Gymnasts in SEALS reality Show

[Puffin]

Shawn is like "I survived Martha's death camps" .... this is nothing!!

 

[Bob]

Not the same thing but the series Boots on Netflix based on the book The pink Marine is fantastic.

 

[RedBirdie]

Thanks so much for these recaps. Sounds like this season is easier than previous ones? I feel like by episode 6 we're usually down to just 3 or 4 participants.

 

[Passion]

I’ve never watched beyond the gymnast being out before, so this is my first time seeing past Day 4. There have certainly been less medical withdraws this year.

Jordyn Wieber would have perhaps faired better on this season. She withdrew last year because she was afraid of going underwater. Her season was entirely water themed, while this season’s theme is Urban Warfare and only had one real underwater challenge.

I think it’s odd this season that they have two couples on together and a mother/daughter pair. Part of this thing is suppose to be the mental component, but six people have the advantage going in with a built in support system.

If Wieber had Chris Brooks there pumping her up, and less underwater adventures, maybe she would have made it to the end.

Nastia who knows. She quit because of issues with her cast mates. Imagine seeing her on this paired with Valeri though lol.

 

[Passion]

Today Shawn claims that smiling would get you kicked off the National Team.

Season 4 - Shawn Johnson and Andrew East - Episode 7

Day 7, we start with everyone waking up as usual, but throughout the night Christie Pearce Rampone has been coughing heavily and is still coughing upon waking (a very wet sounding cough.) Just listening to her is making me want to cough to clear my own throat, it sounds bad. Mark Estes' ear is also red and swollen, he thinks it's cauliflower ear. There's general grumblings about everyone's aches and pains.

Kody Brown: We have gone six days. Every challenge seemed tougher than the last and we still did it.

Andrew: Are we the toughest or the dumbest?

Christie goes to the medical room. The doctor says her chest sounds really tight and she has a lot of crackles on her lungs as well. He diagnoses her with a chest infection. Christie is medically withdrawn and is out. 7 remain.

We get a conversation in the bunk:

Brianna: When did you stop, Shawn? Being in the Olympics?

Shawn: 16 the first time. And then I went back because I got so lost and just like, depressed and desperate, that I didn't know what else to do.

Randall: So you went back to the gym?

Shawn: And then retired again at ..19.

Shawn cutaway to camera: When I competed, I was obsessed with perfection. and in gymnastics, in a sport that favors the perfect score.. I was obsessed with that idea. I wanted to be perfect in every way.

Randall: What was that transition like for you? What was the toughest part?

Shawn: Hell. I felt like I had no value.

Time to line up. No drama today Staff just give a little speech about motivation and teamwork then sends everyone off to the cars to drive to the first challenge. In the cars Andrew and Shawn are next to each other.

Andrew: You're a beast. You haven't even flinched this whole time.

Shawn: Pays to win, Andrew.

Challenge 1: They are taken to a remote Moroccan village. Before anything else happens Staff pull Mark Estes out of the cars and send him to a military medic standing on the side of the road?? She says his ear is swollen and could cause long-term disfigurement if not treated. Says he has to go to hospital for a procedure to be done by a specialist ENT. Staff medically withdraw him. Why wasn't this done before they left camp? Like.. what? This is bizarre timing. Down to 6 now I guess.

Back to the challenge. They're going to be doing a hostage rescue in pairs. Shawn and Kody Brown are paired together first and told to put gas masks on. Their part of the mission is to clear a compound that has been commandeered by the "enemy" and filled with smoke. They need to rescue the hostage in the compound and retrieve a critical piece of equipment that is inside a building. Staff tells them the equipment is in a small box with the number 0749 on it.

Shawn cutaway to camera: In gymnastics, the only way I competed and was successful in my career was by being a one-man show, and like, doing it myself.

They have a two minute timer to get in and out with the hostage and the equipment before the building "explodes." Shawn and Kody run in and forget the instructions. They were supposed to clear the buildings inside the compound first but they skip it. Staff yells at them to go in the building and they almost do, then turn around at the door and go the other way. They never put their gas masks on, they're just running around holding them. They find the hostage and get him up. They then go into the building, taking the hostage inside with them. Once inside they finally put their gas masks on, but the hostage doesn't have one. Staff is yelling at them that the hostage doesn't have a mask, but Shawn and Kody ignore them and just keep searching for the equipment with the hostage in the smoke. Kody gives up and runs out of the compound with the hostage, leaving Shawn alone still searching the building as it "blows up" (some dirt outside jumps up.)

Staff yell at them for a bit about how bad they did. Kody says he left because he figured the hostage was more important than the equipment (the hostage they had already gassed to death) and says it's his bad for not communicating that to Shawn. They fail.

Shawn cutaway to camera: Having control is very important to me. When I can't control everything around me, I start to lose my sanity a little bit.

Next up is a montage of Andrew paired with Gia Giudice and Randall Cobb paired with Brianna LaPaglia. Both pairs enter the buildings first and spend the majority of their time searching for the equipment. Randall/Brianna find it, go outside and get their hostage, then get out the door with him with 1 second to spare. Andrew/Gia never find the equipment, but they run out and get the hostage out right as the compound is "blowing up." Randall and Brianna pass, Andrew and Gia fail.

Outside the compound the group is talking:

Kody: Did you guys succeed?

Brianna: Yea, we passed.

Gia: We failed, but we got the hostage out.

Kody to Andrew: Yeah, I got your wife killed. I'm sorry. It was a dereliction of duty.

Andrew: What happened?

Shawn: We got the hostage.. but then we took him with us. And killed him.

Brianna: So you guys looked for the hostage first?

Kody: Yes.

Shawn: And then he left with the hostage, and I stayed and looked for the equipment.

Andrew: You just freaking ditched her?

Kody: I did. I did not communicate as I was leaving with my partner to forget about the equipment and just get out with the hostage.

Shawn: We didn't say a single word to each other the entire time. We didn't communicate at all.

Kody: Yeah, it's just the mouth closed when we got in there.

Brianna: Yeah it's key. You gotta talk. I think for challenges moving forward you need to stop trying to take leadership and follow behind.

Kody: I'm fine with that!

Brianna: I think you get a little, I don't know, wrapped up in it, and then you forget about the team component.

Kody: You're right Bri, I'm not much wits about me!

Brianna: No, you're not!

Brianna laughs and shakes Shawn's shoulders lightly: You're good. You're good.

Shawn: I know. I'm just pissed. It was miserable.

Angry Shawn

Back in the cars, driving back to camp. Andrew and Brianna are in a car alone together.

Brianna: Shawn was pissed!

Andrew: Dude, she was pissed.

Brianna: She was steaming from the ears!

Andrew laughing: I've seen that look many times.

Brianna laughing: I'm sure you have, yeah.

Andrew: That was not good!

Shawn cutaway to camera: I don't like to fail. I am very hard on myself, so I will probably internalize a rough day or a bad decision or a mistake or a fail.

Shawn is riding in a car alone with Gia.

Shawn: I felt so freaking pissed when I turned around and I ran all the way back through the entire compound looking for him. Only to find him standing outside.

Gia: That would have infuriated me.

(continued below)

 

[Passion]

Back at camp now, Staff are in their dorm discussing Shawn. They decide to have a one on one with her. The following conversation was in the one on one:

Staff: Today was an absolute cluster. What happened out there?

Shawn: I don't know. I haven't pushed myself in a very very long time. When I competed, I never had to do a full team thing. I'm so used to isolating myself.

Staff: Your visual personality to us.. "stay robotic robotic" .. I don't need a robot. I want a true character. And I don't know where it is right now. In fact, we- none of us do. You still are stoic and behind some barriers for some reason. I don't know why.

Shawn: I don't know how to filter that. My entire career was fear based. I had a lot of people very high up telling me that I was worthless and not wanting to see me succeed in gymnastics who controlled my fate. And if I showed emotion, I was cut. The only emotion you could ever show was a smile. But if you did that while lined up, you were no longer on the National Team. So being able to shut off all emotion is kind of what I'm used to.

Staff: I see.

Shawn: I was so obsessed with perfection, and I think that was part of the reason I was scared going into this of like, what would that bring out in me? Tapping into that side of me back when I competed worked for a purpose with gymnastics. And then every time I tried to tap into it after gymnastics, it resulted in something bad, whether it was..

Staff: Like what?

Shawn: Depression, eating disorders, obsessions. I lost my identity for a long time. Whenever I'm around you guys I try to go numb so I don't mess up.

Staff: ****ing forget us. Drop it. It's, who are you? It's okay to cry. It's okay to be who you are. It's okay. That's what we're not seeing at the moment.

Shawn smiling: I think that part terrifies me.

Staff: Let it terrify you. You know what? Being ****ing scared is good.

2nd Staff: You've been a great performer physically and on task, but being human, because you got to connect as well, that's what we need to see from you.

Staff: The question at the end will be, would I have you stood next to me. And if I don't know you, I wouldn't. We want to see more of the human side. Two days, that's all you got left to be, be you.

Shawn: Thank you.

Then she's sent back to camp.

Shawn cutaway to camera: I don't think I learned how to show emotion until I was an adult. In competition, in my job, I was a machine. I'm really afraid of feeling vulnerable. I don't know how that will manifest itself.

Randall back at the bunk: What was that? What was that?

Andrew: What'd they say?

Shawn sighs: They said I'm way too robotic. They said, at the end of the day, I can't choose a team member if I don't know them. He's like, you're not letting us know you at all.

After that they spend some time on everyone being annoyed with Kody and he's made the duty recruit. Then they're called to line up.

Challenge 2 will be inside the camp. They have a little obstacle course set up in the middle of camp where they have to climb over and under hurdles, cross monkey bars, do 20 push ups, and then pick up a giant tire and push it over three times. They race through in pairs and whoever wins their pairing is released back to the bunk. The loser has to start the circuit over. Shawn and Randall win first and go back to the bunk to rest. Everyone else goes around again, Andrew and Kody win the second round. Brianna and Gia are left to go through a third time. Gia wins, Brianna can barely make it across the monkey bars.

Gia walking into the bunk: It wasn't fair, I'm stronger than her strength wise.

Shawn: There's no such thing as fair.

It's just over after that I guess, they don't show Brianna going through a fourth time. Everyone goes off to do their odd jobs around camp and Staff have a one on one with Kody.

Later that night Staff walk into the bunk and explain that when they go away on operations there's no communication back home. So what they do is write death letters. Before every operation they write all their last words they want to tell. If something goes wrong, those letters are sent to their families. He hands out clipboards to each recruit and tells them to write their death letters.

Everyone writes the letters and then sitting in the bunk they read them aloud to the group (Staff is not there, it's just them.) Shawn finally cries listening to the others read their letters. They're cutting most of these letters for the show because they all have multiple paragraphs on their clipboards but are only shown reading a few lines each.

Andrew's (abridged) letter: Shawn, I'm going to leave ya the same way I got ya, with a subpar , over-sappy poem. Some say they fall into love. I don't think that's right. I say we struggled into love. We both had to fight. You chose to humbly be together. Nine years later, we're still choosing each other. I love you. You will be fine without me and all my nonsense. I love you, bro.

Shawn's (abridged) letter: You're my absolute world, my best friend, my teammate in life, and the greatest father to our beautiful babies. You're a greater man than you could ever know. I love you. Squeeze our babies for me, please, every single day. And to all three, I love you to the moon and back. Everything about you is absolutely perfect. You made me a mommy, and it's the greatest job I've ever had in my life. No matter what you do, I will always love you. ... There you go.

That's the end of the letters. Scene cuts to everyone in their beds.

Andrew: All right, let's go to bed and get ready to get our butts kicked tomorrow, right?

People say their goodnights and the episode ends. 12 down, 6 remain.

 

[rlayt]

Shawn has a tendency to exaggerate and inflate her role.

 

[crdubb17]

Thank you so much for posting these recaps! I tried to watch a scene with her and Kody in their mission and… I would absolutely never be able to watch this show lol. But I thoroughly enjoy reading these recaps!

 

[barefoot]

Thank you for writing these! This show sounds like a fever dream.

 

[Peridot]

Not the same thing but the series Boots on Netflix based on the book The pink Marine is fantastic.

I just finished watching it… I really enjoyed it but was also simultaneously slightly horrified by what they are forced through. I was thinking of it when I was reading some of these descriptions from the show

 

[Passion]

Season 4 - Shawn Johnson and Andrew East - Episode 8

Day 8 begins and we are reminded that only 48 hours remain for the recruits until the end of "selection," what they're calling this ten day course. Staff announces that breakfast is ready and we get a look at everyone eating a meal for the first time.

Shawn: Hey guys, good job making it to another meal.

Shawn's got a banana, a big chunk of bread with red jelly on it, and something else in a big tin container with a spoon I can't see. There's a large baskets of breads, a big bowl of hardboiled eggs, and a bowl of jelly on the serving table along with a large coffee dispenser, orange juice, and milk.

Randall: This is the longest I've ever gone in my kids life without talking to them.

Shawn: Same. We've never been away from our kids longer than three days.

Staff are discussing who they would select in the end. I guess that's how you ultimately "win" this. Not just making it to the end, but Staff have to pick you as someone they would be willing to have with them on a mission.

About Andrew they say "I don't think he understands when to be that lead dog, and I think some of it is to do with the fact that his missus is on the course. If he was on it on his own without a wife, he'd do better." They don't say anything else about Shawn.

Breakfast over, everyone lines up. Staff go on about how today's challenge will be physically and mentally draining, meant to drain everyone's tanks and expose their true selves.

Cut away to Andrew: If you're gonna be dumb, you got to be tough. It's kind of a saying I live by. I think I have that, where it's like, I'm not exceptional at anything. But I have a doggedness to just keep going when it hurts.

Cut away to Shawn: I think there is a big part of me that doubts if I'm capable of going something like this anymore. And now, being a mom, I want to prove it to my babies that I am.

Challenge 1: They are driven deep into the remote Moroccan highlands to face a brutal test of endurance called The Sickener. They're going to go on a climb that intensifies across three stages in 100 degree heat. They don't know where the end will be, the end is just whenever Staff calls it.

Stage one: They have to carry two 30-pound tires up a steep mountainside while staying together as a unit.

Stage two: They drop the tires and put their big backpacks back on. Now they have to race each other. Kody Brown and Randall Cobb are in the lead. They each have to pick up a giant coil of rope and start carrying it. Shawn and Andrew are coming up next.

Andrew: What do you need?
Shawn: I'm good, go!

Cut away to Andrew: For those who aren't familiar with how the NFL works, it's essentially like I got fired from my job nine different times in five years. There was a lot of shame, honestly. I felt like I'd let myself down and other people down. Yeah, it was really disorienting to experience that type of rejection.

Andrew is now carrying a rope coil and gaining on Kody and Randall. He passes them. Shawn gets to the ropes and tries to pick one up but almost falls over backwards. Staff tell her to carry one together with Gia Giudice. Brianna LaPaglia asks if she can carry it with them too and Staff allow it. So the three girls are all carrying one big coil of rope between them, while each of the three guys is carrying his own coil of rope.

Stage three: They drop the ropes and now they have to carry metal chains weighing 90 pounds, still hiking up the mountain path. Shawn is struggling just to get the chains over her shoulders.

Cut away to Shawn: Everything that made me successful in gymnastics was this idea of, like, no emotion. I didn't know how to be a normal human being. Andrew healed all of that. So when we're on the course and I need to tap into that solo competitor, I don't know how I'll handle it.

Shawn almost falls backwards again with all the chains on her but Staff catches her arm and steadies her. She continues on marching forward.

Randall and Kody are still together. Kody tells Randall to take small steps like a billy goat and just keep going. Andrew is still in the lead.

Cut away to Andrew: Shawn never really got to see me at my athletic best, when I was the guy. So I would like to, like, prove to her in a lot of ways that I can perform in these high-stress situations, just like I did before we started dating.

Andrew finishes the race part first. Kody 2nd, Randall 3rd, Gia 4th, Shawn 5th. Staff have to practically drag Brianna up the final stretch in 6th. They drop their chains and staff tell them to get in the cars. Placements in the race, as usual, ultimately meant nothing.

Back at camp Staff are discussing all the recruits again. They say they've broken them down physically, now it's time to break them down mentally. They're going to put them in a heightened emotional state before sending them to the 2nd Challenge.

They call Andrew first. They bring him to the one-on-one room but instead of a one-on-one he is seated in front of a laptop with a video. Staff tells him "On there is a message from home, if you want to watch it, press play."

Staff are watching them on a camera from another room.

Staff in other room: When people take the messages from home we're watching their emotions. Everybody's different. Everybody has different ways of dealing with vulnerability. We are watching every moment to see how they deal with it. It will either give them strength.. or create their downfall. If that is all that it takes to tip them over the edge, then they are not for us.

Cut to Shawn being brought in the room alone. We are shown Shawn's message, from her parents Teri & Doug.

Shawn's Mom: We are not surprised in the least that you've made it this far! We are so proud of you. I love you and cannot wait to see you.

Shawn's Dad: Keep up the good work. You know, you can tap out anytime if you want!

They show Andrew and Shawn individually watching the same video from their kids. Shawn is crying.

Staff in other room: She's going to struggle now from this. It's hitting her. Oh ****.

The video ends and Staff come in to remove Shawn from the room. She gets up and leaves.

Staff in other room: As soon as it's go time, she is just snap and pop. Snap and pop. So mentally strong, isn't she? God dang.

She walks back into the bunk where Andrew is. They are both laughing and Shawn is crying/laughing.

Andrew: You okay?
Shawn: Yeah.

Cut away to Shawn: A huge weakness for me is not seeing my kids. I believe, if I'm not, like, medically withdrawn, the thing that would make me quit is missing my kids too much.

Shawn in the bunk, they're still crying/laughing: I lost it. I'm not like this! I don't cry!

Andrew: Ohhhh man!

They hold hands and kiss.

Staff in other room: They're so close. It could really work against them in interrogations.

They spend time showing everyone else's messages/reactions, then it's on to preparations for the 2nd Challenge.

(continued below)

 

[Passion]

They are separated into two groups at camp. Team Alpha is Andrew, Randall, and Gia. Team Bravo is Shawn, Kody, and Brianna. They haven't really explained the Challenge yet but it's something where they will be hunted by the enemy and are going to be captured. Staff give them some training on how to survive behind enemy lines. They skip showing us that and we're shown everyone saying how nervous they are in the bunk waiting to leave for the Challenge. Andrew is trying to pump everyone up.

There's an explosion outside the bunk. Staff yell "The base is under attack! Let's go! Let's go! Stay together!" Everyone runs out and jumps into the cars.

Challenge 2: The recruits are being sent on the run. Their mission is to reach a safe house whilst evading capture from an enemy hunter force. It is night time now, everything is dark. The enemy force has a lot of barking dogs.

Staff: It's one of the worst scenarios you could ever imagine. You're fearing for your life, you're in survival mode. One wrong turn and you are done.

Team Alpha and Bravo have been dropped outside villages at opposite ends of the valley. They must navigate across three miles of unknown terrain and locate two rendezvous points, where they'll pick up instructions for their final safe-house location.

Staff tells each team to go into the village, get to a specific store, and the owner will give them something. On Team Bravo, Brianna and Kody keep butting heads over how they should be doing things. They ask locals for directions but are ignored. They disagree on where they should be walking and are doing a lot of standing around while out in the open.

Team Alpha are moving along a little faster with Andrew taking the lead. They find the store and are given a phone with directions on it to the rendezvous point. Randall says there's too many eyes on them here, they agree to get out of the village. They jog out.

Back on Team Bravo they are still looking for the store. They climb up a little hill and they see it. The store was yards away from their starting point. They get the package and theirs has a map with directions to their rendezvous point. Kody keeps trying to get them to hide more but the girls keep telling him they're fine. They have to follow a riverbed 1.5 miles to a mosque.

Shawn: Is that the river bed?

Kody: No. That is a ditch.

Brianna: It looks like a dry riverbed to me.

Kody: I'm sorry ladies. I know irrigation. That is an irrigation ditch.

Kody then.. pees in the ditch. The girls are annoyed.

Back to Team Alpha. They're supposed to be finding a woman by a campfire as their rendezvous point but are wandering around aimlessly, unable to find her. Andrew suggests that they walk back to the village. (Narrator cuts in to say they are unaware that they are only 50 yards from the woman.) Randall says he doesn't think they should go back to the village. Andrew asks if he has a better idea. He does not. So they're going forward with Andrew's plan to walk a mile backwards. Randall is annoyed, Gia has no opinion on anything.

They enter the village and are immediately spotted by men with flashlights and dogs.

Randall: Stop. I see lights. There's a dog, there's a dog!

Andrew: What the frick?

They run around a corner and dodge around buildings. They manage to escape capture. Randall keeps repeating that they need to get out of the village. Andrew now thinks they should go back the way they came, so off they go to retrace their steps a second time.

Back to Team Bravo. They're wandering around. Kody and Brianna still arguing. Shawn finds a path and they see the mosque. Once there they are handed directions to the final safe-house. They head off to the west.

Back to Team Alpha. After Andrew's three mile detour, they finally find the woman with the campfire. She hands them a paper map with directions to the safe-house and points which direction to go in. They start walking, but now they are in exposed territory.

Randall pointing: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Those two lights are following us. Those are dog lights.

They discuss running, but keep walking. An explosion goes off next to them. They are surrounded by men and barking dogs. Bags are put over their heads and their hands are ziptied.

Randall: VW! VW! VW!

Randall voluntarily withdraws and is out. He says it just felt too real and he panicked.

Back to Team Bravo. They get to a house. Brianna says it's the safe-house but Shawn isn't sure. Shawn says something doesn't feel right. She doesn't think this is the safe-house. They're standing outside of the house discussing this. An explosion goes off and they are surrounded by men and barking dogs. They're captured.

The episode ends there. 13 down, 5 remain. Next week is the finale.