REVIEW: EXTRACTED (2025)—Episode 2: “Gimme Shelter”

Austin & Justin Denison in HQ; courtesy of Fox.

With 80 robotic surveillance cameras positioned in the Survival Zone, and who knows how many observing from HQ, the amount of footage needing to be edited to shape the Fox reality series Extracted (2025) is near to mind-boggling. But shaping the story through editing also hints at later developments. Team Jake (Jake, Justin and Austin Denison) appear infrequently in the first and second episodes of the series because focus, of course, needs to be drawn to those competitors and their companions who will be the first to be extracted. 

Thus, Team Anthony is singled out and profiled as Anthony loses his cool and demands his parents extract him. Austin comments, “Oh boy…” as Anthony begins to cuss out his parents for not extracting him upon demand. Justin grimaces. It’s difficult to watch Anthony self-combust. After much anger, disappointment and embarrassed frustration, his dad finally pushes the extraction button. His mother refuses to. Good riddance. Anthony personified everything I do not like in entitled young men who think the world owes them everything. I suspect his “unbecoming” behavior (as his mother phrased it) will limit his opportunities in his “modeling career.” My heart goes out to his mom and dad who have yet to teach him how to control his emotions and stop vandalizing good will. 

Austin and Justin can’t help but celebrate, however, because now there’s only 11 families left to go; Team Jake among them. Their confidence shows because Jake by his own admission is doing good and will sleep well his second night out. The only true competition they perceive is Team Ryan W.  Ryan has made himself a killer moss-lined set-up for shelter (“amazing” Justin describes), and has a fire going.

On the morning of day three, Austin and Justin are up by 6:15. In HQ the teams are advised that the survivalists are each wearing a smart watch that tracks their biometric data (heart rate, respiratory rate, stress level and sleep), summarized into four color codes: baseline green registering healthy biometrics; moderate yellow showing signs of decline; elevated orange suggesting that medical attention may be required; and severe red indicating that extraction may be necessary. Jake’s first data summary falls within green. 

The first survival trial is announced. The survivalists must make it across the lake to retrieve three potential shelter supplies. One cache has two tarps, rope and a bear skin; the second has two tarps, rope and a sleeping mat; and the third has two tarps and a rope; all on a first come first served basis. Further, the first survivalist to cross the lake receives an advantage for their family in the next supply drop. The families in HQ are responsible for designing the raft and providing the tools necessary to build it. Austin and Justin slap hands after they secure what they feel Jake will need to make the raft they have designed. Their design and Jake’s construction are not shown and Jake isn’t one of the top three winners, but he is able to retrieve some (unspecified) shelter supplies. 

On day four, Jake starts out his morning by noting that he’s good on water but begins boiling more from the lake as a reserve. I’ve switched away from the Fox website to watch the Extracted episodes in their entirety on YouTube where the commercials that were bogging down the stream on the Fox website have been minimized to a brief few.