Reviews Of Blah: The Curse of Oak Island S04E13

Synopsis

We’re back in Smith’s Cove digging up stones, finding wood in C3, getting lost in translation and in the War Room for one of the biggest assumptions this season.

What I thought

Continuing on from where we annoyingly, and typically, left off last week, we’re at C3 where the extractor is bringing up chunks of wood from about 105ft deep. Craig and Rick are on site and noticing that some of the wood is round, darker and more reminiscent of the original money pit wood. Is it though? Looking to next week’s clips, it appears so, but as with anything on Oak Island, quite what they are finding is subject to a lot of open interpretation. We’ll see for sure next week.

We’re back to the same documents where that old map of Oak Island came from and an encrypted code called “Le Formulae”. Previously this code seemed to match what was found on that huge stone down the money pit that translated to say that treasure lay below it. It’s didn’t as it happened and that previous dig many, many years ago was abandoned due to flood water. Which reminds me: Where is the search for that stone going? It’s been very quiet since they were in a nearby town in some basement rummaging about? Anyhow, in the War Room we have Rick, Craig, Jack, Doug Crowell (Researcher), Peter Fornetii and Jim Barkhouse. This is a big meeting for some reason as they hook up via a videocall to Dr Kevin Knight and his assistant Nada Aldarrab who have been doing more translation of the formula. They believe the code should translate into French. Well, that’s what the software suggests. If they go down the French route, then it translates similar to what was on the stone but also says to go off at a tangent in order to find the treasure. Strange that Craig seems to do the French translation and not the “experts” on the call. There’s also a lot of shortened words on the formula and probably misspellings. Basically, we have another version of the translation but it’s far from complete.

Returning to Smith’s Cove is the same gang as last week, plus the rare sight of another guy, who is a partner of the Lagina’s, plus Marty and an expert JCB guy who really handles that vehicle like a toy. Digging up quite near the temporary dam, they discover layers of stones, suggestive of an old technique used to manipulative the direction of water. Is this the entrance to the box tunnels? We won’t know any more as the permit is almost up for the dam, and any further digging might damage the dam itself. It’s yet another dig that leads to possibilities but not enough to really grasp and feel totally happy about.

Finally, this week, we’re in the War Room again as Rick and Jim meet Gary Clayton, a Treasure hunter and the owner of a small island called ‘Little Mash’ (I think) which is right next to Oak Island. To call this an island is stretching it as it’s just a lump of sand above the water level but I guess it’s technically true. If I didn’t know better, I’d reckon Gary had been smoking something very strong just before he unleashed his information on Rick and Jim. He said his belief was based on a record and fact, before wielding off all sorts of information that he didn’t seem to have any tangible evidence for. He said they’d done major excavations on this island in the past but I didn’t seem any evidence other than a stone foot they found, which might be a foot or just looks like one. He’s got some crazy theories about how he can read the ground and thus knows about all these rooms underneath. He sounds like he got hit on the head with something but he offers to go into partnership with Rick and the gang. I’d say it’s worth talking about, but there really was little in this footage to suggest to me he’s got much basis for his views.

So, this week we did find some glimmers of tangible evidence in Smith’s Cove and C3, and heard some more interpretations both wild and more logical. This counts as a productive episode compared to many where they really do seem to be grasping at straws usually.

Rating 6/10 (OK)