A trip to The Challenge finale is on the line — and Paulie Calafiore looks downright broken as he attempts to climb a "torturous" obstacle
Times are looking tough for Paulie Calafiore as the finale looms on The Challenge: War of the Worlds.
And you can file that under things we never thought we’d say this season.
Calafiore has downright dominated throughout War of the Worlds, winning challenge after challenge, both with partner Natalie “Ninja” Duran and on his own. So imagine our shock when MTV slipped us this exclusive sneak peek clip from tonight’s episode.
Calafiore, 30, looks downright broken as he tries — and fails — to climb a rope ladder not once, but twice.
“My heart sinks,” Calafiore’s girlfriend, Cara Maria Sorbello, says after the Big Brother alum’s first crash into the water below from the very top of the ladder. “It’s terrifying to see a fall like that.”
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Making matters all the more devastating, we already know that this week’s is a “purge challenge,” meaning the last-place male and female competitor goes straight home, rather than into an elimination round. And those who make it through will enter the final.
“I think the cold water’s getting to him and this is one of the most torturous things I’ve seen,” Theo Campbell says. “I’m now panicking, thinking, ‘If he can’t do it, then what if I can’t do it?'”
Everyone can see Calafiore is starting to lose the mental edge that got him this far, and, in a rare moment, even host T.J. Lavin starts cheering him on.
“Don’t quit, bro! You got this!” Lavin shouts.
“I’ve come crashing down from 50 feet in the air. I am hurting. My body can’t feel a thing,” Calafiore admits. “This is one of the most defeating moments of my life. The only thing that is keeping me from staying in that water is my own will and desire and pride.”
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Will that be enough? Or is this the end of the road for the one player who seemed a shoo-in to go all the way to the finish line this season?
The Challenge: War of the Worlds airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.