The Challenge: Double Agents Episode 2 Recap — Winners & Losers

Brian Batty
6 min readDec 17, 2020

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There’s a lot to take in during an episode of The Challenge. So I’m back to go over the real Winners & Losers from this weeks loaded episode of Double Agents. We’ll get introduced to the new Nany, discuss why Nam is doing a bad job, Nicole learns a fun fact, and we wonder whether America really does have talent.

Losers: RIP Nany’s Poor Decision Making 2011–2020

We all mature eventually. Some mature early, some mature late; no child to adult timeline is created equal. But we all get there eventually. Whether that eventually is 25 or 60 is up in the air.

After nine years on and off reality television, it seems as though Mature Nany has finally arrived. Any other time in her during her run on TV, Kyle would be her ideal partner. They’d flirt with each other. They’d make out with each other. Then Kyle would make out with with one of the Amber’s and Nany would absolutely lose her shit and go ballistic on at least three people who didn’t deserve it. Followed by a tearful apology in the morning full of regret. A fun time would have been had by all.

Nope. Not this season.

Nany wanted to shed perceived floater Kyle before the train even left the station. Maybe things changed when the other Hall of Famer from her draft class, Leroy, announced he was riding off into the sunset. The urgency is real, and she’s been itching for a win for a while. I suspect Josh won’t be her last partner. My guess would be she’s eyeing CT, and unfortunately not in the way we’ve come to expect.

Loser: Nam

Being the New Hot Guy brings with it hefty responsibilities. Kyle understood it as Cory understood it once before him. You’re responsible for hooking up. You’re responsible for hooking up with multiple people. You’re responsible for ensuring those two people get into a petty argument, where somehow the only one that comes out on top is you.

Nam’s doing none of these things. I get that a million dollars is a lot of money, but there’s also some things we need to accomplish first. Between Mature Nany and New Hot Guy Nam, we’re reaching an alarming level of normalcy and good decision making on this cast.

Winner: Nicole

One of the most important things in life, to me, is to learn something new every day. Like today, for example, I learned that certain cats can be allergic to people. And last night, Nicole learned that ice floats

We all mature eventually.

Loser: Decisiveness

I might sit here and attempt to wax poetic about the end of last night’s daily challenge. I could come up with a playful metaphor or a witty reference about yoked up reality TV stars standing around trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings. But Kyle did it more eloquently than I could ever dream.

This week’s daily challenge probably didn’t go as the producers intended it to. Their thought was probably let’s come up with some miserable activity where we can create artificial drama by getting them to pick each other off one by one. That worked for a second, when it came to Wes and Natalie, and then…nothing really happened. Everybody who was working together eventually just stood around asking somebody (seriously who was driving that clown car?) what to do next.

Oh also a quick reminder, Mechie almost died.

Winner: Being a Rogue Agent

Yo, being a rogue agent seems super sweet. You just get to do whatever the fuck you want. Oh what’s that? Everybody else has to swim in glacier water?

Hey TJ, can you pass me a Gatorade? No, no, not red. Blue.

Winner: TJ

Low key, you don’t even have to look that hard to see that TJ is not chill with Fessy. Maybe in TJ Lavin parlance, I’m being a bit harsh. But he definitely doesn’t respect him. He’s been taking shots at Fessy for two episodes now, and they’re only getting more direct. Speaking of…

Loser: Fessy’s Clout

To have seen this show is to know what it means when an object is lying alone in the middle of a pit of sand. I don’t even have to tell you. If you’re reading this, you know what I’m talking about. For Fessy, that set up brings to mind the word “janky”.

Janky?

What about this looks janky? Fessy’s soft. Unless it was karaoke, there’s nothing he could have lost to Joseph in. He would have gotten his gold skull and cruised to the final like Jenny did last season when she went in and waxed her four letter namesake Jenn. Instead he’s gotta wait for another fastball down the middle like he got here. Chances are slim it comes as easily as it has two episodes in a row.

Loser: America’s Got Talent

Does it?

Joseph did some strange things this week, and not a single one came off endearing. After the first episode, I questioned Tori’s authenticity. But even she’s never hammed it up like that.

Joseph may be the most disingenuous person to ever appear on this show. Starting with an ineffective ab workout, he bounced around from corner to corner of the house doing the incorrect thing at every turn. It came off phony. Like sandpaper to the soul.

Winner: Kyle

He emasculated Fessy, he upgraded his partner, and he sent home America’s Least Talented contestant. Hungover through it all. Kyle had his moment this week, and is now firmly in the drivers seat for at least a a little while.

See you next week! Be sure to check back on Sunday for the latest edition of my Power Rankings. In case you missed it you can find last week’s here.

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Brian Batty

Writing about MTV’s The Challenge, one of America’s great institutions