“Cowardice, fail.” – Foxy
The course has already “claimed three recruits” and 11 remain, we’re reminded, as we enter the third episode of this second edition Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
It’s Day 3 of what’s being called “winter warfare selection.”
As the recruits awaken to another day of being super sore – which the current and former pro athletes seem to deal with much better than actors like Brian Austin Green – the DS (Directing Service) “staff” meet and plan out ways to “increase the pressure” to flush another few “recruits” out of their training course by the end of the third day.
“They’ve gotta want to be here,” Foxy notes.
And in fact, as soon as the recruits assemble that morning, Green quits and turns in his armband.
So long to Brian Austin Green, David Silver (or old Silverado, as I like to call him) of Beverly Hills, 90210 fame, which makes it an even 10 recruits left.
And then Robert Horry, seven-time NBA champion who played on two legit basketball dynasty teams – the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant era Los Angeles Lakers and Tim Duncan era San Antonio Spurs – bails out as well.
Nine recruits left just minutes in Episode #3.
On the way to the next task, Jack Osbourne says, “They’ve got the weak people out,” and then laughs. It’s clear that Osbourne is hardcore and perhaps has gotten a little bit of the wild man passed down from his dad, Black Sabbath and metal legend Ozzy Osbourne.
Next up: the recruits are brought to a “remote forest to be assessed in simulated battlefield conditions.”
Rudy Reyes explains to the remaining recruits that their mission in the next test is to protect a “principal,” which is a highly valuable asset. And additionally what’s being tested is the group’s ability to function in situations involving extreme stress.
Nick Viall, a former star of The Bachelor, is up first. He’s put behind the wheel of the lead car as part of a “two team convoy” with the mission to drive out of enemy territory.
Soon, the convoy comes under “surprise attack,” and we see explosions go off around the convoy. The trailing vehicle – the one containing the principal – comes to a stop as part of the simulation.
Nick asks Foxy, “Where’s the principal?”
“Don’t ask me,” the staff instructor replies, or shouts, actually. “What are you gonna do?”
Nick immediately jumps into action, jumps out of the vehicle, grabs the staff member playing the principal, brings him back to his own car and then guns it across the “border.”
When Foxy asks him if he made a smart decision, Nick says “yes” and then is told that’s correct, and our guy passes.
Jack Osbourne, who expressed a cocky level of confidence about how he is already comfortable with “tactical training,” goes next. When the convoy gets “hit” with explosions, instead of stopping as Nick did, Jack instead goes pedal to the medal for the border.
Sans the Principal.
“You just left a man to die, didn’t you?” Foxy asks him shortly after. “Cowardice, fail.”
So it seems like staying humble is a good idea in Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
Olympic skier Bode Miller is up next, and one incredible thing we learn is that Bode has eight kids. Anyway, Bode’s failure point: that he tried to drive back into the “kill zone” instead of going in on foot. Later, Savannah Chrisley made a similar mistake.
“I didn’t realize you could get out of the car,” Chrisley says, which is super relatable. But part of the deal with the special forces training is to simulate real life military missions, where there are no “rules” except to complete the mission and to survive.
Four of the other recruits – or slightly more than half the group – including Tom Sandoval and Jojo Siwa, made the right move under the high stress conditions as Viall did.
Back at base, Savannah talks about how she’s mentally “not in it” as she’s thinking about the situation involving her parents being in federal prison (they were convicted of defrauding “community banks in Atlanta out of more than $36 million in fraudulent loans,” among other things) and the fact that she now has taken on guardianship of two younger siblings.
Chrisley is soon called in by staff to have one of their little interrogations-meets-tough love chats. She talks about how she was motivated to be on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test in part because she watched the first season of the show with her parents shortly before they began their prison sentences.
“You gotta stay hungry for it and want it,” Jovon says, while Reyes encourages her to lean on the other recruits for support.
Later that night, the recruits are hauled 20 miles away from base to “the icy waters of Lake Wakatipu.”
It’s time for a “clandestine insertion” task. Rudy demonstrates the “backwards dive” off a high platform into the icy nighttime water below. And by “backwards dive,” he crosses his arms across his chest and literally falls backwards, allowing his body to slice into the water headfirst.
“If you panic and you break position, you will fail and absolutely body flop in that water,” Rudy says.
Before the task begins, Savannah Chrisley tells Jovon that she’s not “mentally there,” and pulls off her armband and formally announcing the “voluntary withdrawal” that whittles the recruits down to eight remaining.
“Get out of my face,” is Jovon’s goodbye message for her.
Bode Miller is selected to go first, and it’s at that moment that he reminds me a little bit in terms of his look and vibe to Donnie Wahlberg circa his role as Carwood Lipton in Band of Brothers.
Miller handles the backward dive just about perfectly, and here you have to think that his experience at performing as an athlete in cold, wintry conditions had to have helped him there. Speed skater Erin Jackson is next, and in her case she kind of “flops” and is “failed” in the task.
Our guy Tom Sandoval of Vanderpump Rules/#Scandoval infamy handles the task kind of perfectly, I must say, and he’s proven himself to be quite adept at the ruthless training course thus far.
Jojo Siwa gets a “miserable fail” after a pretty painful-looking belly flop. And after all of his boastful talk earlier in the day, Jack Osbourne has a true flop in which he crashes into the water, perpendicular-style.
Or, “ball smasher,” as Tyler Cameron (who passed the task) says.
After a taciturn and distracted Osbourne throws his Bergen backpack around after the task, the staff take the opportunity to have the recruits do a “beasting,” which is going into a pushup position with the 30-pound backpacks on their back in addition to heavy winter gear.
In other words, this looks extremely uncomfortable and even painful unless you’re in prime special forces-style fitness.
And then, they are put through their paces in executing synchronized pushups on command.
“Get some discipline in your nasty bodies!” Rudy yells.
It’s clear that this exercise seems to be directed at pushing Osbourne to his breaking point, though the others all struggle to partake. The editing does imply however that the beasting is pretty short lived though as most of the recruits couldn’t have taken much more.
Back at base, Osbourne is called in for a little chitty chat with staff a.k.a. tactical questioning. Foxy tells him to “drop the attitude” and stop thinking that he knows more than he does. Jack then gets emotional and talks about how he was diagnosed with MS in 2012, and how that’s the “monster in the closet,” causing him to feel worn down at this point in the training.
Foxy says that they are judging his 100%, so he mustn’t worry about how the others around him are doing versus him.
It’s inspiring that Osbourne shakes off his two task failures that day and talks about how he is determined to keep going.
The episode ends on that note, with three recruits knocked out and eight total now remaining heading into the fourth episode.
Other thoughts on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, “Panic”
- I enjoyed when staff told Jack Osbourne to put the axe that he was carrying around with him away with, “You absolute psychopath.”
- We learn that Bode Miller actually had nine kids but one (Emmy) tragically drowned in a neighbor’s pool.
Some stats and info about Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
TV SHOW – Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 3
AIRED ON – October 9th, 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