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 seem to have a friendship that is occasionally one-sided and often awkward (due to Lightning constantly thinking that Jo is a guy), which also borders on being an alliance. However, with a constant battle for control and superiority between them, they often find themselves competing against each other with true hostility, often making this more of a conflict than anything else.

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. Their team went on to lose, and they both voted Brick out of the game.

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.

Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!
When Jo beat Lightning to the finish line, she sarcastically apologized for him 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.

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.

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.

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 choose Jo, calling Jo a rat.