The Challenge: Ride or Dies will feature teammates with close bonds doing their best to work together through challenging daily events, intense eliminations, and the delicate politics of the game.
With the season’s theme, pairs working together are husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, family members, or friends.
Their bonds will hopefully help them work together effectively, although that’s questionable as stress builds during the season.
Along the way, some cast members will undoubtedly have arguments and falling outs with one another due to the nature of the competition show.
However, it appears that could start up with the premiere episode, based on the synopsis that has arrived online.
Additionally, the show is famous for host TJ Lavin springing surprise twists on the cast members, and it appears a “cutthroat” one is on the way in the first episode.
Ride or Dies, Episode 1 synopsis hints at early drama
The premiere episode of MTV’s The Challenge Season 38 is called Don’t Die for Me Argentina and may rev up the intensity for the episodes ahead.
“Ride or Die partners hope to prove that their bonds can outlast the competition, as they battle for a massive cash prize; Laurel and Turbo get off on the wrong foot, TJ reveals a cutthroat twist disguised as a friendly gesture,” a synopsis via IMDB for The Challenge: Ride or Dies, Episode 1 reads.
Interestingly enough, Turabi “Turbo” Camkiran and Laurel Stucky are both former Challenge champions. Turbo was the sole winner in the War of the Worlds season, while Laurel is a champion of Free Agents. Both cast members return to the MTV show after surprising exits from the War of the Worlds 2 season.
Viewers watched as Laurel initially seemed to win her elimination battle against “Ninja” Natalie Duran, which involved scaling a large tree and placing branches in specific holes all the way to the top.
However, production determined Laurel didn’t place her final branch in the correct spot. Ultimately, Ninja won the event, and despite Laurel’s best arguments that she deserved a restart, she had to leave the show.
Returning champ Turbo had a much different exit, as it was due to his explosive temper. After some instigation from castmate Jordan Wiseley following a daily challenge, Turbo was ready to fight the fellow Challenge champ, but security held them apart at the house.
He eventually got removed from The Challenge house to stay at a hotel to cool down, but then it turned out he didn’t return. Turbo was disqualified for the season due to the altercation, which also involved threatening staff or security.
The recently-released Ride or Dies super trailer featured several scenes involving Turbo and Laurel, but not necessarily in the same scenes. Both were scenes involving getting confronted by Nany Gonzalez.
Speaking of drama, it’s already started online, as several rookies reacted to the super trailer or each other’s tweets about it, suggesting more is on the way from them.
What is TJ Lavin’s ‘cutthroat’ twist for Ride or Dies?
The Challenge is known for surprises, such as the twist in The Challenge: USA spinoff involving The Algorithm, which assigned teammates “randomly” for each episode. The Spies, Lies & Allies season had several twists, including a twist midway through the season where a competitor sent into elimination could call out their opponent.
Online details have revealed at least one surprise for the Ride or Dies season, as there are Heavy Hitters teams that will join the competition throughout the season. One of those teams features seven-time champion Johnny Bananas and Nany.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the twist the IMDB synopsis mentioned. Instead, it could be something about how the elimination decisions are determined.
The super trailer revealed what appears to be a similar meeting room to Spies, Lies & Allies, so there may be some sort of voting done by the daily challenge winning team or the entire cast to decide which team goes into elimination.
Returning Challenger Jay Starrett also mentions in the super trailer that “the draw is where you get the dirty work done,” seeming to suggest something similar to drawing symbols in other seasons.
The way that worked was competitors would each turn over a card or pull a card ahead of the elimination to determine their fates. If a player drew one type of card, they were safe. If they drew another specific symbol, they were going into elimination or could choose a castmate to send in.
Ride or Dies eliminations will take place at The Zone, a unique venue for the nighttime battles. Based on the super trailer, they’re going to be pretty wild.
Fans will soon see if TJ’s “cutthroat” twist in the opening episode involves elimination decisions, the draw, or something else!
The Challenge: Ride or Dies premieres Wednesday, October 12, at 8/7c on MTV.