Jay proves he’s a power player in ‘The Challenge: Total Madness’

The Challenge series is at its best when the majority of the contestants are terrible strategists, and this season they’ve assembled an Avengers-level cast of awful.

Last week, we discussed how Dee is the season’s reigning queen of bad decisions, but the competition is gaining on her FAST. Don’t worry, Dee started the episode with some master dumbassery as she cringingly flirted with rookie Jay in hopes of making Rogan, her ex, jealous. But her only success was making everyone involved pretty uncomfortable.

Now for the others.

Johnny Bananas and Ashley have had a longstanding rivalry (to be fair, Bananas has rivalries with a lot of people), mainly due to Bananas knowing how easily he can press her buttons to get a reaction. In this game, you have to get your ducks in a row before making power moves. It’s always safer to say a name you’ve already said than to preemptively stir the pot.

In the deliberation, everyone thinks they can pull one over on Bananas and send him into elimination. The alliance Wes and Bananas made coming into the season — which, I’ll admit, seemed tenuous at best — hit a pivotal moment as the former had to place his vote. Shockingly, he stuck by Bananas and cast his vote for Jay.

The remaining voters shied away from the “power move,” and either burned votes or voted for Jay.

Keep an eye on Nelson, however, who pulled a fair amount of votes in deliberation.

The group challenge was performed individually with each competitor assigned a board featuring a coded alphanumeric sequence. They had to memorize as many of the symbols as possible and run to a keyboard to decipher the code. The payoff? The first man and woman to complete their codes would get to use a hilarious Wile E. Coyote TNT plunger to blow up a pair of trucks.

There was nothing stopping competitors from cheating off of their neighbors if they were missing a symbol, which ultimately helped Big Brother’s Bayleigh get to the winner’s circle alongside CT. The winners got to pick the third member of the Tribunal and went with Bayleigh’s fiancé, Swaggy C.

Winner: CT and Bayleigh

The cast spent a night on the town and hit up a bar while wearing costumes (for reasons unknown). Dee pounced on Jay (in an aforementioned attempt to make Rogan jealous), and made out with the unwitting rookie in front of their cheering cast mates.

Rogan admitted this made him feel shitty and the Brit cornered CT (a member of the Tribunal) about wanting to be put in to take out Jay in Purgatory.

That’s all fine and good.

The hilarious part is how Rogan was dressed when he talked to CT:

You don’t take down a legend like CT and not become the MVP. Look, CT made the right choice to go against Jay, but the rookie got the best of him in a tough battle. They each had 20 minutes to use rocks, cinder blocks, ropes, and chains to block off their opponent’s standing jail cell. After the time expires, they switch, and have to be first to get into their jail cell and ring a bell.

CT went with the smart strategy of creating a huge knot with ropes and chains and blocking it with cinder blocks and large pieces of rock. Jay decided to load up CT’s cell with as many obstacles as possible, hoping to wear the veteran out.

Well, it worked. In a shocking upset, Jay managed to loosen a difficult knot and win the elimination to secure his SECOND red skull. He’s still the only male player eligible for the finals at this point.

If you need me, I’ll be weeping over CT.

5. Bayleigh

4. Wes

3. Johnny

2. Jenny

1. Jay