“I was touring. I’m in a band.” – Tom Sandoval
“No prizes, no special treatment,” we’re reminded as we get into the second full day with the 14 recruits and second episode of the second season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
And this one starts in the same way the last one ended: with Tara Reid getting called in to meet with “staff” after they assess that she’s on “borrowed time.” Billy cuts to the chase when Reid arrives: “You are still looking like an adulterated bag of crap.”
Interestingly, she’s assigned as the Duty Recruit, which Foxy, Directing Staff/Former SBS, explains is sometimes handed off to one of the weaker members “to see if they can step up to the plate.” On top of all the other World’s Toughest Test stuff going on, Reid is now expected to make sure that the recruits assemble on time and take care of other tasks on behalf of the team.
Meanwhile, a few of the other recruits are already ridiculing Tara behind her back, talking about how she “mumbles” and “I can’t even understand her half the time.”
The next challenge for the recruits: they “must trek across treacherous mountain terrain carrying their 30-pound Bergen’s.”
I looked this up: a Bergen is a “tactical backpack.”
It’s clear immediately that this ain’t an easy walk in the park: the footing is such and the Bergen’s heavy enough that the recruits start tipping over, stumbling, and falling down immediately.
Not surprisingly at this point, Tara Reid has a particularly hard time of it. And soon, Tyler Cameron is ordered to carry Reid on his back while meanwhile Blac Chyna falls behind the entire group.
Next up: training involving surviving freezing conditions. At first, I thought it was going to be about getting across a frozen lake intact, but in fact the recruits are asked to submerge themselves in freezing water and then recite information – mnemonics of military orders that the group was ordered to memorize the previous night – after they come up for air to prove they can “maintain composure.”
This may be a “reality TV show,” but the shocked and kind of freaked out faces of the celebrity recruits here show that while this is a TV show and what they’re being asked to do is “voluntary,” it has a very real aspect to it at the same time.
Some of the mnemonics are funny, such as M.U.P.P.E.T.: most useless pathetic person ever trained (and there may or may not be a naughtier version of that one, but you’re on your own to research it).
Tara Reid is ordered to go first, and to her credit she dives under the water quickly. However, she has a hard time pulling it together to recite what M.U.P.P.E.T. stands for when she comes up for air.
The conditions are harsh enough that after the recruits are done with their exercise, they’re rushed to a nearby tent, where a doctor helps them to remove their wet clothes and get warm.
Jovon Q explains that going into that water feels like “being stung by 100 bees at the same time.”
Meanwhile, there’s a funny moment when “staff” notices that Tom Sandoval paints his nails and asks him about it. Tom replies, “I was touring. I’m in a band.”
I mean… Tom Sandoval is in a band. Sort of. If you’re as big a fan of Vanderpump Rules as I am, you’ll know that Tom’s friends, frenemies, and ex-friends post-#Scandoval enjoy ridiculing him because he pays his band mates to be in the band, Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras.
As of this writing, Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras has precisely one song, “Superstars,” on Spotify.
And actually, it’s… it’s not bad, really, those Sandoval has a few hilariously cheesy moments in it.
During a separate interview, an emotional Sandoval talks about how he tarnished his family name and wants to “bring honor back to it.” He’s talking about #Scandoval, though he doesn’t reference it directly.
I get the sentiment, mostly from having watched Sandoval on Vanderpump Rules for a long time, but at the same time I can see the easy counterpoint that participating in another reality TV series is a strange way to go about making up for betraying your at the time girlfriend and other close friends and family members.
Anyway, after Tom submerges in the freezing water, he manages to recite back what G.R.I.T. stands for – group, range, indication, and type of fire – and passes.
Overall, 12 of the 14 recruits pass the challenge – only Blac Chyna and Reid aren’t able to successfully recite back the mnemonic asked of them. Surely, the fact that both are petite women must have made them all the colder and more disoriented.
What’s not clear at this point in Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test is the significance of passing or failing each challenge at all except perhaps for the degree to which you get yelled at and belittled by staff, and one’s own personal pride and fulfillment, of course.
Back at the base, the narrator tells us that Blac Chyna (also known as Angela White) is “close to the breaking point” as we see her talking about how much her knees are getting worked from hauling around the heavy backpacks.
“My knees are done,” she repeats back in the recruits’ barracks, before soon being called in by staff for the odd interrogation-meets-therapy situation that they call “tactical questioning.”
They tell her that her attitude is “reflecting aggression and anger back on people,” and that she needs to let go of that to get through the special forces course.
Meanwhile, on the way to the next challenge – 36 hours into the training course – Tara Reid talks openly about how she’s not going to be able to last much longer. When they get out of the vans and assemble, Reid breaks down and says, “This thing is a monster!” referring to her heavy backpack.
And then when she says, “It’s not fair!” I think everyone watching kind of understands on the one hand because she’s of small stature but on the other hand we know that the special forces training staff have zero tolerance for that kind of talk.
It’s telling that Jovon doesn’t try to encourage Reid at all at his point, and she quickly rips off her armband and hands it over, formally indicating that she’s done with the World’s Toughest Test, and the show.
When Jovon tells the camera that, “Winners always find a way to win, and quitters always find a way to quit,” it does make me reflect on some of the challenges in my own life – both my “wins” and “losses” and how attitude, grit, and determination played into them.
With no time for the weak or weary, the next task is an “infiltration course,” which involves scaling down an extremely high wall – a 330-foot dam, in fact, walking down it while facing perpendicular to the ground – with a rappelling rope tied to their backs.
It’s super relatable when Dez Bryant says, “Hey man, I’m scared of heights. F— this.”
The task is set up as a race between sets of two recruits. It’s fitting that ex-pro athletes Bryant and Robert Horry go first. While Horry is much bigger than Bryant, he beats him easily. Jojo Siwa and Brian Austin Green then have a much faster, very competitive race in which Siwa wins by a second.
Kelly Rizzo, Tom Sandoval, Jack Osbourne then win their races – which are all quite competitive – and it’s clear that there’s a group of recruits who are not going to intimidated by what are serious challenges that legitimate special forces men and women use for training.
When Savannah Chrisley faces off against Olympic skier Bode Miller, I assumed it would be another tightly contested one (even in knowing that Bode would obviously have some inherent advantages here). However, Chrisley got very nervous and winds up vomiting while suspended in mid-air before the race begins.
“The only way you’re getting off this wall is to go down it,” staff tells her.
Miller easily beats her in the race, but Chrisley eventually gets down the wall. “Did you see my puke?” she says, laughing, at the bottom.
Since the number of recruits is now an odd one, Dez Bryant volunteers from the “losers” to go up again against Blac Chyna. However, Blac Chyna backs out from going over the wall as Bryant is stuck waiting in mid-air.
Chyna rips her armband off finally, allowing Bryant to rappel down the wall solo. By the time he gets to the bottom, he’s in pain from being suspended so long (around the stomach), and yells at staff to “get this s— off of me,” prompting a screaming match with the training instructors.
Bryant ends up fully flipping out and storms off, throwing his equipment as he goes. “I’m out!” he declares.
Staff ain’t having it, though, and they explain to the remaining recruits that when you’re in a war zone, there’s zero time or patience for that kind of attitude.
After quitting, Bryant apologizes to staff how his outburst, and tells them that he wants to work on controlling his emotions. While Bryant says that he would like to continue with the course, Foxy holds the line, saying, “It’s done.”
So after less than two days in, we’ve gone from 14 total recruits to now 11 remaining.
Other thoughts on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, “Exposure”
- Recruits have a hard time sleeping which is not surprising considering how tight the quarters are in the military-style barracks.
- Robert Horry’s dad, an army veteran, has dementia and Robert is worried about losing him while he’s away participating on this show. He also says that part of his desire to carry on is to help honor his father’s service (which is very different than Tom Sandoval’s take on “restoring honor to his family name”).
- I’m also reminded that Robert Horry is a seven-time NBA champion, which is extremely impressive.
Some stats and info about Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
TV SHOW – Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 2
AIRED ON – October 2nd, 2023
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX/TubiTV
GENRE – Reality TV, Competition Show
CAST – Mark Billingham, Jason Fox, Rudy Reyes, Shaun Dooley, Jovon Quarles, Savannah Chrisley, Jack Osbourne, Tom Sandoval, Tara Reid, Robert Horry, Brian Austin Greene, Jojo Siwa, Angela White, Dez Bryant, Bode Miller, Erin Jackson, Kelly Rizzo, Tyler Cameron, Nick Viall