PHIL KEOGHAN: Previously on Tough As Nails,
-12 hardworking Americans... -They call me "Eliza-beast."
...tough from their everyday lives...
I'm a commercial superintendent.
I'm the old guy here, I'm 55.
Call me "Captain Kalimba." I've been through the storm,
and I've survived, and I keep on going.
...reported to Camp Pendleton in California...
-Welcome to Tough As Nails. -(contestants cheer)
...where they immediately dropped into their first job.
-Let's get it done! -(work whistle blows)
KEOGHAN: They are going for it.
Lineman Mike and Jill-of-all-trades Lia
raced across the line first...
There goes Lia! She beats Mike by half a wheel.
Mike comes in second.
...earning the right to pick teams.
I pick Dirty Hands. We're gonna get the job done.
As another chapter for Dirty Hands
and Savage Crew began, the newly formed teams
were tested in their first team challenge...
(work whistle blows)
...building a military staging area.
Get the wire laid out.
Dirty Hands picked Jill-of-all-trades Lia
to be crew boss, but it was Savage Crew...
SARAH: Talk to me, Alfie, you good?
...led by cement mason Sarah...
-Sarah's crew with the win! -(cheering)
...that won the first Badge of Honor.
Being a veteran, I wanted to make my battle buddies proud.
-Tonight... -Go, go, go, go, go!
ELIZABETH: Get your stuff set.
...with Savage Crew up one-zero in the team competition...
CHRISTINE: Let's go! Move with a purpose!
-...can Dirty Hands tie the score? -LIA: I gotta be up there.
KALIMBA: This needs to be where the yellow is.
Or will Savage Crew stay on top?
In the individual competition, these rugged competitors
will punch in for the chance of a lifetime.
Tonight, one of them will also punch out,
losing their shot at the $200,000 prize
and an all-new Ford Super Duty. -Oh...
This is Tough As Nails.
♪ ♪
♪ I'm tough as nails. ♪
-I feel so pumped up from yesterday. -I do, too.
Just how well we worked together,
-communicated together. -Yeah. Teamwork.
We're not scared to communicate.
Today is our second team challenge,
and we're up one to zero.
Savage Crew is feeling like
we're unstoppable.
HANGER: Gettin' higher in elevation,
we have to pace ourselves, guys.
ALFIE: Yes, my ears are popping.
You will get dizzy,
so when we stop, take real big, deep, breaths.
-KELSY: Stay hydrated. -Get your body used to this.
CHRISTINE: I've been up parts of Mt. Baldy.
I'm not from California, but I moved here
two and a half years ago now.
-What about you, Quincey? -I'm from South Carolina, you know--
country, small little town, only one stoplight.
-The town I live in doesn't have a stoplight. -(laughter)
JEROME: Where I live, too, in a little city, like,
on the same street. That's-that's my family.
We kinda grew up poor, but rich, like, we loved it.
That's how we raised-- the beach, just a walk away.
So that was our playground.
Everything is family.
I been married to my wife, uh, 22 years,
but been with her 28 years.
You know how much this money can do for
each and every one of us over there?
Hawaii is really expensive,
and paycheck to paycheck, I mean, everybody.
Money's food on my kids' table.
Well, I worked construction from before high school
with my dad, and then earned my way up to this,
being an operator.
I'm the one digging the trenches.
Basically any machine on the job site,
I basically can
almost run every one.
-MIKE: Yeah. -HARPER: Look at this, man.
-JEROME: Wow. -CHRISTINE: Beautiful sky.
ALFIE: Look at that view!
-Top of the world. -Good morning, Phil!
KEOGHAN: Good morning, everybody.
Welcome to Mount Baldy.
You've literally gone from sea level
to the highest point in L.A. County.
Any idea why they call it "Ol' Baldy?"
-No, tell us. -It's bald! Come on, guys.
(laughter)
Quincey, I know you know that.
Absolutely, uh-huh. No trees up here, definitely.
-KEOGHAN: It's bald of all trees. -(chuckles)
During the ski season,
this place is completely covered with snow.
KELSY: Wow.
KEOGHAN: It's all about snowboarding and skiing,
but then in the off season,
-that's when all the hard work begins. -ELIZABETH: Yeah.
Because chairlifts get broken, equipment gets broken,
-stuff has to get fixed. -Yeah.
The job takes place down by the ski lift.
-Let's go. -Let's do this. -Let's go!
Let's do it!
KEOGHAN: Watch your step.
(siren wails)
-Holy cow! -They're coming in hot.
(siren whoops)
KEOGHAN: Tommy and Lars, a couple of legends up here.
They call them the "Baldy Boys."
-Yeah, Baldy Bad Boys. -The Baldy Bad Boys.
KEOGHAN: Somebody's gotta do the hard work around here,
and that's up to these guys.
You're gonna see what all that hard work is about
in today's job by fixing six ski lift chairs
so they're ready for next season.
When the work whistle blows, you'll start the job by
removing all the old wooden slats from six chairs,
and then replacing them with new ones.
You'll see that each chair has four small,
ten medium, and then, one large slat along the back.
Then you got to get them up on the cable.
Now, there's hundreds of chairs on these chair lifts.
These guys are thankful that you're gonna
-at least be doing six of them. -(laughter)
First team to get the job done is
-going to win $12,000... -(cheering)
...and today's Badge of Honor.
And don't forget, the team with the most wins overall
will get a cash bonus prize
of $60,000.
-Yeah! -Nice.
KEOGHAN: All right, take a moment,
figure out who's gonna be the crew boss.
QUINCEY: This definitely would be
a very, very detailed, uh, job, so...
-Kinda assembly line kinda thing, maybe? -Yeah. Yeah.
-KALIMBA: Christine should do it, right? -Absolutely.
She pay good attention to detail.
Yeah, if you guys want me, I'll do it.
So we chose Christine to be our crew boss today.
The way that she explained to us on the last
team challenge how to put up the tent,
she paid attention to detail.
-We need to flip it up. -TAK: Okay.
Pull out, as tight as you can. Tight!
And the tent went up... flying colors.
We need to be calm and we need to be focused.
We cannot miss anything in the beginning.
We should do an assembly line.
We need to check if that wood needs to be prepped.
We can have some people prepping wood,
we can have some people removing them.
Who wants to be crew boss?
-I like Elizabeth. -Okay, I'll do it.
I like the assembly line idea, though, when, if, we...
Don't-don't rule that out.
Elizabeth runs her own company, so
now we know that there is organization.
That there's strength and leadership.
And so we're comfortable with Elizabeth
taking it at the helm.
KEOGHAN: $12,000 on the line, and today's Badge of Honor.
On the work whistle!
(work whistle blows)
ELIZABETH: Get your stuff set.
Sarah, Kelsy, I want you to grab hammers.
JEROME: Okay, hammer.
TAK: I'll help you drill.
KEOGHAN: Dirty Hands off to a smashing start.
First part of the job, removing those old slats.
Sarah and Kelsy, use your hammer. Let me show you.
You can prop it up with your foot...
-Yep. Yep. -To get these back ones.
-Full strength. Okay? -Got it. Got it.
As a general contractor, I like to line my guys out,
I like to have everything they need set in front of them
so that we can work efficiently
and get everything done.
Okay, Alfie, I want you and Hanger
to preset everything you'll need behind each chair.
I need people on bolt cutters.
CHRISTINE: With my experience in production welding,
I don't want to focus on one chair.
I want everybody doing their own task, and everybody
helping each other if they need it.
Listen, I want you to hold it so he can drill.
I want you to drill straight.
I decide to have two teams building, so we would
just leapfrog each other and move down the line.
And then set them up as we finish each one.
-Bring it to 'em? -Yeah, bring, uh, bring the hardware.
As a fire captain, I use my skills
of organization in
setting up each of the stations with
the proper supplies that they needed.
KEOGHAN: Being organized is crucial to finishing this job first.
You got three different size slats
and 15 slats on each chair.
That's 90 slats that you've gotta keep track of.
Hard to tell exactly who's ahead,
but look at Savage Crew, steadily working away.
They're working right on top of each other.
-How's our timing? -You guys are fine, you're doing good.
You're gonna get faster as you go.
I don't want you to worry about time.
KEOGHAN: Elizabeth laying down the law
to her Savage Crew teammates,
while Dirty Hands is in a very spirited mood,
having fun on the job.
-"Yessah!" -(laughing)
"Blessah."
"Yessah," is like "yes, sir,"
and then "blessah" is like you're blessed.
So, "Yes, sir, I'm blessed."
-You need the back one now? -"Yessah."
-TAK: It's just a saying we say
when we're having a good time or
if I catch a good fish, or a good wave.
"Yessah!" I'm stoked about it.
-"Yessah, blessah." -CHRSTINE: Looking good, guys.
Fast drilling, do two at a time.
-We need a small one. -That's a small one.
-Need small one. -Need small.
SARAH: We're kinda struggling with
keeping the boards in order,
as far as the smaller pieces
to the medium pieces.
We need to pay attention to detail because
that's something that can cost us more time.
-How's it look? -Yeah, we're good.
KEOGHAN: Tommy's signing off on Savage Crew's first chair.
That chair weighs over 150 pounds; he just picked it up
like it was nothing.
He's gotta those hooks perfectly between the two pieces of tape
so the chairs are evenly spaced on the cable.
Securing the clamps.
Now finishing off
the first chair with a torque wrench.
He's got to get it tightened up
so that it's got 38 foot-pounds.
-Head to a click. -All right, chair's good.
KEOGHAN: Savage Crew with their first
chair up on the chair lift.
We've got the thumbs-up from Tommy.
That's the first of six they need to complete.
Dirty Hands, spread out across all six chairs.
They want to get all the chairs complete
before they start thinking
about putting them up on the chair lift.
Why don't we skip, so we're not working next to each other?
-Can we do that, Alfie? Okay. -OTHERS: No. No.
-ELIZABETH: We'll leapfrog. -HARPER: Okay.
Elizabeth had a good point, that she wanted to
get that first chair up as fast possible.
And then we moved from two to three
as quickly as possible.
MIKE: Number two, number two going up. Heads up.
Hey. Come on, guys, move with a purpose. Let's go!
QUINCEY: Let's work, let's work, people, let's work.
KALIMBA: Dirty Hands is a little nervous.
We need to tie the score.
We need to make it one-one.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Instead of yelling, "let's go," let's just
-yell what we need to do. -Okay, okay.
Keeping a situation calm is very important in my job.
People's lives are in danger.
Christine, do you want-- Just wait, wait, wait.
Everybody quiet. Christine, what would you like us to do?
-Let's get this one done, and then we'll start hanging. -Okay.
If somebody's talking for no reason on a radio,
you're not gonna hear that some other firefighter needs help,
and they-they could die.
All clear here, ready to go.
KEOGHAN: Thumbs-up from Tommy.
Savage Crew, two chairs ahead of Dirty Hands.
Looks like Elizabeth's method is paying off.
Finally, Dirty Hands gettin' up their first chair, now.
Lars watchin' on, making sure the job is done right.
-Click. -Click.
Let's go, Dirty Hands!
KEOGHAN: That is complete. Lookin' for a thumbs-up.
-Lars, how's that? -Yeah, they're good.
Dirty Hands get their first chair up, five to go.
Lift is clear.
Savage Crew gettin' another chair up, chair number three.
They have a solid lead, two chairs ahead of Dirty Hands.
Here comes the second chair for Dirty Hands.
They're picking up momentum, but is it too late?
-The ladder comes on this side. -Yeah. -You're good.
QUINCEY: You need me to move it some more?
No, it has to go on this side.
I got to be right where the yellow is.
-I know, but we have to hang this. -Move it back, move it back.
-You need to move-- -I gotta be up there.
I gotta be up-- Trust me, I'll lean.
This needs to be where the yellow is, correct?
-I understand. -Look up. Look where the ladder is.
-I apologize. We're moving, moving. -Thank you. All right.
LIA: Christine is our crew boss,
but Kalimba is making sure we stay on task,
and keeping everyone calm
to keep everything moving.
QUINCEY: Go, go, go, go, go!
Chair number two is up for Dirty Hands.
Savage Crew, still all bunched together.
MIKE: You know, I finish up with the third one, you know?
And then I see we're not done, and I'm like,
"Let's keep it up. What do you need? What do you need?"
-Did you get these tight? -Yep, yep, yep. Just that one.
That's chair number three
-getting put on for Dirty Hands. -Go, go, go, go, go, go!
Number four is lined up. Five is close to go.
And six is being worked on by Quincey and Jerome.
-Good, Lars? -Yep, yep.
-Lars, we got a thumbs-up? -Third chair is good.
Dirty Hands have their third chair up on the cable.
They've tied the score with Savage Crew. What a comeback!
-Go, go, go, go, go. -We're not stopping.
HANGER: Don't give up, guys. I... don't worry about...
-KELSY: Nobody is. Come on. -MIKE: Yes.
-Nope, we're not. -HANGER: Don't worry.
KEOGHAN: We are 30 minutes into this job, everybody.
Both teams with three
refurbished chairs on the cable.
It's gonna take six to get the job done.
Chair number four now,
-going up for Dirty Hands. -We really gotta move back.
Here we go, Savage Crew now moving chair number four.
We're ready for number five in about 30 seconds.
-We'll be ready. We'll be ready. -KALIMBA: Okay.
KEOGHAN: Mike attaching chair number four.
Wow, look at this.
Dirty Hands lining up chair number five.
Jerome and Quincey working on chair number six.
Mike coming down from the ladder, he's tired.
-He's been lifting those chairs all by himself. -All right, good.
-Here, here. -Go, go. Yep, yep, yep, let's go.
ELIZABETH: We ran into some problems, you know?
Some of the boards that we had preset kinda got mixed up.
All right, get this one up. Let's get this one up and ready.
Chair five complete for Dirty Hands.
Alfie jumping in to help Mike with Savage Crew's
fifth chair, but no match for Dirty Hands.
The entire team, working on their sixth and final chair.
That decision to assembly line, really paying off.
They're beating Savage Crew at their own game.
JEROME: Yeah, sorry. Just toughen up.
-All right. -Yessah!
KEOGHAN: Here we go, last chair going up for Savage Crew.
-Yeah, that's tight. We're good. -We're good.
KEOGHAN: Alfie now up on the ladder.
We're good. Let's go.
Looking for a thumbs-up from Lars.
Dirty Hands with the win! They get the job done!
-(whooping) -Yessah!
Yeah!
Yeah.
-Hey, everybody in. -(laughter)
LIA: This team was thrown together in less than 24 hours.
We lost a challenge,
so to be back to ground zero again-- we're-we're even--
is so satisfying.
Whoa, drinks.
SARAH: An assembly line would have been a better strategy
because that's what got us our first success.
And I think our biggest downfall was,
we came in a little cocky, and we weren't humble,
we weren't respecting that the other team
was just as hungry as us.
Attention to detail, I think we were kinda lacking on that.
Yes. She had everything set up. We messed it up.
ELIZABETH: You guys were my lead carpenters.
I asked you to preset everything,
but there was too many materials there.
HANGER: When you're yelling at me
and saying I'm doing something wrong,
that doesn't help Savage Crew,
and I shut down.
As a commercial superintendent, you can't go back
and say, "Oh, the framer,
"he didn't level that just right,
so the wall came out a little crooked."
It's your fault.
That's what you get paid for.
Savage Crew, yesterday was your day,
-but today, Dirty Hands brought it. -Yeah!
-Great job, Dirty Hands. -Good job, guys.
-Yeah! -Thank you, guys.
What I saw today was incredible leadership
from you, Christine.
-Thank you. -Cool, calm, collected.
And Kalimba, awesome team support.
Your calmness really had an impact on the team, too.
I'm super proud of these guys.
Christine, I want to award you
today's Badge of Honor,
-and $12,000 for your team. -Oh. -(whoops)
$2,000 each.
You gotta be absolutely tough to do this job.
And they gotta worry about people being up on those.
-Kids and family... -Moms, dads, grandparents.
And I really appreciate y'all guys for what y'all do.
-KEOGHAN: That's nice. -QUINCEY: Thank y'all.
Well said, Quincey, beautiful.
-The score is one apiece. -Yes!
Things are heatin' up, but tomorrow is the start
of the individual competition.
12 of the best of the best, from all over America
go head-to-head, and by the end of the day,
one of you will be eliminated from the individual competition.
All right, everybody, see you tomorrow.
-(excited chatter) -Good job, bro.
SARAH: It's definitely gonna be
an adjustment, trying to get out
of being a team member
and playing for yourself.
But I think it will be good for everybody
to be able to have their own time
to show their own strengths.
-QUINCEY: Great job, everybody. -We needed this today.
It feels so good to win.
It brings up our confidence.
KALIMBA: I think it was really important that
now we've evened out the score, 1-1.
Kalimba's our anchor, for sure.
She's a calm, cool and collected woman.
I think experience with being in hectic situations
probably comes from, like, emergencies.
I work in Minneapolis, in the 3rd district.
But, so, you were directly involved with the protests
of George Floyd-- you were there in the mix of it?
Yes. It happened, like, eight blocks from my station.
So, some of my best friends,
they went and did CPR in the ambulance.
-Oh, no. -Oh, wow.
KALIMBA: So then, by 3:00,
the whole city just changed, like that.
And I had to keep calm.
Like, I don't know how many fires we had; hundreds of fires.
-Dang. -Everywhere was just burning.
I was driving my son to school,
and you could see the city burning from 15 miles away.
He looks at me and says, "Mom, remember, you're just a mom.
You're not a hero."
And I was, like, how do I go and
protect my city, and have to protect my son?
And how do you feel as a Black man?
Do you feel like you always have to
hold yourself to a higher standard when you go around...
It bothers me a lot, you know.
That's why-- I was kinda back here kinda quiet
-when you talking about it. -Yeah.
QUINCEY: I could've been one of those people, you know?
I can't cut nobody off, blow the horn.
There ain't no telling, road rage people, I mean...
It always feels like, that you have a target on your back.
-Right. You know what I mean? -Wow.
That's so sad, man.
JEROME: Like for us, how me and Tak grew up,
like, we saw interracial--
That's why I never knew, like, what you was talking about.
Like, cause, I-- I-- we love everybody.
-Yeah. -KALIMBA: I do believe people are inherently good.
I've seen people come together
and have conversations that they never had before.
And so, I don't live in fear, I live in hope.
HANGER: Yesterday, I felt
-I let you guys down. -Oh, no.
Never. They won because
they were able to assemble themselves
and get organized a little bit better than us.
-Okay, that's fair. -Okay, fair.
Now we're talking as a team.
First individual competition today.
-HANGER: Individual? -ALFIE: Flippin' the switch.
But it's gonna be an odd feeling, you know?
MIKE: In a sense, it's--
You're competing against your other family.
-HANGER: Wow. -MIKE: But then, I'm competing
for my family.
-Right. Exactly. -You know what I mean?
Being a lineman, it's very hard on my kids.
I've struggled through coming home after work and sitting down
to a dinner with the family and then getting
a phone call saying,
"Hey, we got an emergency, we got lines down."
And you gotta go.
And that-that's the worst feeling. Especially...
(sighs)
Especially when, uh, my son comes up to me
and hugs my leg,
and that's the last thing I-I hold,
and then I'm back to work again.
That's hard.
I want this so badly for my family. I mean,
it's all for them.
KELSY: Wow, look at this hill.
I mean, look at the clouds down there.
Once you touch a cloud, your life is never the same.
It's a magical world up there.
First time I was ever flying
in a helicopter, by myself,
it was a moment where I was like,
"I can do anything."
My dad started the business.
He grabbed me 'cause I was the oldest of five sisters.
He has taken me under his wing.
He's so proud of me today, and what I'm doing.
JEROME: Beautiful.
LIA: Let's get to work.
-We're up even higher today. -Oh, yeah.
Today is the start of the individual competition.
As you know, there will be
only one Tough As Nails champion.
Only one of you is going to win that
beautiful 2022 Ford Super Duty,
$200,000...
-(whooping) -...not to mention the belt.
You want to get one of those belts,
just like Murph's. You ever go to a bar,
you walk in with that, who's gonna mess with you?
-I won't have no problems. -(laughter)
You're gonna punch in today,
and if you touch that timecard again, that means you have
punched out of the individual competition, and that's it.
You've lost your shot at that title.
You only want to do this once.
Mike, lead us off.
Good luck, everybody.
Last time I see you.
(laughter)
Being an ironworker is definitely badass.
You know, we're considered the "cowboys of the sky."
or in my case, "the cowgirl."
Our union has over 5,000 members;
about 100 of us are women.
When I first get on the job site, I get the looks
and the stares.
"Oh, there's a chick here."
Self-confidence has definitely been an issue.
I never felt like I was pretty enough, skinny enough.
I want to do this for people that are
kinda struggling within themselves
because of their gender or their sexuality.
Irongirl is here to bring the heat.
I want to show that you can be whoever you want to be.
It's that battle within yourself you need to conquer.
-Time to get to the money. -(laughter)
KEOGHAN: So now everybody's punched in.
Are you ready to get your first job done?
-Yeah! -Oh, yes!
Any idea why there are fences built
-so high up on the mountain? -The snow.
-Snow. And wind. -KEOGHAN: A lot of snow..
An avalanche can go over 150 miles an hour.
If an avalanche comes through here, the fences
slow the avalanche down.
And after a harsh winter, and all that heavy snow
sitting on top of these fences, you can see
they need to be replaced.
Your job today is to fix a section of fence.
-Wow. -All the wood you need
to get the job done is laid out in front of you.
The 4X6 posts need to go into the ground two feet,
so that the painted part of the post disappears.
And you've got five 2X6 planks that you need
to nail into those posts.
I hope you're good with a hammer, because each plank
needs to be secured in place with six nails.
The tools you need to get the job done are laid out here.
Your two most valuable tools today,
when you're digging, an ice cream scoop...
-Ice cream scoop? -And a tuna can.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Your job today is to build a fence.
And you'll be relying heavily on your two
most valuable tools:
an ice cream scoop and a tuna can.
-You gotta be kidding me. -Wow.
Now, this is not a joke.
You try and get an auger out here
to dig a hole, it's just not gonna work.
These two tools are going to be essential to
removing the rocks and dirt from your hole.
Your final task is you gotta cut up the old posts,
using a saw, and put them into these barrels.
You'll be doing this in two heats of six.
The last person to finish in each heat will be
going into overtime, and by the end of the day,
one of you will be punching out.
If you win today's job, you are going to be getting
electric tools worth over $1,000.
(contestants exclaiming)
And just to make sure that the job is done right,
-guess who's here. Tommy! -How you guys doing?
-(cheers and applause) -Heat one up first.
After a random draw, we've got Mike, Kelsy,
Jerome, Elizabeth, Quincey, Tak.
Heat two, you'll be watchin'.
-Tommy, make sure they do a good job. -CHRISTINE: Good luck, guys.
Give it everything you've got. On the work whistle.
(work whistle blows)
Tak has got the tuna can workin' away.
Look at that, he's diggin' down.
Kelsy, makin' use of the ice cream scoop.
Wow, Kelsy's almost face-planting the dirt.
ELIZABETH: From the tips of my fingers to my armpit was two feet.
So I know when I'm diggin',
my head's gotta be in that hole
or I'm not deep enough.
KEOGHAN: Quincey is gettin' deep.
-Whole face is covered in mud. -Oh, my goodness me.
Look at that.
ALFIE: He's, I mean, he put it all...
KEOGHAN: Oh, that is commitment, right there.
QUINCEY: I'm actually having a fun time, really,
'cause I'm having flashbacks of me diving,
finding balls, or blocking for the-- my running back.
I'm swallowing dirt and dust.
I'm gettin' it all in my mouth, all in my nose, all in my ears.
Come on, Kelsy.
KEOGHAN: These posts are 12 feet long.
They've got to go two feet into the ground.
Oh, he's pretty close.
-Yeah, that looks good. -Kelsy gets the thumbs-up
and she has her post in place.
Elizabeth is looking good.
-Jerome, Tak... -Yeah, it looks good.
Mike, Quincey, not far behind.
Gotta get all this old wood off to put the new planks in.
-KALIMBA: Whoa! -KEOGHAN: Whoa, he's just gonna rip 'em off.
That is sheer power!
Now it's about getting those five planks nailed on.
-CHRISTINE: Go, Tak! -LIA: Yeah, Kelsy!
KEOGHAN: Two planks at one time from Elizabeth. Great move!
JEROME: The altitude catching you, so your chest is grabbing.
Just one nail becomes,
like, the challenge in your mind,
and, oh, the forearms are just ripped.
KEOGHAN: 20 minutes in.
Remember, we're up about 9,000 feet.
Less oxygen in the air up here.
That's why you're finding it hard to breathe.
-Watch it! -Ooh!
Quincey, safety, safety.
Kelsy's still driving in nails on her first plank.
Those six-inch nails are no joke.
KELSY: I was doing really good; I was keeping up my pace.
It wasn't until those massive nails
that I was like, "Uh-oh."
TOMMY: Quincey's good.
Just needs to cut it in half and he's done.
KEOGHAN: Quincey, one more thing to do here.
He's gotta cut this old post in half and get it into the bin.
SARAH: Slow and steady.
KEOGHAN: Wow, look at that saw flexing.
And Jerome has his section of fence complete.
He needs to cut his old post in half
and he'll have the job done.
-Whoa! -(contestants exclaiming)
KEOGHAN: Quincey just breaks that in half.
And...
-Quincey takes that win! -Yeah!
I finished first in my heat,
and my body, this leg,
this ankle, this-- this--
hadn't been through that much
intensity since that time,
high school, my senior year.
KEOGHAN: You might be a mechanic but I'll tell you what,
Hanger might offer you a job.
Start of the redemption.
It'd feel a whole lot better with
$200,000.
I can have some closure then. (chuckles)
TOMMY: That looks good.
KEOGHAN: There goes Jerome, he gets it done.
-LIA: Yeah! Good job, guys. -Looks good, Phil.
Both Elizabeth and Mike are fighting it out for third place.
Come on, guys!
KEOGHAN: Mike gets it done just seconds before Elizabeth.
We are down to two, Kelsy and Tak.
Tak, done with his fence, moving on to
saw his old post in half.
Kelsey's gonna get this job done,
that last six-inch nail going in.
KELSY: We're at high altitude, I'm trying to breathe,
and my arm felt like Jell-O, and it wanted to stop.
One of you will be going into overtime.
I was struggling to even grip anything.
KALIMBA: Come on, Tak! You got this.
I never did cut a 4X6 with a handsaw,
and I was like "Whoa."
And I don't want to go into overtime,
so I gotta figure this thing out quick.
HANGER: Good job, my sister, good job.
Come on, my union brother.
-There you go, Tak. -(indistinct shouting)
-LIA: All right, Tak! -It's going in. -Good job!
KEOGHAN: Tak gets the job done.
Kelsy, heading into overtime.
Yeah.
The last of you to get the job done will be going
into overtime against Kelsy.
On the work whistle.
(work whistle blows)
First up, you gotta dig a hole,
so that you can get your
post two feet into the ground.
KELSY: Looking good, everyone.
I'll be taking the big rocks out.
KEOGHAN: That's 24 inches that needs to go into the hole.
Has Alfie got a deep enough hole to get his post in?
-That looks pretty good to me. -Looks good, Phil.
ELIZABETH: All right, Alfie.
KEOGHAN: Alfie takes the lead in this heat.
Christine, full commitment with the tuna can.
Here comes Hanger. Is his hole deep enough?
-Lookin' pretty good. And Christine. -TOMMY: You're good.
-And Kalimba. -Yeah, you're good.
LIA: Stones are coming out, but more are going in,
and, oh, my goodness.
It was just like this terrible treadmill
of stones sliding. (laughs)
KELSY: Yeah, Sarah! Good job.
KEOGHAN: Sarah's got it in.
Lia, the last to get her post in.
Alfie, already on to his third plank.
He's racing through this today.
I know that there's a lot of carpenters.
There's Hanger. Alfie has carpentry experience.
I'm a little leery, but, I think I can keep up with them.
Oh! Oh...
The hole is so far back.
I put my post too far back, so I'm fighting,
like, a six-inch gap.
KEOGHAN: Gotta see if those planks will
bend back towards the post.
They gotta go back a long way.
I think she's strong enough to pull it over.
CHISTINE: My dad was a carpenter.
He's the one that taught me how to swing a hammer.
So I want to make him proud on this one.
JEROME: All right, Lia!
-KELSY: All right, Lia! -Lia gets her post in.
Sarah and Kalimba, gettin' the second plank in place.
Christine, making it work, she's flexin' that wood.
Way to recover, Christine. Nice.
Hanger with his fourth plank, gettin' it into place.
KELSY: Alfie, with all five!
-KEOGHAN: Alfie! -KELSY: Alfie, you're crushing it.
-This is gonna be tight. -HANGER: Holding a hammer comes second nature to me.
It's in my bloodline, from my grandfather to my dad.
KELSY: Alfie's just got a couple nails left.
TOMMY: Hanger's nails are good.
KEOGHAN: Hanger completes his section of fence.
He's just got to saw his old post in half
and get the job done.
-But Alfie's chasing him down. -Phil, he's good.
He wants to win this heat.
Somebody's going home with $1,000 worth
of power tools today.
Can anybody beat Quincey's time? That's the question.
(all shouting)
-Oh, my God! -Yes! Put it in! -Put it in...
Stop the clock!
Alfie, you're almost there.
Good job, brother. Good job.
HANGER: I hear my teammates saying, "You did it,"
and I get choked up.
Beautiful job.
Having that love and encouragement,
it felt great.
-Yeah! -Alfie gets the job done.
Meanwhile, Christine gets the thumbs-up
to start sawing as well.
HANGER: Come on, Christine!
KEOGHAN: Kalimba with all five planks in place.
Now, she has to get six nails into each of them.
30 nails.
KALIMBA: Worked for the last 21 years, under pressure.
That's what I do.
I want to win because, it's for my city,
for my station, for my district,
for my family, it's for my boys.
KEOGHAN: Lia, who was the last to get her post in the ground,
has raced ahead of Sarah and Kalimba,
completing her fence. Now moving on
to cut her old fence post in half.
Nice recovery.
KEOGHAN: Oh!
That's the move!
HANGER: That's my union ironworker.
-KEOGHAN: Lia's broken the old post. -Come on, Lia!
-Way to go, Lia!
-KELSY: Way to go, Lia! -ELIZABETH: You got it!
KELSY: Way to go, Lia! Way to go!
LIA: It felt good for me to finish this challenge.
I'm self-motivated and driven
because my mother was sick with MS,
and she was unable to even scratch her nose or-or to speak.
When I heard that you were freakin' sawing,
I was like, "I gotta go into overdrive!"
People I've talked to have said that I'm just like my mother,
full of energy and full of life.
And my mother's ability to enjoy life was taken away,
so, I still feel like
I'm living life for both of us.
35 minutes in now.
Kalimba, our fire captain,
up against Sarah, our cement mason.
Who will stay in overtime? There's one spot left.
-My aim is horrible. -HANGER: Come on!
Do it for the masons!
-Do it for the firefighters!
-Please stop. -HANGER: Let's go!
Hanger, they can't hear you down there.
CHRISTINE: All right, Sarah!
HANGER: Let's go!
KEOGHAN: Oh, the arms are aching.
Who will go into overtime against Kelsy?
I know it burns, Sarah. Come on, sister.
SARAH: My forearms are exhausted.
Just trying to find the will
to keep diggin' deep, and keep, you know,
gettin' that strikes and making 'em count.
I can't even, like, move my hand.
You know, I was missing it, and my hands were cramping.
My biggest motivation is making my mom proud,
and my sons. You know, we just
put one foot in front of the other.
I learned that from my mom.
That's what she's done my whole life.
How, how, how, how, how?
-ALFIE: You got it, Kalimba. -KELSY: You got it.
It's not over till it's over!
(contestants shouting encouragement)
-Sarah's got her fence built. -TOMMY: Nice work, Sarah.
KEOGHAN: Now she's got to cut the old post.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, Kalimba!
Keep it up, Kalimba.
-You got it. -(cheering)
And Sarah gets the job done!
(cheering, whooping)
SARAH: I'm thankful.
It's kinda bittersweet because
I've gotten some time to talk to Kalimba,
and she's here for all the right reasons.
But, at the same time, you gotta understand
that it's business,
and there's a job that has to get done.
So, you gotta dig deep.
Way to not give up. I like that. That was hard.
KALIMBA: I'm not really proud of the work I've done on this fence.
-Thank you, guys. -KELSY: You fought till the end.
KALIMBA: But anything can happen in overtime.
Like, I'm strong, I work hard
and I do believe I have what it takes to do this.
I said to you that there would be a winner
with the fastest time.
Heat one was won by Quincey.
Quincey had a time
-of 23 minutes and 57 seconds. -Oh, my God.
-(whoops) -MIKE: Yeah!
-LIA: Yeah! Animal. -TOMMY: The speed you ended up with, man.
And in heat two, that was won by Hanger.
-MIKE: Hanger... -His time: 23 minutes...
-...and 42 seconds. -(contestants shouting)
Our winner today was Hanger, by 15 seconds.
-(cheering, whooping) -Oh, my God. -Great job, Hanger.
Wow, that's great, man.
He beat me by 15 seconds.
Oh, my God.
QUINCEY: Hanger, 31-year veteran at it.
It just goes to show that you can't put judgement
on somebody's career, you know?
If people know how to work, they know how to work.
Hanger, I'm pleased to tell you
you have some power tools,
-as the winner today. -Yeah!
-(cheering) -Yeah!
To win the individual challenge--
-that means a lot to me. -Oh, my God.
I would work side by side with my father,
and that inspired me to be a carpenter.
In school, I struggled;
as a child, I was depressed.
Thank God that I had a loving family
that, when I came home,
they were always there to pick me up.
Who said you old, Hanger?
Who said you was old?
HANGER: So I have dedicated my life to help
anybody that's struggling with hard times.
I want to make a difference.
I don't want to come to the end of my life
and have any regrets.
In heat one, Kelsy, you were the last to finish.
You will be going into overtime.
Kalimba, you were the last to finish,
you will be going into overtime.
And by the end of the day, one of you will be punching out.
-KALMIBA: All right. -Overtime. Are you ready?
-Yeah! -Yeah! -Let's do it.
♪ ♪
KALMIBA: Walking into overtime,
there's a lot on the line.
We have a family motto that says,
"Don't let anybody outwork you."
If you're the hardest worker in the room, you'll get somewhere.
-(clapping) -All right!
People underestimate me
and they shouldn't.
I give props to my dad
for giving me that confidence.
It is overtime.
-Yeah. -My dad took me
to all the business meetings.
There would be a table of 20 men
and he'd be in my ear,
"Don't let that scare you."
I will not be the first to punch out.
When these snow-making machines are operating
in optimum conditions, it pumps out enough snow
to cover an area the size of a football field
with six inches of snow
in just 24 hours.
Wow.
If you look inside the machine,
you'll see that there are hundreds of nozzles.
Those little nozzles
spray a fine mist of water out into the air
and when the air is cool,
and you've got the right conditions, it makes snow.
The challenge is that when the water comes
through this machine, it has sediments in it,
which clog up these tiny little nozzles.
So, at the end of every season,
what do Lars and Tommy do?
They replace these with new ones.
Like this one right here.
That is your job today.
When the work whistle blows,
you've got two machines that you need to get up and running.
The first of you to get both machines operational
will be safe, stay in contention
for the Tough As Nails title.
If you finish this job last,
you will be punching out.
Are you ready to get the job done?
-I'm ready. Yep. -KEOGHAN: Get to work?
One hand on the snow cat.
Let's go, ladies.
-You got this. -Give it all you got.
-All you got. -Savage Crew.
On the work whistle.
-(work whistle blows) -JEROME: Go, ladies!
-LIA: All right! -ELIZABETH: Go!
KEOGHAN: First, you gotta get
that water supply on, to test the machine.
Then replace the nine clogged or missing nozzles
on each snow machine
to get 'em up and running again.
You know that Kalimba's going to be good with hoses.
-She's used to rollin' them out, right? -Absolutely. She's got it.
-She's got it. -The first of you to fix
your two snow machines will stay in
the individual competition.
-SARAH: Come on, Kelsy. You got it. -HARPER: Yeah.
KEOGHAN: There you go, get the water running
and then they can see
which nozzles need replacing.
SARAH: Turn the water off.
LIA: Come on, Kelsy. There you go.
KEOGHAN: There we have a pilot right now, against a fire captain.
Working the socket wrench,
and then the bigger tool is the torque wrench.
Neither one of them, I guarantee you,
have never worked on a snow machine before.
-(Christine laughs) -Oh, guarantee. Guarantee.
CHRISTINE: No doubt.
KELSY: I am an aerial sprayer
and I have nozzles clog all day, all the time.
So, I knew what nozzle was wrong
just based off looking at it,
and this is my challenge.
KEOGHAN: Kelsy's got three of her nine nozzles done.
Looking for a click on that torque wrench.
Lookin' for 25 foot-pounds
to make sure that it's not over-tightened
but tight enough to hold in place with the water pressure.
-(click) -Did you hear that?
-Nice! Yeah! -There it is, got the click.
LIA: Come on, Kalimba.
Get your head in the game, let's go.
KALIMBA: So, as my job as a firefighter,
we do have one big nozzle.
I'm not used to working, like, with little nozzles at all.
I'm hitting my hands on the side
and then actually had to take off my gloves because
it was easier to work with the little nozzles
when I could touch them.
(nozzle clatters)
-(clicks) -ELIZABETH: Ah, click!
-All right, Kelsy. -Use your tools, Kalimba,
-use your tools. -KEOGHAN: Here we go.
Kelsy, about to test her first machine.
-Looks good. -Lars gives a thumbs-up.
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Kelsy gets the first snow machine done.
This is where Kalimba's gotta keep her head.
SARAH: Stay in it, stay in it.
KALIMBA: I realize I'm trying to move too fast
so I'm not going over the steps like I should.
Remember why you're here, Kalimba.
Calm, breathe and do what you do.
KEOGHAN: Kelsy moving on to the second machine.
-(grunts) -SARAH: There you go, Kelsy.
KEOGHAN: We have a Savage Crew teammate
up against Kalimba from Dirty Hands.
Kalimba's still on that first machine,
looking for the click on that torque wrench.
-Nice. -There you go.
There we go, Kalimba's testing her machine.
Looking for some good mist.
-We're good? -Yeah.
Thumbs-up from Lars.
Kalimba's coming back now.
LIA: Kelsy's gettin' in there.
KEOGHAN: Working with the socket wrench, extremely quickly,
one nozzle in her mouth.
-This is when the pressure goes on. -MIKE: Oh, yeah.
Kelsy's on the torque wrench again.
Come on, Kalimba.
-(clicks) -There's the click
-on the torque wrench. -KELSY: That's the last.
Kelsy's got the last one in.
She's going now to do the test.
Whoa.
-That's good. -KEOGHAN: Looks good?
-Yep. -Fan on!
-KEOGHAN: Fan's going on. -(whooping)
(cheering)
And Kelsy gets the win.
(cheering, whooping)
KELSY: It made me so proud that I wasn't gonna clock out first.
The confidence that my dad gave me,
that's what keeps me going,
and that's what I did. I didn't stop.
-Yeah! -(cheering)
KEOGHAN: Every time somebody gets eliminated
it's tough, it's really hard.
-I'm just happy to be here. -KELSY: Yeah.
-Yeah. Absolutely. -KALIMBA: Like, so... Yeah.
LIA: Kalimba is key to our team's success.
I mean, when the rest of us are, you know... (yelling)
...she's like, "All right, calm down, focus,
let's go, move it."
-Yeah. -And-and we need her on our team, and--
and we need what she brings.
That's my specialty. I always have crews that are
totally different, from different parts of the world,
different religions, different political beliefs, you know?
-And I'm able to, you know, keep them together. -Yeah.
-KALIMBA: It's what I do.
This is what I do. (laughs)
You're a fire captain for a reason, obviously;
-you earned your stripes, right? -Yeah, yeah.
But, Kalimba, unfortunately,
you are out of the individual competition
-and I do need you to punch out. -Yep.
KALIMBA: It's not a good feeling,
to punch out and be the first one.
I know I don't have a chance of winning the $200,000,
but I do know I get to stay with my team
and we have a chance to keep on winning.
I'm here to prove to myself that I can do things that are hard.
I can push myself. I'm here
to find out what I'm made of.
-Yeah! -Yeah!
Good job.
Proud of you.
KEOGHAN: Guys, get warm. Get showered.
Get fed, get ready.
It's gonna get more brutal.
Captioning sponsored by CBS
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org
KEOGHAN: Next time on Tough As Nails...
Empty everything and put them in the appropriate office.
There's money to be made.
KEOGHAN: That's more than her body weight!
-Go, go, go! -Let's go, Savage Crew!
I dropped it.
If we lost it, then we're gonna have to go down.
KEOGHAN: In the individual competition,
a surprise guest returns to the neighborhood.
-Oh! -Oh, my God!
HANGER: Oh, my God.
♪ ♪