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Tough Enough 2
Original airdate: 5-23-02Hitting people very hard, but in safe places...
Jackie, whom I originally called "the trampy girl," has emerged as a clear front-runner in the past few episodes, but it's her reaction to her severe knee injury that really cements her standing. At the end of last week, we saw Jackie's knee buckle painfully in the ring, and we pick up this week as she's being taken to the hospital.
The eventual diagnosis is a torn ACL and torn cartilage in her knee. Her options are surgery, or sucking it up and wearing a knee brace. The doctors tell her in no uncertain terms that continuing her training is a bad idea. Big even agrees that maybe she should go home. But with only one week left in the training, Jackie's not going anywhere. She'll wear the brace, take a few days off and get back to it.
It's an attitude that clearly impresses the trainers, though it worries them a bit too. Big is openly amazed that she is the first contestant who's wanted to work through the pain of an injury. The only concern is what might happen if she reinjures her knee.
To prevent that, when she comes back into the ring, she'll be working only with Al himself. Even hurt, the bumps she takes from him are astonishing. At least, compared to the others, who still aren't working up to par.
Anni, trying to be careful and not get hurt and eliminate herself that way, has been way too cautious, and can't execute a clothesline. Jake's problem has been isolated - he's a slow learner. Once he's gotten a move through his head, he looks fine, but that process takes a bit longer than the trainers would like.
William Regal visits to dish out some sound advice and a few stiff hits as the contestants face the final cut. He's thoroughly underwhelmed by their moves, their selling and their bumps. His criticism is not taken lightly, and the remaining six (five, with Jackie resting) really try to ramp it up.
For one last personality push, a member of the Groundlings visits to teach some improvisation. Each person cuts a promo, then the others do their best impression of it, which is entertaining but over too quickly. Some of the character ideas are a bit laughable, such as Pete's insistence upon playing on his slight stature and Linda's "Hot Sexy Mocha."
When it's time for cuts, each contestant has a negative: Jake has no finesse, Anni gets in her own way, Linda blames everyone else for mistakes, Kenny makes everyone else looks good but himself, Jackie might jeopardize her recovery by continuing, and "for a small guy, Pete doesn't fly."
Pete and Anni are dismissed, bringing us down to four finalists for next week's final episode on MTV, which will also (apparently) include the live announcement of this season's winners at The World. I assume The World is the renamed WWF New York, and I assume the winners will be Jake and Jackie.
