The Challenge: Battle of the Exes 2 - Decision Day

BY DC CUEVA                           
> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

So, here we are. Back on September 29th of last year, we kicked off this ride in the autumn air - and in some places - the lingering summer heat - with a reunion of one of MTV's most-beloved casts. Now, through the sequel of Are You The One?, a memorable landmark 30th season of the Real World, and the poignancy of losing two of its own in the leadup to it, we've arrived in the first full week of spring time and the final of MTV's The Challenge: Battle of the Exes 2.
   And after beginning our Double Shot Tuesdays back in January, nine pairs have flown home from Panama and a tenth last week - along with an exchange within one of those teams, we are ready for the final challenge, which culminates tonight. As always, the final in every Challenge historically produces great drama with endurance, stamina, patience and stirring all kinds of emotions, all determining who will come out on top. And as has been the case for past Challenge seasons of the recent past, the final is taking place in a country different than that of where the season is based.

The six remaining competitors that will be entering this final challenge in Norway - all of them assured of $15,000 each, provided they complete the entire course - have had varying roads to the final. But among all of them, one thing binds them all together: they have not tasted the glory of winning a Challenge season, and two of these individuals will fly out of Scandinavia $250,000 richer, with duel $125,000 checks going into their banks.
   One is in her 8th Challenge and has overcome both the enigma of past failures on previous seasons and her controversial and tide-changing vote that changed everything. Another has had the season of his life with four Dome elimination wins and is poised to finally live up to the potential that he had in his rookie season three years ago. A third is into his 2nd Challenge final in three seasons and has proven that even if you have a disability, you are still able to do anything. A fourth received a last minute shot a redemption when an original competitor got sent home prematurely and now can finally have a shot at the cash. And a third team are rookies just fortunate to be in Norway by just the sheer luck of not going into elimination.
   Now as you probably read in previous posts, we at DCBLOG like to look at ourselves as more of a complementary site for Challenge fans, supplementing the power rankings, recaps and cast interviews by filling in the gap with twitter interaction and coverage of this show from a unique point of view. Thus, we save predictions of who wins this season for right before the season finale and of course the final Challenge with all the marbles at stake. If you're one of those handful of people who had a combination of Sarah/Jordan, Theresa/Wes, Leroy/Nia or Jay/Jenna in this final before this season, be one of the luckiest people alive: you shocked everyone and deserve a house viewing for the final. But, as they say, the beauty of watching any competition in any athletic event anywhere is that anything can happen and you can always expect the unexpected. We had it all this season.
   Coming up here, a look at the final three teams, and of course my predictions.


THE FINAL THREE
It's no secret that the teams who made to the final doesn't have the firepower of previous Challenge finals in that there is, for the first time in a fully-contested veteran/rookie season since Cutthroat, no one named Johnny Bananas or Wes in the final. But we always like it when there's a fresh champion to celebrate with, and especially with when they had to overcome both those guys and good competition to get here. It might be slightly weaker than the final six we had last year, but when you have four previous finalists represented in it, it's still a very good field, and everyone's won at least one mission this season.

- Sarah & Jordan: So much of the attention, and considerable airtime, in the past two weeks has been focused on the events relating to Sarah voting Bananas and Nany into the last Dome right on the spot after the last mission in Panama, breaking up a rapport between the 5-time defending champion and the bridesmaid of recent Challenges. But though we may or may not have a last elimination winner carry their momentum into the jackpot like we've seen in recent Challenges, momentum is still a huge part of this game and Sarah & Jordan have peaked at the right time. It was what happened a few weeks ago at the truck/ball mission, as well as an apology letter one of them wrote to the other before that, that they finally started to come together. Them finishing last due to an equipment malfunction on the drag strip sent them into the Dome, and inspired by all that they beat Zach & Jonna to win that elimination. Then, they became power couple in the next challenge that followed the last Exiled elimination, and then they won the last mission before the final to earn their finals spot. Obviously, what happened with that vote changed the whole game, but this season has become Sarah and Jordan's one for the taking.
   Sarah has been through this game for a long time going back to when she debuted on Ruins back in 2009 straight off of her Real World Brooklyn season. As a rookie, she was able to make it into the final in her first season, eventually falling to a much-stronger Champions team. Then, she went through season after season worth of falling short in every succeeding season: from partners who didn't perform up to her expectations (Devyn, Abe, Katelynn, Shauvon, Casey), to of course getting sent home two times when her partner either got sent home for bad behavior (Vinny) or just quitting altogether (Trishelle). So, all of that, plus having a great partner in Jordan this season, was inspiration for her to make the move that sacrificed a friendship, endured the large amounts of hate that she got from both the house and from social world, and made her & Jordan favorites to win.
   And for Jordan, he like Sarah made it into a final in his very first season, one that might be the best ever rookie showing on a Challenge back on Rivals II. He's the more cocky one of the duo, and given his reputation of having an abrasive attitude (as evidenced by him getting into arguments and him going into the Draw intentionally against Bananas last season that he lost), there was concern that he might drag Sarah down this season. But instead, he has performed very well to allow his athletics, not his actions, take the lead this season, and letting the veteran maneuver the political side of things. He, for the most part with the exception of one or two things, have stayed sane throughout this season, and that's been a good thing. Obviously, he wanted the rookies to earn the stripes at the last Dome, but he wasn't entirely mad when that happened. It was him sacrificing his stance to let her vote in the vets that changed this season, and it may be the deciding move that determines this tonight.

- Leroy & Theresa: A lot of people thought that this would be a pair on this season when this began, given the fact that their hookup on Rivals II was captured on camera, rather than a rumored one that occurred in the privacy of the bathroom on Free Agents. What happened to Nia was both unfortunate and regrettable, but instead of Leroy being sent home before the final elimination, he was given a fair shot at competing when Theresa arrived to replace Nia. And when Leroy won his 4th elimination over Bananas, Mr. Lean Body had definitely earned his shot at going to the final. And for Theresa, she & Wes were power couple three times this season, and has been competing very well this season that she would've earned a spot in the final either way. It's now a matter of them of trying to gel for this one & only time that they're together to make it all the way and cash for the first time here.
   Leroy has been touted as a top future prospect on The Challenge since he emerged on Rivals four years ago. It was a great run that he and Mike (and earlier on, Adam) had there in Costa Rica, but later he hasn't performed very well because of weak partners (Naomi, . But in his 5th Challenge, he's had a breakout season, and is capping it off with his 1st and best shot at winning. When you win four Dome eliminations like he did, him also being the most athletically capable among him & Nia, and him being socially friendly with everyone in the house because of his calm demeanor, it's very clear that I will likely name him my Most Improved Player in my postseason awards. Of course with him now in the final, he will have to get over his weakness of swimming to get into the cash, and he has a much better partner that can help him along the way.
   For Theresa, it's her getting ultimate redemption than Exiled: her being a last minute replacement right before the last elimination, winning that last Dome to send Nany home, and going to her first final. She, like Leroy, has suffered at the hands of weak partners & politics since debuting on FM II, but Free Agents last season was her breakout Challenge where she won her first elimination in beating Camila, and only lost the last Draw to a much stronger competitor in Laurel. I agreed with Reality Radio last week that because her & Wes were at a relative disadvantage because of his Hall Brawl injury, and she deserved a 2nd & fairer chance when they needed a replacement for Nia. This season, she & Wes were power couple three times and now that she's with an equally stronger partner in Leroy, now she has a chance at winning, if not be the team that pushes Sarah & Jordan.

- Jay & Jenna: Alright, so this is likely the Challenge equivalent of the 2008 Arizona Cardinals that came into Super Bowl XLIII as NBC's Cris Collinsworth stated were "the worst Super Bowl team ever," but if not for Big Ben's last-second heroics then they would have had the greatest upset in modern NFL history. They were the beneficiaries of Sarah voting in Bananas & Nany into the last Dome, which eliminated their strongest competition in a game they wanted to win, and assured these rookies from Real World Ex-Plosion a spot in the final without going into elimination.
   This is the story of how we had the luckiest duo to make it into a Challenge final, much in the same way that Johnny Portland and Devyn made into the Free Agents final. In all three cases, they all avoided going into elimination to make it to the end. In JR's case, he carried the luck of the draw to go to the final, and so did Dev (and her one elimination, she won by default when Big Easy quit). And in Jay & Jenna's case, they performed well enough to not go into the Dome, they were beneficiaries of the politics, and they even won the trivia challenge to be the only rookies to be power couple. This is a group that's also played the social game well, just as Dev did in her two seasons, and he came into this season having established a strong rapport with other MTV'ers.

   This is likely the group casual fans can get on their bandwagon and root for...they've not been involved in much drama aside from the Zach & Jonna love square and them voting in Leroy & Nia. In addition to Jenna, Jay will be carrying in his mind one person whose memory he's carried with him since his Real World. In my ExtraTime post on him, I wrote about the emotional moment he experienced in San Francisco when his mom died while he was on the show. I have a good feeling that a portion of the cash he & Jenna will get if they finish will go to the charities that are the beneficiaries of the Craze Watches he sells, where a cut from every watch sale goes to those foundations. It's obviously likely they will come in 3rd place, but it's a question of whether they can finish or not. If they can finish the course, it will be just as good as winning the cash, and they will have done this for his late Mom.

So, without further ado, here's my predictions, and it's along the line with many others in this case:

DC PREDICTS...

3RD PLACE ($30,000):

Jay & Jenna

2ND PLACE ($70,000):

Leroy & Theresa

CHAMPIONS ($250,000):

Sarah & Jordan

So there you have it, those are my picks and evaluation of the final three teams. Now, if you haven't had the chance, check out all of my previous DC SocialPulse diaries & wraps covering every episode from our previous Double Shot Tuesdays. If you missed a tweet or two from other episodes or want to get caught up on the twitter interaction, then you know why I present this as a public service to fellow MTV fans. This includes fellow west coast fans Andrew Kirk and Ace Nichols, and when I tweet the link on my Twitter account, they are always the first ones who I tweet the link to so they can catch up on all the tweets they missed while the show is airing out east. 
   The 'Pulse is my baby, and I've put in long hours in my spare time every week, with the occasional help from other friends, since last September to piece together the twitter play-by-play of every episode in the MTV Trifecta this season, plus episode wraps and ExtraTime pieces that have gone deeper into this franchise in a unique and interesting way. That's 25 straight weeks from the AYTO Special Delivery reunion before AYTO Season 2, through that season in Puerto Rico, then Real World Skeletons and this very Challenge. DCBLOG serves as a perfect complement to the webcasts that Andrew, Reality Radio, AfterBuzz TV and Murtz Jaffer do; the always insightful RHAP podcast with Brian Cohen & Ali Lasher, and Ace's Challenge recaps videos.

For this season and its exceptional circumstances, I combined episode wraps for 10 RW Skeletons and the first 10 episodes of Exes 2 into Double Shot Tuesday mega-posts, and here's where you can find all the posts below (caution: all these posts contain adult language and take frequent breaks while reading it to relieve eye strain):
- RW30 EP1: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2014/12/dc-socialpulse-real-world-skeletons.html
- RW30 EP2: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2014/12/dc-socialpulse-real-world-skeletons_28.html
- RW30 EP3: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/01/dc-socialpulse-real-world-skeletons.html
- DST WK 1: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/01/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw.html & dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/01/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-week.html
- DST WK 2: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/01/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_17.html
- DST WK 3: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/01/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_24.html
- DST WK 4: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/01/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_31.html
- DST WK 5: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/02/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw.html
- DST WK 6: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/02/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_14.html
- DST WK 7: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/02/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_22.html
- DST WK 8: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/03/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw.html & dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/02/dc-socialpulse-road-to-double-shot.html
- DST WK 9: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/03/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_8.html
- DST WK 10: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/03/dc-socialpulse-double-shot-tuesday-rw_15.html
- Exes2 EP 11: dc408dxtr.blogspot.com/2015/03/dc-socialpulse-challenge-battle-of-exes.html



Make sure to follow my social platforms for everything Challenge and All Things MTV. Tonight of course is the wrap up to the season and is a 3-hour event as well. We will have not only include the season finale, but sandwiching it in between is the always-entertaining Clip Show before the Final, and after we crown the champion we got the Reunion as well. Of course, the Final is the Main Event to all this, and it will take place in Norway. Let's hope that it can match the intensity of past finals on these shows, and it always creates for some of the most exciting drama on television.
   And for four hours' worth of Exes 2 live tweets (an ExtraTime session with episode reaction to come at about 12:30 AM PT), make sure to follow my dedicated live twitter hub, DCNOW at @DC408DxNow starting at 9 PM PT, and join the conversation at #DCChallenge and #DCNOW. In addition to Catfish Season 4 and Survivor: Worlds Apart on Wednesdays, last night I added Teen Mom OG to my live tweet rotation featuring Jay's friend Farrah Abraham and friends of Leroy's first Rivals partner Adam in Maci Bookout and Amber Portwood's ex Gary Shirley.
   Of course over the weekend, DCBLOG will have the Action, Reaction & Interaction of the Exes 2 finale on our very own Trifecta season finale of DC SocialPulse, my signature episode twitter diary. If you haven't read it yet, my latest 'Pulse post also includes my thoughts on Nia being kicked out, Cameran Eubanks of RW San Diego on Bravo's Southern Charm and Pratt & Paris from Are You The One? Season 2. Check that post out along with my ExtraTime articles on Jay, Nany & Wes, and my FORUM post on Sarah's game-changing vote.
   And as mentioned here, next week I will be bringing on Andrew Kirk and a couple others from the network of fans, webcast hosts and bloggers for two editions of the FORUM to debrief this season, review everything that went on in the past few months, give away our season awards and offer a look into the crystal ball into what the next year has in store in the RW/Challenge/AYTO Trifecta.

As always, follow me on my Twitter & Instagram @DC408Dxtr for tweets, chats, alerts & pics, plus my Tumblr at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com. Thanks for joining me here, and until tonight on DCNOW at 10PM PT and back here on the Blog, thanks for reading, talk to you then, and of course, good luck to Sarah, Jordan, Leroy, Theresa, Jay and Jenna.

- I AM DC