‘The Challenge: Total Madness’ Fans Debate Effectiveness Of The Red Skull Twist
Season 35 of The Challenge is coming to an end, and three players are left without the coveted Red Skull. The twist was introduced this year, marking the first time in the show’s history it was required to win an elimination in order to run the final. Host TJ Lavin announced the twist right before the first elimination of the season, which shocked all of the cast members. This drastically changed how the game was played, as competitors now sought to throw themselves in over trying to avoid elimination in all the seasons before.
Fans are torn on the Red Skull twist, however, and debates have sparked on Reddit. On The Challenge subreddit, several posts tackle the topic of Red Skulls and if they were ultimately pointless or not. Originally, it looked like the final would approach and Challengers wouldn’t be eligible if they hadn’t won an elimination, meaning a purge would ultimately occur. But next week proves there are two more eliminations which means that if the right people are chosen, all the remaining players will have a Red Skull.
“Does anyone else think there are too many chances for a red skull? It’s sort of defeats the purpose if everyone has a chance to earn one. I would love to see the fence sitters who have been scared like Josh and Kyle being told at the end of this past episode that there aren’t any more chances. Otherwise, it makes people like CT and Wes look silly for thinking they had to go for it so quickly,” one fan questioned in a popular thread.
As viewers began throwing in their input, many realized that the twist was good for the show, but how the cast handled it was the problem. Instead of throwing in competitors who already had Red Skulls into eliminations, two “fresh” players would end up heading down into Purgatory. Only two Red Skull holders were thrown in for a second time, who came out on top.
Dee Nguyen won her second time around after being blindsided, but took out Mattie Lynn Breaux, and won an extra, but unnecessary Red Skull. Jay Starrett was thrown into elimination three times but ultimately lost to Rogan O’Connor.
It’s likely producers thought there would be more backstabbing and efforts to take out stronger players, but the cast didn’t work with the twist that way. Fans on the subreddit noted that strong competitors like Jenny West and Fessy Shafaat should have been thrown down repeatedly in order to have a better chance at them being eliminated so they couldn’t run the final.
The loser vote was also a flop, as Challengers began volunteering themselves to go in, eliminating a lot of drama and backstabbing that could have occurred. The four players without a Red Skull are Bayleigh Dayton, John Martinez, and Kyle Christie. To see who goes home in Wednesday’s upcoming eliminations, you can check out our spoilers.
If The Challenge wants to move forward with the Red Skull twist in future seasons, some changes will have to be made to make it more of a looming threat.
