The Challenge 40 episode 8 recap: Challengers bring their inner Gladiators out as alliances change mid-game

One of the longest-running reality TV shows, The Challenge released episode 8 of its 40th season on October 9 at 8 pm ET/PT on MTV and Paramount+. Tonight's episode saw a battle erupt between the challengers who channel their inner Gladiators in order to take out their competition and move forward in hopes of winning the prize money of $1 million.

Last time around, a vote from one team caused a rift in friendship, leading to challengers questioning whether they were ever on the same page. Contestants from past seasons return to compete against other challengers in four different groups dubbed as Eras.

22 players remain in the competition as Tina and Darrell were eliminated last week, leaving Era 1 with just two challengers on The Challenge 40.

The latest episode saw challengers questioning their existing alliances as they competed in a Gladiator-themed episode. TJ Lavin returns as the host of the show.

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What happened in The Challenge 40 episode 8?

As the teams came back from the elimination round, the targeted players from each era were Derrick & Rachel (Era 1), Derek & Cara Maria (Era 2), Cory & Averey (Era 3), and Theo & Jenny (Era 4). However, the alliance between Eras 3 and 4 started to crumble as more and more members of those teams were called out as targets.

Cory expressed his desire to cut ties with Era 4 and hoped to work more closely with Era 2 instead. This prompted Derrick to approach Theo and reveal that since Eras 2 and 3 are getting close, Era 4 should work with Era 1. While in Era 2, Ryan wanted to avoid Bananas and Laurel, and decided to move out of their room.

The daily challenge for today was “Battle for Honor,” in which contestants had to survive and be the last person standing to win the challenge.

The challengers would compete in two separate rounds (men & women) and use Roman army-inspired shields to push opponents into the water.

For the men, Eras 3 and 4 had two players each standing in the arena while Era 2 had 1 and Era 1 had 0 by the time the challenge ended.

Next were the women, and when the game ended, Era 4 won with six of their seven players surviving. This meant that Jenny and Theo were in power, which prompted the duo to plan against Josh and Kaycee from their own era.

The next morning, in the Era 4 team meeting, Michele called the result a “sham” and claimed Theo and Jenny were connected to Era 2, which is why they won.

Eventually, Jenny and Theo decided to throw Averey and Cory into the arena with Rachel and Derrick, who volunteered to go against Cory.

This irked Cory and he confronted Josh and Kaycee since they did not vouch for his stay. Cory also stated that they should consider Era 3 and 4's alliance as finished.

Later at the elimination arena of The Challenge 40, the challengers would face off in “Fate of the Gladiators”. Each player could either be a striker or an evader.

The striker would be wearing boxing gloves and a blindfold while the evader would be wearing a suit of armor and targets over their body. The striker's goal would be to hit as many targets to win the challenge.

Rachel and Averey went against each other with Rachel being the striker. Averey was unable to avoid Rachel's blows and took a lot of hits to her face.

When it was time for Averey to be the striker, Rachel ran around the ring and avoided her. This resulted in Rachel winning the bout.

Next up were Cory and Derrick and the former got to be the striker first. Cory hit a lot of the targets and Derrick in the head a lot of the times. Derrick responded equally well when it was his turn to be the striker.

After the battle, the two competitors shared their mutual respect and admiration despite their conflict.

TJ revealed that both of them hit all the targets but Cory was able to do so faster, resulting in Derrick's defeat.

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With Derrick and Averey's elimination, 20 players remain on The Challenge 40 which will air its next episode on October 16, 2024, at 8 pm ET/PT.