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The Challenge: All Stars 2, Episode 8 recap: Competitors get pre-final test, elimination twist arrives

the cast of the challenge all stars 2 in episode 8
The Challenge: All Stars 2 cast assembles for a daily challenge in Episode 8. Pic credit: Paramount+

As Episode 8 of All Stars 2 opened, King’s Palace celebrated in their room with Nehemiah Clark, Melinda Collins, Jasmine Reynaud, and Teck Holmes dancing and singing.

Jonna Mannion walked in, and Nehemiah told her she couldn’t be part of the celebration right now since she voted them into elimination last episode.

Nehemiah said in confessional that if someone’s voting them into elimination, they obviously don’t want them there. That’s why they didn’t let Jonna celebrate their return to the game.

A house divided, Jonna and MJ on same page

Later on, Janelle Casaneve spoke with Brad Fiorenza as Jonna was with them. Janelle said Jonna was told to leave the room when she went to see some of the King’s Palace members.

Brad spoke in a confessional about a divided house. King’s Palace with Nehemiah, Melinda, Teck, Jasmine, Ayanna Mackins, and Laterrian Wallace are on one side. The other side includes Brad, Jodi Weatherton, MJ Garrett, Jonna, Janelle, and Darrell Taylor.

Ayanna talked about Teck as a “source of joy” who lets her talk and listens to her issues. In confessional, Teck said he has a double challenge going on, and his other challenge is keeping his teammate Ayanna sane in the game.

MJ spoke with Jonna in private about partnerships and alliances. MJ talked her up in the confessional, saying she’s a good physical competitor and a good political player. She told MJ that she felt she could defeat Jodi in the final.

Jonna realized she hadn’t had a supportive partner in The Challenge until now. They showed older Challenge footage of Zach Nichols criticizing Jonna on their season working together.

Dive & Conquer Challenge arrives as test for final

All Stars 2 host TJ Lavin greeted the competitors for the latest daily challenge and told them today they’d find out who has what it takes to run his final.

Their daily challenge was Dive and Conquer, with teammates tethered together by a rope. It involved a half-mile run to a cenote they had to jump into and swim to get to an answer key. They needed to memorize the answer key, then rush back to the start and try to solve the puzzle.

TJ told them they could go back and forth as many times as needed to check the answer key for their puzzle. However, it was a one-mile round trip each time. TJ said the team to solve the puzzle quickest would win.

He also shared that there would be no Lifeshield won in today’s challenge, but the winners would be safe from elimination, and the worst-performing team would automatically go in.

Jasmine was afraid to jump into the cenote, but Laterrian comforted her, and she eventually jumped. In the water, the key had a lot of colorful steer skulls to memorize for the puzzle.

the challenge all stars 2 competitors in divide and conquer mission
Teammates try to memorize an answer key for The Challenge: All Stars 2, Episode 8 mission, Dive & Conquer. Pic credit: Paramount+

During the event, Ayanna admitted her fear of remembering important things, comparing it to how others feared heights.

During the puzzle-solving, Ayanna yelled at Laterrian to accuse him of cheating, which upset LT. In confessional, Teck said Ayanna needs to chill out because Laterrian’s in their alliance.

Jasmine fell at one point on their run back to the cenote and realized her ankle was hurting bad. Laterrian said his partner had a lot of heart, but they had to keep going because others might get rid of King’s Palace.

Teammates started to get frustrated with each other on the puzzles, and the physical exhaustion of running back and forth to the key wasn’t helping.

MJ and Jonna eventually called for a puzzle check and won the daily challenge. Darrell and Janelle finished in second, followed by Brad and Jodi. The worst-performing team was Jasmine and Laterrian.

Later, Jasmine broke down in tears at the house, questioning if she was really a worthy All Stars competitor. Jodi comforted her and told her not to sell herself short.

Daily winners choose nominees, cast voting gets heated

MJ and Jonna had to choose two teams as nominees for the elimination that their castmates would vote on later. They contemplated playing it safe with nominees or going after a major threat to win the final like Brad and Jodi.

Jonna said she didn’t want to miss the opportunity to put one of those threats on the board like Brad and Jodi or Darrell and Janelle. MJ encouraged her to put one of those teams on the board but laughed and said he was joking.

They went with the other members from King’s Palace as their nominees: Nehemiah and Melinda and Teck and Ayanna.

Later on, the cast had an outdoor party at The Challenge house. Once it was over, Ayanna went around cleaning up the mess and called her castmates “privileged babies.”

Later, Jodi said she’d gone looking for a Greek salad she had. Ayanna commented to her about helping to clean up unless she felt “too privileged to do it.”

Jasmine said she’d had enough of how Ayanna was acting. She confronted her, and Ayanna kept telling her not to get involved and walked away from her. Jasmine started yelling at her outside over what had happened. In confessional, Ayanna said Jasmine acting this way shows her insecurity.

That gave castmates a reason to vote for Ayanna and Teck later on at the deliberation meeting the next day. However, the most votes went to Nehemiah and Melinda since many felt they were the stronger threat as a team. During the meeting, Ayanna confessed to Jodi that she had eaten her salad, and she made a joke with how she retold it, which cracked up castmates.

Jodi wasn’t upset in her reaction at the meeting and told her she hoped she enjoyed it since she paid for it. Jodi said it was “really weird and creepy” for Ayanna to do that at the meeting in a confessional.

Who went home from All Stars 2, Episode 8?

Melinda jokingly imitated Nehemiah’s swagger walk out into the Arena when TJ introduced them. Castmates laughed about it, and TJ told Laterrian and Jasmine, “they smoked you guys in the walkout.”

They competed in Like Clockwork with two giant glass cases in the Arena. One teammate went inside the glass case, and on the floor of that case were six different gear combinations. The person in the case had to communicate the patterns to their partner outside to try to create the right gear combination on a puzzle board.

Sand was also pouring down on the person inside the case, complicating it for them to look at the gear patterns. The first team to get it done would win, stay in the game. In a twist, TJ also said they’d receive the last Lifeshield, which meant they were automatically in the final. Meanwhile, the losing team would go home.

the challenge all stars 2 like clockwork elimination event
Melinda Collins and Nehemiah Clark compete in The Challenge: All Stars 2 Like Clockwork elimination. Pic credit: Paramount+

Jasmine and Laterrian struggled a bit with communication. LT was getting sand in his eyes and getting frustrated inside the case. Melinda said in confessional she had a game on her phone similar to this, and it helped.

Nehemiah and Melinda picked up a much-needed win to earn the Lifeshield and a spot in the final. Meanwhile, LT and Jasmine had to say goodbye to everyone. In the exit interview, Laterrian said while he’s disappointed to have to go, he’s happy for Nehemiah and Melinda. Jasmine said that she was ready to go home to see her husband and kids.

Melinda and Nehemiah became the first team to officially qualify for the All Stars 2 final with the win. TJ told everyone else to get out of there and prepare for the last daily challenge before the final.

The Challenge: All Stars 2 episodes arrive Thursdays on Paramount Plus.

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