Last night on SAS Australia, it was a day of exhilarating highs and excruciating lows for the 14 recruits still standing.
The first task saw recruits leap from a speeding boat to a helicopter. While some missed the target, smashing straight into the water, others felt elation on making it into the chopper. Pauly Fenech celebrated his success by planting a kiss on Chief Instructor Ant Middleton.
Convicted drug dealer Richard Buttrose failed to follow instructions and the DS brought him in for questioning, where he revealed he’s doing the course as a last step of redemption.
“I didn’t take any short cuts in jail, I didn’t rat on anyone, I just f***ing took responsibility for everything I got caught with, pleaded guilty for everything I got caught with and did the time,” admitted Richard. “I believe everybody deserves a second chance.”
Model Simone Holtznagel was also interrogated by the DS after they noticed her unease in the task. There she explained her anxiety stems from the death by suicide of her friend and mentor, Charlotte Dawson, when Simone was just 20 years old.
“It has definitely played into how I am and how I go about my life as an adult,” said Simone. “She wouldn’t want me to not live my life. She always had so much belief that I would go on and be this superstar.”
Recruits then had to adopt a strong mindset when they were incapacitated by pepper spray and expected to carry out a task, in an exercise Ant described as “a whole f***ing world of pain”.
The crippling task proved too much for Simone and she chose to withdraw from the course, confessing: “I’m disappointed I didn’t go out on more of a high but I’m really not huge on physical pain.”
The day ended with a surprise late night beasting, made even more brutal by Pauly’s late arrival to the parade square and inability to keep up, something he apologised to the other recruits for later.
