With The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies, viewers saw the return of Amber Borzotra as a surprise replacement early in the season. Many fans loved it, but some of the cast may not have been happy to see her back.
The Double Agents champion arrived in a sports car, got introduced by TJ Lavin as a winner, and became Josh Martinez’s teammate for the Episode 2 daily mission.
However, that quickly put a target on her back. In episodes after that, she seemed to be getting a lot of “hate” from various castmates, based on comments in confessional interviews or online.
That especially popped up in Episodes 6 and 7, with rookie castmate Esther Agunbiade getting into it with the Big Brother star during a blowup in Challenge headquarters.
Esther exploded at Amber in Spies, Lies & Allies
In the fourth episode of Season 37, Fessy and his rookie teammate Esther won the daily challenge, making them The Agency. They held power to send one man and one woman into elimination and opted to send in Hughie Maughan and Amber.
Amber seemed to have no idea it would happen, and Josh had tried to persuade Fessy not to do that ahead of the elimination. That caused Josh to blow up in the stands towards Fessy based on his game decision. Luckily for Amber, she and Hughie won the elimination to return to the game.
After getting “blindsided” by Fessy Shafaat in Spies, Lies & Allies Episode 4, Amber continued to hold some resentment and anger towards Fessy in the episodes after that. So did her teammate Josh Martinez, as he and Fessy hadn’t spoken for nearly a week.
That eventually led to the enormous blowup viewers saw in Episode 6 with Fessy and Josh getting in each other’s faces in The Challenge house.
Not only did they clash, but Fessy’s partner Esther decided to get involved. She began to scream at Amber during the argument and eventually threw her drink in Amber’s face.
In the early part of Episode 7, Amber confronted Esther for throwing a drink in her face, and Esther apologized, leading to them hugging. In a confessional shown just after that, Esther still said she thought Amber was fake. However, they seemed to be amicable.
Esther received warning, but still eliminated
Following the big fight, TJ Lavin handed out warnings and punishments the next day. Josh and Esther got warnings, while Fessy got kicked off the season for getting physical with Josh.
TJ also told the cast they had 15 minutes to figure out who was getting voted into elimination, and if they didn’t, he would decide for them.
At deliberation, Esther became the easy choice for everyone to vote in, as the rookie no longer had teammate Fessy Shafaat around. During deliberation, she also made a speech saying it would allow her to choose her partner with a win.
The Agency, Kaycee Clark and Emanuel Neagu, sent in Emy Alupei as her opponent since Emy also wanted to pick a new partner, CT Tamburello. Emy would go on to win a redesigned version of Hall Brawl 2-0 over Esther, eliminating her from Spies, Lies & Allies.
As cast members congratulated Esther on her season and efforts, she had words for Amber, who told her, “Well done.”
“No, don’t tell me ‘Well done’ because you’re fake, and you’re a pretender,” Esther yelled to Amber, adding, “Everybody knows that. Best believe, if I come back, I’m coming for you.”
Why was Esther mad at Amber after elimination?
Based on a tweet from superfan and insider @jaychallenge1 on Twitter, Amber went to get medical attention after Esther threw the drink in her face.
According to the rumor, Amber claimed that her “eyes were swollen” and “she couldn’t see.” It’s believed this was an attempt to get Esther kicked off the show for throwing the drink, despite patching things up with her in the episode.
Their castmate Amanda Garcia confirmed the above rumor, as she replied to the tweet saying that’s why Esther was so upset with Amber after elimination the next day.
Based on comments on The Challenge: Aftermath show following Episode 7, Esther said she and Amber don’t have a relationship following Spies, Lies & Allies, seeming to indicate they could be rivals if they both return again on a future season.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.