Recap: Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”
Watching Bananas Ripen Watching paint dry?

I am do glad to see a new episode of Naked and Afraid. I was a little steamed to have a clip show last week.  I know it was a holiday, but It would have been pretty awesome to have current service members take on the 21-day survival challenge. I know we’ve had military veterans on the show, but I’d love to see some 21-year-olds try to put what they’ve just learned into practice.

Let’s get started and meet this week’s brave survivalists.

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”

Angela
Age 36
Pittsburgh, PA
Angela has 5 kids and is engaged.
She’s a self-taught survivalist and endurance athlete
Angela is a Vegetarian and right off the bat, this worries me. Nobody eats a lot on Naked and Afraid, and you’ve gotta eat whatever walks, swims, or falls in your hands.
Initial Primitive Survival Rating (PSR): 6.1 out of 10.0
Angela explains her pretty mani-pedi, “I want to survive pretty.”

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”Darrin
Age 33
From Utah, but when we first meet him, he’s in Colorado with his beloved dog who is his sole companion.
He’s a self-described loner and a “Mountain Hippy.”
Rock Climbing guide and is a chef
Says that he’s been camping alone since he was 9, when his parents would drop him off in the woods so he could camp by himself. I have so many questions about this statement.
Initial Primitive Survival Rating (PSR): 7.8 out of 10.0
I can finally be naked and no one will call the police.

Our crazy brave survivalists are heading to Koh Mook Thailand, which looks gorgeous, but like most Naked and Afraid locations, everything there wants to kill you.
The location is home to swarms of biting ants.
Up in the canopy live aggressive macaques, which carry Herpes B a.k.a. Monkey sickness. (Which can totally kill you, if left untreated)
The island also has an out-of-control rat population. And where there are rats, there are snakes. Lots o’ snakes — including King Cobras.

Survival Items
The duo has been given a primitive fire-starter.
Darrin brought climbing rope.
Angela brought a Machete.

Darrin will eat almost everything and this year alone, the things he’s eaten have included: grouse, mongoose, ducks, buffalo, several types of chipmunk, several kinds of squirrel and the list goes on and on like Bubba Gump listing shrimp.
Vegetarian Angela looks like she wants to hurl hearing all about Darrin’s carnivorous carnage.
For a loner, Darrin is a Chatty Cathy and I wonder if this is the first time he’s ever spent significant time with a woman.

Once they arrive at an excellent clearing that has access to both the ocean and a cave, Darrin makes fire in what seems like seconds. He’s a fire whisperer and makes Naked and Afraid participants who’ve struggled to make fire look like Chumps.

One it gets dark, the rats come in the explore, and nibble…

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”
Jesus would approve of these sandals!

Day 2
The next morning they build themselves a platform bed. They don’t want to give the four-legged varmints a lot of opportunities to scamper across their fannies.
Angela also builds herself a cute leaf skirt. Darrin is too excited to be naked to want to wear any clothes.
But, Darrin does want to wear sandals, which are the most awesome looking things ever. While he doesn’t have the best Interpersonal skills, he’s an absolute wizard in survival settings.

Day 3
Angela fashions a comb out of sticks and bamboo to tame her hair. Pretty smart!
And they head out into the jungle and find bananas. MMmmm, bananas! But they’re not quite ripe. And by “Not Quite ripe,” I mean not even close. They’re like barely-peel-able rocks. But the monkeys want those bananas and are ballsy enough to come into camp to get them.
Darrin says, “The easiest way to deal with thieving monkeys is kill one and they’ll all be scared of you … Monkey takes my food, I eat the Monkey.”

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”
Watching Bananas Ripen < ? > Watching paint dry?

Day 5
They each have an idea on how to cook the unripe bananas. Angela’s idea is to put the bananas into the fire’s coals and bake them; hoping that the heat will turn the fruit’s starch into carbohydrates. It’s doesn’t work.
Darrin fashions a pit and basically does a clam bake — but with bananas.
It takes hours, but his way works like a charm. And Darrin doesn’t care if things take a while, he says, “I live on Hippie-, Indian-, Stoner-time.”
So far, they’re living far better than most other Naked and Afraid participants by eating Hearts of Palm and Bananas.
While they sit on the beach, Angela sees the carcass of a Monitor Lizard, but it turns up it’s actually alive although badly injured. So Darrin smashes it with a rock to kill it. But he decided not to eat it, since reptiles are dirty, and carry lots of germs.

Day 8
The bananas are ripening. Slooooowly.

Day 9-14
The monkeys want to steal their bananas. Darrin wants to kill them, but it’s illegal to hunt the monkeys. Darrin’s getting so hungry that he’s going to catch the rats that scamper around their cave.
“In my book, it’s just another type of squirrel.”
That night, Darrin becomes a rat hunter and catches 4 rats. Barf, Vomit, Eew. Angela is almost as grossed out as I am.

Day 15
Darrin makes rat kabobs and laughs just like a serial killer. Angela is appalled. His craziness is mildly creepy, but then he seems oblivious to his partner’s discomfort and takes it way too far. But, most geniuses are a little twisted, even survival geniuses.

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”
Weaving a blanket … so Angela can smother her partner.

Day 17
Angela’s goal for the day is to make a blanket. When she tries, Darrin corrects her. She want the opportunity to try — even if her efforts lead to failure.

Day 18
Angela feels weak, but it’s not physically as much as emotionally. She’s annoyed by her partner and being around him is wearing her down. Darrin is strained by having to be around his partner too. He’s definitely a loner and would rather be doing this by himself. Or with a dog.

Naked and Afraid, “Lord of the Rats”
Which one is the bigger Nut?

Day 19
Darrin, the mad genius, has been counting the coconuts on the local trees and when he hears one fall, he heads out and finds it for his partner as a peace offering. Angela and Darrin have made up. They don’t have to be BFF, but they can work together and appreciate their difference.

Day 20
They make a bamboo raft since they know that part of their extraction will involve swimming into deep water.

Day 21
Dawn arrives with a heavy downpour. For their extraction, they have to hike 3 miles across the island before swimming to a waiting boat in the deep water. Darrin isn’t a strong swimmer and Angela leaves him behind in her focus to get to the boat. When she’s out of the water, she sees her partner struggling and dives back into the water to help her partner.

At the end of their 21 says in Thailand,
Darrin only lost 6 pounds, because he feasted like a king. His survival skill set is amazing, so I’m surprised that his PSR only rises from 7.8 to 8.2.
Angela lost 15 lbs. and her PSR rose from 6.1 to 6.3.

7 Comments

  1. I’m glad I’m not the only one that noticed the woman’s attitude. She was completely useless. Darrin was excellent at surviving and did all of the work. Even when she was making a blanket it was for herself…he did things for the group.

    • Well…her father was right….she would not have made it one day had it not been for Darrin. She did absolutely nothing to help….she was completely useless! Seriously, so vain, focusing on her looks rather then survival. I would love to hang out with Darrin…he is brilliant and resourceful!!! I would have been egar to learn from him, so I could contribute. I would be embrassed if i were her, she put forth no effort!!!! She is engaged to be married…if the guy is smart he will run…she is selfish and selfcentered. Bravo Darrin….you absolutely rock!!!

  2. Wow! Women, he all but kissed her ass as well as feeding and clothing. Talk about ungrateful people. Kudos to Rat Man. She needs to go back to the kitchen and make cookies.

  3. Love the Rat Man, he is the one I would choose for my 21 day trip to hell..
    His partner was ill equipped to do this challenge, do NOT think she ever
    appreciated him….

  4. this woman did nothing but criticize this guy – he fed her coconuts, bananas and made her slippers out of rope. onmyminddailycom

  5. Oh yeah, awesome sandals Darrin. Smartest survival tool anyone has thought to bring. Hey Darrin, if the finances are what’s holding you back from starting your survival class, contact me. I have the $$ and I have the time. I just have to say that Angela was the most self absorbed, whiny narcissist I have ever seen…leaving Darrin in your wake to get to the boat after that MAN carried your ass the WHOLE 21 days. Cudo’s to you Darrin for keeping your cool towards some useless woman who did absolutely nothing, nagged the whole time and proceeded to insult and put you down. DARRIN, YOU DA MAN!!!

    • exactly. i was very upset with this woman who did absolutely nothing but nag – and more upset that the tv producers took her “tone” and milked the show to put darrin in a bad like onmyminddaily.com

Comments are closed.