‘The Challenge: Total Madness’ Live Recap & Elimination Spoilers for Episode 7

On the last episode of The Challenge: Total Madness, things ended after the semi-truck challenge without an elimination battle, so this week, we’ll find out which ladies are headed into the arena. Plus, things are coming to a head with Jenna Compono and her boyfriend, Zach Nichols.

To find out what happens and who gets eliminated this week, follow along with our live recap but be warned of spoilers. Do not keep reading if you don’t want to be spoiled.

All times Eastern.

8:00 — When last The Challenge left off, Kailah Casillas and Stephen Bear made out and then there was major fallout. Jenna considered quitting because her boyfriend, Zach, is all mad about her hooking up with someone else when they were broken up. And after Nany Gonzalez and Jordan Wiseley won the semi-truck challenge, they chose Jenna to be the third Tribunal member and that’s where this week’s episode picks up.

Back at the bunker, Jordan says the plan is to get Tori Deal voted into elimination by the rest of the house, then the Tribunal will have Jenna compete against her and since Jenna’s heart isn’t quite in it anymore, Tori can probably win.

Jenna insists she’s not checked out; she says she wants to get her red skull so that she has a reason to stay and fight to get to the end. But Nany and Kailah both want to vote Jenny West in against Tori because Tori might be able to eliminate Jenny (someone no one wants to face in the final).

Never thought I’d see people campaigning for votes to go into elim. 😂#TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/idl9DyGBjR

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 14, 2020

8:05 — Meanwhile, Bayleigh Dayton is still crying over the challenge. She says the way Jordan was talking to her was not OK, but like — she was super mad at him for their loss and accused him of throwing it, which did not appear to be true at all. Plus, he pointed out that Bayleigh missed a puzzle piece, WHICH SHE DID. That loss is way more on her than it is on him.

8:10 — At the house meeting, Tori just asks to be voted in and a lot of people raise their hands to vote for her, which wraps that up. Then before they end the meeting, Nelson Thomas apologizes to Aneesa Ferreira for the way he spoke to her during the challenge and for making her cry. It’s very nice.

However, his kindness goes right down the toilet when he starts telling everyone that they are handing Tori a red skull because Jenna has checked out of the game. Kailah wants to defend her friend and say that Jenna hasn’t necessarily checked out, but Nelson won’t let her get a word in edgewise. He keeps shouting that “Kailah always has something to say!”, then it devolves into “You’re the foulest woman here! You have no respect for yourself! Go get f*cked in a porta-potty again!”

Whoa. The looks of shock on the other competitors’ faces tells you all you need to know about how out of line that was. What an a-hole. Wes Bergmann sums it up pretty well with, “Nelson is the only man in the world that can start off an apology about being more respectful to women before he calls one of the girls sitting right in front of him a giant slut.”

8:20 — Of course, everyone talks privately about how inappropriate Nelson is being, but nobody really tells him to stuff it. Bear kind of confronts Nelson, but it’s very mealy-mouthed. Of course, Kailah loves seeing anyone be nice to her, so she acts like what Bear did was really sweet. Ugh, ladies! A crumb of a nice gesture is not a high bar to clear! Be better!

@ me asking for praise after doing the bare minimum. 👏 #TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/P10bkaS16U

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 14, 2020

After the meeting, a bunch of the guys talk to Nelson about what he did, but they still aren’t really defending Kailah. It’s more like — don’t get so worked up, bro. Also, him saying “I take that back” about the slut stuff doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t say it to her face.

Kailah then hugs all over Bear and thanks him for standing up for her. Ughhhh, Kailah! No, girl.

8:30 — Everybody goes out to the local watering hole where Nany and Kaycee Clark are hitting it off. Kaycee has a girlfriend back at home but sparks are flying. Nany wants Kaycee to go with her to the bathroom (to make out?), but Kaycee doesn’t go, and while Nany is gone, Aneesa tells Kaycee to be careful. Then Nany overhears Aneesa talking to Kaycee and gets mad about her, saying she’s going to punch Aneesa in the mouth. Aneesa keeps trying to diffuse the situation, but Nany gets in her face and it almost turns into a real fight. Nany sounds pretty drunk, she’s really slurring her words.

8:40 — Back at the bunker, the fight continues, with Aneesa telling Nany to grow up, which Nany DOES NOT like. She throws her Cup o’ Noodles, yells at Aneesa about how she takes her clothes off for money and calls her a “corny-*ss b*tch.” So, tell us again how you don’t need to “grow up,” Nany.

“Thank god you have really bad aim.” 😂 #TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/g0v0yItAfU

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 14, 2020

8:45 — The next morning, Nelson apologizes to Kailah for crossing the line and says that’s not who he is. She’s very gracious to him, but privately, she says he’s done this before and apologized before and that makes it hard to believe him.

Meanwhile, Nany wakes up and now that she doesn’t have her alcohol goggles on, she’s super embarrassed about how she behaved. She apologizes to Aneesa and cries about how she talked to Aneesa. Aneesa accepts the apology and says this is a good step for Aneesa, but Aneesa still feels very alone in the game because she’s so much older than most of the other contestants, but Nany is really appreciative that she has such a good friend in the game.

8:55 — The Tribunal is worried about sending Jenny into the elimination battle because what if she wins and comes back? She’ll be out for blood. So they decide to interrogate Dee Nguyen, Kailah, and Tula “Big T” Fazakerley. Both Dee and Big T are mad about it, but like — first off, for Big T, you have to go in sometime, and secondly, they are required to pick three people, so it has to be somebody!

During the interrogation, Dee says if she goes into elimination, she WILL come back and she WILL be pissed off,” and Big T is also irritated and cries a little. They try to assure them that it’s nothing personal. Kailah is the only person who is chill about it.

9:00 — Time to check in with Jenna and Zach. He calls this “the most important phone call” they’ve ever had. He insists she cheated on him and she won’t even pay him the respect of coming home and he yells that they no longer have a house together, it’s HIS house. She says she didn’t cheat — and it sounds like she didn’t — and he is being a total jerk to her. Maybe this should be a big red flag to Jenna that Zach is NOT the one for her?

“If you don’t come home, I am literally done. Your sh*t will be in a box when ou come back. I’m out,” he yells.

“It sucks getting an ultimatum by someone you love,” says Jenna. Um, girl. Stop it. Look at what he’s doing. Is that someone you really want to marry?

9:02 — Dee complains to Wes about Jordan nominating her because she says it’s revenge for when Dee didn’t choose Tori early on and chose Jenny instead. Well, in a game like this, that’s not a bad reason. It’s fine for her to be mad about it, but it’s not unreasonable for that to be his reason.

Barbie Beast said, “LET’S GO!” #TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/MXo6nRdagM

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 14, 2020

9:10 — In the arena, Tori is joined by Jenna, who votes herself into the elimination battle. She says if she really wanted to quit, she would have just quit. She wants to get a red skull so that she has a reason to stay. The challenge is called “Dust to Dust,” which involves retrieving bricks, smashing it through a grate, and filling up a wheelbarrow full of debris, which they use to fill up a bin. The first person to get their bin filled to a certain line wins.

9:15 — Jenna’s technique of smashing her bricks from a standing position seems far superior to Tori’s technique of kneeling and trying to force pieces through the gate. Jenna’s wheelbarrow gets full so much faster the first time through. Jordan is losing his mind on the sidelines. He is being so distracting to Tori with all of his shouting.

The Hulk WISHES. 💪 #TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/4z2SCvZqPI

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 14, 2020

But Tori manages to finally get her technique down and catches up to Jenna. It’s neck-and-neck at the end, with them literally racing to dump their wheelbarrow first — and then neither of them have it, so they both have to smash more bricks. It is really intense.

I’M ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT! #TheChallenge35 pic.twitter.com/lr6iG90dMK

— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) May 14, 2020

9:25 — Finally, it comes down to the last wheelbarrow dump — I wonder how long this challenge lasted? It feels like it lasted a long time — and then Jenna pulls it out. Tori is going home. Most of the cast is elated, while Jordan starts screaming about Tori not listening to him. It’s really ugly. She has to kind of talk him down from berating her. Dude. You gotta chill.

9:30 — All the guys are excited because they “smell blood in the water” in regards to Jordan having to play without Tori there.

Next week: Does Big T have a medical emergency? And it’s a double elimination week!

The Challenge: Total Madness airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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