Brendan Jesus
Friends! We’ve finally made it! News of a fourth season for Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch was something I, and many fans, were not expecting. Radio silence on this topic was finally broken, unless you follow Ryan Skinner on Reddit, just a few weeks ago.
Today was the day of Lue Elizondo’s “highly anticipated” testimony before Congress, which is playing in the background as I write this. Since I don’t want to take away from the Season 4 premiere of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch, all I will say is I’ve been laughing out loud at this testimony the whole time. But that’s a conversation for another day.
Without further ado, let’s join Duane Ollinger and his team of intrepid researchers as we head back to the Uinta Basin and try and reveal the Mystery…at Blind Frog Ranch.
Stay Tuned
Season 4 Episode 1 starts us [presumably] toward the end of the season. Chad Ollinger is with Ryan Skinner and two other men, whose names we aren’t privy to yet. They approach a river/lake (which could possibly be Crow Creek?) with a boat. We are told the “Signal said this beacon is right in this body of water.”
Chad believes wherever this signal is coming from could be the entrance to a cave. In good ole Chad fashion, he also says he can make the dive. Chad and one of the other guys with him suit up in diving and scuba gear. “This is the risk we have to take to find the gold,” he says. After suiting up, they head underwater. Ryan Skinner and another man, possibly a producer (?) stay on the boat.
Once in the water, Chad and this second man maneuver their way through tightly claustrophobia-inducing holes. Chad’s scuba tank gets caught up on one of the sharp rocks which causes an air leak in his tank. Thanks to quick thinking, Chad grabs a wrench and fixes it before it becomes a deadly issue. The two continue making their way through this underwater system and eventually come out into a cave opening with air.
They’ve literally surfaced into an open-air cave system a la The Descent. It’s honestly beautiful. The camera slowly pans down to just under the surface of the water to reveal an animal’s skull. This leads us to the opening credits.
Two things here. First, I love when shows like this and Secret of Skinwalker Ranch show us something fascinating that happens toward the end/at the end of the season. Not only does it give the audience something to look forward to, but it creates an active audience. It positively forces the viewer to keep their eyes open and to evaluate every single aspect of what we are shown.
Second, we have new opening credits! As usual, the opening credits give a quick background on the ranch and Duane. But my favorite quote from the new opener is undoubtedly, “Duane will move Heaven and Earth until he gets to the bottom of the mystery.” Whether you’re a fan of this show or not, Duane has been nothing but passionate about his search from the beginning. Sure his goal is to find gold and treasures but his unbridled passion has made Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch such a blast to watch.
Four Months Earlier
My biggest gripe with Season 3 is the lack of Geologist Eric Drummond. There’s an explanation at some point in this episode where someone says Eric spent the past year doing his own thing. Eric doesn’t owe Duane, Blind Frog Ranch, or us anything. But it feels that Season 3 became slightly more unfocused once Eric, and Jamie Dube, were not on the show. If you were also saddened that Eric was not in Season 3, with the exception of a video call or two, then fear not!
Chad drives Eric through the ranch on his Side-by-Side and brings him to meet with Duane and Charlie Boy. In our first look at Duane in Season 4, we see him rocking a fresh cut! Duane traded in his luscious locks for a shorter, but still great, cut. Chad fills Eric in on the quantum imagining (done in Season 3) that reveals something referred to as the keyhole. (Since we haven’t covered it here yet, they brought a team in to do top-down imaging that reveals a portal-like image on the ranch, which had been referred to as the Energy Zone.)
Chad also tells Eric about the cave entrance he found toward the end of Season 3, the South Cave. This very narrow cave goes back about 150 feet and opens up into a larger cavern. Also, they found hand-cut logs in the cave which look similar to the logs that make up the box Chad found in the Water Pit. Eric is incredibly excited and says he wants to go into the cave.
Duane and Charlie Boy show Eric the map which has the keyhole imaging overlaid. Duane says there’s a chance they could dig down into one of these tunnels…but we know how well that went. (Remember the Season 2 finale?!) The four men decide it will be best to split up and cover two different areas on the ranch. Duane and Charlie Boy will head out to the Bead Site (which was talked about heavily in Season 3 and is at the tail end of the keyhole) while Eric and Chad will explore the South Cave (below the head of the keyhole). Charlie Boy says this is a race for the treasure and whoever loses the race has to buy the beer.
Can I just say how refreshing it is when they drink beer? Skinwalker Ranch started to become way too serious and less fun over the seasons, but seeing these guys occasionally share a beer at the end of the day is nice. They’re all smart and tenacious people so seeing them have a beer humanizes them and makes them seem more down to earth. This is probably a stupid thing to care about, but it just feels nice to see.
The Boys Are Back!
Chad and Eric pull up at the South Cave. Eric’s plans to run a few tests. He wants to run a full assessment of the cave while grabbing soil samples along the way. Interestingly, Eric also notices the face of the cave is fractured and says that the fracture implies a weakness in the rock face above.
It’s time to spelunk. The two men start to army crawl their way through this insanely claustrophobic cavern. When they hit the [roughly] 75-foot mark, Chad points out a fork in the path. This fork points to the west and is way too tight for anyone to venture into. They continue their crawling and eventually make it into the Great Cavern of the South Cave.
Eric is understandably in awe. One of the first things Eric takes note of here is the fluorescent stalagmites. Stalagmites imply groundwater is seeping in from somewhere though the source of the water is unclear. The dry rock formation above the cavern should be shedding water AWAY from the caverns. Instead, a steady supply of cold water is making its way into the cavern through unknown locations. Eric says most caves have a year-round temperature of 55 to 60 degrees because of how they’re insulated. But somehow this cave has frozen stalagmites meaning both water and cold air are coming in…and cold air coming in implies an opening somewhere!
There have to be more voids somewhere. Chad shows Eric the logs. They both agree these logs could not have been dragged into this cavern the same way they came in. Eric grabs a sample of the log so they can carbon date it—just like they did with the Water Pit logs. Chad also shows Eric a hollow spot at the edge of the cave, which when knocked on does indeed sound hollow on the other side. Eric believes the fork in the tunnel’s path and the hollow spot would be good spots in this tunnel system to dig in.
To Bead, Or Not To Bead
Duane and Charlie Boy arrive at the Bead Site. Dr. Bob Morton (Scientist, Professional Analytical Chemist, and Materials Scientist) also joins them. Dr. Morton is here to check out two specific things: Indigenous artifacts and the vent holes in the side of the mountain that have a soot-looking substance coming out of them. (If you have only been following my coverage and haven’t seen Season 3, these vent holes are things we learned about in Season 3.) After grabbing a sample of the soot with a razor blade, Dr. Morton takes a few samples of the soil where the beads were initially found.
Down In Mexico
Season 3 broke the mold by sending Duane jet-setting south of the border, and Season 4 doesn’t plan on changing that anytime soon. We meet up with Ancient Civilization Expert James Keenan (again if that name is unfamiliar to you, he was introduced in Season 3 and became an integral part of the show ((he was also in one episode of Skinwalker Ranch))) in Mexico City, Mexico. James is in Mexico to look for materials regarding things/evidence found on the ranch.
Keenan is here to meet with Julio Escalante. Julio is incredibly knowledgeable about Aztec culture. The two men meet at Temple Mayor. Here, Julio shows James gold that was melted down from priceless artifacts. Why was gold melted down from priceless artifacts? When the Aztecs fled north, they melted the gold down into bars to make concealing them easier.
Operation: Evacuation
Chad and Eric have finished their exploration of the Great Cavern and start to crawl back out. Once they get back to the fork in the cave, they stop to gather a little information. Eric notices the closed-off portion of the fork looks like a partial collapse. Being the person with all the tools, Eric pulls out an endoscopy camera and asks Chad to feed it through the cracks in the rocks.
Chad crawls back as far as he can and starts to feed the camera through. Eric shouts in fear and excitement…there’s an animal back there. Upon a replay of the clip, we can see what looks like the leg of an animal that scampers away as the light from the endoscopy camera enters that part of the cavern. Chad believes it could either be a mountain lion or a coyote.
Suddenly, everything goes from creepy cryptid mystery…to life or death. Eric and Chad are slowly making their way back out of the cave when the ground begins to rumble. “GET OUT,” one of the two of them screams. Rocks begin to fall around them. Eric makes it out, but Chad is still crawling. Once out, Eric and a producer reach into the cave to clear fallen debris out of the path. Thankfully, Chad makes it out safely, albeit shaken up.
Chad radios over to Duane and asks if he heard or felt the rumbling. Duane responds that he did hear it. After hearing what happened to Chad, Duane tells him not to go back into the South Cave until they reconvene.
Back Down In Mexico
We join back up with James and Julio in Mexico City. The information we are about to learn is truly astonishing. Julio pulls out some ancient maps and it’s about to blow the lid off this whole thing. When the Aztecs fled, they couldn’t go through the Gulf of Mexico because it was too heavily wooded. There is a quote on the map that translates to this: From the shores of this lagoon the Indians of Mexico went to found their empire. All of this sums up to, basically, the Aztecs originally originated from Utah and this would make perfect sense as to why they took their gold BACK to where they were from. (I only put it that bluntly because that’s how James lays it out to the team later on.)
Julio says the Aztecs came from Chicomoztoc, which translates to Place of Seven Caves. That’s when Julio pulls out a 450+-year-old codex and lines it up with the keyhole cavern map…they line up perfectly. James says that this means Blind Frog Ranch could be sitting on top of the lost civilization of Chicomoztoc.
House Call
Dr. Bob Morton calls in via video to give some good news. Duane, Chad, and Charlie Boy are in a new location on the ranch dubbed The Hideout. Dr. Morton analyzed the soot sample with X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and it came back as charcoal and charred plant materials. This indicates the soot was created by manmade fires. Also, the carbon dating puts it back about 500 years.
Duane says the next step is to dig the Bead Site up.
There’s Something In Them Hills
Later that night, Chad and Charlie Boy are hanging out by a fire around 10:04 P.M. From out of nowhere, they are interrupted by the growling of an unseen creature. Charlie Boy shines his light in the direction of this thing but he can’t see anything. Chad grabs night vision binoculars and sees a large wolf-like animal skulking close to them. Charlie Boy puts his hand on his gun but the animal runs away. Charlie Boy is taken aback by this because he says wolves shouldn’t be within three to four hundred miles of their location.
The episode ends with James arriving at the ranch and telling Duane, Chad, Eric, and Charlie Boy what he learned in Mexico City. Obviously, they’re all thrilled!
Final Thoughts
What a season premiere! As I’ve stated, Season 3 felt more like Season 2.5. The lack of Eric, and to a lesser extent Jamie, made the season feel unfocused and side quest-y. Having Eric back just makes everything feel normal again.
Learning what we did from both Dr. Bob Morton and Julio Escalante is just astounding. If anyone had any questions about the integrity of this show, those questions should be out the window at this point. The fact that the Aztec people possibly originated in Utah AND that the soot found over the vent holes was not just 500 years old, but also charcoal and plant materials?! I’m sold.
The earthquake/rock slide/whatever happened was truly frightening and made me feel the fear I felt during the Season 2 finale. Boys…we’re freaking back! Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch is already shaping up to be one hell of a season and I cannot WAIT to see where it goes from here!
