Brendan Jesus
Unfortunately, I don’t have much new/fun information regarding UFOTwitter. Next week will possibly be more interesting, as the day I write this is before another big UAP hearing in Congress. Among others, the “big” name that will be appearing before the committee is none other than Lue Elizondo. There will undoubtedly be some interesting news coming out of this hearing.
The only fun bit of information so far is that not only did Lue Elizondo misspell his title in his submitted biography to Congress, “Former Department od [sic] Defense,” he also misspelled his own name! Lue spelled his name as Louis. In his submitted biography, Lue also refers to himself as “the senior ranking person” at AATIP. (Remember AATIP and AAWSAP are basically the same thing.) This is also on the heels of not only [Lue] admitting that he had nothing to do with AAWSAP, but also that he has been using previously debunked images in his “presentations.”
It’s now become more clear than ever that Imminent was not in fact a warning, from the good grace of his own heart, to the American public and government regarding UAPs. This was nothing more than a soft launch of paid gigs and speaking engagements. If he truly cared about making sure all Americans knew the threat posed by UAPs, then wouldn’t he be doing it free of charge? Everything about Elizondo’s last year of “work” has been for nothing but money and fame (it seems).
Anyway, that’s enough of that. Before we get into the Season 2 finale of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch, I want to say thank you for all the love and support throughout this coverage! This will come out the day before our Season 4 coverage of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch and we will be temporarily halting our back coverage of the show to focus on Season 4. Following the end of Season 4, we will come back in full swing with Season 3 coverage! Let’s get into it.
Someone In The Shack
We pick back up with Chad Ollinger as he arrives at the Miner’s Shack, noticing the front door is wide open and objects are strewn about. He radios Duane Ollinger. Duane quickly shows up with Eric Drummond and Jamie Dube. (Remember, Charlie Boy is not currently on the ranch as Duane rushed him to the hospital in Episode 7 “Down to the Center of the Earth”.) After looking around, Eric quickly notices all of his gallium samples are missing. Not only are the gallium samples missing, but Jamie notices all of his files are also gone. Jamie doesn’t say which files are missing, but it’s presumably the information from Dave Miller and information of that sort.
Duane ponders on why just the gallium samples and files were taken. That’s when Chad remembers Charlie Boy’s game cameras. Thankfully, Charlie Boy had the foresight to set up a camera to point directly at the Miner’s Shack. They quickly get the video downloaded and start to watch. It’s pitch black outside, in the video, and two men, who are blacked out and wearing black beanies, run up to the shack. These trespassers force the front door open, quickly grab what they need, and make their escape.
Eric’s first thought is that someone is directing them to do this, as he notices a radio on one of them. Duane is confident these two men are communicating with the people in the three cars that were down at the front gate. Is the Miner’s Shack the only place that was ransacked? Eric tells everyone they need to check various points on the ranch, including their newly drilled 80-foot hole. Everyone splits up but finds no further evidence of espionage or sabotage. Duane calms everyone down, tells Jamie to do what he needs to do, and ends this nightmare by saying they need to get their heads back in the game…they have a hole to go into!
Down We Go
Chad, Eric, and Duane head over to the hole to start putting the protective casings in. They will be using two 48-inch diameter casings that are each 10 feet long. Once that is complete, they put the cage back over the hole and assemble the winch above. Duane goes over all of the intricacies of the winch and the air compressors with Jamie, just to make sure he’s comfortable with everything. Jamie will have the lives of three men in his hands. He also makes it clear to Jamie that if anything goes wrong, he has 10 minutes to get the last man out.
The three men suit up in their Level A hazmat suits. Eric will have two specific meters in and on his suit. Firstly, He will have a multidetector on his suit to measure for H2S (which is the incredibly deadly hydrogen sulfide gas). The second meter on his will be for measuring carbon monoxide and oxygen levels. Duane says he will be the first in, last out. Eric agrees to this, and Chad reluctantly does as well. The reason for this, Duane says, is that Chad has a young family, and if anything happens, he wants his son to be the first one out of the hole. This whole setup before they go down the hole is incredibly tense.
It’s Time
In order to minimize hazards, no film crew will be going down with them. The three men will have head and chest cameras, and Chad will be bringing a handheld camera down, too. Duane attaches his harness to the winch and is slowly lowered down. It’s deadly silent. Once Duane safely makes it down, Eric is harnessed in and gets lowered down. The winch gets momentarily wrapped up, but Jamie fixes it quickly. Eric makes it safely to the bottom. Chad is then hooked up and sent down into the hole.
When I first saw the interior of this cave system, I felt weird about it. The floor is completely flat and the walls look weirdly-crafted. I’m not saying this is fake by any means, but something about the walls and floor of the cave felt off to me. That is until I watched the first episode of Season 3. In that episode, Duane heads to Mexico to meet up with someone who will become a prominent cast member in Season 3. While in Mexico, Duane is taken around a location that has miles of Aztec-made tunnels. These tunnels we see in Season 3 Episode 1 look very similar to what we see in this episode.
All of this is to say that my initial reaction to questioning the legitimacy of the Blind Frog Ranch tunnels was put to rest. If we are to believe the Aztecs were here on Blind Frog Ranch at one point, then these tunnels make sense. We’ve seen time and time again just how impressive the Aztecs were and what they could accomplish so I’m deciding that what I am seeing here is real.
If I don’t do a great job of describing how tense and claustrophobic this whole situation is, let me just say one thing. I WOULD NEVER GO DOWN HERE! I’m not necessarily claustrophobic, but there are just too many damn things that can go wrong in this scenario and I wouldn’t be caught dead in this tunnel.
Once all three men are down in the cave, they have a specific choice to make. They can go left or right. The three decide to go to the right. Eric immediately notices definite carbonite structures within the rocks. He also states that these are not naturally occurring cave-like structures and this was definitely carved/created by someone.
As they descend deeper into the cave, Chad’s airline gets tangled. Thankfully he gets it fixed quickly. That’s when Duane notices a spider the size of my head! No thanks! Duane makes a note of the arch in the tunnel and says it was probably dug out this way in order to evenly distribute the surrounding weight. Suddenly, Duane starts to lose air. The team quickly backtracks slightly to fix their air hoses. These three men did an awful job with their hose maintenance! The three hoses are all tangled and knotted. They, again, quickly get this resolved.
Duane notices a ledge/shelf on one of the walls. On this shelf are, as Eric describes, four stream-worn cobblepieces. Eric is 100% sure these cobble pieces are not from this cave. As Eric looks at these, Duane notices that Eric’s mask starts to fog up. Fogged masks are a sign of low oxygen coming into the Level A hazmat suits. Eric says his oxygen is a bit low, but he’s okay at this time.
We momentarily cut from the men in the cave to Jamie on the surface. He’s pacing back and forth, radio in hand and ready to pull the team out at a moment’s notice.
Eric finds markings on one of the walls, which look a lot like tally marks. At this point, this whole ordeal starts to feel just like a found footage movie. Duane wonders if these markings are notating a quantity of something that was taken out of the cave. Eric says that’s a possibility, and that it could also be a demarcation of time. The tally marks are there in three rows. The first row has 17 tallies, the second row has 12 tallies and the third row has seven tallies.
As Eric looks at the tally marks, Chad has an unfortunate discovery…something that will make the next few minutes hell for Chad, Eric, and especially Duane. Chad sees Eric’s H2S meter going off. Eric screams, “H2S!” and the men run back toward the exit.
They quickly hook up Chad, and Jamie starts the extraction process. Chad is freaking out the entire ride up. As this is happening, Eric and Duane are quickly running out of air. Once on the surface, Chad unhooks himself and yells to send it back down.
The hook finally makes its way back down and Duane helps Eric hook himself up. Eric starts to get pulled up, while Duane stays below. This is one of the most distressing things I’ve seen on this show. The music for Duane lowers and we sit with Duane in silence. His grunts and groans echo through the tunnels. Eric gets unhooked at the top and they scream at Jamie to send the hook back down.
Duane sits down and quietly says, “Oh f*ck, out of air.” He starts getting dizzy but doesn’t give up hope…yet. He hooks himself up when the hook comes down. Duane, who has shown a vulnerable side here and there, says something chilling.
“Father, I think I’m coming a little bit early.”
Duane kneels down and starts to recite the Lord’s Prayer. The kink in the winch gets fixed and Duane slowly starts to get pulled up. He passes out when he is a few feet off the ground. By the time he’s completely up to the top, he’s limp. Chad and Eric pull him out of the hole and his body falls right to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The literal definition of dead weight.
They rip his hazmat suit off of him and get fresh air into his system. After some time, Duane comes to and takes his first breath of fresh air in over 20 minutes. I’ve never seen Duane look like this. He is disheveled and groggy, but alive! All three of the men give talking heads that rehash what happened down in the hole, all are thankful that the outcome was positive in the end.
Later that night, the four men sit around the table at the Miner’s Shack. The mood is still somber. That’s when Duane breaks the silence by saying, “This ain’t no funeral!” They all cheer with their beers.
Once everything has calmed down, Charlie Boy makes his way back to the property. He and Duane sit out front of the Cabin and share a beer. With everything that’s gone on recently, Duane doesn’t feel comfortable leaving the ranch for the winter. He and Charlie Boy decide they will stay on the ranch over the winter for security. “It’s gonna be a long winter,” says Duane.
Final Thoughts
WOW. Just wow. Say what you will about The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, they have never had anything as terrifying as the final 20 minutes of this episode. Even though I knew Duane was going to live, I was beyond frightened for him. The editing was dramatic and award-worthy.
But we are left with a few questions. What were those cobble pieces doing down there? And what about the tally marks? They were only able to go about a hundred feet in one direction, but it’s clear the tunnel goes on further than that. Will they be able to put on scuba/air tanks and venture further? Will we ever learn about the vehicles that were on the property?
Mini spoiler: to make sure I was up to date with everything for Season 4, I watched ahead through Season 3. Unfortunately, for some reason, Eric and Jamie are not in Season 3. In fact, Season 3 feels more like Season 2.5. They don’t mention this 80-foot hole at all and the three vehicles/Miner’s Shack trespassers aren’t brought up either. I hope that Season 4 brings us some more answers regarding what’s gone down in Season 2.
