Recap: Naked And Afraid XL, Episode 6: 40 Days Sacrifice

Naked And Afraid XL, Episode 6

At the end of last week’s episode of Naked and Afraid XL, Jeff, EJ and Shane’s slumber was disrupted by a late-night visitor. The show’s producers aren’t sure if it was a jaguarundi or a crab-eating fox, but either way, that is a gato no bueno.

In this week’s episode, we rejoin the alpha male tribe moments after the growl woke them. I’m guessing this is the last sleep they’ll get tonight. If it was me, I may never sleep again.

Day 25
Early in the morning, Alana and Danielle move closer to the extraction point —and what do you know, they’re heading where everyone else is: Piranha Lake!

Naked And Afraid XL, Episode 6
I’ve got to hand it to Alana and Danielle, They sure survive in style!

Danielle is leaving a fruit and cashew-rich area in order to be closer to the extraction point while she still has the energy for such a strenuous hike. I think this could be a misstep for her. She has seemingly found the one area of the ecosystem that can support a vegetarian like herself; the other groups moves because a lack of protein and she isn’t willing to eat the animals that seem plentiful at Piranha Lake.

Once the sun is up, Shane, EJ and Jeff check out the giant paw prints left behind by last night’s’ visitor. And they are gigantic! Maybe they should consider putting a “wall of sticks”/ branches around their sleeping platform, like they do in Africa to deter lions?

The group of five — Eva, Laura, Dani Luke and Chris — have set up a temporary camp about a 1/4 mile away from the three men. They’ve finished the last of their dried mangos, and are read to hunt for food, and build themselves a more permanent shelter.

Even though Shane has eaten protein, she still so dehydrated that his body isn’t working correctly. He should spend a day being committed to rehydrating or he’s going to end up leaving!

While Jeff shows the group around the area, Chris sees two eels. The team makes a plan “I’m ready to get shocked,” says Luke, as he uses his arm to make a mini-wall to try to keep the eel in a small pool of water. It isn’t long before he’s shocked, stunned and the eel escapes. “You don’t play patty-cake with an electric eel,” laughs EJ, who has been watching from the shore.

Danielle and Alana are still trudging across the sweltering Savannah. It is a long, hot walk and before long, they find the group of 5 who welcome them into their group. Shane isn’t thrilled to see his former teammates, but Alana and Danielle are excited to work with others.

Naked And Afraid XL, Episode 6
Wanna know what’s better than a team of 5? A team of 7!!!

Once the three men join the group for a pow-wow, they decide that they want to remain a three person team, leave the group and start building their shelter. Shane is still so dehydrated that he’s soon spent. Seriously dude, lie in the shade for a day. Man the fire. Boil some water. There is no shame in taking a sick day.

That night, while the mega group site around their fire, a snake literally pops out of the ground under Chris’ butt! Chris isn’t nearly as freaked out as I would be; but he sees a meal, whereas I’d only see a fanny-snake. In a matter of minutes, the snake is shish-kabobed and everyone (but Danielle) enjoys a bedtime snack.

Day 27
The group of 7 starts making their massive shelter. Over in the men’s camp, they’re busy chopping down trees while the larger group uses the resources on the forest floor. “Different strokes for different folks,” figures Luke. Over in Man-land, Shane is still hurting. Water is the main problem for all of the survivalists, or rather, a lack of water. There simply enough water. Every mouthful requires collection, boiling and cooling. it’s a long process that never nets enough to leave anyone feeling quenched. Shane is so desperate for water that he has dug a well and volunteers to drink fro it first. It’s selfless and Shane probably figures as the team’s weakest member, he’s one foot out the door anyway.

Day 28 night
Shane is actually feeling pretty well and Jeff expresses gratitude at his friend’s arrival in camp.

Day 29
Jeff prays over the fire and miraculously, Shane is still feeling well after drinking the water for a few days. I hope he’s turned a corner! Jeff takes a tentative taste and think it’s delicious. EJ follows suit.

The large group tries to catch fish in Dani’s mosquito net while Jeff watches. He simply drops his fishing line into the water and pulls out a fish. He makes it look easy, but he’s also had times when his hook has come up empty. Very clever editing, TV makers!

Eva sees a snake in a tree and the group tries to coax out the slithering beast. “Now they’re shaking bushes, like a couple of monkeys,” laughs EJ with a grin.

I’m sure if the producers could add tuba music to this scene, they would, but instead they highlight the idiocy of the moment with string music.

Jeff has kept fishing and catches and eel to go along with his fish. I think he may have yanked the beast out of the water with just his fishing line. Jeff shares his eel with the other group. Danielle is town because she doesn’t want to have to ean an animal to survive.

XLR
The XRL continues to be a useless and arbitrary measurement which is supposed to measure the teams’ “Progress, Skill and Teamwork.” That’s like measuring the survivalists “Fun, Stink, and Pain.” I could throw a dart at a board and come up with equally random numbers. Or roll a 20-sided dice. Anyway, here are some random numbers.

The Alpha Males, EJ, Jeff and Shane have enjoyed a massive amount of protein and have potable freshwater, but Shane isn’t feeling well so their score has dipped from 8.5 to 8.4 out of 10.0

Danielle and Alana — who previously measured a 6.0 out of 10 have merged with “Team Nuts and Butts'” 7.5 to become a super team with a super-bogus score of 7.2 out of 10.0.

That night, nine of the 10 survivalists feast on meat. Danielle sits and watches.

Day 30
Danielle is hungry and sets out along the lagoon looking for new food. Alana and Danielle see Shane passed out along the water’s edge. And they walk away, unconcerned.

EJ comes to bring Shane some food and sees that he’s just not getting better. Shane drags himself to his partners and tells them that it’s time for him to tap out. He is grateful for for amazing experience that he’s had with Jeff and EJ, but doesn’t want to risk his health or their success. “Brothers for Life,” promises EJ. And with that, Shane is gone.

Naked And Afraid XL, Episode 6
Shane struggles with the knowledge that his time on Naked and Afraid XL is over.

EJ and Jeff let the rest of the group know that Shane has left. Before he leaves, Shane says, “I am tapping out because I am an alpha male, I am the alpha male.”

Shane is a strange bird, but I’m sad to be him leave. I wouldn’t want him as my survival partner because I don’t think I could trust him to not kill me, but he’s a heck of a hard worker, to his own detriment. I am glad that he found a few good friends, and hope that the issues that he had with his teammates was more the result of clever editing and TV “Manufactured storytelling,” and he, Alana and Danielle were able to leave this experience as friends. I’m not sure if would have had the courage to tap out.


Eva and Laura Show How to Make Fire
A few weeks ago, Alana said, “Survival is lazy.” I agree that in a true survival situation, you should conserve. But Naked and Afraid, (particularly Naked and Afraid XL) isn’t about waiting passively for rescue, this is about conquering an environment and I’d like to offer an alternative statement, “Survival is patience.” In order to be successful, you have to wait for opportunities, and be smart about how, when and where you expend energy.

Below, Eva and Laura show that making a fire with a bow drill requires so much more patience than I would have ever thought necessary. It makes me want to try this method! And if you want to apply to be on Naked and Afraid, this is a must-watch, must-imitate, must-master video.


 

Other Naked and Afraid XL recaps
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 8 “40 Days Filth and Fury”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 7 “40 Days Falling Apart”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 6 “40 Days Sacrifice”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 5 “40 Days Death Match”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 4 “40 Days Jungle Rich”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 3 “Snake in the Grass”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 2 “40 Days, No Escape”
Naked and Afraid XL Episode 1
Discovery announces new series, Naked and Afraid XL
Naked and Afraid Casting Secrets
How to get on Naked and Afraid

all images © Discovery Channel

9 Comments

  1. I noticed when the 2 guys were building their raft to cross the river for extraction they had a roll of fishing line. I bet we were not supposed to see that.

  2. I was very sad about this show after all! There were bad people on this show and I really exspected more out of Discovery channel. Yes, Alana was a worthless human, so also were her other people (I’m not even going to bother remembering their names). This show turned out to be so low class, it’s embarrassing! I don’t have those type of ***holes in my life, and I won’t be including this channel for viewing. People that can relate to this are ….. more than low class! How embarrassing that there are so many that don’t know “TEAM” and “empathy”! And, how embarrassing that there were people on a professional level at Disc channel that ……. thought this would bring in “money” (aka viewers). Goodbye low class and sponsors!!

  3. The producers have a lot of nerve by misleading the viewers that there are new episodes, when the only difference is a few confessions or having viewers read captions! These same episodes are repeated over and over again. This is obviously a well rated show, so why are there not truly new episodes with new people?

    Alana is some piece of work! Who does she think she is by out casting Shane? He did all of the work by building the shelter, cutting loads and loads of wood and trying so hard to gather fruits and other food groups. If I were asked who is the very worst person of any group, it would be you Alana! Keep your white, negative, ugly feet, boney ass home next time!

    Jeff should never have shared his eel after the other groups inability to share their bounty.

  4. just finished the last episode. comments are based on what the producers allowed viewers to see. Stage I: environment is food deficient, especially in protein. except for luke, chris and honora who land in a place where they had more relatively more food vs. the others. with this hindsight, the optimum strategy was to endure, and reserve energy. sorry shane, but your teammates were proven right. Even the alpha males got very little for their massive efforts, barrel cacti, anyone?

    Stage II – Piranha Lake: everyone migrates for better resources. Now its the 3-man alpha males (redundant) vs. the clan. Despite the editing that implies that the clan continue to endure and to reserve energy, i am giving them the benefit of the doubt and that they did try hard to get food. unfortunately, they are poor hunters. anyone notice that Chris, the commercial fisherman, did not catch an eel or much of any seafood (can’t remember if he caught a little fish). I would argue that without the generosity and skill of Jeff, most of the clan would have tapped out. the clan received a huge amount of eel, over 20 lbs at least. An aside, i understand why the clan did not give EJ some of their ray since they were so depleted, and looking out for themselves. but it was hypocritical of them to get bent out of shape when they were told that jeff and ej decided to go it alone. did the clan become so dependent on jeff and ej that they became so angry at their plans to go it alone? numbers are not as important as the quality of the members. the clan had very little survival skills (they were good at toughing it out, ie, endurance) and their teamwork produced minimal results. in contrast to the alpha males, Jeff was the MVP. he always nails his eels with the first attempt. not surprising, he is a big game hunter, and understood the optical illusion of fish in the water (light rays get deflected). why chris, the commercial fisherman didn’t understand this is puzzling. EJ, as far as the editing showed, did not do much. as far as i can remember, he didn’t even strike an eel. yes he got shocked when he was approaching the first eel, but he never took a swipe at it or at any other eel. Shane made the killing blow of the first eel but paying the price by taking a shock. Shane, depleted from his wrong strategy, and mental battles with his teammates, eventually succumbs to malnutrition. but not before he contributed with his “gypsy well” and even tested it for his team. I wonder where the clan got its water? i wouldn’t be surprised if Shane’s well was shared or maybe Dani created another one. (the producers may not have wanted to highlight her contribution since it detracts from their emphasis on Dani’s conflict with the rest of the clan). Jeff, not only did he catch all these eels, he caught the last one by himself. quality not quantity.

    Stage III: extraction. Yes, the clan did cross the finish line first, but IMO, that does not matter. the clan took unnecessary risk in crossing the river with their floatation device. i wonder if they knew that if they encountered a deadly situation, piranha, eel, snakes, etc, the camera crew would have come to the rescue (remember the medical assistance who came to suture a wound). high risk if successful, results in high return, hence they won the race. Jeff and EJ took a more prudent and much safer approach and built a boat. last note, during the discussion on whether the clan should share their gator, not once was it mentioned (or was it purposeful editing) that they should give them food since Jeff was so so generous with his eels. many of the clan members, based on my read of their faces/body language would have been happy to not share at all.

  5. Alana was horrible. She treated Shane like a sub-human being. It was difficult to watch someone so evil. She could not have cared less. Was this just Discovery or was this the real Alana? Maybe they told her to say..”good luck” and roll her eyes. she made it difficult to finish the show.
    We did get sucked in though..so I guess it’s my husband and my fault for watching it to the end.
    Even in the end, she didn’t want to share food with EJ and his partner. Such an example of a godless person.

  6. Alana was the the most worthless person on the show! All she did was be a bully and to put it bluntly, a b*tch!! I hope they never show her again, if they do, i won’t be watching!!

  7. I was disappointed with the Naked and Afraid finale, not sure what I expected, but definitely not the let down I felt after waiting 7 days 4 the last episode.

  8. Did Alana contribute in any way to any other participant other than bullying Dani and Shane?

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