Devin Walker-Molaghan Talks His 'Fairy Tale Romance' with Michele on 'The Challenge 40'

The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras is here! Throughout the season, Parade.com will speak with the challengers who were eliminated from the milestone season of the MTV series.

Devin Walker-Molaghan would be the first to tell you that he played on The Challenge 40 in a completely different way than expected. Over seven seasons, Devin had built a reputation of being a gamer who put politics above all, culminating in a win during his last appearance. But, between the milestone of Season 40 and Devin playing for the first time single, it was a completely different story this time around. His slow burn of a dynamic with Michele Fitzgerald promptly sparkled ablaze early on, as the two began a romantic connection that continued outside the game. He revisited his long-standing feud with Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio when he warned Michele about getting hurt by Devin.

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But despite the change in behavior, Devin's "Vacation Alliance" continued to do what they have been the past handful of seasons, staying out of danger by fortifying their deep-seated social and strategic connections. That came plummeting down, though, when Rachel Robinson won the daily as a team of one. The opportunity was too ripe to pit Eras 3 and 4 against each other, forcing the Vacation Alliance members to square off. It was a battle of the brains and dexterity for Devin and Kyland Young . And, perhaps true to his different persona this season, Devin surprisingly struggled. He had spent Season 40 getting tangled up in things he hadn't before like romance, and it manifested here as he couldn't sort everything out in time.

Following his elimination, Devin talks with Parade about his thoughts on Josh's "sloppy" game, developing his relationship with Michele, and an unseen moment of Derrick getting into a rather cagey situation.

Related: Everything to Know About The Challenge 40

I have to start by getting into this elimination. It's clear it was a struggle for you. We see Jordan say this was a "classic Devin" by you overthinking, and Bananas outright says you "shit the bed." Talk to me about how that night went from your perspective.
For the record, it was a blowout. This was not edited in any sort of way. I got smoked, so I got to take the licking there. Not my game, right? I've never one time practiced doing something like that. And it's no do-overs. So if I played myself in that 10 more times, that version of me 10 times didn't have the strategy, didn't pivot quickly enough. You've got to think on your feet. You have to be 100% completely focused on the task at hand. I wasn't; Kyland was the better man. Do I wish I had another shot at it? I do. but that's the beauty of the game. You don't get another shot.

Well maybe what contributed to your performance was how emotionally charged that elimination round was for all of the Vacation Alliance. As was talked about at the beginning of this episode, you all had cut a wide swath in the game up to this point once again. So did you expect that Rachel had taken the shot and put you all in against each other?
Oh yeah. From the moment Era 2 didn't lose, I went over to Kaycee, and I said, "Okay, well, it's you guys against us. That's just what it's going to be." And she was convinced it wouldn't be. I think Kaycee put a little bit too much stake in her relationship with Josh as it relates to Josh's relationship to Rachel. And what we've learned in this game is that the extended relationships are not there this time. Just because I'm working with you and I'm working with you doesn't mean you two are working together. Usually that is the case, but there's a bit more smoke and mirrors you can play with this format, and we didn't see it coming. So I was not surprised at all.

I knew it was from a from a game perspective, it's the right shot to take. Derek's never going to say your name. You get a pie-in-the-sky matchup of two champion women, and you get a pie-in-the-sky matchup of two guys that have a different skill set than everybody else up there. So if it comes down to something cerebral, and one of us is gone, the other one has a lesser chance of winning, because it's one versus five instead of two, versus five. So, from a numbers standpoint, it made perfect sense. I wasn't surprised, and I think Rachel made the right move.

Even though you expected it, it was clear you were not happy with what Josh was doing. You vented about how he was letting people walk all over him with his friendships, and called his game "sloppy" to his face. Give me your perspective on that.
Yeah, I mean, Josh played the middle. There's really nothing else there. He had a lot of relationships, I think some of them aren't genuine. I think that he probably feels differently than that. And Josh played the game that was going to get Josh the furthest, which is absolutely fine. With that being said, it is a bit hard to watch, because it was a repeat offense. So going back earlier in the season, Jenny has an opportunity to target either me or Cory, and she asks Josh directly. And he essentially says, "It's on you. Pick whoever you want." So in that moment, that then gets back to me. And I confront Josh about it at a barbecue, and he says, "I have to take the L on this one. I'm sorry. Moving forward, I'm going to stand in the way of people trying to say your name."

So in this situation, it's not me, it's Kaycee. And he, again, is indifferent on Rachel's decision. To me, I had never really felt before like I had been close enough to Josh to get burned. But, even though it wasn't directly at me, this felt a little bit like I was going to get burned. Because whether or not Rachel was going to change her mind, we'll never know now, because Josh didn't put it out. If he draws a hard line and he says, "Listen, if you take a shot at my top two, I gotta come for you. I have to. So just know that this shot is going to be taken at all of us." But he didn't really want to do that, because in his mind, one of them leaves, Rachel just fills the spot.

I was surprised a couple of episodes back when you said you hadn't had one-on-one game conversations with Kaycee. I think a lot of us assume that all of you in the Vacation Alliance are intrinsically and equally connected. Talk to me about that.
Alliance by proxy does not work in this game. You really do have to be vocalizing where you're at. I felt stronger about my relationship with Kaycee than I did my relationship with Josh. I've played longer with Kaycee, and I know Kaycee to be somebody that really does look at the game not black and white. She's extremely strategic, and Josh is a bit more emotional. It's way easier for me to predict what someone like Kaycee is going to do, because it's going to be the best strategic move.

Josh is going to do is whatever, however Josh is feeling, right? It's really based on feeling, and that's really hard to predict. So I didn't have a ton of one-on-one conversations with Kaycee, because I didn't feel like I needed to. And Josh had been assuring me throughout this process that we didn't need to talk, so I wasn't trying to talk to him. But that's because Josh was spending all his time talking to the girls. Because the girls were going to be the ones that had to say the guy's names, so he didn't care. He didn't care about what was going on in the guy's side. He knew I wasn't going to say his name if we won and he was a target. He knew he wasn't going to say my name if he won and I was a target. So that's really all he needed, and I guess that's all I needed, because I was just sitting in my bed all day.

So you had said at one point that your "entire personality had been switched out" this season. You developed a relationship in the game, volunteered to be a target, among other things. Were you realizing that as things went along, or was there one moment where that revelation hit you?
Oh, I knew I was doing it from day one. My strategy was to do it. Believe it or not, my strategy was to go on 40, to leave no stone left unturned in the fun category. Leave some stones left unturned in the strategy category; didn't really care about those. Winning Ride or Dies was supposed to be this, this big relief, this giant weight off of my shoulders. And it was in a sense. And I did have fun in that season, but it was so mentally taxing that by the end of it. I was like, "Oh man. I liked winning, but I don't even really know if I liked playing." It wasn't very fun. So I knew going in, I said, "If I'm going to win this one, I'm going to win it letting it rip. So give me all the beers, give me all the junk food, give me all the relationships. Give them to me. I'm a glutton for it. I'm a glutton for what's going to ruin my game, and if, miraculously, I win, I'll be the greatest challenger of all time."

Perhaps part of that was getting into things with Bananas when he attempts to warn Michele about your relationship that was kindling. Talk to me about reigniting that dynamic like those light-up logos.
[ Laughs .] Hopefully not like that, because most of those were unlit. But yeah, I mean, the situation with Johnny was completely started by Johnny. He'll tell a different tale. Of course, I know what happened. I know what the truth is. He knows what the truth is, whether or not he's ever going to say that publicly. That had nothing to do with my strategy. The part of me wanting to have fun and not care was I was never going to seek him out to have a confrontation.

I tried to have one conversation with him the night it happened. I said, "Let's go outside. Let's talk off-camera. Let me just make sure that what Michele is telling me is accurate, because maybe she misheard you or whatever." He didn't want to have the conversation. At that point, I was like, "Okay, I'm good." There was no big blow-up. If I was really playing the game, I would have let him have it. It didn't matter to me, because I had the things that I wanted. I was building a relationship with the person that I love, I was protecting the people in the game that I'm interested in. And I didn't really have a lot of space for turmoil.

Well, let's talk about love and get into the Michele of it all. You and I talked before the season started airing about your relationship, and we all knew it was coming on the show. But I was still surprised that the two of you seemed to be starting things so early on. Was there one moment that sparked it between you two?
It's so easy to play The Challenge when you are in a relationship at home, because you don't even look at anybody. Well, some people do because they're dirtbags. But I wouldn't even look at anybody as an option to even be flirting, right? I'm so off the table. When I'm in a relationship that it's just game. That's it. That's all that there is. And so, yeah, I knew coming in single that I was available for that. It's been a slow burn with me and Michelle for a long time. So you lock us in a fairy tale world, fake castle, and Rapunzel is going to let down her hair. So there we go. I mean, Michele had to kiss a few frogs, but she got here.

[ Laughs .] She found her prince. She said at one point she was going to make a Jersey boy out of you. So how are things going with you right now?
Well, I mean, she's my girlfriend. So I do live in Massachusetts. But big Hoboken guy. Shout out Hoboken. Shout out Hoboken Gossip, great Instagram account. Do give it a follow. I had never really even been to New Jersey, and now I'm there every couple of weeks. So she didn't lie. She didn't lie.

Finally, in honor of the infamous "Shit They Should Have Shown" episode of the old-school days of The Challenge , what's one moment from your time on the show that you wish you had made the edit?
Derek got his head stuck in the bird cage during a performance to what I believe was "Firework" by Katy Perry. So we were all at a barbecue, and "Firework" came on, and he started doing a dance. And, in the outside by the pool, there were these big bird cages. No one knows why, but huge bird cages, and they had bars in them. And Derek grabbed the bars and went fully inverted, and his head got stuck in the cage. So it's like mid-crescendo of "Firework," and Derek had to come back down with his head stuck in the cage. We had to pull the bars apart to get him out. It was, I'm not kidding, top three funniest Challenge moments of all time. I just don't think they have the footage of it, so I don't even think it hit the cutting room floor. It was just day off, cameras weren't rolling. And we missed Derek head getting stuck in a birdcage.

[ Laughs .] Derek's the best, man. People sleep on him, I was saying this from the beginning. Everyone's talking about Jordan, they're talking about Johnny, they're talking about Kyland. Which, honestly, I don't know why. He's a good competitor, but he's not in the same league as those two. No one was talking about Derek. And when I look at this game and I look at who has a different skill set than everybody else, Derek has two different skill sets than everybody else. He's smarter than 90% of the Challengers, and that boy can move for speed and distance. So you throw that in the mix, and I feel like he's got a chip on his shoulder. He's got something to prove that. In my mind, I was looking at Jordan and Derek and saying, "Those two have the best shot."

As long as there are no birdcages nearby.
As long as there's not a birdcage in the final, he might have it wrapped up. You never know.

Next, check out our interview with Derrick Kosinski and Averey Tressler, who was eliminated in The Challenge 40 Episode 8 .