LeighAnne

Me: I wonder if Luke will be okay. He's from Maui, and Canada might be a big challenge for him. Luke: Picks up grouse he shot with an arrow, rips its head off with his bare hands. "Nature is often brutal." Me: Never mind.

It was fish guts. He found a plastic bag of fish guts, and added it to his pile of beaver guts. I'm thrilled that Benji got that beaver. Good for him. Holy cow, I never realized how big beavers are. That smoker he built looked really good, too. Noted: They're not allowed to hunt the seals. I like that Terry is giving us updates on how this challenge is affecting him, physically. I like it in a "If I was on this show I would be dead by now" sort of way. I'm glad Terry got his beaver, but I also thought, "You're in Canada in the winter DON'T GO INTO THE WATER YOU'LL LOSE TOES!" But now he has food. If Igor's back was hurting, it was definitely the right time for him to go. This challenge isn't worth permanent back problems. Edit: Benji found the plastic bag, then put the fish guts from the fish he caught in it.

I just wanted to note that Jacques tapped out on Day 15. In nine seasons, this is the longest we've had to wait for the first tap out. It's still early in this contest, but the remaining nine contestants all seem really strong to me.

Clay got a standing ovation in my house when he took down the buck. I'm also happy that the Alone producers now know that the contestants can get big game kills somewhere other than Great Slave Lake. Bushcraft lessons learned: don't eat squirrel poop (and, from last week, don't eat your own mucus). Good to know.

This is the eighth season of this challenge and in all eight seasons someone has tapped out/had to be medically evacuated within the first 10 days. At this point I'm assuming the producers are doing this on purpose, in a "We need someone to leave in the first episode. Let's choose the guy with 35% heart function!" sort of way. When Matt said he didn't choose to take a ferro rod, I groaned. This is going to be one of the toughest challenges you've faced. Why make it tougher? I am glad that the Alone producers have chosen a new location this season. After the moose kill/musk ox kill in the two previous seasons I assumed they would just stay in that spot because Big! Game! Kills! but thankfully they chose new terrain. I look forward to the contestants facing new challenges (e.g. oh look! We already have a bear sighting!)

This episode surprised me. The rhythm of this series has been that there is only one tapout (or none) per episode, so two caught me off guard. That said, Mark really does look like he's starving, and of course, talk about child = time to leave. Good to know that they're not allowed to kill the foxes (the foxes are protected). I wonder if there's a "the fox is attacking me" exception to the law. Callie seems to be in the best spirits of the remaining four, but of course, Roland has that giant musk ox to eat.

I hope everyone who watches Alone likes the Canadian Arctic, because after Jordan took down a moose (season six) and Roland took down a musk ox (season seven), the producers are never, ever leaving Canada. This is the only place contestants have been able to take down large game with the basic tools they're allowed to have. Kudos to Roland on knowing how long to wait (three hours, I think?) before starting a close attack on the musk ox. If an animal that large that I had shot with an arrow looked at me directly, I would have thought, "That thing is going to trample me," and ran.

It's amazing to me that Alone is in its sixth season and in every season a person/team has dropped out or had to leave in the first week. I'm sorry that Tim broke his leg --- terrible luck. He was smart enough to put on weight before the challenge started. I said, "WHAT!?!" so loudly my cat looked up. You're going to new terrain and you have no idea what the available wood or weather is like. I know that you're skilled at fires in your home woods, but you're not in your home woods. I'd also like to note that in the Patagonia season, it didn't start snowing until Day 51 (I think). I remember it was about two months before the snow came. On this season, it starting snowing on Day 5. So either it started snowing earlier than anyone anticipated or the producers thought, "F**k it; let's throw them in the deep end immediately." From the previews (I know, the previews are often wrong, but assuming they are accurate) it looks like the contestants are catching a lot of game this season (squirrel, wolverine, maybe a moose?). Good for them.

I had to turn off parts of "The Last Days of Knight" because it was making me too mad. The last time we hear Knight's voice in this documentary was during a telephone interview in which he wishes all the people who fired him at Indiana were all dead. "28 - 1" The James "Buster" Douglas episode. It was fun. I know they're trying to alternate between heavy episodes and light ones, and I enjoyed this light one. I'm old enough to remember the Tyson vs. Douglas fight, and at the time, it seemed impossible that Tyson could lose to anyone. He usually only took minutes to finish off opponents. I know Douglas did not become a major fighter that his people were hoping he would become, but I'm glad to see he's doing fine now (he trains young boxers, and apparently invested his boxing money wisely).

Andy Dehnart at Reality Blurred did a summary of the contract that contestant have to sign before going on this show: The RuPaul's Drag Race contract

We have a premiere date for season 5! It will start on June 14, 2018 and be set in Mongolia: http://www.davemcintyrewilderness.org/2018/04/05/alone-season-5-coming-soon/

I'd produce an extremely loose version of Call Me By Your Name. It wouldn't have any of Andre Aciman's characters (Elio or Oliver); it would be an anthology series with a new love story involving original LGBTQ characters every season. We could do a gay male couple in season one, a lesbian couple in season two, a straight cisgender man falling in love with a straight transgender woman in season three, etc. We would show how they meet, how they fell in love, how their friends/family/co-workers/neighbors react, how they survive in Trump's America, and since I am a sap, I'd prefer a happy ending by the end of each season. It would be on HBO (because nudity) and I'd prefer that all the actors/actresses involved be at least as attractive as Armie Hammer (because nudity).

rmontro said: Thanks for this! I didn't realize someone did a podcast about this show until you mentioned it. I wonder what the "this person/group is obviously going to tap out in the first week, so we can feature a tap out in our first episode" process is. Like, if you're two brothers who are teenagers, or just barely out of your teens, and the Alone producers say, "You guys are great! Let's throw you both into the wild with these other, older, more experienced bushcraft people!" do you think, "That's fantastic!" Or possibly, "Are we this season's cannon fodder?" Alex (the father) said he's a hunter, so maybe he's used to long hikes by himself. Thanks to Jesse, I now know that if I walk down a bear trail in the wild, I should say, "Don't eat me." Then the bear will not eat me.

Although I'm not thrilled with the "team" aspect of this season's Alone, I'm still onboard. As long as the show focuses on the actual mechanics of living off the land --- like, during the submission tape of one of the father/son teams, they found a raccoon and skinned it using primitive tools --- I'm watching. I like that this challenge is so merit based; a lot of these people really know how to survive on very little.

During the blind date season, after a dancing roadblock, one of the teams leaving the theater where the challenge happened warned some other approaching teams "It's a dance challenge" on their way to grab a taxi.