The Challenge Double Agents Power Rankings — Week 7

Welcome back to a fresh batch of Power Rankings. Just when you thought this world couldn’t get any stranger Theresa misused her power. It’s just good to know some things stay the same. This week Nam breaks out, Leroy saves the wilting sports scene in Houston, a former number one takes back her crown, and much much more…

30) Joseph (Eliminated)

29) Nicole (E)

28) Wes (E)

27) Liv (E)

26) Nelson (E)

25) Natalie (E)

24) Tori (E)

23) Lio (Last Week: 21)

There’s Shauvon quitting, and then there’s this.

We didn’t quite get to know Lio as much as I would have liked, but “at the end of the day” “it is what it is”.

22) Ashley (LW: 17)

Her Hall of Fame case is already rock solid, but getting eliminated twice in one season is quite a stain on her resume. When TJ said there was a security breach and she walked out of the SUV, I genuinely thought she had breached security, literally, and forced her way back into the game. She’s the only one I could ever say that about.

Go to work boys, send these two off with respect…

21) Josh (LW: 23)

One thing that’s always bothered me about the Jenna vs. Anika elimination on Invasion is that the production interference was just so blatant. The game was the competitors had to grab a handful of balls and bungee jump from a cliff and whoever did it fastest wins, something that is going to take basically the same amount of time either way. I’m not saying Jenna didn’t win, but even if Anika did have a slightly better time, would the Challenge Gods really…right, duh, Josh. This may have been his best episode yet!

20) Amber B. (LW: 23)

There’s a world where she’s been hooking up with Mechie and the other Amber all over the house for the last six weeks and none of us would have any idea. What’s a girl gotta do to get some screen time? Speaking of…

19) Mechie (LW: 20)

With Lio leaving last week, the lack of screen time he was afforded through six episodes ultimately made sense. Why allocate precious time capital towards someone who ultimately is probably never coming back. But that doesn’t explain why Mechie (and Amber B.) has taken such a backseat at all.

Unless a similar situation happens with Mechie where he medical DQ’s or something like that, it really is a bizarre how little of his (seemingly) big personality we’ve gotten this far in.

18) Amber M. (LW: 19)

Every time she does something it makes me think more and more than Devin may have had a point a few weeks ago.

17) Gabby (LW: 22)

Shout out to Gabby for possibly being a Horcrux.

16) Mature Nany (LW: 17)

Last week I laid out the case that right now is the best chance Nany’s probably ever going to get at a win again. Spotlight’s on Theresa for now, which will inevitably lead to another strong woman going home whether it be Theresa or otherwise. So she’s still sitting pretty. But the real Nany is lurking under the surface somewhere, and all it’ll take it one bad (or good, depending on your perspective) night for everything to fall apart.

15) Nam (LW: 13)

Finally, a break out episode from Nam! He got in like twenty nine words! That’s almost thirty!

Does anyone else feel like Nam is just Turbo without any of the charisma? How come our current Nam:Mechie ratio is 3:1? He and Lolo might be the worlds least interesting couple, so why do I care that they’re not getting along?

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again for those in the back, these are the only two people in the house guaranteed not to hook up! What universe am I in? Get it together MTV. Saying something negative about Nam may be sacrilege at this point, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

14) Darrell (LW: 9)

Between unabashedly lying to all of us two weeks ago, and lurking on the edges of relevance all season, I have no choice to drop him in the rankings. Both Power Rankings and my heart rankings.

That may seem harsh, as I can only imagine how important my opinion is to Darrell. But it’s well-earned at this point.

13) Theresa (LW: 14)

Last week Theresa wrote one of those Ikea manuals in seventeen different languages on how not to handle power.

On Theresa’s last appearance, Exes 2, in one of the first episodes she says it herself, she is really bad at the politics of the game. Which is fine. I’m bad at math and soccer. We all have our log to carry.

Luckily for her she on Exes 2 she got Wes as a partner, who is decidedly not that. And what happened is she had her most successful season ever! She even made her first and only Final that season (with some Challenge God chicanery, but still). But that was almost seven years ago now and time is one hell of a varnish. She completely forgot some of the valuable lessons she learned along the way, and it ended up costing her.

Her thought process was pretty easy to see. Ashley came in second -> Must get rid of Ashley -> Vote down Kam, strong girl might get rid of Ashley -> Oh shit, everybody hates me.

As she and Jay astutely pointed out, though, they would have been on the outside looking in regardless. They didn’t have much political heft and were both perceived as physically easy targets so in their minds it was only a matter of time. But power is a funny thing, and if they were a little more deft about it, they could have positioned themselves much better than “fucked” moving forward.

12) Cory (LW: 12)

It’s actually been hard to watch Cory this season. He is having absolutely no fun at all. He’s been walking around with the “William H. Macy in Boogie Nights watching his wife have sex with somebody else again” look on his face since the minute Nelson left.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t end for Cory the same way it ended for Little Bill.

(By the way, Boogie Nights either just got put on Hulu or I just found it there. Either way, if you haven’t seen this movie, go indulge yourself for a few hours. And if you have and it’s been awhile, I promise it’s just as good as you remember)

11) Leroy (LW: 11)

It’s falling apart on the Houston sports scene.

• James Harden scorched earth his way out of town.
• If you like baseball, the loss of George Springer and Michael Brantley just sapped any consistency the Astros line-up may have had left.
• For football fans, you’re just hoping the Texans don’t get fleeced in the oncoming Deshaun Watson trade.

A sobering reality for sure…

But alas, not all is lost, as Leroy and Kam have taken their talents down south to Texas. This post on the Challenge Reddit page really breaks down the experience getting lined up by Roy Lee himself. And if you ask me it bumped Houston up the post-quarantine travel list quite a bit.

They say never meet your heroes, but it sounds like Leroy’s the real deal.

10) Jay (LW: 15)

All he did by winning that mini-final last week was tape a proverbial “Kick Me” sign to the back of his Under Armor hoodie.

9) Kaycee (LW: 10)

So I’m gonna do something nobody wants and peel back the curtain a bit here. The way I usually write this thing is I list out all thirty cast members and make my order, moving them around at my whimsy. Then I just kind of scroll around and stare at their names until I come up with something. It’s essentially just chaotic nonsense.

And every damn week Kaycee is the last person I write for. It’s so hard to come up with things for her, it really is. I watched like forty-five minutes of content on her YouTube channel and still, I can’t find anything that piques my interest.

Maybe this is just a really lazy way to do this part of the column but my Kaycee tank is empty at this point.

8) Big T (LW: 8)

I know she’s partially doing a bit, but to be perplexed about a five mile run on The Challenge is sort of a pull-the-shirt-collar moment. I guess deep down we all know what we’re getting into getting attached to Big T, but to have to face the music like that wasn’t any fun. Speaking of…

7) Aneesa (LW: 6)

On one hand, she had a point during last weeks daily challenge when she said this wasn’t the Final so who cares. But on the other hand, if Fessy ever needs somebody to talk to about his Aneesa partner experience, Mark Long is currently accepting calls.

6) Devin (LW: 7)

Devin’s really got a thing for ruining blonde women’s time in Iceland.

First Nicole, then Tori, now Gabby gets stuck with him. It’s too bad really, I was just starting to warm up to Gabby too.

5) Lolo (LW: 5)

What the hell is on her necklace?

This thing’s been blurkled out all season, but this last episode was the most egregious of them all. What is it? Is it a monogram of a dick? Is it one of those necklaces you get at the mall that says ‘BITCH’? Is it a picture of Dee?

It’s probably just the Olympic logo (which is it’s own kind of flex), but Occam’s razor is never any fun.

4) CT (LW: 3)

Do you ever think about how you would react if you ran into CT in an airport?

No? Just me?

3) Kyle (LW: 4)

When Kam had her choice of any partner out there and stuck with him, for whatever reason, my thought process behind him completely changed and it all just clicked in my head. Kyle is clearly as much of a threat to win a Final as anyone at this point. Put some respeck on my mans name.

2) Fessy (LW: 1)

I could watch Fessy get curved by Gabby in that fake ass Bane jacket all day. If this show turned into just ninety minutes of Fessy attempting to spit game at Gabby, while she secretly laughed to herself about it, I actually might prefer it.

1) Kam (LW: 2)

The woman whose political tentacles are in every nook and cranny of the house now has her Golden Ticket to TJ Wonka’s Final Wonderland. Theresa messed up.

Thanks for reading! If you missed it, you can find my Episode 6 recap where I cover the true Winners & Losers here. As well as other evergreen content A Moment In Challenge History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Be sure to check back on Tuesday where I preview the upcoming Episode 7. As well as a special treat this coming Friday, Moment In Challenge History Volume 3, where I cover a special into none of us will ever forget.