After a really, really long season, “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” has finally come to an end and it’s time to get messy with the reunion.
As viewers already know, Emanuel Neagu won the Champion title, while Nurys Mateo made second place, and Colleen Schneider came in third. All-in-all, it was an impressive showing from the three, but it seems the season left the cast pretty salty, judging from the reunion.
The reunion starts
The cast is dressed in a hodgepodge of different styles. Emanuel looks like a member of a marching band; Nurys, Colleen, Olivia Kaiser, and Michele Fitzgerald look like they’re going to a nightclub; Jay Starrett looks like his mom dressed him for a school picture; and Big T and Melissa Reeves are both beauty pageant winners, apparently.
Maria Menounos is hosting per usual, and Nurys tells her that after their last season, she and Ravyn Rochelle are now besties. Her boo Horacio Gutierrez is in another country filming another reality competition show and Nurys gushes about how much she misses him. Berna Canbeldek is also MIA filming “Survivor Turkey” and no one misses her.
Flashback to when Emanuel, Nurys, and Colleen crossed the finish line. “Before we start, congrats to our new champ, Emanuel,” Maria says.
“It feels great. It feels like it was meant to happen. I knew I was going to win from the moment I started,” he declares. “$250,000, I’m basically a Romanian millionaire right now.”
When Maria asks if Emanuel deserved to win, Devin Walker burns him with, “Uh, he won the season of all losers.” Emanuel responds, “I would kick the hell out of everyone up there.”
Nurys then claims Emanuel only won because he cheated off of Colleen in the sudoku part of the final. “Maybe I looked a little bit to see,” he answers, which is basically admitting that he cheated. However, he adds, “A win is a win.”
Maria gives Nurys props for coming in second, and the “Ride or Dies” star shares that she considers herself a champion, to which Tori Deal agrees. “She should have absolutely been crowned with Emanuel.”
Corey Lay gets into it with Jay after Maria asks him why he didn’t want the “Survivor” contestant to win “Battle for a New Champion.” Corey says it’s because Jay had an “easier ride” all season. Jay gets defensive because that’s what he does. Surprisingly, Michele sticks up for Corey and tells Jay, “He also made great relationships. Let’s just move on.” It looks like Mommy and Daddy are fighting.
Corey proves he sucks at balance
Maria finally gets to what “The Challenge” fans have been asking since the final, which is why Corey couldn’t balance on a beam to save his life. “I’m a very large guy. That’s why I lost.” A couple of stagehands bring out a balance beam and Maria challenges Cory to prove that he has core strength.
Corey almost trips on his way to the beam, which doesn’t bode well for him. Maybe he should do some yoga. He runs across the contraption, which is like maybe five feet long, but then falls at the end after tripping on a rope. People clap, probably because he fell. “That was better than the final,” Maria says.
The group plays some “Challenge” trivia. No one falls off a ledge 30 feet over a body of water so the stakes are low. Boring. TJ Lavin isn’t even around to give an evil cackle.
Moving on, Jay and Michele are under fire about how they played the game this season and tried to keep people in their alliance despite certain members feeling thrown under the bus.
“This alliance was never real to begin with, okay?” Moriah Jadea says. “I think the alliance was bulls**t because everyone had an additional person.” Devin inputs, “You guys all started banging. That’s what happened. Anyone gonna say that? You all started banging and you ruined your lives!” The cast laughs nervously because it’s true.
They play another game, where the fans ask questions. The first is, “Olivia, which Challenger is the thirstiest on social media?” Olivia chooses not to answer and goes to the draw. Ultimately, she needs to spill and names Asaf Goren.
Big T celebrates her coming out
They all celebrate how Big T came out on “The Challenge.” She shares, “It felt like the right time because I had this experience with this woman. I wanted to share my love, the experience that I had felt with everyone, and I wanted to feel brave enough to tell my family.”
Big T recalls how her adopted father asked if she liked girls when she was younger and when she said “Yes,” he got angry. Since then, she wasn’t able to open up to her family about her sexuality until she revealed it on the show. Her father had already passed away at the time but she shares that the other members of her family have embraced her. The group is all happy for her.
Corey and Big T start fighting over his shady move to throw her and Melissa under the bus during the game. Melissa stands up to tell Corey to stop yelling, and it’s never a good thing when Melissa stands up. Big T says she never wants to be friends with Corey again, even though he tells her they were never friends, to begin with. “Rivals 4” might be in the cards for them.
Nurys and Horacio vs. Olivia
The attention then turns to Nurys and Horacio’s relationship. Maria surprises Nurys with a virtual appearance from Horacio and there are very pretty tears coming from both parties. Olivia says she was happy for their relationship while looking very unhappy. “You were the biggest f***ing hater the entire time,” Nurys tells her former BFF.
“Every time I had the opportunity to talk to my quote-unquote best friend, everything that came out of her mouth was negative. ‘Nurys, you could do better.'”
“Every time, her advice was never like, ‘You guys can work this out. It’s gonna be good.’ It was literally always negative and always so negative about him.”
Horacio and Olivia try to hash out their differences and she tells him, “I am sorry. I want everyone to hear that publicly as well. Like, I am sorry for not taking ownership of my part of it too.”
Unfortunately, things aren’t so copacetic with Olivia and Nurys. Flashback to when Olivia saved Moriah instead of Nurys during a deliberation. At the reunion, Nurys looks big hurt.
“That was my best friend. What you see Melissa and Big T have? That was me. That was us,” Nurys cries.
Olivia shares that she felt “abandoned” by Nurys at the Challenge house when she was hanging out with Horacio. Nurys accepts Olivia’s apology but doesn’t think they can ever be friends again. Apparently being a vet has softened Laurel Stucky and she tells them that “love never dies” and they may be able to repair their friendship.
The champions finally get to talk
The champions, who have been mostly quiet during the reunion, finally get their chance to shine. Cara Maria Sorbello tells the cast members to not fall into a “Challenge” house romance and instead, just focus on the game, despite being in a relationship with her castmate Paulie Calafiore. Sound advice.
“I think more often than not, it’ll be your downfall,” Devin agrees. It’s like an episode of “Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Laurel shares that when she called Michelle “purple jacket” and when Cara Maria called her “orange shirt,” it was a coincidence. Scintillating.
Tori calls out Emanuel for being a player and hooking up with all the girls while having a girlfriend. “Everybody’s a snake,” is his reasoning. So, if your friends jump off a bridge, would you, Emanuel?
Next, Asaf is in the hot seat for promising Melissa his alliance over them both being parents but later betraying her. Kyland Young, who had a romance with Melissa during the season, pops off at Asaf, who stands up. Security is called. “Security! Security!” people scream. Viewers will have to wait until the second half of the reunion next week to see if Asaf and Kyland throw down.
