Team U.S. goes into the final with major confidence on this week’s episode of ‘The Challenge,’ but things quickly fall apart as the team struggles to keep up — and one player may even have to call it quits!
Part one of the final challenge is here on the Dec. 4 episode of The Challenge: War of the Worlds! Going into the final, team U.S. consists of: Paulie, Cara Maria, Leroy, Ninja Natalie, Kam, Ashley and Zach, while team U.K. has: Rogan, Dee, CT, Jordan and Tori. The first leg of the final challenge is a 16 mile race through the jungle, made up of four laps, with a checkpoint at the end of every lap. The teams must carry a weighted down gurney — 20 lbs. for every person on the team — throughout the race, which means U.S. has 40 more lbs. on their gurney. However, only four people can hold the gurney at a time, and the members can only be switched out at the checkpoints, so strategy is key!
At the first checkpoint, players have to catapult coconuts into a basket, and once they land three, they can move on. Team U.K. finishes first and takes a small lead, but U.S. briefly pulls ahead on the next lap. U.K. makes it to the next checkpoint first. Here, every player has to answer a math question, and the team cannot move on until everyone has completed the test. Although Cara struggles and almost breaks down in tears, team U.S. finishes this checkpoint first, as Rogan and Dee can’t complete their equations.
Things get aggressive during the next leg when U.K. catches up to U.S. and they get a bit physical as they try to pass one another. Then, tensions rise on the U.S. team as Paulie starts losing steam and struggles through the run. U.K. arrives to the next checkpoint first, where every player has three attempts to score a ball into a basket — if they make one, they can move on, but if they don’t, they have to eat an entire plate of….BUGS.
On team U.K., Dee, Rogan and Jordan have to eat, and they finish before the U.S. team even makes it to the checkpoint. For the U.S. team, everyone has to eat except Ninja, and Cara once again gets emotional as she struggles through it. At this point, team U.K. has a significant lead, but they’re stopped on the path by host TJ Lavin. He informs them that CT “clearly manhandled” the U.S. team’s gurney while trying to get by them on the last leg. This is against the rules, so they’re forced to stop where they are for TEN minutes.
U.S. finally finishes the eating challenge, but frustration on their team is at an all-time high. Paulie is continuing to gas out, despite his confidence all season long that he was one of the strongest players in the game. Meanwhile, Zach, who’s the only member of team U.S. that’s NOT in an alliance with everyone else, blows up at his teammates for eliminating stronger players on their team all season long.
With all the trouble on team U.S., the U.K. team finishes their ten minute penalty before their opponents can even catch up. Paulie’s body continues to shut down and cramp up. Despite Cara’s hesitations, she joins her team in continuing the race, as Paulie struggles to keep up. The episode ends with him nearly passed out on the floor of the jungle, and we’ll have to wait until next week to see how it plays out for him.
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
