‘The Challenge’ Season 42 Finale Ends With ‘Captain’s Fee’ Twist

We have a winner! After two grueling days in the hot, hot sands of Thailand, The Challenge Season 42’s finalists completed the test and declared a winning team. Warning: The following post contains spoilers for The Challenge Season 42’s finale.

After the events of part one, Team Orange still had to face the eating portion of their challenge — with poor Will Gagnon being the unlucky teammate who received the gross drink — while Team Gray had to face the giant ball rolling segment. After that, they arrived at their compounds (where, apparently, there was no bathroom) to take turns manning the watchtower and painstakingly filling their power canisters with tiny beads.

On Team Orange, the guys were particularly struggling. On top of Will’s bad knee, he and Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio’s feet were completely covered in blisters. Meanwhile, Chris “C.T.” Tamburello was still grappling with his fatigue and endurance issues, leaving captain Tori Deal and Michele Fitzgerald frustrated with a slower pace.

Things weren’t much better for Team Gray, with Cassidy Clark still struggling, but Cara Maria Sorbello stood watch for an outsized share of time to help the others recover. But with a 10-minute advantage for Team Orange, they faced a devastating disadvantage in the final stretch of the race.

Kaikungwon Duanjumroon / Paramount+

Day two saw the teammates challenged to assemble their power source and then engage in a 10-mile race through the jungle, collecting puzzle pieces along the way. At the end, they’d have to assemble their puzzle.

If that sounds easy, well, it wasn’t, but after some major bickering sessions, Team Orange managed to outrun Team Gray and blow up their opponents’ compound, thus becoming The Challenge champions. This was a first-time win for Michele and Will, a second for Tori, a sixth for C.T., and an eighth for Bananas.

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After the celebrations were done, though, there was a bit of business to take care of. As T.J. Lavin previously revealed, it was exclusively up to the team captains to decide whether and how to split their winnings.

On Gray, Adrienne Naylor decided to keep an extra $5,000 for herself and split the rest evenly. While Alexis Lete was a bit offended by the suggestion that Adrienne had earned twice as much as her, Cara Maria had a different reaction — she returned the money and said she was satisfied with the UFC tickets she’d gotten. Considering they had only $25,000 in the team pot to dispense with, the stakes were nowhere near as high as they were on Team Orange.

With the $500,000 winnings, plus the extra $25,000 earned earlier in the season and the $25,000 added with the final briefcase find, Tori had to decide how to divvy up a massive $550,000. So her teammates were temporarily very stunned when she announced that she’d need to take a “Captain’s Fee” until she revealed just how much that would be: $1 from each of them. Considering she could’ve taken it all and run, the others were grateful they’d put their trust in the right leader.

With that, another season of The Challenge is in the books, with two new champions to speak of and a whole lot of win-hungry runners-up still hoping for another shot to get that W.

The Challenge, Paramount+