'The Challenge: Final Reckoning': Natalie Negrotti 'Was Blindsided' by Paulie Calafiore's Elimination Decision

The Challenge: Final Reckoning's Natalie Negrotti and Paulie Calafiore aren't having any luck in eliminations. The Big Brother alums had a chance to get out of the redemption house and back into the main game but couldn't get it done in Tuesday's episode.

Season 32 brought back the Double Cross for the teams in the redemption house. Since Paulie and Natalie pulled the Double Cross, they competed to get back in the main house and chose their opponents, Jozea Flores and Da'Vonne Rogers. The two teams they didn't choose—Jenna Compono and Jemmye Carroll and Britni Thornton and Chuck Mowery—went home. Paulie couldn't go after the guys (Zach Nichols and Brad Fiorenza) responsible for sending their team into elimination, so he went after their girlfriends (Jenna and Britni, respectively). He made that decision "on his own," Natalie told Newsweek Monday. "I had no idea he was going to do that or say that. I was blindsided."

Paulie and Natalie lost, and she hasn't been pleased with her performance during eliminations. She wasn't able to pull her sledgehammer out of the wall in this episode. "Challenges come a lot easier to me," she explained. "I get very nervous [in eliminations]. I don't think clearly. I let my nerves get the best of me." In future eliminations, "I need to start relaxing more and really strategizing with Paulie," she said. "[He] works really well under pressure. I don't."

She admitted she wished she'd "listened more to [her] partner" before their first elimination loss. She had insisted they face Kayleigh Morris and Kam Williams because Kayleigh outed her, while Paulie had wanted to face a strong team (Zach and Amanda Garcia or Joss Mooney and Sylvia Elsrode). "I think that would've been a way better matchup," she said. "It would've been better for Paulie to go against a guy and for me to go against a girl more my size."

After their most recent loss, Paulie got into a verbal fight with Kyle and Zach and followed through on a promise from the redemption house: to mess with Brad's head by telling him Britni hooked up with her ex-boyfriend, Chuck. "I'm not mad because it's psychological warfare," Natalie said. "He's more outspoken and he's going to stand his ground a lot more [than I will], so I'm glad that Paulie was defending our team and showing that if you're going to come after us, we're going to come after you, too."

That loss sent Paulie and Natalie back to the redemption house, but they have the skills to succeed there. "The main house isn't sending people home. It's the redemption house that [is]," she told Newsweek. "We need to use our social game in the redemption house to possibly be chosen by any of the other teams if they choose the Double Cross." Because of their time on Big Brother, "this is what me and Paulie are built for," she said.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.