[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- There's a lot at stake here.
I need food.
And my smoker is not smoking.
Caught one. No!
[sighs]
[bleep]. What the [bleep]?
- What a way to start the day.
Look at that.
This fish is guaranteed ten more days here.
- I need to check the food in my food cache.
We have grouse, a few little nuggets here.
We'll just take them off.
- Wow. Look at this.
This could be a $1/2-million patch of blueberries.
Mm.
♪ ♪
[wood creaking]
- The weather is wild today.
Trees are cracking.
- I don't think I've ever been around winds so strong
for so long in my life.
- There's a grouse.
I've been stuck in my shelter with no protein.
♪ ♪
I got it, got a grouse.
It's so great.
[wind whistling]
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna do this, man.
I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna fight this thing out until the last breath.
♪ ♪
- OK, game on.
[bear grunts]
[bow thwacks]
[sighs] - I got him!
narrator: In "Alone's" most remote location yet...
- Yes!
narrator: Ten participants set out to survive at all costs.
- Whole goal is to stay alive.
♪ ♪
- [inhales sharply, groans]
narrator: Battling extreme isolation...
- There is no camera crews.
You are really alone. - [sighs]
- It'll eat at you, tear you up.
- God, why? - It's a battle.
Nobody ever comes out the same.
- Oh, man. - It would be impossible to.
narrator: And fierce predators...
- That's a big bear.
It was right outside my shelter.
- Predators like that damn sure are gonna kill you.
- Please don't rip my face off.
[animal snarls]
He bit the hell out of me.
narrator: They'll endure merciless wind...
- It's been over 60 hours, and it has not let up.
- I can hear the trees falling down around me.
narrator: And bitter cold.
- This whole place just turned into a frozen hell.
narrator: Last one standing...
- It's a moose. Wow.
[bow thwacks]
- Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
- No, no.
narrator: Wins.
♪ ♪
- This is the first day in a long time it's been this calm.
♪ ♪
I noticed something about my face today.
These lines have gotten more pronounced.
I guess with fat on my face, it like, brr.
It kind of fills them out, you know?
Ah, starting to look old--
skinny, old, and gray.
Man, I need to eat more fish, get some fat on my face.
I'm gonna check the gillnet right now.
Man, I hope there's something in it.
What the hell?
There's nothing there.
♪ ♪
OK, guys, I may not be able to catch fish in my gillnet,
but I can certainly catch ducks.
So I have a duck in my gillnet right now,
but that's not a legal harvest method,
so I have to release him.
So I'm gonna give it my best shot here.
There he is, Mr. Merganser.
He was probably trying to steal a fish I had in there.
Maybe that's why I've had no fish in my gillnet.
You're allowed to kill ducks here
but with your bow and arrow, not catching in a net.
So I have to let him go.
All right, mister, you're gonna feel some slight pressure
on your leg.
♪ ♪
Yep, help me swim to shore.
Thank you very much.
What is it with me releasing things in traps?
I'm hungry, and there's a lot at stake for that much
greasy meat on a duck.
But killing it would be unethical.
It is your lucky day, sir.
We're gonna cut you loose right now.
♪ ♪
You're free.
Go, go.
You want me to pet you or something?
Don't give up on life.
You guys, I caught a tame duck.
Hmm.
My net is around your wing too.
Let's cut that off of you.
There we go.
Oh, don't get caught in the net again, silly.
[chuckles]
Wow. That was weird.
He's gone.
Damn.
Totally cut up my whole gillnet,
so I think I wrecked my whole gillnet.
I'll see if I can fix it but just not right now.
I need to fish.
It'll probably take me about two hours, three hours.
I'm just gonna let it sit out there.
♪ ♪
It's rough, as you can see, but it's not that windy.
I'm gonna try a few casts.
We've had three days of really poor weather
and almost no fishing.
But this storm is definitely-- the worst is over,
I would say.
I just hope the fish are still active, you know.
After a bit of a winter storm like that,
who knows what's gonna happen?
♪ ♪
No followers, no bites, no taps.
Oh, tidal wave.
I'm just thankful that I got those fish when I did.
Right now, I have six pieces of fish.
I hope half a lake trout a day is enough to keep me out
of the danger zone 'cause I'm running out of fat on my body.
♪ ♪
This is getting really frustrating.
Whew, there's some wind.
Yeah.
I'm gonna explore down the bay a little bit.
There's an area, it's just dead calm with zero wind
where I could fish.
And I've never been over there.
It's about a kilometer walk, though,
so it's a risk.
But I don't know what else I have as an option.
Goodness gracious.
No fish in there, man.
The only way to get further in this game right now
is catch more fish.
Whoo.
It's freezing.
♪ ♪
- Good morning.
It is the day after the three-day storm
of crazy rain and winds.
And I opened my door, and right in front of me,
there is a tree that has fallen down.
That's not cool to see the trees
have fallen so close to my shelter.
But this morning, I'm gonna go get those berries.
So I'm slowly gonna make my way over
and get to those patches again
and fill up my bags as much as I can.
♪ ♪
Three days trapped within the confines of my shelter,
doing nothing of lying on my back and listening to a storm.
I'm so excited to get back outside
to the blueberry patches.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna walk along the shoreline
'cause I think it's gonna be easier.
The ground's beginning to freeze.
Is that ice on the water?
No way.
Winter is coming.
I need to get those berries.
Oh, Lordy.
♪ ♪
Oh, man.
I'm just feeling fatigue and tiredness.
I'm not feeling well at all.
♪ ♪
I'm tired.
♪ ♪
[bleep].
♪ ♪
I don't have the energy to even make it a fifth
of the way of the walk.
I had to turn back. I was exhausted.
When something bad like that happens to me,
I don't feel anything other than foolish,
and I stop my camera.
To go through this, it's a head game.
I'm always someone who has my internal thoughts
inside my head, quiet.
♪ ♪
My life was a little bit rocky growing up,
and I grew up very quickly.
So I kept a lot to myself.
For this show, you talk your feelings and your thoughts
so people can see how you're feeling.
That's a little bit of losing a control, you know?
That is not my biggest skill.
It's taken me a while to let loose and voice
the thoughts in my head.
So I realized today that my body could not
be pushed as much as I thought it could
without severe consequences.
And that was something I'm not prepared to let happen,
not right now.
So I took stock, and I made a different plan,
which is always a good thing.
I've suddenly realized that I got
to be 100% honest, which is really important
in this kind of situation.
I've been hoarding my food, consciously depriving myself
of calories and nutrients because I've been
saving it for the future.
So I'm gonna double up on my food,
make sure that I'm drinking enough water.
And I hope, in about two or three days,
I'll be able to push forward and go back
to those blueberry bushes again and see
what's left after the storm.
So easy to hide from your problems.
So easy to ignore them.
But if you ignore them,
they're never gonna get solved.
So you gotta move forward.
Oh, my God.
I'm forcing myself to eat.
It's like getting ready for the show.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- It is absolutely ridiculous
how calm it is today after what I've been going through.
Don't lose my hat.
We definitely got a couple repairs here to the gillnet.
That storm was just torturous.
I can't even describe how loud this place was.
The wind was so loud, you couldn't even hear the waves,
and I'm right there.
It was unreal.
I found my gillnet in pretty rough shape.
♪ ♪
It may be somewhat salvageable,
but I'm not gonna deal with it today.
She's a turbulent, turbulent day.
♪ ♪
All right, well, it's better than it was.
So let's go set up a gillnet.
♪ ♪
I think I'm gonna take it over, set it
where I caught the big pike.
Slight breeze coming in from the north again.
Over the last three days, the weather, it just shut me down.
Fishing is my game, and virtually
hardly been able to do any.
I need to get the gillnet back in the water.
♪ ♪
I guess the wind's kind of going this way,
so I should stand on this side.
♪ ♪
Every time I get ahead of the game, it's like
two steps forward, three steps back.
♪ ♪
I think it's kind of like a joke with this place and me,
like, we'll give you enough, but that's it,
and get up and get back to work.
We're kind of having a laugh at each other.
Please catch me another 40-inch pike.
That would be just incredible.
Thank you.
Ah.
Please!
♪ ♪
I'm gonna head back up.
♪ ♪
To be honest, to be vulnerable,
it's kind of like a staple of the show.
And I haven't been quite straight up
with everyone at home.
♪ ♪
All right, well...
[sighs]
About seven days ago,
I had a stupid mistake.
And I stabbed myself in the arm
on an old log that was underneath
a branch that I was cutting and I didn't see.
I pulled about an inch and a half of wood that went
straight into my forearm out.
I gave it a squeeze, and pus shot out.
But I'm healing up.
Ah.
♪ ♪
There's what--you know?
Oh, she's good, but...
now that I'm getting that clear pus
and a little bit of blood--
oh, yeah, just running down there.
♪ ♪
Yeah, nasty stuff.
I wasn't gonna take a chance of them
making me go to the hospital,
and I probably shouldn't have done that.
♪ ♪
But I've been fighting too hard out here.
They're gonna give me [bleep] when they see this footage.
But it's good.
We're on the heal.
I've got all the other stuff out of it, I'm sure.
♪ ♪
[chuckles] We're OK.
[laughs] It's all good.
♪ ♪
Throughout the years of watching this show
and seeing people removed from certain injuries,
I thought, I can't show them this.
I didn't want to go home.
Me being as rough-and-tumble as I've been my whole life,
I've had more injuries than I care to admit.
There.
My wife being a nurse, I learned how to clean wounds.
If I boil the spruce needles in water,
clean the wound every day with it,
put fresh sap from all these trees
that I've cut down, it will properly heal.
♪ ♪
All right, bush medicine 101.
Just don't [bleep] hurt yourself.
♪ ♪
- Good morning!
It's another windy day in Grouse Lodge.
Few main things, I have the door,
and I want to finish my chair as well
so I can have a nice place to sit at the end of the day.
All right, let me get up
and get my day going.
♪ ♪
It's getting colder.
The wind from the north is coming.
I need to close the front of my shelter, put a door
and be more protected against the weather.
OK, we're gonna make a frame first.
We're gonna make a frame for the door and with wire--
tie it with wire, try our best to do that.
Today is a very special day.
It's my mother's birthday.
She lives in Brazil.
This year, she'll be turning 51.
My mother's real important to me.
She had to battle a lot in life.
Right there. Perfect.
My mother had me when she was 16 years old.
I am the oldest of five.
My biological father abandoned her
and let her just fend for herself.
Now we have a frame.
Perfect.
My mother, she's now trying to figure out
different little business to make some extra money.
She's very creative and trying to try new things.
I think we share a lot of that,
that, like, creativity pulse.
♪ ♪
We have a lot of things in common.
Just like that.
The door is done. [laughs]
Can't believe it.
Now we work on the chair.
♪ ♪
At 16 years old, my girlfriend at that time,
she got pregnant.
And then my kids came to the world,
and that was a new whole different story.
Now I'm 16 years old,
repeating the same story of my mother, you know,
and I was trying to avoid that vicious circle,
and I could not.
So I really focused on studying.
And that's when I started discovering theater.
♪ ♪
I was having my kids but still following my dreams
of doing theater in this tiny, small, little town
that don't value art that much,
but how can I make it make money?
So then I had to push myself to not just act
but to direct a small group, to produce a play
and sell.
Just following sort of my mother's footsteps, right?
Creating something with what you have at hand
to provide for yourself and others.
It was hard being a father at 16
and the first person in my whole family to go to college.
I sacrificed my teenagerhood, a lot of my adulthood
trying to be an example to my kids.
This right there.
My kids don't have other human beings at 16.
So that's a big deal.
They escaped that cycle.
♪ ♪
And maybe just have a sit
and just take a moment
to appreciate the hard work.
Ooh, I am hungry.
Tonight we're gonna have a special dinner.
We're gonna eat a whole grouse.
Go up in the food cache, get food,
and come here to cook.
♪ ♪
Cache, thanks so much for keeping everything safe.
You're a lifesaver here.
Oh, what the hell?
Holy [bleep]. This is disgusting.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Holy [bleep]. This is disgusting.
There are maggots everywhere.
Ugh.
This is the maggots in my grouse.
Ugh.
That's horrible. That's horrible.
Ugh, I would throw up,
but I don't have anything to throw up.
Crazy.
It's the fish.
Maggots there.
Damn it.
I smoked this, and it was pretty dry.
Any little crevice that has some humidity,
they lay the eggs.
Maggots in our fish, in our birds.
♪ ♪
Man, this is just bad.
[sighs]
This was my food left for the next ten days, you know?
[sighs]
Just horrible.
Ugh, I can eat a lot of things, but that is absolutely gross.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
Well, I don't know what to do now.
I mean, my food is infested with maggots.
Just like, holy [bleep] cow.
♪ ♪
Well, can you deal with that?
♪ ♪
Fish, it's iffy.
There's, ugh, maggots, like, walking around, and...
ugh.
You can see.
Having maggot in your food, it's demoralizing.
♪ ♪
So close-- this close to tap out.
This is not about just today.
It's about, like, what this means, you know,
to the whole experience.
♪ ♪
This mean, like, starving, you know?
♪ ♪
I do not want to eat maggots.
I mean, you have to have, like, a line
that says, you know, that's just too much.
♪ ♪
Everything is trying to get your food.
It's the birds.
It's the marten.
And now it's the maggots.
It's one blow after the other.
♪ ♪
[sighs] You know what? I'm gonna stick around.
You know, I'm gonna eat as much as I can.
And...
when I run out of food, I run out of food.
♪ ♪
You have just to take a moment and breathe
and figure out what to do.
The desire to overcome the challenges
is what keep me here.
♪ ♪
The reasons that I stay are my kids.
Being a father at 16, trying to thrive
while following a dream...
The cost was not having
enough quality time with my kids.
You can do this.
♪ ♪
They live in Brazil.
With this money, I can bring my kids
to live with me as they go to college.
That gives me energy to continue.
Clearly...
[speaking indistinctly]
Eh, there is some maggots there.
♪ ♪
Ugh.
♪ ♪
- Hmm.
♪ ♪
Oh, God.
Holy moly.
♪ ♪
Some of you might notice a large hole
in the middle of my net,
rendering it absolutely ineffective
for procuring any food from this lake.
It was caused by a careless duck that swam into my net
and got itself caught up.
According to my research, there is no fish in this lake
big enough to be caught in this hole,
so it must be repaired immediately,
or I may starve to death.
♪ ♪
Let's get her started.
I'm not quite exactly sure how I'm gonna do this.
I have an idea in my head.
I think I can fix it.
♪ ♪
This gillnet's gotta catch me at least one fish.
If I can catch a duck, I can catch a fish.
♪ ♪
Life is so simple out here.
You're trying to procure food, stay warm,
and keep your mind from going places it shouldn't.
♪ ♪
It's cooling off.
I can really feel it.
I need a jacket.
It's so dark today.
This morning was probably the first day
that my mind and my shelter was going to dark places.
And I had no control over it.
♪ ♪
It's getting very short.
I was thinking about my dad.
The hardest thing I've ever gone through
was when my father passed away.
My dad was always a pretty healthy guy.
He introduced me to fishing,
he introduced me to archery,
and he introduced me to hunting.
And he really liked biking.
But one day, he just started not feeling well
and just kind of started feeling weak.
At the time, he was 72.
And it ended up being pancreatic cancer.
And it spread to his lungs.
And he died fairly quickly.
♪ ♪
It was a really rapid decline.
This one's not gonna be long enough.
Darn it.
I was there when he died.
You know, dressed him.
I carried him out of the house.
It was, like, a really raw, raw experience.
♪ ♪
I'll never get over him passing away completely.
And there's always such a deep sadness
always rooted in my heart.
It gave me a sense of my own mortality, and now I'm 52.
My dad was 72. That's 20 years from now.
It's not that far away.
That helped me realize that I really need
to seize life and live it and get as much enjoyment
as I can.
♪ ♪
OK, she's patched up.
We're done.
If I had my gillnet out there right now, it would be gone.
Now I need to catch some fish.
♪ ♪
I'm going to walk down to the other fishing spot
that enters the bay.
I'm gonna try fishing down there in the calm water.
And we're off for an adventure to the point.
Oh, almost forgot my bow.
Maybe we'll spook a grouse, squirrels, porcupines.
You never know.
Hopefully the fish will be good down there.
I've never been over there.
So it's a bit of a risk with expending your calories.
Ooh.
Man, that gets thick.
♪ ♪
It's getting to me, not being able to fish.
My biggest worry is getting food,
and fishing is the only real way
I can do it here...
[exhales heavily]
Unless I have a chance encounter with big game.
But I haven't seen any sign of them around my site.
Oh, my God. My legs are so weak.
It's crazy.
This might have been a mistake.
Game trail.
What is this?
♪ ♪
These are some big tracks.
They don't look all that old.
That looks reasonably fresh.
That's on top of the leaves.
No way.
That's a moose track.
♪ ♪
They're here.
Are you kidding me?
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- What is this?
♪ ♪
That's a moose track.
They don't look all that old.
Another one here.
No way.
They're here.
A really good sign, man.
♪ ♪
People who have harvested big game in the past seasons
became the winners every time.
♪ ♪
There it is out there, the other fishing spot.
♪ ♪
Who knows? There might be a chance encounter,
a moose swimming across the lake.
Find out where he's going and get there first
and ambush him.
Like, that's the kind of stuff I'm kind of waiting for.
♪ ♪
Here we are.
This is awesome.
I like it.
♪ ♪
Whoa. Look how deep that is.
Are you kidding me?
We're gonna throw a few casts here, boys, right now.
I can land a fish here.
Let's do it.
I feel like it cooled down.
I'll put on my blue jacket.
We need to get a couple more fish.
I'm just hoping that the fish are still active.
I just wonder what-- the competitors I have left,
I wonder what they have to eat.
Like, how much do they have stored?
Maybe someone's sitting on 3/4 of a moose right now,
but who knows?
You're always kind of wondering
how other people are doing.
Oh, got one!
Oh, shoot.
Oh, I lost him.
It was a lake trout.
[sighs] Damn it.
You got lots of time with your thoughts
out here, that's for sure.
Come on, guys.
I need one fish.
♪ ♪
Take me two more days, three more days in the game.
It's getting colder.
The days are short.
There's no more berries, very little forage.
The fish are gonna stop biting soon.
People going hungry.
Yeah, we're entering into the dark days of this experience.
I got food.
I just gotta make sure my head stays in the game.
Gotta keep positive and stay out of the dark thoughts.
Ooh, got one.
That's a fish.
That is a fish.
Come here, you.
Come right up here.
Right up here, mister.
Oh!
Damn it.
There he goes. He's off.
Did you guys see that?
Can you frickin' believe that?
[sighs]
He was on the shore.
Ah!
Why can't I hook up?
Ah, I'm not gonna freak out.
It doesn't do anything to anyone
except make you look like an idiot.
I just can't seem to hook one up on this lure.
♪ ♪
OK, don't let it ruin your night.
I wish that sun was higher.
I want more time.
When my father passed away,
it helped to remind me what's really important,
like family, friends.
All right, let's walk back.
All these things that get us caught up in life
that we're so worried about
really are small things and don't really matter.
We gave it a shot.
Don't get caught up in the small stuff,
and focus on what's important.
Fish are still biting. Fish are still around.
An encouraging but disappointing night.
Maybe we'll see a big moose on the way back.
♪ ♪
- News flash.
Hot from the presses.
I have discovered a thing.
I'll turn this off for you, take it off.
I have discovered a thing.
If you have a backpack
and you have a sock full of wildly--
freshly picked blueberries
and you have your sweater right next to it,
when you pull your sweater out,
it smells just like laundry detergent.
So yeah, news flash.
Blueberries not only taste good,
but they're also a clothes refresher.
Is that the right word? I don't know.
Anyway, do it.
It's awesome.
♪ ♪
All right, let's go.
Beautiful morning.
Time for me to go adventuring.
I had some breakfast, fed my belly.
I'm taking provisions with me.
And I'm really looking forward to the day.
This is pushing out for the first time
after that horrible feeling of fatigue and tiredness.
But...
I think I can. I feel good enough.
When I realized that I couldn't
get to that blueberry patch,
I was upset, and I was embarrassed.
♪ ♪
I am halfway there, guys.
So freaking excited.
You have no idea.
But there's another half of me which is like, OK, let's go.
I am determined to bring myself back up to par
and get back there and pick as many berries as I can.
Every time I fail, I just have to keep trying.
That's how you move forward.
Can see it here.
Wow. There are berries galore.
And I shall be here for some time.
It's so amazing.
Knowing that I've been able to bring myself back from fatigue
and pain, that kind of realization about what I'm
capable of and how I can solve my problems
gives me the confidence to know that anything else
put in my way, I'll be able to work
my way through it.
♪ ♪
All right, that's good.
Here we go.
Back to the shelter.
♪ ♪
I feel such a sense of achievement.
I didn't even know I was capable of doing it.
I'm back to my full strength.
♪ ♪
And I like pushing through, and I like coming back.
If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.
And that's exactly what I did.
And I'm bloody glad I did it.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Good morning.
I took my food from the food cache.
♪ ♪
Oh, come, marten.
I'm gonna get you sometime.
At this point, I'm part of this environment.
I've gotta protect this food 'cause everyone wants it.
Everyone wants it.
Heading out to check my gillnets now.
Well, my gillnet, singular. [chuckles]
The other one, I lost.
♪ ♪
I need to increase the amount of food that I eat
to be functional and continue to be productive.
♪ ♪
Growing up, we were very poor, living day by day.
So yeah, we had to hunt, fish, forage to survive.
I had to work very early on a farm when I was, like, 14.
And half of the money that I would get,
I would give to my mother, you know, to help with food.
My mother is a source of inspiration.
I'm thinking of her a lot, you know?
♪ ♪
What happened here?
♪ ♪
I tied my gillnet right here,
and it broke the parachute cord.
So you just see how violent the water is.
But I have my flotation device there.
And I can recover it.
But I don't know what the condition is.
Might be all ripped.
♪ ♪
Eh. [sighs]
Man, there we go.
That's the gillnet, all messed up.
Yeah, man. [sighs]
The waters are powerful.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
I need to mend it and take it out
of the water for a day or two.
♪ ♪
I have no gillnet in the water now.
This is a huge setback, and I'm concerned
that the rate in which I need food
to be functional and productive
is bigger than the rate of food that I'm bringing in.
I need to change my strategy.
I'm shifting to set up some snares.
This is a good snare pole.
We will work with that.
I know you cannot live on squirrels,
but if that can push me, like, five more days,
I'm down for that.
As long as I'm eating, I think we can contend
with a lot of challenge.
Being fully dependent on the land
is challenging and tough,
but my mother, she taught me how to be strong.
We are always creating possibilities
and doing something to provide for ourselves.
The mindset and the persistence
will help me to succeed.
Whoo.
I feel better.
♪ ♪
- I'm just gonna make some little fidget toys
for my son.
Yeah, this is stuff that I know he'll like.
♪ ♪
Nikolai, I just want him to know
that I'm thinking about him.
♪ ♪
A little top.
That's so cool.
The first top I ever made.
First one ever.
I don't want him to look back at his life and say, you know,
Daddy wasn't there.
There was a lot of times in my life
that I never had anything, and I don't want him
to ever feel that way.
♪ ♪
Look at that.
Look at it go.
He's gonna love that.
I'm always thinking about him.
[laughs] Oh, it's still going.
It's still going.
Oh, there it went.
♪ ♪
Yeah, he'll love that.
If there wasn't so much on the line right now,
I'd be home with him.
But in order to win this, time to get to work.
♪ ♪
Gonna try to do a little hunting today.
Knock on wood, I'm feeling really strong in this game now.
♪ ♪
Guess I'm gonna head back towards the faraways.
Keep an eye out for everything.
Over the past few days, I was able to get
enough grouse that I'm drying some out to set aside.
That makes me feel great.
Long as the grouse keep coming,
maybe I can get a squirrel or two.
Think I could do pretty damn good.
♪ ♪
See what's down this way.
Hunting's a way of life for me.
This is what I do.
This is how I feed my family.
I'm always able to keep my freezer stocked
from just inside my wood line.
If I can find something to track, I can find that animal.
♪ ♪
I'll take a little quick walk around here.
I set out to adapt to this land, and I've achieved that.
Stepping off that boat knowing nothing
to knowing I've come this far, that's a huge deal.
I know where the good spots for grouse are.
I know where all the squirrels are chittering at.
I know all the little trails that I'm finding.
This is my island now.
I see a squirrel.
♪ ♪
He was a sly one.
I think he went up under these rocks.
♪ ♪
That's OK. I'll be ready for the next one.
♪ ♪
My early years, we did raise a lot of animals,
slaughtered animals, ate those animals.
It was nothing to go kill a chicken,
nothing to go shoot a pig.
As a young child, it was taught to me that this
is the way humans live.
I'll probably sit right here for a little while
just to see if anything walks by me.
There's a comfort when I'm just sitting in the woods
waiting for an animal to cross paths with me,
listening to the leaves falling,
listening to the squirrels chatter,
a little bit of movement.
It calms you.
Just a connection with nature that a lot of people
don't get to experience.
It's harder for me to be around a lot of people
than it is for me to sit by myself on a cold day
in the middle of the woods,
not so much thinking about what you're doing
as just being in those moments.
♪ ♪
You're so alert, but at the same time,
you're just relaxed.
♪ ♪
Something magical about it, man.
[squirrel chittering]
There's another squirrel.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- There's another squirrel.
[squirrel chittering]
♪ ♪
I got him.
I just hit my first squirrel.
Man, I have been wanting a squirrel so bad.
♪ ♪
Well, I've got a super special treat
for everybody at home today--
squirrel.
♪ ♪
This is my first squirrel, actually,
which is awesome to me.
You guys might not care, but it's awesome to me.
♪ ♪
Now I gotta clean this little guy up.
I love squirrel meat,
squirrel with dumplings, fried.
I like it on a spit, you know?
It's delicious.
I love squirrel meat.
♪ ♪
I do know the fast way to clean a squirrel.
I'm just trying to save the hide without ripping it.
I'm learning what to hunt and where.
I'm hoping that my luck continues.
I'm gonna put all his vitals
in the pot with his head
and boil every bit of that up,
spread the rest of him out.
Guys look a lot different without a mask on, don't they?
I'm not here for fame, not here for the glory.
I'm here solely to win $500,000,
go back home to my kids and my wife.
To do that, I have to have food.
The more I can hunt, the more meat I can put up,
the less I have to worry about.
I'm gonna keep getting that meat.
♪ ♪
Look at that, squirrel tongue.
♪ ♪
Everything's just falling right off the bone.
♪ ♪
There we go.
♪ ♪
The brains!
♪ ♪
I'm gonna show you the brain.
Look at that right there.
That's all the thought process right there.
Well, they say when you eat parts of an animal like this,
you gain their knowledge, so...
Wasn't all that bad.
Man, that squirrel was good.
♪ ♪
- Good morning.
You ever have one of those days where...
everything just feels different?
I don't know if it's good.
I don't know if it's bad.
I just know it feels different.
Something different on the shores of Reindeer Lake today.
I went to bed, and it was so peaceful and quiet.
And then I woke up to the sound of the waves.
And I laid there awake.
And I thought of a lot of things
but things to do with here, not anywhere else,
things I could do different.
I just couldn't get back to sleep.
I'm kind of excited to figure out
what today is going to bring.
Looks like it's gonna be a beautiful day.
I'm gonna put on my new spool.
We're gonna give the Reindeer Demon a try.
Hopefully the fish are still biting.
I just don't know. It's weird.
Maybe it's just me and this land finally coming to terms.
So let's go.
I'm really glad my arm's healing.
Glad to have that off my chest.
It's been a--it's been a constant worry.
I'm feeling less burdened with the negative thoughts
that I brought here.
I don't know where they're going.
But I know they're leaving.
We're ready.
♪ ♪
So in this show, some people think of it as a competition
against nine other people.
But really, it's got nothing to do with the other people.
If they weren't here, it would be the same competition.
We are all competing against the same thing,
Mother Nature, not each other.
♪ ♪
Oh, that was a nice big pike.
That was a nice big pike come in.
Gonna try and take it right at the last minute.
He didn't get any hook. He might hit again.
All right.
But the only competition I see in this
is the competition in my own brain, mind, body, soul.
I'm not fighting with Mother Nature.
I'm only gonna be competing against myself,
and the rest is more about accepting and learning
and working together.
There he is.
Oh!
There was a fish, anyway.
Doesn't feel big enough to be him.
♪ ♪
Whoa. Settle down.
♪ ♪
Whoa-ho-ho.
Yeah, Rainbow Demon does it.
A beautiful, beautiful lake trout.
That's the biggest lake trout on the rod.
Look at that.
That's a beauty.
That's a 6- or 7-pound trout.
That is a slab.
Rainbow Demon, strike.
Oh-ho, baby.
When I said there was something different about this morning,
maybe that's it.
What a beautiful morning.
No!
You're kidding me.
You're [bleep] kidding me.
♪ ♪
- You're kidding me.
You're [bleep] kidding me.
[laughs] Ups and [bleep] downs.
[dramatic music]
I lost my lure.
That's too deep for me to dive.
I can't even begin to tell you
how that just made me [bleep] feel.
Wow. [laughs]
Like I said, we go way up, and then, boom,
take that, mother[bleep].
Oh.
And it's a beautiful morning for fishing.
So anyway, [bleep].
Let's grab our bow.
Let's go for a walk.
Go around, and we'll check the gillnets.
[bleep] damn it.
[sighs]
♪ ♪
I can't believe it.
But yes, I can. [laughs]
It's that joke that's going on around here.
This place, it's had its share of laughs.
I get one step up and two steps down.
I'm not gonna let it bother me.
So we're on the move again.
Go see what we can find on this beautiful morning.
The only way to ever go through life
with any kind of success
is having the ability to accept
there are lots of things in life we cannot change.
And there's so much truth to that in everyday life.
And stepping into the wild is no different.
And there's a grouse right there on my point.
♪ ♪
There you are.
♪ ♪
[bow thwacks]
Beautiful.
Got him.
♪ ♪
This is incredible.
What a day.
♪ ♪
It's almost like...
the land is teaching me a lesson
and also not allowing me to take too much.
♪ ♪
And I got him.
There you go.
You remember how I said things can change
and I felt things were different this morning?
♪ ♪
We have the red squirrel.
That, I'm happy about.
What did I tell you about this place?
Up and down, just like a merry-go-round.
Oh, my God.
I'm gonna go check the gillnet.
My belly is gonna be so full today.
♪ ♪
My bow is in tune now.
I'm on par with Mother Nature.
I think I see a fish.
Of course I do.
I see a fish.
Oh, my God.
How [bleep] awesome!
♪ ♪
Being a person who believes himself to be true to nature
and nature to be true to him,
I'm a guy who believes that you have to earn
the respect of the land.
My first whitefish.
Be open. Be honest.
Be vulnerable.
Mother Nature understands those things.
A beautiful, beautiful
probably about a 3-pound
beautiful Reindeer Lake whitefish.
It might even be 4 pounds.
Holy [bleep].
What a day.
And it's not even noon.
♪ ♪
I have just granted myself today,
easily, easily
ten more day stay.
♪ ♪
Oh.
Unbelievable that I made the statement I made this morning
about how I felt I had come to peace
and the land would come to peace with me.
And there is truly now a connection.
Thank you, Reindeer Lake.
I love you too.
I'm glad to say we're friends.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Oh.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
♪ ♪
That actually looks amazing.
The gillnet is just off the bottom.
Huh.
[bird squawking] Yeah, I know.
That's what I thought.
It's been a long time coming,
but if a fish swims into it, man, it's gonna get caught.
No more ducks.
This is a fish-only gillnet.
So calm today. It's awesome.
♪ ♪
I'm fishing here, and I'm fishing there.
What a weird feeling.
I got a little bit of food in the bank right now,
but I want to continue catching fish.
♪ ♪
Like, this is like a duck pond.
♪ ♪
Let's get a hook up here, guys.
Come on. I'm due.
With the lake trout,
my lures, they're just not hooking up.
I looked at their mouths, and their mouths
don't open very wide.
Their mouths aren't that big.
I think I'm using a bit too big of a hook.
So made a few modifications, smaller hook.
And I made the whole lure shorter.
See if it makes a difference.
OK.
Come on, lake trouts.
He was really patient and good at figuring things out.
My dad was famous for saying this phrase:
"Alan, look at it, study it, and figure it out."
That was his saying.
We got a mug with that on it and my dad's picture.
All too often, we, as people, get upset or angry,
but he taught us, look at it, study it, and figure it out.
And we did.
And that's helped me.
Got one.
Yes!
Come on.
Right here, right here.
It's that new hook.
Telling you right now, it's that new hook.
Yes!
Holy smoly, I got food.
That new hook, shorter body, did that ever work.
[laughs]
Perfect, beautiful little lake trout.
That's what I'm talking about.
More for the smoker.
Let's get that hook out of your mouth
and line back in the water.
What my dad taught me will help me
work through any problems or issues that I have.
Just being patient and not rushing through things
and just figuring out a way.
♪ ♪
Something just tapped it.
I got it.
Oh, I lost him.
♪ ♪
Wow. Oh, he's--he's right there.
He's right there. [gasps] Oh, it's a giant pike.
Look at the size of it.
Oh!
♪ ♪
[chuckles]
Wow.
That giant pike--
I'm not kidding.
Oh, I wish you guys could see it.
He just took my-- took my lure.
He broke it right off.
I should be mad, but that's probably
the biggest pike I've ever seen.
I can't believe it.
♪ ♪
My dad would be extremely proud
if he knew I was on the show.
He would be so ecstatic and into it.
When I catch a fish or have a cool experience in the woods,
that's when I miss my dad the most.
Just want to give him a call.
So there is a giant pike
in this lake with Lake Trout Baby Two in its mouth.
He was so interested in the outdoors and animals
and fish and birds.
Hmm.
This experience has definitely deepened
my connection with my dad.
I just hope he's--
hope he's watching from somewhere, you know?
♪ ♪
So we're back to Lake Trout Baby One.
I hope that pike doesn't take this one, 'cause he'll--
he'll break it off too.
This is awesome. [chuckles]
I want to stay out here for as long as I can.
I want to enjoy it and push myself.
The days to push are coming. I know.
Just keep grinding.
And if you look at it, study it, and figure it out,
eventually things work out.
♪ ♪
It is. [marten screeches]
[bleep].
♪ ♪
- It's getting white around here,
and I don't see it getting any better.
- Winter is coming.
Holy cow.
- The ground's frozen in here.
- I could press that button.
Oh, it's tempting knowing that it's that easy
to be this close to comfort.
- [crying]
♪ ♪