The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies recap: Bertha

Last week on the season premiere of The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies, a rookie started a rumor based on a lie to take out a female threat. This week, a vet started a rumor based on a lie to take out a male threat. It worked both times! The cast is really taking the whole "Lies" part of the title to heart right away. So who was the unlucky victim this time? Let's get into it!

As soon as the cast gets back to the house after Ed's sudden arrival at the elimination, Gabo tries to get to know The Circle alum while Ed unpacks shirtless. Ed isn't giving away much aside from saying he likes "all" music and he's here to cause chaos, but if you haven't watched Ed on Netflix's reality show, all you need to know is that his energy in this scene really is his energy always. He's constantly smiling, positive, and super entertaining. He's got a brain plus it looks like he's got the body to do some damage in challenges, so he could be a rookie to watch.

As the cast parties out by the pool with a lot of questionable dance moves on display (looking at you, Bettina and Tori), the night ends with Tori and Kelz cuddling in bed, which we all saw coming from a mile away. But the more shocking new couple is Nelson spooning with Berna on a couch — because he came on this season already hooking up with Ashley. And then after Berna leaves him on the couch, he gets up and immediately crawls into Ashley's bed to have sex. This is not going to end well, since Nelson denies that anything is happening with Ashley while she's confessing her feelings for him in interviews. Yikes.

The next day Michele approaches Tracy to apologize for stealing Devin as her partner and they hug it out. Over in the weight room, Kelz is impressing everyone with how much he lifts while simultaneously flirting with Tori, unaware that a group of vets, led by Josh, is plotting his downfall in the game. And once again I'm impressed by Fessy's dedication to fasting for Ramadan during a season of The Challenge. He can't even have water to prep for what could be a grueling physical workout! Mad respect to you, Fessy. That can't be easy.

The Challenge: Heli Heist

This week's daily sounds awesome to compete in, but kind of boring to watch. Two teams a time compete, with one person in a helicopter tossing down bags of gems to their partner who is waiting below, hanging out of the sunroof of a car racing along a runway. The partner in the car tries to catch each bag and then once the cars come to a stop, they race to the finish line with all their bags of gems. The team that recovers the most gems the fastest wins.

First up is Tori (helicopter) and Corey (car), against Tacha (helicopter) and Jeremiah (car). Both teams just start dropping bags at a fast pace, with only some ending up in their partner's. hands in the cars below. At the end of the course, Jeremiah takes off like the Flash with his 18 gems and this dude has some speed. But Corey has 19 gems so he automatically wins the round. Next up is Kaycee (helicopter)/Emanuel (car) and Cory (helicopter)/Bettina (car) — and once Bettina's laugh makes my jaw drop. Even Cory can't get over his partner's wheezing guffaw:

Kaycee just makes it rain on Emanuel, chucking down bag after bag, and he takes off at lightning speed with a whopping 28 gems. Bettina finally finishes with 20. Next is Big T (helicopter)/Tommy (car) and Emy (helicopter)/Ed (car), and then Emy reveals she's deathly scared of heights, so going in the helicopter was an interesting choice for her. She's already shaking and the challenge hasn't even started. If she can't handle this daily, she's going to poop her pants in a real heights challenge. Both women don't throw well, and Ed and Tommy finish at the same time. Ed only has 13 gems so Emy breaks down crying and makes a whole scene when she returns to him, thinking she now looks like the weakest.

Next up is CT (car)/Berna (helicopter) and Ashley (helicopter)/ Hughie (car), with CT beating Hughie in the foot race and only getting 16 gems, and Hughie finishes with 10 — so at least Emy isn't the weakest! The rest of the teams finish as follows: Aneesa (helicopter)/Logan (car) with 15 gems; Kelz (car)/ Tracy (helicopter) with six; Michele (helicopter)/Devin (car) with 20; Amanda (helicopter)/Kyle (car) with 25; Nany (helicopter)/ Gabo (car) with 26; and Priscilla (helicopter)/ Nelson (car) with 26.

Before the last round of Fessy/Esther and Josh/Lauren, TJ makes an announcement: Lauren has been "deactivated" from the game and Josh needs a new partner. Say what?! Another player gone with no explanation or footage of their exit. Iiiiiinteresting. But Josh's new partner pulls up ... and it's Amber B.! She walks in screaming, "The champ is here!" and Josh couldn't be more excited for his partner upgrade. Not only is she last season's female winner but she's also a Big Brother alum, which you'd think would make for another number in his alliance. But will last season's beef with her and Fessy mess that up?

So now the final round is Amber (helicopter)/Josh (car) vs. Esther (helicopter)/Fessy (car) but we don't get to see their results. And that's because TJ announces the top two teams are Fessy/Esther with 30 gems and Kaycee/Emanuel with 28, so the winner of the day is Fessy/Esther. Now they form The Agency, and that worries all the vets since Fessy has shown his true colors when it comes to loyalty time and time again. Will he take a shot too early and mess up the veteran alliance now that he has power?

Back at the house, Amber and Josh have their first team meeting, and she tells him she's mad at both Fessy and Kaycee for how they treated her and what they said about her last season. Josh decides to try and play peacemaker to fix the Big Brother alliance. Smash cut to the cast going out to an actual private club for the night. No Club COVID this season! Ashley tells Nelson she has feelings for him, and then Nelson tells Berna how much he likes her, right in front of Ashley. So of course that blows up later at the house, and Ashley gets mad at Berna instead of Nelson about the whole situation. And then Ashley and Nelson argue but they both call Berna "Bertha," and I know I shouldn't be laughing but that's pretty funny.

Nelson then says Ashley only "wanted to jump into the picture" after he showed Berna attention, but didn't Nelson crawl into bed with Ashley the night before, and prior to the season even starting?! Why isn't anyone getting angry at Nelson for how he's gaslighting both of these women? This is ridiculous. Now CT is worried that Ashley is going to try and send his partner home — and he's right, because she's already yelling, "Get her out of the house right now!" This is a mess that Nelson started and yet everyone else seems to be catching the heat instead of him.

But it doesn't end up mattering this time because the next day the vets conspire on which rookie-rookie team will be the house vote, and Nelson/Ashley/Berna aren't in the conversation at all. And then we see Devin and Josh's very first conversation about strategy now that they are allies and it's like hell has frozen over! All the vets want to throw in Kelz much to Tori's chagrin, but she knows she can't go against the new and fragile vet alliance to save her new crush. It's just too early to rock the boat.

Deliberation

Josh immediately calls out Kelz for making too many deals and being "shady." But Kelz says he hasn't made any promises to anyone. When Josh pushes back and says that's a lie, Kelz says Josh isn't known for being the "tactical smartest person in the room," and Tori's hiding her smile behind her hands. Kelz calls on everyone one-by-one to prove how he hasn't made deals with anyone, exposing Josh's lie. You've got to respect Kelz for holding his ground, but the vets have already made up their minds. And Kelz knows that he's being played by them. Esther makes a great speech about how everyone should vote for who they don't want to see in the final, but the house vote ends up being Kelz and Tracy. Tori pretends to be shocked but this was a done deal before the deliberation even started. The vet alliance claims its first victim.

Now Kelz has a fire lit under him and the rest of the rookies are shook to see how the vets orchestrated this vote. But the real drama is happening outside where Fessy floats the idea of voting in Amber with his power as The Agency. Josh immediately tries to veto that, promising Fessy that Amber won't come for him. And if Fessy votes her in, that would be messing up Josh's whole game, plus going against the vet alliance the first chance he has power. Will Fessy finally prove his loyalty or will he vote in Amber? Let's find out!

Elimination

At The Lair, Esther votes for Emy as the female, and Fessy actually backs it up, sending Emy in — Amber's safe! For the male, Fessy decides to use his power as a "trust building exercise" with the male vets and votes for Ed, and Esther makes it official, sending him in. Emy breaks down again, crying and shouting, "F--- these snakes!" for betraying her. Meanwhile Ed is just excited for his first elimination, especially since there's a puzzle involved.

Elimination challenge: Flipping Agents. One player is strapped to a table as their partner flips them completely over so they use a magnetic line to retrieve 12 puzzle pieces from the ground. Then teams solve the puzzle to win.

Emy and Ed get the rhythm down quickly and take a lead early on while Kelz gets frustrated with how Tracy keeps dropping the puzzle pieces. But the teams are pretty neck-and-neck as they get the final blocks because the women can't figure out which two out of the six sides of each piece are magnetic. Emy can't get her final piece, giving Kelz and Tracy time to catch up. Emy finally gets the last piece and Ed realizes the puzzle is a map of the world immediately — Devin tries to yell out what it is from the sidelines and Ed's hilariously just like, dude I know! Finally Tracy gets her final piece and it's a race to finish the puzzle, but since Ed places each piece where it needs to go right away like he's done this before, Kelz and Tracy don't stand a chance. Ed and Emy win, sending Kelz and Tracy home.

As for Ed and Emy's decision: Ed says while they've been the "dream team so far," they know they have to infiltrate to stay alive in this game. Ed chooses Tori and Emy picks ... Devin. He really is the "No. 1 draft pick" this season! That means last week's elimination winners Corey and Michele are making it official as a team now, and they know the target is really on their backs.

Challenger of the week: Ed for absolutely beasting that puzzle and having the best attitude about going into elimination. This is the kind of Challenger we love to see compete!

Related content:

The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies recap: The veteran alliance claims its first victim

The Challenge: Heli Heist

Deliberation

Elimination

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