Eight teens are sent out into the wilderness from Survival School to face their first challenge: To survive a bus crash in an isolated forest. They must now work together to salvage what they can from the wrecked bus, build shelters, make a fire, and boil water to drink.

As punishment for placing their food in an unsafe location, Les Stroud takes away some of the group's rations. The girls and boys compete to see who can create the better shelter. Catarina suffers from heat stroke, and Zac catches frogs for dinner.

The group splits up into pairs to find food: Zac and Catarina hunt for frogs, Kareem and Holden fish, Adam and Jen search for edible plants, and Becca and Becky hunt for edible insects. Les takes away the group's fire-starting materials, and the fire must be kept going despite rain. Laziness sets in. Adam catches and kills a pheasant, but accidentally cuts his leg with a knife and suffers a deep cut.

Les Stroud rousts the group from their beds at night, and sends them on a night hike armed with nothing but a GPS device and a set of geographical coordinates. Becky leaves the show.

Les sends the group down a river on a whitewater rafting challenge, but the inflatable boat is punctured on a sharp stick and sinks. Les meets the group and orders them to the other side of the river without food or sleeping gear. They must avoid injury, make a fire, prevent hypothermia, and stay out of the poison ivy.

The group is split into two teams—Team 1 (those with strong survival skills: Adam, Jen, and Zac) and Team 2 (those with weak survival skills: Becca, Catarina, Holden, and Kareem)—and each is left in the deep woods. They must find food, shelter, and water, and make a fire. Adam kills a porcupine, Jen makes fire, and Team 1 builds a shelter and locates water. The other team fails in everything, and gives up. Kareem tries to build a shelter, but falls ill and a paramedic assists him. Kareem's illness worsens as the episode ends.