Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

- Welcome to "Alone: The Reunion."

I'm your host, Kevin Burkhardt.

"Alone" is the chance for survivalists and bushcrafters

to put their knowledge and skills to the ultimate test,

to be dropped off in the middle of the wilderness

with limited tools, no help,

and 60 pounds of camera gear

to find out if they can truly survive 100% alone.

This season took place

in one of the coldest locations on the planet:

Mongolia,

a foreign land of vast expanses,

wild weather, poisonous snakes,

and large predators.

- Wolves.

- And these weren't just any participants.

Each one of them had been

through this experience once before.

- They're letting me do this again!

- This season was all about redemption,

a chance for ten individuals to use what they learned

the first go-round while getting a second chance

at winning $500,000.

- Ah!

- And tonight, we're going to hear from five for them.

But first, let's take a look at what

the season five participants went through in Mongolia.

- This is going to be the toughest

season of "Alone" ever.

- Northern Mongolia?

We're about to be plunged

into the most insane weather in the world.

- Anything could take anyone out at any time.

[growling]

- That sounded like a bear.

- [whispering] Something is over there.

What if it charges me?

- In Mongolia, when you're hunting,

just know that something else is hunting you.

- That used to be alive.

Still see a little blood on it.

- Big snake, guys.

Be real careful, Sam.

- We share this land with grizzly bear and wolves.

I just hope that if I stay away from them,

they're gonna stay away from me.

- I don't want to focus on starving,

but there's just no food.

- It's bigger than my head.

- Rahh!

- Every calorie counts out here.

- Got myself a snake.

- Thank you, Mongolia!

- I'm in the midst of a really bad MS attack.

My legs aren't functioning. [cries out]

- Ah, okay.

My abdomen is very violently tensing up.

It's like someone pulling barbed wire out of my stomach.

- Oh, I'm hungry.

- Big hoof tracks.

They are extremely close to my shelter.

- I don't know what'll happen in these next few days,

but whatever it is, it's not going to be easy.

♪ ♪

- And we are joined by Carleigh Fairchild now,

and Carleigh, it's great to see you again.

- Good to see you.

- When you got the call,

and it's a chance for redemption,

right, what did you think of?

- There wasn't any question

whether I would come back again or not.

I wanted that second chance

and hoped that I could make it all the way this time.

- You pushed yourself to the absolute limit last time.

Like, you were taken out medically.

You had to leave.

And you probably still didn't want to go.

How did you think you could be better?

How did you think you could possibly outdo that?

- Being-- a body weight issue

is why I had to leave last time.

This time, my goal going into it was to try to gain weight

and try to up my game in hunting and fishing

so that I could sustain myself out there.

- Well, I know this isn't exactly as you had planned,

'cause you went from the woman who survived

the longest on "Alone" to, unfortunately, the woman

who had the shortest run on "Alone"

by a strange circumstance.

Why don't we take a look at your journey in Mongolia?

[light percussive music]

- Caught my first grasshopper.

Just got to figure out which pocket to put it in

to keep it from hopping away, like it just did.

Here in Mongolia, I'm going at it

in a more aggressive mindset that I had in Patagonia.

[laughs] Yes!

Starting off with three fish, I feel like I can do this.

Yes! I'll be able to make it.

[chewing]

Mmm.

Thank you, fish.

There's a couple of overhanging trees and logs,

so I'm going to hang some line and hooks off of those.

Got one!

I'm starting to think I might need to make

a smoker soon and start smoking fish

if I'm able to continue catching so many.

Yay, biggest fish.

Ahh!

[bleep]!

That went in my skin all the way.

[bleep]. Ahh!

[cries, sniffs]

I'm not sure what to do.

It's in really deep.

I don't feel like it's safe to leave it in.

I think the sooner it comes out, the better.

Yep, I just made it worse.

My stomach just feels sick that I'm doing this.

So, I don't want to,

but I feel like I have to tap out to get some help.

Never in a million years thought that a fish hook

would be why I would have to leave.

I'm most disappointed in not really being able

to test myself out here yet.

I hadn't yet made this place my home.

- So, what emotion do you have, watching that back now?

- [laughs]

A lot of emotion. Um...

You know, just a lot of sadness,

and just the pain of

being taken out by something I never expected.

- How long did you really go and think,

"Okay, can I survive with this?

Can I go on with this?"

- When I--you know,

moments after I got the fish hook in my hand,

uh, you know, after the shock and the initial reaction of it,

there was that voice in the back of my head that's like,

"You're gonna have to tap out."

And I was like, "No, I'm not gonna give up."

- Yeah. - Like, I am not gonna give up.

I'm gonna try.

- So, we saw the idea when you--you know,

you tied the knife around, you tried to kind of

use that for leverage. - Yeah.

- What else did you try at this point to get it out?

- You know, we have a basic first aid kit.

There's a pair of tweezers in there.

So I tried to use that to help,

but I just couldn't get it.

- Social media people were wondering,

"Oh, how come you couldn't get it out?

How come you couldn't cut into your hand?"

Can you give an idea of how much it hurt,

and when you tried to get it out, what it felt like?

- You know, it was in right by my thumb and forefinger tendon.

I was concerned that it was in a tendon,

and I didn't want to make any long-term injury happen.

- So, after you made the call

and they come get you, what next?

- It was just about as heartbreaking

as it was to get pulled in Patagonia.

- Mm. - Um, it took a full day

to get to the city to get to a hospital.

- [scoffs]

I don't know if you're going to love this,

but we have some never-before-seen footage

of this whole process

of getting this hook removed from your hand.

Let's take a look.

- I was fishing, and the hook came out of a fish

and went into my hand.

Literally seeing the hook down into my hand,

and knowing that there's a barb on this hook,

it's not something easily taken care of.

If it is attached to my tendon,

what is that, long term, gonna do?

The tip is coming out? - Not quite there yet.

Carleigh, just hang in there.

- Ow.

- Carleigh, you are tough.

I mean, it took two people to get that out of your hand.

- The doctors, as well, there tried to poke the tip through

to cut the barb, and they couldn't do that either,

and so it took two of them to pull and rip it out backwards.

- Just going through that, though, did it make you

feel a little bit better knowing that there was no way

in the world you could've ever gotten that out yourself?

- It definitely gave me some justification

to having not been able to do it myself.

- Glad your hand's okay,

and it's great to see you, Carleigh.

- Thank you, Kevin.

- Thank you very much.

Up next, we have a participant

who learned from his past experiences,

put all his effort into hunting for food,

covering more ground than anyone we've ever seen.

Take a look.

- The memory of me starving in Patagonia

is affecting my thoughts and actions out here.

I'm trying to make sure that that doesn't happen again.

Ha!

I just got a grouse with a bow.

I don't hunt to kill.

I hunt to eat.

♪ ♪

Aww, sorry, buddy.

Wasn't a clean kill, which--I'm sorry.

I--I don't like this.

I don't want that to happen again.

I don't want to kill. I don't want to be a killer.

But at the same time, I want to take care of myself,

and I don't want myself to starve to death.

[whispering] I heard something running.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

I hit a cormorant.

I hurt something else out here. I don't like that.

I mean, I'm hurting these animals,

and it hurts my heart.

So what do I choose? To be a vegetarian?

Do I push the button?

[voice breaking] Or do I keep killing?

♪ ♪

- Welcome, Dave Nessia, to the show.

Great to see you. - Hi, Kevin.

- What do you think when you're watching that?

- Series of emotions going on, that's for sure.

- Can't wait to find out about itThat looks good.

[exhales]

[squawks]

[hissing]

Dang.

That'd scare me.

- Yeah, I got to be honest, I'm pretty freaked out right now.

[both laughing]

- I'm pretty good at keeping myself busy, I guess.

- I guess so.

Welcome back to "Alone: The Reunion."

I'm Kevin Burkhardt, joined now by Dave Nessia.

So, you get the call, you're going to Mongolia.

What were your thoughts, initially?

- Yes, I'm ready to go. - Why?

- I mean, for me, it's the experience.

You know, it's life experience.

It's something new, it's something different.

Um, Mongolia, come on.

Who wouldn't-- who wouldn't say yes to it?

- What was your thought process with the food?

Because in Patagonia, you lasted a long time.

And you actually had food,

and you were trying to ration it out,

but you were losing too much weight.

So what did you learn from that,

and what was your thought processing going here?

- Yeah, I learned to eat. [laughs]

Eat what I had, and very quickly,

and so I was--I was eating quite a bit.

Everything I caught, I would eat.

- So it sounds like you kind of understood

your body's cues this time.

Is that fair? - Much, much better.

I definitely understood my body's cues.

I definitely understood, you know, "Okay, well, yeah,

"I'm starting to starve at the end here.

"I'm starting to feel it.

I'm starting to get dizzy."

I'm starting to understand that and realizing,

"Well, do I want to put my body to that extreme anymore?"

- How about the redemption value?

- I wanted to, you know,

have a lot of experience with the land.

I wanted to learn. I wanted to grow.

And I did--I really wanted to get big game.

- Well, that was fascinating to watch you,

because Patagonia, you caught a ton of fish.

You did well there.

And here, you were all about hunting.

We saw some great hunting skills.

- My strategy was figuring out

what the land needed for me to survive on it.

I was definitely seeing grouse,

I was seeing squirrels, seeing chipmunks.

So I was going after all of them as well

as I was seeing deer, and I just figured,

man, I really wanted to do whatever I needed to do.

- How do you gauge the calories

you know you're going to expend doing that?

- Definitely thought about the amount of calories

that I was expending, and I was expending a lot.

But I mean, honestly, I wanted deer bad.

- Yeah. - And so I was like,

"Well, I'm just going to have to go with it."

And a lot of times, I tried to move slower

if I could, you know, try not to use as much energy.

But building a tree hou-- you know, a tree stand,

building a whole nother shelter,

of course I'm expending calories.

So that--when you're calorie deficient,

you can definitely feel that energy drain.

And it hits you.

- So, talking about hunting, right?

And there was another part.

Look, you're a great shot.

It was fun to watch when you hit a squirrel

from, I don't know, 30-40 feet away up in a tree.

But that wasn't it for you,

because there's a big emotional aspect for you.

I mean, every time you got something, there was an emotion

to you that you didn't want to hurt the animal.

- I don't want to be numb to the killing.

That's important to me.

I don't want to just-- even outdoor--

or even when I'm in society, I don't want to eat a hamburger

and just ignore the fact that I'm eating a life.

I mean, it gets difficult, and you're raw at that situation,

when you're taking for every meal you have.

You're killing something for every single meal.

That was more difficult to me.

That's why, one of the reasons that I was

hoping to get deer was because, okay, one kill--

- Could last. - 100--100 meals.

You know, or whatever that might be.

- You mentioned the deer stand.

That was as fascinating as anything

that's ever been done on the show, I think,

because there's so much risk there, right?

You're going up, and you talked about

your willingness and what you needed to do.

But you go up--what were you?

20, 25 feet above the ground, right?

- Yeah. Probably about 25 feet, yeah.

- I mean, especially in that state,

you could be injured, you could--jeez,

you could die if you fall the wrong way there.

So we have some video of how this came to fruition for you.

- I'm having a very, very difficult time getting fish.

I'm not seeing grouse.

Deer is what I need to go after.

There's a lot of action, a lot of movement in here,

so I'm going to set up a tree stand.

I'm not a young spring chicken anymore.

It's a huge caloric expenditure.

It's a lot of energy, but I'm going to put

every last ounce into that deer.

Getting it from one tree to the next,

I think that was the most difficult.

'Cause I'm holding on with one hand

and then actually trying

to lift the branch to the other tree.

And that was difficult, and then trying to find

the position, and then trying to tie everything up,

making sure I was safe.

What's motivating me?

It's being alive on the land.

It's learning every last bit I can,

and it's being thankful every moment of the day.

But right now, I'm just sitting here starving,

and that's not why I'm here.

- Just because of your calories

and your state of where you were at that time,

and your body, was there a worry about falling?

- Of course you're worried about falling.

You're in a tree. You're 25 feet off the ground.

Of course you're worried about it, but, I mean,

you can get--you know, you can just hold on tight.

[laughs] That's all I can say.

- Dave, thanks, and good luck to you.

- Appreciate it. - All right.

Coming up next is the man who loves the outdoors

almost as much as he hates mice.

Here's a few of his highlights.

[ominous music]

- Boo-yah, baby! Boo-yah!

Rahh!

That has got to be the dumbest [bleep] chipmunk

I've ever seen in my life.

Thank you for your life.

The struggles that I went through

on season two are in my mind.

I know the cravings that are gonna come,

I know they're gonna be intense,

and I know they're gonna be absolutely brutal,

but I also know that I've been in that place before,

and I'm ready to push past it.

Whoo! There's my dance.

There's my fishy dance. Whoo!

Whoo!

I'm losing weight pretty rapidly,

and I'm getting these head rushes.

Whoa.

[grunts]

A lot of the yarrow's dead, plants are dying out.

The only thing left, really, are mice.

It takes so much energy to try and find food.

Sure, I don't want to be agony anymore, man.

I don't want to kill myself anymore for this.

But it's just beyond amazing.

I'm alive, Mongolia! [shout echoes]

I am here!

A frickin' echo.

I don't know why that makes me want to cry, but it does.

It makes me so happy.

Since I've been here, I've realized

I need my family to survive.

I'm leaving on my own terms.

It's okay to know your limitations.

It's okay. I don't have to push myself

as hard as I've pushed myself my entire life.

I'm starting to realize that.

- Larry is here, and I can't wait to talk to yo

- There's a wolf.

Whole pack of them.

[chuckles] One wolf to the other:

Hey, Bill, did you know that there's a newcomer?

Kind of moved in over there by that, you know,

that one patch of birch trees?

No, I didn't know that.

Well, you know, I've been kind of watching him, Bill,

and, uh, he's not very graceful.

And I heard him cuss the other day.

I'm thinking he'd be a pretty easy meal.

Well, hell, George, let's mark that down on the calendar.

Let's go get his ass.

[chuckling quietly]

- Oh, that is great.

We get a little look at the one and only Larry Roberts,

as we welcome you back to "Alone: The Reunion."

Great to see you, Larry. - Thanks. Good to be here.

- Most remember you, of course, from Vancouver Island

as the cursing guy who really doesn't like rodents.

- That's a fair statement; I do not like rodents,

and I do cuss a little bit. - [laughing]

Let's start with the alone part of it.

What is it like, and was it any different

this time in Mongolia?

- Doing it a second time is really a trip for me.

I mean, it was just--it was harder all the way around.

And the alone part hit me more in Mongolia, for sure.

- Why do you think that is?

- [sighs] It was just...

dwelling on the past from Vancouver Island.

I--I really pushed myself hard, and you know,

I've said it many times, uh,

Vancouver Island kind of broke me.

And so, just everything-- the trials, the tribulations,

just everything were compounding more in Mongolia.

- When you're talking about what you're talking about,

the word "redemption," right?

Is that something that came into play for you?

- I wanted another chance, and I wanted to be fixed,

because when I came back from Vancouver Island,

it was a very hard experience.

I took second place very hard.

I wanted to win. I pushed myself very hard.

- So how did that affect you in your home life?

- My wife was very supportive,

and it just took a while to re-acclimate to each other

and to re-acclimate to going back to work.

In season two, you know, I talked about going to work,

and about how I didn't like going to work,

necessarily, waking up at 4:00 in the morning.

And Mongolia gave me a chance

to reflect back and realize that it's not bad at all.

It's very good. I've got a good job.

I've got a good boss. I've got a good family.

And I've got a pretty good life, and knock it off.

You're doing pretty good.

- Also hard to deal with

for you when you were out there was mice.

You don't like them, do you? - [laughs]

No, I do not like mice.

- I mean, not at all. - No.

- Why don't we take a look at the mice in Larry's house?

[tense music]

- My name is Larry Roberts,

and I do not like rodents.

Ch-ch-ch-ch!

[imitates scratching]

Just all over the place, man.

They are just driving me bat [bleep], so crazy.

Ooh!

Wake up, mice!

[horn blowing] Wakey-wakey!

You wake me up, I'm waking you up!

You want a little bear spray?

I hope that it just filled

their little lungs with toxic fumes.

That's fun. [laughing]

They were getting really bold.

They were, like, crawling right out of my shelter

and just basically flipping me the paw,

and I'm like, "You know what? I'm gonna get you."

[bleep] mouse.

[yelling] If you stick around,

I will stab you in the throat with my knife and eat you!

The Paiute's definitely given me a few calories.

It's been fun making, been fun improving upon.

Boo-yah! Flatter than a pancake, baby.

Booga-booga-booga-booga!

Booga-booga-booga!

Oh!

Craziness.

I think it's time to name the Paiutes.

The first one on Vancouver Island I named Slayer.

This one's Slayer number two,

and this is the one I just made, the Death Dealer.

- You're really taking pride in the fact that you were

getting them, aren't you? - Yeah.

It's a great satisfaction when you get to squish your enemy.

And you know what the best thing about last night was?

There was no mouse in the house.

There was no mouse in the house.

Mice are all gone, yeah!

- All right, you gotta tell me.

What do they taste like?

- Just like victory.

[both laughing]

- Like victory. Over and over and over again.

- And over, and over again.

- All right, so take me-- the breaking point

had to be the bear spray, right, in the house, right?

I mean, that's a pretty drastic measure, I would think.

How did you get there?

- These mice keep crawling into my grass bed,

which was fine, if they were down by my feet,

but they were right under my head,

and I actually thought-- I mean,

there was a couple times I thought they were crawling up,

like gonna get in my head, or gnaw on my ear or something.

And it was stressful.

I didn't want that.

- The hunger, you talked about it, right?

And what it does to you.

So how did you know this time,

the level that you were able to take it to?

- The longer you want to stay out there,

the more you have to push through it.

And there comes a time where the amount of time in the woods

that you get to spend isn't worth the amount of turmoil

that's going through your body.

I just always knew that there would be a point

where I didn't want to push myself any further.

- Right. - And I found that point.

- So, last time we talked, we learned about your tattoo,

which kind of took us through the story of your experiences.

I hear there's an addition to the tattoo.

Is that right? - Yes, there is.

- This happened as soon as you got back?

- Soon as I got back.

- All right, so let's take a look.

Wow. That is a full back.

Tell me about the new additions.

- I made a fishing pole out there,

and I was able to catch some decent-sized Lenok,

and the elk were a huge part of the journey.

I heard them bugling all the time.

And the wolves were there.

They kept me company all night.

And, of course, the little bastard mouse.

It's just what I remember of it.

It was just a beautiful, crazy experience.

- Larry, it's great to see you. - Yeah, it's good being here.

- Thanks for sharing your stories.

We appreciate it, as always.

Up next, the runner-up of season five,

but before he gets here, let's take a look

at his experience in Mongolia.

- There it goes. There it goes.

[helicopter blades whirring] Here I am.

I'm back.

I didn't feel like I left Patagonia and I'd failed,

but I didn't attain the prize that I had come for.

[dramatic music]

I'm a grasshopper eater.

Watch out, you hopping sons of bitches.

I've got my family to provide for,

and that's my goal this time; I'm here to win the money.

Check out that haul.

We all have ideas of lasting longer

than the longest winter ever,

but everybody's got a plan

until they get punched in the mouth.

Ooh, that's a big one.

Are those bear scratches?

Look how thick those are.

Those are big claws.

The competition's starting now.

It becomes a game of who can endure the cold the longest.

I've been in bed for over 17 hours.

And if you knew how cold it was, you'd understand why.

It's getting to be where all I want to do

is stay warm, stay still.

As much as I'm trying to keep my family in mind

and do it for them, if my wife could see me right now,

it would bring her to tears,

and she would beg me to come home.

I'm just beaten down.

I can't lay in there another night by myself

and be freezing and hungry,

and I know what I really, really need

is waiting for me on the other side of the world.

And I just really want to get back to that.

I'm definitely not the prototypical survivalist.

I'm that dude that sits over in accounting

and does the spreadsheets.

I'm not the guy that goes out in the wilderness for 56 days.

I achieved a great deal, and I'm really proud of it.

This is where all the-- all the snowmen

come to worship their idol, "Mongolion."

♪ Oh-oh ♪

♪ Mongolion, Mongolion ♪

[laughs] Yeah, I'm stupid.

[both laughing]

- Welcome back to "Alone: The Reunion."

I'm Kevin Burkhardt, joined now by Britt.

What was the thought process when the invite

to come back and do it came up?

- Well, the thought process was that I'd never be able

to do it again, because my wife told me,

"You'll never be able to do that again."

So when it came up, it was actually a long time

before I could actually get myself to tell her.

She brought it up, and I was like, "Yes!"

I was really excited to have the opportunity again.

- Well, food, obviously a major thing,

and you were catching fish with no problem.

And that seemed like a lot different

than your last experience.

- It was a lot different.

The last time, I felt that

the location that I was in, which was a cove,

kind of inhibited my catching the fish as it got colder.

But where I had now, where I was situated this time,

I had so many spots that just stayed flourished with fish

the whole time. I just had to get to them

and angle as best as I could, and it ended up working out.

- Yeah, we saw you eat a lot, like grasshoppers.

They became your friend. - Yeah.

- Were they good?

- They were actually better than you would think,

if you toast them right, and you get to a point where

a lot of things that wouldn't be good today would be good

in that situation, and I'd put grasshoppers on that list.

- So you're looking around for food sources,

and you know you're doing whatever you can to fish, hunt,

and then a deer comes swimming down the river.

That is not something you would think you would see.

- No, no.

It blew my mind when it happened,

because I was just-- I was on the beach,

you know, it was like every other day,

and I just catch it in my viewfinder.

And I mean, I probably did a triple-take,

because it just didn't make any sense to me.

- Yeah, but like-- - Just wasn't ready.

- You have to think quick, right?

So, tell me, just in that quick moment,

what were you thinking?

"Okay, how am I gonna do this?"

How am I-- take me through that.

- Well, I saw it going down there.

I'm thinking, okay, how am I gonna get it?

Because I have a small window before it's gone.

I don't know if I have enough arrows

to try and take the shot.

I need to get situated in the right part of the beach.

Hopefully it's gonna get snagged on something

or stop somewhere.

I need to keep filming.

And that's another part that's weighing on my mind,

because half of me wanted to just

drop my camera and tear off after it.

- Yeah.

- I have to prepare to get across the river

if I make the shot, so as I'm filming,

I'm undressing, and I'm trying to get all my stuff together.

And there were just too many things for me to calm myself

and focus. - Right.

- I just--I was just way out of my head

before I even drew the bow back the first time.

- When did the food start drying up?

When did you really notice a difference that it became hard?

- Um...

When the grasshoppers kind of disappeared,

and the pockets I was trying to reach,

the fish didn't seem to be there anymore.

- How did the cold weather play into that?

- I mean, I'm pretty resilient,

so I tried not to let the cold get to me.

I tried not to let things like the elements get me down.

But I didn't feel like I suffered that much in terms

of really being hungry as I felt really being weak.

So it was a lot different.

My stomach was bothering me in Patagonia.

In Mongolia, I just felt the fatigue level

just totally wash over me.

- Well, let's look at what it did to your body, right?

Let's take a look at these pictures

from a little before and after.

So, in the beginning of your journey, there you are,

day one, getting ready to go.

And then switch to day 56.

You look like you've had enough.

- Yeah, I got that thousand-yard stare.

- How about the element of being alone?

You just said how last time it was a little bit

more for you. - Yeah.

Well, now your thought process is different,

and what is that like, being all by yourself?

- Well, initially, my thought process was different,

because before I left home,

my wife and I had a long discussion.

She was like, "There's things that hurt you

"and made you come back home,

"needing to be with us, wanting to be with us.

"You need to turn those around and use those

as, like, your driving strength."

So it helped me feel like I had their companionship

a lot longer than I did in Patagonia,

because I didn't feel that separation.

- You have got a son at home, too,

and I'd have to imagine, that's hard for both ends.

You know, you know going in that if things go right,

you're not gonna see him for a couple months, right?

- Right.

- So how do you deal with that?

- Well, in Patagonia it was different

because he was younger,

so he didn't totally understand what was going on.

He had a difficult time while I was gone, and when I came back,

it was like, you know, a great reunion.

This time he's older, so he understood.

I started laying the groundwork that I was gonna be

gone as soon as I could, just to get him to understand

this is happening again, I'm gonna be leaving.

- Yeah.

- You know, you need to prepare,

as well as I need to prepare.

We're preparing together for this long period of separation.

So he was a lot more broken up

when he had to say goodbye to me at the airport this time.

But he was the man while I was gone.

He knew what his mom needed.

He knew how to help the family.

So, I mean, he muscled through it just like I did.

- Near the end, you were sleeping a lot.

You were cold. I'm sure you were miserable, right?

Take us through those last, final days,

and what was the most difficult about that situation?

- Most difficult was just trying

to retain body heat in the last several days.

Like, I'd spend stretches of 17 to 22 hours

just laying in my sleeping bag. - Wow.

- I said that my shelter started to feel like a morgue,

'cause I had the tarp with the green light coming in,

and my bed was like a slab.

And it was so cold in there, that it just felt

like I was just, like, you know, halfway dead,

just sitting there, waiting for the time to tick by.

- All that being said, though,

the one thing about you is you always seem positive.

- I try to.

- And that comes through in the show.

And, matter of fact, why don't we look at some

of these big moments for you and how you came across

as always positive and happy.

♪ ♪

- What if all of my footage was this close?

[laughing]

I hurt my stomach, I started laughing so hard.

It's very important for me to have a good frame of mind,

because positivity is a huge thing.

That's why I talk nonstop.

I just keep telling stories, just keep telling jokes.

Because if I sit idle, then you start thinking

about the stuff that's bumming you out.

[silly gasping]

[raspy voice] It's day 62,412.

I died last night for the third time.

[laughing]

I didn't expect to be as warm as long as I was.

I'm grateful for it. But this...

Today is the day it feels like the season started.

And I mean, the season of "Alone."

Now it feels like it's started.

(laughs) But look at this.

- This was the first big snow.

This is when I walked out of my shelter

in the first big snow, and I started making

snowballs and juggling, 'cause I was just so happy.

I felt good, I was freezing my butt off,

but I was like, I got to go out there and make some snowballs.

[vocalizing]

What I'm going to do, I'm gonna make

a really cool Christmas orn--

I'm gonna make Christmas ornaments for our tree.

Damn, that is going to occupy a lot of time.

It's definitely a battle of the mind.

If you lose that quickly, then it doesn't matter

how well you're eating or how well you're living.

If your brain's out of it, you're done.

That's for Campbell.

I miss my family, but I know they're there waiting for me.

It's gonna be all good. So I'm all good.

That stone right there, that I just kept writing "family"

in a piece of ash over and over on the stone, is my motivation,

and that ended up

being the tattoo that I got before I left.

I found a Mongolian tattoo artist,

and I got old Mongolian script, pronounced...

[speaks Mongolian], And it says "family."

- Welcome back to "Alone: The Reunion."

I'm Kevin Burkhardt.

Britt Ahart remains with us,

and obviously there's a redemption part,

there's the chance to do it again,

but it's also the money, I mean, right?

I mean, this is life-changing type of money.

So how much was that a factor for you?

- Well, a lot of it's about the money,

obviously, because again,

I said I was out there for my family.

I knew what I was gonna put myself through.

I knew it was gonna be hard.

I was gonna starve, I was gonna freeze,

I was gonna cry, I was gonna be alone.

But they were what kept me going day to day.

Everything I did out there was for them.

- 56 days is when you tapped out,

and when you finally did, what was

going through your mind at that point?

- That I had just reached my limit.

I pushed it as hard as I could.

I tried to get myself to the brink, and I did.

And I just knew that I was at the point where,

as much love as I felt for my family,

I needed them right next to me at that point.

It wasn't even the food so much as just needing them again.

- Yeah, and at that point, you know, I mean, you're

thinking there's probably only a couple of people left,

if not one other person, right? - Right.

- Are you thinking it's Sam, maybe, as that other person?

- Um, Sam was one of the people

who I knew might have been somebody who was formidable,

just because of the size of that guy when I saw him.

You know, just the girth he was carrying.

Like, he mentioned he had 70 pounds

of rations attached to his body.

I mean, it was evident, so I knew, like,

I have to outlast, you know, that whole gut right there.

So I knew it was gonna be tough.

- Well, I mean, I think we should bring Sam out.

The winner of "Alone" season five, come on in, Sam.

Say hello to your buddy Britt. - Hey, Britt.

- How you doing? - Good to see you, man.

- It's been a minute. - Yep.

You look good, man.

- So what do you think?

You guys are buddies. It's okay.

You know, we weren't sure.

Wanted to make sure how the relationship is here

with you guys battling it out to the end.

- It's actually pretty good. Our wives are close.

Our families are planned to getting closer.

I'd like to meet his kids. He hasn't met my kids yet.

But our wives are buddies, and, you know, we actually

developed a relationship throughout the course of this.

- That's really neat.

Well, we were talking about family and motivation

and things like that, Sam, and similar, right?

Because you both are dads, and you're both husbands.

I mean, you left when you had a one-week-old at home.

You already had a 2 1/2 year old son.

Just how difficult was that for you

with the pull of family at home?

- It was extremely difficult, but when it came down to it,

I thought about them when I was out there.

And honestly, I was thinking, you know,

if I tap any minute now, I'm gonna go home,

and they're gonna say, "We're so proud of you!

We're so happy that you did what you did."

And that's the kind of people you want to try hard for.

So, that was my motivation the entire time,

and I know that was a huge part

of why Britt did so incredibly well this season.

- Yeah, there's no question about it.

Did you have any idea that, maybe,

it would be you two down at the end?

Did you have any thought process of who else

was out there when you were there?

- It's actually really weird, because

I was also thinking about Britt the whole time,

and we had had some good talks before the show,

and he just seemed so motivated and so ready

to take on the challenge that I did actually expect it

to be Britt, to a lot of, you know, to a big extent.

- So, what would you say to Sam,

sitting next to him right now, after this whole experience?

- I'd say he's a tough SOB,

because I know how hard it got out there,

I know how cold it got out there,

and if anybody was out there, like, suffering as much

as I was, then I've got to take my hat off to him.

He did a great job. - How about you, to Britt?

- Well, you always think, like, who is this crazy person

who's out there with me still? - Yep.

- But proud of him, and

I think he did an awesome job, and it was fun to watch.

- Well, Sam, you pulled off 60 days.

It was five days longer than you did

on season one of "Alone."

So why don't we take a look back

at your journey in Mongolia.

[helicopter blades whirring]

- Oh, my goodness.

What have I gotten myself into once again?

After season one, I went back to my cubicle,

got really depressed, got out of that job.

It was a rough transition

while still trying to provide for my family.

That's a little bit difficult, when you open your pack

and the first thing you see is a picture of your family.

[crying] This could be a hard, uh...

This is gonna be a hard season for me...

to get through it.

This is a different go-around for me.

I know how hard I'm gonna need to push.

My wife relies on me. I've got two kids at home.

They deserve a dad who can provide for them.

Oh, my gosh!

Yes, I did it!

Yes! I got first blood!

Today could actually be like a turning point for me.

[howling]

[tense music]

[distant howling]

I don't feel super good

about my situation at the moment.

I want to learn from this place,

but I also am out here--yes!

That dead mouse means I'm gonna get my red meat fix.

No sign of nothing.

I'm not getting a bite.

I haven't even gotten my bait taken away from me.

Am I really that garbage at catching fish?

I'm not getting enough food.

My gill net needs to work.

Piece of garbage.

♪ ♪

I've gone something like a week

without any protein at this point.

Like, I can feel the muscles

just wearing out as the days go by.

I can feel my strength giving way.

At this point, I'm not sure how long I can go like this.

I'll have to tell my wife and my kids...

"Even though Daddy tried his best...couldn't do it."

[sighs]

Oh my God! [sobbing]

- You know you're on "Alone" when you wear

the same pair of pants multiple weeks at a time.

Although, my wife would probably argue

that I do that in real life anyway.

- [laughs]

Welcome back to "Alone: The Reunion."

I'm here with the winner of "Alone" season five,

Sam Larson. Let's go back to the beginning.

You know, you got dropped off there, and right away,

as you're unpacking, you take out a photo of your family,

and you broke down.

Take us back to that moment.

- I think "Alone" delivers, like,

the most gut-wrenching scenario possible.

So, you're in this very intense situation,

you're in a helicopter, and then it's just, like, "Bye."

It's a very dramatic experience there,

and for me, the big thing was swallowing that pill of,

"Okay, I'm gonna be away from my family for a long time,

"I'm gonna get through it,

but I just have to release some emotions so I can move on."

- So, as you're trying to figure out food,

and you're having trouble catching fish,

why do you think that you struggled in that area?

- I think it definitely had something to do with

not having real fishing line and real hooks.

So, fish have a big sensitivity to hook size

and line size and things of that nature.

I think a big reason, though,

was also I didn't have a lot of great fishing spots.

Also, I'm just garbage at fishing.

- So you're the only person not to bring any hooks.

Why did you make that call?

- I just decided I really didn't want to bank on fishing.

I wanted to bank on just being able to fast

and lose weight really slowly,

rather than trying to put in food

as fast as possible. - Right.

- So I wanted to just slow down my body

to go the distance.

- So, you're not catching any fish,

and you probably had maybe the most disgusting moment

in the history of "Alone,"

because things were getting so dire,

you decided to eat leeches.

Let's take a look.

- First thing I'm gonna do today is check my fish trap.

Hopefully there's something in there.

It looks an awful lot like a leech.

So it appears to have been sucking on this mouse blood.

That's about the grossest thing you can eat

is a leech who's been feeding off of mouse blood.

I feel very down

about not being able to score more protein.

At this point, I will eat anything.

Whoa. Smells bad.

I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

We got nine leeches and a snail.

Oh, if this was Smell-O-Vision, you guys would be getting it.

All righty.

One leech kabob coming right up.

Bon appetit.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

Oh, what the heck?

Let's get these, all four, all at once.

♪ ♪

Still, like, deciding if I'm gonna throw up or not.

- [laughs]

- [groaning, laughing]

Gross!

Gross! Ooh, gross!

Yuck.

- Did you throw up?

- I did not. - Oh, come on, really?

- I did not throw up. - What did they taste like?

- It's like a--like a tainted leather green bean,

is kind of what they taste like.

Really chewy, but it's protein.

Right? - Yeah.

- There's something in there that is good for me.

I'd probably go after more,

to tell you the truth, and stockpile my leeches.

And it's not every day you get to take part in, like,

an organic, local, free range leech.

- [laughs] That's--

- Can't buy that at the store, Kevin.

- I think we've invented a whole new fad.

Well, Sam, after 60 grueling days,

you were finally rewarded for your persistence.

Let's take a look.

- You know, I'm ready to--

I'm ready to go at this point anytime.

Um...

It's--if this was just a wilderness excursion,

and it was just me, and, you know, I left a little bit ago,

but I'm willing to push myself to provide for my family.

[tense music]

[crying]

[gasps]

[sobbing]

I miss those kids a lot.

Like, I can... [sighs]

I feel like I got a little bit in me,

even without a lot of food and all that,

but yeah, protein has not been there for me, but that's okay.

It's been, you know, a good two weeks without protein,

but I just keep thinking, like...

[sniffs]

♪ ♪

- Hi, babe.

- [sobs, gasps] - Hi.

- [sobbing, laughing] - You did it.

- [sobbing, laughing]

- You did it!

- [sobbing]

Oh, my gosh.

Oh. Oh.

- How are you feeling?

- Oh, so happy to see you.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh! I had no idea it would happen today!

Oh, yes!

All right, who has food?

Who has stinking food?

Which one of you guys brought food with you?

- That's so great.

What's your reaction, watching back?

- You know, it's almost funny in hindsight,

because my wife is right behind me.

Um, I was really frazzled that day.

I was confused what the crew was doing.

It was freezing cold.

I was just ready for those guys to leave me alone again

so I could just get back to my business.

But I'm glad they didn't. I'm glad they...

they brought my wife with them and I got to see her.

It was just--it was the most joyful moment,

probably, of my life, you know,

other than having kids and getting married,

and all that stuff. It was-- - Gotta cover yourself there.

- Exactly.

- How has your life changed

since you've come back?

- Well, my little girl is a year old now.

- She was a week when you left.

- Yeah, a week when I left,

and nearly three months when I got back.

So it was huge to see that.

I felt like I couldn't even

pick her out of a lineup if I had to try.

And then my boy was talking and running around,

and so it's just been great to see the kids grow up,

and to know that, like, they're gonna be okay.

Like, they're gonna be in a stable situation now.

- Well, Sam, it's been awesome to watch your journey.

Congrats on winning "Alone" season five.

- Thanks, man. Thanks. - All right.

Thank you for being here as well,

and congrats to all ten participants of season five

of "Alone: Redemption."

Thanks for watching.