Episode 5

In the penultimate episode, the four couples who have made it onto Duane and Rena’s shortlist wake up to a shock visit from the Oses.

In a series of tense face-to-face meetings, Duane and Rena have come to camp to interrogate each couple’s plans for their home and explore whether any of them harbour any doubts about taking it on. After mulling over their answers, Duane and Rena make one of their hardest decisions yet and decide to let one couple return home. After saying their tearful goodbyes, the unsuccessful couple leaves camp for the last time.

For the remaining three couples, there is no respite as Duane and Rena’s next test raises the stakes further than ever before. To test how they cope with separation, a common part of life in the Alaskan bush, each couple has to decide which one of them will spend two nights alone in a remote wilderness cabin. Leaving their partners behind, they are taken down river to a cluster of three remote properties deep in the Alaskan wilderness.

After taking down the bear protection from her cabin, one hopeful, who is celebrating her birthday, is overcome with emotion as she realises how much she misses her partner. After a night alone in their cabins, the next morning sees the three get to work, each having been left jobs to do by the cabin owners. While one throws herself into repairing her cabin’s porch, another has been tasked with hauling trees that have been felled to prevent the spread of forest fire. Another hopeful has been asked to drive a new well, but after hours of exhausting manual labour, the pile driver breaks, meaning he can’t complete the task and all his efforts are undone. He consoles himself by digging a new cesspit for the outhouse.

Meanwhile, those that remained at camp have been asked to check in to a guest lodge on the outskirts of Fairbanks. Duane and Rena want to spend time getting to know them even better, so while Duane heads off to the barbers with one of the candidates, Rena and the women head off for a lively pedicure.

After two nights alone, the three who went into the wilderness return from their cabins, but before they can reunite with their partners, Duane and Rena want to interrogate how each of them coped. After a thorough cross-examination, the couples enjoy some emotional reunions, while Duane and Rena decide who should be the fourth couple they send back to the UK. Their verdict means that while one couple’s Alaskan dream is over, the other two couples are now just one step away from becoming the new owners of Ose Mountain.