“Controlling emotion is the most important thing on the battlefield.” – Dusty
As the third season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test reaches its stretch run, we’re down to five celebrity “recruits” from the original 16: Golden Tate, Cam Newton, Brody Jenner, Alana Blanchard, and Kayla Nicole.
One of the unique aspects of this reality TV show is that while it’s a very real “competition” in the sense that the recruits push themselves to the limit to try to make it through special forces “selection,” there’s no voting aspect to it in terms of the participants voting each other out of the “game” to help advance themselves toward some ultimate prize.
And, in fact, the “social game” aspect of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test mirrors real world military training in that the more the recruits can rally together and support one another, the greater the chances of making it to the end together.
As Day 9 begins, the DS (directing service) “staff” review the remaining “recruits” and set up a little bit of a psyops test that’s meant to test their emotional states at this point in selection. What that equates to: the recruits get placed alone in a room so that they can watch videos from loved ones back at home.
For some, Dusty explains, this can be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back” in terms of bringing recruits to VW (voluntarily withdraw) from the stressful and trying environment of selection.
While some of the recruits, such as Kayla Nicole, get visibly emotional while watching their videos, but it doesn’t seem to have a dramatic effect on their determination to stick out selection’s final few days.
Soon, the recruits are taken to a location somewhere in Wales by the sea, where Rudy addresses them: “On command, you will overpower the enemy stood before you with controlled aggression.”
The task is designed by staff to test the recruit’s ability to engage in “extreme violence” while also keeping their emotions in check.
As in past seasons of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, this involves recruits being sent at a sprint to engage in MMA-style combat with staff (Jovon “Q” in this case) who is protected with heavy padding and protective equipment. After going all out against the “enemy,” the critical moment is that recruits must stop immediately when ordered to do so.
Kayla Nicole, the first recruit up, has gone through a lot in the recent past involving her relationship with Travis Kelce (a.k.a. the NFL star and Kansas City Chief who is also Taylor Swift’s current boyfriend), and she found it difficult to “turn off” her emotions when ordered to stop by Billy.
Speaking of the NFL, Golden Tate relays that football players are sometimes referred to as “modern day gladiators,” and that’s on his mind while going into this task.
“I had to take myself somewhere dark,” he said of finding the mindset to complete the task.
Pro surfer Alana Blanchard tapped into thinking about someone who would want to hurt her kids and wound up enjoying the blast of rage and aggression that the task allowed her to unleash.
As soon as the recruits are back at base, they are called back to the parade square by Billy. Rudy previews the next 24 hours and tells the five remaining celebrities that it will be the hardest thing they’ve gone through yet.
“Everything you have been taught, you’re going to need,” Billy adds.
The task will involve evasion, as Rudy also notes, “A thousand days on the run is better than one day in captivity.”
As with Season 2, the end run of selection begins with the recruits tasked with finding an extraction site while a “hunter force” pursues them. The recruits are also given a “cover story” in case they get captured.
Rudy instructs them that if they are captured, they must be “docile and helpful” or risk getting a “.45 to the head.”
Explosions on the parade ground – unexpected from the perspective of the recruits on the base – herald the beginning of the final task.
“That got real real quick,” Cam Newton says as the recruits head out via vehicles.
One of the coolest parts of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test is when we see moments like Dusty crouching with the recruits in the Welsh countryside, giving them instructions on how to reach the extraction point.
While this is obviously a reality TV show with some “competition”-like elements, this is the stuff that feels close to what being in the special forces is like, simply from seeing staff’s level of seriousness and focus in what they’re putting the recruits through.
There are two teams now – Team Alpha (Brody Jenner and Kayla Nicole) and Team Beta (Cam Newton, Golden Tate, and Alana Blanchard) – each taking a separate route to the extraction point.
Meanwhile, the “hunter force,” which includes loud barking dogs, are in pursuit.
“Alpha is all over the place right now,” Q observes from a monitoring station back at base.
As the teams reach populated areas, Rudy notes that “tactical movement is paramount.”
Therefore, when Team Alpha asks some dude for directions, that seems like a not good decision.
Team Beta gets “distracted” by stumbling upon a labeled Honesty Box, which presents a moral dilemma for the recruits that’s also a test of their focus. So as Newton and Tate discuss whether or not they should “steal” the donuts put on offer for them, staff back at base shake their heads in knowing that the recruits are wasting their time and becoming “sitting ducks out there” with the hunter force looming.
Golden Tate always gets the funniest line of the episode. Here, when slipping through a razor wire fence, he says, “I hope I don’t cut my nuts off.”
Team Alpha gets “captured” at an airfield that’s one of several “rendezvous point” while Team Beta makes it past that point and to a phase that involves rowing a boat across a bay at night to the extraction point. They make it to the other side but then are captured on the other side.
This is the same outcome that happened last season – both teams captured, that is – which makes me suspect that one way or the other, all the recruits are meant to get captured as a means to move onto the next phase of selection’s final task.
But I guess telling the audience this would make for somewhat less compelling television, perhaps.
Up next: interrogation.
More info about Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 3
TV SHOW – Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 9
AIRED ON – January 29th, 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