Episode 8 of History Channel’s Alone, Season 9, takes place over days 42-46. Six contestants remain at the start of the episode.
This is a recap and review of episode 8. At the end, I’ll provide some guesses as to who will last until the end and who might successfully hunt a bear.
Spoilers to follow!
Karie Lee
We first find Karie Lee using horsetail to repair the enamel of her teeth. Shortly after, she informs us she’s going hunting for muskrats. As these creatures swim, Karie Lee tethers her arrow to her fishing line (so as not to lose her arrow, and to reel in the catch). She doesn’t manage to hunt one, so she reflects on how she wants to build a wilderness school if she wins Alone and on her family lineage of pioneers.
Later on, Karie Lee sings us a song and goes muskrat hunting again. This time, she manages to shoot one but is forced to engage in a bit of a battle, eventually killing it with a knife.
On Halloween, she uses the bones of the muskrat to dress up as “Muskrat Suzie,” which afterward she claims she was embarrassed by. I mean … yes, maybe that feeling is justified.
Adam
Also jumping on the Halloween costume train is Adam. He dresses up as a grouse and performs a whole trick-or-treating skit (that he requests the developers edit for him). Sometimes I wonder whether he’s just not struggling enough in the wilderness. Or maybe he found some special mushrooms while foraging.
He does ask, “does this make me seem totally insane?”
Along with his wilderness cosplay, Adam builds insulated shutters for his windows using the dock boards he found in the last episode. He also claims he’s getting extremely homesick and goes on a hike to distract himself. He finds a new river to explore and manages to shoot a large hare at twenty yards. Perhaps dressing up as a grouse has its advantages?
Tiemojin
Tiemojin is quite literally killing it out in Labrador. He catches a squirrel with a Rungo (a wooden throwing club) and hunts a grouse too. He gives us some hints for hunting these particular birds, which is to approach while keeping your head at a forty-five-degree angle from them, set your bow into position, then look and shoot. Apparently, they’re jumpy and can tell if you’re looking at them, and this method confuses them.
Rather than dress up on Halloween, he celebrates Samhain, using diamond willow smudge to meditate on his deceased grandfather from Singapore, whom he was close to.
Juan Pablo
Mr. drinks-upboiled-water is having trouble getting food, as the fish have moved further out into deeper water, due to the cold. As such, he decides to extend his dock. This works very well! As he fishes, Juan Pablo discusses wanting to rock the boat (or, in this case, the dock) on Alone regarding the diversity of the contestants.
Later, despite having a fish stew, he has no interest in eating it. Whether this is starvation or some other problem is yet to be determined.
Tom
Last time, Tom fell and hurt his back quite severely. When we meet him in this segment, he couldn’t sleep the night before due to pain. He plans to hunt a beaver to have enough food to rest for a few days. He’s lost thirty-eight pounds since arrival.
He isn’t successful in hunting any beaver, and he can barely walk. Nevertheless, he manages to have Icelandic moss for a meal. After heading up the little hill behind his shelter, he takes a tumble and hits his back and knee. He sits at the bottom of his shelter for a while, then taps out. He claims that, “it’s a tough man who never gives up, but it’s a fool who doesn’t know when he’s beaten.” Forty-three days in the wilderness is no mean feat, though, sir! You did your best!
Jessie
Jessie finished Hodge Podge Lodge in this segment!
She explains she’s spent over three weeks building her shelter (which, as I have commented in previous reviews, seemed like too much time focusing on that instead of finding food). My assessment was reasonably accurate, as Jessie grows sicker and sicker as the days pass. She’s lost forty-five pounds, and she is queasy and gassy (indicating excess acid might be eating into her stomach lining). She begins a cycle that is horrible to watch: she drinks water, then throws it up. She tries to ingest charcoal to remove toxins, but this does not work.
Rather than tap out, Jessie doesn’t answer her daily medical check, so the team heads to her location. They find her bundled up in her shelter and decide she has to be medically extracted. Her expression freezes when they tell her like she can’t process it. Still, I have immense respect for Jessie’s determination and fortitude, and I’m sad she didn’t make it to the top two at least.
My Assessment
Now that we’re down to four people, here are my thoughts:
Adam – he’s going to cave next. He’s doing so well that he’ll have too much time to focus on missing his family.
Juan Pablo – I still think he’s going to be the one to get a bear … or he’ll get a stomach bug.
Tiemojin and Karie Lee will fight it out for the final spot, and it’ll be a battle of the calories.
The next episode airs on July 21 on History Channel.
