Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪

- The wind is really picking up.

I need to get the hell off of this rock.

♪

- [groans] [bleep]!

Oh, I'm having leg cramps. [bleep]!

[groans]

- Holy [bleep].

I got a fire.

I don't really have time to [bleep] around

and feel sorry for myself.

- There is something screaming outside.

♪

♪

male announcer: In "Alone's" coldest location ever,

ten participations fight to survive the Arctic.

- The Arctic is one of

the most physically demanding places on Earth.

- So fricking cold right now.

announcer: Battling subzero temperatures...

- This climate's harsh, it's extreme, it's mean.

It's got teeth.

- Get caught out here in a whiteout, you're in trouble.

announcer: Vicious predators...

- Just heard something big moving back there.

- Me against the wolverine right now.

announcer: And isolation.

- There's nothing to fill that void.

It's just you left alone with your thoughts.

announcer: How long will they endure?

- The post is on fire!

- I'm scared, but I don't want to die.

- This is the most unforgiving landscape I've ever seen.

announcer: The last one standing wins.

- This environment will strip away everything and anything

you thought you had.

♪

[tense music]

♪

♪

[fire crackling]

- So I need to deal with this scenario here.

'Cause it's pretty freaking disgusting.

I'm gonna show you the survival manicure Arctic-style.

♪

First I need a soak.

Imagine if I went into a spa right now?

♪

I can hear the soft music playing,

all the colors of nail polish you get to choose from.

And the lady's horrifying face looking at my nails.

Look at that. Like look at that.

That's pretty good.

Now I'm gonna rinse that out.

I'm gonna make a squirrel soup tonight.

Oh!

♪

You know, there's just these highs and lows

that I'm going through.

And frankly, I'm coming out of the lows really good.

I'm just, like, trying to focus on all the great things.

Like I have food gathered.

Only mushrooms, crowberries, blueberries,

and a squirrel soup.

I'm gonna try just a little chunk.

I gotta say, it's actually pretty good.

♪

You know, I've had some injuries

that could've gone south.

And to have them heal so quickly

has been miraculous for me, really.

♪

I feel like I've been taught something there about...

♪

Holy [bleep]!

Oh, [bleep]!

[pot clanging] I've got a fire.

♪

Holy [bleep].

♪

Oh, [bleep].

♪

The post is on fire.

I gotta push it over.

♪

All in there. [panting]

[bleep]! God.

♪

Come on.

Come on!

[grunting]

[clattering] No!

[panting] Come on, fire!

♪

Oh! Stop burning.

♪

[bleep]!

This is... [bleep]!

Raging!

♪

Come on, snow.

♪

Put the fire out.

♪

[bleep]!

♪

Come on, fire. Stop burning.

♪

Oh!

[shuffling, groaning]

Oh, [bleep].

[panting] Oh!

[panting heavily]

♪

[panting]

♪

[moaning]

♪

I just, uh--it started my house on fire.

I--everything's on fire and I think I got it out.

It was blazing around me, like...

[sighs]

That was seriously so scary, like...

I have no idea how I'm not burnt.

Maybe I am. I don't know.

But I was seriously pulling off burning logs.

Look at my hands. They're just trashed.

Like... [sighs]

[bleep].

♪

Oh, it's just terrible.

I saw that fire and it was just high.

And before I knew it, like, I was too late.

♪

[dramatic music]

[winds howling]

♪

♪

♪

- Who's a good girl?

I hate when people talk to their dogs like that.

I don't hate it. It just drives me batty.

Who's a good girl?

Would you want a biscuit? You want a biscuit?

Good girl. Good girl.

Although if somebody talked to me like that right now

and they were like, "You want a biscuit?"

I'd be like, "Yeah, man." [chuckles]

Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do, yeah, I do.

Give me a biscuit.

♪

I couldn't sleep last night and this morning.

♪

Probably nothing in my sets today

because of the storm last night.

But I'm still gonna go check Swamp Grass Suzie.

♪

Well, guys, I got both good news and bad news.

Good news is we didn't lose our barrel.

Bad news is, [bleep] got trashed.

Every step I take feels like failure.

The only thing keeping me here is stubbornness

and the hope that my traplines are gonna produce

something more for me in the next couple of days.

Like that's--that's it.

If I don't get some proper food, I'm [bleep].

For sure.

♪

I've got to get to those trapping grounds

and see if there's any more snares I could set.

♪

I don't have a boat.

So I can't hunt big game.

And with fishing out,

trapping is my only food source.

It's the only thing that's gotten me any food.

And at this point, it's the only thing

that is going to get me any food.

♪

So I see there's nothing in my first set down there.

No tracks, still nothing.

It's going to be useless to set that one.

I don't know why I leave it up--wishful thinking.

And I thought I'd have a little bit more

trapping opportunities.

Turns out, not really so much, eh?

[tsks]

[sighs]

Haven't really had that before.

Uh-oh.

[sniffles]

[sobbing]

Oh, you guys, I want this so bad.

Oh, [bleep].

[sobs]

[sniffles]

♪

It doesn't matter how hard my resolve is.

It doesn't matter how hard my heart is.

♪

It needs more of that food in it.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

[hissing]

- God, I can't believe I burned down my shelter last night.

I--I can't believe I'm laughing about it.

It was really scary.

Considering the big windstorm we had,

it's like some sort of miracle I'm okay.

♪

I need to work really hard today

and work on fixing this shelter up.

The older the poles get, creosote and char happens

to the bark.

So I'm just gonna have to try to pack tightly.

Branches and trees. Green ones only.

♪

But all the ash and the soot will get caught on the bark

and it'll form this kind of dust

that I'm gonna just scrape off every five days or so

to make sure that it doesn't hold a spark.

Right now, I'm just walking at a slow-ass pace.

I just have to.

♪

This shelter setback is gonna take me

two, three days.

And I'm gonna have to put out a lot of energy.

It's gonna take something a little off of me.

[sighs]

♪

I'm happy with the work I got done.

But it was, like, a lot of effort.

♪

I don't know how many calories I burnt today

but it was way too many.

♪

You should not be wasting energy

rebuilding shelters so late in the game.

♪

♪

♪

- So I'm trying this new thing out here.

Apparently, it's all the rage.

It's called breakfast!

[sniffing]

Oh, my goodness.

♪

Oh, mama. Whoo-hee!

You know, the funny thing is I want more than anything else

for my wife and kids to be out here.

♪

I'm gonna miss my little girl's birthday.

My wife, she's big into birthdays.

She is good at it.

My daughter wanted a camping birthday.

She made this cake.

It looked exactly like a fire.

I mean, it was so cool.

She's a good mom.

♪

[sighs] Well, now what?

[fire cracks]

♪

♪

- [sighs]

♪

Give me a "v," give me an "I,"

give me a "C," give me a "T,"

give me an "O," give me an "R,"

give me a "Y"!

What's that spell?

Victory!

♪

As of late, the fishing-- it's hit or miss.

So I'm gonna check my trapline.

[water running]

♪

I've been having a hard time.

My lethargic, I've had severe leg cramps,

and I know that's due to a deficiency.

I--I'm missing something.

♪

I need to get some food in me.

All right, so it's that time again to check my trapline.

I'm going to go into the forest here a little bit

and see what I can see.

I'm also looking for, you know, paw marks, prints,

anything like that.

So let's head on out.

Well, I'll be damned!

Look what I got myself.

That's a snow hare.

Look at that.

♪

Outstanding.

♪

My heart is so full.

I'm so grateful for the abundance here.

This means so many things.

This means longevity in the game.

This means more days out here without cringing hunger pains.

♪

That's quite a bit of meat.

Its entrails means that I have bait.

I'm just so grateful.

I have such an attitude of gratitude for this abundance.

♪

It smells amazing.

[clanging]

[Italian accent] Buon appetito!

Yes, uh-huh. Enjoy.

[fire cracking]

One of its kidneys.

[sighs]

Man, it just feels good to have...

meat sustenance, you know, just happening in your mouth.

It's so freaking fantastic.

Oh! This is all meat right here.

Oh! [chuckles]

♪

Today was a good day.

I feel good. I'm in a great headspace.

And I, uh, put together a better plan for--

[clanging]

[rustling]

♪

There a bear comingto get my [bleep].

♪

They could just be feet away, waiting.

♪

I feel like I want to launch a bear banger

off the top of my shelter just to make sure it moves away.

♪

[pop]

[bang in distance]

[bear roars]

[rustling]

Holy [bleep].

A bear came to my shelter.

And, uh, circled it numerous times.

Unafraid of making noise. Any of that.

Began trying to find a way in,

kind of scratching at my barrels around the sides.

Messing with some cans that I have.

My arrow is ready.

I thought about just taking a shot at it over--

when it was over here.

You know, this side of my shelter but...

♪

I didn't know where to shoot at. High, low.

♪

[bleep], that was eye-opening.

♪

It now knows I'm here and it now knows I have food,

which means I'm gonna probably have to make

a few changes here around camp.

I'm gonna have to wait till first light.

♪

♪

Out here, you often wonder

are you predator or prey?

And I think whenever you take on the mentality

of a predator...

I am going out here. I am gonna hunt.

I'm gonna kill. I'm gonna feed myself.

It switches the way you behave.

You're far more aware, you're far more focused,

you're looking for that opportunity to pounce.

What I need to do is get creative.

It's hard to hear them walk through.

So I need some kind of detection system.

♪

So what I wanna do is I wanna overload my offense

to the right side.

I'm gonna--I'm gonna take this, uh, rabbit carcass, right?

And I might just put it under a big rock

and that way he'll have to kind of dig for it

and--and--and kind of root for it.

But he'll--but he'll--but he'll stay in that area.

Make it easier to get a shot off.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take all my bait

and I'm gonna just pile it right here.

Put this big rock on top.

I want it to make some noise.

So what I'm gonna do is

I'm gonna put small stones in this can.

So whenever it gets disturbed, I'll hear it.

[rattling]

Even if I have waves and wind, hopefully.

So there's my setup.

I'm putting all my eggs in one basket

right here outside my tent.

I have a shooting lane right here

if he comes down this trail.

I have a shooting lane here.

If this freaking works,

I'll go down in the hillbilly hall of fame.

♪

♪

- I'm just kind of scanning the area.

Today is certainly nice out.

♪

There's lighter colored patches.

They're all ice.

♪

It's neat to finally get to the bottom of, like,

all these sounds I've been hearing at night.

'Cause at night, when it gets really cold,

that's when things kind of go crazy out here.

It's just loud slams and it sounds like rockfall.

Except it's consistent.

♪

Okay, just coming up on the, uh, fishing area.

Ooh, is there a fish in there?

Is that the guts?

Oh, hallelujah.

I got another fish.

Sweet!

I am--I'm experiencing goose bumps right now

on my entire body.

Everything is tingly right now at how much this means.

Oh, man, that was so sweet.

Hypothermia is definitely what I think about a lot.

I'd say it got more people outdoors than anything else.

So got a, uh, P.F.D.

Just don't want to end up

not being able to get out if I go in.

[water splashing]

[sighs]

I'd say that's about a, ooh...

19 or 20 inch fish?

And, uh, hopefully it's pretty tasty.

I hear these are delicious, actually.

So I'm looking forward to eating this guy.

♪

I have a week's worth of food there.

♪

I was just thinking about, you know,

how my life would be different

with the prize money from this

and making it less abstract.

Making it less of the, like,

"Oh, yeah! You're gonna be wealthy."

What--what does that mean, really?

There's a lot of people who are wealthy in the world

who have miserable lives

and they squander whatever they have anyways.

So I don't want to squander any of it.

If I'm gonna have money,

I'm gonna buy some land and I'm gonna work that land.

To be able to put all my work in one place

where I can see it accumulate and turn into my life...

oh, I want it so bad.

♪

I'm just gonna have to remember that

if I do this, it'll be the last time I have to survive.

No more worrying about whether I can pay rent.

I can just live.

Short of an emergency, I'm not leaving here

until they come get me.

My first bite of lake whitefish right here.

[fire crackles]

Mmm, very light.

Good.

♪

♪

- Little frosty out here.

Lake's freezing over.

Look at that business, guys.

I have to really be careful not to slip.

My back can't handle it.

Oh, she's slick.

♪

[sniffles]

♪

[slurping]

[sighs]

Fresh water, man. Oh, my God.

And I'm still tired.

But I'm gonna go check my snares.

♪

They tell you about the hunger,

they tell you about the loneliness,

but I've never heard anybody talk about

how weak they are.

I've got to take it slow and easy, that's for sure.

I've got no energy.

I've got to get some more calories in me for sure.

My body's not going to be able to withstand that for long

if I don't start getting some protein inside of me.

I'm just gonna go through this area.

and find something hidden in these

spruce trees I haven't seen before.

Oh, hold on.

There's a little rabbit trap down there.

♪

You dirty [bleep]. Look at that, I got him.

Look at, you guys. Look at that!

Look what mama got.

Look it.

[panting]

[sobbing]

I got him.

[sobbing]

Oh!

Oh, [bleep]. I caught a rabbit.

Oh, frick.

I need more of these rabbits, that's for sure.

But for today...

today I get food.

♪

And today I have extra for a while.

Oh, my God!

♪

[sniffling]

As I said before, mentally I'm in this game, you guys.

Like I'm in it. I want this so bad!

So bad!

I want to be here and I want this.

I want all of this.

♪

Thank goodness.

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

- Holy crap, check it out.

If you can see behind me,

the shoreline is totally iced up.

The weather has super freaking shifted.

So, as often happens,

all of a sudden I'm really motivated

to jump on some shelter things.

There is no questioning that all of a sudden

it is Arctic winter.

Let's go harvest some poles then.

I am not prepared for it to be fully snowed in yet.

♪

I just have to haul these up.

I mean, I've been preparing.

I knew this was on its way anytime now.

It's just...

I can only do so much at once

and there's always more preparing one can do.

[sighs]

Hard work.

[pants]

All right, so I have this whole pile of poles down here.

All for the exterior wall.

Let's get going, 'cause time is a-wastin'.

♪

Log cabins are nice in that you can seal them well.

But wood is not very insulative.

You're losing a ton of your heat,

so in order to have it be actually insulative

and hold heat, you need airspace in the middle.

So I'm doing double walls.

So it's basically like a log cabin inside a log cabin.

So lovely to be outside right now

in this clear night.

Definitely cold, but I'm working hard.

Ooh.

The temperatures are plunging a lot at night,

which is part of why I end up doing a lot of construction

in the dusk because being active

is really helping me stay warm

and it's making the night feel way less long

and oppressive.

Okay, well, it is late and my headlamp is about to die.

But I am pretty darned psyched with this job.

♪

♪

All right, check it out.

[mimics heavenly choir]

My beautiful east wall.

Just like I've been picturing it.

All nicely insulated in between with spruce boughs

and chinked with sphagnum moss.

You can see the double layer effect here

and the interior peeled wall, all nicely chinked.

One of the big things is to get it totally sealed,

so the dual wall system with insulation in between

and trying to get that everywhere.

My hope is that, once I have the cabin more dialed in,

that I'll do more serious big game hunting missions.

So yeah, I've got big plans still.

♪

- It was a nice little nap.

I was able to get myself recentered.

I came outside and you see where this can is?

Right here?

Right there?

That's where the other one was and it's out here now.

See?

I didn't hear a thing.

But then again, I was sleeping so deeply.

So I'm trying to look around here and...

let's see what else I can see.

Yeah, here's...

♪

Yeah.

That's a fresh track here and here

and through here.

And it's--it's smaller.

So it looks like a fox.

♪

So a little old fox came in,

tried to give himself a quick meal.

They're making the effort to come by

and grab whatever's available.

And it's screwing up my plan to try and attract a bear.

♪

I really need that bear to come to my camp.

♪

Love to [bleep] have it.

Come on, man.

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

- Holy, am I happy about that bunny.

I know that if I can just keep some food

inside my belly,

that nothing will send me home from here.

Game change for Michelle.

I'd love for my husband to come find me here.

You know?

I hope he remembers to bring back my wedding ring.

I miss wearing it.

♪

I made him take it off in the airport

before I got on a plane to come here.

He says you put that ring on me.

Nobody's allowed to take it off but you, you know?

♪

I didn't bring a picture of my family

because they're with me in my heart,

yes, and all those things.

But they're not with me here on this journey.

I'm here by myself.

I'd like to pretend that they're here with me,

but they're not.

They're waiting for me to be done.

And that's the way I look at it, like,

you don't look back, you've already been there.

You look forwards 'cause that's the way you're going.

And I'm not done here yet.

I have something for you guys.

[hums "Pop Goes the Weasel"]

♪ It's unfortunate that I got caught ♪

♪ But she's going to enjoy all of me ♪

[hums "Pop Goes the Weasel"]

I hope there's more bunnies where this one came from.

I got his ears up but now his face is flat.

Look at it, he's got his little whiskers on there.

[clicking noises]

His little mouth hole.

See?

It looks like a little tongue.

Whiskers, eyeballs, that's right.

I know what I'm doing.

I didn't want to forget to do the puppet show for you guys.

♪ Pop goes the weasel

♪

[water dripping]

♪

♪

- Okay, um, good morning.

[smacks lips]

Last night, I went fishing. Got skunked.

They weren't even biting though.

They--they were-- there was nothing.

So I think I went out a little too late.

So I'll go out earlier.

Other than that...

[paper rustling]

Miss the family.

Miss the family like crazy.

Oh, I'm excited to see them.

My new favorite to lay in your sleeping b-bag

and dream about is Thanksgiving.

We went camping for Thanksgiving

with the grandparents and--and, uh, the kids.

So in my mind, I set it up where the tents are gonna go,

you know, which sleeping bags are gonna go to which kids.

Oh, no, uh, what do I do about pads for them to sleep on?

And I just think through the whole process

and I love it.

I can sit in my sleeping bag and think about that for hours.

♪

It is a hard day today.

I missed my daughter's birthday

so that kind of sucked.

She's getting really good at reading.

And, uh, God, I just want to listen to her

read a book to me.

♪

Other than that, it's sunny, beautiful.

Yeah, let's go fishing.

'Cause that's kind of the most exciting thing

in my life right now.

♪

You know, I have food in my food storage.

I can get more food.

All my physical needs are met.

There's nothing that is--

that needs to be conquered.

There's nothing other than this--this absence,

this void, this emptiness.

That's the time.

Time has now become my enemy.

♪

I'm really bored.

Like on a scale from one to ten, I'm, like, a 12.

Well, the fish aren't biting.

♪

There's moments where you just--you think what the heck

am I doing out here? This is stupid.

I've got a life I love, you know?

The most important things in the world to me

are somewhere else.

Why did I leave them?

But the flip side of that is

I don't want to embarrass them or shame them.

So you're kind of stuck.

You're gonna stay.

No wife wants to watch her husband quit.

♪

I'm over this place.

♪

[groans]

♪

I mean, I got six fillets still to eat.

So it doesn't matter about the fish, but...

♪

There's just nothing here, just...

♪

Time. Just killing time. Just wasting time.

♪

Waiting for something.

I'm going nuts.

I'm going absolutely nuts.

♪

♪

- I'm getting prepared to move inside a little bit more.

Use this shelter to its fullest.

So I'm gonna move my drying rack over

into the smoke a little bit more.

This is my life now.

This is what I do with my time.

And there is a lot of it. Time.

♪

Sometimes you could put movies in

and watch four movies that night to kind of tune out.

You could touch base with the kids.

You know how their day was. You know what's going on.

But here there's nothing.

♪

So you've got this catch-22.

'Cause if you sit here

and you don't spend your calories,

then you get really depressed

and miss your family.

But if you go do something,

you're burning all your calories.

♪

When I joined the military,

you know, I was an unattached, single guy.

Now I've built this life around these kids

that are my universe, my world, you know?

And my--my wife that I absolutely love and cherish.

In my suit of armor that I'm building up for this show,

I never realized that that was the biggest chink

that was gonna get me.

[sighs]

♪

♪

- I don't know what happened. I woke up this morning.

[wind howling]

Just trying to think about things to film.

Think about the routine.

Go fishing, chop wood.

♪

I keep thinking how long will you stay?

How many days is good enough?

And I pull out the picture of those kids

and I look at them

and I think who the hell cares about ego, pride?

♪

I miss knowing how their day was.

♪

Anyways, I think I'm done.

♪

[beeping]

♪

- It's Nicholls. I am officially tapping out.

♪

- Hi, Brady. - Hello.

I thought--I mean,

I--I--I was really confident coming into this.

I thought it was going to be about who could outlast

the hunger and the--and the cold and all that.

But that stuff's easy; like I'm warm, dry, comfortable.

I got another week and a half's worth of food stored up there.

It's not that.

It's just sitting here waiting for time to pass

while the--my little kids are doing their thing

somewhere else and it's just driving me nuts.

Screw the ego. I don't care anymore, you know?

I'm done-- done waiting for time.

♪

Originally I thought I was doing this for the money.

I thought I'd come out here

and this money would be life-changing.

But it's just-- money comes and money goes.

It doesn't change who I am.

I'm not gonna sell myself for it.

The money would be great, but I got a job.

I do well. I just--I don't need it.

I miss being happy, I miss being a dad,

and I'm missing my kids' life.

And 100% being a husband and being a dad

are my joy in life.

That's what I live for. That's what I love.

That's what makes life worthwhile to me.

So now I'm going home,

and there's going to be some little three-foot boogers

that are gonna come running

and I get to go play with those kids.

You know what I mean? And life continues.

♪

- [gasps]

You son of a bitch!

A dirty fox got my rabbit.

- I'm gonna let him wear himself out

as much as I can here.

Hope everything holds.

[splash] No, no, no, no, no!

[squirrel chirps]

[yelling]

It bit me, like, bad.

- Now I really want to kill that wolverine.

[panting]

[grunting, wolverine growls]

♪