Adam Larson is salty about Steve Meinke taking his star away and giving it to Ace Amerson, despite the fact that he threw his friend into the All Stars elimination. The dude needs to do some self-reflection.
“Steve betrayed me for no reason and now my star is 100% gone. How can I fix that? How can I stand some sort of chance of making it to the finals?” he says in a confessional.
“Just by the way that TJ’s language was tonight, just seemed like you had your chance pretty much,” Ryan Kehoe tells him. “I’m going to figure out what I need to do to take his now,” Adam vows.
In another room, Steve gripes about how his friend is mad at him. Cara Maria Sorbello and Ace point out that Adam threw him into elimination three times. “You don’t owe anybody anything,” Cara Maria tells Steve.
The fate of the non-star holders is revealed
At the next daily challenge, TJ Lavin tells the players, “I have told you time and time again, get your stars. “I currently see six star holders in front of me.” Everyone looks nervous.
“You six are all in the final,” he tells them. They jump for joy. Nicole Zanatta almost hugs Cara Maria before remembering she can’t stand her. TJ tells the group that they’re sitting out today’s daily challenge and can sit around a camper parked nearby.
TJ then drops a bomb and says to the rest of the All Stars players that he has TWO MORE stars to give out. All is not lost yet. The first female and male winner from today’s daily challenge will go straight to the final.
They’re playing “Star Born.” They have to run to a tree holding a raft, untangle it, and paddle to a floating star in the middle of a lake. Underneath the star are keys they need to unlock a container on the other side of the lake. The container holds a star and the first male and female to find the star wins.
Before they start, Flora Alekseyeun tells TJ that her body is shot and can’t do the challenge. The cameras cut to her leg, which looks all scraped up. He looks disappointed because everyone knows he doesn’t like quitters but the lady is over 50 so give her a break. She did make it pretty far. “I am at the end and I’ve completed 95% of the challenges,” she tells the cameras.
The race to the All Stars final
The rest of the group takes off and Derek Chavez is in the lead, with Adam trailing second. Laurel Stucky also reaches the tree first but Averey Tressler is right behind her. It’s going to be a close race.
Derek and Laurel get in the lake first but Adam soon catches up. Laurel tells Derek to push.
Averey is all the way in the back and it doesn’t look like she’ll catch up to Laurel anytime soon. She can’t even paddle the raft and just goes in circles. Meanwhile, Laurel, Steve, and Derek have gotten their keys already.
They make it to their troughs which is filled with what looks like oatmeal and dig for their stars.
They dig and dig through the sludge and all of a sudden, Derek finds his. Laurel is next. They’ve made it to the final and they’re both emotional.
It’s time for the All Stars final
The players are chilling in the house when TJ comes in and tells them to suit up and get in the RV.
TJ reminds them that it’s anyone’s game and it’s not just physical but strategical as well. He tells them that by morning, the eight star holders will be down to four, cutting out half the players. The first person to win will get $250,000, while the rest will split a meager $50,000. That amounts to about $16K each, which isn’t too shabby.
“Today, there’s going to be a series of checkpoints,” TJ explains. “Each checkpoint is either going to be an advantage checkpoint or an elimination checkpoint. This first checkpoint is going to be an advantage checkpoint. Second checkpoint, elimination checkpoint. You want to fight for that advantage because you do not want to leave this game empty-handed.”
The first checkpoint is called “Shooting Star.” A race car comes barreling in and TJ tells them that they’re going to be on the roof of that car with 100 paintballs and a paintball gun. While they’re on the car, they have to use the paintball to hit star targets around the racetrack.
“Each target is worth one point. However, there are hidden targets that’s worth two points. Whoever has the most points at the end will win the advantage for the next checkpoint,” TJ explains.
First up is Leroy and he manages to hit a lot of targets.
The rest of the group takes their turns and in the end, Laurel and Leroy get the most hits. However, the one person who got the most targets and won the advantage in the next round is Leroy.
An electric elimination
The next checkpoint is called “Electric Star” and the loser is going home. The players will have to maneuver a metal ring around a live metal star. If the ring touches the star, it will shock them. Kind of like Operation but more painful.
“This is a timed event so whoever does it the slowest is out of here,” TJ says. Because Leroy won an advantage, he’s going to get a head start with his star a quarter ahead of the others.
He carefully manipulates his metal rod around the star and gets to the end without shocking himself. He screams and curses loudly in order to screw with the others.
Nicole is next and she’s not as dexterous as Leroy so her screams are real. She comes out and cries in Laurel’s arms. She tells the cameras that she’s faking it as a scare tactic.
Cara Maria is more careful but she gets shocked. However, Ace goes in with a f*** it attitude. He tells the cameras that he grew up in the south with a lot of electric fences so he’s used to being shocked so he’s just going to power through it. He literally buzzes his way through the star and gets to the end in like five seconds.
Veronica goes and she gets shocked five times and doesn’t even flinch. “I used to get electrocuted for fun as a child. I mean, I’m not saying that everyone should do that but it doesn’t really scare me.”
After everyone goes, TJ tells the group that the two bottom players are Laurel and Derek. He starts to say who the first one eliminated in the final is but then surprise! We get to find out next week. Womp womp.
