After Vinny and Sarah's shocking ousting from "Battle of the Exes," a traditional taste of "Challenge" antics was necessary to swallow the mounting tension. While Bananas, Emily and Diem declared water war alongside a staircase, Cara Maria struggled to break her ex (?) Abram out of his shell. The self-tattooer and veteran of the game said he had no intention of making friends with people who had proven they could throw him under the bus just as soon as they'd shoot him a smile.
Rookie Dustin, on the other hand, learned how dangerous the game can be for the very first time when he tripped up a small set of stairs and tore his knee open. Five stitches kept the bone beneath his skin from popping out, but no amount of preventive thread was enough to save his and Heather's standing in the game. Once the group arrived at a lagoon for its next mission, the kinda-sorta couple was sent packing. Judging by what was to come, though, the new kids were probably better off.
In "Mental Connection," pairs were pitted against each other in a game of high-stakes trivia. If they got a question right, they earned a point. If they got one wrong, they were catapulted a terrifying distance into a pool of murky water. Evidently, the humiliation of spelling a three-syllable word incorrectly (yeah, that happened...) was not punishment enough.
While Paula and Rachel came through big for their teams, It was Dunbar's ex-fling that fought hardest and earned the duo the coveted Power Couple standing. Leroy and Naomi ensured themselves a second trip to The Dome with a last place finish, but Aneesa drew the shortest stick of all for her ignorance surrounding Billy Joel's ex-wife and paid the price with a monster tumble that left her face busted.
Back at the house, Emily's stomach turned when she saw how clearly Dunbar and Paula struggled to choose the second team that would be put up for elimination, and her fears were compounded by a sit-down talk in which D&P told the exes from D.C. that they were possible Dome contenders. When the rubble hit the road, Paula went with her gut, and Emily swore she'd get revenge on her former "Cutthroat" victim.
In "Banded Together," Teams Green and Yellow were challenged to reach a pole on the opposite side of the arena while strung together by an anchored elastic band that resisted movement as the four progressed. While Ty and Emily had a rough start, they eventually got their footing and blew Leroy and Naomi out of the water.
+ See if the Challengers have learned from their mistakes in the "Ex-ual Tension" clip below, in which they're asked some of the same trivia questions months after filming:
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