[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- In the darkness, that's when everything starts coming out.
Check that out.
As soon as things start getting bad,
you have to be able to turn to something else.
A hardened knife in the Canadian bush.
- Brr.
I'm gonna build a wood processing holder
to cut my wood on.
If I keep the fire going 24/7,
that's gotta be cut every day.
I am tired and I am sore.
- What the hell?
I might have something in my gillnet.
Can't believe it!
[chuckles] It worked!
All your birthdays you don't remember,
I'll definitely remember my 52nd birthday.
As the game wears on, like it is now,
I can just feel that the mental game's
starting to play on me a little bit.
I miss my family dearly, and I miss my kids.
- I had no idea that being by myself
would have such an effect on me.
I have a person who I love back home.
I don't want to spend another day away from him.
So I'm tapping out.
Every day is precious.
I wanna spend that time making memories
with the people who are the most important to me.
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna do this, man. I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna fight this thing out to the last breath.
[dramatic music]
- OK.
Game on. [bear huffs]
- I got him.
narrator: In "Alone's" most remote location yet...
- [shouting] Yes!
narrator: Ten participants set out to survive at all costs.
- My goal is stay alive.
- [hisses, groans]
narrator: Battling extreme isolation...
- There is no camera crews. You are really alone.
- It'll eat at you, tear you up.
- God, why? - It's a battle.
Nobody ever comes out the same.
- Oh, man. - It'd be impossible to.
narrator: And fierce predators.
- It's a big bear. It's right outside my shelter.
- Predators like that damn sure 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...
- 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.
- [whoops]
- No, no!
narrator: Wins.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Look, Nikolai.
♪ ♪
It's a snowman!
Check him out. He's got his broomstick.
He's got his buttons.
He's got his pipe, and his nose,
and his little hat.
That's so cool.
He's really gonna like that snowman.
It's still spitting snow, but it's starting to warm up.
Can't wait for all this be over with
so I can be home with you,
get to hug you again.
♪ ♪
But Daddy's gotta go hunting now.
He's gotta go try to get some food.
If he don't, he'll be home a lot sooner
than what we thought.
♪ ♪
Sun's starting to come out.
Let's see if anything else wants to come out.
It snowed all night long.
I was hoping to see something fresh this morning.
As seasons change,
the patterns of the animals change.
Animals that were nocturnal start day walking.
As food sources dissipate, animals move.
I expected, you know,
see some raccoon or some fox,
rabbit, or something.
No sign. No track.
As soon as you learn all the patterns of fall,
then it's wintertime.
Everything that you just spent
the past two months learning
means nothing anymore.
Only trail out here's mine.
I'm at a disadvantage as the season changes.
I've never been here through a winter.
There's people that are from Canada that have
hunt these animals their entire lives,
so they have the advantage.
♪ ♪
Oh, looky there.
That's a rat.
So, so far, we've seen sign of some rats.
Ain't that just something?
My feet are freezing.
Time to head back to the shelter,
let my toes warm up.
Nothing today.
Even in the snow, I'm not finding any sign.
I don't think I've ever hunt this long
and not killed anything.
Try to kill some rats tonight, I guess.
Right now, I'm feeling kind of low.
I'm not getting enough to eat.
I got my son's birthday coming up.
That's been weighing on my head.
Coming out here,
the only thing I was afraid of was failure.
If I fail this, feel like I failed my son,
feel like I failed my wife,
feel like I failed the rest of the kids.
And if I don't start eating, I'm gon' fail.
Trying to set a rat trap.
Maybe get me a rat.
Still got fat I can lose. Thankful for that.
Rats, if that's what I'm gonna be given to live off of
'till something else comes through,
by God, we're gonna rat it up.
It's standing. It's set.
Hopefully, first thing in the morning,
I'll eat some rats.
Then I'll go get a grouse.
And then, when the moose walks in front of my shelter,
I'll stick it too.
[moose calls]
I'll eat my whole moose back strap.
Then when the bear comes up, I'll stick the bear.
[bear growls]
Then I'll render fat from the bear
and I'll fry everything,
and it'll all be delicious.
And I'll make it 175 days.
I'll be the last man standing.
[dreamy music]
♪ ♪
Or...
maybe I get a rat.
I was expecting more now. Maybe--maybe I get a rat.
Be happy as hell if I get a rat.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[ice crackling]
♪ ♪
[waves lapping softly]
- Good morning, campers.
She's a beautiful morning.
Little breezy coming out of the south,
but all in all, not too bad.
Temperatures warmed up today.
There was a good inch of snow.
Like, it was completely white here,
but melted last night.
Hopefully, we'll have a nice round of weather.
We're gonna go check our gillnet.
♪ ♪
We got the bow all strung up.
See if we can't find another grouse or a squirrel.
The boreal forest, I've lived in it a long time,
and for the winter, I've got every advantage
as far as that goes.
The wind is absolutely crazy right now.
It's a little bit southwest still, which I prefer,
from the north, 'cause that brings in ugly [bleep] weather.
Out here, there's a bunch of these people
that are far from quitters,
but we're into the serious stages now, boys and girls.
I don't know how many people are left,
but it won't be a lot. That, I assure you.
I hate to say it, but I hope the rest of them
aren't having quite as good a time as me.
[chuckles softly]
We're down to the time where
it's gonna be a lot of mental game.
You can't come and do this and worry about home.
When you start getting that way, you lose all focus.
And out here, it's all about focus.
That wind is raw.
And it's powerful.
So we're just approaching our gillnet here.
You hear the waves?
They're white.
[waves crashing] These waves are pretty rough.
You can hear 'em smashing here.
And these rocks gonna be slippery as hell.
Oh, and it looks like I got another fish.
Oh-ho!
[grunts]
Careful not to fall in.
[waves crashing]
Oh, no! He's gonna get out.
He's almost out. Get him over, quick.
- Oh, no! He's gonna get out.
Get him over, quick.
Yeah!
Oh-ho, that's close.
He is almost out of that net.
[chuckles]
Another beautiful whitefish, though.
That is awesome.
OK.
That's a beautiful 3 to 4 pound whitefish.
So we have some cleaning and some smoking to do.
Oh, good stuff.
[intriguing music]
♪ ♪
All right.
Well, we're back at camp.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna eat a piece of this tonight,
just because I haven't had a piece of fresh whitefish,
and this is as fresh as it gets.
You know, the days are getting cooler.
I'm gonna spend a little more energy.
I'll eat a little more.
Why not? I deserve it. I've been doing good.
In all fairness, I hope they're dropping like flies.
♪ ♪
I got lots in me left.
Lots.
We're not going nowhere.
♪ ♪
So let's take this over to the filleting block now.
♪ ♪
I think it was day 35,
I said I'd finally come to peace with this land
and this land had come to peace with me.
And nothing here has been too tough yet.
I shouldn't say that.
From the time I was nine years old,
I was kind of a social outcast.
Not many were into the hunting and fishing,
and not the way I was.
I just wanted to get off the bus and run to the bush.
I just wanted to go to my happy place.
And the alcohol and that
just seemed to kind of fall into place.
From the time I was basically 14, I drank.
I really hope one day,
I can bring my wife and my boys,
stand here, camp for a night, go fishing.
Let 'em feel the experience the way I felt it.
It's something I'd truly love to share with them.
There's a lot of things I'd love to share with 'em.
That's the one thing I say, you don't get time back.
I'm doing this challenge for a variety of reasons.
One is to prove to myself that I can.
And another is to let Mother Mature
and the things I love help try and heal me.
I need to forgive and forget a lot of things,
and that includes forgiving myself for a lot of things.
Kinda one thing that I know I've done out here...
is I've let the wind...
blow away a lot of dirt...
That has been stuck to me for way too long.
This whole "Alone" thing is really something that
a lot of people can really benefit from.
I know--I know I have.
No matter what the outcome is,
I have benefited immensely.
Immensely.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- OK, folks, it's time for the skinny check.
I'm definitely getting low.
So viewer discretion is advised.
[grunts]
I still have some fat here.
Pretty skinny around the waist.
Looks like I have some fat here, too.
OK, I still got some fat.
I got some loving left to go.
Right around here, I got fat.
Here and here.
I feel like--last night, I scratched my back,
and it felt-- it kind of felt bony,
so we'll see how it goes.
OK, now it's time to fish.
♪ ♪
Kinda gray and cloudy, but it has warmed up
like you wouldn't believe.
Think a big warm front came in here.
Almost all the snow's gone.
Here we go.
I'm excited to fish.
Cold, miserable, snowy days
are just around the corner any time
and they might stay this time.
There might not be a warm-up period.
So I gotta take advantage of this good weather.
[whistles] She's casting nice.
Come on, let's get a fish on.
Need to get a couple more fish.
I'm pretty lean right now,
and I'm starting to feel it more and more.
Like, when I wake up, I got this tension in my chest,
and my stomach just feels so hollow.
Hungry is my normal.
I worry I'm not sustaining myself
with half a fish a day.
If it doesn't get better, I'm gonna increase it to 1.5
and see if that makes a difference.
But that decreases my time here, right,
so I'll need more fish.
Let's get a hook up, please.
I need to eat.
Oh, that's depressing.
Oh, there's a bite.
Come on.
C'mon.
Come on, come on.
We got one! [laughs]
Finally.
Woo!
Two more days.
Yes!
We're well into this game now.
Every fish I get could be that fish
that pushes me the next two days,
and the next two days,
till the last person who's left taps out.
So one of these fish could be worth $500,000.
It's pretty crazy to think about, man.
[sighs]
So we're gonna clean him,
then we're gonna get him on the smoker.
I feel like I've cleaned a lot of fish this trip.
It's hard to know who's left.
How many people are left?
I'm gonna guess.
All right, Mel and Luke,
or Jodi Rose,
and Wyatt, 'cause I know Wyatt's a fisherman.
If I can catch fish, he could be catching fish, too.
Heart has to be eaten, of course.
Who knows?
A lot of strong competitors.
I have a chance, but it'll be a grind.
I know it will be.
Oh, my God.
He's got these white growths all over his guts.
And his whole liver is covered in them, too.
Hm.
That's not good.
See all those white cysts?
They're everywhere.
[bleep].
[soft dramatic music]
- Oh, my God.
See all those white cysts?
They're everywhere.
[bleep].
That's not good.
I don't know what to do.
♪ ♪
I can't lose this fish.
[exhales]
♪ ♪
I think it's OK.
I'm gonna give him a rinse.
♪ ♪
At this stage of the game,
every calorie counts, boys and girls.
I'm just hoping that I don't get sick from it.
[grunts]
OK, let's fillet this guy,
starting with the ol' melon.
I wanna stay out here for as long as I can.
But I can just feel that the mental game's
starting to play on me a little bit.
Their skin is so tough.
Those thoughts of worry about home, you know,
and wondering how everyone's doing,
and just-- just missing loved ones.
♪ ♪
Oh, [bleep], did I cut myself?
Yep.
Darn it.
Just a little one. It's not bad. It's not bad.
Could've been bad.
Be careful.
See, I am bleeding.
Oh, well.
Hopefully doesn't get infected.
I wanna go home, but I don't wanna leave here.
Ready for the smoker, just like that.
Here's what helps me. I say, OK, I tap out. I go home.
It's gonna be me at home again.
Don't go back to work till the end of January.
My wife works all day.
My daughter goes to school.
And I'm like, I should've pushed harder.
I wanna have no regrets when I get back.
Yeah, I think I'm just gonna eat this half
and just smoke this half.
I'm gonna do that right now, actually.
We got a nice coal bed going.
All right, we're smoking meat!
Let's throw that fish on.
I wanna make sure I cook it really well.
♪ ♪
She's cooking in there away, boiling nice.
Killing any botulism or Giardia or whatever is in the meat,
just in case it's not-- oh, headrush--good anymore.
It's a risk, I know.
Let's do it. I think I'm ready.
But I think it'll be OK.
I'm just a little nervous about it.
I don't wanna go out on something stupid.
♪ ♪
I'm just having a close look at the meat
to make sure there's no parasites
or anything in there,
because he had something wrong with him inside.
♪ ♪
As long as I'm eating and my body feels OK,
I think I can push.
Here we go, let's push.
A little bit overcooked,
but I wanted to do that just in case.
Delicious.
So fresh.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock thumps]
♪ ♪
[rock thumps]
- We got two rats last night.
Hard to hold on to the little guys.
Two of 'em, which is awesome.
Two little rats.
I've been up since 1:40 this morning
to catch those two rats.
That's some dedication.
♪ ♪
Get them all cleaned up, ready to eat.
♪ ♪
These are the stinking-est little animals to clean.
It may just be from being crushed under a rock.
Don't care how little they are.
I just need the protein.
When my daddy said, "I taught you how to survive, son,"
don't think he meant eating rats.
I'm not just gonna settle for rats.
If I can go get birds and squirrels,
then that's what I'm gonna do.
But if I have to eat rats,
I'll eat rats.
Another little rat skin.
I could make a stuffed rat.
A little rat Teddy bear.
We've got some baling twine right here.
Gonna try to sew this guy up.
I've been making toys for my son for his birthday.
My kids are gonna say, "did you seriously stuff rats?"
I'll say, "damn straight, I did."
Trying to keep my mind off of everything.
Can't stop thinking about my son's birthday.
It's killing me. It really is.
Yeah, I was a little selfish coming out here.
I wanted to take a break.
I wanted to not have to go to work every day for a while.
Well, that was like, the hardest thing ever.
♪ ♪
There it is, Nicky.
A little stuffed mouse.
Check him out.
Oop.
The only thing he's missing's his tail.
That's 'cause when I was skinning him,
I accidentally cut it off.
♪ ♪
Get this guy cooked up.
♪ ♪
Maybe I should just tap and go home.
Let all of this be over.
A little rat heart.
Now for the rest of it.
Whole rat on a stick.
But it won't be over, will it?
I'll get up every morning,
and I'll leave my house to work.
I break my back for as little pay
as somebody can get from me.
Is that selfish of me?
The only thing I can't eat's his teeth.
I'm here to give my son a better life than what he has
and what I can give him otherwise.
I'm given an opportunity.
All I gotta do is make it out here.
Hell, if I can make it every day at home,
I can make it here.
I've survived everything in my life this far.
And that's a wrap.
It's great while you got it, and then it's gone.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- It's so cold outside.
You can feel the temperature has dropped last couple days.
The warm weather is over.
Last night was the first night where
I was really cold in my sleeping bag.
This is an expensive sleeping bag
from a reputable company
that is rated for minus 40,
and I was, like, having convulsive shivers
I was so cold.
When you're shivering,
that's the first stage of hypothermia.
And if you don't warm up, you can end up dying.
So I got up, put on my sweater,
and I ended up going right inside
my sleeping bag and sealing it,
and just a little air hole to breathe, and that worked.
That--that warmed me up.
I wasn't totally prepared for that.
So if that happens again, I'm simply gonna light a fire,
warm up a few rocks,
and put a few in my sleeping bag.
It's a very dangerous situation.
So that kind of was a bit of a wake-up call.
♪ ♪
It's day 48.
50's closing in real fast.
And it's [bleep] cold this morning.
Excuse my language.
But it's calm. There's no wind.
And we're gonna go fishing right now.
Let's--oh, tripod's frozen to the ground.
There we go.
[chuckles softly]
Man.
I just didn't expect it to get this cold so fast.
Everything's just a little harder in the cold,
getting out your sleeping bag, getting dressed.
The wood's all got a layer of ice on it, and it's cold.
Takes a while to get going.
Just makes it a little bit more challenging.
See what we got.
Come on lake trout.
It's OK. It's OK.
It's gonna work out.
I have a feeling the fishing's gonna be OK today.
It's only been cold for a couple days.
I think there's still gonna be fish around,
but I don't believe there'll be fish around
for too much longer.
All right, hand, stay warm.
Tomorrow is day 49.
50's exciting to me.
That's--that's deep in the game.
Hands are getting cold.
50 days, big milestone for me.
Can't even feel my hands.
Can't feel the string.
It just keeps slipping out of my hands.
It's a little too cold.
[sighs] This is gonna be challenging,
fishing in this weather.
Hm. How am I gonna do this?
One more good one.
Whoa! [gasps]
No!
Oh, shoot.
Oh, no.
My spool just went in the water.
This is bad. This is really bad.
Uh, wow. OK.
[tense music]
I have the other end, and I have a spare spool,
so it's not the end of the world.
It's just kind of scary.
That's what happens with cold hands.
[sighs]
That's been my biggest fear that I'd do that.
If that other thing had gone in the water, it's done.
Unless I would go for a swim.
Oh, man, but when it's this cold,
you might actually pass out.
Just gonna wrap it around this one
until it comes up, hopefully.
As long as it doesn't get stuck.
Definitely getting a little harder to be here.
Any work you do without your gloves on,
your hands just instantly get cold,
and it's hard to warm 'em up.
Challenging times for fishing.
Oh, here we go.
OK, we're good to go.
I'm lucky.
Really, really lucky I got it back.
That's why you always tie your line to your spools.
Think I'm done fishing.
My fingers are too cold.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Got some reindeer moss.
Doesn't that look just delicious?
I'm gonna pretend it's sauerkraut.
Yeah, I'll pretend it's sauerkraut.
This is something I can spend some time processing
a lot of it, just have in a bag in the shelter.
We'll let it boil for a little while.
♪ ♪
I don't remember the last time I got a grouse.
Seems like I got four or five of 'em in a row,
and then, bam, it stopped.
I haven't caught a single fish, man.
I see 'em jumping all the time.
Can't never get out there to 'em.
There's probably people on here living off of fish.
Yesterday's butt-wiping paper,
today's brunch.
I'm trying to learn everything in a short time.
Not actually all that bad.
It's hard as hell,
but at the same time, I'm a stubborn ass [bleep]
that just won't quit.
Roasted, it kinda tastes like wheat cereal.
The little Mini-Wheats.
I don't know if it's pride,
or just the fact that I may never get this chance again
to make this kind of money, I just won't quit.
It's like a hot meal, which is what I needed today.
I'd love to have a squirrel or a rabbit.
But I got some rats. Super thankful for the rats.
'Cause it could be worse. I could not have any.
That would really suck.
Little pestle and mortar project here.
Maybe you can see it a little better out here.
♪ ♪
See how far I carved that thing down?
Look at that.
I'm gonna make my wife a pestle and mortar.
Last night, got it started.
See if I can coal burn this.
♪ ♪
It's the only thing she asked for.
♪ ♪
It's hard, you know? You wanna go home.
Thinking, "Hell, I could have
my wife's delicious cooking again."
And that's, you know, pretty much
whatever I say I want, she'll make it for me.
She's an amazing woman.
[groans] This is where I'm sitting.
My wife, she gave up her life
to make sure that my son was taken care of.
She stays there with him all the time,
same as I stay at work all the time.
He needs a caretaker.
She takes care of him and I take care of them.
There's not a whole lot of people that
give up their entire life
and provide for their family.
She's always made it an effort to care for me,
which is something I never had growing up.
Even right now, she's just waiting on me to be home
so that she could take care of me.
Never had that before.
The hungry is starting to get to me.
Yep, I can feel it.
The hungry's starting to get to me.
♪ ♪
The absolute best thing you could do is
just keep going.
I cannot let the hunger get to me yet.
♪ ♪
[soft intriguing music]
♪ ♪
I gotta go find it.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Dammit.
He got away from me.
They just come out at the worst times,
when I'm not ready for them.
That would have been a good dinner.
More food than what I've seen.
It's always just right there out of reach, ain't it?
Living off of rats ain't living.
You've--you have made it through worse than this, Mikey.
Just man the [bleep] up,
do what you gotta do.
Do not waste this.
There's $500,000 on the line here, buddy.
Just quit bitching.
Cut it off.
If you missed your son's only fifth birthday,
and you don't give 110 [bleep] percent,
then you're a piece of [bleep].
♪ ♪
Don't [bleep] this up.
♪ ♪
All right.
I'd say that's enough work on this for tonight, probably.
I'll build my rat traps.
Work on this some more whenever I get a chance to.
Stay busy.
All be over before you know it.
Then you can go home to the family that loves you.
And you can be with them for a long, long, long,
long, long time
and you won't have to leave every single day.
♪ ♪
What the hell?
Oh, no.
♪ ♪
I get in my shelter,
and all of my stuffed rats have been taken.
The rat that I killed last night has been taken.
My gut can is over there completely empty.
Something got in my shelter today
and ate all of that.
It was probably that [bleep] marten,
that one I was chasing earlier.
Little bastard.
God!
Here I am talking about, "oh, just suck it up.
"You know, it's just another day.
You're gonna be fine."
And the whole time,
something's up here...
eating everything that I've worked hard for.
Oh, I'm pissed.
I just cannot believe that.
It ate my stuffed rats.
Hell, they're full of moss.
I've been violated.
Can't even leave my shelter for fear of getting robbed.
I wish he'd walk in here right now.
Rules is rules or whatever,
but I'd stab that son of a [bleep].
I'd hit him with my [bleep] axe.
♪ ♪
That--mm.
Makes me so damned mad, I can't stand it.
It's probably gonna keep coming back
until I can kill it.
♪ ♪
I am struggling.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Once again, we are on the move.
We've had a big, big breakfast.
I was kind of a piggy this morning.
But I'm good with that.
I am being a little bit less conservative on the food,
knowing how much I have now.
I feel so much better
mentally and physically.
Out here, everything seems clearer.
I've drank since I can remember.
Everybody in my life basically has asked, begged,
pleaded with me to quit.
It's caused me trouble with the law,
trouble with wives, girlfriends, family,
myself, and with my dad,
but I didn't care.
I used it for different purposes
so I didn't have to deal with
things I didn't want to deal with.
Man that I am today would take that little boy aside
and try and guide him down a better road.
Sometimes, you just gotta stop and have a look around
to realize how much beauty's there.
It's incredible.
I'm hoping to have Mother Nature
help me heal myself.
The only way I can do that is to be in an environment
where I'm comfortable
and not clouded with alcohol and outside influences.
Just me and the truth
and sound of silence.
♪ ♪
Well, we're coming back here to the gillnet.
I always get excited now
every time I'm coming to this gillnet.
See what we got in the gillnet here.
I hope there's a fish in it.
Oh, look at that.
We've got another one.
It's a beauty, too.
Another big pike.
Yeah!
♪ ♪
He's mine.
Oh, yeah.
That right there
puts me damn close to day 100.
Damn close.
I made a lot of mistakes in my life.
I wish I could change it, but I can't.
But I can change tomorrow,
and the next day, and the next day.
Yeah, baby.
Oh, look at that!
Look at that fish.
Oh!
What a pig.
♪ ♪
The last thing my dad said to me...
was "you know how to fish.
"Find lake trout in the shoals,
"find the pike in the right spots.
"You know where they are. You know how to do it."
[wind blowing]
[chuckles] "Go do it!"
We're [bleep] doing it, baby.
[laughs] Yeah!
Oh, we've done it.
We've [bleep] done it.
Oh!
♪ ♪
My dad and I, we've had our struggles in life.
We've put a lot of [bleep] behind us.
And because of that,
I got a lot of admiration and respect for him.
He is certainly a very big part of the reason that
I have the abilities to come out here and do this.
It's one of the many reasons I chose him to be
the guy who comes and gets me if I win this.
To have him come here, see this beautiful land,
and be the guy that I can share
all the moments with first before I get back,
I'd love for him to be that guy.
And because of that,
I'll be fighting her out every tooth and nail I got.
♪ ♪
c]
♪ ♪
- So this is what I'm waking up to.
Snowed a little more than I thought.
Wow. [chuckles softly]
Day 50 in with a bang, that's for sure.
Super cold, man. I wish I knew the temperature.
Oh, I--
Got a big melon on me with this thing.
Huh.
Let's head down to the rock,
and hopefully, we can fish.
♪ ♪
It's by far the coldest day.
♪ ♪
Day 50. I made it.
This was my goal but I'm gonna keep pushing.
Let's see what we got.
It's getting a little bit harder to be here every day.
I'm homesick.
I miss my family.
I miss the comforts of life.
Ooh, OK, there's a dry spot.
That means we can fish.
♪ ♪
Uh-oh.
OK, what's the best way down here?
This is ice. I have to be careful.
It's kind of treacherous.
[ice cracking] Woo!
OK, let's just make sure that that's not ice.
We're gonna go down here.
That is so slippery. Oh, my God. That's scary.
♪ ♪
This isn't ice.
[boots scuffing]
OK, this is safe. That's not.
I have to stay right here and land my fish.
This has good potential for "Wipeout."
And it's all gonna be on camera.
I like to continually challenge myself.
♪ ♪
I've been a fan of the show for a while.
Wow, this lake is gonna freeze very soon.
Watching the old shows,
I took things I liked from past competitors
and modified things I didn't like.
Anybody still around these parts?
I was like, always critiquing, "what is he doing?
"What's he doing putting the fish in that pool?
Man, something's gonna take it."
I did learn a lot of like,
expending too many calories on your shelter,
and there's always someone that goes out with a GI issue.
I wanted to make sure that didn't happen to me.
I feel cold already.
Man, that's not good.
Since I found out that I was accepted,
I kept notes of
anything that popped in my mind. I'd write it down,
and then I'd find the answer to it.
I drove my family a little bit crazy
'cause that's all I thought about.
It's really helped me.
I wasn't sure if I'd make it this long.
Oh, man, can't even feel my hands.
All right, little hand warm-up.
It's been very cold, and it hasn't warmed up.
So I'm starting to realize that my food procurement
may be coming to an end
until the ice is thick enough to ice fish.
♪ ♪
No takers.
Nothing.
[groans]
I did what, like, five casts
and my hands are, like, not doing well right now.
It's just too cold.
I'm gonna head back to the shelter.
Leading up to this experience, I thought about these days.
When the winter is here, and it's cold,
and you can't fish anymore,
the small game has gone back into the forest
where you're in the shelter a lot, you're depleted--
and I'm feeling pretty depleted,
I'm not gonna lie--
I talked about these dark days
with my family and my brothers,
who were worried about me during these dark days.
It's time for some fish.
Having 1 and 1/2 slabs today.
I was wondering what these days would be like,
and they've just started
since the snowstorm and the cold set in.
Big meal today.
I'm going for it.
And I have to go off my stores.
So I'm gonna eat my stores of food
and just bide my time,
hoping that my competitors don't have
quite as much food as me.
This is a new chapter to the experience:
the cold and the snow.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Hello! Hello! Good morning!
[in thick accent] Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to my land. Ha-ha!
What a beautiful day in the land of Reindeer Lake.
Ha-ha-ha!
It is cold, it is snowy, and I love it!
It is the weather that we like.
It's good for work, yeah?
No. Yeah.
Now, let's go to work, huh?
All right.
[soft determined music]
That was one nasty, ugly night.
I burned a lot of wood last night.
And we will be keeping a fire going 24/7.
That's kind of a necessity, as far as I'm concerned.
One thing's for sure,
that is one hell of a change in the weather,
no question about it.
And I think it's here to stay.
So anyway,
that being said,
we've got a lot of wood to get cut.
We're just gonna make sure we keep going at a steady pace.
We need to cut 50 pieces of wood.
♪ ♪
One.
[laughs]
Thomas Edison once said,
"opportunity is most often missed
"'cause it's dressed in overalls
and looks like work."
Well, if you think you're gonna be out here
and win this competition, or challenge,
or whatever we want to call it,
without work, and I mean hard work, you're a fool.
♪ ♪
Whoa!
That slippery damn rock.
This is a challenge where there's no excuses.
There's nothing except you.
Ho! Right where we wanted it to be.
You gotta be able to embrace everything about this,
not just the place,
but the goal you're trying to achieve.
That's got some weight to it.
If I can do that,
and walk away with 500 grand,
God, how much better does it get than that?
50.
No cheating.
Not allowed.
You'll only cheat yourself.
That is a full day.
♪ ♪
[sighs] Well, day 50.
In the books.
Kinda.
I just gotta eat.
It is cooling off in a big way.
It took literally minutes for my water to freeze.
Buon appetito.
♪ ♪
Mm-mm!
50 days...more like this,
there's not gonna be a tree left on this point.
Ah, delicious.
All right.
Day 50, gone.
How awesome.
Peace out. Good night.
♪ ♪
[fire crackling]
[bleep].
[wood popping]
Holy [bleep]!
♪ ♪
The wind switched direction and the chimney caught fire.
Holy [bleep].
Oh, man.
[bleep].
[tense music]
- Holy [bleep]. Bit of a fire going on.
[bleep].
Gonna dump some water on the chimney.
[wind howling]
Phew.
Got it out.
That was scary.
Literally seconds away from having that shelter gone.
Woke up to my shelter on fire.
My own negligence.
The day I had,
I forgot to water down all the moss on my shelter.
And I just about paid the ultimate price for it.
Oh.
Man!
Day I had.
Holy [bleep].
That was close.
I'm gonna...
shut the light out here for a minute,
make sure I got no embers.
But I threw an awful pile of water to her.
Holy [bleep].
Bottom's still good.
[wind rushing] Sure you can hear that wind.
She's not letting up at all.
She's gonna be a long night.
So I'm gonna sit here until this fire goes out.
So there goes any chance of a peaceful night's sleep.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Holy, [bleep] damn wind.
[wind gusting] Like, crazy, crazy wind.
It's still blowing.
The wind must be changing direction,
'cause every once in a while,
she just lets a waft of smoke in here.
She's just one relentless, ugly night.
Waves are crashing.
♪ ♪
Considering last night was the worst night
that I've been here,
no problem.
I don't know what the wind chill factor
would be out there right now.
I've gotta get this chimney in order...
assess the damage in the daylight,
see what's really happened.
I don't think it was much more than the moss burning out
and a little bit up around the top.
But I wanna to be sure.
I think what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna just start carting stone
and just pile and pile and pile
and pile and pile and pile on stone, stone, stone,
and not have to worry about the moss,
and just keep as much air from coming through
with the stone.
[wind gusting]
I am sure not looking forward to going outside.
[laughs]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Well, this is our morning.
♪ ♪
The shelter survived.
There's where...
it knocked everything down off the chimney.
♪ ♪
It was all on fire down here.
I got a lot of work to do today.
I'm gonna bring the rocks from my other pit over here.
I've had a lot of tough things in my life
and things that I've had to really work at to overcome.
And stepping into the wild is no different.
Everything's a challenge out here.
The more I can just keep building it out...
[determined string music]
The less wind gets in,
it's not gonna light my building on fire.
I just gotta keep this end wet.
♪ ♪
We'll fill it the best we can.
♪ ♪
The best we can do
is the best we can do.
Now, that's one of those lessons that
my father taught me.
Whenever you're gonna have problems,
hit 'em head on.
Be facing 'em.
Know they're coming.
Deal with it.
But this is gonna help with what I need tonight.
I'm pretty sure my dad will be quite proud of
what I've accomplished out here.
Bottom line is is I wouldn't have been able to do this
if it hadn't been for a lot of his teachings.
I don't wanna work too much harder today,
but we are getting what we need done done.
'Cause getting up in the middle of the night
and running for water,
praying your shelter doesn't burn down sucks.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- [sniffs]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birth-- ♪
Today is my son's fifth birthday.
♪ Happy birth-- ♪
And today, I am not home with him.
♪ Dear Nikolai ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
[clapping]
Five years old today, Nikolai.
Five years old, wow!
God, five!
Man, oh, man.
Dad made you some toys.
I made you some tops.
See that?
I made you a slinky worm.
Whoa.
I made you ball and a cup.
Oh. Oh, ooh.
Oh, I made it! You see that?
[laughs] That's pretty cool, huh?
That's neat, right?
I hope you've had just
the best birthday you could today.
Hopefully, you get a bunch of icing,
as many pieces of cake as you want.
And hopefully, you get a big toy.
And you get to play all day.
But you do that anyways.
[soft somber music]
♪ ♪
I've been dreading this day.
♪ ♪
He doesn't know why I'm gone. He doesn't know why I'm here.
♪ ♪
Last night, I wrote a happy birthday letter to Nikolai.
It was sad too.
It reminded me of my childhood
and my biological father.
He went to prison when I was two
for something that you can't be forgiven for.
He'd always send letters
saying how much he missed us.
And at a certain point, you know,
now I'm 10 years old,
missing's going out the window.
He was never there.
[sniffs]
He was never gonna be there.
I love you.
And I miss you.
I don't wanna be that dad, always be away.
I'll be home before you know it, I promise.
♪ ♪
I wanna hear you say "I love you, Daddy," in person.
♪ ♪
But I can't quit.
I have way too much riding on this.
$500,000, Mikey.
If I wanna have time to be there with him,
I gotta keep going.
You're everything to me, son.
You'll never just how much you mean.
'Cause there's no possible way of explaining it.
[sniffles]
Happy birthday.
God, please, let me win this soon.
Let me go home to my family.
Today has been so hard.
Guess I'm gon' get up and go out here
and try to get some food.
♪ ♪
Oh, please, God, let there be a grouse out here.
♪ ♪
I ain't got no rats.
I ain't got no grouse.
The only things I have right now
are solitude and thoughts.
All I know, it's [bleep] cold.
Just wish everybody would hurry up and quit
so I can go home.
Surely, they're missing their family too.
Everybody's got their reasons for being here.
I just hope their reasons aren't as strong as mine.
♪ ♪
God, don't let me have come this far
to be taken out of this.
I can't quit.
I have way too much riding on this.
$500,000, Mikey.
That's why you're here.
♪ ♪
I gotta keep going.
[dramatic music]
- The fun times are over here.
I don't feel great right now.
My body is close to the end,
but at any second,
one of my competitors could tap out.
♪ ♪
- This is whole place has turned into a frozen hell.
There's ice on my tarp on the inside.
- I've been cold,
but this place,
this is a whole new element to cold.
It's just more difficult to stay positive
when you're in the shelter so much, not sleeping.
[shouts] Get outta here!
- [shudders] Can't put my boots on.
[bleep] damn.
- We got a fire going on here.
[water splashing]
♪ ♪