Challenge Powerhouse: Is Big T Taking Over Total Madness?

By her own admission, Big T — a Brit-bred Challenge import who got her begin on Shipwrecked — is hardly the largest, the meanest or the likeliest to leave you shaking in your boots. Yet on the latest Total Madness installment, she proved she had some rather big tricks up her sleeve and gave her housemates reason to believe that while her exit on War of the Worlds 2 was an early one, she may have some staying power on her second Challenge go-around.


On the show's fourth episode, the game got colder — literally — in "Cold War," which challenged players to accomplish a puzzle indoors a freezing cold warehouse. Immediately after separating into teams of five, some players were tasked with extracting hulking puzzle pieces from a frigid pool and completing a subsequent brainteaser, while others sought to create conditions all of the more unbearable for their opponents by breaking off chunks of ice and sliding them down into the water.


The game proved to be such a physical strain that, halfway by means of the mission, Nelson had to be rushed to the hospital right after showing signs of hypothermia. Yet for Big T, Aneesa, Kaycee, Bananas and Bear, the game was no sweat, and the fivesome was awarded difference the virtue of the newest Tribunal members. This was especially essential for the females, who were consequently safe from elimination.


Though it was Big T's first time in the driver's seat, she wasted no time setting a couple of schemes into motion, giving players like Kam and Wes — master strategists — a run for their cash. First, privy to the fact that the residence was sick of Ashley, T immediately trashed her alliance with the two-time champ and supported the house's bid to throw her into Purgatory.


More impressively, Big T started thinking big-picture while in a night out at the bar. Keenly aware that the "Holy Trinity" — Jenna, Kailah and Nany — were the most ironclad women's alliance in the game, she pulled each player aside one by one, falsely gave each the impression that she proposed to nominate one of the three into the forthcoming elimination round and, in the process, exchanged safety for herself from the father, the son and the holy spirit.


"My plan is to do a deal with them so that they think that they require me to keep them safe," T mentioned. "Good plan? I think so."


Even to seasoned vets like Johnny and Wes, it was an astounding performance.


"Big T is arguably one of my main go to people I've ever met on a Challenge," Johnny mentioned.


Still, even with the Holy Trinity deal secured, T's wheelings and dealings didn't stop. While in the interrogation of the Tribunal's three picks — Tori, Mattie and Dee — Big T continued attempt to cut deals with fellow players and executed her pitches so smoothly that she gave some other players in the room whiplash.


"Damn, Big T -- you just grew up right before our eyes," Johnny said.


(Ultimately, Tori didn't take T's bait, yet it was a valiant effort nonetheless.)


So while it was Dee who was eventually voted into Purgatory unanimously, and though she decisively eliminated Ashley in "Code Breakers," it was Big T who may have taken the largest step forward toward control of the game. What do you think: Could Big T take control of Total Madness, and was her (very close) loss to Georgia in War of the Worlds 2 a potential fluke? Share your thoughts on how far you think she can go, and be sure to tune in to the next Challenge!