Castaways, the new survival-themed reality series, featured Angel Alvarenga quitting the show and Kenzi Whittington reuniting with Robbie Gibbons during Tuesday night's episode on ABC.
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In Tuesday night's broadcast, Angel, a 20-year-old from Chatsworth, CA, decided to quit the show.
Castaways is designed to test the human need for companionship, according to ABC, as 12 diverse strangers are shipwrecked on a string of deserted islands in the South Pacific without knowledge of when they will be rescued.
Among washed-up luggage, scattered resources, and abandoned structures, the castaways are lost and alone, and they must fend for themselves -- or attempt to find companionship.
Throughout each cast member's journey on the show, documentary-style footage flashes back in order to share with viewers his or her story and the struggles left behind at home.
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The only way the castaways can leave the remote islands is by persevering long enough for the rescue team to arrive or by simply quitting the show.
The castaways remaining on the show are Terry Allen, a 62-year-old from Agoura, CA; Eric Brown, a 31-year-old from Glendale, CA; Sawyer Brown, a 30-year-old from Willseyville, NY; Tim Burke, a 50-year-old from Plant City, FL; Robbie, a 42-year-old from Birmingham, AL; Reshanna Hearvy, a 24-year-old from New York, NY; Matt Jaskol, a 32-year-old from Las Vegas, NV; Krichelle Kerbow, a 25-year-old from Haiku, HI; Richard Rogers, a 35-year-old from Sequim, WA; Kenzi, a 24-year-old from Nashville, TN; and Tracee Wnetrzak, a 41-year-old from Quartz Hill, CA.
The new Castaways episode began on Day 3 at 3:12PM, with Robbie talking about how he was so hungry. When living in Alabama, a fast food restaurant was only six minutes from his house, but on the island, Robbie put a lot of effort into just opening a coconut and trying to eat it.
Meanwhile, Krichelle didn't have a knife to do anything, but she wanted to prove the stereotype wrong that women depend on men and need them to survive and thrive. Krichelle has an issue with this stereotype because she was raised in a family with six brothers who would tease and playfully torment her.
"I can do this; I got this. I don't need anybody's help. I don't need to be dependent on any other person except for myself," Krichelle explained.
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Tim then walked right up to Krichelle's camp. She actually felt a little bummed out upon seeing Tim because she was looking forward to spending some time alone out there.
As for Sawyer, he felt helpless as he walked up and down the beach looking for items to use. On his way back to camp, he ran into Angel, and they decided to take off together and look for more people. Sawyer assumed the more people they could find, the better their chances would be of survival.
Angel then revealed that when he was 15 years old, he left his mother and brothers behind in Honduras, which can be a violent place. His older brother sadly got shot while riding a motorcycle, and Angel felt guilty he couldn't be there to help his brother through the incident.
The two guys then stumbled upon a shelter that had rice, matches and fish. They called it "a gold mine."
Meanwhile, Tim and Krichelle walked into a shelter where the person had found a machete and food. Krichelle could tell Tim was in the Army by the way he was handling tools and resources, and she worried Tim was going to view her as a blonde girl with no skills for this type of journey.
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Eric was then shown finding a canoe. He admitted loneliness was a bit more than he had imagined it would be. Things were getting so bad for Eric, in fact, that he was naming inanimate objects and talking to them. Eric's machete, for instance, was named Jerome.
Eric revealed he loved his wife dearly and didn't agree with those who accused them of jumping into marriage too soon and making a mistake. They apparently tied the knot without telling their loved ones, but it was unclear why Eric or his wife's family didn't approve of their union.
Around this same time, Sawyer caught a crab to eat, but Angel wasn't very interested in eating much. Sawyer was getting the vibe Angel was not ready for an experience like this at the young age of 21. Sawyer didn't think Angel had time to build up strength for this type of adventure, and he was right, because Angel confessed to cameras he felt "trapped."
On Day 4 at 11:38AM, Robbie couldn't sleep. He was upset Kenzi had left him, and Robbie assumed Kenzi had abandoned him because she thought he was lazy -- and she can't stand lazy people. Robbie thought his pace of building the shelter was probably too slow for Kenzi.
Robbie was struggling with abandonment issues even before Kenzi because of his family situation. Robbie is adopted and heard his father had abused drugs. Robbie was therefore left wondering whether there was a part of him that was bad, and instead of drinking or doing drugs, he turned to food.
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Robbie wanted to meet his biological father just to see him physically and ask questions.
Krichelle revealed her childhood wasn't normal. Her dad smuggled weed across the Mexican border by the tons and when he was about to get caught, their family moved to Hawaii and lived where no one could find them. They were a blended family. Even Krichelle's stepdad lived under the same roof as her biological father.
Tim told Krichelle he has four children and a wife of 29 years back home. He told Krichelle the secret to a successful marriage is not giving 50/50 -- it's giving 100/100 all the time.
On Day 4 at 3:30PM, Robbie felt he could do this all by himself but he would need someone to keep him company because of the way people are wired.
Robbie then got the attention of a man on an island across the way. It was Richard. Robbie asked Richard to swim over, and Richard was ready for a change in scenery given his island was small and he had used up all of his resources: empty water bottles, coconuts and a bag he had found on the beach. The bag that helped him to survive happened to be Kenzi's.
Just as Richard began building a raft so he could float over to Robbie, he noticed two other guys nearby.
On Day 4 at 4:37PM, Angel and Sawyer were walking through the water and found Richard working on his raft.
Angel and Sawyer decided to take Richard's advice about the tide and swim over to him. The tide unfortunately turned, however, and so the swim quickly became difficult for the pair of guys, especially for Angel, who nearly drowned. But with Richard's assistance, they made it to shore.
Angel, Sawyer and Richard acknowledged they wouldn't be able to make it over to Robbie after all.
This is when Angel realized he wasn't cut out for this adventure and decided to quit. Not only were the conditions too tough for him, but he also said his brother in Honduras needed to be his priority.
Angel and Sawyer therefore took off together, and Richard said they were "cut from the same cloth," except Sawyer was taller and more muscular. The duo agreed to fend for themselves rather than try to swim out to that mystery guy on an island across the way.
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"I do feel guilty, but this other guy is a long ways away," Richard said in a confessional, referencing Robbie.
"There was nothing that was drawing us towards him anymore. It was just to go back, stabilize ourselves. Again, you deal with a little guilt, but that guilt is not going to injure me or affect me."
The episode concluded with Robbie napping in his shelter alone and Kenzie returning with a bunch of items she had found.
Robbie told Kenzi he had eaten a fish she had caught for them, and she was glad to hear he was doing well. Robbie was so happy to see Kenzi considering he thought she had abandoned him for good.
"I don't know what to say. I really can't believe that you came back," Robbie told Kenzi, who brought him some peanuts.
"My intentions initially were just to get anything valuable I found on the beach that we could use," Kenzi said.
"But it led me far away. It led me to not coming back. I'm not going to lie; I thought about staying... I had shelter, I had fire, I had food. I had water. I had everything I needed to survive on my own, but I didn't have Robbie."