Fans watched on as Jake Latimer was bitten by highly venomous snake, a sea krait, and pulled from the game in Survivor 49 episode 3, "Lovable Losers," but according to Jeff Probst, viewers didn't get to see everything.
After Jake was pulled from the Kele beach and zoomed across the ocean to the Survivor medical center, producers and doctors lost contact with the boat. All they knew was that Jake was bitten by a snake and was on the way to them. They had no idea if he had lost consciousness, how bad the bite was, or if he was even breathing.
Here's what Jeff revealed to Jay Wolff and Jeremy Collins on the new episode of the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast:
"Interesting side note, in route to base camp, there was a very stressful moment because the medical team and the boat and camera team traveling with Jake on the boat all lost communication for a moment. I mean, this never happens. And so it's right at the moment where they were giving them an update on Jake.
"And so, during that time of no communication, it was unclear to everybody back at base camp if Jake was conscious and breathing properly. It was a terrifying moment. That's why when you see our teams arrived back at the dock, you hear Jimmy Quigley screaming, 'Is he breathing?' That wasn't Jimmy overreacting. We didn't know. So that was the first question.
"And then you saw the Dr. Barry say, 'yes, he's breathing.' So we had a little bit of relief there. And at that point it was full on, and we showed you what happened.”
That's a wild part of this story that fans didn't have any knowledge of while watching the episode. We can all empathize with how terrifying this instance was for Jake. Watching him worry for his life and thinking about the fact he would never meet his son was actually agonizing. I felt ill while it was happening, and I knew that Jake was going to come out of this okay.
For the Survivor team, they didn't know that at the time, and they didn't even have any knowledge for at least 30 minutes, as Jeff pointed out, of just how badly things were for him. This was a real emergency for their team. Having someone in this serious of a situation while in their care had to have been agonizing for the team waiting for Jake to arrive.
Luckily, it was a dry bite and he was suffering more from the psychological emotional stresses of the situation and the physical issues having not eaten for five days in super hot temperatures. But, there's another version of this story where Jake is arriving at the medical center, and they're performing life-saving treatment instead of just stabilizing Jake, which is what it sounds like they did.
Then, you have to think about it from the Kele tribe's perspective, too, Jeremiah Ing, Sophi Balerdi, and Alex Moore are just sitting back at camp, hoping Jake is going to be okay. But, Alex knew what kind of a snake it was that bit Jake, and he knew just how bad it could be. That was a traumatic experience for them, too.
Thankfully, Jake is okay now. While he's mentioned in his exit interviews that he wants to play Survivor again, he's also grateful that the story has a happy ending. Jake returned to Canada just a few days before his son was more, and he got to be there for it. I don't think there's any way that would have happened had Jake not been bitten by the snake.
Here's what he told Entertainment Weekly:
"God works in mysterious ways. I think that God put that snake there for a reason, just to get me home. And I hate saying that because I wanted that game so bad, but I also got to see the birth of Jax, and that's worth a million dollars. And I was there for my wife. So it's a blessing in disguise."
Watch Survivor 49 episode 4 on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Stay tuned for more news abotu the season.