Double Jeopardy
21 day challenge located in Panama (Panama, Central America) – Harsh environment, dense swamp, Echis and viper snakes, and howler monkeys. Oppressive heat, torrential downpour, humidity, and violent floods. Extraction will be go into deeper waters 4 mile stretch of ocean between their initial location to small island, where they will endure a steep hike to get to the top for a helicopter exfil.
| Cassie De Pecol – Primitive Survival Skills 24 years old – Washington, DC Personal Item: Machete Starting PSR: 6.5 Ending PSR: 3.4Lost 14 lbs | Forrest Galante – Animal Handling Expert25 years old – Santa Barbara, CAPersonal Item: Dive maskStarting PSR: 8.2Ending PSR: 8.8Lost 19 lbs |
| Manu Toigo – Former Special Forces44 years old – Los Angeles, CAPersonal Item: MacheteStarting PSR: 7.8Ending PSR: 8.0Lost 16 lbs | Russell Sage – Survival Instructor39 years old – CaliforniaPersonal Item: Fire starterStarting PSR: 7.1Ending PSR: 7.9Lost 8 lbs |
The recommendations will be written in bold italics and the analysis is on the bottom. This episode will be split between the two groups above until they merge.
Cassie/Forrest
Day 1: Dense Jungle
Forrest shows what is edible to Cassie, and the build shelter.
9:13pm 76°F – The shelter is still work in progress. Not holding up well and rains. Sleepless and freezing.
Shelter is super important, and Forrest may have spent too much time gathering food before shelter and fire.
Manu/Russell
Day 1: Hostile Mangrove Swamp
They walk through mangrove with spiky thorns. They make an elevated shelter.
11:15pm 66°F – Rain starts, and their shelter is protecting them from the rain. A big difference between these two teams already. Still restless, but at least not soaking wet. Shelter is important. 3 hours without shelter is one of the Rules of 3 in survival, and they did a great job building a shelter that is above ground, and protecting them from the rain.
Cassie/Forrest
Day 2: Tensions Flare Up
Shelter collapsed, and tension flares up between Cassie and Forrest. Forrest is trying to remain calm as Cassie complains.
Manu/Russell
Day 2: Fish Basket
10:15am 85°F – Manu builds fish basket to try and catch fish
Cassie/Forrest
Day 5: Food
They get coconuts to drink and eat. Cassie needs space. Forrest goes diving in ocean to find food. Bad visibility so he gets oysters to eat. Protein is super important by Day 5, so good for Forrest to eat oysters. Cassie is trying to survive without eating protein, and it will not last long. She is also not coping with the survival situation she is in, and not being nice to her partner with her agitation and anxiety. Survival is mostly mental, and the state of mind must be focused. If not, the body and the mind will give up and you will fail to survive.
Manu/Russell
Day 5: Fire and Food
2:38pm 94°F – They build a softer bed to lay in to get better rest. Manu is dehydrated, starving and has a headache. Checks fish trap which is empty. Russell catches crabs. He starts a fire and cooks the crab to eat. Water levels are rising to a flash flood. Building fire should have been something they did by Day 2. Having some protein is good by this time as hunger really starts to set in by Day 5.
Cassie/Forrest
Day 9: Anteater
Forrest kills an anteater. Cassie tries to start a fire but fails. Anteater meat goes to waste.
Manu/Russell
Day 9: Move Closer
They decide to move closer to the extraction point.
11:55am 90°F – River rocks are sharp. They see howler monkeys. Manu is dehydrated and has a headache. She is feeling dizzy, and eventually find a waterfall and drinks water. At night, howler monkeys come out and they ward them off. Suffered all night with lack of sleep.
Cassie/Forrest
Day 10: Move Closer
Cassie did not sleep well with about an hour of sleep. She was eaten by bugs. Cassie and Forrest decide to leave the area.
11:22am 89°F – Cassie splits her toe open. They find a waterfall from above.
Cassie/Forrest/Manu/Russell
Day 10: Move Closer
Russell sees there are other people down by the waterfall. They meet by the waterfall and merge. They head towards the beach to survey the plan for getting to the small island.
2:17pm 91°F – They are starting to understand personality differences.
5:27pm 62°F – They finally get to the beach but there is no place to setup shelter. They find an area to quickly build a shelter, starts a fire and rain starts.
Day 11: Personality Clash
They were tending fire until it went out. They got no sleep, so Cassie decides to sleep during the day. Manu and Cassie argue. Forrest and Russell scouts plans for exfil. Cassie at this point is becoming the useless cog in the machine and isn’t helping much. Again, her lack of mental fortitude and skills may be taking a toll on her personally. The mental state is very important in survival.
Day 12: Rain
Rains again at night. Cassie is supposed to tend the fire.
11:19pm 57°F – Cassie fell asleep, and fire is almost out. When you are in a group and tasked to do something, it is the most important task for the group. If you are too tired to manage the task, you must pass the responsibility to someone else to not jeopardize the entire group.
Day 14: New Plan
9:51am 86°F – They have identified ground water. Cassie attempts to build a fish basket, then stops to rest. Cassie’s fish basket is rejected as there are too many wide gaps to catch fish. Manu builds a more suitable fish basket. Everyone is starting to become unhappy, and Russell gets angry at Cassie. When there is one survivalist not mentally fit to want to survive, the group suffers. If it weren’t for Forrest’s strong and positive attitude to survive, they could potentially fail as a group. Cassie is a burden at this time as opposed to a survival team member. She needs to think about the rest of the team and do what she is capable of doing to help.
Day 15: More Rain
8:22am 61°F – Bitter cold rainstorm.
3:46pm 67°F – Cassie is mentally checked out. It is raining and freezing.
Day 16: Still More Rain
10:28am 66°F – Forrest goes spear fishing while raining only to find nothing he can catch. It is freezing, wet and cold.
Day 17: Bamboo
8:19am 49°F – They find bamboo that they can use to build a raft.
Day 18: Food
They catch hermit crabs to cook and eat. They start on building the raft with the found bamboo. Cassie is not part of the building team. Manu and Cassie decide to talk. Cassie admits the challenge is difficult and she is not a team player.
Day 20: Better Food
Forrest goes diving for food again, this time he catches 2 lobsters and a fish. He returns to the group, cooks his catch and the group eats. Cassie opens up to the group by apologizing that she slacked, was not qualified to do this challenge, and let everyone down. By this point, the rest of the group has given up on Cassie, but the group agrees that they will all finish as a team. This is the sheer will power of the group to keep Cassie in the challenge. This is the mental fortitude necessary to survive.
Day 21: Get To Extraction
Raft out on water, but it cannot hold all 4 of them. Russell and Forrest decide to hang on to the rear and kick repeatedly to get to the island. Manu and Cassie are paddling. The 4 mile push to the island has whales and sharks in the water. Jellyfish are stinging Russell and Forrest but they power through it to get to the small island.
11:15am 81°F – Takes 3 hours to get to the small island. The climb up is about 600 feet of steep elevation.
2:37pm 90°F – Steep terrain with loose rocks. A class 4 hike where you will use all 4 limbs to hike up.
3:16pm 92°F – Thorns are penetrating their feet.
4:05pm 91°F – Up and down terrain is putting a lot of stress on their bodies.
4:32pm 91°F – They finally reach the clearing and a helicopter arrives and lands. Successful extraction.
Manu ended up with Dengue Fever 3 days after extraction. She remained in the hospital for 2 weeks, and this can take months or years to recover fully. Dengue fever is a viral infection that is transmitted from mosquitos to humans. This is a very bad virus and can be fatal if not treated immediately at a medical facility.
My analysis:
The group did quite well, except Cassie, for the location that they were at. They endured the drastic temperature changes, had some food and water to keep them going. In situations like the one they were in, there are very little food options, and you need to stay covered from the elements. This is not as easily said than done, but mental strength and endurance is key to success. Cassie just didn’t have the mental fortitude for this challenge. That is what she will need to improve on if she wants to be a true survivalist. The rest of the team did very well and carried Cassie through the challenge and everyone finished. These challenges are much more difficult in real life than it is watching the show and commenting on a couch. For these four survivalists to do this for 21 days with a successful extraction, this shows, as a team, that they can survive Naked and Afraid.