07x06 - The Musk Ox

[bunniefuu]

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- Holy [bleep].
Bear.

If I want that bear,

I need to be
at the berry patch.

♪ ♪

- Dang, my gill net snapped.

Look at that.

Don't fall in the water.

- So I've been trying
every day

to get a little bit done
on the shelter,

but catching more game--
that's my focus.

This is a fat trout.

- I'm gonna sneak up
over this rock

and hopefully get one in him.

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

♪ ♪

male narrator:
For the first time,

ten participants will fight
to survive the Arctic

for longer than anyone
in "Alone" history...

a grueling 100 days.

- This is the ultimate
challenge.

♪ ♪

- A hundred days
in the Arctic is no joke.

narrator:
If they can endure,

they'll win
the biggest prize ever:

$1 million.

♪ ♪

- Whoa!

- Holy [bleep]!

- You can't tap out

when there's a million bucks
on the line.

- Oh, my gosh.
[growls]

- How hard can you work
for $10,000 a day?

- It looks like frostbite.

[screams]

- Oh, [bleep]!

narrator: This is "Alone:
Million Dollar Challenge."

- They're just surrounding
my shelter.

[wolf growling]

♪ ♪

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

[music swells]

♪ ♪

- We struck it.
We just hit that muskox.

We just hit that muskox.

♪ ♪

We just got an arrow

in a giant bull muskox.

That was probably 35 yards.

Holy [bleep].

[eerie tones]

I think he's gonna go someplace
and bleed out.

There was a bunch
of blood, man.

♪ ♪

He's going up
over the rock ridge.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[whispers]
He's right up here.

I'm gonna wait a little bit.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Daylight's getting thin.

I got no arrows.

I gotta do something.

♪ ♪

Sometimes you just
gotta go for it.

♪ ♪

[muskox growls]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[music swells]

♪ ♪

[muskox growling]

♪ ♪

[growling]

♪ ♪

[whimpers]

[music fades]

[breathing heavily]

You ain't gonna [bleep]
believe this.

[panting]

I just stabbed this muskox
to death.

Oh, my Lord.

Hoo, hoo, hoo!

We got big game.

Big game at Rock House.

[sighs]

We are very thankful.

I still have a long road
ahead of me,

but this is so big.

There's a hundred emotions
going through me

at this very moment.

♪ ♪

Got a lot to do here quick.

We got about an hour
and a half of light.

♪ ♪

We gotta pop the guts
out of him.

♪ ♪

The chase took me two miles
away from Rock House.

It's getting dark.

Right now, I wanna take
all these organs home.

That is the most valuable part
of the k*ll.

That is where
the best nutrients are.

Right there, baby--

fresh heart.

Feeding time.

This is a pure animal
out of the pure wilderness.

There's absolutely
nothing wrong with it,

and it's mealtime warm.

♪ ♪

Now that's pure energy
right there.

I love it.

We're gonna need that
by the time we get home.

And there's still
a lot of work to do yet.

We're gonna get blessed
from this so many ways,

your freaking eyeballs
are gonna spin.

[ominous music]

Holy [bleep].

♪ ♪

We're gonna have to make
a break for camp, I'm afraid.

I hate to shut down,

but we gotta do it.

I just got one side
of the hide pulled off.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna carry it
in my raincoat,

what I'm taking back first.

I wanna wrap all
these entrails up.

There's just hardly
no fat on him,

no internal fat, you know?

No kidney fat.

Mostly the kidneys are all
wrapped in a big, fat ball.

Little wee bit of fat
in the intestines.

♪ ♪

And there--
that bundle will ride.

We've gotta make tracks.
I can't help it.

♪ ♪

We're just gonna bed down
and try to be up early

before them birds get out
and anything else finds it.

♪ ♪

[haunting music]

♪ ♪

[bear growling]

♪ ♪

- We can see...

Man, look at that.

Some is more recent, man.

You can tell by how fresh
the berries are.

Hopefully it's not
after my smoked fish.

[whimsical music]

♪ ♪

I'm catching all this fish.

I think that I have
really good chances

to lasting a very long time.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

It should be
way more insulated

and protected,

and a bear would have
a hard time

trying to break in
to get my fish.

That will get me time
to get up.

The lake is calm,

so I wanna check the gill net.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Oh, [bleep].

[tense music]

[bleep].
Oh, my God.

♪ ♪

The gill net's gone.

Whoa.

♪ ♪

Ugh.

This is really terrible.

That thing produce a whole
month of food, straight up.

Full month of food supply.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[solemn music]

♪ ♪

- We gotta get moving

and head up the mountain
and out to the muskox.

I'm worried there's
some critters on it.

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

I'm worried about a wolverine
or a bear

getting on this thing
in the night.

That's the main danger of me
losing this meat.

♪ ♪

I've had animals get my kills.

I've busted my a*s,
go down the next day,

and there's a grizzly bear
on it.

Got the whole thing buried.
It's ruined.

♪ ♪

Bear'll ruin it in one night.

It'd be a shame to lose it.

♪ ♪

Wow, something ate a bunch
of the stomach liner.

But he didn't do no damage
to the muskox.

The muskox is safe.
Phew.

Gotta be careful.

We got a lot of work
to do right now, a lot.

[dramatic music]

What the hell is that?

♪ ♪

Thought I heard something.

[sighs]

♪ ♪

We gotta get
the hell moving.

♪ ♪

Here we go.

♪ ♪

I need to get it butchered up

and moved away
from the k*ll site.

Everything always comes
to that k*ll site first.

[groans]

Then I'll start pack-ratting.

There's one leg.

Whew, nice.

Next, we'll go
for a front shoulder.

♪ ♪

Butchering's brutal.
It is hard work.

[grunts, sighs]

But I do that for a living.
I have that advantage.

I've packed tons of meat
on my back.

Tenderloin right there, baby.

That's gonna be our reward
for this day's hard work.

Red meat.

I'm probably one of the most
experienced wilderness guides

on the face of the planet.

But a hundred days
unsupplied, that's heavy duty.

This is some
real [bleep] here.

[grunting]

♪ ♪

You gotta try to think it
all through.

[birds cawing]

The wilderness will
make you more alert

to your surroundings
and what could happen to you.

You just have to be

because there's nobody
backing you up here.

♪ ♪

These birds are sure
circling us hard.

I'll just keep shuttling
everything up little by little

where I can keep the birds
off of it.

Oh, the camp robbers found us.

Now we got them in here too.

♪ ♪

Man, oh, man.

♪ ♪

Butchering, whew.

I am whipped.

I just wanna get everything to
the top of that highest point.

I'm just gonna cache
that stuff there

and come back later.

It's getting late.

♪ ♪

We're taking the hide too.

That's what's gonna cover
the meat while we're gone.

And then go rocks
all around the hide,

and then a bunch of trees
on top of that.

Always worried about
something getting on it.

We're gonna be busy
for a couple more days

getting this to camp.

I hope it's all safe,

but I can't do no more.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- [groans]

♪ ♪

- ♪ I got a home that's
more like a shack ♪

♪ I got a bed that's
more like a rack ♪

♪ I got a fire that's burning ♪

♪ That keeps
my heart a-yearning ♪

♪ To stay out here
for another day ♪

♪ The goal is to make it
to a hundred days ♪

♪ So I sit here
and I'm praying ♪

♪ Yeah, folks,
listen to what I'm saying ♪

♪ I need fish in my gill net ♪

♪ I need rabbits
in my trap set ♪

♪ Yeah, a moose,
where's the moose at ♪

♪ I've seen lots of bear
and lots of bear scat ♪

♪ And this is
the life I'm living ♪

♪ I've been waiting for
for a minute ♪

♪ But trust me
I miss my little one ♪

♪ So I sit inside
by the fire ♪

♪ That's burning so bright ♪

♪ And think about
what I'll say, hey ♪

♪ To that camera
I carry all day ♪

[vocalizing]

♪ ♪

[laughs]

Now that's a song right there.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Gonna go check
the gill net now.

♪ ♪

I've been lucky to catch
a lot of fish in my gill net.

Fish are like my life line
out here.

They've been saving me.
They've been keeping me fed.

Come on, fishy.

♪ ♪

But recently,
things have changed.

♪ ♪

No fish today.

♪ ♪

I went from two, to three,
to four fish a day

down to none.

[eerie music]

Right now, I just have the
fish hanging up in the cache.

I have to figure out
a new strategy,

devising ways to put food
in the food cache every day.

Maybe they're moving deeper.
I don't know.

So we're gonna lower
the net down.

Yes, we are.

The game plan is
to lower the gill net

about another 10 feet
in the water.

[exciting music]

We're gonna try
and angle the net this way

'cause I think
the water's deeper there.

♪ ♪

I haven't even started to hit
the tip of the hard part.

When the weather gets
real cold,

it's gonna get extremely hard.

I don't know how this is
gonna work out, but...

♪ ♪

When I became a Recon Marine,

that's the hardest thing
I've ever done in my life.

This isn't harder
than being a Recon Marine.

It's not harder
than being a Scout sn*per.

It's just as hard.

It's hard in a different way.

I have no clue what
my gill net looks like,

but, I mean, it's deep.

It's not just about me.

I'm doing this for my son,
and I'm doing this

for all the recon and
sn*per communities out there.

I've gotta keep it up.

Hopefully some fish
get tangled up in it,

and we'll hope for the best.

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

- I had a bit of an epiphany
last night about fishing.

The ice isn't coming
as quickly as I want it to,

and I want to get out deeper,

and I keep talking
about having a boat.

So yesterday,
I walked my entire land

and I found a barrel.

If I can build a raft
around the barrel,

I can sit on the barrel
as a seat,

and paddle out,
and start fishing from that.

♪ ♪

So what I'm gonna do
is get the barrel,

and then we'll build a frame.

All right.

It's just a wee bit snowing.
Nothing major.

Hopefully this isn't
the sign being like,

"This is a bad idea."

I'm running low on fuel

'cause the snaring has
kind of been frustrating.

But you have to be creative
with the stuff that you find.

Semi-desperate.
[laughs]

This is a big deal, I think.

I understand the energy
that it will take

to create this raft,

but the reward of it working,

I think,
would totally outweigh

the energy expended
to make it.

♪ ♪

I figure one fish per week
should give me enough fat

to get me to the end.

So it'll be like a raft.

I'll do three logs per side.

I'm pretty happy with...

these guys.

I think when you take on
a challenge like this,

you have to be good

at self-assessing risk.

If the consequences outweigh
the potential benefit,

then you need to think about

whether you're gonna
take that risk or not.

Trying out this raft
is going to be

one of the more
risky things to do.

If the weather picks up
and I fall in this water,

it would be a long,
cold swim back.

[dramatic music]

It's dangerous,

but I am dangerously low
on fat.

♪ ♪

Oh, I got one.
Oh, I got one!

♪ ♪

Okay, put two logs

raised up on either side,

and those'll be
my foot stirrups.

Lash it down to the raft.

All right.

♪ ♪

She's on there.
She's on there real good.

[melancholic music]

♪ ♪

- I'm taking another bath.

All I need to do is
heat up my water,

put my sock in the water,

and I just give myself
a rubdown

'cause you gotta bathe.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna start losing
weight rapidly, I'm sure,

whenever the weather gets
real cold.

[sighs]

♪ ♪

This is a good chance for me

to make sure I'm not
looking too skinny.

♪ ♪

My arm looks skinny,
that's for damn sure.

And I look clean.

[eerie music]

Time to get to work.

♪ ♪

Let's go check our gill net.

♪ ♪

High hopes for the gill net.
Come on.

I hope that the fish are
on the bottom

and I hope I set
that net up good.

Gotta get more, gotta keep
filling that cache.

Things could
change drastically

at any point in time,
so I'm gonna try all means

to try and produce food
for myself.

♪ ♪

Oh, man.
Wow.

Fresh bear poop.

That's from last night.

This is right on the trail

where I go and check
my gill net.

I would not have missed this.

So a fresh pile of bear scat?

Come on.
I'm excited.

It's still around.
That's good.

[dramatic music]

Bears just,
they're hard to hunt,

but that would be
a food source

that'll last you
for the hundred days.

♪ ♪

We're still gonna check
the gill net.

♪ ♪

So this is where we find out.

Did we catch a fish, or what?

♪ ♪

So we got ourselves
another strikeout, guys.

♪ ♪

Oh, well.
No fish today.

[tense music]

I really gotta look into
some other options for food

because the fish'll dry up.

That'll happen
and that's inevitable.

♪ ♪

We're gonna call it a day.

♪ ♪

We've got fish in the food
cache, dinner for tonight.

I'm saving my dried fish
for emergencies.

♪ ♪

Holy [bleep] cannoli.

Now I'm pissed.

[bleep].

There's my food cache, right?

And there's no fish.
That's insane.

Oh, yeah, a bear apparently
just started a w*r.

He climbed up,
grabbed the line,

and yanked on it
until it pulled the fish over.

You steal my food,
you turn into food.

♪ ♪

[exhales]

I got a fire lit
inside me, though.

And that's not good
for the bear.

♪ ♪

We're gonna devise a game plan
to k*ll this bear.

All right, the goal is
to turn these three trees

into my next
cache-slash-hunting stand.

So...

I think I may use this tree
to get to that tree to climb.

I'll be taking off
almost all the branches.

Might k*ll a bear from it.

That's where I'm
gonna put the meat.

It's far enough away
from my shelter

and it's overlooking
the berry patch.

He loves to walk in
throughout this berry patch.

[sighs]

The bears will
eventually hibernate,

so the clock's ticking.

♪ ♪

So I just need to start
putting up some poles,

and then build
my hunting stand.

It's looking good.

[sighs]
But we're not done yet.

[grunts]

[ambient music]

♪ ♪

Quitting is an option.
That's true.

But that's just not something
that I wanna do.

♪ ♪

Holy [bleep],
that was not easy.

♪ ♪

Doing this, I wanna show
Max, my son,

what it is to do something
extremely, extremely tough

'cause this is not easy.

This is hard.

♪ ♪

[sputters lips]

Failure is a part of life,

but your mind can
do amazing things,

your body can do
amazing things.

A lot of times, it's your mind
that stops first.

But if you learn from it,

you can go out and you can
change who you are,

and start doing
something better.

But you're never gonna
get there unless you start it.

That's the hardest part.

♪ ♪

I like it up here.

I can see a heck of a lot more
and see what's coming.

I want the advantage.
Now I have it.

[exhales]

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

- I'm fairly well-protected
against the wind right now.

It's not like I'm super cold,

but definitely the wind is
[bleep] driving me crazy.

It's just like...

[vocalizing]

That's what it feels like.

It feels like
the little annoying

Gripey McGriperson constantly.

I know it's an indifferent
force of nature.

I really just wish
it would stop.

[funky music]

♪ ♪

Today is pretty much
all-day shelter build.

That's the plan,
and I wanna work hard at it.

Gotta push right now.
Here we go.

♪ ♪

Going down.

I still got a lot of work
to do on this shelter.

Not gonna lie,
I'm disappointed in myself.

I didn't think
I would be this far in

and no long-term
shelter finished.

I feel like I've been
really focused on food.

♪ ♪

Mm, I made things kind of hard
on myself, didn't I?

I wanna keep working on it,
see it finished.

I definitely wanted to have
a robust shelter.

I knew that it would be
a big risk.

Just the foundational
framework has, like,

three joints on either end,

and I'm hewing
the tops of them.

I really hope that being
meticulous with this shelter

doesn't turn around
and bite me in the a*s.

I don't think my time
of forgiveness

from the Arctic winter
is gonna last much longer.

Maybe I've made a mistake.

♪ ♪

Getting a bit of a wet snow.

It's coming down,

so I'm gonna crawl
and hide away.

[sighs]
Oh.

Feeling winter gaining on me.

Each day that goes by
is another day

that adds up that
it's not finished,

and it's my fault.

I think I'm just gonna
keep myself dry in here.

♪ ♪

What the [bleep]?

[solemn music]

The tarp is just, like,
permeable right now.

The water's just coming
through it

and getting all
over everything.

♪ ♪

I think just all the fatigue
from the wind.

It's got holes
all throughout it.

It's not waterproof anymore.

♪ ♪

My biggest "can't happen"
out here is getting wet.

And if I get wet, and then
it drops well below freezing,

then I'm really screwed.

Drips are hitting this pole
and dripping down

onto my sleeping bag,
which freaked me out.

The primary sacred object
that cannot get wet

is the sleeping bag.

Down can't get wet.

They're useless
once they're wet.

♪ ♪

So I am using the chamois
for drying.

If it keeps raining like this,
I'll be done.

Wet sleeping bag
is tap out, period.

♪ ♪

It's still happening.

♪ ♪

Everything's just wet.

Why?
Why rain?

[bleep] rain!

It's not supposed to be [bleep]
raining in the [bleep] Arctic.

Son of a b*tch.

[bleep] this.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- [sputters lips]

It stopped raining
a couple hours ago.

♪ ♪

Air out a little bit.

♪ ♪

Much needed airing out.

♪ ♪

Hang up the sleeping bag
to dry.

♪ ♪

I had kind of a temper tantrum
with the wet weather,

but I still have energy,
I still can get up and about.

I've not experienced
extreme hunger.

I want to stay here
a hundred days

and win $1 million.

♪ ♪

I'm moving into
the long-term shelter today.

♪ ♪

It's not gonna be easy,

but I think I've
got a good plan.

♪ ♪

I'm moving into that shelter.

I wouldn't have the end walls
really up,

but I could definitely
get the tarp up.

And in that instance,

the tarp is at least
not gonna be dripping on me

'cause the walls
will be steep enough.

It just needs water
to run off a bit faster.

It's gonna take me
a couple days

to get enough logs up
to close this thing.

♪ ♪

It's looking good.

♪ ♪

Feeling winter at my back.

I just gotta power through.

Just as tight
as it needs to be, baby.

Yeah, okay.

♪ ♪

Okay, still moving.
Hoo.

♪ ♪

I wanna come away with the
potential to change my life,

and the primary goal
has always been

I'll buy property
and have some security

and have
a little more freedom.

And the more I'm out here,

I'm starting to think more
about the reality

of that large sum of money
that could be coming my way.

♪ ♪

So I just gotta
keep my mind set

focused on what I can
and can't control.

And sometimes,
it's gonna be wet and windy

for several days,
and I'm just gonna have

to hang up my wet sleeping bag
and try to keep warm.

It sucks, but as long
as it gets dry again,

it won't be the end of me.

♪ ♪

No rest for the weary here.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[lively music]

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

♪ ♪

- [chuckles]

Good morning.

Winter has arrived.
Check this out.

[chuckles]

I woke up
to a world transformed.

Winter is here.

Obviously there's challenges
that come with this, right?

Clay is frozen,
berries are hidden,

firewood's wet, et cetera,

but it's winter
tracking season.

Now in the snow, I can see

everything that happens
throughout the night--

every squirrel track,
every rabbit track,

where they stop and eat,
where they rest.

So the snowshoe hares
are moving.

We got tracks in the snow
which is super cool.

This is gonna be awesome.

It's gonna make
setting traps easier.

So we have the rabbits
moving that way.

We got the front feet, and then
the back feet moving that way.

So you can guess right
where their head's gonna go,

so you can place the trap
right in the exact place

that their head's gonna be.

So all right, good day
to set traps, huh?

♪ ♪

I am starting
to feel more hungry

and I am losing weight too,

so I'm very hopeful
for snowshoe hares.

♪ ♪

This is a place that's
gonna test my abilities.

I know where my edges are
for my skills,

and this is gonna
just push me past that.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

- Yes, indeed.

Boiled muskox heart

from my big, fresh k*ll.

♪ ♪

Pure energy.

♪ ♪

Oh, my.

♪ ♪

Oh, my God.

♪ ♪

Oh, Lord!
That is delicious!

Oh, h*!
[grunts]

♪ ♪

There's a big ring
off the bottom,

and it's one of my favorite
cuts of any animal--

them first three or four rings
off the bottom of the heart.

♪ ♪

That's just
a hunter's reward there.

♪ ♪

Wonderful.

That's what's gonna fuel
the next run.

We're gonna go
find our muskox.

We got wet snow,
but there's nothing I can do.

I gotta trudge out there
and keep pecking at this.

♪ ♪

It'll be all day today
packing meat.

♪ ♪

I'm taking my bow on this
first trip in the morning

because if anything got
on that,

you know, it'll still be there.

♪ ♪

I hope it's all just intact.

This thing is way out there.

As long as we don't screw up
and hurt ourself

or let something eat
all that meat,

we're looking good.

♪ ♪

We're about halfway
to the k*ll.

Just bear tracks everywhere.

♪ ♪

Little surprised
to see bear tracks.

I've seen winter bears before.
It ain't real common.

♪ ♪

Hopefully he didn't
disturb the k*ll.

[tense music]

Oh, no.

♪ ♪

Head is over there.

♪ ♪

Bear came in
and raided my muskox cache.

♪ ♪

They started to eat
the lip off right here.

Started to eat
the lip off there.

This bear, he cleaned
the tongue out,

and all the meat right here
in the back of the head,

the good jowl meat.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

Oh, we gotta get
the hell moving.

My main concern is
to get back to Rock House.

♪ ♪

It's gonna be a heavy,
heavy, heavy load,

but I'm determined
to take it all.

I gotta cover it back up.

We'll just have to pray
nothing gets in this.

♪ ♪

Packing meat, one
of the hardest jobs there is.

Brutal, hard work.
There ain't no half measures.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Holy [bleep].

♪ ♪

First load in.

[grunts]
That was brutal.

♪ ♪

I packed a good many critters
in on my back.

Big ones--moose, caribou,
sheep, bear hides.

I've probably hauled in 20 ton
of meat on my shoulders.

Every year, they're getting
a little heavier.

It's starting to snow.

This snow is just slippery.

♪ ♪

I'm concerned every day about
burning too many calories,

but I gotta finish this.

It probably is a good mile
and a half or more.

Whoo.

What a battle.

I am burnt,

and we gotta go back
and get another one.

Wow!

[ominous music]

Time to roll.

So if it stays safe
one more night,

tomorrow I can have
all the meat in.

♪ ♪

[sighs]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- The weather...

Well, the weather report
is snowing.

♪ ♪

It's like Christmas out there.

♪ ♪

I think I have enough paracord.
I got some lines laying.

I'm not using this shuttle,

so I let it from this corner
to that corner over there,

and I'm gonna try
to bring it down right now,

and just laying
my strands here.

Tomorrow is gonna be
my daughter's second birthday.

[solemn music]

Two years now,
she's starting to see life

and its beauty.

I'm trying to do this
and stay strong because

I want a better life
for my daughter.

I just wanna keep her in mind
and wish her the best.

♪ ♪

Awesome.

[eerie music]

My family--they are lifting me
from the ground up,

giving me some good energy
so I can survive.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[exhales]

[ambient music]

♪ ♪

- Now the water is as calm
as it's ever been,

so I'm gonna go fishing.

We just got to.
We gotta try.

We kind of have
to move quickly here

'cause the wind could pick up.

♪ ♪

Every minute that passes,

you're losing weight.

There is this looming worry

that I'm going
to run out of fat.

No matter how well
someone is doing out here,

they are low or deficient

in some sort of mineral
or vitamin

that has potential
to impair their judgment.

And so, everything
is higher risk out here.

♪ ♪

Oh, can you imagine
if this barge worked?

♪ ♪

I got, like, two weeks
of fishing in

before the ice came.

But we gotta be
really careful here.

To be alone on the water,
you know,

it could turn into a bad
situation pretty quickly.

♪ ♪

All right.

And then paddle out there.

And that'll get me out
another 30 feet or so,

and that can be hopefully
where I get my fish.

[grunting]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Just going downhill now.

♪ ♪

[grunts, panting]

She's floating.
She's floating.

Okay, I'm getting on.

♪ ♪

Oh, oh.

Okay.

All right,
let's just try this, okay?

Wow.
Oh, my God, I'm floating.

Oh, [bleep].

♪ ♪

Not as stable as we'd like.

♪ ♪

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

This is a bad idea.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

Ooh, [bleep].

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No.

♪ ♪

[ambient music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

This raft is not ready
for a big fishing expedition.

It's unstable.

Oh.

We could've had
a couple weeks of fishing.

I am disappointed.

Well...

I guess now we can kinda
put that out of our minds.

Party barge.

♪ ♪

It's a party of one bum,
one wet bum.

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

- Think it's colder today.

♪ ♪

But the important thing
to know today,

it's my baby's second birthday.

It's two years now.

She's starting to see life
and its beauty.

I wish I was there,

but she's got a beautiful
family taking care of her.

♪ ♪

So the plan of today,
I need to check the gill net.

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

I realize to be living
on these cold conditions

is really tough.

And without having
a supply of food,

it's pretty impossible.

By the time you start
lacking calories,

of course, you start
thinking more and more,

"Is it now the time,
or can I go a little longer?"

You know?

Oh.

Well, guess what?

I think we got fish.

The gill net's
starting to work.

First night on the shift,

and it provided fish.

Metzli got me a fish
for her birthday.

♪ ♪

My daughter, Metzli,
thank you for this fish.

[laughs]

[whimsical music]

Gave me this awesome,
awesome gift,

some food for my belly.

♪ ♪

Yeah, I see the line.

♪ ♪

I got a pike.

♪ ♪

It's freaking awesome.
My gill net is producing.

Food for another couple days
here with this pike.

[optimistic music]

What a great start.

So grateful.
So freaking happy.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- We're getting ready
to head up the mountain.

That'll make
two more loads there.

We just got to keep shuttling.

[ominous music]

Oh, boy.
I'm feeling it, man.

♪ ♪

We're throwing ourselves at it
as hard as we can.

I'm done in each day.

♪ ♪

But I gotta stay focused.

♪ ♪

It's gonna literally
make me or break me.

♪ ♪

I cannot let nothing
get this meat.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[ambient music]

He knows there's a dead animal
in the area.

♪ ♪

It might ba*ls him up.

♪ ♪

Look.

♪ ♪

That's a bear right there.

♪ ♪

We'll fight, crawl,
or [bleep] swim,

whatever we gotta do.

Ain't gonna let
no [bleep] stinking bear

steal my meat out
of my front yard.

♪ ♪

- Welcome to "Alone:
Tales From the Arctic."

I'm Colby Donaldson,
here tonight

with Roland, Mark, Joe,
Amós, Kielyn, and Callie.

Roland, you shot a musk ox
with your bow and arrow.

Then you gotta finish him off,
put him out of his misery,

with your knife.

Walk us through, if you can,
that experience.

- Yeah, I can try.
It was quite a time.

Anything can happen.

There I am, there he is,

and I--all's I got
is an empty bow

and a belt knife.

I don't want to set there
till dark,

and I got within three
or four jumps of it,

and I went in and hit it,
as you see,

and then, when he finally--

you see he goes down
on his side,

and his legs are out,

I let out a w*r hoop

somebody in the next camp
might've heard.

I don't know.
[laughs]

Hoo-hoo-hoo!

Praise God!
We got big game!

- Speaking of those
in the next camp,

I-I do want to hear
from some of the others

just in terms of what they
were thinking

as they were watching it
play out

with the rest of the viewers
on the show.

Uh, Mark, how about you?
What were--

what thoughts were going
through your head

as you watched Roland
take that musk ox down?

That was insane.
I mean, Roland talks about it

as one of his most epic kills--

and this is what he does
for a living--

and I have to agree.
That was absolutely insane.

I loved it.

- Did any of you know

that Roland had taken a musk ox

prior to seeing it on TV?

- No. [laughs]

Everyone probably assumed
someone got a big game,

but ultimately, the nice thing
about the 100-day challenge

is that doesn't matter
how other people are doing.

You still gotta get
to that 100 days,

and everyone was trying
their best to get there.

- Joe, just--I want to ask you,

how important is big game
out there

during an experience like this?

- I mean, it's like
pulling off the Hail Mary

at the end
of the football game.

You gotta have some luck
on your side,

and you gotta be skilled,
and luckily,

Roland had both
in that instance.

- Roland, first of all,

how many miles do you think
you covered, in total,

just getting that animal
back to your camp?

- I very well could've put on

but just the sheer workload

of breaking that thing down

and then the process
of pack ratting it

clear back to camp--

it's the hardest thing
you'll ever do to your body.

- You know, as far
as protecting your food goes,

that's--that's really
what a lot of this episode

is all about.

How did that weigh
on you, Mark?

- A lot of it
is all about food.

And so once you get it,
you're lucky enough to get it,

then you gotta say,
"Well, I gotta keep it."

And so if it means
fighting off

whatever's coming in there
to take it,

that means fighting it off.

It is a daunting task.

Once you grab that food,

everything in there
is trying to eat,

so survival of the fittest,
right?

You steal my food,
you turn into food.

- The interesting thing was,

animals weren't
the only thing out there,

uh, in the Arctic
stealing food.

Let's take a look at
this never-before-seen footage

of Callie.

♪ ♪

- What do we have here?

♪ ♪

Oh, wow.

We have a squirrel stash...

♪ ♪

Of mushrooms.

♪ ♪

Whoa.

What a cache.

♪ ♪

[squirrel scolding]
Oh, the squirrel's not happy.

Wow, this squirrel's like,
"Dude, get out of my cache."

♪ ♪

[laughs]

So I got some mushrooms

from a squirrel cache.

That's a nice little meal
right there.

♪ ♪

Thank you, squirrels.

[squirrel scolding]

♪ ♪

- Callie, tell us about, uh,
raiding the stash there

and you being the, uh,
ever opportunist.

- [laughs]
Yeah, that was fun.

You know, we were dropped
at location

at the very end of September,

and by then, a lot
of the mushrooms I was finding

were decaying and slimy
and practically just mush,

so the squirrels did something
for me

that I couldn't do for myself.

They stashed
a bunch of mushrooms

up in the trees.

So it was
a pretty awesome score,

and being a scavenger
and an opportunist

is a great skill to have.

I mean, all the animals
out there--

they're not gonna pass up
an easy meal,

and neither am I.

- I wanna talk about hunger
for a second, Callie,

uh, because it's always present
in an experience like this,

and for those who may be
sitting at home, watching,

uh, enjoying a pizza,

give us an idea
of what it's like

to be that hungry.

- Yeah, I mean, out there,
I had food,

but still, you are expending
so many calories

going all over the place,

building massive shelters.

Like, doing everything
that we have to do

is burning tons of calories,

and so even though
I was eating every day,

it's still not enough.

- There is a lot
to still talk abou

Mark, Joe, Amós, Kielyn,
and Callie.

Joe, uh, at this point,

your shelter
is beginning to take shape.

It looks pretty solid.

Are you concerned that maybe
you waited too long?

- It's such a game
of balancing priorities

and managing your time,

and I went in knowing
that I was gonna take my time

on a long-term shelter.

Really, having
my shelter incomplete

was something
that I was just looking at

as, um, something
I could be patient with,

and I really needed
to prioritize food,

and the shelter
was sort of like my hobby.

- So what were you working on,
uh, in lieu of that shelter?

What were you spending
your time doing?

- So I had been chipping away
at a gill net

for a little while, and that
was something I'd work on,

um, when I just had
some spare time

between trapping, foraging,
working on the shelter,

and doing
other various craft projects.

- Amós, you took a--
a huge hit

when you lost that gill net.

How does that affect
your morale and just your--

your mental state
moving forward

when something
like that happens?

- Yeah, it was a big blow
to the strategy.

The gill net--it did provide
a ton of fish,

a bunch, so it was a big loss.

But at the same time,
I felt really low

because I lost a net
to the lake.

I didn't want
to contaminate the lake.

- Well, and at that point,

were you having
much success hunting?

- No, I'd been walking a lot,
but I hadn't had--

I hadn't seen any big game.

I seen some moose tracks,
I seen some scat,

but the gill net
was pretty much

what was providing
for my food.

- Kielyn, let's talk
about that raft.

- She's floating.

Okay, I'm getting on.

- That was a bold move.

Uh, you're fully kitted out.

It's about 30 degrees outside.

You decide, uh, to paddle out
on a barrel

into the deepest lake
in North America.

Tell us about that choice.

- I struggled with the fish,

and I didn't want
to give up on the fish,

and I just weighed the options,

uh, how much energy
it was going to cost me

to build this raft,

and what it would be worth
to me

if I--if it was successful,

and, um, it floated.
It worked,

but it wasn't quite, uh,
maybe beefy enough,

wide enough,

that if I felt
like I was catching,

you know, a 10-pound,

it would just pull me in,
and I would've gone swimming.

- Mark, this gets us into
sort of that inner conversation

you have to have
at some point out there

about risk versus reward.

- I mean,
you gotta take risks.

Even walking,
walking around the lakeshore,

right, when it starts
freezing up

and there's ice everywhere--

um, that's a risk,

but you--you have to do that
if you want to survive.

Everybody's taking risks,

and they are calculated.

But that's life, you know,
so you gotta take that risk

and just hope that you got
enough knowledge and skill

that you're gonna be able
to work your way out,

work yourself through.

And now I gotta get
back up here

without busting my butt.

- Roland, we leave, uh,
the episode

seeing that bear
off in the distance,

probably the bear, you know,
that's been raiding

your musk ox.

How rare is it
to see a winter bear?

- The winter bear
is a little bit of an oddity,

and it will make them
more unpredictable

and potentially
more dangerous.

Mark, we saw that bear,
you know, took your fish,

so you decided
to flip the script

and actually hunt the animal.

Tell us about that.
Were you successful?

- Uh, well, you guys will have
to wait to see, right?

Um, but I will say,

if anything takes anything
from me

while I'm out there,

I mean, I'm going after it.

It's wartime.
It's game time.

- Well, that's it for "Alone:
Tales From the Arctic."

I'd like to thank Roland, Mark,

Joe, Amós,
Kielyn, and Callie.

Tune in each week
after the episodes,

where we'll be talking
with all of the cast,

and now, as promised,

a sneak peek of next week's
exciting episode.

We'll see you then.

♪ ♪

- Hey!
Get out of here, wolverine.

It's my food cache.
[wolverine growls]

Get out of here!

- I'm gonna build
a meat crib.

We're gonna fit them tight
so nothing can get in there.

♪ ♪

I was right there.

♪ ♪

- Oh, [bleep]!

I just lit my shelter on fire.

[grunts]

Holy [bleep].

♪ ♪