They changed the introduction this week, to reflect the fact that only two are left. Boot camp began twenty-eight days ago with sixteen recruits. Now, the only ones left are Whitlow and Wolf. They will compete in a forty-eight-hour series of physical and mental challenges called "The Gauntlet," where they can win up to thirteen sets of dog tags belonging to their "fallen squad members." Stage one of The Gauntlet is "seven grueling mental and physical events," each named after one of the dismissed recruits (e.g. those voted off). Stage two is the vote -- the six discharged recruits (Pupo, Thomson, Hutak, Yaney, Brown, and Moretty) return to vote (by handing over their dog tags) for who they think should win. The recruit with the most dog tags wins $500,000. Got it? Don't worry if you don't -- they'll remind us about ten more times tonight.

Last week: the DIs trashed the barracks. They closed the mess hall. Whitlow got to be squad leader by default, since she had not yet done so. The mission was a success, giving Whitlow a free pass to The Gauntlet. Wolf thought Whitlow was his best friend, but Whitlow claimed to "want Wolf gone." And yet, when she could have teamed with Moretty (and probably Moretti) to get rid of Wolf, she chose instead to convince Moretty to vote for Moretti, hoping he would take Wolf with him (or so she claimed.) Whitlow reveals that she made a deal with Wolf in the beginning never to vote for him. Moretti got voted off, and took Moretty with him out of some misplaced sense of loyalty to Wolf. Whitlow and Wolf remained to compete in The Gauntlet. Yeah, we got that from the introduction. Can we move along now?

Night Twenty-Eight. The Gauntlet -- Event One. Lauder's Last Stand. Midnight. We're meant to believe that this is taking place immediately after Moretti and Moretty exited the area. Have I mentioned how glad I am, for purely personal recapping reasons, that the final two are not Moretti and Moretty? Anyway, Whitlow and Wolf stand at attention as DIs Francisco and Rosenbum carry out two small platforms (each about the size of a bathroom scale) with two foot-shaped platforms on top of them. DI Francisco announces that it is the beginning of The Gauntlet. Blah blah blah exposition-cakes. We're reminded that they haven't slept in seventeen hours, and won't be allowed to sleep again for forty-eight more hours. DI Rosenbum takes over, explaining that this first event is called "Lauder's Last Stand." He reminds them that "after a vigorous PT session," Lauder often had trouble standing up. We see flashback footage of Lauder struggling to his feet. DI Rosenbum explains that they will each take a platform and stand at attention, facing each other. The first to step off the platform loses.