special forces episode 2 recap
00:00 You can hear the bugs. I just can't. You can hear the bugs through the mic. How many times did you actually push up, Sandra? A couple times because I would try to go pee solo and you always have to have a bathroom buddy and I broke that a couple times. Sometimes we just have a hard time following the rules. You just are a rule breaker.
00:16 What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. With Sean and Andrew. Special Forces Edition. Recruit number 11. A too chunk! That was a lot. Was it too much?
00:26 Yeah. I didn't remember what my number was. Yours was 10. And I was 11. 10. Lucky number 10. I got 10 and I was like, I'm going to win. 10 is like my favorite number. I got 11. I was like, this does not bode well for me. I can't. I get. Are you kidding? Can I start with a comment?
00:43 Start with a comment. Here we are. We're now three episodes in to our reality recap series, Special Forces recap. Also, the Dancing with the Star series is now underway. I don't know if it'll be a series, but that was actually a really fun conversation. You know what I just came from? What? Dance class. You're a dog.
01:03 I mean, special horses got me into boxing because Lord knows after being on our season, I need to learn how to box. What are you talking about? And then after Dancing with Stars, I just fell in love with dance. And I just recently, after the Dancing on the Stars commercial, took back up dancing.
01:21 And it brings joy to my soul. You're going to have to share your ways with me, with the young Paduan Kimosavi What, boxing or dance? I don't want to take boxing skills.
01:35 I am not a dance teacher. Okay, well you have something you can learn. We could practice together, you know? You know what I'm saying? Okay, comments from the last episode, the episode one recap. Yeah. This one's from Pamela J.
01:50 Says, I really enjoyed listening to your commentary just as much as the show itself. Sean, you made a lot of great points about respecting the DS and not throwing people under the bus right away and giving them a chance to redeem themselves. That is what I hope you all take away from the show and the series.
02:08 I think that is the most beautiful part about what Fox is doing with the show. She also says it's also so insightful to bring in both of your experiences on the show. Love, love, love this commentary. Can't wait to hear what you have to say for future episodes. So that's a comment. We do have some questions from the first episode.
02:24 And if you have questions from, what you've seen on TV or from what we've said, drop them in the comments and we'll try to get to them. I was going to say, before we jump into the comments, something that I loved about episode two and just wanted to give a little clarification behind the scenes. From our season and from this season already in this episode, the number one rule that these vets require, even required back when they were active duty members is respect. It's like the whole premise of everything. And if you don't respect them or if you disrespect the course,
03:07 what are we doing? Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? And for when people try to show up and they're like, oh, I'm not going to take this seriously. This is just a show. It's like, it's not. It is real. This was in my notes.
03:22 By the way, Sean and I watched the episodes and we take these big notes. I don't know if you could see this, but we kind of just text each other our talking points. A lot of text there. One of the notes I wrote down was how, yeah, it's a game. It's a game. You're pretending to play the part. Like, we're not actually Navy SEALs.
03:42 We're not actually going through selection. This is for a show. But then it got me thinking, like, pretty much, that's the case for a lot of life. You know what I'm saying? Like, you have to. I'm not saying be who you aren't, but you. you do step into situations and then you kind of have to play the part like the it's a little bit of the fake it till you make it like hey i'm going to fully immerse myself in this process whether
04:08 it's a show or a new job and i'm going to play the part i'm going to play the game like that's how you learn and grow and empathize and walk a mile on someone else's shoes and i think it's an important thing to do i'm not saying be someone who you are not at all. Yeah. But I think that if you sign up for something with whatever knowledge you have, like hopefully that's a good decision
04:32 for you to get involved in something. And then once you're there, it's like play the part, play the role. Here's also something that I felt deeply while I was doing the show and afterwards. There's like this fine line that I felt like I had to toggle where when I'm on the show and I'm with the DS, 100% respect was from you and I towards them.
04:52 As far as like, they are the real. I hope they felt that. Yeah. I have that I felt that too. Like they're the real deal. They are real military guys. Yeah. Like elite of the elite.
05:05 Okay. So everything that they were wanting to teach and talk about and everything that they created, I was like, absolutely, I respect this. And then the premise of the show is like, can you survive military training? Can you be immersed and be a military person, right? But there was this fine toggle of like, I never wanted, how do I say this, to offend them or actual military by saying like, oh, I can handle it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because at the end of the day, it is a real experience.
05:49 But you're, we're not going to die. So you're saying you're trying to walk the fine line of being bought into the process while also not to. taking it overly seriously, like this isn't actually selection. Just because you made it to the end doesn't mean that you're like, you know, qualified to be a Navy SEAL. So that's one end of the spectrum and the other is total disregard. Like, oh, what a joke. That is too far.
06:12 Like it was, it was real enough that it's like an actual real experience. That you can learn something from. Absolutely. And is it one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life? Absolutely. Is it real what they're creating and what they're like the core. they're putting together absolutely but at the end of the day even if you make it past the final um interrogation yeah i had so much pride that i could do it and that i can complete it and i had so much
06:42 that i took away from it and so much i learned but i could not stand there and say this makes me equal to them they were still so way far above anything i could ever be in the respect category of what they're actually like creating. It was just like a hats off to you, you know. If I may make a slight adjustment to your approach. I think it's like, I think you were so proud in doing things you were uncomfortable doing and challenging yourself in new ways.
07:12 You were not proud of like, hey, I made it. Yeah, I think. Do you know what I mean? Those situations that made you uncomfortable are totally different than the actual military experience. Like it's, it was so humbling for us to be on this. course and to be getting ready to crawl through tunnels and to see DSQ and DSQ and D.S. Foxy and Rudy and Billy stand up there and say, okay, we have created this course where
07:41 you're going through, you know, enemy fire and all this stuff. And in my mind, I'm like, absolutely, this is terrifying. This is really hard. But you actually lived it for real. Yeah. You were serving your country, protecting people, fighting for people, fighting for people, finding real humans and trying to bring them back to their families. And you are writing death letters. Real. Yeah. So there's this like toggle of did we write death letters, which I'm sure they're going to do
08:12 this season, absolutely. And did we ball her eyes out? Absolutely. But there's no way for that to have the same weight that Billy's explaining. I was overseas and I missed the birth of my children. And I, you know, that's where. It's just there's this humility that you have to find in this experience to be like, oh, shoot. I might be experiencing this and feeling like it's a 10 out of 10 terror.
08:35 But just this is like the smallest piece of the pie of what they've lived their lives doing. Well said. Well said. Shall we get into the episode? Sure. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. You guys.
08:47 Of all the episodes of all the seasons, this might be, I think the most drastic, like crazy. I think this is the hardest season. and they've had so far. So much has happened in this episode. I just am so grateful we were in the desert. Also, there may be spoilers in this episode. We're going to try to give high-level spoilers. No, we have to.
09:09 There's going to be spoilers. There's going to be spoilers. So if you don't want spoilers, because we've got to talk through some stuff. Watch the episode, then come back and listen to this. Okay, so first of all, they had a 540am wake-up. We were so lucky.
09:23 I don't know what the strategy was in the desert, But like we never had them barging into our rooms with pants with pants, which I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep after that. I think we did have a 2 a.m. late night, but we never had an early morning, which I don't know. Is that an early morning or a late night? I think I would take staying up later than having a rude awakening. Yeah. All of our mornings were quote unquote chill, except for like we'd have 20 minutes to like wake up,
09:53 put clothes on and get there. This was like rude wakening. Yeah. So they get the 540 a.m. Wake up call. And they're screaming at them. They're dazed. They're basically like,
10:04 get your clothes on, meet out in the square. Rudy had a line, which I love, and I think you did a great job at this in our season. He says, you don't get ready.
10:12 You stay ready. I mean, I slept fully clothed. And there was, we were partially exhausted after the show for a long period of time because it was
10:24 24-7, you were trying to stay ready. And there's like a psychological tax. I had a turn on a phone. Every second. Yeah, there was this massive letdown that once we were off, we went through. And then Billy said this, which is good from a perspective to keep in mind. He said, this will be the hardest phase. And this is where you see all the DS in their own rooms and bunkers really talking
10:47 about the cast and the recruits and how they're doing and how they're ramping up. Yeah. I feel like day one is always like, let's test the waters. Let's figure out where people are. Let's see how we can push them. And then Billy just exposing like this will be the hardest phase. It's like a yesterday wasn't just pretend. Like it's, we're in it.
11:07 Yeah. Now it's double down on day two and see who's left standing. If you had to zoom out and look at the 10 day experience and phase it out, what would you say the phases would be? I don't know. I don't know the strategy behind how they're testing people. so I don't know if there's a clear arc to every season. We started out really hot.
11:30 Physically. Physically. I agree. I think phase one is physical pruning. Yeah. And physical testing. And then I think it turns into fear. So I think it's like physical fear.
11:42 So like you're really testing. Can I get you to tap out just based off like putting you at a really high heights or having you jump off something or something really loud? I agree. this. I would say phase three might be problem solving. Yeah. And then phase, I would say maybe the four phases, the last being psychological testing. I also would say you've missed one in there, which is just endurance. Because I think there's a very clear point in the show with every season where you hit just like fatigue and they just like
12:15 punch straight through it. And they're like, can you handle being. Stay in the game. beat down mentally and physically and stay in it. The courage to commit. That was when we did the mountain where you had to hike up the mountain with the chains and stuff. And I was, I was, yeah, I was not in a good spot. There is no finish line. You don't know how long you're going to be out there. They're having you do not only a long and slow workout, but also the sprints that we did
12:40 right after our long and slow hike. So you're fatigued in multiple different ways. I agree. This was helpful to me, though, to hear him say that because, I think about in football this would happen to, I don't know, maybe this is just a coping mechanism, but to know that there is some preset plan, like it's physically hard, yes, but to know it's a test helps me digest it a little bit. I think that's terrifying.
13:14 Well, when I think a pivotal moment for me in my football career was like, oh, this coach is putting me in an unconsored. comfortable situations and he's being mean or oh my gosh get me out of here was my first inclination but then when I realize like oh no he's trying to see if I have what it takes to be yeah to take the heat on Sundays he's trying he's testing me and like yeah I'm freaking I can pass this test it like takes the edge off it for me in some ways you know I just think if you go into this day episode two day two thinking this is the hardest phase whereas viewers watching it and pilly says it's the hardest phase if you believe it's truly the hardest then you expect it to get easier yeah that's true and i think especially in this show and this experience you have to go in saying this it's a 14 day course
14:11 and it's going to be hell every step of the way yeah because i think if you expect dips and breaks and stuff and when you don't get then that's what But to have some rubric, this is some silly life advice, but I mean it, it's like I think it's important to read the syllabus, if you will. I remember first day of class, like to get an overview
14:33 of, hey, where is this class going to take us? Whether it's in high school or college, they would always give the syllabus out, right? And then you kind of like, you can kind of categorize things, put them in buckets. We watched the previous seasons before we were on our show. So we kind of knew, oh, we're probably,
14:49 going to have physical like conflict. We're going to have a physical part where we're going to box. And to have like to have some orientation, I think does help. So anyway, I like that. Okay. So they get them to the square. I notice that they're not wearing their bergans, which in my mind,
15:10 I was telling you into this, means they're probably not getting in their cars and driving someplace. They're probably running. So they take off running and I would love to know how far they ran. It looks like they were running a while. If you see Rudy leading a run, bro, you're running for a while. Just to give you some reference. Rudy's a dog.
15:33 Yeah, Foxy did an entire marathon. I think he did a marathon a day on cross-country skis. In the Antarctic? In the freezing cold. Yeah, all these guys are physical specimens. I cannot. I cannot overstate that. And when Rudy's in the front, you're like, oh, no, oh, no.
15:53 So they're running and they get to a place and they get to the middle of the jungle. And this is just a pure endurance physical test. So it looks like they're putting them through this like obstacle course of like climbing over mud walls going under stuff. It's like a, what would you call that? Beasting? Yeah, but like a Spartan race. It's like they're crawling, jumping, climbing, swinging, and they're doing laps. And from what you can see of it, people look gassed.
16:29 Yeah. And I think that was one of the most interesting parts about our season and watching back is there were so many moments that just took so much time that you can't really showcase on a show because there's only so much time for the episode. But we would do hour-long workouts that you would never see. And this one just from people's expressions looked really difficult. Yeah. Wait.
16:54 Well, I know, I know. You did skip apart. But Lori has a question to that point where she says, does every contestant do every stunt? Because the jumping backwards stunt, they didn't show everyone doing that. Why? So, yes, everyone does everything. Like we said in the previous episode, there are few, there are rare medical exemptions
17:15 that you might get. but usually everyone will do it. And I think they only show, I mean, it's TV, so it's show bit, baby. Also, rare medical exemptions. The only medical exemption I've ever seen was like Ruby Rose. Yeah. Jumping out of the helicopter feet first instead of head first. And then in our season, someone couldn't get punched in the face.
17:37 So it was just body shots. But like those were cleared long before the show started. There's no medical exemption allowed like mid-show. Yeah. If you can't do something, then they just won't cast you for it. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, they kind of show the most dramatic or what plays in the storyline, but everyone does it. So we skipped something.
17:56 We skipped. Okay, so they, the Root Awakening, back it up, guys, back it up because I'm sorry. I don't even know how to talk about this. The Root Awakening, 5.40 a.m. Yeah. They wake up. LaShawn McCoy. That shows them in the bathroom situation.
18:15 He's like, oh, I can't go to the bathroom here. And he mentioned something about not having gone to the bathroom in multiple days, which is a thing for everybody because you're in for whatever. And is that a thing with travel? Does that happen? Evidently. To everybody or, yeah. And then he's complaining.
18:31 It was just like a comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, but they're all complaining, negative comments. Which is a scary, everyone can get to that point where you just go down the slippery slope of complaining. He's talking about being eaten alive by mosquitoes in the middle of the night, which is a thing. And then all of a sudden, he's just like, nah, man, I'm out. And this is after they show his interview that he did before the show, even started talking about how his dad was in the military.
18:56 Yeah. And how he says, there ain't nothing, you know, I could be served up. That would make me quit. His dad said he wasn't tough enough. But his dad said he wasn't tough enough. I have multiple thoughts on that. One, I think it is important if you have like a father your figure, say, yeah, I can believe in you.
19:11 Yeah, true. I think that does make a big difference. And it does form yourself identity. context. It could have been very, but I agree. No, still, like just broadly speaking, I think that that is really helpful. Also, to Shady's point, to LaShan's point, the bathroom situation is terrible. It's terrible. It's awful.
19:28 But it's also part of the testing of being uncomfortable. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it at nauseam, but it is like you are, you're on bathroom duty, if you're the dutory crew, and you have to clean up the whole situation. And there was some wild things that you would say. see in there. Also, if you sat down to pee, everyone can see you. Yeah. Everyone. The doors are like these, it's like four foot tall stall so you can see pretty much their whole knee down. It's intended to make you uncomfortable. It's hilarious. Looking back, it's hilarious. And I'm glad everyone in our season
20:01 was good sports about it. Yeah. And we all kind of just embrace the ridiculous of it. But he basically wakes up. He has always complaining. You see it. And then all of a sudden he's like staff, I VW. I'm out. And he's just very like, nah, man. The bugs. The. The. I'm not doing this. Yeah. And that made me really mad. I was mad for the DS. Like why even show up if you're not going to try?
20:28 Yeah. That made me, to me, I got defensive of the DS of like, that's freaking disrespectful. I have, so there was two contestants on our show who had a similar removal of themselves, like a similar VW process. And Rudy went off. As he should.
20:45 I never heard a yell like this. and oh my gosh, I got my hair standing up just thinking about it. Foxy, who's more of a subdued personality is who handled the Lashon situation. And I saw his expression, and it was like a sadness or disappointment, but because he knows that you can get something out of the show. And dang, he knows it's sad that he's just pulling himself out of it, you know? It also just makes me, it made me upset, though, because to be that flippant with it and to know that these DS have invested so much time and effort
21:25 into putting it together to better you and for Lashon just to scoff almost and be like, I'm not doing this. It's just like, what? I mean, it's totally understandable and that's part of the reason the show exists. It's like, see who's game and who's not. But yeah, it's a bummer to see. I also feel like one of the notes I made was there's always such a tone change when someone leaves. Like the bunker feels different.
21:52 The barracks feel different. They come in and they remove your cot and your foot locker. And it was always such a quiet moment for us. We're like, dang. It makes it real. It's not the same now. And we lost a teammate. Yeah.
22:06 And there's also a tone change from the DS. And I feel like the first few people who left on our season, the DS would dial it up. Yeah. It like really kind of tipped them off in some ways. And then as a season goes on, they soften. I think the DS with each person who continues to leave, they kind of like, they're sad too. Yeah, because they want to see people get better.
22:31 Yeah. And I think that one, I think Shady was disappointing for them because it was like, he's not even got to try. Yeah. Whatever. Okay. So move on.
22:42 They're in the physical. mud getting just like slung about. I think Oliver Hudson is the one that was falling behind, which they kind of single out. And it just looks like a beasting. It looks like a brutal workout. Yeah, Oliver's pukin when they're done. They make you stand up.
23:03 If you throw out, and it's just brutal. Did you ever throw up? I never threw up. I'm not a throw up while I work out. Yeah, no other. We had a lot of people throwing up. He's sitting there, yak, and he threw up two or three times.
23:14 The other person I remember who was made to those Tyler Cameron. Remember where he's just like project dialing? Oh my gosh. Oh, it's so good. I love this show. Okay, so they go back. They're in their bunker, bunker. Barracks.
23:36 And they're just kind of like decompressing from the day. They bring Oliver Hudson in to really like do his interview and to talk about. why is he here and his whole his whole stick which I'm really curious to see how it goes on
23:51 but his whole thing is just like it seems like he has something to prove he says he is kind of crippled by comparison to his parents and his sister and I think he's trying to find his stamp you know which is great
24:07 in a lot of ways I empathize with Oliver Hudson and I think like his personality is probably similar to mine, most like mine from anyone on the show, I think, if I was going to compare seasons. Kind of like free spirit, happy go lucky, seems like he's there for a good time. It seems like he's pretty bought in. But I think where we differ is like the comparison thing. I was the middle of five kids. There was always like we were always doing our thing. And it was, it's not like we were comparing in an unhealthy way, but then be married to you, who does amazing things.
24:40 It's like Oliver seems to retreat from trying to do things himself is what kind of he said. And I think in some ways, I almost recklessly go the opposite way where I'm like, I want to try a bunch of things. I'm going to fail a bunch of things. Shame was a big part of my kind of interview. But I love those personality profiles. And you just get to know, yeah, what people are going through in a cool way. I think they're doing the best job they've ever done. Yeah.
25:09 with character development and really showing they're giving snippets about people's background so you know who they are and kind of why they're coming in what the DS have they're showing very quickly people's like i don't want to say their insecurity but their their pain point of what they're trying to overcome so olivers is like this comparison can i be an individual and find something i can own and feel good at with okay so the first like big fear test this is the first one we've seen in the season where it's i mean i guess they started out of the helicopter, so that's big fear. They make this big challenge moment of they show up to this like bridge. I don't know what you call that. It looked awesome. It was insane. And I've never seen them do a challenge like this, but there's like this hanging ladder off the side.
25:55 They have to climb over the edge, climb down a hundred foot ladder, grab a 20 pound bag and climb back up in five minutes. And this takes out one person. Yeah. which is crazy but who said is George can we just say it yeah George says I don't think I can do this any of EWs I mean yeah I don't know how do you approach situations of fear I think I think George had a big chance to find redemption and overcoming excuses and overcoming moments where weakness would come in and he would say oh you know like I just can't do that or I did that
26:38 because of this. This isn't the show for that. The DS don't put up with it. They won't accept excuses for pain, for fear, for weakness, for tiredness, for fatigue or hunger.
26:49 You have to push through discomfort and to see him so quickly VW because, oh, I can't put weight on my leg, which I'm sure he was probably in pain, right? Yeah.
27:01 I think was hard for people to witness because, one, I felt like you could tell they really wanted to see him make some progress. I think there was a lot of touchiness with his story. But seeing Billy so disappointed in him and not being able to overcome that mindset of just excuses.
27:22 Yeah. Was you could feel it through the screen. I think it's one thing, like I don't want to put myself in precarious, dangerous situations. Like I don't opt in for fear necessarily. but in that situation it was a team of two yeah and I feel like to a certain extent you know he's now changing at least at the very least the experience for his partner who would be on that challenge with him and I don't know I I would like to think that okay yes I'm scared but
27:58 I'm not going to let that I'm not going to let that negatively impact someone else. I'm going to step up. I'm going to do the thing. That's what I at least aspire to do. Sometimes I do that. Sometimes I don't. But it's interesting. As you see the progression of the show, you'll see so many different fear based challenges where it's like, can you face this fear? The fear of heights, the fear of, whatever. This is definitely like a heights one because like you're dangling. And I remember you and I were watching this and we saw it and we're like, yeah, that one doesn't bother me. Yeah. It would be weird climbing over the edge of a bridge. But it didn't look that bad. But it was interesting.
28:34 to see that fear of heights is a definite thing. Bree started almost panicking. I was really excited to see they show such a visible response to, oh, no, no, no, I can't. She even, like, goes to hike her leg over the side and she's like, oh, no, no, no, I can't. But to see her overcome that and do it, I was like, Frick. That was awesome. You see Candace do it. and she comes up and they show a glimpse of her like crying at the top,
29:05 whether it was fear-based or just fatigue. You see a lot of people overcome it, which is really cool. Ruby Rose is another one who was really nervous to do it. She plays, she's an actress who does all of her own stunts, but even her on settings like this, she was like, this is crazy.
29:22 Yeah. And to see her get to the top. And then I love the father-daughter duo. That was cool. He said one thing, momentum is the cure of fear. Yeah, that was dope. I was like,
29:34 I've never heard that. I love that. That was kind of like a mic drop. Super cool. It was just a couple small things. A couple of people fell off at the very top on the way back. And it's like, it is,
29:47 it does get clunky. Like when we did our postman's walk, which is maybe the equivalent of this for us, like these guys on this episode, they had the duffel bag carabiner to themselves. And now you're trying to climb this this railing with and throw that over and it does get does get overwhelming and in a little
30:06 I guess burdensome and then like my hands are sweating just thinking about the ladder and the postman's walk and it's like that factors into but the other thing that they showed was the bugs on the neck and you can hear the bugs I just can't you can hear the bugs through the through the mics you guys and as a viewer you see like that quick clip and okay onwards but if you're you're living that if you were in the comfort of your own home dude and you hear a bug you're like nah man oh if you're already uncomfortable and you got bugs swarming you brutal brutal you could literally hear the buzzing through the screen yeah um one other thought on the on the phases that they put people through since this was part of that kind of the fear theme or phase uh
30:56 There are similar themes and phases in each season, I think, you know, which I think it makes it fun to watch because there's similarities that you can kind of compare and contrast how people did in them. But I also think that the reason that they have these similar phases is because it actually does mirror the real life military selection process. Yeah. And it was such a fun thing to do. Sean and I will do several events with which like military charity organizations every year and we work with the Green Berets and to like talk to them about Sears training which is the interrogation part of what we went to were to talk to them about like the airplane simulation crash they do this granted in a longer duration time period and I don't know yeah definitely probably
31:49 modified time period but in a modified way. But like the reason that those themes are consistent from season to season is because they are based on the real life selection process as confirmed by our conversations with the actual special forces people. So anyway. So we see the bridge. They all finish the bridge challenge where they're doing the ladder.
32:15 This is when they get in cars. They go back. They want someone makes a comment of, Can you believe we've only been here for one night, two days? It feels like we've lived here for six months. It really does. Like time moves so fast and so slow at the same time. That's when they get called back out to the square.
32:34 They run to the bee sting. And anytime there's transition, this is where Ruby got hurt, getting back in the car after the rope swing. It is an urgent cluster of a situation. It's Rudy's chasing after you and he's yelling at you which car to get in. And it's overwhelming. And it's like you're trying to. to get your bag in and there's a whole procedure they have to do and then yeah it's like
32:57 i could see that being a precarious situation for someone like ruby where we had a couple people bumped their heads i think yeah and it's not an uncommon occurrence for there to be just a hodgepodge mess of a situation as you're transitioning in that so it kind of shows kind of doesn't you don't really get to see ruby's like racing back to the car tries to get in the car and hits her head maybe like the top of the car yeah and it looks like she like blacks out for a second Someone, I think Maricio is the one who had caught her. Yeah. And then it cuts to a medic tending to her,
33:31 which there are medics standing by to make sure everyone is, you know, fine. And I told Andrew watching this, I really feel for Ruby. Like her whole story, she ends up doing an interview later in the day in the episode that you'll see. But her talking about. her past when she broke her neck from doing her own stunts, even her upbringing, how her mom was abusive and her dad was gone. Oh, the line that hit me, she said, I find things hard to do. Yeah. It's like, dang, but go on. But I know a tiny glimpse of this feeling, okay, bear with me here,
34:16 of I felt invincible in gymnastics, my body, until I tore my knee for the first time and had a real injury and had to rehab it. There's like a PTSD that comes with that. And it's like, in every physical activity I do, still to this day, there's a sliver of my brain focusing on my knee because like I don't want to do that again. It's almost like there's like a vulnerability there. I cannot imagine that feeling when it comes to breaking your neck.
34:46 She said my spinal cord was almost severed. But what I think you could witness from that one moment where she hit her head and she sat down and you see her like grab her neck almost because she said she has two artificial discs in her neck was this very apparent vulnerability and insecurity of like, is that going to happen again? Did I just hurt that again?
35:07 Did I? And it seems to rattle her. And I can only imagine that vulnerability she feels on a daily basis and not to mention jumping into this, layered with not feeling loved like she has said, being abused by her mother, which can't imagine how you come out of that. It was really humorous,
35:28 but I also just wanted to give her hug where she said, I never really fit in when I was a kid because I was always the weird kid. I mean, I am weird, is what she said. And it's like even that, it's this comedic relief to maybe an insecurity she feels.
35:43 And I truly even felt from the screen, the DS wanting to be like, today, what did Foxy say? Today needs to be a circuit breaker. That's a circuit breaker, yeah. and we need to rebuild because she seems awesome. She's tough. Kind of just like reset everything.
36:00 Reset who you think you are. Reset who others, who you think others think you are. Yeah. And then fast forward to the Beasting where they're like doing the obstacle course. I think she very easily could have done it. But I do think those insecurities in her brain
36:15 had switched back on from her injury earlier or from hitting her head, like fear. And to see her leave the show, I made me really sad. sad for the fact of she might have been one of the ones who could have benefited the most.
36:30 I think the DS could have poured into her to rebuild a confidence and a pride and an ability for her to, like, believe in herself and have confidence. I don't know. I, as a viewer,
36:40 selfishly wanted to see her more. She seemed really cool. That's interesting because, I mean, you started that whole thing with her next situation. And it is, I mean, if that's a doorway to like all this self-doubt,
36:52 and if you don't, have physical strength is interesting not to like be I don't know self indulgent or vain with it but it's like it can be a good starting point for self-confidence
37:07 but unfortunately for her she can't have confidence starting in there she hasn't been able to find confidence it doesn't seem like starting other places so anyway we're rooting for you Ruby I know rooting for you the obstacle course yeah that did look like a brutal thing it was almost like our version of a canyon hike which they did not show one ounce of this entire day activity that we did and it was it was tough you know
37:36 we were hiking over these huge boulders getting yelled at going in the water they didn't show any of it they also didn't show our suicide correct and oh and the whole penalty thing that yeah so there is there are multiple there's multiple things that they're cram me into it a day to put you through physical and mental fatigue and challenge. It's all part of the DS's design of the course. Not all of it makes air because not all of it can be fit into a TV show. But there are many different times where they're truly testing your capacity. Yeah.
38:11 And for us, I remember we did this suicide up and down a mountain over and over and over again. And the only, so I think still by then there were 16 people. people, half of which, probably 10 of which were men still at that time. And, you know, six or eight were women. And the only rule was if you're the first one back running up and down, then you can be done. But you have to hold a plank the whole time. And so do that math. I'm not beating the 10 men. Yeah. I mean, there are some NFL players out there. So I think I was the ninth to be able to finish the suicide. I mean, it was just crazy. But they all. also played the game where it wasn't always if you were first backed and you're done.
38:55 It was after about 15 minutes. And so then they kept kind of teasing it. Yeah. It was brutal. And then you also get glimpses too in here where they single out people in the sense of it's not a one size fits all. They're truly looking at people's weaknesses, vulnerabilities, egos, pride. They make Oliver do 50 pushouts before he does that ladder for something that he did.
39:20 Which I feel like that might have been part of the reason why he fell off the top. How many times did you actually push up, Sandra? A couple of times because I would try to go pee solo and you always had to have a bathroom buddy. And I broke that a couple of times. Sometimes we just have a hard time following the rules. You just are a rule breaker. But one thing, like you're saying, like they do kind of choose people and select people. And you'll see, you'll see Rudy yelling.
39:44 You'll see Foxy yelling. You'll see Billy cussing. But if you listen to what they say, as aggressive as a tone is. They really are encouraging and they're trying to help you. And it doesn't really sound like it, it doesn't feel like it,
39:57 but they are. And it's a good thing to keep in mind, you know, not everyone who maybe doesn't have a digestible tone is necessarily your enemy. There was one moment in our season that was not shown,
40:08 which was Andrew, didn't follow the rules again, which was kind of a theme. And we were doing a canyon run. And he, we were supposed to follow DSQ's exact route. And Andrew took that not literally. Sean.
40:28 So he's like encouraging one of the girls to like take a little shortcut. And you got reamed. By Q. By Q. And then we got, we finished our run. And Q makes Andrew stand there while the whole team gets beasted. That was tough. That was one of the low points for me.
40:53 I would like to just add the caveat that previously Q, about three minutes before I got reamed, he said, you don't have to follow me. You could take whatever way down you want. So I was listening to- But maybe Q was wanting individuals, not you to be coaching other individuals.
41:10 That's fair. That's fair. Point taken, mistakes were made. He made all of us as we're getting beasted, be like, oh, you love you, Honey buns. Yeah.
41:21 It was like a, it was a very interesting experience. Another thought on when, when Ruby left, she interacts with Foxy. Yeah. And you really do see. Foxy's got a soft side.
41:33 Yeah. All of them do. They all are amazing. And it's cool. Like what Ruby says, I haven't loved myself in so long. I don't want to keep pushing. And it's interesting,
41:44 like Foxy's in the situation where he can either continue push her and say, no, you're better than that. But you see that he realizes that in many ways she's the only one who knows whether this is loving herself, you know,
41:58 or whether this is making an excuse. Yeah. Because it could go either way. Yeah. Sometimes you're the only one who knows in the driver's seat whether you're truly loving yourself and making a good decision or you're taking the easy route.
42:13 And so anyway, I respect how you went about that situation. It was an amazing episode, brutal episode I would love to go back and see on average how many people drop out in the first two days but this seemed like a lot
42:28 it was like three people in about 36 hours which is crazy so we've lost three total no just in the last 36 hours dude how many did we lose in the first I think just one Randy Glanville spoiler alert sorry and I wouldn't be surprised if they did the
42:44 the beasting like mud run in an effort to slow down. But that didn't work? Yeah, I also love, they showed a glimpse of this, that the post-interview debrief in the barracks, where Oliver's talking about looking at himself in the double mirror and he sees his hair and, you know, no one looks their best on this show.
43:04 Oh, this is actually an interesting thing. There are no mirrors. Yeah, there's no mirrors. There's no mirrors, no luxuries of any kind. There's no. At base. Yeah, there's nothing. There's no vanity.
43:16 tools. So like brushes, makeup, obviously, mirrors. There's no luxury given of any kind. So every once in a while, when you go into this interview room, there's like a two-way window where like the cameras are behind it, but they don't want you to see cameras so that you don't feel like it's a show, you know, whatever. But you could see yourself.
43:40 And I remember thinking, too, I saw that and I was like, dang, like rough. It is a crazy situation. You always see those interrogation scenes like in detective films or whatever, like the room, you know, with the metal table. You also... It was crazy to be in that situation. You also see all these people in those rooms
43:56 like almost hyperventilating. It's in a... You look at it and you're like, why are you hyperventilating? It's literally just like an interview. It feels like an interrogation. You walk in there with a bag in your head. You're just in your hands behind you handcuffed.
44:10 And then they're walking you in there. And they're like in this, at this point, they're kind of gentle with you, but you're still freaking out. And you can hear a pin drop in that room. They're just staring at you. Yeah, and they don't say anything when you sit down. You're just looking at it. Okay.
44:27 I remember not even being able to process thoughts when they would ask questions. Why are you here? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. But like now that I watch it back, I'm like, I would have such a great answer if you asked me know. And so we've done many interviews for this podcast, which has been a, blast. There are, and we've also been on interviews. And it is a, I would say, interviewing strategy to leave a lot of blank space. They leave a lot of blank space. And it's, it makes you uncomfortable.
44:57 Like, maybe you'll say something. Maybe you'll be able to, it's like a unique form of courage to be able to sit in that silence as well and not say anything. But a lot of people try to break the silence and they start yapping or sharing, oversharing or whatever. And to just like try to sit there as they're silent and then you don't know what to do it's like oh my gosh well and to say it doesn't feel like conversation you know I'm like I don't need to tell you should I tell you I don't know this was a phenomenal episode though and if you all haven't watched it apologies for the spoilers but also go watch it yourself yeah these are our our perspectives maybe you agree with them maybe we're being too forgiving in certain areas too unforgiving in others apologies uh we're trying to
45:42 trying to figure out how to navigate this and also candidly share our takes on the show and the characters having experienced ourselves. Last little take before we wait for episode three because I cannot wait. We were in the desert. They've done cold. They've done deserts. Desert, we had a dry heat where like it was so dry. People were so dehydrated and everything. But like a dry sweat.
46:06 Even when we would sweat sweat, it would dry pretty quickly because it was so hot and so dry. they are dripping. Yeah. Have you noticed every DS is dripping? Every recruit is dripping sweat. Yeah. It shows like the humidity. Oh.
46:23 It is crazy. Just the, you get physically wrecked. And I remember, I thought I was going to have to withdraw after day one. I would have punched you. I had like heat sickness
46:33 and I was pale and how many electrolyte tablets that I have? We had these little noon tablets. I became your mom. then because I was like, dude, if you tap out, I'm going to be pissed.
46:45 Because it was our first time getting to the barracks. They gave us the orientation. I was about to pass out the entire time and then they left and we had like an hour of quiet time or free time. And I just laid down thinking that I was going to pass out,
46:59 throw up and have to VW. But I just crushed like an entire container of those things to try to bring life back. But you hear Oliver talking about his cramps. It's a serious thing. dude. Your body, no matter how are you trained, has not been in that situation with that stress. It's just so much. But I love the show. I love it. I'm glad we're doing this. Episode three. See you next week. We're excited. I'm ready for it.
47:24 That's how we got. If you made it this far, subscribe to the show, leave a comment, question. We'll get to more of those next week. We got to several this week. Not as many as maybe we should have. But thanks for listening. I'm Andrew. I'm Sean. Until next time.
There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click any sentence in the transcript to leave one.