[dramatic music]
♪
- [howling]
- This is a nasty place.
You gotta be damn tough...
- [groaning]
- And damn stubborn to still be here doing this right now.
- Go home, guys.
♪
- Building this lean-to reminds me of my family.
I miss them.
My boy is turning 12.
My last coney head.
I hated to miss his birthday.
I'll remember this meal forever.
- I've got one toe that's super painful.
No.
I need my sleeping bag.
I'm losing all feeling.
[beeping] Med check.
♪
- This has gotta be it.
Dub Paetz, the winner of season 11 "Alone."
[dramatic music]
♪
- [sobbing]
Oh, [bleep].
[sighs] OK.
[tense music]
Firewood patrol.
♪
It's harder every day to get this damn wood, man.
♪
I was really let down today when I found out
that I wasn't done, man.
♪
I thought, holy crap, dude.
They got my dad or my mom or my sister or somebody
hidden in that helicopter,
and they're gonna sneak around right now.
♪
But that didn't happen.
♪
I was like, what the hell, dude?
Come on.
This can't be real.
♪
I never should have allowed myself to--
to let that sink in, that I--
I was gonna go home.
I should have just continued on with the thought process
of do not set expectations that you aren't sure of,
because you could be here for a lot longer still.
And here we are.
♪
We're here for who knows--
we still might be here another 30-plus days.
♪
Get back to work, dude.
♪
You never know, man.
♪
Whoever that is out there, they might have kids, dude.
They're gonna miss those kids,
and they're gonna probably want to go home for that.
♪
All right, I think I'm gonna go fishing.
[tense music]
♪
Let me feel that sweet strike.
It's so crazy not having the sun ever come up.
Goes to the edge of the horizon and never pops.
♪
What the hell is gonna happen in permanent darkness?
[dramatic music]
♪
I'm in a desperate situation.
I got a couple of days worth of food left, at the most.
♪
I'm gonna think positively.
♪
Negativity is freaking cancer out here.
♪
I'll tell you, this has been the hardest thing
I've ever done in my life.
And it's not necessarily the survival part of it.
It's the not pushing the button part that's been hard.
It's so easy to do.
It's just one moment of weakness,
and you push it, and boom, you're gone.
But it's the kind of thing that can come back
to haunt you and regret--
and have regrets the rest of your life.
About 30 years ago, my dad had the opportunity
to buy a cabin on a particular river that he loves,
that we both loved.
And he let somebody talk him out of buying it,
and he's regretted it for his entire life.
Dude, one little quick decision can bring
so much haunting and so much pain.
So that's what that red button is.
The red button is a dream-crushing killer
that's got a nice little sugar coating on it.
And once you push it...
♪
You get the sugar,
but you don't get the big cake that's--that's coming
after it if you push-- push on through and wait.
[dramatic music]
♪
[tense music]
♪
- T-shirt full of moose.
[laughs]
And that's not all of it.
That's not all of it.
Mmm.
That's good.
Every now and then you just find a piece of jerky
that's so much better than the rest.
All right, I'm gonna go have a look at the fish lines.
[ominous music]
I know I can go past 100 days on the jerky.
♪
But once I get down to eating only jerky,
I know that's gonna play a major factor
in where I'm at in my mind.
My gums just bleed.
My teeth are tore up from eating it.
♪
So I'd really like to get more fresh meat and fish.
♪
My ice fishing--so far,
the results have been really disappointing.
I'm not sure if the pike have largely left my little zone
of the river or if they're doing something
completely different.
But my instincts tell me I'm missing
some opportunities there.
Let's see if there's been any action on these fish lines.
And the only thing different is that
I put guts on it yesterday.
So some slight chance to be eager about.
[tense music]
♪
No.
I think everybody in the whole world
ought to do "Alone," really.
I think it would help everyone.
It's helped me so much.
And I've loved it.
This is my thing, you know?
I'm a wild man. I love the wilderness.
I just love the wilderness.
♪
Out here, I've experienced
some huge windfalls of food
and also food insecurity.
♪
There's something there, I think.
♪
Nope.
Empty.
And I'm thinking about all those people
that I've seen in conflict zones
and disaster zones that have to live with that reality
as their life.
They don't have a button that they can push
to be like, OK, I'm done.
I want food now.
And I think to exist as a human in this world
and not look into that and see if there's
something that we can do, it's a shame of an existence.
♪
Oh, well.
I'm gonna go get a fish out of the food cache.
[dramatic music]
♪
All right, guys, I want to show you what I have.
I have a chunk of fish.
I was gonna cook this whole thing for supper tonight.
But let me tell you, it struck my mind
how many children tonight won't have a meal at all.
And it breaks my heart.
And I'm gonna take the tail section of this fish
that I would have eaten,
and instead of cooking it tonight,
I'm gonna put it right here,
and maybe a wild animal will come get it,
maybe a pine marten that's been running around
or a gray jays.
They'll eat it, for sure.
But instead of eating that tail section,
I want to raise awareness for those children
who won't have anything to eat tonight.
That is more important
than a piece of fish and a warm meal.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
- A snowy day in the Northland.
Boy, we got a snowy day in the Northland.
Yep.
Old lean-to behind me.
Boy, it's getting a little better all the time.
A few small branches here.
I'll fill all that in now.
That's the plan, no?
A cup of coffee now wouldn't hurt.
[laughs]
The wife's chocolate cake and dream whip
would be all right too.
I don't know why, but that's the only thing I really crave.
[pensive music]
Something sweet, I guess.
♪
Whoo-whee.
Ooh, I'll tell you.
[speaking indistinctly]
Ooh.
First thing I gotta do is check the rabbit snares.
The days are getting super short,
and it'll be getting colder and colder and colder.
This late in the game,
you spend a lot of time in the tilt.
♪
Right there.
I'm always looking for fresh rabbit tracks.
♪
[speaking indistinctly]
Very encouraging, what I'm seeing here.
♪
Set a couple more rabbit snares over this way now.
♪
I can't let my food stock go too low.
I'm getting hunger pangs.
I think about my wife's chocolate cake every night.
Pretty much that's all I do, dream of food.
But I think that's because I'm missing her, too.
Yeah, that's pretty good.
Yeah, I'm just gonna check the ice fishing hole.
The old net hasn't been producing lately.
I'm well at fishing,
and she's, like, rock solid in, like,
being able to look after things.
But you just--you never know.
I just hope everything's going well.
The mama whitefish, that's what we're going after.
♪
I really miss her.
♪
No fish.
The water levels has dropped.
♪
Yeah, that's not good.
No rabbits, nothing in the net.
♪
[groaning]
♪
Oh, God.
My hair froze in it.
[chuckles]
[tense music]
♪
- Guys, I'm really nervous because I've come this far.
I really want to win this.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
it is finally time for the epic conclusion of Trial by Fire.
The tribes are assembled.
Alliances are forming.
Give it all you've got, guys.
Five.
Ah! [mimics explosion]
Seven players remain, and I am one of them.
A lot of broken alliances last time.
Short Johnny came up short.
Ah!
The stakes are high.
Let's keep it tight.
Guys, I'm in the third voting position.
Alexandra is second, and Daryl is first.
Three!
One vote for three.
Guys, I got one vote.
At least I will not be going home
with a big goose egg, no votes.
I got one vote, and there's still a chance.
Three! Another vote.
That puts Timber and Alexandra even.
I'm so nervous.
A two.
And it is Alexandra who wins Trial by Fire!
[high-pitched voice] I cannot believe this!
I cannot believe it-- it was close with Timber,
but I was right to make alliance
and go with him, to trust him.
We gotta the end, and I won.
[normal voice] And just so you guys know, in real life,
my wife's middle name is Alexandra.
So this is who I'm picturing this whole time
with this cool player in the middle.
Eh-eh-eh,
so cheesy and sappy, but I like it.
It's supposed to be morning, late morning.
The sun scarcely comes up at all now,
but it's light enough to see for a few hours.
And it cannot dampen our spirits.
So I'm gonna check the snare lines.
♪
I have a couple snares to check just right close to camp
because I saw tracks from a hare.
He came hopping through camp.
I guess he moved in from somewhere.
Hadn't seen hare tracks in ages.
I saw a set of hare tracks,
so I set a couple of those yesterday.
And then just decide how to kill my time the rest--
[gasps]
- [gasps] Yes!
Look at this. Look at this.
♪
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
Yes.
♪
Ha-ha!
Nailed him right here, right close to camp.
Yeah!
Yeah.
A nice hare.
Nice, big fatty.
Yes.
Yes!
The connection that I've shared with this land
and every form of life that lives on it
is deeper than words can express.
I value its life and its meat and its innards.
Rah, rah, rah, rah.
In my mind, I'm already sucking its lungs and heart
out of its chest after it's boiled.
This is gonna be delicious.
This is the most pure life that I've ever lived,
the most pure connection with nature that
I've ever experienced and enjoyed.
And it's because my very life and existence
was dependent on it.
Take you back to camp.
♪
The wild places of this world
mean the same thing to me
now that they've always meant,
but in a deeper way now,
because I've truly tasted it for long enough
to know that it is where I belong.
♪
All right.
Now, Levi, Elliot,
you remember how I taught you to do it.
You take the lower jawbone off first,
then you take them apart.
And you use the jawbone as a scoop
to scoop out the brains.
That's a "for sure you gotta do it" step
because otherwise, it's hard to get the brains out.
The back part of the brain comes first.
You take your scooper, and you begin--
ow, it's burning my fingers--
to scoop.
And there.
A delicious morsel of brain.
It's good.
I miss my family a lot,
but I'm really enjoying this hare.
[dramatic music]
♪
- ♪ Who wants to
♪ Live in the Arctic
♪ Well, let me tell you something, friend ♪
♪ Ooh
♪ It's not a nice place to live ♪
♪ In the middle of winter
♪
Oh, now come on, pike.
Let's go, please.
♪ I'm gonna lose my mind
[tense music]
I really, really need to get some food.
♪
Pretty bold move here.
That's about all I have left in my cache
is one part of a burbot.
[dramatic music]
♪
Dude.
Look at that big hunk of burbot.
♪
The hardest job in the world right now
is just staying alive.
♪
Man, my hands and feet...
Cold as the damn Dickens.
[tense music]
I knew it was gonna get cold, and I prepared for cold.
But this caliber of cold,
I didn't realize existed.
And it's to the point where I'm sleeping every night
in my snow pants with two pairs of socks.
And then I stuff my feet inside mittens
just to keep my toes from getting frostbite.
But it's still cold as hell.
♪
Oh, my goodness.
I needed that.
And I've got 20 hours of darkness
in a small shelter every night,
and it's just me.
And I get a taste of what it feels like to really
not have any human interaction.
♪
And it's exactly like solitary confinement.
♪
You can leave this prison, though, if you want,
but then you're gonna be incarcerated
after you leave here
because you have to live with the decision.
♪
Not a very good broth, dude.
[clears throat]
It's warm, though.
[tense music]
I'm running on fumes.
♪
I wish I could just go to sleep and, like,
be done with this day.
There's only so much sleep my body can take.
And then it's like, OK, you gotta be awake.
And it's a freaking constant battle of--
of hey, Dub... [clears throat]
Push the button. It'll be great.
You can go do fun things and do stuff.
And then it's like, hey, Dub, you push that button,
you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life.
If I have a bunch of food and I--and I feel secure,
then it's not--
it doesn't happen as much.
But when I'm low on food, like I am right now,
it's like a constant loop, and it's driving me insane.
♪
That frightens me
because food supplies are scarce out there.
♪
I can't snare rabbits that don't exist.
I can't trap all this stuff that's not here.
I do need food coming in because that's gonna be
the end of me if I don't have it.
♪
And it turns my brain into overdrive
trying to solve it.
And there's nothing I can do besides fish harder.
♪
So here's what's happened.
I brought this belt right here.
It's the color of a brook trout.
So I just cut a chunk off it, about this much.
And here's what I've done.
This is gonna work freaking good, you guys.
So here's my--my lure, right?
So what I've done is I make--
I pop a little hole
where I want my stitch to be,
like that.
♪
It's a time-consuming process.
But just like that, I've managed to secure
this 7/0 hook onto this piece of belt
that looks exactly like a damn fish.
It's just gonna--it's gonna, like, dart around,
which is the perfect action you could have
to attract pike to strike.
I guarantee we're gonna get big fish on that.
I love it.
It's not over for Dub.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Another very comfortable night in the tilt.
I am very blessed for this tilt.
It worked out better than expected, way better.
I bet the little fella would like one.
I will do it in the backyard, back out in the bushes.
[laughs]
[solemn music]
♪
My food supply now is good, but it's not great.
So my main focus is try to cache more food.
See if there's any fresh track of anything over that way.
♪
My strategy right now is just go after food to cache.
♪
If I get rabbits, well, then that prolongs
the fish that I got.
It gives me a chance now to catch some more,
because the weather could turn,
and then it could be hard.
Two more snares.
A bit of rabbit-- a bit of rabbit liver
in the morning would be nice.
That would be awesome.
♪
I worked up a sweat.
[speaking indistinctly] I was going too fast, man.
Slow it in.
♪
Walking back and forth over that hill too many times
just takes a lot of energy to get over there.
I've been doing a lot more exertion
that I planned to, walking and carrying
around all the different gear.
So now I really gotta be careful what I do,
especially this late in the game,
because I don't want to get hurt
and get pulled before I'm done.
♪
I got a rabbit! I got a rabbit!
Oh, blessed redeemers.
Look at that.
Oh, my God.
♪
We're gonna fix him up, see?
Well, well, well, well.
[chuckling]
That was a total shock, you know?
Oh, man.
Whoo-hoo!
For a while, I didn't think
there was even one left in the world.
After such a nifty spell with nothing,
that is a total surprise.
♪
The snare's good.
I'm just gonna reset the same one here again.
Oh, merciful, this is so good.
Days and days and days, never seen a grouse
or rabbit track, or nothing.
You never know what to expect out here.
[chuckles]
[soft music]
♪
Oh, what a beautiful rabbit.
♪
If I win this money, this will allow me
to get out of the fishery earlier.
♪
Kiki, me, and Whit, we're gonna do some marvelous things
and enjoy some time with, you know, the kids.
♪
Oh, yeah.
♪
Oh, my gosh.
Good old hot food.
Look at this.
Mmm.
Ah, so long since I had rabbit liver.
It's, oh, so good.
Mmm.
That is so dang good.
That was a real morale booster.
[laughs]
[dramatic music]
♪
- It's snowing hard.
It is significantly below freezing right now.
Cold hands. Cold hands.
- So cozy.
Every night, I have no idea how cold it been.
[laughs]
Hopefully it blows it overnight,
and we get a good day tomorrow,
and we'll be extra productive.
♪
- Boy, the snow is really drifting.
♪
Oh, my God.
- I think it's gonna do this until doomsday,
when we all descend to Niflheim,
where the frozen cold will never release us.
♪
- That was, by far, the coldest night
I've ever had in my life.
I tossed and turned for many, many hours.
There's gonna be a lot of snow,
a hell of a lot of snow out there.
So to make it even down to the--
the ice holes is gonna be a pain in the butt.
[tense music]
But I'll tell you what.
♪
I'm not joking when I say I'm gonna be
out there fishing my ass off.
♪
Holy crap, look at that.
My door is--usually falls straight to the ground.
♪
It was one heck of a storm last night.
♪
I can't see where I've been.
All my trails that I've been working are all gone.
♪
[bleep].
Oh, my God, I just walked away from the fire.
Feet are already [bleep].
♪
There it is, my lure.
I'm gonna try fishing for a little
until I can't take it anymore.
I hope I win, but I don't have
a lot of days left to get that title.
My body does not have the reserves
to be out here starving to death.
This is for all the marbles.
And I'm right at the finish line.
I know there's only one or two people left, for sure.
♪
A fish right now would be the only thing
that could pull me from the edge of the cliff I'm on,
with the whole financial future of my life with me on it.
[tense music]
♪
How are they not hitting?
It's such a good spot.
Boy, it's a cold one.
♪
The colder I get, the less sleep I get,
the more I start worrying about my parents.
♪
And there's a sheet that you sign when you come in here,
and you check a box that says,
please notify me of family emergencies,
please do not notify me of family emergencies.
You check one of those boxes.
So I said, do not tell me about family emergencies
because it's gonna compromise my ability
to stay in the competition.
♪
And now it's been so long, and I'm like, oh, crap, dude.
I'm out here having to live with that.
That goes through my head all the time.
♪
And there's no way anybody could possibly understand,
when you're isolated with no distractions
for 20-plus hours a day in a small, little space,
where your mind goes and what it thinks about
and the kind of stories it can create out of thin air.
[grunts]
Where are the fish at?
I always tell myself, it's OK.
♪
But what if it's not?
[bleep].
This place, man.
What do I gotta do?
[tense music]
♪
Nothing on that.
♪
Oh, we're in trouble.
♪
So much trouble.
♪
[sighs]
Breathe. It's OK.
♪
You're gonna make it.
♪
Five.
My heart's just fricking pounding.
I can barely breathe.
♪
And I can't--
dude, I can't do anything.
♪
I can't--how can I go walk someplace to go hunting
or to--to somewhere where I can find food
if I can't walk up a freaking small little hill, like--
like I'm walking up right now?
[dramatic music]
[sighs]
♪
I've tried everything, man.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
My body's missing-- my body's missing something.
It's missing some sort of nutrient or something.
And it doesn't work.
♪
I mean, I don't know--
I don't know if what's wrong with me is, like,
gonna just go away and I'll be normal, or if I'm,
like, permanently doing damage to my body that I can't fix.
Like, I might be walking around like I'm 90 year old--
90 years old forever because of whatever it is
I'm doing to my body.
♪
There is every single reason in the world for me
to stop right now, to quit and leave and feel OK about it.
♪
But all the dreams I've been, like, building
in my head for--for the months that I've been here,
all get wiped out the moment I hit that button.
♪
I'm worried about my--my family.
I don't know how they are.
♪
I don't know what to do, man.
♪
How the hell?
How do I freaking tap out?
♪
It hurts to walk.
♪
This is bad.
♪
I'll never have another chance at this kind of money.
♪
To think of going home without it is a bummer.
But to think of going home to a passed-away family member
is a lot worse than that.
[dramatic music]
♪
[beeping]
I think I got it.
[tense music]
♪
Hey, this is Dub.
♪
I'm officially tapping out.
[dramatic music]
♪
It's time to go.
I'm tapping out for so many reasons.
It's like, I'm tapping out for my health.
I'm tapping out because I want to see my mom,
which is--which seems insane.
It's like, three months is not that long.
I go three months all the time without seeing my mom.
But at least I talk to her, and at least I know she's OK.
I mean, I know I could do it physically.
I can--I can sit by the fire, and I can--
I can do it.
But mentally, is it worth--
is it worth me getting out of here with a bunch of money
and then having something wrong with my mom or my dad
or--or them just being gone?
I mean, how the hell am I gonna live with that
for the rest of my life?
Money comes and goes, but family, you only get one.
And they're all I got, man.
Turns out I like people more than I thought.
That's why I'm going home, because--
because I want to be by people again.
It's like, being alone is pointless.
Why?
[pensive music]
Making the call was just as hard as I envisioned it being.
Yes, I'm officially tapping out.
That's a painful batch of words right there.
But this experience has made me realize
that I'm capable of a hell of a lot more
than I ever thought I was.
♪
I've always loved nature,
and I've spent a lot of time in it,
but I've never really been so immersed into it.
♪
And for once, I guess I became
part of--like, the legit part of the ecosystem.
Like, I was in the Arctic battle,
just like every other animal.
It's a connection that most people could never imagine,
and I'll never forget it.
♪
I've always thought
being alone was the right thing for me
until I was really, truly alone.
♪
There's no reason for me to put myself
in solitary confinement
because I'm afraid of the pain
that may be caused by other people.
♪
Some people might be bad,
but a lot of people are good.
♪
We are made to be social animals.
And I'm not impervious to the laws of humanity, I guess.
And it's so much more than that.
I get to talk to my mom.
That moment is gonna be worth $500,000 to me.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
- I was thinking back this morning,
laying in the sleeping bag, about the phases
that I've gone through being out here.
In the early part,
there's life's heart beating everywhere.
There's waterfowl making such a ruckus.
There's fish striking.
I was so content.
But as freeze-up starts to happen,
the land got really silent.
The heartbeat of the land itself stopped,
and everything went colorless.
And that, I realized, is what started to wear on me
is--is that--
that silence and colorlessness and absolute lack of life
making the isolation feel so intense.
And the noises in your head are so loud and deafening
that they can overwhelm you.
For me, it overwhelms me, looks like.
You start to search inside yourself for meaning,
for something to think of to break up the monotony
and give you a reason to keep thinking.
You know, you got plans at home.
You got other life outside there.
But you've gotta be real careful with those,
'cause those can make you super miserable.
[tense music]
Um...[clears throat]
♪
Yeah.
[suspenseful music]
♪
I'm gonna check the fish lines.
♪
I feel like the end of my nose is gonna get frostbite
if I don't bury it up in here.
♪
Ugh.
♪
It's too cold for this boy.
Telling ya.
But there's still water under the snow on top of the ice.
It just freezes all over you,
get on the bottom of your boots.
[ice cracking]
[ominous music]
That was a big crack under me.
♪
Big ice crack.
The river ice sucks.
It's dangerous, and it sucks.
♪
You can't fish in this.
I can't.
I don't know how to.
♪
So I'm gonna pull all the fish stuff.
♪
The ice continually has me worried.
I'm walking through big, slushy water
on top of the ice.
And even being out there to ice fish at all
is not only risky for falling through...
Just want to get this hook and get out of here.
♪
But it's risky to all my gear,
just for the amount of ice that it clumps on me
before I come home and go back to my shelter,
from all that slushy water.
It's kind of miserable.
♪
So now I have to hope for more hares.
♪
And then I'm gonna eat just as much jerky
as my teeth will allow me.
[dramatic music]
♪
[birds calling]
- Yeah.
We'll go and check the rest of our rabbit snares.
[ominous music]
♪
At this point in the game,
I've got a limited food supply.
♪
I know, at the beginning, I had a really good chance.
But as time goes on, I'm getting
more skeptical in my mind because
I'm pretty sure somebody got either a moose or a bear.
I don't want to go home, but I don't know
how long it's gonna take to win this.
Yeah.
[dramatic music]
♪
- [sighs]
♪
You know, I've done a lot.
I've lived a lot of vibrant life out here.
I've received everything I've asked for out here,
except the money.
I've--I have a vision for the future.
I know what's next for our family,
and I'm ready to get that life started.
♪
I could make this go on much longer.
But all I'd be thinking about each day is the money
and trying to impress people or something.
And I don't need to prove anything.
I've--I am who I am.
♪
And as I think about who else might be out here,
I know that it will go way past 100 days.
There's no chance that either one of us
taps out for pain or hunger.
There's no chance.
So what am I doing?
♪
I'm gonna turn this camera off.
Looking at it is a little too much right now.
♪
It's so hard to do.
I hoped that it wouldn't turn on, but it turned on.
[dramatic music]
♪
[beeping]
♪
Them buttons are hot fire.
♪
[beeping]
♪
I can't do it.
Not today.
[dramatic music]
♪
[tense music]
♪
- Good morning, everybody.
♪
I'm enjoying this enough,
and I'm in good enough health.
I could easily do this to 100.
But it's just kind of going on and on, just for--
for what?
For what now?
For money.
[tense music]
Today, it started feeling pointless.
Like, why?
♪
Unexpectedly, this thought has pressed itself through
into my mind.
♪
What if I go ahead and win this money?
What'll happen to me in my work
that I've dedicated my life to?
Every family I meet needs $10,000, $15,000
to emigrate to somewhere better.
It could never reach all of them.
♪
This is a tough juncture.
♪
And after I give away the last dollar to the next person,
they may not understand that it's gone because
it's a fortune too big to imagine.
So would this money create a barrier
between me and those very people
that I would be trying to help?
Throughout this time, my love and value for this work
has only deepened as my connection with life
through nature has been strengthened.
So I don't want all of this good
that I've gained to get lost
in the meaningless and the suck.
♪
And I think I've received everything,
besides the money, that I can possibly receive
from something like this.
I've done 83 days.
And I've succeeded
because I've finished
with the questions that I had for God.
♪
I know how to approach life with my family
so much better,
since I'm at peace with my own existence.
And I can go home, and I can watch this with my boys
on the couch and be proud of every moment.
♪
I've seen God feed me every day on this land.
So, in my heart, I know that He will provide the money,
day by day, so we can continue to do
this humanitarian work that we love.
[uplifting music]
What more could I ask?
♪
[beeping]
Hi, um, this is Timber,
and I'm officially tapping out today.
[tense music]
♪
83 days, you guys.
♪
It's good.
I would've won, by far, most seasons.
♪
This is how I want it, guys.
♪
This is how I want it.
♪
You know, the--the Arctic is not too much for me.
Um, I'm not being forced out by anything.
I overcame the limits.
I've tested myself.
So I have to choose each day, what's the right way?
And for tomorrow, the right way is for me
to go be with my family.
I'm super happy.
I'm happier than I've been in years.
[soft music]
I feel alive.
I feel fully alive again.
♪
I've had a lot of baggage with me
from experiences in the past few years.
Um...
and I feel that I've really, really won the battle.
♪
I'm proud of having lived
the realest life a man can live.
♪
So I'll take my moose head, put it in my house
that I'll build someday.
And it'll be awesome.
[solemn music]
♪
As I pack up my tools and I pack up all my things,
the main thought running through my head
is that I could have brought my wife here to see this.
But I know that I'll be seeing her soon enough at home
and that she will understand and agree with
the reasons that I ended it.
♪
I want my children to see the true victory
in the immaterial things
like integrity and joy and resilience
and the ways that I've walked through this journey,
which I know I can be proud of.
♪
And I just want my children to see those
as the real victory rather than $500,000.
♪
I think my case shows everyone that if you believe
that the show is all about kill big game and win,
you're wrong.
It's not.
There's so many more layers.
I killed big game.
I'm not the winner.
It's not a 1 plus 1 equals 2.
Survival itself is much more complex than that.
♪
This has been my absolute dream life.
"Alone" is the gold standard test of survivalists.
And I know that I have passed the test.
In survival, it's so easy to say you can do one thing,
and it's impossible to prove.
♪
But if you do 83 days on "Alone,"
you've showed that you can do it.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
- Good morning, good morning, good morning.
Bottom of me left foot feels a bit funny today.
Almost like I have something--you know,
if there was a little something in your boot,
and it chafed or something, like.
Nothing serious, but it just feels funny.
I looked at it, I couldn't see nothing.
So I don't know.
Have a little look at my family, the ladies there,
God bless them.
Oh, boy, a long time.
Oh.
I miss my family and my pets.
Who wouldn't?
But you just gotta stay mentally strong
and take it day by day.
Yep.
[yawns]
[beeping]
[dramatic music]
[speaking indistinctly]
[bleep]. What a piece of crap.
♪
In my mind, I'm thinking, it's day 84.
I feel good.
But, you know...
You know, I want that record.
I want--and I want to win so bad.
I know, without a fact, that I'll never call in.
♪
Go home with gas in the tank and think on that,
that I could have stayed another day?
That'd destroy me.
♪
So if I lose this, I prefer to be pulled.
- How's your health been?
- Uh, good, really good.
♪
- I'm gonna need you to pull that toque off
quickly, too. - Oh, shoot.
♪
If the doctor said your toes froze too much
and you gotta go, well, it's all I could do.
Like, I can't do nothing else.
- Give them a wiggle.
Yeah.
Take a nice, big, deep breath for me, Will.
And out.
You're all good.
♪
- Emotionally, how are you feeling?
- Uh, good.
You know, like everyone else,
you're gonna miss your family
and stuff like that, you know?
But--but, you know, Christmas is the only thing
I kind of worry about.
You know, we go so late.
But I'm here this far.
I've gone this far and gone this long
that there's no stopping.
♪
- And long-term strategy?
- Well, I don't know what "long term" means anymore
after this late in the game.
[laughs] You know what I mean?
You know, it's getting--it's getting well up there now.
[laughs]
♪
[tense music]
- What would you say you miss the most?
- Yeah, I can't--my family.
I can't say just-- but I miss my boy,
you know, because I know he's more sensitive,
like, in that sense, like.
But--but, you know?
- Do you think your sons would be proud of you?
- Oh, my God, yes.
Yes, indeed.
Most--yeah.
I know when I sees them, they're gonna give me
a bear hug like you wouldn't believe.
He'd probably strangle me now.
[laughing]
[dramatic music]
Ah! - Will, you won!
- I did? - You did!
Oh, God!
- Jesus.
[laughter]
♪
- Let me look at you.
Oh, my God!
- You're so pretty.
- Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, let me look at you again.
Oh, my God, you did it.
- I can't believe it. - You did it!
- Oh, my God.
- I love you so much!
[laughter]
Oh, my God, Will.
- Oh, my God, how--how's the kids?
- They're doing good.
- [sobbing]
♪
- Oh, God. [laughs]
I love me tilt, but no more tilt.
- Oh, my God.
- Go, go, go, go, go crawl in me tilt.
Have a look.
I can show you me tilt.
- [laughs]
Oh, my God.
- Crawl in and lie down.
- You just lived in that?
Can you fit in there?
- Ah.
This is where I spent all those nights.
- After, like, day 50 or 60 or something, it was like,
oh, my God, is he, like, dying?
And then I went back, and I looked at, like,
the last text message that you sent,
and it said that you'll be out here as long as it takes.
And then I was like, OK, I just need to calm down
and stop worrying because he's just gonna
be out there for as long as it takes.
- Oh, my God.
This is the biggest dream that you could dream of.
And now it's actually happening.
I mean, I couldn't be happier.
- Oh, my God, you got so small.
- What?
You should see my-- you should've seen my belt.
All the little holes I had to chisel in
and keep moving them down.
The greatest adventure of my life.
I really can't--it's unreal.
I gotta start writing stuff down.
Oh, my God.
I was eating boiled fish and boiled meat
now for 80-odd days.
- [laughs]
- You ever has a champion of champions, I'm coming back, OK?
- No, no, no. [laughter]
- I can't believe it.
To have my wife here with me where I spent all this time,
to see where I've been, I'm over the moon,
because that was a crucial part of my motivation
that kept me going.
It was super special.
You just--a moment that, like, I'll relive
in my mind time and time and time again going forward.
My family is everything to me.
That's why I would never quit because I knew
if I was successful, their future is gonna be brighter.
Winning this prize, this $500,000,
allows us to do things we never thought possible before.
A dream of the wife's was to move back
to her home community.
I want to make her dream come true.
This money will allow us to be able to bring our family back
and raise them in that small community atmosphere
that we really think is important.
It will also secure the kids' education.
It's a life-changing moment for our family.
Our future just got way brighter.
♪
I think staying positive out here
played a crucial role, especially in the latter
part of the game.
And, you know, to survive for 84 days,
I think I even got more mental strength than I realized.
I am resilient the way I am
just because of the way I grew up.
I come from a community with a lot of pride, hard workers.
So I went out with that same kind of drive,
the same work ethic.
You always gotta find new ways around things.
Everybody has trouble, but how you react
and deal with it is what really makes the difference.
I'm so happy that the skills that I learned from my parents
and what I learned from the Indigenous people,
all that come together to make this successful.
You cannot come in here
and pretend to be somebody else.
You've gotta take the tools with the skills you got.
And I have definitely proven that you do not have to
get big game to win "Alone."
♪
I'm a Labradorian, true and strong.
It's who I am.
It's in my DNA.
It's a part of me.
Nothing but good things is gonna come from this,
not only in my community,
but in all the communities across Labrador.
♪
When I go back, they're gonna be super excited.
♪
I'm proud of my little shelter and what I accomplished there,
and I'm really happy with the obstacles I overcame.
It's a little sad, you know, to walk away from it,
but I know I will be back here again someday.
The stuff that happened here,
I'll be talking about for the rest of my life
and sharing with others.
I'm a part of this land now.
I'm proud of it, super proud of it.
♪
[howling]
♪