[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- By far the coldest day. This is ice.
Whoo!
Everything’s just a little harder in the cold.
- We’re into the serious stages now, boys and girls.
I don’t know how many people are left.
But it won’t be a lot.
That, I assure you.
I’m sure not looking forward to going outside.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- Even in the snow, I’m not finding any sign.
As seasons change, everything that you
just spent the past two months learning
means nothing anymore.
- [bleep] Oh, man.
Fire’s going on right there.
Holy [bleep].
[bleep]
That was scary.
Literally seconds away from having the shelter gone.
- It’s time for the skinny check.
I’m definitely getting low.
Pretty skinny around the waist.
I’m going to eat my store’s food,
hoping that my competitors don’t have quite
as much food as me.
- God, please let me win this soon.
I am struggling.
Let’s wish everybody would hurry up and quit.
Everybody’s got their reasons for being here.
Let’s hope their reasons aren’t as strong as mine.
♪ ♪
[wind whistling]
♪ ♪
- I’m gonna do this, man.
I’m gonna do this.
I’m gonna fight this thing out to the last breath.
♪ ♪
- OK, game on.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
- I got him.
narrator: In "Alone’s" most remote location yet...
- Yes!
narrator: Ten participants set out to survive at all costs...
- Our goal is stay alive.
- [inhales sharply] Oh.
narrator: Battling extreme isolation...
- There is no camera crews.
You are really alone.
- It’ll eat at you. Tear you up.
- God, why? - It’s a battle.
Nobody ever comes out the same.
- Oh, man.
- It’d be impossible to.
narrator: And fierce predators.
- A big bear is right outside my shelter.
- Predators like that, damn sure going to kill you.
- Please don’t rip my face off.
[animal screeches]
- He beat the hell out of me.
narrator: They’ll endure merciless wind.
- It’s been over 60 hours, and it has not let up.
- I can hear the trees falling down around me.
narrator: And bitter cold.
- This whole place has turned into a frozen hell.
narrator: Last one standing...
- It’s a moose.
- Wow.
- Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
- No! No!
narrator: Wins.
♪ ♪
- Look at that.
You can call that my hillbilly smoker.
[laughs]
I got one small piece on.
That’s going to be dinner.
These other three pieces, all they’ll do,
they’ll freeze tonight.
If I stretched, I could probably get
three days out of each fillet,
but I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be
able to catch a couple fish ice fishing
once I can get out on the ice.
♪ ♪
So hillbilly fish cooker.
This will be absolutely delicious.
Going on to the next tree.
♪ ♪
Well, every day we’re a little bit closer
to Remembrance Day.
♪ ♪
Grandfather was a veteran.
There ain’t anybody in this world that appreciates
living here more than I do.
♪ ♪
Not proud of all of our heritage.
The way we treated our indigenous people.
We got a lot of skeletons in our closet.
Don’t ever kid yourself.
But we can remind ourselves of it.
We can learn from it.
♪ ♪
Not make the same mistakes.
♪ ♪
Please don’t think I’m--
I’m a preacher or anything like that ’cause I’ve got
my own skeletons, my own walks of shame.
♪ ♪
There’s probably a 30-year period where I never
went a day without drinking.
♪ ♪
It would probably be the only disappointment
my grandfather ever had of me in my life.
He never said too much about it,
but he’d take one moment every year,
beginning of hunting season,
to tell me I drank too much, and then he’d hand me a bottle
and say, "Have a good week, and have a drink on me."
♪ ♪
That was his moment where he could tell me
his disapproval without breaking any kind of trust.
And his point was clear
because I still remember it today.
You can’t change yesterday.
It’s gone.
Done a lot of good things too.
So on that note, gonna carry a load of wood over.
♪ ♪
I’m also getting hungry.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah.
♪ ♪
Ho, ho, ho, ho, now does that not look delicious?
Oh.
Now...
♪ ♪
Oh, my goodness.
Chimney cooking 101.
[laughing drily]
♪ ♪
- Day 53.
Day 53, feels good to say that.
But, man, I’m telling you, the fun times are over
here in Reindeer Lake.
The fun times are over.
It’s snow,
freezing temperatures, high winds.
Had a hard time staying warm last night.
I’m going to have to start sleeping in my parka soon
and--charge the battery pack?
I just put in this battery pa--
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Where was I?
♪ ♪
I’m not sure if my lack of eating is affecting my brain.
Yesterday, I went back and forth to the teepee
because I kept forgetting [bleep].
But during weather like this, I mean,
it’s smarter to stay in your shelter
rather than trudging around in the snow, you know?
So today is just having a fire.
Let’s get her started, day 53.
♪ ♪
All right, let’s see how this fire goes here.
♪ ♪
Come on.
♪ ♪
The weather has been an absolute game changer
in everything I do.
There we go.
My whole shift went from acquiring food
to acquiring wood to stay warm and survive the night.
♪ ♪
Everything’s a little harder in the cold.
The wood takes longer to heat up and burn.
♪ ♪
My pot of water is a frozen block of ice.
Luckily, I was able to store food,
but it looks like day 70 is about my max
because I’m pretty fricking skinny already.
You can see my cheekbones, and I don’t like it.
♪ ♪
I’m worried about a med check.
I suspect there’s gonna be one soon
’cause I think they’re going to be worried about frostbite.
That can always be a bit dangerous this late.
♪ ♪
You know what I miss right now?
My wife.
♪ ♪
You know you’ve--you know, your life partner,
you’ve been through so much together,
and sometimes you forget how much they mean to you.
♪ ♪
Over 25 years of being together
and not talking to her for two months,
it’s hard, it’s hard.
♪ ♪
I miss you, babe.
Can’t we to see ya.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
I’ve been in here since 4:00 yesterday.
That’s a long time.
Keep grinding, that’s my motto.
Grind. Keep grinding.
Just grind through each day.
Keep going.
Stay focused.
Think positive thoughts.
It’s short-term. It’s short-term.
I just want to do the best that I can, and I want to--
I want to prove to myself that I
can grind through tough times.
It’s all part of the challenge.
All right, that’s it.
See you tomorrow.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Went ahead and peed and got me some snow.
♪ ♪
Just pretending it’s ice cream.
♪ ♪
You are correct.
I am eating snow with piece of a leather belt.
♪ ♪
Let’s be completely honest. It could be worse.
I could be eating the belt.
All right, I got to get outside.
Get the day going.
♪ ♪
Everything’s completely covered in snow again.
I do mean completely.
This whole trail, I had it cut out.
There’s another inch of snow on it.
At this point, I’m exhausted.
It’s hard enough just to get up every morning
and walk to get water.
Look at that.
Ice on all the water here.
It’s freaking crazy.
I have to bust through just to get some water.
My legs and my feet are starting to hurt.
I’m noticing I’m not walking as far.
It’s too cold.
It’s getting harder and harder to handle.
I’ve stopped shivering.
My body just can’t keep up with it anymore.
Ready to head back.
♪ ♪
It takes so much to get warm.
♪ ♪
I do not want frostbite.
Not only will frostbite cause me to lose this,
but frostbite will also cause me to lose parts of my body.
♪ ♪
I just don’t understand how it could be so cold.
♪ ♪
But I gotta keep going.
♪ ♪
[squeak]
Well, that smashed his guts clean out.
Just because he’s a wee little guy.
Put that in there.
I can’t let them [bleep] keep robbing me.
I’m gonna skin all these little bastards out.
Cook these later.
♪ ♪
But for right now, I’m gonna eat some berries.
[grunts]
Man, I’ve been holding on to these berries
for a long time.
This is the ugly truth about survival,
you don’t always have rabbits, and squirrels,
and moose, and bears.
Sometimes you got rats.
I don’t even know how I’m gonna skin these little ones.
♪ ♪
I miss my family.
We sacrificed a lot to be here.
They sacrificed a lot so that we can be.
♪ ♪
I think that’s what this show basically is.
It’s all about sacrifice.
♪ ♪
What you’re willing to sacrifice
and how long you’re willing to sacrifice it for.
♪ ♪
It’s the hardest [bleep] thing I’ve ever done.
♪ ♪
I feel like I’m turning into a rat.
I sure am holed up like a rat would be.
♪ ♪
- Well, looks like today we got a little bit of snow.
It’s cold.
You can see the ice starting to form all on the lake.
You just got that little slush to it.
♪ ♪
Just going to be ice in no time.
♪ ♪
I’m trying to see across,
if I can see my gill net.
I don’t know if I can.
♪ ♪
[blows nose]
My nose is running within seconds.
So we need to check our gill net
and hopefully find a squirrel, a grouse.
I could really go for a moose steak too.
Wish me luck.
♪ ♪
[bleep]
Things are getting slippery.
I’ve been cold, but this place,
this is a whole new element to cold.
♪ ♪
Cuts through every layer.
You want to curl right up to the fire,
just wanting it to stop, but it doesn’t.
It just gets worse.
♪ ♪
It was a pretty desolate walk.
[wind whistling]
Wow, there’s a lot of ice around my net.
♪ ♪
As much as I hate to do it,
I think it’s best to take it right out.
♪ ♪
I don’t think it’s fair to take a chance
of it freezing in and having fish go to waste in it.
♪ ♪
Whoa.
Yeah, that’s how slippery things are.
♪ ♪
I don’t know if I can get a stick or something.
Uh-oh.
♪ ♪
Try bashing it.
I’m a guy who believes that you have to respect the land.
The water has been good to me, and for that reason,
I’ll happily carry it out of here.
♪ ♪
I’ve still got lots of fish, or enough fish.
♪ ♪
Wow, that is just solid.
♪ ♪
I’ve ice fished for lake trout my whole life,
and once I can get out on the ice,
I have full confidence that I will
have no trouble catching fish.
♪ ♪
I got a new goal, and that’s to catch a fish
on Reindeer Lake ice fishing.
I’m getting close.
One fish will make it all worthwhile.
♪ ♪
Oh, there it goes.
♪ ♪
Power of leverage.
There it goes.
♪ ♪
No fish.
But at least we did the right thing.
All right, now I just need to make it off these rocks.
♪ ♪
Never to return.
♪ ♪
There’s no question that everything we do
is getting harder.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
You can see the lake is freezing here.
It’s out like 25 feet or so.
It’s freezing all the way over to Lake Trout Rock.
I’m going to get enough firewood to make it
through a couple nights.
Man, if this continues, the weather like this,
I bet you a week, this lake is frozen.
Good for ice fishing anyways, so...
♪ ♪
I’m just an average teacher, who loves hunting and fishing
and being outside.
♪ ♪
This will need to be split.
♪ ♪
I’m hoping winning "Alone" will inspire my students,
especially my outdoor ed students,
to let them know that anything’s possible.
Whew, three is all I can do before I need to rest.
Three and rest.
But unless some rabbits start magically showing
their tracks around here or the ice freezes quickly,
I won’t have food.
♪ ♪
All right, time to work on my snowshoes.
Get ready for ice fishing.
♪ ♪
OK, let’s do this.
I could ice fish now, but the shallow areas are
the only parts that are safe.
And I know there’s not going to be fish in there,
so I’m not going to waste my time and calories drilling
holes in the ice.
Tying some bootlaces, some bindings.
I only need to make it 50 yards,
so they don’t have to be stellar.
♪ ♪
I applied for this show for the adventure.
I used to go on fishing trips as a kid on my bike.
I had this plastic container that slid onto my belt,
and it was a worm container, and I’d fill it up with dirt
and fill it with worms, and I’d pack a lunch,
and I’d biked all along the highway to find all
these different fishing holes.
Even though I could fish like right below my house,
I wanted to go on adventures.
That is "toight."
Real toight.
I want to experience this adventure
to the fullest extent.
I just don’t want to do well. I want to make it to the end.
I am ready for some fish.
But I could feel my mental game being
chipped away a little bit.
Eating and my mental wellness goes hand in hand.
The few pieces of fish left, they go fast
if I don’t get any more food.
I’ll feel terrible.
Who knows where I can go from there.
But yeah.
Got my ice snowshoes.
♪ ♪
- This is a beautiful place.
If I had a cabin up here somewhere
with a big picture window
next to my fireplace with my wife,
we’re laying down on a pallet on the floor.
♪ ♪
Nikolai, he’s running around playing, climbing on us.
He runs to the window.
He looks outside. He says, "It’s snowing!"
♪ ♪
That would be a dream come true.
♪ ♪
But right now, it’s just a dream.
My reality is, is that there’s ice on my tarp.
♪ ♪
On the inside of my tarp.
Can you see that reflection?
That’s all ice.
This whole place has turned into a frozen hell.
♪ ♪
God, please just let me win this, so I can go home.
♪ ♪
I haven’t done anything but lay here in my sleeping bag
all morning.
♪ ♪
Kind of been in a dark place mentally.
[device beeping]
♪ ♪
I just got the message saying that...
♪ ♪
Now I gotta get up, get ready for that,
which sucks.
I really don’t want to get up right now.
♪ ♪
Calm down, Mikey.
Try to hold it together, but I literally
do not even have the strength that it takes
to put my boots on.
My feet are freezing.
My hands are freezing.
♪ ♪
I don’t see how I’m gonna be able to keep doing this.
♪ ♪
OK.
- So [bleep] cold.
I mean, just unbearably cold.
- OK.
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
My hand’s freezing.
My feet are numb right now.
Oh, and they’re red as hell.
- Is that painful when I do that?
- Those last two are.
- Those last two? - Yeah.
- OK.
You can put your sock on.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
Can’t put my boots on.
[bleep] damn.
The loss of sensation’s not good,
and his toes are extremely cold.
- God, I can’t believe this.
I can’t get pulled after I’ve come this far
and I’ve missed so much.
I’m so sorry, Hazel, and I’m so sorry, Nikolai,
that I left y’all.
♪ ♪
- I’m so sorry, Hazel, and I’m so sorry, Nikolai,
that I left y’all.
I’ve done everything that I possibly could.
[soft music]
I had so much faith.
♪ ♪
But I can’t do this anymore.
[sniffles]
OK.
- I wanted to not have to go back to work.
I wanted more therapy for my son.
I’m just so cold that I can’t handle it.
♪ ♪
- Hey.
I think I’m done, guys.
Y’all’s decision or not, I think I’m done.
♪ ♪
- God, I hate to say those words.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
God, I hate to say those words.
I don’t quit at anything.
Ever.
♪ ♪
But...
I’m officially tapping out.
[breathing shakily]
♪ ♪
This is a hard decision to make.
In my head, I could keep going,
but I know that if I push too much farther,
then I’ll be really hurting myself.
I don’t want to go back to my son broken.
Then I can’t do anything for him.
♪ ♪
And if I go back broken, I’m not gonna be able
to continue to provide for my family.
But I’m a different person coming out of this.
♪ ♪
After everything you have has been stripped off of you,
and your mind and your body has been broken down,
you start seeing things a little differently.
I’ve learned there’s no point in holding back the emotions,
the things that you want to say.
It’s actually caused more problems than anything.
And I see that now.
♪ ♪
From now on, I’m gonna talk through everything
I need to talk through, instead of just swallowing it,
and putting it in my stomach, and going on with it.
I’ve gone 55 days.
You learn maybe, you know, I want to do something
different with my life.
I don’t have to have $500,000 to make more time
to spend with my family.
♪ ♪
I don’t want to go back to working all day every day.
As long as I can continue to provide for my family
doing something that I can be happy doing,
and we’ll give that a try for a while.
I do have adaptability.
♪ ♪
I’ve proved that.
♪ ♪
- OK, we’ve checked the ice.
I got a few places I can go fishing.
That means today, we’ll have to build an ice ladder.
♪ ♪
I need some crossers.
♪ ♪
To go ice fishing, we either need
to have snowshoes or an ice ladder,
and I think an ice ladder is far more feasible.
♪ ♪
All right.
I know it’s a pain in the [bleep] to carry this,
but I don’t have to worry about laces freezing up
and all that good [bleep].
♪ ♪
I was hoping I was going to have
to make a ladder like this to build a tree stand
for either bear or moose hunting,
but no chance of that.
The bush has become almost too dangerous to walk in.
I can’t find a track of anything.
Time to freeze the fingers.
♪ ♪
There’s no squirrels left.
There’s no grouse left.
There’s no big game.
I need to get out there ice fishing.
♪ ♪
We have an ice ladder.
So let’s get going.
♪ ♪
All right, well, we got our ice ladder.
We got our ax, and we got our jigging stick.
We’re going to see how deep it is.
Hoping to be at 15-foot plus depth of water.
♪ ♪
I can remember as a young kid going fishing
on the Nottawasaga River with my dad,
and he would go around and check the ice.
Put a wrist guard on, so we don’t lose our ax.
♪ ♪
And he would make a path,
and it didn’t matter what was going on.
You did not leave that path because 5 feet over there,
you could fall through the ice.
8, 9, 10.
So 10 feet, not really the depth I wanted,
but it’s all I got for now.
♪ ♪
Try there for a little bit.
Let’s see if I can’t catch a walleye or two.
♪ ♪
I’ve fallen through the ice more than once.
I’ve stood naked on the shore of a lake
hovering over the campfire going, holy [bleep].
♪ ♪
But in these conditions...
God, that wind’s nasty.
You basically have ten minutes to get dried off,
get some kind of shelter,
and basically an hour to start warming your core
back up before extreme hypothermia sets in.
That’s not long.
♪ ♪
One injury, one slip, going home,
and that opportunity of 500 grand to leave my legacy
in this world, that’s gone.
♪ ♪
Nope.
Fingers are freezing.
It’s temperature dropping.
♪ ♪
We’ll give her a whirl tomorrow.
♪ ♪
All that effort for nothing.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I’m heading out ice fishing in a few minutes.
Just want to talk about how I’m feeling today.
This is the most weakened I’ve felt.
Everything is just such an effort right now.
Even bending over to get in the shelter
and straightening up again, I kind of lose my balance
and get a head rush.
So none of that’s very healthy for me,
and I’m going to push through a few more days.
Push through.
♪ ♪
My body is close to the end.
I promised myself and my wife that I wouldn’t
push too hard without food.
♪ ♪
I don’t feel great right now.
My urine is orange for some reason.
Maybe my kidneys aren’t working properly or something,
or I’m just not drinking enough.
Pushing too far means long-term damage to your body.
Organs, teeth, there’s so many things that can happen.
Well, here we go.
♪ ♪
But at any second, my competitors could tap out.
♪ ♪
We are through!
I’m gonna get some moss for the hole.
I’ll be right back.
♪ ♪
I’m homesick.
I’m missing my wife and my kids,
but I want to inspire my children
to fight through tough times and be resilient.
Let’s give this a shot.
So maybe I should just keep fishing and keep pushing.
Ooh.
That wind is chilly.
♪ ♪
To do this, I can work off the strength
of the students who inspired me.
Come on, fishies.
Build off the strength of loved ones.
Going to be pike down there.
Stay positive. Stay hopeful.
Anything’s possible, you know?
Well, that wind is blowing right through my bones.
So done for now.
♪ ♪
- [sighs]
I thought I was done with this gill net.
Well, today,
even though I’ve only got 10 feet of water,
what I’m going to do is, I’m going to try
and cut myself a trough that I can drop my gill net
back in and fish 24/7.
So I’m trying to get it untangled
or whatever you want to call it--unfrozen.
[chuckles]
OK, here’s one.
I’m going to tie this, so I can get everything
kind of situated best as possible.
I’ve come to the realization that,
no matter what, I’m hungry all the time.
♪ ♪
Stomach’s growling.
Saying hurry up, tie that net.
Catch me a fish there, boy.
Ice fishing is slow, cold, and windy.
So to stand out there and fish is not feasible.
So I’m going to put my gill net down there.
OK, well, that’s that part.
So let’s grab our ax.
We’ll go cut a hole.
♪ ♪
OK, I’m going to cut a line straight in starting
from the hole I cut yesterday.
♪ ♪
Nature gives you every element to be the best you can be.
♪ ♪
But she will provide for you,
or she’ll rip it away from you.
♪ ♪
Now, I got to go get my three poles.
♪ ♪
So you have to learn how to become balanced.
Ooh, it’s cold.
It’s already starting to freeze,
so no time for whining.
We’re going to get this baby in.
♪ ♪
Yeah, now she shouldn’t fall in.
All right, let’s move this party inside.
♪ ♪
We’ll just wait and see what it brings.
♪ ♪
[wind whistling]
The wind’s picking up.
Probably going to be an ugly night again.
♪ ♪
Lots of thoughts going through my head.
♪ ♪
I don’t know how many times my boys have said,
"Dad, you drank too much."
How many times my mother said, "Wyatt, you drank too much."
How many times a hundred other people have said,
"Wyatt, you drink too much."
The amount of times I’ve said,
"It’s none of your [bleep] business."
Crawling under that nice fleecy cloud,
that nice shroud of alcohol, and all the rest of it
dulled the mind and warmed my soul.
Well, so I thought.
Just took a lot of years of hearing it from other people
about how bad it was before I realized that maybe
it’s time to change.
[fire crackling]
[bleep], another hole in another sock.
Oh, [bleep].
I’m losing a toenail.
♪ ♪
No.
♪ ♪
I should rephrase that.
♪ ♪
I lost a toenail.
♪ ♪
Look.
♪ ♪
Whole toenail.
Gone.
Oop, just dropped it somewhere.
My toenails just falling off because of the cold.
You don’t even notice it because your feet
are so numb from being so cold for so long.
It’s gone past the point of pain.
Now it’s just this numb feeling.
Almost dead.
♪ ♪
Knew there was going to be a degree
of suffering out here,
just didn’t know quite how much.
♪ ♪
Mind’s playing tricks on me.
I’m hearing things.
♪ ♪
Probably just the ice.
♪ ♪
Oop, fire.
♪ ♪
We got a fire going on.
♪ ♪
[bleep] [bleep]
[dramatic music]
- Oop, fire.
♪ ♪
We got a fire going on.
[bleep] [bleep]
Are you kidding me?
♪ ♪
[bleep]
♪ ♪
She’s out.
[bleep]
♪ ♪
Whew, that was close.
I’m glad I was awake.
There must have been one of the branches
up top caught an ember or something.
♪ ♪
It’s too damn cold to not be having a fire tonight.
♪ ♪
Lose a toenail, start the shelter on fire.
The hell kind of [bleep] is this?
That wind’s not gonna let up very much, I’m sure, till--
it’s going to be a long night.
The fire, it’s just one more stress.
Sleeping with one eye open, shivering like a dog.
It’s getting harder and harder every day to stay here.
Whoever’s left, they know how to tough it out
because there’s nothing easy about being here.
♪ ♪
At this stage, the grind is on, you know?
It takes a little bit more to grind through the days.
I can’t get my hands warm.
I’m going to go back to the teepee for 19 hours or so.
I’m in my shelter a lot.
I don’t have any fresh fish to smoke,
and it doesn’t make sense to be out
in the cold and the snow,
but being in the shelter so much
is challenging because boredom is starting to creep
into my mind, and it’s just more difficult
to stay positive when you’re in the same spot not sleeping.
♪ ♪
Hey!
♪ ♪
Is there something out there?
♪ ♪
The hell was that?
♪ ♪
Get out!
Get out here!
♪ ♪
[fire crackling]
♪ ♪
Minutes are now like hours.
Days seem like weeks.
Hopefully, today, we got something in the gill net.
I just need something to add some kind of fuel
to my inner fire.
Give me some excitement.
Kill the time.
Well...
looks like we’re not cleaning fish.
Looks like we’re going to cut wood.
[bleep]
Because right now, time is killing me.
[bleep]. Oh, slippery rock.
♪ ♪
Sorry about that.
Got about a foot and a half past the camera and wiped out,
but I’m all right.
Don’t worry about me.
It’s all good.
[bleep]
♪ ♪
Who knows if there’s three people left
or two people left.
Who knows if they have food?
♪ ♪
- That is the tiniest damn little thing.
Look at that.
- I just don’t know.
It’s kind of exciting to think that maybe
I might be the last one, but it almost seems impossible.
♪ ♪
I am struggling mentally and physically.
♪ ♪
When is this going to end?
But I wanted to be pushed.
Even though I knew it would be unpleasant,
I wanted to feel it.
I just can’t get warm.
I’ve had this chill for hours.
Mission accomplished.
♪ ♪
It is cold.
The wind blew out of the north all night, and it blew hard.
We won’t be checking the gill net today.
Not a chance.
♪ ♪
My water bucket’s been sitting 3 feet from my fire,
and it’s frozen every morning.
[wind whistling]
I sit beside the fire to at least keep
my feet from burning any worse than they are.
But my body’s growing weak.
The cold’s winning.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, I’m just getting out of my sleeping bag,
and this is exactly the reason why.
This wind has been going like this since 7:00
last night, but let’s have a look at what
the ice has done down here.
♪ ♪
I can’t see my gill net, but--
whoa, she’s a little windy.
♪ ♪
I guarantee you it’s not gonna be in good shape.
♪ ♪
[bleep]
♪ ♪
There’s my gill net, or the pole
that’s supposed to be holding it.
That’s it. It’s gone.
[bleep]
♪ ♪
That is insane.
That wind has just smashed it in.
I’m even nervous about getting near the shore
enough to fill my water buckets.
That’s no spot to be.
♪ ♪
I don’t know what the [bleep] I’m going to do.
♪ ♪
She’s getting pretty scarce as far as food around here.
I got one more night to me,
and that’s it.
The days are cold. The nights are cold.
I got to cut at least a whole tree every day
just to stay warm enough.
♪ ♪
Ahh.
This place is a constant struggle.
There’s so many things that have to be done daily,
but the wind blowing like this doesn’t allow you
to do anything you need to do.
Get our piece of fish on.
♪ ♪
I’m falling too far back.
I need to get moving forward again.
♪ ♪
My body is starting to fail me.
♪ ♪
My mind is starting to--
starting to wander.
♪ ♪
The longer I sit here and think of nothing,
other than the noise in my head and all the things
that I can’t do,
the more and more I’m getting tired mentally and physically.
♪ ♪
It’s hard to really fathom that I’m
thinking of giving up.
♪ ♪
This place has taught me a lot.
♪ ♪
Buried a lot of demons.
♪ ♪
Washed away a lot of pain.
♪ ♪
We’re going to see how we sleep.
See how we feel tomorrow.
♪ ♪
How awesome is that?
Little things in life, eh?
I have accomplished everything I need right here
other than the 500 grand, but...
I’ve got my house.
I’ve got a beautiful wife.
I’ve got beautiful kids.
I live a good life.
I don’t need to go out for fancy dinners every night,
and live beyond my means, and what have you.
To me, that’s not living.
To me, this is living.
♪ ♪
I really don’t have the words right now.
♪ ♪
That’s unlike me.
I always got words.
♪ ♪
I did have a lot of self-healing I needed to do.
Mentally, I feel whole.
I feel complete.
I’ve done everything I needed to do out here.
Body’s letting me know it’s time.
♪ ♪
[device beeping]
♪ ♪
This is Wyatt calling.
I am officially tapping out.
♪ ♪
My body and my brain is just telling me
that it’s the right time.
♪ ♪
As the Doors once said, "This is the end."
[helicopter whirring]
♪ ♪
Had enough.
Everything about my body and mind is--
I’m done.
It’s been--it’s been epic.
I’m leaving here a different person.
No question about it.
And I’m good about it.
I’m really good about it.
It’s...
♪ ♪
It’s for the better, and this is my therapy.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
And I needed it to be sober,
to be not distracted,
and just to truly
process
the hows and whats and wheres and whys
and put it all away.
And I did that.
♪ ♪
I was able to forgive everybody I needed
to forgive in this world, including myself.
Maybe mostly myself.
And my book full of secrets
got put underneath the ice of Reindeer Lake,
and they’re gone.
Chalkboard’s clean.
Time to start a new chapter.
And I’m going to embrace it.
And I hope that this journey allows other people
to accept the fact that you can find yourself
in the strangest places.
♪ ♪
A legacy to me is to be remembered
and remembered for something good.
Well, whether it’s for my children or my grandchildren,
"Alone" season ten will keep the name Wyatt Black
going for a long time.
♪ ♪
[device beeping]
- There’s a med check today.
Oh, boy, I’m nervous.
Maybe I can push my body harder.
I don’t know. I don’t know.
I want to see what my body looks like.
Viewer discretion is advised.
"You’re too skinny!
You must go home!"
"I must remove you from the competition.
Alan, you’re gone. Go home."
♪ ♪
I don’t like the look of my guts.
They look way too thin.
Like sucked in almost.
♪ ♪
I’m definitely diminishing.
I can tell since the last med check.
I noticed my heartbeat has slowed down, actually,
a little bit, you know, like doo-doo, doo-doo.
Well, I know that’s an effect of starvation.
♪ ♪
- Wanting to go home, I think.
♪ ♪
I was solid mentally until the 50s,
which I’m pretty happy with, but now I’m pushing.
♪ ♪
I think physically, I’m almost at the end of my rope.
♪ ♪
- Yeah, no, it’s...
my kids.
Connecting with my kids.
I really miss my wife.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Yeah, no, it’s...
my kids.
Connecting with my kids.
I really miss my wife.
Just a lot of the comforts of home, you know?
Food, I’m having a bad--
a bad time with food fantasies.
Like, it’s something that I’ve never experienced before.
Man, the food fantasies are hard.
♪ ♪
Doritos.
Like a bag of Doritos.
If you guys had a bag of Doritos right now,
your life would be in danger.
I’m serious.
- Is there anything you need help with?
- Oh, my God! Are you serious?
[laughter]
- Oh, my God.
♪ ♪
Oh, my God, you did it!
You won, Al, you won!
You won.
I missed you so much.
Oh, my God.
I’m so happy to see you. - Are you serious?
I’m so--
- Oh, my God, I love you.
- Thank God.
Oh, my God. - You won.
- You did it! - Oh, my God.
- Season ten.
Season ten, Alan Tenta.
Isn’t this amazing?
- Whoo! - [laughs]
Whoo!
- [bleep]. You look amazing.
♪ ♪
I love you. - I love you too.
- I missed you so much.
- I missed you too.
I can’t believe you were out here for this long.
- Yeah, totally.
You look good. - Thanks.
- Yeah, you look good. - It’s the fish, man.
It’s the fish.
- Your eyes are beautiful and blue.
Yeah. [laughs]
Good fishing? Lots of good fish?
- Yeah, I’m more excited about seeing you
than actually winning right now, you know?
- Me too.
- It hasn’t sunk in yet.
- Oh.
♪ ♪
- Want to go in, show me? - Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Oh, my God. This is so incredible.
- Come on in. - This is amazing.
- Sit down. - Oh, my God, I love it.
- I’d have my fire here at night
and sit like this, and the heat he would just flow,
and it would heat up the teepee really nicely.
- This is cool.
How long did it take you to do this?
- I don’t know. Not that long.
- What do you think is your best experience,
the best thing you’ve experienced out here?
When you go home and talk to Mackenzie and Davis,
what are you going to say top number one?
♪ ♪
- Mm.
♪ ♪
- Quiet evenings fishing at sunset.
- I can see that, actually.
- Yeah.
And I had a really neat experience with an owl.
- Oh, that’s cool.
- It’s going to--oh, it’ll blow your mind.
It’ll blow your mind.
- Tell me.
- It was dusk.
And an owl, it was like he was my pet.
It was the weirdest thing,
especially since my dad passed, you know?
It wouldn’t leave.
Ten minutes, it was like landing right beside me--
tree branches.
- That’s pretty incredible.
♪ ♪
- Winning this challenge is a lot owed to my dad.
He’s the one that introduced me to the outdoors
and introduced me to fishing, introduced me to archery.
I’ll never get over the loss.
Perhaps that experience with the owl was his way of saying,
"Hey, man, I am here with you."
Experiencing this really enables me to understand
how important my family is to me,
and how important it is to tell them
how much they mean to me.
It just solidifies how much I have and how lucky I am.
♪ ♪
This experience on "Alone"
has definitely deepened what nature and all the things
I love about the outdoors,
it’s definitely deepened the importance of it
right down to my soul.
Some people recharge being around people.
I recharge being alone.
♪ ♪
The money’s going to give me some more freedom,
but my "Alone" experience is the pinnacle
of my adventure seeking.
What I’d like to say to my outdoor ed students is,
thank you for inspiring me,
and I hope I can inspire you to believe
that anything’s possible.
With hard work and the right attitude and staying positive,
you can achieve amazing things.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I begged God.
I begged God last night.
I said, "Please, let--
"let tomorrow be the day they come get me
"and they tell me I win
and I can leave this frozen hell."
♪ ♪
I came out here and worked as hard as I could.
It just got too cold for me.
Have you ever been so cold, it feels like you’re on fire?
That’s what my toes feel like.
They’re so cold, they’re on fire.
I don’t wanna lose a toe or three.
And I’ve got five kids that love me and respect me.
I was out here to suffer and struggle
so that they would never have to again.
I just feel like I failed all of ’em.
♪ ♪
Oh, thank you so much.
- Here you go, sir.
♪ ♪
Oh, my God.
♪ ♪
Leaving this place isn’t the hard part.
It’s leaving this place empty-handed.
Always gonna be in the back of my head.
Every nail I drive,
every time I pick up a screw gun,
"[bleep], man, you could’ve had $500,000."
♪ ♪
I’ve been out here for 55 days.
I haven’t seen my family in 66 days.
I appreciate it.
♪ ♪
No matter what’s happened,
I’ll be the husband I should’ve been.
I’ll be the father that I wanna be.
♪ ♪
Now, I have had problems putting my boots on.
- I can imagine.
- I don’t know if my feet have swollen.
I’m not sure.
But just pulling my boot on,
it’s taking everything I got,
and then whenever I finally get one on,
I have to rest for a second.
- Okay.
- And I’ve been trying, man.
I have been taking my parka
and wrapping my parka around ’em and everything.
- Okay, prop this up.
- Sorry. Man, they hurt so bad.
- So--
- Sensation? Can you feel it here?
- Down here?
- Bottom of the foot?
- That’s sore as [bleep] right there.
- Toes? Feel ’em?
- Yeah, but they hurt. - Okay.
- You need this stuff off too?
- Yeah, we are gonna take
one last weigh-in right now as well.
You are weighing out at...
217 pounds.
- [exhales sharply]
- 216 pounds. 216.
- I’ve lost, like, 85 pounds.
- We’re gonna be spending a decent chunk of time
together over the next two weeks
while we make sure that
everything’s going well with your body.
- Just ready for a hot shower, a warm bed, and a hot meal.
- No, I haven’t had any nausea for a little while.
I think that that broth really helped.
♪ ♪
I’ve seen the effort that I’ve put into this.
And I’ve pushed my body and I’ve pushed my mind.
So I’m gonna pick myself up and keep going.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I’d like the win and I’d like the money,
but at what cost?
I’m getting weaker.
There was no way I could sleep last night.
’Cause I had to be sure,
can I live with this decision to quit?
♪ ♪
I think I’m done.
I just--you know, I haven’t felt good.
I can’t sleep good.
There’s been a lot of good come out of this journey.
I’ll never take things for granted near the same.
And I’ve proven I don’t need the crutches
and things I’ve been hiding behind for years.
♪ ♪
You know what?
Yeah, the money would’ve been nice,
but I’ve never had it,
so I’ll never miss it, you know?
That was only-- that was only part of it.
I’ve--I gave it what I had.
And just everything about me is saying it’s time to go.
♪ ♪
- Fresh bone broth.
♪ ♪
Careful. It might be hot.
- Thanks.
- Take it easy when you drink it.
♪ ♪
- It’s good.
♪ ♪
It’s just warm. [laughs]
But it’s tasty.
♪ ♪
I have no regrets.
♪ ♪
I have no bad feelings leaving here.
♪ ♪
This experience has taught me to look for the positives.
♪ ♪
I’m lighter.
The burdens are gone. The demons are gone.
So it’s time to go home.
♪ ♪
Oh, that’s nice!
- Oh, yeah.
- They’re not frostbit or nothing,
but like I said, the one toenail fell.
I don’t know why it fell off.
I didn’t stub it. I didn’t do nothing.
- You mentioned the dizziness.
Is that coming only when you’re kind of bending over
or standing up... - Yeah.
- Or does it ever happen when you’re lying down?
- Nope, it’s kinda... - Okay.
- Just confirming--just nausea. No vomiting.
- None.
- Does eating change your nausea at all?
- No. I’ve been hungry for weeks.
And even though I eat,
I’ve had that hungry feeling.
I pay attention to my body, always have,
and it was telling me it’s time to go.
- Yup.
Now, I bent my toe like that
and that opened right up.
That was...
- A little. - That’s a little blood there.
Right here. - Kay. Yep. Yep.
- This one here? - Mm-hmm.
- Okay, the sensation of your toes is okay?
Can you feel this? This one? - Yep.
I mean, you know, they’re kinda going a little numby.
- But all things look pretty good
for what you’ve gone through.
- I’m proud of my journey.
Nature gives you every opportunity to succeed
and every chance to fail.
I didn’t win this competition, but I did pretty damn good.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- It was 66 days. That’s a long time.
- Let’s take a quick look at them,
and then we’ll get the boots back on.
- Yeah, I still have more left mentally,
but I think physically, I’m near the end of the line.
♪ ♪
If you guys had a bag of Doritos right now,
your life would be in danger.
I’m serious. Your life would--
- Is there anything you need help with?
- Oh, my God, are you serious?
[both laughing]
- Oh, my God! - Oh, my God.
[both laughing]
Holy [bleep]. - [laughs]
It’s over? I get to go home?
- Whoo! [laughs] - Oh, yeah.
- Are you ready? - You look so good.
- Thank you. - You look great.
Can’t believe you snuck up behind me.
Oh, my God, what a sight. - These guys are incredible.
- I couldn’t believe it. - Very well planned.
The kids, actually, they just knew
this was gonna be how it was gonna end.
We’ve been counting kinda day by day.
- And it’ll sink in in a second.
I won? I actually won.
- You’re the last person standing
on "Alone" season ten.
You did it. - Geez.
♪ ♪
So I’ll show you the other spots.
- Yeah, so I caught almost all my fish here.
’Cause that ice is thin.
And it’s, like, 12 feet deep right there.
This is where I got my water.
- I just kept this over top with moss
and it never freezes over.
I’ve walked all the way around here.
I’ve been to there.
I hunted moose down there at the end of the lake
where all the birch were.
Yeah.
That’s it. - I’m so happy for you, Alan.
- Or is it champagne? - [laughs]
- Whiskey?
- I don’t know if that’s gonna be in your diet for a while.
- I think it’s broth. That’s my guess.
Is it? Oh, it is broth. - Yes.
- This is probably-- oh, my God, salt?
Is that salt I smell?
- Your senses are completely heightened right now, hey?
- Everyone’s breath, I can tell--
I can tell everyone exactly what they ate
last night and this morning.
I’m not kidding.
♪ ♪
I have fantasized about this moment.
And it feels amazing to have won.
It’s so surreal right now.
Whoo! - Whoo!
[laughs]
- You can fly it backwards too?
- See you later.
- I’m just a guy who loves the outdoors
and a average Joe teacher.
Being the first teacher to win,
I feel happy.
I feel proud.
Like, family and my students,
they are why I was able to stay so long, you know?
Winning "Alone" feels like
a culmination of all my passions.
Nice.
- You’re here. - [sighs]
- You’re here. - I’m here.
We did it, babe. - I know you did it.
What the hell? [both laugh]
How’s it going, man? Hey.
- Congratulations. - Thanks. Thank you, man.
- At 7:00 in the morning, the helicopter was flying...
- Yeah. - And I thought
the last person had tapped.
- I was wondering who the second guy was,
and I said it-- I said it was you.
I said--top three, I go, "Wyatt’s there
’cause he’s the other guy that knows how to fish."
- It was a ride, eh? - Oh.
It was a ride. It was a ride.
♪ ♪
- It’s really cozy.
- Oh, my God. Wow.
I’m so looking forward to sharing
the amazing experiences I had being alone in the wilderness.
♪ ♪