Katie is a little drunk and finds a plunger in her bed. As you do. She knows the culprits are Evan and Kenny, who crack up as she tells us that “looking at their ugly, smug faces makes (her) want to punch them.” Katie wishes she didn’t let the guys get to her so much, but she does and informs Kenny and Evan that she hates them.
When they’re not antagonizing Katie, Kenny, Evan and Johnny like to rip on Tonya, who everyone agrees is an easy target. They throw baby powder at her while she stumbles around in a stupor and she doesn’t appreciate this. “Yeah, I get drunk and I fight and I get stupid and occasionally, a boob pops out. But there is a line with me and you crossed it,” she says. The next day, Tonya cries to some of her teammates about how she’s going through a lot in her real life and how she wants to stop being That Girl. Ibis hopes she gets the help she obviously needs.
Later, Katie finds another plunger in her bed and flips out. Sarah, who happens to be in the room, finds this amusing, apparently unaware that one of Katie’s personal rules is “Don’t laugh at me when I have a plunger in my bed, bitch.” Sarah is not into confrontation and says she would rather exit scene than get into it with Katie. She doesn’t say this fast enough, however, and Katie, who is very much into confrontation, screams and shoves her out the door. Johnny compares Katie to The Exorcist. The Champion guys assure Sarah that they think she’s cool.
Burning Bridge
Burning Bridge is basically a swimming relay. Team members take turns swimming out to a bunch of platforms that are chained underwater. The platforms make a bridge, which someone walks across to light a fire in the middle of the ocean. Wes, a former state swimming champion, gets The Champions off to a good start. Sarah, a pretty kickass swimmer herself, closes the gap. The Challengers have a strong lead until Casey screws everything up, as usual. She has trouble holding her breath long enough to unlock the platform and actually moving the heavy platform, so she ends up sitting on it while her teammates complain about how much she sucks.
In the pre-Ruins deliberation session, Darrell and Katie volunteer themselves, figuring they’re going to go in eventually so they may as well get it over with. Their opponents will be Danny and Sarah. While the meeting was less intense than usual, the rest of the house is just as much of a dramatic hotbed of insanity as it always is. Johnny tells us Tonya is one of the most unstable people around and he’s floored when she manages to out-insane herself. Back in the premiere, Susie predicted the Champions’ prior histories with each other would be the team’s undoing. This is what she was talking about: Tonya is drunk and upset over all those times Veronica was mean to her on prior Challenges. Veronica couldn’t care less. Tonya leaves the room and comes back, just in time for her to overhear Veronica tell some other girls how she has multiple personalities and is the “United States of Tonya.”
Burning Hatred
Inside, Tonya is done getting picked on by Veronica and slaps some Ramen noodles out of her hand. Veronica enjoys Tonya’s ensuing meltdown and continues to laugh and poke at her. Tonya finally snaps and slaps her across the face. She manages to get in another slap and a decent hair-pull before the fight gets broken up. Knowing she’s just gotten herself kicked off the show, Tonya dissolves into a pool of tears.
Wes, who is surprisingly reasonable and astute regarding things that don’t involve him, thinks the whole situation could have been avoided if Veronica hadn’t engaged the drunk girl. However, he thinks Veronica is too immature and too much of an asshole to walk away. Johnny, Kenny and Evan chastise Veronica, who can’t believe they’re taking her attacker’s side. Wes thinks they’re a bunch of hypocrites, given how they treated Tonya most of the time.
The tug of war-style elimination round is called Oh-Ring. Suspended from wires, both competitors place their hands on either side of a large metal ring. The object of the game is to wrestle the ring away from the other person, twice. Katie wins the first round of the female heat. Sarah fuels Katie’s trash-talking and bird-flipping into winning the next two rounds, and she’s happy to send Katie home. Champions like Kenny and Susie are equally happy to see Katie sent home, since she is the closest thing the team has to having Casey. Danny and Darrell do a lot more wrestling, going back and forth and spinning each other around, but Darrell wins The Ruins. Having lost Danny, the Challengers team now has seven players, one of whom is Casey. They are toast.
Back in the house, Kenny and Evan lie on a bunkbed together and have a powwow behind a sheet like they’re 11-year-olds telling ghost stories at a sleepover. They figure out the next person they’re going to plot against, presumably before they triple dog dare each other to snort Pixie Stix and say “Bloody Mary” into the mirror three times.
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