By Maureen Francisco

 

With #9 gone, the rest of the guests continued the golf game and "spin cycle" treatment. This is where they had to hit the ball in the hole in a certain number of strokes followed by spinning around in a chair. 

 

During round 20, #7 failed to get within the recommended strokes and had to do a penalty round. She was unable to do 80 revolutions within 2 minutes and 30 seconds. #7 said the throbbing pain from her legs made it difficult for her to give it another whirl. Absolutely feeling defeated, she used the golf club instead to hit the red button as opposed to her hand.   

 

Soon after, #3 quit as well. She said, the pain and the dizziness were too much. 

 

Val closed the golf course, and #2 was the ONLY one to survive this treatment. 

 

So the final four consisted of:

 

#2, martial arts instructor

#3, the student

#6, Solitary veteran (who won a challenge and earned freedom doing the latest treatment) 

#7, the missionary

 

To prepare them to be the NEXT Solitary winner, Val had the guests punch a punching bag. The Solitarians had to keep count just how many punches they threw. #2 gave some ridiculous answer that made his total MORE than anyone else. He thought, it also meant getting the biggest reward. Wrong! Val gave her guests a chicken dinner with the exception of #2. She surprised him with a health bar instead. To show his disappointment, #2 stomped on it.

 

And, then it was onto a challenge and a chance to earn freedom for the upcoming treatment. Val had her guests compete in a virtual maze where they had to guess the four-digit codes and lift a 40 pound "grump rope" over their bodies.

 

#7 thought if she wrote down her moves on the pod's wall, she'd be able to figure out the maze first. Instead, she completed the challenge last. The outcome of the challenge came down between #3 and #6 on who could lift the 40 pound rope over their bodies faster. #6's strength and agility gave him a competitive edge and completed the maze first -- his third time to win back-to-back challenges, a SOLITARY first. He immediately made it to the TOP THREE. 

 

"I'm going to die" said #3.

 

"No way Val" said #2. 

 

You'd say those same things, too, if you had to sit on a chair that was covered with sharp, metal pegs. The next treatment was all about "how much pain can you handle?"

 

While the guests sat, they had to wear a helmet. This added more weight to their bodies, forcing the pegs to dig into their skin. 

 

In round two, Val had the guests attach two chains, four pounds each, to their helmets. You could see the Solitarians force themselves to think of happy thoughts to ignore the pain.

 

With each round, the guests had to keep adding another chain.

 

By the time the guests did round eight, they had seven chains added to their helmets. 

 

To make the pain bearable for just a little bit longer, Val had them watch a video of themselves, giving them a pep talk for inspiration. 

 

They needed it.

 

Because in round nine, the guests had to attach eight chains to their helmets. That's 32 pounds of extra pressure added to their bodies. If that's not bad enough, they had to sit there for 30 minutes.

 

But, it was all too much for #7. She said, "I pushed myself to the limit. I went until I gave out." She pushed the red button first and sadly had to leave Solitary. We'll miss her as she had so much heart for the game. 

 

Read Solitary 4.0 Recaps, Solitary 4.0 Cast Interviews, News and More At The RealityWanted Solitary 4.0 Homepage.

 

Find me on Facebook and be sure to visit me on www.maureenfrancisco.com. 

 

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