American Grit Season 2 Episode 3: Liar Liar
At Camp Grit, the competitors are waiting to find out who has rung out and who is returning. Herman attempts to impress Melanie with his cooking abilities. Unfortunately, he is better at making fire, as he pulls from the oven a flaming pan of sweet potatoes. He returns to her good graces by offering her a chard piece of sweet potato that she applies as war paint.
George and Gill announce their return. Team Grady and Team Riki celebrate. Chloe’s team strategies in the kitchen on how to conceal their disappointment from the other teams. Alison tearfully confesses that she is going to miss Natalie.
John Cena and the Cadre are gathered around a campfire at the Cadre Compound. Cena congratulates the winning teams and then proceeds to speak of trust. This prompts a disagreement between Burk and Grady about his “team stacking.” A slight argument breaks out amongst the Cadre but is broken up quickly when John Cena begins to describe the next team challenge. He explains that the challenge will be based on trust, and the Cadre will choose one person from their team to be captain. Oh, and there’s a boat. Cena exits the group leaving them with more questions than answers.
The next morning the Cadre prep their teams for the challenge. Burke, surprisingly, chooses Hannah to be the captain of Team Blue. Hannah is confident in her abilities and eager to prove herself to her team. Riki attempts to gather her team in the yard for training. Carla decides that her top is not suitable for this exercise and excuses herself to change. Riki is not ok with this as she views Carla’s actions disrespectful and a waste of everyone’s time. Riki chooses Gill to be the leader of Team Yellow. Grady takes a different approach in picking his captain. He asks for Team Green’s opinion and they agree that Michael should lead the team for this event. Mike is looking forward to the challenge. Teams Grady, Burk, and Rikis head to the lake for trust training. Riki has her team blindfolded and instructs them to follow Gill's voice. After the trust exercise, Carla decides she needs another wardrobe change. Leaving her team to wait and her Cadre to stew. Chloe chooses Janessa as Team Red’s captain but forgoes the boat training. Instead, she preps Team Red on dry land, but like Riki decides to blindfold her team as they listen to Janessa’s commands.
Team Challenge: Boat Race
The team that navigates the fastest through 10 buoy checkpoints will be the winner. Excluding the team captain, all members of the team will be rowing. The teams enter the boat and take their positions. Cena does a psych-out countdown before throwing a wrench in the game. He surprises the team by exclaiming that the rowing members will be blindfolded during this event. Riki’s team rejoices as this is exactly what they trained for. The teams take off strong from the dock. Each captain and Cadre yelling over each other. Burk shares his two paddle strategy; having two member row while one rests and then switching. Cena points out how off course Team Chloe is. The Red team is literally spinning in circles. Janessa is frustrated as she calls out commands. Green, Yellow and Blue are par for the course. Chloe explains that she did not prep her team in the boat due to their anxious personalities. Her concern was that they would panic during prep, and it would be a waste of time. She is regretting her decision. Grady’s team finishes first, followed closely by Team Burk. Team Riki pulls in shortly after, and Chloe’s team finishes last for the second challenge in a row. Grady is now tasked with choosing from the three losing teams who will be going to Elimination.
Back at Camp Grit, Team Green praises Michael’s stellar ability to lead them to victory. Janessa and Allison look on enviously while Richard wonders who Grady will be picking for Elimination.
Grady calls all of the competitors together for the choosing. His strategy is to pick the individuals who were chosen as team captains, as it was their job to lead and since their team was not the victor, they must represent in the Elimination. Gill, Hannah, and Janessa will be headed to the Elimination Challenge. This will be Gill’s second time.
Team Grady is sitting around a campfire getting to know each other. George spills the beans to his team that he is the son of the two-time heavyweight world champion. They are elated. Gigi only knows George Foreman as” the grill.” Michael and Herman are pumped. Later, Herman crawls under one of the buildings and gets Melanie’s attention. She joins him under the building for a little fun. Alison pours water on the two of them through the cracks.
Day Before Elimination
Hannah burns her backside on the stove. (nothing serious) Riki decides that she has had enough of Carla’s disrespect and gives her a boot camp style wake up call. Carla is given 2 minutes to get herself ready and outside. Riki explains that urgency is non-negotiable and Carla needs an attitude adjustment. Herman tells Gill that she is a fierce competitor, while Burk takes Hannah on a walk to help boost her confidence. Hannah gains confidence from this conversation and is looking forward to the challenge. John Cena interrupts the morning to take Melanie on an adventure. Hannah attempts to spy on them leaving. Alison makes a negative comment stating that Cena is probably reprimanding Melanie for “being drunk under the pavilion” and “disrespecting a lot of people”. In actuality, Cena took Melanie to Wigs for Kids; a salon where her hair will be sewn into a wig for a child fighting cancer.
Back at Camp Grit, George questions whether or not Janessa is in the right state of mind for the challenge. Janessa gets a bit frustrated at the group for wanting her to open up more. She is reluctant but begins to share more of herself with the group. This becomes a tearful conversation, as Janessa is feeling vulnerable. The Group reassures her that they are in it together.
Upon Melanie’s return, she is immediately informed of the rumors of her outing by Hannah. Melanie confronts Alison. Alison denies that she said anything negative about Melanie.
Elimination Morning:
Burk informs the Cadre of Melanie and Herman’s “showmance.” The group is shocked but quickly changes the subject to challenge possibilities. Riki thinks it will be a sumo wrestling suit. Richard raps to hype up Gill. Chloe and Janessa go on a jog to warm up.
Second Elimination Challenge: Spin to Win
Four spinning wheels, each set at a different speed. If a competitor fails to maintain all wheels spinning, and one stops, that competitor will be eliminated and forced to ring out. Hannah is confident that she is not going out. Riki feels otherwise and tells Gill that she needs to just outlast Hannah. Chloe is confident in Janessa but says she will miss her if she is eliminated.
The challenge begins. Each competitor spinning the wheels with their own technique. 20 minutes in, Janessa and Hannah look to be fatigued. Burk begins to distract Hannah with conversation, helping her maintain stamina. 60 minutes in Hannah seems to be breaking. She stumbles but gets up just in time to spin a wheel that was about to stop. One hour and five minutes in, Cena is in disbelief that the challenge has continued this long. Gill begins to tire out and almost lets a wheel stop. She gives one of her wheels a weak spin. Unfortunately, this is her undoing. Gill does not make it back to this wheel in time. The wheel stops. Gill rings out and is the second person eliminated from American Grit.