The Champs finally invade ‘The Challenge’ & it’s the Underdogs ‘worst nightmare’

Tuesday night’s (Feb. 21) episode of “The Challenge: Invasion” should’ve felt empowering. In any other season, it would have been hugely satisfying to watch the Top 12 contestants, all having rightfully earned their spots, move from the piss-poor Shelter camping grounds into their new palatial digs at The Oasis. But even before Season 29 premiered, viewers knew that eight previous “Challenge” champions were coming to Thailand to once again compete… And that none of the competitors already in Thailand even had a clue.

RELATED: ‘Invasion’ will be the best season of ‘The Challenge’ ever. For real. And here’s why

Watching the Underdogs break bread in The Oasis, literally jumping for joy to have clean towels, running water, and a refrigerator stocked with booze, we could only shake our heads with pity. Sylvia is in shock she’s even still in the competition (and honestly, so are we). Cory, Dario, Jenna, and Tony are sitting pretty and confident, while newbies Amanda and Kailah have that “don’t sleep on me, I’m gonna take over this game” gleam in their eyes.

As The Top 12 spend the evening partying with glee, leaning into their crushes and casually hooking-up, at home we’re yelling at the TV, “No! Lay off the alcohol! Get some rest, stay focused!” They have no idea what hell tomorrow will bring. And as the Underdogs walk out to meet host TJ Lavin the next morning, the moment we’ve been waiting on for nearly 4 episodes finally happens. Out come The Champs.

Johnny Bananas announces, “No need to hit yourself. You’re worst nightmare has just come true,” and the Underdogs’ faces as Bananas, CT, Zach, Darell, Cara Maria, Camila, Ashley K., and Laurel strut into the “The Challenge” arena is a mixture of shock, fear, and the small hope that this is a joke. Tony, mirroring everyone’s first thought when news broke that this particular veteran would be retuning, “Holy s***. Cee. F******. Tee.”

CT is clean-shaven and looking swole. He’s not skipping out on time with his newborn to just play around, he’s really intent on kicking butt this season And Tony, Cory, Nelson — all these guys who just the night before were thinking they’d be each other’s toughest roadblock to earning the crown, are shook. Their egos, gone.

But no one is more thrown for a loop than Jenna. Seeing her ex Zach walk out, she readily admits that all her old feelings come flooding back. “It’s really upsetting,” she says, and we feel for her. This is the same guy that publicly cheated on her while she was competing on the show last season — and now, after not seeing him for so long, they’ll living together in The Oasis. Did he sign up with the intention of getting Jenna back? Or is he still with Becky with the good hair?  An entire bottle episode could be dedicated to just this storyline.

But the upcoming challenge and elimination is everyone’s main focus. The level of competition is so high. The girls from The Champs look like they just won the Crossfit Olympics, and the boys are clearly in tip-top shape. Stacking their odds to win even higher, most of these Champs have a history with each other. They’ve competed against one another before, know each other’s strength and weaknesses, and this will bode well from them should a team challenge arise.

However, numerous questions are left unanswered. Are The Champs living in a separate mansion? Are the Underdogs in peril of losing their Oasis spot to a Champ? And then will he or she instantly go home, or get sent back to The Shelter until the elimination round? Since the episode ends with a cliffhanger, we’re going to have wait on clarifying these details until next week.

What makes this season so fiercely competitive is that the person who comes out on top will rightfully be the greatest “Challenge” winner of all time. Sorry Bananas, but if it’s one of the Underdogs that manages that win, he or she will instantly receive a veteran level respect, something which usually takes years to earn — in some ways, that’s the most dramatic thing about this “Challenge” cycle.

“The Challenge” airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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