The auditions are over. We have seen all the jokers we had to see and the final (hopefully) deserving 13 contestants have embarked on the journey to the second season of Himalaya Roadies.

Last night’s episode—which introduced to us the faces that we will come to love, and love to hate, in the weeks to come—was all about first impressions. When judge Raymon Das Shrestha—who, by the way, all the women in the show are totally drooling over—announced that the episode was going to kick off with a vote-out, the previously chirpy contestants turned pale. It appears no one was ready to go home. After all, they came all this way out to the Far West for the Wild Wild West season. It would be a long trek back.

But hold your horses. Before the final vote-out, there was a pre-vote, a vote of votes. Anish, the body-builder who isn’t quite ready to flaunt his abs and muscles, was voted as the person the others were most ‘threatened’ by. I’m personally hoping that this cutie, with his contagious smile and the strength that he can bring to his teams, will go a long way. Nobody vote him out any time soon. Priveer, the Dayahang-doppleganger, was voted the ‘least deserving’ of the lot. Oh, the price this social butterfly paid. His was probably the one name that everyone remembered in the first place. Envy, as they say, is the price of fame. Priveer, brother, listen to Raymon when he says you’re not here to make friends, “You are here to recognise, manipulate and lead.”

Other than Priveer, everyone watching is probably going to remember Subha’s name. After all, she seemed to have an opinion on everyone and everything.

Turns out, there was a twist in the tale. Nobody had to leave to the show and whoever had been voted the most threatening, Anish the hunk, was chosen as the first ‘captain boy’ to lead the rest of the contestants through the first money challenge. Priveer, voted least deserving, had to step out of the challenge. He even had to ride a bus to the beautiful Shukla Phanta National Park while everyone else climbed onto the beast of the bike that is the Yamaha FZ, one of which the winner will take home. But our boy Priveer had already shared his ‘viral’ moves the night before at the welcome party, before a windstorm chased everybody back to their tents.

Things got interesting when the first task was revealed. Three heavy logs, divided into six parts, were to be cut up by these city kids who had never picked up a saw in their two-something-decades of life. And while the task came with money, lots of money—Rs 120,000—it had to be completed in 18 minutes total. What’s worse, the cut log had to be carried down to a platform at least 10 meters away.

As if the contestants weren’t already sweating, Deeya Maskey and Laure made their entrance in typical fashion, putting on even more pressure to perform. “This is no place for losers,” Deeya, the judge we love to hate, screamed before our captain boy divided the contestants into six teams, an intelligent decision he had to make.

While Richa, our sweetheart, almost lost her chance to perform, Priveer managed to prove his worth at the last moment, albeit with the worst job of pushing the log onto the platform! And while our captain boy only performed adequately, Subha, who we will undoubtedly be hearing a lot from in the coming episodes, took the audience, and me, by surprise by performing exceptionally well. So much so, she went on to win the ‘Performance of the Day’ title.

This episode started out with first impressions, but it appears that the show and its contestants, is going to take us all by surprise. Will Priveer be able to prove his worth?  (I don’t really care) Will Richa have enough time on her hands to perform? (Probably not) Will our Captain Boy make it to next vote-out?  (I certainly, oh god, hope so). The next episode will tell.