After getting the doctors opinion there was no way they could leave him there. Huge liability if things turn south, especially given his mental state he needed to go to the hospital immediately. They made the right call though, you could tell he was heart broken, he understood it was time to go.

Are the contestants this season just better than the 2 previous seasons or is Patagonia an easier place to survive in than where they were in S1&2?

pretty clear that Dave would have stayed til he was dead (not much longer), and that he went nuts some time ago starving himself with a stockpile of uneaten dried fish.

callie bailing was really annoying for some reason. she had this in the bag.

got to say it looks like Megan is the favorite now based on mental attitude and food intake.

Shelton98 said:

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Are the contestants this season just better than the 2 previous seasons or is Patagonia an easier place to survive in than where they were in S1&2?

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I think it is a combination of both.

Looking at the last five this season...

- Dave is a Cody Lundin type. Just goes off on these spiritual quests and seems to have zero ****s to give about anything back in the world.
- Callie is a naturalist with a good foundation in botany and herbal medicine as well as primitive living.
- Megan is a biologist and botanist. She knows all the little stuff she can forage.
- Fowler lives off the grid and knows how to build whatever he needs to accomplish tasks.
- Carleigh is an Alaskan who has been doing survival training since she was a kid. I have a feeling she has some ties to natives from up there as well based on her looks (pure speculation there).

Those five have stronger survival backgrounds than anyone I can think of from season 1 or 2 except Jose and he was going the way of Dave at the end of season 2 before he fell in the water. I do think Alan could have gone much longer but he didn't have to.

One of the differences I have taken notice of between Vancouver Island and Patagonia is the fishing. It could be editing but it seemed like once the salmon run stopped, there were hardly any fish left to get in Vancouver. They're still catching fish in Patagonia though it has slowed down a bit. Vancouver did seem to have more shellfish to go after in season 1...season 2 they had red tide. It also seemed to have way less plant forage than Patagonia.

Finally, I think as these shows go on the new contestants have the luxury of observing various strategies from past seasons and learning what works and what doesn't.

I have no idea who is going to win this one but it has been a fun watch. Heck it could go the way someone said before and they all end up medivac'd out of there.

Bummer about Dave. I liked watching him. Crazy that he rationed his food the way he did. It's surprising that nobody has nailed any big game in three seasons. But I do love watching them fish.

One big difference between Vancouver and Patagonia is the density and variety of predators. While the hype is edited up, on Vancouver there are some legit concerns with both mountain lions and black bear. Vancouver pretty well has the highest density of both. Start smoking meat on Vancouver, and you'll be jacking with bears all day. Some of the contestants bear safety practices about drove me bonkers. While lions wouldn't bother me, as a producer I would make damn certain the contestants knew about the number of mountain attacks on Vancouver just for psychological pressure. Patagonia doesn't have the bear/scavenger issue, so keeping preserved fish near you isn't an issue. Though there is both lions and jaguars, neither are particularly abundant (note, they have shown or talked about much big game...the big game density in that part of Patagonia isn't particularly abundant, hince not a lot of large cats).

SharkinAg said:

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Bummer about Dave. I liked watching him. Crazy that he rationed his food the way he did. It's surprising that nobody has nailed any big game in three seasons. But I do love watching them fish.

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one thing that didn't make sense about Dave - the dude had a bow and (at least from what we saw) never seemed to hunt much. he could have been out every day scouting and trying to nail a hog from the beginning when he was strong, at least a couple hours a day. that never made sense - maybe the editors left out his hunting efforts from the broadcast, until the end when he was too weak to string his bow. which also raised the question of why he didn't leave his bow strung - he was 'alone' with no risk of anybody screwing with it.

Dave admitted that he would go out in the wilderness and not eat anything for 3-4 days for "spiritual reasons".

My wife and I thought he was mentally ill and his behavior on the show affirmed our thinking. I think he has some sort of eating disorder.

California Ag 90 said:

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SharkinAg said:

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Bummer about Dave. I liked watching him. Crazy that he rationed his food the way he did. It's surprising that nobody has nailed any big game in three seasons. But I do love watching them fish.

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one thing that didn't make sense about Dave - the dude had a bow and (at least from what we saw) never seemed to hunt much. he could have been out every day scouting and trying to nail a hog from the beginning when he was strong, at least a couple hours a day. that never made sense - maybe the editors left out his hunting efforts from the broadcast, until the end when he was too weak to string his bow. which also raised the question of why he didn't leave his bow strung - he was 'alone' with no risk of anybody screwing with it.

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We are 9 episodes in and at day 75 or so. A lot gets left out of 450 days worth of footage when squeezing it in to 378 minutes of television. I think they showed Dave hunt one day and probably not any others since he didn't get anything. And wouldn't leaving the bow strung potentially stretch out the string?

Yeah, a couple episodes even mentioned he had some sort of hunting blind.

dlance said:

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California Ag 90 said:

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SharkinAg said:

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Bummer about Dave. I liked watching him. Crazy that he rationed his food the way he did. It's surprising that nobody has nailed any big game in three seasons. But I do love watching them fish.

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one thing that didn't make sense about Dave - the dude had a bow and (at least from what we saw) never seemed to hunt much. he could have been out every day scouting and trying to nail a hog from the beginning when he was strong, at least a couple hours a day. that never made sense - maybe the editors left out his hunting efforts from the broadcast, until the end when he was too weak to string his bow. which also raised the question of why he didn't leave his bow strung - he was 'alone' with no risk of anybody screwing with it.

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We are 9 episodes in and at day 75 or so. A lot gets left out of 450 days worth of footage when squeezing it in to 378 minutes of television. I think they showed Dave hunt one day and probably not any others since he didn't get anything. And wouldn't leaving the bow strung potentially stretch out the string?

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usually people remove the string to keep 'little hands' from dry firing it when it sits, unless he's using some sort of old-school string it would not stretch. i just wondered why he didn't leave it strung. they showed people fishing and not catching anything plenty, just seemed odd why they didn't show him hunting more even if he didn't get anything. just an observation. i thought he was a sure thing early and he sort of just fell apart.

California Ag 90 said:

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dlance said:

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California Ag 90 said:

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SharkinAg said:

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Bummer about Dave. I liked watching him. Crazy that he rationed his food the way he did. It's surprising that nobody has nailed any big game in three seasons. But I do love watching them fish.

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one thing that didn't make sense about Dave - the dude had a bow and (at least from what we saw) never seemed to hunt much. he could have been out every day scouting and trying to nail a hog from the beginning when he was strong, at least a couple hours a day. that never made sense - maybe the editors left out his hunting efforts from the broadcast, until the end when he was too weak to string his bow. which also raised the question of why he didn't leave his bow strung - he was 'alone' with no risk of anybody screwing with it.

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We are 9 episodes in and at day 75 or so. A lot gets left out of 450 days worth of footage when squeezing it in to 378 minutes of television. I think they showed Dave hunt one day and probably not any others since he didn't get anything. And wouldn't leaving the bow strung potentially stretch out the string?

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usually people remove the string to keep 'little hands' from dry firing it when it sits, unless he's using some sort of old-school string it would not stretch. i just wondered why he didn't leave it strung. they showed people fishing and not catching anything plenty, just seemed odd why they didn't show him hunting more even if he didn't get anything. just an observation. i thought he was a sure thing early and he sort of just fell apart.

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Yeah. Seems odd. When you are going for a huge chunk of change, I'd leave it strung. Who cares if the string is shot in 200 days. Got to get to day 75 first.

Where are the squirrels? Are there none in Patagonia?

Not really. That is one of the interesting challenges they haven't really mentioned, this area of Patagonia doesn't have a real big small mammal population or diversity. What small mammals are around are very nocturnal in nature. If they were at a lower elevation, with more habitat diversity, there would be way more food to play with.

Nice ending. Last three were grinding hard. Well deserved 500k. Great tv when his daughter realized he was home.

treetop flyer said:

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Nice ending. Last three were grinding hard. Well deserved 500k. Great tv when his daughter realized he was home.

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Yep. Watching Carleigh get pulled was sad. Sucks for her that she was no more than a pound too light. I bet Fowler was on the razor edge of getting pulled as well. I thought for sure both would get yanked simultaneously.

Was pulling for fowler, but it was pretty sad to see carleigh's reaction.

Crazy how long they made it this time with what seems to be much less available food. On Vancouver Island, the had a good supply of shellfish and that good ol bull kelp. In Patagonia it seemed like the options after a much smaller fish was a couple dandelion leaves.

Good season hope next season we don't have people pulled.

Called it, page 1.

Must have been crushing to be pulled from the game. I guess when she said it took her five months to recover totally, they know what they are doing. The before and after pictures were savage. Dave's goofy knit cap didn't help.

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Good season hope next season we don't have people pulled.

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I think they will either have to pick a harsher terrain or less qualified contestants.

Personally, I'd rather see them compete in a more forgiving terrain that is rich in small game and edible plants....even if that means they need to select slightly less qualified contestants in order to weed them out. I'm not suggesting they pick some urban candy ass and put them in the woods, but at the same they dont need experienced survivalist with years of bush craft experience.

I guess I'd like to see more successful hunting, trapping, fishing, foraging, etc.
It would make for more entertaining and educational TV.

Congrats to Fowler though. He was one of my favorites from day one and I'm glad to see him win.

I'm glad Fowler one. He was my favorite from the start but there were so many times I thought he was going to crack, especially after his break down with eating those roots. Tough go for Carleigh, she was a dark horse through the whole season and really surprised me. Maybe she shouldn't have spent so much energy on that drum though.... I still can not believe Callie tapped. It really seemed like it was hers for the taking after she shamaned her spider bites. I mean she built a dadgum sauna!

I'm looking forward to where they dump the contestants next. As much as I liked Patagonia, I hope it's not there again. If they do, I'm hoping they put them in an area of Patagonia with more resources. Personally, I'd like them to completely switch it up and go to a more tropic climate. Either dump them in the rainforest or maybe even stick them on an island. I guess rainforest might be a little dangerous though with the animals, reptiles, bugs and parasites. Whatever they do, I hope the area is more abundant so these bush folk can show off their skills.

Callie said in a FB live that she was a lot worse off then the show portrayed. She basically couldn't lose any more weight. She also knew how many people were left because she could see the smokes from the fires around the lake. She didn't want to get medically tapped and wanted to leave on her own terms.

Man, I felt so bad for Carleigh. I think she would have stayed till she died. Fowler definitely out kicked his coverage, and I'd love to go camping with callie!

jopatura said:

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Callie said in a FB live that she was a lot worse off then the show portrayed. She basically couldn't lose any more weight. She also knew how many people were left because she could see the smokes from the fires around the lake. She didn't want to get medically tapped and wanted to leave on her own terms.

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That's a pretty crazy point they need to correct. Part of the mental mind **** is taken out of the equation.

Got a little allergic when they showed Fowler and his daughter. In other news, how do you convince his wife to live in the bush in some busted up trailers and tarps?

I also think they would last longer if they started in the Spring instead of Fall because Winter rolling in always seems to reduce the food supply pretty fast.

03ki11erAG said:

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In other news, how do you convince his wife to live in the bush in some busted up trailers and tarps?

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He probably built some kind of rudimentary trap and lured her in. Either that or ol Fowler is packin

03ki11erAG said:

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In other news, how do you convince his wife to live in the bush in some busted up trailers and tarps?

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