Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 6 “Deadly Consequences”

Naked and Afraid XL Episode 6
The Tsonga Basin is turning barren.

Related Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 7 “The Sickness”

I’m back from sunny L.A. and the semi-annual meeting of the Television Critics Association. It’s a wonderful, but exhausting marathon of meetings and interviews as each network presents its new fall programming. And for the members of the TCA, it’s a great time to see colleagues and meet network publicists face to face. And go to parties. So many parties! (also, so many parties 😫.)

And best of all, I’m home with my treasured children, my wonderful dog Buster, and my trusty remote-handler, my awesome husband Scottie. Yay!!! I was only gone for 9 days and I had the ability to Skype; I can’t imagine how the participants on Naked and Afraid deal with the emotional strain of missing their families.

Last week, the Tsonga Basin revealed itself as exhausted of resources. And Darrin and Steven called each other liars after an unsuccessful hunt in the Swati Valley. Even the nicest people bear their fangs when they become hangry. And these folks are very, very, very hangry. It looks like it’ may be time to move along to another location.

Day 27
Ryan is taking his regular walk to explore and hunt and has decided it’s time for him to make a change. A solo change. He says that he has come to South Africa for other reasons than sitting in the group’s shelter. It’s a not-so-subtle dig at the other members of the group, but he says, “I’m out here to thrive, I’m not out here to survive.” Thrive is his word; it’s even tattooed on his shoulders. Someone could make a drinking game out of the number of time that Ryan says “thrive” and we’d get very tipsy.

Back in the Basin, Ryan tells the group that he thinks they should explore some of the dens he’s found early in the morning. Good idea, Ryan, you’ve been wanting to hunt in the early morning for a few weeks. But we know you’re gonna break your plans in a minute.

Steven catches a turtle in the casting net. Hooray! Someone finally catches food! But the group seems less than thrilled, which frosts me. Are they still mad at him for Darrin’s lies? At this point, you should be carrying Steven (and the turtle) atop your shoulders like a conquering hero. Anyone with food is my new best friend.

Stacey is given the task of cooking the meal, but the group’s many cooks all have opinions on how it should be done. Perhaps they should head out and find more food to add to the turtle stew.

And when the meal is cooked, Stacey, gets upset that the group yells at her for screeching across the watering hole. I feel you Stacey. This morning, I got yelled at by one of my sons for scaring him when I announced down the basement stairs that breakfast was ready. I’m a bellower too. “Today sucks,” she cries. Tawny takes her for a walk to ease her frustrations. The two have bonded over their status as single moms; and Tawny is able to calm down her new BFF. “She’s a righteous girl,” says Stacey.

Ryan reposes on the river’s edge and basically calls everyone lazy.

While the group eats turtle stew, Ryan hells them that he’s decided to leave the group and go on a walkabout. He’s going to leave in the morning and take the smallest pot and Angel’s fire starter and meet up with them in a few days at the river.

The rest of the group is pissed and thinks that what he’s doing is selfish. And dangerous. And they murder him with their eyes. So I make it look like they’re The Brady Bunch.

Naked and Afraid XL Episode 6
So many people are murdering Ryan with their eyes. But Alyssa is so enraged that she’s not even willing to play the group’s Cindy Brady.

Day 28
Ryan leaves at dawn. “I’m actually scared s@#$less,” he says, “but this is going to be awesome.” Now our large group is an octet.

Did anyone else notice that when Alyssa said she was feeling dizzy, Darrin was staring directly at her breasts with a smile on his face? I laughed so hard that I cackled! It turns out that he was experiencing a black out, but still … it was a lol moment for me.

While Ryan is walking, he finds some kinds of wild fruit that he thinks tastes like ice cream. I like ice cream that tastes like fruit! He still has enough strength that he can climb the tree and knock the fruit from its high perch.

Drama-rama. When Tawny stands up, she feels light-headed. And when she walks over to use bathroom, she falls down into a ravine and gets hurt. It’s too bad that she was allowed to walk solo, because she’s hit her head and has pain in her side. Obviously, she needs to be rushed to the hospital. Poor dear. Stacey is devastated to see her friend evacuated. “She’s the one I wanted to sit next to on the airplane,” she cries.

Ryan finds a Rock Monitor lizard in a tiny tree. It’s a little guy, but he’s made of meat. Ryan can’t believe his luck and says, “I needed this release and this solo journey.”

Back in the basin, spirits are low. The group has lost two people in one day, but they want to make one last push for protein. Alyssa has the idea of funneling animals into the snares and runs point and it’s great to see her take a position of leadership. They move their snares to a central trail and block all routes away from the snares. (If you watch the clip on the Discovery website, it is very poorly bleeped. Unfortunately, I was watching that clip with my children and they heard some very choice words. Sorry kids.) Alyssa sees a buck nyala, but when they scare it into a snare, it breaks right through.

Naked and Afraid XL Episode 6
Alyssa leads the charge to “spook” prey into a snare.

I like the idea of spooking the animal into the snare, but there must have been a better way to accomplish this. By scaring the animal instead, of gently annoying it along the path of their choosing, the allowed the beast to hit the snares at full speed. And I’m sure it headed back to its nyala friends to warn them about the danger at the watering hole, and the loud humans who are camping there. “Hopefully the river will be a little kinder to us,” The group says.

It seems like last week’s drama between Darrin and Steven has blown over. It’s hard to be angry at the people struggling by your side when someone else has betrayed and left the group.

Ryan arrives at the river and is greeted by zebra, giraffes and water buffaloes. Over the strains of deep cuts from the Lion King soundtrack, Ryan gushes, “It looks like a freaking zoo!” Ryan makes camp near a rock wall, throws up a quick shelter, makes himself a fire, boils water and eats a delicious dinner of fruit and lizard. “I’m on top of the world!” he announces to the river. But he’s not alone in his newfound paradise. He finds fresh lion tracks near his shelter and the creature’s paws are larger than his hands.

It’s time for something that makes no sense, the XLR!!

The loss of Ryan and Tawny, and the failure of the group hunt, drops the group’s score from 6.4 to 5.9 out of 10.0.

Ryan’s solo score improves from 6.4 to 7.5, which is hilarious — because one of the three criteria for the XLR measurement is “teamwork.” I didn’t see much teamwork when he bailed on his team. Thoughts?

That night, Ryan sees the constellation Orion in the sky and he explains that it’s “My constellation” and has served as his lucky talisman. He reveals that when he was in Afghanistan, he used the sight of constellation to calm himself. I’m glad that he’s having a good solo experience, but it is still selfish move. If this was a true survival experience, it would be a death sentence for Ryan and possibly his teammates.

That night, Ryan feels ill effects from something he’s eaten. While he vomits (loudly!) inside his shelter, we hear the roars of lions. He’s sweating and swearing and moaning. And he’s alone.

Cut to black.

Next week, it looks like the puke party continues and more than Ryan is invited.

Primitive Survival Item. Each survivalist brought a blade each trio was given a cooking pot, and each of the dozen survivalists was allowed to bring one primitive survival item. I’m keeping track here:
Jake- Spool of snare wire (Learned in personal interview)
Stacey- Fishing hook and line (Learned in Episode 1)
Clarence- Unknown -left in Episode 2
Phaedra- Paracord? (Used in Episode 4)
Alyssa- Fire Starter (Learned in Preview Episode)
Tawny- Casting Net (Learned in Episode 2)
Kim- Bow & Arrow (Learned in Episode 1)
Carrie- Unknown -left in Episode 1
Darrin- Buck Skin (Learned in Preview Episode)
Angel- Fire Starter -(Learned in Episode 6)
Steven- Sling shot (Learned in Preview Episode)
Ryan- Spool of 100-lb. Fishing Line (Learned in Episode 1)

More Naked and Afraid XL
Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 5 “Rock Bottom”
Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 4 “Too Many Chiefs”
Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 3 “Human Prey”
Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 2 “Man on Fire”
Recap: Naked and Afraid XL Episode 1 “Lions at the Gate”
Naked and Afraid XL Season 2 preview
Interview With Jake Nodar
Jake Nodar’s 4 butt-kicking survival tips

110 Comments

  1. I’m fascinated that the ‘Naked and Afraid’ producers have not identified the fruit that was eaten that produced severe illness and forced evacuation of three of the team. OBVIOUSLY, this is one of the first items of intelligence the medical team needed…SO…they know the name of the plant and fruit. They also know if it poisonous.

    Here’s my guess: When the fruit was initially found, the production team identified it as edible and told the team members that it was OK to eat up. They were mistaken. Either they misidentified the fruit or didn’t know that the fruit needs to be cooked or is toxic during certain times. One thing for sure, the allegation that the fruit was contaminated by monkeys or bats, and team members got ‘infected’ from this contamination is hogwash. Infections take days to develop but these folks got seriously ill–one with possible liver damage–within hours of tasting the fruit. Poison.

    The question might be asked as to whether the fruit was responsible? Maybe they got ‘infected’ with a hepatitis virus from drinking unclean water a couple of weeks before. I don’t buy it because, unless we are the victims of creative editing, these three people got sick almost simultaneously. It sounds like poison and it sounds like somebody seriously screwed up.

    • The series calls it a Caper Bush, but the images online don’t look like what they’re eating. In episode 7 they also called the fruit/bush something different, but I couldn’t find anything online that matched what was said.

  2. I have questions – why don’t they dig a hole, on the animal path to the water and cover it with grass, one of the lighter animals could be trapped that way? Also, if it was the fruit, could they hAve avoided illness, by boiling or heating over the fire first? Just wondering.

  3. Alyssa had a good plan but the parachute cord they have has a minimum strength of only about 200#. They needed the 750# cord. It can be purchased in different strengths. Darrin was explaining to Ryan that their snare materials were inadequate for large game when Ryan gave a condescending huff and walked away when Darrin was talking to him. Of course, it didn’t help when “loose cannon” Steven started running after the antelope too soon so that it hit the cord at full speed. Steven, with his constant need to “show off,” his boastful attitude, anger and impatience is more of a liability than an asset. Darrin appears to have realized that their situation is preposterous and there is no way to catch the large game, so he is just hanging on.

    • Steve Lee Hall is “kind of a big deal”…

      What does he mean by that? Is he famous in some circles? It sure isn’t as a survivalist.

    • Looking around at this environment, makes one wonder how an
      Australopithecus lived here for 1.5 million years (approx.) without stone tools of any kind. It is little wonder there were very few of them. Our entire ancestral line seems to have lived by out breeding everything else.

  4. Anyone know the name of the passiflora wild fruit Ryan had on the last show. I think it might be poisonous.

    • In the episodes notated replay they said the fruit was used by the indigenous native children for a snack, so probably not poisonous unless it’s a native method of population control.

    • Here are my opinions:
      1) No the fruit was not toxic. Monkeys were eating it. If birds and other fauna are eating fruits and berries it’s a pretty good risk to go ahead and eat it too. I wouldn’t eat the fallen ones but the ripe ones in the tree should be safe. The local natives use this fruit for medicine too (per the popups).

      2) Yes Steve is a narcissistic show-off (aka weakest link?). The snares would have worked on the smaller nyalas. 200# is a little light for that big buck with all of his Steve-inspired inertia. I would have used the toxin from the indigenous plants (zambezi tail flower or ‘Poison Rope’) to make a blow dart or some sort of arrow projectile. The toxins would have brought the buck down. But who was going to clean that big buck? My vote would be Darrin who’s done it before.

      To prepare the toxin you would collect the seeds, crush and mix with saliva or other additives to form a paste, then paste should then be left in strong sunlight for several hours before use. This poison can literally kill an average big animal in 20~30 mins. There are MANY other South African native hunting toxins from other plants, insects, snakes, etc. You’d have to follow him as he wont drop immediately. Need to scare off the hyenas and big cats who WILL see him and pounce.

      3) Ryan was visibly suffering from botulism and possibly amoebic dysentery. But where did he contract it? Not the fruit and not the monitor. Then the other team comes down with it too. I was thinking and thinking. What was a common source in last 24-48 hours? It was Steve’s TURTLE!

      Nothing is wrong with the turtle actually. Just don’t eat it’s blood (or blood parts) or liver, etc. In one other N&A episode we see how stupid that would be to do with a turtle. What was wrong was how Stacey and Tawney prepared and cooked it.

      Initially, they should have figured out how to just roast it on a spit. That way all microorganisms would be fried. She chose to chop up everything (including the liver), and boil it in NON-STERILIZED river water! She should have boiled the water FIRST to kill all microbes THEN remove all bloody parts like head, heart, liver, kidney, drain blood, etc. THEN boil the hell out of the rest. She did not use survivalist sanitary cooking practices.

      Stacey’s ego “BONED” the crew. They all may need med-evac now as everybody will be projectile vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, etc. At least those that ate the turtle. Ryan did eat some of the turtle before he left. I just hope Darrin used his Native American intuition and refused to eat that total mess Stacey made.

      I really don’t understand why Darrin doesn’t do like Ryan and go solo. He is the only one who doesn’t seem to have some sort of egotistical or emotional baggage and with REAL WORLD survivalist skills.

      First rule of a survival team-approach is appoint a QUALIFIED leader everyone is obedient to within reason (no voting). Darrin should have been appointed NOT Jake. Steve should only have a demeaning job like latrine duty or something. Maybe he’ll learn that it’s better to tell the truth than to try and manage a web of pointless lies. (I.e. Darrin outed Steve for bad-mouthing the lazy team and Steve started cover-up mode and lied his azz off!)

      Clarence was a TOTAL loss for them? Why? Because his survival skills were a EVERYDAY thing for him. His methods were realistic (daytime conservation of energy etc.) He felt pressured by Jake and Stacey’s misguided condemnation of his skills, Clarence expended his last ounce of strength trying to save face with the “divas” (that includes Jake). Clarence would have been a good survivalist leader with Darrin’s inherent N.A. help. However, some benighted people’s personal baggage won’t allow for common sense.

      I sincerely hope no one is permanently damaged from this crazy enterprise. Like Malaria, Dengue Fever, animal attack, tapeworms, or some unknown condition brought on by prions. I hope the producer has everyone sign HHA agreements!

      • The turtle was my first thought also. I recalled the 21 day episode with Shane and Kim Sheldon where the film crew stopped the clock and treated her because she had eaten turtle liver.

  5. Kellie. In all your discussion of Ryan’s antics you do not mention the possibility of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Iraq and Afghanistan to explain his erratic behavior. He was discharged from the USMC with PTSD and embarked on a 4 year “self cure” which has obviously failed. His smug arrogance, condescending attitude, babbling about how he motivates people, his military training, using Jake’s wire to make a ridiculous horn hat, walking away while Darrin was explaining that they don’t have strong enough snare material, abandoning the group and going off alone all seem like markers of PTSD. Now he appears to have eaten poison infected parts of the rock monitor lizard just as Karen and Matt did in their 21 day episode. If he is the one in the preview of an ambulance shown racing away into the night, it is the best for him and his mental state.

    • J.C. – I agree with you about the PTSD. I too was getting pissed off by his apparent arrogance. I could just visualize him in his BDUs going walkabout in ‘The Stan’ in 120 degree (F) heat in the desert making a fool of himself with the Pushtun natives. Then when he went solo I realized he DID know what he was doing. The toxins he imbibed was NOT from the monitor.

      The monitor has bacterial mess in it’s saliva (the head), not it’s body. And it’s bite would be a deadly sepsis infection. Ryan chopped off the head and thoroughly cooked (roasted on a fire-spit) the rest. The fruit was OK as the monkeys where eating it too. I just would not have eaten the ones on the ground as wasps (and other insects) tend to lay eggs in them. And the monkeys didn’t seem to want the fallen ones. Maybe because Ryan was annoying them I dunno’.

      Ryan ostensibly got poisoned by Steve’s turtle that Stacey and Tawney IMPROPERLY prepared! It was within the last 24-48 hours. And I would imagine the fructose from the fruit only encouraged the bacterial-growth in the turtle in his gut. Ryan’s immediate dilemma is that plausible lioness pawing at his cave opening.

      The producer is lying – AGAIN. Ryan is NOT alone. There is a small filming crew and a security person with a loaded rifle and side arm (and bush knife). I would assume tonight at 10PM we’ll hear gun fire in the opening scenes. Not at the lioness but in the air. She’ll take off like her butt was on fire.

      Then the medics will have their hands full. Everybody, including Ryan, will need something to calm their guts and IV’s to re-hydrate them. Most of them will probably need med-evac by helo to Johannesburg. Then maybe they will pause the series until everyone gets better (or maybe not).

      I just hope Darrin is sitting there with smug indifference PERFECTLY fine. As he probably refused to eat Stacey’s unintentional wicked brew. I think he and Ryan can finish the XL series. Ryan seems strong and his metabolism may recover quickly. He may not need medi-evac at all. I BTDT once and I just recovered over the toilet, hydration, and bed rest (food was pointless). It took about another 24-72 hours and I was fine. I had all the same symptoms as Ryan.

  6. My question is what do the young women do when they start their periods? Are they provided tampons by the medics? Wouldn’t a wild animal smell the blood and come for the kill? Just a thought.

    • Linda, it’s something called a “diva cup” made out of silicon and shaped like a bell that collects fluids for up to 12 hours and then you pull it out, wash it and reinsert. I still can’t quite figure out how it works but, at the end of last year’s N&A1, Laura was interviewed and was asked the same question and she explained this diva cup. I also wondered about the smell of blood to wild animals. I’ve read that sharks can sense a drop of blood for miles away.

        • Ken. The menstrual cycle itself has never bothered me. It is PMS, when the sweet girl turns into a snarling, moody she wolf that makes me duck and run for cover.

        • Ken. Then there were the tearful moods and cramps. The wise man hugs her and gathers her up and gives her a back massage (I enjoyed this) and strokes her tenderly.

          • I had PMS explained to me thusly: “Imagine having your nuts crushed in a vice once a month on a specific date, now imagine what you’ll be like the week before.”

      • Wow! I’ve never heard of a “diva cup”. Is that even sanitary? I would think that most African lion and hyena hunters are female as the males are very lazy and USUALLY depend on the females to bring down prey. Just like how male canines scent mark, human males can do it too. It’s the pheromones in the urine that scare off the canines as they think it’s YOUR alpha-male territory. I’ve seen it done before with Coy-Wolves.

        I would think the human female pheromones would also send female lions away as that means something is “in heat” and that could mean rutting season among species like antelopes and impalas. The male prey, with dangerous horns and tusks, are more aggressive when “in heat” females are around. So I think your human “period” makes you safer, IMO that is.

        With sharks, they are IMO actually looking for seal lions and other fish. Your scent does not match that pheromone. But yes a confused hungry shark may take a deadly “test bite” and then swim away. Others may follow him on the test biting making you seem like a feeding frenzy. But shark feeding frenzy are really just for non-humans. You have a chance to be pulled out of the water sans an arm or leg but still barely alive.

    • LINDA – IMO no! She would just have to let gravity play out and go wash in the river periodically. Unless she can make some sort of loincloth from grass or animal skin I can’t see any other method. The producer (a man) does not deem that as an emergency.

      And no I don’t think that is an attractant to animals. In South Africa the big cats and hyenas are usually females. Since human menstruation is full of female hormones I think they would be repelled not attracted. I have seen men (hunters) who urinate to scare off wild dogs, wolves, coyotes, etc. Why? That’s how canines mark their territory. Not sure if urine will work on hyenas nor lions. It works on Deer real well – especially after a steak dinner.

  7. OK kid, here’s a ball of string. Now, go get ‘dem lions…

    This whole xl is preposterous.

    • Rwb. I am questioning my own humanity by being entertained by watching poorly equipped (mentally and physically) people struggle, suffer and starve. All of the “expert survivalists” have issues and backgrounds of rough treatment and poor choices in their life. They are risking a lifetime of poor health and residual disease, even if they survive injury by beasts and accidents. Meanwhile, those connected with production of the show and DC make bundles of money. The smart ones were Carrie (“Wild Africa is too much for me”) and Angel (“Vainglory, and I risk everything in life that means anything”). The quotes may not be exact but are what Carrie and Angel meant.

      • I think I can understand why someone would want to become a survivalist, but why they would want to do it under these conditions on TV is beyond me. Because most of them are so downtrodden and so far down the social ladder, I think there’s a degree of masochism involved in their decisions. The winners might be people like Carrie and Angel who come out of the game with the realization that there is a better purpose for them in life and new, higher goals are revealed to them.

        Now, concerning the slinking green-eyed babe…
        Kim had such a strong performance in her 21-day challenge, she, and everyone else knows she has the stuff, but she’s really resting on her laurels in this XL episode. I don’t have a problem with that, whether she makes it to the finish or not. What I see now is a woman who is so ready and eager to become a housewife. She really wants to meet a guy who will love and care for her and Naomi, and take the weight of the world off her shoulders. Possibly take her out of Moab, Utah, where there’s nothing but negative influences.

        Hopefully, it will all come true for her.

          • Roger! Set up a charity, watch the money roll in, and pay yourself appearance fees. Anything to do with veterans, children or religion will be good and watch the donations roll in after a couple of celebrity endorsements.

          • Bill there is probably and untapped market for electric spoons, so you want to get in on the ground floor

    • Rwb. The Philosopher has left the room! Now back to the important stuff: watching the green eyed babe slink and vamp her way through the challenge.

      • Um, I’ve not seen her “slink and vamp” in any scene. She’s a sweet girl who has been pretty beat up by life/men. She deserves a measure of empathy. I think she’s expanded the number of men that she might meet by being on N&A.

          • Rwb. I hope so! So far, she hasn’t done well in making life choices. Maybe she needs to stop looking for a man to “save” her and save herself.

          • True, obviously men are not adept at relationships, they have intimacy problems, integrity problems and lack the necessary skills for parenting. They seem to be OK in killing things, everything, including other humans. I don’t care much for men.

          • I don’t think so. I think that in today’s economy she needs help in just paying the bills. In case you haven’t tried it recently one person can hardly make rent much less feed a child. I’m really glad my wife and I are retired. We did fairly well during our working years but the dotcom meltdown took our savings so we’re forced to live on SS. If either of us passes the other will be in dire straights even though our house is paid for, car paid for, no credit card debt and neither of us has any illness, in fact I take zero meds. But even with all of that we live on the edge. I can’t imagine the financial horrors that a single mother must face.

    • “Renegade 83 Entertainment” – David Garfinkle, Jay Renfroe, Steve Rankin, Denise Contis, and Joseph Boyle – producers of this nightmare show are in my opinion completely CLUELESS what they are doing. They find the most inhospitable places on Earth during the worst seasons and drops these poor people in the middle of it with no clothes!

      Some of your best survivalists could not do well in these places with no game, no water, no fire, too much rain, and nothing to cover their sensitive skin. Sometimes I wonder how much of it is real and how much is some sort of staged event.

      Even in Africa NATIVES who have lived there for millennia have been easily killed by fauna and flora! But some how these arm-chair survivalist Americans make it 21 days. How they are surviving the spirochetes injected into them from insects baffle me. Most natives would have died from dengue, malaria, zika, etc.

      Why don’t the producers allow one can of DEET, personal knives, machetes, portable water filter pumps (or iodine), and one medium sized tarp or plenty of cordage. The show is ridiculous as people don’t have a chance in real life. The egos are way over the top. Compatible egos should be matched. I don’t want to see someone die on this show – later back home!

      Why no one makes sandals from tree bark and vines baffles me. All those awful thorns and the long Acacia thorns could be used as a non-curved vertical hook in a fishes mouth. Just find a worm and insert the sharpened both ends of the thorn through the worm longitudinally. Tie the thin cordage around the center of the thorn mass. I just found out that the thorn gets stuck in the fish’s maul just like a curved hook!

      This show is great in RATINGS ($$$) but not in fair play to humans. No one ever will have to really survive this sort of nightmarish torture, so it is only about ratings. Even their SPEC-OPS consultants know this is all wrong. So some of it must be fake I think. Otherwise there should be more off-scene casualties.

      • If someone doesn’t get at least BIT by a lion I’m going to be done with this fake show!!!

  8. In the same “Uncensored Extra” they said Steven wanted to bring a compound bow which the producers nixed and he settled for a sling shot which he has not used yet.

    • Steve not only plays a liar and idiot on TV, he is one too… (LOL)

      What Steve doesn’t remember is that a recurve is always better than a compound bow. Why? Because the compound takes too much physical energy to use and it’s too powerful (DIY arrow will go through prey). Also their is human forearm skin exposed. You can avoid friction-skin-burn from a recurve’s bow string by holding it a special way but not a compound. A compound will take some skin off. You need a forearm shield made of tree bark or leather.

      Steve is truly an idiot. Why some to (X)Tsonga Basin with EAR RINGS? What if a monkey rips them off or they get caught on brush? Probably could have used them as fish-hooks dammit!

  9. The 150 feet of climbing rope that Darrin wanted to bring that the Producers nixed would have been handy for snares and strong enough to hold the large antelope. Of course, it wouldn’t help with the nyala that broke the small tree branch at Swati valley. coulda, shoulda, woulda.

  10. There are only two episodes left and with one to devote to extraction; so the climax comes in episode 7? What happened with Tawny and Ryan? House cleaning with tap outs and finally “pity food” provided by the producers for the extraction journey? Who will give up their integrity; as Laura did last year, and make the “pity food” kill?
    Oh, the suspense of the “good TV” show?

    • The extraction, according to where they showed it on the map, is just a short hike so that shouldn’t take up too much time.

    • Do the producers really give them food for their extraction? I have never seen anyone tap out on day 20 or 21????? If the extraction point is so close by, why don’t they just move closer to it and maybe have better resources? Does the show prohibit them from hiking almost all the way to extraction and set up camp or are they only able to travel a certain distance?

      The small croc kill that Laura did last XL1 was so phony and choreographed.

  11. Day 29 is coming up. The survivors are about ¾ of the way home. At this point they should be conserving their strength so they can build a sedan to carry Kim to the extraction point…

    • Har, Har! She is looking better with the weight loss. With only 11 days left; her men in Moab are singing “Back In The Saddle Again.”

  12. The Producer drama teaser previews imply that next week we can look forward to more tap outs. Several vomiting people, mysterious illness plus an ambulance racing away into the night presumably with Ryan who disappears in a previous teaser. Oh, the drama of it! Be still my heart!

    • I feel someone completely unexpected will be in the ambulance…
      Expert survivalist don’t lose 20-30 lbs in a few weeks!
      And what’s the point of being naked when they get a knife, pot to boil water, fire starter….? They can’t wear a little loin cloth?

      • I’m into the naked part of Naked & Afraid. I prefer everyone naked. I like watching the disappearing tanlines on the women. Although I will grant them moccasins/footwear if they can make it themselves from animal hide.

  13. Yep, the moment this group became one, I knew based on the immediate drama that there would end up being a lot of tapouts (both voluntary and medical involuntary) and little thriving. It looks as if there will be even more people gone next week based on the preview at the end of the episode.

    I did enjoy the advertisements showing EJ and Jeff hosting their new survival show…something I actually look forward to seeing. With proper clothing and tools, those two will be kicking nature’s butt!

    • Paul a question? Are you the same ‘Nam Vet from Montana that helped me destroy the “master of the earth” on the disqus site 3 years ago?

      • There were three really annoying trolls: earth master, free-dum and survivor psy- claiming to be a Psychiatrist.

    • Are you kidding me? Those two are nature’s nightmare, murdering animals with hatred in their hearts and absolutely no respect for the critters they kill and then boisterously screaming about how they killed something. A pair of psycho’s let loose in nature.

      • Killing what? Three blind knifefish, a couple of lizards and 1 catfish? They killed mostly plants barrel cactus and saplings to build a planned Taj Mahal shelter which they abandoned a few days later.

  14. It’s 8:32 here and we watched the miserably disappointing episode. These people are just morons, not just one or two but all of them. Incredibly disappointing for a group of “seasoned” “survivalists”. They should all be embarrassed and humiliated. They’ve been together as a “group”, no let’s say “a gaggle” because the word group implies some kind of positive interaction and I don’t really see any of that unless disjointed, rambling conversation counts as positive interaction. They finally decide to hunt like a group but bungle it miserably like the inept amateurs they are. Argh! When are these people going to get it right. They should have been hunting this way from the start. First, they didn’t set their snares properly; then they didn’t ease their prey into the trap (actually they never set a proper trap); third they didn’t set people to spear an animal that got close. Geesh! Other than that pretty much everything else was expected. Ryan babbling about how “Orion” is “his” constellation, why? Presumably because it rhymes with “Ryan”? I don’t know but here’s another whackjob out in the bush with no plan. I’ve got news for all of them, things are not going to be much different just because they change locations. Things are not going to be much different until they change their strategies. Just ultra disappointing.

      • If Ryan is indeed equating himself with “the Hunter” he’s delusional as delusional as a drunk in a sports bar watching an NFL game and drunkenly slurring out “Thaaa’sh my team, man, thaa’sh my team.”

    • KenO. Your recap supplements Kellie’s recap nicely. The only explanation for Ryan’s behavior throughout the challenge is that he is still under PTSD and his 4 year “self cure” has failed.

      • Yes J.C., I’m coming to realize that Ryan is emotionally injured, far more than he thinks. I felt a lot like him after Vietnam but my healing came from joining the anti-war movement and suffering innumerable social and employment errors. Took me years to come around.

        • No one knew what PTSD was then. My consequence was hyper vigilance and flashbacks. The girl I married was a therapist and I didn’t go through the suffering so many Vietnam Vets did.

          • Mine was more about nightmares involving what kind of country we were becoming that we allowed our military to inflict the kind of suffering they did with no consequences. I felt the extreme guilt of being a part of inflicting that suffering though I didn’t personally.

          • What got to me was all the starving kids I encountered in the villages. I carried extra rations to give to them and bars of GI soap so they could clean themselves. Still see their innocent faces sometimes.

          • Wise advice. I still have war nightmares, I mean WWII, Civil War, Vietnam, Rev War, ECW, all of em, it’s horrible.

        • My wife told me to remember the love and compassion I felt for the kids and let the rest go. These remote villages were composed mostly women, old men, girls and pre puberty boys. All the able bodied men had been “drafted” by the VC. Still remember the little girls hugging the legs of the giant white man with the funny hat (6’2″ and 200#).

    • I think it’s what his girlfriend screams out in the midst of “hot embrace”..? (Oh..Ryan..!!)

  15. Hi Kellie. You wrote, “I can’t imagine how the participants on Naked and Afraid deal with the emotional strain of missing their families.” I have an addendum; “Or their cellphones.” LOL…

    So what I saw was, Tawny, top-heavy with her industrial strength eyelashes, tipped over, injured her love handles, and abandoned the group? I think that’s how it went.

    Regarding the hunting, I’ve come to the conclusion that the group is just under-equipped to capture large game. Their bows and arrows, atlatls, etc. just aren’t adequate to kill large game. While I think their hunting strategy and tactics are sound, they just need to build their snares with 1/2” steel cable tied to an oak tree.

    • You think that’s how it went? You think wrong. The entire group is suffering from extreme malnutrition/starvation because the “group” for certain is under equipped with knowledge which is why they can’t obtain food in a literal department store full of protein. They can’t work together, can’t plan together, can’t focus on a team effort whether it be fishing, foraging, trapping or hunting. The bow may not be adequate but an atlatl certainly is, it can’t be helped that Steven doesn’t know how to construct a proper dart, they have all the necessary tools and raw materials to do it, but Noooo! they can’t come up with a proper dart….geesh….

      • True, True, True. In the extra footage of the replay of episode 5, a pop up note said that Phaedra has been foraging daily and providing cattail roots and supposedly berries and edible leaves.

      • The group has snared several animals, only to see them break the snare and escape.

        Somewhere in South Africa, a nyala buck is dragging a tree branch from its new anklet.

          • Hmmm…
            1.) The warthog that broke Ryan’s netting “like it was nothing”.
            2.) The animal (not sure what it was – but Kim knew!) that they teased us with at the end of episode 4 (Jake swam across the lake for it.)
            3.) Last night’s animal (not sure what it was) that snapped Alyssa’s cord.

            BTW JC, they followed the plan that you outlined last week almost verbatim, it’s just that the material they’re using doesn’t have adequate strength. Maybe they should use some of those Pygmy vines…

          • Rwb. I wasn’t counting the ones who weren’t at least momentarily snared. The Pygmies had hunters waiting by the nets to dispatch those animals caught even momentarily. When Alyssa drew the plan on the rock I was amazed.

      • Yes KenO! A straightened shaft, a sharp point generated by snapping off the blade of one of the excess knives they now have, and fletch it by splitting the feather Darrin has. Make at least two. Grind and sharpen the points on the rock and ledges lying around.

        • Yes, J.C. perfect. Now if they’ll only cast someone that actually has knapping experience. Did you know that flint tools sharpen themselves and are sharper than scalpels? Amazing edge tools out of flint.

          • KenO. I mentioned it in our humorous conversations on sharp knives last week. An ad for obsidian surgeons scalpels said they were sharp enough to cut through a single cell without otherwise damaging it.

          • KenO. Except for Darrin, I doubt any of them even know what is flint. They probably think knapp is something done in in the afternoon.

          • “Knappp”, yes, something you do in the afternoon, hilarious. Di you know that you can actually knapp a broken bottle? Amazing. I still don’t get why they haven’t a clue about knapping. I knew a professional knapper back when I was in the Association of American Mountain men, a fellow named Claude in Florida. The guy was awesome. He was the chap that showed us how to make and use an atlatl as well as showing us how heat treating your flint chards enabled you to control how you knapped your pieces. Amazing, simply amazing.

          • KenO. Billy Berger was also the only one I have see make and use a club! A club the most fundamental of all tools/weapons.

        • KenO. First time I saw glass Knapped was when Billy Berger N&A “Beware the Bayou” made a spear point from a soda pop bottle bottom and killed a muskrat with it. Billy and his partner Ky along with Bo Stuart and Debbie are my 2 all time favorite couples on N&A.

          • Agreed, best couples yet. Better a show with them than with the “bone crusher” and his sidekick.

    • Rwb. You are right they are under equipped with skill and ingenuity. They need rifles so they can see and shoot.

      • Well, I really don’t have a problem with their efforts. They’re trying to make something happen. However, you could argue that seasoned survival experts should know how to use the correct materials for snares.
        I was sort of tongue in cheek about the 1/2″ steel cable and oak tree. How are you going to carry 100 feet of that around the savannah? The producers should have at least picked an area where their materials would be adequate for the game they’re hunting.

        • They pick the areas for the drama they can create not for helping out the “survivors”. They’re not “survivalists” they’re “survivors”.

    • RWB-I was disappointed that the show’s producers didn’t give us any update on Tawny’s condition after her evacuation. My guess is at least a concussion, based on her dazed expression and lack of tears.

      • Kellie, let’s hope that a concussion was all it was, it could easily be a ruptured internal organ. The rest of us here, J.C. and I were disappointed we weren’t given an update as well.

      • Kellie – Tawny wasn’t my favorite contestant, but I wish her the best of luck going forward.

        • They never showed her doing much but she was pretty good in her original episode of N&A, making through all 21 days. She’s had a rough life and been a very even tempered lady, always respectful of others, a sweet gal.

  16. Oh goody, finally beat J.C. to the punch,er post. However I probably shouldn’t be posting just yet as I haven’t watched the episode, just enjoying Kellie’s recap is usually enough. So the “team” still hasn’t really quite worked out how to work as a “team” yet? No surprise there, they still haven’t figured out how to make a proper shelter either nor have they figured out that where they are at is the garden of protein they just can’t catch any to save their lives and it will be no different anywhere else. Really losing respect for this bunch. However mostly nice the ladies are this time none of them appear to be able to do much but sit around and look pretty and be nice to each other, well, except to yell at Stacey for calling them to breakfast, like the animals are really freaked out about that any more than they would be about hearing lions roar. I’ll post again after I watch it whilst eating breakfast, yummo.

    • I gladly yield the floor to you! I am so frustrated with this group I want to kick asses. Jake’s leadership style is failing. Someone needs to step up and say “WTF are we doing?” Then step on some necks, tell Darrin to stop talking and get some meat by whatever methods he can devise. They are playing mind and ego games as hunger and fatigue takes over.

      • J.C. they are, at this point, losing their mental capacity and falling into negative mental space, not that they weren’t close there to begin with. I will give the girls props for not being catty and backbiting, they do seem fairly even with each other though I think they are tiring of the menfolks ineptitude as are we.

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