Where Did Our Love Go!?
This shocking episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Ex’s opened with the ex’s partying it up in their beautiful Dominican Republic mansion. While most of the ex’s blew off some steam by participating in some drunken bonding, Abram isolated himself from the fun. Abram lived up to his creepy reputation by sitting in a dark room all by himself drawing monsters. His partner, Cara Maria, tried to convince him to join the fun and reminded him of the social aspect of the game. Abram told her he had no interest in being nice to people who he knew would eventually screw him over in this game.
What started off as a discussion between two ex’s quickly turned into an argument and then escalated into a full blown fight. Abram became upset over the fact that he and Cara Maria had very bad communication skills. Meanwhile, “Gay for pay” Dustin tripped while going up a set of stairs and busted his knee open. He was sent to the hospital and came back with 5 stitches and a warning from a doctor telling him that his knee would take a week to heal and told him he would not be able to compete while it healed. Dustin and his partner, Heather, were left to question their future in the game.
Blood Before and After the Challenge
The ex’s received another exciting clue as to what the next challenge would be on their Samsung Galaxy 2 phone. The clue asked if they were ready to drive head first into the next challenge and told the competitors to wear their bathing suits and meet host, TJ, at the lagoon. As the ex’s made their way to the lagoon they saw what looked like metal beds suspended high above the water.
TJ welcomed them to The Blue Lagoon but before he explained what the challenge would be, he broke some shocking bad news to the ex’s. Since Dustin was physically unable to compete, his time on the challenge had sadly come to an end. TJ put the nail in the coffin when he told Heather that since this is a partner’s game, she too had to go home. This left the other ex’s stunned.
Dustin and Heather were now the 2nd couple to be sent home for non competition reasons. Vinny and Sara were sent home the week before because Vinny ripped off Mandy’s top at a club exposing her boobs. As shocked as the remaining ex’s were to see Dustin and Heather go, most of them were happy and relieved to see them go because the rookie couple had proved themselves to be a force to be reckoned with during the first two challenges.
Once Dustin and Heather said their tearful goodbyes, TJ explained what that week’s challenge, Mental Connection, would consist of. The ex’s would be lying on the metal boards suspended 35 feet above the water. While on the boards, TJ would ask a series of pop culture, spelling and challenge history questions. Two teams at a time would go head to head trying to earn the most amounts of points. Every question answered correctly would earn the pair a point. But answering a question incorrectly would cause the metal board to flip, throwing the ex into the water below and out of the game.
Since the game was a point system, if one member of the ex’s fell into the water, the remaining ex would still remain in the game until they answered a question wrong. The team with the lowest amount of points would automatically be going into The Dome. The two teams with the highest amount of points would face off in a final round to determine that weeks Power Couple. Since Leroy and Naomi won the previous dome challenge, they got to choose the order of the competing teams.
First up were Paula and Dunbar vs. Abram and Cara Maria. Abram was the first to get a question wrong and be launched into the water below. The other ex’s watched in shock and disbelief and Cara Maria and Dunbar were flipped into the water. Paula managed to get a total of 4 questions right before being launched into the water, where she landed on her face and got the wind knocked out of her.
Up next were Ty and Emily vs. Tyrie and Jasmine. Both pairs scored two points each before being flipped into the water. CT and Diem faced off against Johnny and Camilla. Both teams each scored 3 points. Leroy and Naomi battled Rachel and Anessa. Both Leroy and Naomi got their first question wrong and didn’t score any points. When the pair realized that they might be going into The Dome, they quickly began to fight. When Anessa fell into the water, she landed on her face and busted her lip open. She emerged from the water covered in blood and was rushed to the hospital for medical attention. Her partner Rachel scored 4 points for the duo. Last up to compete was Mark and Robin, who scored 1 point.
After the intense challenge was over, there were two 2 way ties for both the winning and losing couple. Dunbar and Paula would face off against Rachel and Anessa to determine The Power Couple. Anessa got her lip stitched up and lost a few teeth but was able to remain in the game. Since Anessa was physically unable to finish the challenge, it was up to Rachel if she wanted to take on Dunbar and Paula by herself. She decided to carry on but since she was competing by herself, she would have to get twice the amount of questions right.
Both Dunbar and Rachel were out after a few questions, leaving Paula to secure The Power Couple win for her and Dunbar. Abram and Cara Maria would face off against Leroy and Naomi to determine which one of them would be going into The Dome. Both Leroy and Naomi got their first question wrong which caused the duo to be sent into The Dome to compete for their place in the game for the second time in a row.
The Social Game Play
Back at the house, the power couple started strategizing and asked Ty and Emily why they shouldn’t be sent into The Dome and who they would send in. Emily tells Paula that she thinks it would be a good idea to keep Naomi in the game because they could easily beat her. Paula makes her rounds and approaches Abram and Cara Maria next. Cara Maria tells Paula that she should send Emily and Ty into The Dome because Emily is physically stronger than most of the men there.
TJ paid the house a visit to see who the power couple had chosen to go into The Dome against Leroy and Naomi. After a drawn out and extremely long explanation, Paula named Emily and Ty as the couple going into The Dome. Emily quickly called out Paula by telling her that she knew that Paula was afraid of her and vowed to come after her and Dunbar if she and Ty survived The Dome. The night before The Dome challenge, Leroy gave Naomi a pep talk and built up her confidence to go up against Emily who was more than half her size. Meanwhile, Emily was also building up her partner’s confidence. Emily feared that Ty would give up in the challenge since he had given up during an elimination challenge of a previous challenge.
The Dome
TJ welcomed Ty and Emily and Leroy and Naomi into The Dome and let them know that this challenge was called Banded Together. He explained that each pair would be connected to each other with a huge rubber band that was also wrapped around a pole at one end of The Dome. The goal of the challenge was to race across The Dome as fast as possible and hold on to the pole at opposite end while still being banded to each other. The 1st team to hold on to the pole for 5 seconds would win and stay in the game. The losing team would be eliminated from the game and be sent home. Leroy and Naomi were off to a steady start while Ty and Emily made their way to the pole rather quickly. Emily struggled to hold on to the pole as Leroy and Naomi quickly caught up. Emily and Ty managed to both hold on to the pole for 5 seconds and won the challenge. Leroy and Naomi lost and were sent home.
Love Lost
Back at the house, Paula began to fear that Emily would stay true to her promise and go after her and Dunbar. Mark realized that with Leroy and Naomi leaving the game, no more weak teams remained and he knew that they game would be different from here on out. Abram and Diem shared a deep heart to heart conversation about both of their relationships with their ex’s and what is was that cause each relationship to end. This caused Abram to open up about his insecurities regarding Cara Maria which lead him to tears. He told Cara Maria that he was hurt by her because he felt like he was chasing after a girl who didn’t want to get caught. The screen faded to black as Cara Maria was left speechless.