As with every other human endeavor that involves lots of highly specialized people, there’s more to this TV business than meets the eye. Literally. To get some idea of what this means, imagine looking at the world through your favorite scope; there’s that part in the glass that is crystal clear and hi-def. Then there’s everything else – the world outside the scope that’s happening around what you perceive to be the universe, but is just as real, just as valid. The director’s job is to move that scope around and capture the essence of what’s happening in the bigger picture – get it right and the image onscreen becomes a microcosm of actual events. Get it wrong and you miss out on vital information, or give entirely the wrong impression.

With reality TV, there’s the additional factor of the cast who might have a vested interest in keeping certain developments under wraps, so I try to watch with this in mind, looking for hints of what might be happening away from the camera. Besides, it’s fun reading tea leaves.

Last night’s team challenge was a run & gun event, which meant a couple of guys were at a distinct disadvantage due to the physical aspect. John Guida probably took a lot of flak from the MMQB crowd for his decision to retire, but I respect his decision not to hamper his team; despite this being an individual competition, the best way not to be eliminated in the early stages is to make sure your team wins and if you personally can’t make it all the way through, why drag them down? As usual, Craig Sawyer did good work getting the weaker team members up to speed on the M1A1 and I bet Maggie Reese was cringing during the event to see all of the 180 violations when moving. Oh, and I’ve got to get some explosive targets for my next match.

If ever there was an illustration that shooting is a mental game, this episode was it. After charging through the team event at warp speed, Jermaine discovered that all his efforts had been in vain due to not following Colby’s instructions and his mistakes wound up losing the challenge for blue team. The elimination challenge was every instructor’s nightmare.  You spend countless hours and thousands of rounds tweaking your grip, modifying your stance, working on trigger control and sight alignment in order make the mechanics of shooting a subconscious event. Then you’re beaten on national TV by some dude who looks like he learned to shoot by watching Starsky & Hutch reruns. Jay mentioned that the pistol he was using was hitting low left. Anyone want to take a guess as to why that might be? What Jay did have however, was the mental fortitude to take on someone who was obviously the better shot; he stayed strong, shot his own match and let the other guy crumble. In the end, his opponent beat himself. There’s a lesson in there for all of us.

Next week sees the challenge switch from bullets to bows, with gear supplied by my fellow Oregonians at Bowtech. I have a feeling that Chris Reed and Jay Lim will be the hot ticket.