MTV’s competition series, The Challenge, is known for sneaky moves, backstabbing, and other betrayals associated with the game, leading to fractured friendships and ruined relationships.
During The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion, several friendships became fractured or no more because of the game.
In particular, Nurys Mateo seems to have ended friendships with two castmates due to their decisions and gameplay during the season.
It’s already no secret that Nurys had a falling out with former friend Olivia Kaiser, which came to light in Episode 16. It’s unclear if they’re working toward resolving that friendship.
More recently, Nurys said her “friendship is over” with Jay Starrett after being friends for five years.
This report will contain spoilers – including elimination results from the Season 39 final.
Nurys reveals her and Jay Starrett’s ‘friendship is over’
Many fans were unhappy with Jay’s appearance on The Challenge Season 39, as the former Survivor contestant rode with a large alliance to the final. Due to the alliance, Jay and five other castmates who reached the final never participated in any eliminations.
However, Nurys went into two of them just before the final, both of which happened because friends opted not to save her when they had the chance. The first instance featured Olivia saving Moriah Jadea instead of Nurys. After that moment, Jay cried over how he couldn’t keep Nurys safe.
An episode later, Nurys returned from elimination and found herself near the bottom of the order again. Jay chose not to save her this time, and host TJ Lavin called him out again. Nurys won a second-straight elimination to return to The Challenge house and made it to the final.
During her recent appearance on Zach Nichols Podcast, the topic of Jay came up, with Nurys speaking about how her friend did her wrong on Season 39.
“I think he’s probably disappointed me the most. Not even being on the season, but watching it back and how many times in every interview, ‘Nurys never had my back.’ I had your back. It’s delusions at this point,” she said regarding Jay.
“I watch it back, and I’m like, ‘These people are all really stupid,'” she said, referring to some of her castmates.
Nurys explained she didn’t want to “talk bad” about Jay but didn’t want to be his friend after what transpired during the episodes.
“The friendship is over. I don’t like him as a person. I got to see his true colors in a lot of different ways, and I just don’t like who he is at all,” Nurys said.
“He should’ve never came at me, because I’m the wrong one,” Nurys shared.
Karma arrived for Jay during the Season 39 final
While Nurys was disappointed in Jay, he’s likely disappointed in his performance at the Season 39 final. As mentioned, he and Nurys were among the seven finalists, along with Corey Lay, Moriah, Colleen Schneider, Berna Canbeldek, and Emanuel Neagu.
TJ revealed that first, second, and third place would all earn money, with the winner receiving the most of the prize money.
The final was split into three phases, like the season: Control, Chaos, and Conquest. Things kicked off with Control, where the finalists worked as a team to complete a mission, but they could not do so within the hour time limit.
Due to that, the finalists had to vote for one person to go into elimination, and then that person got to call out an opponent. Corey was the majority vote, with Jay among those voting for him.
Corey then called out Jay, seeing him as a threat to win and a snake who made it to the final with others doing his dirty work.
The former allies competed in an event where they had to retrieve bags of puzzle blocks and then race back to the starting spot. From there, they had to stack those blocks on a table, which they balanced with the use of their legs.
Corey impressed everyone with his speed and ability as he was locked in and won the elimination. That meant it was Jay’s time to say farewell after all the work he’d done behind the scenes to reach the final.
“Jay crossed some people, and everything you do in this game will always come back to get you. I don’t mean to giggle a little bit, but karma’s a b***h,” Nurys said in a confessional interview shown after Jay’s loss.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.