Brendan Jesus
My eyes are filled with wonder as we enter this new season of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch. Many questions were raised in Season 1, while some were answered. Overall, Season 1 left me with the intense urge to continue into this series. Rather than just binging it all, I have stayed true to my original plan of watching one episode a week—one week later, and here we are.
Oh boy.
Before we get into all of this, I’ll do my usual, “Last Week [of UFOTwitter] Tonight.” In the past week, I’ve indulged in some light reading. I read The Lamb’s Testimony: My Life as the Messiah by Tanner Ross Gregory. Simply put, Tanner Ross Gregory believes he is Jesus Christ and that marshal law will be implemented three days after the inauguration; he believes that rap group $uicideboy$ are the two witnesses from the book of Revelations and are prophets or something like that. The most [frustratingly] fascinating part is when he compared being a fugitive on the run who can’t stop smoking weed with multiple active warrants while crossing state lines (with the help of his father) to the plight of Jewish people fleeing 1940s Germany. All I hope is that he has a support system making sure he is okay, but it seems like a long shot.
Lue Elizondo, who totally isn’t in this for the money, is charging people for the opportunity to have dinner with him before a paid speaking engagement. For the low price of $250, you can have dinner with Lue and presumably be told, “I can’t answer that”! I’m sure he’ll Venmo you for your half of the check, too.
There’s also some interesting stuff going on with the James Webb Telescope. An object was spotted [roughly] 10 light years away from Earth. This supposed object is said to be on a path toward Earth. Honestly, I’ve been too tired to really dig into this whole thing. I’ve liked tweets from both sides of the aisle with the full intent of going back and digging into it, but I just don’t have the energy. I watched this excellent, unbiased video from Jeremy McGowan which will probably be the extent of my “looking into” on this topic.
All right, that’s all I have for you this week. Let’s suit up and dive into the water pit as we look into the…Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch. (Oh and the title for this week’s episode is horrible and is seemingly based on what should have been a talking head left on the cutting room floor.)
Uh, What?
Duane Ollinger, Chad Ollinger, Charlie Boy, and Eric Drummond (as well as a mystery man in a long trench coat who is someone I think we meet later this episode) are over at the 85-foot hole they dug at the Energy Zone. They fix a reinforced pipe atop the hole, followed by a powerful-looking winch. Duane, Chad, and Eric suit up in hazmat-like suits and say they will have about 10 minutes of air. (Yes, I was confused at this too.) First in, last out, says Duane. Duane will go into the hole, followed by Eric, then Chad. When it’s time to exit the hole, Chad will exit first, and Duane will exit last. Duane says this is because Chad has children. Duane starts getting lowered down the hole when suddenly…cut to black.
We cut to a silhouetted Duane who is sitting in the driver’s seat of a Side-by-Side. “Maybe this will make more sense if we start at the beginning.” This kicks off a recap of Season 1.
Looking Forward
The four men sit around the table in the Miner’s Shack. Eric discusses the Iridium samples he took at the end of the season, which have been sent to a lab. By his estimates, they are sitting on 628 ounces of Iridium, now running at a value of $5.6K/oz (which is up from the estimate of $3K/oz in Season 1 Episode 6 “Answers”). This means they are sitting on about $3.5 million worth of Iridium. “It’s money in the bank,” says Eric.
This is excellent news, especially since Duane has [understandbly] complained about money many times in Season 1. Chad doesn’t seem to be ecstatic with this because it’s far from where his heart lies. Rather, Chad would like to treat the Iridium as a safety net. His main focus is getting back into the flooded cavern to see what’s in the box. Duane is adamant about reexamining their approach to the box. While the box is a promising angle, if it’s not authentic to the time periods that matter, then there’s no point in focusing their energy on the box. Chad chimes in and says there’s an archeologist who is an Aztec expert in Salt Lake City who will be coming out to check the video (of Chad finding the box).
Duane makes it clear, if this box is, let’s say, 50 years old, they’ll focus on the Iridium. If the archeologist says the box is authentic, then they won’t stop until they get it.
Um, What? Pt. II
Things get a little weird here and I’m not sure what to make of it. This is also one of the three things I am worrying about a la the show’s direction and focus. Duane takes Charlie Boy to the front gate to reveal something that happened a month ago. He says he saw a van parked inside the front [locked] gate. The car was still running and he, “could feel an energy coming off that car.” Duane walked up to the driver’s seat and saw a woman in the front seat. A note was pinned to her chest, her face painted white with black accents around her eyes, a gun rested on her lap…a bullet went straight through her head.
We’ll learn more information about this later. But this scene ends with Duane telling Charlie Boy he wants this incident investigated, though Charlie Boy is chock full of ranch duties. This leads to Duane telling Charlie Boy he wants to get him an assistant to help with the clerical side of investigations. Charlie Boy says he knows just the person.
Indiana Faux-nes?
Chad pulls up to the Miner’s Shack as the archeologist arrives. They sit around the table as he sets up the cave diving video where the box was found. This is when things get…iffy. Now, this is in no way, shape, or form a character assassination nor am I saying this archeologist is unqualified. Every time someone is introduced on this show, there’s a lower third with the person’s name and the occupation/relevant company they’re with. The archeologist is not introduced, Chad does not mention her name, and it just feels all-around weird. So I did some digging. (Went to IMDb.)
It turns out, the archeologist, who makes some grandiose claims, is actress Jill Adler. Whereas everyone credited is listed as Self – [occupation], Adler is credited as Archeologist. She has 69 previous credits on IMDb and three upcoming credits. Every single credit is an acting credit, with zero credits pointing toward anything archeology-related. Her bio on IMDb states, “[Jill Adler is] conquering the world of entertainment one role at a time.” She has two degrees: a masters degree in broadcast from USC and a law degree from the University of Utah, which is undoubtedly impressive! She has starred in multiple Lifetime and Hallmark movies. There is ZERO information regarding Jill Adler and any credence in the world of archeology OR Aztec lore.
With that being said, Chad shows her the video. Adler says the box looks kind of like how Aztecs made rafts. She also says the Aztecs were master builders and used logs similar to the ones she saw in the video. From there, she pulled out some photos that looked similar to the photos in a kid’s picture book I had when I was growing up about Medieval Times (not the restaurant). Jill says to Chad they need to get samples of the wood, which could be carbon-dated to prove how old the wood is. She ends by warning Chad to be careful, as the Aztecs were known to booby trap treasure, and one wrong move could bring the cavern crumbling down around Chad.
Diving, Thriving
Chad gets to do what he loves more than anything, cave diving. With this new information and plan of attack from his trusted “archeologist,” Chad suits up and prepares to dive. He is still hooked up to the air tank by a long line. He jumps into the water and heads down. After about 20 minutes, Chad resurfaces. Unfortunately, he was not able to make it to the box. It turns out the first dive of the season was a failure. Chad’s lines kept getting tangled and he could not find his way.
Duane has the perfect idea; make the hole bigger. The ground rumbles as Duane drives his new toy to the water pit: a CAT 336 Excavator. His new excavator is twice the size and weight of his previous one. It has tiger teeth and twice the arm length. As Duane starts digging at the opening in the water pit, Eric has a talking head which could possibly point toward future turmoil. Eric says he’s starting to get concerned with Duane’s slapdash (my word) handling of this. They can’t go in blind, but it’s starting to seem like Gold Fever. Though, Eric does understand where Duane is coming from. Eric regales us with a personal anecdote when years ago he spent two months in Arizona digging a hole he thought had gold under it. It did not. Eric is sympathetic to a point but ends by saying he just wants to do whatever he can to lower the risks.
The New Blood
A car drives down the road and pulls up to the ranch. We get introduced to Jamie Dube. Jamie is a retired detective who served the force for 30 years. He had recently retired and planned to spend his days watching the birds from his front porch. Charlie Boy called Jamie, but Jamie initially declined. But after watching birds for 20 more minutes, he called Charlie Boy back and took the job.
Duane sits down with Jamie and fills him in on the death that took place a month ago. He also gives some more information we didn’t hear earlier and it’s terrifyingly fascinating. After Duane found the body an ambulance pulled up. The EMTs got out of the vehicle and beelined toward the van. Not a single person acknowledged Duane. He also makes a point to say no one called 911 at this point. The EMTs took the body out of the car and left.
Jamie is taken aback by this. Why wasn’t there an investigation? Why wasn’t the gun secured? If the EMTs were here, where were the police? How did the car disappear the next day? Why didn’t anyone question Duane? Jamie is sure he will be able to get this wrapped up in a day or two, which he repeats multiple times.
Dive O’Clock // Jamie, P.I.
Author’s Note: now that there is a fifth member when I say all five men, I mean everyone plus Jamie. If I say all four men, that still means Duane, Eric, Chad, and Charlie Boy.
All four men are around the water pit. They prepare the Deep Trekker to go into the water. Eric had the bright idea to bring a portable underwater LIDAR scanner, which he attaches to the Deep Trekker. They throw it in the water now that the hole is enlarged and attempt to map the route to the wooden box. They eventually find the box and start to retract the Deep Trekker from the caves, that’s when a gigantic, albeit quick, windstorm thrusts concern into the crew.
Jamie is out doing research on this investigation which should only take a day or two. He makes some calls around town but can find no record of a death similar to this around the same time. Even after speaking with an EMT in town, he comes up empty. Jamie makes a note of how weird it is that no crime scene investigation took place. That’s when Jamie changes direction to focus on the car. Since the car was left on scene, and then disappeared, that will be his new starting point. He goes to the local city impound lot. This should be the only place the car could be since the next closest one is 30+ miles away.
Chad brings the LIDAR scan to Duane, Eric, and Charlie Boy at the Miner’s Shack. The scan is impressive and tells them all they need to know. Duane is a little bothered by the scan when he realizes the location of the wooden box, he had no clue how deep Chad actually went.
Now that the hole is opened further, Chad suits up and can head into the cavern with a scuba tank. This will hopefully alleviate getting tangled up. Duane sets up communications into Chad’s ear so he can give him directions to the box, though it’s not all rose-tinted glasses. Duane can communicate with Chad, but Chad cannot communicate back. It’s far from perfect, but it’s what they have at this time. Chad heads down into the cave.
Duane starts directing him toward the box. It’s sad to hear because you can truly hear how concerned Duane is. While he still exhibits his unique charm, his voice is lowered and serious—he understands the risk and he understands his son’s life could be on the line. Chad eventually makes it to the box and in a talking head says, “No dyin’ tryin’ today.” Ehh, we could have gone with a better line. Chad gets a sample from the wood and heads back out of the cave. He brings the sample to Eric, who packs it up and prepares to send it to the lab.
Final Thoughts
This episode has me worried. Season 1 was grounded and had an authentic feel to it, now in the very first episode of Season 2 we’ve turned into a murder mystery that features a Hallmark actor (who is qualified in the fields of broadcasting and law) moonlighting as a makeshift archeologist. It feels too hokey. I’m sure Jamie will have a more important role going forward, but I hope hiring actors to portray professional scientists was a one-time deal.
I’m glad they were able to get back to the box, as well as giving Chad a proper entry into the cave so that he doesn’t have to keep going down with that guerilla scuba setup. I’m interested to see what the data reveals regarding the wood sample. While I do find the whole death on the property odd, I think it’s the wrong avenue to focus on. Only time will tell. Hopefully, the next few episodes reveal more information on the Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch.
