[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for The Challenge Season 41 Episode 12, “A King of Kamikaze.”]
What’s with this season and the so-called “new threats” utterly failing to put any respect on the names of The Challenge champions? First, it was Chris “C.T.” Tamburello catching static from every direction, and then this week, it was Jonna Mannion. Sure, she technically didn’t win the linear Challenge, but she won twice on All Stars, so she certainly didn’t deserve to be treated like an utter pariah by her newcomer partner, and yet that’s exactly what happened.
For some reason, Gabe Wai just couldn’t stand the thought of working with her right from the moment they were teamed up and was convinced they were doomed to fail. Self-fulfilling prophecies being what they are, he then went and made sure that happened.
Gabe didn’t act alone, of course. Gabe and Jonna came in second-to-last in the daily challenge, “Band Together,” after they struggled to retrieve the objects with resistance bands, secure their giant pipe into a bridge, and climb across to get a flag. (They didn’t lose, though; that honor went to the otherwise-strong Yeremi Hykel and Aviv Melmed.)
Seeing Gabe’s discontent with Jonna’s performance in the daily and beyond, Theo Campbell smelled blood in the water. Knowing full well that he and Adrienne Naylor were going to become the default house vote since they’d already been on the chopping block before, Theo worked hard to make Gabe feel like he could be on the chopping block if he didn’t take action and stake a claim. Then, Olivia Kaiser swooped in to push, too, for Gabe to stake a claim for Nany Gonzales against Justin Hinsley, and Gabe fell right into that trap.
Perhaps Gabe felt confident that he would win the stake your claim challenge; it involved him running up the same mountain from the introductory challenge, and he previously bested series GOAT Johnny Bananas earlier in a one-on-one. However, Justin managed to get the upper hand on Gabe by building a 3-D puzzle faster and secured his partner for the rest of the season. Nany then kindly advised Gabe to be nicer to his partner if they managed to return from the elimination bout, noting that she’d be the only one actually looking out for him, whereas everyone else would be working against him. However, it didn’t matter; the arena was a climbing challenge, which meant Yeremi could handily defeat Gabe and send him (and Jonna) home.
On the way out, Jonna took the time to give Gabe the guidance that others in the house had their own interests in setting him up, putting aside any hurt feelings she might’ve had about his move in the process, but whether it sunk in that he was a pawn in Theo and Olivia’s game remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, other members of the house — particularly Michaela Bradshaw — called Theo out on his manipulation, and even Turabi “Turbo” Çamkıran seemed to be done with him, so count on this to backfire on Theo one way or another and soon.
The Challenge, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV