Survivor 49 Snake Bite Leaves Contestant Certain They’d Die

Survivor 49 got scary this week. Not reality-TV dramatic, actually scary. Jake Latimer, one of this season's players, was bitten by a sea snake on the beach and, for a moment, thought he was done. He walked through the whole thing afterward, and yeah, it sounds like a nightmare.

What went down on Week 3

Latimer is 36, a correctional officer from Regina, Saskatchewan, and had a quiet routine going at camp: he would sit by the water, close his eyes, and think about his wife and their baby on the way. During one of those moments, he felt what he thought was a crab pinch on the bottom of his foot. Turns out it was not a crab. He opened his eyes and saw a banded sea krait attached to his foot, mouth open. Not a harmless ocean visitor either—those snakes are highly venomous.

• Location: in the water by his tribe's camp during Week 3
• Initial confusion: thought it was a crab, since crabs had been nipping them at night on the beach
• Reality check: a banded sea krait was latched onto his foot
• Immediate reaction: he shouted to the others that something just bit him
• Production response: the crew rushed him to the Survivor base camp
• Medical scene: oxygen mask, doctors working on him on a stretcher
• Diagnosis: a 'dry bite'—the snake did not inject venom
• Outcome: terrifying, but he was treated and okay

Latimer talked through the incident in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, and you can hear the adrenaline still in his voice. The med team moved fast, which is exactly what you want when your foot meets one of the most venomous snakes in the ocean. The twist here is that 'dry bite' detail—basically the snake bit without delivering venom. It happens, but you do not want to be the test case out there to find out.

"That has been the most scared I have ever been in my entire life. When you think that you are dying, it is a feeling that I am never going to forget."

He also explained that the bite landed during his daily quiet time—the part of the day we never see on camera—when he would sit with his eyes closed and think about home. That makes the whole thing even more gnarly: one second of calm, then a sea krait on your foot. Not exactly the island vibe production promises.

Bottom line: a rare, extremely dangerous situation on Survivor, handled quickly, with a thankfully unlikely outcome. Dry bite or not, you would not catch me sitting with my feet in that water again.