Chomp

Rain delays the shooting, and Wahoo tries to figure out how much the family owes the bank. He then takes a walk to check on the animals. He remembers the incident in which Alice bit off his thumb, and concludes that despite his less-than-conventional childhood, he wouldn’t trade his experiences for anything. Eventually, the rain stops, and Badger is eager to resume shooting. He and Raven discuss the various “disgusting” things that he can eat on camera, finally settling on maggots.

Mickey watches the proceedings. As a boy, he was fascinated with animals, and despite being bitten many times, he has never outgrown this passion. Now, his animals are his life, and he vows not to let any reality TV star hurt them.

With cameras in position, Badger wades into the “lagoon” where Alice is submerged. As Badger recites his script, the underwater monitor shows Alice “on the move.” She is, however, uninterested in Badger, and he makes it to the other side of the lagoon intact. However, he fears that an unresponsive gator will make for boring television, so he insists on doing another take. Mickey agrees on the condition that Badger does not carry a knife. Alice rises to the surface briefly but disappears again as soon as the director yells “Action.” Badger flounders in the lagoon, waiting for Alice to reappear, but she rests calmly on the bottom. Just as the crew is about to call it quits for the day, Alice rises once again, directly under Badger, who now sits atop her like a bronco rider. Alice begins thrashing, sending Badger flying. His shorts catch in her teeth, and the two become now locked in a furious struggle. Mickey returns, and Raven orders him to shoot Alice, but he calmly hands Wahoo the gun and dives into the water. Raven grabs the gun and fires, but the gun isn’t loaded. Mickey understands that Alice only wants to be free of Badger, so he grabs the TV star and pulls him away from his prize alligator. Badger is relatively uninjured, and Mickey orders the entire production crew off his property. He and Wahoo walk back to the house, where Mickey calls his wife.

Furious, Badger is determined to fire his director and scrap the episode until he watches the scene with Alice. It has all the life-threatening thrills on which he has built his reputation. With Mickey edited out, the footage is now “genius.” Badger and Raven offer to hire Mickey to guide them through the Everglades for the rest of the episode. The money they offer him would be enough to allow the family to catch up on their mortgage payments, so he accepts the job.

As Mickey and Wahoo stock up on supplies for the trip, they run into Tuna Gordon, a girl who is a classmate of Wahoo’s. Mickey notices that Tuna has a black eye. She points out her home, a Winnebago that is currently parked in the Walmart parking lot. Mickey deduces that she got the injury from her father, who has an alcohol addiction. Wanting to offer the girl an escape from the domestic abuse, Mickey offers to take Tuna along on the Everglades trip. He approaches the Winnebago where Tuna’s father sits, armed and inebriated, but Wahoo stops him and diverts him back to Walmart for additional supplies.

Meanwhile, Badger and Raven search for a suitable base of operations in the Everglades. (The list of national parks from which Badger has been banned is lengthy.) After Badger’s encounter with Alice and the adrenaline rush of a near-death experience, he is resolved to use only wild animals from now on. Privately, Raven and the director worry about Badger’s safety.