Alone Australia

[Vader]

Tonight is episode 8 of 10 (plus a reunion special which will invariably re-hash what we've previously seen, while adding nothing of value). We still have 5 contestants left, and that's waaay too many to be going into the last 2 episodes. I'm predicting that we'll lose 2 contestants tonight - and my money is on Rick & Suzan.

So... what else can we expect/hope to see?

Obviously, a fair chunk of tonight's episode will be taken up by the storm & the aftermath. Last week's preview showed Rick trying to dry out his sleeping bag, which will surprise nobody, given how flimsy his shelter is.

I have my fingers crossed that one of K's crafty inventions will come good, and he'll finally procure some real food (i.e. fish). He's been very unfortunate in catching 2x eels and no fish, so hopefully it will turn around for him. Maybe he needs to go further afield to find a good fishing spot, like Tamika did.

I'm not totally ruling out the possibility of Andreas psyching himeslf out of the game (that's the beauty of Alone - it's not just about survival, it's also about being Alone). However, I think he'll last a bit longer. He's massively on top of the game, but he doesn't know that. Watching him is a masterclass in everything that Alone is all about, from crafts, to fishing, to the psychological side of the game.

It's worth noting that only 2 competitors lasted past day 30 in S1 (Gina & Mike), with Michael (AKA the God Botherer) pulling the plug on day 30. We're now 30 days into S2, with 5 competitors remaining.

Looking through the US stats, every series has had 4-7 competitors left after 30 days (with 5 the most common number). However, it's very difficult to compare the Aus version vs the US version. The US version has had far less restrictions on hunting/fishing, making it much easier for their contestants to find food. On the other side of the coin, the weather in the US version is much, much, colder than anything experienced in either of the Aus series. In my opinion, the lack of food availability has contributed a lot to the shorter tap out times in the Aus version, though the failure of diversity casting in S1, and the inexplicable decision to cast Useless Leanne in S2, have also contributed.

 

[Sqotty from office works]

Still holding out for a drugged up deer so we can get an arrow kill

 

[Vader]

Still holding out for a drugged up deer so we can get an arrow kill

No chance.

Last year they showed Gina's wallaby kill in the previews all season. We haven't even had a sniff of a beast kill in the previews, and we all know that the SBS production crew couldn't help themselves if it had happened.

The biggest kill we'll see this season is Andreas' possum. He might get the other one, which has been hanging around his camp - but other than that it will just be fish & eels getting caught.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

In his interview after leaving this season that I posted above, Andreas certainly had the right mental attitude and knowledge. If he doesn't win it would surprise me.
Rick was unlucky. If he got a deer he would have been in the game. Singeing his beard trying to light a fire wasn't a good look on day one but taking a swim was tough stuff.
Some bloke chucking a beer bottle in as a float wasn't a good look, nor was the wooden mouse as a lure.
Fly fishing's the way to go and you don't lose hooks to eels.
There are tthree Aussie produced programs worse than Alone and that is The Summit, The Hunted and probably the now defunct The Bridge.
We copy shows from other parts of the world that have been going for 10 years and still get it completely wrong, somehow.
Hopefully Tamika moves camp closer to her fishing spot and settles in and does a Gina.
I'm surprised sand flies aren't a major problem, but someone does get lots of bites on their torso maybe in tonight's episode which could lead to going home.

 

[Vader]

Tamika's not moving camp - not after all the effort she's put into building her existing shelter.

I didn't mind them using the beer bottle as a float - they're allowed to use whatever they find, and it's a reasonably good use for an item which someone discarded as rubbish.

Andreas is a bit fortunate, in that his beach is conducive to fly fishing - with wide shallow areas. The other beaches all appear steeper, and less suited to fly fishing. Note that Tamika's ledge is definitely not a fly fishing location.

Andreas is an excellent contestant in many respects... I just wonder if he's going to psych himself out of the game. He was worried about not catching fish for 4 days, while there are 2 contestants who haven't caught anything since drop off. I won't be surprised to see him pull the plug, thinking he's at the end of his rope, despite still being miles ahead of other contestants.

As for "getting it wrong"... the problem is finding a suitable location. Northern Canada has a multitude of potential locations. It's sparsely populated, there's water everywhere (Canada has more lakes than any other country in the world), and few hunting/fishing restrictions. In contrast, the South Pacific doesn't really have many great locations. The producers knew very early that the Tasmanian location (Lake Pieman) for S1 was a disaster, and I'm sure they thought that Lake Te Anau in NZ would be better. NZ has certainly been more scenic, but the hunting restrictions have proven more problematic than they were expecting.

I previously discussed the things they look for in a filming location, and it's not easy to come up with good locations in the South Pacific (i.e. areas within the SBS budget). The only other realistic suggestion was the Kimberley, which would very much break the Alone model.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

Poor Rick is off. K isn't looking too flash for next week. Andreas seems to caving into self doubt - just get out there and catch another fish or tree some vegetation. The mouse trap was a good idea - maybe a longer one so the mouse doesn't run out when the door is closing.
Others don't seem to have night cameras out to see what's around after dark.
I saw the Alone with Clay and Biko from America on SBS today on TV and they do things. Our people don't seem to do very much at all.

 

[Vader]

Ep 8 saw the time jump from day 30 to 37, at least partly because the contestants spent 2 whole days cooped up in their shelters, trying to stay warm & dry from the storm. We're down to 4 contestants, with 2 episodes remaining.

Andreas - Not much happened for the season's dominant player. No fish, and his attempt at building a mousetrap failed to achieve the desired result. At least we know the possum's still hanging around. The self-doubts are really starting to creep in. If Andreas decides to tap, it will almost certainly be due to the psychological side of the game, rather than the physical.

Tamika - Weathered the storm in style, the only person to cook food, or even have a fire to keep them warm, during the storm. After the storm she managed to catch another fish, and lost 2 more. Having spent the first 23 days struggling, hitting a very low ebb with a menstrual cycle that wouldn't quit, she's now going from strength to strength, regularly catching fish and living in better style than anyone else. Given Andreas' mental issues, she's now moved into outright favouritism (in my opinion).

Rick - Unsurprisingly, given his poor shelter, his sleeping bag got wet during the storm. He finally got around to building some walls, to prevent the rain from blowing in, shutting the gate after the horse had bolted. He spent a while drying his sleeping bag in front of the fire. Then he got philosophical, before finally pulling the plug. Anyone who lasts 37 days, having not eaten anything substantial in 30 days (or close to it), has nothing to be ashamed about.

K - Barely sighted, other than briefly showing us a branch which came down in the storm, not far from his shelter. No crafts this week, and no protein obtained (we didn't even see him trying). K needs the crafts to keep his mind off things, so I suspect he really struggled mentally with being cooped up indoors during the storm. I'm guessing his starvation game will come to an end in Ep 9.

Suzan - Barely sighted, other than footage of her singing a campfire song. Contestants have long learned that they're pretty much guaranteed to have their footage shown if it includes them telling a sob story or singing a song. In this regard, Suzan was just following a long established tradition. Like K, I suspect her starvation game will come to an end next week.

It was interesting seeing Andreas' attempt at building a mousetrap. They are restricted to live trapping, so no Payute deadfall traps, or snares, like we commonly see in the US version. We got to see more of Andreas' bushcraft, which provided a point of interest in an otherwise dull episode. It must have been heartbreaking for him to watch the trailcam footage, showing the mouse escaping the trap. Having said that, the mouse would not have made much of a meal (compared to Tamika's fish dinners).

We're now 37 days in, with only 2 episodes remaining. Neither K or Suzan have had any protein in that entire time, though both have had a reasonable amount of vegan foods (yuck). I suspect their starvation games will come to an end very soon.

 

[Vader]

Will K may become the all-time Alone record holder, for spending the greatest number of days in the game, for the fewest minutes of footage shown on TV? Probably, because he's done nothing of note (other than his bushcraft). He was completely MIA from 2-3 episodes earlier in the series, and barely rated a mention in last night's episode, despite being down to just 5 contestants.

Suzan would be the next worst in the days vs screen time for this season, but the footage of her dealing with gastro in the early episodes ensured that she would be given more screen time than K.

I suspect K was a diversity casting, because of his "neural divergence" (read ADHD or Autism). In the first season we had Peter, who was suffering from PTSD. Peter didn't stay in the game for long, but his footage was compelling, as he detailed his struggles since returning from Afghanistan. Peter wasn't a great survivalist, but he did make for great TV. Watching Peter suffer a PTSD attack after hearing the helicopter was probably the outstanding moment of Season 1. I suspect they were hoping for similar when casting K. We did get his bizarre take on neural divergence, and it's supposed advantages, but otherwise his casting has not provided the entertainment they were clearly hoping for. At least he's shown us some decent bushcraft, even if the producers haven't bothered showing us what he built with the rope he spun.

 

[Vader]

It was interesting seeing Andreas talking about the need for passive food collection - hence building the mousetrap. All of his food has so far come through active collection, i.e. fly fishing. At this point contestants should be doing as little as possible, while maintaining a regular flow of calories.

In the US version, participants regularly set Paiute deadfall traps for small animals, and snares for squirrels and rabbits. They also set fishing nets, which they check on a daily basis. None of these options are open to Alone Aus participants, and that's a big difference in their ability to obtain enough calories to sustain their bodies.

As far as passive food collection goes, they're limited to fishing, with up to 4 lines in the water at the same time (and even then, they need to be within sight of their lines), or live trapping. Tamika is the only participant to have had success with passive fishing (i.e. sitting on the ledge, waiting for them to bite). Andreas is the only one (that we know of) who has attempted live trapping of land-based animals.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

In answer to my own question, I was considering areas in the Australian Alps. These areas meet the scenery, large area, and climate requirements. Areas could possibly be found which meet most of the other criteria. I'm thinking that there could be campsites along some of the Snowy Hydro dams (e.g. Lake Tantangara or Lake Talbingo), which could be made to work.

However, these areas are all within National Parks (both the lakes I suggested are inside Kosciuszko NP), with all the restrictions that entails.

I've thought about this too and I'm struggling to think of a place in Australia that has most of what you have listed. Locations here would either be too difficult (like season one) or too easy so people could last indefinitely.

If they picked a location with a lot of restrictions around hunting / food gathering, would an Aboriginal contestant be exempt from the restrictions as they are in a lot of restricted areas in Australia?

 

[Sqotty from office works]

I've thought about this too and I'm struggling to think of a place in Australia that has most of what you have listed. Locations here would either be too difficult (like season one) or too easy so people could last indefinitely.

If they picked a location with a lot of restrictions around hunting / food gathering, would an Aboriginal contestant be exempt from the restrictions as they are in a lot of restricted areas in Australia?

Nearest place with no restrictions and animals to bow hunt would be new Guinea

 

[TheEscapeClub]

Nearest place with no restrictions and animals to bow hunt would be new Guinea

Is it big enough to rule out any appearances from locals? I worked with quite a few blokes from PNG in WA and in a couple of cases, when they flew home to visit family, they would walk for 4 days to get to their villages. I'm not sure how much meat is there either. Every single one of those ones that I worked with, when we ate dinner would barely eat vegetables, they would just pile their plates a foot high with all different types of roast meats. I asked one about it one day and he said that meat was a luxury in PNG so he was making the most of it.

 

[Sqotty from office works]

Is it big enough to rule out any appearances from locals? I worked with quite a few blokes from PNG in WA and in a couple of cases, when they flew home to visit family, they would walk for 4 days to get to their villages. I'm not sure how much meat is there either. Every single one of those ones that I worked with, when we ate dinner would barely eat vegetables, they would just pile their plates a foot high with all different types of roast meats. I asked one about it one day and he said that meat was a luxury in PNG so he was making the most of it.

Wallaby
Deer
Bush choosing
Fish

 

[Vader]

I've thought about this too and I'm struggling to think of a place in Australia that has most of what you have listed. Locations here would either be too difficult (like season one) or too easy so people could last indefinitely.

If they picked a location with a lot of restrictions around hunting / food gathering, would an Aboriginal contestant be exempt from the restrictions as they are in a lot of restricted areas in Australia?

I can't see them running a competition where one competitor (or group of competitors) have an inherent advantage of the type you describe.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

Hamish bloody Blake is going to host the reunion after the final episode is aired next week.
I thought it was going to be Gina.
Hamish is like Eddie everywhere Maguire and probably hasn't watched an episode in his life.
SBS has just made the whole bloody show too dismal for me.
God willing it won't be on next year.

 

[Vader]

Tonight is the penultimate episode - ep 9 of 10. The recent announcement that Hamish "Everywhere" Blake will be hosting the reunion has given me another good reason not to bother with it (along with the fact that reunions just re-hash everything we've already seen, while adding nothing new).

We're down to just 4 competitors, who have made it to Day 38. I can't see the producers going to the final episode with 4 players still standing, and having 3 taps in the same episode, so I'm assuming at least 1 player (and possibly 2) will go tonight.

I'm assuming that Tamika will not be tapping, given that she's currently warm & well fed. The only thing that I can see making her tap tonight would be accidentally burning down her shelter, and once again, we would have seen that in the previews/start sequence, if it had actually happened.

So...

• Will K and/or Suzan bring their starvation games to an end?
• Or, will Andreas succumb to his self-doubts, despite being well ahead of the other two participants?

Shockingly, I'm going to tip Andreas as tonight's departure.

K might be full of shite when he talks about the advantages/disadvantages of being neurally divergent (i.e. Autistic), but there is one key advantage he hasn't discussed. Being Autistic almost certainly means he has fewer emotions involved when it comes to family/friends back home. For him, the tug of family is almost non-existent, and being alone is not a problem at all. His only real concern is the lack of food (which is definitely a problem, given that he hasn't had any protein since being dropped off).

Suzan continues to show remarkable resilience, despite her lack of food (i.e. protein). Apparently her partner is a well known adventurer, who has done expeditions in Antarctica, so she probably has more experience of hardship than many (including me) have given her credit for.

Andreas is seemingly on the point of giving up on fishing, despite being one of only 2 players to have had success at fishing - not a good sign. His failed mousetrap must have been devastating for him psychologically. His problems are all psychological, but that's the beauty of Alone. The show is only partly about survival - it's also about the ability of a person to cope with prolonged and (almost) complete isolation. We've seen his self-doubts start to manifest over the last 2 episodes, and I'm predicting that it will come to a head for him tonight.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Can I just add at this stage, that if you're a true fan of survival-based shows, with proper hard core survivalists who have incredible resourcefulness and elite primitive survival skills, and you're not watching Naked & Afraid - Last One Standing, then you're doing yourself a massive disservice.

It's the best of the best.

It's well worth your hard-earned getting Binge for a month just to smash your way through 10 x 1.5hr episodes (as well as all the previous 9 Naked & Afraid XL seasons).

 

[Kram]

He's a far right jerk in the US but I did chuckle at Matt Walsh ranting about how stupid the show is.

 

[Vader]

Can I just add at this stage, that if you're a true fan of survival-based shows, with proper hard core survivalists who have incredible resourcefulness and elite primitive survival skills, and you're not watching Naked & Afraid - Last One Standing, then you're doing yourself a massive disservice.

It's the best of the best.

It's well worth your hard-earned getting Binge for a month just to smash your way through 10 x 1.5hr episodes (as well as all the previous 9 Naked & Afraid XL seasons).

Never watched it before. Saw the show's title and said "no thanks". Didn't realise it was a survival show. Will give it a go, on your recommendation.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Never watched it before. Saw the show's title and said "no thanks". Didn't realise it was a survival show. Will give it a go, on your recommendation.

The regular episodes I can take or leave, but the XL seasons are brilliant - maybe watch them first so you familiarise yourself with the best survivalists. And Last One Standing is next level up from that.

 

[campbell]

I like Suzan.

 

[MrsBlueSky]

Well that got me. I thought Tamika and Andreas would be the final 2. That's proved wrong.
In the interview with Andreas that I posted before, he said at the end that "nobody knows who won" (apart from the winner that is.
I thought he was lying but now probably no. He fell into a hole with his fishing just like Tamika did.
It leaves two people who basically haven't eaten anything decent in 2 months - how's that possible.
K throwing up for next week doesn't look great, nor Andreas wobbly on his feet. Suzan with her seeds and may catch a fish with her positive attitude now makes me switch over to her as the winner and that to me came out of the blue because I never even considered her to be at the end.
It was disappointing nobody got any meat to eat and how about Tamika's morals to forgo the prize because she didn't want to kill the geese. Incredible. I'd kill anything that moved and anything that flew apart from a plane.
K's fake tap was brilliant = the only laugh I've had all season, otherwise it's been very dreary.
Anyway, only one more eposide to go and i hope the winner can really do with the money.

 

[Vader]

The regular episodes I can take or leave, but the XL seasons are brilliant - maybe watch them first so you familiarise yourself with the best survivalists. And Last One Standing is next level up from that.

I see that there are 17 seasons of Naked and Afraid, but "only" 10 of XL.

What's difference between them, other than episode running time?

On SM-A5360 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Vader]

Episode 9 was the penultimate episode of the season, and as expected the time started to jump forward. We finished Ep 8 on Day 38, and by the end of Ep 9 it was (at least) Day 53. We covered almost half as much time in Ep 9, as we did in Eps 1-8 combined.

As predicted, there was 1 tap out... though I couldn't have been more wrong in my prediction about who would go.

Tamika's time on the show contained all the highs and lows that we love seeing. Early on she was struggling with a menstrual cycle that wouldn't stop bleeding. Her body hit low ebb, and she was literally in tears as she contemplated tapping. Then she found the ledge, and everything turned around. She caught 4 fish in as many days, and her whole outlook changed. She was able not only to eat, but to store food for the future - food she would consume while the storm was raging (and everyone else was going hungry). She managed to catch 1 more fish after the storm, but that would be her last. After 2 more weeks passed, without any fish, the effects of prolonged starvation really hit her hard. The effects on her brain chemistry started triggering PTSD, from her time in the police. Hooking a big fish, only for the line to snap as she pulled it in, was probably the final straw. You could see her giving up, right there and then.

Tamika survived 53 days... and to her I say "Chapeaux"!

As for the others...

Nobody found any substantial food. Andreas gathered some tree fern fronds, while Suzan gathered sedge seeds. K ate nothing (that we saw). Both Andreas & Suzan acknowledged that they spent more calories gathering the food than they gained from their consumption. This is definitely true for Andreas, who had to walk a long distance to access the tree ferns. It's less true for Suzan, who pretty much just sat there harvesting seeds, and sat again while she removed the husks. By all accounts, Suzan's seeds were the more palatable of the two options.

K's starvation game continues, though the signs are there that it's really starting to take a toll on his body. He's now gone 53 days without anything substantial to eat. He's having headaches, vertigo, feeling light headed, and having trouble sleeping. The preview showed him throwing up, and the medical team pulling someone from the game - everything suggests it will be K who gets pulled. It's very hard to see K surviving long enough to emerge as the winner.

Andreas continues looking for protein, heading to a local creek (which he called a river), in the hope of finding trout. What he found was trout (salmon?) spawning, which explained why he hadn't had any bites in the previous 2 weeks. Fish that are spawning lose all interest in food, as they concentrate their bodies' resources on reproduction. He found deer prints, not fresh, and decided to sit there for a while in the vain hope of ambushing them. It didn't work. Andreas hasn't had any protein in around 3 weeks, and the early lead he'd established is now gone, with his bigger body frame needing more calories than the smaller frames of K & Suzan. Like K, he's starting to feel light headed occasionally, due to low blood sugar levels. At least he remains proactive in his attempts to obtain food, even if they have been largely unsuccessful.

Suzan continues to be the (almost) invisible contestant, having had far less air time than any of the other final-4 players (even less than K, who was AWOL for 2 whole episodes). Suzan spent 5 days in bed, early in the competition, recovering from gastro - and I expected her tap to be imminent. She showed remarkable resilience, and now appears to be physically the strongest of the final 3. My guess is that she's done a lot of harvesting, eating a lot more flora than what we've seen in the show. She hasn't had any protein, but I'm guessing her average calorie intake has been better (closer to meeting her body's needs) than what the men have achieved (even allowing for Andreas' fish). She's the only one who hasn't mentioned any symptoms of starvation (not since the gastro days).

If I were betting right now, my bets would be 1 - Suzan, 2 - Andreas, 3 - K. Then again, 24 hours ago I was predicting that Tamika would win, only to see her tap out on Day 53.

 

[JamisonRun40]

I kept seeing geese and I thought there were protected. Bit disappointed that Tamika tapped out as I thought she would win. Her shelter was epic. Suzan the surprise packet and out of the three her mentality is sharp. K is wilting fast and having vertigo is not a good sign. Couldn't agree more about Hamish doing the reunion I thought it would be and should be Gina. Gosh I dislike Hamish.
There would be no way SBS could ever film in the Kimberley they wouldn't be allow too. Its protected land.