They changed the introduction this week, to reflect the fact that only two are left. Boot camp began twenty-eight days ago with sixteen recruits. Now, the only ones left are Whitlow and Wolf. They will compete in a forty-eight-hour series of physical and mental challenges called "The Gauntlet," where they can win up to thirteen sets of dog tags belonging to their "fallen squad members." Stage one of The Gauntlet is "seven grueling mental and physical events," each named after one of the dismissed recruits (e.g. those voted off). Stage two is the vote -- the six discharged recruits (Pupo, Thomson, Hutak, Yaney, Brown, and Moretty) return to vote (by handing over their dog tags) for who they think should win. The recruit with the most dog tags wins $500,000. Got it? Don't worry if you don't -- they'll remind us about ten more times tonight.
Last week: the DIs trashed the barracks. They closed the mess hall. Whitlow got to be squad leader by default, since she had not yet done so. The mission was a success, giving Whitlow a free pass to The Gauntlet. Wolf thought Whitlow was his best friend, but Whitlow claimed to "want Wolf gone." And yet, when she could have teamed with Moretty (and probably Moretti) to get rid of Wolf, she chose instead to convince Moretty to vote for Moretti, hoping he would take Wolf with him (or so she claimed.) Whitlow reveals that she made a deal with Wolf in the beginning never to vote for him. Moretti got voted off, and took Moretty with him out of some misplaced sense of loyalty to Wolf. Whitlow and Wolf remained to compete in The Gauntlet. Yeah, we got that from the introduction. Can we move along now?
Night Twenty-Eight. The Gauntlet -- Event One. Lauder's Last Stand. Midnight. We're meant to believe that this is taking place immediately after Moretti and Moretty exited the area. Have I mentioned how glad I am, for purely personal recapping reasons, that the final two are not Moretti and Moretty? Anyway, Whitlow and Wolf stand at attention as DIs Francisco and Rosenbum carry out two small platforms (each about the size of a bathroom scale) with two foot-shaped platforms on top of them. DI Francisco announces that it is the beginning of The Gauntlet. Blah blah blah exposition-cakes. We're reminded that they haven't slept in seventeen hours, and won't be allowed to sleep again for forty-eight more hours. DI Rosenbum takes over, explaining that this first event is called "Lauder's Last Stand." He reminds them that "after a vigorous PT session," Lauder often had trouble standing up. We see flashback footage of Lauder struggling to his feet. DI Rosenbum explains that they will each take a platform and stand at attention, facing each other. The first to step off the platform loses.
DI Rosenbum tells Whitlow that she's no less of a recruit for being the one to stop. DI Francisco gives Wolf Lauder's dog tags. A little grid pops up to show us that Lauder's dog tags are firmly in the Wolf column. Some on-screen text informs us that there are thirteen dog tags available -- seven from The Gauntlet competition, and six from the votes of discharged recruits. The first person to get seven sets of dog tags wins the money. Right now, Wolf has one and Whitlow has none.
Day Twenty-Nine. The Gauntlet. Coddington's Crossing. 11:00 AM. Wolf voice-overs that he needs to win six events, so that he doesn't have to go to Dismissal Hill worrying about votes. But if he wins six events, he still has to worry. I guess he figures that he can count on getting at least one vote. Whitlow and Wolf slide on a zip wire across the sand, but I'm not sure why. It's eleven hours into The Gauntlet. DI McSweeney tells them that this challenge is named after Coddington. Duh. DI Taylor explains that it's an obstacle course of sorts. The first obstacle is a bunch of razor wire under which they have to crawl on their bellies. The second obstacle is a mud pit, through which they have to run. The third obstacle is a set of tires on the ground, through which they have to navigate. The fourth obstacle is a wall, over which they have to climb. The fifth obstacle is a lake, across which they have to kayak. On the other side of the lake is a tower, which signals the end of the course. It doesn't sound that bad, until you consider that all of these obstacles are spread out along a two-mile course.
DI McSweeney signals the start of the race. Wolf takes off quickly, and gets to the barbed wire well ahead of Whitlow. DI McSweeney voice-overs that Wolf and Whitlow are both "strong-willed, very strong-minded," and that they both have big egos and aren't used to failure. Wolf finishes the first obstacle thirty-one seconds ahead of Whitlow. Wolf plops into the mud pit and makes his way through as Whitlow jogs. Whitlow nearly goes underwater in the mud pit. Yuck. She looks exhausted. Wolf is fifty-two seconds ahead. He skips through the tires. Whitlow voice-overs that the course was "extremely intense," because the obstacles were so far apart, and because they were running on sand. Good point. Wolf climbs over the wall one minute and seven seconds ahead. DI Taylor voice-overs that when she saw Wolf go over the wall, he looked strong. Have I mentioned that the obstacles are really far apart? And that Wolf is really far ahead? Now he's one minute and twenty-two seconds ahead. Whitlow struggles to get over the wall. DI Taylor voice-overs that Whitlow had a much harder time than Wolf. Wolf reaches the lake and gets into his kayak. He voice-overs that this is a "kick-ass course" and that he gave it his all, but he doesn't know how to kayak. Whitlow finally gets over the wall and voice-overs that she wasn't very happy about going up against Wolf, because there are "different strength levels" and she can't compete with that. You're telling me. This Gauntlet is going to be pretty boring if we just have to watch Wolf kick Whitlow's ass five more times.