'The Challenge' Competitor Fessy Shafaat Will Need a New Alliance if He Wants to Win
Sep. 15 2021, Published 8:34 p.m. ET
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Episode 4 of The Challenge: Spies, Lies, & Allies.
When MTV’s The Challenge, Season 37, Spies, Lies and Allies debuted it seemed that the Big Brother alliance was in full effect. Kaycee Clark, Josh Martinez, and Fessy Shafaat came into the new season having each other’s back just like they did in Season 36. Amber Borzotra even expressed joining the alliance and told Josh that she could be a major asset considering how well she performed last season. However, Kaycee and Fessy seemed reluctant to work with Amber B (even though Josh wanted to).
In Episode 4, things came to a head during elimination when Fessy voted Amber in with the support of Kaycee, which completely blindsided Josh and Amber. In front of the entire cast, right before the elimination, Josh started arguing with Fessy, and things got pretty heated. Josh made it clear that he was turning his back on Fessy due to the latter's history of betraying his allies.
When Josh spoke to Kaycee about the betrayal, she told him she didn’t understand why he was so invested in Amber B and that she didn’t want any part of this drama. Now that Josh is no longer part of the alliance, Fessy has another person who will be campaigning to get him thrown in an elimination. If Fessy thinks he can count on his veteran ally Kaycee to help him get to the finish line, he may need to have a backup plan. Can Fessy truly trust her this season? Here's what we think.
Can Fessy trust fellow competitor Kaycee on 'The Challenge'?
During The Challenge: Double Agents, Kaycee dumped her partner Leroy Garrett to run the final with Fessy. However, Kaycee ended up getting injured, which partly cost her and Fessy the million-dollar prize. During the reunion special, Fessy pretty much blamed their defeat on his partner’s knee injury. Ultimately, what got the two eliminated from the finale was that Fessy gave up after Kaycee was hurt — he refused to compete in the eating challenge.
Now that Kaycee is in a newfound romance with Challenge veteran Nany Gonzalez, she could have a stronger alliance with Nany than with Fessy. We’re sure Kaycee hasn't forgotten how Fessy threw her under the bus last season and would have Nany’s back versus Fessy's if it came down to it. Unfortunately, in this game, a common way to make it all the way to the end is backstabbing one's allies.
Fessy has backstabbed quite a few people in the past, and Kaycee is way too smart to let Fessy mess up her chances of getting to the finale. It’s quite possible that Kaycee could be just using Fessy to make it further, and when the time is right, he’ll be given a dose of his own medicine.
This isn't the first time Fessy has blown up an alliance on 'The Challenge'.
Fessy has totally lived up to his Challenge nickname "Messy Fessy." Last season on Episode 4 of The Challenge: Double Agents, Fessy betrayed Nelson Thomas, even though they were in an alliance together. The house voted Nelson and his partner Amber Martinez into elimination because they thought it would be a women's challenge elimination day. At first, Tori Deal planned to go up against Amber to win a gold skull.
However, when they saw that the elimination would be the game hall brawl, Fessy whispered to Tori that he wanted to go against Nelson himself. Nelson was entirely blindsided by having to face Fessy in elimination and, unfortunately, was sent home. After the shady move, the rest of the alliance was upset with Fessy, and they went their own ways after learning they couldn't trust him. In a post-elimination interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nelson discussed the betrayal.
"What did I do for a friend to backstab me in the way that he did, especially after we worked together last season and we got so close?" he asked.
Fessy has burned bridges and thrown others under the bush a time or two throughout his Challenge career. He may need to form an entirely new alliance to get himself through to the finale this go-round. It will be exciting to see how the rest of the season unfolds, and if Kaycee can be deemed trustworthy.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on MTV.
