Last week: Thomson got a medical discharge because of a heart condition. That's more information about his problems than I think we got in all of last week's episode. Meyer cried when Thomson left, probably because he knew that Thomson was his only friend. Brown thinks that Moretti enjoys bossing people around too much. Moretti thought that Brown was an actress. I guess that's supposed to be an insult. Moretti led the squad to success in their "carry dummies around on the beach" mission. Yes, I think that was the official name. The reward was a personal item, and most people chose pictures and then cried. Wolf found out that he was a target of the women, and confronted them. But, in the end, Meyer was the one dismissed, and because Thomson was already discharged, he left alone.
Day Thirteen. 6:30 AM. Fall Out. Yeah, that's what I would do if someone wanted me to get up that early -- fall out of bed. The recruits assemble in front of the barracks. DI Rosenbum (a.k.a. Still My Boyfriend) starts yelling at Yaney for something having to do with thumbs and trousers. That's all I got. In an interview, Yaney says he joined the show just to see how long he would last, and never thought that he would win, but now he's starting to see that it's "anybody's game." Seriously, I will love this show forever if Yaney wins.
DI Rosenbum reminds them that they will be choosing a new squad leader after breakfast, and tells them to think about it while they're "sucking down [their] chow." He includes a helpful gesture to show us what sucking down your chow looks like. That's another phrase that sounds like a euphemism, but it's not. Everyone runs off to breakfast. In an interview, Jackson tells us that he's been trying to avoid being squad leader, because he will need the amnesty more later, when the strong people are being targeted. Right now, Jackson feels that there are still a few weak links on the squad, who will be targeted, so he doesn't need the amnesty that being squad leader can provide. That's a really good strategy, and one that hadn't occurred to me. Which is reason #195 why I couldn't be on this show -- poor strategic thinking. When Jackson refers to some of the weak squad members, we see shots of Yaney, Lauder, and Brown. I figured that was important. Jackson tells us that he's not the only one who is using this strategy.
The women have a pow-wow in the ladies' room. I told you the women are strategizing night and day. Moretty asks who's going to be the squad leader, and suggests Whitlow. See? Like I said last week, Moretty is totally in charge of the women, and the men think that it's Brown. She's unobtrusive about it, but she runs them. In an interview, Whitlow says that she didn't want to be squad leader because she doesn't want to stand out until the time is right.
7:15 AM. New Squad Leader. The recruits sit on the porch to the rec room and discuss who should do it. Basically, it's a Life cereal commercial. There's a lot of, "I'm not going to do it -- you do it." And then, "I'm not going to do it -- you do it!" Until finally, someone says, "Hey, let's get Yaney! He won't complete it -- he sucks at everything." In the midst of that, Moretti reveals that he didn't want Brown to be the leader because he's hoping to vote her off this time. After someone suggests Yaney, the women totally steamroll him by saying, "Oh, it would be great! You would be so great at it!" and it probably reminds Yaney of his mother heaping praise on him, so he agrees. Yaney tells everyone that he'll need a lot of help. In an interview, Yaney says that this game is nuts, and that you never know what will happen . In an interview, Wolf says that "certain people are playing it smart" by making Yaney squad leader and saving their own potential amnesty for later. I would think, also, that the squad is more likely to succeed at these later missions because they are in better shape, and work better together as a squad. So the squad leader is more likely to get amnesty the longer this goes on. Wolf thinks that Yaney will do fine because he has "good leaders behind him," and basically calls Yaney a pawn in the game.
DI Taylor approaches the squad and asks Yaney if he's the new squad leader. In an interview, DI Taylor says that she did "a stutter step" when she realized Yaney was the squad leader. She "took a step, paused, and had to grasp it in [her] head and keep going." DI Taylor gives Yaney some instructions to pass on to the squad. In an interview, Yaney says that he has no problem being squad leader, rhetorically asking how bad it could be. Yaney gives the squad some instructions, and I don't know if it's because of the braces or what, but you can barely understand what he's saying. After one sentence, he just pauses for an eternity, until he remembers what to say.
8:15 AM Physical Training. Yaney is leading the squad. In an interview, Jackson says that Yaney is in the worst physical shape on the squad, so his leading physical training "is like the chicken cooking scrambled eggs -- it doesn't work." Well, neither does that analogy, really. DI Taylor watches Yaney lead, and when he screws up (again), she buries her face in her hand. Yaney continues, but DI Rosenbum interrupts to ask whether Yaney is the new squad leader. Yaney replies in the affirmative. DI Rosenbum scores the best line of the episode when he says, "Hello, recruits. What'd you eat for breakfast, crack?" Ha! My boyfriend is funny. DI Rosenbum goes on to ask whether they think that Yaney is the best choice for squad leader, and whether they'll give him the chance to prove his leadership; the squad says yes on both counts.
DI Rosenbum checks in with Lauder to see how he's feeling, and Lauder claims that he's feeling fine. In an interview, Lauder says that he had a goal of making it halfway, because even though he's in good shape, his age puts him at a disadvantage. We see footage of Lauder holding someone's feet and counting out exercises in a very high voice, and I don't get the strain because he's not the one doing the exercising. In an interview, Whitlow says that Lauder will push himself to "basically a heart attack," and that footage looks familiar. Probably because they used it in the previews to make us think she was talking about Thomson.
12:45 PM. Mission Reward/Punishment. The recruits file in to be addressed by DI McSweeney. He explains that they're going to be playing "Win, Lose, or Draw!" The recruits draw what food they crave the most, and if the rest of the squad guesses what it is, they get it as a reward for a successful mission. If the squad doesn't guess, that recruit doesn't get a reward. Hutak goes first, and she draws ravioli. Wolf guesses it correctly. Coddington draws pizza. Whitlow draws sushi. DI McSweeney makes fun of her drawing, and calls on Wolf to guess. Wolf guesses that it's "an assortment of Japanese sushi, sir!" DI McSweeney says, "A plethora?" Wolf replies, "Myriad of sushi, sir!" Heh. Who knew Wolf and McSweeney could be funny intentionally? Brown draws S'mores. Jackson draws ice cream. Yaney draws a giant peanut M&M. We didn't see what everyone drew, but DI McSweeney tells us that they were ten for ten, so if they succeed at the mission, everyone gets a reward. If they fail the mission, they eat MREs -- "cold, and nasty, and heinous." DI McSweeney explains that MREs are "Marine Corps field rations," and that there's one called "corned beef hash," which they referred to as "corned beef rash." Also, there's "tuna with noodles," which McSweeney never liked because there's something wrong with "tuna sitting in a bag for years and years." Yes, there is. On a side note, I have a friend who is kind of a military buff, although he's never been in the military himself. When we graduated from college, we shared an apartment, and another friend's boyfriend, who was in the military, gave him a bunch of MREs. My military-loving friend thought this was great -- he was poor, so this meant he didn't have to buy groceries, plus he could pretend he was in a foxhole or something. I don't know -- he liked that sort of thing. Except that the MREs were terrible. I think he ate, like, four of them and then gave up. So we always had stacks and stacks of MREs in our cupboards. It looked like we were bunkering down for a foreign invasion or something. All this is by way of saying that they really are nasty.
2:45 PM. Mission Briefing. DI Rosenbum gives the rundown to Yaney. This mission is called "R.A.D. -- Rappel and Destroy." They have to infiltrate enemy territory, rescue POWs, rappel down a building, and detonate an enemy watchtower. All of this must be done in forty-five minutes.
The squad travels to the mission site in a truck. In an interview, Moretty says that she hopes they succeed so that they don't get punished, but also because it's really important to Yaney. Aw, me too. In an interview, DI Francisco says that it's a great thing for Yaney to be a squad leader. He thinks that Yaney has nothing to lose, because he either gets amnesty, or, if they fail, he's still unthreatening, likable Yaney. Yaney gives everyone last-minute instructions.
In an interview, Brown says that Wolf stole Yaney's harness, and that they all had to do push-ups because of Wolf's lying. In an interview, Wolf denies it. DI Rosenbum forces them to do more exercises. In an interview, Brown says that it's not right to let other people take your punishment, and that Wolf can do push-ups for days, but that Yaney is really hurting. Yaney walks up and asks Brown whether she knows where the missing equipment is. She says that the person who took it should say so. Wolf is standing right there. In an interview, Brown says that she told Yaney, and he didn't care because he thinks that Wolf's his friend. Brown tells Yaney that it was Wolf, and Yaney replies, "Thanks." In an interview, Yaney says that it's hard to believe the rumors because "certain people are after each other," and so you don't want to believe anything unless you see it. DI Rosenbum yells at Yaney some more. In an interview, Yaney says that he can't prove anything, and even if he could, he'd have to do push-ups anyway, so he's "just going to swallow it."
Night Fifteen. 8:15 PM. Evening Chow. Moretty tells the table that she thinks the people in the tunnel (Yaney, Wolf, Jackson, and herself) should take the blame. She knows it's not hers, but she doesn't think it's fair that Yaney is talking all the heat for it. Yaney says that he doesn't know who it was, but that he knows it wasn't him. It's his squad, so he has to deal with it. In an interview, DI Rosenbum says that the situation with Yaney is "an interesting twist," because they don't know what happened, exactly. DI Rosenbum menacingly whispers to Yaney, "Now, I'll ask you one more freakin' last time..." Wolf walks over and DI Rosenbum interrupts himself to scream, "Get away from meeeeee!" Wolf takes off. DI Rosenbum asks Yaney who he thinks took his rope and D-Ring. Yaney says that it must have been Moretty, Jackson, Wolf, or himself, because they were the only people in the tunnel. In an interview, DI Rosenbum says, "Scuttlebutt has it that Wolf left it behind, and Yaney took the hit for it." Rosenbum says that Wolf might have taken Yaney's, and that he wishes he knew the truth.
DI Rosenbum calls Wolf out of the barracks and asks whether he took Yaney's clip. Wolf says that he didn't, and that he's a man of integrity. He keeps babbling on, but DI Rosenbum interrupts him to yell, "Shut up!" I totally want that phrase recorded so I can just play it when people annoy me. In an interview, Wolf says that if he did something, he would "one hundred percent take the fall for it." DIs McSweeney and Rosenbum interrogate Wolf about the rope some more. Wolf says that he threw his on the ground before going back into the tunnel for the second time. DI McSweeney wants to know where the missing rope is, then. Wolf doesn't know. In an interview, Jackson says that the problem with Wolf wasn't that he wouldn't acknowledge that he made a mistake, but that he "wouldn't acknowledge the possibility that he might have made a mistake."
The squad gathers around a campfire. Wolf tells someone that he never took his rope and D-Ring off in the tunnel, and the second time, he didn't even bring it into the tunnel. It's time for the tape. First, Wolf removes his harness at the bunker. In an interview, Yaney explains that the ropes were driving him crazy, and that they didn't need them once the rappelling part was done, so he took his off. We see footage of Yaney removing his harness at the bunker. In an interview, Moretty says that she doubted herself, because she wasn't sure she ever took her harness off. We see the footage of Moretty removing her harness in the tunnels and handing it to Wolf to hold, and he throws it on the floor. In an interview, Jackson says that they wired everything and came running out. We see Yaney and Wolf back at the bunker, just before Yaney detonates the explosives, and neither of them is wearing harnesses. In an interview, Coddington says that Wolf came over at the end and told her to hand him a harness, and she did. Back at the fire, the squad pieces together that the harness Coddington handed Wolf may have been Yaney's. Wolf points out that someone must have left a harness in the tunnels. Brown tries to point the finger at Wolf some more, saying that he came out of the tunnels without a harness. Wolf says that he didn't wear one into the tunnels, which is true. Yaney voice-overs that there are rumors that Wolf left his harness in the tunnel and took Yaney's instead. We see footage of the explosion, and Moretty is wearing a harness. Then we see that Moretty's harness is still in the tunnel. So Moretty is the one who left her harness behind. Not Wolf. Interesting. I don't think she was lying in her interviews -- I think she truly believes that she ended up with her own harness, and doesn't recall handing it to Wolf. Wolf obviously doesn't remember it either.
Night Sixteen. 6:30 PM. Dismissal Hill. DI Franscisco (who has hardly been on this week's episode) explains that two more people will leave tonight, and that it's time to vote. Yaney has amnesty. Brown starts out the voting. Wolf holds his pen really weird. Someone votes for Lauder, but we don't see who it is. Yaney gets to address his squad, and I know I point this out every week, but I still don't understand why he doesn't get to do this before the voting. Yaney tells them that even though they lost equipment, he feels proud of his squad for their successful mission.
DI Francisco instructs DI Rosenbum to deliver the dismissed recruit. DI Rosenbum asks Lauder why he should get to stay. Lauder says that he is a huge asset during the missions. DI Rosenbum asks Wolf why he should get to stay. Wolf says that he is a leader even though, in this game, leaders sometimes stick out the most. DI Rosenbum stops and looks at Coddington, but doesn't say anything. DI Rosenbum informs Lauder that he is dismissed. Lauder heads to the front of the squad. DI Francisco commands all those who voted for Lauder to step forward. They are: Wolf, Brown, Moretty, Whitlow, Hutak, Moretti, Coddington and Jackson. Yaney voted for Whitlow. Lauder voted for Jackson! Interesting. Not really, because he's leaving.
DI Francisco says that Lauder now gets to address his former squad. Lauder takes off his backpack, and says that he did his best and that the age factor came to bear. He never expected to be pushed as hard as he was, and that it was like having the bogeyman waking him up in the morning. He wishes everyone luck, especially "Wolfie." DI Francisco tells him that he can now discharge one squad member, and that he should give the recruit's name and the reason. Lauder says that it's a tough decision, but that he doesn't like pushy women, and the only one who pushed him was Hutak, so he's taking her along. Wow, he screwed the other men by not taking Brown. Hutak takes her position up front with Lauder as the other recruits leave the hill.
week: The DIs yell and scream some more, and then throw the furniture around in the barracks. Yaney says that he can't deal with the abuse anymore. Whitlow chokes back tears and says that anyone else in her position would quit. Moretty yells back at DI McSweeney, telling him that she wasn't making faces. Two DIs team up and she screams, "Stop getting on me!" Or it could have been, "Stop spitting on me!" Either way, we'll find out week.