[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for The Challenge Season 41 Episode 12, “Punch You In Your Face.”]
Another supervet went down in humiliating fashion on The Challenge‘s newest episode. This time, it was Derrick Kosinski, usually a major threat in any arena, who met his match in Theo Campbell.
Derrick had been riding a high with partner Dee Valladares after winning the previous daily challenge and placing in the Top 3 in the one before that. However, their luck ran out in The Running Man-inspired challenge, which required the teams to free a car from a container by matching their key with the lock, then drive over to a work station to remove the car’s hood, find a tracking device, and deliver it before it self-destructed. Aviv Melmed and Yeremi Hykel, who finished last in the challenge before, landed in first place; meanwhile, Derrick and Dee finished last. Talk about a twist of fate.
For the house vote, Leroy Garrett came up with a plan with Sydney Segal (who was afraid Adrienne Naylor might stake a claim for her partner, Turabi “Turbo” Çamkıran) to convince his own close friend Aneesa Ferreira that she would become the target, thus preventing Theo and Adrienne from staking a claim. It worked like a charm, too, because Theo, Adrienne, and Olivia Kaiser overheard his conversation with Aneesa and bought it, hook, line, and sinker. So when T.J. Lavin asked whether anyone wanted to stake a claim, Theo and Adrienne stayed silent, and then the ruse dropped, and they were voted into the arena.
Derrick was confident enough about facing the arena, noting that he’d “slayed dragons” before, and even first-timer Dee was “oddly relaxed” about it. However, Theo wasn’t feeling too bad about it, either — his psychic warned him he’d face three eliminations but still make it to the final, after all.
The arena itself was favorable enough to Derrick and Dee. In “Bad Dreams,” they were challenged to each sit on beams and smack each other with “weapons” (essentially, a pillow fight) for five heats. Derrick’s history of winning “dog fights” was well-documented, and Dee had a background in martial arts. However, Theo struck hard, fast, and often, and established his dominance over Derrick right away. Although Dee had Adrienne’s number for most of the rounds, her winning meant the teams had five consecutive draws, which resulted in a tiebreaker. By the flip of a coin, T.J. determined that the men would have a sudden death rematch while standing on the beams, and the inevitable happened.
“I’m getting my a** kicked. I’m embarrassed, and I’m shocked on how bad I’m doing,” Derrick admitted of his performance. Later, while standing alongside Dee, he tearfully added, “This was the worst performance of my life. I’m sorry I let you down. That was awesome what you did. I’m just shocked on how bad I did.” Dee, for her part, graciously assured him he did not let her down while still acknowledging that she won her part again and again and again.
Though Theo won the arena, his performance after the bout is bound to cause problems for him, especially after he used the “p-word” while shouting at Turbo, who accused him of having no honor. Will he stake a claim for Turbo’s partner the next chance he gets? We’ll see next week!
The Challenge, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV
More Headlines:
- ‘The Challenge’: Another OG Champion Goes Down in ‘Worst Performance’ Ever
- ‘Survivor 49’ Recap: Who Was Voted out in Episode 4? Tribe Swap Causes Shakeup
- The Labubu Craze Hits ‘Abbott Elementary’ in Season 5’s Epic Ballgame Episode
- ‘Chicago Med’: Torrey DeVitto Says ‘There’s Better Closure’ to Natalie’s Ending Now
- ‘Jeopardy!’: 5 Things to Know About 18-Year-Old Contestant Delaney O’Dea
Commented