Tonight on The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras, the eight finalists begin TJ’s final and must endure a gauntlet of intense checkpoints, while a big twist hangs over their heads.
Here are the contestants still in contention for the Season 40 championship:
Era 1: Rachel
Era 2: Derek, Johnny “Bananas”
Era 3: Jordan, Tori
Era 4: Jenny, Kyland, Michele
Below, read our full recap of tonight’s episode, titled “The End of an Era Part 1,” airing Wednesday, Jan. 1 (8-9:30 p.m. ET/PT) on MTV.
The Challengers spend the night before the final on a creepy ship called Sinister — and there are no cozy beds for a good sleep. Most of them are miserable already, but Tori is just happy to be on a solid platform after spending three hours in the water battling Cara Maria.
After a five-hour rest on damp mats, TJ wakes everyone up to begin the Season 40 final. One male and one female will come out on top, earning their share of the $1 million prize. Champs will win $400,000 each, second place will take home $75,000, and third place will get $25,000. And the fourth-place finisher will go home empty-handed. Throughout the race, they’ll complete checkpoints in search of tokens. They’ll start and finish each checkpoint on Sinister, so the Challengers better be ready to swim.
TJ tells each finalist about the karma points they’ve been receiving from eliminated players all season. The person with the most votes will have an advantage and the person with the least will have a “severe disadvantage.” Bananas says he’s ready to “jump off this boat” already. They won’t know the results until the end of the final, when TJ tallies up all the points from the checkpoints and karma votes. Whoever has the most points will be the winner.
The first checkpoint is “Sandblast.” Challengers will jump into the water, swim to shore, solve a 3D sand puzzle, and swim back to the boat. Jordan is the best swimmer and reaches the checkpoint first. Jenny leads the women. Kyland is clearly the worst swimmer of the bunch, but Derek started at a three-minute disadvantage after losing the last challenge. To make this checkpoint more grueling, the players have to run and retrieve each puzzle piece, one at a time. Below are the results of Checkpoint 1.
Men
1. Jordan
2. Derek
3. Bananas
4. Kyland
Women
1. Michele
2. Jenny
3. Tori
4. Rachel
For Checkpoint 2, Challengers will swim to an abandoned vessel called Ghost Ship. Once there, they’ll have to dive beneath the ship, memorize symbols, climb onboard, and recreate the order of those symbols before swimming back to Sinister. Below are the results of Checkpoint 2.
Men
1. Jordan
2. Bananas
3. Derek
4. Kyland
Women
1. Jenny
2. Tori
3. Rachel
4. Michele
Checkpoint 3 is called “A Thousand Steps.” Challengers will swim to the beach, race up 1,000 steps, and follow a series of clues. Those clues will help them solve a mystery puzzle before they can swim back to Sinister. Below are the results for today’s third checkpoint.
Men
1. Jordan
2. Bananas
3. Derek
4. Kyland
Women
1. Jenny
2. Michele
3. Rachel
4. Tori
After the third checkpoint, TJ reveals the fourth will take place over night. The Challengers will have to search through giant bags that each contain thousands of coins. They’ll count them, one-by-one, for 30 minutes. Then, they’ll come back to the ship deck and sing “Show Me the Way to Go Home” for 30 more minutes. Next, they’ll head back below deck and continue counting. This process will continue until each player has counted all of their coins. The most accurate count at the end of the night will win this checkpoint. The torturous task will continue into next week’s episode and Jenny is already unraveling.
Jordan and Jenny have absolutely dominated part one of this final, but there’s still another day at sea and karma votes have yet to be counted. We’ll find out who the winners are next week on part two of The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras finale.
