There are only two episodes left in MTV’s “The Challenge” season 41, and here’s everything that happened as the cast embarked on the infamous final.
Last week, “The Challenge” made series history when the last MTV OG was sent packing. Nany Gonzales was the last remaining competitor who got her reality TV start on MTV, having starred in “The Real World: Las Vegas.” Every cast member who made the final this season came from “Big Brother,” “Survivor,” “Love Island,” “Married at First Sight,” or “The Amazing Race.”
Olivia Kaiser, Yeremi Hykel, Sydney Segal, Turbo Çamkıran, Theo Campbell, Adrienne Naylor, Michaela Bradshaw, and Cedric Hodges will be competing in “The Challenge: Vets & New Threats” final.
‘The Challenge: Vets & New Threats’ Final Information
GettyThe challengers started their journey in a helicopter with no idea where they were going. Finally, they landed and greeted host TJ Lavin. Yeremi feared they may be tasked with hiking the Andes Mountains, a task he’s completed before and therefore knows exactly how difficult it really is.
TJ announced the prizes for the first time this season. Third place will get $25,000. Second place will get $50,000. First place will get a whopping $425,000. Presumably, pairs will split the prize. With no fourth place prize announced, we can assume fourth place gets nothing. It’s also very likely fourth place will be eliminated before the final actually ends.
Yeremi was correct; the Andes are, in fact, the setting for this year’s final. Duos will be tethered together for the entire duration of the final.
‘The Challenge: Vets & New Threats’ Final Leg One
The first part of the final requires the competitors to kayak an extremely fast-moving river while also remembering certain relics, aka symbols and objects they’ll see along the way.
Theo was focused on kayaking quickly, by soon realized he was missing some of the relics. As there’s no way for him and Adrienne to go back, Theo admitted he made what he called a “rookie mistake.”
The relics were important; after kayaking, the challengers needed to correctly place written descriptions of the relics in the right order. Turbo got nervous due to speaking English as a second language and struggling to read the language. Luckily, Sydney was able to take the lead.
Olivia and Yeremi finished first, then Cedric and Michaela, then Sydney and Turbo, and finally Theo and Adrienne. The order they finished the task in was the order they were able to begin running to the next checkpoint.
Michaela twisted her ankle, the same ankle she twisted on previous challenges. Although it slowed her down, Michaela refused to quit. However, the incident allowed Theo and Adrienne to pass her and Cedric. Luckily for the “Survivor”/”Big Brother” duo, Theo and Adrienne needed to take a break, and they were able to overtake the British duo.
‘The Challenge: Vets & New Threats’ Final Checkpoint Two
GettySydney and Turbo arrived at checkpoint two first. TJ had ten runes only he could see. Sydney and Turbo had to match their runes to TJ’s. TJ could only tell them how many were correct, but not which runes were in the right spot. This was similar to a classic TikTok challenge.
Sydney and Turbo completed the checkpoint before anyone else even arrived. After they matched all ten runes, the two had to go for a long run and arrive back at the checkpoint location. Olivia and Yeremi finished the checkpoint second. Then, Michaela and Cedric finished. Finally, Theo and Adrienne finished as well.
‘The Challenge: Vets & New Threats’ Final Checkpoint Three
Checkpoint three was, like Sydney described, essentially sudoku but with colors. Each cube had four colors per side, and the challengers had to place the nine cubes so each row and column didn’t have any repeated colors.
Sydney and Turbo finished very quickly, getting the puzzle right on their first try. Olivia and Yeremi finish second, but they took a long time to figure out where to place the colors. Thus, Cedric and Michaela were given the chance to make up some ground. They were able to finish the puzzle fairly quickly and were off on another run.
Theo and Adrienne, meanwhile, struggled with the puzzle. Theo was largely unhelpful, needing to rest while Adrienne attempted the puzzle on her own. Sydney and Turbo arrived at checkpoint four before Theo and Adrienne finished checkpoint three. The Brits timed out, and were punished by having to carry some of the blocks with them on their run.
‘The Challenge: Vets & New Threats’ Final Checkpoint Four
Unfortunately for Syndey and Turbo, their big lead didn’t prove as helpful as they’d hoped. For checkpoint four, they had to wait for another team to catch up to them before starting. Turbo ate a snack while he waited. Olivia and Yeremi eventually arrived.
Checkpoint four was a reboot of a previous daily challenge, in which competitors had to walk on a stair climber without their hands touching the machine until they fell off. Before, this challenge was done over water, but today, it was on the ground. Turbo fell almost immediately. Olivia fell later, leaving Sydney and Yeremi to compete. Sydney ultimately won, allowing her and her partner to get back on the helicopter first.
Olivia and Yeremi had to compete again against Michaela and Cedric. Due to fatigue, they lost, and Cedric and Michaela made it into second place. Then, Olivia and Yeremi had to fight Theo and Adrienne in the same challenge. Olivia and Yeremi won, putting them in third place.
‘The Challenge: Vets & New Threats’ Final Checkpoint Five
This checkpoint only asked one person in each duo to swim out to a strobe light and grab a key. Syndey, being a better swimmer and better able to handle cold than Turbo, volunteered to be the swimmer for her team.
Cedric swam for his team, Yeremi for his, but Theo refused to swim for him and Adrienne. For one, he claimed Adrienne was a better swimmer. Plus, he was too fatigued, he assume, to do well in the challenge. Adrienne, though, also refused to swim.
Eventually, Adrienne realized Theo wouldn’t budge and she, in her words, refused “to bail out on a swim.” She decided to do the swim. At the end, she said, “I actually quite enjoyed that.”
That night, TJ announced the cast would be allowed, once again, to stake a claim on someone else’s partner, if they so chose. Theo debated staking a claim on Olivia, which would allow him to run the final and compete with his girlfriend.
Michaela wondered if her injury meant Cedric was better off with a different partner. Alas, we’ll have to wait until next week to see if anyone stakes a claim, and to find out who wins “The Challenge: Vets & New Threats.”
