'Naked and Afraid' Recap: 'Laura & Nicklas' Season 5 Episode 9, 'Melt Down Under'

This week Discovery's Naked and Afraid returns with Laura Thompson-Nelson and Nicklas Lautakoski getting naked to take on the Australian Outback with its intensely freezing temperatures to see if they can survive the 21-day challenge.

Laura Thompson-Nelson (Facebook) is a 47-year-old female from McAllen, Texas. She is married and works as a service auditor.

Laura (Twitter) says she has done a lot of crazy things in her day, however, being naked in the Outback is the craziest thing she has ever done.

She will begin the challenge with a PSR of 6.1. Her skills include "shelter building, cordage making, water collection and purification, her team work mentality and fire making."

"She has lived all over the United States including Virginia, California, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and New York. She has also lived briefly in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, and Panama during her four year enlistment in the USAF. Living in such a variety of environments has resulted in Laura's most valued survival skill - adaptability," according to Discovery.

Nicklas Lautakoski (Facebook) is a 30-year-old male from Stockholm, Sweden. He (Website) is engaged and works as a professional adventurer, mountain guide, and lecturer.

He will begin the challenge with a PSR of 7.3.

Nicklas (Instagram) is not afraid of being naked at all and seems pretty excited for the challenge that awaits him and his partner. His skills include a "positive attitude, endurance and mental toughness."

"As a young boy, he was very shy and introverted. He was far from athletic, and failed at athletics in school year after year.

Finally in his early twenties, he read a book about the Swedish adventurer Goran Kropp, who bicycled from Sweden to Mount Everest and climbed the mountain without oxygen. It changed his life completely," according to Discovery.

The meeting is pretty normal and they seem to get along just fine. Nicklas asks Laura what she does and she says she is a housewife.

He joked that he is a houseman but revealed he works as an adventure guide. They hit it off and Nicklas likes Laura's sense of humor.

After meeting each other the team ventures off to their packs to find out what they brought. They have a fire starter and a knife along with a pot for cooking. They check their map and locate the perfect place to build a camp.

It seems as if they are really getting along really well despite the harsh terrain under their feet. They come up on some possible kangaroo bones and decide to use them as tools.

The team continues to venture off to their spot and finds a bit of water. They decided to make this spot their shelter and quickly begin working on a fire. The fire starting doesn't go well as a team.

So Nicklas works on the shelter and Laura works on a fire.

When the rain sets in, they both switch gears to the shelter and hope to make it through the cold and wet night. The evening is tough as the rain continues.

On day two Laura says that the first night was hell. Both Nicklas and Laura shivered all night and did not get much sleep. They get together and try to improve their shelter and then start a fire.

Laura suggests starting over but Nicklas was to lower the shelter.

Laura insists on starting over but communication seems to turn into confusion. Nicklas says he thinks one of them should work on the shelter while Laura works on the fire.

Laura feels dismissed at times but agrees to make it work. The rain sets in again and Laura has to race agains time in order to get a fire started before the rain sets in.

They fail to start a fire again and their shelter is leaking a lot of water.

Nicklas and Laura are at risk in hypothermia from the cold temperature and water. They huddle together for body warmth and Laura says she is starving.

Things get pretty bad for Nicklas and Laura and Nicklas begins to grow emotional and cry. Laura tells him to hold on to her as they struggle though the storm. They are freezing and failing to get sleep.

On day three, they wake up to flooded areas. Nicklas says that he hit a weak point in the evening.

He starts exercising to keep his blood circulating. They must trying to stay positive as sleep deprivation and starvation could affect you a lot in these challenges.

Nicklas is trying to start the fire but Laura is trying to give her opinions. Nicklas says he has to control himself from screaming shut up. He tells her he needs to focus and asks Laura to respect his need of focusing.

Laura says they are a team but Nicklas asks her to respect his process. Laura thinks Nicklas is being counterproductive but he finally gets the fire going.

Laura says it's great but wished it was more of a team effort. Nicklas apologizes for upsetting her earlier.

On day four, Laura is emotional and frustrated. She isn't getting sleep and says all Nicklas wants him to do is get bedding and make cordage.

She said she wanted to go into the challenge and make a friend. On day five, Laura spots a kangaroo and hopes it will be her friend because all she wanted was a friend in the outback.

Over the next few days the two survive on a few crawfish but Laura is fading mentally. Nicklas asks Laura to listen to herself and control her feelings.

Laura says next time she has an outbreak, she will give him a warning.

She says she can completely flip the switch and go off easily. They aren't getting along at all and Laura is actually struggling to walk around because she keeps slipping.

During the day Laura asks Nicklas to hand her the knife that is right behind him. Nicklas denies her because he has he is resting. Laura says she says one day she is going to kill Nicklas.

Nicklas says he does not feel safe with a woman who is threatening to kill him. Nicklas wants to split up and Laura says she went from liking him to hating him in six days.

Nicklas wants to know what they should do from now going forward. Laura says it's not fair for them to have to make two shelters and have an uneven amount of tools. She calls for them to keep their distance in the camp.

However, Nicklas says he feels threatened and he will split up. Nicklas says he will take a piece of coal or the knife and leave her with nothing.

Laura douses the fire with water. She says he will not leave her out there with nothing.

She then throws all of the coal in the water and is getting pretty sick. She calls for the medic because she is not feeling well. She puts all of the fires out and the producers are forced to intervene when she begins acting rash. The producers ask her to tap out of the challenge and Laura blames her partner completely.

Nicklas managed to preserve some coal for his fire. Meanwhile, Laura is trying to make sure there is no coal left. She says Nicklas is selfish and vindictive.

Nicklas says he sees Laura waling off with the crew and he is relieved but saddened. He says he wanted to complete the challenge with his partner.

Laura says no matter what there are just people that you won't be able to get along with which is why there are so many problems in the world.

Nicklas takes the little coal he has and tries to go back to camp to find more but the old fire is out completely. Nicklas does get his fire going and burns Laura's walking stick as a symbol of freedom. He believes Laura was trying to create a hell for him.

That evening, the rain sets in and Nicklas stays strong. For breakfast, Nicklas has water but realizes he needs to eat. He makes a trap through the day and later on finds a rabbit hole.

He will set the snare outside of the rabbit hole in hopes to capture a substantial meal. While he waits, he snacks on ants that he says tastes like citrus. On day 14, Nicklas finds a snake in his firewood but says it is too dangerous for him to attempt to kill.

Nicklas tries to survive the cold and extreme heat. He checks both of his snares but has not found any luck. He sets up another snare as he talks about needing a source of food soon.

Nicklas' skin is itching and scratching everywhere as the weather gets drier. The winds continue to dry the area out and Nicklas questions why he is doing the challenge. On day 20 Nicklas hasn't eaten much but needs energy.

He checks his snare and there is a rabbit there for him just in time. Nicklas sees his kill as a huge success for not being a hunter. He cooks the rabbit and enjoys it before extraction.

He plans on leaving a couple of hours before daylight for extraction. He makes a single shoe out of the rabbit fur.

He has to travel six miles and climb 600 feet to reach the extraction point. Nicklas sets out just before daylight and keeps himself warm with push ups.

Nicklas runs through the extraction challenge and comes up to the hill. He begins climbing up and eventually reaches the summit.

Nicklas has completed the Naked and Afraid challenge. Laura finishes the challenge with a PSR of 4.9 and Nicklas finishes with a PSR of 8.1.

"Melt Down Under" actually proves just as the title insisted. The team was starved of sleep due to the freezing temperatures that made matters worst.

What another bold episode for Discovery. Fans can catch another all new "Naked and Afraid" next week on Sunday at 10 PM EST on Discovery.

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