Jo and Lightning

This article focuses on the interactions between Jo and Lightning.

Overview
Jo and Lightning were originally on opposite teams, and thus had little to no interaction. However, once Jo switched to the Toxic Rats in Runaway Model, she and Lightning started to have more interaction. Initially, they seemed to have a friendship (although it is mainly one-sided on Lightning's side), but the two of them often clashed over the leadership of their team. Additionally, Jo was irritated by Lightning always mistaking her for a boy (a running gag of the season). After the merge, the two would still team up for a brief moment, only for Jo to betray Lightning, leading to a bitter rivalry. Their conflict culminated in the struggle for Cameron's loyalty, with Lightning trying to encourage Cameron, who was constantly bullied by Jo, to stand up for himself. Together, they managed to vote off Jo in Up, Up and Away in My Pitiful Balloon.

Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!
When Jo beat Lightning to the finish line, she sarcastically apologized to him for losing to a girl. For the first time in the season, Lightning got Jo's gender wrong, insisting that he didn't lose to any girl.

Ice Ice Baby
When Lightning and Jo were climbing a mountain, Jo told Lightning that he'd lose to a girl, again. Just like in Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!, Lightning got Jo's gender wrong again, insisting he wouldn't lose to a girl.

Backstabbers Ahoy!
Jo shot Lightning with a seagull making him pass out.

Runaway Model
When Jo switched to the Toxic Rats and declared it to be her team, Lightning was excited that "team dude" would remain all dudes, once again thinking that Jo was a guy. In response, Jo poked his eyes and told him to go see an optometrist.

A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
When the contestants arrived at the mine, Lightning reiterated that he was on an all-guys team. In response, Jo asked if he was blind and was about to tell him that she was really a girl before Chris threw a backpack at her and cut her off. Just as the Rats arrived at the elevator first and Lightning cheered triumphantly, he caused a cave-in that covered himself and his other two teammates, which angered Jo. Later, after Lightning caused Brick to drop the fireflies, he and Jo ran off to chase them down, with Jo eventually catching them by shoving the jar onto Lightning's head to trap them and making fun of him for it. At the end of the episode, when Chris asked the audience if Lightning would ever know the difference between a guy and a girl, he asked "What girl?"

The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean
When Lightning was still sound asleep on the raft, apparently dreaming that he had just won the Super Bowl, Jo woke him up by kicking him off the raft and into the water. Later, when she ordered Lightning to start paddling, he questioned who made her the boss, only for Jo to say that if he didn't row, he wouldn't be captain of their "rowing team." This caused Lightning to start rowing, regardless of being bossed around. Later, when they were attacked by the giant squid, Jo repeatedly hit Lightning in the face with their raft's mast, even though she was trying to hit the squid instead.

Grand Chef Auto
In the confessional, Jo decided that, despite the merge, she would keep Lightning around for a little while longer just to intimidate the others. When Lightning found the first key and ran off with it, Jo was annoyed that he didn't give it to her, saying that the spoils should go to the boss. She started reconsidering her decision to keep Lightning around, saying that he might have outlived his usefulness. Later on in the challenge, when Lightning finally managed to bend open the bars on their prison door, Jo sacrificed him to save herself by kicking him right into Fang's jaws, distracting Fang and allowing her to get to a go-kart first. When Lightning thought that he had won the challenge, he instantly declared that he wanted to eliminate Jo, only to find out that he did not win the reward since he defiled Mount Chrismore. At the elimination ceremony, when the real winner, Scott, was about to make his decision, Lightning insisted that he must choose Jo, calling Jo a rat.

Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon
Throughout the episode, Jo and Lightning's conflict continued out of a new common goal: Both were fighting for Cameron's loyalty in an alliance first, as his brains proved useful in the challenge. At the very beginning, Lightning tried to ask Cameron for help in building a helicopter before Jo swiped him up and told Lightning to "get your own nerd." Jo initially had the tighter grip on Cameron at the beginning, forcing him to build a hot-air balloon for her, convincing him to make a sabotage attempt against Lightning and his vehicle (which failed), forcing him to make a fake confessional in which he was grateful for Jo's "help," swiping his fog machine from him after he won the first half of the challenge, and ordering him to shield her from Heather's attacks during the challenge. Lightning, however, kept trying to convince Cameron that Jo was playing him and only taking advantage of him for the time being, apparently more determined to help Cameron specifically rather than gain his own alliance with him. Ultimately, Cameron decided that Lightning was right and betrayed Jo by detonating a bomb he had placed in the fog machine, causing her hot-air balloon to catch fire and crash. At the elimination ceremony, Chris declared that Jo had been eliminated after receiving two votes against her, with those two votes most likely coming from Cameron and Lightning. Before getting catapulted off the island, Jo called Lightning an idiot for failing to realize that she was a girl the entire time, much to his shock. She yelled "In your face, Lightning!" before she was hurled away, although it is not clear what she was referring to when she said this.

Brain vs. Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown
In the alternate ending, Jo complains that she should have won the million since she led both finalists to the end.

A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Despite Jo's annoyance with Lightning constantly thinking that she was a guy, she decided to form an alliance with him, with their first goal being to eliminate Brick. When Jo thought she was going to die without ever kissing a guy, Lightning said that he wouldn't judge her (still thinking that she was a guy). Their team went on to lose, and they both voted Brick off.

Grand Chef Auto
Even though the teams merged in this episode, Jo and Lightning still agreed to maintain an alliance between them. When Jo was attacked by the first giant cockroach, Lightning helped pull it off her face. Lightning managed to bend open the prison door's bars to free them, although Jo managed to gain a lead after throwing him to Fang.

Brain vs. Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown
Despite the fierce animosity between them at the time Jo was eliminated, Jo ended up being the one and only member of the entire cast who supported Lightning to win, and was noticeably disappointed when Cameron won instead.

Trivia

 * Both are athletic and competitive contestants.
 * Both are the only two members left on the Toxic Rats when the merge happens.
 * Both are the first two newcomers to have a conflict with an original contestant.