SPOILERS: Recap of Alone Season 3 Episode 6: Along Came a Spider
This week’s Alone features an arachnid emergency — as it’s not wild boars or pumas but spiders that have one contestant totally bugged out.
Patagonia is still no joke as Episode 306 begins with Day 45, as seven people remain on the History show. At the end of this episode, only six continue.
Herbalist and renaissance bush woman Callie is up at bat first, as we see the Washington native cooking up “sock soup” — literally boiling her wool socks on the fire.
“It might not be delicious chocolate cake, but at least I will have clean socks,” she says.
However, her penchant for getting naked and taking saunas may have bitten her in the ass, literally.
Callie shows us her “bum bum” with three nasty infected spider bites. The episode includes an infographic which reveals how the Chilean Recluse spider native to the area has more potent venom than at rattlesnake. Nice. She’s been chomped on hard by a nasty eight-legged creature for sure.
But despite this setback, she is no quitter and proactively makes a paste out of local native plantains and adds Usnea lichen to it to draw out the poison on her bright red infections.
The camera then cuts to Day 46, as we head to Dave’s encampment where he appears lethargic, depressed. “Wonder if I’d have fared near as well, doing this Alone thing, if I didn’t have one of these cameras to talk to,” he says. Uh oh. He’s gone full Castaway on us — “Wilson” volleyball head cuckoo. Dave then looks for some fish, and he scores. Dave really loves eating the sex organs of fish, and it’s another intense close-up gross scene.
“Today I’m gonna start making a drying rack for fish,” he says. Dave seems to be better, but he gives us pause, as being older than the other contestants (along with Greg), he goes south fast when he is hungry.
We flip to Greg, who is pensive and sad today. This normally pragmatic and funny Canadian says: “So far I’ve been really lucky with the fishing…but it doesn’t take much to make me tired in a day.”
Greg likes big fires at night, but says: “It’s wearing me out to go 300 yards to get firewood…I can’t stay warm.” Greg informs us he is too worn out to continue, yet he doesn’t come across mentally untethered like Dave. He is thinking of moving camp. Then a disaster, as he falls down in 42-degree water and is soaked.
Cut to Greg’s reactions, as his future on the show is in jeopardy. The cold makes him hurt everywhere, and we see him in bare feet with his clothes and boots soaked. Over by the fire, he is in danger of hypothermia as he strips from his wet clothing. Greg acts fast to try and secure his core temperature.
Day 47 and 5.2 miles away we are back to the amazing Callie. Did her herbal poultice work? She shows us the wounds and they do seem to be getting better. She’s really very bright and knows her herbal medicine.
“Everything depends on the attitude you have,” she says. Last week it was a sauna, and now we see her making an instrument for her mental well-being to stave off boredom. She misses music and her instruments at home, so she makes a cool “mini instrument”. It works! And she has a lovely voice to boot.
Suddenly it is 11:19pm and dark, and footage shows Callie is quite ill. She feels her lymphatic glands expanding and she is nauseous. The poison from the bites is making her consider tapping out.
Day 48. Callie tells us she got no sleep. She has two very swollen groin lymph glands. “The infection has turned inward,” she says. She thinks this will be her last day. Callie says: “I don’t want to go at all…but I won’t put my health at risk.”
Meanwhile, Dan is a little over 5 miles away. He feels like he is in a “perseverance situation” as he checks his fish lines. “I’m on track,” he boasts. Dan is all about economizing calories and doing the least amount to stay alive. “Conserve, conserve, conserve,” he says, as he goes and relaxes.
Then he gets emotional, sad and hits a nerve for the first time. He now wants to go home. The camera is turned off.
Carleigh is up and we see her go fishing. She found a few worms and is reminiscing about her childhood. “I’m looking forward to sharing this adventure with everyone I love,” she says, as she makes a stone-ringed “fish weir” and basket trap.
Lack of protein is slowing her down. “I just would love to catch a fish,” she laments before breaking down and crying.
Day 48 is coming to an end and Carleigh is thinking about how to get the nutrition she needs. She then spots a fish, and is beyond happy when she catches it, holding the fish for the camera. “I want to be the first female winner of Alone and be a role model,” she says.
Day 49 at Greg’s encampment sees him in pretty good spirits, as he plans his move come “rain or shine”. He is moving his gear to another location and taking his fire with him. “I need a lot more wood from over there,” he says. He moves his encampment a quarter mile down the shore on the point. Off he goes. “I’m so happy, man!” he yells as he is in the thick of firewood central.
Day 50! Back to Dan. This trapper looks a little unhinged. “I literally don’t even know what to do at this point,” he says. Idle time is making him insane in the membrane. He misses his family.
Later in the evening, Greg is looking up for tomorrow’s move. He will fix up his new digs. Then it begins to rain, and to his dismay a lake seiche (tide) has the water up about 6ft. By 2am, he has to make a decision. He cedes to the camera that he made a mistake and should have held out until his hypothermia was lessened. Now at 4am, Greg is frozen and panicked. He has second stage hypothermia.
Cut to…Day 51, and finally Dan is revealed as the one who taps out. “It’s time to go home to my family,” he says.
Meanwhile for Greg, great news! He survived his night. Hooray! And we will see our Maine boy Fowler too! Callie is hanging in and so is Carleigh.
See you all then…
Alone airs Thursdays at 9/8c on History.