The Challenge 40 episode 2: Recap and more details explored

The Challenge 40 released its latest episode on August 21 at 8 pm ET/PT on MTV and Paramount+. The 40th season features both old and fresh contestants from the previous seasons who compete in the Era Invitational. After eliminating the weakest contestants, the rest of the cast will move on to the Challenge Era. The prize money for winning this season is $1 million.

16 contestants will compete to keep themselves in the running, out of which 8 contestants will be eliminated by the end of the episode. Like the previous season, the show is hosted by TJ Lavin who introduces new twists and turns to the competitors during the season's run which none of the contestants have seen in the show's 26-year history.

Although there were no eliminations in the first episode, the second one started with just that.

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What happened in The Challenge 40 episode 2?

In episode one of The Challenge 40, the "Light it up" saw the following result:

The winners of the challenge were:

• Era 1: CT and Rachel
• Era 2: Bananas and Laurel
• Era 3: Cory and Tori
• Era 4: Horacio and Michele

The losers of the challenge were:

• Era 1: Mark and Katie
• Era 2: Ryan and KellyAnne
• Era 3: Leroy and Nia
• Era 4: Theo and Nurys

In episode 2, the winners of the previous challenge chose Derrick Kosinski and Aneesa Fereira from Era 1, Brandon Nelson and Cara Maria Sorbello from Era 2, Tony Raines and Amanda Garcia from Era 3, and Paulie Calafiore and Olivia Kaiser from Era 4 to go up against the losers from the first challenge mentioned above in challenges that have been seen in previous seasons.

Era 3 of The Challenge 40 was up first with Leroy going up against Tony for the men, and Nia going up against Amanda for the women. The game was "Balls up" where the person who scores the most goals in three rounds wins.

Amanda became furious with Cory as she trusted him by that point. She looked into his “beady little ferret eyes” and stated that if she won, she’d “throw every f***ing challenge” to get back at him. Nia eventually won 2-1 and Amanda was eliminated.

On the men's side, Leroy and Tony go up against each other. Leroy couldn't match Tony's intensity as he won 2-0 which sent Leroy back home.

Era 1 of The Challenge 40 was up next as Mark would go against Derrick and Katie would go against Aneesa in the "Pole wrestle" challenge. Derrick being eight inches shorter than his opponent, everyone expected Mark to win. But Derrick won, sending Mark back home. On the women's side, Katie was eliminated as Aneesa's strength proved to be too much for Katie.

Era 4 of The Challenge 40 had to compete in the "Hall brawl" challenge for survival as Theo went against Paulie in the men's category, while Nurys went against Olivia for the women. In the challenge, one person would run at high speed down a narrow corridor as they try and collide with the other contestant and get to a buzzer. Theo was ecstatic to clash against Paulie as their rivalry has been well-documented over the years on the show.

“To get my hands on him, finally, after five years of back-and-forth. I want to hit him with a blow he’s never gonna forget.”

Theo won the bout easily and thus Paulie was eliminated from the show. Nurys was also sent home after she lost both rounds against Olivia.

Contestants from Era 2 of The Challenge 40 were last to go against each other with the "Take shelter" challenge. Ryan took on Brandon on the men's side while KellyAnne went against Cara Maria for the women. The challengers had 20 minutes to use materials like chains, logs, and ropes to barricade their bunker. After 20 minutes they’d switch spots. The first player to break into the other’s bunker will win the game.

Ryan and Cara Maria won the challenge and eliminated another two contestants in the second episode of The Challenge 40. As the show is about to end, TJ tells them they each get a “karma vote” which will impact who wins the #1 million prize money in the end. The eliminated players need to rate the other players on a scale of 1 to 5 but the exact impact and outcome weren't revealed.

Catch episode of The Challengers on August 28.