Smoke Signals and Fire Fights

In “Smoke Signals and Fire Fights,” the shipwrecked survivalists continue on day 16 in the Philippines. The remaining groups are Boat 1 (Shawn Bretschneider, Patrick French, Allison Frueh), Boat 2 (Ana Lis Pitter, Darrin Reay, Malu Beyonce), Boat 3 (Jamie Frizzell, Dani Beau, Jarrell Banks), and Boat 4 (Adam Kavanagh, Amanda Wilson), with Jonny Yates already medically tapped.

The episode picks back up with Adam and Amanda in the middle of their trek into the jungle during the typhoon. At 4:45 PM, it is 66 degrees and still raining, and Amanda is hitting her breaking point. Adam consoles her as they push forward and eventually find a freshwater stream, but they still need to get out of the rain. They quickly throw together a banana leaf lean-to shelter. Once the rain slows, the bugs come out in force, making fire urgent. They break open a stick to get to the dry inner fibers and manage to get a fire started.

On day 17, Shawn, Patrick, and Allison discover that the current has destroyed the gill net. They retrieve the damaged net, along with Shawn’s fish trap, which has washed back up on shore. Shawn goes out foraging for snails, but he is clearly not feeling well. Meanwhile, Allison spots smoke on a distant beach, giving the group hope that another team may be nearby. They decide to build a raft to cross the bay, planning an elaborate design with a sunshade, but Shawn is crashing hard and refuses a medic call despite his worsening condition.

Jamie, Dani, and Jarrell start day 17 at 8 AM and 74 degrees, returning their focus to the raft. The raft is so heavy they can barely move it, and Jarrell is rude to Dani about her strength. Once they finally get it into the water, it does float. Their goal is to reach the abandoned camp Dani found on the map by floating down the coast instead of trekking through the jungle. Dani is worried about jellyfish after her earlier sting, but Jarrell belittles her fear and eventually gets out to push the raft.

Adam and Amanda survive the rainy jungle night and begin looking for resources before moving again. Adam finds fresh boar tracks and sets a snare trap. Amanda, exhausted and badly needing food, searches for anything she can use as fish bait. She catches a small frog with a scavenged glass jar, hoping it can help turn their passive fishing lines into a meal.

Ana Lis, Darrin, and Malu come out of the storm in better shape than most because their waterproof raised-platform shelter held up. Darrin turns his attention to building a bamboo raft, while Ana Lis goes hunting for wild chickens with the bow. With no luck in the jungle, she later tries a different strategy and takes the bow into the water to hunt stingrays. She sees a black-banded sea krait and takes a shot, but comes up empty. Ana Lis says she cannot survive on coconuts alone.

Jamie, Dani, and Jarrell reach the beach after the raft trip and find the camp with bones hanging from the trees. They also find a huge swamp taro, giving Dani the plant-based food source she has been searching for. They boil the taro root and stems, and the meal is delicious, almost like potato. The group eats using clam shells as plates and bamboo chopsticks, but even the meal reveals tension. Dani and Jarrell clash over eating manners because Dani does not like sharing dirty food, while Jarrell does not care if he is stinky and dirty. Jamie is getting frustrated with Jarrell too.

On day 18, Darrin keeps working on his raft by himself, choosing to handle the project without help and being very deliberate about the raft and paddle build. Ana Lis keeps searching for protein, but her bow-hunting efforts have not paid off, and hunger is starting to dominate her mind. For Adam and Amanda, the passive fishing lines and boar snare also fail to deliver: Amanda’s bait has been taken, but she has not caught anything, and Adam’s snare has not been disturbed.

Jamie and Dani head out to work on the new shelter, while Jarrell takes the day off, exhausted from pulling the raft. The team had returned to their original beach camp for the night, but Jamie and Dani enjoy working together without Jarrell around. They feel his complaining, bad attitude, unpredictability, and negativity have worn on the group. Back at camp, Jarrell tries to do camp craft to make things more comfortable for them when they return.

Shawn, Patrick, and Allison keep working on the raft, but Shawn is running out of energy. He is not resting, cannot stand up, cannot see straight, and says he cannot see a few feet in front of him. This time, he accepts a medic call. The medics find that he has critically low blood sugar, and Shawn is medically tapped from the challenge, leaving Patrick and Allison to continue without him.

As the challenge continues, Jarrell decides to build his own raft and finishes it in about an hour. Dani works on sandals while Jarrell paddles his raft to the new camp and gathers a large amount of firewood while Jamie and Dani remain back at the original camp. When he returns, he complains that his teammates are not handling their side of camp craft and are “lollygagging.” He wants credit for the work he has done and says they do not do anything, but Jamie does not like the negativity.

On day 20, Darrin finds fishing net washed up on shore, along with a fishing hook. Ana Lis is on her last leg and says that if the raft does not help them bring in fish, she wants to move locations, even if she has to go without the others. Malu encourages her to keep trying with the bow and give it more time because she does not want Ana Lis to leave.

Patrick is nearly done with his raft and only needs to make paddles. With Shawn gone, he and Allison break camp and get on the water. The raft floats well, and Patrick focuses on making sure their items stay secured during the long trip. They have roughly two and a half miles to raft toward the beach where Allison saw smoke.

Adam and Amanda decide it is time to leave their temporary shelter and continue the trek. Amanda is feeling a little better, but they choose to veer off the map, turning the move into a tough climb. They end up a mile off course and 500 feet up, with Amanda borderline throwing up by 11:30 AM at 72 degrees. She fights hard not to puke as they keep pushing through the difficult terrain.

Jamie, Dani, and Jarrell finally move to their new camp, but the tension is bad from the start. Dani is still afraid of jellyfish and does not like Jarrell’s new raft, leaving her with the choice of using it or walking through the jungle. Jarrell thinks she is soft and even says he wants to get stung by a jellyfish. Once everyone reaches the new camp, he still feels he is not getting credit for gathering firewood and starts talking trash about Dani. Jamie tends to stay out of it at first, but Jarrell calls Dani a “housewife” and himself the “muscle,” then says, “We’re not a team. I don’t care.”

That finally pushes Jamie to call a team meeting. He commits to stepping in between Dani and Jarrell when they fight, trying to keep the group from falling apart. For Dani, Jarrell has become the biggest challenge of the experience — not the elements, hunger, or weather.

By the end of the episode, the teams are all in transition. Shawn has been medically tapped, leaving Patrick and Allison to raft toward possible smoke on a distant beach. Ana Lis is close to leaving if her team cannot find protein. Jamie is trying to hold Dani and Jarrell together despite escalating conflict. Adam and Amanda, after a brutal off-map jungle trek, finally hear the ocean and push toward it. As they emerge, Adam spots naked people in the distance, but the episode ends before revealing which team they have found.