Darrell Taylor and Tina Barta

The Challenge fans might’ve reasonably expected Era 1 to be the one to beat on Season 40 a.k.a. Battle of the Eras, but that has decidedly not been the case. Instead, the Challenge elders have seen their team absolutely decimated, with every single week’s arena costing them a number.

In the first week of eliminations (which, to be fair, required each era to compete amongst themselves) it was Mark Long and Katie Cooley who had to pack their bags prematurely. In week two, Jodi Weatherton said goodbye. In week three, Aneesa Ferreira went home. Then, in week four, everyone’s favorite uncle Chris “CT” Tamburello lost in a shocker. 

Coming into week five, there were just four remaining players on Era 1: Darrell Taylor, Tina Barta, Rachel Robinson, and Derrick Kosinski. So the loss of not one but two more players — despite a college-try performance in a scary daily challenge and some light bargaining efforts in the deliberation — in Wednesday’s (October 2) episode was devastating.

In “Trust in Your Era,” the daily challenge was a daunting one, especially for Darrell. Called “Leap of Faith,” four players from each team had to jump from a 56-story building, grabbing a series of flags along the way — in other words, all of Era 1 had to participate, including the notoriously heights-averse Darrell.

“What fear?” he joked to TV Insider when asked about his decision to take that leap of faith. “OK, I’m not gonna lie. So, yes, after Tina grabbed two flags, and I knew that there was no way we were gonna win this challenge — we had a 5- or 10-minute, whatever it was, penalty — I was like, in my head, ‘I ain’t got to jump. What’s the point of jumping? I’m going in either way it goes.’ That I kinda knew. But I jumped anyway, and I did it, and I’m glad I did it. Did I like it? Hell no. Is my fear of heights getting better? Hell nah. It’s about the same, but I just tried to tell myself I’m not gonna die.”

Ultimately, it was Era 3 who nabbed the daily win and got to decide who to send into the arena. And, despite some pretty heartfelt pleas from the arena-battered targets on Era 1 (who’d both previously won elimination bouts), Darrell and Tina were sent in. Did they think their pleas at the table would work, though?

“Hell no, I didn’t think it was going to work,” Darrell said. “They had their mind made up from day one. Nehemiah [Clark] is so close to Nia [Moore], I knew that from the gate there’s no way.”

“We knew it was coming,” Tina agreed. “We were just getting irritated because it was like lip service. Jordan [Wiseley] and Nia were trying to have their last five seconds, and we’re like, ‘Why am I trying to negotiate with you when I could already see it in your eyes that you’re shut down the moment I talk to you?’”

Tina Barta, Rachel Robinson, Darrell Taylor, and Derrick Kosinski. Cr. MTV

Tina’s reaction to the decision to put them into contention for elimination was still quite aggressive, as she was seen giving them both a very loud piece of her mind while packing her things.

“I still love the both of them. Jordan has a temper and so does Nia and so do I. It’s easy for us to understand each other because we know where it’s coming from. It’s not a place of hate; it’s frustration,” she explained. “Jordan understands that, Nia understands that, and I understand that. They knew it was because I was hurt. That’s where all that anger was from. I was hurt. I wanted to stay in the game. They’re my friends. But … it’s a gut punch every time you find out you’re going into elimination, and it’s far worse if you’re voted in.” 

Neither of them could have foreseen just how on defense the all-star-stacked Era 1 team would be all season long so far: “I did not see that coming at all,” Darrell said of the non-stop barrage of eliminations they’d have to face. “I don’t know why we can’t get right. I thought the experience we had would do us good, but obviously, some things don’t change.”

“I didn’t think so either,” Tina agreed. “However, I didn’t realize how big of names we have … and how much they precede us. And so that we did not take into account going into the game, how your name can, as much as it causes fear, can cause detriment to your game.”

Darrell added that their length of experience might’ve added to their woes right off the rip: “We had these big personalities … We wouldn’t listen to each other because we thought we all knew our way was the best way,” he explained. “We act like we’re listening, but we’re really not. Now that, I will say, happened on the first challenge when we had the boat and I thought we had it in the bag, but everybody’s yelling. Yeah, that was chaotic.”

Cr. MTV

During the “Fast Pass” challenge particularly, when Tina was a target alongside CT and ultimately had to go into the arena, she made it abundantly clear to her teammates that she felt her ideas were being ignored altogether.

“It happens every time I think maybe because I do kind of stick in my corner and I stick with my group and my team that I really don’t open my wings up,” Tina explained. “I opened my mouth when I shouldn’t and I shut it when I should [have spoken up].”

As for what made the difference in this week’s elimination, in which they both were slightly slower than their Era 4 counterparts — Kyland Young and Michele Fitzgerald — they both had a simple answer: It was the math that did them in.

“What’s crazy is I know math, but it’s just different when you know something and then you have to do it under pressure,” Darrell explained before revealing a new phrase inspired by fellow competitor Josh Martinez. “All of a sudden, I had to Josh it. I just had to Josh it. Josh tends to panic in elimination a lot. I was fine until I saw the number. I had the number in my head, and then when I saw the ‘times two’ I just had a … I don’t know, I went to the sand. It’s a three-digit number times a one-digit number. I didn’t need to go to the sand for that. I just had a brain fart.”

In the end, for Tina, being in Vietnam, where she traces her ancestry to on her mother’s side, made the journey completely worth it, no matter how much her team struggled. “That is, I would have to say, the number one thing that I took away from this, is being able to go to Vietnam and connect stories that my mother told me,” she said. “Just to connect the dots and to go, I mean, yeah, Season 40 is a very, very special season for me personally because it is in Vietnam, and 20 years later, that’s when I’ve come back, going back into the big leagues.”

The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV

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