Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 287: episode 8: our hardest day on the show (so far)

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Welcome to our second episode of the week to catch up with EPISODE 8! Episode 8 pushed us to another level. After an already emotional week, this episode forced us to dig deep, confront our breaking points, and show a level of vulnerability we hadn’t yet let surface. The DS stripped away anything we were still hiding, and what came out were some of the rawest, most honest moments we’ve had on the course. Tough, humbling, and a turning point in the whole experience. Let us know what you thought about this episode, and we’ll see you for the final time.... FOR FINALE EPISODE!!!!!!! Love you guys, Shawn and Andrew Rocket Money ▶ Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://www.RocketMoney.com/eastfam today. Kachava ▶ Your future self will thank you. Go to https://www.kachava.comand use code EASTFAM for 15% off your next order. Skims ▶ If you’re looking for the perfect cozy gift this season, Shop the best pajamas at https://www.SKIMS.com/couplethings. After you place your order, make sure to select “podcast” in the survey and choose Couple Things from the dropdown menu. Subscribe to our newsletter ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletter Follow our podcast Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. Who is Sean and Andrew? Special Forces, Episode 8. Second to last. Oh, we are catching up on publishing episodes, so I think we'll publish two, maybe even three this week. We better, because we have to be, like, live for the finale.

I agree. And we might need to start scheduling and start talking about scheduling another live Q&A. Yes. I love doing that. That was really fun. Also, for those of you who do... Don't follow us on our main YouTube channel. We just published about 30 minutes of all of the behind the scenes footage that they've given us.

Some people have said, like Gail said, it would be great if we could show some clips of the show while we're talking about it. We haven't really been able to do that because of certain things with the footage, but we did publish all of them on the main YouTube channel. The first video is just episodes one through five, and it's broken out by episode on the, on the timestamps and then the second tront or the second video we make will be episodes six through nine and that'll be published hopefully the Friday after the finale.

I also, we've been working on trying to get the DS on the podcast. We've been trying to do like a full one. I don't think it's going to happen, but I think we can get them each individually and I would love to get their two cents on the takeaway of the show for you guys to like listen to as well. It's a good time.

Let's do some life updates. You've had a wild week. I've had a wild week. We both went to D.C. to shoot the American Valor show that awards and recognizes American veterans, which is absolutely incredible. We got to meet like 30-some World War II vets.

World War II vets. Two. I'd never been around so many people who were over 100 years old. And the cool thing was, they each had a hobby that they were super passionate about. So one guy was a 100-year-old bodybuilder,

the oldest bodybuilder in the world. He got up on stage in this muscle shirt and did all the poses. It was awesome. One played the saxophone. He was 104. Yeah. Another couple was like,

I think in their late 90s, but they were sharing their love story. They just got married like two years ago. And it was really amazing. So it was all these incredible veterans. There was generals in the room from all branches of the military. But my favorite part of the evening

was, being in this room with all the different branches of the military so they each have different uniforms and then there's different military institutions there as well so the cadets have different uniforms and then each generation from different wars had different uniforms and it was like this incredible mosaic yeah it really was it felt like and then seeing the u.s navy glee club come up and sing the national anthem and it was like it was so it was very patriotic it was really cool. Yeah. It was really interesting being in D.C. too. It felt like, you know, every time we're there, especially in this context, it really felt like, oh my gosh, so much happens in the city.

Yeah. And in contrast to like Los Angeles, where it's all the Hollywood, like movie entertainment stuff, this is like where the decision makers of the world are. It's crazy. So that was fun. So flew from D.C. back home for the night to see the babies, help put him to sleep, take him to school the next morning. Then the next day we hosted, helped host, the St. Jude curated event here in Nashville. Sean was the MVP of the evening. It was amazing. It is a beautiful, beautiful event that's put on annually in Nashville. We are actually hosting it next year, which I'm so excited about. It's about 100 people, and we managed to raise $2.5 million from those 100 people over the course of a dinner, which was absolutely just, it was a pinch-frey moment.

Then, fast forward to the next day, I took a girls' trip out to Los Angeles for the Dancing with the Star's 20th anniversary. They brought back over 150 alumni that have been on the show, and it was really special. I got to see a ton of people from my season that I have not seen since I was 16 years old,

and it was actually fascinating how many people didn't recognize me because I wasn't a 16 year old kid anymore. Funny. Like walked straight by me and I was like, hey. And it took them a second. And then they're like, oh my gosh. Wow.

A lot of people from my season were truly like family to me, just like big brothers and big sisters. So it was really special to see that come kind of full circle and see them again. And then flew back here to watch episode eight. It's been crazy. Our kids are in the best phase right now. Oh my gosh.

bear is saying full sentences his first two sentences his first one was uh daddy i want you bite so he'll always like be super generous with any food he's eating he offers to someone else and then the second he said daddy did you see that yeah uh he's really good with eye hand coordination stuff and like you put a ball on a on a t ball set he can hit it with a bat it's amazing so he was telling me to to see it i was reflecting on this the other day our kids they each have like half a hobby or gravitated sort of something early on like at the age of one drew everything was climbing she just wanted to climb climb climb climb swing sets rock climbing it was climbing jet it was wheels he wanted to ride a bike he learned how to ride a bike before the age of two like without

training wheels it was insane um motorcycles all that bear ball like ball sports and bulldozers and bulldozers but like a bat and a ball or throwing a ball is like all he wants to do. Yeah, it's really funny. And he has no interest in bikes, which is so different than Jet. It's like, huh. Jet had no interest in balls.

Yeah. Very interesting. It's crazy. But we're really enjoying our time with the kids. Jet still wakes up at 5am. He's by workout buddy. Drew is in the giggly phase right now. I feel like it's so much fun.

And she's in a daddy phase. I know. This morning, I kept hearing Drew's voice yelling for daddy just like throughout the house. And I was like, huh. We got a lot of fun projects we're working on with the 3D printer science projects. Life is good.

Life is good. And we're also finishing up a remodel. So we will, again, back to the main channel, be publishing videos probably around the new year about the whole process of old versus new. We're getting ready to move in, like a couple weeks away. And there's so much chaos in the logistics and the final payments. We are not stressed at all. Sarcastically. I'm kidding.

But that will be on the Sean and Andrew YouTube channel. So check that out. And let's also get some questions. And then we'll go through sequentially the episode. So let's see. Someone asked, is this just a special forces show podcast now? The answer is no. No.

But we are in a series and it's very important for us to finish covering this. We have one episode left to cover. We'll probably do a few more episodes on a couple things about special forces, and then we'll go back to your everyday romance content. I don't know if it's important that we cover it, but it is fun. We do enjoy it. It's been a really fun thing for Sean and I to reflect on and capture all the nuances. And it's also been so great to see all your feedback. So thanks for tuning in.

Let's see, Andrew says, oh, this is just a comment, says, it was so great to see how Andrew talks to Cody about different. beliefs and faith we are going to we just did an interview with Caitlin Bristow who we I loved our conversation but the last half was about faith so one of the episodes that will be published here after our special forces series is kind of a expansion of that conversation which I'm really excited I've been writing notes nonstop I'm giggling I apologize you just wrote these notes down and you're having a hard time reading them I did well do you see how bad my handwriting is yeah I'm really So you're like, what does this say?

And you wrote it down maybe five minutes ago. I-BAM asked if we ended up having a favorite box during the kick-carry movement. You know, since we picked them up so much, do we end up having a favorite box that we moved? Yeah, for sure. The small ones. The small ones that weighed less than 60 pounds. Yeah. Someone also said that they thought we were saying bee stings, like the bugs.

No. But we were actually saying bee stings, like, beautiful. Beauty and the Beast, which is what they would call like a... Beast, I-N-G-S. Yeah. It's like the verb. Is that right? You get beasted.

Yeah. It's like a random workout that could happen at any moment. A lot of those. And then someone asked, how can I watch this internationally? They're in Australia. It is on Hulu, I believe. And people are ripping them on YouTube. You might be able to find it on YouTube.

So hopefully you're able to find it. And then let's see. Oh, someone else, this will be the last. one was it awkward changing in front of everyone no it's it's so fascinating we have talked about this and like now watching back how all the women are walking around and like booty panties and bras and like you're halfway naked and you're changing you got so comfortable with the whole cast so quickly because you were i don't even know how to voice this but like changing was like the least vulnerable thing you did. Does that make sense? Yeah, but it's also like you weren't free for all with it.

No. I feel like you change less generally on the show because like it's only after you go out for your big mission that you come back and maybe change like once or twice. And then you have like the shower and the bathroom stalls. But I mean one, nobody was stripping down naked in front of anyone ever. We were always in like either boxers, bras and underwear like shorts. Like there's never nakedness. But I do mean this sincerely in the sense of like you are so vulnerable with like fear and like putting your trust in all these cast members that going back into the barracks and having to change your shirt and that being very vulnerable. It's like you trusted your castmate so much that it was never like a lions being crossed type situation. Does this make sense? I know I'm trying to figure out how to communicate it to everyone else because there was never a situation where it was like wow that was way too much or or are they going to look or that like you respected everyone so much in the sense of we've talked about this like we did have downtime but there wasn't like just hang out time so you never you were never in a situation where there were just like people hanging out in the barracks that shouldn't have been there it's like you're always on the go crossing past people walking in out so it was like it was always a fluid thing.

and no one was just like creeping in the barracks. No. It just wasn't the... Yeah. Because there's always something to do. So let's start by sharing the real life notes of how the day unfolded. And then we'll go by what the episode showed. So this is day eight.

Didn't we do videos first? Or no? We did the videos first. You have a good memory. I also want to start personally by saying day seven, episode seven, was the last of the wow, that was a really enjoyable experience, how much fun was that

once in a lifetime, man, I'm so glad we're here and it turns into dread and I don't know, I am I am a little anxious to see how everything pans out from this point forward don't be there's a lot to unpack with the last episode

but you have nothing to worry about nothing. It's just things get so weird but the day went like that we woke up at 7 that day after uh after we did the letter to loved ones the night before and so we went to bed probably midnight woke up at 7 at 8 a.m. breakfast which is later than usual it was later than usual we were waiting around for breakfast that's the clip where they called Cody and they're like breakfast is ready and he runs directly back and he forgets to tell us breakfast is ready and we're like Cody is breakfast ready

and he's like oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and I'm like oh what the yeah yeah he forgot to tell us Maybe the most crucial point, part of the information. 10 to 11, we watched the videos from home. 11 o'clock, you had your second sit-down interview. So we talked about, I think it was episode five, where they featured Sean and her backstory. And Sean mentioned that she got sat down twice, which not a lot of people did. One to four, we did the, they called it the sickener. Sickener.

It was like the mountain workout. Oh, man, we'll get there. 6 p.m. we had our brief with Foxy, 8.15 p.m. The base went under attack with the explosions. And then that's when we got thrown into the desert to navigate blindly through the pitch block. Yeah. And it was about 8.30 to, I want to say 1 a.m. or midnight that we had the navigation challenge.

So with that being said, let's get to how the episode unrolled. Okay. So it starts out with the sickener. And it starts out with the DS basically. like analyzing each person saying they think Cody's going to make it to the end let me just start by debriefing Cody we have said this before he was physically probably the strongest there it was so crazy it doesn't make any sense and he was full throttle all the time which not everyone was and I will say something that was a beautiful trait of his and you see it um more and more through

the episodes like if you really go back and watch he was very encouraging so he was always trying to like help and push you like up the mountain and like telling randall randall take smaller steps so like he was always encouraging in a quirky way of come on buddy you you got it and he was always very present he was like always listening eagerly yeah uh i want to say like earnest and but also urgent very always urgent which i feel like urgency and the wrong context can be confusing to the other people you know so like anytime he would get called to be like you know he's like jerky jerky and sprinting and you're like all right this is not necessarily the context that that needs to be applied in one thing i did want to note too brie mentions that

she's worked with a lot of people that she doesn't get along with yeah she did a phenomenal job with that and i feel like so great yeah it was like very graceful but still super honest and she also was probably the absolute best of the entire cast in being able to just say something to your face and it was always it tended to be Cody but it was always like Cody you tend to get over excited you get blinded I need you to turn that off I'm going to lead you're the strength we're the brains like she was so good at just calling it as it is with anybody but it didn't really feel aggressive so I think it's such a unique skill and maybe it's a personality trait but I was just, like, impressed by that.

Yeah. Sean, you were at the beginning of episode really worried that they were going to paint you as, like, oh, I'm a perfectionist. And you've done so well the entire course, you're like, they're going to paint you as just, like, having an epic downfall. I had a very bad day. This was a very bad day. So going into the Sikner, we had just watched the videos of our kids. I had just had a conversation. This is the conversation.

So when Andrew said they called me in a second time for my interview with the DS, this is the interview and this is when we talked about how robotic I was and they wanted to know who I was and they wanted to see more emotion. And so this is when that interview happened. And I remember walking in to the barracks, getting ready to leave for the sickener, just having seen my kids, which like broke a wall down, which was really hard. I missed home and I just wanted to hug them and I wanted to hold them. and then having the conversation of them wanting to see more emotion

was very confusing but combining all of that going into the sickener I was like I had dropped a wall if that makes sense and so it's almost like for the first time in those eight days of the course I was actually feeling how difficult it was I wasn't numb anymore and it was almost like that switch had turned off of don't let myself cry I don't let myself feel, just do it. That was gone. So then mix that with uphill, which is my kryptonite.

I don't do uphill. I don't do stairs. I can't, like, I, that type of endurance is not my, my strength. Mix that was like, I have heavy, heavy, heavier than me, chains. And it just bottled up to this. I was I was cracking I was absolutely cracking you know how every month we sit down

and try to figure out where our money actually goes like we think we're on top of it but then somehow the numbers never quite add up yeah I'll be like wait why is there another charge for a streaming service we don't even use anymore I think there's probably four extras that I signed up for yesterday that's exactly why we started using rocket money It's this personal finance app.

You guys, you have to get it. It helps you find and cancel unwanted subscriptions. Track your spending and even negotiate bills so you can actually grow your savings. That's pretty sweet if you think about it. I hope you're kidding about the four that you signed up for you. I actually wasn't because I was trying to stream our show. All right, we'll talk about that later. Anyway, it literally showed me all of our expenses in one dashboard.

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control of your finances again. So if you're ready to get organized and stop paying for things you don't use, cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. go to rocketmoney.com slash eastfam today that's rocketmoney.com slash eastfam rocketmoney dot com slash east fam i i thought my back i've fractured my back before having all of those chains on my back i thought i was going to break my back again and in my head i was doubting i was like is this worth it do like is this do i do i literally fracture my back again for this to whatever and then I was trying to show emotion but I had let too much emotion in so then I started

bawling and I couldn't like contain it and I was just so overwhelmed with so many things I was like I don't know how to do this there's too much emotion coming in I miss my kids is this worth it this is freaking hard I was breaking what they didn't show with the chains they showed one clip of I almost fell over because I couldn't it was so freaking heavy And with the Bergen on, the Bergen has like a titanium plate in it so that the Bergen doesn't like fold. So I literally had no mobility. Like I couldn't move with all the stuff on and the chains and I almost fall over and Billy catches me. Because the Bergen was too big for Sean.

Yeah. The titanium plate came above my head. Where on me it fit really well and it wasn't an issue with mobility. Sean had the same size bag. Yeah. It was way too big for it. Even trying to get the chains on, I didn't have enough mobility to like bend down and grab them and put them on. so they were throwing them onto my neck

and at one point it got wrapped around my neck and it was just wild so then I start climbing up the mountain and that's where I start having this like panic and what they don't show and it's truly it was a game changer for me

I'll explain why later DSQ came up and he walked side by side with me up the entire rest of the mountain and he just kept saying over and over he's like don't you effing quit you can do this you like it was it was the most encouraging anybody had ever been to me that whole besides like obviously you that whole eight days and it it switched to flip back on flip to switch

back on for me where i was like okay and so for the rest of the time that i just kept replaying his voice the whole time yeah to provide a little context to the mountain workout they called the sickner By the way, they never used the word sickener with us. No. It was, they didn't even tell us what we were doing. It was probably a 5K. So we probably ended up walking about three miles up a hill.

It was up the entire time. Slash sprinting slash running. It depended on the phase you were in. Yeah. It was a pretty decent drive-in and it was all treacherous off-road. So like we're in the back of this car just getting wrecked for like an hour, bouncing up and down. And then you get out and then you're getting yelled at by Rudy.

and then they're like, all right, you've got to go working out. And you're like, I just want to just sit and get my bearings for a second. I don't know if we have said this blatantly yet in the past episodes, but just to give you an idea. So as you're watching the show, they're saying we're getting ready to do the sickener. This is going to be hard. We're going to run up a mountain. They don't tell us anything. So when you show up at the bottom of a mountain, you don't know if you're going to go crawl in a cave or if you're...

Do another repel thing? Like, you have no clue. And when they say line up, follow me, you don't know if it's starting or if you're just trekking out to the place where you're going to get picked up by a helicopter. Yeah. You don't know. The audience with the narrator has like this context and this, you know, the narrator's setting it up. And now they have to do a hard physical workout. Like you don't know that when you're in it live.

And a lot of my panic that day was I didn't have any gauge of a finish line. And my brain was weak that day. And I was just like. It is crazy how they kind of. that softened you up because remember in real life we watched the videos from home and then we did the workout in the in the episode they showed that we did the workout and then watched the videos but they like softened you up and then just to kick you you know while you're vulnerable which it worked they they mentioned the beginning of the episode that this is all mental this

portion of the course yeah and when people it is it is and i want to put a caveat to it because my understanding of mental toughness yeah changed after my experience there and I feel like I'm really tough in the sense that I can keep going. Like, you know, think about the marathon mindset. It's like, all right, you're cramping up at mile 15. Keep going. Like, do whatever you have to do to get the cramps to go away and keep going. And I'm good at quieting my mind when I'm in physical pain.

Yeah. Which is good as an athlete. But what I realized is that's one form of mental toughness. Another form is like, is not just quieting your mind. in discomfort, but being able to maintain a level of quality decision making and discernment and, like, focus.

Clarity, like, under chaos is very difficult. Yeah. Yes. Not fight or flight, just... Clarity. Like, being able to make decisions. Yeah. Which, as an athlete, I've always just dealt with that external stress and that whatever

I need to be tough for by turning off my mind, which does not lend itself well to, like, clear decision making or communication skills which we will see later on um they also said that you know they're kind of given a overview of each of the cadets or what do you call us yeah recruits at the beginning and they said uh 11 me would do better without my wife and it's like i disagree it's on one event you know what i'm saying because i think we are really great team and we ham and egg it and shake and bake it really well

well where it's like okay if it's just a pure physical workout yeah I could probably go faster than you but in most situations we are better together I keep going it's just fascinating how they position that where it's like I don't think what do you mean I would do better without my wife how I think you took that as a negative no okay I'm adding nuance I think it was complimentary to you I do agree with them that I think you would do better only because you are such a like stand-up phenomenal husband that having me on the course, even though you know I'm going to be just fine, but having me on the course and vice versa, there is a part of us that is thinking and concerned about how are you doing. And I think their point to it was you are so,

strong and you can see it in the show and you're so mentally tough but the effort in which you put forth to take care of me and check on me which is such an exemplary like perfect amazing thing to do there's no downside to that but I think there were a lot of times where instead of checking on me if I wasn't there you would have just like yeah I guess I this goes back to our conversation we had on episode four, but like, just define better, define the word better for me. Because if you mean he could have gone faster during physical workouts, that's probably true. But better generally, I disagree that I would do better without you. Because we're a team. We are a team, but there is so much of this that was not team oriented

between Hammondag and life like you and I do. We are better together. But this one, it was not like an Andrew versus Sean thing. It was like a fine. They were not reference referencing this challenge. They were referencing the entire course. The entire course had you not had the distraction of your wife to worry about. I don't think I would have done as well. I think you would have been mindlessly like cruising. But that's what I agree I would have been more mindless. But what I've learned is that does not mean it's better. Anyway, um, okay. So, we have this brutal ride into this mountain range and then we get out of the car

Rudy gives us this talk I forget what the moral of it was at this point my mind was like really anticipating what we were going to get into with the interrogation and getting captured yeah we were all thinking about interrogation and we weren't thinking there was another workout that was also a reason why we were all struggling

because we were preparing for the end not for this and then they say go keep up so we run half a mile with our Bergenz on up the hill and they we come to a place where there's tires we had to drop our bags run up to the tires carry them back down the hill that was after a half mile up so like half mile up with bags drop your bags grab the tires another half mile up drop the tires drop the tires go back down and grab your bags now run a mile up to where past where you drop the tires to where a rope is don't take

your bergen off pick up probably a 70 pound i think it was about 70 pounds and it was super it wasn't like tied together or bound in any way so it was literally just a loose coil of rope and my issue with that which was like why i struck i could not pick it up it was so big that my arms couldn't connect so the bot like it kept falling apart and with the Bergen on with the titanium plate I couldn't bend over

to pick it up so you see Foxy come he picks it up and hands it to me but my arms aren't my like wingspan isn't big enough to hold it so then they have two of us carry it me and Gia but then what you don't

see is Bree couldn't carry it either so they have three of us it was whatever. But the men in contrast could use their arms as the as the spool if you know that bound the rope. So we had a way easier time carrying. It was still super awkward.

But we had to do the ropes and then... So the ropes were another half mile up, drop the ropes, run to the chains. Again, all have all while still wearing the bergans. Get to the chains

and we had to put four chains on. and that equaled 90 pounds plus your 40 pound bag on your backpack so it was 130 pounds carrying for the last half mile and so remember we have our bergans on and the way they set these chains was just like between the bergen and the back of your neck so it's also not like workout chains where they're neatly the right length so that you could carry them in our way it was just like randomly assorted lengths of chains and and so you have four of them just stacked on the back of your neck and then you walk for it felt probably a mile and a half I think yeah and it's it's like choking your neck arteries right so if you I mean literally squeeze the front of your neck that's what

it felt like with the chains and there was no real way to move them around without having the chain slip off and if you had I had a chain slip off twice and then you had to bend over and then it chokes you more when you're bent over so the whole thing is just a cluster and for me being so short these chains were so long

so they had to wrap them multiple times so you had them around your neck wrapped Sean I was like in disbelief when I saw that I mean it wasn't me oh my gosh

but then it was like by the time I had all these chains wrapped so many times by people so I could carry them and they didn't drag on the ground my arms were covered with them my neck was covered with them it was freaking

awful. So we make it all the way to the top of the mountain. We had to run all the way back down. I forget what happened at the top. We had to run all the way back down. We were so sweaty. We were all out of it. I want to say there was people who from the get-go were struggling physically, like from the minute we got

out of the car. I feel like Brie was in a tough spot from the get-go. Gia was a freaking beast. In my head, I was like, how the frick is Gia doing this? Gia that was another note I had was the last two days stepped up in a huge way like pretty much it was it was in a funny way but she was kind of like she's kind of like saying oh my gosh it's so hard the whole time until the last two days and it's like she locked and it was it was pretty great to see that um and then you do see the DS like Sean was alluding to with her interaction with Q the shift for from them being super hard-lined and, like, yelling at us to being way more encouraging. They show a clip of Billy cooling Bree off with, like, water. And it's just like, you didn't get that the first seven days.

It changes, and they're like, they're really rooting you on, which is cool. Well, and I think to a certain extent, they had gauged all of our strength up until this point. And so they knew to a certain extent, and I say this lightly, this was a very, very um not well weighted challenge men versus women i agree i dominated this and it was it was like pretty hard it wasn't insane for me i would say this challenge it was exceptionally hard for the women and it was just fine for the guys you were you were climbing up the mountain with half your weight we are climbing up the mountain with heavier than ourselves yeah and because Because they, the DS prescribed this and I don't think it's unfair because I do believe, especially

within the military, everyone has to carry the same thing. I don't think it was unfair, but I do think the DS prescribed this on purpose and knew it was going to be exceptionally hard for us. I do think for me it was a big test and they wanted to see, I had been very strong up until this point and then they gave me the emotional side of my kids. I think they wanted to see how far they could push me and this

I don't, I never thought about quitting but I remember thinking I don't know if I'll make it to the top not because I was going to quit but it was just like a I don't know if I can carry all this to the top of the mountain

There was a lot of weight you did a great job you did a great job when I heard Andrew at one point say yeah it wasn't that bad I was like I'm gonna kill you I did not say that in the moment though I did not say that

a moment. Also, you yelled at me. You remember when I tried to come back and help you with your rope? And then you were like, you're in such a locked-in mode. You're not happy about that. I remember when you were yelling at all the recruits. When I got to the top and the chains were tightly around my neck, you were so pissed. Because I felt like I was getting choked.

And I saw you all. And I was like, get the freaking chains off your neck. Yeah. Well, and that was hard. I couldn't get the chains on my back. Anyways, moving on. Let's talk pajamas for a second. I used to just throw on any old t-shirt and call it a night.

But lately, I have realized what I wear to bed actually matters. When I feel good, I sleep better. And these new skim's sleep sets are next level. Yeah, I can confirm. Sean converted me. I never used to wear real pajamas, but now I'm all in. These are honestly the softest things I've ever slept in. Right?

I had told you guys about their underwear and what the game changer it was. Now it's the PJs. So the first time I put mine on, I was like, oh, this is dangerous. The fabric is buttery soft, super lightweight, and somehow makes me feel instantly relaxed. We have been living in ours lately, morning coffee, movie nights, all of it. And Skims has something for everyone, women's, men's, kids, even pets. So the whole family can match for the holidays. We've kind of made it a little tradition now.

Matching PJ's Hot Coco, a holiday movie, and yes, Andrew's officially a matching PJ guy now. Only during the holidays. Only during the holidays. And I'm proud of it. Seriously, these are the best pajamas we have ever owned. So if you're looking for the perfect cozy gift this season, shop the best PJs at skims.com slash couple things. After you place your order,

make sure to select podcast in the survey and choose couple things from the drop-down menu. And if you're looking for the perfect gifts for everyone on your list, the skims holiday shop is now open at skims.com. That's skims.com slash couple things. Okay, so I forgot until I saw the clips of us how hot it was that day, how much we all sweat. And there was really no opportunity to get water

throughout the workout. So we were in tough shape getting back in the car and heading back to base. But then when we did, it was probably the most relaxed time that we had for the entire week and a half we were there. I feel like we had four or five hours, which was so agonizing because you're just sitting there anticipating what's next, what's around the corner. I will say we all knew what day it was. We knew we were at the end. We knew we were getting ready to do the evasion challenge which leads into interrogation so it was like impending doom

we did not we were not for sure this was the last day I know and we also you know we had all seen the previous seasons and the first three seasons all in the same with the interrogation and the capture and we were like okay we in the contract like that everyone signed getting into the show is I think a two week timeline and we had only been gone for like

11 or 12 days. So theoretically, I think we could have been there for another two or three days. So you hear us talking about moving the finish line back or, you know, we're here for a couple days. I think you mentioned a comment about that. And it was like, you just, you start making up stories in your mind about, well, is this the last day? And then what's going to happen? Are they going to have a different ending to this episode than they did in previous ones? And if they do, then what is it? And you start like just creating narratives. It's crazy. we watched the videos and in the show it talks about her it looks like we get the bag over her head and it's kind of like the when they sit us down for the sit down interviews but again it was a way more friendly environment and they were talking to us while we had the bag on our heads after watching the videos Billy was like man you have such a beautiful family kids are great you start to like get the personality from each of them which was really cool and inspiring honestly I felt like I wanted to stay more because these guys were opening up and it was so fun to see that side of them after this time. It was just, you know, you spend seven days with these guys and they're, they're hardcore, and then you start to see the soft side of them, and it's like just really inspiring.

I also think they start seeing potential in you way more than the beginning where it's like, can we make them into something? Do they have it? Like by now, they kind of know that we all potentially have it, but it's, can we cross the finish line? And so they start becoming encouraging,

still tough as nails. And I'm curious if they're ever going to show the part where, no, they're not, where they like test, DSQ tests you. Yeah, they're not.

There was this whole, like, challenge where... They didn't show any of that. No, DSQ was, like, really trying to mess with Andrew. Like, they each tried to, like, single you out you and Andrew was completely unbreakable so they were like how do we mess with them and so they

did this whole thing where they made Andrew step aside and made all of us do like penalty workouts and we had to call you hey honey bun and like it was like a hazing okay that was half of our day on day six yeah and they're not going to show any of it we did this whole hike down this canyon a jump across the cliff maybe that's going to be on the last day maybe they like paint they go backwards and like fill in some stuff but so Sean did say that it sounds like they're going to edit the last day differently than they ever have I've been told that only because up until this season the last day is very confusing for like a viewer because of the interrogation and the quote torture and yeah people like we've watched the last day and people just like give their number up for no reason you're like wait you

this is the time you're going to do it like this seems like the easiest part of the whole show it's really hard to understand. And so they're taking a new twist on it. I don't know how. We have not seen anything. But I'm curious how that will paint the picture. But like up until now, they've really been trying to test our butt, like push our buttons. But it did feel like there was a shift of like just stick with it. Yeah. You know? So we eat dinner, but none of us really ache. It's just like silent because we were all locked in. It's just so nervous. It's like, when's it going to start? And we had all seen the show. So we knew we were about to go on this like, You just knew you're going to be trekking through somewhere with a compass, and you knew you're going to get captured.

And as soon as you get captured, that's when torture starts. And it was all just like a holy crap. What's this going to be like? But for me, I was like, I only knew 80%, and then the other 20% I was creating all those narratives. Anyway, I want to say, from this point forward, I don't know what's going to happen. No. And for this episode in particular on episode 8, they painted me in a way better light in certain areas. And then they painted me in a way worse light in certain areas.

We'll talk about that in regards to the navigation and in the capturing. So going into the navigation, we should cover that in this episode. They give us a little briefing? Yeah. So they give us a little briefing. They basically say this is how you work a compass, which we've never used Joe for. They say you've got to scavenge for food. Any food you find out there you eat.

It's like training for survival almost. And they give you the most basic in the event you get captured. And we'll say this in the next episode two. Like in the event you get captured, your job is to stay alive. That means build a rapport with your captor. Make sure you don't piss them off. Make sure you don't get aggressive. Make sure you don't get defensive.

Like you truly have to build a relationship with your captor. That's all we're told. Because this happens. the day, the night before you get into interrogation. So then we get this like very brief briefing. And they also said you have to like make up a story. They say you got to interact with the locals to get enough information. But you know if they're,

you don't know if they're good or bad. So maybe don't interact with them. But you have to in certain areas. And then also you got to stay low. And if you ever use a flashlight, make sure you cover it. So it's not shedding too much light. So much information. They're teaching all this stuff.

They're like, you know, anytime you see lights or helicopters or. cars, you got hide in the bushes. They give you this whole briefing that like, you know, you don't know what you're going to use or what you're not going to. You're like, okay, I guess I got to stack up on food and, you know, I'll try to make friends out there. You don't know which to put weight into, which piece of advice to put weight into and which are just irrelevant, which it turns out, I feel like most of it was irrelevant. They even gave us a compass lesson. And it was like, we didn't use a compass a single time. Zero. I had my compass literally out following Northwest the entire time.

Well, this is how they helped me. This is how they painted me in a good light. So anyway. It was just, it was very disorienting. You basically dropped off in the middle of a town. They say you have to go to a place and get a clue. Once you get a clue,

you go to another place. But like, it's not our map is unreadable, like, which is one of the clues that we got. I cannot believe you had a map. I cannot believe you had a map. it would be a joke to even call it a map it was a picture which was okay let me set the context

we're there base goes under attack we all this is how they help me out one more time i just run out in the courtyard with no bag and then rudy was like grab your freaking bag yeah so so we go back in it was like you know three of us had exited go back and grab our bags come out we have to run to the cars they kind of navigate us around a certain way i think because they had placed explosions and certain places. So they like had us run around. They had already started re-organizing the courtyard where we had been doing all our beastings and like had the parade square because this is where they do the interrogation was at that same courtyard. So then we run into the cars and it was Team Alpha and Team Bravo. Another interesting thing they said in the in the briefing was act like

you don't know anybody else. Team Bravo does not exist. They don't exist. Like It's a whole separate show is what they painted it as, right? Yeah, which we'll get into in the next episode. There's so much to cover here, you guys. I hope this is making sense. I would say to summarize that last challenge where it said like Andrew was a leader and you were leading him to the wrong place and like I was a chicken with my head cut off and we were arguing with Cody and it was to paint that whole picture for you,

it's the middle of the night. you have a compass and nothing else and you really don't know where you're going and we probably trekked three and a half miles over the course of three hours and all I remember is like our main objective was to find a riverbed and follow the riverbed well let me tell you

we never found a riverbed we were hacking through bushes for three miles I don't know how you didn't find a riverbed either, but... Oh, I agree. I don't know how we didn't either. And then for us, we actually found our safe house, which I don't even know how we did. Ours was a little bit easier because our markers that we were finding were mosques. They had the tall bell tower.

So we had the tall bell tower. There were quite a few of them, but we could identify them. and that's why we at least could say like there's a light that way and you can tell it's a mosque let's go there and ask where another mosque is oh my gosh all right i'm gonna i'm gonna share a lot of the maybe unnecessary details here but i just think it's important because from my experience so far in the show watching the episode versus the reality of what happened this was the the most disjointed they did paint a cohesive yeah yeah which was nice and it wasn't when I say it was disjointed from the actual reality what you saw on TV was

disjointed from the actual reality it wasn't like false it was just highly truncated and a little reorganized because you guys got lost so we are in a car with team alpha is in a car with billy you're riding in there and this is the only time we ever had a car ride with the ds so it's randall gia and i gea is so nervous like she's in dreading mode she's like my gosh, I can't do this. I can't do this. Randall's locked in. I'm locked in just ready. I'm thinking I got to get my nav skills out, thinking about the compass, all the lessons we just learned with survival, hide the flashlight. Billy's giving us this hype speech about how, you know, he's been captured. He was kind of giving us some tips. He was also saying, this was like the closure

moment. This is the last time I talked to Billy. Period. Yeah, this is the last time I talked to Billy. To this day. But he was saying, you know you're going to miss this. Like, the last couple days, you will miss. As difficult as they've been, you'll never forget about this. Which, again, was like a softer side. So then we get, we are like driving on this mountain range. You see, you pull down into this valley and you see like this village down there. And our driver goes one way, ends up being the wrong way. So we get lost for like a half hour, 45 minutes. We had to turn around, Billy's piss at this driver. He's like this local guy. he's like we're not at the right

freaking spot so then we turn around it's now like after sunset at this point which was a problem and Billy was saying this to the driver because the cameras are all set up and the lighting was all messed up now and so anyway we get dropped off and Billy helped us out finding the first

candy store was our first stop and he said there you'll get directions to find your second stop your second rendezvous point so we get out we're taking the side of the road path we're trying to stay off there was i mean we're in the middle of nowhere initially so like we weren't on the road running but we might as a well have been because it was uh like it was just an

open field so we run to the candy store we find it super quickly randall goes to the door first and asked for the code the guy doesn't give it to him so it's like this 10-15 minute interaction randle comes back he's like he didn't have a clue so we're like okay what do we're like deliberating and i don't know what happened here still but i don't know what happened here still but i I went, I was like, all right, well, let me try. So I go, and the guy gives me the clue immediately. And I don't know if they gave these local guys, like a picture of who you should give it to. But, and I guess Gia and Randall also did elect me as the team leader.

So maybe that was part of it. Like they gave the locals a picture of the team leader. So anyway, we go back. We ended up dumping some stuff out of our bag because part of the training survival stuff was get rid of anything you don't need. So we had 30 pound sandbags. Interesting. We were not told to do this. We had our full weight the whole time.

This was part of Billy's car speech. You're right. He said, he gives a hang. He's like, you don't really need a bag of sand in your bag, do you?

Hint, hint. So anyway, then we ditched it after that first clue. And the clue was, turn around, go to the riverbed behind you and go right

and find the lady with fire. I'll forever remember lady with fire. So we're in the mountains. Okay? Just imagine this. And the mountains have all these ridges, right?

and so naturally the riverbed which was directly behind us at the bottom of the two like in the valley was a riverbed completely dry so like at one point we're like is this a riverbed because there's no water but you could kind of tell that there had been water lines there and whatever so we initially said easy first clue no problem we had to walk like 200 yards through the village down to the riverbed. But keep in mind, it's a mountain range. So every, there's like creeks and streams coming down through every little ridge line. And so, you know, we walked down to the, to the riverbed through a creek or stream. So you're like, okay, well, is this the stream that we're supposed to turn right on and find the lady with fire? Anyway, we took the biggest one, naturally. And we walked,

it said 1.6 miles on the show. We probably only walked a half mile. but it was it was like this huge valley that you could see another mile through so like we walk a half mile and i'm like i guess i made into the assumption that surely the second clue won't be this far away and also there was nothing else through the valley that we could see so we stopped there i'm looking around i don't see anything to do a full 360 and we're there for like five minutes looking for a lady with fire a fire in the middle of this context in the middle of the desert in pitch black you would see so then we're like well is it a cigarette like what do they mean by lady with fire is it like clothing or something but we're like we don't see any fire there's no

no light of any kind so then we turn back around and go to to another riverbed we go pretty much all the way around the village again and we walk probably a mile and a half that way and freaking Randall's stressed. Gia's stressed. She's not really speaking, but Randall's like, this is not the, like, we got to find the second clue. We got to find the second clue. I'm like, I know. I'm trying. There's no phone. There's this broken English clue. And I'm trying to find a lady with fire. So we end up saying, let's go read the clue again just to make sure we didn't skip anything out. So that's why we ended up going back to the village and back to the candy store again. And, and then we like go back to the same riverbed. And we took the

second biggest river that we saw, which again was huge and actually had like green plants that we were like, all right, well, I guess that's like, there's clear signs of water there. So let's take this. We walk a mile and a half of this river. No lady with fire. And on the show, they said the lady with fire initially was 50 yards away. There's zero chance. No chance.

You would have seen it. Anyway, we and Randall and I at this point, I realized, what are we doing? even trying to find the clues. Why are we playing this game? I was frustrated because they had given us this training survival lesson and briefing about don't show the light. And this was the first time

it felt like a fabricated reality TV show where I was like, you know, they tell you this. And then there was this camera crew with an LED panel of light just blasting through the night. And so you're like, okay, well, what do you mean hide our flashlight light that's like nothing compared to this?

LED panel what do you mean be quiet and like subtle when you have this whole camera crew right here and what do you mean like I just I was so confused at this point and I realized oh you were just frustrated this is a game okay so then I was like well the longer we get lost and we don't find the second clue then the better off will be the better off you'll be I think I did end up shafting you and I'm sorry stay tuned so Randall and I kind of like have this silent pack that we're just going to walk as far as we can knowing it's the wrong direction and so we go like three miles up to riverbed we actually ended up smelling fire at one point we're like no way if this is where the lady fire is it's crazy but we had this delightful hike around

this like cliff face in the valley and it was like Randall Gian and I we were all hyping each other up and it was like all right let's just like keep on going and then the camera crew started like getting radio walkie talking they're like hey pretty much they started telling us where to go and like things to say which they had never done before again but we had gotten so lost that we were so far removed again intentionally lost that they just like needed to move on with the show and what they were filming so then they drop off a lady with fire like we see this van pull up in the distance and that lady with fire gets out has this like second clue for us she had food which i wish we would have eaten but again you're like well they said don't trust anybody

so we didn't eat the food it would have been nice if we did have a bite to eat but then we walk up on these dogs and these cars the lights go on and uh and in like bag over your head dogs barking and it was a very intense situation at that point and that's where a random VWs. Almost immediately, which I could not believe. I know. It was shocking. He said he panicked, but he also said he had no intention of doing the interrogation,

which, like, I understand. He didn't want it to mess with his head. We had heard previous people who had gone through interrogation said it was like a really, a really negative experience. Okay. Confession time. There was a stretch this fall where I was living off of nothing but a coffee and whatever random snack I could grab between shoots.

I'd tell myself, I'll make something healthier later. and then somehow I would end up at a drive-thru instead. Yeah, or the, I'll just grab a quick wrap moment that turns into a $15 lunch. That's fine, but not actually filling. Exactly. That's why we started using Kachava more. It's made our lives so much easier and honestly, way healthier. It is the whole body meal that gives you real nutrition without sacrificing convenience.

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Plus, it's super quick to make, which means no excuses. Seriously, Kachava has been a game changer for keeping us. fueled, even on the busiest days. Your future self will thank you. Go to cachava.com and use code eSfam for 15% off your next order. That's Kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A-D-com, code E-Sfam for 15% off. For us, we made it to the safe house, and I just remember it and you see it on the show walking in thinking like, is this right?

This feels like a trap, which it was the whole time, but it doesn't really feel like a safe house and we go in and they had tea and they're like sit sit sit sit sit sit sit and the locals are like trying to give us tea and I'm like this feels like trap and so we sit down take our burghans off brie and i literally like drink our tea which probably it was this is probably like three minutes and the door blows off that's crazy and the dogs come in and whatever and all I remember is like this split second where Bree and I had like a really good bond and we'd been talking about this like we knew interrogation was coming and we were both more scared about interrogation than anything else on the show it was like in this instant I looked at her and we like grabbed each other's

hands and I I was really shocked they didn't show this maybe it didn't like play on camera like it felt but I was like in a panic I was like Brie and she's like she just like locked me in eyes like eyes to eyes and she's like we've got this and then they shoved our faces down into the dirt and the dogs are barking on us and they put our zip ties on they put our faces on and it was like in that instant i felt for the first time probably the whole show like true fear because i was like brick i don't know what's coming yeah and then i just we did not know what was coming locked in they after they put the bag on our head we were probably faced down in the ground for 10 minutes yeah

And then they pick us up and they put us in the back of a car solo. Like nobody was in my car. We each got in our own and they drove us off. I could tell we drove back to base. Yeah. Because like you couldn't, I, we, there were these really creaky doors that were to base. Like I could tell we were there. We had zip ties on.

We had zip ties on. We were like legit captive. Were you in the square with us? I have no idea. There's no talking aloud. Did you? have dogs barking at you a second time in the square where they like yeah so they like walked us into the they might show this they walked us into the square well we can't give out too much we're

not there yet okay we're not there yet the whole that whole navigation and escape course part of the course was like it really was a thrill it made me think of like an escalated version of i don't know if you ever played capture the flag at like summer camp and like a big field or something but like you're whispered you're totally into it yeah and like in football anytime you'd like be the ball carrier in football and being chased by the defense you're always like puckered up just like freaking locked in palm sweating on high alert and it's it felt like that the whole time where you're like looking out for cars looking out for dogs the whole time we were on the run it was very electric and it was just intense and it was probably three hours brie and i spent three hours

we were giggling last night you and I wrangling a puppy aka Cody who like every five minutes he's like I'm gonna go do solo recon and we're like stay together or he'd like go wandering off to pee I'm like Cody stay together yeah every five minutes

I just can't believe a lady with fire so we see her get out of this van and she like starts making this fire with flint and steel which again you could see from two miles away so the first lady they said was 50 yards you couldn't see anyway she gives You're not better at all.

She gave us a second clue and she like pointed where to go which I'm pretty sure they were just trying to move things forward because it was late. We had delayed their plans because Randall and I had this plan of getting lost

to delay it so it worked. But she like pointed and then that's when we had the dogs. But I'll never forget. Billy like really did not, he kept giving Randall chances to on VW. Really?

Maybe like two or three. It was like probably a two minute interaction of him saying, Are you sure? Like, you're close. And then I also want to talk about the dogs. So you got a bag over your head. Oh, my gosh.

We should talk about the bag now because this began the next 18 hours of our life. Heavy canvas. We mentioned this before. Heavy. Can't see anything. And you're sweating balls in this thing and it's itching.

And there is like a little crease just like any bag would be that you can kind of see some light on. So you could like see your feet. you could kind of get a grasp of like a little bit of where you were i'm saying like a one inch perspective um but you're you're in this with your hands bound and they have these dogs i mean it must have been a foot from your face barking they didn't bother me at all this this guy who's speaking french german yeah german makes more sense with german cheppers uh he's like saying the command

to these dogs which was crazy there must have been six dogs is super loud you got this guy yelling german i i don't know what word he was saying but i i hear it in my mind and i hear these dogs like you hear the freaking slobber just like gushing and then yeah you let up in the car i was in psycho with the dogs though like as soon as they come up i'm like oh good boy good boy good boy i was like it made me smile hearing the dogs it took me probably five minutes to get to a point where i was on red alert because you're like it's it's like the one negative I've ever had with dog as a German Shepherd

So I don't know But I just got picturing Thor I'm like Yeah get it buddy Get it That's the conclusion of episode eight We'll see what happens here You're ready for episode nine

I'm loathing episode nine Loathing So nine changed us Yeah It did Thanks for listening I'm Sean And I'm Andrew

See you next week Be good