"America's Toughest Jobs" - September 15, 2008 and September 19, 2008 episodes

September 15, 2008 episode

The contestants travel to Salinas, California, where their next job is going to be driving monster trucks as part of Monster Jam, and their boss is well-known Monster Jam driver Grave Digger. Rick is particularly excited since he's a long-time fan of Monster Jam, and he has idolized Grave Digger, so he's thrilled to be able to meet him and interact with him.

The first segment is driver training, where the contestants learn to drive the trucks and some of the safety lessons. Many do well, but a few run into snags. Chris finds that trucks are definitely not his forte as yet again, he screws up where a truck is concerned. There's a kill switch that can be hit which will remotely disengage the truck if the driver is doing something bad with it, and the drivers are told that if the kill switch is engaged, they should brake. On the first pass, Chris' truck is kill-switched, but he doesn't brake. He is specifically reminded that he needs to brake, but on the second pass, he is again kill-switched, and yet again, he fails to brake. And then, when he's called on it, he says he didn't know that's what they wanted him to do. He never seems to admit when he's made a mistake and just keeps arguing with the boss. Bryce has problems too when he jumps the gun and takes off while the red light is on, when there's still a judge nearby. The contestants are then divided into teams to do work on the trucks, and the team of Rick, Rie, Chris and Eric run into major problems when they're trying to change a tire on Grave Digger's truck and end up pushing the truck off a jack, mostly because of Rick's instructions, and destroying the jack in the process.

When they do their actual runs, many do quite well, but this time, Eric loses his focus for a minute and inexplicably goes before the light turns green. Unlike Chris, though, when he's called on it, he just admits that he did the wrong thing and takes his criticism, knowing he has no excuse.

The best of the bunch in this competition is Ben, and the bottom four end up being Eric, Bryce, Chris and Rick. The final competition is a run where the drivers have to try to make a maneuver that would effectively make the truck pop a wheelie with no ramp, sending the truck on a vertical leap. Eric goes first and doesn't do well on the first run but scores on the second run. Chris' first run goes really well, and Bryce has a great first run and a decent second run, even though he ends up flipping the truck on the second run, and he ends up with the best score. Unfortunately, long-time fan Rick isn't up to the task and doesn't succeed on either run, so he's the one eliminated.


September 19, 2008 episode

The contestants travel to Odessa, Texas, where their job will be to work on an oil rig as "worms", the term for newbie oil drillers. It's hard, dirty labor with heavy things to move and lift, all under a scorching 110 degree sun. Sandy gets right to work, but Chris fairly soon is exhausted and complaining about the pace Sandy is taking. Steven has his own problems when he puts his hands where he shouldn't, which could have ended up in disaster as he risked getting his fingers or hand sliced off by the machinery. Bryce expresses the opinion that he's at a disadvantage because he has muscles so people expect him to be able to do a lot. What he doesn't get isn't so much necessarily what he actually does, it's the effort he exerts. Other people have fewer muscles and perhaps less strength than him, but they certainly apply themselves more whereas he often takes the easy way out.

The second day, they're changing out the drill bit, and Eric has a hard time at one point while Chris' fear of heights hinders him when he has to climb 9 stories in a raging wind to get to his next task.

There is then a segment where the women and the men are talked to separately as a group, and the women say that they have to work harder to prove that they can keep up with the men, especially in a field dominated by men, whereas the men think the women are given much more credit for doing less, and Rommel even accuses Rie of flirting with the bosses to gain favor.

At the end of the first round, the title of best at the job goes jointly to Rommel and Rie. Meanwhile, the bottom four consist of Steven, Eric, Chris and Bryce. It's pointed out that in the past several tasks, no women have been in the bottom four, and Steven expresses the opinion that women get points for just showing up, but Sandy calls him on it by talking about how much more work she did and heavier things she carried than some of the men and that she could work circles around them, an opinion that the bosses had previously expressed to the camera. Steven does back down, but Chris insists that you need balls to do the job. When Steven jokingly points out that balls obviously don't help since the women don't have any, and they did the job better than the men, Chris pitches a fit and threatens to deck Steven, all the while insisting that you need balls to do the job. Yeah, dude, whatever, you're a pompous ass who never admits to doing anything wrong, even in the very face of evidence to the contrary. Sit your frickin' ass down. I'll be glad to see him go.

The competition for the bottom four is a series of three tasks that must be completed, and whoever takes the longest is out. Bryce goes first and ends up with the best score. So he can perform under pressure and when working by himself, but how is that any good when he refuses to work under normal circumstances and can't seem to work very well with other people? Steven ends up taking just a few seconds longer than Bryce. Next up is Eric, who has all the spirit and determination in the world, but unfortunately, his body doesn't cooperate as much as he'd like, and he takes a long time to finish. Last up is Chris, who seems to meander his way through the task, even walking from station to station, with no sense of urgency. Unfortunately, he ends up barely beating Eric's time, so Eric is the one eliminated.

Next week - it's a rodeo, and it looks brutal. I'm really liking this show a lot because even though there is some drama, the drama itself doesn't really affect the outcome. It's really just about how well you do the job. I'm really liking Sandy, with her attitude and spunk and willingness to give it her all. And I like that they didn't reveal until this episode that she's a lesbian in a long-term relationship. She makes the point herself that her sexual orientation has nothing to do with what she can do and how hard she can work, and the point was driven home in the previous episode when Grave Digger declared Ben as the best and how looks could really be deceiving if someone used that to pre-judge someone.