down what we learned in Part 1 of the final:
1. Paulie might be out
Man, now we know why editors put in that clip of Paulie talking about how he was in peak shape for this final. That apparently wasn’t the case as it appeared his body was shutting down by the time the episode ended. He spent a lot of time carrying the gurney filled with heavy bags around the 16-mile loop, and the assumption is if he’s left behind, he gets no share of the Americans’ winnings if they do end up with a victory.
But losing him would be a HUGE blow to the USA chances.
2. C’MON CT!
The rules of this first part of the final were clear. Don’t mess with the other team’s gurney! And CT did that! Team UK was hit with a 10-minute penalty, which would be super costly had the Americans not been struggling. It’s a shocking move from a seasoned vet, although if he ends up winning anyway, I need to replay him screaming “CHOO CHOO!” while passing the United States squad like 20 times.
3. It’s in the running for most brutal final ever
Remember, War of the Worlds had a desert final that was 50 miles long and filled with puzzles and games and an elimination for some players in the middle of it. Thus far, we only know that there’s the 16-mile loop while carrying heavy bags on the gurneys … and that’s just the first part.
4. Zach was right
Zach dropped an “I TOLD YOU SO” in the middle of the United States team struggling, pointing out that there’s a good reason why he didn’t want to vote off strong players earlier this season.
And that’s really it. The way the game was set up, you could either you play a game that’s based on your own alliance that involved voting your own teammates off, or you play a team-based game in which you get your opponents’ best players eliminated. Because of the way some of the Americans played, they’re in this position.
We’ll see if they can dig themselves out of it next week.