After a rollercoaster-like opening three episodes, Alone Africa has finally slowed down.
In the fourth episode, which aired last Thursday, nobody caught a debilitating gastrointestinal illness or fired arrows into a fuzzy ungulate. Nobody called for a rescue, and nobody went home.
And with the six remaining survivalists looking confident and secure, we, the audience, finally got an opportunity to understand the emotional and psychological forces propelling these people to try and win Alone’s grand prize.
Survivalists Find a Footing in Africa
Spoilers ahead: Episode four was titled “Finding a Foothold,” which adequately described what occurred on screen. In the episode we spent time with all six remaining participants: Douglas, Dug, Baha, Kelsey, Nathan, and Katie.
As the episode unfolded, we saw the six make strides toward achieving a sustainable and permanent lifestyle in South Africa’s Great Karoo through ingenuity and experience. Douglas built a more robust shelter; Dug fashioned a fishing fly from his underwear elastic and then ate a scorpion; Katie and Baha also improved their dwellings.
Nathan was the episode’s real winner—after early setbacks in fishing, he used his smarts to find a workaround. The catfish in the lake near Nathan’s dwelling had bitten at his bait, but they were so large that they snapped his 30-pound-test line.
Rather than give up, Nathan simply strung the fishing line to a nearby tree, spooled it out, doubled back, spooled it out again, and then doubled back again, creating four perpendicular lines. He then braided these four lines together to effectively create one thick and extremely strong fishing line.
Nathan baited the line and landed a massive fish.
Aside from the acts of survival, episode four was the most compelling one thus far in season 12 for understanding the psyches of the participants. Specifically, the episode honed in on Nathan and Katie and presented their backstories.
Nathan spoke about his father, famed survival author Larry Dean Olson, and how his childhood spent outdoors gave him the life skills to thrive as an adult. “Thanks to my father for providing that opportunity for his children to sleep on the ground, get hungry, and try to find food for real,” he says.
After every Alone episode, I create my own ad-hoc ranking of the participants based on their skills, luck, strength, and overall situation. Here’s how I would rank them after episode 4:
- Nathan: he’s mastered fishing
- Kelsey: she still has jerky from her warthog
- Katie: she has the best all-around survival skills and a confident and calm demeanor
- Dug: he’s struggling but has the correct attitude of trying everything until it works
- Baha: he has a strong shelter but hasn’t caught fish yet
- Douglas: he has a strong shelter but he’s not eating
Katie Opens Up
Perhaps the most revealing chapter focused on Katie. She acknowledged that her 20-year relationship with her partner and the father of her kids had ended shortly before she came on the show. She revealed her worries about how the split would impact her two children, and said that Alone’s $500,000 grand prize would give her the financial freedom to “start over.”
“Out here, this is a journey of finding my independence and standing on my own two feet,” she says. “I feel like I’m going to embark on creating a new phase in my life. Trusting in the process that this is where I’m meant to be.”
The acknowledgement made me an immediate fan. Throughout Alone’s history, we’ve seen participants become fan favorites through a variety of ways: craftiness, impeccable skills, creativity, and yes, being willing to share feelings and personal conflicts.
It’s no secret that spending weeks living a solitary life has a major impact on each survivalist’s emotions. Clay Hayes, the winner of season 8, laid it out to me recently on a call.
“It removes you from your normal everyday life and plops you down in the middle of nowhere and lets you look at your life one step removed,” he says. “This allows you to think about what type of person you are, and to examine your relationships. It allows you to question all of these things and examine them like nobody ever gets to do in normal life. And it gives you an appreciation for things you might take for granted.”
“The thing a lot of people come out of it with is a much deeper appreciation for the people around them and their family,” he adds.
Hayes’ words echoed what Ryan Pender, the show’s executive producer, told me during an interview back in 2022. Pender told me that the whole point of Alone isn’t just to showcase people’s abilities to hunt, build fire, and construct cool shelters. Rather, it’s to shine a light on what really matters to people after they’ve been stripped of modern technology and conveniences, and left to exist int he wild by themselves.
“The most important conclusion that participants come to at the end is at the end of the day its’ not about the brass ring or money its about family and the relationship with your mother or father or children or spouse—or lack thereof,” Pender said. “Because everybody can identify with those.”
Everybody on Alone must grapple with these feelings. Some participants are simply better than others at sharing these emotions with the camera, and plumbing the depths of their sadness, loneliness, or even joy.
In my experience watching the show, the Alone participants who are best at opening up in front of the camera rarely win, but they often become even more memorable than the eventual champion: Think Peter Albano in season 11; Keilyn Marrone in season 7; Karie Lee Knoke in season 9; Larry Roberts in seasons 2 and 5; Woniya Thibeault in season 6. And the personal moments they share are often what I remember best about a season.
I’m keeping a careful eye on Katie for the rest of Alone Africa. She has the backcountry survival skills to thrive. But her willingness to share her personal story is a skill that’s even more compelling than shooting arrows.
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