“This will be the toughest test you’ve ever faced.” – Rudy
Four full days into the special forces “selection” course, exactly half of the original 16 celebrity “recruits” are left: Golden Tate, Cam Newton, Brody Jenner, Christy Carlson Romano, Carey Hart, Alana Blanchard, Kayla Nicole, and Kyla Pratt.
It’s the morning of Day 5, and Cam Newton talks about how his “superpower” from his NFL career was his ability to have fun even under stressful, pressurized conditions.
This is insightful with relation to how at first, he acted a bit coldly toward his buddy and fellow ex-NFL star Golden Tate in the aftermath of his boat team’s loss in the previous episode, “Brotherhood,” but then quickly transformed back into acting both goofily but also in a bit brotherly way toward Tate.
As the recruits are summoned once again to the parade square, we can hear DS (Directing Service) “staff” member Jovon “Q” say, “They’re not going to like this,” and then snicker a bit.
Rudy tells the assembled recruits that they will be “facing your fear.”
“This will be the toughest test you’ve ever faced,” he adds.
Narrator Guy explains that the task – which we know at this point involves gas masks – relates to the ability for the recruits to manage their self-control under extreme stress.
More specifically: “Working in pairs, recruits will enter a room filled with noxious CS gas.” Under these conditions, the goal is to “retrieve classified kit by unlocking a safe and securing a laptop before exiting the room.”
Dusty shows off a super rare smidge of humor before the task begins, telling the recruits, “Cheer up, you’re only about to get gassed.”
After Rudy hands the first team – pro surfer and model Alana Blanchard and actress Christy Carlson Romano – a code to access the laptop, they are sent into a small room, all suited up and masked to protect themselves from the gas inside.
Now inside the room, something unexpected happens for both the team and the viewing audience: Billy screams at Blanchard and Romano to remove their masks and therefore voluntarily expose themselves to the CS gas.
With masks off, Blanchard freaks out and jumps out the window without completing the task and gets an instant fail, and Romano is told to leave soon after. Romano comforts her teammate afterwards, but Blanchard is very emotional and looks like she might be on the verge of quitting (which, I should importantly note, is extremely reasonable after having been exposed to some kind of super creepy-seeming and noxious chemical gas).
Up next are motorcross champion Carey Hart and actress Kyla Pratt. It’s here where I put together that the “teamwork” aspect of the challenge involves the two participants needing to put the codes they’ve been handed off “together” in order to retrieve the laptop from the room.
This isn’t the first time that Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test isn’t as clear as it could be about what the deal is with these tasks from an audience perspective. It’s a minor quibble, but something like putting a caption up on screen to explain what the recruits are supposed to accomplish would be pretty helpful.
Hart and Pratt complete the task, and it becomes clear that this is sort of one of the easier “selection” tasks, relatively speaking, if you can get over the freaking out over being temporarily exposed to poisonous gas, that is.
Brody Jenner and Kayla Nicole fail the task after not being able to figure out the code in a timely manner. And Cam Newton, teamed with Golden Tate, really flips out and bails out quickly, getting called a “buffoon” and “pathetic” by staff while he’s at it.
The interesting thing here is that Newton gave Tate a hard time over the latter’s lack of leadership during the boat race task, while here he clearly was the part of the team that didn’t hold up. As Dusty, Billy, Q, and Rudy converse, they assess that Newton is “only happy when he’s missing,” which isn’t that far off the “rap” that some NFL quarterbacks get that “they only play well when they’re in the lead.”
And overall, staff is most displeased that three of the four teams failed the task. Punishment exercises begin soon afterward.
“Who wants to go home?” Billy asks the remaining recruits as they’re in pushup position. “Thing about it,” he says tauntingly.
Back in the vehicles, Cam Newton tells himself, “I gotta calm down.”
And back at base, Newton goes on about “why even tell me about the gas mask if we’re not going to use it.” I can see his point, but Tate takes on the mentor role this time and tells his guy that “we can’t play the victim role here.”
It’s not surprising when Newton is called in by staff for “tactical questioning.”
The conversation is unusual in that Newton pushes back against staff, telling them he felt “played” by the nature of the way the task played out. Dusty has his own strong point in explaining that in real world situations, information is often limited and the environment chaotic.
Things go a bit deeper when Newton talks about how he doesn’t like situations where he’s not in control.
“Control is an illusion,” Dusty says, and advises Newton to keep that in mind going forward.
After Newton leaves, Q says, “I don’t think we’re getting through to him.”
In the living quarters, Newton and Kyla Pratt have a very interesting and substantive conversation where Newton relays that he’s learning more about himself, but part of that is that he’s not invincible, that he has flaws.
My other observation relates to staff talking a lot about how a small number of recruits end of thriving during selection while most “fall by the wayside.” Carey Hart seems to be thriving, even taking the lead in ensuring that the recruit’s eating area is cleaned up before the next task inevitably begins.
On the way to next task, Narrator Guy tells us that the recruits are now about to engage in “one of modern warfare’s most harrowing mental tests,” which Rudy soon explains is reconnaissance behind enemy lines, which is “the bread and butter of special forces.”
It’s to be a driving task, where recruits must “locate and positively ID an enemy compound” so that fighters in the area can be “cleared hot” to take out the enemy compound.
Golden Tate is up first, with Billy also in the vehicle with him. Things start off calmly, with Billy asking Tate to identify the buildings they’re driving through, but then things get chaotic – and much more chaotic than the driving task early in Season 2. This time around, there are multiple explosions and other cars that swerve behind Tate’s car as well.
After Billy directs Tate to stop the vehicle, he’s then asked the critical question of which building should be targeted in the forthcoming “air strike.” And by “asked,” Tate must make a decision immediately.
Tate chooses… poorly, as the old knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade might say, as he chooses a building housing children and fails the task. Billy tells him that the correct building, Building D, has a satellite dish on its roof and all kinds of wiring that identify it as a military target.
The lesson is driven home when Rudy tells the recruits, “Innocent people die when you make the wrong call.” And as the failures pile up, Dusty tells the camera that a real-world special forces operator will only “make the call” when they are confident they are correct or take on high risk that innocent people will die.
Carey Hart, perhaps helped a bit that his career involves driving under high stress, is the first to pass the test. Newton is up last and appears to be super calm during the driving portion of the task. It occurs to me that his career as an NFL quarterback likely helps him here, calmly assessing the defense so that he can make a lightning-fast decision under pressure.
Newton chooses the correct building as well, making him and Hart the only recruits to pass. And Hart is the only one of the eight remaining recruits to pass both tasks during Day 5.
Back at base, DS is clearly impressed with Hart, and then quickly decides to call him in for tactical questioning to learn more about him. Q calls him a “silent professional,” but that it seems that there’s more there that they should know.
We learn that Hart’s younger brother, also a motorcross racer, tragically died while racing at the age of 21. When that happened, 12 years ago, Hart put racing second and his family first. We also learn that Hart is married to Alecia Beth Moore, the famous singer known as Pink.
Part of Hart’s decision to participate in Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test is to reclaim his sense of competitiveness. Hart also exhibits a really good balance of confidence without being cocky. This is something that seems to impress staff even more about him.
More info about Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 3
TV SHOW – Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 5
AIRED ON – January 15th, 2025
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX/TubiTV
GENRE – Reality TV, Competition Show
CAST – Mark Billingham, Jason Fox, Rudy Reyes, Shaun Dooley, Jovon Quarles, Stephen Baldwin, Golden Tate, Cam Newton, Denise Richards, Brody Jenner, Christy Carlson Romano, Jordyn Wieber, Marion Jones Thompson, Landon Donovan, Carey Hart, Nathan Adrian, Alana Blanchard, Ali Manno, Trista Sutter, Kayla Nicole, Kyla Pratt