This week saw many firsts for Himalaya Roadies. Having spent the past six episodes confined to auditions and introductions, the reality show is now finally getting down to business, with the thirteen remaining contestants making their first journey—a gruelling ride to Jomsom in Lower Mustang.

If last week’s episode, which saw the show’s first ever “vote out”, laid down the fault lines among the contestants, it proved to be only a promissory note for the high drama that was to follow this week. At Jomsom, the contestants competed in their first “money task” where they split into four teams of three, and had the opportunity to pick up to Rs 200,000 through a modified version of capture the flag. But like everything Roadies, the task came with a crucial twist—it had space enough for just 12 contestants, and one aspirant was ignominiously left out, tagged as the ‘useless contestant’.

But beyond just picking up pace, the intrigue between contestants is deepening too, with fault lines developing along geographical, romantic and gender grounds. This became most obvious in a dramatic vote out—the second of the show—that saw contestant Sudit Shrestha booted out of the show. The show now has just 12 contestants vying for the chance to become the first ever Himalaya Roadie and to walk away with upto Rs 2 million and a Bajaj Avenger bike.

Himalaya Roadies is the Nepali edition of the popular Indian reality TV show MTV Roadies. Licensed for Nepal by Via Com 18, the show will run the length of 18 episodes.

Himalaya Roadies airs every Monday at 8pm on Himalaya TV.