[dramatic music]
- Previously on "Race to Survive: New Zealand"...
- How much more can we lose from our bodies?
- After nearly a month of extreme hunger,
pain, and fatigue...
- Ow.
- Not working right now.
- Despite a heroic effort, the third ruthless race...
- It hurts.
- Knocked out decorated endurance athletes
Ashley and Rhandi...
- Oh! No medal.
- No!
- Leaving just five fatigued teams still standing.
- Aw, mother. Dang knee.
- With three consecutive wins under their belt...
- Yeah, brother.
- The lightning-fast river guides,
Oliver and Corry,
have cemented themselves as the pair
to beat on the race course.
But survival camp has humbled and weakened
the front runners... - No, no, no.
- It is difficult to be so desperate and hungry.
- I hope this is the lowest that it gets out here.
- While others capitalized.
- Oh, my God.
- Now, with $500,000 closer than ever,
a new challenge begins in a stunning,
strategy-bending race
that will change everything.
* *
- The crate! The crate! You gotta race, baby.
Whoo! - Open it.
- What do we got? Yeah, bro.
- OK.
- Race leg for the Kahurangi Coast.
- "Unlike previous races, on race leg four,
you will not be stopped by the clock."
- There's no end-of-day time.
- That's crazy. - Yeah.
Pushing night is gonna be different, for sure.
- Sinking sand dunes.
Coastal jungle. Nighttime navigation.
That's a lot.
- Man, that adds a whole new level to it.
- God damn, dude. That's big.
Wildland firefighters, we're used to preparing
to push our bodies to the limit.
Getting stoked when things get shitty pumps us up.
- "Your movement and rest are completely decided
by you and your teammate."
- Holy shit. I'm nervous.
There's definitely some fear in me for the non-stop race.
I think just the 24-hour go
was kind of a, oh, crap, this is gonna suck.
* *
- Race four. All gas, no brakes.
A pain-inflicting, 25-mile test
of stamina and strategy,
launching with a lung-crushing climb
up a 10-story sand dune and a full-throttle sprint
across 11 debilitating miles
of endless beachfront to a vertigo-inducing abseil
and coasteering 1.5 miles
of sharp cliffside before turning inland
to face down the island's mightiest jungle
as they bash, brawl, and claw their way
to the finish crate.
Even at a relentless pace,
competitors will need over 20 hours to finish.
- I think we're about to enter zombie mode.
* *
- All right, team, we ready?
[together] In five, four, three, two, one!
Go! - Whoo-hoo!
- Let's go! Let's go!
* *
- I hate this already.
* *
[groans]
- Oh, my God.
- Yeah.
- Oh, my God.
Push.
- I just see sand dune.
- That's one way to kick start the legs.
Ethan and Tyrie are coming up. - Heard.
- Way to go, baby. Let's go get this thing.
- Hero shot. Hero shot. Hero shot.
- Yeah, baby.
- [bleep] keep moving on the coast while tide's low.
- With their legs warmed up, it's now a three-mile dash
to the first mandatory checkpoint
and pack raft pickup before the rising tide
engulfs their passageway.
It's a critical opening stretch
in a long, nonstop race,
one that requires a tactical game plan.
- My lungs are actually starting
to feel it quite a bit. - Yeah?
You won't be the only one.
ET are gonna try and hold this pace.
- Yep. - Tyrie's going to push Ethan.
- We can just sit right here at this pace.
Let them crash out on the run.
- The first mile is the hardest, you know?
- Just warming up.
About to hit that stride.
- Yep.
- This is nothing.
- Sure. - Just a run on the beach.
We're not digging hotline.
- We got no chainsaw on our back.
- Ain't got no chainsaws.
We're gonna put pressure on the Jackson boys.
This way, we keep them in sight.
We know they don't have as much food as us.
It's just kind of crazy how fast
Corry and Oliver are, man.
It is surprising with how little they've had
to eat throughout the entire process
compared to how much we ate.
Everyone else here, all they think about
is cheeseburgers and [bleep] pizza.
I don't give a shit about pizza.
I want to win this race,
and I want that $500,000.
- We haven't been able to beat them at all
in this whole competition.
But from the very first race,
we've been flirting with first place with them.
They're gonna have to give
everything they have to beat us.
- This is the best day of the race.
- Whoo, whoo, whoo. Come on.
- Hunters dropping back.
Let's keep this pace.
- All day.
[energetic rock music]
- That steep old sandy climb
really burned out our legs.
My knee's a little bummed up because the sand
just tweaks it, man.
- 900 yards back, in-laws and hunters,
Ryan and Bronsen, are pushing through the pain.
- A nerve twitching every time.
- Yeah, it's like it's just one pinpoint.
- Yeah.
The second week, I rolled down the mountain pretty good,
and I twisted my knee.
Shit! - Whoa!
- God damn it. Agh!
- Are you all right?
Geez.
- [groans] I hit my knee so hard.
- It hurts.
My body's in starve mode.
It's got these injuries starting to occur to it,
but we just got to keep doing what we can.
Stupid me. Stupid sand.
I'm gonna keep pushing this.
We'll have to heal afterwards at survival camp.
- Behind us is Creighton and Paulina.
- Trailing the in-laws by 400 yards.
- [laughs] I [bleep] love this.
I love being able to move.
- I am not enjoying the running as much as Creighton,
but I'm feeling strong.
We have so much energy.
- The last day at survival camp three,
we ate half an eel.
- That success suddenly turned around,
and he's like a new person.
- You see, we're catching up a little.
- Yep.
- If we can keep the hunters in our sights this entire race,
then we'll be sitting pretty.
They're slowing down, and we're catching up.
- Yeah.
- Nik and Kennedy, they are way behind us.
They're not running.
I don't even see them. Wow.
Yeah, I do.
- While the other teams put the pedal to the metal,
700 yards back in last place...
- It's a non-stop race, so it's obviously good
to pace ourselves.
- Because if we are gonna go all night, why sprint now?
- Canadian roughnecks Kennedy and Nik
double down on a slow and steady game plan.
- Statistically, you're more likely to get injured
or tap out than you are to lose.
The last three races, Emilio and Heather
were the only ones eliminated due to true elimination.
It is anybody's game, and people are going down.
Paulina and Creighton are going at the speed
that they're going, so to try and go foot by foot
against them is very, very hard task.
We'll see if they get lost.
We are the tortoise, but we're still here.
[timer beeping]
- There they are.
We probably don't need to inflate.
We can just smash and grab.
- Oliver and Corry are the first to the checkpoint.
Here, teams must pick up and heft
an extra 20 pounds of pack raft three miles
to the river's mouth.
And with the bone-chilling tide quickly rising,
the faster they make it there,
the greater chance of crossing on foot.
- Put it on Corry's pack.
- And we've got enough time with low tide to, I believe,
stick to the coast without inflating these things.
- There's some pressure, though.
- There is pressure.
- Looking back, it looks like a zombie apocalypse.
- Well, these guys might be hungrier.
- Where's that pack raft?
- Inside. - In here?
- In here somewhere.
- Anybody else transition yet?
- Pushing hard to keep pace, the smoke jumpers arrive
just four minutes behind.
- How you looking? How you looking?
- Yeah. Good. - Good.
Let's move.
We want to put the pressure on Ethan specifically
because we know Tyrie's got the fitness,
and he's hungry for it,
but we know we can set a pace that we think can drop Ethan,
and that's part of our strategy now.
- Today's the day.
No more sitting around twiddling our thumbs at camp.
Think about what you represent.
Think about my family.
I think about my dead friends.
Think about my dead relatives.
I know they're watching me.
I know I'm always protected.
I know I'm never alone.
He's the same way. - Come on.
- Let's go, brother.
- Dedicating this one to my father, man.
My father passed away on this day,
20 some odd years ago, 2001.
[somber music]
* *
My father was a big outdoor enthusiast.
He was kind of a hippie back in his day,
and nobody ever said a bad word about the dude.
Good push. Good pace.
This day on the calendar,
usually it's one of the toughest days of the year.
* *
Said a word to him this morning.
- He's watching down. - He is.
- I know it. Come on.
- Told him to give you strength.
- Hell yeah. He was a strong dude.
- Asked him to watch over us.
Let him know you got him on your mind.
- Tyrie's Navajo and Paiute.
He has an interesting way with his culture of like,
communicating with his family that's dead or alive
and just kind of mentally, like, just talking to them.
And I've kind of started picking up that
a little bit myself.
It's almost like they are there with you.
- It's giving me the strength today.
[dramatic music]
Yes, sir. Ah.
Let's go, baby.
- Coming up...
- [grunts] Stupid knee.
- We're coming for you, Ryan and Bronsen.
- [grunts] [bleep].
- Oh, [bleep].
- We're going into really tough land navigation.
- Bushwhacking at night.
- The Jackson boys are right below us.
- Good push. - Look at this thing.
Bare [bleep] hand.
Oh, my God.
[timer beeping]
- Two hours into the non-stop race...
- We just got to keep moving.
[dramatic music]
- What do you think?
- Well, we could blow the pack raft up,
but we could also just try to walk across.
- After a six-mile, leg-burning coastal sprint,
Jackson river guides Oliver and Corry are the first
to the inlet crossing,
but they've got company.
- Oh, they're right up there. - Come on, E.
- Let's go. - Almost there, brother.
- There they are.
- [straining] Oh, yeah, that's a heavy pack.
- As the swelling tide rips in,
teams will have to make a choice--
spend precious time inflating the pack raft
or plunge directly into the water,
chilling their bodies to the core
for the remainder of the race.
- Whew. Oh, that is deep.
- There. - Oh, still not--
Come on. Nearly there.
* *
- Could have used the pack raft.
I think we'd still be over there
inflating our boat right now.
- Swim it? - Let's do it.
- Drop off up here. - I see it.
Right. - Yep.
Easy enough.
* *
- Need a paddle. - Yeah. I got it.
- Good job, dude. - Hell yeah.
- Ethan and Tyrie are coming up.
- Heard. - Come on.
- Come on, now. Ain't no thang.
- Two and a half miles back...
- We're coming for you, Ryan and Bronsen!
We're gonna catch the hunters.
- Think he had something in his oatmeal this morning.
He is on fire.
* *
- Don't worry about it.
- [grunting]
- Maybe not.
- Yeah, boys.
[grunts]
Thank you. Thank you.
[yells]
- You got it, Paulina?
Yeah, baby.
- Lovely day for a run.
- Paulina, you're doing so awesome.
I'm so proud of her.
- For the first time in this race,
Creighton and I are in the top three.
- Let's go, baby.
- Creighton and Paulina passed us,
but that's OK.
We're just gonna keep pushing till the end.
That's all we can do. - Yeah.
Stupid knee.
I didn't think this old man would fall apart.
- Don't push it.
- As the Utah in-laws start to fade...
- Can we see the hunters?
- They're not far ahead of us at all.
- Canadian oil riggers Kennedy and Nik
are slowly, steadily keeping the competition
just within eyesight.
- We've done pretty well against
some super extreme athletes.
- We're the underdogs here.
We just kind of wait for them to make the wrong move,
and we sneak in every time.
At last survival camp, I overheard Ryan kind of
start complaining about his knee.
He doesn't know if he can handle the weight anymore.
- Ryan was a vet, you know? He served in Iraq.
He's a very tough individual,
but he's running with, like, a 40-pound pack.
So right then and there, you know there's gonna be
knee problems for sure.
- Might not be sprinting in this race,
but we always make it to the finish crate,
and that's the most important thing.
- And we get a medallion every time.
- Yeah.
- Back at the front...
[timer beeping]
- Nice job here. Here we go.
- What do we got?
- To continue on the course, teams will face down
their longest and most technical
challenge yet,
a 1.5-mile rope course,
beginning with a dizzying leap
of faith down a 300-foot-high rappel to a sea cliff circuit
comprised of two stomach-churning
Tyrolean traverses, a hair-raising
50-foot-high via ferrata,
and a twin traverse across an 80-foot chasm.
- You know, Ethan and Tyrie are really close behind us.
They're probably gonna pop through the bushes
any moment now.
- I'd say they're probably about--
right there.
- Yeah, about that close.
- About 20, 30 meters--
10 meters away and closing.
[energetic rock music]
- I'm ready.
Let's, uh... - Boogie?
- Boogie.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Oh, my God. This is so awkward.
- With 30 pounds of gear pulling down
on their backs and multiple lines of rope
to manipulate, it's no easy slide.
- Holy shit, dude. This is sliding.
- What? - Oh, my God.
- [grunts]
* *
- Ugh. Yeah.
It's like a core workout.
- Yeah.
- All right, here we go.
* *
- Now we're going.
* *
- Whoo!
- Yeah. Just got to move.
Feeling very competitive today.
- Feeling dangerous. - Feeling dangerous.
- Don't plan on stopping. We're going all day.
- We got this. - Let's go.
[timer beeping]
- Four hours into race four,
the five remaining teams
navigate the shoreline, battling the surging tide
and each other.
- The tide's coming up, so we got to hurry across.
- We got to move quick anyways to warm up, so we're going.
- While Canadian oil workers
Kennedy and Nik's unwavering stride
keeps them within 1,000 yards of the competition...
- Hurts, man. - All good, man.
- No, we got to go.
Nik and Kennedy are gonna catch up.
- Ryan's nagging knee injury
has dropped his team off the pace
and into an unfamiliar fourth place.
- Come on, Paul. - I'm coming!
- And over 600 yards ahead, adventure athletes
Paulina and Creighton push for a first ever top-three finish.
- It's super important to get to the challenges
before the other teams.
There's only so many lanes open.
- Up at the front, clipping into the first
Tyrolean traverse,
Oliver and Corry's plan to push the tempo...
- Clip, clip.
- And knock out smoke jumper Ethan
is proving easier said than done.
[dramatic music]
- Pressure's on.
* *
- Off we go.
* *
- Ethan and Tyrie, I don't think
they're gonna match our speed on the ropes.
- The more technical, the better we're gonna do.
We're gonna continue to be at the head of the pack.
* *
Today will be our day. - It is.
- I feel it, dude. - I see 'em right here.
* *
Go, go. - OK.
- Yee-hee.
- Keep pulling.
- Yeah, brother.
- [grunts]
* *
[energetic rock music]
* *
- [grunts] Oh, shit.
Ow. God damn it.
- You good?
- [bleep] rocks are slick, dude.
- No doubt. Heard that.
- This is a crazy race.
You know, we got these teams that are,
like, excellent rock climbers.
And I think all we have is our grit.
- Just blue-collar dudes, man.
[bleep] hurt, dude.
My wrist.
* *
Yeah, dude.
* *
- Pushing those limits.
- Come on, now. - All good.
- [imitates seal barking]
- [laughs] What up, dude?
- [imitates seal barking]
- This is sick!
- Back at the inlet crossing...
- Dude, right here is pretty good.
[dramatic music]
- Yeah.
[raindrops pattering]
- [grunts]
- Fudge.
- Geez.
We should have just got the pack raft out.
- That was stupid.
- I'm falling apart, bro.
- I can probably take a few more pounds if needed.
- That's good for now.
I've always wanted to be that strong guy.
I've always been that strong guy.
My whole life, I take the weight from my kids.
And so that's kind of how I wanted it to be.
And it just-- oh.
Didn't want to admit it. Just fudging hurting.
What's that? - Just a shell for Brinn.
Almost as pretty as her. [laughs]
Missing home.
But gotta bring something back.
Me and Brinley been married only four months now,
and we've been together every single day
since we've been married.
Tough times don't last, but tough people do.
So just gotta keep pushing.
It is really tough, like the mental side of this.
I mean, I haven't really experienced anything like this.
I mean, missing family, missing home, missing Brinnley.
But it's gonna make me a better husband
and a better father in the future.
And it's just gonna make me a better person.
Trying my best not to cry. [laughs]
- This is a journey, man.
You miss home.
You know, you miss your wife and the kids,
and to just have the mental fortitude to keep going
and come out and do this, and to do it with Bronsen,
you watch him miss your daughter,
and you just learn how good of a man he is,
and makes you proud.
That same weight he took off from me,
he'll take off my daughter's shoulders,
his kids' shoulders. He's gonna be that dad.
It's good to see that.
You're a lot stronger than me right now.
I'm glad you're out here with me.
- Heck yeah.
[tender music]
[dramatic music]
- Ethan and Tyrie have caught up.
- Locked in a neck-and-neck race
for first...
- Me and my brother out there killing it.
Whoo!
- Good, E? - Coming.
- I have a feeling that it's gonna get a little bit
tougher from here on out.
- The river guides and smoke jumpers
have hit the course's most rigorous challenge.
In zone three, teams are forced inland
through the competition's most dense and claustrophobic
bushwhack yet, rife with razor-sharp vines
and towering, prehistoric flora.
Successful navigation out of the bush earns a pack raft
and a run for the optional food cache
before a brutal final five miles
of bewildering jungle,
a stretch nearly impassable after dark.
- OK.
This is insane.
- Now, this is adventure racing.
- This is it.
- I guarantee they're not happy going
through some of that stuff.
Those guys are great at racing.
They're better trail runners.
But bushwhacking and stuff, that's just different.
- We have fun doing this.
I mean, it's tough, but like, the harder it gets,
the more fun it is.
- Do you see something?
Oh, [bleep]. Oh, [bleep].
- Do you see something?
Oh, [bleep]. Oh, [bleep].
- You good? - Oh, shoot.
I think I'm all right.
Oh, [bleep] A.
Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Whew.
- Hot on their rivals' heels,
smoke jumpers Ethan and Tyrie narrowly escape
a bushwhacking head injury.
- Oh, [bleep].
- Oh, man. - Just rip through it.
- Yeah.
- Escaping the jungle to the second
mandatory checkpoint, however...
- Oh, shit.
- Is a different story.
[dramatic music]
- Yeah, dude.
Today's been, like, the first time
I've been like, "[bleep] this." - Yeah.
- Seriously. - I feel the same way.
Kind of feels like the first time
where things are kind of against us.
- Yep.
- As the non-stop race four
charges into the seven hour mark...
- It could be a lot more slick than we're expecting,
but I'm hoping that with our experience,
we'll still be able to move fairly fast.
- The hunters are coming.
- Seasoned mountaineers Paulina and Creighton
bomb through the ropes course,
pushing to widen the gap
over the rugged hunting guides,
Ryan and Bronsen...
- Good gosh.
This is gonna thrash my forearms, dude.
- As the in-laws battle fatigue,
hunger, and rapidly compounding injuries.
- Your arm doing all right?
- Oh, dude, it's hurting.
I think the tendon popped or something, man.
- All right.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
* *
- This race definitely pushes you physically and mentally,
like, to the extreme.
- And just 450 vertical feet up
and behind...
- We are in last place.
We know other people are fast, but are they gonna get tired?
- Kennedy and Nik are, well, hanging in there.
- So we're just gonna be methodical,
we're gonna move at a good pace,
and we're just gonna get through safely.
* *
- Whoo-hoo!
[timer beeping]
- Let's keep it up.
They're back there.
Let's go. Let's go.
I don't like being followed.
- Yeah, me either.
- Just past the first thicket of jungle...
* *
- I don't like us making the nav choices
when they can just see us. - OK.
- Out of the jungle, the Jackson boys
looked real beat up.
- Ethan and I are-- you know, we're feeling--
feeling really good.
We're more in our element now than we were before.
This is our time to shine.
- Yeah, they're stopped up there.
You can see, you know, they're trying to figure out--
- They're waiting for us to do something.
- Waiting for us, you know?
- At a crossroads
one and a half miles from the pack raft pickup,
it's a race-defining decision for the front two--
take the fail safe route and follow the steep cliffs
of the coastline as a navigational handrail,
but suffer a longer bushwhacking hell
or trust your instincts with a map and compass,
cut further inland, directly towards
the pack rafts, and risk drifting
miles off course into unknown terrain.
- The edge of this looks pretty steep and pretty gross.
- Yeah. - I mean, it's probably doable.
- Let's go for it. Stick to the coast.
- What do you think? Right here?
- Try to get on top of this ridge.
Hope it connects over there, and then ride it out.
- Or we can go closer in.
- It's gonna be jungly.
Right now we're in not thick.
- Let's go.
- But you see what I'm saying, though?
- I do, dude. We got to make a decision.
- Coming into this, we didn't really have
a ton of map and compass land navigation skills.
And making some of these calls navigationally is tough,
thinking, "What if this doesn't work out?"
My decisions could potentially affect Tyrie's chances
of getting $500,000.
- OK, let's go that way, then. - All right.
- [bleep] [bleep]. - Go, go.
- Sorry, I was like, "We just gotta go.
We just gotta go." I'm just pumped up.
We just gotta keep going like we been.
- Oh, yeah. - Not stop.
- With both leading teams setting out
on diverging tracks,
the first to make it out of the bush
and back to the pack raft will have a crucial leg up
and the chance to grab food and press on
before darkness engulfs the course.
- This is, like, so dense in this gully.
- This is, like, kind of stupid that we have to do this.
- Everyone will have to.
* *
- [bleep] yeah.
- Go, baby. - Let's do it, dude.
You just gotta be faster than walking.
- Come on. Long stride.
- You're a monster, bro.
- You are pumping me the [bleep] up today, brother.
[tense music]
- Here's the pickup, dude.
I don't know if we're finished.
Bronsen and Ryan, Ethan, Tyrie,
Oliver, Corry. Hell, yeah.
- We did it. - Yeah.
- We passed those [bleep].
- Ethan and Tyrie's gamble on their navigation
through the bush... - Good to go.
- Rifles them into first...
- Whee! Whoo-hoo!
- There's the [bleep] cache, baby.
- See it? - Yep.
[dramatic music]
* *
- First place, but it ain't over till it's over.
- With a stash of calories and a 30-minute lead
heading into the final push.
- Crushing it, dude.
- Pack raft pickup. - What's that?
- Ryan, Bronsen. Read those other ones.
- Creighton, Paulina.
- And then this is Kennedy and Nik.
- Yeah. - So smoke jumpers are gone.
- So transition quick.
* *
- But as the daily race clock ticks over the 12 hour mark
for the first time ever,
there's no time to rest
without risk of falling behind.
- Just one good push, huh?
- One good push to rule them all.
- While the front teams grab the food cache
and forge deeper into the jungle,
hunting for the last mandatory checkpoint
and path to the end crate... - Been a long day.
Still got a long ways to go.
- The trailing pack pushes inland,
struggling to catch up.
- We are about to travel within the night.
- It's gonna be tough.
- But now they'll all have to do it
under the blinding cover of darkness.
- Going in tonight, we're going into really
tough land navigation. That concerns me.
- Part of me wishes I was curled up in a warm
sleeping bag right now.
- It's a total psychological challenge.
- Yep.
[timer beeping]
- I see the drop.
- This is gonna be a pretty crazy push.
Bushwhacking at night.
* *
- After dropping their pack raft for good,
the smoke jumpers must navigate a sea
of pitch-black intersecting game trails.
Only one marked by freshly cut tree limbs
leads out and to the end crate.
- Let's rip.
- I don't know, bro.
This is steep.
- You think that the trail is supposed
to go straight up, huh?
- I really don't know, man.
* *
- We were hoping we wouldn't have to bushwhack too much
in the night, especially trying
to find that trail in the dark. Could be borderline impossible.
* *
- Got that prickly shit right here.
- Looks like. - Yeah.
- Over 1,500 yards back...
[timer beeping]
- Good push. - So are we gonna keep going?
- What do you think?
- It's just been such a long day that I'm just gonna
be happy when it's over.
- Limping to the final mandatory checkpoint
and trailing for the first time since day one,
the river guides' will to press on is starting to fail.
- All the teams have to come through
this pack raft drop-off point,
so we're a little apprehensive to go after it,
especially with the physical state we're in.
If we see teams coming through,
we know that they're pushing.
That'll kind of put the pressure,
the decision back in our ball court.
- We could probably get a fire going.
* *
- Holy shit. Shit.
- Good [bleep] moves. - Safe.
- It's a race. Why would you sleep?
Being wet all day and cold all day,
you stop moving, that's when you're
gonna really start feeling the pain.
If we can find this end trail, we're in a good spot.
We're gonna finish this today.
* *
- I almost want to get in the water and walk it.
Could be above us.
Come on, legs.
- [bleep]. This is steep, though.
- But if we're going the right way,
then it'd be super steep for a minute and then flatten out.
- Yo, E. - Yo.
- I think I'm on it.
Look down to your right.
We can see an obvious saw cut line.
- Aw, that's trail.
- So we're on the right path.
- [bleep] yeah, dude.
- You are [bleep] sick.
- [laughs]
- Let's do it, dude.
We're crushing it.
- Three quarters of a mile behind,
closing in on Oliver and Corry at the mandatory checkpoint...
- Holy shit. It's a hedgehog.
- Huh?
- There's a hedgehog, and I'm gonna kill it.
Aw, hey, little guy.
Man, he's cute. - Can't watch.
- Don't watch. OK.
Sorry, buddy.
- Is it done? - Yeah, he's done.
That's what it takes out here.
It's like taking advantage of every opportunity,
and that was a golden opportunity.
One more hedgehog. - Really?
- Yeah. - Oh, God.
- It's going to be super quick and painless for him.
- OK.
- One stab right in the brain, and it's done.
Just like that. - OK.
[timer beeping]
- Another one. - Another one?
- 1.5 miles back...
* *
- Fetching knee.
Makes me so pissed.
- I'm sorry, dude.
- With a battered knee and aching forearm,
Ryan and son-in-law Bronsen trek into the night.
- Even if we do have to camp, it's all right.
- No, we gotta finish.
Shit.
[groans] Aw, God dang knee.
- You all right? - Yeah.
[chuckles]
[groans]
I don't know what's going on inside that knee,
but I don't want to screw it up more.
* *
Gosh damn it.
I don't know what to do, Brons.
- I don't know what to do, Brons.
[timer beeping]
I want to keep going, but dude, it just--
- Maybe camp and give it some rest
and go at it again tomorrow.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Yeah, let's do that.
Chances are, they're camping as well.
* *
- Another team? - Yeah.
- I think that's Creighton and Paulina.
- Yeah. - It might be.
- I bet we can get them to camp here.
- Holy shit. Are you guys camping right now?
- We made this fire.
Do you know where Ryan and Bronsen are?
- They're behind us.
- Way to pass the hunters, guys.
Third place looks good on you. - Thanks.
- Thank you. - We think so too.
- Pretty surprised to see Oliver and Corry.
I figured those boys probably would have been finished
with the whole race by now. - Yeah.
- It was the first time I had actually seen them
kind of broken down a little bit.
- I have something to show y'all.
- Creighton went--
- On a frenzy.
- He got four--
- One, two, three, four hedgehogs.
- What? - That's insane.
- Yeah, dude.
- There's a lot of blood on your backpack.
- Yeah, there sure is.
- I would like to go to bed now.
- OK.
- Come on, come on, come on!
[groans]
Oh, my God.
- Did he just get a [bleep] eel?
- Look at this thing.
Bare [bleep] hands.
I was gutting my hedgehogs down by the river,
and this thing smelled it.
Came swimming upstream to investigate.
[exhales deeply]
What a neat night.
[laughs]
[timer beeping]
- While their competitors hunker down
and call it a night, four miles away...
- Come on.
- Ethan and Tyrie burn the midnight oil.
- It's usually a really tough day for me.
It's the day my father passed when I was a kid.
I know he's looking down.
- 500 feet from the finish line...
- Of course, it's on a hill. It's all right.
Last one.
- There's one last hurdle.
- Everything looks [bleep] big, buddy.
All right.
- One more 10-story sand dune
to climb to the end crate.
- I see it, dude.
- Last run.
- Let's go, dude.
- After 20 hours and 25 miles
of non-stop determination...
- Ready? - Ready.
- Holy shit. - Race number four.
- I think we're in first. - There's four medallions.
Take the cake, dude. Here.
- Fueled by forces larger than life,
for the first time in this competition,
the smoke jumpers earned the number-one spot
and top pick of the crate rewards.
- All right. Snorkeling kit.
- The flippers, wet suit, knife.
Crate of kiwis. - Man, what are you thinking?
- Fruit. - Fruit.
- Hell yeah. - Yeah.
- OK.
[tender music]
- Hey, you pumped me up a lot today, man.
You know, this is one of the hardest days
of the year for me.
It's easy to kind of hold back.
And originally, I was like, "No, I'm not gonna talk
about that stuff. This is my own personal stuff."
But if it helps somebody else's life,
you know, if I could do that in the littlest way,
you know, see some kid out there
that lost their father, and it doesn't feel like
they're gonna be strong or tough
and come out here, and-- I don't know.
It could be-- it's cool.
It's cool to be able to share that.
Yeah.
- There's nothing-- you know,
there's nothing that Ethan has to prove to me.
There's nothing I have to prove to him.
So it's cool that we can talk.
- Yeah.
* *
Oh, I love you, dawg.
- That was sick.
- All right.
Let's go set up camp, eh?
- With the victors crowned, four teams remain
scattered across the course...
- We're forced to do the fire because we just
can't run fast enough to heat us up.
It's a call we got to make.
I know the other teams are ahead.
They're also a little reckless sometimes.
- Each opting to surrender and wait out the night.
- This has been the most demoralizing race.
[tense music]
- But little do they know...
- I don't have the greatest news.
- With the coming dawn, the entire competition
is about to change...
- It was brought to our attention
that there was a rule violation.
- In a shocking turn...
- And because a rule was broken,
we have to act on it.
- That will lead both contestants
and the race to survive...
- We're going to have to disqualify you.
- Reeling.