by Gina Scarpa

On this week's episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Exes, Johnny and Camila once again became the power couple, voting in Rachel and Aneesa into The Dome to face Paula and Dunbar. The girls struggled in the "Band It Together" challenge and Dunbar reached the pole first, sending them home. Today, we talked to Rachel and Aneesa about being paired together, people bringing up old issues in the game, and how it felt to be the only all female team on The Challenge.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: How did the two of you feel about being paired up as exes?
A. Aneesa: I thought it was pretty cool! We talked every day before the show.
A. Rachel: I was excited by the fact that Aneesa and I could really kind of hold our own and see how far we can really get in this game, obviously being very different. Aneesa is a great friend! We didn't know exactly what the theme was going to be, but I knew she was going to be my friend in it. She was the only real friend I had going into it. Mark, I talked to every now and then but it's more like a friendship/business relationship. With Aneesa, it was a real friendship. We're a part of each other's lives outside of this.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Did you feel at a disadvantage, being the only all female couple in the competition or did that just motivate you further?
A. Aneesa: I think it's a motivational thing. I think that we felt like we had something to prove and my biggest thing was like, you don't need a man to get it done. We're similar in height and there's not that much of a weight difference, dammit!
A. Rachel: Listen, the truth is, I feel like Aneesa and I have been out lesbians on the show for years. This was a huge deal to walk into a Challenge and for us to be the token outsiders, and two girls on top of it. The women on the show... I think it's extra hard to be a woman because the guys rally together and before you know it, it's a controlled game. We stood our ground. We took on the biggest team in the house. That's not easy. The chips didn't fall in our direction this time but I feel like we made a huge statement to go through that experience and make it as far as we did. We were two eliminations away from the final!

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Does it annoy you that people bring up issues from previous Challenges and try to use them against you in the current game?
A. Aneesa: Of course! I feel like, it's a new day. Why are you bringing this up? Didn't you win? Aren't you over it? Don't you have enough money? I told Johnny to let it go.
A. Rachel: I know what's going on and I'm not going to sit back and waste four weeks of my life riding easy breezy and then say, "Oh hey, I didn't know that was going to happen!" I knew there was an alliance, I see the alliances, they're obvious. Unfortunately, a lot of times, I'm not invited in. At the end of the day, I sleep good at night. It was very hard to make change in that house and I feel like someone like Emily should've been going after Camila. Anyone who wanted to see that game go differently needed to step up and do something!

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on MTV.

(Image courtesy of MTV)

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