The Challenge 40 episode 7 recap: Era 1 down to 2 players while challengers jump from a 56-story helipad

The Challenge 40 released episode 7 on October 2 at 8 pm ET/PT on MTV and Paramount+. Season 40 of The Challenge has seen the players take the path of choosing their friends for elimination. Former contestants compete against new challengers in four different groups dubbed as Eras.

24 players remain in the running for the prize money of $1 million after six episodes. TJ Lavin returns to The Challenge 40 as the host. Cory and Rachel won last week's elimination and they get to decide the two players from each era who will be the targets this week, resulting in the elimination of two more players from Era 1— Tina and Darrell— by the end of the episode.

Amongst all the chaos and twists, the challengers jumped from a 56-story helipad in the first challenge. They also got to release some steam as the challengers celebrated Devin's birthday, and Ryan and Derek dressed up as drag alter egos Tarje and Cherry.

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What happened in The Challenge 40 episode 7?

The start of the episode saw Cory and Rachel choose the targets for this week from each era. Darrell and Tina from Era 1, Nehemiah and Aviv from Era 2, Jordan and Nia from Era 3, and Kyland and Michele from Era 4. Cory later pointed out that he was not happy with Era 4 as they were “winding (him) up”. Rachel approached Nehemiah and suggested that Era 1 and Era 2 should work together.

Rachel apologized for selecting him as a target and said that Nehemiah and Aviv would be good if Darrell and Tina earned the power after the next challenge. Bananas questioned why Ryan wasn't chosen as a target despite performing poorly. The Challenge 40 contestants threw Devin a birthday party with entertainment provided by Ryan and Derek.

The next day, the contestants welcomed a new challenge named 'Leap of Faith.' Four players would take a leap of faith from a 56-story helipad, and then grab a flag that matches with a box containing puzzle pieces. The team that would finish first would be declared the winner of this challenge.

Josh took 18 minutes to reach the helipad and three minutes were cut off their time as Theo grabbed the bonus flag.

Bananas and Era 2 went up next and finished in around nine minutes after capturing the bonus flag as well. During Era 1's time, Tina grabbed two flags, resulting in a five-minute penalty, but they also grabbed the bonus flag. Era 3 finished the challenge last, picked up the bonus flag, and avoided making any mistakes.

Era 4 was announced to be the losers, resulting in Kyland and Michele heading into elimination of The Challenge 40. Era 3 ultimately won the challenge and did so under a minute on board. Jordan and Nia earned the power to decide which Era they would put in the elimination round. After that challenge, Olivia confided in Nia and shared that she had fallen for Theo.

Nia confessed that it was hard to choose anyone as she was friends with everybody but wanted to see the underdogs perform well. Afterward, the players in danger tried to put their case forward in front of Jordan and Nia as to why they shouldn't go into the elimination. During the elimination round, Jordan announced that Darrell and Tina would face Kyland and Michele.

The elimination challenge for episode 7 of The Challenge 40 was 'Boxster-Phobia.' Challengers would have to find an escape route through sliding doors and rods, and crack a code found on the doors— whoever did it the quickest would be safe from elimination.

Michele went up against Tina and despite Michele having to go back to see the numbers correctly, Michele won. In the men's challenge, Darrell and Kyland went up against each other and Kyland won the bout. This meant that Era 1 was left with just two challengers in The Challenge 40 as Tina and Darrell were eliminated.