The History Channel’s Alone season nine episode eight begins with six survivalists remaining in the Labrador wilderness. By the time the episode wraps up, two more contestants have tapped out. One survivalist is forced to leave the game due to medical issues, and the other has multiple injuries and can’t physically continue on his own.
Episode eight, “Gut Feeling,” checks in with all six contestants and moves the season forward from Day 42 to the morning of Day 46.
Karie Lee, Age 57, Sandpoint, ID
Day 42: Karie explains her teeth are turning black because of the cast iron pot she’s using to cook berries. Her fruit leather absorbs the iron, and her teeth are changing color. She uses horsetail to create a tooth powder, hoping it helps. It does, and she’s all smiles as she heads out muskrat hunting.
Karie spends a little time trying to figure out how to hunt in the water without losing her arrow and comes up with a workable solution. She teethers an arrow to her floating line so she can retrieve both it and a muskrat. Karie’s anxious for a meal, but a stationary camera shows a muskrat close by in the water while she’s not paying any attention. (Show of hands of viewers who, like me, yelled at the screen to look up!) Fortunately, she finally notices the animal. Unfortunately, it dives before she gets off a shot.
She returns to her shelter without any food. Karie’s not going to give up on the muskrats but failed on her first hunt.
Karie reminds viewers her goal should she win is to build a wilderness school on land she recently purchased.
Day 43: Karie sings a song she wrote about the area. (The contestants have been doing more singing this season than normal, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing!) She finishes up and turns her attention back to surviving, focusing her attention again on getting a muskrat.
Karie finds a good spot on the bank and waits for any movement. Bubbles appear, and she waits patiently for whatever is about to emerge. A muskrat makes it onto the shore and Karie takes a shot. The arrow hits its mark, and she crawls over to the muskrat while warning it not to go back into the water or bite her.
Karie uses her knife to finish it off and holds up her kill. She’s excited to have dinner, hopes it tastes good, and thanks the animal for its life while stroking the soft fur.
Back at camp, she roasts the muskrat and says it tastes a lot like beaver. (A pound of muskrat has almost 800 calories.) As she eats, snow begins to fall.
Karie’s spent a lifetime preparing for this adventure.
Day 44: Karie’s celebrating Halloween by dressing up as a muskrat, complete with glasses made from muskrat pelvic bone. (Why the glasses? No idea.) She’s created a puppet out of the muskrat fur and performs a little show, confirming the contestants are, in fact, losing their minds.
Tom, Age 34, Earlysville, VA
Day 43: Tom took a nasty fall on Day 42 and he wakes on Day 43 still in a lot of pain. His back hurts, and he had a sleepless night because he couldn’t get comfortable. Tom’s worried that if he falls again, he could do serious damage.
He’s lost 38 pounds since the first day, but if he gets a beaver, he’ll have a full belly and be able to rest his back for a few days. Tom has realized the challenge isn’t about traps or hunting, it’s about him; it’s about facing his demons.
Tom heads down in the early morning hours to look for a beaver but doesn’t have any luck. Back at his shelter, he boils Icelandic moss, which is rich in calcium, iodine, and potassium. He’s only had lichens and bunchberries the past three days. If he doesn’t get real food, he’ll be in trouble soon.
Although he really should be resting to heal his back, he works on getting clay to seal gaps in his chimney. And, of course, he takes another tumble. Tom goes down hard and it’s obvious he should tap out. This latest fall injures his back and his knee.
Tom grabs his first aid kit and wraps his swollen knee. He believes that if he had food, he would be able to stick it out. But as it is, he can’t even manage to collect firewood.
A Whiskey Jack perches in a nearby tree as Tom makes the call to tap out. He says the area’s amazing and it’s touched parts of him he didn’t even know existed. He’s not done in his heart and mind, but his body is beaten and he needs to leave.
Tom thanks Labrador and everything it gave him. “I hope to take the lessons that I learned and bring them home to make more of my dreams a reality,” says Tom. His dad taught him a lot and was a big inspiration, and he wishes he were still alive to see him take on this challenge.
Adam, Age 36, Fayetteville, AR
Day 43: Adam prepares his costume since tomorrow is Halloween. He loves making his own costumes and this year he’s created a grouse costume, complete with a bill and feather headdress. The bill’s made of tarp covered in charcoal soot, and Adam seems pretty impressed with his creativity.
Adam uses the wooden dock to make insulated shutters for his window to keep out the wind. His carpentry skills are impressive, and the shutters look professionally made.
Day 44: Adam plays both the part of the homeowner and the trick-or-treater as Halloween arrives. He asks and answers questions and offers up berries as a treat. The trick-or-treating Adam teases the homeowning Adam that another house gave him bear meat and warns Adam he’s going to get egged. (Adam has quite the imagination.)
“Does this whole thing make me seem totally insane?” asks Adam. Yes, Adam, it does.
Day 45: Adam wakes feeling extremely homesick and thinks he needs to stay busy to fight it off.
He finds a new river to fish and is excited by the new possibilities it opens up. He then heads into the woods and spots a hare about 20’ away, killing it with his first shot. It’s a huge hare and he plans on cooking rabbit stew.
Later that night, he eats his first-ever wild hare. Snowshoe hares can contain more than 800 calories, so it’s an important meal for Adam. “Today was a caloric gamble that really paid off,” says Adam, adding that it’s been one of the most eventful days of the challenge.
Jessie, Age 49, Pagosa Springs, CO
Day 43: Jessie continues to work on Hodge Podge Lodge a month and a half into the challenge. She’s suffering from an upset stomach and burps while she works. She’s felt queasy for a few days but needs to check on the rabbit fur and finish her walls with moss.
Jessie has no idea why she’s belching so much.
A short while later, Hodge Podge Lodge is officially finished! Jessie realizes she spent too much time on her shelter and is down 45 pounds since Day 1.
She feels nauseous as she heads out to check her snares and is worried that she might have giardia. However, she doesn’t have any symptoms other than stomach pain. Jessie thinks she might be feeling the effects of starvation.
None of her snares have anything in them.
Day 44: It’s nighttime and Jessie’s still under the weather. She continues to feel nauseous and doesn’t even feel like drinking water.
She becomes ill and vomits inside Hodge Podge Lodge. Jessie explains she rarely vomits, so she’s concerned she drank water she shouldn’t have or that she has too much acid in her system.
Jessie decides to have a little charcoal to help her stomach before attempting to drink water. It tastes like eating mud but she’s feeling better a while later. She reminds herself to have faith that things will get better and just needs to push through the suffering.
Day 45: Jessie’s miserable again as she hunkers down for the night. Her stomach’s so empty that now she thinks she’s feeling bad due to acid reflux. She consumes more charcoal but it doesn’t help, and she vomits a couple of times.
At 11:48pm she wakes up and vomits again. (I’m surprised she was able to sleep given how loudly her stomach’s rumbling.) This time she vomited just water and now she has a headache from dehydration.
She refuses to tap out and insists she’ll have to be medically pulled. She’s not going to quit.
Day 46: Jessie didn’t confirm her medical check and a safety crew immediately set out to check on her. She’s in bed when they arrive and she claims she’s okay, but if she gets up, she’ll vomit. Jessie explains she can’t keep down water and has vomited nine or 10 times.
Jessie absolutely doesn’t want to quit but her condition makes it impossible for her to remain in the competition. The medical staff believe she has severe inflammation of her stomach lining and it needs to be treated before it does life-threatening damage.
Jessie’s medically pulled from the competition, and she realizes she spent too much time and energy on Hodge Podge Lodge rather than getting food. If she had just tried to connect to nature more, she would have lasted longer.
Jessie’s determined to spend more time on her spiritual growth rather than with her nose to the grindstone in the future.
Teimojin, Age 31, Montreal, CAN
Day 43: Teimojin holds up his second squirrel, but he isn’t done hunting for the day. He’s focusing on land animals and he’s been hearing lots of noise.
A grouse gets his attention and he heads off to follow the sound. He kills the bird with his first shot and returns to his shelter. Teimojin explains that in order to shoot a grouse, you need to aim, look 45 degrees away so you’re not facing the bird, and then shoot. Apparently, the bird will think you aren’t paying them any attention. (Are birds really that smart?)
Day 44: On Halloween, Teimojin talks about Samhain (the Gaelic harvest festival) and how it’s regarded as a good time to reach out to people beyond the grave. Each contestant was given diamond willow fungus that’s used for smudging, and Teimojin burns it as he says thanks to his ancestors.
Juan Pablo, Age 30, Pinawa, CAN
Day 43: The weather’s turning chilly and Juan’s going to focus on fishing for now. The fish seem to have moved further away from the bank where the temperature’s warmer, and Juan thinks he needs to extend his pier. But is that worth the energy and calories expended?
Ultimately, Juan decides it is worth it and sets to work, hoping he doesn’t regret it.
Juan Pablo wants to be the first non-White to win Alone. “As a Latino, I don’t want to be just a person that you just add for the diversity. I don’t want to be a decoration,” says Juan.
He finishes extending his dock and the effort immediately pays off with a small fish. He reels in a few more brook trout and thanks his catch.
Night falls and he cooks the fish, but, oddly, he doesn’t feel hungry. He eats what he can, but his stomach feels like it doesn’t want food; he can’t believe he doesn’t want to eat. A few hours go by and he doesn’t want to force himself, yet he needs the calories.
Juan’s worried he’s going to get sick and vomit if he eats.
- Alone Season 9 Episode 1 “Drop Shock” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 2 “Consequences” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 3 “Law of the Land” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 4 “The Beaver” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 5 “The Land Giveth” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 6 “The Weasel” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 7 “The Birds” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 9 “The Ice Up” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 10 “Winter’s Grasp” Recap
- Alone Season 9 Episode 11 “Fight, Flight or Freeze” Recap
