04x11 - Tales From the Island

[bunniefuu]

ramatic music]

- Welcome to "Alone:
Tales from the Island."

I'm your host, Kevin Burkhardt.

This season,
the participants on "Alone"

returned to Vancouver Island,
but there was a twist.

Teams of two were separated

and dropped off
with one family member

having to hike through some of
the most treacherous terrain

in the world
to find their partner.

This was a true test

of skills, perseverance,
and teamwork.

- You're alive.
- Yeah, I am alive. Oh, my God.

- Tonight we're going to hear
from our top three teams,

learn more about the journeys,

and find out
what it really takes

to survive Vancouver Island.

Before we bring out
our first pair,

let's take a look
at what season four participants

had to go through.

- Here we go. This is it.
My stomach is doing somersaults.

- What did I sign up for?

This is the roughest
forest in the world.

- I just messed my ankle up.
I don't think I can do this.

- Where is my husband?

- I'm sure she's worried.

- There's something going on
with Logan. What happened, bud?

- I really just stunk.

- If one person goes down,
the team goes down.

- Is Shannon okay?

- We had to extract him. We have
to extract you now as well.

- There's no question a journey
like this changes you forever.

- Dad!
- [distant shout]

- Sam! Holy cow, Sam.
You're k*lling your old man.

- There's a huge storm
rolling in.

- It's like a hurricane.

- Brooke has dropped
so much weight,

she's getting to
a dangerous place.

- I'm just skin and bones.

- It'd be so easy to just press
that button and go home.

- Tonight we'll be talking
with the three teams

that lasted the longest

and find out how their
relationships either helped

or hurt their experience
out there.

There's a lot to discuss
and plenty of footage

you haven't seen, and today
we're bringing it all to you.

First up we've got Brooke
and Dave, the Whipples.

It's great to see you guys.

- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.

- And congratulations,
obviously.

You did some incredible
things out there.

You were there for 49 days,

and we're gonna talk
about all of that,

but it takes a toll, right?
And we have some--

- Oh, yeah.
- We have some picture evidence

exactly of what it did,

some before and
after photos of you guys

at the start of your journey
and after the journey.

Guys are looking great, and then
obviously as things go on...

you've probably had better days.

- You don't realize
when you're out there.

You're looking into that
camera viewfinder every day,

but you're not seeing
a truth, I guess.

Yeah, crazy.

- So there's some decisions
that have to be made

right when you start:
who's gonna hike, for instance.

How did you come up
with the decision?

How did you talk about who was
gonna take on that project?

- Well, you know,
I love to hike, so I thought,

"Hey, I'll be the hiker,"

and then we learned how involved
it was going to be,

how much weight that pack
was actually going to be,

and I tossed it right to him.

- So what was in the pack
that made it so heavy?

- There was a bag of camera
batteries

that was probably 30 pounds
and then a big camera

and then a big sleeping bag,
a tarp, all the safety gear,

you know, like a beacon
in case you break your leg

and the--and somebody's
got to find you.

- Sure.
- So there was a lot of stuff.

- Brooke, now what's your
strategy to kind of set up camp?

You--you had said a couple times
on the show that you wanted

Dave to be comfortable
when he got there,

so tell us about what you
were doing and thinking.

- All I can imagine is, you have
this incredible journey

that is just going
to crush you and k*ll you,

and I needed to feel like,

"Okay, lay down
and take a break."

- Mm-hmm.
- Like, "Everything's here.

Just relax," and so that
was really just what I was--

that was my goal

so he'd have a place to come

and get to just relax
for a few days.

- Thank you for that.
- All right, guys, well,

let's take a look
at your amazing journey here.

- That's it. I'm alone.

- Freedom!

- I have a real strong suspicion

it's gonna be
a murderously long hike.

- Dave and I coming in this
together as a husband and wife,

I think we completely
have an advantage

because at the end
of this challenge

we still have to live
with each other.

- I yelled for Brooke,
and she yelled back.

- Oh, my God.
I'm so happy to see you.

This is our Hobbit hole.

- Oh, man, this is awesome.

Do I have to get up in
the morning and walk 10 miles?

- Baby, you can sleep in,

but after you cut us
some firewood and catch fish.

- Brooke built a good shelter,

but we need something
better suited for the weather.

The idea is we're gonna
put up a little cabin.

The energy, the pounds we had
to lose building this cabin,

it took a toll.

- I'm so weak, like an old lady.

No offense to old ladies.

- "Mommy, can I watch a guy
untangle the rope?

"It's fun to watch.

"He's got a rope,
and he twists it and twists it,

and then he makes three ropes."

"Son, I don't want to tell you
this, but that show is dumb."

- Ugh.
- It's not what I hoped for.

- I don't know what we're gonna
do if we can't get more food.

The charm of this place
is gone, trust me.

I want to go badly.

I don't want to lose.
Dave doesn't want to lose.

It's like, what do you do?

- Brooke has dropped
so much weight,

she's getting to
a dangerous place.

All the fun's all gone.
It's--every bit of fun is gone.

This is grade-A
miserable right now.

- You guys were the only
married couple out there.

How did that help you guys?

- We don't fight, so it's--
if you were out there

with your brother,

you might see where you'd get
cross-wired or, you know,

you were out there with your dad
or something like that,

but, you know, we live together
all the time,

so we came into that
not having to adjust.

- The wildlife is obviously
another part of this.

What is the reaction
when you see a wolf, you know?

I mean, and you had
some pretty close.

- I was so excited. I'm like,
"Yes, I get to film this wolf

and just take it all in."

It was--it was awesome.

He sees me.

Oh, [bleep]. He's coming to me.

Hey. Shoo. Please keep going.

♪ ♪

[hollering]

Yay, I have eagles
for neighbors.

Wolves are howling.

[distant howls]

Me. [howls]

They're like,
"That's not one of ours."

I want to make an announcement

to all the mountain lions
out here.

I don't like funny business.
I don't like to be stalked,

so you gonna
throw me a surprise,

I'm gonna have to throw out...

the leopard eyes.

That's right, leopard eyes.

[screams]

Look at the size of that thing.

That big, giant spider
was crawling on me.

You shall not live in my house.

I'm gonna go see
if I can see its tracks.

Oh, wow, holy cow.
He was a big guy.

- You were so calm though.

I mean, any wolves
come near the shelter?

- Not that I know of.

- If you saw them that close,
would your approach change?

'Cause you seemed
totally at peace with it.

- You know,
they just seemed curious.

I think they were just checking
out who was on their beach

'cause it was clearly
their beach, not mine.

- Yeah. Did you see
any on your hike, Dave?

- No. I couldn't see from me
to you half the time.

- That's also true.
- My wildlife encounters

were stuff...

crashing through the salal
that were 20, 30 feet away

and completely--you
couldn't see anything.

- I want to go home
and make an omelet,

the world's biggest omelet,
and crawl inside of it.

And I'll just spend my days

fishing for green peppers
and chunks of ham.

- Can't get donuts out
of my mind.

I'm not, like, a donut freak
or anything, but I am now.

Bring me a box of donuts,

and I'll pile-drive them
right in the sack.

They're gonna get it.

- You guys didn't think
about food at all, did you?

- No, no.

- No.
- You know, one day you're like,

"Burger, man, I'd love a burger.
A hamburger would be so good,"

and then you obsess
on hamburgers for, like, a week,

and then something changes
in your body,

and you're like,
"I want an omelet."

- All sounds, actually,
really, really good.

both: Yeah.

- Especially when you're
out there

and can't have any of it,
that's for sure.

Hey, welcome back to "Alone:
Tales from the Island."

I'm Kevin Burkhardt here
with Brooke and Dave Whipple

of season four of "Alone,"
and one of the highlights, guys,

for you was watching you create
this unbelievable shelter,

I mean, I think maybe
the best in "Alone" history.

So I want to know
what went into it,

how hard it was, all of that,

but first I want to look
at the process with you.

- I don't want to be in a tent.

I want to be
in something serious.

The mental benefit of being
inside four walls is huge.

- This upgrade is a--
it's a calorie risk.

We're just gonna have
to take our time on it.

- This is totally
what I have in mind.

I mean, you can see that that
hoop holds that roof right up,

just keeps the rain
from pooling.

And the door does one of these.

To be inside, maybe not have
any drafts to worry about,

that sounds pretty darn good.

- So it's craft night
at the Whipples.

I've been beachcombing
all of these shells.

I'm gonna hang this
on our mantel.

- We have a beautiful
little cabin.

It's not too shabby.

- That is cool, cool beans,
our cabin.

- So Dave, let's start here.

How did you determine

that you were gonna build
something this elaborate?

- Well, we've homesteaded three
different properties in Alaska,

so it's kind of the thing we do.

We buy a piece of land,
and we start building on it.

In our estimation, you know,
we were gonna burn

X amount of calories

either fighting the wind,

sleeping cold
under an open shelter,

or we were gonna expend
those calories to have a shelter

that eliminated
the weather as an issue.

- Any little slices of home
that, really, you enjoyed,

you know, being in there
besides the obvious,

it helped you physically?

- We had just lots of great
conversations. You know,

talking and just being together

and processing the situation
together was a real gift.

- In those conversations
you talked about,

how many times did
tapping out come up?

- We didn't discuss
tapping at all...

- No.
- Until the very, very--

like, when my tank was empty,

we had to broach the subject.

- Right. So Brooke,
obviously the last few days

you were kind of running
on fumes. We saw that.

Why don't we go back and take
a look at what it was like

for you your last few hours
on Vancouver Island?

- I sure hope we have some luck
this morning.

It's been pretty bad lately.
Have you even had a nibble?

- Nope.
You're catching fish.

You're doing well, and then
for over a week, nothing.

You're starting to really
get shaky. Brooke is very weak.

- Biggest thing for me
is disappointing him.

He's capable of a little bit
more suffering.

- There's not a part of me
that wants to give up.

How realistic is it to
expect another ten days,

another two weeks on nothing?

- Yeah.
- It'd be nice to not be hungry.

♪ ♪

Can you guys come pick us up?

I think we've had enough.

[exhales]
Didn't think I'd ever do that.

Man, it sucks to give up.
I hate giving up.

- We put it all out there.
We gave it our all mentally,

physically, emotionally,
and we're done.

It's--it's a good feeling.

- Food, heat, chocolate.
- Family.

- Pets.

- More food.

- As a husband,
watching your wife deteriorate

is extremely disturbing.

- I feel like I'm being
shrink-wrapped from the inside.

Like, there's this gravity pull
on your organs and your stomach,

and it's tough because there's
nothing you can do about it.

- We came out here from
the standpoint, like,

we're just gonna set up
shop and roll with it,

and I think we did it.
I think we did it 100%.

- This is a once-in-a-lifetime
thing.

And to carry that with you with
your spouse is really special.

You know, if this didn't
pull us apart, nothing will.

And we still really
like each other

and have come out the other side

the same people in love
as we went in.

- So Brooke, you described
the feeling of your hunger

as being shrink-wrapped
from the inside.

Starvation, most people
can't comprehend that.

Explain what it feels like.

- The physicality of it
is actually, like,

your body is consuming itself,
you know?

And then there's just
the overwhelming lack of energy

and motivation

that goes along with that
as your body

is just starting
to consume itself.

It's an amazing experience
to go through.

I don't recommend it,
but fascinating--

fascinating to be able
to take your body

to a point where you've
never taken it before.

And, you know, that's what
we were out there to do,

is push ourselves beyond
what we've experienced,

so it was striking
to go through that.

- I went into this
whole experience fat,

so I had another

X amount of days left

and--just 'cause I was in much
worse shape than she was,

and she was to the point where,
you know, it was getting scary.

She wasn't feeling
right anymore.

Not just hungry, but she wasn't
feeling good or feeling right,

and we just got to the--

kind of the end
of our rope out there.

- It's so awesome to be able
to share your story

a little bit deeper
and to hear everything.

You guys did an amazing job,
so congrats on the season.

- Thank you. Thank you.
- Great, great stuff.

- Thank you.
- We have to take a quick break,

and I think one of the things
I'm gonna do is--

- You're on the wrong side
of the camera.

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I was on the wrong side
of the camera.

[laughter]

- It took a little while,
but you got there.

That's all that mattered.

- Yeah, it--just give me
a little bit of time.

I'll get there.

- Oh, my goodness, welcome back.

We have four of the top
finishers of "Alone" season four

with us here, and we're talking
about their amazing time out

on Vancouver Island.

We'll have some more
never-before-seen footage

to show you soon,
but first we say hello to Pete

and Sam Brockdorff,
who are here,

and guys, your journey
was--it was amazing.

And when you're out there
for as long as you were,

it takes a toll,

so why don't we take a look
at the before and after photos?

And there is before, and now

we fast-forward to the after.

- Oh!
- Wow.

- 74 days you were out there.
- Wow.

- Oh, my gosh.
- You lost a combined


so what do you think
about that, Pete?

- Incredible. I mean, we lost--
our combined weight loss

was enough to make
a whole 'nother person.

- You know, you said at the very
beginning when we first met you

that the most important
thing was getting

to spend time with your son.
How did that go for you?

- That was incredible.

Being able to do this adventure
with him was just,

oh, a dream come true.

- Well, you guys had a really
incredible journey,

and we're just starting
to scratch the surface,

so why don't we kind of recap
and watch your adventure here?

- Yeah!

Awesome.

Coming out here,
the most important goal

is to spend time with my son.

It could bring us
really close together.

It could drive
a wedge between us.

- I knew the terrain was gonna
be rough, but honestly, cameras

just--they can't capture it.

- Oh, my God, Sam.

- Holy cow.

- Oh, my God.
Oh, Sam, oh, my God.

Oh!

- Oh, baby!

- Oh, yeah. Whoa.
- Oh, hey!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, no!

- No!
- No way.

- No, there goes my first fish.

Every fish we've eaten out here
has been my dad.

I've not caught a single fish.

- Got another one, Sam. At least
we're not gonna go hungry.

- Holy cow, it's so darn
cold out here.

- Yes, it is,
but we got to keep fishing.

When you're starving, demons
come out in your personality.

- That's all I was trying
to say, [bleep] damn it.

You're standing here--

- I know, and you're raising
your voice and getting a tone.

- Sam. Sam.
- Whatever.

This whole challenge, it's about
a slow descent into starvation.

- Both of us have lost
an awful lot of weight.

One thing
I can be sure of at this point

is that it's gonna
end here real soon.

It's got to.

- So let's start
from the beginning.

The strategy--Pete,
take us through

what you guys talked about
before you even got there.

- So initially our plan was
to build a temporary shelter.

We also needed to look around

for what sort of foods
we might be able to use,

what sort of berries
might still be available.

Turns out there
were not very many.

- We got four.
- We got four berries, yeah.

- We got four huckleberries.
- Oh, four, 74 days, that's...

- Yeah, it's like--
- Totally sustainable.

The hiking was--you know,
you said it on camera,

the camera doesn't capture how
hard it is, so how hard was it?

- You could fall and not
even hit the ground.

It would catch you,

and you have to get
through this stuff, you know?

So half the time
you're literally just unweaving

the branches,
trying to get through it.

- Were you worried about him?
- Sam's a tough guy.

I knew he'd make it through.
I knew he wouldn't give up.

I knew he wouldn't give up.

I mean, even if--when
he finally met up with me,

if he was on his hands and knees
crawling, he'd still be there.

- I signed up to spend time
in the woods with my dad,

not get, you know, beat to death
running through the woods.

In my mind, it hadn't even
really started yet

until I actually
caught up with him.

- From a father's standpoint,
I mean,

you're always a provider, right?

You're always a nurturer?

- Yes, right.
- Did this kind of heighten

that sense even more
out--out in the woods?

- I came to the realization
that, you know,

Sam is his own man now,

and sometimes the roles reverse,

the teacher-student thing
reverses.

- That's really interesting.
So here's the situation.

You are a very experienced
fisherman. Did you catch one?

Like, the--'cause the show--

- Yes, I--

- I mean, we see dad
catching them all.

- We caught--I caught
a couple fish.

Not just a couple,
I think it was five total.

- You caught, I think,
five fish, yeah.

- There were times we were
literally shoulder

to shoulder fishing
out of the same hole-

- Out of the s--
- And, you know, he'd be pulling

the fish in,
and it was just like,

"Come on, what's going
on here?," you know?

I rigged my rod exactly
like his, you know,

but yes,
it does get frustrating.

- So obviously things come up,

'cause you're talking
about--luck's part of it, right?

I mean, you had to overcome some
things, Pete, that were tough.

Why don't we go through all
the things you had to overcome

to stay out there for so long?

- Oh, boy.

Ah, [bleep].
It's bleeding quite a bit.

Damn. [Bleep] damn it.

Just started getting
these crazy spasms.

I'm trying just to keep
the acid from coming up,

and it hurts so bad.

[gagging]

It's like I've been stabbed.

We just stay cold all the time,
and I've been noticing

I'm getting these weird
black spots on my toes.

My toes are swollen,

and I'm just wondering
if this is frostbite.

- You know, Pete, anyone who's
had any kind of heartburn issues

probably can't even understand
what you're dealing with there.

I mean, that had to be brutal.
Tell me what it felt like.

- I wound up almost, I think,
straining the valve, like,

between the esophagus
and the stomach.

I knew I needed to drink
some water and eat some food,

and we didn't have
a whole lot of either.

- What exactly were those
black spots on your feet?

- It actually turns out
it was beginning frostbite.

You know, all of my toes
are still tingly,

but getting better all the time.

- So four seasons of "Alone,"

and you are
the oldest survivalist

to take part in the show.

Is there a sense
of pride for you?

- I do feel proud to--to be
the oldest one

that's ever done it,

although I don't feel old,

except in that--that
after picture.

I think you got to agree
I look like

I must be about

That's pretty scary. It's tough.

- By the way, nobody looks good
in the after picture,

just kind of letting you know.

- That was
pretty awful.

You know, the first time I took
a shower after leaving there,

I looked in the mirror,

and I looked like
a bag of bones.

It was--I mean, my wrinkles
had wrinkles, you know?

Just... it was scary stuff.

- I didn't realize he snores
as much as he does,

and it's absolutely
horrendous, you know?

It's not a normal snore.
It's very erratic.

Sometimes it sounds like
he's choking and dying,

and it does a great job
of waking you up.

- My son yells at me
for snoring.

- I had to last night.

You--it was like you
were deaf last night.

I honestly couldn't get
[inaudible].

- I know. That's what I do.
I snore.

Oh, well.

- Don't we all, right?
Don't we all?

Hey, welcome back to "Alone:
Tales from the Island."

We're talking with
the cast of season four

about some of the strategies

that helped them stay
out there for so long

and how having a partner
may have made some things easier

and some things harder at times.

You know, Pete, we saw a lot
of love in this relationship,

but what were the biggest
challenges that came up?

- I think probably our biggest
challenge was that piece of land

that you're on has
to provide for two people

instead of just one.

- You only had the one little
argument that we saw on camera.

- Yeah.
- And Sam was pretty calm.

You were pretty chill
about the whole thing.

It seemed like you moved on.

- Yeah, it doesn't matter what
the situation is, and, you know,

the worse the situation,

the more important
it is to stay calm.

- Right.
- 'Cause getting yourself

worked up, it doesn't
help anything.

It just--then you wind up
making dumb decisions too,

and it's just not--it's--
always stay calm.

- So you're out there
for a long time, 74 days.

The reason--
what drives you, Sam?

What is the motivation
to keep going?

- You know, a big part of it is
I just--I wanted to see

how far we could
actually go, you know?

That was--that was a big thing.

Something I thought
about a lot, you know,

we were allowed to bring
a personal photo out there.

- Right.
- And so m--you know,

you could bring, really,
anything you want,

and rather than bringing
something I would really miss,

I actually brought--this is
the first speeding ticket,

first and only speeding ticket
I've ever gotten in my life,

and it wasn't even
from a police officer.

It was from a camera.
You know, I was driving along,

and a robot takes
a picture of me,

and I get a ticket in the mail,

and that's the kind of thing,
you know, I think about that,

and I wonder if I actually
even want to go home.

You know, it kind of
keeps me driven.

Like, I don't have

to worry about that out
in the woods, you know?

There's no cameras
watch--well, there were.

- Actually there were.
- There were cameras everywhere.

- There were cameras watching
now that you mention that.

- Not too much speeding
around though.

- Yeah, no speeding,
no chance to get a ticket.

- Pete, how about for you?
What was the motivator

to keep going when
it got so difficult?

- Part of the way through I kind
of latched onto the idea of

if we win,

maybe I'd use some of the money
to--to buy a aluminum boat

with just a small outboard
to go crabbing.

That was a real motivator.

- The--the difficulty in not
knowing what the other people

are doing--so you know
you're out there

for an exorbitant
amount of time,

and you know it's got to be
getting close for them too.

How hard is that knowing that,

"Man, they got to be
in the same situation,"

but not knowing exactly
when they're gonna tap?

- Thinking about
the other people,

we looked at it in the sense

that obviously there was
a competition with other people,

but the actual competition
going on is just with yourself.

- With yourself.
- Nothing you're doing

is affecting anything
they're doing,

and there were times
when we were laying there just--

you know, just starving,
just feeling horrible and sick

and, like, couldn't even
move, and it's like,

"What are these
other people doing?"

- I know.
- "How is there anybody

else here?" you know?

"How is this still going on?"

- "Go home. Please go home.
Are you crazy?"

- But, you know,
obviously it's unavoidable.

Of course you're
gonna think about it,

but it didn't--in no way
would it help our situation,

so we try--you know,
we just really tried to focus

on what we were doing,
keep our thing going.

- Well, you kept it going for an
extremely long amount of time,

and finally, though,
conditions got too tough.

You did have to tap out,

so why don't we look
at the events

that led to you guys
finally leaving the island?

- We're just getting
to the point

where we just get lightheaded
even when we're sitting down,

and my dad's having
heartburn problems.

- We've reached the end.
We did as much as we could,

and it's something
to be proud of.

- Mm-hmm. Did darn good.

I cannot say how proud
I am of my dad.

I mean, I couldn't have made it

- Oh. [groans]

♪ ♪

- My dad's the strongest guy

that anybody will ever be
fortunate enough to meet.

- I'd like to keep going,

but we've pushed it
as hard as we can.

♪ ♪

- Pete, take us through that
moment when the crew got there.

- That was a really
difficult time, obviously.

We had gone about
as far as we should go,

not as far as we'd like to go.

We would--well, I don't know if
I'd like to still be out there,

but I would have liked
to have gone longer.

I was dehydrated, starving.
I had this stomach issue.

I just--you know,
that eventually cleared up.

It was painful just to eat.

Just swallowing
small things hurt.

Drink--taking a drink
of water hurt.

- Also, the dehydration
became a big part of it.

- Yeah.
- Saying you're dehydrated

on Vancouver Island

doesn't really make sense,
but it--it happened, you know?

There was--it was like
there was no tissue

to actually retain the moisture.

- Yeah.
- It was--it was bizarre.

- You did say in that piece
that, you know--which I thought

was pretty cool,

you know, you're so proud,
you're so proud of your dad.

Why?

- Well, because not many people
could push it

quite like that, you know?

I mean, I'm--there's nothing
other than you got to be proud

about what we did out there,
you know, and I don't think

I could have chosen
a better partner to do it with.

You know, it's the combination
of a lot of--I mean,

most--most of what I know,
I learned from him.

Combine that with, you know,
we're both pretty stubborn,

and, you know, good and bad,

it just--it worked out
really well, you know?

I'm really, really, really proud
of what we did out there.

- Is this what you wanted, Pete,
out of this?

I mean, obviously you want
to win, but this relationship,

the time, the bonding?

- Oh, yeah. Yeah, I gained
everything from this experience.

- Wow. That is fantastic.[d]

- Yo, it's Halloween today.
- Yeah, I know.I know.

Boo!

- [howls]

- [screams]

♪ ♪

- Well, it's nighttime,
everybody.

Goodnight, everybody.
Goodnight. Goodnight.

[groaning]

- That's what we're in for as we
welcome you back to "Alone:

Tales from the Island."

We're here with the winners
of season four,

Jim and Ted Baird, the winners.

- Whoo!
- Yeah!

- Yeah.
- Well, congrats, guys.

I mean, amazing.
How does it feel?

- Oh, it feels--it
feels awesome. It's surreal.

I mean, you prepare for it.
You build yourself up to it.

You hope you can do it,
but to be honest with you,

you don't really know
if you got it in you

until you're out there and you
leave everything on the line,

and lucky for us, you know,

we--we had a little luck
on our side,

and it worked out for us.

- Do you believe this?
Has it--has it settled in, Jim?

- Yeah, but every once
in a while I think about it.

I'm like, "Wow, we actually
went on the show,

"got on the show, first of all,

and then actually
managed to win."

- You were out there
for 75 days.

You guys lost an incredible
amount of weight,

so why don't we show
the audience exactly

what you're dealing with,
the before and after.

Let's look at the
before picture first.

You're setting out
on your adventure, right?

The hair looks good,
the backwards hat,

and now the after, 75 days.

- Whoa!
- Whoa.

- So Jim, you guys had a little
different strategy

than some of
the other teams we saw.

Give me a feel, before you
even went out there,

what was the talk?

What was your plan
going into this?

- We actually didn't want to
go in and invest a ton of time

right off the bat
in making a really big shelter.

We wanted to get something that
would be--that would make do,

that would keep us dry
and as warm as possible

and then kind of focus on things

that were going to basically
put food on the table.

- There's so much to get to
with you guys, all right?

We have a lot--I have a lot
of questions here, all right?

But first let's have
a little recap

and re-watch your journey
on Vancouver Island.

- All right.
- Oh, lord,

it's tough
walking through this stuff.

I'm guessing Ted is somewhere
on the coast below.

- The best survival item you
have is the other person

you're out there with.

Yeah! You [bleep] did it!

- We're building a boat.

That is gonna give us
the freedom

to be able to find more food.

It floats.

- Yeah!
- Yeah!

- Jim's crab trap
is revealing its head.

No! Nothing.

- Dude, I'm not [bleep]
hanging it.

Ted really made an art form of
annoying the [bleep] out of me.

- [Bleep].

- Why don't you
take it easy, man?

I'll try to get some food.

I think one of the most
meaningful things

that I can do right now

is to nurture
Ted back to health.

We're really gonna have
to dig deep here

'cause we both want this so bad.

- Oh, my God!
[grunting]

♪ ♪

Look at that.

- There's a lot there.

You got to explain
what those gunnel fish were.

I had never seen them,

but they were a huge reason
why you stayed alive.

- They--the gunnel fish were--
- Writhing eels.

- Yeah, yeah, they were
our saving grace,

and they were just
under these rocks,

and you would turn
over these boulders,

and there'd be nothing,
and there'd be nothing,

and then all of a sudden
you'd get on some gunnel fish,

and you'd just be like,
"Oh," like, stomping them.

- That was me stomp--that shot,
we'd be like, "Oh, my God,"

and you'd be stomping on them

and stabbing all--as many as you
could, and you'd come back,

and you'd have
a good meal, you know?

- What do they taste like?
- Like, really sour.

I mean, they're still not bad.
It's still fish, right?

But it's not something
you're gonna find at a fine

Italian dining restaurant, okay?
Let me tell you that right now.

Like, it's kind of not
the yummiest, right?

- So let's start with the boat,
right? I'm just curious.

You--and I know you have
great expertise there,

but in the history of this show
that hasn't gone that well,

so what made you go that route?

- We wanted to get
to deeper water,

and we thought it would
put us on more food.

I mean, you know, in the back
of your mind you're like,

"Let's get out there
and fill the boat," you know?

It's like, "Whoop,
whoop, fish, fish, fish."

- Yeah, yeah,
that's what I kept saying.

I'm like, "Ted, we're gonna fill
the boat, buddy. Here we go."

- And we--you know,
we were gonna make a crab trap,

and it would let us set
the crab trap in deeper water,

and so that was
the strategy behind it.

In hindsight, you know,
the boat was a success

in the sense that it worked.

- It did.
- But we didn't catch one fish

from the boat.
[laughter]

- So we get to watch the show

and see the scope
of everybody's shelter.

I mean, your shelter
wasn't exactly, like--

- It was terrible.
Just tell us like it is.

- It wasn't good, no.

- No, it wasn't good.

So it was basically a tarp tent
for myself and then work on it

as time went for when
Jim would get there.

- Did you see the Whipples'
shelter, by chance?

- Yeah, we--we did,

and we were immediately
very humbled, let's say.

- Humbled--humbled,
felt inferior, and jealous.

- You know, one of the things
I realized

is that different plans work
for different people, right?

- Sure.

- So something that might
have worked for them

might not have worked for us,
so we made something.

We elevated off the ground,
something to keep the rain out,

but sometimes when
that wind would come in

at a certain direction,

and it would just suck the heat
right out of our sleeping bags,

so what we ended up doing
to compensate for that

is every night we'd heat up
rocks in the fire,

and we'd stick them all
in our sleeping bags,

and that would keep our feet

from just being
stone cold all night,

and that kind of compensated
for our terrible shelter.

- It did.
- Pretty good idea.

- It--it was--

- I think I thought of that,
right, Ted?

- Yeah, I think maybe you did.
- Wow.

- I think maybe you did, yeah.

- Wait, you're giving him
credit for that?

- He also managed to horribly

burn himself
with those rocks, so.

- Yeah, I did.
- You know, like, kind of--

- Wasn't my finest moment
out there.

- And it turns out we actually
have a clip of that burn,

so why don't we take a look?

- I sterilized the scissors,
and I'm just cutting

the top layer of skin off

'cause once the blister pops,

infection will get
under that layer of skin.

There's a little piece of skin.

Maybe we could save it
for fishing

[inaudible]
tomorrow.

Now I'm just gonna take
this antiseptic wipe,

get all the bacteria
out of there.

I'm gonna put this bandage.

It's non-adherent, so it's not
gonna stick to the wound

and cause all kinds
of nastiness.

- All right, that's nasty.

You didn't use that piece
of skin to fish, did you?

- No, we--we were actually
really hungry.

We just ate that--just kidding.
Kidding, kidding, no, no.

- Even better.

- Day 2,000 or so.
Somebody came by the other day

and told me the show was over,

and I said, "Who told you that?"

[laughter]

- Welcome back to "Alone:
Tales from the Island."

We're sitting here with
the winners of season four,

Jim and Ted Baird, the winners.

- Yes!
- All right,

so we know
you guys had some fun,

but you're brothers,
brotherly love, right?

You get into arguments.
How bad did it get?

- You know, at one point
we might have, like,

scream-charged each other

like a couple of grizzly bears

that back down
at the last second.

- Yeah, yeah.
- And it's like,

"I'm gonna--no,"
and then we--we wimped out,

but it was definitely
one of the mental challenges

of being out there
with a team member

and trying to overcome
your disagreements.

It's pretty tough.

- Well, sibling rivalry was fun
at times for us to watch.

Why don't we recap
and look at some of your--

- Oh, God.
- Your finer moments here.

- Jim, this sucks.

- It's gonna be pretty tight
with two people, eh?

- Two, like, little girls,
it would be pretty good.

- Yeah, we only have one
little girl, so.

- See over there,
there's a branch in there?

- Right here?
- Yeah.

- That one right there?

- Dude, there's a [bleep] branch
right in front of you.

- Dude, there's branches
everywhere, you [bleep] idiot.

- Obviously it's that one--
- Here, take it, you [bleep].

- Every time I light a fire,
you got to give me some [bleep]

four-hour
micromanagement lesson.

If you haven't noticed it,

I'm [bleep] better
than you at it.

- The good thing about Ted
is that we can fight,

and then we can get
over it quickly.

- Why are you getting so mad?

- 'Cause you're
a [bleep] a*s[bleep].

- No.
- Yeah.

- No.
- Yeah.

- No.
- Yeah.

[overlapping argument]

- No.
- Yeah. Yeah.

- You guys never busted
each other's chops at all, like,

the whole time.

- Yeah, yeah, usually, you know,
I was ver--just always

please,
thank you,

can I help you
with that, dear brother?

That was a common one.

- Right.
- I noticed that.

All right, Jim, so did you
ever--was there ever a moment

that it got bad enough

that you're like, "You know
what? Money's not worth it.

Let's just get out of here
and get away from each other?"

- You know, at times it's just
like--it's almost embarrassing

because we're just
two grown men,

and we're just acting like
complete juvenile babies

about to beat the living
piss out of each other.

There's something
about me and Ted when

we--we can actually just
sort of crap on each other,

and it really actually
helps in the long run

because we don't really
bottle too much up.

You know, if we're pissed,
you know, it might end with,

like, a kick or a punch

or a--you know,
a verbal barrage of insults,

but then after that it's like,
"Okay, it's over,"

and we decide that--
do we want to be angry

and pissed the whole time,

or should we just try to
get over this and move on?

And--and I think that helps.

- Yeah, well, that--I mean,
that's the fun.

Obviously this was the fun part,
but you guys did so much to win

and got through it,

amazingly, for as long
as you were on the island,

so why don't we look
at the great moment

when you actually found out that
you won season four of "Alone?"

♪ ♪

- Being out here, it's just
kind of like an--an horrific

feeling of t*rture.

It's like, just taking off
your sweater,

it's like, oh, like, exhausting.

To just put your boots on
is exhausting.

I'm actually amazed with
how far I could real--

- Hi!

- Really push a--what
the [bleep]?

[indistinct shouting]

- We did it.

We did it! Ted, get over here.
I love you.

♪ ♪

- Man, that was great. I mean,
so--just Jim, turn around,

Heather and Tori are there,
and what'd you feel?

- Totally felt, at that time,
like Ted was just my hero

and that we'd done
this together,

and I was just blown away.

It was, like, the best feeling
in the entire world.

- Wow. Ted?
- Yeah, it was--it was surreal.

When it all just happened
and they're like, "You did it,"

it was just--it was amazing

because it's like,
you put so much on yourself,

so much mental
and physical strain,

and you're just holding on
by a freaking twig out there,

that--you know, that's just
keeping you going,

and it finally happened,
and it's just an emotional rush.

- So you win. You win
a half a million bucks.

What are you gonna do
with the money?

- Oh, man, I've got--I've got
a lot of things I want to do.

I want to hopefully get married
in the next year.

Shh, don't tell anyone yet.
And I want to do some traveling.

- The money, I'm not gonna--
I'm not gonna lie.

It wasn't all about the money,
but it's--it's a big part of it.

It's driving you. You know
that could change your life,

and actually,
I am getting married.

Not long after
I got off the show,

I proposed to my longtime
girlfriend, Tori,

who's amazing
and supportive person.

I looked at her picture
every single day.

So I'm gonna get married,

and we're going to buy
a place together.

- So I'm interested to know,
this was the first year

of "Alone"
with the team feature.

What was the biggest
advantage to help you win,

and what kind of advice
would you give to others

if they were to do this format?

- I would personally say
that you got to practice

the--the skills in the bush,
bow drills, that kind of stuff.

- Lighting fires.

- Lighting fires, all of that
is very important,

but just like an athlete
needs to physically train,

you need to mentally
train your body,

and the only way you can do it

is to get real experience
in very tough situations.

- Suffering, that's what
peop--the one survival skill

you should practice more
is just being able to suffer.

- Suffer in--
- It's not about being able

to flint map--
and all that's really cool,

but I think that's the one thing
that gets overlooked so much

in the survival
and bushcraft skills world,

is what you really
should be practicing

is just putting
yourself through hell

a little bit at a time.

- Yeah.
- Whipples, how about you?

What would be your feel of the
team in this season of "Alone?"

- I think the team
was easier and harder.

Shelter and fire half as hard,
food twice as hard.

- Pete and Sam, do you--you guys

feeling
the same types of things?

- A little--little suffering
is very humanizing.

It's good for the spirit.

- Yeah.

- Did--did it change you guys?
I mean, you come away winners.

Did it change you guys
at all or your relationship?

- I feel it changed
our relationship.

It--'cause it makes me
just--I don't know,

just spending
that time with Ted

out there just makes--you have
a stronger connection for sure,

and it made me realize

a lot of things
that I'd been taking for granted

are a lot more important to me
than I'd been telling myself.

- That's interesting.

Well, as a parting gift, we have
a tray full of gunnel fish.

It's on the way out, so.

- Yes!
- Thank God.

- Be sure
to take that.

Seriously, you guys
have all been amazing.

I mean, it's so inspirational,

so amazing what
you were able to do,

and it was fun watching

and even more fun
hearing your stories today,

so congrats to you all.

The participants
from season five

gearing up to head out soon.

In fact, you may even
recognize some of them.

So here now a sneak peek of
the newest chapter of "Alone,"

happening in
a brand-new location.

- This is the ultimate
challenge.

- This is our second chance
to do this.

- I really feel like
I have unfinished business.

- If I could do it again,
I know I could do better.

- We're all gonna be on
this new foreign land.

It's gonna get nasty.

- $500,000 can help my family
out, make things better for us.

- It's getting tougher
and tougher as the days go by.

- Believe me,
I'll keep fighting.