Who went home on The Challenge: USA? (Week 5 recap)

Betrayal is in the air, but did we really expect anything less from The Challenge: USA?

This week’s episode highlighted the issues that can come with having undying loyalty to an alliance. After all, only one can be crowned winner of The Challenge: USA, and if getting closer to victory means cutting off allies sooner rather than later, then, unfortunately, some of your favorites have to get a little blood on their hands. But how soon is too soon?

Here’s everything that you missed during last night’s episode of The Challenge: USA.

The Challenge: USA episode 5 recap

A new week means new teams are formed. Once again, there were a few teams that definitely weren’t a match made in heaven.

On paper, Cashay Proudfoot and Tyson Apostol and Melvin “Cinco” Holland Jr. and Azah Awasum seemed like pretty agreeable teams, especially in terms of their respective social games. However, during the competition, all their compatibility went out the window, as both ladies from each team weren’t the best swimmers. Even still, there was no team worse than Sarah Lacina and Leo Temory—these two were like oil and water socially, mentally, and, of course, physically.

Week 5 Competition: “Barreled Treasure”

For this week’s competition, players were required to swim to a halfway point where they will find their team’s numbers. After memorizing the numbers, each team had to swim even further to a boat containing over one hundred large barrels. There, players had to find two barrels displaying their team’s number. From there, they would retrieve the puzzle pieces in each barrel to later assemble on the dock.

Sounds easy, right? Well, here were the restrictions of the competition.

The first handicap was that teams could only open one barrel at a time, meaning after they found their first corresponding barrel, they had to swim back to the start, place their puzzle pieces down, and dive back into the water to obtain their second barrel. The second handicap was, should players open any barrel not belonging to them, they had to swim back to the halfway point before swimming back to the large boat.

In the end, despite Derek Xiao and Cayla Platt’s strong lead (and despite Cashay accidentally opening the wrong barrel), Cashay Proud and Tyson Apostol were able to bridge the gap and solve the puzzle faster.

Winners: Cashay Proudfoot + Tyson Apostol

Losers: Azah Awasum + Melvin “Cinco” Holland Jr.

During deliberation, Cinco warned Azah not to name any team she wants to go against, for his ex, Cashay, will be quick to manipulate that information and use it to her advantage. Because of this, week 5 winner Cashay and Tyson were left with no other choice than to throw in a person no one wanted to team up with in the house because of his unserious nature. But the problem with this choice was that his partner was an ally everyone knew better than to mess with.

Week 5 Elimination Competition: “A Dark Turn”

Competitors: Melvin “Cinco” Holland Jr. and Azah Awasum + Sarah Lacina + Leo Temory

In this elimination, each team had to enter a very dark room where they will find a tower consisting of different-sized pieces. Once the order of the tower was memorized, each team had to recreate the fixture in the light. The first to do so won the elimination.

Although they didn’t get on well during the house competition, Sarah and Leo display remarkable teamwork during elimination. So much so that they were able to come up with a flawless strategy before entering the dark room. This game plan gave them a leg-up over Cinco and Azah, who rushed into the dark room without talking it over as a duo.

In the end, slow and steady won the race, as always.

Week 5 Eliminated Team: Melvin “Cinco” Holland Jr. and Azah Awasum

Now that Tyson showed his fellow Survivor alum, Sarah, his cards, his game very may well be in danger. What will Sarah do to get even? We’ll have to tune in next week to find out!

Catch an all-new episode of The Challenge: USA on Wednesday, Aug. 10, on CBS. And don’t forget to stream every episode on Paramount+!