S08.E07: Surrounded

[Quilt Fairy]

Quote

As the participants reach a month in the wild, winter weather raises the stakes for each one; an unwavering grizzly causes one competitor to prepare for battle, and another's desperate attempt for food suddenly turns life-threatening. 

Original air date: July 15, 2021

[LennieBriscoe]

Very surprised Theresa didn't tap out after her insane bare-legged "fishing" in 35-degree water! Did she think she was a bear? And then getting (temporarily) lost? Fuhgeddaboutit! 🥶

I was pretty shocked to see bear traps that the participants could encounter! 😱

It's pretty impressive to me that these people can identify (and consume!) all kinds of wild edible plants/fungi. Who knew?! 😄

 

[diebartdie]

So the bear situation is getting even worse, even more dangerous. Rose is so lucky that grizzle bear (hat tip Biko) decided she wasn't worth the effort. That was utterly terrifying for me, safe at home in my recliner! I can not imagine how awful it would be to be in that situation for real.

Theresa getting lost was like Greg getting lost in season 3 and Ive often wondered about that. How do these people manage to NOT get lost without a compass? That is something I would not be able to deal with, I get lost walking around the block. Theresa deciding to swim that raft out there might've been a great idea if the lines hadn't got tangled on her ankle. She is incredibly lucky.

[AZChristian]

22 minutes ago, diebartdie said:

Theresa getting lost was like Greg getting lost in season 3 and Ive often wondered about that. How do these people manage to NOT get lost without a compass? 

I saw an episode of North Woods Law where the Fish and Game warden put marks on trees as he was going into the woods so he'd be able to find his way back to his starting point.

[humbleopinion]

Anyone else think Theresa was going to accidentally fall ass first into the fire or set her clothes on fire as she desperately tried to warm up?

She was fortunate to only get first degree burns that looked more like they verged on second degree burns.

Her raft mishap could have been disastrously fatal with hypothermia and subsequent drowning.

[HurricaneVal]

Last night was a bit hard to watch.  Lots of grizzle bear camp stalking, lots of peril.  Theresa must be one of the most resilient competitors ever on this show.  Not only did she get scarily lost in the woods, but she risked hypothermia with her swim, drowning with being tangled in the line, and burning with her desperate warming up attempts.  I nearly gasped when she conversationally says "let's see if my legs can work now" as she got up all wobbly and shaky next to the fire.  I thought for sure she was going to do a "Michael Skupin" right into the fire and that would be that.  She didn't but it had to have been a near thing!  I certainly hope she buried herself in her sleeping bag and curled up in her cozy underground shelter after that to get warm and self-comfort.

For some reason, Rose referring to her shelter as a "tent" really bothered me.  At this point, they should have much built better and more permanent shelter so her referring to it as a "tent" made me think she doesn't consider it to be long term, so either she's not considering herself to be long term, or she's still planning on building something better "later."  Only.....later is now, and she should have made a better effort for an actual shelter earlier on when she still had residual energy from loading prior to abandonment and fat reserves.   Her "tent" doesn't look bad, per se, but her calling it a tent makes me think she's thinking it is inadequate in some important way.

Biko is still growing on me.  Slowly and mildewy.  His little "my precioussss" Gollum bit was both entertaining aaaand a little disturbing.  Yeah, it amused him and that's important in his situation.  The more fun you can have, the better your mental outlook.  And a lot of this survival thing is mental.  However...........if it goes unchecked and continues on and on.........it almost looks like he's slipped into psychosis.  As that slipping gets easier and easier, then all of a sudden you have the scary psycho killer character from a horror movie.  I did like Biko's little soliloquy about his dad and how awesome he is and how much Biko appreciates him and his guidance.  That was nice to see.  A lot of the people I know who are "nerdy weird" like Biko (and I know a lot of gamer/cosplayers/scifi nerds) don't have good relationships with their dads because their dads can't cope with their chosen "weirdness."

No tap-outs, though I think if Theresa had had enough small motor skills when she was hypothermic, she might have (should have?) pushed the button.  Rose came close, that was real fear on her face when the bear was circling her, but she ultimately didn't.

Question....when they run out of airhorn power or bear spray, are they out-out so they have motivation to conserve it, or is that considered fundamental safety equipment so it can get replaced like the batteries for the cameras and sat phones?

Also...I wonder if the other castaways can hear when another one of them blasts the airhorn.  That's got to ramp up the paranoia at the next camp over.

[Quilt Fairy]

25 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

Question....when they run out of airhorn power or bear spray, are they out-out so they have motivation to conserve it, or is that considered fundamental safety equipment so it can get replaced like the batteries for the cameras and sat phones?

I'm pretty sure that's considered essential safety equipment and is replaced as needed.  However, when Rose saw that bear, it was walking away from her.  It was only when she called to it that it turned around and started heading towards her. 

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, HurricaneVal said:

Last night was a bit hard to watch.  Lots of grizzle bear camp stalking, lots of peril. 

Agreed. I'm finding I have a big knot in my stomach half the time. "Hard to watch" also describes everything Clay did with the deer head. Impressive, but I couldn't look. I also can barely watch Colter standing up in that little tippy boat. 

These 5 are so, so strong mentally! I'm stunned that Rose didn't press the button despite being so scared she was crying. And that Theresa didn't despite being first lost (in a very Blair Witch-y montage) and then becoming a human popsicle/minor burn victim. I would have been in a frenzy of button-pushing in either scenario. (Kidding. I would have had the button-pushing frenzy on Day One when they tried to make me get off the boat.) 

[DrewPaul2010]

6 hours ago, diebartdie said:

 

Theresa getting lost was like Greg getting lost in season 3 and Ive often wondered about that. How do these people manage to NOT get lost without a compass? That is something I would not be able to deal with, I get lost walking around the block. Theresa deciding to swim that raft out there might've been a great idea if the lines hadn't got tangled on her ankle. She is incredibly lucky.

I'm not a survivalist by any means. I am an expert on getting lost. At the very least you have a fixed object, the sun for at least a rough bearing that would get you to the water. You leave marks at every bend. I think we saw the effects of starvation playing on her mind. 

She was lucky to survive but not sure if this won't take her out eventually.

[mlp]

6 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I saw an episode of North Woods Law where the Fish and Game warden put marks on trees as he was going into the woods so he'd be able to find his way back to his starting point.

Yeah, even Hansel and Gretel figured that out.  I kept trying to see if she had her radio thingy with her.  Getting lost and alone and not finding your way would be terrifying.

2 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Biko is still growing on me.  Slowly and mildewy. 

I'm warming up to him also.  I think he's a lot brighter than he looks and he seems like he's a nice guy at heart.  The piercings and tattoos turn me off though.  

I wonder when bears go into hibernation.  With the cold and snow, it seems like bear encounters should be dying down.

[zibnchy]

Those burns are going to hurt and she can't hide them when they come to do her med check. Also there must be other residual side effects to almost dying of hypothermia. I wouldn't be surprised if they pull her. I'll be sad because I've enjoyed watching her.
 

 

[TVbitch]

When we saw the bear in Rose's camera shot before she saw it, that was the first truly chilling moment for me. Are we totally sure these guys do not carry a pistol on them, that they never talk about, but can be used should a bear actually charge them? Cuz otherwise, this is bananas! 

It's hard in Theresa's situation to determine how dangerously hypothermic you are, because the panic also makes your blood pressure rise, your legs wobbly, and extremities tingly. But 30 minutes is a long time. Do contestants wear a Fit Bit type of device on them that transmits data directly to base camp and could alert them if her temperature dropped too much or for too long? If not, they should!  

I could not watch Clayton's DIY taxidermy, either. I should know better than to try to eat my lunch during this show!! 

[pagooey]

Theresa's speech growing more labored and slurry after she'd started to warm up terrified me the most. I'm sure she was shivering too hard to speak clearly, but losing that much control over your body is scary as hell. I too was afraid she'd black out and topple right into her fire. 

3 hours ago, Melina22 said:

I would have had the button-pushing frenzy on Day One when they tried to make me get off the boat.

I've said every season that I would be the one crying and pleading with one leg still hooked over the side of the boat, trying to hang on like some kind of wrestling move. These remaining five folks are absolute badasses/completely out of their minds, in some combination. 

[Blackie]

So after all that did they say if Theresa's plan to rig that trot (?) line work, or did she just spend 30 minutes getting untangled and hypothermic?

I kind of laughed when she said she would press the button and they could come get her, her dead, drowned body I guess she meant. She is my favourite because she is very knowledgeable and hard working, I would hate to see her have to go (and Rose stay).

Although I will give Rose credit for calming herself down after the bear encounter. I think her bear looked like a black bear as well.

I'm glad they finally showed that Theresa has been trying to fish and wasn't catching anything. She is a very smart forager. Did they have to wait for the squirrels to go into hibernation before they were able to use snares?

I just read an article about wasting disease in deer and elk. In some places you have to have your deer tested before you can eat it, so I wonder how they are sure the deer in that area are safe to eat.e

[madmax]

10 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I saw an episode of North Woods Law where the Fish and Game warden put marks on trees as he was going into the woods so he'd be able to find his way back to his starting point.

Yeah, you would think they would do that, but maybe it was the starvation messing with her head.

6 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

 

For some reason, Rose referring to her shelter as a "tent" really bothered me.  At this point, they should have much built better and more permanent shelter so her referring to it as a "tent" made me think she doesn't consider it to be long term, so either she's not considering herself to be long term, or she's still planning on building something better "later."  Only.....later is now, and she should have made a better effort for an actual shelter earlier on when she still had residual energy from loading prior to abandonment and fat reserves.   Her "tent" doesn't look bad, per se, but her calling it a tent makes me think she's thinking it is inadequate in some important way.

I can't believe she's still in that tent like structure.  ESPECIALLY after seeing that bear "circling" her, although if she hadn't called out, it would have gone on its merry way.

6 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

I'm pretty sure that's considered essential safety equipment and is replaced as needed.  However, when Rose saw that bear, it was walking away from her.  It was only when she called to it that it turned around and started heading towards her. 

I wondered myself what would happen if they used all of their shots, would they get more and we decided yes, they would replenish.  But what about Clay's early warning system?  Would they give him another airhorn?

6 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Also...I wonder if the other castaways can hear when another one of them blasts the airhorn.  That's got to ramp up the paranoia at the next camp over.

I would think so.  Those things are loud as hell.  I guess they don't show us the film of a castaway lifting their head from their dirt soup when they hear the airhorn but just think of the facial expressions they are missing.

56 minutes ago, Blackie said:

Did they have to wait for the squirrels to go into hibernation before they were able to use snares?

I wondered about the snares.  Are they all in hibernation?  Maybe you can't actively hunt squirrels, i.e. with a bow, but if they're stupid enough to go into a snare, they're fair game, no pun intended?

Clay is only allowing himself a couple ounces of meat per day?  Is he going to be another Dave?  Theresa was getting more calories from the berries she was collecting.  

My money is still on Colton or Clay to be the winner.  Unless the rationing gets to Clay.

 

 

 

[Melina22]

2 minutes ago, madmax said:

I guess they don't show us the film of a castaway lifting their head from their dirt soup

Dirt soup 😁😁😁. I couldn't tell how serious he was being. It did look like twigs in dirt soup but I was hoping there was no actual dirt in there. 

5 minutes ago, madmax said:

Clay is only allowing himself a couple ounces of meat per day?  Is he going to be another Dave?  Theresa was getting more calories from the berries she was collecting.  

I thought of Dave too. I enjoyed people showing what they were eating and seeing the approximate caloric value. It's hard to picture how Clay could get enough calories eating 200 calories of deer jerky daily. 

Speaking of food and dirt, it bothered me that Colter seemed to be eating so much dirt with his mushrooms, between his super dirty hands, and not even rinsing the mushrooms in water before eating them. He seems healthy though, so I guess it's not hurting him. 

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, pagooey said:

Theresa's speech growing more labored and slurry after she'd started to warm up terrified me the most.

Same here, that scared me even more than Rose's bear.  Theresa getting lost made me wonder if they contact each contestant on the radio at least once a day just to see if they're okay.  

If they couldn't hunt bears, why was there a bear trap out there?  Poachers?  Or is there a bear season?

Colton's 30 pounds of mushrooms were impressive.

I was surprised they said Clay was only eating 140 calories of his deer meat a day.  I don't think that would do it.  Reminds me of a contestant several seasons ago that had a bunch of smoked fish, but he had been rationing it out so slowly that he got pulled for weight loss.  With a shelter full of filets.

[Blackie]

1 hour ago, rmontro said:

If they couldn't hunt bears, why was there a bear trap out there?

 

Wasn't that bear trap from a long time ago? (they said how many years but I don't remember, like around 100). 

I was thinking the same thing about Clay. Eat the meat, get your strength up to do the fishing. I'm kind of surprised he doesn't have more meat, I thought a deer would assure you the win. (from not starving)

[madmax]

13 minutes ago, Blackie said:

 

Wasn't that bear trap from a long time ago? (they said how many years but I don't remember, like around 100). 

I was thinking the same thing about Clay. Eat the meat, get your strength up to do the fishing. I'm kind of surprised he doesn't have more meat, I thought a deer would assure you the win. (from not starving)

It said the trap was from when trapping was allowed but recently the law was changed and only Natives can trap.

If I was Rose, I would have set that thing up somewhere near my "shelter" as a type of early warning system.

He left a lot of meat on that deer.  Last episode, the chyron said he got 50 pounds of meat and I believe another one said the deer was 150 pounds.  There surely wasn't 100 pounds of bone on that deer.  But I think he's making a mistake rationing it that much.

[madmax]

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

Speaking of food and dirt, it bothered me that Colter seemed to be eating so much dirt with his mushrooms, between his super dirty hands, and not even rinsing the mushrooms in water before eating them. He seems healthy though, so I guess it's not hurting him. 

"God made dirt and it don't hurt" is what we used to say when we were kids and our candy fell on the ground.  😄

[Tango64]

Clay, Clay….. eat the deer! What’s the point of acquiring all that meat if you’re only going to eat a negligible 140 calories a day? 
Rooting for Theresa. 

[Melina22]

2 hours ago, madmax said:

God made dirt and it don't hurt" is what we used to say when we were kids and our candy fell on the ground.  😄

My dad used to repeat the saying "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." (Man, that's a weird saying. Also, Colter's on his way to achieving that early! And so's Biko with his dirt soup.) 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Melina22

[rmontro]

2 hours ago, madmax said:

"God made dirt and it don't hurt" is what we used to say when we were kids and our candy fell on the ground.  😄

Speaking of Biko, he said he was eating dirt soup.  Was he being literal or was that just a joke?  I suppose dirt has some minerals and nutrients in it.  How healthy is eating dirt?  By the way, I think I'd call dirt soup mud.

[LittleIggy]

Loved Biko’s Gollum impersonation! 👏 

Props to Rose for not tapping after the bear encounter. She really needs to work on her shelter. Glad she got a rabbit.

[LittleIggy]

15 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I saw an episode of North Woods Law where the Fish and Game warden put marks on trees as he was going into the woods so he'd be able to find his way back to his starting point.

Yeah, I kept saying “You didn’t mark your trail?” and I am a total non-outdoorsperson.

[LittleIggy]

2 hours ago, Tango64 said:

Clay, Clay….. eat the deer! What’s the point of acquiring all that meat if you’re only going to eat a negligible 140 calories a day? 
Rooting for Theresa. 

The bear whose land Clay is camping on will eat it if Clay doesn’t!

[Blackie]

8 hours ago, madmax said:

It said the trap was from when trapping was allowed but recently the law was changed and only Natives can trap.

 

I just checked it, it said steel traps have been used since the 1600,  but grizzly bear hunting has been been banned since 2017 except for First Nations. Technically hunting is different then trapping so I don't think that trap is current. Rose could use it as an anchor for her fish trap.

[ProfCrash]

Finally watched the episode. 

Rose is tougher then I thought. Her shelter is still crap but she is tougher then I gave her credit for. There is a small part of me that asks “How does it feel facing big ass animals without high powered guns and people around you to protect you? Because I am petty. I was glad to see her snare work and I suspect that there was a date that they could start using snares based on squirrel hibernation.

Biko has grown on me. He was fun to watch tonight. I suspect the over the top stuff from the first couple of episodes was lots of energy and trying to hard. Same Biko now with less energy so that the behavior is less crazy and feels more natural.

Not sure what to make of Colter. He has the boat but we don’t see them being used all that often. He seems to be doing well but is the one whose actions are less memorable to me.

Clay. I have no clue what is happening here. The Deer is great but it is not fatty enough to help Clay. I am not sure using the brains for tanning and not eating them was a good move. I am happy to see that he needs fish but he doesn’t seem to have a plan other then trying the same thing which is not working.

Theresa, the most intriguing of the people left. I am not certain I understand what she was trying to do. Was she trying to place a fish line that she could pull into the shore and return using a pully system? Cause that is a great idea. I am not sure waiting until this long to get it out there was a great idea. Still, she showed a lot of calm and grit in dealing with the tangle and getting stuck in the water for far longer then she planned. Glad that she was able to warm up. I hope her risk pays off. I didn’t understand why she wasn’t marking trees or doing something to mark her path. 

I am liking the final five, which surprises me because Rose has not been someone I cared about. I am not sure I want her to win but I am impressed that she has lasted this long and hasn’t tapped.   

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, ProfCrash said:

I am not sure using the brains for tanning and not eating them was a good move.

This is exactly what I was thinking. He needs every scrap of fat he can get. Deer jerky has almost none. He isn't catching fish. 

I remember from other seasons that only fish had enough fat to keep someone healthy and not losing too much weight, and fish seem so hard to find. Even Colter's excellent fish trap caught nothing. I enjoyed seeing all the plants being harvested this episode, but again, none of them contained fat. 

1 hour ago, ProfCrash said:

I am not certain I understand what she was trying to do. Was she trying to place a fish line that she could pull into the shore and return using a pully system?

This was so confusing. Did she have enough cord to pull a raft in from so far out? That was such a terrifying incident, watching her going further and further out, tangled and freezing. I couldn't have watched at all if I hadn't known she survived. Such a close call though. 

I really love this show but lately I worry it's playing into all my worst phobias. 

[Blackie]

8 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

2 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

I am not sure using the brains for tanning and not eating them was a good move.

This is exactly what I was thinking. He needs every scrap of fat he can get. Deer jerky has almost none. He isn't catching fish

 

I don't know if eating deer brains is a good idea, with this deer wasting disease around, which seems similar to CJ. / mad cow disease. I don't think it has been found yet in BC but maybe they were warned not to eat deer brains. Seems like dangers everywhere you turn this year!!

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-spreading-wildlife-disease-threatens-deer-elk-and-maybe-humans-new/

[Melina22]

I wonder if they were told NOT to eat the brains. Wow, the poor people this season have SO many restrictions. No wonder they're all so hungry. 

[LittleIggy]

I was thinking the same thing about eating deer brains: not safe! I was also thinking that Gary from Naked and Afraid XL most def would have eaten them! 😬

[AZChristian]

10 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

I was thinking the same thing about eating deer brains: not safe! I was also thinking that Gary from Naked and Afraid XL most def would have eaten them! 😬

And stuck the deer's eyeballs into his own eyes.  #medicalevac

[Melina22]

9 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

I was also thinking that Gary from Naked and Afraid XL most def would have eaten them! 😬

Funny you mentioned that show. When we were watching Rose and Theresa crying in the woods, we kept making jokes like "They're so afraid! They should be glad they're not naked!" etc. (I didn't say GOOD jokes!) 

Honestly, I think we did it because the scenes were making us so anxious, but all the Naked and Afraid jokes made us laugh a lot. 

[ProfCrash]

Hmmm Brains tend to be a popular second eat, after the heart, on Alone. Good to know about deer brain…

[ethalfrida]

On 7/16/2021 at 9:32 PM, rmontro said:

Speaking of Biko, he said he was eating dirt soup.  Was he being literal or was that just a joke?  I suppose dirt has some minerals and nutrients in it.  How healthy is eating dirt?  By the way, I think I'd call dirt soup mud.

I watched a documentary about Haitian life. A common food is dirt pie. It is made on the ground and an ingredient is butter. There were people in line to buy them.

[diebartdie]

geophagy -- the eating of earth

[LittleIggy]

I wonder if the production team viewed Theresa’s footage and almost stroked out over how close she was to dying? 😮

[ProfCrash]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I wonder if the production team viewed Theresa’s footage and almost stroked out over how close she was to dying? 😮

Probably, I wonder if they are going to revise rules for future contestants based on some of what we have seen this season. There have been a few water related events that are problematic.

Doesn't Production collect the Contestants footage during their well checks? So Production probably knew what she had done a week or so after she did it. I would love to know if they had a chat with her about what happened? The first degree burns probably healed pretty quickly so they might not have been noticed by the medical team.

I would hope that the Production team realizes that they are putting people in shitty situations when they choose locations that are so resource starved and with so many predators that Contestants are going to push themselves in very dangerous ways. Choose locations were people have to work for food but it is findable so that people are not so desperate.

[Jeanne222]

I don't know but sometimes I wonder how Reality TV this really is.  People almost drowning.  Bears galore.  Nothing to eat.  No gill nets until 45 days.  No trapping squirrels?

That's just preposterous.  I'm sorry but I'm kind of disbelieving this whole program.

I'm thinking they are all carrying guns to defend themselves and I'm also thinking help is nearby, think helicopter, when they go out onto the lake in homemade boats and tiny rafts.

Maybe I should be living in the Show Me state because I'm becoming a disbeliever!

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, Jeanne222 said:

I'm thinking they are all carrying guns to defend themselves and I'm also thinking help is nearby, think helicopter, when they go out onto the lake in homemade boats and tiny rafts.

I don't know about the guns, but I know what you mean. If they get rushed by a grizzly, do they really have to wait 30 minutes for a boat to come and basically, collect their corpse? If Colter falls into the icy water and drops his yellow alert button, is that it? He freezes and drowns? Maybe the answer is yes, but it's hard to believe. 

Then again, if there are secret safety resources, why was Rose crying about the bear? Why was Theresa crying because she was lost? 

It's confusing. 

[ProfCrash]

I think the answer is yes, they die. The sites are spread out and there is no way that they have people stationed in the middle of the lake waiting to come and get folks. A couple of seasons ago they had the dude who burnt his shelter down in the middle of the night and he had to wait until the morning for help. And there are places were the contestants have moved that helicopters cannot get to easily.

I think the best the contestants can do is push the panic button and help that Production gets there soon enough but it might not. I also think that contestants could know that if they push the panic button they are done. If Production comes because they are worried about a bear attack, and there is no bear attack, they are still done.

[AZChristian]

I know that on Naked & Afraid, there are production staff nearby during daylight hours (filming).  They sometimes call for a medic against the wishes of the contestants.  And the encampment for those crews is fairly nearby.  On one episode, a contestant tried to sneak into the crew tent to steal some food for his partner.

But the entire concept of Alone is that these folks ARE alone.  As far as I've been able to find, the ONLY people they see during their time "out there" are medical crew.  They are checked once a week at first, and then the time between medical checks lessens, ending up with every 3-4 days after the contestants are (probably) weaker from hunger, etc.  During medical checks, they are only supposed to answer health-related questions put to them, there's no chatting about sports teams, etc.  

Guns are forbidden.  I don't know, but I would assume that things like air horns would be replaced if necessary. 

Can you imagine the release form these folks have to sign?

[LittleIggy]

I think the release form is one way they narrow the field of contestants! 

[Jeanne222]

18 hours ago, Melina22 said:

I don't know about the guns, but I know what you mean. If they get rushed by a grizzly, do they really have to wait 30 minutes for a boat to come and basically, collect their corpse? If Colter falls into the icy water and drops his yellow alert button, is that it? He freezes and drowns? Maybe the answer is yes, but it's hard to believe. 

Then again, if there are secret safety resources, why was Rose crying about the bear? Why was Theresa crying because she was lost? 

It's confusing. 

My thought would be that when they decide to do something risky crew is informed and near.

We only see what they want us to see.    How much and how long.

This season has been pretty boring.  Too remote and too nothing of an area.  The scary scenes spice it up a bit to believers.

[Kelda Feegle]

I like Biko - I too sing made up songs when alone :-)

Glad Theresa is safe.

[Yeah No]

On 7/19/2021 at 12:39 PM, Jeanne222 said:

I don't know but sometimes I wonder how Reality TV this really is.  People almost drowning.  Bears galore.  Nothing to eat.  No gill nets until 45 days.  No trapping squirrels?

That's just preposterous.  I'm sorry but I'm kind of disbelieving this whole program.

LOL, I don't blame you.  I too wonder just how "Alone" they really are.  I'm sure they have to take some precautions when people are in potentially dangerous situations like this.

Speaking of the ban on squirrel trapping, obviously that didn't impede Rose's ability to catch a rabbit.  I really know next to nothing about this stuff but I would imagine that the type of trap that she used would work for a rabbit but not a squirrel.  That's making me wonder why we haven't seen more rabbit trapping this season like in one former season in particular where we saw rabbits galore.

[ProfCrash]

4 hours ago, Yeah No said:

LOL, I don't blame you.  I too wonder just how "Alone" they really are.  I'm sure they have to take some precautions when people are in potentially dangerous situations like this.

Speaking of the ban on squirrel trapping, obviously that didn't impede Rose's ability to catch a rabbit.  I really know next to nothing about this stuff but I would imagine that the type of trap that she used would work for a rabbit but not a squirrel.  That's making me wonder why we haven't seen more rabbit trapping this season like in one former season in particular where we saw rabbits galore.

Squirrels hibernate so the hypothesis is that there is a date where they can use snares that is set based on when the squirrels hibernate.  

I would also think that the meat is great but that none of the animals they hunt have a lot of fat on them and the contestants need fat. The fish is what they need because it has the fat that they need. I know native Alaskans that live in the super cold parts of Alaska still hunt seals because they eat the seal fat with many meals. As in they harvest, store, and add seal fat to their meals. 

So the rabbits are good for morale but they are not the nutrient that they need most, which is fat. 

[diebartdie]

Back in the early seasons, the first episode was always devoted to showing sort of all the prep that happens before the show really starts. They would show the "boot camp" where all the contestants (and I think "second string" contestants in case any of the "primary" cast failed during boot camp) demonstrated their various skills as well as got educated about the area they were in as well as various regulations, etc. They would go into pretty good detail showing that the production staff was scouting the area months before show time, picking all the "roughly equal" camp spots, ensuring they were truly isolated and also setting up base camp. From what they showed, nothing was close to anything else. They also showed how they taught the contestants to set up various types of shots with their cameras ("ok, set a camera down, walk away, now walk towards the camera, ok that's the shot"). They showed how the producers picked up all the recordings, broken cameras and spent batteries (and then replenishing those) at med checks.

On multiple occasions contestants have burned down their shelters and then needed to tap but producers were unable to get to the contestant until many hours later, in at least one instance, a contestant had to spend the entire night completely exposed in sub-freezing temperature due to it being impossible to get to that contestant at night.

The very worst instance though had to have been in either season 1 or 2 when a contestant was very nearly attacked by a bear. The producers knew they were HOURS away from this contestant and they also knew the contestant had moved very far from where his original camp had been, the producers had no real idea where this contestant actually was. After that season the producers implemented the rule that all contestants must have that gps enabled phone on them at all times as well as the flotation device whenever they are in the water AND YET this season we've seen many instances where contestants are NOT adhering to this rule which is very worrying.

If I hadn't watched this show from the first season (and hadn't re-watched the first three seasons as many times as I have), I would never believe these people are really all that alone. I accept that things change and maybe this season is all bullshit but I really think it is just as raw as it seems.

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Squirrels hibernate so the hypothesis is that there is a date where they can use snares that is set based on when the squirrels hibernate.  

I would also think that the meat is great but that none of the animals they hunt have a lot of fat on them and the contestants need fat. The fish is what they need because it has the fat that they need. I know native Alaskans that live in the super cold parts of Alaska still hunt seals because they eat the seal fat with many meals. As in they harvest, store, and add seal fat to their meals. 

So the rabbits are good for morale but they are not the nutrient that they need most, which is fat. 

You're right of course, but if that's the case then why aren't the people that aren't rabbit hunting trying to catch more fish?  It seems like some are continuing to attempt fishing but others seem to have given up, presumably until they can place gill nets.  I think at least some of them have tried fishing and failed so I would think they'd do the math and decide that any protein, even with no fat on it is better than no protein at all, at least for now.