Recap: Naked and Afraid Thailand, “Hell or High Water”

Naked and Afraid Thailand

“We are cut off from the production crew”

They’ve been using this statement in teases for several seasons. Let’s grab our raincoats, and settle in for this wet ride.

Naked and Afraid Thailand Matt Wright
Age: 32 years old
Occupation: Owner and operator of Extreme Instinct LLC, makes custom knives, survival gear and teaches survival classes
Current Residence: Lakewood, Colorado
Relationship Status: Engaged
Survival Skills: Primitive Weapons, Fire, Trapping, Hunting, Primitive Fishing, Flint-Knapping, Basketry, Cordage, Hide Tanning, Shelter, Water Purification, Tracking, and Navigation.
Matt is a confident guy, and is ready to take his survival skills to the jungle for the first time. Matt is ex special forces and also has a lifetime of hunting and wilderness experience.
Initial Primitive Survival Rating (PSR) 7.8 out of 10

Naked and Afraid ThailandLindsay Boisclair
Age: 32 years old
Occupation: Customer Service
Current Residence: Grand Blanc, Michigan
Survival Skills: Mental strength, Plant identification, Positive attitude
This single mom is pretty funny and sarcastic, and after losing 100 lbs., she loves to challenge herself (Great job, Lindsay!). Lindsay wants to show other woman that you can lose weight and still succeed on the show. Another woman on Naked and Afraid with an amazing head of hair. She suffers from hypothyroidism, so she can’t regulate her temperature. I wonder how this may affect her in this challenge; shouldn’t she need medication or something? And if she can’t take her medication, will she suffer form some of the other side effects of the disorder, like fatigue? Lindsay doesn’t normally eat meat, but will on this challenge.
Initial PSR 6.1 out of 10.0

Naked and Afraid Thailand
I made this. You can buy this.

Primitive survival items:
In addition to a magnesium fire starter provided by the show, Matt has brought a sweet knife that he designed himself, and Lindsay has brought a tarp.

This week, our two brave adventurers are heading to Thailand, and will spend three weeks near the Sai Rung waterfall. The area is also home to pythons, wild boars and tigers, and  series’ spooky-voiced narrator lets us know that a few years ago, a flash flood in this area killed dozens of locals. But according to this website, the waterfall may be only meters away from a parking lot and is easily accessabel to area resorts. Hmmmmmmmmm

RELATED: Who Will Win Alone Season 2?

Day 1
And Lindsay and Matt were clearly not dropped off near the car park, and had to right tough terrain to find “home.” They set to building a shelter, but darkness falls quickly in the jungle and their shelter is rudimentary at best.

Day 2
Matt is itching to hunt. He quickly grabs a tiny morsel of a lizard.
Lindsay refuses to eat any of the tiny treat, and Matt teaches her the fine art of lizard CPR.
Lindsay: “How does that taste? Does it taste like chicken?”
Matt: “No, tastes like lizard.”

Naked and Afraid Thailand
Just a hint of Geiko gecko.

After the snack, they rebuild the shelter and elevate it above the insect-covered ground.

Day 3
Because Lindsay is averse to eating meat, Matt is a champ and finds some wild figs. They’re not quite ripe, but they figure, “hey, they’re calories.” A short while later, they both get sick from the unripe fruit. I hope that those were actual figs and not some toxic lookalike! While Lindsay look like she’s just ridden a rollercoaster, Matt builds an amazing fish trap. And annoys Lindsay.

Day 5
Matt chops down a tree to get his partner heart of palm. Lindsay is still feeling sick, but Matt encourages her to eat more. His goading is a little jerky, but he’s really looking out for her best interest.

Day 6
The next day, Matt is tired from the exertion of the day before and checks his fish trap. He’s caught an eel, but it slips back into the water and is gone. But Matt is undeterred, and when he sees a snake, he knows he’s caught dinner.

Lindsay can’t bring herself to eat the snake, even though Matt explains that this could be the last food they are able to find. Even though, she can’t bring herself to eat.

After eating, Matt has lots of energy and plays naked Tarzan. “I have become one with the jungle!” he yells as he swings. Lindsay is not amused by the man-meat swinging above her head. How could she not laugh? Matt’s a fun guy.

Day 9
Lindsay is getting weaker because she’s not eating anything. And I wonder if not having her meds is adding to her fatigue. And, if they’re only steps from a parking lot, I wonder if they can smell the peanut butter sandwiches of tourists.

Day 11
Matt makes deadfall traps to up their chances for food. I like that Matt is trying multiple ways to catch food. Past participants who try only one food-catching method has been a point of consternation from N&A fans. You have to try everything to catch calories. Fish baskets, snares, dead-falls, hunting, fishing, gathering — these are all viable options and it looks like Matt is trying then all.

Later that day, a storm front rolls in. As the weather drops and the thunder rumbles, Matt warns, “It’s about to get ugly.”

Naked and Afraid Thailand

That night, rain starts to fall and the temperature drops into the 50s. Thank goodness for Lindsay’s tarp!

Day 12
8 inches of rain have fallen and Matt and Lindsay can’t leave their shelter. Matt is wistful for snuggle-filled days with his girlfriend. My husband and I were talking about stranger snuggles earlier today, and I’m totally #TeamSnuggle. I don’t care who you are — if we’re in a survival situation — I’m going to get cozy in your personal space. So get to it Matt and Lindsay, this isn’t romance, this is survival! Speaking of romance, read this article from People magazine that tells how Matt proposed to his girlfriend Brooke while he was in Thailand! I think they definitely need to head to Thailand for their honeymoon.

Day 14
It’s still raining and the river is starting to flood. The camp is starting to flood too, but the pair is dry-ish in their shelter. I’m gonna say it again — thank goodness for Lindsay’s’ tarp! I have always said that if I were a participant on Naked and Afraid, I would definitely choose a tarp as my survival item. But I would have a portion of the tarp underneath me too, making the shelter more burrito-like would really hold in body heat.

Day 15
14 inches of rain have fallen. The river is so torrential that Matt and Lindsay have been cut off form the production crew. If anything should happen to them, they are beyond help. And it just keeps raining. And thundering. And lightning-ing.

Day 16
16 inches of rain have fallen. The sound of the rain falling on the tarp sounds like hail and the constant noise would be maddening.

Naked and Afraid Thailand
There are people in there. And rain out here.

Day 17
Matt and Lindsay have withstood 19-inches of rainfall! But they haven’t been able to search for food in almost a week and are famished. Matt’s statement about the snake being their last food they eat, may be true.

Day 19
The sun finally emerges from behind the clouds, and Matt is excited to find food. Lindsay is too weak to help. While Matt searches for calories, Lindsay weaves a blanket to help keep them warm. Matt’s fish trap has washed away in the storm. That night, their deadfall trap catches a rat. I wonder if Matt watched the N&A episode with Darrin — “Lord of the Rats” is one of my favorite episodes!

Day 20
Matt is almost giddy at the premise of protein, but Lindsay is less-than-thrilled. She’s spending too much time thinking about, what she’s putting in her mouth. Matt forces her to consume the calories.

Day 21
Lindsay and Matt have a water-borne extraction. After bushwhacking through the jungle, they have to float down several miles of rapids.

Naked and Afraid Thailand
It’s a baby-sized raft!

They use the bamboo from their shelter to make a small floatation device (the word “raft” would be too generous. It is tiny!) The river was insane- and I was sure they were going to smack their heads off of a boulder.

Naked and Afraid Thailand
Thanks GoPro for this amazing image; I’m glad we didn’t see someone get knocked on the noggin.

Once they billy goat out of the river, Matt and Lindsay leap into a waiting pickup truck. I feel like Matt could have lived in this jungle forever; he was a force unto himself. I wish Lindsay had been able to get over her aversion to eating meat, I think she would have had a better time.

Over the course of 21 days, Lindsay lost 20 lbs. and her PSR rose from 6.1 to 6.5 out of 10.0.

Matt was a beast, and over 21 days, he lost 36 pounds. His PSR rose from 7.8 to 8.7 out of 10.0 and I think that Matt was one of the best Naked and Afraid participants I’ve ever seen.

I think it was about time that Naked and Afraid showed this episode. They’ve been using shots from this episode since last season. The shot of Matt climbing back onto the rock during the rapids swim has been part of series teases for since the end of Season 4 (this is Season 6) and I’m glad we finally got an episode with a little bit of peril.

Other recaps of this season’s episodes of Naked and Afraid
Episode 6: Philippines 
Episode 5: Belize
Episode 4: Croatia 
Episode 3: Amazonia
Episode 2: Canada
Episode 1: Alabama

16 Comments

  1. Lindsay acted like a spoiled, princess! Just sitting on her throne the whole time while Matt did all the work and brought her food.. And when he brought her food all she did was turn her nose up like a spoiled brat! She wouldnt have lasted a day without Matt. And if I was him I would have given her the time of day or brought any food after the first time that ungrateful bitch turned her nose up! Worthless spoiled bi#tch!

  2. I couldn’t stand Lindsay. Matt was so generous and kind to her. She wouldn’t have lasted with anyone else. She acted like a spoiled princess. Matt reminded me of rescue personnel. He really stepped up and I would like to see both of them again in a different alliance.

    • I agree with you Sheila after rewatching the show last night. Lindsay comes in saying that she’s not a vegetarian yet looks at the food that Matt provides like it’s poison. I saw her do nothing but collect some firewood. Matt was so chauvelier (sp?) that he went out of his way to make sure she had something to eat. I’m tired of vegetarians going on the show and starving for lack of protein and their partner, in some cases, has to take care of them. In the episode with another Matt (a vegan) and Honora, he did find a grasshopper for her cause it landed in his face. He just laid in their shelter all day surviving on cactus making absolutely no effort to help her find meat. She was starving so why didn’t she eat cactus also. She had to lay in the boiling hot sun with her magnifying glass til the producers dragged her out. I watched XL last summer and do not believe for a minute that Danielle lasted 40 days eating just dried mangoes, what crap.

  3. Watch original and tonight the uncensored with Matt Wright and Lindsay in Thailand. Give Lindsay credit for doing this but as she also said she couldn’t have made it without Matt .Great show ! Enjoyed the hunting skills and positive personality of Matt. Hope we see him again on the XL show….or even his own show.

  4. What a delightful episode. Though Lindsay didn’t have a smidgen of survival skills she did what I had always hoped many of the loser chicks would have done, she collected firewood which is no easy task and takes a great deal of time. She wove mats, also a great deal of time. Yes Matt “did everything” but he did it all with a smile and delightful attitude. There was absolutely no misogyny that we’ve seen so much of in the past. What a great guy.

  5. Lindsay was a complete drag on Matt and frankly, he would have been able to absolutely thrive had he been on his own. Because of her drain of resources and contributing zero to their situation, they did only a little better than simply survive. She had zero personality or sense of humor so she wasn’t even able to redeem herself in that department. Matt tried so hard to lift Lindsay’s spirits and make jokes and have a little fun and she couldn’t even crack a smile even once. She was an absolute bummer and contributed nothing and I thought it was very big of Matt to remain upbeat and kind towards her throughout the challenge despite the fact that he did literally EVERYTHING. the only thing I see that she provided was companionship, and that’s being generous because with her complete lack of a personality he could have kept a pet rock and received just as much in the way of a companion. I always wonder why people who do not eat meat go on the show. That makes it a virtual guarantee that they will not receive adequate nutrition and will be in poor health at best and surprise surprise, this is exactly what happened to Lindsay. I give giant kudos to Matt for all that he did for the team and for stepping up to do the work of two people all the while keeping a cheerful attitude. He certainly earned his awesome final PSR. Lindsay probably should have stayed at home. The only thing that she proved was that she was capable of mooching off of someone else’s hard work for 21 days, what an achievement. I don’t think her PSR should have gone up at all and in fact probably could have gone down a few points since she only detracted from the team and it’s success. I still did enjoy the episode because Matt was a delight and was highly skilled and fun to watch. I would love to see him on another episode but with a better, more capable partner. Imagine how great he could do with someone with even a small amount of survival skills! I’m 100% sure that had Lindsay been by herself she would not have made it one week. Overall it was a good episode though and i am grateful that it was free of the drama that seems to have plagued several episodes. I would rather see a complete dud of a partner than a mean spirited shrew causing fights any day.

  6. The waterfall is a park. There is a guard that allows you to enter if weather is permitting. During rainy season the guard informs you not to go hike to the waterfall. You still can go. Off the beaten path yes but not in the jungle. So when naked and afraid did the show they paid off the Provence Trung for production use.
    That’s how it works .
    It is a tourist stop listed in Thai tourism. I know friends that could not visit because of the filming. I was there not anything different from starved rock.

    • James,
      Thanks for the factual information. Most of us are aware that N&A is a TV SHOW and as such, N&A is at least partially contrived and sometimes faked altogether. Locations in the “wilderness” that have little to no wildlife are always suspect. Knowing this, I still enjoy the show and watching the human interest behaviors and reactions of the participants. I like the look on some of their faces (OMG, I’m really here!) when they realize what they have done to themselves. I like it when they succeed and somehow get through the 21 days. I like it when those who have them, demonstrate their survival skills. I also enjoy it when “toughies” who don’t know what they are doing (posers) expose themselves. I enjoy the different reactions of the naked women as they struggle to overcome a lifetime of tradition and inhibitions. I DO NOT enjoy the performance of the men who refuse to snuggle and/or comfort their partner any way they can. After all, who can be “hot” when dirty and bug ridden?

    • James, sorry for the long post under yours. I meant to send only the first sentence to you and the rest as a separate post.

  7. I’d like to see Matt come back, besides being incredibly fit, when Lindsay needed help he always did what he could with no whining about who’s doing what. The tarp was brilliant.

  8. Kellie,
    Lindsay has my empathy. Hypothyroidism is no minor affliction! My Wife has an overactive thyroid that makes her susceptible to Graves Disease (loss of eyesight). The paradox of an overactive thyroid is that it makes the patient hungry ALL THE TIME, hence weight gain. This is a lifetime battle for Lindsay and my Wife. I hope the Producers allowed her to have her medication. I wish Lindsay all the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. Well done Matt and Lindsay. Lindsay was a bit picky but Matt was a fun and persuasive man which helped Lindsay. I agree with Kellie; Matt could have survived 6 months or more. The tarp was a very, very good choice because there was plenty of bamboo to boil water. The heavy and sustained rain made this an inhospitable place and they had a dangerous extraction to say the least! The producers got this one right and the editors didn’t ruin it. I liked the shot of the Production crew struggling to stay on the job.

    • Lindsay said in the beginning that she was NOT a vegetarian and just didn’t like the texture and chewing of meat. I am like her in that way; however, if I was starving and someone offered me meat, I’d gobble it down. She looked at food as if it was a piece of dog shit. Glad she changed her mind and ate some rat. Too bad she wasn’t camping with Darren, the Rat Kabob King; she would have had plenty to eat (that was my most favorite episode on N&A).

  10. well done to both participants i think matts survival score is one of the highest ever and kudos to Lindsay for toughing it out after the bad fruit

    jason

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