By Ashley Thompson

It's time for extraction to begin after 5 weeks in the wilderness. For 37 days they've been wearing thinner and thinner. Columbia has already claimed 4 victims but will the final 8 make it to through the two day journey to the end? The 5 mile journey is through Piranha Lake, 4 miles over scorching rock, through the Orinoco River and over an island to their extraction point.

Jeff and EJ want to do the extraction alone, and they probably have he best advantage because their hunting has paid off big time throughout the challenge. Including a sting ray kill right before it's time to head out with no plans of sharing with the larger group. On the first day of extraction the pair leave at 4:45a to make sure they are far ahead of the other group so they aren't slowed down. What does slow them down, however, it the vertical climb over sharp basalt rock. After 4 hours they reach the Orinoco River, the third largest in the world. To keep from swimming the large body of water they decide to build a raft. Smart seeing the current discharges 9.5 million gallons of water per second. Although they looked more prepared, having only two people means they expended more energy getting their raft to the other side and the other group is 1/2 mile ahead. Nonetheless, they finally make it, running towards their boats.

The group of now 6 is struggling a little more. When Jeff breaks the news to the other group, the gossip begins because the group feels butt hurt. It's unclear why they are so surprised, though. And during the actual extraction it's apparent they they are actually the weaker survivalists at this point. During their swim across Piranha Lake Laura gets bitten by a piranha but they persevere. When they meet up with EJ and Jeff, Eva decides to have it out with Jeff about not being the weak link and feeling betrayed and hurt. Not really changing Jeff's mind, the group moves on from the drama and make a cayman kill to nourish them before their final push to extraction (even sharing with EJ and Jeff). Dani sticks with her cactus. Chris has nothing nice to say about Ej and Jeff's large raft, saying his lighter version is much better. But when the group is swimming alongside their raft and see a massive fish or predator of some sort, I bet he was wishing he was on top of the raft paddling like the other pair. Ok, so it was river dolphins. Struggling across the sand, they see the boats and their energy returns and they run.

So many tears at the end! Dani and Alana both lost 25 pounds, Chris lost 44 pounds, Luke lost 43, Laura lost 38, Eva lost 36, EJ lost 73 POUNDS!, Jeff lost 43. The alpha males (Jeff and EJ) stayed aggressive and their final XLR score is 8.4. While the team of 6 is almost identical at 8.3. Seems extremely low seeing they just survived 40 days of dangerous wildlife, exposure (both weather and nakedness), and each other.

Photo credit: Discovery Channel