Day Twenty-Seven. 2:30 PM. Mission Day. Reward-Punishment. Oh, let's hope for another little skit from DI McSweeney. And we get one! DI McSweeney has them lined up in front of the sand pit. He has written "Ritz" in the sand, and says that's their reward. Ritz crackers? That seems pretty chintzy. Oh, it refers to the Ritz-Carlton. Their reward is a night at the Ritz-Carlton. They'll be puttin' on the Ritz. DI McSweeney walks over and erases the leg on the R with his foot so that it now reads "Pitz" -- if they fail, they have to sleep in the pit. DI McSweeney makes them say "Ritz or the Pits, sir!" a few times. I love those little skitz. I mean, skits.

3:00 PM. Mission Briefing. Now it's time for DI Rosenbum to give his little presentation. The mission is called "Operation H.E.R.O. -- Hostile Environment Recon Operation." They have to traverse five miles of hostile territory, stopping at three checkpoints. At checkpoint one, they have to build a sandbag bridge. At checkpoint two, they rappel down a steep ravine. At checkpoint three, they walk on sand rails. I don't know what that means, but I'm sure we'll find out. They will end up at a military installation, where they will receive further instructions on how to complete the mission. Wow, that's complicated. It takes place at night, and they have two hours. The reward, once again, is a stay at the Ritz-Carlton, and amnesty for Whitlow. The punishment is sleeping in the pit, and no amnesty for Whitlow.

The recruits are ready to start the mission. DI Rosenbum gives them some directions to checkpoint one, where they will get further instructions. The recruits take off as some exciting music plays. Moretti checks the compass. Wolf goes ahead to scout and finds checkpoint one. Whitlow reads the instructions -- they have to build a bridge out of sandbags. Oh, I thought the sandbags would already be filled. They have to fill them, and then make the bridge. There are one and a half hours remaining when they get across. They make for checkpoint two.

After they reach checkpoint two, Whitlow reads the instructions. They have to use a rope to negotiate a ravine. Wolf gets all bossy (as usual) and offers to go ahead and scout it out. He gets down the ravine and then helps Whitlow. I think he goosed her while "helping" her based on the look on her face. Whitlow gets down, and Wolf goes ahead to scout while Whitlow helps Moretti and Moretty. As they all climb out of the ravine, there is just over an hour left.