‘The Challenge: Total Madness’ Stock Watch: Jay Money, First Name Last Name

Episode 3 of The Challenge: Total Madness continued our trend of daily challenges with wildly excessive vehicle budgets, as this time the contestants played as individuals to crack a code by running to two different code keys, with the two winners getting to blow up cargo trucks with a comically large amount of explosives.

CT was the first to successfully crack his code, while Swaggy C struggled to figure out what he had incorrect on his, while his fiancee Bayleigh managed to figure out that she could cheat off of other people’s boards if they had the same character as a shortcut and got herself into the Tribunal. After some deliberation, she and Swaggy C convinced CT to add him as the third member of the Tribunal, promising to give CT first crack at sending himself in to elimination to earn his red skull if he wanted to.

Back at the house, Johnny Bananas and Ashley M. feuded over who was more manipulative and a worse person, with Ashley working back channels to try and flip the house’s vote to Bananas by getting the girls to not vote Jay in — as Dee had decided Jay was cute and a way to piss off Rogan. At nomination, Bananas and Jay were neck-and-neck in votes, but Nelson suddenly began racking up votes, snapping at Kailah and having a minor melt down at becoming a target. Wes proved his (early) loyalty to Bananas by voting Jay, shifting the balance of power officially and, effectively, ending Ashley and the other’s bid to put him in. Jay, the only one with a red skull, was voted in and then made out with Dee in front of Rogan.

Rogan lobbied to get a chance to go at Jay in elimination, with Nelson and Bear as the other two, but when they arrived in Purgatory, CT chose to send himself in. The elimination was pretty great, with the two getting 20 minutes to barricade a door and then they had to get through what the other person had done to get inside the shelter and turn on a light. Everyone assumed Jay was toast after CT went to work tying an ungodly knot with multiple ropes and chains, but CT’s back started locking up as he rifled through cinder blocks, trying to smash them to avoid having to untie the ropes Jay had run through them. Jay managed to just make it inside and flick the light on before CT in a massive upset that stunned the house to earn a second red skull.

Now, to Stock Watch!

STOCK UP

Jay: The obvious winner of this episode is Jay Money, who has now won two eliminations and took out one of the best competitors in Challenge history in the process in an elimination that seemed tailor made for CT. He only has one real enemy at this point in Rogan, and even with that he’s managed to not get too caught up in whether Dee actually likes him or is using him and happily went to sleep while Rogan and Dee yelled at each other about him.

The Unholy Alliance: We’re already onto the second official name of the Wesnanas Alliance, but whatever you call them, this nomination was a big step forward for their friendship in this game. Wes could’ve thrown Bananas in immediately, but (wisely) chose to back him up and keep their plan intact. They’re kind of adorable as much as two highly manipulative human beings can be, and it’ll be fun to see how they play things as we go along.

Bayleigh: Coming in second in that daily was impressive, as was convincing CT to save Swaggy C by adding him to the Tribunal, and then they had a level-headed Tribunal session, happily let CT hop down into the elimination and proved they can be worked with. She remains an oddly strong character for being a rookie, but she proved she’s a pretty strong competitor in this challenge — and also proved she’s clever enough to find shortcuts, which is necessary in this game — and seems to be playing a solid social game on top of that.

STOCK DOWN

Ashley M.: Ashley got worked up by Bananas, tried to turn the house against him, got thwarted by his alliance with Wes and Nelson being an idiot (more on that in a moment), and then snapped on everyone and said “I don’t care if y’all throw me in next week,” which never bodes well. It’s not looking great for her, which isn’t surprising because it never really did once this whole red skull business came about, but for to get everyone mad at you before a women’s challenge isn’t the best timing.

Nelson: Things got real for Nelson expeditiously on this episode as he suddenly found himself in discussion for this week’s nomination by the house and reacted poorly. He burned a bridge with Kailah, who then fired a vote at him and ruined the plan of sending Bananas in. Now he suddenly has a target on his back and has made life for his main alliance, Cory, “a living hell.” Not great!

Dee: Gonna start calling her Sweet Dee, because she is making decisions about as well as Sweet Dee from It’s Always Sunny. She decides to get back at Rogan by flirting with and making out with Jay, who now clearly knows she was just using him after she chased after Rogan when he left their bunk. She insists Rogan is her “ride or die” but can’t stop yelling at him, and she as among those trying to powerplay Bananas but that failed — although that won’t bite her as much as it will Ashley because she’s Wes’ best friend on the women’s side. She’s a really good competitor but after not choosing to go in last week for a layup red skull, she followed it up by being sloppy this week and seemingly can’t get out of her own way.