‘The Challenge’ Recap: 2 Friends Are Torn Apart & Pitted Against Each Other After An Apparent Betrayal

MTV

A longtime ‘Challenge’ alliance is put to the test on the Feb. 20 episode of ‘War of the Worlds,’ and it leads to an elimination that NO one saw coming. Here’s our recap!

The Feb. 20 episode of The Challenge: War of the Worlds picks up after Hunter and Georgia’s win over Ashley and Chase in the first elimination. Hunter and Georgia are informed that, because they won, they now receive the Relic, which means they are safe from the next elimination. Back at the house, alliances are being formed, and Johnny Bananas knows he’s in trouble with a lot of the teams. However, he’s confident in his alliances with Zach, Leroy and Kyle.

Speaking of Kyle — he wastes no time packing on some PDA with his partner, Mattie. Cara Maria, who dated Kyle on The Challenge: Vendettas, warns Mattie that she has plenty of better options on the house, but Mattie is just looking to have a good time, and it appears that Cara’s alert falls on deaf ears. As for Zach…he’s in a tough place. His relationship with Jenna is being widely scrutinized after he was called out by Amanda for having a fake Bumble page on The Challenge: Final Reckoning, and he’s admittedly not in the right headspace going into the next challenge.

Finally, it’s time for a weekly challenge — and this one is an all out brawl! The challenge requires one team member to search for a ball in a maze, then transfer it to their other team member, who has to wade through a pit of mud to score with the ball. However, there’s three less balls than teams in the mud pit, so those in the pit have to get physical to make sure one of the balls is in their possession. Each round, three teams are eliminated, until there are just three teams left to make up this week’s Tribunal.

Things fall apart for Zach during the challenge, when he’s competing against Johnny’s biggest nemesis, Wes, in the mud pit, and freely throws him the ball to win that round. Zach calls it a “bonehead mistake” that he just made because his “head wasn’t there,” but Bananas is convinced something is up, and comes to the conclusion that Zach made a deal with Wes behind his back.

In the end, Wes/Dee, Natalie D/Paulie and Kam/Ashley form the Tribunal. They have to pick three teams to nominate for elimination, then narrow it down to one. At the vote, Wes and Dee choose Bananas/Morgan, and Paulie and Natalie go for Paulie’s nemesis, Kyle. Kam and Ashley choose Amanda/Josh, and claim it’s just a burn vote so they’re not forced to make waves. This causes some major tension between Josh and Amanda, and he calls her out for being so unlikable and hurting their chances. Obviously, Amanda goes back at him, and it turns into a pretty brutal war of words!

At the elimination, each individual in the Tribunal has a chance to vote for who they want to go in. The members of each pair hold strong to their original choices, making it a three-way tie (even though Kam/Ashley chose Amanda/Josh as a burn vote, they don’t want to make waves with Bananas or Kyle, either). Host TJ Lavin hints that things will not go well for the Tribunal members if they can’t come to a decision, so eventually, Ashley switches his vote to Bananas and Morgan.

Now, Morgan and Bananas have the chance to call out whichever team they want to go up against. Bananas is certain that Zach betrayed him and is working with Wes, so he opts to go against Zach and Zahida. During the elimination, the guys have to climb a rock wall and place flags from around the world on their respective country on a giant map. Their female partners hand them the pieces and are allowed to help with placement. Whoever gets the most pieces in 15 minutes wins.

Zach and Zahida win the challenge by three flags, sending Bananas and Morgan home and leaving Wes VERY content. Zach, on the other hand, is devastated, as he thinks he’s lost a real friend outside of the game after what happened with Johnny.