The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion continues to heat up with drama as alliances navigate the Conquest phase en route to the final.
With this phase, there’s a purge in each episode’s daily challenge based on whoever finishes in last place from the cast.
The daily challenge winner gets safety from the Conquest elimination later in the episode.
They also set off a chain reaction vote, determining the three competitors who will fight for survival in that elimination.
Once again, the season’s prominent alliance leaders found themselves squirming as they tried to devise a plan to eliminate their toughest opponents.
This report contains spoilers from The Challenge Season 39, Episode 16, including the names of cast members who were eliminated.
Who went home in The Challenge 39, Episode 16 purge?
Competitors again competed individually for the second daily challenge of the Conquest phase.
This time, it was End of the Line, an event in which competitors slide as far to the bottom of a rope as fast as possible without falling into the water.
James Lock was the first to fall early in the event, putting himself at risk. Horacio Gutierrez set the bar early for the competitors as he quickly got to the bottom of his rope.
Later, Kyland Young and Jay Starrett performed well, seemingly indicating one of the guys would win the event.
Ed Eason and Corey Lay also fell off their ropes into the water, putting them at risk. At the end of the event, when TJ Lavin revealed the worst performer, Ed had to say goodbye to his castmates due to the purge.
That depleted Jay’s alliance by one individual. However, Jay was announced as the daily challenge winner, giving him safety from elimination and the first choice to save an additional competitor.
A shocking moment fractured a friendship
Jay and Michele Fitzgerald’s alliance controlled the voting chain, just like in the previous episode. Jay opted to save his ride-or-die Michele ahead of his other friend, Emanuel Neagu. However, Jay wanted to save a lot of other people, including Nurys Mateo, and he couldn’t control things as he wanted.
Olivia Kaiser and Nurys tried to get Jay and Michele to keep them both safe, but somehow, it only worked out for Olivia. She was Michele’s early pick for safety. Olivia then shocked Nurys, Kyland, and Horacio when she opted to save Moriah Jadea over any of them.
As one might expect, Moriah saved her showmance, James, and then he saved Emanuel. Berna Canbeldek, Colleen Schneider, and Corey Lay were all saved. That left a final three of Nurys, Kyland, and Horacio to go into the elimination.
Nurys felt betrayed by Olivia and later confronted her about what she had learned from her brother during a video call earlier in the season. She said she didn’t believe it when her brother told her not to trust Olivia, but he was right.
TJ surprises competitors at the latest Conquest elimination
Nurys, Kyland, and Horacio met TJ at the private Conquest elimination, which involved another obstacle course with three different puzzles. TJ also dropped the bombshell on them that instead of just one player getting eliminated, there would be two going home this time.
It was a bittersweet moment as the three friends battled one another during the elimination. However, Nurys gained an early lead on the guys by completing her first puzzle while they struggled on a tangram puzzle.
Nurys kept going to complete a second puzzle ahead of the guys. Horacio decided to leave his tangram behind and go after another flag while Kyland struggled with it.
It seemed to be a close race as Horacio planted two flags to tie things with Nurys. Kyland also gained some momentum. However, Nurys finally completed a puzzle station she’d struggled with involving balancing three piles of blocks on a platform.
While she won and TJ praised her impressive victory over the game’s two top men’s competitors, it was an emotional moment as she knew she was saying goodbye to her showmance, Horacio, and close friend, Kyland.
However, the three played the game true to one another and their word, so they had nothing to be disappointed by. Horacio thanked Nurys for making the season a much more enjoyable experience for him.
Kyland and Horacio left the game, with TJ saying he hoped to see them return in the future. Nurys started walking back to The Challenge house and said she was “ready to raise hell” after what happened.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.