American Grit – Season 2/Episode 8 – "Shady Grady"

Originally aired: July 30th, 2017

Before watching this season, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to let the competitors and the cadre hit me as hard as the season 1 cast did. That might’ve been the most bull shitted promise I have made to myself because eventually, they did. With every eliminated competitor and remaining one, there was this certain essence of attachment. From Melanie’s new view on life when it came to exiting a previous relationship, Chris honing in onto a more stern part of his personality or Shermon proving that underneath a tough exterior; there’s a young man that just wants the best for not only those around him but himself. These competitors have definitely grown with whatever time they have given themselves at the camp. When it comes to the cadre, I feel like Chloe when she wanted to get inside Alison’s head. I feel like I want to get inside Grady’s head just do to the fact that his team has one most of the challenges this season. I think most of the episodes have left me with that bittersweet outlook. I can only assume that this episode will be no different. With out further ado, lets get to gritting.

We open the episode with a quiet trip back to camp grit. However, the competitors are on a vocal edge as to who they want to see walking across the bridge from elimination. Richard, Chris or Alison; okay not that many favor Alison but its still worth anyone’s guess at this point in the game. Hours later, Cena and the cadre meet up at their compound to view how the contestants will react to Chris and Alison’s return. Chloe points out that at the end of the day, Alison might have some closet supporters. As for Chris, its going to be a very obvious positive reaction when it comes down to it. I would’ve preferred all three; Chris, Alison and Richard to be walking across the bridge but alas, the game doesn’t work like that. Minutes later, Chris is the first to walk across the bridge much to everyone and fellow team blue member Hannah’s delight. Frankly I just want to be appreciated in my lifetime to the point of where if someone missed my voice like George missed Chris’, they would also be saying that I’m allowed to talk as much as I want. Alison is the next person to walk across the bridge much to everyone’s shock and Herman’s golf clap. With that in mind, in the kitchen Chris attempts to drink two beers in honor of Richard. Much to the warning from Hannah that they have a challenge coming up. In my opinion, he should’ve just poured a cold one out onto the wooden floors but we all have our ways of honoring a person. Carla comes to terms with the fact that she is now a team of one since Richard was eliminated. She’s upset that he’s gone but she now knows that she has to kick it into high gear. Back at the cadre compound, Cena quickly reminds the cadre that two of them now have a team of one. Which means that both could be at risk of total elimination. The added painful but reasonable bonus is that the competitors don’t know about this due to total secrecy. The theme for the challenge is aggression. Unlike John Cena’s ruthless aggression gimmick during his early days in the WWE, this is a more serious type of aggression. So that’s pretty much it, lets head to the ne–dang it Cena! To make things even more complicated, there will be another double elimination on the horizon. This is going to be a kick punch dozy. Ready and Break!

The next day during breakfast, some of the competitors are trying to figure out what aggression really is. Aggressive reading? Sleeping? Cooker? There are a lot of ways to be aggressive. Later, the competitors and their cadre handle the provided equipment that Cena gave them that are similar or not so similar to the challenge: dodge balls. Some are succeeding, while others are reliving gym class; clean up on aisle blue! During training, Grady calls over Burk for a conversation. More of a deal and an idea. Grady wants to form an alliance with Burk in order for the finale to be just blue vs green. At this point Burk doesn’t even care anymore about the competition. As for Chloe, she walks up to Riki with the similar same deal that will at least keep both of them in the competition until the finale. Much to the angry towards Grady, Riki accepts Chloe’s alliance. Now it’s time to hit the beach. The challenge: competitors must put their team’s dodge balls into an opposing teams basket. If there are 5 balls in the basket, that team is eliminated. The challenge will go on until 3 teams are eliminated and one team is left standing. The team with the less balls or in their basket are safe from elimination. The catch is they’ll be doing it while there are bungee cords attached to their waists. An added advantage is that the teams are able to help each other out. What does that mean? Everyone will be seeing green as the three other teams will be gunning for team Grady. As for Burk? I stand by my previous sentence seeing as how he gave his final word on the short lived alliance in regards to Cena explaining the actual rules of the challenge. This should be a real hip breaker.

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This ain’t dodge ball…and usually, I’m not a big fan of having blue balls but today I will make an exception because we can’t win without’em. – Chris

The challenge starts and under pressure, no one has managed to get a ball in an opposing teams basket. Everyone is flipping, graveling, tossing its any team’s game. It could be a long day for the challenge. This is where I have spoken too soon because after five balls in their basket, Team Grady is the first to be eliminated. Now Team Riki and Team Chloe are working against Team Burk and soon enough Burk’s team is eliminated. It is now Carla VS Alison and it is the clash of team colors. It’s 20 minutes in and both are so far tied, the next shot could determine the winner. In a nail biting photo finish, with an added slow motion for more suspense, team Chloe’s Alison wins the challenge! With the added positive plus that she had no coffee before the challenge. While that is all good and positive, Chloe has some homework to do seeing as how she has to pick two competitors that must fight alongside Carla. Back at the camp kitchen, Michael starts to list the bare minimum facts of how Carla never does the dishes. Which quite frankly is debatable but I won’t get into that. So now it’s time for Chloe to pick a blue and green member to be sent into elimination. Instead of going with the plan that she set up with Riki; it’ll be Herman, George and Carla. A clash of the titans between the fiercest competitors at the camp. Back at the cadre compound, Chloe tells Riki her new choices for the elimination which from the looks of it, she’s extremely not too happy about it. What’s even more messed up is Chloe telling Riki that she doesn’t remember making that sort of promise with her. Which completely erases the girls alliance while it only lasted a second. I can clearly get why Riki would feel betrayed by it because she had the mindset of how Chloe’s focus was to help keep her at the camp. At the same time, Chloe explains that if she went ahead and picked Hannah and Gigi, that would’ve been a selfish move from her as a leader. But guess what? Riki is still not having it seeing as how she would’ve expected more from Chloe seeing as she is in the same boat as her in terms of having only one team member. Riki walks off to take a little stroll to the main campgrounds in order talk to Carla and warn her. Meanwhile at the camp kitchen, some of the remaining members of team blue and green are just having a light conversation about the upcoming elimination challenge. Excitement is in the air with Herman and George heading into elimination together. Whoever walks out of elimination between those two, I’d say they are a pretty deserving competitor. As for Carla, she has distanced herself from the rest of the competitors due to her own personality. She’s however aware of that so she pulls over Alison in order to work on that part of herself which I can tell that it might not sound easy for her but it’s worth trying. Carla seems like a tough person to get to know in an overall sense. However, with everything and everyone in life, there is always a reason for the way they are.

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Carla’s story: When she was 17 years old, her sister in law was diagnosed with cancer. At the end of the day, you just never really get over someone close to you dying. However as father time continues to adjust his clock, you wake up the next day and keep doing whatever daily routine you have thrust upon yourself. The ones that are now watching you in heaven or they’re right behind you in spirit are just seeing you go through this undeniably great amount of pain. That’s just the worst part of it because they can’t directly fix it for you. They want you to just live your life and get your shit done. That’s just the thing because you miss that person so much. You see their children or other family members growing and it hits you that they’ll never get to directly see them grow. It takes years to understand a passing.

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Author’s note: with that being said I can honestly and wholeheartedly agree with Carla on that matter seeing as how last year towards the end of august and around mid September (weeks apart), I lost my Uncle and my grandmother. I still miss them very much each and every day including my darkest ones. I’ll never understand why but I know that it’s not something I can instantly grasp like I do with certain school subjects and projects. It just takes time a good and healthy amount of time to just come to terms with it.

Meanwhile, Riki finally makes it to the cabin that is assigned for her team in order to speak to Carla. She asks George and Alison to exit the cabin and then proceeds to inform her only team member. What Chloe did was mainly use Carla’s strength against her by choosing George and Herman for elimination. While Carla is aware of that, Riki is expressing greatly that Carla needs to win the elimination challenge and make it to the finale. If she doesn’t not only will she have to ring out but in a sign of leadership, Riki must also ring out which will be not a good sight to see mainly because she’s my favorite leader. With Chloe and Burk also holding that title. Carla has knowingly taken out two guys before. With the stakes this high close to the finale, is she able to do it again? Only short time and preparation can tell. Riki heads back to the compound and there she immediately explains to Chloe on the importance of their deal and how as an actual friend outside of the camp, Chloe should’ve just went to Riki first before finalizing her decision with the competitors. Doing right by Riki, Chloe should’ve said something first but in her response although her move was a matter of affecting the game to Riki, it’s never been about the game for Chloe. Her hands are tied up; on one hand, she really wants Carla to get George and Herman to ring the bell by losing the elimination challenge. On the other hand, there’s also a chance that Carla might be one out of the double to ring out and Chloe loses her “sister” in the process. Although it’s painful to realize, Riki eventually accepts the strategy that Chloe had to make also further implying that she just doesn’t want to break that marine corp bond in terms of having a grudge.

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Quick Author’s note: Do not hold a grudge. Don’t do it. Life is too short to hold grudges whether they are gravely serious or just plain stupid; and somewhere in between. Just don’t do it.

The next day, Herman is seen in the kitchen cooking up some breakfast for himself. While on the other side of things, Cena walks in to have a conversation with Herman. All of the competitors have faced their personal challenges since being on the show. All but except Herman; his involves some information that his parents don’t fully know. Now, how has Cena gotten himself involved? He called Herman’s parents and invited them over to the camp so he could overcome one of his biggest personal obstacles in his life. I think it’d be best for him to explain.

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“I grew up in a traditional Indian family. My parents have conservative beliefs. My parents definitely want me to have a traditional arranged marriage, and I’m not about that life. Telling my mother and father that I’ve got tattoos, that’s, like, kind of my way telling them, I’m proud of who I am and what I do and how I live. These tattoos represent who I really am. Our culture as a whole has a conservative belief when it comes to tattoos, so my parents, of course, fall into that category. Because of those traditional Indian values, they don’t really understand…and that’s where the conflict has arisen, because I’ve been hiding the information from’em, thinking it’s gonna make them upset and today it’s time to face that.” – Herman

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Author’s note: With a soul like Herman’s, I find it hard to believe that he would face any issues since before coming to the camp. But alas, no soul pure or damned is immune from life’s obstacles.

The conversation starts as a surprise for his parents. In my opinion, I just really hope I don’t see any crying or major flipping out. Then again it’s reality TV and it might be most likely when it comes to reveals. Herman takes off his shirt and reveals to his folks that he has 2 years of full tattoo work on his body. The trick to hiding them was when he was always around them, he would wear longer sleeves so neither of them got the idea of it. Let’s just say however, neither parent is pleased. Herman goes on to explain that there are strong meanings in the tattoos. While also performing his nursing work, he’s won a prestigious award with the aid of his tattoos. He would show his tattoos to patients along with the stories of what each tattoo was about in order to do good things. In all seriousness it does make sense. At any age or situation that a patient is experiencing, it’s nice for them to gain a positive memory from that experience when it’s all over. So in a way, the patients that Herman helped treat might have not only gained that good thought of being treated; but also that a person that they barely knew much about was so open enough to ease their stress in a moment where they needed it the most. If that makes any sense at all to you, the reader. As for the arrange marriage, Herman insists that his mother should discontinue all plans in hopes of finding him a future wife. Fully considering that he can do it all on his own. Even though this wasn’t the sit down his parents were hoping for, they are still proud of him no matter what. It’s his journey, his life; the only one who should be in full leader of it is himself. Now that is what I like to see and hear now that his weight is lifted off. Next we have the cadre and Cena. During the afternoon, in hopes of taking them out of the heat of the competition and reminding them of why they are at the camp, Cena invited a group of active duty, veterans and their families to a free reign get together at outback steakhouse to give back to the veterans and speak with the all of the families in attendance. It is probably the most positive scene you could ever see in a reality competition show. There’s all of this happiness and warm laughter going around. You simply couldn’t ask for more. Wait, you can? In the form of that answer, Cena walks in with one plate filled with food since he implied before dropping the cadre off that he will be serving the rest of the food to the attended party. Like I always say day in and day out online or in real life, you can hate Cena for his in-ring character or any other thing that he does. When it comes to the Military or make-a-wish or just any other matter like that, you have to at least applaud or if you meet him one day, shake his hand because of it.

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“You can’t just walk around being a tough guy all the time. I think the definition of a real man is one who can be in tune with himself, be in tune with his emotions, and be able to fit in any scenario and try to give back.” – John Cena

On that note, the afternoon was lovely for everyone at outback. Back at the camp, Michael was putting his costume designer skills to good use by making fellow green team member Herman a golden eagle for the elimination challenge so he can have the power of the eagle watching over him. Needless to say, Herman is a kid in a candy store after seeing and receiving Michael’s gift to him. He proceeds to kick the front doors of the kitchen open while wearing his gift just ready to stroll around the camp with it. There by taking us, the audience, to a light hearten commercial break.

The next day, it’s the morning of the elimination challenge. Not to be left out of any of the festivities, Gigi helps Hannah on a little challenge of her own; a classic game of jump rope. In a voice over hint, John (Cena) might have something a little more difficult for them in the next challenge. As for the elimination challenge competitors; they are focused, they are intense and…they’re making animal noises. With a cute cluck sendoff from Hannah. Now the challenge: there are wooden boxes hanging over the lake. they are set to 50% of the competitors body weight. While in the middle of a giant underwater pulley system, the competitors will have to pull the ropes back in order for their box to not fall. They let go, that’s $250,000 that they are also letting go. It’s a double elimination this time around and it’s in everybody’s best interest to hang on. The competitors start to arrive and at this point it’s anyone’s game. The challenge starts and so far everyone is stiff as a board. 10, 20 minutes in and the panic starts to take over. Not just with the competitors, also me too but mostly the competitors. After inching toward the end of her rope, in a surprising matter Carla is the first to drop her box. Which means although she must ring out, Riki must ring out as well. Now it’s down to Herman and George 35 minutes later and they’re still keeping it together. Nothing can stop this plus sized match up. “I think I just felt a fish”. This is where I throw my computer out and scream I quit. It appears that George is bitten by some local fish but that was only a minor distraction. 50 minutes in and in a nail biting surprise it is George who is the second and last person to let go of the rope. Giving Grady another win for his team. With Carla and George’s departure, I will definitely miss two competitors who brought their own sense of uniqueness to the camp. I wish them nothing but the best of luck. As for my season finale blog post, I think I will do it in two different blogs. Until the last two, stay weird.

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