Inside MTV Reality: The Challenge WRAP - Total Madness Episode 9

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

And we welcome you back... it's been quite the past nine days, but if you're in that part of the audience who wants to have some relief from the world that's going up in smoke right now as we begin this summer 2020, we're here for you as we're about to recap last week's episode of MTV's The Challenge: Total Madness.

Last week marked the halfway point of the season as another set of multiple players were sent packing just after a double elimination for the men. The players tackled a big challenge in the waters beneath the ground, which caused one-half of our Big Brother romance to get scared and also saw him get into it with his fellow summer share alum. With the women being up for the cut, one player saw her chance to make a power play backfire on her as the week's two elimination matchups saw one alliance crumble and saw the oldest player and one of this year's rookies take advantage in a week that also saw an additional woman join them on the plane ride home.

We'll see you after the break for the DCBLOG Challenge WRAP of Week 9 of Total Madness, before everyone's favorite challenge game takes over tonight.

 THINGS TO KNOW 

EPISODE 8 ▪ "Backstabber"

● WATER RATS & AN EXIT: We begin outdoors - and before the week's challenge begins TJ Lavin reveals that after what happened the previous week with her toe bleeding, Big T is medically unfit to continue and has to exit. Despite her game ending here, she and everyone handle the news with care and best wishes, knowing that she's a bundle of energy that's been that light in the tunnel of the bunker during this season.
   For the mission itself, the players dive down a pipe and into a sewer drain as if they're kids at a water park... only here, the water is cold for the season's second H2O-based excursion. And as it it was for the first one, there is some difficulty for those who can't swim... in this case, it's Swaggy who gets out of the water after he dives in. The object in this team challenge is to secure puzzle pieces inside that well and to complete it... in the end, Bayleigh, Cory, Dee, Nany & Wes secure power.

Goodbye Big T 😩 Your scheming will be missed! #TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/oA83a6TQsx

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 28, 2020

● A BIG BROTHER FIGHT: As we head into the second half of the game, something to keep your eye on the rest of the way will be of who might have the numbers in any alliances that will form as the people in the game dwindles down. We saw from early on of how Wes, Bayleigh and Swaggy have had an alliance since she was there in Kansas City, and when you call the same place home you're supposed to stick together. This also creates a problem for when you have those from the same show being in your corner but who's also siding with a vendetta - in this case, it's Josh - and they have it out while they're in the club






● DEE'S POWER MOVE: When you're part of the team that has nothing to worry about much, you're supposed to take advantage of going for the home run ball. Dee places herself in a precarious position in wanting to give Jenny a red skull that she can get right there on the silver platter, but she decides otherwise to try and blindside her. It might turn out to be a costly mistake considering how strong she is and may underestimate her power as we get deep into the summer.




● TRINITY OF ONE: As for who faces off in the purgatory, everyone in nominations is given the night off when Aneesa & Kaycee decide to volunteer themselves. That leaves it up to Dee and her tribunal to do the dirty work of talking to not only Jenny, but also Jenna, Kailah and the new mom Melissa in interrogation. In the end, it's Jailah who get voted in as Kaycee takes on Kailah by the Floridian's wish, followed by Jenna facing Aneesa.
   In round 1 of the twin bill, going into it Kailah feels confident of gaining the skull - but that's only talk. For someone who has that football experience and like what it was two years ago in her flying under the radar, Kaycee wins the battle with ease as it seems Kailah was just checking out after the demoralizing experience of cheating with Bear. And in the back-half of this, it appears that Jenna would continue her Barbie Beast resurrection in her taking out the balls easily... but as it was with Kailah, Jenna appears also spent after what's gone on with Zach back home and it's Aneesa who becomes the first to win eliminations in three decades: 2000's, 2010's and 2020's.

💥  💥  💥

A couple program notes before we go... with The Challenge about to enter the business half of its season tonight - in addition to the Pulse coming up here this weekend, our traditional episode recaps of Total Madness will be reverting to a biweekly format covering two episodes at a time starting with Episode 10 tonight. Thereby, the next time we'll have a Challenge WRAP, these reviews of the big moments and other things will be after Episode 11 next week.
   The reason for this change is that, as we announced on the 'Pulse last weekend, we'll be covering A Double Shot at Love this summer in lieu of what would've been new seasons of either Are You The One or Ex On The Beach... and we'll be having a weekly WRAP of Season 2 when it debuts in a few weeks, and a season 1 review/season 2 preview will be up after our Challenge Pulse this weekend. A similar situation of doing recaps of Season 3-B of Siesta Key will also make us busy here, and we'll be relieving the stress on our schedule while staying true to having enough time for ExtraTime.

Speaking of that, we had planned to bring you a look at one of Swayleigh's biggest fans in Los Angeles Lakers president Jennie Buss. But since DCBLOG also operates in a journalistic setting, often times current events and things that come out of the blue may dictate what we plan to cover... so, you'll see that Someone You Should Know profile later in this second half of Total Madness.
   Instead, we'll kick off this week's posts on Friday with a look at how Team MTV saw & partook in the week's worth of Black Lives Matter protests across this country after the events of what went down in Minnesota over a week ago. We hope you'll have the time to enjoy this week's episode of The Challenge, and we'll talk to you then... and please stay safe.

- I AM DC
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